Grand Palace
My attempt at an "artsy" shot of the golden Stupa
The "Lazy" or Reclining Buddha
Khao San Road
Food stall at the weekend market
Wat of the Emerald Buddha (Grand Palace)
Golden Stupa
Statue at the Grand PalaceMonday, May 26, 2008
Bangkok pictures
Grand PalaceMy attempt at an "artsy" shot of the golden Stupa
The "Lazy" or Reclining Buddha
Khao San RoadFood stall at the weekend marketWat of the Emerald Buddha (Grand Palace)Golden StupaStatue at the Grand Palace
City of Angels
I'm probably making this up but I think Bangkok is the "City of Angels" if not I apologize. I hoped from one capital to another, this time in Thailand to its "ultra-modern" capital. Bangkok is huge and fairly well developed (more on this later) and houses one of the most well known backpackers spots on the globe....the infamous Khao San Road where anything is possible. During the day there are shops and stalls, at night this place lights up like Vegas and is a raging party, all night long. Sex tourism is a huge thing in Thailand, especially Khao San Rd area (though its worse in other parts of town), I think its disgusting, but its quite amusing to see these nasty old guys courting around these skinny little young Thai girls. And if you every want cheesy tourist gifts they are all over the place, particular the women trying to sell you these blocks that look like frogs that have make frog noises....or if you are in the market for suits there are probably a dozen or so places in this quarter mile strip to fulfill your needs. And 7-11's are everywhere, there are literally 2 stores across the street from each other on Khao San Rd. It's a fun place to watch life go by if you ask me.
I fortunately came to Bangkok on a weekend which meant the weekend market was open. It has 15,000 stalls there and sees about a quarter million people everyday its open. It was mostly clothing and accessory shops, not my forte, but it was neat to see. To get there I got to ride on the Sky Train, basically a super fancy above ground metro. Its air-conditioned which is heavenly as its about 100F everyday here with nasty humidity and its super clean. On the way back from the market I stopped by Siam Paragon which just so happened to be the nicest mall in the history of the world I'm sure. It was ridiculously well maintained and had lots of fancy stores. The only reason I stayed for more than 5 minutes was because of the AC. The place was commercialism at its best and there were teenagers running around updating their wardrobes I suppose. I must note that I don't quite understand SE Asian teenage culture, I think they dress funny...and I'm sure they would say the same about me, but "trendy" clothing to them is quite hysterical looking I think.
I also got to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. And wow...they were impressive. The Grand Palace isn't all that great, but in the complex is Wat Phra Kaew, definitely the coolest modern Wat that I've seen on this trip. The place was elaborately decorated beyond belief. I've probably said that a bunch to describe the stuff I've seen but this one is the hands down winner for over the top detail and beauty. It houses an Emerald Buddha that has a crazy history, but I thought looked ehh....not that impressive in my opinion. It was the outside of all the buildings that captured my eye. The detail, most of it in gold, of the outside of these buildings was immaculate. There was a golden stupa (I think they call them chedis here), statues of religious figures all over, and really cool landscaping.
Wat Pho houses what I like to call the "Lazy Buddha", most people call it the reclining Buddha because my good pal Mr. Buddha is lying down in it. There are 13 (I might be making that up) poses of Buddha each representing a different thing, like Buddha dispelling evil, or Buddha cleansing the earth. The reclining Buddha represents Buddha entering his final nirvana. There are reclining Buddha statues all over the place, but this one is famous because its roughly 50 feet high and 150 feet long. Its core is made of 80,000 bricks covered in plaster and then gold. The eyes and bottom of the feet are made of mother of pearl. The Lazy Buddha is really cool, my favorite Buddha statue. The size of it was just amazing, standing at either the head or the feet and looking down its length is quite impressive.
Bangkok certainly takes the cake for going over the top with its religious displays, I suppose its deserving that its called the Vatican of Buddhism.
I fortunately came to Bangkok on a weekend which meant the weekend market was open. It has 15,000 stalls there and sees about a quarter million people everyday its open. It was mostly clothing and accessory shops, not my forte, but it was neat to see. To get there I got to ride on the Sky Train, basically a super fancy above ground metro. Its air-conditioned which is heavenly as its about 100F everyday here with nasty humidity and its super clean. On the way back from the market I stopped by Siam Paragon which just so happened to be the nicest mall in the history of the world I'm sure. It was ridiculously well maintained and had lots of fancy stores. The only reason I stayed for more than 5 minutes was because of the AC. The place was commercialism at its best and there were teenagers running around updating their wardrobes I suppose. I must note that I don't quite understand SE Asian teenage culture, I think they dress funny...and I'm sure they would say the same about me, but "trendy" clothing to them is quite hysterical looking I think.
I also got to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. And wow...they were impressive. The Grand Palace isn't all that great, but in the complex is Wat Phra Kaew, definitely the coolest modern Wat that I've seen on this trip. The place was elaborately decorated beyond belief. I've probably said that a bunch to describe the stuff I've seen but this one is the hands down winner for over the top detail and beauty. It houses an Emerald Buddha that has a crazy history, but I thought looked ehh....not that impressive in my opinion. It was the outside of all the buildings that captured my eye. The detail, most of it in gold, of the outside of these buildings was immaculate. There was a golden stupa (I think they call them chedis here), statues of religious figures all over, and really cool landscaping.
Wat Pho houses what I like to call the "Lazy Buddha", most people call it the reclining Buddha because my good pal Mr. Buddha is lying down in it. There are 13 (I might be making that up) poses of Buddha each representing a different thing, like Buddha dispelling evil, or Buddha cleansing the earth. The reclining Buddha represents Buddha entering his final nirvana. There are reclining Buddha statues all over the place, but this one is famous because its roughly 50 feet high and 150 feet long. Its core is made of 80,000 bricks covered in plaster and then gold. The eyes and bottom of the feet are made of mother of pearl. The Lazy Buddha is really cool, my favorite Buddha statue. The size of it was just amazing, standing at either the head or the feet and looking down its length is quite impressive.
Bangkok certainly takes the cake for going over the top with its religious displays, I suppose its deserving that its called the Vatican of Buddhism.
Fun and horror
I arrived in Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital) on a mini-bus service that claimed to not use blare loud Cambodian music, like most buses, instead they just blared U2 the entire time and I still ended up getting off the bus with a splitting headache. At the bus station where they drop you off are hoards and hoards of tuk-tuk (the local taxi) drivers literally fighting for your services. I wasn't sure if I was suppose to be impressed that I was getting so much attention (4 of them were banging at my window the second the bus stopped), scared that I was about to be mauled (there are more drivers than people on the bus so they were literally fighting for position), or upset at the poor economic state that these drivers must be in for having to fight for a $2 ride. If you think government employees aren't payed that well in the States then go to Cambodia, where local police get a whole $35 per month! The drivers must have been upset with me because I opted to walk the mile or so to lake where a lot of the budget guesthouses are.
I found a decent place near the lake but didn't stay there long as I went off to visit the Royal Palace and National Museum. Again, opting to not get a ride there but instead walk proved to be an excellent decision because I got to see a whole lot more of the city than I otherwise would have. In between the various rows of touristy streets are the typical city streets of Cambodia, dimly lit, dirty, and altogether not looking like a place I'd want to go alone. I have heard some horror stories about backpackers being beaten and in two cases killed (though these were probably exaggerations) over their belongings. Stealing a camera and selling it on the streets might only be a $30-50 profit for them, but thats probably a month's wage so the risk is worth it to people I suppose. I had zero problems in the city but was told by a few people to be careful where you take your camera out. Fortunately the Royal Palace was a place to take it out because it was beautiful there. The architecture screamed "Asian" to me, and I mean that in a good way. It was extremely beautiful and elaborately decorated with beautiful tiled roofs (see the pictures in a previous post). The Royal Palace houses the Silver Pagoda, which is aptly named due to the 5,000 silver tiles covering the floor (you do walk on carpets to hopefully not ruin them). The Pagoda also contains a near life size golden Buddha dressed with over 9,500 diamonds, a crystal Buddha, and an emerald Buddha as well....quite impressive. The grounds were very well kept and made for a pleasant afternoon.
That night I think I met up with every British backpacker in Cambodia and stayed up until 4am watching the European Champions League final between 2 British teams, Chelsea and Manchester United. It was the first all British final ever I think and the game was quite entertaining to watch with a group of rather drunk Brits. There was a line drawn down the middle of the bar for the Chelsea and Manchester supporter to separately themselves, and in the middle they put the Americans and Canadians because we were more or less neutral. Manchester won in penalty kicks by the way.
The next morning started far too early. It was a day that I had long looked forward too but was queasy about nonetheless as I was planning to visit the museums regarding the recent tragic history of the country. The first stop was to Tuol Sleng, commonly known as S-21. Tuol Sleng was at one point a school, and the buildings by and large very representative of a typical school....except for the barbed wire surrounding just about everything. In 1975 when Pol Pet's forces took over the city to start their "revolution" they transformed the former school to a security office, S-21. Thousands upon thousands of prisoners were held, interrogated, and tortured here before they were shipped off to the Killing Fields just outside of town for execution. All-in-all there were only 7 survivors from this place. Cambodians, those supporting the revolution and common people who were accused, by and large without evidence, of being against the revolution were brought here to be interrogated. They submitted thousands of pages of documentation about evidence linking themselves to the CIA or Vietnamese forces before being executed. When they refused to talk or had no information to give they were tortured by being whipped, hung, and generally beaten until they talked. The museum now shows several pictures and the rooms that the people were inhumanely kept in and is an extremely overwhelming experience at times. The Khmer Rouge had no regard to the age of its victims and showed no mercy. They were trying to return Cambodia to its rural roots and not allow for education of any kind. Doctors, teachers, engineers were among those especially targeted by the forces. All of this happened just a few decades ago and it certainly has not left the minds of many Cambodians. It still haunts them to this day for various reasons, adding to this is their belief that your body becomes a ghost without a proper burial, which none those at S-21 received, meaning the country is still haunted by their past. A truly remarkable sight to see.
After S-21 I headed over to the Killing Fields themselves which were odd. They were in a former park and today it basically looks like a park again with a school just outside its borders where children were playing and screaming like any other school day. At the Killing Fields people were brought, kneeled over a mass grave, and were hit in the back of the head with farming tools (bullets were too expensive for the Khmer Rouge to waste on these people) before their throats were slit to finish the execution. That is the basic history of it. Some 130 or so mass graves exist and you are allowed to walk around some that have been dug up and excavated, but there isn't really much there anymore besides ditches in the ground and signs saying things like "This is the tree that the babies were hit against"..."This is where the killing tools were stored"...etc. Not too much to see, but the history of it all is still remarkable and made for one of the most moving sights I've ever seen.
I found a decent place near the lake but didn't stay there long as I went off to visit the Royal Palace and National Museum. Again, opting to not get a ride there but instead walk proved to be an excellent decision because I got to see a whole lot more of the city than I otherwise would have. In between the various rows of touristy streets are the typical city streets of Cambodia, dimly lit, dirty, and altogether not looking like a place I'd want to go alone. I have heard some horror stories about backpackers being beaten and in two cases killed (though these were probably exaggerations) over their belongings. Stealing a camera and selling it on the streets might only be a $30-50 profit for them, but thats probably a month's wage so the risk is worth it to people I suppose. I had zero problems in the city but was told by a few people to be careful where you take your camera out. Fortunately the Royal Palace was a place to take it out because it was beautiful there. The architecture screamed "Asian" to me, and I mean that in a good way. It was extremely beautiful and elaborately decorated with beautiful tiled roofs (see the pictures in a previous post). The Royal Palace houses the Silver Pagoda, which is aptly named due to the 5,000 silver tiles covering the floor (you do walk on carpets to hopefully not ruin them). The Pagoda also contains a near life size golden Buddha dressed with over 9,500 diamonds, a crystal Buddha, and an emerald Buddha as well....quite impressive. The grounds were very well kept and made for a pleasant afternoon.
That night I think I met up with every British backpacker in Cambodia and stayed up until 4am watching the European Champions League final between 2 British teams, Chelsea and Manchester United. It was the first all British final ever I think and the game was quite entertaining to watch with a group of rather drunk Brits. There was a line drawn down the middle of the bar for the Chelsea and Manchester supporter to separately themselves, and in the middle they put the Americans and Canadians because we were more or less neutral. Manchester won in penalty kicks by the way.
The next morning started far too early. It was a day that I had long looked forward too but was queasy about nonetheless as I was planning to visit the museums regarding the recent tragic history of the country. The first stop was to Tuol Sleng, commonly known as S-21. Tuol Sleng was at one point a school, and the buildings by and large very representative of a typical school....except for the barbed wire surrounding just about everything. In 1975 when Pol Pet's forces took over the city to start their "revolution" they transformed the former school to a security office, S-21. Thousands upon thousands of prisoners were held, interrogated, and tortured here before they were shipped off to the Killing Fields just outside of town for execution. All-in-all there were only 7 survivors from this place. Cambodians, those supporting the revolution and common people who were accused, by and large without evidence, of being against the revolution were brought here to be interrogated. They submitted thousands of pages of documentation about evidence linking themselves to the CIA or Vietnamese forces before being executed. When they refused to talk or had no information to give they were tortured by being whipped, hung, and generally beaten until they talked. The museum now shows several pictures and the rooms that the people were inhumanely kept in and is an extremely overwhelming experience at times. The Khmer Rouge had no regard to the age of its victims and showed no mercy. They were trying to return Cambodia to its rural roots and not allow for education of any kind. Doctors, teachers, engineers were among those especially targeted by the forces. All of this happened just a few decades ago and it certainly has not left the minds of many Cambodians. It still haunts them to this day for various reasons, adding to this is their belief that your body becomes a ghost without a proper burial, which none those at S-21 received, meaning the country is still haunted by their past. A truly remarkable sight to see.
After S-21 I headed over to the Killing Fields themselves which were odd. They were in a former park and today it basically looks like a park again with a school just outside its borders where children were playing and screaming like any other school day. At the Killing Fields people were brought, kneeled over a mass grave, and were hit in the back of the head with farming tools (bullets were too expensive for the Khmer Rouge to waste on these people) before their throats were slit to finish the execution. That is the basic history of it. Some 130 or so mass graves exist and you are allowed to walk around some that have been dug up and excavated, but there isn't really much there anymore besides ditches in the ground and signs saying things like "This is the tree that the babies were hit against"..."This is where the killing tools were stored"...etc. Not too much to see, but the history of it all is still remarkable and made for one of the most moving sights I've ever seen.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Some pictures from the last month
Staircase at the abandoned casino at Bokor Hill Station 
Creepy catholic church at Bokor Hill Station
Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Sunset at Koh Tao with longtail boat and dive boat in the water
One of the many faces at the Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom (part of the Angkor Wat complex) 
Angkor Wat from further away
Closer view of Angkor Wat...and one of the lovely tourists that I shared it with
Angled shot of Angkor Wat with reflection in the pond
Sunset at Otres Beach - Sihanokville, Cambodia
Tuk-tuk ride to Angkor Wat
Tree busting through a wall at Ta Prohm, the Jungle Temple (my favorite, part of the temples of Angkor))
Tree busting through the East entrance of Ta Som (Angkor complex)
Longtail boat at Railay Beach - Krabi, Thailand (thats the water I was diving in)
Monday, May 19, 2008
If we die, we die together
Finally made it to rural Cambodia. My first two stops in the country were in much more touristy areas, but I'm here now in Kampot (southern Cambodia). It's home to durian fruit and black pepper plantations. I think durian fruit is jack fruit in the States (not sure though), regardless the stuff stinks. I ate some the other day because I felt the need to at least try it, but my senses were overwhelmed with the rotten smell of it. Its actually not allowed in some of the nicer hotels around the area because it really does stink. But the black pepper here, although very strong, is delicious.
The town itself is quite small, takes about 10-15 minutes to walk around the entire thing but quite nice, for once I actually feel like I'm in Cambodia. School children running around, a smaller market in town, and there arén't restaurants and guesthouses everywhere, that is sure to change as they are building a deep-water port here and currently building 5 star resorts, which other tourists complained about but I think our guesthouse owner (British) is right when he says the country deserves it since it has essentially been raped by itself and others for the past 3 decades with all of the fighting that has happened here. My favorite part of being here are the daily boat races at sunset on the river. Granted the boats are longboats and cruise at about 3mph so its like watching paint dry, but there is an announcer and crowds of kids gather to wave at the "racers". It's a short race and I guess the keep points throughout the year and crown a winner at the end of the wet season when the river turns from fresh water to salt water as the ocean water comes back up it. The boat races add a nice hometown feel.
The reason tourist come here is for Bokor National Park and the Bokor Hill Station. Which I got to tour yesterday. The hill station is a former French resort with a casino, hotel, church, and a few other buildings. It was abandoned back in the 60s right before the Vietnam War and now is a ghost town of sorts. The drive up there is up a dirt road on a mountain. Good thing its only the start of the monsoon season so the mud on the road was only a few inches deep. I mean we only go stuck and had to be pushed out once so thats a good thing right? To get up there you ride in the back of a pickup truck on benches and it was pouring rain the entire way up. We got a little wet, and at elevation the temperature actually dropped a bit so it was chilly for once in SE Asia. Once on top the rain slowed and eventually stopped, thank god, one of the tour groups that came up actually went down without seeing anything because they were too cold....thankfully our group was amazing and we had a great time singing "Here comes the sun" and other tunes with the word sun in it....only one knew "sun, sun, mr golden sun, please shine down on me" so I had to teach them. It was a fun international sing around, we even tried it in French for a bit....that ended poorly.
The Hill Station was spooky, real spooky, like something out of a horror movie. The sun never came out despite our singing and the abandoned buildings were covered in a misty fog which only added to the effect. It was an amazing site though, the buildings were fading to orange due to the material used in construction and were being over run by moss and plants. You could look down long dark corridors to single side window where the line shined in to illuminate the mist that was all around and it looked like we were in a horror movie. This was the casino/hotel which had 38 rooms to explore. The church was somewhat boring on the inside but the outside of it had a very strange feel with its steeple and cross (Catholic church) barely visible in the fog. There was also a cliff up there, the most popular place to commit suicide back in the day apparently that had very strong gusts of wind blowing up. Leaning over the edge almost felt like flying because the wind was so strong.
After the Hill Station we trekked 2 hours through the jungle up there, where we saw a cobra, to a massive waterfall. It was the largest I'd ever seen, granted Í have only see a few proper waterfalls in my day so that may not be saying much, but I was really really impressed. It had 3 tiers, though only 2 were big, and dropped about 100 feet in total. There was a huge volume of water coming over which made the bottom of the falls be covered in mist. It was pretty cool if you ask me. On the way back we ate some berries off this bush, they were kind of like soft acorns that you had to peel the shell from before eating. All the tourists looked at each other before we ate them before our guide, Viet (amazing by the way, probably the best guide I've had for anything yet) ate his and said well at least if we die we die together...cheers Viet.
We survived the bumpy and muddy journey back to town for a slow boat cruise back into town as the sun was setting. All in all a great day. Cambodia has thus far been 3 for 3 with awesome stops, one more to go in Phnom Penh before New Zealand, how did that happen?
The town itself is quite small, takes about 10-15 minutes to walk around the entire thing but quite nice, for once I actually feel like I'm in Cambodia. School children running around, a smaller market in town, and there arén't restaurants and guesthouses everywhere, that is sure to change as they are building a deep-water port here and currently building 5 star resorts, which other tourists complained about but I think our guesthouse owner (British) is right when he says the country deserves it since it has essentially been raped by itself and others for the past 3 decades with all of the fighting that has happened here. My favorite part of being here are the daily boat races at sunset on the river. Granted the boats are longboats and cruise at about 3mph so its like watching paint dry, but there is an announcer and crowds of kids gather to wave at the "racers". It's a short race and I guess the keep points throughout the year and crown a winner at the end of the wet season when the river turns from fresh water to salt water as the ocean water comes back up it. The boat races add a nice hometown feel.
The reason tourist come here is for Bokor National Park and the Bokor Hill Station. Which I got to tour yesterday. The hill station is a former French resort with a casino, hotel, church, and a few other buildings. It was abandoned back in the 60s right before the Vietnam War and now is a ghost town of sorts. The drive up there is up a dirt road on a mountain. Good thing its only the start of the monsoon season so the mud on the road was only a few inches deep. I mean we only go stuck and had to be pushed out once so thats a good thing right? To get up there you ride in the back of a pickup truck on benches and it was pouring rain the entire way up. We got a little wet, and at elevation the temperature actually dropped a bit so it was chilly for once in SE Asia. Once on top the rain slowed and eventually stopped, thank god, one of the tour groups that came up actually went down without seeing anything because they were too cold....thankfully our group was amazing and we had a great time singing "Here comes the sun" and other tunes with the word sun in it....only one knew "sun, sun, mr golden sun, please shine down on me" so I had to teach them. It was a fun international sing around, we even tried it in French for a bit....that ended poorly.
The Hill Station was spooky, real spooky, like something out of a horror movie. The sun never came out despite our singing and the abandoned buildings were covered in a misty fog which only added to the effect. It was an amazing site though, the buildings were fading to orange due to the material used in construction and were being over run by moss and plants. You could look down long dark corridors to single side window where the line shined in to illuminate the mist that was all around and it looked like we were in a horror movie. This was the casino/hotel which had 38 rooms to explore. The church was somewhat boring on the inside but the outside of it had a very strange feel with its steeple and cross (Catholic church) barely visible in the fog. There was also a cliff up there, the most popular place to commit suicide back in the day apparently that had very strong gusts of wind blowing up. Leaning over the edge almost felt like flying because the wind was so strong.
After the Hill Station we trekked 2 hours through the jungle up there, where we saw a cobra, to a massive waterfall. It was the largest I'd ever seen, granted Í have only see a few proper waterfalls in my day so that may not be saying much, but I was really really impressed. It had 3 tiers, though only 2 were big, and dropped about 100 feet in total. There was a huge volume of water coming over which made the bottom of the falls be covered in mist. It was pretty cool if you ask me. On the way back we ate some berries off this bush, they were kind of like soft acorns that you had to peel the shell from before eating. All the tourists looked at each other before we ate them before our guide, Viet (amazing by the way, probably the best guide I've had for anything yet) ate his and said well at least if we die we die together...cheers Viet.
We survived the bumpy and muddy journey back to town for a slow boat cruise back into town as the sun was setting. All in all a great day. Cambodia has thus far been 3 for 3 with awesome stops, one more to go in Phnom Penh before New Zealand, how did that happen?
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Or you can have that......
Finished my stop over in Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor with an amazing last day of site seeing. We actually almost saw a real sunset at Angkor Wat on the last day which I was pretty happy about. My final meal in Siem Reap was delicious as well. Cambodian BBQ, and I got the ostrich. It was like a mix between beef and chicken, and extremely delicious, though not as good as my pumpkin in coconut soup from the day before....I'm being spoiled these days.
Anyway, headed down to Sihanokville (it's a mouthful) with some friends in southern Cambodia. Its the beach town of the country. We decided to head to Otres beach, which during this season (the start of the monsoon) was truly deserted. We had a beautiful white sand beach to ourselves....literally. I saw about a dozen local fisherman the entire time we were there. We could have stayed in town at the bigger beaches where the people tend to go but we decided against that in favor of quiet, and we found it. Running along the beach was amazing and peaceful. The only downside to the distance from civilization is the amenities of the place we stayed at. No running water, electricity by generator only and very very limited menus for food. Kinda like being in the Nepalese mountains again but with a beautiful beach. The water was quite as clean at peaceful as the beaches in Thailand but the stay here was relaxing nonetheless. And we had some adventures here.....
We decided to have dinner at a "restaurant" up the road from our guesthouse. We find this place on the side of the road with 2 tables and chairs...thats our place. We ask what we can get, fried noodles or rice with beef were our only options.....or you can have that the owner says pointing at a chicken. The chicken was alive at the time and we decided it best be to eat fresh, our guesthouse owner was fishing for our food everyday before that so why not keep up the trend. We helped the family a bit trapping the chicken, I think it saw the hunger in our eyes, and once captured....well, things got messy. It's head came off with a quick swing of a cleaver type knife and it kicked its last few beats before the owner of the place squeezed the blood out, de-feathered it, and fried it up for us (I was traveling with 2 other guys and a girl from UK and the States). It wasn't the best meal I'd ever had but it was certainly one of the more memorable adventures I've had in Southeast Asia.
After dinner we had some drinks with the family and talked about life and things. It was amazing to discover that most Cambodians cannot afford to go to college because it costs between $500-800 per year. My books cost more than that for a year. Quite different than the states. An amazing fact of Cambodia, and its somewhat disheartening to me, is the currency that they use....the US dollar. Go to an ATM and thats what it spits out. The Cambodian currency called the riel is more like the change. It is completely dependent on the dollar and it fixed at 4000 riel per dollar. So if I go to the store and it costs $1.50, I'll pay with $2 and get 2000 riel back. Its unfortunate that the country doesn't operate on its own currency, especially considering the fact that the currency is beautifully decorated. And they also drive on the right side of the road, something that I hadn't seen for sometime before arriving here.
'
From Sihanokville I headed to Kampot to go to a national park and check out some caves that the Khmer Rogue used to hold "prisoners" in. There are suppose to be very old religious monuments in these caves as well which should be interesting to see.
Anyway, headed down to Sihanokville (it's a mouthful) with some friends in southern Cambodia. Its the beach town of the country. We decided to head to Otres beach, which during this season (the start of the monsoon) was truly deserted. We had a beautiful white sand beach to ourselves....literally. I saw about a dozen local fisherman the entire time we were there. We could have stayed in town at the bigger beaches where the people tend to go but we decided against that in favor of quiet, and we found it. Running along the beach was amazing and peaceful. The only downside to the distance from civilization is the amenities of the place we stayed at. No running water, electricity by generator only and very very limited menus for food. Kinda like being in the Nepalese mountains again but with a beautiful beach. The water was quite as clean at peaceful as the beaches in Thailand but the stay here was relaxing nonetheless. And we had some adventures here.....
We decided to have dinner at a "restaurant" up the road from our guesthouse. We find this place on the side of the road with 2 tables and chairs...thats our place. We ask what we can get, fried noodles or rice with beef were our only options.....or you can have that the owner says pointing at a chicken. The chicken was alive at the time and we decided it best be to eat fresh, our guesthouse owner was fishing for our food everyday before that so why not keep up the trend. We helped the family a bit trapping the chicken, I think it saw the hunger in our eyes, and once captured....well, things got messy. It's head came off with a quick swing of a cleaver type knife and it kicked its last few beats before the owner of the place squeezed the blood out, de-feathered it, and fried it up for us (I was traveling with 2 other guys and a girl from UK and the States). It wasn't the best meal I'd ever had but it was certainly one of the more memorable adventures I've had in Southeast Asia.
After dinner we had some drinks with the family and talked about life and things. It was amazing to discover that most Cambodians cannot afford to go to college because it costs between $500-800 per year. My books cost more than that for a year. Quite different than the states. An amazing fact of Cambodia, and its somewhat disheartening to me, is the currency that they use....the US dollar. Go to an ATM and thats what it spits out. The Cambodian currency called the riel is more like the change. It is completely dependent on the dollar and it fixed at 4000 riel per dollar. So if I go to the store and it costs $1.50, I'll pay with $2 and get 2000 riel back. Its unfortunate that the country doesn't operate on its own currency, especially considering the fact that the currency is beautifully decorated. And they also drive on the right side of the road, something that I hadn't seen for sometime before arriving here.
'
From Sihanokville I headed to Kampot to go to a national park and check out some caves that the Khmer Rogue used to hold "prisoners" in. There are suppose to be very old religious monuments in these caves as well which should be interesting to see.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Temples of Angkor
My first stop over in Cambodia has been the small town of Siem Reap. Thanks to the rains that have recently come it floods everyday and is a joy to wonder around. Though I have come to love this place, there is an old and a new market here that have been fun to stroll around. The haggling of prices here is quite amusing, in fact anyone could really do it, as long as you say 'no' to whatever they offer the price will drop. There have been the nice paintings of the temples in the town and I was just curious at how much they cost, not interested in buying one, so as I woked away after she told me the price magically dropped in half. Tempting I thought. You can also get Lonely Planet books here for $2, kinda crazy since they cost $15-30 at home.
The recent history of Cambodia is about as gruesome as it comes in the world, but so far I haven't been exposed to too much of it. Siem Reap has to be the place most tourist come, especially with its close proximity to Bangkok and they are coming for the temples, not the recent history of the country. But evidence of it is still everywhere. Landmine victims hobble around begging for money, and at the temples here they have even created their own little band, albeit simple, to play music to the guests and sell CDs that they have made. I found there ambitious quite admirable since they refuse to beg as they would rather live with dignity. There are also billboards that I've seen around showing a cartoon war and one half and sunny skies with kids playing and rainbows on the other saying how the country no longer needs guns because the streets are safe again. I am very interested now in heading over to the capital, Phnom Penh, to check out the real sites where the massacres actually occured, though I'm assuming the trip will be intense.
Nonetheless, Im in Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor. They were built in the 12th century as religious monuments for the Khmer dynasty. Back in the day, 12th century, this area of the world boasted over a million people, at the time London had about 50,000 occupants. The empire they established spread from the borders of present day Thailand to those of Vietnam, so the area of their influence was not to be discounted, nor is the shear beauty and magnitude of the temples that they built. The most famous of which, Angkor Wat, is the largest religious structure in the world. It takes a solid 2 hours to stroll around it, and that would be without taking in much of it. The other temples are generally smaller and in various states of decay.
To get around the area you hire tuk-tuk or motobike drivers for the day. A tuk-tuk is a motorbike that pulls along a cart that 2 or 3 people can sit in, they are norm in terms of taxis for the area. I, along with someone from my guesthouse hired a driver for the day and were off. We both got 3 day passes to the temple complexes at the entrance and our first stop was Angkor Wat. The temple is surrounded by an enormous moat, probably 300 feet wide and stretching about a mile on each side, possibly more. From the 'main' entrance you cross a causeway where little kids jump off into the water to cool down towards the outer wall of the temple. Its characteristic towers loam in the background and create the typical Cambodian viewpoint. Angkor Wat is on everything here, its the name of half the guest houses/restaurants here, its on the money, and on nearly every sign. The temple is simply iconic and its beauty is deserving of its fame. The walk up to the temple is over a quarter mile long and the views are incredible. These temples were built by tens of thousands of workers in the twelfth century and still stand today with marginal help (in some cases its a lot of help) from re constructive projects, but the beauty of them is something to behold. Angkor Wat is in the shape of a crucifix (though it is a Buddhist temple) with concentric square walls slowly rising up to the main courtyard where the temples 5 pinnacles stand symbolizing Mt Meru I believe, all are ornately decorated. Along the inner wall of the temple is a string of bas reliefs (carvings) that span all four sides of the temple. Each side has to be a few hundred yards long and the reliefs have a ridiculous amount of detail in them. Each relief (8 in total) depicts some religious scene or scene from a battle that the ancient empire took part in. The characters in the relief are beautiful and aside from erosion, remember they are 800 years old, in some parts the detail of them is still there. One of them, the Churning of the Ocean of Milk depicts angels and demons (170 or so in total) trying to churn the ocean to bring up the elixir of immortality...thats a good one to have I'd say. Despite the towers of the temple being the iconic simple of all of Cambodia I found the reliefs to be my favorite part of the temple.
After a solid 3 hours Angkor Wat is was off to Angkor Thom, which is a walled in city that contains several other temples, the most impressive of which being Bayon in my opinion. All of the temples here feature certain statues or reliefs that display an insane amount of detail. At Bayon, there are over a hundred giant faces, each the size of an adult looking out into the forests. The faces aren't carved out of a single stone but rather several stones neatly piled together. So over the course of 800 years some portions of the stone broke away, were defaced by invaders, or eroded by other means (like stupid tourists climbing on them) making portions of the faces be missing. The art certainly wasn't perfect, but in its character and age you could still see the beauty. All of the artwork here was made using a series of smaller stones that are linked together so that they all line up properly, and in some cases the original stones have simply fallen away and lay in huge ruins in the middle of these temples. In others recontructive projects have put in new stone as a replacement and they look somewhat amusing. On the left you'll see this old faded stone, on the right is an immaculate clean stone. It didn't detract too much from the feel of the temples, especially considering that without them the temples would probably fall apart even further or they would be very difficult to figure out what you were looking at.
From Bayon we saw some smaller temples, the pyramid shaped Ta Keo and the larger Banteay Kdei, but my favorite of the visit thus far had to be Ta Prohm, or the Jungle Temple. Remember the jungle ruins you see in Indiana Jones' Raiders of the Lost Ark? Well the scenes basically came from here. Most of the temples here have been cleaned up a bit so that they landscaping around them is suitable. Cambodia is in the tropics and trees would take over if left to their own devices. Place like Angkor Wat and Bayon have largely been cleared out, but by and large the temple of Ta Prohm gets its name because the jungle kind of took it over. The temple itself isn't that impressive because of the carvings or the structures here but the unique harmony between the temple and the jungle. The trees literal explode through some of the walls of the temple ripping them apart. Its difficult to describe without seeing it, but the tress grow through and around the walls and in many cases the trunk of these massive trees sit right on top of the walls with the smaller roots curving down to the ground. The stones at this temple have green moss covering parts of them which truly make it feel like a jungle temple. One of the trees here that is snaking its destructive path through a section of the temple here is said to be the most photographed tree in the world. A few of the other temples here have these characteristics as well, my favorite tree blasting through a temple is at the smaller and less popular Ta Som. Its gorgeous and I promise I'll put pictures up as soon as I can.
I've still got one day left at the temples and will be heading to the farther out ones today. Lonely Planet says that one of them is so overgrown with jungle that it makes Ta Prohm look like someone forgot to mow the lawn, can't wait to see it.
The recent history of Cambodia is about as gruesome as it comes in the world, but so far I haven't been exposed to too much of it. Siem Reap has to be the place most tourist come, especially with its close proximity to Bangkok and they are coming for the temples, not the recent history of the country. But evidence of it is still everywhere. Landmine victims hobble around begging for money, and at the temples here they have even created their own little band, albeit simple, to play music to the guests and sell CDs that they have made. I found there ambitious quite admirable since they refuse to beg as they would rather live with dignity. There are also billboards that I've seen around showing a cartoon war and one half and sunny skies with kids playing and rainbows on the other saying how the country no longer needs guns because the streets are safe again. I am very interested now in heading over to the capital, Phnom Penh, to check out the real sites where the massacres actually occured, though I'm assuming the trip will be intense.
Nonetheless, Im in Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor. They were built in the 12th century as religious monuments for the Khmer dynasty. Back in the day, 12th century, this area of the world boasted over a million people, at the time London had about 50,000 occupants. The empire they established spread from the borders of present day Thailand to those of Vietnam, so the area of their influence was not to be discounted, nor is the shear beauty and magnitude of the temples that they built. The most famous of which, Angkor Wat, is the largest religious structure in the world. It takes a solid 2 hours to stroll around it, and that would be without taking in much of it. The other temples are generally smaller and in various states of decay.
To get around the area you hire tuk-tuk or motobike drivers for the day. A tuk-tuk is a motorbike that pulls along a cart that 2 or 3 people can sit in, they are norm in terms of taxis for the area. I, along with someone from my guesthouse hired a driver for the day and were off. We both got 3 day passes to the temple complexes at the entrance and our first stop was Angkor Wat. The temple is surrounded by an enormous moat, probably 300 feet wide and stretching about a mile on each side, possibly more. From the 'main' entrance you cross a causeway where little kids jump off into the water to cool down towards the outer wall of the temple. Its characteristic towers loam in the background and create the typical Cambodian viewpoint. Angkor Wat is on everything here, its the name of half the guest houses/restaurants here, its on the money, and on nearly every sign. The temple is simply iconic and its beauty is deserving of its fame. The walk up to the temple is over a quarter mile long and the views are incredible. These temples were built by tens of thousands of workers in the twelfth century and still stand today with marginal help (in some cases its a lot of help) from re constructive projects, but the beauty of them is something to behold. Angkor Wat is in the shape of a crucifix (though it is a Buddhist temple) with concentric square walls slowly rising up to the main courtyard where the temples 5 pinnacles stand symbolizing Mt Meru I believe, all are ornately decorated. Along the inner wall of the temple is a string of bas reliefs (carvings) that span all four sides of the temple. Each side has to be a few hundred yards long and the reliefs have a ridiculous amount of detail in them. Each relief (8 in total) depicts some religious scene or scene from a battle that the ancient empire took part in. The characters in the relief are beautiful and aside from erosion, remember they are 800 years old, in some parts the detail of them is still there. One of them, the Churning of the Ocean of Milk depicts angels and demons (170 or so in total) trying to churn the ocean to bring up the elixir of immortality...thats a good one to have I'd say. Despite the towers of the temple being the iconic simple of all of Cambodia I found the reliefs to be my favorite part of the temple.
After a solid 3 hours Angkor Wat is was off to Angkor Thom, which is a walled in city that contains several other temples, the most impressive of which being Bayon in my opinion. All of the temples here feature certain statues or reliefs that display an insane amount of detail. At Bayon, there are over a hundred giant faces, each the size of an adult looking out into the forests. The faces aren't carved out of a single stone but rather several stones neatly piled together. So over the course of 800 years some portions of the stone broke away, were defaced by invaders, or eroded by other means (like stupid tourists climbing on them) making portions of the faces be missing. The art certainly wasn't perfect, but in its character and age you could still see the beauty. All of the artwork here was made using a series of smaller stones that are linked together so that they all line up properly, and in some cases the original stones have simply fallen away and lay in huge ruins in the middle of these temples. In others recontructive projects have put in new stone as a replacement and they look somewhat amusing. On the left you'll see this old faded stone, on the right is an immaculate clean stone. It didn't detract too much from the feel of the temples, especially considering that without them the temples would probably fall apart even further or they would be very difficult to figure out what you were looking at.
From Bayon we saw some smaller temples, the pyramid shaped Ta Keo and the larger Banteay Kdei, but my favorite of the visit thus far had to be Ta Prohm, or the Jungle Temple. Remember the jungle ruins you see in Indiana Jones' Raiders of the Lost Ark? Well the scenes basically came from here. Most of the temples here have been cleaned up a bit so that they landscaping around them is suitable. Cambodia is in the tropics and trees would take over if left to their own devices. Place like Angkor Wat and Bayon have largely been cleared out, but by and large the temple of Ta Prohm gets its name because the jungle kind of took it over. The temple itself isn't that impressive because of the carvings or the structures here but the unique harmony between the temple and the jungle. The trees literal explode through some of the walls of the temple ripping them apart. Its difficult to describe without seeing it, but the tress grow through and around the walls and in many cases the trunk of these massive trees sit right on top of the walls with the smaller roots curving down to the ground. The stones at this temple have green moss covering parts of them which truly make it feel like a jungle temple. One of the trees here that is snaking its destructive path through a section of the temple here is said to be the most photographed tree in the world. A few of the other temples here have these characteristics as well, my favorite tree blasting through a temple is at the smaller and less popular Ta Som. Its gorgeous and I promise I'll put pictures up as soon as I can.
I've still got one day left at the temples and will be heading to the farther out ones today. Lonely Planet says that one of them is so overgrown with jungle that it makes Ta Prohm look like someone forgot to mow the lawn, can't wait to see it.
Boulevard of Broken Backsides
I made the journey from Thailand to Cambodia the other day and Lonely Planet finally got something right. From the Thai border to the town of Siem Reap the road is utter hell. First its the start of the monsoon season and the road isn't really pavement, more dirt. So there are puddles and mud everywhere. Getting across the street is an adventure in Poipet, Cambodia (the border town) and its absolutely disgusting here. Huge dirty casinos litter the streets and I wanted nothing more than to leave...that was until we got on the road. I mentioned it was muddy and filled with huge puddles from the heavy rains but the road is also insanely bumpy, worse than anything I'd seen and I was on it for about 4 hours traveling to Siem Reap. It was miserable, but I had some nice company of a older German couple in my share taxi to enjoy the experience with. The guy, George, had traveled extensively all of the world when he was younger and had some great stories about some of the place in Northern Thailand when they were less developed. The roads up there weren't paved and the town of Pai, now a tourist hotspot, wasn't even on the map. Things have apparently changed. And I hope they do on the roads of Cambodia. Lonely Planet warns you about them but most of the things they say I have found to be exaggerations so I didn't believe them, but the road truly was the "boulevard of broken backsides"....they also claim that they get better from here, fingers crossed.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
5 days in paradise
I headed from the west to the east coast of southern Thailand and ended up on the small island of Koh Tao...aka turtle island, aptly named because there USED to be turtles all over, they have since left though so I saw zero turtles, I know, huge bummer. Despite seeing no turtles Koh Tao was hands down my favorite place that I have visited thus far.
I stayed on Sairee beach which is on the west side of the island, the island is only 5 square miles or so so its not all that big regardless. The views from the beach were amazing and the fact that its an island meant that development was somewhat limited. No buildings more than 2 stories and gorgeous walkways along the beach with cute shops all over. The only thing you have to watch out for are the motorbikes and coconuts, which combined to be the two leading forms of accidental death on the island apparently.
But the reason 90% of the people go to the island....the other 10% just like the quiet....is for the diving. Some 40+ shops are all eager for your services as its one of the best places in Thailand to dive. They have some "Walmarts" of dive companies that are huge and cheap and others that are quite small. Some of the places take out 2 or 3 (high season) boats everyday, each of which can handle about 30 divers. So the unfortunate thing is that a lot of dive sites can get pretty busy with divers. I went with a medium sized place called scuba junction and actually decided to get my advanced open water certificate with them, I got my open water cert in California before I left on the trip...good decision. The funny thing is, the quality of the dive shops in the States, or at least the one I went to, was complete crap compared to the quality of equipment and instructors in Thailand. I had a French Canadian teaching me and took the course with 3 other guys from Europe. The course is more fun than actual work. To get your open water cert you have to take tests, watch movies, and do a bunch of reading on the theory of it all. The advanced course is just 5 dives that help you work on your techniques and become a better diver. You have to do a deep dive (30m or 100ft), a navigation dive, and you pick the other 3. I did a buoyancy dive where they teach you so many useful things about staying buoyant at one depth...much harder than I thought it'd be...the best part of that is at one point you empty all your air and sink to the bottom, take off your fins and jump around like you are "on the moon". I was a fan. The other dives I did was a night dive which was different but fun as well. You carry a very powerful LED light with you and its probably easier to find your way at night, or at least stay with your group, than it is during the day because the divers just look like bright stars underwater. You don't see nearly as many fish and night diving is like a game to try to find things on the ground. We spotted some rays, jelly fish, eels, porcupine fish, and others that only come out at night when all the rest of the fish are sleeping. The best part of the night dive was the bio-luminescence though. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but there are some tiny organisms that light up when they are agitated. So we all got to the bottom, turned off our lights and shook our hands around as fast as we could and the sea just lit up. I started laughing and and ended up spitting my regulator out of my mouth...oops. The final dive I did was an underwater photography dive. Underwater photog is ridiculously tough. First of all I sucked at diving and getting into proper positions like hanging upside down to look around some coral at a fish. Second, the fish don't exactly pose for you. And third, there is much less light underwater which means the shutter has to be open for longer than it does on land meaning the pictures come out pretty blurry unless you are perfectly still, which is ridiculously hard because you can't stop breathing or hold your breath when you are diving and every time you inhale or exhale your buoyancy changes and you rise/fall. But I got about 200 photos, maybe one of them will turn out good I haven't actually seen them.
After my course was over (2 days) I got to do some fun diving as well the next day. We went to the "best" site off the island and it was amazing. It was deeper than most of the reefs there and we went down to about 100 feet but the life there was amazing. We dove around an underwater pinnacle, on top of which were hundreds and hundreds of anemone, which of course means plenty more clown fish. I think I saw 3-500 Nemo's on the dive. You also see gorgeously colored angelfish, butterfly fish, etc. but my favorite of all was the baby box fish. There is only 1 of them, no one really knows how they ever find mates because they live alone, and its about the size of your thumbnail but the divemaster knew the general area what it was and we found it. The fish is aptly named, its literally a bright box with blue spots. Amazing. You also see thousands of other fish, some look like zebras others pure black. There are some big ugly guys down there too. The ugliest is the one eye moray eel. Its body is gross and looks like dead wrinkled skin and the eyes don't look real. They are small plastic beads that don't move. The things are creepy as hell.
But the diving there was amazing overall. Visibility ranged from 10-20m so we could typically see about 50 or so feet underwater. Probably more on the deeper dives, I could see the boat from the bottom. The water temp out here? A cool 30 degrees celcius...thats 86F, the water is extremely comfortable to be in and once you get done diving you head back to a gorgeous beach for a gorgeous sunset.
A group of local Thai guys play beach soccer at sunset everyday and I joined in on that 3 of the nights I was there. The others were spent relaxing and celebrating the completion of our course at a happy hour. Cheers to redbull and vodka. Redbull I think originated in Thailand so the stuff out here is the real deal, a little stronger than the stuff you get in the states and it comes in small glass bottles that look like they'd be better suited to distributing medicene than something to drink.
I'm back in Bangkok now after a 2 hour boat ride through 5-8 foot swells, half the boat got sick which might for a pleasant smell, and an 8 hour bus ride and I head off to Cambodia in the morning.
I stayed on Sairee beach which is on the west side of the island, the island is only 5 square miles or so so its not all that big regardless. The views from the beach were amazing and the fact that its an island meant that development was somewhat limited. No buildings more than 2 stories and gorgeous walkways along the beach with cute shops all over. The only thing you have to watch out for are the motorbikes and coconuts, which combined to be the two leading forms of accidental death on the island apparently.
But the reason 90% of the people go to the island....the other 10% just like the quiet....is for the diving. Some 40+ shops are all eager for your services as its one of the best places in Thailand to dive. They have some "Walmarts" of dive companies that are huge and cheap and others that are quite small. Some of the places take out 2 or 3 (high season) boats everyday, each of which can handle about 30 divers. So the unfortunate thing is that a lot of dive sites can get pretty busy with divers. I went with a medium sized place called scuba junction and actually decided to get my advanced open water certificate with them, I got my open water cert in California before I left on the trip...good decision. The funny thing is, the quality of the dive shops in the States, or at least the one I went to, was complete crap compared to the quality of equipment and instructors in Thailand. I had a French Canadian teaching me and took the course with 3 other guys from Europe. The course is more fun than actual work. To get your open water cert you have to take tests, watch movies, and do a bunch of reading on the theory of it all. The advanced course is just 5 dives that help you work on your techniques and become a better diver. You have to do a deep dive (30m or 100ft), a navigation dive, and you pick the other 3. I did a buoyancy dive where they teach you so many useful things about staying buoyant at one depth...much harder than I thought it'd be...the best part of that is at one point you empty all your air and sink to the bottom, take off your fins and jump around like you are "on the moon". I was a fan. The other dives I did was a night dive which was different but fun as well. You carry a very powerful LED light with you and its probably easier to find your way at night, or at least stay with your group, than it is during the day because the divers just look like bright stars underwater. You don't see nearly as many fish and night diving is like a game to try to find things on the ground. We spotted some rays, jelly fish, eels, porcupine fish, and others that only come out at night when all the rest of the fish are sleeping. The best part of the night dive was the bio-luminescence though. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but there are some tiny organisms that light up when they are agitated. So we all got to the bottom, turned off our lights and shook our hands around as fast as we could and the sea just lit up. I started laughing and and ended up spitting my regulator out of my mouth...oops. The final dive I did was an underwater photography dive. Underwater photog is ridiculously tough. First of all I sucked at diving and getting into proper positions like hanging upside down to look around some coral at a fish. Second, the fish don't exactly pose for you. And third, there is much less light underwater which means the shutter has to be open for longer than it does on land meaning the pictures come out pretty blurry unless you are perfectly still, which is ridiculously hard because you can't stop breathing or hold your breath when you are diving and every time you inhale or exhale your buoyancy changes and you rise/fall. But I got about 200 photos, maybe one of them will turn out good I haven't actually seen them.
After my course was over (2 days) I got to do some fun diving as well the next day. We went to the "best" site off the island and it was amazing. It was deeper than most of the reefs there and we went down to about 100 feet but the life there was amazing. We dove around an underwater pinnacle, on top of which were hundreds and hundreds of anemone, which of course means plenty more clown fish. I think I saw 3-500 Nemo's on the dive. You also see gorgeously colored angelfish, butterfly fish, etc. but my favorite of all was the baby box fish. There is only 1 of them, no one really knows how they ever find mates because they live alone, and its about the size of your thumbnail but the divemaster knew the general area what it was and we found it. The fish is aptly named, its literally a bright box with blue spots. Amazing. You also see thousands of other fish, some look like zebras others pure black. There are some big ugly guys down there too. The ugliest is the one eye moray eel. Its body is gross and looks like dead wrinkled skin and the eyes don't look real. They are small plastic beads that don't move. The things are creepy as hell.
But the diving there was amazing overall. Visibility ranged from 10-20m so we could typically see about 50 or so feet underwater. Probably more on the deeper dives, I could see the boat from the bottom. The water temp out here? A cool 30 degrees celcius...thats 86F, the water is extremely comfortable to be in and once you get done diving you head back to a gorgeous beach for a gorgeous sunset.
A group of local Thai guys play beach soccer at sunset everyday and I joined in on that 3 of the nights I was there. The others were spent relaxing and celebrating the completion of our course at a happy hour. Cheers to redbull and vodka. Redbull I think originated in Thailand so the stuff out here is the real deal, a little stronger than the stuff you get in the states and it comes in small glass bottles that look like they'd be better suited to distributing medicene than something to drink.
I'm back in Bangkok now after a 2 hour boat ride through 5-8 foot swells, half the boat got sick which might for a pleasant smell, and an 8 hour bus ride and I head off to Cambodia in the morning.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Cyclones and bad decisions
It turns out that the rain that forced me indoors the other day is from this cyclone that has been coming through the area. I fortunately did not get the storm in its full strength but only the aftermath of its wake after it passed through nearby Burma, and apparently reports are saying there are already 15,000 dead....yikes. On Railay we just got a lot of wind and a ton of rain. The rain carried on for a solid 2 days ranging from mild drizzle to outright downpour.
I was gettting a bit of cabin fever stuck inside my bungalow or under the roof of the Viewpoint's Restaurant so I decided to make a day of it and went tramping along the beaches in the rain. I had them all to myself as the people from the restaurants lining the shoreline laughed at me, though I did get some of the local kids to come out and juggle a soccer ball with me, they had the day off from selling beer to tourist on the beach apparently.
When the rain did let up and the sun creeped back out I met up with Lauren and Dana and we went and layed out on Phranang Beach (south of Railay). After about 3 minutes we were bored of just laying there so we went and climbed up this cliff to the left side of the beach. Above us the limestone cliffs appeared like a melted candle and below were the waves gently crashing against the cliff we were on. Let's jump!! Brilliant idea. We were only 20 or so feet up and the water looked harmless. So on 3 we went. The water unfortunately was 4-5 feet deep and our landing was on jagged limestone rock, needless to say it wasn't a soft landing. We're all okay, just got a few cuts and scraps here and there, but lesson learned. Don't jump off cliffs without checking water depth first.
I was gettting a bit of cabin fever stuck inside my bungalow or under the roof of the Viewpoint's Restaurant so I decided to make a day of it and went tramping along the beaches in the rain. I had them all to myself as the people from the restaurants lining the shoreline laughed at me, though I did get some of the local kids to come out and juggle a soccer ball with me, they had the day off from selling beer to tourist on the beach apparently.
When the rain did let up and the sun creeped back out I met up with Lauren and Dana and we went and layed out on Phranang Beach (south of Railay). After about 3 minutes we were bored of just laying there so we went and climbed up this cliff to the left side of the beach. Above us the limestone cliffs appeared like a melted candle and below were the waves gently crashing against the cliff we were on. Let's jump!! Brilliant idea. We were only 20 or so feet up and the water looked harmless. So on 3 we went. The water unfortunately was 4-5 feet deep and our landing was on jagged limestone rock, needless to say it wasn't a soft landing. We're all okay, just got a few cuts and scraps here and there, but lesson learned. Don't jump off cliffs without checking water depth first.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Under the sea
I got to do my first dive trips to some of the local islands here in Krabi and it was amazing. The trip consisted of 2 dives.
The first dive had visibility of 20-30 feet and I went to a depth of 60 feet where I stayed for 42 minutes. Underwater were schools of fish everywhere. Thousands and thousands of rainbow colored fish everywhere sitting on top of a colorful coral reef. Closer to the ground were seahorses, angel fish, and these brilliantly shaded blue fish. You couldn't look in any direction without seeing hundreds of fish.
The 2nd dive the visibility wasn't as great but we got to go through a cave. I was freaked out when I'm 40 feet underwater and it starts getting pitch black around me....don't worry I had a dive master all to myself... but then I saw the light at the end of the cave and it was beautiful. Fish darting all over the place, seemed like they were surprised to see us. But I made it back in one piece and had a great time.
Interestingly there were 7 people diving that day, and aside from the instructors I was the only one that was actually certified. You can dive without a certification but you can't go deep and someone is literally holding onto you the entire time...and it costs twice as much as it would for me, I'm glad I got the cert.
I'm thinking about going to the east coast of Thailand to the diving mecca of Koh Tao and getting my advanced certification so I can go deeper. Koh Tao has 100 foot visibility these days, I can't imagine what that's like but I can't wait to find out.
The first dive had visibility of 20-30 feet and I went to a depth of 60 feet where I stayed for 42 minutes. Underwater were schools of fish everywhere. Thousands and thousands of rainbow colored fish everywhere sitting on top of a colorful coral reef. Closer to the ground were seahorses, angel fish, and these brilliantly shaded blue fish. You couldn't look in any direction without seeing hundreds of fish.
The 2nd dive the visibility wasn't as great but we got to go through a cave. I was freaked out when I'm 40 feet underwater and it starts getting pitch black around me....don't worry I had a dive master all to myself... but then I saw the light at the end of the cave and it was beautiful. Fish darting all over the place, seemed like they were surprised to see us. But I made it back in one piece and had a great time.
Interestingly there were 7 people diving that day, and aside from the instructors I was the only one that was actually certified. You can dive without a certification but you can't go deep and someone is literally holding onto you the entire time...and it costs twice as much as it would for me, I'm glad I got the cert.
I'm thinking about going to the east coast of Thailand to the diving mecca of Koh Tao and getting my advanced certification so I can go deeper. Koh Tao has 100 foot visibility these days, I can't imagine what that's like but I can't wait to find out.
Spring break or paradise?
I made my way south to go diving on the west coast of Thailand. There are 2 primary beach spots to go to, Phuket and Krabi. I mean, there are a lot of other ones but I was the most interested in this region located near the Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee) islands, Lonely Planet does Phi Phi is the prettiest place on earth, though I don't believe them. Phuket is a tourist magnet filled with strip-malls, sex tourism, and child prostitution so I avoided it. I'm probably exaggerating this a bit and I bet Phuket isn't that bad, it wouldn't be a tourist hot-spot if it was, but I've been told by several reliable backpackers to avoid it like the plague. So Krabi it is.
There are a few main beaches in Krabi. Ao Nang is located on the main road so there are a lot of amenities right there. I decided to head to the quieter Railay beach, which is more like a honey-mooners beach. It is just gorgeous here. Crystal clear blue water, easy waves, limestone rock formations jutting out of the water everywhere you look, and its quiet. There are no roads to Railay so it's a little bit isolated and not nearly as developed as Ao Nang. The perfect place to relax for a week.
I got a gorgeous little bungalow for a super discount on East Railay (West Railay is the nice beach with amazing views, but I can't afford $50-1,000 a night) and have been relaxing since. I met back up with Lauren and Dana here and have largely spent my days reading on the beach, running, and bouldering (a form of climbing at very low heights, you kind of climb sideways as oppose to up and is really all you can do without ropes). I should mention that Krabi is a mecca for climbers. The limestone cliffs that are everywhere make for some of the best and most picturesque climbing in the world. There are literal hundreds of these skinny towers or pillars shooting straight out of the ocean.
It is amazing down here, though a massive rainstorm did just sweep in, hence the reason I'm updating this thing.
My only complaint about southern Thailand in general, and really its not their fault, is that the atmosphere down here is a mix between a tropical paradise and spring break crowd....though the lines between those two are probably quite blurred. What I mean though is despite the fact that Railay is the quieter beach there are huge parties here everynight. I didn't exactly come to Thailand for the chest thumbing techno, although the fire shows are really fun to watch, but it seems to be unavoidable here that you are going to run into it.
There are a few main beaches in Krabi. Ao Nang is located on the main road so there are a lot of amenities right there. I decided to head to the quieter Railay beach, which is more like a honey-mooners beach. It is just gorgeous here. Crystal clear blue water, easy waves, limestone rock formations jutting out of the water everywhere you look, and its quiet. There are no roads to Railay so it's a little bit isolated and not nearly as developed as Ao Nang. The perfect place to relax for a week.
I got a gorgeous little bungalow for a super discount on East Railay (West Railay is the nice beach with amazing views, but I can't afford $50-1,000 a night) and have been relaxing since. I met back up with Lauren and Dana here and have largely spent my days reading on the beach, running, and bouldering (a form of climbing at very low heights, you kind of climb sideways as oppose to up and is really all you can do without ropes). I should mention that Krabi is a mecca for climbers. The limestone cliffs that are everywhere make for some of the best and most picturesque climbing in the world. There are literal hundreds of these skinny towers or pillars shooting straight out of the ocean.
It is amazing down here, though a massive rainstorm did just sweep in, hence the reason I'm updating this thing.
My only complaint about southern Thailand in general, and really its not their fault, is that the atmosphere down here is a mix between a tropical paradise and spring break crowd....though the lines between those two are probably quite blurred. What I mean though is despite the fact that Railay is the quieter beach there are huge parties here everynight. I didn't exactly come to Thailand for the chest thumbing techno, although the fire shows are really fun to watch, but it seems to be unavoidable here that you are going to run into it.
Rule of 6
When dealing with taxi drivers in Bangkok I have found that they largely multiple the actual price of the ride by 6 when they first tell you how much it will cost. They all have meters...but why use them? Why not try to take advantage of tourists?
I was trying to go from the Northern bus terminal to the southern to head down to the beaches and I had a map in Lonely Planet that made them look to be about 15km apart. Now cabs in Thailand are cheap, dirt cheap....when the meter is used. It cost a group of 4 of us 25o baht (~$8) for the 45 minute ride from the airport to downtown, so I knew this 15km ride should cost about 100 baht (ended up being 90, $3). So this cab driver ushers me to his cab, speaks pretty good english (a rarity among cab drivers) and then tells me 650 baht ($22). I just started laughing at him, seriously man? The price then drops to 300 baht ($10) and I keep laughing and tell him to put the meter on, he insists it will cost 600 baht if I use the meter then tells me how the insane traffic will make it go higher probably. Now its 1am at this point and I know Bangkok can have bad traffic but not at 1am. So I woke away and find another cabbie who happily puts the meter on, 12km and 90 baht later I'm safely at the bus station heading south.
The ride was on a pretty comfy air-con bus full of Thais. I slept all night and awoke to the TV turning on so the Thais could watch what looked like the worst game show ever created. They were all laughing so it must have been funny. But I get to the bus in Krabi and again a cab driver tries to charge me 6 times the amount of what it should cost to get to town. I just hoped on a local bus and was on the beach of Ao Nang in no time.
I'm pretty sure my rule of 6 is science, divide the initial cost of the trip by 6 and that is what the actual price should be. Don't forget this when you go to Thailand next.
I was trying to go from the Northern bus terminal to the southern to head down to the beaches and I had a map in Lonely Planet that made them look to be about 15km apart. Now cabs in Thailand are cheap, dirt cheap....when the meter is used. It cost a group of 4 of us 25o baht (~$8) for the 45 minute ride from the airport to downtown, so I knew this 15km ride should cost about 100 baht (ended up being 90, $3). So this cab driver ushers me to his cab, speaks pretty good english (a rarity among cab drivers) and then tells me 650 baht ($22). I just started laughing at him, seriously man? The price then drops to 300 baht ($10) and I keep laughing and tell him to put the meter on, he insists it will cost 600 baht if I use the meter then tells me how the insane traffic will make it go higher probably. Now its 1am at this point and I know Bangkok can have bad traffic but not at 1am. So I woke away and find another cabbie who happily puts the meter on, 12km and 90 baht later I'm safely at the bus station heading south.
The ride was on a pretty comfy air-con bus full of Thais. I slept all night and awoke to the TV turning on so the Thais could watch what looked like the worst game show ever created. They were all laughing so it must have been funny. But I get to the bus in Krabi and again a cab driver tries to charge me 6 times the amount of what it should cost to get to town. I just hoped on a local bus and was on the beach of Ao Nang in no time.
I'm pretty sure my rule of 6 is science, divide the initial cost of the trip by 6 and that is what the actual price should be. Don't forget this when you go to Thailand next.
Ancient Cities
On my way south I made a few stop-overs in the cultural parts of Thailand, Sukothai and Ayuthaya, the ancient capitals of Thailand. Both of these sites were ruins of the former capitals of the country. Many of the brick structures here were slowly crumbling under their own weight and age. The structures weren't nearly as impressive as the modern day Wats that are so ornately decorated but the history behind it all is fascinating. The Thai language, arts, and culture were largely created at these sites and the fact that they were built centuries before North America discovered by Columbus made them all the more impressive.
I generally preferred the atmosphere of Sukothai a bit more as it was a historic park that was quite well maintained. You got around via bicycles to all of the crumpling Wats. A few of the sites had very beautiful Buddha statues still standing.
One of the most interesting parts of this leg of the trip was the bus ride between the 2 sites (about a 5 hour ride). I got to sit next to a monk and had an interesting conversation with him for most of it. Granted his english was very broken and I know virtually no Thai so asking questions and getting answers was extremely difficult, but I learned that only about 20% of people who become monks actually stick with it throughout their lives. But my favorite fact had to be that most monks don't even understand the mantras that they say when they pray. The mantras, or chants, that the monks speak are written in a dead language, so most of the younger monks don't really know what they are saying but are simply trained to say it. This brought a chuckle out of the monk I was speaking with, I was very lucky to stumble across the opportunity.
I generally preferred the atmosphere of Sukothai a bit more as it was a historic park that was quite well maintained. You got around via bicycles to all of the crumpling Wats. A few of the sites had very beautiful Buddha statues still standing.
One of the most interesting parts of this leg of the trip was the bus ride between the 2 sites (about a 5 hour ride). I got to sit next to a monk and had an interesting conversation with him for most of it. Granted his english was very broken and I know virtually no Thai so asking questions and getting answers was extremely difficult, but I learned that only about 20% of people who become monks actually stick with it throughout their lives. But my favorite fact had to be that most monks don't even understand the mantras that they say when they pray. The mantras, or chants, that the monks speak are written in a dead language, so most of the younger monks don't really know what they are saying but are simply trained to say it. This brought a chuckle out of the monk I was speaking with, I was very lucky to stumble across the opportunity.
A mountain uto-PAI
From Chiang Mai it was off to a small town called Pai....according to Lonely Planet it is a hippie's paradise in the mountains. The town itself is quite small and can be walked through in a matter of minutes. I think Lonely Planet was right about the feel of the town....but thanks Lonely Planet for making this place a tourist mecca. It was a relaxing town but I felt like most of the culture of the area was sucked out of it due to all of the tourism that has flocked its way, I'm guessing largely due to the support given to it by Lonely Planet.
Nonetheless, the town was a blast. The best way for me to describe it would be like a beach town without a beach. There were expats EVERYWHERE, and I had to laugh when they made fun of the backpackers that came through, is it really necessary to laugh at people who came to visit this area that you now live in and drink everyday? Anyway....things to do in Pai. Visit depressing elephant camps (they are chained up), visit caves, and visit waterfalls. All of which are done by riding motor bikes around. I made sure to do them all. The first night there I met up with a few other solo backpackers and a couple of sisters from the Oregon. The 5 of us formed our own little group and went out that night chasing the local bands around as they got us free rice whiskey all night....I think the only way to ever drink that stuff would be if it was free.
After a long night out, we headed out early in the morning on motorbikes to Cave Lod, 65km away. We weren't exactly good motor bike drivers, I think my biking experienced helped me a bit, but the roads were ridiculous. Steep and windy, switchbacks all over the place, and dirt in a few sections. No worries though we made it to Cave Lod unscathed where we were greeted with an unbelievable cave. The cave itself is 38m high and littered with stalactites and stalagmites as well as the various other formations associated with them. The rocks seemed to look like birthday cakes in some places, wax drippings in others, and crystal canyons in others. The formation were some of the most impressive that I'd ever seen.
The ride back to town was a bit easier and we stopped at a waterfall on the way in to relax. The hills up here are very very different from the Himalayas but gorgeous in their own right. I no longer have to strain my neck to see the summits of them but its nice to see trees on them.
Upon arriving in town we had some dinner and I met up with a couple from the UK who had been to the area 7 times and got some great advice from them about when to go where, and being divers themselves, they recommended that I head south....immediately if I want to dive on the west coast of Thailand (the monsoon is coming in and kills visibility). That made up my mind, I was gone, and fortunately was leaving with my newly acquired 'family' over here. Lauren and Dana, the sisters from Oregon, were heading to the same place I was going....by plane of course, so my slow buses down there wouldn't arrive for a few days after them.
Nonetheless, the town was a blast. The best way for me to describe it would be like a beach town without a beach. There were expats EVERYWHERE, and I had to laugh when they made fun of the backpackers that came through, is it really necessary to laugh at people who came to visit this area that you now live in and drink everyday? Anyway....things to do in Pai. Visit depressing elephant camps (they are chained up), visit caves, and visit waterfalls. All of which are done by riding motor bikes around. I made sure to do them all. The first night there I met up with a few other solo backpackers and a couple of sisters from the Oregon. The 5 of us formed our own little group and went out that night chasing the local bands around as they got us free rice whiskey all night....I think the only way to ever drink that stuff would be if it was free.
After a long night out, we headed out early in the morning on motorbikes to Cave Lod, 65km away. We weren't exactly good motor bike drivers, I think my biking experienced helped me a bit, but the roads were ridiculous. Steep and windy, switchbacks all over the place, and dirt in a few sections. No worries though we made it to Cave Lod unscathed where we were greeted with an unbelievable cave. The cave itself is 38m high and littered with stalactites and stalagmites as well as the various other formations associated with them. The rocks seemed to look like birthday cakes in some places, wax drippings in others, and crystal canyons in others. The formation were some of the most impressive that I'd ever seen.
The ride back to town was a bit easier and we stopped at a waterfall on the way in to relax. The hills up here are very very different from the Himalayas but gorgeous in their own right. I no longer have to strain my neck to see the summits of them but its nice to see trees on them.
Upon arriving in town we had some dinner and I met up with a couple from the UK who had been to the area 7 times and got some great advice from them about when to go where, and being divers themselves, they recommended that I head south....immediately if I want to dive on the west coast of Thailand (the monsoon is coming in and kills visibility). That made up my mind, I was gone, and fortunately was leaving with my newly acquired 'family' over here. Lauren and Dana, the sisters from Oregon, were heading to the same place I was going....by plane of course, so my slow buses down there wouldn't arrive for a few days after them.
Northern Thailand
My original plan was to land in Bangkok and then head south to the beaches to relax after my trekking, but the train system of Thailand didn't apparently like this idea since all of the trains south were booked when I arrived in the station. I had made up my mind that I was taking an overnight train the night I arrived in Bangkok so my plans quickly changed and I headed north to Chiang Mai on a 2nd class overnight sleeper train....quite comfy actually, I got my own little bed for the night.
Chiang Mai is one of the larger cities in Thailand and is known for all of the temples that it has, which seem to be around every corner. The city has a lot to offer and a lot to do. Northern Thailand is littered with jungles, hills, and waterfalls everywhere. At first it seemed like my trip hadn't changed much, trekking agencies all over the place, but I took a break from all that and went temple touring. The old city of Chiang Mai is located within city walls surrounded by a moat. Its quite awesome. I felt like I needed to stretch my legs after the nights train ride so I rented a bicycle and pedaled around town all day seeing the various Wats that were centuries old and all ornately decorated. Along with the few dozen Wats that I visited during my trip I got to speak with a few monks about the Buddhism as well which was quite interesting. Seeing religious people like monks walking about in their orange robes performing day-to-day tasks is quite an interesting experience, something you certainly don't see in the States but is quite a common occurrence here.
After my temple touring I was a bit tired and relaxed for dinner and a drink at a local jazz club that was highly entertaining. Many of the performers were westerners in Thailand who I managed to meet up with afterwards to head to the night market, which is a festival of lights and overpriced souvenirs. My favorite part of the night market was seeing the colorful food stands scattered about with fresh fruits, fried insects, and delicious looking seafood.
Chiang Mai is one of the larger cities in Thailand and is known for all of the temples that it has, which seem to be around every corner. The city has a lot to offer and a lot to do. Northern Thailand is littered with jungles, hills, and waterfalls everywhere. At first it seemed like my trip hadn't changed much, trekking agencies all over the place, but I took a break from all that and went temple touring. The old city of Chiang Mai is located within city walls surrounded by a moat. Its quite awesome. I felt like I needed to stretch my legs after the nights train ride so I rented a bicycle and pedaled around town all day seeing the various Wats that were centuries old and all ornately decorated. Along with the few dozen Wats that I visited during my trip I got to speak with a few monks about the Buddhism as well which was quite interesting. Seeing religious people like monks walking about in their orange robes performing day-to-day tasks is quite an interesting experience, something you certainly don't see in the States but is quite a common occurrence here.
After my temple touring I was a bit tired and relaxed for dinner and a drink at a local jazz club that was highly entertaining. Many of the performers were westerners in Thailand who I managed to meet up with afterwards to head to the night market, which is a festival of lights and overpriced souvenirs. My favorite part of the night market was seeing the colorful food stands scattered about with fresh fruits, fried insects, and delicious looking seafood.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
