Hong Kong Hiatus

Sorry diligent and eager blog readers.  I will be taking a short one week trip to Hong Kong tomorrow and will return on the 28th.  I will then return to Fukuoka and leave the following day again for Kyoto to hopefully catch some sakura (cherry blossoms) if I'm lucky enough to be there at the right time.  So in short, I'll be away for about 2 weeks before I can once again resume blogging about the rest of Laos and Cambodia (and then begin on Hong Kong and Kyoto again).  Sorry I'm too busy to keep up.  Take care everybody.

Thailand

Trip Map

This is my first but definitely not my last trip to Thailand. Like everything I’ve learned this year, everywhere is kind of scary until you go, and then all you want to do is go back and spend more time there. Bangkok is the hub of all of Southeast Asia and with good reason. The airport is one of the most impressive airports I’ve ever seen.

Architecture (Nerd) Moment:

Bangkok

I can honestly say the city is ever changing. Maybe not in the sense that it physically changes, but I mean that you will almost never see it in the same way twice. From the beginning of my trip and the end, Bangkok seemed like a different city to me. We spent 2 days in Bangkok visiting some of Bangkok’s most famous and toured temples including: Wat Phra Kaew (The Emerald Buddha), Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) and Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha). They have cool names don’t they? They were immense, fantastically ornate, blindingly glimmering and filled with tourists, basically everything we expected.

Wat Arun is notably and uniquely beautiful at sunset. Baptiste and I were running around Bangkok looking for the perfect location to shoot it at sunset and almost missed it. Luckily, a very nice hostess let us invade her restaurant’s balcony to steal some pictures like this:

We experienced Chinatown at night which was packed at 9 and empty by 12 after we came out of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and chatted over a couple bottles of Changs. The world famous Kao San Road is like an enormous vender street and stretches in many directions branching out in small alleyways and streets and filled with cheap finds. After a long day of walking around Wats (which btw means temple) we tried a traditional Thai massage near the imperial palace. Small Thai girls brought us into a very powerfully air conditioned room and wasted no time in inflicting pain. Well it wasn’t very painful (only sometimes) but they were very good at using their weight to twist, pull, push and contort us into crazy positions. It was inexpensive and a good first experience to Thai massage. The next morning we ran to catch our train to Ayutthaya lugging our huge backpacks and barely hopping on the train a minute before it left the station.

My Choice Shot: Bunny Giving Alms


Ayutthaya – Mortal Kombat

Ayutthaya is a manmade island city that was formed by diverting water from multiple rivers to create a natural moat around what used to be the center of Thailand’s political and religious center. That was not enough to deter the Burmese who invaded it in 1767 and nearly burned the whole city to the ground leaving some impressive temple ruins as well as giving birth to Bangkok. One thing that I’ve learned is that everything that the rest of the world and even Americans know about themselves is what TV and movies have shown them. That is why the first thing that I said to Baptiste when I saw the first Wat Chaiwatthanaram was “OMG THIS IS THE TEMPLE IN MORTAL KOMBAT” and his very justified answer was “we're at this amazing temple and all you can say is something about mortal kombat?! So American.” But seriously, Mortal Kombat! We rented bikes which seemed like a great idea until we realized the entire ancient city completely lacked any form of shade. So we rode our bikes through some rural villages and visited only a few temples before we sat around exhausted, sweaty and hiding in the shade of some tall temple peak. We ate a highly questionable lunch from a food stall on the side of a tiny rode from a friendly plump Thai lady. We thought if we got sick, at least she was nice to us while poisoning us. Luckily, we escaped Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia without any problems with food whatsoever, somehow. At the end of the day, we ate a safer dinner and ordered a Grasshopper which came twice as large as we had ordered and was alcoholic. Woops. The owner of the restaurant and hostel was a nice American and we paid him an extra 100 Baht ($3) for showers and hopped on a 12 hour night train to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. We both slept like babies in the bunks and woke up refreshed and ready to go 12 hours later.

MORTAL KOMBAT!

Tree Hugs Buddha 

Reach the Sky
 


Chiang Mai – Goodbye Vietnam

We arrived in Chiang Mai immediately bombarded with trekking options upon arrival at the train station. We arrived at our hostel early, made some new friends and wasted the better part of a day on computers and reading guidebooks trying to decide our next course of action. This was when we were looking at how to get to Laos and/or Vietnam and determined that we had too little time left to do everything we wanted and had originally planned for. We had kept up a good pace so far, but regrettably had to cut Vietnam from the itinerary because we simply didn’t have the time and money (We would have spent 4-5 days in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia which was just too rushed.) Amanda, a new friend we made was a young and spritely girl who was from Spain, mostly spoke Spanish and had been living in Chiang Mai for over a month in the hostel. The most amazing part was that she had two crutches because she had broken her back doing gymnastics when she was a young girl. Now she was alone and in a completely foreign land doing odd jobs and supporting herself. When we left, she was going to a monastery to ask if she could live there. I promised her I would not forget her and the best way to ensure that is to put her down on paper.


Trekking – Waterfall Jumping, White Water Rafting, Elephant Riding and Hill Tribe Visiting

The major tourist attraction in the north part of Thailand is trekking (essentially hiking) into nearby mountains, visiting local hill tribes, riding elephants, sleeping over in a village, and white water rafting and/or bamboo rafting. On our first day in Chiang Mai, it was getting around 8 PM and we still had not booked a trek so out of desperation we booked one from our hostel and just picked one quickly out of a cheesy colored folder called the “Non-touristic Trek”. We were skeptical about how non-touristic this would be but it was actually very enjoyable. Our guide spoke good English and he did a spot on impression of his boss at McDonolds from when he worked in Louisiana a couple of years ago. It was hilarious to hear our Thai guide sound like a large southern black woman. The trek was somewhat non-touristic in the paths we took, we really took a few unworn paths through the thick Thai jungle and it was a pretty decent hike as far as duration and difficulty. We worked our way into the dense jungle taking shortcuts at times up steep hills and through some of the largest and most impressive trees I’ve ever seen. We had a fun group of people, (Ozzy the Aussie, Monica, Paul, Sonya, Christina and Mike) many of whom we kept in contact with afterwards. On the trek, we also reached a 30-40 ft waterfall which Baptiste and I after some consideration jumped into (twice).

#1

#2
I rode on the head of an elephant which was the best butt massage I’ve ever had. I also rafter except the challenge of white water rafting this time was not getting through the rapids but avoiding the rocks from the low water levels. The dry season in Southeast Asia really is dry, they’re not kidding. But it was still fun racing other rafts and initiating huge naval battles. I also steered a bamboo raft and visited native hill tribes deep in the remote jungle. The small villages are mostly Lisu or Hmong tribes who have moved around Southeast Asia avoiding political instability and surviving by farming small crops. Tuck, our local guide cooked us a deliciously authentic Thai soup for dinner and we chatted over a fire at night admiring the stars and telling stories from around the world comparing cultures. It was a beautiful and great way to explore the ominous Thai jungle without really being in danger because we were with a certified tour guide who we grew to like and trust and also because hundreds of thousands of tourist pretty much do the same thing every day. So okay, the tour was still pretty touristic.

Our Trekking Group


Chiang Mai Continued – Rooftop Bar, Muay Thai & Thai Clubbing

After we returned, Baptiste and I made fast work of our small errands: we booked a bus ticket to Pai, Thailand the next morning, paid for our room, did laundry and bought our slow boat tickets. Afterwards we were a bit late, but managed to meet our two friends from our trekking group, Paul and Mike at a place recommended to us by our tour guide called the Rooftop Bar. This fantastic bar has murals on all the walls in fluorescent paint and a live DJ on the rooftop which is at the top of a series of 3 separate flights of stairs through 3 intermediary levels/rooms. The top was a chill and relaxing place where we shared a drink and exchanged stories from the trek.

Afterwards, we rushed to buy a quick dinner and do something that I had promised Henry I would do and also something I wanted to badly do myself, see a real Muay Thai fight. We were in luck this night because it just so happened there was a fight in the city arena between two big fighters from France and Thailand. This was fun because Baptiste was the only one who was rooting for the French guy because the rest of us figured the Thai fighter couldn’t possibly lose in his own country at his own sport. Well the Thai fighter won, but probably because the fight was fixed, the French fighter was obviously better and did more damage. Afterwards, we hung around the arena a bit, I broke my sandal kicking a punching bag (haha, $6 well spent), and Baptiste and I danced and sang happy birthday to a local who was having a party in the arena. Then we met up with our friends Paul and Mike at the bar and they were playing Jenga with a Thai bartender and two new friends from England. I passed out after a while (which I have a tendency to do) which resulted in some hilarious pictures. The bar hostess was nice enough to make a make-shift bed for me (and my camera) out of 5 chairs.

Afterwards, I woke up and we all went to a club with the Thai bartenders and we danced until everyone slowly dropped out and left. We walked because we couldn’t find a tuk tuk and because the only one we did eventually flag down wanted to rip us off. So we stubbornly stumbled home towards our hostel and arrived about 30-45 minutes later. We were growing increasingly concerned because of the number of stray dogs in the street who were growling, barking and even following us. But that only lasted a little while and we were home and sleeping before long. The next morning we painfully woke up to pack and leave on a 4 hour minivan ride to Pai, a town known for its scenery and interesting town center.

Chiang Mai by Night


The Slow Boat

This is almost a 3 day expedition that starts in north Thailand where a minivan takes you for 4 hours to Chiang Mai, then another 4 hours to the border, you sleep for 4 hours, wake up, board a slow boat for 7 hours, sleep at a small halfway city/village and go again the next day for 7 hours until you arrive near the city of Luang Prabang, Laos. This really didn’t sound very appealing to me, but Baptiste really wanted to do it so I eventually agreed to it and we bought the tickets. A day later in Pai, we found out that the government had cancelled all slow boat rides because of the low water levels of the Mekong River. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise since throughout the rest of our trip, all we heard about the slow boat was that it was a total scam and that it was a terrible experience. The boat apparently had a capacity of about 80 but would be loaded to about 140 people. It would stop before the halfway mark of the journey and it would be blamed on low water levels (though it was probably preplanned since it happened to multiple people at different times, basically everyone we talked to). Then 140 people would be stranded on a beach and they would either be forced to pay a hefty price for a last minute hostel or be forced to spend the night on the beach or in the boat. The next day would be a longer and more tiring boat ride. Thank god we dodged that bullet.


Pai - Motorbiking

The first thing we did when we first arrived in Pai was rent motorbikes. The town was known for motorbiking and it was the easiest way to get around its sights. The thing about Southeast Asia is that everything has fewer rules and is a lot cheaper. The only thing we had to give them to rent our motorbikes was one passport and $6. No license, no instructions, nothing. Just thank you, and “do you want a helmet”. We were surprised at the question and answered yes please, it’s our first time ever motorbiking. While we were back getting our helmets, one man walks in with a broken finger and puts down a helmet. We ask him what happened and he said he was only going around 10 km/h and hit a loose patch of gravel and had to go all the way back to Chiang Mai to reset his broken finger. Then another man comes in and gives all these scary albeit helpful tips. He said that the bikes often just slip out from under you on dry loose gravel, it’s better to take a helmet in general because cops in the town are very corrupted and will take any opportunity to charge you a fine even though helmets are not mandatory and to keep a stick with us at all times to scare away stray dogs who WILL attack you. These dogs are not like normal dogs we know in the west, they are treated terribly by the Thai people, starved, beaten and ignored and are very prone to bite people. This was an unsettling way to start our day/motorbike adventure and made it intimidating at least at first. Later at our hostel, the lady told us that she just had a guest leave the other day because she fell while riding a scooter and it fell on her and broke her leg. The rest of the day was us riding around ridiculously carefully and praying we’d survive the day. We rode to a local waterfall where we watched local kids slide down the waterfall and back flip into freezing water that Baptiste and I refused to swim in. Afterwards, we went back to our hostel and decided to take a nap. Unfortunately we slept too late and by the time we came out to use the internet and try to find a new way to get to Laos and from Laos to Cambodia, every restaurant had closed. So we ate at a small street stall which was essentially one lady with a wok and a guy serving two small tables. We saw a rat run by while eating which was a little disconcerting. But our Pad Thai tasted good and really the only difference from Pad Thai in America and in Thailand is that it costs a dollar and has just a little bit more rat. Pai is centered around a small but charming (hippy-ish) town. There are a lot of colorful bars and shops and the one common theme throughout the town is that everybody in Pai seemed to LOVE Pai. There was evidence of Pai pride everywhere and many shops had dozens of We Love Pai t-shirts that used every pun and play on word possible with the name Pai. Every shop except for the 7-11 was also a play on the word Pai. The next day we biked around the early half of the day, eating food so spicy I nearly cried, seeing a bridge used by the Japanese in WWII, some uninhabited temples, a peak point for a beautiful sunset and hiked amazing mountain ridges that were only about 1 foot wide and as narrow as 6 inches at times with sheer cliff drop-offs on both sides for hundreds of feet. Baptiste experienced a hairy situation when he lost his footing and caught himself by grabbing a nearby tree branch. I grabbed his shirt but I’m really not sure if I could have held him up with only a tenuous grasp on the back of his shirt.

The Trail

Me


The Expedition to Laos Begins…

Because our slow boat got cancelled we had to find another way to get to Luang Prabang, Laos. And because Laos is listed as one of the 20 poorest countries in the world, there are no trains and barely any modern infrastructure like roads. The only means of transportation available without the slow boats running are private minivans and public busses. The first minivan was an 8 hour ride through the fastest hairpin turns on a giant minivan I’ve ever seen anyone do. Our driver was a crazy Thai guy who would switch from the left to the right lane to make the sharp turns a little wider. We arrived at Chiang Khong (the Thai border) at 2:30 A.M. The driver muttered some muddled mixture of Thai and English and then said he’d take us to the border at 7 for “F – R, Double E” as he put it. At breakfast he also told us he used to be a Muay Thai Champ and sent us with his son to the bank and then to his sister for a bus to Luang Prabang (family business). He also had a photograph of him with Steven Segal that he was very proud to show off. We were glad to only be staying at this dumpy hostel for a few hours because the beds were rock hard and the whole place was in pretty bad disrepair. But we had a stunning view of the Mekong River at sunrise that just took my breath away and woke me up immediately. The Mekong has a hazy smoky brown and orange tint that masks the air. It makes the sunrise feel like something altogether foreign and new. We took a small long boat over the Mekong to Huay Xai, Laos and an hour and $22 for the visa later, we were in Laos.

Getting Older… Getting Wiser?

I am irrefutably into my early twenties. 21 had such a nice ring to it for some reason. But this new 22 will take some getting used to. It was just old enough, but as young as could be. Although nearly everyone that I’ve met in Japan or in my travels exclaims “you’re so young!” whenever I told them I was 21, I will still always remember the age of 21 fondly. It has treated me well, some of my life’s most unforgettable memories thus far have happened while I was 21. I suppose it’s nice to be older, to say that I’ve lived life a little and have not merely known the small bubble of high school and in my case, college. And though I’m optimistic that the years to come will bring increasingly good memories and good times I know nothing can compare to 21. To jump and kick, to scream and run with complete reckless abandonment and the knowledge that my youth will carry me through and any injuries I incur will quickly heal and I will only be left stronger. I can only pray this is not the beginning of my mental and physical deterioration. As for my goals and hopes, I fully intend to live up to the pact I’ve made to be fully awesome in one years time. My back flip is still lacking but I’ve learned other skills that I believe can be a fair substitute of awesomeness. I think what is comforting is all the immeasurably cool people that I’ve met in the last 6 months who have told me life gets better, not worse (usually). Many of them possess traits I admire and aspire to and that is something which will take time and hence age. So really I’m just moving forward towards what I can, should and will be. So cheers to life, and though I’m simply going to quietly reflect to myself and type on my blog on my birthday, I am truly having a happy one.

Tadaima

I’m home!  Well not home home, but I’m back in my second home, Japan after a safe and successfully backpacked through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.  I’ve already eagerly begun sorting things out and writing new entries.  I’m quite determined to write about this trip because I’ve tried my best memorize every moment of the last month, I’ve got so much to say and I fear my memory will soon reach its short term limit.  I’m also planning to write much more succinctly because I’ve realized that my last Tokyo entries/pictures were painfully thorough.  (Painful both for you to read and for me to write, sorry.)  I’ll do my best to work my fastest and still maintain if not improve the quality of work. The last month has been incredible, exhausting and has shown me a new way to live and exist.  It might be too bold to say it was a life changing trip, but I know simply I won’t ever be the same after doing and seeing everything that I’ve done and seen.