Monday, January 30, 2012
Thailand and Angkor Wat, a photographic explanation
Here is the story of the first half of our trip through Southeast Asia. My camera was acting up during the first parts of the trip so many photos are from Paul's collection. Enjoy!
Bangkok, Photo by Paul
Henry and I sleeping on the train to Surat Thani, Photo by Paul
The view from our hotel in Ko Phagnan, Photo by Paul
Angkor Wat
More Angkor Wat
Patrick and Henry in Sukhothai, Thailand
Chiang Mai, photo by Paul
Crystal Temple, Chiang Rai, photo by Paul
Paul, Henry and I at the Crystal Temple, Chiang Rai, photo from Paul's camera
Last days in Thailand: the White Temple and good eatin’
We left Chiang Mai the morning of the 27th. It proved a bit difficult to get out of town, though, as it was the holiday season and so many people were travelling. We ended up having to wait for about four hours at the bus station but it all worked out because we talked for a while with the Canadian guy who had some great advice for Laos. He was a bit older than us and was travelling with his wife. We expressed some of our dissatisfaction with Thailand being so touristy and whatnot and he told us about a few good places to get off the beaten path once we crossed the border.
We arrived in Chiang Rai late afternoon and found a hostel which was much nicer than we were expecting or wanting. We stayed there, though, as it was a bit far from anything else, we were tired, and didn’t want to go looking for anything else. We relaxed for a bit, played some cards, and then went searching for the night market. At the night market we ate some really good food. We had a big clay bowl of soup that we cooked and prepared ourselves right at our table as well as a wide assortment of fried vegetables and seafood and a few spring rolls. I was looking for mango sticky rice again but came up empty handed. Ah well. There was also some traditional Thai dancing going on at this big stage at one end of the eating area. There were two women and two men dancing in slow, rhythmic motions. To be honest, it was a bit odd and a bit boring. I can only assume it was done solely for tourists because we made up about 80 % of the audience.
On the way back we stopped at a few little shops and decided to pick up a couple things. I got a long sleeve T-shirt, Henry got a snap-button up blue shirt (I called it his cowboy shirt), and Paul got a new pair of shorts. It was a bit chilly and only going to get colder in Laos so we decide that Paul’s shorts were special and would actually keep him warm, so we dubbed them his “warm shorts.” The verdict is still out on whether or not they worked.
That night, Paul and I went to a restaurant near our hostel and to watch the Arsenal-Wolves game. The restaurant seemed pretty nice and I just nursed on a sprite during the game while Paul had a coffee. There was also some music going on. I don’t believe it was karaoke but nonetheless this older man got up and took the microphone at one point and sang along for about 4 or 5 songs. Paul and I found it amusing and I think everyone else from the guy’s table were pretty drunk; they loved it and applauded after each song.
The next morning, Paul, Henry and I went out to Wat Rong Khun, more commonly known as the White Temple (or sometimes as the White Pagoda or Crystal Wat or any combination of the terms—it all just depends on how you translate it). It’s this amazing temple that’s being financed by some super rich Thai businessman who gave this artist free reign to do whatever he liked in creating it. When you first get there you have to go over a bridge where below you are tons of hands reaching up towards you and towards the sky, representing Hell. As you walk over the bridge you come up to first (and thus far only completed) temple building which is completely white with decorations shooting up everywhere like colorless flames. Once you enter the temple, on the back wall, are a bunch of paintings of pop culture icons such as Darth Vader, Neo from the Matrix, Dragonball Z characters, the Twin Towers on fire, Lara Croft, and the Terminator, just to name a few. Then as you move forward in the building, the art gets more fluid and positive until you arrive at a large portrait of the Buddha on the opposite side. Outside of this building there were 6 or 7 more temples in various stages of construction; the White Temple is a quite ambitious project and the main artist thinks it will take something like 70 or 80 years to complete.
We hopped on a bus that afternoon to make the trip to the border town of Chiang Khong. We’d heard it was an interesting little town which, while not necessarily off of the tourist path was at least not as worn down by it. We found a cool hostel overlooking the Mekong River and over into Laos. It was run by a really nice and funny middle-aged Thai woman named Maleewon (probably in her 50’s) and her older American expat boyfriend Don. Maleewon definitely wore the pants in the relationship and while Don portrayed that he did a lot at the hostel, it was clear after a bit of looking that she was the owner and ran nearly everything. He was a nice enough man though a lot of what he said seemed to be a bit over dramatic and maybe even sensationalistic.
We went to the weekly market which happened to be that day and got a bit of food there. The most interesting thing I had was a hotdog wrapped in a waffle. Weird, right? Henry also got something that we thought looked like chopped shrimp mixed with some vegetables and sauce. We went down to a field by the river to eat it and Henry pretty quickly realized something was wrong with his shrimp. For starters, there wasn’t any skin/shell on it but it was a bit crunchy. The smell also didn’t resemble seafood in the slightest. Once he was about 1/3 finished with it we came to the conclusion that it was chicken feet—and we weren’t entirely sure they were even cooked. Luckily he didn’t get sick from them.
That night we went to a restaurant down near the main road and ordered a few different dishes which we all split. Man, they were delicious. The only one I remember was mine: a cashew chicken and rice dish. Stupendous.
The next day we weren’t really sure what to do. We had contemplated renting motos or bikes and going to a nearby cave or waterfall. Well, Don and Maleewon left around 9:30ish to go to a wedding and told us we’d be in charge of the hostel for about an hour until they got back. They were mostly kidding but as we didn’t really have any plans and they took the bikes we were thinking of renting, we just relaxed and played some cards until Maleewon came back. The wedding she’d been to was one of her friends from elementary school who was getting married to a 75-year-old guy from Luxembourg. They told us to go check it out if we wanted to. Well, we decided to walk around town for a bit and sure enough, we ran across the wedding. It definitely wasn’t our scene, though, so we walked by with little more than some curious stares and polite refusals when one guy offered us some rice whiskey.
The town of Chiang Khong was small but interesting. It definitely functioned as a stop for people either on their way in our out of Thailand. Contrary to most border towns, though, there wasn’t anything sinister or sleazy about it and instead was pretty calm and even slightly charming. That afternoon we met up with the Peace Corps Volunteer in Chiang Khong, Josh. He took us on a nice walk through the southern part of town past a driving range (yes, a driving range, even he thinks it’s weird) and through loads of corn fields and along the river. That night we went to an awesome little Thai restaurant. Josh ordered all of the food for us and it was definitely my best meal in Thailand. I have no idea what any of the dishes were called but we were all eternally grateful to Josh for ordering everything for us and showing us tons of dishes we never would have tasted or even known about otherwise. We tried to go to a bike museum/bar later that night but the British guy who runs it had apparently gotten too drunk the previous night and wasn’t opening. Josh said it was a pretty bizarre place but interesting. We wandered around for a while that night and eventually said goodbye to Josh, as it was our last night in Thailand. Next in store was the much talked of, but little known, country of Laos….
We arrived in Chiang Rai late afternoon and found a hostel which was much nicer than we were expecting or wanting. We stayed there, though, as it was a bit far from anything else, we were tired, and didn’t want to go looking for anything else. We relaxed for a bit, played some cards, and then went searching for the night market. At the night market we ate some really good food. We had a big clay bowl of soup that we cooked and prepared ourselves right at our table as well as a wide assortment of fried vegetables and seafood and a few spring rolls. I was looking for mango sticky rice again but came up empty handed. Ah well. There was also some traditional Thai dancing going on at this big stage at one end of the eating area. There were two women and two men dancing in slow, rhythmic motions. To be honest, it was a bit odd and a bit boring. I can only assume it was done solely for tourists because we made up about 80 % of the audience.
On the way back we stopped at a few little shops and decided to pick up a couple things. I got a long sleeve T-shirt, Henry got a snap-button up blue shirt (I called it his cowboy shirt), and Paul got a new pair of shorts. It was a bit chilly and only going to get colder in Laos so we decide that Paul’s shorts were special and would actually keep him warm, so we dubbed them his “warm shorts.” The verdict is still out on whether or not they worked.
That night, Paul and I went to a restaurant near our hostel and to watch the Arsenal-Wolves game. The restaurant seemed pretty nice and I just nursed on a sprite during the game while Paul had a coffee. There was also some music going on. I don’t believe it was karaoke but nonetheless this older man got up and took the microphone at one point and sang along for about 4 or 5 songs. Paul and I found it amusing and I think everyone else from the guy’s table were pretty drunk; they loved it and applauded after each song.
The next morning, Paul, Henry and I went out to Wat Rong Khun, more commonly known as the White Temple (or sometimes as the White Pagoda or Crystal Wat or any combination of the terms—it all just depends on how you translate it). It’s this amazing temple that’s being financed by some super rich Thai businessman who gave this artist free reign to do whatever he liked in creating it. When you first get there you have to go over a bridge where below you are tons of hands reaching up towards you and towards the sky, representing Hell. As you walk over the bridge you come up to first (and thus far only completed) temple building which is completely white with decorations shooting up everywhere like colorless flames. Once you enter the temple, on the back wall, are a bunch of paintings of pop culture icons such as Darth Vader, Neo from the Matrix, Dragonball Z characters, the Twin Towers on fire, Lara Croft, and the Terminator, just to name a few. Then as you move forward in the building, the art gets more fluid and positive until you arrive at a large portrait of the Buddha on the opposite side. Outside of this building there were 6 or 7 more temples in various stages of construction; the White Temple is a quite ambitious project and the main artist thinks it will take something like 70 or 80 years to complete.
We hopped on a bus that afternoon to make the trip to the border town of Chiang Khong. We’d heard it was an interesting little town which, while not necessarily off of the tourist path was at least not as worn down by it. We found a cool hostel overlooking the Mekong River and over into Laos. It was run by a really nice and funny middle-aged Thai woman named Maleewon (probably in her 50’s) and her older American expat boyfriend Don. Maleewon definitely wore the pants in the relationship and while Don portrayed that he did a lot at the hostel, it was clear after a bit of looking that she was the owner and ran nearly everything. He was a nice enough man though a lot of what he said seemed to be a bit over dramatic and maybe even sensationalistic.
We went to the weekly market which happened to be that day and got a bit of food there. The most interesting thing I had was a hotdog wrapped in a waffle. Weird, right? Henry also got something that we thought looked like chopped shrimp mixed with some vegetables and sauce. We went down to a field by the river to eat it and Henry pretty quickly realized something was wrong with his shrimp. For starters, there wasn’t any skin/shell on it but it was a bit crunchy. The smell also didn’t resemble seafood in the slightest. Once he was about 1/3 finished with it we came to the conclusion that it was chicken feet—and we weren’t entirely sure they were even cooked. Luckily he didn’t get sick from them.
That night we went to a restaurant down near the main road and ordered a few different dishes which we all split. Man, they were delicious. The only one I remember was mine: a cashew chicken and rice dish. Stupendous.
The next day we weren’t really sure what to do. We had contemplated renting motos or bikes and going to a nearby cave or waterfall. Well, Don and Maleewon left around 9:30ish to go to a wedding and told us we’d be in charge of the hostel for about an hour until they got back. They were mostly kidding but as we didn’t really have any plans and they took the bikes we were thinking of renting, we just relaxed and played some cards until Maleewon came back. The wedding she’d been to was one of her friends from elementary school who was getting married to a 75-year-old guy from Luxembourg. They told us to go check it out if we wanted to. Well, we decided to walk around town for a bit and sure enough, we ran across the wedding. It definitely wasn’t our scene, though, so we walked by with little more than some curious stares and polite refusals when one guy offered us some rice whiskey.
The town of Chiang Khong was small but interesting. It definitely functioned as a stop for people either on their way in our out of Thailand. Contrary to most border towns, though, there wasn’t anything sinister or sleazy about it and instead was pretty calm and even slightly charming. That afternoon we met up with the Peace Corps Volunteer in Chiang Khong, Josh. He took us on a nice walk through the southern part of town past a driving range (yes, a driving range, even he thinks it’s weird) and through loads of corn fields and along the river. That night we went to an awesome little Thai restaurant. Josh ordered all of the food for us and it was definitely my best meal in Thailand. I have no idea what any of the dishes were called but we were all eternally grateful to Josh for ordering everything for us and showing us tons of dishes we never would have tasted or even known about otherwise. We tried to go to a bike museum/bar later that night but the British guy who runs it had apparently gotten too drunk the previous night and wasn’t opening. Josh said it was a pretty bizarre place but interesting. We wandered around for a while that night and eventually said goodbye to Josh, as it was our last night in Thailand. Next in store was the much talked of, but little known, country of Laos….
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Christmas in Chiang Mai
We left Sukhothai on the morning of Christmas Eve and got into Chiang Mai sometime mid-afternoon. As we normally did, we went to a restaurant a little ways away and chilled for a while, eating and having a beer. Once the crowd from our bus had cleared away we went and found a tuk-tuk (a three wheeled, open-aired vehicle, kind of like a rickshaw) that took us to a hostel we’d heard of, Julie’s. We got there and luckily there was a couple rooms for us. This was a typical backpacker joint filled with pillowed, raised-floors, a pool table, an extensive menu of mostly pseudo-Western food (Pizza Baguettes were my favorite), and loads of mostly Europeans. Julie’s turned out to be the first real backpacker place we stayed at and we all liked it a lot. Consequently, though, I think we all got a bit caught up in the backpacker circle and didn’t get out and explore the city too much. It was also here that Paul’s foot started acting up. I guess it was getting a bit swollen in Sukhothai but in Chiang Mai he almost couldn’t walk on it. Remember that cut he got from the coral on Ko Phagnan? Well, I guess it never completely healed and now erupted so Paul was in considerable pain. We had been telling him for a while to take good care of it and when he finally did go to the pharmacy in Chiang Mai, the woman scolded him for a) letting it get that bad and b) for using soap and water (among other things) to clean it out: “You know our water is dirty here!” She gave him some antibiotics and alcohol and iodine to clean it out and about 5 days later it was pretty close to being completely healed.
That first night we wandered around for quite a while through the old city and then outside of the city walls through the newer, fancier parts. We found a good night market and then wandered around for quite a while trying to find a bar. Unfortunately, most of the ones that looked nice from the outside were filled with old, chain-smoking expats (mostly Australian) who were sitting there and getting hammered with their Thai “girlfriends,” so we opted against them. At one point we found some amazing Pad Thai from some small restaurant which I doubt we would have been able to find again if we’d tried. There was only one thing on the menu, it was filled with Thai people, and I don’t think the cook spoke one word of English. It was a true gem and an awesome find. We eventually walked back to the hostel where we spent some time playing cards with some British guys who I’m guessing were around 20 and all left at around 11 to run off to some club and find some Thai “girlfriends” for the night. After they left, however, we started talking with these three guys (from France, Holland, and Bulgaria) who were all studying in Guangzhou , China. They were on Christmas vacation from school and were very cool guys. I got into a discussion with the French guy that I probably shouldn’t have about France’s roll in Africa today and development in general. I think he started getting kinda pissed at me so I ended up saying something like “to be honest, if you haven’t been to Africa you really can’t know what I’m talking about.” A bit pretentious and snoody, I know, but I think most French people who have been to sub-Saharan Africa would agree with me.
The next day was Christmas and Paul, Henry, and I went wandering in the morning to try to find presents for our Secret Santa, of which our limit was 200 baht (or about 7 bucks). Unfortunately, the market we went to was a bit dismal and we ended up returning to the hostel empty handed. We all half-joked about just getting 200 baht worth of beer for each other. When we got back I went for a run through the streets of Chiang Mai and saw some really cool wats (temples). Chiang Mai is renowned for being one of the religious and cultural centers of the Thai people and all of the intricate artwork and architecture on the wats certainly shows this. As I was running, I came across a used bookstore and picked up a couple books: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut for Paul’s Secret Santa gift, and Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux for myself. I had about 20 baht left afterwards so I cooled off and walked back towards the hostel and found a good Noodle Soup place where I had probably my best noodle soup in Thailand. I also talked to a Chilean guy named Nico there who had arrived the day before and was in Thailand to get certified in Thai massage. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that we struck up a conversation because he turned around and looked at me after I let out a huge burp when I was finishing my soup. He didn’t seem too fazed by it.
That evening we went to the Christmas (or maybe just Sunday?) Market which was only a few blocks away. The street was blocked off for a few blocks and it was filled with souvenirs, trinkets and loads of food. I think I ate about 4 or 5 different plates here, and I had my first plate of Mango Sticky Rice. A volunteer from Cameroon swore by it and, while I’d been keeping my eyes open, I hadn’t been able to find it. Mango sticky rice consists of sticky rice topped with chopped up mangoes and lightly drizzled with sweet coconut milk. It was so good I contemplated getting a second, even though I was really stuffed.
We spent the rest of the night hanging out at the hostel. For our Secret Santa (which became not-so-secret once gifts were disbursed) I got a Cameroonian Muslim prayer scarf from Patrick—which I really wanted having forgotten mine in Yaounde—Henry got a Panda hat from Paul, Patrick got a pair of head phones from Henry and I gave Paul the book I’d bought earlier. We started talking to a couple of French girls at a table next to us and then after a little while this American came up to us and said, “I’m sorry I overheard you guys a bit, did you say you were in Peace Corps?” Well, it turns out he’s an RPCV from Kenya from about 10 years ago. His name was Adam and he now had a job working with a student study abroad program and had just finished a tour in Vietnam so he and his wife were travelling a little bit before heading back to Portland. He was a very nice guy and gave us loads of good advice about travelling around SE Asia and, more importantly, about readjusting to the US once we do finally get back.
The next day we didn’t really do much of substance. I’d wanted to go bungee jumping or kayaking or something but nobody else wanted to shell out the cash for it, which was a bit frustrating for me because the day before a couple of the guys had been at least interested. Anyway, I guess it’s my fault and I should have gone anyway. We still had a decent day and walked around and saw a bunch of different wats, some that were really quite old.
That night, Patrick and I also went to see some Thai boxing matches. It was definitely set up for tourists as I don’t think I saw another Thai person in the audience, but it was still very cool nonetheless. We saw two knockouts, which was also pretty interesting as a few of the fights seemed more just a test of who can land the most blows and knock the other down, not who can actually take the other person out. At one point, we moved seats to a bar closer to the ring and this Thai guy next to me kept trying to get us to make bets (which we’d been doing with a few other foreigners we’d met). He was being pretty ridiculous, though, as he kept saying “200 baht! Red or blue! You want red? Blue? I take bet!” We all refused because gambling is illegal in Thailand and we also thought maybe he knew something about the fights, like if they were arranged before or something. Eventually, he left us alone and went somewhere else at which point Patrick noticed that on the back of his jacket said POLICE. I don’t think he would have arrested us, or probably even fined us if he’d caught us, he probably would have just taken our money and said something like “what are you going to do about it?” Interesting night, to say the least.
That first night we wandered around for quite a while through the old city and then outside of the city walls through the newer, fancier parts. We found a good night market and then wandered around for quite a while trying to find a bar. Unfortunately, most of the ones that looked nice from the outside were filled with old, chain-smoking expats (mostly Australian) who were sitting there and getting hammered with their Thai “girlfriends,” so we opted against them. At one point we found some amazing Pad Thai from some small restaurant which I doubt we would have been able to find again if we’d tried. There was only one thing on the menu, it was filled with Thai people, and I don’t think the cook spoke one word of English. It was a true gem and an awesome find. We eventually walked back to the hostel where we spent some time playing cards with some British guys who I’m guessing were around 20 and all left at around 11 to run off to some club and find some Thai “girlfriends” for the night. After they left, however, we started talking with these three guys (from France, Holland, and Bulgaria) who were all studying in Guangzhou , China. They were on Christmas vacation from school and were very cool guys. I got into a discussion with the French guy that I probably shouldn’t have about France’s roll in Africa today and development in general. I think he started getting kinda pissed at me so I ended up saying something like “to be honest, if you haven’t been to Africa you really can’t know what I’m talking about.” A bit pretentious and snoody, I know, but I think most French people who have been to sub-Saharan Africa would agree with me.
The next day was Christmas and Paul, Henry, and I went wandering in the morning to try to find presents for our Secret Santa, of which our limit was 200 baht (or about 7 bucks). Unfortunately, the market we went to was a bit dismal and we ended up returning to the hostel empty handed. We all half-joked about just getting 200 baht worth of beer for each other. When we got back I went for a run through the streets of Chiang Mai and saw some really cool wats (temples). Chiang Mai is renowned for being one of the religious and cultural centers of the Thai people and all of the intricate artwork and architecture on the wats certainly shows this. As I was running, I came across a used bookstore and picked up a couple books: Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut for Paul’s Secret Santa gift, and Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux for myself. I had about 20 baht left afterwards so I cooled off and walked back towards the hostel and found a good Noodle Soup place where I had probably my best noodle soup in Thailand. I also talked to a Chilean guy named Nico there who had arrived the day before and was in Thailand to get certified in Thai massage. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that we struck up a conversation because he turned around and looked at me after I let out a huge burp when I was finishing my soup. He didn’t seem too fazed by it.
That evening we went to the Christmas (or maybe just Sunday?) Market which was only a few blocks away. The street was blocked off for a few blocks and it was filled with souvenirs, trinkets and loads of food. I think I ate about 4 or 5 different plates here, and I had my first plate of Mango Sticky Rice. A volunteer from Cameroon swore by it and, while I’d been keeping my eyes open, I hadn’t been able to find it. Mango sticky rice consists of sticky rice topped with chopped up mangoes and lightly drizzled with sweet coconut milk. It was so good I contemplated getting a second, even though I was really stuffed.
We spent the rest of the night hanging out at the hostel. For our Secret Santa (which became not-so-secret once gifts were disbursed) I got a Cameroonian Muslim prayer scarf from Patrick—which I really wanted having forgotten mine in Yaounde—Henry got a Panda hat from Paul, Patrick got a pair of head phones from Henry and I gave Paul the book I’d bought earlier. We started talking to a couple of French girls at a table next to us and then after a little while this American came up to us and said, “I’m sorry I overheard you guys a bit, did you say you were in Peace Corps?” Well, it turns out he’s an RPCV from Kenya from about 10 years ago. His name was Adam and he now had a job working with a student study abroad program and had just finished a tour in Vietnam so he and his wife were travelling a little bit before heading back to Portland. He was a very nice guy and gave us loads of good advice about travelling around SE Asia and, more importantly, about readjusting to the US once we do finally get back.
The next day we didn’t really do much of substance. I’d wanted to go bungee jumping or kayaking or something but nobody else wanted to shell out the cash for it, which was a bit frustrating for me because the day before a couple of the guys had been at least interested. Anyway, I guess it’s my fault and I should have gone anyway. We still had a decent day and walked around and saw a bunch of different wats, some that were really quite old.
That night, Patrick and I also went to see some Thai boxing matches. It was definitely set up for tourists as I don’t think I saw another Thai person in the audience, but it was still very cool nonetheless. We saw two knockouts, which was also pretty interesting as a few of the fights seemed more just a test of who can land the most blows and knock the other down, not who can actually take the other person out. At one point, we moved seats to a bar closer to the ring and this Thai guy next to me kept trying to get us to make bets (which we’d been doing with a few other foreigners we’d met). He was being pretty ridiculous, though, as he kept saying “200 baht! Red or blue! You want red? Blue? I take bet!” We all refused because gambling is illegal in Thailand and we also thought maybe he knew something about the fights, like if they were arranged before or something. Eventually, he left us alone and went somewhere else at which point Patrick noticed that on the back of his jacket said POLICE. I don’t think he would have arrested us, or probably even fined us if he’d caught us, he probably would have just taken our money and said something like “what are you going to do about it?” Interesting night, to say the least.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Bangkok one last time and more temple diving in Sukhothai
The next day we woke up around 5:30 to be ready for our taxi at 6. We wanted to get to the Thai border as close to 8 as possible because we wanted to make it back to Bangkok that day, if possible. Well, on the Thai side of the border we found a van, not a bus, which shaved a couple hours off the trip and we got back to Bangkok before 2. We relaxed most of that afternoon at the White Lodge, the hotel from our first few days in Bangkok, and then had a very American night.
We had McDonald’s for dinner and then went and saw Mission: Impossible 4 at one of the huge mega-malls near our hotel. That movie was terrible, but then again I wasn’t exactly hoping for anything special. I’m not entirely proud of having such an American night while in an awesome foreign city such as Bangkok but I feel like we could justify ourselves easier than most people: we’d spent the last two years out of the US and (I at least) had been craving some fast food and a movie theatre for a while.
The next day Henry and I went to the Laos embassy to try to get our visas and man did that turn out to be a pain in the ass. The BTS didn’t go all the way there, so instead of doing that and then getting a cab we decided to just take a cab the whole way. Well, it took us about an hour to get there in the cab because the traffic was so terrible. The total we spent in transportation that day was more than we’d normally been spending on hotels. Well, we got the visas but to add another kink in our plans, the cell phone network was down so we couldn’t call Patrick to tell him and Paul to go get bus tickets the next day.
That night we met up with a married couple named Susan and Adam. Susan had worked with Kim Peven, a fellow PCV from our training group in Cameroon who extended for another year, in New Orleans when Kim was getting her MPH. Now, Susan and Adam live in Bangkok where Adam teaches English at an American school and Susan does Public Health consulting. Susan was also a PCV in Cote D’Ivoire and was one of the last volunteers there to finish her service before the evacuation before the civil war. They were two awesome people and let us stay at their house that night. Not only that, but they ordered a couple pizzas (almost entirely for us) and left us to our own devices for the most part as they were somewhat overwhelmed with work. They also had a new baby, Meryl, who was adorable, and a big dog, Chester, who was a lot of fun to play with.
The next day was Susan’s birthday so we gave her a small present that Kim had sent with us: a little dress made out of traditional African fabric. Susan seemed to like it while Adam may have been a bit confused as to why it also came with a little head wrap made from the same fabric. I guess you have to have lived in Africa to get that part. Anyway, like I said earlier they were two standup people and we were very thankful that they opened up their house to us so eagerly—without even knowing us. This was our first lesson about RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers): we stick together. (I guess I should say “we and our significant others” to not exclude Adam, who was equally awesome.)
Anyway, we soon headed out and made our way to the bus station north of town where we soon caught a bus to Sukhothai. Sukhothai was an ancient Thai capital from like the 1400’s and is also a UNESCO world heritage site. There was a little contention in coming here as I really wanted to, Henry and Paul hadn’t really heard of it, and Patrick didn’t think we’d be able to due to time and travelling around Christmas which we were told was a bit difficult (or maybe he didn’t want to at first, I don’t know). Anyway, I coaxed them into agreeing to go and we followed our normal protocol and immediately walked away from the bus station and found a beer before figuring out where to stay.
We found a really cool hostel called “No. 4 Guesthouse”. It was possibly the guesthouse that was the least “advanced” but the most charming. We still had wifi here but the little bungalows were made of wood and bamboo and seemed like they could fall over with a strong push. It was also built in the middle of a swamp so the mosquitoes were everywhere. Inspite of this, I loved the place. The woman who ran it was eclectic and funny and the place just had an awesome charm to it that I haven’t seen since.
We spent two nights in Sukhohthai and on our one full day we rented motos and rode out to the “Old City” where we saw some more ruins that were really quite awesome. They were on a much smaller scale than Angkor Wat, though I think I enjoyed Sukkothai more. For one, there were a lot less people and commotion. For another, it was a lot cheaper and low key. We got in for around 3 bucks and were able to ride our motos just about everywhere except on the actual ruins. We spent a good number of hours exploring the temples and trying not to compare Sukhothai to Angkor Wat, but doing it nonetheless. Also, the degree to which the Thai government kept the ruins shows a big difference between the two governments—and societies. I got the feeling that Cambodia preserved Angkor Wat to a large extent because it was a good money maker for the state. My impression with Sukhothai was that it was preserved and promoted more out of a respect for the past and the history of Thai culture. I might be very uninformed but that’s what I drew from the differences between the two places.
We had McDonald’s for dinner and then went and saw Mission: Impossible 4 at one of the huge mega-malls near our hotel. That movie was terrible, but then again I wasn’t exactly hoping for anything special. I’m not entirely proud of having such an American night while in an awesome foreign city such as Bangkok but I feel like we could justify ourselves easier than most people: we’d spent the last two years out of the US and (I at least) had been craving some fast food and a movie theatre for a while.
The next day Henry and I went to the Laos embassy to try to get our visas and man did that turn out to be a pain in the ass. The BTS didn’t go all the way there, so instead of doing that and then getting a cab we decided to just take a cab the whole way. Well, it took us about an hour to get there in the cab because the traffic was so terrible. The total we spent in transportation that day was more than we’d normally been spending on hotels. Well, we got the visas but to add another kink in our plans, the cell phone network was down so we couldn’t call Patrick to tell him and Paul to go get bus tickets the next day.
That night we met up with a married couple named Susan and Adam. Susan had worked with Kim Peven, a fellow PCV from our training group in Cameroon who extended for another year, in New Orleans when Kim was getting her MPH. Now, Susan and Adam live in Bangkok where Adam teaches English at an American school and Susan does Public Health consulting. Susan was also a PCV in Cote D’Ivoire and was one of the last volunteers there to finish her service before the evacuation before the civil war. They were two awesome people and let us stay at their house that night. Not only that, but they ordered a couple pizzas (almost entirely for us) and left us to our own devices for the most part as they were somewhat overwhelmed with work. They also had a new baby, Meryl, who was adorable, and a big dog, Chester, who was a lot of fun to play with.
The next day was Susan’s birthday so we gave her a small present that Kim had sent with us: a little dress made out of traditional African fabric. Susan seemed to like it while Adam may have been a bit confused as to why it also came with a little head wrap made from the same fabric. I guess you have to have lived in Africa to get that part. Anyway, like I said earlier they were two standup people and we were very thankful that they opened up their house to us so eagerly—without even knowing us. This was our first lesson about RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers): we stick together. (I guess I should say “we and our significant others” to not exclude Adam, who was equally awesome.)
Anyway, we soon headed out and made our way to the bus station north of town where we soon caught a bus to Sukhothai. Sukhothai was an ancient Thai capital from like the 1400’s and is also a UNESCO world heritage site. There was a little contention in coming here as I really wanted to, Henry and Paul hadn’t really heard of it, and Patrick didn’t think we’d be able to due to time and travelling around Christmas which we were told was a bit difficult (or maybe he didn’t want to at first, I don’t know). Anyway, I coaxed them into agreeing to go and we followed our normal protocol and immediately walked away from the bus station and found a beer before figuring out where to stay.
We found a really cool hostel called “No. 4 Guesthouse”. It was possibly the guesthouse that was the least “advanced” but the most charming. We still had wifi here but the little bungalows were made of wood and bamboo and seemed like they could fall over with a strong push. It was also built in the middle of a swamp so the mosquitoes were everywhere. Inspite of this, I loved the place. The woman who ran it was eclectic and funny and the place just had an awesome charm to it that I haven’t seen since.
We spent two nights in Sukhohthai and on our one full day we rented motos and rode out to the “Old City” where we saw some more ruins that were really quite awesome. They were on a much smaller scale than Angkor Wat, though I think I enjoyed Sukkothai more. For one, there were a lot less people and commotion. For another, it was a lot cheaper and low key. We got in for around 3 bucks and were able to ride our motos just about everywhere except on the actual ruins. We spent a good number of hours exploring the temples and trying not to compare Sukhothai to Angkor Wat, but doing it nonetheless. Also, the degree to which the Thai government kept the ruins shows a big difference between the two governments—and societies. I got the feeling that Cambodia preserved Angkor Wat to a large extent because it was a good money maker for the state. My impression with Sukhothai was that it was preserved and promoted more out of a respect for the past and the history of Thai culture. I might be very uninformed but that’s what I drew from the differences between the two places.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Anchor what? ... Angkor Wat!
The border didn’t open until 8 the next morning but we were there at 8:02 and almost made a huge faux-pas when the Thai national anthem was broadcast and we didn’t immediately stop and pay our respect. Well, nothing happened and we crossed into Cambodia and avoided a 20 dollar bribe (each) from the Cambodian border official for our visas and then got a little food and found a car to take us to Siem Reap. The ride was only about two hours and once we got away from the border, we could pretty much immediately tell that Cambodia was a much poorer country than Thailand. The road was brand spankin’ new but the houses along the side, while not shabby, were definitely made of cheaper and less-durable materials. More wood and corrugated tin, less concrete and shingles.
Rolling in to Siem Reap was a different story, though. About two kilometers from the outskirts of town in to the center these huge luxury resorts and hotels line the roadside. Most of them have some name utilizing the word “Angkor” mixed in different ways with words like “Resort,” “Palace,” “Chateau” and the like. The other guys were a bit surprised and taken aback by these but I’d heard that Siem Reap was touristy and that you could find deluxe accommodations there—for a price.
In Siemp Reap we pretty easily found a cheap guesthouse and then went about walking around. We found a market where everybody got a good dish but me. My dish even sounded good: “Curry noodle soup”. Oh well. We walked around this market for a while and I got a couple Christmas presents and a new pair of sunglasses as my other ones kept breaking. Then we split up because Paul and Henry wanted to keep shopping and Patrick and I wanted to wander around some more. The two of us wandered around the walking streets for a while until we found a bar that had 50 cent draft beers. We had a couple and then went back to the hotel and relaxed.
That reminds me of one thing I found a bit odd about Cambodia: they use US dollars. Sure, they have their own currency and you can use it if you want, but most prices are just made in dollars and the ATMs don’t even offer reap (the Cambodian currency). I realize that we were just in a very touristy area but I’ve heard these things hold true pretty much throughout the country.
At one point during the day, I went to the ATM to try to take out some American cash but my wallet was empty of anything resembling an ATM card. Had I left it in my bag? Maybe in my little card holder with my credit card? Long story short, I couldn’t find it. The only thing I can think of is that I’d forgotten it in an ATM in Bangkok a few days earlier. I immediately checked my online bank account and no other money had been taken out, which was good but I emailed my parents to immediately cancel the card. This left me in quite a predicament, though, as I had another ATM card, but not the PIN. Again, long story short, I couldn’t work it out with Wells Fargo so up until now I’ve been having Paul slowly pay back the money he owes me from the plane tickets in whatever local currency we’re using.
That night, I watched the Manchester United game at a little sports bar. It was a pretty decent place with a very friendly and cute bartender. I became pretty disgusted though by this Australian guy in there who was very obviously just a sex tourist and he was saying some pretty disgusting things to her, things I won’t repeat. It was all I could do to not get up and say to him “Just because you’re a foreigner doesn’t give you the right to be an asshole.” Luckily Paul was there and convinced me at halftime to just go and find another place. People like that Australian disgust me.
I talked to my parents for the first time that night in the hallway of our guesthouse on skype and had a pretty good talk with them. I was about to sign off when a door opened and a pissed off French woman walked out and said to me “Excuse me, but you know zat you are not zee only perzon staying here, right?” I apologized and said I was just saying goodbye but she wouldn’t let it drop. “I have been trying to zleep for a while now but you are being zo loud!” Again, I apologized and she turned around and stamped off back to her room. I later asked the guys if they’d been able to hear me talking and they all said no, and I realized that I’d been there for about 45 minutes so if it was really a problem she should have said something sooner. (To any French person reading this blog, please forgive my stereotypical French accent but that is really how she spoke.)
The next day we got up and had a pretty good breakfast of pork and rice. Afterwards, we rented bikes for the exorbitant price of one dollar per bike.fterwards, we rented bikes for the exorbitant price of one dollar per bike. We started pedaling out towards the ruins of Angkor Wat, only a few kilometers away. Well, about halfway to the ruins my bike broke down. I had to then hire a tuktuk to then take me back to the bike rental place and then back again to the gates of the national park where the guys were waiting for me. The price for the tuk tuk was double my bike rental! Anyway, we spent the day exploring the temples and they were quite stunning. I don’t think I could adequately describe them but I’ll make a few smaller observations.
First, restoration of the temples is still clearly ongoing. The main temple and the next largest one are restored just about as much as they can be but the really cool thing about the park is going to some of the temples that aren’t as well restored yet. In some, there are trees growing out of walls and many times bricks and stones are still lying around, littered about. This won’t be the case for much longer, though. As the Cambodian government sees all the money they make from Angkor Wat, I’m sure they’ll increase the pace at which they put the pieces back together, so to speak.
Secondly, Angkor Wat, along with the Eiffel tower and the Statue of Liberty, is one of the most touristy places I’ve ever been to. Rarely have I ever seen so many tourists in one place. Sure, there were loads of people in Bangkok and on the island but they weren’t all grouped in the same place and doing the exact same thing. But, you know, most of the time tourist places are popular for a reason: they’re stunning. And that was certainly the case here.
We ended up riding the bikes for somewhere around 35+ km. When we finally got back we were pretty pooped and grabbed a few beers in between showering and eating. We went back to the hotel pretty early and watched a soccer game before turning in.
Rolling in to Siem Reap was a different story, though. About two kilometers from the outskirts of town in to the center these huge luxury resorts and hotels line the roadside. Most of them have some name utilizing the word “Angkor” mixed in different ways with words like “Resort,” “Palace,” “Chateau” and the like. The other guys were a bit surprised and taken aback by these but I’d heard that Siem Reap was touristy and that you could find deluxe accommodations there—for a price.
In Siemp Reap we pretty easily found a cheap guesthouse and then went about walking around. We found a market where everybody got a good dish but me. My dish even sounded good: “Curry noodle soup”. Oh well. We walked around this market for a while and I got a couple Christmas presents and a new pair of sunglasses as my other ones kept breaking. Then we split up because Paul and Henry wanted to keep shopping and Patrick and I wanted to wander around some more. The two of us wandered around the walking streets for a while until we found a bar that had 50 cent draft beers. We had a couple and then went back to the hotel and relaxed.
That reminds me of one thing I found a bit odd about Cambodia: they use US dollars. Sure, they have their own currency and you can use it if you want, but most prices are just made in dollars and the ATMs don’t even offer reap (the Cambodian currency). I realize that we were just in a very touristy area but I’ve heard these things hold true pretty much throughout the country.
At one point during the day, I went to the ATM to try to take out some American cash but my wallet was empty of anything resembling an ATM card. Had I left it in my bag? Maybe in my little card holder with my credit card? Long story short, I couldn’t find it. The only thing I can think of is that I’d forgotten it in an ATM in Bangkok a few days earlier. I immediately checked my online bank account and no other money had been taken out, which was good but I emailed my parents to immediately cancel the card. This left me in quite a predicament, though, as I had another ATM card, but not the PIN. Again, long story short, I couldn’t work it out with Wells Fargo so up until now I’ve been having Paul slowly pay back the money he owes me from the plane tickets in whatever local currency we’re using.
That night, I watched the Manchester United game at a little sports bar. It was a pretty decent place with a very friendly and cute bartender. I became pretty disgusted though by this Australian guy in there who was very obviously just a sex tourist and he was saying some pretty disgusting things to her, things I won’t repeat. It was all I could do to not get up and say to him “Just because you’re a foreigner doesn’t give you the right to be an asshole.” Luckily Paul was there and convinced me at halftime to just go and find another place. People like that Australian disgust me.
I talked to my parents for the first time that night in the hallway of our guesthouse on skype and had a pretty good talk with them. I was about to sign off when a door opened and a pissed off French woman walked out and said to me “Excuse me, but you know zat you are not zee only perzon staying here, right?” I apologized and said I was just saying goodbye but she wouldn’t let it drop. “I have been trying to zleep for a while now but you are being zo loud!” Again, I apologized and she turned around and stamped off back to her room. I later asked the guys if they’d been able to hear me talking and they all said no, and I realized that I’d been there for about 45 minutes so if it was really a problem she should have said something sooner. (To any French person reading this blog, please forgive my stereotypical French accent but that is really how she spoke.)
The next day we got up and had a pretty good breakfast of pork and rice. Afterwards, we rented bikes for the exorbitant price of one dollar per bike.fterwards, we rented bikes for the exorbitant price of one dollar per bike. We started pedaling out towards the ruins of Angkor Wat, only a few kilometers away. Well, about halfway to the ruins my bike broke down. I had to then hire a tuktuk to then take me back to the bike rental place and then back again to the gates of the national park where the guys were waiting for me. The price for the tuk tuk was double my bike rental! Anyway, we spent the day exploring the temples and they were quite stunning. I don’t think I could adequately describe them but I’ll make a few smaller observations.
First, restoration of the temples is still clearly ongoing. The main temple and the next largest one are restored just about as much as they can be but the really cool thing about the park is going to some of the temples that aren’t as well restored yet. In some, there are trees growing out of walls and many times bricks and stones are still lying around, littered about. This won’t be the case for much longer, though. As the Cambodian government sees all the money they make from Angkor Wat, I’m sure they’ll increase the pace at which they put the pieces back together, so to speak.
Secondly, Angkor Wat, along with the Eiffel tower and the Statue of Liberty, is one of the most touristy places I’ve ever been to. Rarely have I ever seen so many tourists in one place. Sure, there were loads of people in Bangkok and on the island but they weren’t all grouped in the same place and doing the exact same thing. But, you know, most of the time tourist places are popular for a reason: they’re stunning. And that was certainly the case here.
We ended up riding the bikes for somewhere around 35+ km. When we finally got back we were pretty pooped and grabbed a few beers in between showering and eating. We went back to the hotel pretty early and watched a soccer game before turning in.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
A Return to Bangkok and Karaoke
We weren’t sure what time the bus for Bangkok left on the 15th, so we woke up at 5:30 and packed up our stuff and headed out to the bus station. well, luckily once we arrived we had some time to get some noodle soup and coffee before the bus left. That ride turned out to not be half bad at all. It was only about 6-7 hours which was half the time the train took.
When we got into Bangkok, we really just wanted some cheap, easy accommodations so we got the first cab we found and told them to take us to KSR. We found a place that was dirt cheap (around 4 bucks per room) and it was that cheap for a reason. The supposed wifi didn’t work, nor did any of the outlets I found anywhere. But, it wasn’t too far from KSR so we walked around for a while and tried to find some food. I had the worst pad thai of my life. It was essentially stir fried ramen with a little egg and chicken. I don’t think I even finished it—which was saying a lot for Thai food.
After we ate, we wandered around for a while and came across a little road stand bar where we ordered some beers and started talking to these two German girls and an Australian guy. They seemed nice enough but I eyed a few African guys sitting not too far away so I went up to them and struck up a conversation. Turns out they were Francophone (one from Togo, two from Niger) so I got the opportunity to speak French with them. I ended up talking with them for a couple hours and they were really cool dudes and put up with my passable-though-not-great French. They worked in China as businessmen of some sort and I wasn’t sure if they were in Thailand on vacation or just passing through on their way back to West Africa. We had a great time talking about Africa and they were really proud to head that a white guy like me loved it so much--I even told them that I was no longer American but instead I was Bamileke, a tribe in Cameroon. They got a real kick out of that.
The next day we woke up a bit late and wandered back to the previous hotel we’d stayed at in Bangkok because Joey had paid to leave his backpack there and Patrick had forgotten a folder with all of his medical stuff. Well, we got both and then we had to say our goodbyes to Joey who was heading back to the Seattle (via Seoul) that night. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to him, especially because he meshed so well with our group and our dynamic certainly changed once he was gone.
Anyway, we then went and met up with a couple acquaintances of Paul’s who are in Peace Corps Thailand, Elliot and Ashley. The three of them went to college together and though Paul didn’t know them too well they were still incredibly gracious and offered to put us up for a night at Ashley’s brother’s apartment in Bangkok with them. (The brother wasn’t there but works for USAID and was posted to Thailand two days after Elliot and Ashley arrived.) His apartment was really nice and swanky and we relaxed all day, did laundry, took showers, and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Later we went and met up with some of their Peace Corps friends and got some pizza. We chatted with them for a few hours before heading back on the BTS towards the apartment. We got off at one point and were in a 7-11 buying some snacks when Elliot said “hey, it’s 2-for-1 margaritas next door, you in?” So naturally we all said yes. The margaritas weren’t very strong but it sure was interesting the different takes on margaritas that they had. After we were done we went back to their apartment and Elliot, always the wildcard, then offered if we wanted to do Karaoke. I think we all kinda though he was joking at first until he pulled up a program on his computer (which was hooked up to the flat screen TV) that is actual Karaoke. Well, we did a few sing-a-longs and then some people went swimming in the apartment building’s pool while I went to sleep.
We had thought about staying in Bangkok the next day to get our Laos visas, until we realized that it was Saturday and the Laos Embassy would most likely be closed. So instead, we ended up saying goodbye to Ashley and Elliot and heading East to the Cambodian border.
On the bus to the border we met a couple Canadian dudes from Vancouver and started talking to them at one of the pit stops. I noticed some day glo paint on his Brewers hat so I asked if they’d been to the full moon party. Affirmative. We didn’t get to the Cambodian border until just before sunset and rather than try to cross the border at night and then either arrange transportation to Siem Reap then or find a hotel on the Cambodian side, we decided to just go back to the nearest guesthouse, grab some food at a nearby restaurant (and also watch Live Free or Die Hard there!!) and go to sleep.
When we got into Bangkok, we really just wanted some cheap, easy accommodations so we got the first cab we found and told them to take us to KSR. We found a place that was dirt cheap (around 4 bucks per room) and it was that cheap for a reason. The supposed wifi didn’t work, nor did any of the outlets I found anywhere. But, it wasn’t too far from KSR so we walked around for a while and tried to find some food. I had the worst pad thai of my life. It was essentially stir fried ramen with a little egg and chicken. I don’t think I even finished it—which was saying a lot for Thai food.
After we ate, we wandered around for a while and came across a little road stand bar where we ordered some beers and started talking to these two German girls and an Australian guy. They seemed nice enough but I eyed a few African guys sitting not too far away so I went up to them and struck up a conversation. Turns out they were Francophone (one from Togo, two from Niger) so I got the opportunity to speak French with them. I ended up talking with them for a couple hours and they were really cool dudes and put up with my passable-though-not-great French. They worked in China as businessmen of some sort and I wasn’t sure if they were in Thailand on vacation or just passing through on their way back to West Africa. We had a great time talking about Africa and they were really proud to head that a white guy like me loved it so much--I even told them that I was no longer American but instead I was Bamileke, a tribe in Cameroon. They got a real kick out of that.
The next day we woke up a bit late and wandered back to the previous hotel we’d stayed at in Bangkok because Joey had paid to leave his backpack there and Patrick had forgotten a folder with all of his medical stuff. Well, we got both and then we had to say our goodbyes to Joey who was heading back to the Seattle (via Seoul) that night. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to him, especially because he meshed so well with our group and our dynamic certainly changed once he was gone.
Anyway, we then went and met up with a couple acquaintances of Paul’s who are in Peace Corps Thailand, Elliot and Ashley. The three of them went to college together and though Paul didn’t know them too well they were still incredibly gracious and offered to put us up for a night at Ashley’s brother’s apartment in Bangkok with them. (The brother wasn’t there but works for USAID and was posted to Thailand two days after Elliot and Ashley arrived.) His apartment was really nice and swanky and we relaxed all day, did laundry, took showers, and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Later we went and met up with some of their Peace Corps friends and got some pizza. We chatted with them for a few hours before heading back on the BTS towards the apartment. We got off at one point and were in a 7-11 buying some snacks when Elliot said “hey, it’s 2-for-1 margaritas next door, you in?” So naturally we all said yes. The margaritas weren’t very strong but it sure was interesting the different takes on margaritas that they had. After we were done we went back to their apartment and Elliot, always the wildcard, then offered if we wanted to do Karaoke. I think we all kinda though he was joking at first until he pulled up a program on his computer (which was hooked up to the flat screen TV) that is actual Karaoke. Well, we did a few sing-a-longs and then some people went swimming in the apartment building’s pool while I went to sleep.
We had thought about staying in Bangkok the next day to get our Laos visas, until we realized that it was Saturday and the Laos Embassy would most likely be closed. So instead, we ended up saying goodbye to Ashley and Elliot and heading East to the Cambodian border.
On the bus to the border we met a couple Canadian dudes from Vancouver and started talking to them at one of the pit stops. I noticed some day glo paint on his Brewers hat so I asked if they’d been to the full moon party. Affirmative. We didn’t get to the Cambodian border until just before sunset and rather than try to cross the border at night and then either arrange transportation to Siem Reap then or find a hotel on the Cambodian side, we decided to just go back to the nearest guesthouse, grab some food at a nearby restaurant (and also watch Live Free or Die Hard there!!) and go to sleep.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Ko Phagnan
One thing I forgot to mention in the last blog was that the night of the full moon was also the lunar eclipse. As we were eating some food and hanging out, the eclipse started and it seemed to take forever. Isn’t the moon only supposed to be completely covered for a matter of minutes if not seconds? Well, this moon stayed an orangeish color for quite a while. Maybe there were clouds in the way, who knows.
Anyway, the four of us loaded into the back of the pickup taxi along with two German girls and two French girls. We started chatting with them and luckily they were nice because the ride to Haat Rim was about 45 minutes. We drove up and down steep hills as the lights from hotels and houses flashed by. But we knew we were there when we slowed down and I saw what looked somewhat similar to Duval St. in Key West. Lots of bars, restaurants, 7-Elevens, tattoos shops, T-shirt vendors, and our personal favorite: buckets of alcohol vendors. We were still hanging out with the French and German girls so we decided to get two small buckets and roll with that for the time being.
We walked around until we got to the entrance to the proper boardwalk and paid our 100 baht (about 3 bucks) to get in. I was a little opposed at first to paying the entrance fee as I thought it was just another way to rip some money out of us but I read earlier that the money from that goes almost entirely to security and cleaning up the beach the next day. And oh, that beach cleaning was needed.
Let me take a step back and say that I’ve never been to Cancun or anywhere else in Mexico for Spring Break, but the Full Moon Party is pretty much how I imagined it if there were simply more Europeans and less Americans. Most of the guys weren’t wearing shirts, lots of girls were only wearing bikinis, there was day-glo paint on probably 75% of people. The music was a mix of anything poppy and in a club from the last couple years (lots of LMFAO, Pitbull, and Duck Sauce), and the alcohol was flowing like water.
We got to the beach and the German girls took off and walked a different way. Had enough of us, I guess. After a few minutes, Henry also said he needed to walk around a bit. I think all of the lights and people were getting to him, a bit of a culture shock having come from Cameroon and all. Well, that was the last I saw of him that night, as it was a bit hard to keep track of your group when there’s around 8,000 people there.
So we were down to five (including the French girls, Lauren and Pauline) and we walked around the beach for a while, watched some fire dancers, and stared in amazement at how this place was so incredibly terrible, but at the same time so much fun.
Around midnight, Lauren and Pauline said they wanted to get a drink so we followed them up to a bar overlooking the beach. Well, I was right behind them and when we got to the bar, I turned around and couldn’t see Joey or Paul. I found out later that they thought we were going to a different bar, lost us, and then kept wandering around. Well, I tried to call Henry at this point to see where he was and, of course, he had left his phone in his room at the hotel.
So now we were down to three. The girls got their drinks and we continued to wander around, lazily looking for Paul, Joey, and Henry, and occasionally having impromptu three-person dance parties when a good song would come on.
We came across a giant flaming jump rope in the middle of a huge circle of people. It was held on either end from two people on stands about 6 feet off the ground. After watching for a bit, I knew I had to do it. So I ran into the middle where there was already one person and then started jumping. We got about twice around before he caught the rope and we both tumbled, furiously crawling away from the flaming rope. No burns!
There was also a slide from the top of a building that went down onto the beach and that was pretty fun. Somebody told me the next day that Joey was all about that slide. Kind of weird we didn’t run into each other then, ain’t it?
Around 3:30 am the three of us decided it was time to head back to the hotel so we went and found a pickup taxi and took the long ride back to our hotel. I had tried to call Henry a number of times, as I still didn’t know that he had forgotten his phone. Also in the pickup were two Dutch people (not very talkative) and two Swedes (very talkative). The Swedes were pretty surprised to hear me speaking French with the French girls, and I even tutored them a little bit on the particulars of Cameroonian French. (C’est comment mon frère? Tu es là? Prochainement!) Unfortunately, I think that I have officially forgotten all of my Swedish because I could literally only think of a few words in Swedish.
Well, when we got back to the hotel, I said goodnight to the French girls and went back to my room, wondering if Joey and Paul would be there, or Henry for that matter. Nobody was, but my spirits raised quite a bit when I realized that I in fact had the key in my pocket, not Paul. We had spent almost 24 hours straight travelling and then followed it with the biggest beach party in the world. I was exhausted and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow…
…And then was awoken at 7 when Joey and Paul stumbled in. Well, naturally I got up and we all started exchanging stories from what happened. Apparently they’d found Henry at some point wandering by himself (he had decided almost immediately after he left us to turn around and find us but wasn’t able to) and he had also seen me at one point from afar and then tailed me for a while before losing me in the crowd again. Like I said, Joey tore up the slide and they also said they were hanging around the flaming jump rope. They’d gotten back at around 5 and then slept in the hammocks outside of our little cabins and then woke me up when the sun became too bright. Well, I was awake at this point, fresh off my two solid hours so I woke Patrick and Henry up and the three of us spent most of the day playing cards, swimming, and using the internet. Patrick and I were also able to negotiate the price of our rooms down a bit. Each room was now only about 8$ per night. A pretty good deal considering it was right on the ocean with an amazing view. Paul and Joey woke up quite a bit later.
I also noticed a little after I woke up that I couldn’t locate my phone. I think what happened was after I tried to call Henry for the last time the night before somebody must have swiped it from my pocket as we were walking through the big crowd to find a taxi. It was only the first time I’ve ever been pick pocketed, so I guess it had to happen sometime.
At one point, though, we swam across the little bay to the island across from us and walked around there a bit. I guess swam is a little misleading. At lowish tide we waded over the sandbar, though the water was about to our waists and the rip tide was incredibly strong, especially on the way back. The island, though, was pretty bizarre. It was a resort of some sort, though it’s been abandoned. There were still mattresses in the rooms, though most of the doors have fallen off and the mattresses were pretty nice. It made me wonder if the place was a popular place for squatters or campers. Henry was convinced the whole time that we were going to find dead bodies around the next corner.
We had dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel (not too good and pretty overpriced), and then hung out with Pauline and Lauren. We played some cards and listened to music fairly late into the night. Paul tried to go for a swim at one point but didn’t walk to the beach we’d been at earlier in the day and ended up getting a few punctures on his feet from coral. They didn’t look too bad but, then again, what do I know about cuts from broken pieces of coral.
Pauline and Lauren left the next day and headed off to the island of Ko Tao. We had thought of going here for a bit, particularly as it’s the easiest island to hop to from Ko Phangan. In the end we decided against it because the main thing to do there is get your Diving License and do some scuba diving. The only person really interested in that was Patrick and he didn’t want to shell out all the cash for it.
That day we rented motorcycles at around noon (5 bucks for 24 hours!) and drove all over the island. We stopped at this nice little roadside shack and some pretty good fried noodle dishes. For my money, this was one of the best meals on the island. After a few hours on the bikes we realized we were getting pretty close to Haat Rim again, the town with the Full Moon Party, so we decided to turn around, take a break, and get something to drink at a bar. Well, the first bar we found was called Lady Bar and we stopped there and each got a Coke.
The place seemed pretty nice, with comfortable chairs and a pool table. After about five minutes a woman came over and sat down with us and tried to start a conversation. From what I’ve seen, any woman in a developing country who comes and sits and talks to a group of foreign men is generally a prostitute, though a polite prostitute who will generally leave you alone once it’s clear you’re not interested. Well, she talked for a little while with us—or rather: at us—before I realized a little something on her upper lip. Was that the hint of a 5 o’clock shadow? Was this the first Thai Ladyboy I’d spoken too? I believe it was. She was sassy and commented to Henry once that her friends behind the counter thought that he was handsome. After a few minutes she wished us a good day, I think realizing that her charm wasn’t working too well on us. As we were leaving, though, Henry refused to believe that she was a prostitute or a lady boy. “I think she was just nice guys, and she knows a handsome man when she sees one.” Sure Henry, sure.
The next day we used up the rest of our time with the motos and turned them in around noon. We spent most of the day using the internet, playing cards, and eating. Behind our hotel was a little bakery that had just opened up and was being run by a French guy and his French girlfriend, though I can’t remember their names. They were super nice and Patrick and I each got a pizza from them for dinner.
That night after every one else went to sleep, Henry and I crossed the sandbar and went to the island across from us to explore. The tide was completely down and we were able to walk across without getting more than our ankles wet. The island was quite spooky at night and we felt a little bit like we were in Scooby Doo. I picked up a big long bamboo stick to use for protection and Henry picked up a spiked palm frond. We tip toed around a bit and at one point I picked up a rock and gently tossed it nearby. Henry jumped in the air just like in a cartoon and I nearly died laughing. We came to a house, though, that looked like it had some weird shadows in it. Upon a closer inspection those shadows were just caused by the moon, though we saw some dark shapes on one of the mattresses. Was it a person? No idea. Either way, though, we dropped our stuff and booked it back to our hotel.
The next day we packed everything up and took off. The ferry ride was pretty uneventful, we just played cards and relaxed. There were two European girls on it though that just looked like a mess. They were falling asleep almost everywhere and could barely stand up straight. Partying too hard the night before hardly seems like an adequate description.
Anyway, we eventually made it to Surat Thani, a town a little bit inland where we could either catch the train or a bus. We opted to stay for a night, though there wasn’t too much to see or do here, and then catch a bus in the morning. It might have been one of the best decisions of the trip because we had a fantastic night.
We found a hotel and then relaxed for a little bit before going over to the night market. Definitely the best night market I’ve been to so far on this trip. We sport ate our way through it. I had some sausage, sushi, a kiwi-strawberry shake, and the best Pad Thai ever. I learned something from Patrick this night which is how we found the Pad Thai. When he’s at a food market he goes to wherever all the locals are and just gets whatever they’re getting. We didn’t even know it was Pad Thai at first (and it was so good and had some differences that maybe it wasn’t even bad Thai) but he got one and once I saw his I went back and got another.
Anyway, as we were eating these two British girls came up and approached us and we talked with them for quite a while. They’d just spent a few weeks on Ko Phagnan at this hippy retreat and were heading off to Cambodia next. I think before that they’d been in Indonesia and South Africa. Very cool girls and we jokingly said maybe we’d see them in Angkor Wat.
We went back to the hotel and watched music videos on Joey’s computer for quite a while when all of a sudden we hear a knock on the door. We opened and saw another British woman who we initially thought was going to ask us to keep it down. Instead, she asked us if we could wake her up in the morning when we woke up (she was in the room next to mine) because she had to be at work early. She didn’t really give us a straight forward reason why she couldn’t get up herself but I assumed she was partying a bit hard that night. After a minute or two of talking to her, I realized that she had something white on her upper lip and her pupils were pretty dilated. Joey had noticed this too and told us after she left that a lot of expats, tourists, and travelers around SE Asia get really into a ground up mixture of meth and heroin. That seems like a pretty serious thing to do casually when you’re working (or travelling, for that matter) in a foreign country, and especially one with such strict drug laws like Thailand.
Anyway, the four of us loaded into the back of the pickup taxi along with two German girls and two French girls. We started chatting with them and luckily they were nice because the ride to Haat Rim was about 45 minutes. We drove up and down steep hills as the lights from hotels and houses flashed by. But we knew we were there when we slowed down and I saw what looked somewhat similar to Duval St. in Key West. Lots of bars, restaurants, 7-Elevens, tattoos shops, T-shirt vendors, and our personal favorite: buckets of alcohol vendors. We were still hanging out with the French and German girls so we decided to get two small buckets and roll with that for the time being.
We walked around until we got to the entrance to the proper boardwalk and paid our 100 baht (about 3 bucks) to get in. I was a little opposed at first to paying the entrance fee as I thought it was just another way to rip some money out of us but I read earlier that the money from that goes almost entirely to security and cleaning up the beach the next day. And oh, that beach cleaning was needed.
Let me take a step back and say that I’ve never been to Cancun or anywhere else in Mexico for Spring Break, but the Full Moon Party is pretty much how I imagined it if there were simply more Europeans and less Americans. Most of the guys weren’t wearing shirts, lots of girls were only wearing bikinis, there was day-glo paint on probably 75% of people. The music was a mix of anything poppy and in a club from the last couple years (lots of LMFAO, Pitbull, and Duck Sauce), and the alcohol was flowing like water.
We got to the beach and the German girls took off and walked a different way. Had enough of us, I guess. After a few minutes, Henry also said he needed to walk around a bit. I think all of the lights and people were getting to him, a bit of a culture shock having come from Cameroon and all. Well, that was the last I saw of him that night, as it was a bit hard to keep track of your group when there’s around 8,000 people there.
So we were down to five (including the French girls, Lauren and Pauline) and we walked around the beach for a while, watched some fire dancers, and stared in amazement at how this place was so incredibly terrible, but at the same time so much fun.
Around midnight, Lauren and Pauline said they wanted to get a drink so we followed them up to a bar overlooking the beach. Well, I was right behind them and when we got to the bar, I turned around and couldn’t see Joey or Paul. I found out later that they thought we were going to a different bar, lost us, and then kept wandering around. Well, I tried to call Henry at this point to see where he was and, of course, he had left his phone in his room at the hotel.
So now we were down to three. The girls got their drinks and we continued to wander around, lazily looking for Paul, Joey, and Henry, and occasionally having impromptu three-person dance parties when a good song would come on.
We came across a giant flaming jump rope in the middle of a huge circle of people. It was held on either end from two people on stands about 6 feet off the ground. After watching for a bit, I knew I had to do it. So I ran into the middle where there was already one person and then started jumping. We got about twice around before he caught the rope and we both tumbled, furiously crawling away from the flaming rope. No burns!
There was also a slide from the top of a building that went down onto the beach and that was pretty fun. Somebody told me the next day that Joey was all about that slide. Kind of weird we didn’t run into each other then, ain’t it?
Around 3:30 am the three of us decided it was time to head back to the hotel so we went and found a pickup taxi and took the long ride back to our hotel. I had tried to call Henry a number of times, as I still didn’t know that he had forgotten his phone. Also in the pickup were two Dutch people (not very talkative) and two Swedes (very talkative). The Swedes were pretty surprised to hear me speaking French with the French girls, and I even tutored them a little bit on the particulars of Cameroonian French. (C’est comment mon frère? Tu es là? Prochainement!) Unfortunately, I think that I have officially forgotten all of my Swedish because I could literally only think of a few words in Swedish.
Well, when we got back to the hotel, I said goodnight to the French girls and went back to my room, wondering if Joey and Paul would be there, or Henry for that matter. Nobody was, but my spirits raised quite a bit when I realized that I in fact had the key in my pocket, not Paul. We had spent almost 24 hours straight travelling and then followed it with the biggest beach party in the world. I was exhausted and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow…
…And then was awoken at 7 when Joey and Paul stumbled in. Well, naturally I got up and we all started exchanging stories from what happened. Apparently they’d found Henry at some point wandering by himself (he had decided almost immediately after he left us to turn around and find us but wasn’t able to) and he had also seen me at one point from afar and then tailed me for a while before losing me in the crowd again. Like I said, Joey tore up the slide and they also said they were hanging around the flaming jump rope. They’d gotten back at around 5 and then slept in the hammocks outside of our little cabins and then woke me up when the sun became too bright. Well, I was awake at this point, fresh off my two solid hours so I woke Patrick and Henry up and the three of us spent most of the day playing cards, swimming, and using the internet. Patrick and I were also able to negotiate the price of our rooms down a bit. Each room was now only about 8$ per night. A pretty good deal considering it was right on the ocean with an amazing view. Paul and Joey woke up quite a bit later.
I also noticed a little after I woke up that I couldn’t locate my phone. I think what happened was after I tried to call Henry for the last time the night before somebody must have swiped it from my pocket as we were walking through the big crowd to find a taxi. It was only the first time I’ve ever been pick pocketed, so I guess it had to happen sometime.
At one point, though, we swam across the little bay to the island across from us and walked around there a bit. I guess swam is a little misleading. At lowish tide we waded over the sandbar, though the water was about to our waists and the rip tide was incredibly strong, especially on the way back. The island, though, was pretty bizarre. It was a resort of some sort, though it’s been abandoned. There were still mattresses in the rooms, though most of the doors have fallen off and the mattresses were pretty nice. It made me wonder if the place was a popular place for squatters or campers. Henry was convinced the whole time that we were going to find dead bodies around the next corner.
We had dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel (not too good and pretty overpriced), and then hung out with Pauline and Lauren. We played some cards and listened to music fairly late into the night. Paul tried to go for a swim at one point but didn’t walk to the beach we’d been at earlier in the day and ended up getting a few punctures on his feet from coral. They didn’t look too bad but, then again, what do I know about cuts from broken pieces of coral.
Pauline and Lauren left the next day and headed off to the island of Ko Tao. We had thought of going here for a bit, particularly as it’s the easiest island to hop to from Ko Phangan. In the end we decided against it because the main thing to do there is get your Diving License and do some scuba diving. The only person really interested in that was Patrick and he didn’t want to shell out all the cash for it.
That day we rented motorcycles at around noon (5 bucks for 24 hours!) and drove all over the island. We stopped at this nice little roadside shack and some pretty good fried noodle dishes. For my money, this was one of the best meals on the island. After a few hours on the bikes we realized we were getting pretty close to Haat Rim again, the town with the Full Moon Party, so we decided to turn around, take a break, and get something to drink at a bar. Well, the first bar we found was called Lady Bar and we stopped there and each got a Coke.
The place seemed pretty nice, with comfortable chairs and a pool table. After about five minutes a woman came over and sat down with us and tried to start a conversation. From what I’ve seen, any woman in a developing country who comes and sits and talks to a group of foreign men is generally a prostitute, though a polite prostitute who will generally leave you alone once it’s clear you’re not interested. Well, she talked for a little while with us—or rather: at us—before I realized a little something on her upper lip. Was that the hint of a 5 o’clock shadow? Was this the first Thai Ladyboy I’d spoken too? I believe it was. She was sassy and commented to Henry once that her friends behind the counter thought that he was handsome. After a few minutes she wished us a good day, I think realizing that her charm wasn’t working too well on us. As we were leaving, though, Henry refused to believe that she was a prostitute or a lady boy. “I think she was just nice guys, and she knows a handsome man when she sees one.” Sure Henry, sure.
The next day we used up the rest of our time with the motos and turned them in around noon. We spent most of the day using the internet, playing cards, and eating. Behind our hotel was a little bakery that had just opened up and was being run by a French guy and his French girlfriend, though I can’t remember their names. They were super nice and Patrick and I each got a pizza from them for dinner.
That night after every one else went to sleep, Henry and I crossed the sandbar and went to the island across from us to explore. The tide was completely down and we were able to walk across without getting more than our ankles wet. The island was quite spooky at night and we felt a little bit like we were in Scooby Doo. I picked up a big long bamboo stick to use for protection and Henry picked up a spiked palm frond. We tip toed around a bit and at one point I picked up a rock and gently tossed it nearby. Henry jumped in the air just like in a cartoon and I nearly died laughing. We came to a house, though, that looked like it had some weird shadows in it. Upon a closer inspection those shadows were just caused by the moon, though we saw some dark shapes on one of the mattresses. Was it a person? No idea. Either way, though, we dropped our stuff and booked it back to our hotel.
The next day we packed everything up and took off. The ferry ride was pretty uneventful, we just played cards and relaxed. There were two European girls on it though that just looked like a mess. They were falling asleep almost everywhere and could barely stand up straight. Partying too hard the night before hardly seems like an adequate description.
Anyway, we eventually made it to Surat Thani, a town a little bit inland where we could either catch the train or a bus. We opted to stay for a night, though there wasn’t too much to see or do here, and then catch a bus in the morning. It might have been one of the best decisions of the trip because we had a fantastic night.
We found a hotel and then relaxed for a little bit before going over to the night market. Definitely the best night market I’ve been to so far on this trip. We sport ate our way through it. I had some sausage, sushi, a kiwi-strawberry shake, and the best Pad Thai ever. I learned something from Patrick this night which is how we found the Pad Thai. When he’s at a food market he goes to wherever all the locals are and just gets whatever they’re getting. We didn’t even know it was Pad Thai at first (and it was so good and had some differences that maybe it wasn’t even bad Thai) but he got one and once I saw his I went back and got another.
Anyway, as we were eating these two British girls came up and approached us and we talked with them for quite a while. They’d just spent a few weeks on Ko Phagnan at this hippy retreat and were heading off to Cambodia next. I think before that they’d been in Indonesia and South Africa. Very cool girls and we jokingly said maybe we’d see them in Angkor Wat.
We went back to the hotel and watched music videos on Joey’s computer for quite a while when all of a sudden we hear a knock on the door. We opened and saw another British woman who we initially thought was going to ask us to keep it down. Instead, she asked us if we could wake her up in the morning when we woke up (she was in the room next to mine) because she had to be at work early. She didn’t really give us a straight forward reason why she couldn’t get up herself but I assumed she was partying a bit hard that night. After a minute or two of talking to her, I realized that she had something white on her upper lip and her pupils were pretty dilated. Joey had noticed this too and told us after she left that a lot of expats, tourists, and travelers around SE Asia get really into a ground up mixture of meth and heroin. That seems like a pretty serious thing to do casually when you’re working (or travelling, for that matter) in a foreign country, and especially one with such strict drug laws like Thailand.
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