Well, it had to happen eventually: the scourge of all travelers has taken hold and here I now sit, thankfully mere feet from a bathroom, in the lobby of the guesthouse/hotel I've checked myself into in order to weather the storm. Thankfully things aren't too bad and the medication I've got is working. Wasn't really a bad bought anyway, but not particularly convenient, so I found a nice air-conn place with ensuite and TV for only 15$ a night just down the road from the other hostel I was staying at. Frankly it's a nice break too from sharing a double with a fairly creepy dude in order to save a few bucks and having to rely on a crappy fan to keep you cool when the nights don't drop below 25-28. I don't have much to update, so I picked out some random thoughts from my journal to share since I'm very bored.
First off is a story I forgot about until today. Was sitting on my bed reading one night in Ayutthaya when out of nowhere an enormous cockroach just scurried across the foot of the bed and down the side. And I mean a HUGE roach, like the length of a finger. No idea where it came from, didn't see another one the entire time I was there. I was so surprised that I jumped back a bit on the bed and kind of half tossed my book (which was so old that part of it came apart from the spine, meaning I couldn't later exchange it for another - grrrr). When I edged toward the side of the bed to see where it had gone, it flew in that lazy / uncoordinated way that they do and landed with a thud on the wall. I smacked the hell out of it with a bottle and assumed it was dead. I was incorrect. 20 minutes later I heard a buzzing noise from inside the trash can, and sure enough, the bastard was trying to move about. I trapped it in an empty pudding cup thing that I had from an earlier snack and tossed it outside, then cuddled up into a ball to sit through the night with the smashing bottle and sob gently while guarding my territory from further attack. Ok so maybe that's exaggerating, but I didn't exactly sleep well that night.
Now a few random things about Cambodia. First off, I've noticed that this country is ridiculously well staffed. You go into a grocery store and there are 3 people at the tills, one bagging, one scanning and one running the cash. There are people everywhere sweeping public spaces (though nobody picking up garbage - go figure), massive construction crews using the most basic labour techniques (like using slings to haul large rocks in pairs because they don't have the vehicles for that), etc. A quick google search shows that the minimum wage here is very low, and you have to wonder if there isn't a better balance to be struck between providing an abundance of low paying jobs and a lesser number of better paying jobs. I'm not pretending to advocate one or the other because I'm obviously no expert, but given the level of poverty here something just feels out of whack.
On the other hand, there's a strange phenomenon with the housing situation I've seen in a lot of the rural areas while traveling by bus: beautiful, glimmering new houses that look entirely out of place on the properties that surround them. The houses themselves look very well built using materials (if not a style) that you'd see in the first world. But they're surrounded, in almost every single case, by trash on properties with little to no grass, engine parts and other debris scattered about, and a clear lack of interest in maintaining any kind of order or neatness within. It's a really weird sight, like a mansion rising out of a dump, and I wish I had taken a few pictures. I don't know if the houses are paid for by some kind of subsidizing or government program, or if the owners can afford the houses but just don't give a damn about the property or what the deal is, but I'd like to find out.
One thing I love about Cambodia is the traffic. Not having to deal with it, mind you, but I love watching it. It's just crazy, with no rules whatsoever. It's funny how we tend to think of traffic rules as being what keeps our roads safe but that's not strictly true at all: they're just a set of arbitrary (though admittedly well designed) rules that we all collectively abide, and it's that collective observance that makes it work. If one person steps outside those rules, that's when things get dicey. But when there are no strict traffic rules, then only one collective observance keeps the peace: nobody wants to hit anybody else. And when you think about it, that's all that's really needed on the roads: the knowledge that one's vehicle is a large enough cost and one's safety a large enough concern that mutual self-interest dictates that no matter how chaotic things get, that self-interest guarantees your safety. Being in the middle of traffic here is a bit like being in a cave full of bats flying around you: they're not going to hit you even as they seem to engulf you. I might film some video to show how fun it is to watch. On a side note, I saw a white girl on a rented bike trying to ease through traffic while getting vigorously honked at, and then I noticed she had headphones on. That's a death wish right there. Saw another guy who was stopped at the corner of a busy street and the look on his face was priceless: he did NOT want to attempt to cross that street on his rented bike. He ended up turning around and going back; this place isn't for everyone.
And lastly, to end on a creepy note, it's hard not to think the worst when you see old men in southeast Asia. I've already seen one very blatant case of an old guy who was shacking up with a much, much younger Asian man in the hostel I stayed at in Kuala Lumpur (they wandered in and out of their room in towels all day long, usually to the bathroom and back - you do the math). Maybe it's just the cynical internet-child syndrome, but every old man I see here without a wife I automatically judge to be a sex-tourist of some kind. Sometimes I love you internet, but sometimes I hate what you've done to me.
Sorry to end it like that, but I'm out of stuff to say. Hopefully I'm doing better tomorrow and can report on some REALLY depressing stuff: visits to some of the Khmer-Rouge related sites nearby.
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Odds and Ends
Nothing too exciting to report from the last few days, but I've got some time to kill so I thought I'd mention a few random things.
First one's for you, mom:
Found them in a grocery store in Siem Reap, the town that's built up near Angkor. Because tourism accounts for so much of the local economy there, it had a ton of random items from North America and Europe, these included. Cost me 3.50$ (which is a meal), but I got them anyway as a reward for finishing my 3 days of exploring Angkor. Justified or not, they were delicious.
Second one is just a random 'what the....' moment.
There's just something about the word Canadia that makes me cringe. It's just wrong. In this case it makes perfect sense as a combination of Canada and Cambodia, but it's still wrong, because I said so.
Third is this:
The four faces that point to the 4 cardinal directions isn't a new theme by any means, but this was the first time I've seen them used in a modern building, and man does that ever look out of place. Like 4 creepy mimes watching you from on high.
Lastly, I was in a museum yesterday and saw something that sums up the gap between the reverence you have for local treasures as a traveler compared to a local. Every museum I've been in so far has a wide array of cabinets and storage furniture that is beautifully decorated, usually with delicate, intricate woodwork finishes and amazing carvings or scenes painted on. And like any museum, there are signs not to touch anything everywhere you look. In fact you can't even take photos. So I'm wandering through this one section with items that are over 400 years old, and it included a bunch of these cabinets. As I'm leaving the section, in walks one of the museum employees, who goes over to the oldest one in the section, steps over the rope that's blocking it off, opens it up and takes out his lunch. I got a quick look inside and he was also using it to store his motorcycle helmet and some clothing. I just had to laugh and shake my head.
edit: Almost forgot, the interwebs gifted me with this gem yesterday:
That's it for now.
First one's for you, mom:
I ate them before I thought to take the photo. Shocking, I know.
Found them in a grocery store in Siem Reap, the town that's built up near Angkor. Because tourism accounts for so much of the local economy there, it had a ton of random items from North America and Europe, these included. Cost me 3.50$ (which is a meal), but I got them anyway as a reward for finishing my 3 days of exploring Angkor. Justified or not, they were delicious.
Second one is just a random 'what the....' moment.
Third is this:
Lastly, I was in a museum yesterday and saw something that sums up the gap between the reverence you have for local treasures as a traveler compared to a local. Every museum I've been in so far has a wide array of cabinets and storage furniture that is beautifully decorated, usually with delicate, intricate woodwork finishes and amazing carvings or scenes painted on. And like any museum, there are signs not to touch anything everywhere you look. In fact you can't even take photos. So I'm wandering through this one section with items that are over 400 years old, and it included a bunch of these cabinets. As I'm leaving the section, in walks one of the museum employees, who goes over to the oldest one in the section, steps over the rope that's blocking it off, opens it up and takes out his lunch. I got a quick look inside and he was also using it to store his motorcycle helmet and some clothing. I just had to laugh and shake my head.
edit: Almost forgot, the interwebs gifted me with this gem yesterday:
I have no words.
That's it for now.
Friday, 22 March 2013
Angkor What?
I stole that title from a bar, just like I stole the name of this blog. Seemed appropriate.
Anyway, today was my third and last day of Angkor, and I'm exhausted but totally satisfied. I've made a dedicated gallery for it and I'll be putting up a link with the other 2 on the right hand side. There's a LOT of pictures in there and I apologize if some are similar or even doubles, as I went to a couple of the sites twice in order to beat the crowds that I encountered the first time through. Also, they're not really in any kind of practical order since I used two SD cards over the 3 days.
Also, if you want to know more about Angkor, here's the Wikipedia link because I'm lazy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor
Here's the basic description though, because copying and pasting is easy:
Angkor (Khmer: អង្គរ, "Holy City") is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara (नगर), meaning "city".[1] The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king", until 1351, when Angkor first fell under Ayutthayan suzerainty, to 1431, when Ayutthaya put down a rebellion and sacked the Khmer capital, causing its population to migrate south to Longvek.
Historical Angkor was more than a site for religious art and architecture. It was the site of vast cities that served all the needs of the Khmer people. Aside from a few old bridges, however, all of the remaining monuments are religious edifices. In Angkorian times, all non-religious buildings, including the residence of the king himself, were constructed of perishable materials, such as wood, "because only the gods had a right to residences made of stone."[29] Similarly, the vast majority of the surviving stone inscriptions are about the religious foundations of kings and other potentates.[30] As a result, it is easier to write the history of Angkorian state religion than it is to write that of just about any other aspect of Angkorian society.
Several religious movements contributed to the historical development of religion at Angkor:
Before I get into describing the experience, here's a picture of the kind of jackass you randomly encounter at tourist sites:
Maybe it's hard to tell from the photo since I snapped it quick while I pretended to frame a different angle, but that guy is like 10 feet off the ground along a wall that there were signs not to climb. Talking on his phone. Now I don't know if the only way he could get reception was to climb up there or if the call was vitally important, but his tone didn't suggest that at all. Regardless, I wanted to throw a rock at him and try to knock him off. Didn't follow through.
Now, Angkor itself. The place is enormous, and contains several groupings of structures along with a variety of sites sprinkled nearby and far afield. There's one temple, considered to be the peak of Khmer artistry in bas reliefs, that I really wanted to see but couldn't because it was simply too far away. Shame. But I got to see just about everything else, and it was well worth taking the 3 days.
The first morning I got up at 4:45 and we left at 5, taking a tuk-tuk to Angkor Wat for 5:30. There were already a lot of people gathering and jostling for position in front of the man-made pool that sits to one side of the pathway entering the temple. This is the iconic photo of the temple that everyone tries for: the sunrise that blacks out the silhouette of the temple and it's reflection in the pool. It's beautiful when it all works out, but my camera was not at all up to the task, and the front positions were already taken as well so we had to settle for the side of the pool and having people constantly pop into the frame as I tried to get a decent shot. Oh well. After a while I gave up and just enjoyed it, which I think was more rewarding anyway. It was beautiful, diminished only by the realization later in the day that the despite a triple layer of bug spray my feet had still been victimized.
From there we entered Angkor Wat and explored. It didn't take long for it to get quite warm once the sun was up, and thankfully by the time the tour groups started showing up we had had our fill. There's not much point in describing it here, as words can't do it justice: the immense size is only impressive in person, as are the bas reliefs and carvings.
Next we drove to the main gate of Angkor Thom (town), which houses a variety of sites, including the temple with the multitude of faces and the terrace with the elephant and monkey carvings (I could name them but it's easier to refer to them as how you'll see them in the photos so you know which ones I'm talking about).
Again, not much point going into detail as there are no words. The temple with the faces just radiated power and control (and creepiness), and the terrace was just massive. You could easily imagine the royalty of the time lined up to lord over a military parade or receive an audience: it was designed to awe and does it's job well.
Lastly on the first day was what is often referred to as the the 'tomb raider' temple, as the movie was partly shot there.
Apparently Lara Croft goes through this door
The unfortunate side effect of this is that its full of tour groups and the narrow corridors mean you get railroaded through. I solved that problem by going back the next day at sunrise, and was rewarded by a lot of shots with beautiful lighting. By far my favorite temple, it's been largely reclaimed by nature but retains enough of it's shape and detail to feel like the perfect mix of structure and chaos. Absolutely beautiful, I spent about 3 hours total wandering through it and could spend another 3 with ease despite it being relatively small.
By the time we were done this temple, my German friends were worn down and had seen enough, so we headed back thoroughly exhausted. I slept for 4 hours that afternoon (not that that's a surprise, right?), just dead to the world. The next day I rested and went back to the Tomb Raider temple first thing on my second day touring Angkor. I had rented a bike but went cheap and didn't take the receptionist at the hostel's advice to get a mountain bike: not a good choice. This thing hurt. The seat was stone, there were no shocks and the tires so thin that any little bump threw you dangerously close to traffic. As I said above, beating the crowds was great, but I didn't really see anything else that second day that wowed me.
Instead I was more struck by the children at a lot of the secondary sites, as young as 3-4, touting items for sale with shockingly accurate memorized pitches in English. It's hard to come to terms with child labour, because it makes you feel utterly helpless. You can't really support the kids in any meaningful way by buying a trinket, because you know the money isn't going to them and indirectly endorsing the practice by participating is just not acceptable. But god damnit are they ever both cute and persistent (side note: you never see any ugly children beggars - no way that's a coincidence). What's funny is how they're coached to appear all sad and sometimes even put on a fake cough, but once they see that you're not going to buy they skip off merrily in the other direction to go play with their peers until the next sucker comes along. Your heart goes out to them while hardening from the realities you're confronted with at the same time. And it doesn't stop with the kids at the sites: I stopped for lunch at a small lake opposite a school that second day, and even a couple of the school kids on their lunch break came over to beg with, again, well-rehearsed spiels about their poverty and needing pencils. They know no other English (which I tested), and when I offered some cut up broccoli and carrots, they made faces and refused. They're not starving, that's for sure.
Day 3 (today), I rented a mountain bike, but the seat was no better. I did about 30k while visiting some of the more remote sites, and my ass is still sore 7 hours later. In fact it hurts to sit and write this, no joke. Robby, I now understand the need for those cushy cycling pants and will never make fun again. Anyway, the sites were quite good, though one I really wanted to see closer was shut down for restoration: it's a small temple set in the middle of a pool, with 4 pools surrounding it to the north, south, east and west. Each of these pools has a fountain (or had, hence the restorations needed) in the shape of a lion, an elephant, a monkey or a human.
It was an ablutions site, where the people would come to be healed by the water and by the priests. Wish I could have explored it, but what can you do. Not much else to tell from today, as the temples were great but a lot more of the same. There's a reason it's suggested that you build up to the biggest and best for last, but that wasn't an option for me and I don't regret it. It was still very rewarding to be able to explore on my own time and at my own pace on the 2nd and 3rd days. I only wish I'd had more room in my already full and very heavy day pack, as you simply can't drink enough to stay hydrated and water at the sites is priced 4x more than in town. Thank god for 1$ coconuts and their delicious, nutritious innards though.
That's it for now, off to Phnom Penh tomorrow, gotta be up for 7:30. My bus has a toilet on it though, which should make the 6 hour ride among the most comfortable I've had. Amazing how small comforts make a big difference.
Anyway, today was my third and last day of Angkor, and I'm exhausted but totally satisfied. I've made a dedicated gallery for it and I'll be putting up a link with the other 2 on the right hand side. There's a LOT of pictures in there and I apologize if some are similar or even doubles, as I went to a couple of the sites twice in order to beat the crowds that I encountered the first time through. Also, they're not really in any kind of practical order since I used two SD cards over the 3 days.
Also, if you want to know more about Angkor, here's the Wikipedia link because I'm lazy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor
Here's the basic description though, because copying and pasting is easy:
Angkor (Khmer: អង្គរ, "Holy City") is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara (नगर), meaning "city".[1] The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king", until 1351, when Angkor first fell under Ayutthayan suzerainty, to 1431, when Ayutthaya put down a rebellion and sacked the Khmer capital, causing its population to migrate south to Longvek.
Historical Angkor was more than a site for religious art and architecture. It was the site of vast cities that served all the needs of the Khmer people. Aside from a few old bridges, however, all of the remaining monuments are religious edifices. In Angkorian times, all non-religious buildings, including the residence of the king himself, were constructed of perishable materials, such as wood, "because only the gods had a right to residences made of stone."[29] Similarly, the vast majority of the surviving stone inscriptions are about the religious foundations of kings and other potentates.[30] As a result, it is easier to write the history of Angkorian state religion than it is to write that of just about any other aspect of Angkorian society.
Several religious movements contributed to the historical development of religion at Angkor:
- Indigenous religious cults, including those centered on worship of the ancestors and of the lingam;
- A royal cult of personality, identifying the king with the deity, characteristic not only of Angkor, but of other Indic civilizations in southeast Asia, such as Champa and Java;
- Hinduism, especially Shaivism, the form of Hinduism focussed on the worship of Shiva and the lingam as the symbol of Shiva, but also Vaishnavism, the form of Hinduism focussed on the worship of Vishnu;
- Buddhism, in both its Mahayana and Theravada varieties.
Before I get into describing the experience, here's a picture of the kind of jackass you randomly encounter at tourist sites:
Now, Angkor itself. The place is enormous, and contains several groupings of structures along with a variety of sites sprinkled nearby and far afield. There's one temple, considered to be the peak of Khmer artistry in bas reliefs, that I really wanted to see but couldn't because it was simply too far away. Shame. But I got to see just about everything else, and it was well worth taking the 3 days.
The first morning I got up at 4:45 and we left at 5, taking a tuk-tuk to Angkor Wat for 5:30. There were already a lot of people gathering and jostling for position in front of the man-made pool that sits to one side of the pathway entering the temple. This is the iconic photo of the temple that everyone tries for: the sunrise that blacks out the silhouette of the temple and it's reflection in the pool. It's beautiful when it all works out, but my camera was not at all up to the task, and the front positions were already taken as well so we had to settle for the side of the pool and having people constantly pop into the frame as I tried to get a decent shot. Oh well. After a while I gave up and just enjoyed it, which I think was more rewarding anyway. It was beautiful, diminished only by the realization later in the day that the despite a triple layer of bug spray my feet had still been victimized.
From there we entered Angkor Wat and explored. It didn't take long for it to get quite warm once the sun was up, and thankfully by the time the tour groups started showing up we had had our fill. There's not much point in describing it here, as words can't do it justice: the immense size is only impressive in person, as are the bas reliefs and carvings.
Angkor Wat from a distance
Angkor Wat up close
It's an amazing contrast in scales: the size of the structure and the effort required to build it with the fineness, detail and artistry of the images carved into it's walls, columns, ceilings, everywhere you can think of.
Next we drove to the main gate of Angkor Thom (town), which houses a variety of sites, including the temple with the multitude of faces and the terrace with the elephant and monkey carvings (I could name them but it's easier to refer to them as how you'll see them in the photos so you know which ones I'm talking about).
The faces temple is called Bayon
And this is called the Terrace of the Elephants
Again, not much point going into detail as there are no words. The temple with the faces just radiated power and control (and creepiness), and the terrace was just massive. You could easily imagine the royalty of the time lined up to lord over a military parade or receive an audience: it was designed to awe and does it's job well.
Lastly on the first day was what is often referred to as the the 'tomb raider' temple, as the movie was partly shot there.
The unfortunate side effect of this is that its full of tour groups and the narrow corridors mean you get railroaded through. I solved that problem by going back the next day at sunrise, and was rewarded by a lot of shots with beautiful lighting. By far my favorite temple, it's been largely reclaimed by nature but retains enough of it's shape and detail to feel like the perfect mix of structure and chaos. Absolutely beautiful, I spent about 3 hours total wandering through it and could spend another 3 with ease despite it being relatively small.
By the time we were done this temple, my German friends were worn down and had seen enough, so we headed back thoroughly exhausted. I slept for 4 hours that afternoon (not that that's a surprise, right?), just dead to the world. The next day I rested and went back to the Tomb Raider temple first thing on my second day touring Angkor. I had rented a bike but went cheap and didn't take the receptionist at the hostel's advice to get a mountain bike: not a good choice. This thing hurt. The seat was stone, there were no shocks and the tires so thin that any little bump threw you dangerously close to traffic. As I said above, beating the crowds was great, but I didn't really see anything else that second day that wowed me.
Instead I was more struck by the children at a lot of the secondary sites, as young as 3-4, touting items for sale with shockingly accurate memorized pitches in English. It's hard to come to terms with child labour, because it makes you feel utterly helpless. You can't really support the kids in any meaningful way by buying a trinket, because you know the money isn't going to them and indirectly endorsing the practice by participating is just not acceptable. But god damnit are they ever both cute and persistent (side note: you never see any ugly children beggars - no way that's a coincidence). What's funny is how they're coached to appear all sad and sometimes even put on a fake cough, but once they see that you're not going to buy they skip off merrily in the other direction to go play with their peers until the next sucker comes along. Your heart goes out to them while hardening from the realities you're confronted with at the same time. And it doesn't stop with the kids at the sites: I stopped for lunch at a small lake opposite a school that second day, and even a couple of the school kids on their lunch break came over to beg with, again, well-rehearsed spiels about their poverty and needing pencils. They know no other English (which I tested), and when I offered some cut up broccoli and carrots, they made faces and refused. They're not starving, that's for sure.
Day 3 (today), I rented a mountain bike, but the seat was no better. I did about 30k while visiting some of the more remote sites, and my ass is still sore 7 hours later. In fact it hurts to sit and write this, no joke. Robby, I now understand the need for those cushy cycling pants and will never make fun again. Anyway, the sites were quite good, though one I really wanted to see closer was shut down for restoration: it's a small temple set in the middle of a pool, with 4 pools surrounding it to the north, south, east and west. Each of these pools has a fountain (or had, hence the restorations needed) in the shape of a lion, an elephant, a monkey or a human.
The fountain on the left was a lion, and the remains of the elephant are
in the darkness of that small structure in the foreground
That's it for now, off to Phnom Penh tomorrow, gotta be up for 7:30. My bus has a toilet on it though, which should make the 6 hour ride among the most comfortable I've had. Amazing how small comforts make a big difference.
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Too Many Early Mornings
Today is a rest day, for a lot of reasons. First off, it's hot. Like about 37 degrees hot: central Cambodia is very flat, and that makes being out and around during the day daunting. Secondly, I've been traveling with 3 Germans on a relatively tight time budget,so I've had a series of early morning starts lately, culminating in a 4:45am wake-up to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Totally worth it, but the lack of sleep over the last 5 days or so has taken it's toll so today I'm not doing anything that requires me to move much. I'll describe Angkor in my next post, but not today since I've got a 3 day pass and it'll be much easier to do once I'm finished visiting it (I've already taken like about 300 photos on day 1, so it's going to take some time to comb through them). This is just to describe what I've been up to before arriving here.
I mentioned that I've been traveling with 3 Germans,and here they are:
Good people, I met them on my way to do a tour at Khao Yai national park, and since we had roughly the same path and itinerary, we teamed up for cheaper transport and good times ensued. Saved me a ton of money too, because taking taxis alone is not cheap. I did 2 tours at the park since the second was nearly free when you booked the first, and among the highlights were putting a scorpion spider and a huge, hairy millipede on my face in a cave (I don't have photos since my camera battery died, but I'm hoping the guy I gave my email address to will step up and send his photos - so far nothing), seeing 2 million bats exit a cave like a swarm of bees and the hawks that preyed on them as they exited, doing some night swimming in a natural spring, getting absolutely drenched and covered in leeches while trekking during a thunderstorm, and seeing some very cool wildlife including gibbons and scorpions (but no elephants, regrettably).
It was a lot of fun and the night of the second tour was capped off by drinking with a group of German girls despite needing to get up at 6am the next morning to catch a bus that didn't exist. It all worked out in the end though, since I drank about 2 litres of water while I packed up my bag at 2am, and then napped the slight hangover off while we waited at the bus station the next morning for the bus that were told would depart at 7 but really departed at 8.
Then things got very, very aggravating. This bus had a sound system that would rival most clubs and it absolutely pounded music from a popular Thai group's concert DvD for the first hour. We asked for it to be turned down, but were ignored. After the concert dvd ended, the world's worst television show came on and made our lives miserable for the remaining 3 hours of the trip. The show is kind of like a variety show (I had seen it before on another bus), with a static cast of entertainers and the most over-the-top, stylized skits and bad contest segments I have ever seen, all punctuated with more sound effects than any kid's show. It was just awful. This particular episode had the cast ''singing'' the same song, with the same beat, for 3 hours through a variety of skits that simply had different lyrics. It was torture, and I was only spared my sanity because I had very good headphones. The other 3 did not, and they were very angry Germans when the bus finally arrived at it's destination. Luckily our next stop after getting to the hostel was a temple located on top of an inactive volcano, which was very cool, and served to mellow us all out as we walked the grounds. A few pictures, more in the album:
The temple is in the Khmer style, so it was a great little primer for Angkor. Based in Angkor, the Khmers ruled a huge area from about 1000BC to 1400ish, and their influence is all over the region. In fact when the Thais finally sacked Angkor (twice) as the empire was falling into ruin, they carted away a massive number of intellectuals, religious officials and artists, so there's a heavy Khmer influence in Thai culture to this day. The temple was far outside of the city and transport wasn't cheap, so this wasn't something I would have been able to afford to do on my own and it awesome to be able to share the cost of hiring the driver with the Germans.
That night we went out to grab a bite to eat and had just a terrible meal. Of the 4 of us, 3 couldn't or wouldn't eat our food. Rabea's curry was waaaaay too spicy (like, someone made a mistake spicy, not just native spicy), Nils ordered fried chicken with ginger and got what looked like chicken kneecaps that were all bone and no meat, and I had a fried fish curry dish, except there was nothing but fish and the fish was nothing but bones. Patrick had tofu stir-fry and it was edible but extremely boring, with no flavour. Just terrible. Luckily that's the first really bad meal I've had and our dinner the next night in Cambodia was excellent, a set of traditional Khmer curries with chicken, pumpkin, potato and carrots. Great stuff.
Now for the really trying part of the journey: the border crossing. Both sides are absolutely full of scams, and we encountered our fair share. From the local bus stop on the Thai side of the border we were taken by tuk-tuk to a building pretending to be a Thai embassy. It was a dead giveaway that as soon as we arrived a group of men came out of the door to help us with our bags and started asking questions about where we were going, etc. The scam here is that they 'arrange' your visa into Cambodia for a fee. We spotted it right away so no harm done, but we had to walk an extra 500m or so with our bags to the border, which was not very pleasant in the heat. Everything else went smoothly on the Thai side except for long lineups, but the Cambodia side is a corruption free for all unofficially sanctioned by both the the local government and the police.
It starts when you reach the visa area. The official fee for the visa is 20$ US and you need to give a photo. The processors though ask for a 100 baht fee in order to 'speed up' the processing. I initially refused to pay and was told I'd have to wait until other visas were processed because there were a lot being done at the moment. I had to laugh at that because there were 5 employees working and 6 of us in the office at the time. Unfortunately for me, the Germans were willing to pay it in order to just get out of there and on to the next leg (after all it's only 3.33$ Canadian), so in the interests of not holding up the entire group I caved. I figured I saved at least five times that much by cab sharing with them, so I owed it to them in a sense. The next scam comes when you get through the paperwork. You are then railroaded toward an area with two choices. Option one is to take a free shuttle bus to a bus station 5 miles out of town where you have no option but to take an overpriced bus to Siem Reap, get dropped off at a bus station that is similarly outside of town and where you have no option but to take an overpriced tuk-tuk to whichever guesthouse has paid the driver: the driver will not take you where you want to go. Option 2 is to take an overpriced cab to Siem Reap. In both cases the prices are set by three cartels that operate a monopoly and rotate days on which they provide the transport.
We took option 3. I had read online that by simply walking about 500m into town you could bypass the area controlled by the monopoly and look for independent drivers that would take you to Siem Reap for much cheaper fares, so that's what we did. It was a struggle even to make it the 500m, being hounded along the way by drivers from the monopoly and sweating buckets in the intense mid-day heat as we dragged out bags down a dirt road. The town on the Cambodian side of the border is called Poipet and it's a very strange place: right over the border are huge, upscale hotels and casinos catering to Thais coming across the border to gamble and hire prostitutes, and within about 200m of that area the town just degrades into a slum, with the monopoly cartels working in the middle. We looked around in vain for a restaurant that we could sit in to gather our strength and lose our tails, finally settling for a fly-filled outdoor 'cafe' that only sold soft drinks from a single fridge. Rabea was literally too scared to go to the bathroom there, and she's a cop who is in no way a squeamish woman. After the sugar and the rest had given us an ounce of strength and our tails from the cartel had wandered off to search for other fares, we continued on until we were approached by a driver offering to take us to Siem Reap for a good price, and we jumped at it. The air conditioned car was bliss after the ordeal and the ride was quite fun too, as we went through a storm that was knocking locals off their motorcycles and giving an impressive lightning show off in the distance. Once into Siem Reap it was all sunshine and roses: he dropped us off right at our hostel, where an air conditioned dorm with a comfortable bed and a nice cold shower with great water pressure was waiting. Traveler bliss.
The next day it was up at 4:45 to make Angkor Wat for sunrise, but I'll save all of that for once I'm done exploring over the next 2 days.
I mentioned that I've been traveling with 3 Germans,and here they are:
Left to right: Patrick, Rabea and Nils
Good people, I met them on my way to do a tour at Khao Yai national park, and since we had roughly the same path and itinerary, we teamed up for cheaper transport and good times ensued. Saved me a ton of money too, because taking taxis alone is not cheap. I did 2 tours at the park since the second was nearly free when you booked the first, and among the highlights were putting a scorpion spider and a huge, hairy millipede on my face in a cave (I don't have photos since my camera battery died, but I'm hoping the guy I gave my email address to will step up and send his photos - so far nothing), seeing 2 million bats exit a cave like a swarm of bees and the hawks that preyed on them as they exited, doing some night swimming in a natural spring, getting absolutely drenched and covered in leeches while trekking during a thunderstorm, and seeing some very cool wildlife including gibbons and scorpions (but no elephants, regrettably).
This is a gibbon, the shot was taken though a scope. Gibbons make crazy noises.
Then things got very, very aggravating. This bus had a sound system that would rival most clubs and it absolutely pounded music from a popular Thai group's concert DvD for the first hour. We asked for it to be turned down, but were ignored. After the concert dvd ended, the world's worst television show came on and made our lives miserable for the remaining 3 hours of the trip. The show is kind of like a variety show (I had seen it before on another bus), with a static cast of entertainers and the most over-the-top, stylized skits and bad contest segments I have ever seen, all punctuated with more sound effects than any kid's show. It was just awful. This particular episode had the cast ''singing'' the same song, with the same beat, for 3 hours through a variety of skits that simply had different lyrics. It was torture, and I was only spared my sanity because I had very good headphones. The other 3 did not, and they were very angry Germans when the bus finally arrived at it's destination. Luckily our next stop after getting to the hostel was a temple located on top of an inactive volcano, which was very cool, and served to mellow us all out as we walked the grounds. A few pictures, more in the album:
The temple is in the Khmer style, so it was a great little primer for Angkor. Based in Angkor, the Khmers ruled a huge area from about 1000BC to 1400ish, and their influence is all over the region. In fact when the Thais finally sacked Angkor (twice) as the empire was falling into ruin, they carted away a massive number of intellectuals, religious officials and artists, so there's a heavy Khmer influence in Thai culture to this day. The temple was far outside of the city and transport wasn't cheap, so this wasn't something I would have been able to afford to do on my own and it awesome to be able to share the cost of hiring the driver with the Germans.
That night we went out to grab a bite to eat and had just a terrible meal. Of the 4 of us, 3 couldn't or wouldn't eat our food. Rabea's curry was waaaaay too spicy (like, someone made a mistake spicy, not just native spicy), Nils ordered fried chicken with ginger and got what looked like chicken kneecaps that were all bone and no meat, and I had a fried fish curry dish, except there was nothing but fish and the fish was nothing but bones. Patrick had tofu stir-fry and it was edible but extremely boring, with no flavour. Just terrible. Luckily that's the first really bad meal I've had and our dinner the next night in Cambodia was excellent, a set of traditional Khmer curries with chicken, pumpkin, potato and carrots. Great stuff.
Now for the really trying part of the journey: the border crossing. Both sides are absolutely full of scams, and we encountered our fair share. From the local bus stop on the Thai side of the border we were taken by tuk-tuk to a building pretending to be a Thai embassy. It was a dead giveaway that as soon as we arrived a group of men came out of the door to help us with our bags and started asking questions about where we were going, etc. The scam here is that they 'arrange' your visa into Cambodia for a fee. We spotted it right away so no harm done, but we had to walk an extra 500m or so with our bags to the border, which was not very pleasant in the heat. Everything else went smoothly on the Thai side except for long lineups, but the Cambodia side is a corruption free for all unofficially sanctioned by both the the local government and the police.
It starts when you reach the visa area. The official fee for the visa is 20$ US and you need to give a photo. The processors though ask for a 100 baht fee in order to 'speed up' the processing. I initially refused to pay and was told I'd have to wait until other visas were processed because there were a lot being done at the moment. I had to laugh at that because there were 5 employees working and 6 of us in the office at the time. Unfortunately for me, the Germans were willing to pay it in order to just get out of there and on to the next leg (after all it's only 3.33$ Canadian), so in the interests of not holding up the entire group I caved. I figured I saved at least five times that much by cab sharing with them, so I owed it to them in a sense. The next scam comes when you get through the paperwork. You are then railroaded toward an area with two choices. Option one is to take a free shuttle bus to a bus station 5 miles out of town where you have no option but to take an overpriced bus to Siem Reap, get dropped off at a bus station that is similarly outside of town and where you have no option but to take an overpriced tuk-tuk to whichever guesthouse has paid the driver: the driver will not take you where you want to go. Option 2 is to take an overpriced cab to Siem Reap. In both cases the prices are set by three cartels that operate a monopoly and rotate days on which they provide the transport.
We took option 3. I had read online that by simply walking about 500m into town you could bypass the area controlled by the monopoly and look for independent drivers that would take you to Siem Reap for much cheaper fares, so that's what we did. It was a struggle even to make it the 500m, being hounded along the way by drivers from the monopoly and sweating buckets in the intense mid-day heat as we dragged out bags down a dirt road. The town on the Cambodian side of the border is called Poipet and it's a very strange place: right over the border are huge, upscale hotels and casinos catering to Thais coming across the border to gamble and hire prostitutes, and within about 200m of that area the town just degrades into a slum, with the monopoly cartels working in the middle. We looked around in vain for a restaurant that we could sit in to gather our strength and lose our tails, finally settling for a fly-filled outdoor 'cafe' that only sold soft drinks from a single fridge. Rabea was literally too scared to go to the bathroom there, and she's a cop who is in no way a squeamish woman. After the sugar and the rest had given us an ounce of strength and our tails from the cartel had wandered off to search for other fares, we continued on until we were approached by a driver offering to take us to Siem Reap for a good price, and we jumped at it. The air conditioned car was bliss after the ordeal and the ride was quite fun too, as we went through a storm that was knocking locals off their motorcycles and giving an impressive lightning show off in the distance. Once into Siem Reap it was all sunshine and roses: he dropped us off right at our hostel, where an air conditioned dorm with a comfortable bed and a nice cold shower with great water pressure was waiting. Traveler bliss.
The next day it was up at 4:45 to make Angkor Wat for sunrise, but I'll save all of that for once I'm done exploring over the next 2 days.
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Bangkok Leftovers and Ayutthaya Pics
Sitting in a super cheap internet cafe in a town called Ayutthaya, so time to upload more pics and throw a few random stories out. First off, the leftovers from my last night in Bangkok.
I tried this random hole-in-a-wall restaurant the name of which I forget but whose owner I certainly haven't. Her restaurant was tiny, blaring Elton John tunes out onto the streets and the walls were covered in writing from previous visitors, so I had to give it a try (it looked too unique not to). She cooks everything from scratch right then and there, even cutting the veggies after you order, so the food takes a while but was totally worth it: by far the best meal I've had so far. To be fair, I've been eating mostly from street vendors and as cheaply as possible, but surprisingly her prices were pretty on par with street food. Thankfully I ordered a large beer to help pass the wait with, and when she served it to me she brought out a little bottle of red bull to see if I wanted a swig. She called it 'tiger' when I asked what it was. Apparently Tiger is her name for whiskey, and by the taste of it, potentially locally brewed stuff too (it was god damned horrid). She left that with me and went back to cooking.
When the food came out, she sat down to chat (I was the only one in the place at the time) and immediately started telling me about her husband that cheats on her with a young Japanese girl (she's gotta be over 40, and by the pictures of her husband the young girl she brought out, he must be too). The conversation got genuinely weird, her ranting about how her kids don't respect her, how the husband said she was a bad woman, how she closes up the restaurant at 1am to go down to the night market to sell found junk for extra money, how whiskey gives her energy, and how her kids wished she didn't drink so much. Basically I got the impression that she was an alcoholic, which was confirmed by the 6 shots of whiskey she took while I was eating my meal. I had a really mixed emotions about this woman, she was a sincere, warm and interesting person who seemed to have genuine problems but she was also probably the root of them to some degree (as we all are, really). At some point more people came in (and most seemed like regulars that she had a rapport with, confirming my thoughts about both her and the food) and she went off to take orders and cook for them, leaving me both relieved and dsiappointed at the same time.
Two other things from that restaurant: one, her youngest son was drawing on his arm with one of the markers that were placed at each table so that people could leave wall messages, so I offered mine as a canvas. He did this then ran off. Too funny.
Secondly, here are some things that people had written on her walls:
"I happy and thank everything"
"You gotta lotta teeth for a smart cunt" (gotta be a movie quote -I hope)
"Thanks for the best christmas trees ever"
"My best friend at my cat"
Anyway, other hignlights from that night included seeing some jugglers in a park doing some pretty crazy stuff, an outdoor aerobics class full of old women half-assing their workouts and one very obviously gay middle aged man in spandex improving his own routine with a ton of spins and pirouettes in that same park (and the worst super-fast techno mashedups of pop hits you've ever heard), eating waaaaaaay too many amazing crispy mini-crepe things, and unwittingly eating a donut that had mayo filling (no, really. It was disgusting). Desserts here are so cheap that I'm pretty sure I'm going to get diabetes.
The only other thing I have to report from Bangkok gets filed under 'I don't understand people'. My dorm room had 3 Brits that literally did nothing all day but either sleep, watch videos on their laptops or tablets, and then go out to drink at about 10pm. Every day I was there it was the same. One day I had just returned to the dorm at about 7pm and they were talking about getting some food. One asked another what time it was, and when he got his reply he said 'Jesus, where does the time go when you're here?'. I wanted to smack him.
And now I'm in Ayutthaya, once Thailand's great capital and the centre of their empire for about 400 years. Lots of great ruins, lots of sun, lots of exhaustion, lots of pictures. Here's a few, the rest are in the album:
Lastly there's this photo, taken in a Wat located in the most popular of the ruins sites:
Each of those is a donations box, and there were literally 16 more of them in the room. I get that the donations are probably going toward restorations and such, but let it never be said that religion, unlike crime, doesn't pay. I'm sure you get where I'm going with that.
I tried this random hole-in-a-wall restaurant the name of which I forget but whose owner I certainly haven't. Her restaurant was tiny, blaring Elton John tunes out onto the streets and the walls were covered in writing from previous visitors, so I had to give it a try (it looked too unique not to). She cooks everything from scratch right then and there, even cutting the veggies after you order, so the food takes a while but was totally worth it: by far the best meal I've had so far. To be fair, I've been eating mostly from street vendors and as cheaply as possible, but surprisingly her prices were pretty on par with street food. Thankfully I ordered a large beer to help pass the wait with, and when she served it to me she brought out a little bottle of red bull to see if I wanted a swig. She called it 'tiger' when I asked what it was. Apparently Tiger is her name for whiskey, and by the taste of it, potentially locally brewed stuff too (it was god damned horrid). She left that with me and went back to cooking.
When the food came out, she sat down to chat (I was the only one in the place at the time) and immediately started telling me about her husband that cheats on her with a young Japanese girl (she's gotta be over 40, and by the pictures of her husband the young girl she brought out, he must be too). The conversation got genuinely weird, her ranting about how her kids don't respect her, how the husband said she was a bad woman, how she closes up the restaurant at 1am to go down to the night market to sell found junk for extra money, how whiskey gives her energy, and how her kids wished she didn't drink so much. Basically I got the impression that she was an alcoholic, which was confirmed by the 6 shots of whiskey she took while I was eating my meal. I had a really mixed emotions about this woman, she was a sincere, warm and interesting person who seemed to have genuine problems but she was also probably the root of them to some degree (as we all are, really). At some point more people came in (and most seemed like regulars that she had a rapport with, confirming my thoughts about both her and the food) and she went off to take orders and cook for them, leaving me both relieved and dsiappointed at the same time.
Two other things from that restaurant: one, her youngest son was drawing on his arm with one of the markers that were placed at each table so that people could leave wall messages, so I offered mine as a canvas. He did this then ran off. Too funny.
"I happy and thank everything"
"You gotta lotta teeth for a smart cunt" (gotta be a movie quote -I hope)
"Thanks for the best christmas trees ever"
"My best friend at my cat"
Anyway, other hignlights from that night included seeing some jugglers in a park doing some pretty crazy stuff, an outdoor aerobics class full of old women half-assing their workouts and one very obviously gay middle aged man in spandex improving his own routine with a ton of spins and pirouettes in that same park (and the worst super-fast techno mashedups of pop hits you've ever heard), eating waaaaaaay too many amazing crispy mini-crepe things, and unwittingly eating a donut that had mayo filling (no, really. It was disgusting). Desserts here are so cheap that I'm pretty sure I'm going to get diabetes.
The only other thing I have to report from Bangkok gets filed under 'I don't understand people'. My dorm room had 3 Brits that literally did nothing all day but either sleep, watch videos on their laptops or tablets, and then go out to drink at about 10pm. Every day I was there it was the same. One day I had just returned to the dorm at about 7pm and they were talking about getting some food. One asked another what time it was, and when he got his reply he said 'Jesus, where does the time go when you're here?'. I wanted to smack him.
And now I'm in Ayutthaya, once Thailand's great capital and the centre of their empire for about 400 years. Lots of great ruins, lots of sun, lots of exhaustion, lots of pictures. Here's a few, the rest are in the album:
Lastly there's this photo, taken in a Wat located in the most popular of the ruins sites:
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
The Grand Palace
Before I get into today's sightseeing, just wanted to mention what I ate at the night market yesterday. First off was a stall where you select squid and other seafood on a stick, they grill them for you then chop them to bits and put them into a bag with this super spicy cilantro and chili sauce. Soooooo good, but had my mouth burning for a solid half hour. Then I bought a bad of mini donuts for a buck which were freshly made that might and freaking amazing. Then I had a bunch of mushrooms wrapped in ham, grilled and smothered in sweet teriyaki. And lastly, a piece of chocolate cake, like you'd find at a bakery. For a dollar. In fact all of that cost less than 4 bucks. Insane.
Anyway, so today I got up early with the intention of beating most of the crowds to the Grand Palace compound, which is the original site of the monarchy's religious and ceremonial buildings. Didn't quite work. The place was packed with tours first thing, so it that plan backfired about as spectacularly as it could have, and it turned into an incredibly frustrating experience. I felt like this guy:
Except I was a lot more angry by the end of it. I'm going to go on what seems like a bit of a racist rant now, but I hate Chinese tourists. Hate them. So much. They really are the worst, they outclass every other nation in awfulness where tourism is concerned.
First off, they spit all the time. Actually that's not quite accurate, they hork. Into garbage cans. Like, nostril clearing, phlegm hurling goodness. It's revolting.
Secondly, it's nearly impossible to get a picture of anything because there is a steady stream of people lining up to stand in front of monuments so they can have their picture taken beside it. If there's a family of 4, each of them has to have their own photo with it, then they'll do one of the kids, then one of mom and dad, then the whole family. It's insane. Why do they need these? It makes zero sense to me. And it's not just the important stuff either. Anything they can think of to take a picture beside, they will. Does anyone actually look at their surroundings, examine the craftsmanship of the trimming, etc? Nope, they just bustle through, take pictures, and yell at eachother.
Third, there's the noise. They don't stop talking, and they aren't quiet. Again, this is going to sound racist and maybe it's just the cumulative reaction of the folks on the train and too many tourists over the last few days, but I hate the sound of their language. It's like they're constantly fighting even when they're not, and I dout very much they have any concept of 'indoor voice'.
Fourth, they stop whenever they please. In the middle of doorways, in the middle of moving queues, and my personal favorite, when retrieving shoes from a rack (common sense says you grab them and move away, right? Not to the Chinese), whatever, they just stop suddenly and if you bump them, god help you. No consideration whatsoever.
And lastly, they are exceptionally holier than thou. They give you looks when you try to squeeze past them, but do the same whenever they can. They carry these shade umbrellas around and couldn't give less of a damn if they're sticking them in your face. At once point I tried to stand on something that everyone else was sitting on and they all jumped on me immediately because I had my shoes on. There were no signs, no way I could have known that was a faux pas (and again, they're all sitting on the thing), but holy hell, one guy started berating me in Chinese while the others looked on in with looks of disgust and contempt.
After that last episode I'd had enough, I went through most of the rest of the place pretty hurriedly and just had to get the hell out of there before one more asshole pushed me from behind trying to get me to move faster in the middle of a crowd whose pace I couldn't possibly dictate. Thankfully I still got some good pictures, which I'll be uploading to the album shortly. Check them out.
Despite the frustration (and the expense: was nearly 20 bucks entry), the place itself is amazing. The detail on all of the tile and glasswork is amazing, and in the sun a lot of it takes on this magical sparkle that seems like it's generating light of it's own accord. Unfortunately you also can't take pictures inside of the structures themselves (probably for security reasons), which is too bad because some of the murals and the decoration were just crazy. Their love of ornamentation would put any cathedral to shame, and that's both good and bad.
That's all for now, leaving Bangkok tomorrow I think so might not have an update for a while.
Anyway, so today I got up early with the intention of beating most of the crowds to the Grand Palace compound, which is the original site of the monarchy's religious and ceremonial buildings. Didn't quite work. The place was packed with tours first thing, so it that plan backfired about as spectacularly as it could have, and it turned into an incredibly frustrating experience. I felt like this guy:
Sad statue is sad.....
Except I was a lot more angry by the end of it. I'm going to go on what seems like a bit of a racist rant now, but I hate Chinese tourists. Hate them. So much. They really are the worst, they outclass every other nation in awfulness where tourism is concerned.
First off, they spit all the time. Actually that's not quite accurate, they hork. Into garbage cans. Like, nostril clearing, phlegm hurling goodness. It's revolting.
Secondly, it's nearly impossible to get a picture of anything because there is a steady stream of people lining up to stand in front of monuments so they can have their picture taken beside it. If there's a family of 4, each of them has to have their own photo with it, then they'll do one of the kids, then one of mom and dad, then the whole family. It's insane. Why do they need these? It makes zero sense to me. And it's not just the important stuff either. Anything they can think of to take a picture beside, they will. Does anyone actually look at their surroundings, examine the craftsmanship of the trimming, etc? Nope, they just bustle through, take pictures, and yell at eachother.
Third, there's the noise. They don't stop talking, and they aren't quiet. Again, this is going to sound racist and maybe it's just the cumulative reaction of the folks on the train and too many tourists over the last few days, but I hate the sound of their language. It's like they're constantly fighting even when they're not, and I dout very much they have any concept of 'indoor voice'.
Fourth, they stop whenever they please. In the middle of doorways, in the middle of moving queues, and my personal favorite, when retrieving shoes from a rack (common sense says you grab them and move away, right? Not to the Chinese), whatever, they just stop suddenly and if you bump them, god help you. No consideration whatsoever.
And lastly, they are exceptionally holier than thou. They give you looks when you try to squeeze past them, but do the same whenever they can. They carry these shade umbrellas around and couldn't give less of a damn if they're sticking them in your face. At once point I tried to stand on something that everyone else was sitting on and they all jumped on me immediately because I had my shoes on. There were no signs, no way I could have known that was a faux pas (and again, they're all sitting on the thing), but holy hell, one guy started berating me in Chinese while the others looked on in with looks of disgust and contempt.
After that last episode I'd had enough, I went through most of the rest of the place pretty hurriedly and just had to get the hell out of there before one more asshole pushed me from behind trying to get me to move faster in the middle of a crowd whose pace I couldn't possibly dictate. Thankfully I still got some good pictures, which I'll be uploading to the album shortly. Check them out.
Despite the frustration (and the expense: was nearly 20 bucks entry), the place itself is amazing. The detail on all of the tile and glasswork is amazing, and in the sun a lot of it takes on this magical sparkle that seems like it's generating light of it's own accord. Unfortunately you also can't take pictures inside of the structures themselves (probably for security reasons), which is too bad because some of the murals and the decoration were just crazy. Their love of ornamentation would put any cathedral to shame, and that's both good and bad.
That's all for now, leaving Bangkok tomorrow I think so might not have an update for a while.
Monday, 11 March 2013
A big update
Okay, where to begin? Maybe here, with a little something random for Mike and Krista and Steven:
I'm as stumped as you are. I literally could not find out what this sign was for, the bit on the right is for Ryokan, the hostel this sign was placed near to.
Now, a sunburn update: I'm nearly done peeling and the itching has been bad (not a lot of sleep last night), but I'm hoping the worst is over. A couple of pictures:
Tasty.
Let's see, what else? Oh yeah, this guy in bangkok.
I can't stop giggling when I see him, he's too funny.
Anyway, I'm in Bangkok now, and it's been an eventful 28ish hours since I got here. The train wasn't too bad, took about 24 hours total and went by surprisingly quickly. The only rough part was being seated near a group of middle aged Chinese folks who must have been taking some sort of group trip with their friends. They were loud, and shrill, and not particularly considerate when it came to noise both as people were going to sleep and waking up. One weird thing about Chinese folks: they have no shame when they burp. None. Especially the women. It's not like they let them rip and laugh at it, they just let them rip and everyone carries on as if it's totally normal (which, to them, it obviously is). They all inhale from these little bottles of scented crap that oddly enough seems to make their belches smell delightful, so it's hard to complain, but it's a very odd cultural difference.
Getting to the hostel was cake thanks to the cheap taxi (about 2.50 for a half hour's ride, the cheapness of things is going to be a theme). Hostel I wanted to stay at was full, so they directed me to a cheaper one (5$ dorm!). Once I got settled and such I just walked around for a while getting used to the area, as I usually do. Difference being that the area is basically the backpacker capital of the world: Khao San Road. I'd like to be able to say that it's an awesome place, but it's really just an unholy mix of vendors, guesthouses, ethnic street peddlers, tuk-tuk drivers, people trying to scam you into taking tours, food galore, etc. I had identified a couple of things that I wanted to buy (go go thai fisherman pants!), so I went about getting those. I freaking hate bartering, but it's the only way to not pay double what they're worth. Wandered around some more, took it all in, got some 1$ curry that was very good, and started widening the wandering circle.
I walked along one of the larger streets and I could see some sort of big gathering across at a park. I asked a taxi driver if he knew what was going on. Big mistake. He told me it was just a normal thing, that the park was closed because there were too many people now and asked where I'd like to go. I had forgotten that nobody gives you a correct answer if they've got a service to ply, so once I caught on I just said by and walked over. Now that sounds easy, but I had to cross this 'street' in 5 separate places, across a total of 14 lanes. yes, I counted. Traffic here is just freaking nuts, like a couple of poorly organized 401s run through the city.
Anyway, once I got over there, I saw this:
People were flying these huge kites, and a lot of families were flying smaller ones. Turns out there was an unveiling of sorts of some baby Buddha staues in the area. There was also this awesome balloon that was lit from inside and had an outline of the staue on it that doesn't really show all that well in the picture but looked very cool in person:
All in all it was pretty magical, walking around this huge open park with all these kites playing around you. The actual event bit wasn't that interesting to me, but in the picture above you can see the Grand Palace spires lit up in the background. It was an awesome setting.
As I walked around the park I noticed a different night market close by, so I decided to check it out, and I'm pretty damned glad I did, because it was shopping heaven. Now you're probably surprised to read that since I'm not exactly known for my shopping love or prowess, but this was different. not only was everything insanely cheap, but I'm convinced a great deal of it had come from donations or charity (in other words, they were probably ripping charities off for stuff to sell or buying wholesale from thrift shops - you could tell they were previously worn though, some had very specific stuff on them and some were signed by groups of people, etc - dead giveaway). That goes for everything from clothes (2$ t-shirts? Yes please), to electronics (tons of old cameras and lenses to browse through? Don't mind if I do), to just about anything else you could think of. This place also had people getting tattoos, hair cutting stations, any kind of food you could think of (I bought 5 small donuts for a buck - it took all my willpower not to go back for more after I had already caved the once), etc etc. Way better prices than the backpacker markets, way more variety, and best of all it wasn't the same crap in every stall that I'm now noticing on every single white person I see after only 1 day of being here. Here's the breakdown of what I got:
1 used book
2 x fisherman pants
sunglasses (other ones broke)
a hat (other one was disgusting and had started hurting my head)
over the shoulder bag to use as a food bag
the aforementioned donuts
plate of pad thai with fresh squeezed orange juice
7 shirts, including one button up collared shirt
And I paid about 40$. And most of that was the fisherman pants and 2 shirts I bought at the overpriced backpacker market. The t-shirts are especially awesome, I even found a Boston Celtics Rasheed Wallace t-shirt and an old Deftones shirt. It took some digging through a lot of crap, but it was worth it. I'm going back tonight for some food tourism. After that I went back tot he dorm and crashed after a solid 4 hours of walking around this massive area, completely sated.
Today I went to Wat Pho, which is where this guy lives:
That is an enormous reclining Buddha. The pose is that in which he supposedly entered the state of Nirvana. It's so big and the room so full of pillars that it was the only decent angle I could get of him. The exterior decoration of the temples in the complex were much more impressive, but sadly one of my camera batteries seems to be dying to I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked. There are more in the Picassa link on the sidebar.
After that I went back to the hostel to charge up the camera, got some food, and headed back out to go to the National Museum, but it was closed. Bummer. So I tried the Grand Palace but it was so choked with people that I couldn't bear it and decided to take it easy today and go back tomorrow morning at opening. It's funny tough, there are so many monuments and temples and statues and so much ornamentation and gold leaf around that you very quickly become desensitized to it. There are always the same thought when I see these places though: what could have been done with that money elsewhere. It's beautiful and impressive no doubt, but it's just a reminder of how tied to power religion and pageantry are.
A few other random things here: Thai people are obsessed with looking white. There are ads for whitening cream everywhere and people wear that shit all the time. With the heat here, it often looks like you're walking down the street among a crowd of jokers with melting makeup. It's creepy, I promise you that.
There's a huge tattoo culture here. Parlors are everywhere, a lot of Thais have tattoos, and they tend to be of the offensive nature. I saw a girl of not more than 18 in the street market with a tattoo of a naked woman in a garden on her back, exposed with just your average tank top. Just one example, but still not something you see often.
Today I saw a guy chewing tobacco while wearing a pollution face mask, lifting it up every once in a while to spit. Figure that one out.
Also saw the most hilariously casual firemen. They looked very young, like under 20, and they were hanging off the top of a firetruck as it sped through clearing traffic. They were just looking at the crowd passing by, kinda leaning back, one guy was yawning, the other adjusting his junk, looking bored. Was too funny.
That's about it for now. Big sightseeing day tomorrow, so should have lots more pictures soon.
More photos going up
Don't have time to put in a proper post a the moment, but wanted to let you all know that I'm adding a lot of photos, so go take a look. They're in the Picassa album.
And if you can't see any new ones, someone please let me know.
And if you can't see any new ones, someone please let me know.
Friday, 8 March 2013
So, so very bored....
Well, the inside odyssey continues and I'm pretty damned bored. Also itchy. Like, very itchy. Got my hands on some anti-histamines today but they sell them from pharmacies that close at like 4pm, not from drug stores that are open much later but only carry very basic stuff like aspirin, etc, and mostly beauty products. Buncha jerks, could really have used that stuff last night as I tossed and turned. The peeling process has begun in earnest today, and combined with a bunch of maturing bug bites from my 2 nights in what I later discovered was literally the cheapest dorm in town, I'm one big raw nerve. Good times.
Tomorrow I set off on a long train ride between Penang and Bangkok, skipping all of the southern islands for now because I simply can't enjoy them until I've healed up. In the end though I think this kind of makes sense, as I can return toward the end of my trip and decide how much diving I want to do in the area with the money I have left. In the mean time, a few more random things:
I'm down 2 shirts (and the rest reeeeeeealllllly need to be washed), left them behind on Pulau Pangkor; clotheslines are my friend and my enemy, as I tend to forget things when they're not right in front of my face. I know, you're thinking to yourself: Mark forgot something? That's unpossible! But it's true. Thankfully Bangkok is the perfect place to do laundry and stock up on cheap fisherman pants and cotton shirts.
The food here is amazing, but there's some really, really weird stuff. One famous dish is called Cendol, and it consists of shaved ice topped with a kind of palm sugar sauce or syrup, then these neon green string bean type things, and candied kidney beans. It's pretty tasty, but it makes for a very heavy and strange snack.
I also broke down and tried the KFC here, which I had heard was much better than back home. It was my first Western food since I left and I'm disappointed to say that it was not worth the loss of my self-respect from breaking my pledge not to eat anything like chain food. It's definitely better, the coating is crispy and the piece of chicken was way bigger than anything you get back home, but it's still fried chicken and it still sat like a lump in my stomach. Lesson learned.
I saw a guy next to me at the internet cafe yesterday watching Twilight videos on youtube. He looked to be about 40, and was really into it, watching them for like 30 minutes. I think this is why so many people object to the US projecting itself around the world culturally; I wouldn't want my kids watching that crap either, let alone 40 year old men.
That's all I've got for now. Episodes of Breaking bad and a 900-page Tom Clancy book that I picked up for the train ride are what's sustaining my brain these days, can't wait until the sun goes down so I can get out and walk around and eat Indian sweats like my life depended on it. Pretty sure my belly is at least enjoying the down time, since it's impossible not to snack like crazy when you're bored and everything is so damned cheap. Hopefully the next update will have lots of good Bangkok stories....
Tomorrow I set off on a long train ride between Penang and Bangkok, skipping all of the southern islands for now because I simply can't enjoy them until I've healed up. In the end though I think this kind of makes sense, as I can return toward the end of my trip and decide how much diving I want to do in the area with the money I have left. In the mean time, a few more random things:
I'm down 2 shirts (and the rest reeeeeeealllllly need to be washed), left them behind on Pulau Pangkor; clotheslines are my friend and my enemy, as I tend to forget things when they're not right in front of my face. I know, you're thinking to yourself: Mark forgot something? That's unpossible! But it's true. Thankfully Bangkok is the perfect place to do laundry and stock up on cheap fisherman pants and cotton shirts.
The food here is amazing, but there's some really, really weird stuff. One famous dish is called Cendol, and it consists of shaved ice topped with a kind of palm sugar sauce or syrup, then these neon green string bean type things, and candied kidney beans. It's pretty tasty, but it makes for a very heavy and strange snack.
I saw a guy next to me at the internet cafe yesterday watching Twilight videos on youtube. He looked to be about 40, and was really into it, watching them for like 30 minutes. I think this is why so many people object to the US projecting itself around the world culturally; I wouldn't want my kids watching that crap either, let alone 40 year old men.
That's all I've got for now. Episodes of Breaking bad and a 900-page Tom Clancy book that I picked up for the train ride are what's sustaining my brain these days, can't wait until the sun goes down so I can get out and walk around and eat Indian sweats like my life depended on it. Pretty sure my belly is at least enjoying the down time, since it's impossible not to snack like crazy when you're bored and everything is so damned cheap. Hopefully the next update will have lots of good Bangkok stories....
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Some random bits
Just a bunch of random things I feel like adding while the latest episode of The Walking dead loads on Project Free TV (one positive of having to stay out of sunlight: I can get back to being a geek for a bit).
First off I was wandering around Georgetown (that's the main city on the island of Penang, where I currently am), and came across the City Hall, where a think tank had put on this exhibition about how it was going to get Malaysia out of what's called the 'middle income trap'. In other words, how it can transition from a middle class economy of manufacturing and agriculture that's been mired in stagnation to a growth economy. Now this is going to sound like self-aggrandizing, but the consequences of the middle income trap are exactly what I was talking about in the last post regarding Malays and their eating habits: all this access to modernity doesn't lead to improvements in quality of life without education and public awareness. The government here has basically been throwing the money it's gained from making the leap out of poverty at the problem, but nothing has stuck, nothing has changed. It reminded me too of another incident where I saw a Malaysian woman lash out at her autistic daughter because she had dropped a bag of chips. It made me pretty angry, but later when I was talking to a woman named Sarah who is a social worker in France, she said that she'd come across it too and that the problem is simply that parents don't really have any understanding of what autism is; they tend to think the kid is just a problem child. It's sad, but it's reality.
On a completely unrelated but much funnier note, I found saw this church today and couldn't help but laugh a little at the KKK-hat-esque spire on top (or unicorn horn, if you prefer). Don't really see that much anymore, huh?
Here's something else that made me really wonder where the hell I was: I was walking down the road that runs along the beach in Pangkor, just a little way past the main drag, and I walked past a man and his daughter in an SUV. The man was loading a clip into a pistol. Suitably freaked out, I hurried past, wondering if I was about to witness my first drive-by based on where he was parked. I walked past going the other direction about 5 minutes later and he was still parked there, only I swear to god, this time he was aiming the gun out of the driver's window at a crowd by the beach, and I heard the click of the gun. I winced, but there was no shot - he was apparently just trying it out. With his daughter still in the passenger seat. You can't make this stuff up.
My last two nights in Pangkor were great, played cards with a bunch of people that included 3 Germans, the aforementioned french Sarah, and Norwegian named Janika. Learned a game called shithead. Gotta love backpacker card games, deliberately simple so the language barrier doesn't matter. There were also a German couple who were there with their two kids of roughly age 4, and they both ran around naked pretty much the whole time (the kids, not the adults). Totally normal for them, not so normal for me. Nothing weirds me out more than tiny genitals. That'll probably change if/once I have kids, but for now...
Here's one for Steve: I have this weird sadness whenever I leave a place that I didn't see everything that I could. I think it's from playing RPGs and needing to finish every dungeon and explore every game area. You know what I'm talking about.
I watched some dudes play basketball in a park today, and my god was it awful. It seemed like some sort of mini tournament, maybe among co-workers or something, and nobody could hit a jump shot. I wanted to run out there in my sandals and destroy them, but given the sunburn and the fact that they had refs and all, I obviously didn't. God it was funny stuff though, like the equivalent of grade 9 basketball in Cobourg or grade 6 basketball in Toronto. I took some video that I will forever cherish.
I did some snorkeling, and although it wasn't the greatest spot for coral there isn't much that compares to how it feels having a school of beautiful, multi-coloured tropical fish swimming in circles around you, inches from your mask. can't wait for more of the same, and it's made me really seriously consider doing more diving if I can afford it down the road.
That's it for now. Pray for my sunburnt skin.
Oh, and there are some new pictures up, even though there's been a lot of rain and now a lot of me being unable to be in the sun. Let me know if the link works, gonna put it below the flickr stream one in the top right.
First off I was wandering around Georgetown (that's the main city on the island of Penang, where I currently am), and came across the City Hall, where a think tank had put on this exhibition about how it was going to get Malaysia out of what's called the 'middle income trap'. In other words, how it can transition from a middle class economy of manufacturing and agriculture that's been mired in stagnation to a growth economy. Now this is going to sound like self-aggrandizing, but the consequences of the middle income trap are exactly what I was talking about in the last post regarding Malays and their eating habits: all this access to modernity doesn't lead to improvements in quality of life without education and public awareness. The government here has basically been throwing the money it's gained from making the leap out of poverty at the problem, but nothing has stuck, nothing has changed. It reminded me too of another incident where I saw a Malaysian woman lash out at her autistic daughter because she had dropped a bag of chips. It made me pretty angry, but later when I was talking to a woman named Sarah who is a social worker in France, she said that she'd come across it too and that the problem is simply that parents don't really have any understanding of what autism is; they tend to think the kid is just a problem child. It's sad, but it's reality.
On a completely unrelated but much funnier note, I found saw this church today and couldn't help but laugh a little at the KKK-hat-esque spire on top (or unicorn horn, if you prefer). Don't really see that much anymore, huh?
Here's something else that made me really wonder where the hell I was: I was walking down the road that runs along the beach in Pangkor, just a little way past the main drag, and I walked past a man and his daughter in an SUV. The man was loading a clip into a pistol. Suitably freaked out, I hurried past, wondering if I was about to witness my first drive-by based on where he was parked. I walked past going the other direction about 5 minutes later and he was still parked there, only I swear to god, this time he was aiming the gun out of the driver's window at a crowd by the beach, and I heard the click of the gun. I winced, but there was no shot - he was apparently just trying it out. With his daughter still in the passenger seat. You can't make this stuff up.
My last two nights in Pangkor were great, played cards with a bunch of people that included 3 Germans, the aforementioned french Sarah, and Norwegian named Janika. Learned a game called shithead. Gotta love backpacker card games, deliberately simple so the language barrier doesn't matter. There were also a German couple who were there with their two kids of roughly age 4, and they both ran around naked pretty much the whole time (the kids, not the adults). Totally normal for them, not so normal for me. Nothing weirds me out more than tiny genitals. That'll probably change if/once I have kids, but for now...
Here's one for Steve: I have this weird sadness whenever I leave a place that I didn't see everything that I could. I think it's from playing RPGs and needing to finish every dungeon and explore every game area. You know what I'm talking about.
I watched some dudes play basketball in a park today, and my god was it awful. It seemed like some sort of mini tournament, maybe among co-workers or something, and nobody could hit a jump shot. I wanted to run out there in my sandals and destroy them, but given the sunburn and the fact that they had refs and all, I obviously didn't. God it was funny stuff though, like the equivalent of grade 9 basketball in Cobourg or grade 6 basketball in Toronto. I took some video that I will forever cherish.
I did some snorkeling, and although it wasn't the greatest spot for coral there isn't much that compares to how it feels having a school of beautiful, multi-coloured tropical fish swimming in circles around you, inches from your mask. can't wait for more of the same, and it's made me really seriously consider doing more diving if I can afford it down the road.
That's it for now. Pray for my sunburnt skin.
Oh, and there are some new pictures up, even though there's been a lot of rain and now a lot of me being unable to be in the sun. Let me know if the link works, gonna put it below the flickr stream one in the top right.
Monday, 4 March 2013
Sunburnt, Bitten and Happy
Been a while since I posted and this is just a quick update that I'll maybe expand on later, but I've got a bit of time to kill at an internet cafe before my bus leaves, so here I am. I left the Cameron highlands on a whim one morning when it was raining yet again and the forecast was for more of the same over the next 3-4 days, and I headed for an island called Puala Pangkor, where I am now. I know I promised some pictures of the Cameron highlands and I certainly didn't get a chance to take any that do it justice, so I tried stealing some from the internet, to no avail. I already showed you what a tea field looks like, and all the pictures I can find are of that. What google images won't show you is the massive quantities of land devoted to greenhouses and farming vegetables.
Now multiply that by about a billionty trillion because I only was able to get my camera out for like 5 minutes between rainfalls, and you have a sense of how much farming goes on in the area. I wish I had the pictures to show you because it's both amazing and depressing at the same time give that a) exploitation has apparently really eroded the soil quality and caused a lot of problems with landslides, etc, and b) Malays don't eat vegetables. Like, at all. I would be that 50% of the produce goes overseas, 40% to Singapore, and Malays MAYBE eat 10% of it. Maybe. And it woulde be easy to throw some vegetables into their noodle and rice dishes, but it's all starches and proteins here. I actually have to search for vegetables in markets, where you can really only get cauliflower, carrots, and like chilis and onions and garlic and such. It's crazy.
In fact I was reading a book while at my last hostel about a kid who grew up in Britain in the 70s and he talks about shitty junk food all the time because processed food was suddenly available, cheap and easy, and nobody knew any better. Strikes me as being a pretty perfect parallel; development without education and information is an unhappy trap. You can buy every kind of desert you could think of here, but try finding a box of crackers that isn't butter-flavoured, or chocolate covered, etc. Everything is processed, everything is sugary. The only exception is the cheap, fresh seafood. Random pro tip I learned the other day though: when choosing fresh seafood, look at the eyes. If they're milky coloured, not so fresh. If clear, you're good. You needed to know this.
Anyway, now I'm in leaving Pulau Pangkor, all sunburt (it's actually pretty bad, I'm blistering a bit on my back) and bug bitten (one night of having your feet in the sand after dark is all the lesson you need there). I didn't take a ton of photos, but here's a couple to make you jealous with:
From what I'm told, these are nothing compared to Thailand and Vietnam's beaches, which makes me a bit giddy since it won't be long until I'm in Thailand.
How's the weather in Canada by the way? Bwahahahahaha.
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