Travel

We're back at Suk 11 right now, after flying from Siem Riep this afternoon. It's a little strange being back in a huge city, and we were reminded exactly why we got the hell out of Bangkok right away, as our taxi driver from the airport tried to scam us. A lot of taxi drivers will charge you a flat fee and leave off the meter. Our driver at first refused to turn on the meter, asking for 400 baht. The most we should pay from the airport to the hostel is 250. After some tense moments (dialog: "Sukhumvit 11, 100 baht per person." "No, turn on the meter." Repeat this about a dozen times), and Wendy yelling at him to stop the cab with her door open and leg halfway out, he finally turned on the meter. Then he wanted to take the expressway, which is usually not too much faster, and we have to pay the tolls, which we nixed.

We saw some of the smaller ruins yesterday at the Ankor site, including one that they have more or less left to the trees. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a sort of EU-ish organization, was having a conference in Siem Riep, and so there were a lot of wealthy tourists out and about that morning and afternoon. It would be extremely quiet, and then a bunch of vans and cars would drop off the dignitaries and their families. A group of musicians who were maimed during the civil war, mostly from land mines, played Khmer music at Bantay Srei, a red sandstone temple with some extremely well preserved bas reliefs depicting Hindu myths.

One of the most interesting parts of the day was driving through the Cambodian countryside to get to the ruins. We passed a few villages, and got a small glimpse on how most Cambodians live now.

Khmer food is delicious, and I finally got to try a mangosteen, recommended to me by my friend Jim Bisso. They are delicious. Our tour guide at the ruins also gave us some home-grown mangos, so we quickly scarfed them down this morning before getting on the airplane. My favorite food, though, is the Khmer-style spring rolls, with cucumber, mint, and other vegetables, with maybe some shrimp, wrapped with uncooked rice paper. They're similar to Vietnamese spring rolls, but I like the Khmer ones a little better.

At this point, we're just taking it easy, finishing up some errands, and picking up our last souveniers. It'll be good to go home again, although if I had to do this trip over again, I would have spent some more time in Cambodia.

Both Cambodia and Thailand have lots of butterflies of all different sizes and colors, and one of the true delights of this trip has been having a fairly ordinary scene transformed when a iridescent purple or neon yellow butterfly floats by.

Cambodia is a beautiful country, and while there's been not a little grubbing for the almighty dollar (most places prefer to trade in US dollars rather than the local Real), the Cambodians are good humored, friendly, persistent, and seem like a happy bunch. The fact that they appear this pleasant despite having had a bombing campaign, a civil war the left over 2 million citizens dead, continued government unrest, increased tensions with their historical enemies in the region--notably the Thais--, and a per-capita income of $300 is astounding.

We spend today at the Angkor site today, starting off the day with sunrise over Angkor Wat (Cambodia's most famous landmark, and a historical ruin on par with the pyramids) before heading to Angkor Thom for the rest of the morning, and finishing off the day back at Angkor Wat for afternoon. Thom has 57 towers that are each literally faced with a large human profile, and several detailed bas reliefs depicting historical and mythological battles.

There's really too much I could say on Angkor Wat, and it wouldn't do it justice anyway, so suffice it to say that it was everything you could imagine about seeing an impressive ruin, and double that.

We ended today by seeing some traditional Khmer dancing and a shadow-puppet play at our hotel's restaurant.

We're paying mad bling per minute here at the Bangkok airport, so I'll be brief. We just got off a prop plane from Ko Samui, and are heading to Siem Riep in Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. We'll be there until Friday, when we come back here to BKK and then leave early Sunday morning for home.

Samui was fun, and we spent last night bar and restaurant hopping with Andrew and Laura, two Canadians we met on the way to Ko Tao and then met again on Samui. I'm slightly sunburned, and am apparently taking after my Dad in the number of small wounds on my limbs. The other day it was some rebar sticking out of a concrete wall, and there are some mystery scratches I can't account for.

Thai whiskey is a lot like rum, and combined with Coke (the cola, not the powder) it is quite drinkable. I'm not even really that hungover considering Brian, Andrew, and I polished off a small bottle of it over dessert last night.

I'm excited about Cambodia, and Siem Riep is supposed to be a neat city. The buildings are mostly colonial French.

Anyhow, if the Khmer Rouge nail me, divide up my books as you see fit.

We're now in Ko Samui in the gulf of Thailand after spending a couple of days in Ko Tao, a smaller island north of here. Ko Tao is mostly about scuba diving, as they have the best reefs in the area. We took an introductory course in scuba the other day, and it was a lot of fun, albeit very strange. While I was paying attention to the coral and fish, everything was fine, but occasionally I'd start to think about being 10 meters under water, with the only thing keeping me alive strapped to my back, and it would get a little sketchy. Altogether, though, those moments got more infrequent as the dive went on, and I'd be really interested in getting my dive certification someday.

After Ko Tao, we arrived here on Ko Samui, and have spent the last two days doing water-type activities. Yesterday we swam at the beach outside our bungalow, and today we went sea kayaking and snorkeling in Angthon National Park, a group of small limestone islands surrounded by coral and reefs.

During the sea kayaking part of our day, we went through some small sea caves and arches, and went in to this great cove only accessible through a low arch. The fish are beautiful here, and we got to see a school of bat fish while we were snorkeling. I had the most fun swimming to one side of the cove and letting the current float me back the other side without moving, as you don't disturb the fish as much, and can see so many more species that way.

After we got back to Samui, we went on an elephant ride. Also fun, but again a little sad to see some of the elephants chained up. We did get to feed the elephants bananas at the end of the ride. Our elephant could use her trunk to pick up the bananas, so we had to place them on her tongue, which was both a little gross and exceedingly cool.

Tomorrow I think we're just going to relax. I need to catch up on my journal, find some more souveniers, and let the foot heal a bit (I cut it while snorkeling on Ko Tao, and it keeps on opening up).

We wanted to take some river taxis to check out some of the canals and wats surrounding the main river yesterday at sunset, and ended up hiring a long, thin dragon-style motorboat piloted by a kid of maybe 15 or so, who opened the throttle on his engine and hauled serious and unapologetic ass through the river and on the canals. If you combined Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and the Jungle Cruise, plus plenty of seriously sketchy/polluted water, you'd get some idea of what it was like. The banks of the canals are lined with houses, some shops, and dozens of wats. The orange-robed monks at the wats and children swimming and playing in the water waved at us as we sped by, maybe amused at our expressions of excitement and terror. The kid was occasionally steering with one foot, but he had mad boat skillz.

He stopped at Thonburi Snake and Crocodile Farm, an establishment that will probably put my mom in a catatonic state at its mere mention. Inside were lots of the aforementioned snakes & crocodiles, but also monkeys, gibbons, birds, Asian black bears, and at least three tigers. The cages and pens were not very big, were dirty, and the poor animals looked extremely stressed. Brian noted that the black bears appeared to be on a diet of corn and scorpions. Eventually, one of the workers came out with a 4 year old python that was probably 10 feet long. He wanted us to pose for pictures with it, reassuring us that the python was "very nice." It was probably 50 pounds, mostly muscle, that was both oddly soothing and frightening when you realized what those muscles are supposed to do. Like the elephants at Ayuthaya, it was extremely interesting to see the animals up close, but also extremely sad. The monkeys and gibbons, in particular, disturbed me. Being social, active creatures, it was hard to see them alone in a 7'X7' cage.

We headed for Wat Pho, one of the largest in the country, stopping briefly so our pilot could pick up a bunch of Thai women on their way to work. The sunset on the river was incredible--silvery water reflecting the city building below a sky of indigo and orange. The taxi driver that dropped us off at the boat ramp gave us some bad information on when Wat Pho closed, as it was closed when we arrived. As we're finding out here in Bangkok, most of the information given to tourists about when things are open is incorrect, as they try to steer you to other destinations to get commisions. We walked around the grounds, though, as the gates were not closed yet, and from the outside, Wat Pho was nonetheless incredibly beautiful. A monk was chanting for a ceremony on one side of the complex, and that combined with the loud insects chirping in the trees was your prototypical southeast Asia mental postcard moment.

We then headed to Thanon Khao San, the street where most of the backpackers hang around. Susan Orleans called it "the place to disappear" in her essay of the same name, and it is an apt description. The sites and sounds of Khao San are disjointed, from the various CD vendors blasting trance and jungle to the ever-present knock-off clothing vendors selling Che Guevara and anime t-shirts. Open air bars and restaurants are everywhere, and you can get dread extensions, tatoos, unauthorized DVDs, multicolored plastic kites, and cheap Pad Thai from street vendors.

The steet itself was jammed with people, most of them young westerners staying at the dollar a night guest houses lining Khao San. The hectic atmosphere was a little dizzying after a while, and we were getting hungry. We were trying to find an Indian restaurant from the Lonely Planet map, but gave up and went to the Himalayan, a northern Indian restaurant. It was pleasantly quiet and cool in the A/C, and the food was pretty decent. We headed back to the hostel and passed out early, and we all are looking forward to getting out Bangkok.

Today, we bought train tickets south, with our final destination being Ko Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. We're taking the night train tonight, and should end up at Chumpon early tomorrow morning in time to catch the boat to Ko Tao.

Brian and Wendy got in late last night, and are settling in nicely today.

Brian and Wendy and I ventured out to Chinatown today, and ended up going to a tailor to get fitted for a suit. Selecting the fabric was honestly pretty fun, and I ended up choosing dark charcoal herringbone, grey pinstripe, and greyish brown herringbone for my suits. Brian chose the same charcoal herringbone, but went with a different pinstripe and light grey fabric for his suits. Wendy had some nice dresses made.

Jen is feeling sick right now, probably due to some food from Ayuthaya, and so has been a little miserable lately. She didn't venture out with us this morning so she could rest up, but is venturing out this afternoon for our visit to some wats and dinner tonight.

It looks like we'll be heading south to the islands first, and then to Angkor Wat when we return. We'll probably take the night train tomorrow night.

Back in Bangkok this afternoon after a really, really, really hot train ride from Ayuthaya. The train was packed. I got stuck in a kind of amusing ethical double bind, as a Buddhist monk in mustard-colored robes had the last extra seat in the train car and tugged on my sleeve that I should take it. Jen wasn't feeling well, and needed to take a rest for the hour and a half trip, so I let her take it. After that, the monk offered his seat to another woman who got on the train after us.

If I had been thinking, I would have remembered that monks are not supposed to be touched by women. I recalled this little fact about 20 minutes later. Ohwell.

This morning we were walking around the ruins in the early morning when Anan, a Tuk Tuk (a sort of three wheeled mini-taxi that looks like a custodian's cart, and sounds like a dirt-bike) driver did his hard sell for a tour of the sites. He pulled out a notebook filled with testimonials from westerners about how Anan was a great tour guide, and how they, too, were skeptical of his tactics and so on and so forth. I've seen this form of persuasion often enough. We accepted, though, because there were no bicycle rental places open at 7:00 AM, and wanted to see some of the more out of the way ruins.

We stopped first at the Royal Elephan Kraal (probably where "corral" came from?), where they used to round up wild elephants. Now, there's a large field bordered by carved wooden poles, some statues of what a war elephant looked like with a rider, and a bunch of elephants. These were the elephants we saw the day before with the red-robed riders. There were many baby elephants, including one that was 10 days old, a fuzzy mini-tank who was still figuring out how to use his/her trunk to feed itself. We also saw an elephant from Burma that had a broken leg. According to Anan, it would heal in a year or so, but in the meantime, it looked incredibly sad. Just as sad was the fact that most of the elephants were chained around the leg in electrified pens.

We then went to a Khmer-style Wat on the banks of the river. It was probably my favorite so far, and the Buddah statues, covered with their gold robes, was beautiful in the morning sunlight.

Anan then drove us to the old palace, which is next to an enormous bronze buddah covered with gold leaf. When I say enormous, I mean it. It was probably 30 feet high. Quite impressive.

We checked out the other ruins and Wats in the complex, and then headed back to the hotel, where we took a quick shower before heading to the train station. I'm on my third shower now, all of which were necessary.

Brian and Wendy arrive tonight, and I'm excited to see how they react to Thailand. I'm getting a little more adjusted to the heat and the differing ways of life here, although outwardly I'm sure I appear to be a boiled shrimp.

We're now in Ayuthaya, the former royal capital of Siam from 1350 until it was sacked by the Burmese in the 18th century.

We stayed in a crappy guesthouse that was not unlike staying with a strange aunt. The gardens were sort of neat, but also filled with bits of broken pottery and random detritus. The house was ramshackle. Our room had an air conditioner (its pretty hot here, and while I'm starting to get used to it, it's still nice to dry out and cool down), but there was no insulation, and there was a large gap between the interior walls, so hot air from the next room came right through.

More exciting was the bathroom, a semi-working bit of plumbing, with a big tank full of standing water to pour over your body (there is a hand held shower head for us westerners). This morning, I shared my toillet with a large frog. Roosters cockadoodled this morning, and the many, many dogs in the neighborhood also chimed in for a rousing chorus. We strolled around the ruins of the various temples in the cool(ish) morning air, accompanied by Bob, another stray dog that apparently lives in the ruins. Because Buddhists don't believe in harming animals, there are a lot of stray dogs roaming around the streets. They're quite friendly, and Bob took a liking to us. While walking around the grounds, we saw six elephants walking down one of the roads, painted green and red on their face and sides, and being ridden by people in red robes. I'm not sure who they were, because they didn't look like monks.

After walking around the ruins, we had a leisurely breakfast, and checked out of the guest house. We'll stay here another night, but probably at one of the smaller hotels or hostels. Tomorrow, we head back to Bangkok to meet up with Brian and Wendy, and probably proceed to Angkhor Wat in Cambodia.

I'm at an internet cafe near Sukhumvit Road in eastern Bangkok. Our flight arrived last night at around 11:30 PM local time. Both legs had screaming babies, so that wasn't so fun, but all in all the flight went by pretty fast.

We stayed just up the street at a nice hostel. The inside was teak wood, and the room had air conditioning, which was a nice luxury, as I'm used to Santa Cruz's cool weather. It's probably in the 90s, and very humid.

We're heading for Ayuthaya this afternoon, an old royal city and hour north of Bangkok.

To Brian and Wendy, the address of Suk11 is 1/33 Sukhumvit 11, off Sukhumvit Road. If the taxi driver can't find it, it's right behind the 7-11. We reserved you a room for Sunday night, and will have the keys waiting for you. As a tip, the public taxi queue at the airport is cheaper than the touts in the booths as you head for the taxis. It should be around 300 baht to get here, but they're charging 650.

I went to the Bumbershoot festival up in Seattle over Labor Day, and snapped a few pictures.

Pictures from my sister's birthday down in Los Cabos, at the tip of Baja California, are up at the usual place.

I spent my birthday (July 4th) up in Portland with my friends Jay, Kate, Jake, Chia-hua, Jen, and a cast of thousands. The photos are up.

I'll be heading to Cabo San Lucas for a week on Friday for my sister's birthday. So, break in to my house and leave bewildering Polaroids of your activites.

...at the usual location. Unfortunately, my digital camera started posterizing the colors and screwing up the light levels unbidden halfway through the trip, so this is only the first few days, all in Dublin. Oh well. I hope Olympus warrantees the damn thing....