Greetings from Koh Tao

We just arrived in Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand (East side of the peninsula). We took an overnight boat that was...let's say interesting. It consisted of a big open room with about fifty eighteen inch wide futons packed side by side and a pillow the size of a marshmallow. We thought we might wake up in leg irons on a cotton plantation somewhere. Thankfully, those days are over and we're still free. The deck below ours on our "tramp steamer" was packed with cargo: live plants, a giant pile of rice bags (with someone sleeping on top), bags of concrete, a stack of eggs about four feet high and two feet square. It was quite a night.

While we're excited to be here, it's a sad day. My camera has gone south on me. It still takes pictures but the digital display and viewfinders show gibberish. So, while I can take a picture, I don't know what I'm taking or how much I've zoomed. A shot in the dark, as it were. RATS!!!

Since this is the diving-est place in Thailand, maybe this would be a good time to get a disposable underwater camera.

Stepping back in time....

...this is an image of Princess Cave at Phra Nang beach near Rai Leh bay. This was far and away the busiest beach we've visited. The beaches on Ko Lanta were nearly deserted.

I don't know if you get the whole perspective here, but the limestone stalagmites hanging down are probably close to 100 feet long. Look at the very left edge of the picture to see how tiny the people are that are actually back as far as the stalagmites. Cool, very famous place. The only resort on that little peninsula charges 40,000-55,000 Baht for a bungalow (at 35 Baht to a dollar that's like $1500 U.S.). We, on the other hand, stayed in town in a third floor walk-up with a shared bathroom and a fan, and no outside window. Temperature at midnight -- 92 sweltering degrees. Temperature the next morning -- 89 degrees. WHEW!!

More pics soon. Donna is getting antsy.

Cheers,

Paul

6 Degrees North of the Equator Burns

My burns are actually about 30 degrees south of my equator....the backs of my thighs spent a good day on top of the water soaking in the sun. Like other idiotic tourists, I'm hurting and can't sit down. Short-term pain, long-term gain of viewing gorgeous ocean life.

We found Nemo! While we snorkelled, the Finding Nemo characters lined up as if we were in Australia where it was based; angel fish, tang fish (I think), endless silver streaks of minnow-like things, seastars of brilliant cobalt blue with 17+ tentacles/arms, pipe fish and large clams. No sharks but nasty Monitor Lizards visiting us at lunchtime. Luckily we weren't their lunch. Some Swedish kids screamed to spot Nemo brushing the tentacles of an anenome. (Disney gave us a few words that are universally understood.) The water clarity is 25 meters, best ever. The fish look great and the coral (blue, too!) appears healthy in spite of some coral being covered with sand after the Tsunami.

Though this area was largely protected from the wave, there is evidence of the Tsunami in evacuation route postings, huge earthquake alarm sirens throughout the island, information about coral reef recovery and fishing boat repair efforts.

The nightime sounds of the jungle descend the moment the sun takes itself out of our picture and heads your way. Frighteningly loud buzzing, something like a take-over by swarms of cicadas, start instantaneously. At first we thought they were some warning siren or car alarm. So loud. No insects are visible or identifiable; intriguing and slightly worrisome in the dark. Morning light brings sweet bird sounds. Exotic and cheery.

Think I'll go see what Paul's got to say... BYW: Did he happen to mention our bungalow neighbors are young Swedish models????

Koh Lanta

Greetings from Koh Lanta, the laid-back island that's 49% Thai, 49% Swedish and 2% other.

We're staying in a tiny bamboo hut about 50 meters back from the beach. You can see through the bamboo flooring and walls, which makes for easy entry for the mosquitoes, but we have a lovely pink mosquito net that drapes over our bed. It reminds me of making "blanket tents" in bed when I was a kid.

We got here from Ao Nang by passenger ferry -- a nice air-conditioned trip. Our first afternoon was spent finding a place to sleep and doing some beach lounging. Day before yesterday we rented a scooter (200 baht - about $6) for the day. We drove all over the island, which is bigger than we expected, or perhaps my slow driving just made it seem bigger. We saw the Old Lanta town which has big old weathered Chinese-style stilt buildings with hurricane shutters. It's a bit reminiscent of the old Key West when I was a kid in Florida. We also drove down to the Sea Gypsy village on the far southern tip of the island. Not much to see there, and other than a lot more fish traps and nets, and slightly more traditional clothing, there wasn't anything that seemed particularly gypsy-ish. I guess these people have their own language and culture, and aren't very well integrated into Thai society. Not so many years ago, they were sea pirates with a reputation for thievery. Just a second...yep, my wallet's still there. On the way back we saw a really big snake crossing the road. Big like maybe six feet or more, but smaller around than your wrist. It was moving very fast with its head high. I don't think he liked the hot pavement any more than we do.

Yesterday, we took a fast boat to Koh Rok, a truly world-class snorkeling spot. It's about 30 kilometers over to the island, and we snorkeled in 3 different areas, each with somewhat different scenery. Today, our backs and the backs of our legs look like ripe tomatoes. Youch. Donna, especially, is hurting, or maybe I'm just more stoic. The underwater scenery was spectacular: giant coral heads, many with their tops just a couple feet underwater; blooming multi-colored coral polyps all over the giant structures that would wave in the current then suddenly retract into the coral; fish beyond counting; sea worms; clams that would snap shut in an instant; anemones teeming with clown fish (we found Nemo!); other types of plant an animal life, many with their own symbiotic partners. I saw a sea snake, but only for a moment. It rose up out of the coral in front of me an swam to the surface. I promptly swam the other direction, as many varieties are very venomous. Most are not aggressive, and some have such small mouths that they have a hard time biting unless they can grab a small fleshy part, like between your fingers.

We took bread into the water and were swarmed with yellow and black Sargeant Major fish and parrot fish and other rainbow-colored kinds I can't name. They were in a cloud around us, so many that you could reach out and touch them and they can't get away fast enough. It's a real frenzy. When the crumbs are gone, they will settle for a nip of skin, we discovered.

We had lunch on the beach -- chicken curry, stir-fried vegetables and roasted chicken legs. We shared some chicken bones with the great big water monitor lizards who inhabit the island. Big ones are perhaps four and a half or five feet long, and constantly flick their forked blue tongue. Pictures later.

Today, the word of the day is SHADE and relaxation by the beach. Many places along the beach have really nice bamboo and palm palapas (that's what we'd call them in Mexico - not sure what the Thai word is). Most have a bamboo floor up off the sand and lounging mats with a big triangular wedge pillow on one end so you can sit up and watch the world go by. These Thai pillows are really common and quite nice. I'm surprised I've never seen something like it a Pier 1 or Target or Ikea.

Tomorrow we're taking a combo bus-boat-bus-boat trip across the Thai archipelago to the Gulf of Thailand and a small island called Koh Tao. It's one of the most popular dive sites in the world, so we're hoping to do a scuba refresher day course and get in a dive or two. It's been a number of years since Donna and I dived, so a bit of a refresher would be welcome. There's also a beach on the Southern tip of the island that's supposed to have lots and lots of black-tipped reef sharks that you can see just snorkeling. They're safe (relatively speaking) so that sounds like a fun pulse-quickening adventure. Koh Tao is also one of the best places in the world to see a whale shark, massive beasts over 40 feet long and weighing in excess of 20 tons. Their mouths are five feet across and are used to filter feed on plankton and krill and other unfortunate wee beasties. It would be a great stroke of luck to see one, but hope springs eternal. If you want to see and read about whale sharks, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_shark. A sea turtle seems more likely.

We've discovered that here on Ko Lanta, the beach restaurants sometimes calm down the cuisine for the Swedish palate, but if you wander off the beach to the main road or if you say "Thai style" you can still get the hair-curling, tongue-swelling, fire-breathing incendiary versions of the local curries and soups. Last night's red curry (which ironically is yellow) was even a notch or two above my chili-friendly palate's preference. It's silly, but I find myself blowing on every bite even after its no longer hot, as if somehow I could blow a little spicy off of it! Apparently not.

That's it for me for today. I think I'll go get wet. I can see the turquoise water about 40 feet away. Next time I'll try to put up a photo or two.

Cheers,
Paul

Karen longneck woman

Here's an image of one of the longneck women of the Karen tribe. Originally, they're from Burma (now Myanmar) but many have been displaced by the political situation and genocides there. This village is fairly close to Chiang Mai, which means tourist dollars for these poor people.

The rings (which are really one or two long spirals) on their necks, legs and wrists were originally used to protect the tribal women from Tiger attacks. Apparently tigers will go for the neck first, or if they aren't in position for a neck bite, will grab an arm or leg.

It's since become a tradition and sign of beauty. Even very little girls (five or six) have rings on, though they get bigger and bigger spiral as they age. The rings don't really elongate the neck, but rather deform the shoulders and rib cage. Our tour guide showed us a medical explanation with some xrays. The ribs, rather than being horizontal, bend down over time to almost a 45 degree angle.

Since these people aren't Thai citizens, they can't attend school, and our tour guide (nickname Ping Pong because his Thai name is hard for us farangs -- foreigners -- to pronounce) suggested that if they could go to school the kids would be treated poorly since they're perceived by some as backwards and uneducated.

The women were all weaving and working their little shops. They were shy but friendly, and were happy to have their picture taken (though it's polite to ask first). The men, it seemed were all gambling at cards. Hmmm. Donna didn't take too well to that division of labor.

One other interesting, and slightly shocking detail: we saw a tiny baby playing with a monstrously large handgun. You could see that the barrel had been removed, but it seemed an odd choice of toys, though a very shiny and chrome-plated one.

Paul

Donna, Paul and an elephant

Just to anticipate son Luke's commentary, I'll answer his question in advance. Yes, the elephant IS the one on the bottom.

This shot is from Chiang Mai. Elephant riding sounded lame and touristy, but in fact it was touristy and really really fun. We walked through the river and up and down some incredibly steep spots that test your pachyderm trust quotient. I suppose with feet that big it's easier to be sure-footed.

On to non-picture related things. We're now in Ao Nang in the South of Thailand. Today we took a boat to Railay beach and walked from Railay to Phra Nang. There are amazing limestone formations here that jut directly up out of the water and huge caverns in these thousand foot limestone monoliths.

Railay is one of the best-known rock-climbing spots in the world, and we watched quite a few climbers, both experienced and novice.

Last night was a particularly exciting one: at the south end of Ao Nang beach there's a rickety boardwalk (a narrow board to step on every foot or two) that goes up and around a limestone karst (tower) to get to the next beach. There were loads of monkeys all along the path, often a foot or so away hoping for a handout. I think they're macaques, but my monkey expertise is suspect at best, in spite of a lifetime of monkeying around.

On the way back from our walk, just after sunset, I stayed behind a bit to take a few photos while Donna went on ahead. There were four kids, either German or Swiss I'd guess, just behind me. One let out a shriek, and started yelling in heavily accented english about a snake. "Mistuh, Mistuh, help me. I'm very frightened. Help me Mistuh please."

On the boardwalk, right behind where I'd just stepped, was a smallish snake, perhaps 18 or 20 inches. Having visited the snake farm in Bangkok, I believe it was some sort of pit viper. Anyway it had the wide triangular head that usually indicates a venomous snake. The kids were on one side of the snake and I was on the other. I told them that I thought it might be a dangerous snake and that we should wait. So wait we did...

...(passage of time)....

...and still the snake would not budge. Instead it lay curled in anticipation of some tasty German food. The kids were getting increasingly upset, so, intrepid and foolish adventurer that I am, I found a long stick in the jungle (emphasis on long), and coaxed the beast off the path and held it back while the kids passed. I got a great flash picture of it which I may post when I get the next round of CDs made (it could be a while).

When we got back to town, I showed the picture to a woman in the shop where we got some beverages. She seemed really interested but didn't know what it was, so she brought me down the street to an older Thai guy who knows of such things. He got a bit excited, named it in Thai (three syllables I promptly forgot) then said "Die. Die. You die." which is apparently what happens if it bites you and there's no antivenom handy. He wanted to know where we'd seen it so we told him. I doubt they sent out a posse, but it was a clear reminder that we're not in Minnesota any more.

Paul

Message from the Massaged

The Thai massage may make me into a Chinese contortion artist! It's half pleasure, half torture with elbows rubbed into feet, knees poked into the back and a dogbite to the thigh couldn't be much sharper than whatever she bodypart she used. I feel terrific. $5 for an hour of posture-enhancing attention.

We hope you all are doing well. For as much as I think about you all, it should be more than 2 weeks that we've been out of the states.

Meeting the pachederms today was awesome. Not a circus-like experience as I feared it might be. The baby elephant has no teeth and requires his bananas peeled. While Paul was making baby food, momma stole the bundle of bananas for herself. She really likes her baby but wasn't a good sharer today. (They eat 10% of their bodyweight daily. That's challenge I'd like to take on.) Everyone was taken by the elephants, similarly to people's affection for dolphins and whales. We'll be dreaming of riding through the jungle with them tonight.

Better run. Off to the beach tomorrow!
Donna

Elephant painting

I didn't believe it until I saw it, so I guess I shouldn't expect you to either. Here's the elephant finishing up his artwork. It's a floral still-life, in the tradition of Van Gogh, or perhaps reminiscent of the impressionist work of Degas, I think.

Okay, maybe more like the doodlings of Santo.

Having a bit a weird time with Blogger tonight, so if the picture appears twice, I apologize. If it appears not at all, I apologize even more.

Paul

Donna's new friend

This little fellow was making friends with anybody who had a banana or two at the Mae Ping elephant farm and preserve. Asian elephants are smarter and tamer than the African variety. This little guy was a big hit, but the nicest was the 23 year old male that took Donna and me for a ride. His tusks were so long they crossed in front, yet he was gentle and friendly. When we crossed the river, he wanted to give himself and us a shower, but his mahout (trainer) gave him a stern scolding. Since we were his last ride of the day, we had a long time to make friends and pet and rub his tusks after our ride. Wow. What amazing animals. The show at the preserve was a bit hokey, but pointed out what amazing animals these are. One painted a picture with his trunk (you'd be surprised how good -- maybe I should upload a picture), they did some usual circus balancing tricks, played football, did a bit of harmonica and drum playing, and more. When they asked for volunteers from the audience, I was foolish enough to become the butt of a pachyderm's joke. I received a "massage," which meant that he stepped on my stomach a few times (gently!), and nosed around my crotch with his trunk. Don't expect me to post any pictures of that!

Paul

Jennifer Davis, this one's for you!

Here's Donna and Spencer in Chiang Mai. It was great to meet him and he was very generous with his time and Thai expertise. In spite of the exuberant grins, we didn't drink THAT much Chang beer...really!

Thought you'd be happy to see how healthy and great your son looks, Jennifer. He was happy to get his cell phone and the business cards.

Paul

Bantay Sray, Cambodia

This beautiful young Cambodian girl was perhaps 11 or 12, and was selling scarves at Bantay Sray, the pink stone temple north of Siem Reap. Many of these children speak impeccable English and place a very high value on education (in particular English) as a was out of poverty.

Again, sorry about the rotation issue. Maybe I'll have to choose only wide photos.

Paul

Apsara Dancing in Cambodia

We're stepping back a few days, since I just got two gigabytes worth of photos burned onto CDs. This is traditional khmer dancing in Siem Reap. In spite of appearances, they weren't dancing on the wall. I'm not exactly sure why I can't get this picture turned right side up, so lay on your side to enjoy it, or flip your monitor 90 degrees counterclockwise.

Paul

Last Day in Chiang Mai

While Donna gets a Thai massage, I've been converting pictures to CD's and getting ready to do a bit 'o' blogging.

We've had a whirlwind three days in Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. Tomorrow we fly to Krabi on the Southern archipelago of Thailand. From Krabi, we'll make our way to Ko Lanta and probably visit Ko Phi Phi as well.

On our first day here, we enjoyed the big Sunday market and got together with Spencer Davis, the son of one of Donna's work colleagues (Hiya Jennifer!) who teaches Spanish here in an international school. We had a great time with Spencer and he was able to help us digest and interpret some of our Thailand experiences.

Day two was an all day cooking class and visit to the fruit and vegetable market with our teacher Sui, where we were finally able to put a name to some of the odd and wonderful things we've been eating. The thing with the specks in it is Dragon Fruit, the thing with the gooey sweet center is a Lychee nut, et cetera, et cetera. That night we visited the huge and hugely entertaining night bazaar (more on that later).

Up early this morning for an all day tour that included: an elephant show, an oxcart ride, bamboo rafting, an elephant ride through the jungle, a visit to the "longneck" village (also called the giraffewomen) of the Karen tribe, and a stop at an orchid farm. Whew...

Now, on to a couple of pictures.

Paul

Chiang Mai Thailand - plus your questions answered

We arrived in Chiang Mai late this morning after an overnight train trip in a sleeper train. The supposed thirteen-hour trip took sixteen, but being able to lay down and stretch out (almost) and walk around made it bearable. The train was noisy and bumpy and swayed a lot, so we refer to it as the night of 400 catnaps.

It's a very different place than Bangkok, hilly and jungly with a more Thai and somewhat less Western cosmopolitan vibe. We're in the old city which is surrounded by a wide moat.

Daughter Anna hit us with a few questions which I'll try to answer briefly:

How tall are Cambodian People?
Maybe an average of 5'6" to generalize. Some, particularly older folks are really tiny. In the Chinese market in Bangkok, a tiny little woman was looking the other way and ran into me at about belly-button height. When she looked up and saw how tall I was, she made a funny little "ooooooo-aaaah"sound then scurried off giggling with her friend. We've been imitating her every day since. Let's just say Donna doesn't have any trouble finding me above the crowd here.

What kind of hotels do we stay in?
Mixed bag. Mostly very cheap and very budget -- $10-12 or less -- though one night in Bangkok we got in late and took a fancy room with air and TV for around $25. Tonight in Chiang Mai we're in a beautiful, peaceful fan room with a common garden and sitting/lounging area for 300 baht (around 8 dollars). We're saving money because Europe will not be as cheap.

What's the coolest thing we've learned about history?
Yikes. Tough one. I think the whole Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge saga from the 70's was most interesting, but definitely un-cool. It's cool that the tons and tons of stone for all the temples like Angkor Wot came from more than 50 kilometers away by boat and elephant.

What do we do at night?
Sleep. We haven't done much of the party scene, though we did walk through the night market on Khao Sahn Road (backpacker mecca) in Bangkok a couple of times to see the street performers and stalls of backpacker-oriented goods. The weather has been so hot and humid that it really takes a toll on you after a day of walking/touring. Nearly every westerner you see (there are lots) has sweated completely through his/her shirt, so it's important to really hydrate. We're probably going through at least 5 or 6 liters of water a day each.

What's the most interesting word we've learned?
In Thailand, it's polite to end every sentence with "khrap"if you're a man, or "khra" if you're a woman. I find it interesting that the gender depends on the speaker, not the person being addressed. The funniest words, though, are English, with some really hilarious misusages and misspellings. One of our hotels wished us "a worm welcome." There was a sign that asked us to "please turn out the light before living." You also see crazy t-shirts and other clothing with nonsensical English like a cuddly little panda with the caption "prison bear."

If you want to ask a question, email me at psanto@tcq.net or post a comment on the blog. I'm less likely to miss an email, but if you comment here, other readers can check it out too.

Cheers,
Paul

Door-To-Door Service

Think of this boat as Cambodia's Simon Delivers or a Schwan's truck selling door to door. Most likely this woman is going house to house in the floating village. If she was traveling downriver to a big market she'd have at least another woman and probably a man in the boat, also. Women do not play an equal role in business or politics in Cambodia.. They aren't tuk-tuk drivers and don't work the front desk at a guest house. Hard labor is shared. Paul and I passed many women and men in the road construction business, carrying rocks in baskets and hand placing them into the roadbed.

From the inadvisable hobby department - Cobra Teasing

Here's a guy teasing a couple of king cobras. It was really interesting to watch the stimulus/response reflexes of the two snakes. They moved absolutely identically. When one turned, both turned. When one would strike, both would strike.

This was at the Bangkok Red Cross Snake Farm we mentioned earlier. Fortunately, there were no mishaps, though there we quite a few gasps of horror from the crowd.

Paul

The Bayoun at Angkor Thom

This is Donna's favorite temple, the Bayoun (or Bayon) at Angkor Thom. This is taken on the second level, where there are 54 towers, each with four engimatically smiling heads. In the lower right, you can see a person to give you an idea of the size. Angkor Thom is a huge walled city that includes this temple and dozens of other towers. There's also a huge reviewing stand where presumably royalty would watch parades of elephants and jugglers (no mention of people juggling elephants or elephants that could juggle).

Paul

Ta Prohm Temple - Cambodia

We're back in Bangkok after a beastly 12-hour bus journey from Cambodia yesterday, but I wanted to post a couple more photos of the temples around Siem Reap and our time in Cambodia.

This is a giant strangle fig tree draped over a door at Ta Prohm temple. It's certainly one of the most photographed places in Cambodia and even makes the cover of the Lonely Planet guidebook.

Ta Prohm is my favorite, I think, of the many temples we saw. For the most part it's been left as found, with jumbles of huge fallen slabs everywhere. It makes getting around something of a maze game. The funny part of the game is that you come to a spot that has a danger sign and is roped off, so you go a different way and after winding about you find yourself standing directly behind the roped-off danger sign! Hmmm.

I'm going to try to put up a couple more pics. I'll try not to be too long-winded with the explanations.

It's nice to have a ten second delay and a mini-tripod for the camera, so I can set up a shot like this, then scurry over to be in the picture!

Paul

Tonight to Chiang Mai by sleeper train

As you can probably tell by all the blog posts, we're killing time. We're at an internet cafe in a ridiculously huge downtown mall in Bangkok. It's 7 floors and it goes on and on and on.

Our train for Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand leaves at 6:00 p.m. and arrives at 7:00 the next morning. We have sleeper berths (we think four to a compartment), so that will be a new experience. Hope neither of us snores too much. Same with our traveling companions.

We met a couple of young kids from Ireland yesterday who recommended the train. It's considerably less expensive than flying, even though Thailand has some ridiculously low airfares for in-country travel -- as low as $15 or so, which, with taxes and fuel surcharges ends up being about $35-50.

After a few days in Chiang Mai, I think we'll be ready for some beach time, so it's off to Krabi province in the South. We'll head for an island called Koh Lanta, and probably take a day trip to visit the more famous and crowded Koh Phi Phi islands where the film "The Beach" with Leonardo de Caprio was filmed. The area in the South Archipelago is supposed to have some stunning limestone cliffs and caves. Prime rock-climbing territory when one is sick of the beach or the snorkeling and diving.

We'll keep posting.

Paul

Temple Tantrums -- last day in Cambodia

Yikes! Just read daughter Anna's comment on our blog entry. Two feet of snow in Ohio while we swelter in 95 degree heat climbing over ruins. The midday heat here is nearly unbearable, yet we can't bear to waste our hours napping when there's so much to see.

Today we went 25 km out of Siem Reap to Bantay Sray, the Pink Stone Temple. It's small but incredibly well preserved, with our guidebook calling it the best stone carving on earth. It's amazing to think that it's almost 1100 years old and still with details in such good condition. To me, the giant strangler fig trees (banyans) are among the most interesting features of some of the jungle temples. I'll post a picture or two in the next couple days.

After Bantay Sray, we visited the Landmine "Museum". A sad and enlightening place. The United States is one of the countries that has refused to sign the U.N. anti-mine treaty, and one of the few countries that still manufactures mines. Here in Siem Reap province, more than 27,000 people have been injured by mines since the Khmer Rouge time, and that's just this small province. We see amputees everywhere. There are still many many thousands of unexploded mines in this area, though the immediate area of the popular temples have been cleared. Even so, it's not a great idea to stray from the well-trodden paths. The design of some of the mines is insidious. Either they're filled with ball bearings or designed to fragment. Infamous U.S. designed bouncing betties hop up five or six feet and explode at chest level and U.S. designed Claymores contain a strong directional charge. Our small donation will help a little, I hope.

As a change of pace after the mines, we went to see butterflies, though the current dry season population at the butterfly restaurant was a bit underwhelming.

Now it's a quick respite from the heat, a chance to blog and read email, then back out to Angkor Thom and the Bayoun for late afternoon before an early morning bus ride back to Thailand (10 hours of chiropractic adjustment).

Last night we went to see traditional Khmer Apsara dancing at a nice inexpensive restaurant. It's like slow-motion contortionism (too hot here for fast dancing, I guess) in elaborate costumes. It was so fun we're going back tonight...with the camera this time. A meal is under $3.00 and the dancing includes a troup of about 18 dancers, five musicians and a vocalist who makes sounds that to our Western ears resemble fingernails on a chalkboard. EEEEE--YYYAAAAAA-EEEE-WWAAAAA.

Paul

Angkor Wot at Sunrise - Siem Reap, Cambodia

There aren't many things that will make me get out of bed at 4:30 in the morning...twice (once to take the train here and again to see the temple). The chance to see Angkor Wot at sunrise was worth it. We arrived almost an hour before I took this picture, and while hundreds of people waited patiently outside for the sunrise, Donna and I went inside and were treated to a dark, deserted awe-inspiring experience before the crowds came. Ironically, we saw a lot and got back outside in time for sunrise anyway.

Where to start to describe Angkor? It's just one of dozens of amazing temples in the area, but the shear scale of this one amazes. Then when you get closer, you start to see detail beyond imagination. Virtually every surface is carved with bas reliefs and ornamentation. Just one wall is half a mile long and is carved with long stories and legends of the king who built the temple (he had help, I think). Another 400 meter sections shows the 32 hells and 32 heavens, including grisly flayings and stretchings and stabbings and devourings -- cool!

The steps to the inner temple are unbelievably steep and more than a little scary...and this was just the first of the many temples we saw yesterday.

More posts and pictures to come, but for now I've exceeded my questionable attention span.

Paul

Boat Trip - Battambang to Siem Reap Cambodia

These two kids are sitting on their houseboat on the Sangker river. There are many floating villages along the way, and friendly people everywhere, waving and blowing kisses to the sunburnt tourists on the boat, mingled with real locals using the boat as a taxi upriver.

To get to the boat, we set what I believe must be some sort of world record by packing 17 people, their luggage and some unidentified sacks of produce onto a single 1/2 ton Nissan Extra Cab pickup: five inside and 12 (including Donna and me) in the back, on top, clinging desperately to each other while we bounced around for an hour and a half on a road that gradually became a path, then petered out into a couple ruts.

In the rainy season, you can take the boat directly from Battambang, but now the river is too low. Where we finally embarked, the river was narrower than Rush River going by the von Lehe's old farmstead, though a bit deeper. Our boat carried probably carried 30 people, and it took a team of six or eight men chest deep in the water pushing, tugging, poling to get us underway, with the diesel engine churning the chocolate-milk water to a muddy froth.

The poverty on the river is shocking. The boat/houses are little more than single room bamboo shacks tied up to a clump of water hyacinths. The houses on shore are no more elaborate, and are built high on stilts for the monsoon season. Fishermen are everywhere and mostly net piles of small flat silver fish about the size of a computer mouse. In many places, we saw a combination house/fishing net rig which uses pulleys to lower and raise a 10-15 foot square net into the river. The bottom of the net is funnel shaped, so the fisherman can paddle under it and empty his catch.

It was shocking to see people dip cups and drink directly from the river. Dysentary, typhoid, and denge fever are common, along with occasional severe outbreaks of malaria. We spoke to a pharmacist in Siem Reap today, because I've developed a moderate sore throat. Getting Amoxycillin was cheap and easy. He told us that many times the river people get sick and by the time they get to town for treatment, they're weakened enough that the treatment puts them into shock.

Today, take a minute to look around you at all you have and say thanks.

Paul

Red Cross Snake Farm

This is me getting friendly with a Burmese Python. They assured me he was harmless, but how much should you really trust a guy who plays with king cobras for a living, especially the one with fingers missing?

Anyway, I escaped without any excessive embraces, and Donna declined any contact whatsoever.

Paul

Wat Po - Bangkok

This golden reclining Buddha is over 150 feet long and resides in Wat Po, near the Grand Palace.

There are two highlights of Wat Po. You're looking at one. The other is the Traditional Thai Massage School. We were too busy getting kneaded with knees and bent and cracked to take any pictures. One half hour massage was around 5 bucks. High by Bangkok massage parlor standards, but the quality and methods are more reliable than most places. In other words, both you and the masseur/masseuse know you're there for a massage and nothing more.

Paul

Grand Palace - Bangkok

I got images from my camera transferred to CD yesterday, so I'm going to try to upload a couple for your viewing pleasure. These are from several days and places, so I'll give you a quick rundown on what you're seeing.





First, from the department of excessive ornamentation comes this image from one of the many temple buildings around the grand palace in Bangkok. This is the outside of the temple that holds the emerald Buddha (actually, it's Jade, but why quibble over greens?). The Emerald Buddha wears one of three different outfits depending on the season, and the King himself comes and changes the Buddha's clothes. So far, the King has not offered to help us get dressed.



Okay, that was a painful uploading process, but I think it will go better now.

Paul

Grand Palace - Bangkok

I got images from my camera transferred to CD yesterday, so I'm going to try to upload a couple for your viewing pleasure. These are from several days and places, so I'll give you a quick rundown on what you're seeing.





First, from the department of excessive ornamentation comes this image from one of the many temple buildings around the grand palace in Bangkok. This is the outside of the temple that holds the emerald Buddha (actually, it's Jade, but why quibble over greens?). The Emerald Buddha wears one of three different outfits depending on the season, and the King himself comes and changes the Buddha's clothes. So far, the King has not offered to help us get dressed.



Okay, that was a painful uploading process, but I think it will go better now.

Paul

We've interrupted this blog due to technical difficulties

Man, for a geek and a pseudo-techie, we've got nothing to show for a few days trying to write. I hit a bad bad button Sunday and lost about 30 minutes of writing about our day. Each day is so full that I have double duty now.

Sunday we took a motorbike tour through the Cambodian countryside. The 'winter'season is hot and humid and very very dusty. We end each day covered in orangish dust from the unpaved roads. Most of the major 'highways' are unpaved and have holes the size of Kansas. Many times the drivers take turns aiming for the decent path...like driving the tightrope. But of all the things Cambodia needs, roads might still be #2. (That's a little foreshadowing.)

Endless ricefields, both green and brown (harvested). Most are burned over and the straw piled high in haystack-fashion. ...Vegetable and fruit fields/orchards, and Brahma cows meander all around, untethered. We asked our guides how people know whose cow is whose. They answered in unison: "The cows know." No need for branding or fencing apparently. The people trust each other and/or trust the animals.

It was Sunday so kids weren't in school and would run toward the big attraction of a motorbike going by, yelling "HELLO!" to us. They are so sweet and eager to greet. Our guide, Philly, a guy about Paul's age, was 15 when the Pol Pot Regime began and after that horror was over, the next stage of atrocities, the Khmer Rouge regime, continued for years. There are still landmines which killed and maimed people as they worked the fields. Then there was also the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. It's been a tough couple of centuries for Cambodia.

Philly somehow stayed alive during the 3 years, 8 months and 21 days of Pol Pot's regime, being a laborer/slave as everyone was forced to become, for 16 hours a day on two bowls of gruel only. He then lived in a UN refugee camp in Thailand for 7 years (where he learned English very well.) He took us to the Killing Caves where human skulls and bones now are guarded by the Buddhist monks. OK, so we're pretty sobered up.

One funny kid story from Angkor Wat:
While stopping for lunch at the outdoor cafes near the temples, a family of smiley kids kept politely and doggedly insisting we buy their books. After equally polite refusals from Paul and I, I said the book would be no use to me because I couldn't read. Without a pause, the young man said he would read it TO me and then began to lecture me on the value of literacy. He would make a fine, strict school principal and we'll continue to look for jolly responses to constant offers of their services.

Be well and keep in touch.
Love, Donna

Battambang, Cambodia

When I said we were headed for the "Wild West" of Southeast Asia, I had no idea how true my words were. Cambodia is unlike anything either of us have ever experienced, and we will leave changed in some way, I'm sure.

The trip here from Bangkok was grueling and multi-staged. While the monied traveler takes a bargain flight directly to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat, we opted for the adventurer route: up at 4:30 a.m. to catch a cab to the train station in Bangkok; 5:30 depart on third class train to Aranya Prathet, Thailand (5 1/2 hours); tuk-tuk (3-wheeled motor rickshaw) to the Cambodian Border market; hike through the bustling border market across the litter-strewn river to the border; endure the con-man Cambodian border guards who try to hustle some extra bucks out of you (thank you, Lonely Planet guidebook and Wikitravel.org for the details of this ongoing scam and the gumption to stand our ground and only pay an extra $1 each above the regular $20 visa fee for "express service" to get a visa); get visa then take free shuttle 300 meters to another line for immigration; smile for the camera and get admitted; wait in line for free shuttle to bus station(2 km); bargain hard for a cab to Battambang (a 2 to 2 1/2 hour ride for $42); unbelievable ride on the world's dustiest and bumpiest road to Sisophon; then finally on to Battambang and the "Royal Hotel."

All in all, a fabulous day.

Here are a couple of miscellaneous disconnected details you might find interesting if you ever decide to journey from Bangkok to Battambang:
-- you can see through the cracks in the wooden floor of a third-class Thai train;
-- Eastern Thailand is flatter than a pane of glass;
-- there are more storks, cranes, egrets, and herons in Southeastern Thailand than I ever imagined;
-- when you leave the train window open while they're burning off rice paddies you may find yourself covered with ash;
-- they sell food you can't identify (sausage balls in a baggie?) on the train;
-- everything along the road from Poipet to Sisophon, Cambodia is covered with a thick layer of dust, including houses, trees, people, which explains why everyone wears a mask (today our tour guide repeatedly referred to the dust as "Cambodian Snow");
-- there are no lanes, per se, on Cambodian roads, but rather the incredibly bumpy part and the part that's six times as bumpy as the incredibly bumpy part;
-- a horn is at least as useful as a steering wheel;
-- if another cab is broken down by the road, expect to stop and join the crowd that's staring at the engine and offering advice;
-- if you can't see what's coming at you because of the impenetrable cloud of dust, that means it's a perfect time to pass;
-- while 80% of the road traffic is bike or motorbike, car trumps motorbike every time, so that motorbike will leave road to avoid becoming bumper sticker;
-- the maximum height to stack stuff on a human-dragged wagon appears to be 20 feet or so;
-- a Cambodian gas station is a shelf with twenty or thirty 1.5 Coca-cola bottles filled with gas (at first I thought they were selling some sort of moonshine;
-- the maximum capacity of a tiny motorscooter appears to be five people, or one person and two 300-pound pigs (really!).

I must pause there to elaborate on the pigs. Time and time again, we saw motorcycles carrying pigs trussed up and stuffed in a bamboo basket. It's a hilarious sight, especially when stacked two high on a tiny scooter. I'm still a little unclear where they were taking their pigs.

On a more serious note, Cambodia is one of the poorest places on Earth, with a heart-wrenching history that includes the notorious reign of Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. In that bloody four-year regime of terror, somewhere between 2 and 3 million Cambodians died (out of a population of 7-9 million) and the country literally withdrew from the World community. Cities like Phnom Penh and Battambang were essentially evacuated, and the entire population was forced into communal agricultural labor, 15 hours a day with two small bowls of rice porridge as your reward. Families were all separated, currency was abolished, religion was forbidden and the price of weakness or resistance was death, sometimes sudden, sometimes lingering.

It tears at the heart, and while nearly thirty years have passed, the wounds of that time still exist. One of our two motorcycle tour guides today lived it -- he was 15 at the time the Khmer Rouge took power and we spent as much time talking to him as we did seeing the sights. Our other driver, at just 24 years old, also knows the history well. When I said that so much tragedy occurred in just four years, he corrected me: "Three years, eight months, 2 days."

Even now, life is cheap here. Within a couple hours of our arrival, a body of a young woman was found in the river by downtown Battambang, and while it attracted a huge crowd of gawkers, it didn't attract any police or ambulance for more than an hour.

In spite of it all, I can truthfully say that the Cambodian people are the friendliest I have ever met anywhere. While we stick out like a couple of sore sunburnt thumbs, everywhere we turn we are greeted with a smile and a "hello" or a "what's your name?" As we motored through the tiny villages today, we received more waves and smiles then we could count, and the smallest kindness is repaid with an embarrassing excess of gratitude. In short, these are people who have suffered, and continue to suffer by our standards, yet have a great optimism for the future.

Tomorrow, a five hour boat trip up the Sangker River to Siem Reap and two or three days at the Temples of Angkor Wat.

Thanks for reading. Blogging is turning out to be a great way to process all that we've seen and done.

Paul

Dear Peeps, Paul and I will be redundant today but I wanted to weigh in and say hi. We miss home, but it's pretty distracting here, to say the least.

Bangkok skies barely have a hint of blue with the pollution. It's a crazy place but we have a guest house room in a quiet spot so each night it's serene.

Just before leaving MN, a lady from Chiang Mai said that in Bangkok the people are 'trippy'. Or maybe it was 'tricky'. Either way she was right on. Today we went to the Flower Market and vegie market and then onto Chinatown, which makes holiday shopping at the mall look like life in the countryside. If there had been a fire we'd be smushed flat or trapped. Occasionally some crazy motorcycle driver came through the aisles, and everything was at a standstill. The flower market was the calm before the storm and so beautiful!

Then to the Red Cross Snake Farm where they produce antivenom for the poisonous snakes in Thailand. And they scare the tourists with man-handling the cobras, pythons and misc. rat-killers. Each of the trainers has been bitten at least twice.... some have lost body parts to snake bites (Bad batch of the anti-venom?) It was the perfect place for buying souvenirs!

We're doing fine and avoiding the Thai dragon peppers in our soups. Momma didn't raise no dummy. Off to Cambodia tomorrow. Love, Donna

Still in Bangkok...but tomorrow....

Today included a couple river trips, a couple sky train trips, a wholesale flower and vegetable market and what may well be the most crowded place on Earth -- the walking street through Bangkok's Chinatown. Chinatown's wholesale market includes block after block of wall-to-wall people selling everything from shoes to beads. It was quite an experience. Every couple of minutes the packed crowd had to part for a motorcycle laden high with boxes and parcels. It's the only way to deliver anything to the stores in the market. It's amazing that there's no room for one more person and yet the motorcycles and pushcarts get through without running anyone over. We soon learned that the very best place to be was directly behind a cart or motorbike because they usually made better progress than walkers.

After the craziness of Chinatown, we headed further down the river to the skytrain station and took the ultra-modern train to the Red-Cross run snake breeding farm. This interesting place milks venom from many of Thailands 50+ varieties of venomous snakes (20+ on land and 20+ sea snakes). In addition to the caged cobras and vipers and pythons (non-venomous constrictors) they put on a hair-raising hour-long show which includes various snake handlers tempting fate by inducing hundreds of strikes from cobras and other varieties of serpents. I touched a king cobra and was draped with a big Burmese Python. Photos later. A week ago monday one of the handlers lost a finger to a cobra bite (the cobra venom is necrotic) and virtually all of the handlers have been bitten by something...many more than once, actually building up a partial immunity to cobra venom. While immunity is great, losing a digit seems a high price to pay. They milked and force-fed a cobra, and it produced a While the "entertainment" portion of the farm was amazing and sometimes hilarious, the real purporse of the place is vitally important. They provide antivenoms for the entire country, which saves countless lives, as snakebites in the hand-worked fields are relatively common.

Tomorrow, barring an oversleeping mishap, we plan to catch a train to the Cambodian border. Our ultimate destination is the temple complex of Angkor Wat, one of the seven wonders of the world on anybody's list. Cambodia is still the "wild west" of Southeast Asia, so we'll have to see how prevalent internet cafes are. The train leaves at an hour of the morning I rarely see, but it's important to get the early train to avoid being stuck in the unpleasant border towns. We'll be heading to a town called Battambang and from there we'll arrange a boat up the river to Siem Reap, the town near the Wats. If you'd like to see some of the Wats for yourself, rent the dreadful "Tomb Raider" movie starring Angelina Jolie. Watching the movie should be nearly as painful as the bone-jarring bouncing we'll be taking on the universally-acclaimed worst road system in Asia.

Blog at you soon.
Paul

greetings from Bangkok

Okay, you're not going to believe this, but the REAL name of Bangkok is Krungthep mahanakhon amonratanakosin mahintara ayuthay mahadilok popnopparat ratchathani burirom udomratchaniwet mahasathan amonpiman avatansathit sakkathattiy wisanukamprasit.

I told you wouldn't believe it. That's 43 unpronounceable syllables, officially shortened to Krung Thep some years ago. Only foreigners (like us) call it Bangkok.

We're here after 25 hours of airplane entrapment, which included an unexpected stop in Okinawa due to the Taipei airport being completely closed due to fog. Compared to some other divertees, we were fortunate. On our connecting flight from Taipei (post-fog), we talked to some folks from L.A. that were on hour 37 of their ordeal. They spent most of a night in Okinawa.

But enough of my com-plane-ing. We're here and we've already become Bangkok veterans.

In spite of numerous on-line and in-book warnings, we've already almost fallen victim to the all-too-common "Temple-isn't-open-because-today-is-Buddhist-holiday-so-you-should-go-on-tour-with-me-in-tuk-tuk" scam. Extremely charming, well-dressed folks will be happy to point the wrong way to a never-used side temple gate which is locked, in order to offer you an amazing price on a tour. Fortunately, we caught on. Thank you, Lonely Planet guidebook.

Bangkok's Grand Temple was amazing and overwhelming, a gaudy and schizophrenic combination of Thai, Chinese, Indian, and old Siamese influence. The Buddhist and Hindu temples sit side by side in architectural disharmony. We were guided through the temple by a 70-year old sweet man, who spent much of the time pointing us through a door while resting his weary bones outside. Thirty years of temple touring will do that to you.

Sometime soon I'll post a photo or two.

After the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha, we visited nearby Wat Pho, which features a 150 foot long golden reclining Buddha. That, my friends, is a lot of Buddha. In fact, he barely fits in his temple. The highlight, though, of Wat Pho is the famous Traditional Thai Massage School. Donna and I each had 1/2 hour treatment, a welcome if occasionally excruciating respite after miles of walking in 85-90 degree heat and humidity. Thai massage means that your torturer -- er, masseur -- will use a wide variety of parts of his/her body to crush/squeeze/stretch/crack/rend/twist/knead a wide variety of parts of your body. I haven't yet decided if it's the best or worst thing that's ever happened to me.

Giving the fact that you can get an hour of Thai massage for under six bucks, I predict that Donna will be getting a number of massages. I am undecided.

The food here is spectacular and ridiculously cheap. A small plate of vegetarian pad thai (spicy noodles and veggies) from the popular street vendors goes for about 20-25 baht (35 baht=1 U.S. dollar). Yup. That's dinner for under 75 cents. We went to a nicer restaurant tonight where I made the dire mistake of saying I liked things spicy. My tongue is slowly returning to its normal size after thai-dragon-pepper induced swelling.

That's it for now. We'll let you know where we're headed next. Even we're not sure, and while I'm blogging, Donna is checking out routes and advice online for getting into (and out of) Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat, one of the truly great wonders of the world.

Blog at you soon.

Paul

The view from Sue and Fred's house on Guemes Island

Not a bad place to live! This is the view of Mount Baker from Sue and Fred's house on Guemes Island in Puget Sound. We had a few spectacular days of clear weather and views of the mountains -- a VERY rare occurrence in the Pacific Northwest in this year of seemingly endless rain and fog and even snow. Sue and Fred live on a high cliff above the Sound looking East toward the mainland. We were treated to a couple of blazing pink sunsets like this one. We woke up one morning to a couple of giant (five foot diameter) balloons on the nearest uninhabited island. We're convinced that they escaped from a used car dealership somewhere as they were trailing many feet of pennants. Donna and I canoed over to the island carefully (it's very cold water) and unsnagged them. There was a lot of pennant-rope trailing in the water that had hung up on the rocks and then in a tree. Donna scaled the cliff while I held the canoe in place. In a feat of great daring, she freed them from the tree and we paddled them back to Sue and Fred's house, with them slapping me in the face the entire way. We even saw a huge oil tanker leaving nearby Anacortes. All along the pennant ropes were smaller helium balloons which were somewhat deflated. We had a helium party, sucking out the helium from the balloons and singing munchkin songs from the wizard of Oz. Now that's entertainment.

Today we visited the really fun Experience Music Project museum in Seattle, in the shadow of the Space Needle. I think it exceeded all of our expectations. We spent 6+ hours there both enjoying the exhibits and the interactive displays that let even the music-challenged feel like skilled rockers. Sweet.

A very special thank you to Jan and Sue and Fred for their hospitality and to nephews Brian and Chris for making time to see Aunt Donna and Uncle Paul.

Tick Tock

About four hours until we head for the airport, and the enormity of our trip is sinking in. Donna's been in Seattle and the Puget Sound area for two weeks, Paul for just one week, and now the transpacific part of the adventure is at hand. We'll be chasing the sun westward, trying to get some sleep to chop some hours off the long flight. Next stop: Taipei, Taiwan. Then, after a three hour layover, we continue on to Bangkok. Total travel time with layover - about 19 or 20 grueling hours.

Don't think I'm complaining. We're both very cognizant of how wildly fortunate we are to have this opportunity. I'm sure that will be reinforced by the poverty we see in Cambodia and India.

The Pacific Northwest has been great. Time in Seattle with Donna's sister Jan and on Guemes Island on Puget Sound with Donna's other sister Sue and her husband Fred. Such great accommodating hosts have been a great way to ease into our travels. I hope Thailand is even half as welcoming!

We'll try to post as regularly as we find internet access. Cheers. We'll be thinking of all of you.