Hello Asia! Welcome to my life!
Well it's really more like hello, two weeks ago. I arrived to Bangkok on Dec. 3 and have since then been traveling with my Mom and very much in the moment...or very much out of touch with home. Writing backwards is the least fun, so instead of details I'll just give a couple of blips from the first part of the trip so that my travel journal is all caught up.
Leaving Dulles, we chased the sun around the globe and although it almost got away from us, we caught it again and were able to go 36 hours without having it set. The longest day of my life. An uneventful, albeit long trip brought us over Alaska (didn't see any Northern Lights), the polar ice caps, Northern Russia (where a Korean passenger plane was once shot down) and finally Japan before our first stop in Tokyo's Narita airport. Mom's calistenics and meeting a nice Cambodian couple were the highlights of our trip. After some glitzy shopping, our first authentically Japanese sushi (airport, barely) and a couple of photos we were off again, flying over Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Cambodia before touching down in Bangkok.
As planned, we arrived the night before the King's 80th birthday because of the countrywide celebration that was planned for the event. King Bhumibol is the longest reigning monarch (over 60 years) and is revered here with a uniquely Thai intensity. We were greeted in the airport by a sea of yellow and pink clad Thais. Luckily we had read about this phenomenon and were not surprised by the pastel swarm. Yellow is right for every occasion, but especially Monday as this was the day that the King was born and yellow is associated in buddhism with that day of the week. Pink is for Wednesday, but was also the color of the King's blazer as he was leaving the hospital after being treated for 'insufficient blood flow to the brain.' They see it as representing his good health and the whole country had mobilized for pink in the days after his leaving the hospital. As I read somewhere, it is as if they are willing him to stay alive. For he is seen as having brought prosperity to his country and as the thread that unites Thailand. And people fear that these things will vanish with his passing.
The night before the King's birthday meant that our taxi would sit in more than an hour of traffic before we couldn't find the hotel. At this point Mom was worried about our neighborhood and I was having a medical emergency (too much water on the plane). Mom's quick thinking and my reassurance left us both feeling better for our first night in Thailand.
Weary Travelers in Tokyo
Jet lagged, we wondered around dirty Bangkok. Having a tuk-tuk scam thrown our way and having trekked to far corners of the city, we were ready to take off for Chiang Mai. Leaving behind our hotel's wonderful breakfasts and the Thewet Fish Market as the only real things that stood out as being good in Bangkok, we arrived in Chiang Mai ready to be impressed. The moated city is nice and the conveyed sense of history combined with a cleaner and less congested city put us in the right frame of mind to enjoy Chiang Mai. The lion's share of our time in Chiang Mai was spent shopping. This mostly meant Mom saying "wow, this is so cheap!" to something that was pretty expensive, or "100 baht, that's ridiculous!" to something that cost $3. So I managed the cash and the haggling while Mom kept us on task--or constantly shopping.
No, OK, it wasn't that bad. After the first 3 or 4 days we got out of the city...first for an adventurous motorcycle ride up the mountain to an impressive wat (temple), to tour the grounds of the King's Summer Palace, Bhubing, and to continue over the mountain on some precarious roads towards a hill tribe village. The next day was cool as well...our "one day trekking" which meant that we would go for an elephant ride, a hike to a waterfall and do some bamboo rafting. The elephant was unruly, constantly bringing his trunk back for more bananas and sugar cane which we would buy from the women in the bamboo huts along the way. When our mahout (elephant trainer) got off of his head (where he sat...seemingly prepared to fall and be trampled) and let me sit on his neck...the big bull only became greedier and afer a battle of wills and me continueing to push his trunk back, he finally reached his trunk up into my shirt and pulled me towards his mouth. The mahout quickly stepped in...if not I would have lost a shirt or worse, have been elephant food.
In "the worst place I've ever stayed," Mom can be seen here, in our room spitting her toothpaste into her hand, laughing, after running from the lizards in the bathroom. Chiang Rai--where we had the amazing motorcycle ride at dusk, saw the buddha in the cave, and ate very bad (and slow) lebanese food.
After Chiang Mai we decided we would head to Railay, near Krabi in the south on the Andaman Sea. The Lonely Planet (referred to here after as the Book or simply Bible) recommended Railay as it's favorite beach and the Seattleite that we met in Bangkok (who's husband was hospitalized with Dengue Fever) gave it similarly high marks. They were both right, and our four nights at the Sand Sea Resort were very comfortable. Reading, taking in Sunsets...not a difficult life. Even though I was plagued by a head cold and stomach issues--I didn't have much room for complaing. Railay and the beach next door, Ton Sai, are also the epicenter of the best rock climbing in Thailand and some of the best in the world.
Our bungalow in Railay
From Railay, and hauling Mom's two bags full of Christmas presents, we made it back to Ao Nang and to the Krabi Airport where we waved goodbye and our Thailand travel buddy days were over :(
Last night before Mom heads home
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Just like that and phase II of the trip begins. Phase I, or 'Mom and Asia,' was great. We jet-set around Thailand in better than backpacker fashion. First it was a sea of yellow and pink shirts as we arrived in the airport. The ride to our hotel was slow due to the birthday traffic...which exaserbated the fact that I had passed up a bathroom opportunity in the airport. This led to what could have been a very messy situation, but we got through it and finally arrived to our hotel. Bangkok was our aclimatization point at our serene Phranakorn bed and breakfast (with some very interesting and good introductions to Thai food...for breakfast). After days or walking around aimlessly, inhaling fumes, celebrating the kings 80th birthday and generally saying hello to Thailand we set off for Chiang Mai in the North... (I ran out of steam here...see above for more info)
What a great day! I decided to put off Malaysia for a day as it might work out better for me not to come back to the Krabi area. But before I went I definitely wanted to do some rock climbing on the world class cliffs around Railay. I took a longboat over to the beach one more time and signed up to go in the afternoon. My fingers are still tired and slow to type and I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow, but it was so much fun! Definitely going to start climbing in the New River Gorge when I'm home. All in all I did 6 separate climbs, the longest of which was 90 feet high. By the last one I could barely make a fist because my forarms were so shot. And the views from the top (climbing up directly off the beach) were gorgeous--the cove off of Railay East...pretty stunning.
Back in Ao Nang after another great sunset and I had my first street Pad Thai. Now that Mom's gone I've gone budget...real Thailand. It was good and I think I'm still disease free!
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Back in Bangkok, but I've been so bad about writing that everytime I do write it's about something that happened a week or more ago.
After another night in Ao Nang I decided not to waste anymore time in this beach town and to instead head back over to the isthmus and give Ton Sai a shot. The morning that I was set to head over, I noticed that a guy sitting next to me in the internet cafe had a shirt that said "Seneca Rocks" on it. Seneca Rocks, WV is pretty close to home and he told me that he lived there for 9 months and came over to Ton Sai from November to February every year to climb and generally take it easy. Not bad. He gave me a recommendation for a place to stay and I saw him later that afternoon as once again we were neighbors (this time, our bungalows). Ton Sai was fantastic, full of world class climbers and really a great group of fun people. Just by some of the cliffs on the beach is a bar that is the best place from which to watch the sunset. It was hear that I met James and Jenn, from Britain (although Jenn a Canadian transplant), who I would run into and hang out with for the next couple of days. As we were having our first of many Thai buckets (or equivalent), we heard a large crash behind us. I assumed that it was something in the kitchen, but everyone kept their attention focused. From 1000 ft up on the overhanging cliff, a rock had fallen onto the tiny table in between two german guys playing checkers! There had a been a large glass ashtray between them which was looked as if it has been vaporized...except for the larger pieces of glass shrapnel that were found a few mintues later in the bleeding forearm of one of the players. But business went on as usual, the mess was swept up and the checkers game resumed just a few feet (yet still under the overhang) of where it had been played before. Wow!
Although it was difficult to pull myself away from Ton Sai...a Christmas Eve Full Moon Party on Ko Pha Ngan (pronounced Ko Pan Yang) was too much to pass up. So the morning of the 23rd I packed up, had one more mango with sticky rice and coconut milk and hit the road. I bought into a package bus-boat non-deal that would get me to the island and ended up with some crazy Canadian girls. The slow ferry finally got us there after an incredible sunset, a 6th round of beers and some R&B on the mini-speakers. On the boat I met Tam and Suzy and we banded together as we were the only people we knew who had no accomodation booked already. We made it alright and although we weren't in the cheapest or the most beautiful spot--it was comfortable and safe. We went over that night to the party beach of Hat Rin and got a little taste of what this thing was going to be. Big. Christmas Eve, I had a nice time exploring the island by motorcycle and found some gorgeous beaches (where I should have stayed). Then it was to the party! Luckily I found Tam and Suzy right away (among thousands of people on the beach) and it was an incredible spectacle. Merry Christmas at midnight, then a nap from 2:30-5 made it possible for me to party til sunrise. Crazy party--better described by the pictures I'll eventually post.
From Ko Pha Ngan it was by boat to Surat Thani, then an overnight train to Bangkok.
Back now and after exploring the Grand Palace this morning (Wats and Palaces aren't for me) I was surprised to get an email from my buddy from Vanderbilt who I was planning to visit in Shanghai but who is in Bangkok now to renew his visa! Fantastic. So we've had a good afternoon by rooftop pool at his hotel and are planning on having a big one tonight.
1/1/08
Thanks for writing you three, it's really nice to have new emails from Seattle and Canada and West Virginia. Fun to have the mental image of what's going on simultaneously in such different places. And a Happy New Year to everyone, as well!
I made it into Cambodia, but not without considerable hassle. Had to put up a pretty strong fight at the border with police and the 'tourist agents.' Everyone wanted a piece of the western pie...it was one of the most difficult borders I've had to cross...probably more difficult than Colombia-Venezuela because at least then I could understand what they were saying!
Just after paying too much for my visa, I met an American couple in their early 30s and two Chinese girls that are probably my age (a very rare sight to see two Chinese girls backpacking like that). We waded through the gauntlet of taxi scams together (having to speak Spanish to one another so the taxi drivers couldn't understand us) and finally the five of us squeezed into a Toyota Camry and made the 3 1/2 hr trip to Siem Reap, where I now find myself.
Apparently the road between the border and Siem Reap is kept in such a terrific state of disrepair (and it is really bad) because the major airline that flies between Bangkok and Siem Reap pays enough in bribes to keep them from paving what otherwise would be a flat, straight road. Sadly and foolishly this keeps the people who live along this stretch of road depressed (and likely ill because of all the dust) and projects a very unwelcoming image to new arrivals. As the sun set on 2007 we were dodging cows, dogs and kids just barely and giant pot holes less successfully.
The scam continued as we arrived to town, being transferred from the taxi to his friends on motorcycles and tuk-tuks who were very forceful and intent on getting paid to take us to a hotel. Finally, it all worked out and we were having a beer on a rooftop overlooking Siem Reap as the clock struck 12 and the fireworks lit the sky.
And that was my New Years.
Taking a rest day today, but tomorrow it'll be up early exploring the ruins of Angkor Wat.
I am keeping a blog of sorts, but haven't yet put it up on the web. It's more of a journal and I kind of like it that way. For one, it doesn't have to be put into an edited, readable version. I've also been so busy moving around that it's hard to take the time to compose something that I'd like others to read.
Happy New Year, I hope you're all doing well.
1/2/08
What a day!
With the 1970's cruiser bicycle as my steed, I headed out this morning at 7am to see the talk of the town--the temples at Angkor.
All in all it was a 10 hour day (with a one hour nap at a particularly peaceful temple) of riding 30 miles between amazing feats of architecture and human ingenuity. My pictures, or probably even better--a google images search of Angkor would probably tell a better story--but it is an amazing place and even bests Machu Picchu in some ways. The enormity of the Khmer empire is what was maybe most amazing. From here, it ruled from present day India to Vietnam. In riding those 30 miles I stopped at 10 or so very unique temple complexes (with several buildings)--very large temples some with motes as wide as a football field. Some of the temples has been restored to resemble what they looked like in their day--others had been overrun by nature with giant trees growing on top of them, their roots a web entangling the structure on the way to the ground.
Probably the best thing about the day was that I was on the bike. The sweet little kids who are made to sell you books and t-shirts smile and wave HELLO when I went by, and riding back to the town in Siem Reap I was the only foreigner (not in a tour bus) in the rush of bicycle, motorbike, car, bus and truck traffic, fellow bikers smiling to me as I passed them.
So it was a great albeit exhausting day--now I'll go have a couple beers, enjoy the HBO that was just today turned on in my room (!) and head out tomorrow for Phnom Penh.
1/4/08
For some reason I only met Canadians in Siem Reap and Angkor...but they were some good ones--had lots of fun.
For my last meal in town, I had a great omelette with the very best bread that I have had so far in Asia. It was a baguette with the perfect thin crust on the outside and a soft, warm inside that was almost like a dense croissant. The french occupation here has left a nice legacy. It was also a nice respite from the fried rice with steak that I had eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the day before! Self-imposed and glorious--I'm not having any trouble adjusting to Cambodian food.
The bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was noteworthy. We left at 12:30 and after my last bus experience I have learned to choose which side of the bus to sit on as to avoid the sun beaming in through the windows. Having chosen that seat when buying the ticket, I had put myself next to Annie (surely not how she spells it, but that's what it sounded like), a 22 year old Cambodian who is studying to become an accountant. She loved practicing her english and asking me questions, and I enjoyed her effort to try to teach me some Khmer words and was able to ask her about her surgical mask. So it was like this we travelled down the road, enjoying the ride and doazing in and out of consciousness. The in to consciousness, however, became more and more prevalent as the driver would not lay off of the horn. It was as if he was having a conversations with his fellow motorists, using the horn to denote every syllable of his speech. To keep from strangling him, this is what I imagined he was doing, sometimes trying to figure out what he was saying. There would be phrases such as "Excuse me, here I come" (6 honks--not near anyone), "MOVEEEEE" (one very long honk), "I can't believe you are driving so slowly. You shouldn't be on the road and I plan on making that happen" (28 honks). The latter type conversations were the most prevalent...so obnoxious...as if he was scared to be driving so fast and was willing people to get out of his way.
Another interesting and unexpected part of the bus trip was the culinary adventure that it became. We made two long stops, on the first I ate a steaming ball of wet looking bread filled with meats and onions and other unidentifiable things. That was fun. Then, at the next stop I ate mango dipped in some very harsh salt/sugar/pepper mix and had an egg. What I didn't eat at the second stop, but was surprised to see them being sold--were the large black figures that from further away looked like an '8'a bit smaller than my hand, with several little sticks poking out from it. Maybe a meat lollipop? That sounds good. No, GIANT tarantulas...a mountain of them ready to sell by every vendor. Because I wasn't considering eating them, my concern moved to where they had come from. Imported from somewhere far away I hope, India maybe. Unfortunately, the women selling them didn't look quite so industrious--so I confronted the truth and slept last night with my covers wrapped a little tighter.
Which brings me to Phnom Penh--not what I was expecting at all. The bus came into town among a sea of neon sign, a wedding off to the right, a small carnival with rides to the left. So cool. Then, with a british girl named Emma that I had met on the bus, we went to the guesthouses on the lake. I didn't realize how literally they meant on the lake...when you step from the road into the guesthouse, you are over the lake. There are several of them in this little tourist ghetto, all with rooms over the water and big communal decks complete with pool tables, hammocks, tv's, etc. All on rickety wooden floors held up by rickety wooden posts. Over a lake. Pool table. Really, they are extremely cool with beautiful views over the lake and I'm told to expect a beautiful sunset tonight, as well. All this in Central Phnom Penh! And my room feels like I'm on a boat...lined with linoleum the walls are meant to look wooden on the bottom half, and white on the top half. The boat feel continues as you look out the window and see that you're over water. The same water that you can hear the toilet draining into. No swimming for me, but for $3.50 a night, I'm a happy sailor.
Now off to the US embassy to get more pages put into my passport which is now officially full, then to go get my Vietnamese visa. Tomorrow I'll visit the Killing Fields and a school turned into a place of torture and death. Should be pretty rough.
Oh, and just got an email from a friend of mine in Brazil that she and two of her friends are coming to SE Asia and I'll be seeing them soon! Amazing...love it.
1/5/08
Excited to be back on American soil, if only for a few hours at most, I had a skip in my step as I walked from my guesthouse towards the American Embassy. As I approached the mammoth complex with its ornate, yet unlit Christmas decorations, I was looking forward to the experience of visiting an embassy abroad, something I'd never before needed to do. I arrived at one of the gates and was ushered around to the other side. It was here that a door cracked open, the air conditioning spewing out as the Cambodian man dressed in a blue uniform decorated with a crest with an eagle, almost like the presidential seal, told me that they were open on Fridays only for emergencies. I told him that without more pages in my passport I was unable to get a visa and to keep my travel plans. This, to me, seemed necessary enough to ask that someone take the 5 minutes to make it happen. Not allowing me to come in, they took my passport and tried in vain to call the consulate to see if this could happen. I guess they had left the office early! When he came back I asked if he could call again and if I could come inside the outtermost gate of what was my own country? He feigned a lack of english comprehension to answer such a question with words, and instead just smiled and shook his head as if he were embarrassed. I was embarrassed too. Nor did I get the feeling that, if in a shoot out with Cambodian drug dealers I would be provided cover while I was swallowed by the safety of my American home. Interestingly enough, everything is open here 7 days a week--there really isn't a distinction between weekday and weekend because they don't rest on the sabbath...they work and try to better their lives. Americans, though, already have lives that are good enough it seems--and those working abroad grant themselves 4 day work weeks. And although the embassy is fully staffed 24/7, they can't grant one of these employees power to add pages to someone's passport--a 5 minute task that is essential to those traveling, but that is reserved for the fat cats in the consulate office. Not impressed, America.
1/6/08
Waiting for my visa to come through has been a blessing in disguise. With no rush, I've had a few days to get to know Phnom Penh. I already know that it's a great place to hang out--no shortage of pool games, or rummy or cool people to be had--and the sunset on the lake every night is something you don't find in capital cities (this is going to end, unfortunately, as plans are under way to raze the neighborhoods around the lake, pour concrete and make it another set of city blocks). Yesterday I rented a motorcycle and decided to brave the crazy streets of this city. They are the craziest that I've seen so far. There seem to be no rules, really. People going both ways in both lanes, merging means driving the wrong way in the opposite lane as people stop to let you join the traffic, and crossing a street is like playing high stakes dodgeball. I had an incomplete map that showed me the general direction of the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek. According to my guide it is only 9 miles out of town but I went much further than that and never did find what I was looking for. So with a firm resolve I got up early this morning, asked for better directions and eventually found it. Amazing place. 129 mass graves, 43 of which have yet to be excavated. They built a glass stupa as a monument that houses 8,000 human skulls that they have found, so far. The scale of the tragedy and the recency is striking. As are the little or sometimes big bits of bone that you see poking up from the ground as you're walking around the grounds. Even though they tried to help, it was hard to imagine (maybe by choice) what had really happened there--and I found myself most saddened not by the bones of children who had suffered, but by the children on the other side of the chain link fence that were begging and suffering still--just in a different way.
From there, it was on to Toeng Sol, back in town, a school that had been converted into a torture prison. An amazing museum now--it feels like nothing has really changed since this all happened. Of course they have put up photo exhibits of the prisoners, some accompanied by biographies--and the torture equipment has explanations next to them....but other than that it all looks the same. The photos on the walls of some of the cells showed the room in the very some condition--with the same stains on the tiles of the floor on which I was now standing.
As morbid as the days activities were, it was great to be out amongst the people on the bike. I dressed as closely to a cambodian as my wardrobe would allow, wore a full helmet with reflective face shield and even had a krama (head scarf) underneath--so that when I was riding I was hardly recognizable as a farang (foreigner).
After returning the bike, I tried they're national dish, Amok, which is a meat (traditionally fish, which I had) in a cocunut sauce like a curry, over rice. It was so good! Satisfied, I had a lazy rest of the day--going for a little walk, getting my laundry done and then I returned to the guesthouse for another great sunset. Not a bad day.
