Another country, another one of these articles.
- The official currency of Vietnam is the Dong, which is fun because the name is pretty great to say, and it is 16,000 Dong to the Dollar. Becoming a Vietnamese millionaire is as easy as one trip to the ATM.
- Interestingly enough, the US dollar is also very big here, especially for hotels and other higher priced items. So much for the capitalist pigs.
- Vietnam might be the cheapest country yet of the tour. 15 dollars will get you a pretty decent hotel room (AC, TV, hot water, sometimes fridge) and food is dirt cheap. Our dinner of two bowls of Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) last night was less then 2 dollars.
- Every bowl of Pho we have had in Vietnam has been spectacular. At less then a dollar is most places, and very healthy, I think we will be eating quite a few more.
- Even after seeing the rest of Asia, Vietnam is the small motorbike king. There are a few more cars in Saigon, but in the Mekong Delta where we were before I would estimate that %99 percent of all vehicles on the road are a motorbike. We rented one to look around Chau Doc and on the main road out of town you could see at least a mile down the road, and every vehicle was a motorbike, hundreds of them.
- The people of Vietnam are the friendliest so far. People smile and say "hello" all the time. Kids love to see you and get so excited if you pay attention to them. For the most part this friendliness seems very genuine. Even annoying hawkers can be fooled around with, and will often want to just chat with you, after they figure out weather you want to buy anything.
- After all this time we finally had a cab man try a meter scam on us. When we arrived in Saigon, we got in a cab and after less then a KM I noticed that the meter was already at 5 KM and 28,000 Dong. I complained and he said, or so we thought, that if would only be 14,000 Dong to take us to where we were going. When we got there he tried to take 50,000 and not give us any change. Nisha took the lead in bitching him out while I got change and ended up giving him around 20,000 Dong, which is about what the meter should have been.
- We have been travelling on a lot of speedboat ferries lately. First we took one from Penom Penh in Cambodia to Chau Doc in Vietnam and then from Can Tho to Saigon. Great way to travel around the Mekong. As fast as a bus and more comfortable, with a better view. They are a kind of long thin fiberglass boat with a roof and windows, set up pretty much like a bus inside. There is sometimes a little deck on back you can hang out on as well. Powered by twin I/O engines, these things move along over 30 knots. On our trip to Saigon, there was some driving down a crowded delta canal filled with sand barges that would make the average New Hampshire Marie Patrol officer pee his pants.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Thailand Beach Wrapup
This is more for random people searching on Google that anything else, but I wanted to write up the five beaches that we stayed at on Thailand. The thing is that they all have their strong points, so picking one to go to is really a case of just finding the right one for you. Please note that all these visits were in mid to late November.
KO SAMUI - HAT CHAWENG
This was the most crowded and developed beach we visited. There is a main road that forms the "strip" of town, and most resorts are in the 300m or so from this road to the beach. The strip was a pretty lively place, however a good deal of the partying was hooker related. The strip also had a lot of very sleek bars, nice and expensive restaurants, as well as Starbucks, McDonald's and plenty of 7-Elevens.
We stayed at a hotel that was on the strip called The Wave Samui, which I was not a fan of. Besides my issues with the hotel, I did not realize what a pain it would be to not be in a place with beach access. There is only one place where you can take an actual public road to the beach, so most of the time we had to sneak through a resort to get out to the sand. There were a couple of relatively cheap places with beach access, I would check out those if you want to go here. If you want to pay 500 Baht for a bungalow on the beach, go somewhere else.
As for the beach itself, it was very nice. A little crowded, but not overwhelmingly so. The water is clear and the swimming nice. It can be a little hard to find a place because all the resorts put chairs out for their guests, but space can be found. There is also a strip of bars near the Ark Bar that have raised futons on the beach, and are pretty fun at night as well. You can hang here is you want to buy drinks. There were several kayak and sailboat rental outfits on the beach, and we had a lot of fun with a little Hobie Cat. There are a few hawkers, mostly of junk souvenirs, but they are manageable.
Go here is you want to:
- Party, mostly with Euros and Brits
- Listen to trance music
- Get a hooker
- Have a lot of activities, food and drinks available on the beach
- Eat at high class restaurants
- Spend a lot of money
Don't go here if you want to:
- Have a peaceful vacation
- Go to chill bars
- Really get away from it all
KO SAMUI - HAT LAMAI
I will not do a full review of this, because we used Nisha's leftover Marriott points to stay at a high end beach resort at the very end of the beach. From what I did see, it looked busy, but far less so then Chaweng. The beach was nice here, but very shallow. You could walk for probably a kilometer out into the ocean before having to swim. It was great for Frisbee in the water, and there was some snorkeling by the rocks at the headland.
If you want to know about the Marriott Renaissance, read up on it here.
KO PHA-NGAN - HAT KHOM
This was our place to do the real beach hut thing, and I don't think we could have found a better place. Hat Khom is a small beach, only about .5KM long, in a cove on the north side of the island. It is accessible from the main village on the north side by a dirt road that can be negotiated via pickup truck or motorbike. The road can also be walked in around 25 minutes. The beach has occasional boulders that add to the scenery, as well as a reef that can be snorkeled. Swimming is also good as there is a deep sand bottom area between the beach and the reef.
The only business here is the four beach hut resorts that line the beach, as well as their bar/restaurants. We stayed at the Ocean View, which seemed to have the best rooms and had the best food at the restaurant, but they all seemed OK. The huts all seemed to be in the 300-800 Baht range. There is no Internet and the only nightlife is the resort bars. One of the resorts rents Kayaks for very cheap and the Ocean View had free snorkeling equipment.
Go here if you want to:
- Stay right on the beach
- Only hear the sound of the waves at night
- Hang out with a backpacker crowd
- Be on a secluded, quiet and beautiful beach
- Not spend a lot of money
- Shower with only cold water and only have electricity from 6PM to 6AM
KO TAO - HAT SAIREE
We stayed here mainly because Nisha was getting here dive certification. This beach is very long, but also very thin. The resorts in the area push right up to the beach, so there is only a little room in front for swimming and putting a blanket down. The swimming is pretty good, but there are quite a few boats tied to the beach and ropes to watch out for. There is a place in town that rents Kayaks and sailing equipment, but not on this beach. One really nice thing here is that the main road is not anywhere near the beach. Along the beach is a brick walkway which is only used by pedestrians and the occasional motorbike.
This is kind of a middle ground between an overdeveloped beach and a quiet beach. The beach is fully developed, but there is still some open space and small hut resorts. There are a couple of 7-Elevens and plenty of Internet cafes and resort restaurants. There is also a area near the far end of the beach with some bars and restaurants that are independent of a resort.
One thing is that how quiet the beach is will have a lot to do with where you stay. We stayed at the AC resort, and the bar there pumps music until late at night, so our room was pretty loud. At other locations that are not near a big time bar, things would probably be pretty quiet. As far as the nightlife, it was still low season, so things were not really hopping yet, but it seemed like in season there would be a lot of partying going on. However, not many hookers and you could get away from it if you wanted to.
Go here if you want to:
- Get SCUBA certified easy and cheap
- Party, but not be in a total madhouse
- Spend a moderate amount of money
- Have plenty of modern amenities, but not feel like you are in a city
Don't go here if you want:
- A really nice beach
- To really get away from it all
KRABI PROVENCE - RAILAY
Railay is a peninsula attached to the mainland, but inaccessible by road due to the massive cliffs. The only way to get there is long tail boat. The peninsula is about 500m across, and has beaches at each side. The west beach is pretty nice, with giant cliffs at each side. It is wide with hard and flat sand. The swimming is calm and good, but the water is very warm and there are quite a few long tail boats. The east beach is muddy and used mainly for long tail boat arrivals. There is also another beach you can walk to in 10 minutes that I did not make it out to, but Nisha rated as one of the better beaches she has ever been on. There are some hawkers who work the beach, but they mainly sell beer, so I find them quite useful.
All the area that can be developed has been, all the flat area between the beaches as well as the area up the hill that we stayed in was used for resorts. Up the hill in back was the only place for budget accommodation (besides the far beach around the corner that is, but I am talking about the main part of town), but where we stayed at the Highland Resort was very quiet and only about a 10 minute walk to the good beach. However, since there are no motor vehicles, the place has a pretty low key feel, even more so then Ko Tao. There are a fair number of bars and restaurants, but no bars really pump music, it is more of a Bob Marley kind of place.
The rock climbing is also a real attraction here, I went twice and loved it. Things are a little expensive however, you definitely pay island prices, not mainland.
All in all, this was my favorite beach.
Go here if you want to:
- See great scenery
- Go to first class beaches
- Rock climb
- Enjoy chill, but busy, nightlife
- Spend a moderate to high amount of money
Don't go here if yo want to:
- Get a hooker
- Listen to trance music
- Eat top flight international food
- Really get away from it all
KO SAMUI - HAT CHAWENG
This was the most crowded and developed beach we visited. There is a main road that forms the "strip" of town, and most resorts are in the 300m or so from this road to the beach. The strip was a pretty lively place, however a good deal of the partying was hooker related. The strip also had a lot of very sleek bars, nice and expensive restaurants, as well as Starbucks, McDonald's and plenty of 7-Elevens.
We stayed at a hotel that was on the strip called The Wave Samui, which I was not a fan of. Besides my issues with the hotel, I did not realize what a pain it would be to not be in a place with beach access. There is only one place where you can take an actual public road to the beach, so most of the time we had to sneak through a resort to get out to the sand. There were a couple of relatively cheap places with beach access, I would check out those if you want to go here. If you want to pay 500 Baht for a bungalow on the beach, go somewhere else.
As for the beach itself, it was very nice. A little crowded, but not overwhelmingly so. The water is clear and the swimming nice. It can be a little hard to find a place because all the resorts put chairs out for their guests, but space can be found. There is also a strip of bars near the Ark Bar that have raised futons on the beach, and are pretty fun at night as well. You can hang here is you want to buy drinks. There were several kayak and sailboat rental outfits on the beach, and we had a lot of fun with a little Hobie Cat. There are a few hawkers, mostly of junk souvenirs, but they are manageable.
Go here is you want to:
- Party, mostly with Euros and Brits
- Listen to trance music
- Get a hooker
- Have a lot of activities, food and drinks available on the beach
- Eat at high class restaurants
- Spend a lot of money
Don't go here if you want to:
- Have a peaceful vacation
- Go to chill bars
- Really get away from it all
KO SAMUI - HAT LAMAI
I will not do a full review of this, because we used Nisha's leftover Marriott points to stay at a high end beach resort at the very end of the beach. From what I did see, it looked busy, but far less so then Chaweng. The beach was nice here, but very shallow. You could walk for probably a kilometer out into the ocean before having to swim. It was great for Frisbee in the water, and there was some snorkeling by the rocks at the headland.
If you want to know about the Marriott Renaissance, read up on it here.
KO PHA-NGAN - HAT KHOM
This was our place to do the real beach hut thing, and I don't think we could have found a better place. Hat Khom is a small beach, only about .5KM long, in a cove on the north side of the island. It is accessible from the main village on the north side by a dirt road that can be negotiated via pickup truck or motorbike. The road can also be walked in around 25 minutes. The beach has occasional boulders that add to the scenery, as well as a reef that can be snorkeled. Swimming is also good as there is a deep sand bottom area between the beach and the reef.
The only business here is the four beach hut resorts that line the beach, as well as their bar/restaurants. We stayed at the Ocean View, which seemed to have the best rooms and had the best food at the restaurant, but they all seemed OK. The huts all seemed to be in the 300-800 Baht range. There is no Internet and the only nightlife is the resort bars. One of the resorts rents Kayaks for very cheap and the Ocean View had free snorkeling equipment.
Go here if you want to:
- Stay right on the beach
- Only hear the sound of the waves at night
- Hang out with a backpacker crowd
- Be on a secluded, quiet and beautiful beach
- Not spend a lot of money
- Shower with only cold water and only have electricity from 6PM to 6AM
KO TAO - HAT SAIREE
We stayed here mainly because Nisha was getting here dive certification. This beach is very long, but also very thin. The resorts in the area push right up to the beach, so there is only a little room in front for swimming and putting a blanket down. The swimming is pretty good, but there are quite a few boats tied to the beach and ropes to watch out for. There is a place in town that rents Kayaks and sailing equipment, but not on this beach. One really nice thing here is that the main road is not anywhere near the beach. Along the beach is a brick walkway which is only used by pedestrians and the occasional motorbike.
This is kind of a middle ground between an overdeveloped beach and a quiet beach. The beach is fully developed, but there is still some open space and small hut resorts. There are a couple of 7-Elevens and plenty of Internet cafes and resort restaurants. There is also a area near the far end of the beach with some bars and restaurants that are independent of a resort.
One thing is that how quiet the beach is will have a lot to do with where you stay. We stayed at the AC resort, and the bar there pumps music until late at night, so our room was pretty loud. At other locations that are not near a big time bar, things would probably be pretty quiet. As far as the nightlife, it was still low season, so things were not really hopping yet, but it seemed like in season there would be a lot of partying going on. However, not many hookers and you could get away from it if you wanted to.
Go here if you want to:
- Get SCUBA certified easy and cheap
- Party, but not be in a total madhouse
- Spend a moderate amount of money
- Have plenty of modern amenities, but not feel like you are in a city
Don't go here if you want:
- A really nice beach
- To really get away from it all
KRABI PROVENCE - RAILAY
Railay is a peninsula attached to the mainland, but inaccessible by road due to the massive cliffs. The only way to get there is long tail boat. The peninsula is about 500m across, and has beaches at each side. The west beach is pretty nice, with giant cliffs at each side. It is wide with hard and flat sand. The swimming is calm and good, but the water is very warm and there are quite a few long tail boats. The east beach is muddy and used mainly for long tail boat arrivals. There is also another beach you can walk to in 10 minutes that I did not make it out to, but Nisha rated as one of the better beaches she has ever been on. There are some hawkers who work the beach, but they mainly sell beer, so I find them quite useful.
All the area that can be developed has been, all the flat area between the beaches as well as the area up the hill that we stayed in was used for resorts. Up the hill in back was the only place for budget accommodation (besides the far beach around the corner that is, but I am talking about the main part of town), but where we stayed at the Highland Resort was very quiet and only about a 10 minute walk to the good beach. However, since there are no motor vehicles, the place has a pretty low key feel, even more so then Ko Tao. There are a fair number of bars and restaurants, but no bars really pump music, it is more of a Bob Marley kind of place.
The rock climbing is also a real attraction here, I went twice and loved it. Things are a little expensive however, you definitely pay island prices, not mainland.
All in all, this was my favorite beach.
Go here if you want to:
- See great scenery
- Go to first class beaches
- Rock climb
- Enjoy chill, but busy, nightlife
- Spend a moderate to high amount of money
Don't go here if yo want to:
- Get a hooker
- Listen to trance music
- Eat top flight international food
- Really get away from it all
Meeting the Bogey Man
I traveled to both Cambodia and Vietnam with reservations. My hesitation in going to Cambodia was because I had read about terrible bribery and scams at the border. we had been very well informed and therefore did not fall prey to any of these. I'll write my thoughts on staying in Cambodia later.
However, I had much irrational trepredation in coming to Vietnam. Irrational because I have heard many people say they had a great time here and know that it is a safe tourist destination. But this is Communist country. All the bogey men of my childhood were communist. They tortured you, imprisoned you for looking at them, started all the wars, and left you to die in the endless Steppe. These were all things I was told in elementary school and their sentiment has subconsciously lodged in my brain. Then top that with a large helping of resentment from the "American War" (that's what they call it here).
Of course, I have seen nothing of that here. I am stunned by how different this communist country is from my elementary-school imagination. Part of this could be due to the fact that they are more a socialist dictatorship rather than Soviet-style communists, but nevertheless. First, they love tourists. Of all the places we have been, the people in the small Mekong Delta towns of Chau Doc and Can Tho are overwhelmingly the most friendly. Nearly everyone smiles or says hi to us. Kids under 6 generally start yelling and screaming "helllllooooo" while gesticulating wildly. Just while walking down the street, a man offered for me to taste the soup he was making (it was yummy!).
Scary communist? Not in my observations of the last 48 hours. They take their kids to dinner. They go on vacation. They study engineering in college. I am at an unregulated internet cafe filled with kids and adults searching all corners of the net. We visited temples and have seen monks walking. There are no scary dudes in military vehicles in the streets. Though they do have a giant statue of Uncle Ho in the center of town and propaganda and calisthenics over the loud speaker awoke us at 5 in the morning.
The Anti-Ameriancism? I have not experienced any so far. They wear shorts with the US flag on them. The toilets are "American Standard" brand, thankfully. Most want any chance to practice their English and nearly everyone has relatives in Canada or the US.
I know this may be different when we travel to the north of the country. However, so far I am amazed and pleasantly surprised, though hopefully you knew this already.
However, I had much irrational trepredation in coming to Vietnam. Irrational because I have heard many people say they had a great time here and know that it is a safe tourist destination. But this is Communist country. All the bogey men of my childhood were communist. They tortured you, imprisoned you for looking at them, started all the wars, and left you to die in the endless Steppe. These were all things I was told in elementary school and their sentiment has subconsciously lodged in my brain. Then top that with a large helping of resentment from the "American War" (that's what they call it here).
Of course, I have seen nothing of that here. I am stunned by how different this communist country is from my elementary-school imagination. Part of this could be due to the fact that they are more a socialist dictatorship rather than Soviet-style communists, but nevertheless. First, they love tourists. Of all the places we have been, the people in the small Mekong Delta towns of Chau Doc and Can Tho are overwhelmingly the most friendly. Nearly everyone smiles or says hi to us. Kids under 6 generally start yelling and screaming "helllllooooo" while gesticulating wildly. Just while walking down the street, a man offered for me to taste the soup he was making (it was yummy!).
Scary communist? Not in my observations of the last 48 hours. They take their kids to dinner. They go on vacation. They study engineering in college. I am at an unregulated internet cafe filled with kids and adults searching all corners of the net. We visited temples and have seen monks walking. There are no scary dudes in military vehicles in the streets. Though they do have a giant statue of Uncle Ho in the center of town and propaganda and calisthenics over the loud speaker awoke us at 5 in the morning.
The Anti-Ameriancism? I have not experienced any so far. They wear shorts with the US flag on them. The toilets are "American Standard" brand, thankfully. Most want any chance to practice their English and nearly everyone has relatives in Canada or the US.
I know this may be different when we travel to the north of the country. However, so far I am amazed and pleasantly surprised, though hopefully you knew this already.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Beach Reading and More
While traveling through Asia, I have tried to rectify my deficient knowledge of world history by reading Asian history or historical fiction. No this is not beach reading, but I have never been the type to read about poor beautiful girls in New York trying to find a rich husband. Shogun gave me insight to Japan's rich feudal heritage. In India, the Lewis Fischer's biography of Gandhi and William Dalrymple's The Age of Kali taught me a great deal of Indian history. Thailand has few authors that write about anything except finding oneself, doing drugs, beaches, time in the infamous Bangkok jail, and marrying prostitutes. The real winners combine all 5 in one. Cheng and Eng, a fictional book based on the real Siamese twins, gave me a glimpse of 1800's life on the Mekong in Thailand. Ambitv Gosh's The Glass Palace concentrated more on colonial Burma, India, and Malaysia with a little of Thailand mixed in.
Volumes are written about places where terrible things have happened. I started my breif studies on Cambodian history with First They Killed My Father, by Loung Ung. I tore through this 250 page book in only 6 hours on the ferry from Koh Tao. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in a first hand account of what the Khmer Rouge did. In brief, the Khmer Rouge overtook Phenom Pehn in April 1975 and drove the inhabitants of this city and others into countryside work camps. In the following 4 years and 8 months, they enslaved their population in farming camps to fulfill some Utopian communist dream. They summarily executed those with higher education or loyal to the former government. They tortured and killed some 14,000 - 20,000 men, women, and children in a high school in Phenom Pehn now know as S-21 or Tuol Sleung.
Ian and I visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum yesterday. It is quite ironic that the tuk-tuk driver's touts to tourists usually start with "hello, want to see the killing fields and S-21?" The class rooms of this sunny high school were turned into between 1 - 30 cells each. Prisoners were kept shackled to the floor and tortured. Like the Nazis, the KR were fastidious about their record keeping. They took photos of each person alive, and many dead which are all shown in the museum. The people were taken to the killing fields, about 15km away, and bludgeoned before being left to die in a mass grave. In Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp which I visited in 1997, the solemn grounds have been able to mellow after 60 years. However, the barbed-wire wrapped Tuol Sleung still has violence in the air. There is a photo exhibit of men and women who worked (likely forced) in the prison. They are still living among the people of Cambodia, many of whom lost loved ones. There is still blood on many of the floors of the cells. The pictures of the main architects, one was Duch who will received a hearing on Monday in the war crimes tribunal, are scribbled with angry Khmer graffiti. There exist the actual tools of torture, including a water-boarding tank. It's nice to know that some of our presidential hopefuls endorse the torture techniques of the Khmer Rouge.
Finally the North Vietnamese, having recently defeated the Americans and South Vietnamese, invaded to end the Khmer Rouge reign in 1979 because the KR were massacring Vietnamese in the Mekong Delta. Sadly, the KH were responsible for the extermination of between 1.4 - 2.2 million Cambodians either directly or through starvation and tens of thousands of Vietnamese in South Vietnam only 4 years and 8 months of their reign.
Henry Kamm was a NYT correspondent in Cambodia from 1970 - the 1990s. He skillfully penned Cambodia: Report from a Stricken Land and answered many of the burning questions I had about the rise, reign, and fall of the Khmer Rouge.
I also highly recommend this book as a thoughtful history and analysis of this dark period in history. It's not exactly beach reading, but that's not what I'm here for.
Check back in a few days for links to pictures I took at Tuol Sleng.
- Nisha
Volumes are written about places where terrible things have happened. I started my breif studies on Cambodian history with First They Killed My Father, by Loung Ung. I tore through this 250 page book in only 6 hours on the ferry from Koh Tao. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in a first hand account of what the Khmer Rouge did. In brief, the Khmer Rouge overtook Phenom Pehn in April 1975 and drove the inhabitants of this city and others into countryside work camps. In the following 4 years and 8 months, they enslaved their population in farming camps to fulfill some Utopian communist dream. They summarily executed those with higher education or loyal to the former government. They tortured and killed some 14,000 - 20,000 men, women, and children in a high school in Phenom Pehn now know as S-21 or Tuol Sleung.
Ian and I visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum yesterday. It is quite ironic that the tuk-tuk driver's touts to tourists usually start with "hello, want to see the killing fields and S-21?" The class rooms of this sunny high school were turned into between 1 - 30 cells each. Prisoners were kept shackled to the floor and tortured. Like the Nazis, the KR were fastidious about their record keeping. They took photos of each person alive, and many dead which are all shown in the museum. The people were taken to the killing fields, about 15km away, and bludgeoned before being left to die in a mass grave. In Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp which I visited in 1997, the solemn grounds have been able to mellow after 60 years. However, the barbed-wire wrapped Tuol Sleung still has violence in the air. There is a photo exhibit of men and women who worked (likely forced) in the prison. They are still living among the people of Cambodia, many of whom lost loved ones. There is still blood on many of the floors of the cells. The pictures of the main architects, one was Duch who will received a hearing on Monday in the war crimes tribunal, are scribbled with angry Khmer graffiti. There exist the actual tools of torture, including a water-boarding tank. It's nice to know that some of our presidential hopefuls endorse the torture techniques of the Khmer Rouge.
Finally the North Vietnamese, having recently defeated the Americans and South Vietnamese, invaded to end the Khmer Rouge reign in 1979 because the KR were massacring Vietnamese in the Mekong Delta. Sadly, the KH were responsible for the extermination of between 1.4 - 2.2 million Cambodians either directly or through starvation and tens of thousands of Vietnamese in South Vietnam only 4 years and 8 months of their reign.
Henry Kamm was a NYT correspondent in Cambodia from 1970 - the 1990s. He skillfully penned Cambodia: Report from a Stricken Land and answered many of the burning questions I had about the rise, reign, and fall of the Khmer Rouge.
I also highly recommend this book as a thoughtful history and analysis of this dark period in history. It's not exactly beach reading, but that's not what I'm here for.
Check back in a few days for links to pictures I took at Tuol Sleng.
- Nisha
Government Matters
In the US these days, most talk about government or politics focuses on the high level philosophical stuff, Foreign Policy, Abortion, Church and State, etc. Not to say that this not impotent stuff, but this trip has highlighted for me that there is another dimension to government that is rarely talked about, overall competence.
By overall competence I mean the ability of the government to build roads, run schools, keep basic law and order. Basically its ability to provide a stable environment for people to live and work. As I have seen on this trip, the ability of governments to do these things is not necessarily related to how they are selected or what high level positions they believe in. At the highest level we have been in countries that range from stable, multi-party democracies like Japan and India, to Vietnam and Thailand, which are both currently run by unelected governments. All are basically capitalist countries, with somewhat of a socialist bent (Vietnam is officially communist, but that is not very true in practice).
In terms of overall competence I would have to obviously rank Japan as first. The infrastructure is top notch all over the country, the trains are amazing and crime is non-existent. Thailand I would also give high marks to, because it does a lot for how much money it has. Most things there seem to run at more or less a US level of quality, but I assume that they spend a lot less money to get there. India and Vietnam are similar in a lot of ways, because things seem to run OK, but you still run into some substandard roads and bad trash collection. Also, while some people in these two countries are doing very well, others are left behind in substantial poverty. Cambodia's one-party democratic government is basically a failed state. No one has any confidence in the government to do anything, and almost every road and school in the country has a sign out front thanking the country or NGO that built it for them, usually Japan.
The interesting thing about all these countries, as well as the US, is that a good number of people in all of them think the government is run by a bunch of crooks. Most of the time these thoughts are backed up by evidence. The accusations very from the money just disappearing, like in Cambodia, to the usual shady government contract deals that exist pretty much everywhere there are politicians with money to spend. Pork barrel stuff also shows up pretty much everywhere, like Shinkansens (bullet trains) to nowhere in Japan. However, even if crooks run the show everywhere, their output quality varies immensely.
The aggravating thing about this is that although the competence of government matters so much, I am not sure how one controls it. Why should India and Vietnam have similar public services despite the fact that one government is elected, and the other is authoritarian? As a voter in the US it is annoying that this never even really comes up as an issue. We know politicians positions on almost every philosophical issue, but not if they can build a decent airport.
My last thought is as to how the US fits within the ranking of countries above. Overall our government is fairly competent at basic service. We have very good roads, there are a reasonable number of cops and garbage does not stack up in the streets. However, we also pay a lot of money to achieve this decent level of service. I think our biggest problem is that our expectations for the final product of the things our government builds is so low. I am sure in Japan, Japan Railways (JR) is a giant pit of patronage and wasted money. I am sure there were all sorts of shady dealing with building the new airport in Bangkok. But, at least in these places they get an incredible train system and a really nice looking new airport. The most upsetting thing is that we get ripped off, as every country does, but often do not even get a world class product.
I guess my conclusion is that Americans should raise their expectations of government and not buy that things cannot be done, or cannot be done well. If the semi-authoritarian government in Thailand can build a nice new subway line, why can't we do so in New York or Boston? We might get ripped off, but it is better to at least get something for your money then nothing at all.
By overall competence I mean the ability of the government to build roads, run schools, keep basic law and order. Basically its ability to provide a stable environment for people to live and work. As I have seen on this trip, the ability of governments to do these things is not necessarily related to how they are selected or what high level positions they believe in. At the highest level we have been in countries that range from stable, multi-party democracies like Japan and India, to Vietnam and Thailand, which are both currently run by unelected governments. All are basically capitalist countries, with somewhat of a socialist bent (Vietnam is officially communist, but that is not very true in practice).
In terms of overall competence I would have to obviously rank Japan as first. The infrastructure is top notch all over the country, the trains are amazing and crime is non-existent. Thailand I would also give high marks to, because it does a lot for how much money it has. Most things there seem to run at more or less a US level of quality, but I assume that they spend a lot less money to get there. India and Vietnam are similar in a lot of ways, because things seem to run OK, but you still run into some substandard roads and bad trash collection. Also, while some people in these two countries are doing very well, others are left behind in substantial poverty. Cambodia's one-party democratic government is basically a failed state. No one has any confidence in the government to do anything, and almost every road and school in the country has a sign out front thanking the country or NGO that built it for them, usually Japan.
The interesting thing about all these countries, as well as the US, is that a good number of people in all of them think the government is run by a bunch of crooks. Most of the time these thoughts are backed up by evidence. The accusations very from the money just disappearing, like in Cambodia, to the usual shady government contract deals that exist pretty much everywhere there are politicians with money to spend. Pork barrel stuff also shows up pretty much everywhere, like Shinkansens (bullet trains) to nowhere in Japan. However, even if crooks run the show everywhere, their output quality varies immensely.
The aggravating thing about this is that although the competence of government matters so much, I am not sure how one controls it. Why should India and Vietnam have similar public services despite the fact that one government is elected, and the other is authoritarian? As a voter in the US it is annoying that this never even really comes up as an issue. We know politicians positions on almost every philosophical issue, but not if they can build a decent airport.
My last thought is as to how the US fits within the ranking of countries above. Overall our government is fairly competent at basic service. We have very good roads, there are a reasonable number of cops and garbage does not stack up in the streets. However, we also pay a lot of money to achieve this decent level of service. I think our biggest problem is that our expectations for the final product of the things our government builds is so low. I am sure in Japan, Japan Railways (JR) is a giant pit of patronage and wasted money. I am sure there were all sorts of shady dealing with building the new airport in Bangkok. But, at least in these places they get an incredible train system and a really nice looking new airport. The most upsetting thing is that we get ripped off, as every country does, but often do not even get a world class product.
I guess my conclusion is that Americans should raise their expectations of government and not buy that things cannot be done, or cannot be done well. If the semi-authoritarian government in Thailand can build a nice new subway line, why can't we do so in New York or Boston? We might get ripped off, but it is better to at least get something for your money then nothing at all.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Thai food II
Here were a few of our favorite meals:
Steamed Sticky rice in Bamboo - Our guide in Chiang Dao brought us to this road side place where a woman makes steamed rice in bamboo. The rice, sugar, and coconut mixture is stuffed into a hollow bamboo segment capped with hay. It is BBQed over a wood fire until steamed. The outer husk is then hacked off, the rice left to cool, then it's ready to eat by peeling away the bamboo from the rice. Simply amazing.
Crispy Aromatic Duck - This was tasty take on Peking duck that we have many times in Chinatown. - Chopsticks, Koh Tao
Malee's Buffet - We stayed in Malee's Guesthouse in Chiang Dao, north of Chiang Mai. The first night we went to the renowned Europen-Thai fusion restaurant next door, which was fabulous. The next night we dined on Malee's buffet. She served my favorite Thai curry, Green curry with chicken, mashed squash with egg, a huge platter of fresh fruit, and many other dishes. It was like dining in someones home. Not to be missed - Malee's GuestHouse in Chiang Dao
Thai Iced Tea - I am self-proclaimed iced tea snob. Northern restaurants on good days make me laugh with their version of iced tea, on bad days make me scream with horror. Thailand is where I surprisingly found excellent iced tea. They brew it extra strong, stronger than even the South. They they pour it over crushed ice and finish it with condensed milk!
Family meal at the Highland Restaurant - The restaurant at our resort in Raliay was the best in the area. We had no idea what to expect with the "family meal." You know a meal is going to be great when it starts with "maybe you should move to a bigger table." Our came a hot charcoal cauldron with a grille on top, a bowl of broth, a platter of veggies and rice noodles, and a plate of beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, and squid. We were instructed to coat the top with butter and then grill each. The resulting soup made from the meat drippings was delicious.
- Highland Resort, East Railay
Coke Zero out of a Glass Bottle - For fellow Coke Zero lovers, no more needs said.
You may notice on this list the abscense of Thai dishes in served in the US. They were there and we liked them. However, most good Thai resturants are very similar in the US. Therefore, it's just plain boring to write about Pad Thai.
- Nisha
Steamed Sticky rice in Bamboo - Our guide in Chiang Dao brought us to this road side place where a woman makes steamed rice in bamboo. The rice, sugar, and coconut mixture is stuffed into a hollow bamboo segment capped with hay. It is BBQed over a wood fire until steamed. The outer husk is then hacked off, the rice left to cool, then it's ready to eat by peeling away the bamboo from the rice. Simply amazing.
Crispy Aromatic Duck - This was tasty take on Peking duck that we have many times in Chinatown. - Chopsticks, Koh Tao
Malee's Buffet - We stayed in Malee's Guesthouse in Chiang Dao, north of Chiang Mai. The first night we went to the renowned Europen-Thai fusion restaurant next door, which was fabulous. The next night we dined on Malee's buffet. She served my favorite Thai curry, Green curry with chicken, mashed squash with egg, a huge platter of fresh fruit, and many other dishes. It was like dining in someones home. Not to be missed - Malee's GuestHouse in Chiang Dao
Thai Iced Tea - I am self-proclaimed iced tea snob. Northern restaurants on good days make me laugh with their version of iced tea, on bad days make me scream with horror. Thailand is where I surprisingly found excellent iced tea. They brew it extra strong, stronger than even the South. They they pour it over crushed ice and finish it with condensed milk!
Family meal at the Highland Restaurant - The restaurant at our resort in Raliay was the best in the area. We had no idea what to expect with the "family meal." You know a meal is going to be great when it starts with "maybe you should move to a bigger table." Our came a hot charcoal cauldron with a grille on top, a bowl of broth, a platter of veggies and rice noodles, and a plate of beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, and squid. We were instructed to coat the top with butter and then grill each. The resulting soup made from the meat drippings was delicious.
- Highland Resort, East Railay
Coke Zero out of a Glass Bottle - For fellow Coke Zero lovers, no more needs said.
You may notice on this list the abscense of Thai dishes in served in the US. They were there and we liked them. However, most good Thai resturants are very similar in the US. Therefore, it's just plain boring to write about Pad Thai.
- Nisha
Friday, November 30, 2007
Just Another Day in Bangkok
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!!!
- 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!!!
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.
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