The scene is a crowded Bangkok Internet cafe. The protagonist is a pudgy, 50 something American with a southern accent. The man sits down and calls his family on Skype. Because on Skype you use headphones (there is no phone booth) and because of his projecting voice, we hear a several hour phone call I never thought would be so public. Things about this nice man Nisha and I now know:
- Evidently he has been married for 2 weeks to a Thai woman (we did not hear how they met), I am assuming some kind of mail order bride.
- She does not know much English, but their connection is like nothing he has ever felt before.
- He has never been so happy in his life, every day keeps getting better and better.
- The lord and/or Jesus are responsible for the proceeding.
- His new Thai wife likes to sleep draped all over him in a non-sexual way.
- She is a massage lady and he hopes that she can get a job as such in the US.
- He knows someone who knows someone who works in Dick Durbin's (US Senator) office, thus her Visa is assured.
- He gives her a $20 dollar a week allowance, which goes a long way in Thailand.
Gotta love Bangkok!!!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thailand Wrap
Thailand was a very nice place to visit.
That, for better or for worse, is about as strong a opinion as I can muster about it. I know it is not all that profound, but honestly, Thailand is not that profound a place. It is just a nice, well run country with really nice beaches and people. It is also quite cheap to travel around, although not as cheap as places like India and Cambodia.
We did have a very good time in Thailand. But, I am really glad that we went there after Japan and India. While those parts of the trip felt more like a real adventure, Thailand felt more like a nice extended vacation. The first reason for this is that the travel in Thailand is so much less challenging. The train and the government bus run quite efficiently. People speak enough English, and westerners are a dime a dozen, so you do not ever feel particularly out of place. There are 7-Elevens, fast food and Internet cafes pretty much everywhere. The touts are quite tame by Asian standards and the beggars are virtually nonexistent.
The other reason why Thailand is different is that everything there is less dramatic. Their sights are kind of interesting, but nothing like the Taj Mahal, Angkor, Hiroshima or even Shinjuku. You may get a little aggravated with the occasional Tuk-Tuk man, but you never have to deal with the stress of an Indian train station, or figuring out how to order a meal in Japanese.
If you come to Thailand to find yourself, learn Thai culture or experience real travel adventure, you will be disappointed. If you come to Thailand for a nice vacation, you will probably love it.
In conclusion, a few highlights and lowlights:
UPSIDES
- The beaches are really nice, often with very litte waves and prefect conditions to swim or play Frisbee in the water.
- The north was pleasant as well, but we enjoyed it much better on our trips outside Chaing Mai on a rented car or motorbike. Downtown Chaing Mai can feel like one giant tourist trap.
- There are really not many places in the world where you can pay $15 dollars for a hut right on the beach.
- Bangkok is an interesting city, good, cheap shopping and some of Thailand's best sights.
- The quality and availability of cheap food is incredible. Eventually we figured out that for Thai food, the cheaper the place, the better the meal.
- There is also a good variety of quality food from all over the world at every tourist destination, at very reasonable prices.
- Most Thais are very nice people. They do indeed seem to smile all the time, and are usually quite helpful and friendly.
LOWLIGHTS
- Some Thais, especially ones who work in tourist trap places, are not very nice. This is the cost of Thailand being so well covered by tourists.
- I really don't like the parallel transport system of buses, boats and taxis that are only there for tourists. The service on these is usually really bad, and it is not a good way to experience the country. Unfortunately, sometimes this network can be the only practical way to get from one place to another. Often this is because the government bus terminal is not near downtown or the train is sold out.
- A great number of your fellow tourists are either British frat boy types or mid-market package European tourists. Also, a good proportion all westerners are sex-tourists. This is especially bad in Bangkok, Chaing Mai and Ko Samui. This may not be a problem for other people, in fact it may be what you are looking for. However, all these groups get a little tiresome for us at times.
- You will learn to hate Trance music if you stay in the wrong room at the hotel.
- Thailand has the worst waiters in the world. Getting the bill is a constaint ordeal.
- Thais care a lot about "face" and thus make for really annoying touts. I do not care if people want to aggressively tout stuff to me. However, the fact that I need to be polite to the touts, in order to prevent unpleasant behavior by them, is really annoying. At least Indian touts know their place in the world and have a thick skin.
- As Nisha has covered in some detail, Thai bathrooms suck.
- The amount of obvious Hooker-Westerner couples did not really bother Nisha and I. In fact it was kind of a game to speculate if the girls were hookers or not, then sometimes if they were really men or not (on a side note, I never imagined that any culture would be as accepting of transvestites as Thais are). However, if this kind of thing bothers you, then best stay away from the big three locations I mentioned above.
That, for better or for worse, is about as strong a opinion as I can muster about it. I know it is not all that profound, but honestly, Thailand is not that profound a place. It is just a nice, well run country with really nice beaches and people. It is also quite cheap to travel around, although not as cheap as places like India and Cambodia.
We did have a very good time in Thailand. But, I am really glad that we went there after Japan and India. While those parts of the trip felt more like a real adventure, Thailand felt more like a nice extended vacation. The first reason for this is that the travel in Thailand is so much less challenging. The train and the government bus run quite efficiently. People speak enough English, and westerners are a dime a dozen, so you do not ever feel particularly out of place. There are 7-Elevens, fast food and Internet cafes pretty much everywhere. The touts are quite tame by Asian standards and the beggars are virtually nonexistent.
The other reason why Thailand is different is that everything there is less dramatic. Their sights are kind of interesting, but nothing like the Taj Mahal, Angkor, Hiroshima or even Shinjuku. You may get a little aggravated with the occasional Tuk-Tuk man, but you never have to deal with the stress of an Indian train station, or figuring out how to order a meal in Japanese.
If you come to Thailand to find yourself, learn Thai culture or experience real travel adventure, you will be disappointed. If you come to Thailand for a nice vacation, you will probably love it.
In conclusion, a few highlights and lowlights:
UPSIDES
- The beaches are really nice, often with very litte waves and prefect conditions to swim or play Frisbee in the water.
- The north was pleasant as well, but we enjoyed it much better on our trips outside Chaing Mai on a rented car or motorbike. Downtown Chaing Mai can feel like one giant tourist trap.
- There are really not many places in the world where you can pay $15 dollars for a hut right on the beach.
- Bangkok is an interesting city, good, cheap shopping and some of Thailand's best sights.
- The quality and availability of cheap food is incredible. Eventually we figured out that for Thai food, the cheaper the place, the better the meal.
- There is also a good variety of quality food from all over the world at every tourist destination, at very reasonable prices.
- Most Thais are very nice people. They do indeed seem to smile all the time, and are usually quite helpful and friendly.
LOWLIGHTS
- Some Thais, especially ones who work in tourist trap places, are not very nice. This is the cost of Thailand being so well covered by tourists.
- I really don't like the parallel transport system of buses, boats and taxis that are only there for tourists. The service on these is usually really bad, and it is not a good way to experience the country. Unfortunately, sometimes this network can be the only practical way to get from one place to another. Often this is because the government bus terminal is not near downtown or the train is sold out.
- A great number of your fellow tourists are either British frat boy types or mid-market package European tourists. Also, a good proportion all westerners are sex-tourists. This is especially bad in Bangkok, Chaing Mai and Ko Samui. This may not be a problem for other people, in fact it may be what you are looking for. However, all these groups get a little tiresome for us at times.
- You will learn to hate Trance music if you stay in the wrong room at the hotel.
- Thailand has the worst waiters in the world. Getting the bill is a constaint ordeal.
- Thais care a lot about "face" and thus make for really annoying touts. I do not care if people want to aggressively tout stuff to me. However, the fact that I need to be polite to the touts, in order to prevent unpleasant behavior by them, is really annoying. At least Indian touts know their place in the world and have a thick skin.
- As Nisha has covered in some detail, Thai bathrooms suck.
- The amount of obvious Hooker-Westerner couples did not really bother Nisha and I. In fact it was kind of a game to speculate if the girls were hookers or not, then sometimes if they were really men or not (on a side note, I never imagined that any culture would be as accepting of transvestites as Thais are). However, if this kind of thing bothers you, then best stay away from the big three locations I mentioned above.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Thai Food I: Street Food
It took me quite awhile after arriving to Thailand to get into the food. It was not because a dislike of Thai food, since it is one of my favorite foods in the US, more more a dislike of where one eats Thai food. The restaurant culture of the US, India, and every other place I have been does not really exist here. There are restaurants, just not Thai ones. It seems that Thais will go a nice enclosed AC restaurant to have pizza, Chinese, or any non-Thai food. However, except in Bangkok, all Thai restaurants if not catering directly to tourists or in a 5-star hotel, are ramshackle open-air establishments or food carts.
The carts are not really permanent, since they are put up and taken down everyday, but they occupy the same location every night. They all have wheels to be pushed away at the end of the night. They do not have running water. They do have electricity and even meters to presumably pay someone for the power. The prices are all between 5 and 40 baht (10 - 80 cents). The ambiance matches the price - you eat on metal folding tables and plastic stools. Many are arranged in the same place to constitute a day or night food market. Some are simply a swerer or fruit seller attached to a sidecar.
In India street food is either sworn off or you know it will cost you some serious bathroom time. We had great hesitation in delving into the multitude of street eats. During our first week here, we ate primarily at tourist restaurants, which besides McDonald's, this is the place you can go to guarantee eating the worst food any locale has to offer. Slowly, as we saw more Westerners eating from them and not in the hospital with IVs, we too entered into the makeshift street restaurants.
What do they serve? Everything on a menu of a typical US Thai restaurant and more. The diversity is stunning. Curry carts offer over 10 types of succulent meat and vegetable curries. Soup carts offer something akin to Vietnamese Pho with sliced meat or shrimp, or duck. There were numerous BBQ carts with various processed meats creatively sculpted on the wooden skewer. The carts catering more to Thais include BBQed hanging offal, looking much like an anatomy class. There were stir-fry and pad Thai carts. Many served various types of iced tea - black, chrysanthemum, hibiscus, and ginger finished with condensed milk. Dessert carts had banana and nutella crepes, silver dollar pancakes filled with a coconut mixture. On every corner is a fruit cart filled with carved and chilled pineapple, banana, mango, dragon fruit, jack fruit, and watermelon whether for immediate consumption or to be whipped into a shake. The one I always looked out for was the mango and sticky rice cart. At first I scoffed at such a pedestrian dessert made with rice. However, it's hard to describe the unbelievable marriage of a silky fragrant mango with slightly salty, sweet, coconut stewed rice.
After a month in Thailand, food carts instilled in me, rather than fear and terror, a Pavlovian response of salivation. Some of the best food we had in Thailand came from these lowly eateries. Next post - more about specific dishes.
The carts are not really permanent, since they are put up and taken down everyday, but they occupy the same location every night. They all have wheels to be pushed away at the end of the night. They do not have running water. They do have electricity and even meters to presumably pay someone for the power. The prices are all between 5 and 40 baht (10 - 80 cents). The ambiance matches the price - you eat on metal folding tables and plastic stools. Many are arranged in the same place to constitute a day or night food market. Some are simply a swerer or fruit seller attached to a sidecar.
In India street food is either sworn off or you know it will cost you some serious bathroom time. We had great hesitation in delving into the multitude of street eats. During our first week here, we ate primarily at tourist restaurants, which besides McDonald's, this is the place you can go to guarantee eating the worst food any locale has to offer. Slowly, as we saw more Westerners eating from them and not in the hospital with IVs, we too entered into the makeshift street restaurants.
What do they serve? Everything on a menu of a typical US Thai restaurant and more. The diversity is stunning. Curry carts offer over 10 types of succulent meat and vegetable curries. Soup carts offer something akin to Vietnamese Pho with sliced meat or shrimp, or duck. There were numerous BBQ carts with various processed meats creatively sculpted on the wooden skewer. The carts catering more to Thais include BBQed hanging offal, looking much like an anatomy class. There were stir-fry and pad Thai carts. Many served various types of iced tea - black, chrysanthemum, hibiscus, and ginger finished with condensed milk. Dessert carts had banana and nutella crepes, silver dollar pancakes filled with a coconut mixture. On every corner is a fruit cart filled with carved and chilled pineapple, banana, mango, dragon fruit, jack fruit, and watermelon whether for immediate consumption or to be whipped into a shake. The one I always looked out for was the mango and sticky rice cart. At first I scoffed at such a pedestrian dessert made with rice. However, it's hard to describe the unbelievable marriage of a silky fragrant mango with slightly salty, sweet, coconut stewed rice.
After a month in Thailand, food carts instilled in me, rather than fear and terror, a Pavlovian response of salivation. Some of the best food we had in Thailand came from these lowly eateries. Next post - more about specific dishes.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
First Observations of Cambodia
- They have yet another form of Autorickshaw here, also called the Tuk-Tuk as in Thailand. The design is totally different however, as it is a regular small motorbike, like a Honda Dream, with a trailer attached that holds up to 4 people. It actually is the nicest ride of all of them, because it is not enclosed, so you get a lot of air and can see the view. They also drive at very safe speeds since a 125cc motorbike is not exactly designed as a towing machine. Here is a photo of one, from someone else.
- We ran into one of Nisha's classmates in her SCUBA course at Angkor Wat yesterday and got a first-hand account of the Koh San Road/Bangkok tourist bus to Siem Reap. Evidently everything was fine until the border where aggressive touts convinced half the people to change all their Baht to US dollars at a really terrible exchange rate. Then the ride that took us 3 hours in a cab takes 9 hours in the bus, so they can deliver you to a second rate guesthouse at the edge of town. Since you arrive at 22:00, it is difficult to get onward transportation, so you end up staying there until the next morning. If you are doing this trip, read our post and this website, do the trip yourself.
- It is really strange how upscale the center of Siem Reap (Bar St.) is, especially considering that the rest of the country is on the India level of rural economic development. There is basically a whole area here of upscale cafes, bars and restaurants which are up to western standards of sophistication, food and service. To give you an idea, we had pizza from a real brick oven and home-made raviolis last night. One thing I have read is that a lot of these establishments are run by westerners, as there are no regulations here that make owning a business difficult for foreigners, as in most Asian countries. This may very well be true, because some of the restaurants go out of their way to say that they are run by actual Khemrs (Cambodians). This may not be great for the locals, but is good for the consumers, as the level of service is high in both the western and local owned establishments. Lets here it for open market competition.
- Strangely enough, the fact that they use US dollars here, rather then some foreign funny money, makes us feel poorer then in India or Thailand. Things are about the same price here, but when you pay 240 Baht for a nice pizza in Thailand, you do not really think about it as 7 dollars or so, it just seems like some small amount of your total wad of usually over 10,000 Baht. Here the pizza will still cost 7 dollars, granted this is a tourist place and it is as good as pizza I pay 14 dollars for at home, but it still seems expensive. The same goes for beer costing $1.50 rather then 60 Baht. Actually the main thing that is cheap here so far is accommodation (15 dollars for the best value hotel of the trip - Golden Temple Villa) and the Internet (75 cents an hour). Food is the same price as India or Thailand for the level of quality, but the cheap food carts here sell roasted snakes and entrails, and are not really set up for westerners. No more 25 Baht noodle soup for us.
- Even though Siem Reap is very touristy, it nice to be back in a place where people are more happy to see the tourists and their money arrive then in Thailand. Thais are still very nice, but they can often seem jaded at the endless cycle of budget travellers that tromp around their country. Especially since many of these travellers are drunken assholes or sex-tourists, their attitude is somewhat understandable. Khemrs have so far seemed much more honestly friendly and happy to talk to you, and the scene here is a little more grown up, and less like Cancun.
- Do your self a favor and search for something dumb like "Cancun Drunk" on flickr. There are a lot of gems out there I found while searching for that picture. Like this.
- We ran into one of Nisha's classmates in her SCUBA course at Angkor Wat yesterday and got a first-hand account of the Koh San Road/Bangkok tourist bus to Siem Reap. Evidently everything was fine until the border where aggressive touts convinced half the people to change all their Baht to US dollars at a really terrible exchange rate. Then the ride that took us 3 hours in a cab takes 9 hours in the bus, so they can deliver you to a second rate guesthouse at the edge of town. Since you arrive at 22:00, it is difficult to get onward transportation, so you end up staying there until the next morning. If you are doing this trip, read our post and this website, do the trip yourself.
- It is really strange how upscale the center of Siem Reap (Bar St.) is, especially considering that the rest of the country is on the India level of rural economic development. There is basically a whole area here of upscale cafes, bars and restaurants which are up to western standards of sophistication, food and service. To give you an idea, we had pizza from a real brick oven and home-made raviolis last night. One thing I have read is that a lot of these establishments are run by westerners, as there are no regulations here that make owning a business difficult for foreigners, as in most Asian countries. This may very well be true, because some of the restaurants go out of their way to say that they are run by actual Khemrs (Cambodians). This may not be great for the locals, but is good for the consumers, as the level of service is high in both the western and local owned establishments. Lets here it for open market competition.
- Strangely enough, the fact that they use US dollars here, rather then some foreign funny money, makes us feel poorer then in India or Thailand. Things are about the same price here, but when you pay 240 Baht for a nice pizza in Thailand, you do not really think about it as 7 dollars or so, it just seems like some small amount of your total wad of usually over 10,000 Baht. Here the pizza will still cost 7 dollars, granted this is a tourist place and it is as good as pizza I pay 14 dollars for at home, but it still seems expensive. The same goes for beer costing $1.50 rather then 60 Baht. Actually the main thing that is cheap here so far is accommodation (15 dollars for the best value hotel of the trip - Golden Temple Villa) and the Internet (75 cents an hour). Food is the same price as India or Thailand for the level of quality, but the cheap food carts here sell roasted snakes and entrails, and are not really set up for westerners. No more 25 Baht noodle soup for us.
- Even though Siem Reap is very touristy, it nice to be back in a place where people are more happy to see the tourists and their money arrive then in Thailand. Thais are still very nice, but they can often seem jaded at the endless cycle of budget travellers that tromp around their country. Especially since many of these travellers are drunken assholes or sex-tourists, their attitude is somewhat understandable. Khemrs have so far seemed much more honestly friendly and happy to talk to you, and the scene here is a little more grown up, and less like Cancun.
- Do your self a favor and search for something dumb like "Cancun Drunk" on flickr. There are a lot of gems out there I found while searching for that picture. Like this.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Overland to Cambodia
So, we completed the much dreaded Bangkok to Siem Reap overland journey yesterday. Rather then taking the tickets from Bangkok sold for backpackers, which can be a decent deal, but often involve bus scams and annoying delays, we did the trip ourselves, using a myriad of transit options. There may be annoyances along the way when you plan the trip yourself, but I prefer to at least make my own problems and have the flexibility to what I want to solve them.
The Result:
1) Leave at 7:00 in a taxi to go to the North Bangkok government bus depot (Mo Chit). Get stuck in Bangkok traffic, trip takes a little under an hour.
2) Take a government bus at 8:00 (no scams unlike backpacker buses) to Aranya Pratet.
3) Arrive in Aranya Pratet at around 12:30, pretty non-descript Thai border town. Decent roads, 7-Elevens, usual stuff. Take a 5km Tuk-Tuk to the border.
4) Check out of Thailand, walk across the little bridge to Poipet, Cambodia. Funny thing here, there is a border market on the Thai side that Cambodian merchents can get a pass to go to for the day. Evidently it is a way to sell goods of dubious origin to the Thai people who have more money. Going the other way on the bridge there were pushcarts full of new $800 Trek bikes as well as one with guitar amplifiers.
5) On the Cambodian side of the bridge go to the visa office to get a visa, since we did not get one before arrival. There is a sign that says that a visa costs $20 US (US currency is the de facto currency of Cambodia, although Thai Baht and their own currency can sometimes be used). Because you are supposed to have six months before expiration on your passport, and Nisha only has five, I pay 1000 Baht each (30 dollars) to the guy who "helps" you get the visa. Visa comes back no problem.
6) Walk down the strip of new casinos that are in this no mans land for Thai gamblers. Errie sight, especially seeing the Indian street scene beyond the immigration gate.
7) Wait behind a bus load of westerners to actually pass immigration.
8) Enter into Cambodia and start trying to work out the taxi situation to get to Siem Reap. There are a bunch of taxi guys right beyond the gate who seem pretty disreputable, and want $40 US to drive just the two of us in a Toyot Camry to Siem Reap. There are also guys wearing yellow shirts who try to get you to go on a bus where they say they sell you a seat in a share Toyota for $15 US each.
I don't really like the vibe from the guys who are right there, and the lowest they will go is $35 dollars. However, we see that the bus goes just 200m up the road, and a yellow shirt guy on a scooter keeps telling us to go there. So we head walk up there to check out the deal. This is a crappy little office, but does look to be where most people are getting trasportation forward. It is either $12 for a seat on a bus, or $15 for a seat in a cab that leaves right away. We take the cab and end up sharing with two solo people, a Swiss lady and a friendly young guy from Hong Kong.
9) From around 14:00 to 17:30 bounce down the atrocious dirt highway from Poipet to Siem Reap. Looks like we are back in India, shocking trasformation from Thailand.
10) Get dropped off in the taxi depot on the edge of town. Negotiated for a Tuk-Tuk with the Hong Kong guy for $2 US dollars into town.
11) Go to "Bar" St. in the center of town, find a suprisingly really nice and classy tourist area in the middle of town. Find a really nice little hotel in the area called the Golden Temple (or something like that) for $15 US a night. Get free beer opon check in.
The result, not that bad. Did not cost too much and relly the only problem was figuring out the taxi deal in Poipet, but even that worked out fine. Siem Reap is actually very nice, and today we head out to see Angkor Wat.
The Result:
1) Leave at 7:00 in a taxi to go to the North Bangkok government bus depot (Mo Chit). Get stuck in Bangkok traffic, trip takes a little under an hour.
2) Take a government bus at 8:00 (no scams unlike backpacker buses) to Aranya Pratet.
3) Arrive in Aranya Pratet at around 12:30, pretty non-descript Thai border town. Decent roads, 7-Elevens, usual stuff. Take a 5km Tuk-Tuk to the border.
4) Check out of Thailand, walk across the little bridge to Poipet, Cambodia. Funny thing here, there is a border market on the Thai side that Cambodian merchents can get a pass to go to for the day. Evidently it is a way to sell goods of dubious origin to the Thai people who have more money. Going the other way on the bridge there were pushcarts full of new $800 Trek bikes as well as one with guitar amplifiers.
5) On the Cambodian side of the bridge go to the visa office to get a visa, since we did not get one before arrival. There is a sign that says that a visa costs $20 US (US currency is the de facto currency of Cambodia, although Thai Baht and their own currency can sometimes be used). Because you are supposed to have six months before expiration on your passport, and Nisha only has five, I pay 1000 Baht each (30 dollars) to the guy who "helps" you get the visa. Visa comes back no problem.
6) Walk down the strip of new casinos that are in this no mans land for Thai gamblers. Errie sight, especially seeing the Indian street scene beyond the immigration gate.
7) Wait behind a bus load of westerners to actually pass immigration.
8) Enter into Cambodia and start trying to work out the taxi situation to get to Siem Reap. There are a bunch of taxi guys right beyond the gate who seem pretty disreputable, and want $40 US to drive just the two of us in a Toyot Camry to Siem Reap. There are also guys wearing yellow shirts who try to get you to go on a bus where they say they sell you a seat in a share Toyota for $15 US each.
I don't really like the vibe from the guys who are right there, and the lowest they will go is $35 dollars. However, we see that the bus goes just 200m up the road, and a yellow shirt guy on a scooter keeps telling us to go there. So we head walk up there to check out the deal. This is a crappy little office, but does look to be where most people are getting trasportation forward. It is either $12 for a seat on a bus, or $15 for a seat in a cab that leaves right away. We take the cab and end up sharing with two solo people, a Swiss lady and a friendly young guy from Hong Kong.
9) From around 14:00 to 17:30 bounce down the atrocious dirt highway from Poipet to Siem Reap. Looks like we are back in India, shocking trasformation from Thailand.
10) Get dropped off in the taxi depot on the edge of town. Negotiated for a Tuk-Tuk with the Hong Kong guy for $2 US dollars into town.
11) Go to "Bar" St. in the center of town, find a suprisingly really nice and classy tourist area in the middle of town. Find a really nice little hotel in the area called the Golden Temple (or something like that) for $15 US a night. Get free beer opon check in.
The result, not that bad. Did not cost too much and relly the only problem was figuring out the taxi deal in Poipet, but even that worked out fine. Siem Reap is actually very nice, and today we head out to see Angkor Wat.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Flaming Floating Lotus Flowers
Experiencing different festivals of the world is one of my passions, so you can imagine my delight when I found out that we would be in Bangkok for the Loy Kratong Festival. During the festival times, normally tourist-weary locals are more talkative, open, and generally in a better mood. The city is cleaner and the excitement in the air is palpable.
So far we have been extraordinarily lucky - we hit the Asakusa Samba Festival in Japan, the Ladakh Festival in Leh, the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Diu and Mumbai, Dandiya in Chennai, the Durga festival in Calcutta, and now we were in town for the Thai's second most important festival of the year. It has been chance all except for Calcutta (most of these run on the lunar calender making it hard to find the exact dates).
Possibly hinting at Indian roots, the main activity of the Loy Kratong festival is to buy or make a kratong and release it with lit incense and a small candle into the river. Unlike the Hindu festivals we have attended, this one seems to have unclear origins. It seems that the Thais take is as a festival to mark the beginning of the cool, dry season and releasing of the kratong as good luck.
The kratongs are usually made of a disc of banana tree, bread, or styrofoam (think the kind that you caulk windows with). Trying to find a less environmentally damaging one, we picked was a simple lotus flower. They are decorated with folded banana leaf, flowers, incense, and candles. I read at sometimes there is money in the center which explains the three women in a longtail boat downstream from the releasing point fishing them out, dumping the contents in the boat, and throwing them back in the water.
Some of the main events took place in the park near our guesthouse in the neighborhood of Banglampu. There were plenty of foods stalls (more on that to come in another blog), balloon sellers, and 2 stages. One stage was for beauty contests and traditional dance and song. The other larger one for a Thai rock band. It was all very well organized with marine patrol and Mardi Gras barrier corrals to wait in before releasing your krathong.
The floating kratongs in the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river and the Mardi Gras-like floats parading down the river made for a magical night. We released our krathong with the help of a man down the walkway from the festival. He was using a fan cover attached to ribbon to hoist up floating krathongs. I thought at first he was looking to take the money out of them as well. However, all he did was insert a stick topped with a alcohol soaked sponge, light it, and release the flaming kratong back in the water. I guess he was looking for lots of luck.
- Nisha
So far we have been extraordinarily lucky - we hit the Asakusa Samba Festival in Japan, the Ladakh Festival in Leh, the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Diu and Mumbai, Dandiya in Chennai, the Durga festival in Calcutta, and now we were in town for the Thai's second most important festival of the year. It has been chance all except for Calcutta (most of these run on the lunar calender making it hard to find the exact dates).
Possibly hinting at Indian roots, the main activity of the Loy Kratong festival is to buy or make a kratong and release it with lit incense and a small candle into the river. Unlike the Hindu festivals we have attended, this one seems to have unclear origins. It seems that the Thais take is as a festival to mark the beginning of the cool, dry season and releasing of the kratong as good luck.
The kratongs are usually made of a disc of banana tree, bread, or styrofoam (think the kind that you caulk windows with). Trying to find a less environmentally damaging one, we picked was a simple lotus flower. They are decorated with folded banana leaf, flowers, incense, and candles. I read at sometimes there is money in the center which explains the three women in a longtail boat downstream from the releasing point fishing them out, dumping the contents in the boat, and throwing them back in the water.
Some of the main events took place in the park near our guesthouse in the neighborhood of Banglampu. There were plenty of foods stalls (more on that to come in another blog), balloon sellers, and 2 stages. One stage was for beauty contests and traditional dance and song. The other larger one for a Thai rock band. It was all very well organized with marine patrol and Mardi Gras barrier corrals to wait in before releasing your krathong.
The floating kratongs in the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river and the Mardi Gras-like floats parading down the river made for a magical night. We released our krathong with the help of a man down the walkway from the festival. He was using a fan cover attached to ribbon to hoist up floating krathongs. I thought at first he was looking to take the money out of them as well. However, all he did was insert a stick topped with a alcohol soaked sponge, light it, and release the flaming kratong back in the water. I guess he was looking for lots of luck.
- Nisha
Thai Economics
I wrote when I was in India a post called Indian Economics where I tried to put in prospective the amount of money that Indian make versus the US. I thought a followup might be in order discussing what we have found in Thailand.
Going back to the same list of GDP per capita, we find that Thailand currently is at $9,193 versus India at $3,802 and the US at $43,223. So, for the purposes of this article I will say that the average Thai makes 1/5 as much as the average American and twice as much as the average Indian. I have not done as much word of mouth research to validate these assumptions, but I do believe that they are more of less true.
With these facts in mind I will say that I am very surprised how much closer the standard of living feels in Thailand to the US then it does to India. When you walk around a Thai city or town, things do not seem that different from home. Most streets are well kept and have a mixture of little shops and restaurants as well as fast food and 7-Eleven chain outlets. Streets are well kept and usually have good sidewalks. People mostly dress in normal, clean western cloths. When you are in the outskirts of a city you see a lot of giant new Tesco superstores (similar looking from the outside to a Wall-Mart, except bigger) and fancy new gas stations.
The most drastic differences I notice off hand are in transportation and street food/shopping. The mix of vehicles here is very heavy with small motorbikes. There are plenty of private cars, but there are also swarms of these little bikes everywhere, being driven by young men, grandmothers, Thai schoolgirls, etc. Also, there are a lot more regular buses and many converted pickup truck buses, or Songthaews. As for street shopping, food carts are everywhere, selling cheap Thai food staples. Also, a lot of shopping for clothes and other goods is done in large areas of small stalls that are present in any large town or city.
The end result is that it seems like Thai life is not that different from the US, but just with a lot of components being done in a cheaper way. A Thai mother still goes out to the store, but it is usually on a motorbike and often to a rustic vegetable market. Thais eat out a lot, but they only spend 20 Baht (75 cents) at a soup stand rather then $10 at Chilies. Thai teens still spend a lot of time shopping, but rather then for name brand goods at a mall, it is for counterfeit goods at a outdoor market, and they ride in a Songthaew to get there. Long haul transportation is usually done by nice tour bus, rather then private car. From what I have seen on the outside, Thais usually live in much smaller houses, but they are usually well kept.
The thing that also makes life seem similar is how a lot of the Thai ways of doing things are a lot cheaper, but are actually on the surface as good as the US version. When we stopped on our 10 hour bus ride at a rest stop to eat it was a brand new open air market place with nice tables and chairs and a array of little counters with the usual soup and curry mix. My soup and Diet Coke cost be 40 Baht (a little over a dollar) but I would take it over a McDonald's value meal any day of the week. A ride in a Songthaew is certainly not a safe as a real city bus, but with the fresh air blowing through your hair, it is not any less comfortable. A 120 Baht (4 dollar) counterfeit Abercrombie and Fitch T-Shirt is no different from its $30 version, it might even be made in the same factory.
Nisha had an interesting observation on another aspect of this big leap from India. When you read the paper here the social problems are not that different from the US. This morning she read about a protest by people in wheelchairs because Bangkok was not installing enough ramps in the sidewalk, so that they can cross the street easily. This is in contrast from India where it is not that uncommon to see someone walking down the sidewalk on their hands. The Thai story reads like something you might see in the US, but having a disabled person walking down the street on their hands is not even something we would think of as a problem in the US.
Going back to the same list of GDP per capita, we find that Thailand currently is at $9,193 versus India at $3,802 and the US at $43,223. So, for the purposes of this article I will say that the average Thai makes 1/5 as much as the average American and twice as much as the average Indian. I have not done as much word of mouth research to validate these assumptions, but I do believe that they are more of less true.
With these facts in mind I will say that I am very surprised how much closer the standard of living feels in Thailand to the US then it does to India. When you walk around a Thai city or town, things do not seem that different from home. Most streets are well kept and have a mixture of little shops and restaurants as well as fast food and 7-Eleven chain outlets. Streets are well kept and usually have good sidewalks. People mostly dress in normal, clean western cloths. When you are in the outskirts of a city you see a lot of giant new Tesco superstores (similar looking from the outside to a Wall-Mart, except bigger) and fancy new gas stations.
The most drastic differences I notice off hand are in transportation and street food/shopping. The mix of vehicles here is very heavy with small motorbikes. There are plenty of private cars, but there are also swarms of these little bikes everywhere, being driven by young men, grandmothers, Thai schoolgirls, etc. Also, there are a lot more regular buses and many converted pickup truck buses, or Songthaews. As for street shopping, food carts are everywhere, selling cheap Thai food staples. Also, a lot of shopping for clothes and other goods is done in large areas of small stalls that are present in any large town or city.
The end result is that it seems like Thai life is not that different from the US, but just with a lot of components being done in a cheaper way. A Thai mother still goes out to the store, but it is usually on a motorbike and often to a rustic vegetable market. Thais eat out a lot, but they only spend 20 Baht (75 cents) at a soup stand rather then $10 at Chilies. Thai teens still spend a lot of time shopping, but rather then for name brand goods at a mall, it is for counterfeit goods at a outdoor market, and they ride in a Songthaew to get there. Long haul transportation is usually done by nice tour bus, rather then private car. From what I have seen on the outside, Thais usually live in much smaller houses, but they are usually well kept.
The thing that also makes life seem similar is how a lot of the Thai ways of doing things are a lot cheaper, but are actually on the surface as good as the US version. When we stopped on our 10 hour bus ride at a rest stop to eat it was a brand new open air market place with nice tables and chairs and a array of little counters with the usual soup and curry mix. My soup and Diet Coke cost be 40 Baht (a little over a dollar) but I would take it over a McDonald's value meal any day of the week. A ride in a Songthaew is certainly not a safe as a real city bus, but with the fresh air blowing through your hair, it is not any less comfortable. A 120 Baht (4 dollar) counterfeit Abercrombie and Fitch T-Shirt is no different from its $30 version, it might even be made in the same factory.
Nisha had an interesting observation on another aspect of this big leap from India. When you read the paper here the social problems are not that different from the US. This morning she read about a protest by people in wheelchairs because Bangkok was not installing enough ramps in the sidewalk, so that they can cross the street easily. This is in contrast from India where it is not that uncommon to see someone walking down the sidewalk on their hands. The Thai story reads like something you might see in the US, but having a disabled person walking down the street on their hands is not even something we would think of as a problem in the US.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Potty Humor
Seeing as this part of our trip will be a major topic of conversation with the Basu family at Christmas, I will get a head start on the ups and downs of the traveling toilet situation.
The highlight of this part of the trip was in Japan. The Japanese have applied the technology we reserve for $2000 dishwashers to their the porcelain thrones, with splashing results. I had heard rumors of the wonders of Japanese toilets - they have mechanical hands that wipe the nether regions, the seats are made of solid gold, they play music, etc, etc. Some of this was true, though not the mechanical hand. There is a famous 24 karat solid gold toilet in Tokyo. If you have a golden toilet, then why not golden poop as well?
The typical Japanese toilet, the one you find in the homes, hostels, and malls, consist of a toilet bowl, seat, and toilet tank. In the high-tech ones, there is a control panel of sorts next to the bowl. This panel is studded with many buttons in Japanese with small incomprehensible pictures for those less literate. I never really deciphered all the functions, but here are some Ian, Andrew, and I figured out. With this panel, it is possible to receive squirts of water from inside the bowl to one's business areas. These jets vary in intensity, duration, and aim. During my first use, I nearly leaped to the ceiling because I didn't know the previous patron had turned the jet on high. As I became soaked, I found out that it would not cease until I found the off button. These robo-toilets also also would spray a jet of air to finish the job you did with the water and toilet paper. For the discrete Japanese ladies, there was a "fake flush" button that when pressed, would make a flushing sound during which you could tinkle or make whatever other noise you wanted without the whole bathroom hearing. One had headphone hook-up. I never found out what was playing.
Almost more important to me than the actual toilet apparatus, is the ability to clean my hands. This need is inversely proportional to cleanliness of the bathroom. In Japan, there was always automatic soap and water basins. However, I quickly found out that everyone carried handkerchiefs to dry their hands. This lesson is one that I will keep with me in the US. Why use a paper towel when you can carry your own?
Which brings me to my next country. I had the most trepidation about India in this regard. During my 3 prior visits, I had had some horrific experiences with splintered wooden planks as a toilet seat over a vat of mosquitoes and filth. Also, since everyones toilet use increases in India for obvious reasons, I tried to be prepared by always carrying toilet paper and a hanky to dry my hands.
Reflecting the diverse economic strata in the country, India has a wide spread between completely horrific bathrooms and sparklingly clean ones with attendants. Fancy hotels and restaurants have normal easy to understand Western toilets with paper, a flushing mechanism, a clean dry floor, and a sink with water, soap, and towels. All things taken for granted in the American bathroom experience. When there is a squat toilet in India, it generally had a flusher and a bucket of water to use instead of toilet paper (though I never figured out how to do this without soaking myself in the process). We had a squat toilet for 3 days in our stay in Mapsua, Goa. It really wasn't that bad. When it is your own, you can strip down so as not to wet all your clothes in the process. I can't stay I achieved the Zen of backpacking in India, which is to balance yourself on a squat toilet while reading the newspaper. Only the free public toilets will cause night terrors, as happened with me before our overnight bus ride from Udiapur.
Also, though this may not be evident on a quick vacation to India as your experience will likely be colored by the worst bathroom experiences of your life, Indians do care about washing their hands. This may not always happen in the vicinity of the toilet, but in every restaurant, no matter if it has a dirt floor and is made of blue tarp (the developing world's replacement for the tar paper shack), there will be a sink with soap to wash with before dining. Once you realize this, and have brought your own hanky to dry your hands, your war against the colon twisting germs in India gets a tad easier.
I do feel that I owe India somewhat of an apology about ragging so much on their plumbing in my first blog about our accommodation. I didn't think that the toilet situation could get worse once we left the land of the squat toilet. But again, I was wrong. Thailand has the worst plumbing I have ever seen coupled with a questionable system of personal hygiene as well (from what I can deduce from the facilities offered).
Here in Thailand, virtually everywhere has either a squat or Western bowl. Not really a problem - India trained us well. However, no where are these toilet bowls equipped to flush toilet paper as the exiting pipe is a narrow as a sink drain. There is generally a large bucket of water with a huge bowl or a high-pressure dish sprayer to replace the toilet paper. All bathrooms here have a generally poorly worded sign that tried to communicate to you to throw the paper in the trash. One of these signs read "some napkins go in the bucket." Not fully understaidng this, I thought to myself, where are these napkins, and why do only some need to go in the bucket, as I tossed my tissue in the toilet.
The second enormous problem with Thai plumbing and why it ranks below that of India, is that there are many places that don't have a flushing mechanism on the toilet. That's right, there is a toilet bowl with no tank. You think it's a normal toilet until you go to flush and stupidly pull at the air. Every morning, one has to try in vain to dispose of your handiwork with a bowl full of water that is kept in a bucket next to the toilet. Once hotel toilet was so terrible, that Ian and I had to use the bowl of water, the high-pressure butt sprayer, and the hand-held shower hose to get the toilet to flush. The large downside of this country wide practice is that: 1. you guessed it, your bathroom stinks at all times with the used tissues in the trash can, 2. since there is always a large bucket full of water, the bathrooms are mosquito pits, 3. you never want to flush the toilet since it's such an ordeal, and 4. your bathroom is soaked at all times.
So after a victory with flushing the Thai toilet, all I want to do is wash my hands. Therein lies the 3rd problem. Most public toilets in respectable places - restaurants, shops, etc, either have no place to wash or if they do, have no soap. Maybe I just haven't figured out how Thais wash their hands yet. In India it took me a while to figure out that it was expected that everyone wash their hands before eating in a restaurant. This really is the most maddening thing here in Thailand. From what I can tell, most Thais clean their privates, Indian-style, without the ability to wash hands. Baffling!
I know some of you are thinking, what should I expect traveling to Asia? Maybe avoiding toilet paper is more environmentally correct, I should have more respect for the local customs... I thought you might want the straight story without the social correctness sugar-coating.
Now on to Cambodia. I'm sure the situation can't get any worse. But I said that about India as well.
The highlight of this part of the trip was in Japan. The Japanese have applied the technology we reserve for $2000 dishwashers to their the porcelain thrones, with splashing results. I had heard rumors of the wonders of Japanese toilets - they have mechanical hands that wipe the nether regions, the seats are made of solid gold, they play music, etc, etc. Some of this was true, though not the mechanical hand. There is a famous 24 karat solid gold toilet in Tokyo. If you have a golden toilet, then why not golden poop as well?
The typical Japanese toilet, the one you find in the homes, hostels, and malls, consist of a toilet bowl, seat, and toilet tank. In the high-tech ones, there is a control panel of sorts next to the bowl. This panel is studded with many buttons in Japanese with small incomprehensible pictures for those less literate. I never really deciphered all the functions, but here are some Ian, Andrew, and I figured out. With this panel, it is possible to receive squirts of water from inside the bowl to one's business areas. These jets vary in intensity, duration, and aim. During my first use, I nearly leaped to the ceiling because I didn't know the previous patron had turned the jet on high. As I became soaked, I found out that it would not cease until I found the off button. These robo-toilets also also would spray a jet of air to finish the job you did with the water and toilet paper. For the discrete Japanese ladies, there was a "fake flush" button that when pressed, would make a flushing sound during which you could tinkle or make whatever other noise you wanted without the whole bathroom hearing. One had headphone hook-up. I never found out what was playing.
Almost more important to me than the actual toilet apparatus, is the ability to clean my hands. This need is inversely proportional to cleanliness of the bathroom. In Japan, there was always automatic soap and water basins. However, I quickly found out that everyone carried handkerchiefs to dry their hands. This lesson is one that I will keep with me in the US. Why use a paper towel when you can carry your own?
Which brings me to my next country. I had the most trepidation about India in this regard. During my 3 prior visits, I had had some horrific experiences with splintered wooden planks as a toilet seat over a vat of mosquitoes and filth. Also, since everyones toilet use increases in India for obvious reasons, I tried to be prepared by always carrying toilet paper and a hanky to dry my hands.
Reflecting the diverse economic strata in the country, India has a wide spread between completely horrific bathrooms and sparklingly clean ones with attendants. Fancy hotels and restaurants have normal easy to understand Western toilets with paper, a flushing mechanism, a clean dry floor, and a sink with water, soap, and towels. All things taken for granted in the American bathroom experience. When there is a squat toilet in India, it generally had a flusher and a bucket of water to use instead of toilet paper (though I never figured out how to do this without soaking myself in the process). We had a squat toilet for 3 days in our stay in Mapsua, Goa. It really wasn't that bad. When it is your own, you can strip down so as not to wet all your clothes in the process. I can't stay I achieved the Zen of backpacking in India, which is to balance yourself on a squat toilet while reading the newspaper. Only the free public toilets will cause night terrors, as happened with me before our overnight bus ride from Udiapur.
Also, though this may not be evident on a quick vacation to India as your experience will likely be colored by the worst bathroom experiences of your life, Indians do care about washing their hands. This may not always happen in the vicinity of the toilet, but in every restaurant, no matter if it has a dirt floor and is made of blue tarp (the developing world's replacement for the tar paper shack), there will be a sink with soap to wash with before dining. Once you realize this, and have brought your own hanky to dry your hands, your war against the colon twisting germs in India gets a tad easier.
I do feel that I owe India somewhat of an apology about ragging so much on their plumbing in my first blog about our accommodation. I didn't think that the toilet situation could get worse once we left the land of the squat toilet. But again, I was wrong. Thailand has the worst plumbing I have ever seen coupled with a questionable system of personal hygiene as well (from what I can deduce from the facilities offered).
Here in Thailand, virtually everywhere has either a squat or Western bowl. Not really a problem - India trained us well. However, no where are these toilet bowls equipped to flush toilet paper as the exiting pipe is a narrow as a sink drain. There is generally a large bucket of water with a huge bowl or a high-pressure dish sprayer to replace the toilet paper. All bathrooms here have a generally poorly worded sign that tried to communicate to you to throw the paper in the trash. One of these signs read "some napkins go in the bucket." Not fully understaidng this, I thought to myself, where are these napkins, and why do only some need to go in the bucket, as I tossed my tissue in the toilet.
The second enormous problem with Thai plumbing and why it ranks below that of India, is that there are many places that don't have a flushing mechanism on the toilet. That's right, there is a toilet bowl with no tank. You think it's a normal toilet until you go to flush and stupidly pull at the air. Every morning, one has to try in vain to dispose of your handiwork with a bowl full of water that is kept in a bucket next to the toilet. Once hotel toilet was so terrible, that Ian and I had to use the bowl of water, the high-pressure butt sprayer, and the hand-held shower hose to get the toilet to flush. The large downside of this country wide practice is that: 1. you guessed it, your bathroom stinks at all times with the used tissues in the trash can, 2. since there is always a large bucket full of water, the bathrooms are mosquito pits, 3. you never want to flush the toilet since it's such an ordeal, and 4. your bathroom is soaked at all times.
So after a victory with flushing the Thai toilet, all I want to do is wash my hands. Therein lies the 3rd problem. Most public toilets in respectable places - restaurants, shops, etc, either have no place to wash or if they do, have no soap. Maybe I just haven't figured out how Thais wash their hands yet. In India it took me a while to figure out that it was expected that everyone wash their hands before eating in a restaurant. This really is the most maddening thing here in Thailand. From what I can tell, most Thais clean their privates, Indian-style, without the ability to wash hands. Baffling!
I know some of you are thinking, what should I expect traveling to Asia? Maybe avoiding toilet paper is more environmentally correct, I should have more respect for the local customs... I thought you might want the straight story without the social correctness sugar-coating.
Now on to Cambodia. I'm sure the situation can't get any worse. But I said that about India as well.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Don't Look Down
We went to Railay primarily because it seemed like a nice beach and a pleasant area to relax. It certainly did match these expectations, but the highlight of my time there was certainly my first couple times rock climbing.
I went out on a beginner trip each of the two mornings that I was there. I found climbing to be more fun and more interesting then I imagined. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of challenge they would throw at you as a beginner. I have spent a lot of time climbing up little steep rock faces in New England without ropes, and did not want to just end up doing that with a guy holding a rope at the bottom.
The deal with beginner climbing in Railay is more or less this. You go to the office in the morning and they set you up with a harness, chalk bag and climbing shoes. The shoes are meant to be very tight, so you pick ones that are barley comfortable, knowing that you only wear them when climbing the wall. You then take a 10 minute walk with your Thai, rope carrying guide, to the end of the beach and arrive at a place I found out is called the 1,2,3 wall. This wall is evidently the easiest to get to area and is suitable for beginners, so it seemed like pretty much everyone who is doing the beginner half day rock climbing trip ends up down there, meaning around 10-15 climbers and the various Thai guides.
As you can see from someone else's picture, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is a real wall, it is basically vertical in all places and is at least 100m to the very top. The first thing you do when you get there is learn how to tie yourself to the end of the rope, and how to belay, i.e. work the bottom of the rope, for someone else. You then get to put your belaying skills to the test as the guide lead climbs up the wall to get the rope to the top. The guide makes it look easy as he climbs up to the permanent ring anchor that will be used as the top of the rope for the rest of the day. He does clip in to the intermediate anchors so he has some protection, but between the fact that he is lead climbing and being belayed by someone who does not know what they are doing, I am pretty sure they prefer to never fall. After he reaches the top, around 10m up for the first climbs, he hooks the rope through the ring and then you lower him down.
Most of the initial climbs are only around 10m high, so soon after you arrive different groups and guides have strung up around 4-5 top ropes. At this point the tourists start going up and it becomes more interesting. The first climb I did was not too difficult. It was very steep, but the craggy limestone rock in Railay provides a ton of hand and footholds. I did make the climb more difficult then it should be because I was still climbing like I was scrambling up a ledge in NH. By this I mean that I was mostly using my feet and taking no risks, this ensured not falling, but limited the number of things you could do.
The Dutch guy with me did pretty much the same thing and we moved to the next rope. This is the kind of nice thing about being on a busy wall. When you get done with your rope, you just hop in line to use one of the other ropes set up by another guide. Before climbing the next rope the guide showed us how to climb using our hands more. Rather then using your hands to pull yourself up like a pull-up, as you might imagine, you can use your hands to hold your body away from the wall, giving your feet a better angle to grip small footholds. I would never do this without a rope, because if you hand lets go, you fall, but taking risks is the point of having a rope, right?
Now knowing this allowed me to take more risks and climb things that I would have never been able to make it up with my previous technique. We had fun the rest of the morning climbing the various routes, touching the ring at the top, and getting dropped down to the bottom. My highlight was climbing up a longer route that was around 20m high. My lowlight was running out of arm strength and ending up hanging by my fingers in an untenable position. There is an instinctive moment of panic, but then you remember that if you just yell "Tension" down below the rope gets very tight, and you can just hang for a minute to catch you breath and then pick it up again.
This seemed to be the most common problem people would have, running out of arm strength and not being able to make the final push over a difficult part. The Thai guides do have a little trick however. When someone can not quite make it, they just lean heavily on the rope, giving the person above the 20kg of upwards assistance they need to get over the hump. I don't think I got any help like this the first day (or perhaps I am just deluding myself), but that was how a lot of heavier guys and girls were making it to the top.
I liked it so much I went back the next day for pretty much the same program. Now with more practice, and a night to recover some life in my arms, I was able to breeze up even several of the harder 10m climbs. To give me a challenge they let me climb the 30m climb to the top of the main part of the wall. This was the limit of the 60m ropes that we were using. I was equal to the first 20m, which was a interesting, but not too hard climb I had done the day before. The last 10m however was a vertical, sheer wall with only a few handholds to use. I should have taken a longer break before tacking this beast, because I once again ended up dangling by my fingertips and needing to yell a long way down for the rope to be made tight so I could take a break. I was completely spent after this ordeal and it felt pretty good to touch the ring and take the easy ride down.
I was also entertained this day watching the other guy in our group who was a burly Nordic guy of some description. He was a lot heavier then me, but also a lot stronger. We were about equal as far as climbing, with him being a little better, due to his better time on the top of the 30m beast. He did not climb like us lighter guys, but rather just used his arms to lift himself up the mountain. It looked like he was in a bar brawl with the cliffs, thrashing around and powering himself up, but he always did make it to the top.
There should be some of our pictures of the day up soon as well, so check them out.
I went out on a beginner trip each of the two mornings that I was there. I found climbing to be more fun and more interesting then I imagined. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of challenge they would throw at you as a beginner. I have spent a lot of time climbing up little steep rock faces in New England without ropes, and did not want to just end up doing that with a guy holding a rope at the bottom.
The deal with beginner climbing in Railay is more or less this. You go to the office in the morning and they set you up with a harness, chalk bag and climbing shoes. The shoes are meant to be very tight, so you pick ones that are barley comfortable, knowing that you only wear them when climbing the wall. You then take a 10 minute walk with your Thai, rope carrying guide, to the end of the beach and arrive at a place I found out is called the 1,2,3 wall. This wall is evidently the easiest to get to area and is suitable for beginners, so it seemed like pretty much everyone who is doing the beginner half day rock climbing trip ends up down there, meaning around 10-15 climbers and the various Thai guides.
As you can see from someone else's picture, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is a real wall, it is basically vertical in all places and is at least 100m to the very top. The first thing you do when you get there is learn how to tie yourself to the end of the rope, and how to belay, i.e. work the bottom of the rope, for someone else. You then get to put your belaying skills to the test as the guide lead climbs up the wall to get the rope to the top. The guide makes it look easy as he climbs up to the permanent ring anchor that will be used as the top of the rope for the rest of the day. He does clip in to the intermediate anchors so he has some protection, but between the fact that he is lead climbing and being belayed by someone who does not know what they are doing, I am pretty sure they prefer to never fall. After he reaches the top, around 10m up for the first climbs, he hooks the rope through the ring and then you lower him down.
Most of the initial climbs are only around 10m high, so soon after you arrive different groups and guides have strung up around 4-5 top ropes. At this point the tourists start going up and it becomes more interesting. The first climb I did was not too difficult. It was very steep, but the craggy limestone rock in Railay provides a ton of hand and footholds. I did make the climb more difficult then it should be because I was still climbing like I was scrambling up a ledge in NH. By this I mean that I was mostly using my feet and taking no risks, this ensured not falling, but limited the number of things you could do.
The Dutch guy with me did pretty much the same thing and we moved to the next rope. This is the kind of nice thing about being on a busy wall. When you get done with your rope, you just hop in line to use one of the other ropes set up by another guide. Before climbing the next rope the guide showed us how to climb using our hands more. Rather then using your hands to pull yourself up like a pull-up, as you might imagine, you can use your hands to hold your body away from the wall, giving your feet a better angle to grip small footholds. I would never do this without a rope, because if you hand lets go, you fall, but taking risks is the point of having a rope, right?
Now knowing this allowed me to take more risks and climb things that I would have never been able to make it up with my previous technique. We had fun the rest of the morning climbing the various routes, touching the ring at the top, and getting dropped down to the bottom. My highlight was climbing up a longer route that was around 20m high. My lowlight was running out of arm strength and ending up hanging by my fingers in an untenable position. There is an instinctive moment of panic, but then you remember that if you just yell "Tension" down below the rope gets very tight, and you can just hang for a minute to catch you breath and then pick it up again.
This seemed to be the most common problem people would have, running out of arm strength and not being able to make the final push over a difficult part. The Thai guides do have a little trick however. When someone can not quite make it, they just lean heavily on the rope, giving the person above the 20kg of upwards assistance they need to get over the hump. I don't think I got any help like this the first day (or perhaps I am just deluding myself), but that was how a lot of heavier guys and girls were making it to the top.
I liked it so much I went back the next day for pretty much the same program. Now with more practice, and a night to recover some life in my arms, I was able to breeze up even several of the harder 10m climbs. To give me a challenge they let me climb the 30m climb to the top of the main part of the wall. This was the limit of the 60m ropes that we were using. I was equal to the first 20m, which was a interesting, but not too hard climb I had done the day before. The last 10m however was a vertical, sheer wall with only a few handholds to use. I should have taken a longer break before tacking this beast, because I once again ended up dangling by my fingertips and needing to yell a long way down for the rope to be made tight so I could take a break. I was completely spent after this ordeal and it felt pretty good to touch the ring and take the easy ride down.
I was also entertained this day watching the other guy in our group who was a burly Nordic guy of some description. He was a lot heavier then me, but also a lot stronger. We were about equal as far as climbing, with him being a little better, due to his better time on the top of the 30m beast. He did not climb like us lighter guys, but rather just used his arms to lift himself up the mountain. It looked like he was in a bar brawl with the cliffs, thrashing around and powering himself up, but he always did make it to the top.
There should be some of our pictures of the day up soon as well, so check them out.
Quick Update
We just had a great time in Railay, which is a beach area nestled in dramatic cliffs and accessible only by boat. It was really a great little place and I had a great time rock climbing, and Nisha had a great time at the beach.
Off to Bangkok since we only have 2 days left on the visa. Don't want to become an illegal immigrant.
Off to Bangkok since we only have 2 days left on the visa. Don't want to become an illegal immigrant.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Finally Legal: Open Water, Baby!
When we planned this trip, we knew that we would want to do some diving in Thailand. Once I found out that Koh Tao is one of the cheapest dive meccas in the world, Ian I decided that we would spend a few days there and I could get my open water certification.
There are many outfits on the Sariee Beach, the main backpacker beach. After evaluating a few, I chose Phoenix Divers mainly because they had a nice looking restaurant and had a pool for Ian to hang out in. Most places wanted 9800 baht for the certification plus free accommodation on the course days. We took a discounted AC bungalow near the pool from the AC Resort for 400 a night and the course was only 8500. This was only $270, a steal compared to the US and I was diving in the Gulf of Thailand rather then the Boston Chinatown YMCA pool.
The course was entertainingly led by Christophe, a Flemish former boys boarding school principle turned SCUBA instructor who told well-timed fart jokes. There were only 5 people in our class which I didn't realize at the time was such a bonus until I saw some of the other outfits with 12 - 20 students. One of the highlights of the whole experience was meeting other travelers.
We went on four excellent dives. One of the other students, Marek, a communications major from Germany, took hundreds of photos of the dives, some of which I posted on Flickr. The amount of fish and diversity of coral was truly stunning. The visibility was perfect, and despite being monsoon season, had no rain. Since Koh Tao is a very young diving area, there were no places with anchor damage or trash. I hope they are able to keep it that way.
The beach itself was pleasant, though this should not be the sole purpose from coming here. The walking brick street was lined with many low-key resorts, Thai and international resturants, and bars. There were a fair amount of people around, so usually a few of the bars would be packed with the fire-twirlers providing much of the entertainment. The only downside about the AC Resort was that it had a totally empty bar that blasted techno until at least 5 AM every night. I heard that it would get crowded later with Thais, but I never saw a sole in there.
Now I'm finally legal. Open water in Flordia and Aruba here I come!
- Nisha
There are many outfits on the Sariee Beach, the main backpacker beach. After evaluating a few, I chose Phoenix Divers mainly because they had a nice looking restaurant and had a pool for Ian to hang out in. Most places wanted 9800 baht for the certification plus free accommodation on the course days. We took a discounted AC bungalow near the pool from the AC Resort for 400 a night and the course was only 8500. This was only $270, a steal compared to the US and I was diving in the Gulf of Thailand rather then the Boston Chinatown YMCA pool.
The course was entertainingly led by Christophe, a Flemish former boys boarding school principle turned SCUBA instructor who told well-timed fart jokes. There were only 5 people in our class which I didn't realize at the time was such a bonus until I saw some of the other outfits with 12 - 20 students. One of the highlights of the whole experience was meeting other travelers.
We went on four excellent dives. One of the other students, Marek, a communications major from Germany, took hundreds of photos of the dives, some of which I posted on Flickr. The amount of fish and diversity of coral was truly stunning. The visibility was perfect, and despite being monsoon season, had no rain. Since Koh Tao is a very young diving area, there were no places with anchor damage or trash. I hope they are able to keep it that way.
The beach itself was pleasant, though this should not be the sole purpose from coming here. The walking brick street was lined with many low-key resorts, Thai and international resturants, and bars. There were a fair amount of people around, so usually a few of the bars would be packed with the fire-twirlers providing much of the entertainment. The only downside about the AC Resort was that it had a totally empty bar that blasted techno until at least 5 AM every night. I heard that it would get crowded later with Thais, but I never saw a sole in there.
Now I'm finally legal. Open water in Flordia and Aruba here I come!
- Nisha
Book Corner II
I have continued with my increased reading level since the last version of this column, so I thought I would catch up with what I have read since.
The Age of Kali - William Dalrymple
Nisha found this book first, and after hearing much about it I decided to keep on the Indian theme after the Gandhi autobiography. This book was also nice because it is a collection of short articles, so many stories almost read like a long Economist article.
Basically this book is a collection of stories from the premier English language author on India today, written as he was researching stories for books in the mid 90s. It is a little out of date because it portrays India as teetering on the edge of oblivion, when we now now that they following 12 years were one of the most prosperous in its history. However, the stories are very well written, and give a lot of insight into the darker sides of rural, traditional India. Also, there is a very interesting section on Pakistan that is very topical since it was written before 9/11.
My only real complaint with the book is that the author is certainly very sentimental, especially with the old coots who tell him tails of India many years ago. He is a historical fiction writer, so it is understandable, but he does not bring any prospective to the old tales of the glory of Lucknow, Hyderabad, etc. before independence. Things may have been better in those cities back in the day, but reading this book you would think the streets were paved in gold and the tap water was wine.
This is really my only complaint however, and this book really is a great way to get a lot of interesting history about the entire subcontinent. Just keep a little prospective on the ramblings of old men.
The Ramayana - R. K. Narayan
The Ramayana is one of the big epics of Hinduism and is referenced in paintings, songs and pretty much everything that has to do with Indian culture. Since I knew so little about it I looked around a bookshop and found this shortened English version of the epic written by a prominent Indian author. At only around 150 pages I figured it would we worth while to get a little background on Hinduism and read this book.
It reads a lot like the Roman and Greek mythology that you read in school. It is a tale of gods having fantastic battles in a mythical version of India. The story itself is a pretty basic tale of god meets girl, marries girl, rival god steals girl, good god takes girl back. It is somewhat entertaining, and does let you understand a lot more about Indian art and culture.
However, I did feel a little empty after reading it. Perhaps it is because it is so shortened, but even though I now know they basics of the Rama story, I do not really understand why it is of such great significance. Perhaps reading the whole epic makes the significance more clear, for me it was just a bunch of gods running around doing a bunch of stuff. Anyway, I found it to be useful, and brief, reading, but all in all, not essential.
Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie
I know Salman Rushdie is mostly known in the US for his issues with the Ayatollah in the 80s, but as Nisha discovered, he should be known for his writing.
This book is the sordid tale of an American ambassador and a group of Kashmiri entertainers, spanning the trouble in Kashmir since Indian independence. It does a great job of being a real page turner, as well as feeling like literature. It also feels quite current since it deals with some of the issues of Islamic extremism that we deal with today.
The story is great in of itself, but the real star is Rushdies writing. His style is so fresh and modern, without being shallow. The first part of the book is one of the best constructed character introductions I have ever read. The whole story is set up as digressions to the climax of the book, which is at the beginning, intertwined with a fair amount of sarcasm and pop culture references. The rest of the book that follows is written in a more straight forward manner, but is still a tour de force.
Highly recommended.
Tai-Pan - James Clavell
After a time away from the big books, and in preparation for going to Hong Kong, I decided to tackle another James Clavell beast.
Tai-Pan is based in Hong Kong, 240 years after Shogun, but was actually written 9 years earlier. I will not hide the fact that I like James Clavell. I once again found this book to be an entertaining, swashbuckling, historical fiction romp. As reading Shogun makes you want to go to Japan, this book certainly increases your interest in Hong Kong.
Shogun and Tai-Pan are very similar. However, I would suspect that if you asked Clavell, he would tell you that the lessons he learned writing Tai-Pan were used to make improvements in Shogun. Probably the greatest thing about Shogun is how he seamlessly weaves together the many different characters and plot lines. Also, in Shogun the main protagonist is not the most important character to history, but rather an important bit player, which allows him to both look in the mind of Toranaga (the Shogun) but also leave him shrouded in mystery.
Tai-Pan is more of a standard novel, where the hero is the most important guy, and the whole book is pretty much focused around him. There are a lot of characters, but the vast majority of the writing is from the prospective of the Tai-Pan (meaning "big boss" in Chinese). It is still entertaining, but lacks the artfulness that brings Shogun to the next level.
If you want to read one Clavell book, I would still say to read Shogun first. It is the first one chronologically anyway.
The Age of Kali - William Dalrymple
Nisha found this book first, and after hearing much about it I decided to keep on the Indian theme after the Gandhi autobiography. This book was also nice because it is a collection of short articles, so many stories almost read like a long Economist article.
Basically this book is a collection of stories from the premier English language author on India today, written as he was researching stories for books in the mid 90s. It is a little out of date because it portrays India as teetering on the edge of oblivion, when we now now that they following 12 years were one of the most prosperous in its history. However, the stories are very well written, and give a lot of insight into the darker sides of rural, traditional India. Also, there is a very interesting section on Pakistan that is very topical since it was written before 9/11.
My only real complaint with the book is that the author is certainly very sentimental, especially with the old coots who tell him tails of India many years ago. He is a historical fiction writer, so it is understandable, but he does not bring any prospective to the old tales of the glory of Lucknow, Hyderabad, etc. before independence. Things may have been better in those cities back in the day, but reading this book you would think the streets were paved in gold and the tap water was wine.
This is really my only complaint however, and this book really is a great way to get a lot of interesting history about the entire subcontinent. Just keep a little prospective on the ramblings of old men.
The Ramayana - R. K. Narayan
The Ramayana is one of the big epics of Hinduism and is referenced in paintings, songs and pretty much everything that has to do with Indian culture. Since I knew so little about it I looked around a bookshop and found this shortened English version of the epic written by a prominent Indian author. At only around 150 pages I figured it would we worth while to get a little background on Hinduism and read this book.
It reads a lot like the Roman and Greek mythology that you read in school. It is a tale of gods having fantastic battles in a mythical version of India. The story itself is a pretty basic tale of god meets girl, marries girl, rival god steals girl, good god takes girl back. It is somewhat entertaining, and does let you understand a lot more about Indian art and culture.
However, I did feel a little empty after reading it. Perhaps it is because it is so shortened, but even though I now know they basics of the Rama story, I do not really understand why it is of such great significance. Perhaps reading the whole epic makes the significance more clear, for me it was just a bunch of gods running around doing a bunch of stuff. Anyway, I found it to be useful, and brief, reading, but all in all, not essential.
Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie
I know Salman Rushdie is mostly known in the US for his issues with the Ayatollah in the 80s, but as Nisha discovered, he should be known for his writing.
This book is the sordid tale of an American ambassador and a group of Kashmiri entertainers, spanning the trouble in Kashmir since Indian independence. It does a great job of being a real page turner, as well as feeling like literature. It also feels quite current since it deals with some of the issues of Islamic extremism that we deal with today.
The story is great in of itself, but the real star is Rushdies writing. His style is so fresh and modern, without being shallow. The first part of the book is one of the best constructed character introductions I have ever read. The whole story is set up as digressions to the climax of the book, which is at the beginning, intertwined with a fair amount of sarcasm and pop culture references. The rest of the book that follows is written in a more straight forward manner, but is still a tour de force.
Highly recommended.
Tai-Pan - James Clavell
After a time away from the big books, and in preparation for going to Hong Kong, I decided to tackle another James Clavell beast.
Tai-Pan is based in Hong Kong, 240 years after Shogun, but was actually written 9 years earlier. I will not hide the fact that I like James Clavell. I once again found this book to be an entertaining, swashbuckling, historical fiction romp. As reading Shogun makes you want to go to Japan, this book certainly increases your interest in Hong Kong.
Shogun and Tai-Pan are very similar. However, I would suspect that if you asked Clavell, he would tell you that the lessons he learned writing Tai-Pan were used to make improvements in Shogun. Probably the greatest thing about Shogun is how he seamlessly weaves together the many different characters and plot lines. Also, in Shogun the main protagonist is not the most important character to history, but rather an important bit player, which allows him to both look in the mind of Toranaga (the Shogun) but also leave him shrouded in mystery.
Tai-Pan is more of a standard novel, where the hero is the most important guy, and the whole book is pretty much focused around him. There are a lot of characters, but the vast majority of the writing is from the prospective of the Tai-Pan (meaning "big boss" in Chinese). It is still entertaining, but lacks the artfulness that brings Shogun to the next level.
If you want to read one Clavell book, I would still say to read Shogun first. It is the first one chronologically anyway.
Throwing a Few Brickbats
Just wanted to publicly call out a couple of places in Thailand for what I thought was sub-standard service.
THE WAVE SAMUI
This place was written up in Lonely Planet as the only backpacker type place in Hat Chawang, and the best value in the area. All I can say is that the writer of Lonely Planet must be the owners buddy, because this was my experience:
- An AC room is 800 Baht (a lot for a backpacker joint in Thailand) and is in a concrete building on the main road. At least when we were there, numerous bungalows with beach access could be had for the same amount of money, meaning this is in no way a good deal.
- They have a cockroach problem. I had to kill 2 in our room and when we went downstairs early in the morning before things were open and I saw several scurrying out of our way into the kitchen.
- We got our room and the Thai staff said it was OK for us to come down later to fill in the forms and formally check in. Very standard practice in Asia. We went out to get dinner and did not get back until 11:45. We should have checked in before we left but forgot, but usually in Asia this is no big deal. When we came back to the hotel at 11:45 the western owner busted our balls about how he could not believe we did that, etc. I understand we should have filled out the form, but he made this big deal about how since our bags were there with no form he could get in trouble with the police. Yeah right, that is what Thai police are really looking into 24 hours a day. If it such a big deal with him he should take it out on his Thai staff who let us have the key without checking in.
- Now that it was 11:45 and we had no place to stay he told us that we needed to leave a passport with him. I do not leave my passport with anyone, but he had us by the balls in this situation. When we complained he told us that it was the law on Ko Samui that he had to have a passport for us. This was a lie, the Marriott did not require any passport and I am pretty sure they do things by the book. He just wanted the passport as a security deposit, which is his right but is BS, however, someone should have told us this earlier and we would have gone someplace else.
- There is a stocked fridge and snacks in the room, which is nice. However, he makes you count all the stuff, and there are about 50 items, yourself, and sign this affidavit that everything is there when you check in. What a pain. If you want to run a mini-bar then make sure you count everything yourself. Also, he was charging double restaurant rates for a beer, this was approaching Marriott prices, in a hostel type place. What a rip.
- There is a really loud hooker bar across the street, it is open all night.
SONGSERM FERRY/BUS SERVICE
We needed to get from Ko Tao on the east side of the Thai isthmus to Krabi on the west side. These routes are notorious for bus scams, but we needed to make the trip so I held my breath and bought a 750 Baht ferry/bus combo ticket in Ko Tao. I was shown a picture of the ferry that we would take as well as a large bus that would serve the bus portion of the ticket. I specifically asked if the bus was a big bus or a minibus, I was told big. The ferry part started out OK, the ferry was older and pretty low budget, but perfectly serviceable and fine. After 6 hours (the advertised time) we arrived in Surat Thani on the mainland.
This is where the problem started because rather then a real bus to Krabi we ended up in a minibus (like the big van you take to away games in high school) packed to the brim with backpackers. This was not honest, but at least the ride was OK. The driver was not a maniac, they had DVD movies, and we got the front two seats, which were reasonably comfortable.
My big beef was when we got to Krabi. They drop you off at their little van depot, which is basically just a confined space for accommodation touts to harass you while you try to get your bags off the van. These were Indian style touts as well, very persistent, and honestly a pretty shady crew. The people there also tried not to tell you where you were, so you would not know that you are only .5km from town and do not need their "free" taxi ride. We finally did find out we could walk to town and left.
On the way out I tell the last persistent tout that "I was not going to do any business here". Thais are big about saving face, so you cannot get really mean like in India without people getting upset. However, I thought this was a rather diplomatic way of taking a parting shot before leaving, certainly not telling anyone to "F... Off" or anything like that. Anyway, this greasy slime-bag of a tout follows me for a bit acting all offended and telling me that I better leave quickly. After hearing stories about groups of offended Thais and tourists I decided to walk away, albeit slowly. This last part did not make me any happier about being dropped of in this hornets nest of low life touts however, especially thin skinned ones who evidently cannot be treated with anything but the upmost respect.
THE WAVE SAMUI
This place was written up in Lonely Planet as the only backpacker type place in Hat Chawang, and the best value in the area. All I can say is that the writer of Lonely Planet must be the owners buddy, because this was my experience:
- An AC room is 800 Baht (a lot for a backpacker joint in Thailand) and is in a concrete building on the main road. At least when we were there, numerous bungalows with beach access could be had for the same amount of money, meaning this is in no way a good deal.
- They have a cockroach problem. I had to kill 2 in our room and when we went downstairs early in the morning before things were open and I saw several scurrying out of our way into the kitchen.
- We got our room and the Thai staff said it was OK for us to come down later to fill in the forms and formally check in. Very standard practice in Asia. We went out to get dinner and did not get back until 11:45. We should have checked in before we left but forgot, but usually in Asia this is no big deal. When we came back to the hotel at 11:45 the western owner busted our balls about how he could not believe we did that, etc. I understand we should have filled out the form, but he made this big deal about how since our bags were there with no form he could get in trouble with the police. Yeah right, that is what Thai police are really looking into 24 hours a day. If it such a big deal with him he should take it out on his Thai staff who let us have the key without checking in.
- Now that it was 11:45 and we had no place to stay he told us that we needed to leave a passport with him. I do not leave my passport with anyone, but he had us by the balls in this situation. When we complained he told us that it was the law on Ko Samui that he had to have a passport for us. This was a lie, the Marriott did not require any passport and I am pretty sure they do things by the book. He just wanted the passport as a security deposit, which is his right but is BS, however, someone should have told us this earlier and we would have gone someplace else.
- There is a stocked fridge and snacks in the room, which is nice. However, he makes you count all the stuff, and there are about 50 items, yourself, and sign this affidavit that everything is there when you check in. What a pain. If you want to run a mini-bar then make sure you count everything yourself. Also, he was charging double restaurant rates for a beer, this was approaching Marriott prices, in a hostel type place. What a rip.
- There is a really loud hooker bar across the street, it is open all night.
SONGSERM FERRY/BUS SERVICE
We needed to get from Ko Tao on the east side of the Thai isthmus to Krabi on the west side. These routes are notorious for bus scams, but we needed to make the trip so I held my breath and bought a 750 Baht ferry/bus combo ticket in Ko Tao. I was shown a picture of the ferry that we would take as well as a large bus that would serve the bus portion of the ticket. I specifically asked if the bus was a big bus or a minibus, I was told big. The ferry part started out OK, the ferry was older and pretty low budget, but perfectly serviceable and fine. After 6 hours (the advertised time) we arrived in Surat Thani on the mainland.
This is where the problem started because rather then a real bus to Krabi we ended up in a minibus (like the big van you take to away games in high school) packed to the brim with backpackers. This was not honest, but at least the ride was OK. The driver was not a maniac, they had DVD movies, and we got the front two seats, which were reasonably comfortable.
My big beef was when we got to Krabi. They drop you off at their little van depot, which is basically just a confined space for accommodation touts to harass you while you try to get your bags off the van. These were Indian style touts as well, very persistent, and honestly a pretty shady crew. The people there also tried not to tell you where you were, so you would not know that you are only .5km from town and do not need their "free" taxi ride. We finally did find out we could walk to town and left.
On the way out I tell the last persistent tout that "I was not going to do any business here". Thais are big about saving face, so you cannot get really mean like in India without people getting upset. However, I thought this was a rather diplomatic way of taking a parting shot before leaving, certainly not telling anyone to "F... Off" or anything like that. Anyway, this greasy slime-bag of a tout follows me for a bit acting all offended and telling me that I better leave quickly. After hearing stories about groups of offended Thais and tourists I decided to walk away, albeit slowly. This last part did not make me any happier about being dropped of in this hornets nest of low life touts however, especially thin skinned ones who evidently cannot be treated with anything but the upmost respect.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Shout-Out to my Shout-Out
I finished day 3 of the 4 day SCUBA certification course today. There is some really amazing diving off this little island of Koh Tao. We both have been having a great time just soaking up the sun and scenery. We joke that India was the "work" part of or trip and this is the "vacation" part. After we head to our 5th beach, one of us will write a blog detailing them all for the sake of anyone preparing for a trip to Thailand.
Since October 3rd, there has been a steady stream of hits from another blog to my post about women in the Delhi papers. If you would like to know more about the status of women in Delhi, check out this interesting blog. It's written by a woman, about whom I can't glean much information from the blog, who is interested in many of the social issues that Ian and I observed in India as well. I believe she may be a fellow Bengali since she wrote a nostalgic post about Durga Puja intertwined artfully with larger social commentary.
- Nisha
Since October 3rd, there has been a steady stream of hits from another blog to my post about women in the Delhi papers. If you would like to know more about the status of women in Delhi, check out this interesting blog. It's written by a woman, about whom I can't glean much information from the blog, who is interested in many of the social issues that Ian and I observed in India as well. I believe she may be a fellow Bengali since she wrote a nostalgic post about Durga Puja intertwined artfully with larger social commentary.
- Nisha
Take me home, country road...
In the category of things that you would never expect, it is a little known fact that Thailand is in love with elevator music.
Not that I have any big problem with John Denver, but I have heard his songs more in the last 3 weeks then in the previous 3 years at home. The most humorous rendition being from our guide as we walked though the jungle north of Chiang Mai. In fact, we just missed the big John Denver tribute concert scheduled in Chiang Mai later this month.
Mix tapes of 70s and 80s elevator music hits are de rigueur at most classy establishments. If you are lucky these songs are the original versions. If you are not so lucky they are instrumental versions, or even worse, covers sung by a lesser quality Thai singer.
This seems strange until you hear Thai popular music. Basically the only Thai music I have ever heard played sounds like 80s elevator music with Thai lyrics. The stuff is truly horrid and the couple of videos I have seen on TV are even worse. Perhaps this music helps foster the chill, laid-back and happy vibe that people love about Thailand. That being said, I would take some brooding US or UK music any day of the week.
Not that I have any big problem with John Denver, but I have heard his songs more in the last 3 weeks then in the previous 3 years at home. The most humorous rendition being from our guide as we walked though the jungle north of Chiang Mai. In fact, we just missed the big John Denver tribute concert scheduled in Chiang Mai later this month.
Mix tapes of 70s and 80s elevator music hits are de rigueur at most classy establishments. If you are lucky these songs are the original versions. If you are not so lucky they are instrumental versions, or even worse, covers sung by a lesser quality Thai singer.
This seems strange until you hear Thai popular music. Basically the only Thai music I have ever heard played sounds like 80s elevator music with Thai lyrics. The stuff is truly horrid and the couple of videos I have seen on TV are even worse. Perhaps this music helps foster the chill, laid-back and happy vibe that people love about Thailand. That being said, I would take some brooding US or UK music any day of the week.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Ants, Frogs, and Hooker Bars
I know that I have already posted a blog about our accommodation. However, it was early in our India travels and Thailand has opened up new frontiers in the pitfalls of the cheap hotel.
Rarely are we staying in places that we have a reservation. This is just not that kind of trip. Generally, we read about the accommodation in the Lonely Planet, have a place or two in mind, and then head there when we show up in a new city. Ian or I will stay with the bags while the other one goes to look at the room.
Each of us have a few things that we look for in a room that are essential - a bed, toilet, shower head, and sink. We both ask a few things of the proprietor as well - is there hot water, and is there electricity? Bonus items are a view, windows, a TV, fridge, a shower separate from the toilet room, bedding of any kind, and towels. However, Thailand has a few oddities about the accommodation, which reflect the cheap backpacker clientele that frequents these joints. Here are a few of the more bizarre things we have come across, that never occured to me to ask or look for:
- the presence or absence of a toilet tank - I need to write an entire blog dedicated to this. I could not believe the toilet situation could get worse after India, but it has. (multiple places)
- the presence of a loud hooker bar across the street (Ko Samui)
- a frog pond under the bungalow that sounds like a symphony of off-key oboes (Ko Tao)> I had to sleep with ear plugs in.
- beds that look like mattresses but feel like plywood (Ko Tao)
- Bollywood music being played in the hallway all night (Goa)
- using terry tablecloths blankets (Ayatthuya)
- ant swarms (every beach place)
Just thought you would appreciate the tip next time you are in the market for the $15 hotel in Thailand or India.
By the way, there are many new pics up today.
- Nisha
Rarely are we staying in places that we have a reservation. This is just not that kind of trip. Generally, we read about the accommodation in the Lonely Planet, have a place or two in mind, and then head there when we show up in a new city. Ian or I will stay with the bags while the other one goes to look at the room.
Each of us have a few things that we look for in a room that are essential - a bed, toilet, shower head, and sink. We both ask a few things of the proprietor as well - is there hot water, and is there electricity? Bonus items are a view, windows, a TV, fridge, a shower separate from the toilet room, bedding of any kind, and towels. However, Thailand has a few oddities about the accommodation, which reflect the cheap backpacker clientele that frequents these joints. Here are a few of the more bizarre things we have come across, that never occured to me to ask or look for:
- the presence or absence of a toilet tank - I need to write an entire blog dedicated to this. I could not believe the toilet situation could get worse after India, but it has. (multiple places)
- the presence of a loud hooker bar across the street (Ko Samui)
- a frog pond under the bungalow that sounds like a symphony of off-key oboes (Ko Tao)> I had to sleep with ear plugs in.
- beds that look like mattresses but feel like plywood (Ko Tao)
- Bollywood music being played in the hallway all night (Goa)
- using terry tablecloths blankets (Ayatthuya)
- ant swarms (every beach place)
Just thought you would appreciate the tip next time you are in the market for the $15 hotel in Thailand or India.
By the way, there are many new pics up today.
- Nisha
India
It has taken a while, but I finally wanted to say a few things about India now that I have been gone for a few weeks.
First of all, what you would probably expect is true. India is usually dirty, smelly, ugly, hot, crowded and often very aggravating. When you are hot and dusty and getting ripped off by an auto-wallah you can easily hate the place, and swear that you will never return. However, at the end of nine weeks there is kind of felt like home. In fact, sitting at a touristy bar in Chiang Mai, eating the BBQ that we craved for so long, Nisha and I spent an hour commiserating about how much we missed India and how we should have spent more time there.
The thing I miss most about India is the energy. Everything in India is going at 100 miles per hour, 24 hours a day. It reminds me of how you think of the US in the first half of the 20th century. The power of the masses in incredible. If there is money to be made, someone is busy trying to make it. If there is vacant land, someone is building something on it. A middle class is developing, and many people are getting their first cell phones, modern appliances, cars and refrigerators. A country and a people who have been considered second rate and easily oppressed are finally rising to their rightful place in the world, and relishing in the new found respect that they now command.
In the mist of this is a culture which has not completely reconciled its present and future with its past. The fingerprints of the ancient religion are everywhere. Your driver may be driving a brand new car and chatting on his brand new cell phone, but there is probably still a Ganesh idol glued to the dashboard. English is the language of India's former oppressors, but in a lot of ways has become the language which binds the country together, and is the tongue that will lead to its future prosperity. Even when cheap DVD players are all the rage in Delhi, they still might be carried on a bullock cart to their destination.
There are still challenges to be overcome. First of all, how to manage the relations between the Hindu majority and the 13% of the country which is Muslim will continue to be a challenge. I have no idea how they will spread the prosperity of the white collar workers in Bangalore, who have no problem renting a Keralan houseboat for the weekend with a big screen TV and a cooler of beer, with the peasant rice farmers that they cruise so casually by. The thing that I find most important is do deal with is the national inferiority complex. Often people seem content with a substandard product or experience when it is created in India. At some point people need to expect that Indians can make as good a car, program a computer as efficiently or make a shower floor that drains just as well as everyone else in the world.
From seeing what I have seen, I do believe that they will be successful. I think a momentum that has been started cannot be stopped. The force of 1.2 billion people in a global economy is too great not to make progress.
The other thing I miss is the adventure. Even the most touristy area of India is not half as developed as the average place in Thailand. Once you get off the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur circuit, plus the Euro havens of Goa and Leh, you really are immersed in India. It is not that there are not the occasional western person around, but no place in India can exist just to entertain the westerners passing through. India is just too big and the number of tourists is just too small. It is probably similar to being a tourist in the US. A city like New York may have a fair number of tourists, but the city does not exist for them alone.
In addition, although the popularity of the English language may make you suspect differently, India is a culture that has not been westernized as much as most would think. Bollywood music is still pretty much all there is in India, their own movies are all anyone really watches and the only sport is Cricket. Their religion is unique to the subcontinent and is so different from the monotheistic faiths that we are used to. It even goes down to little things. Indians do not smile for pictures and do not think that reading over someones shoulder in the Internet cafe is the slightest bit rude.
In all this movement and chaos, I did start to really feel at home. They had a Hindi channel in the Renaissance Ko Samui and Nisha and I spent 2 hours watching Bollywood dancing during an awards show. It just seemed so much more normal and entertaining then the Thai stuff that they usually have on TV. The friendliness of the normal people, not the touts or the beggars or the auto-wallahs, is really what you miss however. The amount that Indians will sacrifice to make you feel welcome and at home is more then anyone else in the world. That, and their excitement for the future, is what I will take with me from our time there. I thank them, and their amazing country, for the great time that it was.
First of all, what you would probably expect is true. India is usually dirty, smelly, ugly, hot, crowded and often very aggravating. When you are hot and dusty and getting ripped off by an auto-wallah you can easily hate the place, and swear that you will never return. However, at the end of nine weeks there is kind of felt like home. In fact, sitting at a touristy bar in Chiang Mai, eating the BBQ that we craved for so long, Nisha and I spent an hour commiserating about how much we missed India and how we should have spent more time there.
The thing I miss most about India is the energy. Everything in India is going at 100 miles per hour, 24 hours a day. It reminds me of how you think of the US in the first half of the 20th century. The power of the masses in incredible. If there is money to be made, someone is busy trying to make it. If there is vacant land, someone is building something on it. A middle class is developing, and many people are getting their first cell phones, modern appliances, cars and refrigerators. A country and a people who have been considered second rate and easily oppressed are finally rising to their rightful place in the world, and relishing in the new found respect that they now command.
In the mist of this is a culture which has not completely reconciled its present and future with its past. The fingerprints of the ancient religion are everywhere. Your driver may be driving a brand new car and chatting on his brand new cell phone, but there is probably still a Ganesh idol glued to the dashboard. English is the language of India's former oppressors, but in a lot of ways has become the language which binds the country together, and is the tongue that will lead to its future prosperity. Even when cheap DVD players are all the rage in Delhi, they still might be carried on a bullock cart to their destination.
There are still challenges to be overcome. First of all, how to manage the relations between the Hindu majority and the 13% of the country which is Muslim will continue to be a challenge. I have no idea how they will spread the prosperity of the white collar workers in Bangalore, who have no problem renting a Keralan houseboat for the weekend with a big screen TV and a cooler of beer, with the peasant rice farmers that they cruise so casually by. The thing that I find most important is do deal with is the national inferiority complex. Often people seem content with a substandard product or experience when it is created in India. At some point people need to expect that Indians can make as good a car, program a computer as efficiently or make a shower floor that drains just as well as everyone else in the world.
From seeing what I have seen, I do believe that they will be successful. I think a momentum that has been started cannot be stopped. The force of 1.2 billion people in a global economy is too great not to make progress.
The other thing I miss is the adventure. Even the most touristy area of India is not half as developed as the average place in Thailand. Once you get off the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur circuit, plus the Euro havens of Goa and Leh, you really are immersed in India. It is not that there are not the occasional western person around, but no place in India can exist just to entertain the westerners passing through. India is just too big and the number of tourists is just too small. It is probably similar to being a tourist in the US. A city like New York may have a fair number of tourists, but the city does not exist for them alone.
In addition, although the popularity of the English language may make you suspect differently, India is a culture that has not been westernized as much as most would think. Bollywood music is still pretty much all there is in India, their own movies are all anyone really watches and the only sport is Cricket. Their religion is unique to the subcontinent and is so different from the monotheistic faiths that we are used to. It even goes down to little things. Indians do not smile for pictures and do not think that reading over someones shoulder in the Internet cafe is the slightest bit rude.
In all this movement and chaos, I did start to really feel at home. They had a Hindi channel in the Renaissance Ko Samui and Nisha and I spent 2 hours watching Bollywood dancing during an awards show. It just seemed so much more normal and entertaining then the Thai stuff that they usually have on TV. The friendliness of the normal people, not the touts or the beggars or the auto-wallahs, is really what you miss however. The amount that Indians will sacrifice to make you feel welcome and at home is more then anyone else in the world. That, and their excitement for the future, is what I will take with me from our time there. I thank them, and their amazing country, for the great time that it was.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Another Quick Update
Yesterday we moved to the SCUBA mecca of Ko Tao. Nisha is taking a 3 day course to get here certification, which she has wanted to get for a while. The island is pretty nice as well, not a total circus, but with plenty of internet and 7-Elevens. I will obviously have a lot of time on my hands the next couple of days, so I will get the chance to write a few things that I have been thinking about for a while.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Quick Update
This is going to be really quick since Internet here is 2 Baht per minute.
Anyway, we left the circus at Hat Chawang to spend 2 nights at the Marriott Renaissance Ko Samui. This was us finally spending the Marriott points spoils of Nisha's hell year at Accenture in 1999-2000. The hotel was really top notch. Perfect little sand beach with people filling your water and ice tea cups all day. Nice pool and bar. Excellent food. Jacuzzi tub on your private porch. $20 per hour Internet?
Yes you read that right, thus, no blogging at the Marriott. Honestly, it was not easy to stay under our $100 a day budget, even with the free room. It is not near a town, so you have to eat there, and everything is at normal hotel prices.
From there we took the ferry to Ko Pha-Ngan, near Ko Samui, but known as a backpacker mecca. After having plenty of time to get to see European tourists and the hookers that love them, with the requisite 24/7 trance music, on Ko Smaui, we were looking for something a little more out of the way. We found it on Hat Khom, on the north side of the island. It is a little cove about a 20 minute walk down a jeep track from the fishing village on the north side of the island.
There are 4 little bungalow operations there with about 40 rooms total. All around 300-600 (10-20 dollars) Baht. Bungalows are basic, only have electricity during the night (they have to run a generator) and only cold water. Our porch with 2 hammocks is only 10m from the surf however, and the beach is very nice. Also, there are several little beach bars with good food and cheap Beer Chang. Perfect place to spend a couple of days to really get away from it all.
In fact, I had to walk 20 minutes just to get to this Internet I am using right now.
Anyway, we left the circus at Hat Chawang to spend 2 nights at the Marriott Renaissance Ko Samui. This was us finally spending the Marriott points spoils of Nisha's hell year at Accenture in 1999-2000. The hotel was really top notch. Perfect little sand beach with people filling your water and ice tea cups all day. Nice pool and bar. Excellent food. Jacuzzi tub on your private porch. $20 per hour Internet?
Yes you read that right, thus, no blogging at the Marriott. Honestly, it was not easy to stay under our $100 a day budget, even with the free room. It is not near a town, so you have to eat there, and everything is at normal hotel prices.
From there we took the ferry to Ko Pha-Ngan, near Ko Samui, but known as a backpacker mecca. After having plenty of time to get to see European tourists and the hookers that love them, with the requisite 24/7 trance music, on Ko Smaui, we were looking for something a little more out of the way. We found it on Hat Khom, on the north side of the island. It is a little cove about a 20 minute walk down a jeep track from the fishing village on the north side of the island.
There are 4 little bungalow operations there with about 40 rooms total. All around 300-600 (10-20 dollars) Baht. Bungalows are basic, only have electricity during the night (they have to run a generator) and only cold water. Our porch with 2 hammocks is only 10m from the surf however, and the beach is very nice. Also, there are several little beach bars with good food and cheap Beer Chang. Perfect place to spend a couple of days to really get away from it all.
In fact, I had to walk 20 minutes just to get to this Internet I am using right now.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Random Thai Stuff
A few random things about Thailand to small to put in their own article:
- Thailand is once again a country where two wheeled transportation is the norm for most of the country. However, due to the higher standard of living and ability for Japanese companies to operate directly in the country, they have standardized around a better sort of bike then the mixed bag that is in India. Most bikes in Thailand are Underbones (never heard this term before looking up the type of bike on wikipedia) such as the Honda Wave. These things are just about perfect developing country transport. They are small and very fuel efficient, but because of their better build quality and because they have gears, they are much more capable bikes then their Indian counterparts. We rented one in Chiang Mai for only 150 Baht a day (5 dollars) and it had no problem powering us up the 1000m meter mountain top road to see the big temple in the area.
- In Thailand and India, getting the bill at a restaurant is an incredible pain in the ass. It is not normal practice to have the "Can I get you anything else?" transaction at the end of a meal, and waiters will never bring the bill unless you explicitly ask for it. Couple this with the fact that most waiters stop paying much attention to you after your meal is done and this issue is a constant annoyance.
- On the flip side, Thailand is a great country to eat. They can get the ingredients for pretty much anything here and expats must be able to own businesses quite easily. We had pretty good Mexican, BBQ and burgers (outside of our usual Thai street food) in Chiang Mai. In Ko Samui, where we are now, we had Italian that would have been quite good even in the North End (at a place called La Taverna), with better Italian cured meat then you can get in the US. Pasta, pizza, glass of wine and a beer for around 20 dollars. Not a bad deal.
- We rented a little Hobie Bravo on the beach today, and I have to say I was impressed. This was the perfect beginner, just have fun, little sailboat. Nice fast ride, plus a roller reefing main, beer holders, a little cooler all on a tiny, sunfish size boat. Nice stable ride too, good for sitting in the sun. Might need to think about getting one of these at the lake if the lazer ever dies.
- In India we found that we tended to like the beaches that were called "overdeveloped" in the Lonely Planet because we found we liked having a little civilization on our beach. We also like truly deserted beached like Anegada and Diu as well, but the middle type, where there are enough beach motels to ugly up the place but no good places to eat is the worst of both worlds. However, were we are now, Hat Chaweng, on Ko Samui, is truly overdeveloped. The beach is great here, but this place is really a circus, with every inch of space up to the sand used for something. That mixed with the booming music of the Go-Go bars and the abundance of hookers gives the place a pretty trashy feel. You can also stay in a very nice resort here and eat Fillet Mignon, so it kind of runs the gamut. We did have a very nice day today, but after our free nights at the Marriott, we might need to try something a little quieter.
- Thailand is once again a country where two wheeled transportation is the norm for most of the country. However, due to the higher standard of living and ability for Japanese companies to operate directly in the country, they have standardized around a better sort of bike then the mixed bag that is in India. Most bikes in Thailand are Underbones (never heard this term before looking up the type of bike on wikipedia) such as the Honda Wave. These things are just about perfect developing country transport. They are small and very fuel efficient, but because of their better build quality and because they have gears, they are much more capable bikes then their Indian counterparts. We rented one in Chiang Mai for only 150 Baht a day (5 dollars) and it had no problem powering us up the 1000m meter mountain top road to see the big temple in the area.
- In Thailand and India, getting the bill at a restaurant is an incredible pain in the ass. It is not normal practice to have the "Can I get you anything else?" transaction at the end of a meal, and waiters will never bring the bill unless you explicitly ask for it. Couple this with the fact that most waiters stop paying much attention to you after your meal is done and this issue is a constant annoyance.
- On the flip side, Thailand is a great country to eat. They can get the ingredients for pretty much anything here and expats must be able to own businesses quite easily. We had pretty good Mexican, BBQ and burgers (outside of our usual Thai street food) in Chiang Mai. In Ko Samui, where we are now, we had Italian that would have been quite good even in the North End (at a place called La Taverna), with better Italian cured meat then you can get in the US. Pasta, pizza, glass of wine and a beer for around 20 dollars. Not a bad deal.
- We rented a little Hobie Bravo on the beach today, and I have to say I was impressed. This was the perfect beginner, just have fun, little sailboat. Nice fast ride, plus a roller reefing main, beer holders, a little cooler all on a tiny, sunfish size boat. Nice stable ride too, good for sitting in the sun. Might need to think about getting one of these at the lake if the lazer ever dies.
- In India we found that we tended to like the beaches that were called "overdeveloped" in the Lonely Planet because we found we liked having a little civilization on our beach. We also like truly deserted beached like Anegada and Diu as well, but the middle type, where there are enough beach motels to ugly up the place but no good places to eat is the worst of both worlds. However, were we are now, Hat Chaweng, on Ko Samui, is truly overdeveloped. The beach is great here, but this place is really a circus, with every inch of space up to the sand used for something. That mixed with the booming music of the Go-Go bars and the abundance of hookers gives the place a pretty trashy feel. You can also stay in a very nice resort here and eat Fillet Mignon, so it kind of runs the gamut. We did have a very nice day today, but after our free nights at the Marriott, we might need to try something a little quieter.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Stat Counter: Where are you all from and how did you find me??
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will be excited by our stat count as much as we are. We finally crossed the 2500 hit-mark yesterday (also we didn't put up the counter until 3 weeks into the trip). Who else besides you is reading? Here are some of the stats:
- We get about 20 - 100 new or unique visits per day. There are about 5-7 of you that visit everyday.
Regular readers. I know who some of you are. For the others, we would love it if you left a comment telling us who you are.
- Baton Rouge
- Miami
- Lawarence MA
- San Francisco
- Sturbridge MA
- St Louis, MI
- Nagoya Japan
- Quebec City
- Rutland/Burlington VT
- Calcutta India
- Reston Virginia
Readers are from these countries (again the last 500 hits only):
43.65% United States
19.40% Thailand
14.32% India
5.77% Japan
5.31% Canada
3.46% Brazil
3.23% United Kingdom
2.08% Saudi Arabia
0.69% Ireland
0.23% Qatar
0.23% Mexico
0.23% France
0.23% Italy
0.23% Bahrain
0.23% Malaysia
0.23% Singapore
here is our reader map for the last 500 hits:
-We also get a report of the ways readers get to our site. Most search with google or blogger search. Here are some from the last 500 hits:
6 8.33% ywca hotel ooty review
4 5.56% tea estate managers
3 4.17% mutton kola
3 4.17% panki recipes
2 2.78% must have menues asian
2 2.78% impressions of chennai by americans
2 2.78% sundarbuns
2 2.78% nisha ian blog
2 2.78% onsen room
2 2.78% bihar food blog
2 2.78% nisha diu
1 1.39% like balloons
1 1.39% lonely planet vietnam beach
1 1.39% nisha check singapore
1 1.39% northindian food blog
1 1.39% classic cars in kolkata
1 1.39% asian women tight skin
1 1.39% ram sethu project tamil interest
1 1.39% sonar bangla tv channel,puja award
1 1.39% nisha sweets
1 1.39% indian newspapers
1 1.39% rough guide goa
1 1.39% mumbai chinatown
1 1.39% indians cleanliness
1 1.39% impressions of chennai
1 1.39% lights down in goa
1 1.39% authentic bihari recipes
1 1.39% india cleanliness
1 1.39% calcutta travel blog
1 1.39% cleanliness india
1 1.39% must have menus asian pakistani
1 1.39% trip to yakushima
1 1.39% nisha top teagarden
1 1.39% hiroshima museum
1 1.39% honda accord
1 1.39% delhi experience
1 1.39% indian chicken kathi rolls recipe
1 1.39% diu india lonely planet
1 1.39% indian junk
1 1.39% work life at chennai
1 1.39% nicest place in goa
1 1.39% nisha
1 1.39% udaipur hookers
1 1.39% hindu hot and cold foods
1 1.39% bengali sweets
1 1.39% bangkok travel blog
1 1.39% christian churches of siliguri, india
1 1.39% dal roti kochi
1 1.39% jaipur foot aidindia
1 1.39% bangkok prostitution
1 1.39% why does everyone wear yellow shirts in bangkok
- The most popular pages among the last 500 hits after the home page are:
45 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/lord-of-manor.html
26 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/must-have-food-in-india-part-ii.html
15 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/gleaming-calcutta.html
10 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/must-have-food-in-india-part-iii.html
9 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/last-of-indian-food.html
8 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/sweets-bengali-beer.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/09/lonely-planet-you-have-failed-me.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/new-dandiya-pictures.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/long-live-king.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/adventures-in-northern-thailand.html
6 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/09/women-in-papers.html
6 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/fight-night-bangkok.html
6 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/epic-tea-garden-post.html
5 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/09/indian-cleanliness.html
5 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/must-have-food-in-india-part-i.html
Thanks for reading. By visiting our site, you are coming along on our journey with us. We hope you like the pictures as well!
- Nisha
- We get about 20 - 100 new or unique visits per day. There are about 5-7 of you that visit everyday.
Regular readers. I know who some of you are. For the others, we would love it if you left a comment telling us who you are.
- Baton Rouge
- Miami
- Lawarence MA
- San Francisco
- Sturbridge MA
- St Louis, MI
- Nagoya Japan
- Quebec City
- Rutland/Burlington VT
- Calcutta India
- Reston Virginia
Readers are from these countries (again the last 500 hits only):
43.65% United States
19.40% Thailand
14.32% India
5.77% Japan
5.31% Canada
3.46% Brazil
3.23% United Kingdom
2.08% Saudi Arabia
0.69% Ireland
0.23% Qatar
0.23% Mexico
0.23% France
0.23% Italy
0.23% Bahrain
0.23% Malaysia
0.23% Singapore
here is our reader map for the last 500 hits:
-We also get a report of the ways readers get to our site. Most search with google or blogger search. Here are some from the last 500 hits:
6 8.33% ywca hotel ooty review
4 5.56% tea estate managers
3 4.17% mutton kola
3 4.17% panki recipes
2 2.78% must have menues asian
2 2.78% impressions of chennai by americans
2 2.78% sundarbuns
2 2.78% nisha ian blog
2 2.78% onsen room
2 2.78% bihar food blog
2 2.78% nisha diu
1 1.39% like balloons
1 1.39% lonely planet vietnam beach
1 1.39% nisha check singapore
1 1.39% northindian food blog
1 1.39% classic cars in kolkata
1 1.39% asian women tight skin
1 1.39% ram sethu project tamil interest
1 1.39% sonar bangla tv channel,puja award
1 1.39% nisha sweets
1 1.39% indian newspapers
1 1.39% rough guide goa
1 1.39% mumbai chinatown
1 1.39% indians cleanliness
1 1.39% impressions of chennai
1 1.39% lights down in goa
1 1.39% authentic bihari recipes
1 1.39% india cleanliness
1 1.39% calcutta travel blog
1 1.39% cleanliness india
1 1.39% must have menus asian pakistani
1 1.39% trip to yakushima
1 1.39% nisha top teagarden
1 1.39% hiroshima museum
1 1.39% honda accord
1 1.39% delhi experience
1 1.39% indian chicken kathi rolls recipe
1 1.39% diu india lonely planet
1 1.39% indian junk
1 1.39% work life at chennai
1 1.39% nicest place in goa
1 1.39% nisha
1 1.39% udaipur hookers
1 1.39% hindu hot and cold foods
1 1.39% bengali sweets
1 1.39% bangkok travel blog
1 1.39% christian churches of siliguri, india
1 1.39% dal roti kochi
1 1.39% jaipur foot aidindia
1 1.39% bangkok prostitution
1 1.39% why does everyone wear yellow shirts in bangkok
- The most popular pages among the last 500 hits after the home page are:
45 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/lord-of-manor.html
26 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/must-have-food-in-india-part-ii.html
15 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/gleaming-calcutta.html
10 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/must-have-food-in-india-part-iii.html
9 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/last-of-indian-food.html
8 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/sweets-bengali-beer.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/09/lonely-planet-you-have-failed-me.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/new-dandiya-pictures.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/long-live-king.html
7 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/adventures-in-northern-thailand.html
6 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/09/women-in-papers.html
6 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/11/fight-night-bangkok.html
6 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/epic-tea-garden-post.html
5 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/09/indian-cleanliness.html
5 ianandnisha.blogspot.com/2007/10/must-have-food-in-india-part-i.html
Thanks for reading. By visiting our site, you are coming along on our journey with us. We hope you like the pictures as well!
- Nisha
Planes, Trains and Songthaews?
Just wanted to share the details of our 26 hour journey from Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand to Ko Samui, a resort island in southern Thailand. Hopefully this will be the longest travel day we ever need to subject ourselves to. For the record you can fly but it is at least 200 dollars a person, which our budget does not allow, so for under 100 dollars a person we did the following:
Thurs. 8th 15:00 - Take uneventful tuk-tuk ride to the train station.
Thurs. 8th 16:30 - Board overnight train to Bangkok in Chiang Mai. We have 2nd class sleeper, which is pretty nice, you do not have a private room, but you have your own private bunk. There is a nice wide bed and a guy comes out with fresh sheets and blankets and makes the bed for you. Had a good night sleep on the train.
Fri. 9th 7:00 - Get off train at Don Muang airport station. This is Bangkok's old airport with is only used for a few domestic flights, so spend a long time walking around the now abandoned international terminals to find the domestic terminal. Whole place feels like a time warp to 1988.
Fri. 9th 10:00 - Board flight to Surat Thani, the nearest mainland city to Ko Samui.
Fri. 9th 11:30 - Get off plane and get on bus to take us to downtown Surat Thani.
Fri. 9th 12:00 - Arrive in Surat Thani and get lunch of fabulous roast duck from a local Thai street type place. Also, get combined bus/ferry ticket to Ko Samui.
Fri. 9th 13:30 - Board bus to take us the 55km to the ferry. Nisha unintentially pisses off English girl behind us by reclining in the seat to take a nap. Brit bitches under her breath and we laugh about her later. I guess only she has the right to recline her seat on a bus.
Fri. 9th 15:00 - Arrive at ferry dock and get on ferry to Ko Samui. It is an old Japanese setup, so it takes me a minute to figure out why I know what some of the signs mean even though I don't speak Thai. Good to know a little of my Japanese stuck.
Fri. 9th 17:00 - Arrive at Ko Samui. Can't pay 500 Baht for cab to take us across the island to Chaweng beach, so take a songthaew for 100 Baht each. We are the last ones on so Nisha gets a seat and I end up standing on the tailgate platform hanging on to the roof rack bars, with a local Thai guy. This is actually a much better place to be since Nisha ends up being squished by the same difficult English girl from the bus.
Fri. 9th 18:30 - Our 40 minute ride to the other side of the island takes and hour and a half due to flooding from the recent rains. Really aggravating when you are in town for 30 minutes but don't want to get off since you can't figure out where you are. Finally check in to hotel.
We were mentioning on the way that this trip would be my Mom's worst nightmare. Not only because of all the modes of transportation, but the fact that only on the train and the plane did we actually have reservations.
Needless to say, a day of bumming around on the beach is going to feel pretty good.
Thurs. 8th 15:00 - Take uneventful tuk-tuk ride to the train station.
Thurs. 8th 16:30 - Board overnight train to Bangkok in Chiang Mai. We have 2nd class sleeper, which is pretty nice, you do not have a private room, but you have your own private bunk. There is a nice wide bed and a guy comes out with fresh sheets and blankets and makes the bed for you. Had a good night sleep on the train.
Fri. 9th 7:00 - Get off train at Don Muang airport station. This is Bangkok's old airport with is only used for a few domestic flights, so spend a long time walking around the now abandoned international terminals to find the domestic terminal. Whole place feels like a time warp to 1988.
Fri. 9th 10:00 - Board flight to Surat Thani, the nearest mainland city to Ko Samui.
Fri. 9th 11:30 - Get off plane and get on bus to take us to downtown Surat Thani.
Fri. 9th 12:00 - Arrive in Surat Thani and get lunch of fabulous roast duck from a local Thai street type place. Also, get combined bus/ferry ticket to Ko Samui.
Fri. 9th 13:30 - Board bus to take us the 55km to the ferry. Nisha unintentially pisses off English girl behind us by reclining in the seat to take a nap. Brit bitches under her breath and we laugh about her later. I guess only she has the right to recline her seat on a bus.
Fri. 9th 15:00 - Arrive at ferry dock and get on ferry to Ko Samui. It is an old Japanese setup, so it takes me a minute to figure out why I know what some of the signs mean even though I don't speak Thai. Good to know a little of my Japanese stuck.
Fri. 9th 17:00 - Arrive at Ko Samui. Can't pay 500 Baht for cab to take us across the island to Chaweng beach, so take a songthaew for 100 Baht each. We are the last ones on so Nisha gets a seat and I end up standing on the tailgate platform hanging on to the roof rack bars, with a local Thai guy. This is actually a much better place to be since Nisha ends up being squished by the same difficult English girl from the bus.
Fri. 9th 18:30 - Our 40 minute ride to the other side of the island takes and hour and a half due to flooding from the recent rains. Really aggravating when you are in town for 30 minutes but don't want to get off since you can't figure out where you are. Finally check in to hotel.
We were mentioning on the way that this trip would be my Mom's worst nightmare. Not only because of all the modes of transportation, but the fact that only on the train and the plane did we actually have reservations.
Needless to say, a day of bumming around on the beach is going to feel pretty good.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Mobile Dining
There is no such thing as an authentic Thai restaurant.
OK, that might be a strong statement, but the dining culture around Thai food is really something quite unique. In the first 10 days we have been here we have not seen a "Thai" restaurant that does not cater almost exclusively to foreigners. Rather, Thai food is almost exclusively served in numerous carts which appear on the streets sometimes at lunch time but usually around dusk. Some carts are free standing, but others are a scooter sidecar. The carts are also thankfully accompanied by plastic chair and table setups, also on the street. At most there are restaurants that are just a few tables in a storefront which has a permanent kitchen set up on the sidewalk.
It is very strange because there seems to be no fancy Thai food. Everything at all these places only costs 20 to 40 baht (50 cents to a little over a dollar). Don't get me wrong, the food is often very good, but it is unusual that eating with motorbikes and buses buzzing past you is the pinnacle of authentic Thai food, at least outside of someones house.
The other odd thing is that many places, especially the ones that are a storefront with a sidewalk kitchen, do not have a menu. It seems that basically Thais just walk up and order something from a list of standard Thai dishes that everyone should know how to make. It is almost like going to someones house and someone just asking you what you would like, assuming you know the ingredients that are present in the average American kitchen and what is reasonable to cook.
The best approach we have been able to take when eating at the food carts is to first walk down the sidewalk behind the row. If you cannot read the signs telling you what type of cart each one is, the affords you the opportunity to see what equipment and ingredients they have, and what type of food they likely prepare. For example, if there is a big vat of broth, it is likely a noodle soup cart. If they have a big wok, then they probably specialize in fried rice and pad Thai. Hotel trays of curry mean that curry of top of rice is a popular option.
I know to people at home it probably seems gross to be eating, very often, from food carts in a developing country. However, so far we have had a lot of luck with these carts, never having any problems at all. The one nice thing, and perhaps why Thais consider this the normal means of dining out, is that you can very clearly see the cleanliness of the area where the food is prepared. Usually it is very clean, much better then most Indian or low end American restaurant kitchens that I have snuck a peek into.
The only catch is what happened to Nisha when she was hungry. She pointed at a cart of fruit and said she wanted to go over and have a snack. However, before we made it over the proprietor fired up his scooter, and the sidecar full of fruit was soon speeding down the road.
OK, that might be a strong statement, but the dining culture around Thai food is really something quite unique. In the first 10 days we have been here we have not seen a "Thai" restaurant that does not cater almost exclusively to foreigners. Rather, Thai food is almost exclusively served in numerous carts which appear on the streets sometimes at lunch time but usually around dusk. Some carts are free standing, but others are a scooter sidecar. The carts are also thankfully accompanied by plastic chair and table setups, also on the street. At most there are restaurants that are just a few tables in a storefront which has a permanent kitchen set up on the sidewalk.
It is very strange because there seems to be no fancy Thai food. Everything at all these places only costs 20 to 40 baht (50 cents to a little over a dollar). Don't get me wrong, the food is often very good, but it is unusual that eating with motorbikes and buses buzzing past you is the pinnacle of authentic Thai food, at least outside of someones house.
The other odd thing is that many places, especially the ones that are a storefront with a sidewalk kitchen, do not have a menu. It seems that basically Thais just walk up and order something from a list of standard Thai dishes that everyone should know how to make. It is almost like going to someones house and someone just asking you what you would like, assuming you know the ingredients that are present in the average American kitchen and what is reasonable to cook.
The best approach we have been able to take when eating at the food carts is to first walk down the sidewalk behind the row. If you cannot read the signs telling you what type of cart each one is, the affords you the opportunity to see what equipment and ingredients they have, and what type of food they likely prepare. For example, if there is a big vat of broth, it is likely a noodle soup cart. If they have a big wok, then they probably specialize in fried rice and pad Thai. Hotel trays of curry mean that curry of top of rice is a popular option.
I know to people at home it probably seems gross to be eating, very often, from food carts in a developing country. However, so far we have had a lot of luck with these carts, never having any problems at all. The one nice thing, and perhaps why Thais consider this the normal means of dining out, is that you can very clearly see the cleanliness of the area where the food is prepared. Usually it is very clean, much better then most Indian or low end American restaurant kitchens that I have snuck a peek into.
The only catch is what happened to Nisha when she was hungry. She pointed at a cart of fruit and said she wanted to go over and have a snack. However, before we made it over the proprietor fired up his scooter, and the sidecar full of fruit was soon speeding down the road.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Adventures in Northern Thailand
After Ayutthaya, we headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city and the cultural capital. This, like Goa, was on everyone's "must see" list of Thailand. On paper and in the book it sounded great - an abundance of outdoor activities, plenty of bars, and a laid-back atmosphere. What this amounted to was a sort of European spring-break. Do you really need to walk around a foreign country in your swim trunks? There is no beach for hundreds of miles. Initially, we planned to do a 2-3 day trek or bike ride. However, we didn't feel comfortable with the types of tours available. Many of them read like this:
Day 1: trek through Long Neck village, bamboo raft down a river, see elephants at work, sleep in a Lisu village.
Day 2: visit Monkey Farm, trek through Big Ear tribal village, mountain bike through national forest, swim in waterfalls, sleep in Hmong village.
Day 3: more of the same
You get the picture. Too many activities, too long on a tour bus for our liking. We rented a car and took a road trip north with no particular destination in mind, only a Northern Thailand road map.
Our first stop was in interesting orchid farm. I can't believe I even try to grow orchids in New England after seeing their success. Next was the Queen's Botanical gardens. The first thing I would do if I were Queen after abolishing poverty and disease, would be to decree such a spectualr botanical garden. The place was about 100 artfully and naturally manicured acres featuring waterfalls, a herbal walking trail, and glass houses. The highlight were the several glass greenhouses holding an orchid collection, desert landscape, carnivorous plant house, water garden, and bromielad house among a few. The tropical greenhouse held a specimen of the largest palm tree in the world.
We stayed at a lovely bungalow style guest house called Malee's, with a killer Thai buffet at night made by Malee herself. We started our explorations of Chiang Dao with a visit to the famous caves and then a dip in the natural hot springs.
It is evident from being in Thailand for a short time that their love for the King and Queen is rivaled by their love of elephants, their national animal. Many Thais have turned this love into a business. There are at least a dozen "elephant training camps" around the Chiang Mai province. Some of these are actually conservation centers that have hospitals and work on elephant husbandry. We tried to sign up for a 3 day course with the Thai Elephant Conservation Center but they were full. However, the majority of these seem to be the Thai version of an elephant circus. We visited the Chiang Dao Elephant Camp with some trepidation as I had heard that elephants in some of the camps are mistreated, but I wanted to see for myself. The elephants did look healthier than your average city living elephant in India. They were in a very natural setting, no concrete and plenty of water and food. The morning was spent watching the elephants bathe, feeding them, and then were were presented with basically an elephant circus. They raised the flag, bowed for us, moved logs around, picked up trash to demonstrate the agility with their trunk, and painted.
The part I have a problem with is that these are billed as "elephants at work" by every Thai person. I saw no working or training. Also, why when logging with elephants has been banned for 100 years in Thailand, do these animals need to work? The elephants at the Mudumalai park at least were moving logs to be used as fuel for their own dinner. They actually had work to do as well - to herd wild elephants away from villages. There are no wild elephants in this area or logging. How is using a endangered animal to pick up trash training??? Of course money is the motivating factor. These elephant camp stops are on every tour and the vast majority of the people there were on a tour. Also, if it was called a circus, no one would want to come. I am glad that they are treating the animals well, births are occurring, and they are raising awareness for the animals. If you go to a camp, just know that you are really going for a circus show.
On the same note as the elephant circus, visiting the tribal villages seeming like a human circus. There are about 8 different tribal villages that have settled in this area from Tibet, China, and Myanmar. The government has either provided them with refugee camps or land dotted with villages. The Long Neck village is actually a village of Burmese refugees near the border that wear many gold rings around their necks. I was interested in visiting a few of the villages. However, I don't know if it is the bad translation of the brochures, but all the treks made it out to seem that you were visiting a human zoo or circus. Instead we hired a local guide in Chaing Dao and visited a few villages in the hills around our guest house. They were the poorest people I have seen in Thailand so far. There were 5 different tribal villages on the same road that all spoke a different language. All their kids went to the same school to learn Thai, which will probably result in the death of their indigenous languages. They all lead agrarian village lives and supplement their income from selling their colorful textiles to tourists.
Our guide's friend named Mr. Moon, then lead us on a trek through the jungle near Chiang Dao mountain. As it had raining the previous 3 days, the waterfalls were beautifully swollen and the paths muddy. Both Ian and I had the feeling that we were in an American Vietnam War movie. Actually, the Deer Hunter was filmed near here. There was no Charlie to shoot at us, only Mr. Moon who showed us how to make a potato-gun-like device out of 3 pieces of bamboo.
With so much to do in Chiang Dao, we never made it farther. But the beauty of the road-map-road-trip is the found in the journey.
- Nisha
Day 1: trek through Long Neck village, bamboo raft down a river, see elephants at work, sleep in a Lisu village.
Day 2: visit Monkey Farm, trek through Big Ear tribal village, mountain bike through national forest, swim in waterfalls, sleep in Hmong village.
Day 3: more of the same
You get the picture. Too many activities, too long on a tour bus for our liking. We rented a car and took a road trip north with no particular destination in mind, only a Northern Thailand road map.
Our first stop was in interesting orchid farm. I can't believe I even try to grow orchids in New England after seeing their success. Next was the Queen's Botanical gardens. The first thing I would do if I were Queen after abolishing poverty and disease, would be to decree such a spectualr botanical garden. The place was about 100 artfully and naturally manicured acres featuring waterfalls, a herbal walking trail, and glass houses. The highlight were the several glass greenhouses holding an orchid collection, desert landscape, carnivorous plant house, water garden, and bromielad house among a few. The tropical greenhouse held a specimen of the largest palm tree in the world.
We stayed at a lovely bungalow style guest house called Malee's, with a killer Thai buffet at night made by Malee herself. We started our explorations of Chiang Dao with a visit to the famous caves and then a dip in the natural hot springs.
It is evident from being in Thailand for a short time that their love for the King and Queen is rivaled by their love of elephants, their national animal. Many Thais have turned this love into a business. There are at least a dozen "elephant training camps" around the Chiang Mai province. Some of these are actually conservation centers that have hospitals and work on elephant husbandry. We tried to sign up for a 3 day course with the Thai Elephant Conservation Center but they were full. However, the majority of these seem to be the Thai version of an elephant circus. We visited the Chiang Dao Elephant Camp with some trepidation as I had heard that elephants in some of the camps are mistreated, but I wanted to see for myself. The elephants did look healthier than your average city living elephant in India. They were in a very natural setting, no concrete and plenty of water and food. The morning was spent watching the elephants bathe, feeding them, and then were were presented with basically an elephant circus. They raised the flag, bowed for us, moved logs around, picked up trash to demonstrate the agility with their trunk, and painted.
The part I have a problem with is that these are billed as "elephants at work" by every Thai person. I saw no working or training. Also, why when logging with elephants has been banned for 100 years in Thailand, do these animals need to work? The elephants at the Mudumalai park at least were moving logs to be used as fuel for their own dinner. They actually had work to do as well - to herd wild elephants away from villages. There are no wild elephants in this area or logging. How is using a endangered animal to pick up trash training??? Of course money is the motivating factor. These elephant camp stops are on every tour and the vast majority of the people there were on a tour. Also, if it was called a circus, no one would want to come. I am glad that they are treating the animals well, births are occurring, and they are raising awareness for the animals. If you go to a camp, just know that you are really going for a circus show.
On the same note as the elephant circus, visiting the tribal villages seeming like a human circus. There are about 8 different tribal villages that have settled in this area from Tibet, China, and Myanmar. The government has either provided them with refugee camps or land dotted with villages. The Long Neck village is actually a village of Burmese refugees near the border that wear many gold rings around their necks. I was interested in visiting a few of the villages. However, I don't know if it is the bad translation of the brochures, but all the treks made it out to seem that you were visiting a human zoo or circus. Instead we hired a local guide in Chaing Dao and visited a few villages in the hills around our guest house. They were the poorest people I have seen in Thailand so far. There were 5 different tribal villages on the same road that all spoke a different language. All their kids went to the same school to learn Thai, which will probably result in the death of their indigenous languages. They all lead agrarian village lives and supplement their income from selling their colorful textiles to tourists.
Our guide's friend named Mr. Moon, then lead us on a trek through the jungle near Chiang Dao mountain. As it had raining the previous 3 days, the waterfalls were beautifully swollen and the paths muddy. Both Ian and I had the feeling that we were in an American Vietnam War movie. Actually, the Deer Hunter was filmed near here. There was no Charlie to shoot at us, only Mr. Moon who showed us how to make a potato-gun-like device out of 3 pieces of bamboo.
With so much to do in Chiang Dao, we never made it farther. But the beauty of the road-map-road-trip is the found in the journey.
- Nisha
Those Ransaking Burmese
After showing up with Delhi Belly, Ian and had a slow start into Thailand. We saw a few of the temples and the Grand Palace (like Thailand's Buckingham Palace) while waiting for our visa to Vietnam to be granted. The largest draw was the world's biggest reclining Buddha, so enormous that he can barely fit in the building. Bangkok was a pleasant, clean city with horrendous traffic and a pleasant backpacker's neighborhood (Banglamphu) that looked like Bourbon street with more hookers.
Our first stop out of the city was the sacked city of Ayutthaya, one hour north of Bangkok. The spiritual and political capital of Thailand was here until the 1700's when it was ravaged by the invading Burmese. Not only did they torch all the structures in the city and looted the gold, but they also went though the trouble of knocking down about half of the large brick and stone structures resulting in the still standing ones to lean as if in the middle of an earthquake. Thai archaeologists then unearthed some large vaults of gold and a relic from Buddha in the 1950's. However, the city was unable to protect itself from modern day looters and thieves who pilfered the rest of the treasures. It was a shady area to stroll through and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most visited area was a stone Buddha head that has been overgrown by a Banyan tree at the Wat Phra Mahathat, a very sacred sign in Buddhism. Of course Ayutthaya has their ridiculously large Golden Buddha as well. I don't understand why Buddhism here is celebrated with such opulence when the teachings of Buddha, as I understand them, shun such displays of wealth. If anyone can shed some light on this, I would be appreciative.
Our next stop, Chaing Mai..
Our first stop out of the city was the sacked city of Ayutthaya, one hour north of Bangkok. The spiritual and political capital of Thailand was here until the 1700's when it was ravaged by the invading Burmese. Not only did they torch all the structures in the city and looted the gold, but they also went though the trouble of knocking down about half of the large brick and stone structures resulting in the still standing ones to lean as if in the middle of an earthquake. Thai archaeologists then unearthed some large vaults of gold and a relic from Buddha in the 1950's. However, the city was unable to protect itself from modern day looters and thieves who pilfered the rest of the treasures. It was a shady area to stroll through and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most visited area was a stone Buddha head that has been overgrown by a Banyan tree at the Wat Phra Mahathat, a very sacred sign in Buddhism. Of course Ayutthaya has their ridiculously large Golden Buddha as well. I don't understand why Buddhism here is celebrated with such opulence when the teachings of Buddha, as I understand them, shun such displays of wealth. If anyone can shed some light on this, I would be appreciative.
Our next stop, Chaing Mai..
New Dandiya Pictures
A friend that we met at the Dandiya in Chennai just emailed me some new pictures showing me dancing, Ian and me, and some of the costumes the guys wore.
Royal Envy?
I know that I have written about this before, but the reverence for the King in Thailand is something that I have never seen before and had no idea existed before we arrived.
My first reaction to this omnipresence and love of the king was to have more of an understanding of how personality cults work. You are here for a little while and all of a sudden you start liking the king, and thinking that he must be a pretty great guy. This is not to say that he is not a great guy, but I really have not investigated enough to know. You just see everyone wearing their yellow shirts and putting their picture of the king in the nicest spot in their business and think, "How could all these people be wrong? If everyone loves the king so much, then I should probably like the king too".
The thing that is even more convincing is that the reverence of the king is not forced, like North Korea, et al., but rather people seem to really like him. It is not like you have to wear the yellow shirt, or put up his picture, but people genuinely seem to like to do so. Some things are certainly done by the government, like the billboards, or the parade in Ching Mae of school kids wishing him well in his current illness. But even the school kids seemed to really take the parade seriously and liked being there.
The other thing Nisha and I have talked about is a kind of jealously that we have no figure to look up to as much as Thais look up to their king. The thing about the king is that he is not a pure figurehead, like most modern monarchs. My understanding is that he does still have a role in politics, but it is more of a guiding force, then day to day politics and administration. Thus he has this role of watching over the country, without having to delve into the mud pit where the politicians must reside.
One might say that we in the US had this type of reverence of the president, but I do not think it was ever as intense as Thais have for the king. Even before the down and dirty politics of the Clinton and Bush eras diminished the reverence for the president, the president was still a politician. As such he must be in involved in the nasty business of politics and sling mud like everyone else. To some degree it must be nice to have a person who embodies the guiding force of the nation, while being able to stay above the fray.
My first reaction to this omnipresence and love of the king was to have more of an understanding of how personality cults work. You are here for a little while and all of a sudden you start liking the king, and thinking that he must be a pretty great guy. This is not to say that he is not a great guy, but I really have not investigated enough to know. You just see everyone wearing their yellow shirts and putting their picture of the king in the nicest spot in their business and think, "How could all these people be wrong? If everyone loves the king so much, then I should probably like the king too".
The thing that is even more convincing is that the reverence of the king is not forced, like North Korea, et al., but rather people seem to really like him. It is not like you have to wear the yellow shirt, or put up his picture, but people genuinely seem to like to do so. Some things are certainly done by the government, like the billboards, or the parade in Ching Mae of school kids wishing him well in his current illness. But even the school kids seemed to really take the parade seriously and liked being there.
The other thing Nisha and I have talked about is a kind of jealously that we have no figure to look up to as much as Thais look up to their king. The thing about the king is that he is not a pure figurehead, like most modern monarchs. My understanding is that he does still have a role in politics, but it is more of a guiding force, then day to day politics and administration. Thus he has this role of watching over the country, without having to delve into the mud pit where the politicians must reside.
One might say that we in the US had this type of reverence of the president, but I do not think it was ever as intense as Thais have for the king. Even before the down and dirty politics of the Clinton and Bush eras diminished the reverence for the president, the president was still a politician. As such he must be in involved in the nasty business of politics and sling mud like everyone else. To some degree it must be nice to have a person who embodies the guiding force of the nation, while being able to stay above the fray.
Bobby Jindal and Mistaken Pride
Note - I have wanted to write about this for a long time, but was held up by other things. Anyway, I know I am a little behind the current events, but I still wanted to write it.
Early on when we were in India we were astonished by the amount of news coverage given to the visit of US astronaut Sunita Williams to Gujarat. We did not think that there was anything particularly wrong with celebrating the achievements of Ms. Williams, but the level of attention seemed a little excessive for the visit of a half Indian American who had spent her entire life in the US. This was our introduction to this strange Indian need to celebrate people who achieved things in other parts of the world and have even the slightest ties to India. As I would later read, Norah Jones was also followed very closely when she was at the top of the US music world.
Fast forward to the election of Bobby Jindal as governor of Louisiana. As we had expected, the election of this 2nd generation Indian was a topic of news coverage, conversation and even a celebration in his ancestral town in Punjab. All this was despite the fact that most Indians had no idea who he is or what he stands for. In fact, people were extremely surprised when we would tell them that he is in the same political party as George Bush, who is not exactly a popular figure in India.
People had heard only a little at most of his story. For those unaware, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the son of parents who immigrated to Baton Rouge in the 70s. His real Indian name is very rarely heard and he has never visited the place where his family is from. He converted to Catholicism when he was 14 (although I have on good authority that this conversion was unknown at least one member of the Baton Rouge Indian community at the time, leading me to question the real timing, as such a thing as a little Indian boy going to church alone would seem to be a topic of conversation). In his later achievements and political career his background has been de-emphasized. Rumor has it he even asks his Indian supporters in Louisiana not to wear traditional Indian dress to his fund raisers, as pictures of him with people in traditional dress may appear in the media. When we were watching his acceptance speech on TV we could barley contain our laughter at his now strong southern accent, which is not a common trait among Ivy League educated 2nd generation Indian kids. In short his Indian heritage seems to be something for him to run away from, not a source of any pride.
None the less, I am not actually here to rip Bobby Jindal for doing what he had to do to advance his career. It is certainly everyone right to assimilate to the US culture as much as they want, after all I do not know any Eastern European languages or dances, I have an English name and am not Eastern Orthodox. I do find the ferocity that he has rejected Indian culture a little drastic however, if I was running for office and someone wanted to bring Perogies to a fund raiser I would not stop them.
The thing I actually find more disturbing is that Indians will waste time trying to love and admire someone who rejects his connection to them. On the day we left several writers from the Times of India were finally getting around to addressing this. I share their opinion, that India needs to reserve its energy for supporting its own heroes, not lionising people for whom blood is their only lasting connection.
Early on when we were in India we were astonished by the amount of news coverage given to the visit of US astronaut Sunita Williams to Gujarat. We did not think that there was anything particularly wrong with celebrating the achievements of Ms. Williams, but the level of attention seemed a little excessive for the visit of a half Indian American who had spent her entire life in the US. This was our introduction to this strange Indian need to celebrate people who achieved things in other parts of the world and have even the slightest ties to India. As I would later read, Norah Jones was also followed very closely when she was at the top of the US music world.
Fast forward to the election of Bobby Jindal as governor of Louisiana. As we had expected, the election of this 2nd generation Indian was a topic of news coverage, conversation and even a celebration in his ancestral town in Punjab. All this was despite the fact that most Indians had no idea who he is or what he stands for. In fact, people were extremely surprised when we would tell them that he is in the same political party as George Bush, who is not exactly a popular figure in India.
People had heard only a little at most of his story. For those unaware, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the son of parents who immigrated to Baton Rouge in the 70s. His real Indian name is very rarely heard and he has never visited the place where his family is from. He converted to Catholicism when he was 14 (although I have on good authority that this conversion was unknown at least one member of the Baton Rouge Indian community at the time, leading me to question the real timing, as such a thing as a little Indian boy going to church alone would seem to be a topic of conversation). In his later achievements and political career his background has been de-emphasized. Rumor has it he even asks his Indian supporters in Louisiana not to wear traditional Indian dress to his fund raisers, as pictures of him with people in traditional dress may appear in the media. When we were watching his acceptance speech on TV we could barley contain our laughter at his now strong southern accent, which is not a common trait among Ivy League educated 2nd generation Indian kids. In short his Indian heritage seems to be something for him to run away from, not a source of any pride.
None the less, I am not actually here to rip Bobby Jindal for doing what he had to do to advance his career. It is certainly everyone right to assimilate to the US culture as much as they want, after all I do not know any Eastern European languages or dances, I have an English name and am not Eastern Orthodox. I do find the ferocity that he has rejected Indian culture a little drastic however, if I was running for office and someone wanted to bring Perogies to a fund raiser I would not stop them.
The thing I actually find more disturbing is that Indians will waste time trying to love and admire someone who rejects his connection to them. On the day we left several writers from the Times of India were finally getting around to addressing this. I share their opinion, that India needs to reserve its energy for supporting its own heroes, not lionising people for whom blood is their only lasting connection.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
I would rather drink with an elephant then a skinny bird
As you may have read previously, I was getting pretty sick of Kingfisher beer when I left India. Thankfully the situation in Thailand is a lot better.
They still have tariffs here that make only a small collection of beers reasonably priced. The ones that you see everywhere are Singha, Chang, Leo, Heineken and Tiger (from Singapore). They are all decent, sweet Asian beers, but more like the ones in Japan then the sickly sweet stuff they drink in India.
The beautiful thing is that, at least in my opinion, the best tasting, strongest and cheapest is "Beer Chang". They run only 60/40 Baht (big/regular) in most bars. Also, they have the coolest label I have ever seen, with my favorite animal on it.
I may be eating my words in a month when I am sick of these, but for now I can't get enough.
Update (6/11/07) - I found out that "Chang" actually means elephant in Thai, now I like it even better "Elephant Beer".
They still have tariffs here that make only a small collection of beers reasonably priced. The ones that you see everywhere are Singha, Chang, Leo, Heineken and Tiger (from Singapore). They are all decent, sweet Asian beers, but more like the ones in Japan then the sickly sweet stuff they drink in India.
The beautiful thing is that, at least in my opinion, the best tasting, strongest and cheapest is "Beer Chang". They run only 60/40 Baht (big/regular) in most bars. Also, they have the coolest label I have ever seen, with my favorite animal on it.
I may be eating my words in a month when I am sick of these, but for now I can't get enough.
Update (6/11/07) - I found out that "Chang" actually means elephant in Thai, now I like it even better "Elephant Beer".
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Fight Night Bangkok
In keeping with my love of seeing live sports in the countries we visit, as well as seeing how accurate the martial arts movies are on TBS late at night, seeing a Thai Boxing (or Muay Thai) match in Bangkok was an essential part of my visit.
The quick verdict is yes, boxing in Thailand does pretty much look like it does in the movies. As for the details, read on.
Evidently there is boxing pretty much every night in Bangkok, but since I wanted to go on a Tuesday, the place to go is Lumpini Stadium. Nisha did feel like going, or spending the money for a ticket, so I ventured out alone. After a fun tuk-tuk ride through rush hour traffic and then a brief ride on Bangkok's shiny new subway, I arrived at the stadium, which was off the side of a normal big city street. As I expected from the Lonely Planet, a English speaking host who works for the stadium intercepted me on the sidewalk and directed me to the ticket window after showing me photos of the different classes of seats and handing me a one page English program. I am not sure how the system works, but foreigners have to go to these windows where tickets are 2000/1500/1000 baht for Ringside/2nd Class/3rd Class seating. Thais have some way of getting in paying a lot less, but sometimes in Asia you just have to accept that you are getting ripped off to get into something cool. Anyway, I went for the cheapest seat, which as I learned in Japan, is where the real fans at any event sit.
To fuel myself for the fight I wolf down two pork skewers and a Beer Chang at a cart near the gate and head on in. The stadium is circular and probably holds around 3,000 people at capacity. It looks like you would expect from the movies. There is a ring in the middle and rickety wooden stands rising up around the central floor. The ringside seats are separated from the 2nd class stands by a chain link fence and the stands are similarly separated half way up between the 2nd and 3rd class. The whole thing is covered by a tin roof that is as low as it can be while still allowing everyone to see. There are numerous iron posts for the roof around the arena, meaning that almost every seat has an obstructed view.
When I walk in the stands are around 1/2 full. At ringside the seats are quite sedate and are filled with many westerners. The 2nd class is a smattering of westerners and a lot of normal looking Thai guys. Where I am in 3rd there are a few westerners and a mix of normal and sleazy looking Thai guys. To my dismay they only seem to have beer girls at ringside, so the only concession up in my section is a woman with a cooler of soft drinks and bags of chips. For reasons I would figure out later about 50% of the crowd is in a one quarter slice of the stands around the ring, in both 2nd and 3rd class seating. This means it is pretty crowded in one section while the slice that I hung out in and another were half full and one slice was mostly empty.
We are on the 3rd fight of the night out of 10 with the main event being fight 8. All the fights go down in the same sequence. First the boxers enter the ring and there is a 3 minute dance ritual where each boxer does his pre fight routine. All the dances are different, but the usually involve some bowing to the corner posts, bouncing on their knees on the ground and ofter some swan like positions held for each section of the crowd. There is a band that accompanies this with rather quiet drum, chime and flute music. After this the boxers go to their corner and have their ceremonial head band removed and some water ritually splashed on them by the trainer.
After this the fight is on, but for some reason, perhaps strategy, or to facilitate betting, the first two rounds of every fight would be pretty dull, with both boxers just feeling each other out. With every break in rounds however, the betting does get more frenzied. Unlike the movies I did not see any bookies with big fistfuls of Baht, or anything like that. Rather, when people want to make a bet they put a hand in the air with a different number of fingers up and the bookies in the crowd would acknowledge them and write down the bets. In the first few round breaks there would only be a few people with their hands up, but as the fight went on eventually the breaks would be a frenzy of yelling and hands in the air.
Also as the fights went on the action in the ring would heat up. Usually by the 5th and final rounds kicks and punches would be flying at dizzying pace. One nice thing about Thai boxing is that even when the fighters are clenched, they still use their legs and knees to deliver blows, so the action never stops. Also, as the fights goes on the entire crowd comes to its feet and all the people who gambled on a fighter make a "Ahhhh" sound when a blow is delivered. By the end of the 5th the sound is very loud.
Some of the fights were better then others, a lot seem to involve very small boxers, only a little over 100 lbs. The heavier fights were a little more entertaining. Only one KO occurred, and as in Soccer a stretcher team instantly appeared and hauled the loser out of the ring.
Overall, very fun experience. A little expensive, but worth seeing if you are in Bangkok.
The quick verdict is yes, boxing in Thailand does pretty much look like it does in the movies. As for the details, read on.
Evidently there is boxing pretty much every night in Bangkok, but since I wanted to go on a Tuesday, the place to go is Lumpini Stadium. Nisha did feel like going, or spending the money for a ticket, so I ventured out alone. After a fun tuk-tuk ride through rush hour traffic and then a brief ride on Bangkok's shiny new subway, I arrived at the stadium, which was off the side of a normal big city street. As I expected from the Lonely Planet, a English speaking host who works for the stadium intercepted me on the sidewalk and directed me to the ticket window after showing me photos of the different classes of seats and handing me a one page English program. I am not sure how the system works, but foreigners have to go to these windows where tickets are 2000/1500/1000 baht for Ringside/2nd Class/3rd Class seating. Thais have some way of getting in paying a lot less, but sometimes in Asia you just have to accept that you are getting ripped off to get into something cool. Anyway, I went for the cheapest seat, which as I learned in Japan, is where the real fans at any event sit.
To fuel myself for the fight I wolf down two pork skewers and a Beer Chang at a cart near the gate and head on in. The stadium is circular and probably holds around 3,000 people at capacity. It looks like you would expect from the movies. There is a ring in the middle and rickety wooden stands rising up around the central floor. The ringside seats are separated from the 2nd class stands by a chain link fence and the stands are similarly separated half way up between the 2nd and 3rd class. The whole thing is covered by a tin roof that is as low as it can be while still allowing everyone to see. There are numerous iron posts for the roof around the arena, meaning that almost every seat has an obstructed view.
When I walk in the stands are around 1/2 full. At ringside the seats are quite sedate and are filled with many westerners. The 2nd class is a smattering of westerners and a lot of normal looking Thai guys. Where I am in 3rd there are a few westerners and a mix of normal and sleazy looking Thai guys. To my dismay they only seem to have beer girls at ringside, so the only concession up in my section is a woman with a cooler of soft drinks and bags of chips. For reasons I would figure out later about 50% of the crowd is in a one quarter slice of the stands around the ring, in both 2nd and 3rd class seating. This means it is pretty crowded in one section while the slice that I hung out in and another were half full and one slice was mostly empty.
We are on the 3rd fight of the night out of 10 with the main event being fight 8. All the fights go down in the same sequence. First the boxers enter the ring and there is a 3 minute dance ritual where each boxer does his pre fight routine. All the dances are different, but the usually involve some bowing to the corner posts, bouncing on their knees on the ground and ofter some swan like positions held for each section of the crowd. There is a band that accompanies this with rather quiet drum, chime and flute music. After this the boxers go to their corner and have their ceremonial head band removed and some water ritually splashed on them by the trainer.
After this the fight is on, but for some reason, perhaps strategy, or to facilitate betting, the first two rounds of every fight would be pretty dull, with both boxers just feeling each other out. With every break in rounds however, the betting does get more frenzied. Unlike the movies I did not see any bookies with big fistfuls of Baht, or anything like that. Rather, when people want to make a bet they put a hand in the air with a different number of fingers up and the bookies in the crowd would acknowledge them and write down the bets. In the first few round breaks there would only be a few people with their hands up, but as the fight went on eventually the breaks would be a frenzy of yelling and hands in the air.
Also as the fights went on the action in the ring would heat up. Usually by the 5th and final rounds kicks and punches would be flying at dizzying pace. One nice thing about Thai boxing is that even when the fighters are clenched, they still use their legs and knees to deliver blows, so the action never stops. Also, as the fights goes on the entire crowd comes to its feet and all the people who gambled on a fighter make a "Ahhhh" sound when a blow is delivered. By the end of the 5th the sound is very loud.
Some of the fights were better then others, a lot seem to involve very small boxers, only a little over 100 lbs. The heavier fights were a little more entertaining. Only one KO occurred, and as in Soccer a stretcher team instantly appeared and hauled the loser out of the ring.
Overall, very fun experience. A little expensive, but worth seeing if you are in Bangkok.
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