Ben's SE Asia Voyage - bhkann

Ha Long bay

bhkann — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Through our hostel we arranged a two-day, one-night excursion to Ha Long Bay. Ha Long Bay is in northern Vietnam near the Chinese border. It is a bay dotted with thousands of limestone cliffs. We boarded our boat and set off.

Our boat

The scenery was breathtaking, and, as seems to be the pattern on this trip, too big, and too beautiful to be captured properly on my 6-megapixel Canon. Here are some pictures anyways...

Cave at Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay

We stopped at a large karst formation and walked through a few of its caves. We continued on through the bays, stopping at a fishing village where they had on display a virtual aquarium of different types of fish and sea creatures. Finally, we parked for the night and were given time to jump off the boat's deck and swim.

Ha Long Bay

Jumping...

...into the water - Halong Bay

Chillen on the boat

The next morning we kayaked around the bay for a bit and then returned to the port. Back in Hanoi, we found a great beer hal that served Czech beer, and to our Surprise was dominated by locals. It was a nice way to cap off our time in Vietnam. With our trip approaching its end, we have one last stop where we head today: Hong Kong.

Frenzied in Hanoi

bhkann — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

First glimpses of Hanoi

We had heard a slew of negative things about visiting Hanoi - "the people are aggressive," "you will get hustled," etc... The Lonely Planet said that scams were common, especially when booking excursions out of the city. We were pleased that during our three days in Hanoi, we found, with an exception or two, people to be extremely hospitable and friendly. The exception or two was getting out of the airport (some random guy, who smelled like booze, followed us around for a while trying to convince us to ride with him to the city - no thanks) and dealing with Hanoi traffic (crossing the street was an adventure - there are very few traffic lights in Hanoi and intersections are pure chaos - Corey nearly got knocked over by a moped going the wrong direction out of his lane).

Corey attempting to cross the street at night

Aside from that, Hanoi was great! It was good to see locals out everywhere and not feel like we were in a strictly tourist zone for once.

We arrived at our hostel to find that it had been fully booked for the night - no worries - we were hooked up with a free upgrade to the owner's hotel a few minutes away. The hotel was extremely nice - we even had our own computer with internet in the room (for a total of $16 US / night).

For dinner we had Pho, a Vietnamese specialty that is a chicken noodle broth with various spices - kinda like Ramen.

The next morning we walked around Hanoi in the blistering heat. The city is chaotic and noisy, but in a cool, culturally interesting way.

Crazy Hanoi at night

The streets are packed with scooters and bicycles, and people walking with baskets of food and fruit everywhere. It was very cool. We went to the Temple of Literature, an important cultural landmark in Vietnam that honors, among other things, Confucious and his impact on Vietnamese culture. At night we went out for some cheap beers (around 80 cents a pint) and sampled some of the nightlife.

Sweet beer-hall

The next morning, we would be traveling to Ha Long Bay, originally the reason we had headed to Hanoi in the first place.

Viva Cambodia

bhkann — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Though we have only spent 3 days in Cambodia, I feel like I could write pages and pages on this place. It is an complex land, with complex people who have gone through incredibly tragic things in recent past. This is set side by side with the other-worldly beauty of Cambodia's ancient past - that of the awe-inspiring temples and cities constructed by the Khmer empires from hundreds up to a thousand years ago.

Welcome to Cambodia

Despite having gone through so much hardship (from the Khmer Rouge genocide which claimed over 2 million lives in the late 70s to the brutal Vietnamese occupation to the recent communist party takeover) along with being an incredibly poor population (average income is a couple dollars a day), the Cambodian people we encountered were all extremely nice, gracious, and had a certain pride for their country - an eagerness to show-off what Cambodia has to offer (I should note that we were only in Siem Reap, where most Cambodians we encountered were affiliated with the tourist industry - our view may be slightly skewed). By the end of our time there I really came to admire them.

I learned more from our taxi driver in a few days than I learned about Thailand our entire trip.

We were picked up by our driver and agreed to let him take us around the Angkor temples over the next 2 days. He had an incredible, tragic story that I get the feeling is similar to that of many other Cambodians: His father, a teacher, was murdered by the Khmer Rouge when he was seven. His brother was killed by a Vietnamese-planted landmine in later years (Cambodia is on of the most heavily mined countries in the world - 4 to 6 million still remain). He explained the current plight of his family and many other Cambodians: Education is not encouraged or supported by Cambodia's government. There is only one public university in the country and even that one costs around $500 a year. On a salary of a few dollars a day, hardly anyone can afford that, and thus, the population stays uneducated. Meanwhile, while elections are held in name every few years, the communist party controls the police and the army, and is unwilling to give up any power. Thus reforms, like funding for education and medical care, are impossible to implement. There is no freedom of speech, and any denouncing of the prime minister can result in harrassment or arrest. It seems Cambodians are forced to deal with a government that's goal is the suppression of its people - keep them uneducated and unconnected in order to stay in power.

That said, the people seem to maintain a cautious optimism that someday things might change, though without heavy international pressure, I'm not so sure.

I could go on and on, but nowwww, back to our trip!

We settled into our guesthouse (which was VERY nice for a price of $6 /night per person). The next morning our driver picked us and we started our tour of the Angkor temples.

Street outside our guesthouse

The Angkor temples were built over hundreds of years, from around the 800s to around the 1600s. There was a large Hindu influence in Cambodia in the early years, and thus, many of the temples are Hindu temples. Later, Buddhism took over, and many of the later temples reflect that.

Bayon Temple - Happy faces

Our first stop was Angkor Thom - which literally means "Great City". The architecture was incredible. It is really hard to capture this stuff in pictures and I recommend that it definitely checked out in person. The first temple we saw was Bayon - famous for its 54 towers containing 4 faces in opposite directions for 216 total faces!

Outside Bayon

Bayon Temple

Angkor Thom

We then visited a few other temples including my favorite - Ta Prohm. This one was overgrown with these amazing, huge trees. I felt like I was on the set of an Indiana Jones movie. Actually, it was used as the movie set for a recent temple hunting movie, Tomb Raider.

Temple hunting in Ta Prohm

Angkor Thom

Ta Prohm

Sweet - Ta Prohm

After a few more temples and palaces in Angkor Thom, we had lunch, and made our way over to the main event - Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world, and damn is it large...Again, the pictures here don't do it justice, go yourself.

The Big One - Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat with some kiddies

Angkor Wat carvings

Inside Angkor Wat

We returned back to the guesthouse in the afternoon and wandered into town for some food. We had a specialty Khmer dish called "fish amok" which is a curry-like prepared fish served in a banana leaf.

Fish Amok with assorted side dishes

The next morning we set out for the second half of our Angkor temples explorations (there are tons and tons of temples everywhere, and apparently some people spend up to a week and beyond exploring them). This time we drove out through the countryside where it is rice-paddy dominated.

Watch out for the ox-carts

Rice farmers

Rice farmer

We visited a few amazing ruins - Banteay Srei, Sumrai?, and the Roulos Group.

2nd day temples

Banteay Srei, i think?

Boo!

Roulos

Kid dosing under elephant - Roulos

Towers in Roulos Group

Holy Cow

By then end of the day we were templed out, and because our time is short, decided to take off to our next destination: Hanoi, Vietnam. Cambodia was really great though, and I'd like to come back here sometime to get a fuller experience of the country.

End of the Islands - The Full Moon Party

bhkann — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The full moon is significant to many cultures for various reasons. In southern Thailand, it is an excuse to host an enormous island beach party, the scale of which is dizzying, with 50+ bars/clubs, techno/house/rave music, and, of course, tens of thousands of people. The Full Moon Party was to be the grand finale of our island stint, and as it turns out, our last hurrah in Thailand all together.

Fresh off our diving certifications, we took the ferry south to the island of Ko Samui. Ko Samui is a less developed version of Phuket, but still way more developed tahn the typical backpacker destination. There are many tourists here of all shapes and sizes. There are more families and older couples, perhaps due to the abundance of midrange-to-luxury accomodations. The, or maybe it's all the McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Subways squeezed together. We were able to find a decently priced guesthouse called Embassy that was great. We met up with our friend Ash, from Tufts who currently lives in Hong Kong, and two of his friends. The nightlife in Samui is strong - lots of beach bars and clubs. Turns out our hostel was next to a great, 24 hour thai food place - great for the late night pad thai cravings.

Ash was staying at a really nice hotel on the beach, so the next day we went over there to relax by the pool and rest up for he full moon party.

The party takes place on an island called Koh Phangnan, which is sandwiched in between Ko Tao and Ko Saui. During the night of the party, speedboats are run constantly from Samui to Phangnan, so we hopped on one at night, and set off to the party spot.

Arriving in Ko Phangnan was something like stepping into a hedonistic/bohemian/teenage wasted-land. Locals were selling 'buckets'of drinks being gulpd down by the masses. Some people were shirtless and most had neon paint splattered over themselves in trippy-hippy patterns or slogans. We decided to blend right in and got neon-ed up (In case your were wondering - at the advice of many people, I did not take a camera with me and currently have no pictures of this madness - maybe that is for the best, however, Ash's friend brought her's and is going to give them to me next week, so I'll post a couple then). We entered the beach and were greeted by thousands of people on the sand, up on platforms, on roofs, dancing to blaring techno music. There were fire jugglers and torches all over the place. It had a kind of tribal feel to it.

We stayed out until sunrise (the place was still packed by then), and took a longtail boat back to Samui around 7am for some much needed zzzzzs. We relaxed by the pool later that day, and stayed one more night (only thing notable here was getting locked out my hostel, having to track down a place to sleep at 3am - it all worked out fine though. That, and Corey and I have finally come down with a bit of stomach problems). Today, we sadly leave Thailand and head to Cambodia to see, among other things, Angkor Wat. More later!

Open Water SCUBA - Ko Tao

bhkann — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

With about 15 people squeezed into a minibus (fit for about 11 people), we set off for the east coast. A high-speed catamaran called the "Lomprayah" took us from the port to the island of Ko Tao.

At the pier in Chumpon, east coast

Ko Tao (which means "Turtle Island" in Thai) is the smallest and least developed of the chain of three islands in the gulf of Thailand (Koh Samui and Koh Phangnan are the other two - see the map). It is known for its laid-back atmosphere and its multitude of scuba dive-shops. In fact, Ko Tao is the second-most popular place in the world for getting scuba certifications, apparently.

We enrolled in a 4-day course to get our open-water scuba certs. The course was a ton of fun.

Scuba Junction - Our training spot

The first two days involved watching a few movies, learning about a slew of possible things that can go wrong underwater (gulp), learning to use the scuba gear, and taking our first few breathes underwater. The last two days were where we really got a chance to experience diving with 4 open-water dives with our instructor up to about 60 feet deep!

The team! (with our awesome instructor, Sandra)

At the end of day 4, we took a final exam, and I'm happy to say I am now a certified openwater scuba diver (I can dive anywhere with a buddy up to 18m or ~60 feet). We celebrated last night with a few drinks with our instructor and then passed out, looking forward to sleeping in for once in the last few days.

Aside from diving, Ko Tao is great. Again, it is an island with very few cars, and although the scenery isn't as breathtaking as the Andaman coast, it is still one of the most beautiful islands I've seen.

Sunset over Sairee beach, Ko Tao

Today we rented mopeds and explored some less traveled-to beaches on the island. In a few minutes we will be hopping on the ferry over to the largest island in the Gulf, Koh Samui.

Sairee beach, Ko Tao

Here we will meet up with another Tufts friend, and it will be our jumping off point for tomorrow night's full-moon party.

Our Full Dose of the Andaman Coast

bhkann — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Almost poster-worthy

Sunset + Beer = Awesome

Ko Phi Phi (pronounced Pee-Pee) is one of those places that comes to mind when words like "pristine," "breathtaking," and "enchanting" are tossed around. The landscape of the Andaman coast is truly beautiful - limestone cliffs jutting out of crystal blue, warm waters that lap against sandy shores lined with palm trees.

Bamboo Island

If you like those tropical/beach posters that college students and stressed out white-collared workers tack onto there walls - you can thank the Andaman coast. And if you like the gorgeous scenery in that Leonardo DiCaprio movie, "The Beach," you can thank Ko Phi Phi (it was filmed there).

Sunset with cool rocks

We arrived via ferry from Phuket and walked (there are no cars / scooters on Phi Phi) to our Guesthouse. We settled in and enjoyed the sunset on the main beach. Our Guesthouse there was pretty dingy (our room was RIGHT next to the septic system and we saw cockroach and her child crawling skittering around our floor a couple times). No matter - we spent very little time here, because everything is outside in Phi Phi.

Maya Bay - Location of "The Beach"

The next morning we took a long-boat tour around Phi Phi and its neighboring islands. We stopped to swim a few times and did some excellent snorkeling (TONS of fish here and the visibility is incredible). We visited "Monkey Beach," which hosted many, many Li monkeys who were not shy.

Monkey Beach

We visited Maya Bay (the actual beach where "The Beach" was filmed), which was gorgeous as hell, and watched the sunset from our boat.

Ahhhh, the beach (Maya Bay)

SWEET - Bamboo Island

Sunset on a Boat

There are a lot of young tourists / backpackers around Phi Phi and thus lots of nightlife to keep us satiated. Eventually, late into the night, the crowds wander down to the beach where makeshift bars / clubs / discos offer specials on "drink buckets." They are also big on "fire-shows" on the islands - professional fire jugglers perform and they get the drunken tourists involved with "fire limbo" and jumping through fire-hoops. (No pictures of this have been found yet...)

The next day we left Phi Phi and took a ferry to Krabi, which is on the mainland of Thailand. Again, we were greeted with stunning beaches, but this time with less of a crowd, and huge cliffs.

Krabi is a top destination for rock climbers, so I felt that I needed to get a taste of it here. Today, we took a longboat to Railey beach, and I signed up for a half day rock-climbing tour.

It was the first time I climbed outdoors, and it was awesome! The climbs were of varying difficulty but most had great views of the bay and the islands at the top of them. I will be sore tomorrow, I'm sure.

Speaking of tomorrow - we will be switching to the east coast of the peninsula - The Gulf of Thailand. First stop is Ko Tao where will be getting our SCUBA certifications. More later!

First Taste of Island Life - Phuket is a Zoo

bhkann — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

After a 12 hour travel extravaganza minibus, flight, flight, taxi), we finally arrived at Patong Beach in Phuket. Phuket is on the Andaman coast (west side) of the Thai peninsula. The coast as a whole is known for its ridiculously scenic beaches, cliffs, and rock formations. Phuket itself is a bit of a different story. Though I'm sure there is some fantastic natural beauty on Phuket, Patong beach is a highly developed zoo of hotels, malls, bars, disco, and prostitutes. Not to mention our newly discovered phenomena of older white men out on dates with young Thai womens (basically escort services). The emphasis on Phuket is on partying - at all times.

Arrival to Phuket

So, we went against the grain, and saw Transformers 2 when we arrived at a spankin' new, giant movie theater complex.

We spent the next day on the beach (which, aside from the crowds, is actually quite nice). Beacuse Thailand is in its low tourist season, we've found that places are actually never that crowded. We've been told by guides that the crowds increase about 4-fold in the winter months - I can't even imagine how hectic it gets.

Patong beach by day

At night, we met a few locals and went to a healthy handful of bars, including a rock-cover band bar - brought me back to my Fat Tuesday days - followed by a Euro-style disco.

ROCK OUT

Lots of these signs everywhere in Phuket

Though the nightlife is pretty awesome here, we decided to step out of one tourist trap and head to another - an incredibly beautiful one: Ko Phi Phi - apparently the be-all-end-all of Thailand's beaches and island scenery. More on that later.

By the way, I've posted a few more pics from Pai (including the elephant ones, Mom). Also, I haven't written about Ko Phi Phi yet, but I've posted a few pics from there, as well (in the general photo section).

The Dude Abides in Pai

bhkann — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

If there is one expression that sums up this hippie-minded, New Age mecca in northern Thailand, it is "no worries." Pai, (pronounced "Bai"), is a small towm of about 3000 residents, mixed between native Thai and ex-pats, who settled here to live or raise families in a care-free, mountain village environment.

Though it is only accessible by an extremely bumpy and stomach-churning minibus ride, pai is still packed with backpackers and tourists.

We checked into our river-side hostel and went out around town. As one might imagine in a community filled with artists and musicians, there is a great nightlife and music scene. The bars are all very funky and creatively designed. The people here are also incredibly friendly and actually not looking to scam foreigners.

Pai is situated close to the hill tribe villages, and the next morning we embarked on a trek through the rainforest to see a few of them.

First we went through a Lisu village, then a Lahu one. Our trek guide, Toi, was great and taught us (well tried to teach us) how to make cups out of bamboo shoots. He also like to sing Beatles songs throughout the trek.

We returned to the town center and went out with a few people to a classic rock bar (they love all old rock/hippie music here).

The next morning we rented mopeds and rode them around the back mountain roads. This area proved to be a perfect place to learn how to ride, as there is no traffic, and the scenery is beautiful (after realizing how tough it was getting used to left-side of the road driving, we were thankful that we had decided not to try mopeds in Bangkok).

My beloved moped - Blue Steel

Mopeds

After riding around for a bit, we parked at an elephant camp outside Pai and had our first elephant rides. It was pretty awesome for the first 2-3 minutes, but then its gets kinda sore and uncomfortable. The trainers had the elephants do a crazy stunt where they basically fall into the river with us still on top of them (see pics).

On the elephant

Off the elephant

Back on the elephant

Afterwards, we returned to town, ate and chilled out with some people we had met over the last few days. It is crazy to think that a place like this exists in the middle of northern Thailand. Many people we met had lived elsewhere and then decided to settle down here. The care-free, friendly-neighbor, and fun-all-the-time attitude is infectious. Lying in a hammock with faint jazz music in the background, I could see why.

Chilllll hammock lounge

Nevertheless, it is time to move on, away from the career-and-money-don't-matter mindset, back to what one might call "the real world." Oh well. Maybe I'll buy a hammock for my med-school dorm when I get back.

We decided to postpone our trip to frenetic Vietnam and instead first get our full dose of Thailand's southern islands. First stop: Phuket on the Andaman coast.

Backpackers, Tigers, and Temples - Chiang Mai

bhkann — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Yes, they let you chill with tigers here. Gotta love Thailand.

We arrived in Chiang Mai Tuesday evening and finally were greeted with a scene full of foreign travelers. I guess we finally picked up the typical backpacker trail. We met a guy named Adam, an Israeli living in LA, who was alone and decided to check into a guesthouse with him. The following night we met tons of traveler's out at night - some with really interesting and crazy stories. One in particular - a 24-year old Brit who was on his 11th month of travel and had visited, among others, Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Somalia (stowed-away on a cargo freighter), and Sudan. Sounded like a "how can I get myself killed fast enough?" kind of trip. But he had some incredible stories about people he met there. Maybe next trip, Dad? HAH.

Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand (I think), but compared to Bangkok it seems like a small suburb. It is easily walkable and dotted with old Buddhist temples (like just about every city I've seen in Thailand so far). It also has rained a bit more here, which is nice because it cools down afterwards. Yesterday, we met a guy from Toronto and hired a taxi to take us around a few of the major sites/attractions of Chiang Mai. First we went to the Tiger Kingdom. There are a few places where you can hang out with Tigers in Thailand, but we heard that at this place, there was less of a chance that the animals were really treated cruelly and drugged up, and other nasty things.

Anyways - the pictures speak for themselves, I guess - it seemed a little crazy at first. We asked the guide bringing us into the dens if anything bad had ever happened to tourists here. He said yes. We asked him what, and he started laughing and said he wasn't allowed to tell us. Sweet. It was a really cool experience, once the fear wore off, but I think I'll just check that one off the list and not try it again.

We continued on to a lake settled in the midst of some mountain ranges, got lunch, and went for a swim. Chiang Mai is known for having great food, and although we haven't ventured or explored to much to find great places, even the little cafes near our guesthouses serve of very tasty Thai standards - curries, pad-thais, soups, etc. This is more of the Americanized-Thai variety, unlike the foods I was eating with Joe for the first few days in Bangkok - but that is OK by me.

After the lake, we visited a temple on top of a mountain that overlooks Chiang Mai, and got massages.

Today, we are going to head to a town in very-Northern Thailand and take a 2-day Jungle trek. And we are in the process of getting our Vietnam Visas, so it looks like if those com through, we will be squeezing Hanoi into our itinerary before returning to the southern islands of Thailand.

Living on the River - Kanchanaburi

bhkann — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

On Sunday we said goodbye to Joe and Bangkok and set off for Kanchanaburi. Kanch is a region made famous by the move, "The Bridge over the River Kwai," but also has many other things to offer the tourist/backpacker.

We arrived at the bus stations and took a pcik-up truck taxi to the main backpacker strip (for whatever reason, all taxi rides in this area consist of getting on the backs of covered pcik-up trucks - nice breeze). A really cool thing about this area is that many of the guesthouses have accomodations that are literally on the Kwai River (see pics).

View from our room at Sugar Cane

Though our rooms are far from luxurious and we have discovered that we are sharing them with a family of salamanders, waking up to sunrise right on the river is really really cool (and so is paying 5 bucks a night).

Our Deck (comes with mosquitos free of charge)

Sugar Cane Guesthouse

On Monday we decided to take a guided tour that coveed the highlights of Kancha. First off was a hike and swim up the incredible 7-tiered waterfall, Erawan Falls. Virtually a water playground paradise, this was easily the highlight of the entire trip so far, an one of the coolet experiences I've ever had. Something about jumping off rocks through waterfalls into crystal-blue water just does not get old. The waterfalls were breathtaking, and we even saw a group of monkeys during the hike.

At the bottom of Erawan

Mike gets major air

Fall #2? (i think?)

Next we visited Hellfire Pass and its War Museum.

Hellfire Pass WWII Memorial Museum

Hellfire Pass was a stretch of railroad cut through solid rock (a sort of gorge) that the Japanese forced POWs and other Asians to build during WWII.

Hellfire Pass

Following this, we saw a cave that was a war-time malaria hospital now converted to a Buddha-filled temple, and the bridge over the River Kwai itself (they try to hype it up, but it's really just a bridge....).

Cave near hellfire pass. I don't know why my hat is so shiny.

Bridge over the River Kwai

One of the most entertaining parts of the day was conversing with our Thai guide, Mai, who was very charismatic, though had a very poor grasp of the English language. Her answers to our questions were basically always an oblivious "Yes" accompanied with a smile and a laugh, even when we her answers contradicted each other. Often she would not even realize we were asking questions. Example:

Us (sweating vigorously after our hike): Hey Mai, is there AC in the restaurant we are going to?
Mai (smiling and laughing): hahahah
Us (shrugging): ....

Though we perhaps didn't learn as much as we could have, our conversations ended up being sources of constant humor throughout the day.

After our tour, we hung out at some of the bars around the strip that were all somewhat empty and desperate for clientele. It seems like, in general, whether due to the economy tanking our it just being the off-season, the tourist trail is significantly less crowded than what I expected. This is a great thing when it comes to sight-seeing (we had the waterfalls to ourselves most of the time) and having cultural experiences, but it would be nice if there were more travelers out to meet. This will probably change, for better or worse, when we get to the islands down south.

Today (Tuesday) we will wrap up here and head to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. More later.

Finding My Inner Buddha - Ayuttahaya

bhkann — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday we set off on an excursion with Joe, his girlfriend, Arm, and her friend, mother and grandmother. They had rented a luxurious minivan to travel in, and due to some extra space, they were gracious enough to invite us along for the day. It was great meeting the family and getting a glimpse into Buddhist Thai culture and tradition. Arm's family occupies an entire four-story building. Her whole family lives together - parents, both sets of grandparents, uncles, aunts, you name it. (And I thought my family was close!) Apparently this set-up is typical of traditional Thai culture (though apparently less so now than it used to be) - the younger generation is responsible for taking care of the elders - no nursings home here! Throughout the day we learned tidbits of Buddhist culture and custom from our Thai hosts. I feel like I have just taken a course on it.

We set off on a two hour drive to Ayutthaya, which was Thailand's capital over 500 years ago. We saw some very cool temple ruins and climbed up them. We also saw some current temples and some gigantic Buddha idols (see pictures) including the biggest Buddha in Thailand (even bigger than the reclining Buddha). We took part in some Buddhist customs - one involed shaking a jar of numbered sticks until one falls out - then you get a corresponding horoscope-esque fortune that can either be very good or bad depending on your stick's number. I was very proud that mine spoke of being very powerful and successful or something. We joked about ours, but Buddhists take it extremely seriously. A bad fortune can really break their day.

We ate lunch at a restaurant that was way set back from the road and looked like a deserted, dilapidated shack at first glance. It turned out, however, to be packed with Thais on the inside, and the food was pretty good. We visited more temples in the afternoon, and then Arm's family braved the Bangkok traffic and graciously dropped us off at our hostel.

Last night we met up with Mike and went to a Muay Thai match - a form of boxing/martial arts popular in thailand. It seemed like a typical fight except that there were about a hundred Thais off to the side of the ring gambling and placing bets and passing money around like crazy. Picture the floor of the new york stock exchange - with the symbols and gestures and yelling - on crack. People were taking it very seriously - to us, it was almost as entertaining as the actual match.

That's it for now. Tomorrow we are leaving Bangkok and heading to Kanchanaburri, the site of the river Kwai.

PICTURES!

bhkann — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I've uploaded some photos from the trip thus far and will stick them in the appropriate blog entries. For now, you can just click on "photos".

Bangkok Sprawls and the "Must-Sees"

bhkann — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Bangkok has a type of confusion, chaos, and complexity that I have not experienced while traveling before. We did not come fully to grips with this until Joe (my Thai local friend) left us for only a few hours. But that comes a little later.

Yesterday morning we woke up around 6AM - not because we had places to be, but because the jet-lag really makes not want to sleep when you should be sleeping (Bangkok is 11 hours ahead of Eastern time, so you start wanting to pass out sometime in the mid-afternoon). My friend Joe met us at our hostel. - A short bit about that: we are staying at the Lub D Bangkok hostel. It has turned out to be a great pick. The rooms are all air-conditioned, the bathrooms are nicer than most hotels I've stayed at, and there is free wi-fi throughout the entire place. It is ridiculous that we are paying less than $20 a night for this, although I am getting used to ridiculously cheap prices for just about everything, from food to transport to massages. The dollar goes a VERY long way here.

We set out for some of the big touristy attractions of Bangkok - the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha Temple. To get there we took a 30 min boat-shuttle up the river. We passed by lots of river-side markets, pretty cool sites. We arrived at the Temple and met up with our Tufts friend Mike and his girlfriend, Sierra. Joe took us around the temples giving us some insight into their origins and cultural importance (no 500bht tour-guide necessary!). The temples were really breathtaking and fantastic to look at (I'll post pictures in the next couple days). Afterwards, we got lunch at a Thai restaurant and proceeded to a new museum in Thailand called the "Museum of Siam," followed by another temple with a massive (must've been 100+ feet long and 40+ feet high) reclining Buddha. Buddhism is a huge part of Thai life and I'm learning some stuff about that.

After the big Buddha we went to a massage school (on the temple grounds) and got our first Thai massages, which involve some creative and sometimes painful techniques like jumping on top of your back and cracking all your fingers and toes. Very relaxing!

Corey and I split off from the group, our afternoon jet-lag in full swing. We got back to the room and passed out for about an hour. Our plan was then to meet Joe, his girlfriend, Mike and Sierra at a Thai super mall, and have dinner.

It was a big change trying to get around without a Thai-speaker. Our first cab drive tried to convince us that, rather than go to the super mall for dinner, what we really wanted to do was visit a tailor and buy shirts. After repeatedly saying no, we finally made it halfway to our destination, and took the highly modern and really fast SkyTrain the rest of the way. That night we had dinner at a great Thai place and spent a couple of hours on a really nice rooftop bar overlooking the city (pictures to follow here). Afterwards Corey and I headed back to our hostel which is situated surprisingly close to one of Bangkok's Red Light District. We decided took soak in the Thai culture and take a walk through the nightime Red Light Baazar and market. It was slightly amusing, but overall actually pretty depressing. We bounced out of there and passed out at the hostel, trying to get some sleep for today's trip - we're heading with Joe and his Girlfriend's family to Ayutthaya, Thailand's ancient capital. I'm looking forward to it, though I am pretty exhausted. Overall, so far, Bangkok has been a real assault on the senses, but in a great way!

1st Arrival

bhkann — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Three flights, two layovers, one Ambien, one sprint through the Hong Kong airport (JUST made my flight), and about 27 hours later I finally made it into Bangkok's international airport. Shortly after, I met Corey at the information terminal.

Exhausted and somewhat delirious, fortunately we did not need to navigate our way to the hostel ourselves. My Thai friend Werapong or "Joe" as he is known to his American friends picked us up from the airport. I was pleased to learn that he not only would be around that night, but for the next couple days in Bangkok, and that he would take us around the touristy sight-seeing attractions by day and take us out by night. Already from our check-in at the hostel, I can tell you it is GREAT having a local with us (Our check-in rate mysteriously dropped from >2,500 baht to ~1,400 bht (approx. $20 for each of us).

Joe also taught us a few key expressions in Thai (which is completely unrecognizable to English-speakers):

"Kob kun krap" - which means "thank you"
and "Saw wa dee" which means hello/what's up

I'm on my way to fluency...baby steps.

Also, not that it was a shocker, but it is HOT here. H-O-T. Stepping out of the airport, the air that hits you is thick, steamy, and immediately sticky. And this was at midnight (my friend Joe remarked that this was a "mild night" as we walked out of the airport). Due to the extreme heat, A/C is extremely prevalent, however, so we slept very Comfortably last night. The recipe for Comfort here seems like frequent showers and continual applications of Gold Bond. I'm prepared, at least, on that front.

Anyways, today we are meeting up with Joe and he is going to take us around the "must-see" Bangkok attractions (including the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha Temple). More later.

-Ben

Lift Off

bhkann — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hey All,

I'm sitting here at JFK Int'l waiting for my flight to Bangkok via
Hong Kong. I've got plenty of time to kill and thought I'd take the
opportunity to post my first blog entry. I figured this would be a good way to keep a running log of my trip without the risk of losing it (as I did with my Europe hand-written journal). Also, I thought I could get away with just posting blogs for you guys to read without actually having to send individual e-mails. So, I guess it really just comes down to laziness.
Unfortunately, I have nothing interesting to report right now except
that I'm seeing a handful of people wearing surgical masks. (I've
heard that Hong Kong is particularly paranoid about the Swine Flu
scare). Anyways, I just wanted to get this kicked off while I still
have internet access. Once I get to Thailand, Hopefully I'll be able
to post semi-regularly. See ya on the other side.

-Ben