Mekong Inferno

My advice: do not take the slow boat.

Inferno implies that it was hot.   It wasn’t.   I didn’t want to say “hell,” because I consider myself the plucky type who always looks for the positive side when traveling.   But I would never take the slow boat again.   And if I wasn’t the type to view every experience here as a very privileged opportunity, no matter how difficult, I would have been absolutely miserable.   I have already taken it upon myself to seek out and warn other unsuspecting travelers who might be about to make the same mistake.

But, let’s begin at the beginning.   Leaving Chiang Mai.   The mini-van straight to the border was booked full, which was just as well since it was more expensive.   So, we turned up at the bus station directly after collecting our laundry in the morning where I had plenty of time to write the last (lengthy) blog, as the next border bus wasn’t for three hours.

People here are small.   I am a medium-small person in the U.S., but here I finally know how it feels to be  like Pat (six feet seven inches) every day.   The mirrors are too low.   I can never see above my neck.   When the toilets are western style, my knees are practically up to my chin.   I often have to duck and have smacked my head with the intensity of  someone expecting the way to be  clear several times.   It’s all in good fun, though.   I only point all of this out so I can tell about about the space on the bus.

When we chose our seats on the screen, I thought, “Wow… this must be  one big bus!”   Much like a prop plane, the screen displayed three seats on one side of the aisle and two on the other.   When we boarded, I finally understood.   The bus wasn’t bigger.   The seats were smaller.   Much, much smaller.   I can’t be  more than 15 inches across at the hips, but that was wider than the seat!   So, we endured, snuggled in, and were fortunate to spead out as the bus emptied after the first couple of hours.

We landed in Chiang Kong, the border town, at around 8:30.   We found a map to a hostel  plastered on the wall outisde the 7-Eleven where the bus dumped us off and headed that way.   The owner was exceptionally sweet, got us set up with a room, cooked us dinner, booked our tickets for our trip into Laos, made a fantastic breakfast in the morning, AND let me borrow her bike so I could call my CASA kid before I headed into land of no phones.

The trip across the border was like being in a giant flock of sheep.   You can go it alone, OR you can pay one of the agencies to hold your hand as you go through each step of the process.   By booking our ticket at the hostel, we got the latter.   Thank goodness we don’t have enormous backpacks to deal with like everyone else!

After we had checked out of Thailand, ferried across the Mekong River to Laos, purchased our Lao visas, and checked in to Laos, we were driven  to a street of shops full of last minute  supplies.   There, we got the flavor of the trip to come.   My biggest disappointment with other tourists is when they have no curiosity for learning the local language and customs and also  have the gall to be  righteous about the smallest things that are even slightly different.   So, when the Lao man tried to communicate that they kept coming up one passport short and insisted that someone in the group hadn’t handed it over, people started getting angry.   Immediately they suspected that our passports (all 60 of them) were gone for good.   (SE Asia does not have a reputation  for a passport black market.   Reason: tourists are mostly white.   SE Asians are mostly not-“white”.)   Nicole and I raised our eyebrows as some the more fiery tourists pulled the classic talk-louder-in-English-because-they-must-be-deaf-if-they-can’t-understand-my-language.   Of course everything was fine and we boarded the boat an hour later without much fanfare.

My seventeen hour view. Not too shabby!

Begin epic journey.   So, the seats:   hard benches, straight backed, ten inches wide, no leg room.   The passengers: 99% tourists.   40% rude and self-absorbed, of which, of course, 100% were loud an obnoxious.

My other 17 hour view. Well, kind of. This is taken from the very back of the boat, but you get the idea.

Besides the incessant drinking (DRUNKing, beer spilling, etc.) and smoking, my biggest disappointment was apparently the hottest new technological advancement: a portable IPod stereo.

I will teach my children never to use one of these on public transportation. Especially one with blown out speakers.

At least three groups on the boat had these, and we were unlucky enough to be  seated exactly in the middle of two of them.   One was a multinational group of partiers, and other other  was a group of Irish (Scottish?) 20-something that make all tourists look bad.   SE Asians are known for their modesty.   Often even knee length  shorts are risque.   So, these girls and boys must have looked like complete harlots to the locals working on the boat.   I was shocked  to see them straight out of COSMO/playboy magazine, right down to the make-up, jewelry, glamour-girl glasses, and teeny-tiny clothes.   Of course they had no awareness of their spilt beer running all over everyone’s things, their cigarette ash flying in the faces of those sitting behind them, or the fact that no one else wants to listen to techno music for eight hours at a stretch.   And that was day one. 🙂

My favorite of the 17 hour views.

We stopped halfway to our destination at Pak  Beng where a wonderful young woman named “Hom” (home) guided us to her family’s hostel with the most comfortable beds we’ve had in all of SE Asia!   Yay!   We went for a walk, which was glorious under the almost full  moon… until, Nicole practically crawled on top of me.   Turns out a lizard lurking in the street had bitten her!   How absurd!   We made our way back the the  restaurant we’d promised our patronage on the way out of town, examined the bite marks, invited Barbara (a Swiss woman) to eat with us, and sent Nicole back to the hotel to retrive some first aid supplies.

Dinner was great, and our host Sheuwan  (Shoe-wahn) was really helpful.   His candle-lit restaurant was gorgeous, and he even escorted us to the pharmacy and got them to decide that they were in fact “open.”   Then it was back home for some much needed  respite from they days hard benches.   Thank goodness this town runs on generators that are shut down at 10 p.m., or we would have spent the night listening to a very loud Lao TV!

Today was much the same as yesterday with less leg room but the added benefit of knowing who NOT to sit next to.   The scenery also becomes increasingly dramatic as the river approaches our destination – Luang  Prabang.   The last two hours of the ride were completely gorgeous.   And I got a ton of reading done, both from my guidebook and from the NY Times Bestseller I am reading “Three Cups of Tea.”   It is a really incredible book.   You are probably getting it from me for Christmas.   Just kidding.   Well, kind of.   But you really should read it!   It’s about an American man who sets about building schools to help the poor help themselves in Pakistan.   I have learned so much and been so moved, page after page, chapter after chapter.   I have to put it down just so I don’t use up the book too fast!

Outside of Luang  Prabang  as seen from the boat, but this was taken in the dry season when the river isn’t so muddy. Not what we see!

Our arrival in Luang  Prabang was a smooth landing, and our room is the nicest place we’ve stayed so far (for $3 each!).   The French influence is really obvious here.   I started salivating when we passed the first of many wine bars, but had a “Beer Lao” for Laos’ sake while we ate and chatted with some fantastic Australians.   Tomorrow it’s a 70k bike ride to some waterfalls.   I hope I have enough energy still to swim when I get there.   I’m sure tomorrow night I will completely collapse, but I am looking forward to the ride through “undulating rice paddies” to the tiered waterfall which is “very private except for a million butterflies.”   Can’t wait!

Into the Wild

It was so incredible to wake up each morning in bamboo and teak houses to a jungle shrouded in mist.   Our three day, two night foray into the jungle – home to many hill tribes – was fantastic.   I’ve been on lots of organized tours, and I’m always leery.   They are so often hit and miss.   When it’s bad, it’s usually rude folk who have no respect for the local culture and expect everything to be just like home.   We had none of those types!

Our group had great diversity – Jen and Greg from Canada, Evelyn from Germany, Chris and Hannah from the UK, and Leah and Elaine from Ireland.   Our guide, Montri  (mohn-tree) was really great.   Very informative, serious, good sense of humor, concerned for our safety, a hill tribe native, and very professional  (unlike another guide we met along the way who was cracking beers at 8:30 in the morning!).   Our porter, Niwa  (nee-wah) wasn’t as outgoing, but we sure appreciated the hundred pounds of fresh food he packed in for us.

The tour started with quite  a bit of stop-and-go.   Our transport was of the local basic type – a pick-up truck with benches down the sides and a canopy over the top.   After a requisite stop-off at the tourist police and a last-chance market run (where I got my last, up-to-the minute presidential update from Pat), we headed to  the gorgeous Mork Fa  waterfall.   For the first time since I’ve been here, the weather wasn’t sweltering.   Since the pool was only about five feet deep, and since  still had lots more  seat time,  I chose to strip down for the spray, but not dive in.

Mork Fa Falls – breathtaking in more ways than one!
Then we were off to lunch at a side of the road stand.   They think farangs  (foreigners) can’t handle the heat of Thai food, so much of the food we get starts out VERY plain.   Icky plain, almost.   After some soy and sweet chili sauce, things get a bit more palatable.   As an added bonus, the farther from town you get, the more elbow room there is in the toilets – a great feature when you’re squatting!

Finally we arrived at our launching point where we were offered the opportunity to swim in some hot springs.   They were hot, almost to the point of scalding, so we opted out.   In all my hot spring experience, I’ve never felt water that hot before.   Well, a few minutes into the jungle, I got my explanation.   It was geyser run-off!   Apparently this part of Thailand is a geo-thermal hot spot.   It was really strange to see geysers in the middle of the jungle!

The trail was fairly easy-going.   Lots of uphill, and it was pretty warm (but cool for the tropics).   We were quite  a spectacle.   Because the third and final  day of the tour includes bamboo rafting, we each had a bright yellow and orange life jacket strapped on as we worked our way through the thick jungle.   Pat, at 6’7″,  would have hated it.   In Arcata, when a tree is growing at his head level, he insists on leaving the sidewalk to go around instead of ducking under it.   The ceiling height on the trail for the first hour was all my height (5’7″) or less.   I spent lots of time ducking!

It was tough working our way through the thick jungle!

After seeing lots of awesome “mushroom” flowers, we finally broke free of the thickest jungle and got quite a view out over the canopy!   Our guides were overly generous with breaks, but we appreciated it in all the heat.   The last leg was basically a slide down the red, slippery jungle clay   to a sketchy bamboo bridge over the river, and ta-da!   We’ve arrived!   After getting set up in our basic lodgings – a firm mattress, a really firm pillow, and two small blankets on a floor mat – we got showers!   Not the kind you’d imagine, but there was a tap and a bucket for me to dump (COLD!!) water over myself.   It was breathtaking, but I was happy to feel so clean!

A view from home #1 on our first night. Gorgeous! This is paradise!

In what would become his classic style, Tri (short for Montri), made us way too much food for dinner.   Sweet and sour chicken over rice, potato curry, and bean sprout stir fry.   The canadians then busted out their secret stash of chocolate cookies for dessert before we settled in a for a night of card games and guitar picking.   Finally my “skills” came in handy!   I never thought knowing five or six chords and two songs would be useful!

Where we laid our heads for the night. The hanging stuff is mosquito nets to prevent against malaria and dengue infected mosquitos.

In the morning I took a walk to enjoy the “silence” of the jungle (excepting the birds and bugs), and delighted in the mystical morning until I ran into a yak/cow on the trail.   Back to camp!   The second day was by far my favorite.   We learned lots about plants from Tri.   I had raw sesame seeds, blew bubbles from the stem of a soap plant, ate the cousin of a chestnut, and got to eat cucumbers the size and shape of a spaghetti squash.   Weird!   The best part of the day was stopping off at a rice field where a family was working.   It’s harvest season and they were threshing the rice.

One at a time, we got to remove our shoes and step onto  the tarp which catches all the rice grains.   We used what looked like giant numchucks  to gather the root end of the cut rice stalks.   After they were secured, you basically had a giant  axe in your hands with the “blade” being the grain end of the rice stalks.   A board made of four big bamboo stalks lashed together sat in the center of the tarp.   Now you thresh!   Swing and pound the rice stalks againg  the bamboo, shaking each time until all the grains have fallen onto the tarp.   Then load up again!   Wow!   What hard work!

Another downhill slide led us to an elephant camp where too much food was again served.   Then we climbed onto the elephants to ride to the next village.   The trainers were much nicer to these elephants, and one of them “Butterfly” (who had no idea that it’s a girl’s name in my culture) flirted endlessly with me as we made our way down river.   How flattering!   🙂

Our second night was at the “River Front Hotel,” as Tri called it.   It really was!   The first night we had the whole village to ourselves, but here we ran into several other trekking groups.   The locals were also around more at this village, though, so that made up for it.   We got to play with the kids and hang out with them.   We had a porch with a fire pit overlooking the river.   After (too much) dinner, we played music and chatted late into the night.   Fun!

We woke on our last day to the sound of the roosters crowing and the locals chopping away at the bamboo poles floating in the water to fashion our rafts.   The front of the raft had a bamboo tripod where all our bags were hung.   We all balanced out behind the bags as our guides “poled” us down the river – much like being in Venice, I imagine!   Going through the rapids was interesting.   I held onto  the fibers that lashed the bamboo poles together, but we got soaked.   In white water, the raft is pulled a few feet under, and you have no choice but to go down with it or float away!   It was great!

Another group bamboo rafting. I don’t know how sea worthy these things are, but it worked out well for me!

An uneventful lunch (except for being hassled, of course) and a bumpy ride home led to a few hours of rest and a night out with the group.   It was pretty boring, which was disappointing.   Evelyn (the German girl) and I agreed that things were boring, so we dragged the group to a Karaoke bar.   Karaoke here is very different.   All the songs have a suped up techno beat – including Hotel California – and lots of weird additions is Thai.   Imagine the surprise on our faces when we got up to sing “I Will Survive” and we had never even heard the first few minutes of the song.   Strange!

The resort across the river from where we ate our lunch on the last day.

Now Nicole and I are off to Laos.   We’ll cross the border tonight and get a boat hopefully tomorrow afternoon to Luang  Prabang – a beautiful French colonial town.   Can’t wait!

Feast in Five

I “graduated” from Thai cooking school today  – it was great!   Since “today” is Tuesday the 4th, I spent a lot of time thinking about the election.   I’m about to  go to bed, and most of you are still sleeping as I write.   The polls in the Pacific time zone still aren’t open for a few more hours.   I am going on a jungle trek starting tomorrow morning and won’t be  back for three days.   Part of me is bummed  to be missing the big day, but I suppose the results will be the same either way!

This morning, at 8:30, I got to pick the five Thai dishes I wanted to learn.   Two other participants in the class, Nicole and Tina (from Germany) picked Pad Thai, so I didn’t.   Instead I learned the local curry – delicious and thick, spicy glass noodle salad – YUM, spicy green papya salad – light and limey, egg rolls, and mango with sticky rice – excellent!

We headed to the market first to buy the ingredients that our instructor, Sut (rhymes with loot), didn’t already have.   Among the most interesting sights  were the dried shrimp, the many kinds of fruit, the live fish, the unripe jackfruit, and the coconut.

Fruit! In the center looking sort of  like a pineapple (or a porcupine!) is the unripe jackfruit – eaten like a vegetable in this stage. Directly under that are the enormous local grapefruits. In the right foreground and mangos and my beloved pinhas  behind them (the bumpy green ones). My favorite new fruit is the small, round, brown blobs in boxes on the floor in the foreground. They look dirty and icky on the outside, but you peel away a tangerine-like skin to reveal a yummy, clear, sweet globe of fruit. I’ll learn the name soon!

Veggies at the market – the best!

I should also take a few minutes to tell you about Sut, who has the classic chef attitude.   He is also straight out of a movie, as everything he says in English is practically chanted.   Every word in the same tone of voice, and very serious but also with a good sense of humor.   He was one of the best parts of the day!

First, we made our coconut milk and cream by hand.   At the market you go to the coconut grinder.   You tell him how much raw coconut you want ground, and he puts it through the shredding machine.   Then, when you get home, you  put it in a pot,  pour in a cup or so  of hot water, a few cups of cold water, and then knead  the coconut for about two minutes. Then you wring it out  a handful at a time.   This makes coconut cream.   You  repeat the whole  process a second time to make the coconut milk.

Mah-sah-jaaaah. Mah-sah-jaaaah. (Says Sut. “Massage. Massage” to get your coconut cream and milk!

We prepared all our ingredients in advance, so that the cooking was just a matter of standing at the wok or pot and stirring and  dumping ingredients.   We made one dish at a time, stopping in between to sample our handy work (and package up the inevitable “take away” with so much food!).   After the three main  dishes, we had an hour break before we came back to make  “snack” and  dessert.

All the  snack foods were  fried, so I chose the option I’d  be most likely to make – the egg rolls (spring rolls?).   Then it was time to prepare the sticky rice.   A little slice of heaven!   The nutritionist in me grimaced at all the oil and sugar that went into every single dish.   I’ll  serve up my education to anyone who wants a taste of authentic Thai, but I don’t think I’ll be making myself sugar and oil dinners every night!

On an ending note – I just want to remind everyone (Mom.) that I’m going to be  incommunicado for a few days (and maybe several – am also thinking about doing a multi-day river trip into Laos).   I originally wasn’t going to do a trek here, as I was worried about the un-negated negative effects on the hill people at whose villages we will we spending the nights.   However, we found an agent who put part of the trek proceeds toward village projects that are designed and decided on through the village headman.   So – don’t worry and wish me luck in my jungle mosquito  battle!

Have Bicycle, Will Travel!

The overnight bus was the classic argument for twenties traveling.   Not that traveling isn’t great at any age, but it’s wonderful to do it when you can afford to get poor sleep, be cramped for hours, and still hit the next day full force.

So, yes, the movie was blaring at full volume on the first leg.   Yes the lights were intermittently off and on all night.   Yes, it was freezing.   No, I wasn’t comfortable.   Yes, my leg fell asleep.   Yes, my butt  fell asleep.   Yes, I got a crick in my neck.   BUT – after a somewhat arduous adventure from Bangkok – including switching terminals on opposite sides of the cities and piecing together a few tickets when the direct route was sold  out – we made Suhkothai by 8:00 a.m.!   We checked in, had a quick cat nap, and were off to the ancient city!

Suhkothai (the ruins, not the current city) was the original capital of Thailand way back in the day, and the structures made of materials that hold up in tropical climates are the only signs of the city that remain.

One of the many ruins at the original capital of Thailand – Suhkothai.

Temples, buddhas, and more temples!   On the sangthew  ride there (a pick up with benches in the back and a canopy stretched over a frame), we met Jeff.   With his New Zealand hat, of course we thought he was a kiwi.   Turns out he’s from Iowa and has been teaching  English in the mostly untravelled  NE for over two years.   We spent the day biking around the old city visiting temple sights with him and getting all our questions about Thai culture and food answered from a “farang” (foreigner) perspective.

How we get around. Sangthew’s  aren’t always this full, but they can be! At least it has free air-conditioning! 😉

The bike riding felt great and is the preferred way to see miles and miles of ruins.   (I guess we could have rented motorbikes for ten times the price, but why?)   We probably biked a total of 10-15 miles today in the soaking heat stopping every 1/4 mile or so to explore a ruin in the jungle and countryside.

The classic Thai Buddha shown meditating (they have three poses – sitting (meditating), standing, and reclining.

The “free air-conditioning” felt wonderful, and the heat was only stifling toward the end of the trip when we happened upon a fruit juice stand next to the road.   Turns out the reason the proprietor spoke such great English is because she spend nine years in Australia where she also got her master’s degree in International Business.   She made me an awesome fruit shake of pineapple, banana, apple, lime, and dragon fruit!   It was my first introduction to dragonfruit, and I LOVED it!

My new favorite market treat. It looks like a beastly turnip having an 80’s flashback, but tastes delicious!

How it’s Different From Home, Part I

I’ve been waiting to write this blog for quite awhile, but haven’t found the internet time to fit it in.

The things I notice most:
1) Left hand traffic
2) Beds
3) Toilets
4) Shoe removal
5) Sex tourism couples

First thing first – left hand traffic.   Granted, I worked at the coal mine where I drove in left hand traffic patterns for countless twelve hour  shifts over a five year  period.   BUT, it’s still really strange to glance up to find the driver “missing”, or to turn onto  a road and feel like the car is going the wrong way.   Crossing the street is also a trickier proposition, as I generally look in the direction of  the nearest oncoming traffic and start walking.   I have to be very careful to look both ways before I take a single step!

The beds here, because it is horrendously hot, aren’t beds like at home.   It’s generally a more firm, shallow mattress laid out on a wooden platform with a sheet over it.   No top sheet, no comforter, no bed spread.   Each pillow comes with a light blanket if you so choose.   I thought it would be weird until I went to lay down my first night here.   Who wants anything more than a soft surface to lay on when it’s this hot!

The typical Asian bed (this is a shot of a room at the Jolly Frog where we’ve been staying).

Toilets here come in several varieties.   There are the standard U.S./European sit down and flush toilets.   Next come the same style without a water tank.   So sit down, yes.   But flushing means pouring in a few scoops of clean water from the bucket beside the toilet.   Finally, and most challenging for me, are the squat toilets.   Really, if you think about it, squat toilets really are a more effective, quicker way to do your business.   They’re mostly porcelain, just like sitting toilets.   However, they’re about five inches up off the floor with a toilet bowl in the middle.   The edges around the bowl are about five inches wide.   So you stand on the edges and squat over the bowl.   Then you either flush it if it has a flusher  (in airports, shopping malls, etc – yes) or toss a few scoops of clean water in and let gravity do the rest!   It’s been enlightening.   Also, to keep the public restrooms clean (like at bus stations, but not at malls), you are required  to change into a pair of clean flip flops (provided) before entering the restroom.   Which brings me to…

Toilet sans person…

This one is smaller than normal, but I thought it would be good to include a person in the photo for effect.

Shoe removal.   Many people practice shoe removal in the US to keep their homes clean.   I grew up in such a home.   Here, it feels a bit stranger because you’re always running around in sandals.   So shoe removal means being barefoot.   I’m sensitive about my feet getting dirty (weird, I know), so I generally don’t walk barefoot on ANY floor.   But, because they’re so obsessed with floor cleanliness here, the floors are always clean.   I have yet to have a bad experience!   And it’s kind of funny to walk down the sidewalk and see a pile of shoes in front of every business entrance! The weirdest thing for me has been having  to trade for “clean” shoes at public restrooms.   It kind of creeps me out have to don a “public” shoe that someone has used solely for the purpose of  relieving themselves (especially when doing so requires squatting – which can be a bit… splashy!).   But, overall, it’s just adding to the depth of my life experience.   I like it!

Finally – sex tourism.   Yucky.   Here, sex tourism doesn’t mean picking up a prostitute in the red light district and finding a hotel.   It’s more like an escort service in Thailand, where men basically rent women to be  their traveling partners, among other things.   It grosses me out, but every restaurant you go into has at least five white male/female Asian couples having dinner.   Yes, I realize that they could be a legit couple and I shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover.   But they’re not.   Usually evidenced  by overheard conversations in broken English – the world currency for language.

Speaking of which, I’ll end with a foot note.   I’m very lucky to be a native speaker of the English language.   It’s the language of tourism, especially here, and the only other language the locals know besides Thai.   Sure I have a few bumps communicating, but the Germans, Japanese, and other non-native-English-speaking travelers have twice the trouble.   What a boon for my traveling!

Elephant Chaffing & Becoming the Attraction

Happy All Saints Day!

Finally the sleeping schedule is nearing normalcy, and I got to sleep until nearly 7:30 this morning!   After some fantastic lounging and a light breakfast of toast and a fruit and yogurt shake (Lassi), we set off for the elephants!

Traveling and tourism always bring up a lot of ethical conflicts for me.   So, I asked our driver about how the elephants are treated  and if it maybe wasn’t a very good life for them hauling tourists around the jungle hills all day.   He assured me that the elephants had been previously employed in the timber industry – much harder  work than hauling tourists – and would now be retired without a home if not for the preserve.   I want to believe him!

After some standing around waiting our turn, watching a baby elephant play the kazoo and hula, and having my photo taken with a big male elephant, we climbed the tower to mount the elephants.   We were seated  by twos and threes onto  the elephant chairs where we rode through the jungle up and down the hills for about 1/2 an hour.   The best part of the ride for me was being in the canopy and coming face to face with my FAVORITE tropical fruit – the pinha!!   Never before had I dreamed of being able to identify  just what kind of tree this delicious piece of heaven came from.   MMMMM!!!

Mmmmmm… my absolute favorite tropical fruit. What’s it’s name in Thai? Don’t know!
You can’t even imagine how yummy this is. The sweet flesh melts in your mouth.

After riding the elephants in the hills, one at a time we were allowed to slide down off the chair and ride them “bareback” on our journey to the river.

I don’t know these guys, but this is what the elephant “saddle” is like…

Elephants do not have soft skin.   It is rough, leathery, and covered with wiry hair.   So despite my joy scratching the elephant behind the ears as we ambled toward the river, I managed (wearing my bikini bottom only) to accomplish  some serious chaffing.   Ouch!   We dismounted while the chairs were removed and rode them one at a time into the river so the elephants could cool off, and of course cool us off in the process.   Fun!

Joining the elephant for a dip! This was the best because the elephants seem to love it!
On the way back to the van, we became the attraction.   Having turned in my swimming top the night before (after a day of swimming) for washing, I didn’t have anything   but a bra and my swimming bottoms to wear.   Not a problem for an immodest individual  like myself.   At the elephant river, several Thais had congregated (especially men) to watch us swim in the river with the elephants and take photos of us.   I didn’t find this particularly offensive, as many Thais are fascinated by white skin.

As we were crossing the lawn through a group of about twenty people, several young women in their late teens gave us huge smiles and indicated that they’d like to take a photo of us.   When we said okay, they got really excited and then decided that they wanted photos WITH us.   So, we became the elephants as they all took turns having a photo with us.   We were busy being amused by this bizarre occurrence that it was only on the drive home that we realized we should have gotten out OUR cameras, too!   Our driver explained that they were from a place in Thailand that sees very few tourists and were so eager to take home photos of themselves with a caucasian.   Fun, fun!

Now we’re off to Sukothai – an ancient city north of Bangkok several hours.   Wish us luck on our first overnight bus ride!

Jungle Waterfalls & A Piece of History

So yesterday we landed in Kanchanaburi  (also “Kan”), and I am LOVING it.   The pace of the town is perfect – not too sleepy, but very laid back.   The surrounding area is filled  with national parks chock full of waterfalls, elephant rides, and history lessons.   Kanchanaburi  is home to the Bridge Over the River Kwai  – a key location  in WWII.   Thousands of allied prisoners along with thousands of Asians across the region were conscripted to build a rail line for the Japanese connecting Bangkok with India in the Japanese take-over of SE Asia.

The standard Thai bike taxi. I can’t believe both our American butts fit in there!

After a few hours on a bus from Bangkok, we arrived yesterday at the bus station (where I used my first Asian toilet, but I’ll save that for my “how it’s different from home” blog).   We haggled a bit with a few taxi drivers and ended up in a tiny chariot pulled by bike that dropped us at the Jolly Frog for 40 Baht.   Probably too much (about $1.15), but oh well!   Our hotel has a great view of the River Kwai, a quaint courtyard with hammocks, a walking path down to the river where there are floating lounges, and a nice outdoor restaurant.

The courtyard at our beloved “Jolly Frog” lodgings

We were starving, so we opted immediately for a place called “Fine.”   All the food here is GREAT, no matter where we eat, and this place was no exception.   After dropping off our duds for a washing (20 Baht – about 60 cents), we strolled through town checking out the scene and looking into cooking courses.   We made reservations for the tour we went on today, and then settled in for another Thai massage.   I was disappointed  to find my masseuse was the old woman who hadn’t returned my smile on the sidewalk in passing two hours previous. Thais are smilers, but she was an exception.   About half the time I felt relaxed and well-rubbed.   The other half was uncomfortable, ticklish, and sometimes painful.   Don’t think I’ll go back there again!

Thanks to Nicole’s (last night of) jet lag, we had some delicious tom yum soup and green curry for dinner and then hit the sack.   We lasted until nine!

The Jolly Frog doesn’t have hot water, which isn’t a huge issue when the ambient temperature never gets below 75 degrees.   It’s a lot easier to take a cold shower in the afternoon when it’s above 85, however!   I ordered a traditional Thai breakfast (rice soup with chicken) and was amused when the waitress tried to bring it to the only Thai woman in the place.

We met our tour guides out front at 8am and loaded up for the ride to Erawan  Falls.   It was about a mile and a quarter to the seventh fall at the top following the  tiered river all the way.   We clambered over tree roots and boulders, crossed slippery pools, climbed and descended rickety staircases in the jungle heat and were greeted  with one of the most breathtaking spectacles of my life.   I immediately stripped to my suit and jumped in the pale blue water.   Weeee!!!

The best staircase on the walk to the falls. Toward the top, they were just gnarled twigs nailed onto  gnarled branches to form a makeshift ladder!
My favorite fall. The photo of the view from the top doesn’t do it justice, so I guess you’ll just have to come see it with your own eyes! 🙂

On the way down, I indulged in three more swims (I have dreams about swimming – I love it so much), before we were fed lunch at one of the restaurant stalls – spicy rice and veggies for me!   Then it was on to the “Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum” and to Hellfire Pass itself.

Many parts of the WWII Japanese rail-line claimed thousands of lives, including the construction of  the bridge over the River Kwai.   However, the clearing of Hellfire Pass claimed more lives than any single installation on the rail line.   Because the Japanese didn’t have the skills or technology for tunneling, captured Allied prisoners had to cut down through dense jungle and limestone rock to clear a path for the train. (i.e. they had to clear a tunnel AND everything that would normally be above a tunnel – a mini canyon in the mountainside.) Hellfire Pass, so named for the fires that burned as prisoners were forced to work 18 hours of backbreaking labor at a stretch, is an incredible and shocking place.

The entry to the huge length of line cleared for the Japanese railway by Allied prisoners and local laborers.

The memorial museum was enlightening and shocking, but the audio tour walking down hellfire pass was truly illuminating.   Listening to the testimonials of the prisoners as the sharp stones underfoot pressed into my sandals, I could vividly imagine the horror of being forced to work barefoot and starving, with festering jungle sores all over my mostly naked body carrying heavy rocks for hours while guards beat me at their whim.   Oh. my. god. I also learned what Cholera is today, thanks to the tour – a nasty, horrible, and terrifying disease.   Moving on, we visited a cave along the rail line that was used  as a base camp for the Japanese Army and then rode the “Death Train” along tapioca fields before being bussed to the bridge over the River Kwai.   The bridge ended up being un-inspirational, after spending so much time before I left reading about it.

The famous Bridge Over the River Kwai. I thought it would be more magnificent. Or maybe more… wooden.

It’s been highly commercialized, and its steel structures and concrete pilings make it seem like far less a task than the awful Hellfire Pass. We returned to our hotel sweaty and still slightly damp from the falls.   After a shower, we dropped off our laundry and headed out to dinner at a fantastic Indian restaurant (hey – you can’t eat Thai EVERY night!).   Before coming here, we booked our elephant trekking and swimming trip for tomorrow.   Can’t wait!!

Bangkok Tour

What a jam-packed day in Bangkok!   Nicole, thanks to her jet-lag, was up at 3am, 5am, etc wide awake (since it was respectively 3pm, 5pm in Omaha).   I, however, slept soundly until 7am, at which time we launched our busy day.

The hostel breakfast is adequate (bread, croissants, banana muffins, toast, jelly, butter, (some weird green spread the texture of pudding) watermelon, pineapple.

Jim Thompson’s living room with historical pieces from Thailand, China, Belgium, Italy, and more!

First stop was the Jim Thompson house.   At first, I wasn’t interested because it didn’t seem like Thai culture.   Really, it is.   My Grandma J. would have loved it.

The main house in the Jim Thompson grounds, made in classic Thai style with teak wood.

Jim Thompson was an architect and soldier who stayed in Thailand and helped grow and connect the silk trade to the rest of the world reaping great economic benefits for the Thais.   He also collected Asian artifacts (the part my grandma would love), and his traditional Thai house is filled with 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th century paintings, statues, imports, and more.   It was incredible!

The flowers are everywhere! My father would love all the different flowers here!

I learned, among other things,: 1) Why no shoes: The Thai take their shoes off often when entering buildings (in fact, I had to take mine off to come into this internet cafe) because traditionally they eat sitting in a circle on the floor.   For this reason, it is very important to them that the floor stays clean. 2) Thai Buddhas (different from the Chinese Buddhas most Americans are used  to) have long ears because it symbolizes long life. 3) Traditional Thai construction of doorways dictates that you step over a threshold about 12 inches high.   Originally, this kept babies from crawling out of the house when houses were always located on the river and the baby could drown easily.

A classic street vendor in Bangkok where I take my meals as often as possible. YUM! and cheap!

Conveniently, it down-poured while we were on our tour in the house.   Afterward, while it was sprinkling, we had some delicious business (rice and veggies with lots of good sauce) from a street vendor before hopping   back on the skytrain  to our next destination – Wat Pho.   Wat means temple, of which there are several, probably about 40 large ones, in Bangkok.   Wat Pho is the biggest and has the biggest reclining Buddha (indicating the exact moment of enlightenment) in all of Thailand. We had to take a river taxi to get there, which was less charming than I had hoped.   I pictured a quaint river surrounded by jungle canopy.   Nope.   Just a big rushing slur of muddy water with lilies floating everywhere and skyscrapers right up to the  cement banks.   C’est  la vie!   The taxi was fast and much cooler than a city bus or walking!

The temple grounds at Wat Pho.

The single most remarkable thing about the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho is its size!   Incredible!   After taking our shoes off, we were allowed to walk around the perimeter of the Buddha, almost half a football field in length!   The intricate painting of the walls was remarkable as well.   On the wat grounds, we saw hundreds of other Buddhas.   The intricate detail on everything from the roofs to the windows, the walkways, etc. was really amazing.

After we were wat-ted out (I can stare at mountains forever, but human-made objects hold my attention momentarily), we headed to the backpacker district.   We had chosen not to stay there because it is far away from all the public transport.   We walked the streets, bought some pineapple from a street vendor, window-shopped, and then headed inside for our first Thai massage  (by this time, Nicole was exhausted, it being 5am in Omaha).

About 1/5th of the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand!

The massage  (and the opportunity to rest for an hour) was wonderful.   It was different than  what you’d picture in the U.S.   Here, massages  are given in a roomful of mattress-sized cushions with your clothing on.   We got half reflexology  (foot) massage, and half Thai massage laying side by side on a raised platform.   The reflexology  was nice (and sometimes painful) – your basic foot massage.   The Thai massage is about pushing and pulling and poking and pressure points.   The move around your body a lot, but are always sitting next to you, between your legs, under your head, etc.   A lot of it was the kind of massage I am accustomed  to.   Some of it, however was surprising – like when the guy had me sit in front of him and somehow worked me from that position  to being face first up in the air on his feet like some kind of circus act.   It felt good, though, and it was fun!

Your basic Thai massage parlor depicting one of the basic massage moves. Stretchy, stretchy!

We headed back to the river afterwards, but decided to stop at Chinatown to make the most of our all-day boat pass.   Big mistake when tired.   It was dirty, heavily polluted (diesel fumes hanging in the air everywhere), smelled awful, dark, dirty, dirty, dirty, and gross.   After a mile lap around the neighborhood, we hopped our final  boat back to the skytrain and rode back to our hostel.   After some quick “Pad Thai”   (spicy noodles, bean sprouts, green onions, shrimp, egg, cabbage, lime, and peanuts) from a street vendor, we couldn’t help but collapse into our beds (yes, at 8 p.m.!)   I’ll try not to get used to getting so much rest! 🙂

Little Arabia

After Diana left for work this morning, I walked down to Tesco to get a few things.   She doesn’t have a “proper” shower, as she tells it.   No shower curtain, as is typical in countries outside of the US and Europe.   The whole bathroom it tiled, so it doesn’t matter if it gets wet.   I thought, as  a housewarming gift, I would get her a curtain to help the place feel more homey.

Greeting the morning with a visit to the local corporate distributor! No wonder I’m not feeling a lot of culture shock!

The Tesco  is like a Super Walmart.   Outside of the Tesco  but inside the same building (sort of like a mini mall), I bought the first thing that looked edible for breakfast – an Auntie Anne’s pretzel!   I wish I had waited longer.   At the other end of the strip was a food court with hot, real food.   C’est la vie!

My Thai is coming along alright.   I can say “hello” and “thank you.”   However, since they’re the only two phrases I know, I ofter  get them confused.   I’m sure it’s a hoot for the cashiers each time I depart  with a “hello!” instead of “korp  kun ka!”   So far gesturing, pointing, paper, and a tendency to see the humor in the situation has gotten me along quite well.

My first order of business, after arranging my things and showering up, was to find a hostel for Nicole and I to stay in.   She’s getting in quite  late tonight, but it was almost bedtime in the US for my mother, who has agreed to be  our intermediary since we have no direct method of contact.   I decided against looking for a place in the slightly cheaper backpacking district.   I heard it’s  loud, obnoxious, and chaotic – I’m sure it’s full of my least favorite traveller – those who are here for the booze and the nightlife.   Who spends $1,000 on a plane ticket to nurse a bottle and get cirhosis?

Anyway, the backpacking district is also inconveniently far from most forms of public transport, excepting  the really slow buses and the really expensive moto  taxis.   Which, I suppose, is why it’s cheaper than more  convenient places.   (Tanget:  “Why,” I asked Diana this morning, “are the moto taxi’s as expensive or more expensive than the more comfortable car taxis?”   Answer: they’re fast.   In a city that’s in almost constant grid lock, speed trumps comfort, I guess!

So, Nicole and I are now checked in to the dorm #21 at Suk 11 – a hostel in a great neighborhood really close to “Little Arabia.”   I hope I can find photos for you, since words can’t do this place justice.   It’s like a shabby disneyland version of Robinson Crusoe’s tree house.

What a great place! It’s so dark and disneyland  mysterious inside that you can’t capture the ambience in a photo. But it’s great atmosphere!

It’s all done up in dark wood like the Tiki Room, and the walkway between the rooms is an elevated  solid bridge with planks.   The whole place is covered  in jungle.   My favorite part about the place so far is the giant, beautiful,  waist hign urn in the hallway between every two rooms.   There are two plastic, not-so-beautiful buckets on top with “In case of fire” written on them.   How practical!

After a chat with mom my to pass the directions onto  Nicole, my grumbling stomach guided me towards “Al Hussein’s” in Little Arabia.   I had the best Vegetable Biryani and then bought some pineapple off the street.   Now it’s on to find postcards for my CASA kid and maybe to the park or chaotic Chinatown.   Do I need a nap?

Mmmm… lunch! I know, I know… what am I doing eating middle eastern food in Thailand? I can’t help it! It’s familiar, delicious, and in my neighborhood!

Diana Wasn’t Home…

It took me a bit to find Diana (the couchsurfing  host’s) house.   I took the skytrain  and followed the streets using educated guesses looking for 205.   I kept passing 201, crossing an intersection and then  seeing 283.    I showed a man standing  on the curb the address and he pointed me in the right direction.

The sky train – the fastest and best way to go long distances around Bangkok. No traffic! At $.30 – $1 a ride, or $4 for an all day pass, it’s great!

When I arrived, the door up to the apartments was  open, so I climbed to the second floor and knocked on  my hostess-to-be’s  door.   No answer. 🙁   So, I stationed  myself on the couch at the top of the  stairs and started pondering what I would do if the stay fell through.   Then I knocked again.   Still no  answer.   So, I went to inquire  at the front desk as to whether I might pay to stay here anyway for a night.   The woman spoke no English, and I no Thai, so after some funny exchanges, I finally wrote “Diana” and her apartment number on a piece of paper.   Score!   She got (the very british) Diana on the phone for me.   Our conversation went something like this:

Diana: “Hello?”

Me: “Hi – Diana?   Is this Diana”

D: “Yes.   This is Diana.”

M: “Oh, hi.   Are you coming home soon?”

D: “Hello?   I can’t hear you.   Who is this?”

M: “Hello?”  Diana?

D: “Yes.   Who is this.”

M: “This is Jema.”

D: “Who?”

M: “Jema.   From couchsurfing?

D: silence.   silence… silence… ” OH SHIT!   SHIT  SHIT SHIT  SHIT SHIT!   Oh I’m so sorry!   Oh the room is a total mess and my things are everywhere!   Oh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

She  came home fifteen minutes later, apologizing until I begged her to stop.   I tried repeatedly to convince her that I was so thankful that she was still going to let me stay.   Since we’d both eaten, we took moto  taxis to the 7-11 by her friend’s house.   We became part of the river of rushing motos  squeezing through impossibly small gaps in traffic.   She laughed at me the whole way there since I apparently didn’t know how to hold on with my knees instead of my hands, like a local would.

We bought several beers and headed up the street to Matt and Julie’s apartment.   Diana teaches english at a local school, and she made friends with the newest crop of teachers that had arrived.   Matt and Julie are from Texas.   Sarah from Massachusets  and Hans from Germany live in the same building.   We sat around drinking beers, looking at pictures, telling stories, and ordering in KFC  until midnight.   Not exactly what I was expecting for my first evening in Bangkok, but it made for a supersoft “landing” and took the edge of the culture shock – of which I am feeling almost none.   I did feel a bit like I was in college.   The apartments here are pretty spartan – really just a single room with a bed, desk, table, fridge, and closet, and a bathroom behind a door in the corner.   Since there is no furniture, everyone sits on the bed, just like in a dorm room.

I fel straight asleep when we got back and slept soundly until around 6am.   Diana had warned me that I would wake up very early feeling completely rested until my inner clock adjusts over the next few days.

So far, everything is great!