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.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
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.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Kao San Road sucks, and other stories
We woke up around 10ish again on the 8th and had some good noodle soup for breakfast. Nice and spicy with fish balls and a bit of pork. Delicious. We tried to figure out a plan for the day and the only things we really had to do was Joey wanted to sell some books over in the backpacker neighborhood of Bangkok (Kao San Road), Henry needed to go to the UPS store to pick up his ATM card which apparently hadn’t made it all the way to Citi Bank the day before, and then late at night we were planning on meeting up with this Peace Corps Volunteer named Tracy who was coming in that night and offered to show us around a bit.
Well, I wanted to check out Kao San Road (or KSR as it’s known in the travelling communities) and Paul was down too. Patrick didn’t really feel like going to UPS with Henry so the three of us all tagged along with Joey. We asked the guy at our hotel how to get there and he told us to take the elevated train (BTS) all the way to the end and then from there to take a bus. So we hopped on the BTS and took it to a stop called Mo Chit and then from there wandered around a bit looking for a bus. Well, we couldn’t find one but eventually found a map and realized that we’d travelled quite a distance and we were still the same distance from KSR as from when we started.
We decided to hop on the MRT—the subway—which we started calling the Mr. T. We took that for a few stops because it looked like it would get us a bit closer to KSR. Finally once we got there, we found a taxi who didn’t seem to keen on taking us and instead offered to drop us at one of the canals where we could have taken a boat. By that point, though, we were frustrated with all of our misguided transportation advice and asked him just to take us to KSR. Well, he did it and ended up being a really nice guy. His English was very good and he told us that he’d even lived for a number of years in Brunei. Henry tried to call us at some point after he’d gotten his card and we told him to just take a cab over if he wanted to meet up with us because the transportation was just ridiculous to get there.
Once we finally got to KSR, we were horrified by what we saw. A few images: loose tanktops, pizzas and mojitos, dreadlocks, McDonald’s, Jimmy Buffet, really shitty street food. But these images don’t really do it justice. KSR is kind of revered in a lot of travelling circles for being this almost Mecca for people backpacking through SE Asia. The funny thing is, though, aside from the fact that it’s located in Thailand, there’ absolutely nothing Thai about it. There’s a McDonald’s, a Burger King and a KFC on one side of the street with another McDonald’s a little further down. People are pedaling shitty trinkets, sunglasses, shirts with pictures of Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes peeing on things. It really just seemed like a place for where foreigners went in Bangkok if they wanted to get trashed and hang out with other foreigners. The only, and I mean only, redeeming quality was that the prices for rooms were incredibly low (less than half of what we were paying).
Anyway, we walked around KSR a bit looking for this bookshop Joey wanted to find and eventually we ran across it after some searching. I sold a book I’d brought with me but which I’d realized was too big, bulky, and heavy and another one which I’d started and didn’t like. In exchange, I got an Asimov book and a Rough Guide to Laos. I only ended up paying about 3 bucks. Sweet! Henry called us again while Joey was still in the bookstore and said he was at Mo Chit and what to do now. Apparently he hadn’t taken our advice and instead had listened to the same guy from the hotel who’d told us to take the BTS to that station and then a bus. Well, we told him KSR was pretty shitty and he decided to just walk around a bit near Mo Chit and that he’d meet up with us back at the hotel later.
We were pretty much finished with KSR before we even got out of the cab so nobody was too pissed when we decided to leave after we were done with the book store. We walked back out to the main road but the taxi drivers were trying to screw us on prices like they can probably do to the usual KSR crowd. Well, we walked a bit down and then caught a cab back to the hotel.
Back there, we relaxed a bit, played some cards and then decided to go looking for a couple brewpubs that Henry had heard of. One was supposed to be pretty close to our hotel in a mall but when we got there we couldn’t find it. Oh well. So then we took the BTS a little ways away and found the other brewpub. Once we walked in, though, we realized that it was super expensive, like US prices. Instead, we turned around and walked back to this Irish/English pub (there weren’t too many distinguishing characteristics making it lean one way or the other) where we had a couple pints of some various Asian beers.
Around 9 PM we headed back to the hotel and relaxed outside while we waited for Tracy. Eventually she showed up and we sat around talking for quite a while. The original plan was that she was going to meet up with us and then take us to an island about 4 hours to the east. I was not aware of this, though, and had assumed we were going to head down to the southern part of the country where there are a lot more options as far as islands go. Turns out, though, that Tracy was a bit broke at the time and she had wanted to go with another volunteer who was supposed to be coming back from vacation the next morning. She ended up deciding not to go with us which may have been for the best because then we were able to change our plans and head down south instead.
The next morning, Tracy went with us to the train station and we found out that the train heading down south to Surat Thani—where we would need to disembark to go to any number of islands—didn’t leave until 7:30 that night. Bummer. We pretty much just hung out at the train station all day, walking around a bit, playing some Settlers, eating some street food, and Henry and I poured a bunch of baht into this PS2 system that was set up and played each other in soccer a bunch of times. I think at our final tally we were tied at 2 games apiece and when time ran out, the 5th game was also tied.
We got a bit more food and then loaded up on the train. We were taking third class which wasn’t too bad to be honest. Sure beat second class in Cameroon. The seats were basically just benches with straight upright backs. We weren’t too sure about how the seating worked out so we just stretched out over a bunch of seats that were facing each other and relaxed. Patrick and I had bought a big piece of grilled chicken before we left so we slowly munched on that throughout the trip. The trip was fairly uneventful. We took turns watching stuff on Joey’s and my computers, and I think around 1ish I stretched out on one of the benches and had a pretty rough sleep. I didn’t sleep that well but it was a bit odd because every time I woke up I didn’t seem to mind too much.
Sometime before dawn on the 10th I woke up. I was pretty tired but managed to stay awake for another few hours until we got to the station (around 9). Right away we decided to go across the street and get some food and I think I got some spicy fried pork over rice. It was pretty good if I remember correctly.
When we emerged from the restaurant, we didn’t see any more of the buses that would take us to Don Sak (or Dog Sack as we called it), a town around 60 kilometers to the east where the ferry terminal was. The buses had left almost immediately when we got there and so we had to take a bus to the town center/bus station, and then from there we got a shared taxi to Don Sak. And by Shared taxi, I mean a pickup truck with a covered back and three rows of benches going length wise. It would go along the highway and periodically stop to pick people up who would then hang off the back for a while and then drop others off. It rained a bit while for the hour long ride to Don Sak and the mist coming up from the back tires made my pants pretty wet as I was the one sitting closest to the back.
We had decided to go to the island of Ko Phangan in the Andaman Gulf (eastern coast of the peninsula). I’d read about a bunch of different islands that were possible to go to but most either sounded incredibly touristy or pretty difficult to get to. Ko Phangan had been described as somewhere in between. Yes, it was big on backpacker circuits but it didn’t seem to have the extravagant resorts and deluxe dining options that some places like Phuket, Ko Phi Phi, or even neighboring Ko Samui had. So we chose Ko Phangan and caught a ferry just in time to make it there. The ride was a little over two hours and we passed the time by napping and playing cards.
We got in to the port town and once there everyone was trying to rip us off to hop back into the share pickup taxis and so after a bit of try to haggle we did what would become our go to move when in a new town on this trip: walk away from the port/bus station/etc., find a place to sit down and have a beer. That way we could relax a bit, pull out the guidebook, and even ask some of the locals around about what to do in our situation. Around the corner from the little corner store we were sitting at was a weird shack with a TV and loads of Thai guys watching it. I think that on the TV was Thai boxing, but it could have been any of a number of martial arts. I didn’t see any money out, but I got the impression this might have been some sort of underground betting place. It was also the only place selling beers so I bought one for each of us (a bit pricey) and talked with the guy who was running it a bit. His English was pretty shaky but he seemed pretty chill and somewhat confused by what I was doing buying beer and trying to start a conversation from him. After a couple minutes of trying, I gave up and walked back to the corner store.
One woman who was riding by in a food cart attached to a moto stopped to see if we wanted anything to eat. We politely declined but then she asked us where we were staying. We told her and she said something like “Oh, that’s far.” We asked her how much it should be, if she knew if hotels sent cars to pick people up, etc. She offered, though to call the hotel for us to ask what to do. She talked with them and then said they were holding two rooms for us and the price of a shared pickup. She was super nice, so I bought a beer from her and then gave it to her as a present.
We got the share taxi to the hotel, which was quite a ways away, and the price was only about half of what they had been asking earlier. Joey and I stood at the back of the pickup so we could see the scenery and talk a bit more. It was really good catching up with him. He and I have had our differences in the past but I’m really glad we’ve gotten past them and that he came to meet up with us in Thailand. Anyway, the ride was gorgeous. I’d been expecting a pretty small island but this place was really big. It took around 45 minutes to get all the way to our hotel and we were driving through small mountains, dense forests, a bit along the coast, up really steep hills and zipping around corners so we had to hold on tight to not get thrown. It was great.
We got to our hotel and the scenery again was amazing. It was right on the beach on the northeastern part of the island and it was situated in a little bay with another island a little ways off that you could walk to on a sandbar at low tide. (The hotel’s called the Royal Orchid, by the way.) We checked in and got each room for around 6 dollars a night. I found the place to be really nice and charming but somebody made the comment that in the states (or many other places) a hotel like this could be considered roughing it. Our rooms didn’t have A/C or hot water and consisted really of just a bed, a fan, a bathroom, and a porch with a hammock. To be honest, though, I couldn’t have asked for more.
We got settled and ate a little supper there: overpriced and underspiced—I guess I could have asked for one thing more. We talked a little with a couple Germans who were also staying there but then at 9:30 our share pickup came to take us to the Full Moon Party across the island. Patrick opted not to go as he was too tired, and didn’t think he’d enjoy it but Joey, Henry, Paul and I all decided to suck it up and do it. You’ll have to wait for the next post to hear about that debauchery and nonsense.
Well, I wanted to check out Kao San Road (or KSR as it’s known in the travelling communities) and Paul was down too. Patrick didn’t really feel like going to UPS with Henry so the three of us all tagged along with Joey. We asked the guy at our hotel how to get there and he told us to take the elevated train (BTS) all the way to the end and then from there to take a bus. So we hopped on the BTS and took it to a stop called Mo Chit and then from there wandered around a bit looking for a bus. Well, we couldn’t find one but eventually found a map and realized that we’d travelled quite a distance and we were still the same distance from KSR as from when we started.
We decided to hop on the MRT—the subway—which we started calling the Mr. T. We took that for a few stops because it looked like it would get us a bit closer to KSR. Finally once we got there, we found a taxi who didn’t seem to keen on taking us and instead offered to drop us at one of the canals where we could have taken a boat. By that point, though, we were frustrated with all of our misguided transportation advice and asked him just to take us to KSR. Well, he did it and ended up being a really nice guy. His English was very good and he told us that he’d even lived for a number of years in Brunei. Henry tried to call us at some point after he’d gotten his card and we told him to just take a cab over if he wanted to meet up with us because the transportation was just ridiculous to get there.
Once we finally got to KSR, we were horrified by what we saw. A few images: loose tanktops, pizzas and mojitos, dreadlocks, McDonald’s, Jimmy Buffet, really shitty street food. But these images don’t really do it justice. KSR is kind of revered in a lot of travelling circles for being this almost Mecca for people backpacking through SE Asia. The funny thing is, though, aside from the fact that it’s located in Thailand, there’ absolutely nothing Thai about it. There’s a McDonald’s, a Burger King and a KFC on one side of the street with another McDonald’s a little further down. People are pedaling shitty trinkets, sunglasses, shirts with pictures of Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes peeing on things. It really just seemed like a place for where foreigners went in Bangkok if they wanted to get trashed and hang out with other foreigners. The only, and I mean only, redeeming quality was that the prices for rooms were incredibly low (less than half of what we were paying).
Anyway, we walked around KSR a bit looking for this bookshop Joey wanted to find and eventually we ran across it after some searching. I sold a book I’d brought with me but which I’d realized was too big, bulky, and heavy and another one which I’d started and didn’t like. In exchange, I got an Asimov book and a Rough Guide to Laos. I only ended up paying about 3 bucks. Sweet! Henry called us again while Joey was still in the bookstore and said he was at Mo Chit and what to do now. Apparently he hadn’t taken our advice and instead had listened to the same guy from the hotel who’d told us to take the BTS to that station and then a bus. Well, we told him KSR was pretty shitty and he decided to just walk around a bit near Mo Chit and that he’d meet up with us back at the hotel later.
We were pretty much finished with KSR before we even got out of the cab so nobody was too pissed when we decided to leave after we were done with the book store. We walked back out to the main road but the taxi drivers were trying to screw us on prices like they can probably do to the usual KSR crowd. Well, we walked a bit down and then caught a cab back to the hotel.
Back there, we relaxed a bit, played some cards and then decided to go looking for a couple brewpubs that Henry had heard of. One was supposed to be pretty close to our hotel in a mall but when we got there we couldn’t find it. Oh well. So then we took the BTS a little ways away and found the other brewpub. Once we walked in, though, we realized that it was super expensive, like US prices. Instead, we turned around and walked back to this Irish/English pub (there weren’t too many distinguishing characteristics making it lean one way or the other) where we had a couple pints of some various Asian beers.
Around 9 PM we headed back to the hotel and relaxed outside while we waited for Tracy. Eventually she showed up and we sat around talking for quite a while. The original plan was that she was going to meet up with us and then take us to an island about 4 hours to the east. I was not aware of this, though, and had assumed we were going to head down to the southern part of the country where there are a lot more options as far as islands go. Turns out, though, that Tracy was a bit broke at the time and she had wanted to go with another volunteer who was supposed to be coming back from vacation the next morning. She ended up deciding not to go with us which may have been for the best because then we were able to change our plans and head down south instead.
The next morning, Tracy went with us to the train station and we found out that the train heading down south to Surat Thani—where we would need to disembark to go to any number of islands—didn’t leave until 7:30 that night. Bummer. We pretty much just hung out at the train station all day, walking around a bit, playing some Settlers, eating some street food, and Henry and I poured a bunch of baht into this PS2 system that was set up and played each other in soccer a bunch of times. I think at our final tally we were tied at 2 games apiece and when time ran out, the 5th game was also tied.
We got a bit more food and then loaded up on the train. We were taking third class which wasn’t too bad to be honest. Sure beat second class in Cameroon. The seats were basically just benches with straight upright backs. We weren’t too sure about how the seating worked out so we just stretched out over a bunch of seats that were facing each other and relaxed. Patrick and I had bought a big piece of grilled chicken before we left so we slowly munched on that throughout the trip. The trip was fairly uneventful. We took turns watching stuff on Joey’s and my computers, and I think around 1ish I stretched out on one of the benches and had a pretty rough sleep. I didn’t sleep that well but it was a bit odd because every time I woke up I didn’t seem to mind too much.
Sometime before dawn on the 10th I woke up. I was pretty tired but managed to stay awake for another few hours until we got to the station (around 9). Right away we decided to go across the street and get some food and I think I got some spicy fried pork over rice. It was pretty good if I remember correctly.
When we emerged from the restaurant, we didn’t see any more of the buses that would take us to Don Sak (or Dog Sack as we called it), a town around 60 kilometers to the east where the ferry terminal was. The buses had left almost immediately when we got there and so we had to take a bus to the town center/bus station, and then from there we got a shared taxi to Don Sak. And by Shared taxi, I mean a pickup truck with a covered back and three rows of benches going length wise. It would go along the highway and periodically stop to pick people up who would then hang off the back for a while and then drop others off. It rained a bit while for the hour long ride to Don Sak and the mist coming up from the back tires made my pants pretty wet as I was the one sitting closest to the back.
We had decided to go to the island of Ko Phangan in the Andaman Gulf (eastern coast of the peninsula). I’d read about a bunch of different islands that were possible to go to but most either sounded incredibly touristy or pretty difficult to get to. Ko Phangan had been described as somewhere in between. Yes, it was big on backpacker circuits but it didn’t seem to have the extravagant resorts and deluxe dining options that some places like Phuket, Ko Phi Phi, or even neighboring Ko Samui had. So we chose Ko Phangan and caught a ferry just in time to make it there. The ride was a little over two hours and we passed the time by napping and playing cards.
We got in to the port town and once there everyone was trying to rip us off to hop back into the share pickup taxis and so after a bit of try to haggle we did what would become our go to move when in a new town on this trip: walk away from the port/bus station/etc., find a place to sit down and have a beer. That way we could relax a bit, pull out the guidebook, and even ask some of the locals around about what to do in our situation. Around the corner from the little corner store we were sitting at was a weird shack with a TV and loads of Thai guys watching it. I think that on the TV was Thai boxing, but it could have been any of a number of martial arts. I didn’t see any money out, but I got the impression this might have been some sort of underground betting place. It was also the only place selling beers so I bought one for each of us (a bit pricey) and talked with the guy who was running it a bit. His English was pretty shaky but he seemed pretty chill and somewhat confused by what I was doing buying beer and trying to start a conversation from him. After a couple minutes of trying, I gave up and walked back to the corner store.
One woman who was riding by in a food cart attached to a moto stopped to see if we wanted anything to eat. We politely declined but then she asked us where we were staying. We told her and she said something like “Oh, that’s far.” We asked her how much it should be, if she knew if hotels sent cars to pick people up, etc. She offered, though to call the hotel for us to ask what to do. She talked with them and then said they were holding two rooms for us and the price of a shared pickup. She was super nice, so I bought a beer from her and then gave it to her as a present.
We got the share taxi to the hotel, which was quite a ways away, and the price was only about half of what they had been asking earlier. Joey and I stood at the back of the pickup so we could see the scenery and talk a bit more. It was really good catching up with him. He and I have had our differences in the past but I’m really glad we’ve gotten past them and that he came to meet up with us in Thailand. Anyway, the ride was gorgeous. I’d been expecting a pretty small island but this place was really big. It took around 45 minutes to get all the way to our hotel and we were driving through small mountains, dense forests, a bit along the coast, up really steep hills and zipping around corners so we had to hold on tight to not get thrown. It was great.
We got to our hotel and the scenery again was amazing. It was right on the beach on the northeastern part of the island and it was situated in a little bay with another island a little ways off that you could walk to on a sandbar at low tide. (The hotel’s called the Royal Orchid, by the way.) We checked in and got each room for around 6 dollars a night. I found the place to be really nice and charming but somebody made the comment that in the states (or many other places) a hotel like this could be considered roughing it. Our rooms didn’t have A/C or hot water and consisted really of just a bed, a fan, a bathroom, and a porch with a hammock. To be honest, though, I couldn’t have asked for more.
We got settled and ate a little supper there: overpriced and underspiced—I guess I could have asked for one thing more. We talked a little with a couple Germans who were also staying there but then at 9:30 our share pickup came to take us to the Full Moon Party across the island. Patrick opted not to go as he was too tired, and didn’t think he’d enjoy it but Joey, Henry, Paul and I all decided to suck it up and do it. You’ll have to wait for the next post to hear about that debauchery and nonsense.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Welcome to Thailand: hello, change of scenery
Paul, Henry, and I arrived in Bangkok mid-afternoon on December 6th by way of Nairobi. Flying into Bangkok was a bit of a head trip. For one, we could see a bit of the evidence of the recent flooding on the outskirts of town. I read that Bangkok was spared most of the damage of the flooding because the government diverted the water and flooded a lot of suburbs and cities nearby instead. We didn’t see too much water and, to be honest, some of that could easily have just been rice farms, but whatever the case I saw a lot more water around a huge metropolitan city than I would have expected somewhere else.
On that subject of huge metropolitan cities: Bangkok is gigantic. I’m not sure of the exact population but it might be the biggest city I’ve ever been to—and I’m including New York in that list. It’s like a mixture of the tall buildings everywhere from New York mixed with the spread-out-ness and car culture of LA, all wrapped with an Asian flair. Oh yeah, and they drive on the left side of the street too. Who still does that?!
Anyway, the three of us arrived and waited around near the baggage claim for Patrick who was on a different flight from Addis Ababa which arrived only a short while after us. We met up with him and then took the sky train into the heart of town. It was when we were on the sky train that the level of development really hit home for me. We were flying through at speeds of probably close to 100 km/h and from the windows we saw ten-lane highways, huge condominiums, shopping malls seemingly every twenty seconds, and (my personal favorite) Manchester United billboards all over the place. (MU has a big following in Asia and many companies are official sponsors so they use MU logos and images in their ads.)
Well, we got to the heart of town and rather than try to figure out the elevated train, we decided to walk what looked on the map to be just a few blocks. Well, it was a bit more than a few blocks but we made it and found a hotel to check in to. Patrick went and bought a SIM card for his cell phone and we ate our first Thai dishes. I got a Pad Thai (a bit cliché, I know) and it was fantastic. I had a few more Pad Thais from this women over the next couple weeks but this was definitely the best one. I think it was so good because it was my first meal in Thailand as well as my first taste of Thai food in about two and a half years.
After we ate, we decided to walk around some and retraced our steps a bit back towards the sky train as we’d seen some cool eateries and bars near a canal that was a few blocks that way. Well, we got there and the food stand was just that: a little stand with some ingredients, a few tables, and a few coolers filled with soda and beer. Well, we pulled a table out behind the stand near the canal. We ordered another plate of food, a few beers, and started playing some euker (a card game I picked up from other PCVs in Cameroon). Well, the light was getting pretty dim so we moved back closer to the stand and snagged a table there under a light. We saw an older white man sitting at another table chatting with the women there in Thai and sipping on a beer himself.
Well, we continued our game of euker and the woman from the stand came over at one point and looked on a little incredulously. Then, she started laughing and rattled something off in Thai towards us and went back to cooking. The white dude behind us laughed a bit and told us that she thought we were gambling. We asked him to explain to her that we weren’t gambling but merely playing a game. He shrugged it off and said it didn’t really matter because the police wouldn’t bother this woman. I did a bit of a double-take and asked something like, “Why would the police care if we played cards?” To which he responded, “Well, gambling is illegal here and if the police wanted to they could come up and arrest you or extort a big bribe from you for gambling because how are you going to prove you weren’t?” He really shrugged it off when we asked if we should quit playing or not which later made me wonder if playing cards was really such a big offense. (Note, however, I still have not seen anyone else playing cards in Thailand—foreigner or otherwise.)
About that time my buddy Joey from college called Patrick’s phone (I’d left the number at the hotel) telling me he was waiting for me at the hotel. Sweet! Joey has been travelling for over a year now and was most recently in India. I told him a while back that I’d be in Thailand in December so he decided to meet up with us for a bit. Well, he dropped his stuff off in Paul’s and my room and then we headed back to the bar/eaterie. By the time we got back the white guy was sitting at our table (stole my seat!) and was giving Paul and Patrick loads of advice and tips about Thai culture, customs, laws, etc. I found out his name was John and he was Australian, but he’d been living in Thailand for a very long time, he wouldn’t really say how long, only that he was on his third Thai wife. Some of his advice for us was pretty bizarre, though. For example, “don’t insult a ladybody, she’s much more beautiful and stronger than you are,” and “don’t rip, throw, or kick the Thai money, because the king’s face is on it!” Well shucks, I sure do love just kicking money.
After a while of talking with John we decided to head back to the hotel and turn in for the night. Paul and I split a room with Joey crashing on our floor and then Patrick and Henry split the other room.
****
The next day, I was the first awake at about 10. Jet lag will do that to you but luckily this was about the worst we got of it. We ate some grub and then went to the Citibank Bangkok office because Henry needed to pick up his new ATM card which he’d arranged to have sent there for him. Well, it wasn’t there and they just told him to call the US hotline and ask what to do. So we walked around a bit and I was incredibly tempted to hit up a Starbucks, though it was on the other side of the 8-lane street. Passed. We found a really cool outdoor market and basically sport-ate our way through it. Some of the things I remember eating: sushi, Thai sausages, grilled chicken, mangoes. We wandered around this sprawling market for a while, got lost, and when we came out the other side we just kept on walking. I think we walked for a ways through one of the financial districts before finding some noodle soup to snack on.
Eventually we found our way back to the elevated train and took it back to the hotel where we grabbed a couple beers, played some Settlers of Catan and relaxed. We started chatting with a French guy named Julian who was also staying at the hotel and he was at the tail end of a month-long trip that took him through Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.
After chilling for a while we started hearing a faint cheering sound which was to be the main part of our night’s entertainment: Thai boxing. At one of the mall’s near our hotel they set up a rink and have Thai boxing matches every Wednesday. So we walked over and looked down on it from the platform of the elevated train. It was some pretty cool stuff and an American woman was even one of the participants. She lost, though, I think she took a few too many kicks to the guy. We started getting bets going about who would win each match: either the red trunks or the blue trunks. We also stipulated that we had to chose our corner before the match actually started, so we were basing the majority of our judgment on physical appearance, coolness of name, and how well they performed their dance before the match. Oh yeah, I had it down to a science as the players I supported won almost every time.
After a bit of that, we walked around and found some more food. I was being restless and kept looking for different food and ended up walking quite a ways. Finally we found a place that looked decent but as soon as we approached these shirtless guys sitting outside near our table were trying to get us to buy the food there. We kept asking them how much the dishes were and the prices were fluctuating incredibly. I mean, c’mon. If you’re going to scam us, at least be smart and consistent about it. We ended up leaving and going back towards the hotel and found something to eat around there. We talked with Julian a bit more and then found out that he had to wake up at 4 to catch a cab to the airport. Well, it was almost 1 at this point so we all decided it’d be a good idea to crash. (Un?)Fortunately, Joey and I weren’t that tired so we decided it’d be a good idea to call a bunch of our friends from back in Seattle and Phoenix using Gmail Call (1 cent a minute!). Eventually ,we got tired enough to go to sleep and Patrick told us the next day that they’d heard us giggling from the next room until about 3 am. It’s still hard for me to tell whether this was jetlag or just Joey and I whenever we get together. Probably both.
On that subject of huge metropolitan cities: Bangkok is gigantic. I’m not sure of the exact population but it might be the biggest city I’ve ever been to—and I’m including New York in that list. It’s like a mixture of the tall buildings everywhere from New York mixed with the spread-out-ness and car culture of LA, all wrapped with an Asian flair. Oh yeah, and they drive on the left side of the street too. Who still does that?!
Anyway, the three of us arrived and waited around near the baggage claim for Patrick who was on a different flight from Addis Ababa which arrived only a short while after us. We met up with him and then took the sky train into the heart of town. It was when we were on the sky train that the level of development really hit home for me. We were flying through at speeds of probably close to 100 km/h and from the windows we saw ten-lane highways, huge condominiums, shopping malls seemingly every twenty seconds, and (my personal favorite) Manchester United billboards all over the place. (MU has a big following in Asia and many companies are official sponsors so they use MU logos and images in their ads.)
Well, we got to the heart of town and rather than try to figure out the elevated train, we decided to walk what looked on the map to be just a few blocks. Well, it was a bit more than a few blocks but we made it and found a hotel to check in to. Patrick went and bought a SIM card for his cell phone and we ate our first Thai dishes. I got a Pad Thai (a bit cliché, I know) and it was fantastic. I had a few more Pad Thais from this women over the next couple weeks but this was definitely the best one. I think it was so good because it was my first meal in Thailand as well as my first taste of Thai food in about two and a half years.
After we ate, we decided to walk around some and retraced our steps a bit back towards the sky train as we’d seen some cool eateries and bars near a canal that was a few blocks that way. Well, we got there and the food stand was just that: a little stand with some ingredients, a few tables, and a few coolers filled with soda and beer. Well, we pulled a table out behind the stand near the canal. We ordered another plate of food, a few beers, and started playing some euker (a card game I picked up from other PCVs in Cameroon). Well, the light was getting pretty dim so we moved back closer to the stand and snagged a table there under a light. We saw an older white man sitting at another table chatting with the women there in Thai and sipping on a beer himself.
Well, we continued our game of euker and the woman from the stand came over at one point and looked on a little incredulously. Then, she started laughing and rattled something off in Thai towards us and went back to cooking. The white dude behind us laughed a bit and told us that she thought we were gambling. We asked him to explain to her that we weren’t gambling but merely playing a game. He shrugged it off and said it didn’t really matter because the police wouldn’t bother this woman. I did a bit of a double-take and asked something like, “Why would the police care if we played cards?” To which he responded, “Well, gambling is illegal here and if the police wanted to they could come up and arrest you or extort a big bribe from you for gambling because how are you going to prove you weren’t?” He really shrugged it off when we asked if we should quit playing or not which later made me wonder if playing cards was really such a big offense. (Note, however, I still have not seen anyone else playing cards in Thailand—foreigner or otherwise.)
About that time my buddy Joey from college called Patrick’s phone (I’d left the number at the hotel) telling me he was waiting for me at the hotel. Sweet! Joey has been travelling for over a year now and was most recently in India. I told him a while back that I’d be in Thailand in December so he decided to meet up with us for a bit. Well, he dropped his stuff off in Paul’s and my room and then we headed back to the bar/eaterie. By the time we got back the white guy was sitting at our table (stole my seat!) and was giving Paul and Patrick loads of advice and tips about Thai culture, customs, laws, etc. I found out his name was John and he was Australian, but he’d been living in Thailand for a very long time, he wouldn’t really say how long, only that he was on his third Thai wife. Some of his advice for us was pretty bizarre, though. For example, “don’t insult a ladybody, she’s much more beautiful and stronger than you are,” and “don’t rip, throw, or kick the Thai money, because the king’s face is on it!” Well shucks, I sure do love just kicking money.
After a while of talking with John we decided to head back to the hotel and turn in for the night. Paul and I split a room with Joey crashing on our floor and then Patrick and Henry split the other room.
****
The next day, I was the first awake at about 10. Jet lag will do that to you but luckily this was about the worst we got of it. We ate some grub and then went to the Citibank Bangkok office because Henry needed to pick up his new ATM card which he’d arranged to have sent there for him. Well, it wasn’t there and they just told him to call the US hotline and ask what to do. So we walked around a bit and I was incredibly tempted to hit up a Starbucks, though it was on the other side of the 8-lane street. Passed. We found a really cool outdoor market and basically sport-ate our way through it. Some of the things I remember eating: sushi, Thai sausages, grilled chicken, mangoes. We wandered around this sprawling market for a while, got lost, and when we came out the other side we just kept on walking. I think we walked for a ways through one of the financial districts before finding some noodle soup to snack on.
Eventually we found our way back to the elevated train and took it back to the hotel where we grabbed a couple beers, played some Settlers of Catan and relaxed. We started chatting with a French guy named Julian who was also staying at the hotel and he was at the tail end of a month-long trip that took him through Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.
After chilling for a while we started hearing a faint cheering sound which was to be the main part of our night’s entertainment: Thai boxing. At one of the mall’s near our hotel they set up a rink and have Thai boxing matches every Wednesday. So we walked over and looked down on it from the platform of the elevated train. It was some pretty cool stuff and an American woman was even one of the participants. She lost, though, I think she took a few too many kicks to the guy. We started getting bets going about who would win each match: either the red trunks or the blue trunks. We also stipulated that we had to chose our corner before the match actually started, so we were basing the majority of our judgment on physical appearance, coolness of name, and how well they performed their dance before the match. Oh yeah, I had it down to a science as the players I supported won almost every time.
After a bit of that, we walked around and found some more food. I was being restless and kept looking for different food and ended up walking quite a ways. Finally we found a place that looked decent but as soon as we approached these shirtless guys sitting outside near our table were trying to get us to buy the food there. We kept asking them how much the dishes were and the prices were fluctuating incredibly. I mean, c’mon. If you’re going to scam us, at least be smart and consistent about it. We ended up leaving and going back towards the hotel and found something to eat around there. We talked with Julian a bit more and then found out that he had to wake up at 4 to catch a cab to the airport. Well, it was almost 1 at this point so we all decided it’d be a good idea to crash. (Un?)Fortunately, Joey and I weren’t that tired so we decided it’d be a good idea to call a bunch of our friends from back in Seattle and Phoenix using Gmail Call (1 cent a minute!). Eventually ,we got tired enough to go to sleep and Patrick told us the next day that they’d heard us giggling from the next room until about 3 am. It’s still hard for me to tell whether this was jetlag or just Joey and I whenever we get together. Probably both.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Au Revoir
Well, my time here in Cameroon is coming to a close. In less than a week I will be out of Ngong and on my way. It’s been a terribly interesting experience here, both with Peace Corps and Cameroon. Some other volunteers have had their problems with PC and the Cameroonians they work and live with but the vast majority of my experiences have been very positive. If you’re thinking of joining the Peace Corps, I strongly suggest it—but only if you’re open enough and flexible enough to do it. I'll be doing some traveling in the coming months, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to or want to continue blogging. If I do continue, it'll be here on this site. Anyway, I don’t really know how to say goodbye on a blog or anything so instead I’ll just make a list of a few observations I’ve made and experiences I’ve had here…
Malaria sucks. There’s no other way around it, I’ve never felt that sick in my life.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, soccer is actually pretty cool.
No matter how awkward anyone is at dancing, Cameroonians love it. One of my favorite things about this country is that in almost any social situation, somebody can stand up and just start dancing (with or without a dance floor, usually the latter) and nobody thinks anything of it.
From everything I’ve seen, corruption and aid money are the two biggest deterrents for actual development.
Big 66 cl beers are far superior to small 33 cl beers.
Traditional wine—like bilbil or palm wine—is awesome, but don’t expect your bowels to agree with that statement.
Moto accidents suck. I’ve been in two but luckily neither of them was that bad.
Some people are just small-minded assholes. I sat at a restaurant in Yaounde once talking with somebody for an hour who accused me of being a spy. At the end of that hour, he still wouldn’t shake my hand. I’ve also seen volunteers berate Cameroonians for not being open to new things and then refuse to even try a meal that a friend prepared for them.
People can survive in 120 degree weather. But they don’t have to like it.
“Africa” by Toto, in all its kitschy glory, is actually a fantastic soundtrack to my life here.
Who knew grown men would follow Brazilian soap operas that are dubbed (poorly) in French?
The more it happened, the more it pissed me off when people would call me “white man” 40 times a day. I thought I would have gotten used to it. A good response, though, is “villageois”. Kinda like just calling someone ignorant or a redneck.
Cameroonian food can be amazing. With the right ingredients and spices it can be some of the best food I’ve ever had. Without those two things, though, it can be some of the most boring food I’ve ever had.
Having a cell phone that plays music is actual quite handy when packed into a bus and the only music playing is an auto-tuned woman singing in Hausa about cows.
I’ve gotten really comfortable being uncomfortable.
Malaria sucks. There’s no other way around it, I’ve never felt that sick in my life.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, soccer is actually pretty cool.
No matter how awkward anyone is at dancing, Cameroonians love it. One of my favorite things about this country is that in almost any social situation, somebody can stand up and just start dancing (with or without a dance floor, usually the latter) and nobody thinks anything of it.
From everything I’ve seen, corruption and aid money are the two biggest deterrents for actual development.
Big 66 cl beers are far superior to small 33 cl beers.
Traditional wine—like bilbil or palm wine—is awesome, but don’t expect your bowels to agree with that statement.
Moto accidents suck. I’ve been in two but luckily neither of them was that bad.
Some people are just small-minded assholes. I sat at a restaurant in Yaounde once talking with somebody for an hour who accused me of being a spy. At the end of that hour, he still wouldn’t shake my hand. I’ve also seen volunteers berate Cameroonians for not being open to new things and then refuse to even try a meal that a friend prepared for them.
People can survive in 120 degree weather. But they don’t have to like it.
“Africa” by Toto, in all its kitschy glory, is actually a fantastic soundtrack to my life here.
Who knew grown men would follow Brazilian soap operas that are dubbed (poorly) in French?
The more it happened, the more it pissed me off when people would call me “white man” 40 times a day. I thought I would have gotten used to it. A good response, though, is “villageois”. Kinda like just calling someone ignorant or a redneck.
Cameroonian food can be amazing. With the right ingredients and spices it can be some of the best food I’ve ever had. Without those two things, though, it can be some of the most boring food I’ve ever had.
Having a cell phone that plays music is actual quite handy when packed into a bus and the only music playing is an auto-tuned woman singing in Hausa about cows.
I’ve gotten really comfortable being uncomfortable.
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