Get on the bus!

The last few weeks I’ve been wondering if it was possible to take public transportation the places I was headed. My motivations were a mix of things: eco-friendliness, gas prices and a desire to explore. Mind you I think high gas prices may just save the country and the planet in lots of ways but that’s a subject for a different time. Several weeks ago I started looking to see if there was a public transit alternative available to the places I was going. It started with trying to find if there was a public transit option to get between my two “homes” in Idyllwild and Long Beach. As I expected before beginning my research public transit doesn’t reach Idyllwild… not even close. So I looked deeper wondering if I drove down the mountain to Riverside could I there pick up a Metro-link train and get to Long Beach. I discovered, again as expected, that if I drove about 45 minutes to Riverside it was indeed possible to catch a Metro-link train there from which I would then need to travel Union Station in LA where I could transfer to the Metro. Metro-link would take about 1:30 to get to Union Station. A short ride on the Metro Red Line followed by a ride on the Metro Blue Line would then get me to the Long Beach Transit Mall. Metro time, a little over an hour. From the LB transmit mall I would then take a short 3 mile bus ride would in fact reach home in Long Beach. About 15 minutes on the bus.. Driving door to door would take me about 2:15. If I drove the 45 minutes to the nearest train station it would then take me an addition 2:45 to get long beach. Or a total trip time of 3:30 hours door to door assuming I wouldn’t have to wait between connections. Waiting between connections it would easily take over four hours. Mind you because the public transit system in Southern California is so fractured there is no one online search engine that can actually put this trip together. It required separately searching Metro-Link’s website, LA Metro’s website and LB Transit’s website… of course that was after I figured out which website to search, which for someone completely unfamiliar with Southern California’s public transit system took quiet a while as well. Someday maybe they’ll all get incorporated into Google Transit, which is amazing, but for now it’s a nightmare to figure out. I think in the end it took me longer to figure out how to make the trip than it would have to take it… which I decided not to do anyway.

A few days later I tried to figure out if I could take a bus from Long Beach to Aliso Viejo (South Orange County). If I was willing to walk a couple miles it was indeed possible and would only take me three hours to get where I could drive in 45 minutes… Fortunately this time, Orange County’s transit system is on Google Transit, so figuring it out is quick, but again it doesn’t make a very appealing way to get there. Especially since it would require a couple miles of walking even though there is a bus stop literally in front of Elena’s in Long Beach and on the corner of the public park I was trying to get too.

Over the last several weeks there were other futile explorations until I woke up today with an idea for a different approach. Instead of trying to figure out how to get to places via public transit that I needed or wanted to go, I decided to figure out where I could get to using the public transit system and then what I might want do there. So I walked out Elena’s front door and got on the bus which I knew before getting on would take me to the Long Beach Transit Mall, from which I was 99% sure I could get on the Metro Blue Line to LA. After 15 minutes of waiting for the bus, 15 minutes of riding the bus and maybe 5 minutes of waiting for the train I was on the Blue Line headed into Los Angeles. I wasn’t exactly where I was headed, but I figured that I could always just turn around and go home if I ended up somewhere lame… fortunately I didn’t.

Originally I planned on just trying to make it to union station and then walk around down town a bit, see what I found and then head home. However about 20 minutes into the ride on the Metro Blue Line a different destination came to me, Chinatown. The Blue Line made it to Metro Center, somewhere I may explore next time. After exiting the train however I looked at a map and determined that indeed if I transfered to the Metro Red Line I’d make it to Union Station as originally planned and if I then transfered to the Gold Line and traveled just one more stop would indeed reach Chinatown. I arrived in Chinatown a little over two hours after getting on the bus in Long Beach. Driving would have taken a little under an hour depending on traffic and not counting time it’d take to find parking. Which today, being a weekday, wouldn’t have been bad. All told the roundtrip cost me $6.90, and that is in part because I was lazy and not sure where I’d go so I bought a Metro day pass for $5.00 even though it might have been slightly cheaper buying individual tickets. The bus was $0.90 each way. All told I went to Chinatown and back, had some great food, practiced a little of my mandarin (mostly listening as I’m still shy about speaking it) and had a great adventure… all things I find lacking in my life back in the USA. For comparison spending on which of my cars I took driving there and back would have cost about $16 in gas and require about $3.50 for parking, so let’s call it $20.

I learned to things today, first to think of public transportation in Southern California from the standpoint of where one CAN go, rather than as a means to get somewhere specific, and second that blind adventure can be had in the USA with fun results.

 

2 YEARS!!!

Today is a very special day, aside from being St. Patricks Day, it is also the two year anniversary of my last day working in an office.

Two years ago leaving the perceived security of an office job I was excited and scared at the same time.   In spite of a deep belief that all I dreamed was possible and the support of friends and family there was still a profound fear deep inside that it could go all horribly wrong.   In the years leading up to it I still remember asking myself “What’s the worst case scenario?” and thinking I could end up broke and homeless under a bridge holding a cardboard sign.  Looking back it seems silly, but it took every bit of courage and a lot of support of friends and family to take what seemed like a monumental risk.   It was about into my tavels that that irrational fear finally truly disappeared.  There was a moment in Dharamshala, India when I suddenly realized not only was everything going exactly as I hoped, everything was going exactly as it should.

I’ll fill in some blanks later on the last two years…  I’ve seen a good bit of North America and I’ve traveled through half dozen Asia countries.   In those places I’ve worked as a professional photographer and taught english to Tibetan monks and orphans.  I’ve made contacts with people doing amazing humanitarian work for the UN and other NGO’s and I’ve made friends from ever corner of the world as well.  With those friends I’ve danced and partied in disco’s until sunrise, lounged in hammocks and yes even performed in a fire dancing show…  I have been living my dream life.

When I first arrived back in the United States a lot of people would ask “What was the best part of the trip?”.  I stuggled to have an answer for that question.   Was it ridding elephants in a parade the first weekend in Thailand? Was it performing in a fire dancing show to raise money for charity?  Was it teaching Tibetan Monk English? Was it spending the weekend with Elena on houseboat on the Kerla backwaters in India? Was it nearly dying kaykaing in Nepal?  Was it nearly dying trekking in Nepal?  Was it playng with street kids in Laos?  Was it…  well  that’s the problem when friends would ask me that question I’d immediately think that there were a hundred “best parts” of the trip that I could tell them about.  I do have hundreds of amazing stories to share that’s for sure.  However, it took a long time for me to truly realize and appreciate what the best part of the trip was.  The best part is unquestionably the trip’s effect on me.  It is the change I feel inside.   A lasting feeling I have that for a first time in a long time that each day is better than the last.  A feeling that not only is anything possible, but anything is atainable.

Life is good…  Life just keeps getting better…

Carpe Diem!

 

Pai

My couch surfing host’s driver gave me a ride to the bus station. I planned to catch one of the many daily buses to Pai. Unfortunately the faster and more comfortable minibus I hoped to catch was already full so I ended up waiting in the bus station for an hour and half for the next bus, a local bus. The two primary ways of getting to Pai are by minibus, faster and slightly more expensive, or by local bus, slower and slightly less expensive. Frankly the difference in cost wasn’t enough to sway me either way, nor the difference in comfort which is quiet relative on such a twisty road. Catching the earlier mini-buss was mostly just about getting there as soon as possible to start the search for somewhere to sleep. Like many popular backpacker destinations most guesthouses in Pai don’t take reservations. The guesthoueses just trust that as one guest leaves another is likely to show up looking for a room. At any given time half of the guesthouses will be full, but walking past a few door to door you’ll easily find one with space. The guesthouses know from experience that most people do not stay a predetermined amount of time and they don’t want to get into the position of having to tell someone to checkout because someone else is comming. Here in Pai many people stay for weeks… or even months. Talking to one GH operator they said the longest guest they’ve had was 8 months and counting. Most people staying that long though get out of the guesthouses and just rent an actually house. Anyway I ended up on the local bus.

I like local buses they always have the most character. Having the most character is really a euphemism for being least comfortable and having the greatest number of things falling off of them. Seriously though I always like the people better on the local bus, it’s typically a mix of locals and travelers, unlike the minibuses which tend to be 100% foreigners. Well, let me clarify and say I like the local buses for day trips, over-night trips become a different story all together although in that case I’d really prefer a trains and then VIP (sleeper) bus…. I digress… On this local bus I met some fun local guys who very much wanted me to go have a beer or twenty with them as soon as we got to Pai. I kept telling them I had to find somewhere to sleep first and that after finding a room I’d be happy to join them in there debaucery, but they didn’t want to wait… Although really there was no waiting really involved since they were already drinking on the bus.

I was actually a bit surprised by the two local guys I befriended on the bus, namely because they looked typical local for the area yet on the bus ride one whipped out a iBook and started playing music from it for his friend. I took the opportunity to ship out one of my cameras memory card and ask for some Thai music which he was very happy to do. Thai music is a interesting mix… I’ve never been good at describing music, but they listen to the standard international popular fair (from Christina Aguilera to Rappers I’ve never heard off) as well as a Thai version of that sort of music… most of the Thai music tends to be swoony love songs. Talking to him more I learned he works in marketing and graphic design, but I didn’t get much more than that. It left me wondering what marketing and graphic design looked like in Northern Thailand.

On arrival in Pai I started to my search for a bed. I’d gotten to town fairly late in the day and it took longer than I expected to find a room. It didn’t occur to me until later but I got into town on the first day of a big Thai holiday weekend… hence the local Thai’s on the bus coming home from city jobs for the weekend. Eventually the nice people at Good Life, a restaurant I would come to know and love, helped me find a bed in a dorm room a few doors down from them. It’s pretty typical that when one guest house is full they’ll point you towards their friends guest house that has space, which make the searching much easier. The dorm room was good enough for the night to set my bag down and allow me to search unencumbered the next day for something better. Now I could go back to good life for a well earned beer and dinner.

Good Life has a great setup. They only have a handful of rooms, maybe even just a handful that is missing a few fingers. Their restaurant is small and cozy, highlighted by two large community tables, a long bar with swings instead of chairs and another community table surrounded by floor cushions for seating. It serves a pretty simple menu, a little Thai food, a little western food, and lots of beverage options especially in the Tea, Coffee and fresh fruit shake/juice section. It was swinging on a chair there that I met two women, Lucky and Sarah. They helped educate me on the layout of Pai and what was going on around Pai. On there advise I promised to check out the bungalows just outside town on my planned search the next day.

In the morning I had breakfast again at good life, again bumping into Sarah who was there for her morning coffee served in a French press. Then before it got to warm I took my walk to explore the town in better detail by daylight. It doesn’t even take an hour to walk every street in Pai and having not found anything I loved, I started the walk out of town over the river. Over the river there are dozens of bamboo bungalow operations, some look like bamboo versions of tract homes back home. I walked further and finally found a wonderful bamboo bungalow at a place called Eden Garden. It is next to the more expensive an posh Sun Hut. It is kind of a miniaturized version of Sun Hut. Where Sun Hut has 5 hammocks around a large garden to relax in, Eden has 2 around a very small garden. Where Sun Hut has a full restaurant/cafe, Eden has a few snacks available if you can find someone to sell them to you. For half the price and the ability to walk next door I was quiet happy with Eden Garden. So happy in fact that my two or three days planned in Pai quickly turned into a week…

So these are just a couple of random photos from that I took the first few days in Pai… I do just love funny signs. It constantly amazes me in places like this where there are endless numbers of fluent and native English speakers that no one every seems to bother to ask one of them to proof read a sign or a menu… The Thai’s certainly do care about keeping you safe.

 

Pack List

In real time, I’m about to leave Thailand… on Feb. 27th, but I’ve backdated this post so when I publish the next month worth of blogs this doesn’t continue to show up as the most recent. Yes I’m still a month behind on the blog… Sue me and you can try to take everything I have. At least everything I have with me which you’re about to learn exactly what that is. I’m suspecting learning this will dissuade you from suing me.

First a little tangent… A strange thing happened just after I landed in Bangkok, I checked me email and found a message from Robin. Robin is a former roommate of mine whom I pretty much haven’t heard from since she moved out a several years ago. The message was to say she had finally made her dream of moving to New Zealand come true. Go Robin! Then about two weeks later I get another unexpected email from Amy, a girl friend from about 10 years ago that I recently got back in touch with. She emailed to announce she was up and moving to China! Amy started a blog and the first few entries documented her physically moving to Lahasa, Tibet. She also started a blog and a few days ago in one of the first few entries she made a list of everything she brought with her. It got me thinking that it’s about time I make a list of everything I have with me.

Like nearly everyone, I get criticized for having too much stuff with me; however, I must say that I pale in comparison to her. It’s different for everyone; she’s moving to one location, she only has to move her stuff once. I move around weekly, sometimes daily, I can’t afford quite so much stuff, and I am traveling in vastly different climates over the next year. As such there are a few things that I use infrequently but still need to carry. Anyway, here it is, my worldly possessions for traveling the world (or at least this part of it). If there is an asterisk next to it that means it’s something I bought it or had it shupped to me in route.

I’ll preface it by saying I get criticized for having too much stuff, but that I pale in comparison to her. Say that is just part of an game all travelers play called “Your bag is bigger/heavier than my bag.”. In truth it’s different for everyone because everyone’s travel and needs are different. She’s moving to once, to one location that she can and needs to make a little comfortable. I move around weekly, sometimes daily, so I can’t afford quite so much creature comfort type stuff but need different practical things. I am traveling in different climates over the next year and as such there are a few things that I use infrequently but still need to haul around, big heavy hiking boots for example. Someone only traveling in the south of Thailand where even at night the temperature never drops below 25′C can obviously get away with a lot less weight. Someone with out the need or desire to have a nice camera and laptop with them can also get away with far less weight. On the other side of the spectrum some of the fire dancers I’ve been hanging out with that carry props and costumes for street performances that make my pack seem incredibly light weight. So here it is, my worldly possessions for traveling the world (or at least this particular part of it). For fun I put asterisks around things that I picked up along the way to differentiate from things I brought from the US. In hind sight I would have brought less clothes and bought more clothes here. You’ll also notice a few of the things listed as unused, many of which I am about to leave behind having realized the futility of carrying them. Some however I would have brought anyway because I still know I’ll need them later like when I get to somewhere like Tibet to visit Amy in June or July.

Gregory Palisade Pack
Clothes	Packed in 2 Eagle Creek “Fold-its”, 1 large cube, 1 small cube and one cube for socks
	Vasque Full Leather Boots	Worn maybe 5 times, mostly on Treks
	North Face Gortex XCR Rain Jacket	Un-used
	2 Pairs White Cotton Socks	Un-used
	3 Pairs Wool Socks	1 Pair used on Trek, other pairs un-used
	1 Pair Black Nylon Socks *	Given to me in Bangkok by the Banyan Tree hotel, which require you to wear shoes into the swanky roof top bar, they loaned me shoes
	Blue Old Navy Fleece Pullover	Used a LOT, in the north and Laos
	Green/Grey Plaid North Face Short-Sleeved Button down Shirt	Worn maybe 5 times
	4 Pairs Cotton Boxers	Worn frequently but I don’t need 4 pairs
	3 Pairs Poly/Nylon Boxer Briefs	Worn more frequently I wish I had more
	Red Prana Woven Cotton T-Shirt	Worn frequently
	Blue Prana Woven Cotton T-Shirt	Worn frequently
	Blue Life is Good Cotton T-Shirt	Worn somewhat frequently
	Red North Face TekWare T-Shirt	Worn frequently
	Green Gramichi Quick Dry Nylon Pants	Worn frequently
	Off-White Hemp/Cotton Karate Pants	Worn frequently
	Grey Nylon North Face Shorts	Worn frequently
	Beige Nylon Mountain Hardware Shorts	Worn very frequently
	Beige Nylon North Face Pants	Maybe worn once
	Blue/Grey Long Sleeved Prana Shirt	Worn frequently
	Bathing Suit	Worn Daily in the south
	Red Quicksilver Rayon/Polyester Short-sleeved Button down shirt	Worn once
	Grey Heavy North Face Pants	Used frequently in the North and Laos
	Blue Nylon Hat	Lost the first week
	Chacos (Teva like sandals but better)	Usually on my feet
	*Grey Long Sleeved Heavy North Face TekWare Shirt*	Shipped from home, picked up last week un-used
	*Yellow North Face TekWare T-Shirt*	Shipped from home, picked up last week worn twice already
	*Blue Thai Fisherman Pants*	Bought in Koh Phangan, used mostly when spinning fire
	*Purple/Green Scarf*	Bought in Mae Sai from a Long Neck Karen Woman – Used frequently in the north and Laos
	*Blue/Orange Sarong*	Bought in Koh Phangan, used infrequently as blanket and yoga mat
	*Camouflaged Hat*	Bought in Pai prior to Trek, used on trek and maybe a few more times
	*Cheap Flip Flops *	Used a LOT, easier on/off than Chacos
Non-Clothes
	Black Diamond Bullet A Very Small Back Pack	Used almost daily until I got my NEW shoulder bag
	Black Pillowcase	Un-used
	Waterproof Stuff Sack	Un-used
	Sink Drain Plug	used 4-5 times
	8 individual sized packets Woolite	Originally 10, 2 used
	Brunton Compass	Un-used
	Small Binoculars	Used once in Kao Yai National Park
	Tetris Keychain Game	Un-used, I had this in Europe 8 years ago
	Spool of Thread and needle	Un-used
	Spyderco Knife	Used briefly and now broken
	Sailing Gloves	used a few times riding motor bikes, planning on using them kayaking
	Camelback	un-used
	Silk Sleep Sack	Used about 50% of the time
	THE Hotel Laundry Bag	Stolen at Chris and May’s Wedding Used Regularly
	Quick Dry Pack Towel	Used Infrequently
	Thin Nylon Duffle Bag	I put my big pack inside it when I fly – Used 3 times so far
	Camera Tripod	Used very infrequently, but after the fire photo session totally worth every gram
	*Incence*	Used occasionally to chase off mosquitos
	*Santa ??? – Incense wood from South America*	Gift from Bryan, awesome, chases off mosquitos and smells great
	*Cotton Hammock *	Bought in Koh Phangan and used every day there, used occasionally since then
	*Purple Shoulder Bag *	Bought in Luang Prabang, Laos and used it for one week until my heavy camera blew out the zippers, now used to house my stinky fire poi
	*Monkey Fist Fire Poi*	Bought from a friend in Koh Phangan, stored in above mentioned falling apart purple bag
	*Travel Speakers*	Bought in Koh Phangan (finally) used frequently since purchase
	*Headphone Extension cable for above speakers*	Bought in Bangkok shortly after realizing the super short cable included with the speakers was a nuisance
	*Tennis Ball Poi and Tennis Ball Metor*	Used occasionally
Toiletry Bag	Small Eagle Creek Toiletry Bag	Used Daily
	Travel Alarm Clock	Used frequently
	2 Toothbrushes	Used Daily (it’s cheap insurance in case I lose one)
	*Small Scissors*	Bought somewhere to trim my facial hair
	Big Pick Style Comb	Used infrequently
	Small Travel Mirror	Used occasionally
	Nail Clippers	Used frequently
	Sowing Kit from THE Hotel	Used once
	*Actifed – ie. Sudafed*	Bought in Luang Prabang when I had some serious sinus congestion
	*Paracetamol – ie. Tylenol*	Bought in Luang Prabang when I had some serious sinus congestion
	Big Tube of Colgate Toothpaste	Almost gone and hoping it’ll be gone soon so I can but a small tube
	Pumice Stone	Used more frequently than I would have expected
	*Travel Packets of Tissue*	For toilets without toilet paper. Bought a 6 pack in Pai, just ran out and bought another 6 pack in Khao Lak
	Tea Tree Oil	Used occasionally – mostly on feet
	*Salt Crystal Deodorant*	Bought in Pai, will dump soon in favor of a cool little prepackaged replacement
	*Salt Crystal Deodorant in case*	Bought in Chiang Mai (2nd Visit)
	*50mL bottle Pantene*	Bought in Pai before finding cool natural shampoo that I just lost…
	*All Natural Shampoo*	Bought in Pai, lost in Bangkok
	Ear Plugs	Used twice on trains
	Neosporin	Used infrequently
	*Vicks Camphor/Menthol/Eucalyptus*	Used during sinus congestion
	*Peppermint Oil*	Probably not really essential oil, bought in Chiang Mai (2nd Visit)
	*Lighter*	I saw no reason to bring one… but know I have 3 in different places. For Incense, Candles, Fire Poi, whatever
	*Lighter #2 w/ LED light*	I have two with cool little LED lights built in for finding your way in the dark one of which is here in my toiletry bag waiting for the other to be lost or stolen
	Hair Gel	Used infrequently
	Condom	Just one and it’s still unused
	Zilactin	Unused – Topical medicine for Canker Sores which I get from time to time. I think I get them when I’m stressed out… funny I haven’t had need for it while traveling
	*Travel Soap*	Comes and goes, used occasionally
	Razor	Used every few days
	Razor Blades	2 lasted me two months, I just bought 5 more today
	Floss	Unused – I never use floss I don’t know why I brought it…
	*Q-tips / Cotton Buds *	Just bought unused
Books and Things
	Lonely Planet Thailand	Used occasionally
	Lonely Planet India	Left in Chiang Mai my second week and just picked back up last week
	Book – Kite Runner	Excellent book, thank you Patty Read on the train from Ayuthya to Chiang Mai, dropped in Chiang Mai
	Book – Sailing Promise	Finally read in Koh Phangan, dropped on 2nd visit to Chiang Mai
	Book – Bhagava Gita	Unread – Dropped in Surin the first week, just to big and heavy to keep carrying
	*Lonely Planet Thai for Travelers*	A good Thai phrase book, bought in Chaing Mai (1st visit) used daily
	*Thai 101*	A tiny but horrible Thai phrase book bought 2nd day, dropped in Chaing Mai (2nd Visit)
	*Book – Are you Afraid of the Dark*	A horrible novel, bought because there was nothing else before the 2nd train ride to Chaing Mai DUMPED in Chaing Mai
	*Book – The Tao of Pooh*	Given to me in Bangkok by Andrea, return a few days later in Pai
	*Book – Lost in Transmission*	A good novel, bought in Veng Vien, Laos, dropped in Chaing Mai (2nd Visit)
	*Book – The Corporation*	Picked up in Chaing Mai (2nd Visit), finished today, but I think I’ll carry it India
	*Book – Kitchen Confidential*	Bought in Chaing Mai (2nd Visit), not started yet

Thats about it for my “big” pack, books I’m reading make it temporarily into my “small” pack or my day bag. I think I’m missing a book or two that I read quickly and discarded. I think I finished Bill Bryson’s “Lost Continent” here… I think… It’s late and I can’t think clearly. Oh, and my journal I carry most of the time in whatever pack/day bag I’m carrying see way down at the bottom. Now for my “small pack”, which is actually quiet large since it’s my camera/laptop/etc.. bag

Lowe-Pro CompuRover (Smaller Pack)		This pack is designed to carry a laptop and camera which I wear on the front when carrying my big pack on my back, it is not my day pack. It’s too big to be used as a day pack unfortunately
	10-20 Blank DVDs	I burn photos to these to send home, in theory
	*2 CDs of Software (Anti-Virus and Video Editing)*	Bought in Bangkok
	Camera (Nikon D80, 18-200 VR Lens, UV Filter)	Used almost daily I do get tired of carrying all 2kg of it though
	Circular Polarizing Filter for Camera	Used frequently – Thank you Hansi and Jennifer
	Camera Bag (just a case basically)	Used almost daily, used inside my day bag
	Camera Flash	Used occasionally
	LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer	Used once, not a big fan
	Camera Lens Cleaning Kit	Used infrequently, I think I use it more on other peoples camera (which have never been cleaned) than on mine
	Camera Memory Cards 1-2GB and 1-1GB	Used frequently
	Lens Pen	Used for regular lens cleaning
	Camera Battery Charger	Used about weekly
	Rechargable battery charger (flash uses AA’s, speakers use AAA)	Used occasionally – It’s nice not to be throwing away alkaline batteries
	Ipod/Sync Cable	Used infrequently – In the room I’m usually listen to music directly from the laptop
	Sony in-ear headphones for Ipod and Laptop	Used somewhat frequently
	Cables for hooking Ipod to stereo	unused (most stereos already have cables waiting for an Ipod to be plugged in)
	Kennisiton Universal Charger	Used frequently until it died in Laos, they sent a new brick to Elena which she is bringing me in India
	Adaptors for above to charge Laptop/Cell Phone/Ipod
	Acer 5672 WLMi Laptop	Used almost daily
	Power Cord for Acer Laptop	bought in Bangkok shortly after uninversal power adaptor died
	USB Hard Drive 120GB	Used very frequently
	Motorolla Razr V3 Cell Phone	Lost in Chaing Mai
	Charger for RAZR V3	Used until phone lost, not sure why I still carry it
	*Charger for Nokia 1110i*	Came with replacement phone bought in Chaing Mai
	Pen Sized Mag Light	un-used
	Colman Headlamp	used frequently during power outages and where there are no street lights
	Whistle	un-used
	*Plastic Folder*	For important papers (Insurance, Passport Copys, etc) bought in Bangkok
	*Plastic Folder*	For less important papers (travel articles, notes, letters, postcasrds) bought in Bangkok
	Heavy Paper Folder	Destroyed a few weeks ago
	Pad of Engineering/Graph Paper	Just in case I want to sketch something
	Manila Envelopes	For sorting and mailing
	Sunglasses	Used occasionally, surprsingly less then I would have thought
	*Bug Spray*	Used occasionally when needed – on second bottle both bought in Thailand
	*Sun Screen*	un-used
	Cliff Bar	Just in case… unused
	First Aid Kit – Tiny, literally like 10 band-aids and a piece of gauze	Unused
	3″ Square Post-it notes	Used frequently – notes for friends and bookmarks in LP
	*Duck Tape*	Used frequently – mostly for blisters on feet on second tiny roll
	Flickr Photo Cards	Used frequently
	Extra USB cable	used a few times
	*Naruda Poem from Elena*	Picked up with stuff in Chaing Mai, read several times
	Travel Wallet w/ Passport some extra cash and a credit card	Carried on body when moving, left in room when stationary
	Small lock and 3 keys	Used a few times to lock luggage, used once to lock door
	Voice Recorder	Unused
	Check Book w/ stash of extra cash and a credit card	Unused
	Leathman Juice Pro	Used frequently, espeically to make/repair poi, also used as knife
	Keychain compass and LED light clipped to pack strap	Used frequently I love this little thing, shame the LED is dying
	Tiny screwdriver for taking apart laptops/electronics/etc…	Hey it was unused, but I just used to to fix the LED on the keychain Compass/LED
Day Bag		Usually my shoulder bag, use to be my Bullet Backpack
	*Shoulder Bag*	Bought in Bangkok, modified to be strong in Pai, with an inside pocket too… I love this one and prefer it to a back pack
	Journal	Used frequently or writing and storing important papers
	*Nokia 1110i Cell Phone*	Bought in Chaing Mai
	*Sock Poi*	My first set of Poi Picked up in Pai, still my favorite, with me everywhere
Wallet		Almost always in my pocket
	Cash	Used Daily
	Credit Card	Unused
	ATM Card	Used frequently (weekly)
	CA Drivers License	unused
	Engeering License	unused
	Bussiness Card from Mom and Elena	unused
	Red Cross Card	unused
	AAA Card	unused
	Insurance Info	unused

Well, I think that’s it… every last little piece… I weighed everything flying from Chiang Mai to Phuket. Big Pack=23kg, Small Pack=12kg, Shoulder Bag 2kg, all total 37kg. Multiply by 2.2 to get to pounds.

 

Chiang Mai Continues

Fortunately for the duration of my stay in Chiang Mai there was space available with my couch surfing host so I never needed to move.

On Friday (Dec. 1st) several of us (the German couch surfer and three of the women from Bangkok) headed to Wat Doi Sutep. My unbelievably gracious couch surfing host had her personal driver take us on the 30 minute drive up the windy hill to the wat above Chiang Mai. Normally the drive is made in the back of a Songtaew and is prone to making people feel ill. The Wat is absolutely beautiful and from it’s perch high on a hill above Chiang Mai you do get a nice view of the city, which is a big part of why it is completely overrun with tourists. This is one of the ways I’ve considered doing a Vippanasa meditation retreat at. The full retreat they suggest is 21 days, but you can go or shorter periods and I’m thinking maybe 3-5 days. Somewhat removed from the crowds there is a meditation center that seems to isolate the meditators from the chaos, but I’m not as sure about doing it here any more. Regardless it was worth the trip up the hill just to see the beauty of this wat.

On Saturday (Dec. 2nd) I spent the bulk of the day catching up on email, photos and blog. It really is nice being somewhere so comfy with free wireless to use to my hearts content. I’m thinking I should plan a day every week or two where I deliberately stay somewhere with free internet just so I can catch up on uploading photos and the blog.

Saturday night I headed out to the night market one last time, this time with Crystal and Myuko (two students studying in Singapore). Near the top of my list was to get one last inexpensive massage before leaving Chiang Mai. At this point I think I’m averaging more than one massage per day for the time I’ve been in Thailand. It’s just to inexpensive to not constantly indulge in. Usually it’s just a 30-60 minute foot massage, which includes legs and usually a few minutes on the shoulders and upper back. That usually runs 50-80 THB per half hour (US$1.50 to US$2.50). At Peak Plaza at the night market I found a wonderful little massage stand where I’ve been several times now, usually getting a 30 minute foot massage followed by 30-60 minutes of body massage. The quality of the massages vary, telling them how firm/soft you want helps, but if you find someone you really like you go back like I have been to this particular place.

After massages the three of us hung out for a drink and a game of Jenga at on of the many bars in peak plaza. Our waitress suggested couple interseting variations on the standard Jenga, which was nice, but she also kept coming over every few minutes to suggest which block we should remove next. Often she’d even start removing the block herself. Then quiet suddenly we were reminded of the unexpected and surreal experience Thailand can throw at you. The music aburptly changed and a half dozen drag queens marched out on to the stage in the middle of the plaza to put on an impressive cabaret show. The Jenga playing continued on for the next hour interspersed with drag show performances. The combination made for one of the most interesting series of photos I’ve ever downloaded from my camera. It went something like this:

If you enlarge the last photo of me standing with the drag queens you’ll notice the Jenga tower just poking it’s head up in the foreground…

Upon returning to the guesthouse our host treated us to another amazing meal. Do take note of the decoration of on the pumpkin bowl they made for the pumpkin soup. Everything I ate here was as delicious as it was beautiful.

With this last wonderful, but bizarre experience, my time in Chiang Mai had come to an end. I’d stayed much longer than planned, mostly because I met such wonderful people although the comfy lodging helped too. The couch surfing Russians had come and gone quickly, traveling on a very fast pace. Olaf, the German, had stayed around even longer than I and all but one of the vacationing students and volunteers had moved on as well. My time here was more entertaining than I’d ever expected, I could happily of stay here much longer and I’m sure interesting new characters would have shown up. However, there is still much more to see in Thailand and the interesting characters, local and farang (Thai for foreigner), are eveywhere.

Leaving Chiang Mai my plan was simple. I was to head around the Mae Hon Son loop, stopping in Pai for a few days as I headed around and tried to find somewhere to visit the hill tribes that weren’t super touristy. I still wavered some on the ethics of visiting the hill tribe villages and I wasn’t really interested in the super popular with backpackers hippie town of Pai, but friends of friends raved about it so it was worth a short look… Like so many things when traveling what one plans and expects often has no bearing on what one does and experiences.

 

Chiang Mai

While in Ayuthaya and not feeling that excited about it I thought maybe it’d be worth giving couch surfing a try again when I headed for Chiang Mai since it worked so well in Canada. Chiang Mai is a big city, second to Bangkok, and there are dozens of couch surfers registered there. I only contacted one couch surfer and got a response saying I was welcome. I picked this couch because it’s owner sounded cool, they had hosted several couch surfers before and spoke several languages which is always been something I admire. Little did I know that this would turn into what might be the most posh couch surfing experience ever. My host told me they’d try to be available to meet me at the train station, but if they couldn’t meet them then I could just meet them at a particular restaurant. I thought nothing strange of it and figured it was just because the taxis and tuk-tuks are used to finding restaurants and guesthouses. I assumed my host would then show me from the restaurant to their home and couch. When I arrived at the restaurant I was a bit confused, my host told me the restaurant was expecting me and she’d be along shortly. When I arrived a staff member greeted me and offered to take my bag. Only he started walking my bag towards the guest house attached to the restaurant and put it in a room. I was really confused and tried to explain that I wasn’t stay here, a very nice guesthouse well out of my price range, I was just meeting someone here. My host, who still hadn’t arrived, had told me just to sit down at the restaurant and have whatever I wanted she’d meet me there and take care of the bill. About an hour later things finally started to make sense when my host arrived and explained they owned the restaurant and guesthouse and that I was welcome there for free, both in the guesthouse and the restaurant. My couch wasn’t a couch; it was a gorgeous room in an old teak house. That’s all I can say about it and that might be too much. The host keeps what’s offered a secret until people show up, lest everyone request to stay here expecting more than a couch. The guesthouse hosts lots of paying customers as well, basically just filling up a few of the extra rooms when available with couch surfers. I had only planned to stay a couple days while I searched for a nice guesthouse in Chiang Mai to stay at for a longer period of time. However, after hanging out and talking with my host and learning they had had CS guests stay as long as a month (which was over staying their welcome) I asked if it would be alright to stay a few more days… it turned into a week which I don’t feel bad about since I spent an entire day setting up their wireless internet to cover the entire property.

So I must admit here that as I write this, and try to write in a consistent tense, I’m really in Koh Pangan on January 19th.. lying in a hammock… in a bathing suit… watching the rain fall which is why I’m not out playing in the water… Anyway, my efforts of keeping “current” with the blog are failing as I’m a month behind. Sometimes I scribble down a little just to know what I want to write about if/when I find the time to come back to it, so it’s not like I’m about write a months worth of entries purely from memory, but this is bad… Since I’m really a month behind expect the next couple weeks to be brief as I try to catch up and I apologize if sometimes I switch tense as I write about the past and present it’s hard to keep straight when writing about a month ago and posting as if it was written a month ago…

Anyway back to Novemeber and Chiang Mai…

My first day in Chiang Mai (Nov 26th) I spent at the Sunday Market. The Sunday Market in Chaing Mai is huge and goes from around 10am until 10pm (I’ll check the exact hours some other time, but those are rough). I arrived just as some of the vendors were setting up and stayed until close wondering the through endless stalls of vendors, food sellers and massage stations. Showing up early was interesting because the vendors are all eager to make a sale to their first customer of the day. It’s one of the superstitions that is popular here, if you make a sale to the first customer it is a sign of a lucky day. Although sometimes I wonder if the vendors don’t just say that as a gimmick to imply they are giving you a better deal than they really are. The other odd superstition is that whenever they make a sale they’ll often take the newly received money and touch it to each items remaining to be sold. I assume transferring the luck from this new money into those items and being post sale it’s certainly something they believe not just a gimmick. My goal for the market was to pick up lots of wonderful things for my beloved back home. With the holidays coming up I figured this would be a good time to buy a bunch of stuff and ship it all home in one big batch. Buying stuff here and carrying it home with you is very cost effective, as I learned shipping it home isn’t so much so. Anyway, I spent the day shopping for Elena and found all sorts of wonderful things I’m sure she’ll love, if and when it ever actually arrives. I won’t detail what I sent here since I don’t want ot ruin the surprise of what she’s getting… I’m quite confident she’ll like it all though As a side note since I’m actually writing this now on January 22nd, the things I sent hoping they’d arrive by Christmas still haven’t arrived.

On Monday (Nov. 27th) I spent the day relaxing at the guest house, catching up on photo editing and my blog. It was amazing to have somewhere comfortable with free and fast internet access to relax all day. At some point during the morning I mentioned to my host that the WiFi signal in the rooms was week and they could get a repeater to strength the signal. My host responded that they had one, their partner hadn’t been around to install it yet… so I offered my services and spent the next 4-5 hours installing a WiFi repeater, which would have been simple if it could be installed the way the instructions said it could, with WEP encryption enabled. It turns out after a 2 hours online chat session with Linksys technical support that the documentation it wrong and they it needs to initially be setup with WEP disabled and then one can go about re-activating WEP on the network. Anyway, it was an ordeal, but I’m glad I could help my host out and to my own benefit it meant I now had reliable internet in my room as well as in the restaurant area, in fact everyone in the building now should have reliable in room WiFi. Considering what I was getting from my host it was the least I could do to return the generosity.

I think it was on Monday that my host also let me know the exciting news that another couch surfer would be showing up in a couple days so I might have someone to tour around with. While I really enjoyed my host and the staff I was missing having fellow travlers around to go see sights with. This guesthouse is much more upscale than a typical back packer place so the normal clientele is general much older and not really the sort actively meeting up with random fellow travelers. I did have several interesting chats with other guest in the restaurant which I was making my personal lounge, including a older German couple who were very excited about the concept of couch surfing and eager to host couch surfers back in Germany. Being a couch surfer and have free access to anything I want I was a bit of a special guest to the staff. It was interesting while at first they treated me solely as a respected guest they became more friendly and casual with me as I joked with them as they generously and patiently helped me learn Thai and I helped them improve there English.

On Tuesday (Nov. 28th) I spent the day walking the city and getting my bearings for navigating what is a really pleasant small city. I walked along the river, walked through the day and night markets, walked in and out of the touristy zone. As I wandered I took the time to visit a few wats but my concept of visiting wats is changing. Before I got to Thailand I viewed the wats (temples) as an important sight to see on my travels around Thailand. There are dozens of temples in ever town and typically a few of them are considered “important” and are tourist destinations. Now however I don’t see them as sights to see as destinations. I’m starting to rather see them as they were originally intended, as a nice place to drop in for a rest from the hustle and bustle outside when I happen to be walking by.

On Wednesday (Nov. 29th) my couch surfing host treated me and the morning staff for lunch “modern Thai style” at an MK Restaurant at Airport Plaza (A big shopping mall). MK restaurant is something like dim sum crossed with shabu shabu. You have a pot of boiling water on your table in which you cook dumplings, veggies, meat or whatever. It was good and we at a ton of food, I was doubly happy to have Thai speakers to help order. I was really starting to get spoiled on great food between eating at my host’s restaurant and now being treated to a meal out. I was starting to wonder if I could ever go back to the budget backpacker lifestyle. In the afternoon the other couch surfer showed up and was equally as stunned as I was upon arriving… it was good to know I wasn’t alone in my initial confusion.

On Thursday (Nov. 30th) the other couch surfer and I teamed up to go the Royal Flower Exhibition which is a huge flower show being put on in honor the king’s 60th year of ruling the kingdom of Thailand. It really is impressive how consistently loved the king is here. I spent a lot of time thinking about it. I fundamentally have trouble understanding even the concept of a king, but here over the last 60 years the king has been an amazingly stabilizing force through many coups and changes of government. Looking at the prosperity of Thailand relative to most of it’s neighbors (Cambodia, Laos, Burma and to an extent Vietnam) it has prospered tremendously more so. Further the king really only does good stuff here, donating money to royal projects that help rural communities, taking the noble stand on things, etc… Even if 60 years ago the kings accession to the through was controversial (read the history) there is little question that 60 years later Thailand is a phenomenally better place socially and economically than it’s neighboring countries. The flower show was huge and beautiful and amazing with the expectation of the one thing I expected to be… the lily pad exhibition. Some may remember my love affair with the Victoria Longwood Water Platters at Longwood gardens in Pennsylvania. Well, they have some of the exact same plants here, only they are miserable pathetic things on the bring of shriveling up and dying…. I really expected here in Thailand were lily pads naturally grow in water ponds along the side of the road they’d be even more spectacular… but no. With the expectation the flower show was quite impressive. It was amusing that one of the most popular exhibitions with Thai people was the cacti green house. Walking in I was struck by the warm dry air that contrasted with the cool humid air outside. The exhibits though reminded me of driving between California and Arizona and were about as exciting.

In addition to the couch surfer there were two groups of younger travelers staying at the guest house. Some on a short vacation from studying in Singapore (Crystal and Myuko) and some on a short vacation from volunteer work in Bangkok (Karina, Karena and Gail). Enjoying the good life of luxury couch surfing and good company I asked my host if I could stay a few more days and they were happy to oblige but warned space was filling up and they had a couch surfing couple from Russia arriving the next day as well so if I wanted to stay longer I needed to let them know or there might not be space for me. My host then went on to explain that they owned an empty apartment building and that if need be I could stay there, but they didn’t feel good about that because there wouldn’t be any daily maid service or food, but maybe the staff could bring me some food over on occasion…. yikes my host is really too generous for words… I’m in Chaing Mai heaven.

 

Ayuthaya

On the way to Ayuthaya I called a couple guest houses looking for somewhere to stay. My first choice told me to call back later because they thought they’d have a vacancy after someone checked out. Upon calling back I was pleased to be told they would have a room available.

When one arrives in Ayuthaya by train one has two choices. Take a ridiculously over-priced tuk-tuk from the train station the “long” way around to cross a bridge and then into the city, or to walk 20 meters, take a 3 Baht ferry across the moat, and then find cheap transport to wherever one wants to go. This is one of the few things I really do like about carrying a guide book, typically they point things like this out. I knowingly walked past the tuk-tuks and took the ferry across. Then rather than take cheap transport to my guest house decided I’d just walk there… This wasn’t the smartest thing. It wasn’t far, per se, but I was carrying my packs and it was hot… and it was further than I thought it was.

When I made it to my guest house, Baan Lotus, I was saddened to discover the person that was supposed to be checking out hadn’t and so they had no space available. The woman however was very apologetic and offered me a bottle of water and a car ride to a nearby guest house (more of a mini-hotel) that was the same price in her own car and that if I didn’t like it she’d drive me around until I found something I liked. The place she took me too was satisfactory, it was clean and nice, but didn’t have a guest house feel to it. I took it and figured at worst I could move somewhere the next day.

That evening I rented a bike and took a ride around Ayuthaya. Ayuthaya is smaller than I expected and I say all the Wats I wanted to see that afternoon. The top of the list was Wat Prha Mahathat, which is home to the often photographed Buddha head wrapped in strangler figs. I also went inside another Wat with a large Prang, but the rest of the Wats I just toured from the outside. In Ayuthaya it seems like there is a Wat on every corner, or at least one per city block. Unfortunately they’ve taken to charging foreigners 30THB to enter each one, which adds up quickly. That’s ok, many are beautiful from the outside, especially as night falls and some are lit up at night. The ride didn’t have the happiest of ending though… After riding through the big central park area, watching joggers and some locals playing football (soccer) I was on the other side of the city from my guest house when my rear bike rim bent to the point of not spinning any more. It’s been a bit out of true all day, but suddenly it got much worse and now it was firmly contacting the seat and chain stays. I tried to “bend” it back to usable… Unsuccessfully I was happy to see a tuk-tuk driver sitting nearby reading the paper.

The tuk-tuk’s in Ayuthaya a different than any I’ve seen elsewhere in Thailand. Each city has it’s own flavor of tuk-tuk in terms of design and size. These are the only ones I’ve seen however were instead of having a single seat where 2-4 people can sit facing forward, these have two benches facing each other like a Songtaew. This came in very handy however since I could easily load my defective bike into the back. The bike rental was 50THB, the tuk-tuk ride back to my guest house was 50THB. I’m sure I could have made a big deal about it… but I I don’t think I would have enjoyed it any more than the guest house operators. The guest house had another bike brought over from where ever this bike had come from and in about 15 minutes I was back on the streets to explore the evening market and get some food.

I wasn’t really thrilled with Ayuthaya. I thought I’d spend several days here, but I’d already seen what I wanted to see and didn’t like the heat after being in the cool of Khao Yai National Park the previous few days. I’d told the guest house I’d stay two nights (to start), but I was thinking about leaving the next day for Chiang Mai. For better or worse I couldn’t get a train ticket the next day to Chiang Mai, so I got one the following day.

I spent day two in Ayuthaya again riding my bike around, which is a really great way to see this city. On a whim I headed out of the city towards and elephant camp. Along the side of the road reaching over the fence I found an Australian woman, I think named Kate, feeding the elephants some bananas. We chatted for a while and traded advice on Ayuthaya. I shared that I was thinking about taking a little sunset boat tour around the city that afternoon and she mentioned a place she’d been the night before that had live folk music that was fun.

We rode back to the city together and shared lunch which is nice since you get to try twice as much food in one meal. Then she joined me on the boat ride around the city which turned out to be much better than I expected. I thought it was just a little tour around the moat, but it included stops at several of the temples on the far side of the moat. It was a really a nice way to see the temples that are not within the moat as well as see life along the waters edge. After the boat ride we grabbed some more food at the market before heading towards the tiny little bar she’d mentioned earlier.

She, like me, is traveling alone with a partner at home. Hers however was coming out to met her in a few weeks, whereas I have a bit longer to wait for Elena. It was nice to know I’m not totally alone in this and share some feelings about it…

The music was not by most standards good music, expect when she was singing, but it was a lot of fun. The Thai guy alone on stage played great guitar, but he wasn’t the best of signers. She would sign along so some songs with a fabulous voice and all of the four people in the place including the guy on stage encouraged her to get up on stage and sing. She obliged for a couple songs, but it seemed if he knew the melody she didn’t know the words and if she knew the words he didn’t know the melody. Regardless it was a lot of fun for everyone.

 

Khao Yai National Park

I still didn’t feel like I’d had enough of Surin, so a bit of searching and I got the idea to go to Khao Yai National Park. I through ti was time to see some jungle and wildlife. So from Surin I took a train west to Pak Chong. From Pak Chong I took a Songtaew about 30 minutes south to a guest house that also offered tours. All the guest houses around here seem to offered a “complete” stay. Trekking/Tours, food, etc… The rooms are also inexpensive for what you get leading me to believe they really make there money off the fact that once you’re there you are somewhat trapped. There is no where you can walk to to get market food or any easy way to get back to Pak Chong. Anyway, at least at Green Leaf which I was staying the food and treks are reasonably priced so it’s not a big deal, just you’re noticeably trapped.

I got into the Guesthouse mid-day which was perfect. They run their treks as a half-day followed by a full day. I had called earlier that morning to make sure they had room available, upon arrival though there seemed to be some confusion and no record I’d called. Regardless they found me a room and I set about getting settled, showered, and fed. The staff is all very nice here. For the treks it’s all young energetic guys who speak good to very good English and around the guest house the women are all attentive and friendly.

That afternoon we set out on the first part of the tour. First we took a swim in some natural pools. After the swim headed to some limestone caves where we saw what seemed like a lot of bats hanging around in the caves. I saw it seemed like a lot because nothing could compare to what came later. In the caves with what seemed like a lot of bats there were a dozen or more Buddha images which would often be used by mediating monks, although none were presently sitting in the caves. After the caves we headed out by truck across fields to where there was a view of “the bat cave”. The bat cave is a small hole high up on the side of a mountain. Around sunset millions of bats exit this cave. It literally takes a couple hours for all of the bats to stream out of the cave. We watched and photographed in awe for about an hour. On the way back to the guest house we stopped off to see the biggest geckos I’ve ever seen, about 12 inches long not including the tail. These monster geckos click like the little ones, only much much louder. It sounds like a person clapping their hands.

That evening the group that had been on the trek together all gathered for dinners and a few drinks. Most of us would be going again tomorrow on the full day trek. It was a nice group of Belgians, Germans and Danes.

On the second day we had two trucks (really nice Songtaews) worth of trekkers. Each truck had a driver and a wildlife spotter riding in the front seats and 8 trekkers riding on the benches on the back.

Our first stop was to see some birds (I think parrots) which made for a great photo against the dead white tree and the deep blue sky. We continued into the park where to stumbled across a red tipped razor snake crossing the road. The snake was about 2 meters long! After many photos of this gorgeous creature the guides moved the snake out of the dangerous road. We then headed into the jungle we’d just released the snake into because on of the guides spotted a hornbill. Hornbills are the birds with the giant beaks. I did get a couple pictures of them, but none were particularly good because they were so far away. I was carrying a small set of binoculars though that my mother (thank you) had given me several years ago so I got several good views of them. As the day went on I would be constantly amazed at how our guide could spot these birds. He was seeing them with his eyes a hundred meters away through jungle foliage. He’d point and we’d all raise binoculars or the spotting scope the guide brought to share and then I’d still barely be able to see the bird. Often with guided anything I question if I couldn’t have just wandered on my own and found these things, in this case there is no way I would have. I would have been lucky to have spotted one of the dozens of wild creatures we’d see that day. Rather than spend the time recounting the minute by minute wonders of the day I’ll try to be brief. Driving through the park we stopped and saw Macaks and Gibbons. Trekking through the jungle we saw dozens of kinds of birds, but only one more of the magnificent hornbills. I was quite excited as well to see a giant white squirrel, water monitor lizard and more. That afternoon we swam in the pool below the waterfall used in the movie “The Beach”. That evening we drove around the park in search of wild elephants which occasionally walk along the roads in the park and were treated to seeing a huge pack. 18-20 Elephants in total of all ages. The group the day before had been excited they’d seen one elephant. I thought I’d be over elephants after Surin, but it’s something different to see them in the wild and they are truly amazing.

That evening again was a pleasant little dinner party with the groups comparing days and reminding about what a great trip it had been.

It was so comfortable here I thought about staying around for another day or two, maybe even repeat the trek I’d just done, but they were already booked full which surprised them, but not me. So I slept in a little the next day before taking a free (guest house supplied) ride back to the train station and the train towards Auythaya.

 

Khao Prah Wihan

I wanted to spend a little more time in the southern part of Isan (Northeastern Thailand) and see more of the area before leaving. I didn’t want my entire knowledge of southern Isan to be Surin and the Elephant Round-up, as great as I think each is. So, I planned a day trip to a ruined temple just across the border in Cambodia. To get there from Surin I’d take a train a couple hours east to Si Saket, then a bus a couple hours south to Kantharalak then a motor bike taxi about 30 minutes to get to the Cambodian border. Then I’d walk across the boarder and enter the temple complex.

It was all planned out and for the most part went according to plan… I did however have a less than pleasant bus ride… About half way through my bowels started not feeling so well… I hadn’t had much stomach trouble since I got here, just a little and it’d never been a problem. Now however I had major gas pains and really would have liked some quality time on a nice western toilet. Unfortunately there isn’t much in between Si Saket and Kathrakalek. The bus stops are simple shade structures next to rice fields and that’s it. I started thinking about just jumping off the bus at the next stop and squatting in a rice field… then just hoping the next bus (in about an hour) would let me on. I had all sorts of crazy thoughts… all were fairly embarrassing. The cold sweets, the dry skin and goose bumps, the stabbing pains would come in waves. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore I’d get a few minutes of relative comfort… then it would start again. Somehow, and I don’t actually know “how” I did it, but made it to the bus station in Kathanralek. I quickly exit the bus and was glad to quickly find a rest room. I ran inside and had I not been in such dire need probably would have taken a moment to be horrified to be confronted with my first non-flushing squat toilet without a sprayer. You see, I don’t mind squat toilets, I don’t mind non-flushing toilets, I don’t mind toilets that have a sprayer (for washing your butt) but don’t have toilet paper… but this was just a nasty squat toilet, a large bucket of water and a small bucket to scoop water out of the big bucket… that’s it. I didn’t really have time to think about it, so I did my business and used the facilities exactly as a local would… and from now I will forever appreciate why in many countries (including Thailand) you don’t use your left hand for anything… anything else that is.

With business taken care of I set about finding a ride to Prah Wihan. It was too late in the day to get a Songtaew, so it was going to be a moto-taxi ride. He wanted 10 Baht per Kilometer, for a 36 km trip, or 360. Not bad for round trip actually. I bargained him down to 330, which seemed fair enough and off we went.

It’s not a cheap trip by Thailand standards, at least not for foreigners who in addition to the transport costs are charged an outrageously inflated fee to enter Thai National Parks. You see the only way to access the temple is by a road running through a Thai National Park. In one of the more atrocious cases of being legally ripped off, the fee to enter the Thai National park is now 400 Baht for foreigners, not outrageous by US standards, but considering Thai’s pay 20 or 40 Baht it’s a bit exploitive. Even more so in this case since 99% of the people entering the park are not doing so to see anything inside the Thai National Park, but rather just to reach Prah Wihan in Cambodia. Cambodia charges you 5 Baht to cross the border for the day (no visas needed). Then at the entry to Prah Wihan you’re charged 200 Baht to enter the complex. So Thailand is now charging double what Cambodia is charging to see Cambodia’s temple. It is bizarre that Cambodia charges 5 baht at the border then another 200 Baht after you’ve walked the 500 meters to the temple entrance.

One of the reasons for all this bizarrness is because of Prah Wihan’s history. The temple complex was long claimed by both Thailand and Cambodia. The world court finally awarded it to Cambodia, I forget exactly when but it was fairly recent. Considering there is literally no way to get a motorized vehicle (not even a off-road motorcycle) to it from the Cambodian side, it seems an odd out come, but what would I know. I do suppose with lots of whacking through jungle you might find a path from the plains below up the cliffs the temple sits on, but it’d be lots of whacking through jungle to get down there…

As one approaches the complex you are reminded by many… many… signs to stay on established paths and not to wander do to land mines. Ahhh… the wonders legacies of war. 40 years later and people and cows and dogs and whatever might wander into the jungle are still getting killed. The temple area has been cleared of land mines but there are many paths leading away from the temple towards the small villages setup around it that do have mine fields surrounding them.

As with most tourist attractions there are plenty of adults and kids hawking tourist stuff: water, beer, cigarettes, post cards, handicrafts, etc… Which is nice just in case you needed a beer and a smoke while you hiked around the temples steep steps.

Mid-way through the temple complex while exploring a sunken water reservoir just off the main tourist path, I caught a glimpse of a rainbow in the distance. A little girl who’d been following me as I strolled off the main path was standing nearby. I called her over to point towards the rainbow, but she just kept telling me that what I was looking at was “three countries, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia”. Which she had a postcard of that she wanted to sell me. I tried the Thai word for rainbow, but I’m not sure she ever quite understood. As I wandered further into the ruined temple complex she followed me and point out many of the sights. It was actually nice to have her as a guide since on my own I wouldn’t have noticed a few of a things she pointed out. However, I also felt a bit rushed since I wanted to just sit and enjoy while she was eagerly pointing me to the next thing to see. At the end of the complex is a cliff dropping at least 1500 feet to plains below. On the plains I could see several villages dotting the area, and I was really left wondering how anyone could get from there to where I was now standing. I sat on the edge of cliff meditating for a few minutes, while the young girl sat next to me shielding herself from the sun and probably wondering why I was just sitting in the hot sun… When I got up she lead me through a small opening to a ledge just below the edge of the cliff. Here there were prayer flags and hundreds of sticks stuck into every crack. The sticks are like prayers holding up the slowly crumbling temple and cliffs. At least that’s what I assume. Here she also offered to take a picture of me. I was a bit nervous about putting my big heavy camera in her hands and she was a bit confused why she couldn’t see me on the LCD screen (SLR cameras don’t work that way), but in the end she took a pretty darn good picture of me. She showed me one last thing, a bunker built beside the temple and a large gun aimed back towards Thailand, just another reminder how many battles between all sides had been fought from this lofty perch. I left the temple complex right as it was closing.

When I got back to the boarder I was pleased to find my moto taxi still waiting for me. I’d been there longer than I thought though and it hadn’t occurred to me I’d need to catch the last bus back to Si Saket if I wanted to make it back to Surin. The moto driver pointed out we need to hurry if I was going to catch the last bus. I got lucky… first my moto driver was an excellent driver, he carefully slowled or avoided every bump in the road like he’d driven the route hundreds of times (which he probably had) and second he had a very fast motorbike. I know we got passed by a few cars, but we passed every motorbike and several cars on the road. He was flying. He got me back literally as the last bus was pulling out of it’s stall. He honked for them to wait for me, which they did. I over paid him with 400THB. More than even his original asking price of 360 and well more than the 330 we’d agreed on. I told him it was in appreciation of his speed and good driving and then ran and hoped on the waiting bus. The ride back to Si Saket and the train ride back to Surin was mostly uneventful. Pretty, but uneventful. When I got back to Surin I was happy to see it sleepy and quiet like it was the first time I arrived, all but a few tourists were long gone, and only a few local elephants remained as well.

 

Surin Elephant Round-up

The weekend in Surin was a fantastic real start to my travels. Surin is normally off the tourist track, the well worn tourist track in Thailand anyway. It see lots of tourists for just this one weekend a year.

I’m going to starting trying to be more brief with my blog entries… so we will see how it goes.

On Friday the big event was the Elephant parade and jumbo feast. At Joy’s suggestion several of us mounted elephants an rode in the parade. It was an amazing experience to be riding in a parade on elephant back surrounded by scores of elephants all walking shoulder to shoulder. IMHO, there are two times and places it’s worthwhile to take a ride on an elephant. The first is on a the jungle on a trek, which I haven’t done sounds great from the people I’ve talked to. I personally wouldn’t bother riding one around a stadium or “elephant village”. The only time outside a jungle I’d ride one inside a town/city is for a parade, it really just to amazing to put words to. At the end of the parade route is the jumbo feast where the elephants get to eat the tons (literally tons and tons) of food that had been prepared the following day. Each day an average elephant eats several hundred pounds of food. Two fairly good links on the state of elephants in Thailand today are here and here I’ll refrain from writing pages upon pages here on how I feel about it all.

That afternoon was spent “sitting out the front of the hotel” as Joy would say in Aussie English, just watching the spectacle go by. This is why New Hotel was so ideal. The square fronted on one side by the train station and another by New Hotel is the center point of all the non-stadium based elephant activities. So it was an all day show every day.

On Saturday Inga and I went to the stadium to see the big show. It was loads of fun and there are plenty of photos on the Flickr site from the show. The highlights for me was to see the elephants dressed in battle costume, as well as just seeing the spectacle of 300 elephants all together on the same field. I have mixed feelings about all the “tricks” they perform, whether it be painting, bowing, hula hooping, flag waving, dart throwing or anything else I can’t think of at the moment. If you look over the earlier links they explain the reality of these creature lives. That being that they have to do something to feed these giants, and with logging widely banned they are left with domesticated animals that live over 50 years with nothing “productive” to do, so they resort to being a tourist attraction.

Sunday was just a relaxing day to enjoy Surin. Aside from the elephant round-up I really enjoyed Surin as well. It has a pleasant morning market full of produce and food that I loved wandering through each day trying new foods. Surin being well off the tourist track has very few English speakers, especially in the markets, so this was an added impetus to learn some Thai.