Long way to go

When someone asks if I want to go with them somewhere to do something, the world ADVENTURE flashes in my brain in Indiana Jones script, and I almost automatically say yes. That was the case when I met Delphine, who asked if I wanted to accompany her to Kanchanaburi, and I'm so glad I went.

I didn't realize how nice it would be to get out of Bangkok until I got off the bus. We thought we'd stay one night but upon arrival decided on two; the air was so much nicer: less polluted, less humid, cooler than Bangkok. Plus our guesthouse was so peaceful and cheap, with a nice courtyard (if a bit manicured for my taste), right on the river.

Most of the town's small tourism seems to revolve around World Ward II battles and the River Kwai bridge, which I walked across while whistling. At night they light it up, which is a bit surreal considering its history. I'm told that on Mondays they set off a lot of fireworks to reenact the explosion, but we weren't there for that.

The second day we rented motorbikes and rode 70km to Erawan Waterfall, a seven-tiered set of falls in which I was quite excited to swim. However, the pools were full of those fish that eat dead skin off your feet; I paid (not much) money for that in Chiang Mai, which was strange enough. But those were just my feet, and they were baby fish. The fish in the waterfall were really big and really hungry, attacked my feet within a second of wading in. After much deliberation I finally took the plunge, swimming frantically to keep them away from me. Not exactly the relaxing soak I had planned, but a lovely place to be.

After leaving Kanchanaburi I had one evening in Bangkok, time enough to see one major thing, so I headed to Wat Pho to see the world's largest reclining Buddha. I figured I should do something kind of cultural to balance out the ping pong show.

Wow, I thought I had seen a lot of wats (temples), but this one was amazing, incredibly over the top, so huge and ornate. They also have one of the top schools for Thai massage in the country on premises, so I splurged and got an hour. It was pretty expensive for Thailand standards (12 whole dollars as opposed to the six I'd been paying), but worth it, the best I've had so far.

I rounded out my last night in Bangkok with some noodles from a stall along Rambuttri Soi, and then a few margaritas from one of the tiny watering holes that pop up at night along the side of the road, anything from a few stools and a makeshift counter to a full-on bar in a truck.

And suddenly that was all for Thailand! I can't believe how quickly that month went by. Now I made it to Hong Kong where I'm staying with Jon, an old friend from Wisconsin, and his girlfriend. He's been living here for six years, and already it's been great to catch up, not to mention have someone to show me around instead of figuring out a new city on my own.

Posted by j3s at 05:16 AM | Permalink

Filming the documentary on Thailand was a really great experience. It was a spur-of-the-moment acceptance of an offer to be on the camera crew, and I'm so glad I accepted. Our little band of videographers really felt like a family; by the end of it we were working so well together, trading cameras when they got too heavy to hold in the head (shoulder-mounts, oof!), covering shots, looking out for each other. I was a bit sad when it ended, but the director said I'd be welcome on his next shoot, in Indonesia, sometime in the winter I think. Maybe!

There were six of us: Shai (Thai, driver/guide/interpreter), Pete (Australian, director and narrator), Mies (Dutch, second camera), and Celine and Stephanie (Swiss German, film students/backpackers). The itinerary was packed, we covered so much ground in three days, but I got to see much more than I ever could have on my own, from a different perspective. Some highlights:

An orchid farm, where I saw my first brown (fave color) orchid:

A sanctuary for abused and retired elephants, who were so sweet but very grabby when you started feeding them:

An impromptu lesson on basket weaving:

A cave full of Buddha statues:

Giving a bunch of kids a lift in the back of the truck:

Spending the night with a lovely old couple in a rural hill tribe village:

A beautiful Chinese-influenced beautiful temple:

Visiting a tea plantation and factory:

I don't really like monkeys, but everyone else does:

The Golden Triangle, where we stood in Thailand and could see Burma and Laos:

Meeting a Thai couple getting photographed for their wedding:

The still-being-built White Temple in Chiang Rai, which I will never forget. Never seen anything like it. Too bad you can't take photographs inside, it was filled with paintings of superheroes and political commentary (oil hoses that became snakes that wrapped around the World Trade Center):

Full White Temple photo set here.

Visiting a local hot spring, where all the Thai people cooked eggs in the water, coincidentally on Easter:

Hanging out with the crew at the end of every full day:

The complete photosets are on my site:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Posted by j3s at 08:38 AM | Permalink

After three days running around north Thailand filming for the documentary (extended entry on that forthcoming) and then taking a two day slow boat trip down the Mekong (photos forthcoming as well), I'm ready to kind of park it in one place for a while. Fortunately, I'm in a great place to spend some relatively extended time: Luang Prabang, Laos. It feels very French-colonial, as someone said, "Like you're in an Agatha Christie mystery."

I did get some pretty bad food poisoning one of the boat ride nights, fortunately it didn't hit till we were docked and I was in a guesthouse; I'm feeling much better today. However, after staring at a ceiling fan for hours and taking a boat down the Mekong, I really want to re-watch Apocalypse Now.

Posted by j3s at 10:07 AM | Permalink

I really like Chiang Mai, it’s such an enchanting city. I’ve been staying in the old part of it, which is surrounded by a wall and a moat. What I find most interesting though is the proliferation of wats, or temples. There are so many just within walking distance; I spent several hours yesterday exploring them, until they all started to blend together.

Full set of wat photos is here.

Today I visited a monastery that contained several tunnels from the 14th century. It was very peaceful to walk around, and meditate underground.

Since I’ve been in Chiang Mai I’ve gotten to try a few new things, too. I saw a Muy Thai (Thai boxing) match, ate durian (it had the texture of a custard apple, but tasted more savory), and had the dead skin on my feet eaten by a bunch of fish. It happened at a stall at the night market, and had to have been one of the strangest things I’ve ever felt.

I’m still kind of reeling over how easy Thailand is, so friendly and navigable. Once I got to the north part of the country it got a lot cheaper, too. Oh, while I was still on the island I went spelunking with Eric and Camille. It really felt like we were in the guts of the island. At one point we all turned off our headlamps and it was the darkest dark I’ve ever darked. Eyes closed, eyes open, same same.

And now for some exciting news (as if everything else has been boring?): I was asked to join a film crew that’s making a documentary on Thailand. The director’s wife had been doing some of the camera work, but she got really sick and had to go back to Australia. We’re going more north tomorrow with a driver and an interpreter to film a hill tribe, and then to Chiang Rai, along with some other stuff. The opportunity literally came up an hour ago, and I didn’t have to think about it long before saying yes. Why not? I did some filming when I was in Ghana some years ago, and this sounds like kind of a neat, different way to see this country.

After that I’ll be heading out (on my own) to cross the Friendship Bridge from Chiang Khong over into Laos, and then taking a two-day slow boat trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. Yeah!

Posted by j3s at 04:59 PM | Permalink

I'm not sure that it's a good thing that I don't really flinch anymore at 24 hours of travel.

Turns out I was wrong about the full moon; it was actually the 18th, the day to which I switched my ticket. I considered changing it again but meh, my friends had left and listening to bad trance surrounded by wasted dudes with bad tattoos just didn't seem worth it. Maybe I'm just getting old.

So I took an overnight bus to Bangkok, arrived at 4:30am; it was much much nicer than any bus I rode in India, complete with airbrushed dragon on the outside. Upon arrival I went straight to the train station to wait for my 8:30am train to Chiang Mai. Once again, my new netbook saved me, it's been so good to be able to watch movies during all of these long layovers.

The train wasn't great but at least it had AC. All the guidebooks say not to go to Thailand in April, and now I know why. At least Chiang Mai feels a bit cooler. I even opted for a fan (non-AC) room for tonight to save a few Baht, though I may change places tomorrow.

I must say that I was not really looking forward to how tourist-oriented I knew Thailand would be, but after India it's actually really nice. Helpfulness and smiles and all that. However, I'll probably head to Laos soon, it's supposed to be cheaper and less developed.

Posted by j3s at 04:59 PM | Permalink

All that travel became so worth it when I walked into Mong's bar, right on the beach, and Camille and Eric came running toward me. I dropped my backpack and commenced relaxation; this is a great place for it. An older German man I met on the train to Delhi said, "Thailand is Disneyland, it's so easy." After two months in India, so easy it is.

Even the ferry ride(s) were nice, but I love being out on the water. Yesterday we rented motorbikes, a great way to explore Ko Lanta. I'd driven one in Goa last year, and it was so fun to zip around again. This is a long, thin island with one side that's entirely beaches. We drove to one the first day where there were only three other people onthe entire beach: a British couple and a local fisherman.

The Andaman Sea is so lovely, really calm; I haven't seen a single whitecap. And warm! When you're neck-deep in the water you can still see your toes, ahhh.

Besides swimming multiple times a day and exploring the island, we've been doing some light shopping (I bought sequined burqa!) and lots of hanging out, catching up. My friends have been working in Singapore, running the construction of and painting scenes on a roller coaster six days a week; they left NYC a few weeks before I did. This is their vacation, and it kind of feels like a vacation from my vacation. Or maybe the drinks in buckets have something to do with that.

It is ridiculously nice here, but quite expensive. After spending $4 per night on a hotel and less than $2 a meal for the last month or two, $20 a night seems like a fortune for a room. Of course, that room is right off the beach, has fresh clean sheets, air conditioning, an actual mattress instead of foam or a bedroll that makes me wake up with pins-and-needles arms asleep, hot water with actual water pressure, non-fluorescent lighting, the works.

I don't want to repeat getting stuck on the beach though. Camille and Eric have to go back to work in Singapore on Sunday (I'm considering a cheap flight to visit them for a few days), so I booked a bus ticket out of here that morning. Then I realized that Sunday night is the full moon, and it'll be beautiful here, so I ran back and begged to change the ticket to Monday. The guy made a phone call, hung up, and said OK! No charge, no hassle, and the whole process took under ten minutes. Wow, talk about the opposite of India, where it would have taken at least half a day and I'd probably just have to buy a new ticket. I think I'm still decompressing. Let's hope Thai overnight buses are not worse than Indian ones.

So a couple more days of beachin' it up, then I head to Bangkok. From there I'm thinking go north, maybe to Chiang Mai and then crossing over into Laos, maybe spend a couple days on a boat down the Mekong. I love being on the water; we're trying to rent a longtail boat today, but it's off-season so it might not be possible. I do enjoy places in the off-season though; even if they're more hot there are no crowds (especially here, I think the massive flooding a few weeks ago sent everyone packing).

In the meantime, I'll continue enjoying the company of friends, long walks on the beach, and motoring around. We formed a bike gang, the Neon Pink Eagles, since two of the three scooters are bright pink with leopard spots. Bike gang photo (and sequined burqa) coming soon, meanwhile, this is us:

Posted by j3s at 04:27 AM | Permalink