Days 104-105: More Bangkok

My parents volunteer as host parents for international students attending the University of Arizona at Tucson and through that program have met and become close to quite a few very nice students there. One of those students, Nichalin, is from Thailand, and her parents live near Bangkok. When they heard we would be traveling through that area, they very generously offered to give us a tour!

Unfortunately on the day of the tour, Mary was feeling sick and was unable to join us. We’ve both done pretty well with handling the local bugs, despite eating lots of street vendor food, but on that day Mary’s stomach was losing the battle. So Nichalin’s parents, Linchong and Pinit, their son, a cousin, and an interpreter picked me up, left some breakfast for Mary (it turned into her dinner, the first time she was hungry), and off we went. We stopped briefly to see a demonstration about how coconut sugar is produced then continued on to the floating market at Damnoen Saduak. The floating market is a section of canal where many vendors hawk their wares from their canoes, now primarily to tourists.

After a bit of coffee, we headed to the JEATH War Museum, dedicated to the Japanese, English, American + Australian, and Thai soldiers and civilians who built (and died by the thousands) building the Death Railway. The whole thing reminded me a lot of King Rat. We somehow kept our appetites through it, so off to lunch, just downstream from the famous Bride on the River Kwai. With that sustenance, we were able to walk over the bridge (well, the rebuilt version of it) and learn more about it. We finished off our history lesson with a visit to the Don-Rak War Cemetery, which was really moving.

On the way home we stopped by Phra Pathom Chedi, the tallest Chedi in the world, at 127 meters. Overall it was a wonderful day! I got to see a lot of parts of Thailand that I otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance to see, and it was so nice to meet Nichalin’s family. They were extremely generous, very friendly, and I had a wonderful time with them.

We were originally supposed to finish off the day with a trip to th show, but since Mary was sick, they very graciously moved Mary and my tickets to the following evening so that she’d be able to attend. We had a great time at the show, which is a cultural sampler about Thailand, covering some of its history, religious imagery, and festivals. It included lots of great costumes, good music, and fun dancing

Days 101-103: Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok is huge. Like the saying about Texas, everything is big in Bangkok; the crowds are big, the sights are big, and the number on the thermometer is big. We were in Bangkok for 5 days and I feel like there are only a few tiny corners of it that I vaguely know. More so than any other city we’ve been too, Bangkok seems immeasurably big, perhaps even more so than New York City. Part of it is that the city is exhausting to traverse, with the traffic, crowds, and heat. Part of it is that the city seems to change so rapidly and frequently that you feel like you’re exploring a different city every time you get off the boat, skytrain, or subway. And part of it is that each part of it is foreign in a different way, and you start exploring anew each time.

We were lucky to find a condotel in a great part of the city for a very reasonable price. It had an incredible view up and down the river, and we spent a fair bit of time just sitting out on it, watching the boats go up and down the river, the cars sit in the parking lot of rush hour traffic, and feeling the temperature drop. The condotel was also close to three of the best modes of transportation in the city – the boats that speed up and down the Chao Phraya River, the MRT subway, and the BTS monorail (skytrain). Many of the most famous tourist sights in the city are along the river, so the boats provide easy access to many of them, which are not serviced by other forms of public transportation (there were public busses, but given how crowded they were, I wasn’t sure if we’d ever be able to get off, having boarded once). The subway and skytrain are very modern and nice, but have somewhat limited coverage. I was quite impressed with how easy to use and efficient they were.

We started off our touring with a river cruise, going up and down the Chao Phraya River, then along some of the khlongs (canals) that cut through Bangkok and the neighboring city of Thonburi. This is still a real working river, filled with barges, edged with cranes, and constantly churning from all the traffic. Along the khlongs you can still find people going house to house with food and other goods; waterways are still the lifeblood of Bangkok, the way it used to be in all Thai cities apparently. We were amazed to see people swimming in the river, given its level of pollution. But given the heat, it’s quite understandable – we retreated to the pool to avoid the urge to join the kids in the riverThe next day I went out exploring to see some of the sights while Mary rested and recovered from her encounters with Bangkok. I took a boat up the river to visit the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew, the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, Wat Arun, and Chinatown. I met up with a German and two Estonians and we toured our way through. We’d all read in the guidebooks how there would be people at the famous sights reporting them to be closed and steering you towards other attractions, making money off the tuk tuk ride and any other shops they could steer you into. What we didn’t expect was how good they’d be at it. They’d stage themselves at a side entrance to the site, then wave you over, chat you up in excellent English, German, or Russian (as we all found out), and explain how there was a royal ceremony going on (hear the music?), and the palace was closed for an hour. They were so friendly and knowledgeable that it was hard to keep in mind their ulterior motives – in the end, only the fact that they were randomly hanging out where they were was enough to keep away my normal trust.

The sights were worth the effort though! The Royal Palace is stunning (and blinding at times), covered in gold and streaking into the sky on chedi and temple peaks every which way you looked. The Emerald Buddha was incredible – it was nice to see it after visiting one of its prior homes in Chiang Mai. The Reclining Buddha was huge, the view from the top of Wat Arun was spectacular, and overall it was a rather overwhelming day. To calm my mind, I went down to Chinatown, with it’s quiet streets and solace :-) Ok, maybe not – in a busy city, Chinatown still stands out as a hotspot of activity. There were thousands of different types of food for sale on the street, leaving me feeling like I’d never be able to try even a sample of each one.

Days 98-100: Vientiane, Lao

By Mary

The trip from Udon Thani to Vientiane sucks. The procedure itself is not very difficult, and simply involves a bus to the Thai-Lao border, a visa purchase, and then a bus or taxi ride over the Mekong River. A simple matter, one is told, of two hours.

Don’t believe it. It takes all day long, and is torturous. I don’t know why the guide books lie to you, but they do. The “bus,” such as it is, has very little in common with what one normally associates with the vehicle. It does have wheels, and seats, and an engine, and one-and-a-half as many passengers as seats. The vehicle’s air conditioning thoughtfully does not interfere with one’s sweating, and as it travels about as fast as a motorbike, tourists will have plenty of time to regret ever wanting to see what Lao is like.

Then there is the matter of “getting to the border,” and “acquiring a visa.” Such transactions are relatively straightforward in most places, but not in Udon Thani. Here, after spending so much time on the crowded bus in close contact with your neighbors, you are abruptly dropped off about a kilometer from the actual border. Magically, a taxi appears, and proceeds with no delay in the opposite direction from the border. Don’t worry, though, because the driver will eventually stop at a travel agency, where any number of people there are happy to give you a visa for 5 times the official price. Once you have expressed no interest in paying more than is required, the taxi driver will suddenly realize that, in fact, the travel agent’s shop was not what you meant by “border,” and will take you to the official border recognized by both countries. This misunderstanding, unfortunately, will mean extra taxi fare. The driver, of course, is so very sorry.

Once at the Thai side of the border, things mostly return to normal, and you can purchase a Lao visa without more than the usual hassle and long lines. But you will not be in a good mood. Especially if you discover when you get to your hotel that your camera has been left behind in Udon Thani.

Vientiane is a nice place. We had giant fruit salads and giant smoothies twice each day at the local Western-world expatriate hangout, a café called Sabaidee Coffee. Because the city is so small, we were able to see a great deal of Vientiane even though we were only there for a few days. One highlight was Talat Sao, a gigantic day market that is the size of a megamall. It is three floors high, and covers an entire Manhattan-sized city block! Once there, we bought lots of beautiful, hand-woven Lao silk scarves. By this point, Dave and I have perfected our bargaining techniques, and we ended up with a really good deal.

We spent one afternoon in the Lao National Museum, the bulk of which is devoted to the successive wars and occupations fought in the region. The exhibits, lots of guns and swords, are very graphic, and the descriptions are even more so. For example, several rooms are filled with guns displayed in glass cases, with small white placards identifying them as “weapons used by Americans to kill Lao people.” Other displays had knives “used by the French Army to torture and destroy Lao people.” There were also grenades. It was very interesting, and not a little depressing.

I refused to see any more temples, but a lot of the other buildings had interesting architecture. One building that should get special mention is the Lao version of l’Arc de Triomphe, locally known as the “vertical runway.” It is made out of concrete, given to the Lao people by the US government for the construction of an airfield. The Lao government took the concrete, and made the Arc instead. Dave and I climbed to the top, and got a great view of the whole city of Vientiane. Eventually, we went to see a temple, because it was the Lao National monument. But I went under duress, and we each had a milkshake afterwards, so it doesn’t really count.

The trip from Vientiane back to Udon Thani was, incredibly, worse than our journey there. But we got the camera back! Also, I had two doughnuts, so net positive overall.

Day 97: Udon Thani, Thailand

We flew into Udon Thani in the northeast of Thailand largely as a stepping stone into Lao, since there are cheap domestic airlines in Thailand. It was also interesting as a glimpse into a part of Thailand somewhat off the beaten track (although there are still a sizeable number of farang here too). The place we spent the night was a bit out from the center of town, and we were unusual enough to cause a lot of double takes and lots of waving from passing motorbikes.

We managed to find a small night market and did some shopping with the locals, then did a lot of swimming in our hotel’s pool. If you’re ever in the area, the Englishman’s Retreat is a great place to stay -- $12 a night for a nice room, pool, exercise room, pool table, and cheap beer.

Days 92-96: Chiang Mai, Thailand

We flew up to Chiang Mai on Sunday, arriving just in time to go out to the Sunday Walking Market. This outdoor market stretches for half a mile along of one of the main streets of Chiang Mai, plus three cross streets, all of which are shut down for the occasion. It’s one big party and everyone is there – we saw more people that night than we did the entire rest of our time in Chiang Mai. There are hundreds of food vendors, plus people selling paintings, carvings, photos, clothes, and other goods. Not to mention dozens of musicians (many of them blind), dancers, and people from the surrounding hill tribes dressed in traditional costume. We ate so much we could barely walk, then sat down and kept on eating! The walking market was far more fun than any of the night markets we’ve been too (and there have been many), largely because there was more of a festive air – it’s not just for shopping, the market is a social occasion for everyone involved, even the vendors.

We spent the next couple days walking around Chiang Mai, exploring both the walled old city and some of the surrounding newer city as well. The old city has both a moat and a wall around it, although more of the moat has survived than the wall. Inside the roughly square mile of the old city lie dozens of Wats (temples), making it a beautiful city to wander through.

We took a day trip down to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center near Lampang, about 80 kilometers southeast of Chiang Mai. It’s farther from Chiang Mai than most of the other elephant camps, but worth the effort to reach. It’s a government run elephant rehabilitation center, taking in aged and injured elephants and helping them recover, as well as raising money for the treatment of other elephants at the elephant hospital on site. The elephants are incredibly beautiful and talented, and it’s fun to see them alternate between looking very old and wise as the peer at you, and becoming little kids when there’s something to play with or eat. They run several multi-day mahout training programs here that we’d love to attend, but again it’ll have to be put off for another trip.

On the way back from the elephant camp we stopped in Bo Sang and San Kamphaeng to visit several of the craft factories there, mass producing the traditional wares of these villages. We saw silk, silver, gemstones, ceramics, and umbrellas being made, as well as large displays of finished products. The umbrella factory was undoubtedly the most beautiful and fun of the bunch; the color of the umbrellas is astounding. The gemstone factory won the most amusing prize though; as soon as they realized we weren’t going to buy anything (took about 30 seconds), they tried to force us out the door, which of course made us dawdle all the more. They ended up being uncharacteristically rude for Thais, which really shocked us – we never did anything other than admire the rings, bracelets, and such.

Mary was feeling over-Watted on our last day in Chiang Mai, so I took a solo journey up to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep in the mountains surrounding the city. It’s the most famous of the Wats in the region, and beautiful both for the temple itself and for the views down to the city, although it was pretty hazy and smoky the day I was there (burning of agricultural byproducts apparently). Afterwards I went to the nearby Phu Ping Summer Palace, high enough in the hills to escape the 90 degree plus temperatures of Chiang Mai and most of central Thailand. It’s very well manicured and the gardens are nice, but overall not much character to the place.

I ended my tour by going to a Hmong village, one of the many different hill tribes that populate northern Thailand. Although the village is clearly rather touristy, since I was there apart from all the big tours and during the off season, it was fun to wander on my own and watch the kids play and the families chat and weave. The tribal museum was interesting, if a bit like a National Geographic article photocopied and enlarged. It gave a good bit of background on the different tribes and how each was forced out of China over time and settled in different parts of South East Asia. As an added bonus, I got to see opium poppies growing, the main traditional crop of the Hmong. These were just for display, but there is still a large opium crop in this region, primarily in Myanmar and Laos.

Days 89-91: Krabi, Thailand

Thailand keeps on getting better, and that’s not been easy to do. After the snorkeling in the Similan Islands, we thought we must’ve had the highlight of our stay here. But it turns out that Krabi is just as fun as the snorkeling we did on the islands.

First a bit of explanation of the geography of the area, to explain everywhere we went. Krabi is a province on the west coast of Thailand, as well as the main city in that province. Nearby is the Railay Peninsula sticking out to the south, which contains the many famous karst rock formations for which the area is known. Along the peninsula, isolated from the mainland by mountains, is a small corridor of walkable terrain, with beaches on either end, called (shockingly) Railay East and Railay West. To the west of the peninsula is the town of Ao Nang, and to the east is Ao Nammao (town is used loosely here – there are maybe 30 buildings total). The only way to the beaches is by longtail boat, which are a blast to ride in.

We stayed in Ao Nammao at a beautiful small hotel and took a longtail boat to Railay every day to go sea kayaking, swim, and play volleyball (for me, while Mary went swimming and took some amazing photos). The sea kayaking is simply amazing, we went all around the peninsula, and most of the time you have these limestone cliffs reaching up at least 200 feet above you, frequently with a large caves and overhangs at the base, plus a ton of small islands to paddle around and explore. Plus the water is a beautiful sparkling blue-green color and super warm, making it fun to pop off the kayak into the water. This is a climbers heaven, and we saw many people trying their skills against the faces and overhangs.

The sand here, like the sand on the Similan Islands, is simply amazing. It feels like silk as it runs through your fingers and toes, and is by far the finest grained sand I’ve ever felt. The wind off the ocean keeps it from getting too warm, and the sky is a perfect blue – this is pretty close to heaven. We’ll definitely be coming back here!

Days 87-88: Similan Islands, Thailand

Wow! After going snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, we thought that any other snorkeling we did on the trip would be something of a let down.

We were entirely wrong! I found some info about the Similan Islands on the western edge of Thailand, 70 km out from Kho Lak. It’s a group of nine islands, now turned into a national park, with no commercial developments, although the park runs campgrounds on two of the islands. We decided to do a two day snorkeling expedition, which turned out to be a perfect amount of time and only cost $150 per person, including 5 meals, an AC bungalow on the island, gear rentals, and door to door bus service! If anyone is interested, we highly recommend Jack Similan tours – although their email response wasn’t the best, the rest of the tour was excellent!

On the first day we had to leave really early (6am) for a 2 hour bus ride up to Koh Lak, then an hour and a half speedboat ride out the islands. We then did one dive (each dive was an hour) in some of the clearest water I’ve ever seen. The sea floor was 6 to 10 meters, and visibility was perfect to the bottom and about 40 meters all around us! The sea was calm, the sun was bright, and there were thousands of fish and dozens of types of coral.

We headed to one of the islands for a tasty Thai lunch, then headed back out to visit another couple dive sites, seeing some different fish and coral varieties, plus lots of new rock formations and island scenery. Then we headed to the island where we’d be spending the night and had a few hours to explore and rest. Mary slept while I went rock hopping and swimming, sending thousands of crabs scurrying for safety. Later on we had dinner, then saw an incredible sunset, including having the entire sky turn yellow and then orange (seriously, check out the pictures!). Everyone passed out early, except for us, since our mattress turned out to be a piece of stone :-(

The next day came way too soon, but we were revitalized by a nice breakfast on board, then headed out for another couple dives. The first stop (Miang Island, I think) was the most incredible site I’ve ever seen – turtles, Moray eels, coral snakes, octopi, sea horses, sea stars, lots of parrot and trigger fish, visibility farther than I could measure, and no one there besides our group of ten snorkelers! Plus we chased some Barracuda for a brief bit, until they turned on their jets and blew us away. The second stop had just as good of visibility, although somewhat less sea life, but had tons of fun shooting through gaps in the rocks, riding the surging waves through them! Then we outran some jellyfish, did some deep dives, and headed back in for lunch.

On both the islands we set foot on (lunch the first day and our overnight stop) there were fun climbs up to rocky peaks of the islands, offering great vistas and lots of photo ops. Even if you don’t normally check out our photos from the trip, I’d highly recommend these, they’re a lot of fun!

We met a lot of great people on the trip, including a few very nice Canadians (there seem to be a lot of them here in Thailand!) and several Brits. Everyone had a wonderful time and was tremendously happy – how could we not be? Even the trip back was exciting, as we saw a whale surface four times, including a couple within ten feet of the boat! Needless to say we were very tired when we got back to Phuket that evening!

Days 83-86: Phuket, Thailand

We took a short flight from Penang across the border to the resort island of Phuket to avoid the long train and bus ride up from Butterworth (the airline is called Firefly, a big hit for fans of the TV show, such as Mary!). We made some friends in the airport by retrieving their ATM card from the machine. With our new friends, we proceeded to share a shuttle bus down to the (infamous?) Patong Beach. On the way down we stopped briefly at a travel agency where they tried to sell us tours, but we spent the whole time playing with their cute kitten.

I’m sure Patong is nowhere near as bad as the real centers of the Thai sex industry (such at Pattaya), but there were prostitutes everywhere! Mary didn’t recognize them as such, and there is some question as to which of them were simply women looking for farang (western) husbands, but many were clearly working the streets. At times it seemed that every third western man we saw walking down the street had a Thai woman on his arm (frequently half his age and vastly more attractive). On the streets with all the go go bars and nightclubs, there are lines of women just standing around, all dressed up and waiting for company. The bars are also filled with women, to keep the men interested, and presumably buying drinks.

That aside, Patong is a nice town, with a lot of great food. We found a small restaurant with reasonable prices and had such good Tom Yum soup that we decided to come back several times. The soup got spicier each time we came back, starting with no chilies (but a spicy base, hotter than anything you’d get in the states) and gaining about 3 chilies a visit, until on our last visit it reached our limits – how much hotter it would’ve gotten is hard to say, but it did seem they were reaching a limit as to how many chilies they could fit into the bowl! They had a lot of other good food too, but the soup was definitely the highlight.

Patong originally became popular due to its beach, and it hasn’t gone anywhere, although there are many more beach chairs on it now. We spent a relaxing day on the beach, interrupted only by the passing trucks blaring the details of tonight’s Muay Thai boxing match – every night is the biggest match of the year! Later on, we got Thai Massages to relax our sore muscles from a day on the beach! Very relaxing – great on the legs, perhaps not refined on the upper back, at least where we got them. And not sketchy at all, despite the reports we’d heard beforehand about what may or may not be included in a Thai Massage.

There's a lot of great snack food on the streets of Patong (although not much in the way of real food), including roasted corn on the cob, fresh fruit, and "Pancakes" -- thin crepes stuffed with sweet and savory fillings, including our favorite of banana and Nutella. Great for keeping you going while walking around the town and watching all the other tourists and locals!

Days 74-82: Penang, Malaysia

The train ride from KL up to Butterworth on the northwestern corner of peninsular Malaysia was similar to the ride up from Singapore, although the country is clearly more developed towards the northern end. We passed several large towns, including Ipoh, the gateway to the central highlands of Malaysia. It would’ve been fun to stop there and see the national park, but we decided to go straight up to Penang. Similarly, we were sad to miss Malacca, on the southwestern coast, but the train doesn’t go there. Next time! There’s a lot of Malaysia to explore, including Borneo, which I’d love to visit.

After getting off the train in Butterworth, it’s a short walk to the ferry to Georgetown, on the island of Penang, The ferry only takes 15 minutes, and is somewhat reminiscent of the Star Ferry in Hong Kong (not surprising, given that they’re both former British colonies, I suppose), although Georgetown is not nearly as built up as HK. All the locals on the ferry (especially the kids) were very interested in us, and had a hard time deciding whether to look out over the water or at directly at us. One guy actually did a double take as we sat down and asked where we were from.

We decided to stay in Penang for a while so that I could have some solid time to do some contract work for my former employer, Black Duck Software, as well as do planning for the next few stages of our trip. When we weren’t working, we spent most of the rest of the time sampling some of Penang’s spectacular hawker food. There are hundreds of food carts along the roads, selling a wide range of food, including local Malaysian specialties, fresh fruit, Chinese, and “Western” dishes. The food is uniformly excellent, and an entire meal for two can be had for 6 US dollars.

Every night, but especially on the weekends, there is a large night market stretching down one of the roads near our hotel. Incredibly, the market is entirely disassembled every day, and all the stalls are pulled off onto hidden alcoves, only to reappear and be reassembled in half an hour every night. It was fun to watch the locals roll the stalls out into position, pull up a car or truck packed to capacity with goods, and load everything directly onto the racks. The highlight of the market was the food court, which had 20 vendors offering a variety of food. There were also delicious fruit drinks. We tried, but failed, to sample them all.