Week 7 and 8 Thailand

Continued from before… I've been saving this up for a while so this post is really long.

Some of the sites in Bangkok where a little less impressive such as Thai Boxing and Wats (Buddhist Temples). I went to Thai Boxing on a Saturday night. They had pricing for locals (200baht) and foreigners (1000 baht). The place was empty, but the boxing was pretty good. There were a number of knock outs. Wats in Bangkok out number churches in Calgary. Wats are very similar to each other and often feature large gold Buddha's and many small Buddha's (they are everywhere). It's amazing how much money is spent on donations to Buddha. It is common to see plates of food and drinks in front of a Buddha statue.

After Bangkok I headed off to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the capital of Thailand many years ago until Burma sacked it. The temples or ruins of Ayutthaya are hundreds of years old. I spent a whole day touring them and by the end of it I was pretty tired of temples. The temples are mostly brick and are often characterized by one large Buddha several (in some cases hundreds) of small Buddha's then a few large towers. Most of the temples cost 30 baht, but with that you basically can see and do anything (like climb up large towers).

From Ayutthaya I took a 12 hour train ride to Chiang Mai (sleeper train with fan). I'm getting use to trains now and I had a pretty good rest. I had booked my hotel and a trek in Bangkok so upon Arrival in Chiang Mai I was picked up at the airport and sent to a fairly nice hotel (nicest one since the Philippines). This hotel cost around 15 dollars a night it had AC, TV (one channel had English) and hot water. That night I went for supper at this tourist show. Everything at the show was very expensive (like every tourist area I've been). I've decided that I enjoy street stand food better then any restaurant food I've had so have now decided that that's the only way I'm going to eat in Thailand. My favorite food is noodle soup, partly because it's the easiest thing to order and also the cheapest but also because it's been one of my favorite meals. On the street all you have to do is point out the noodle you want. The soup comes with rice noodles, some meat and vegetables and a few sauces you can put on it. It costs 20 baht (roughly 70 cents).

The next day I started a three day trek by Chiang Mai (It was all pre arranged and I'm not even sure what park it was). I started out with two girls, one was a photographer from Japan who was traveling by her self the other was from Finland and was traveling with her boyfriend. The girl from Finland had gotten food poisoning the day before so her boyfriend had gone on the trek ahead of her, because of this we were setting out the opposite way from usual so that they could meet up that night. The first part of the trip was a bamboo ride down a river. It was pretty fun. I was giving a bamboo pull to try to steer the rear of the raft and I sorta got the hang of it. I knew I was suppose to do something when our guide who had a poll in the front of the boat looked back and gave me a look.

After rafting we started on our trek. I have been walking most of this trip so the trekking was pretty easy. Still the pace and terrain was a good challenge and I enjoyed the walk. It was nice traveling in such a small group as it gave good opportunity to get to know everyone including the two Thai trekkers. The first night we stayed in a Village. It was pretty authentic, lots of pigs, chickens, cows, dogs and kids. The villagers lived off the land and made money from selling food at markets and selling drinks to the foreigners who came by about twice a week. The next day the two girls I was with headed back (they were only doing a two day hike) and I continued with the two guides. It was great to go hiking alone with the guides and I enjoyed talking with them. It was a pretty short hike especially considering we were able to go a little faster with just the three of us then the day before. We picked mushrooms on the way to eat for dinner.

When we go to camp we relaxed for most of the afternoon until another group of hikers came in. This group was about 10 people. I got a different perspective of farang (white rich people in Thai, has a negative connotation) then I had before because I was with the Thai guides. When the group came in all the white people talked with each other and all the Thai people talked with each other. I was with the Thai's. They talked about the farang (mostly about the girls who they pointed out to me. I enjoyed some mushroom soup then sat down with the other white people to enjoy supper. There were a couple lesbians from Holland, 4 UK guys, 1 Canadian from Vancouver, an older New Zealand lady and a couple (who I didn't find out where they were from). Like I said in a previous post you meet and experience a lot more when traveling alone. With this group the travelers who were in groups had there own conversations and didn't join in or attempt to bring in anyone else into their conversations. I on the other hand had a lengthy conversation with the two girls from New Zealand and Canada who were also traveling alone. It seems like all the lone travelers are either young women or old men. I've met very few young men traveling alone.

The next day we hiked out, went for lunch, then rode elephants. Riding elephants would have been a lot of fun, but they didn't look like they were treated very well and the whole time I rode on it I felt sorry for the poor elephant. After elephant riding we went back to the hotel where I enjoyed one of the nicest showers on my trip. After the shower and a short nap, the girl from Canada (who was staying at a different hotel) came by and we went out for dinner and some drinks.

Following the trek I booked a 1 day cooking class. In the morning we went to the market decided what we were going to cook (we each choose 7 dishes) and watched as our teacher bought some things for cooking. Cooking was really fun. We got to cook all 7 dishes from scratch then eat them. I could only eat about a quarter of everything I cooked. We got recipe books and I plan on doing a lot more Asian cooking when I get back to Calgary. Thai food has definitely been the best food in Asia. It's unfortunate that I won't be going to Vietnam on this trip because I'd love to follow up this cooking class with a Vietnamese cooking class.

The following day I headed to Chiang Rai where I planned to rent a motor bike. Chiang Rai was a very nice city with very few Farang. The white people that were there were older men (probably looking for Thai women). I didn't really fit in with the white people in Chiang Rai and frequently got bad looks from these old white Americans. They were probably worried that I was going after their 20 year old Thai women. The next day I rented a motorbike.

In Chiang Rai I witnessed the start of the monsoons that usually hit Thailand in June. While motor biking north of Chiang Rai I marked the event by looking down at my gas meter to find it was pointed at empty. I had earlier decided to rent a motorbike after getting advice from a friend (Andrew Essex) who had done this trip a year before. He had mentioned that it was the best part of his trip and after talking to several other travelers that agreed that renting a motorbike is a lot of fun I decided on doing it. I hadn't ridden a motorbike before but that didn't trouble the rental company. At first it was a little awkward making turns but I got the hang of it amazingly fast and was soon on my way to the golden triangle (where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet).

It was fun to drive instead of being driven for a change and I had no trouble getting use to traffic in northern Thailand. Having been use to seeing cars drive on the other side of the road I didn't make any turning into oncoming traffic mistakes. I was pretty unimpressed with the golden triangle and opted to get some lunch (my usual noodle soap) and head off for some more driving which I was enjoying. I decided to slowly head back to Chiang Mai taking a longer route back. The terrain North West of Chiang Rai had a lot more hills then directly North East of Chiang Rai (where the golden triangle is). I enjoyed riding my bike and made few stops (it was a fairly long way back). I filled up once as I went (50 baht to fill the tank, 1.70 Canadian). It rained a little as I went but I got passed the clouds and continued to ride until about 2:30pm when I noticed that clouds were closing in all around me. I had passed my last gas station and city about 25 km's back and still have 40 to go until the next city. The terrain at this point was large hills (nearly mountains). It was at this unfortunate point that I realized my fuel gauge was pointed at empty and that I had potentially 40 kms to go to the next gas station. It soon started to pour, but I didn't take much notice to how wet I was because all I could think of was my bike stalling as I approached a hill. Few things come to mind when its pouring rain and you are on a motor bike in the middle of no where with the nearest English speaking Thai is 40 kms away, and night is just 4 hours away. First I noticed the pillars that were every km and marked how far to the next major city. I read somewhere that it takes the average person 1 hour to walk 4 km and so soon I was figuring out how many hours it would take to walk to the next city and back to my motor bike. Realizing that at this point that that was 20 hours of walking the next thing I did was pray that I was going to make it to the next city. Next I thought about what I would do if my bike stalled. I figured that I'd park it on the side and walk trying to wave down someone that could take me to the next city. Realizing how difficult that could be the next thing I did was pray that my bike would make it to the next city. About 15 kms later while passing by a few houses I saw a hut with a few women in it. I decided to stop and ask them where the next gas station was. First I told them in English then pointed to my bike and showed them a sign of a gauge pointed down. After a long puzzled look she held up four fingers and pointed ahead. hmm I thought, only four kms to the next gas station. 6 kms later I realized she might have meant 40 kms or maybe that it cost four baht to buy whatever she was selling or maybe she was telling me it was 4:00. I focused my attention back to the sign posts and realized with amazement that I was only a 5 hour walk from the next city. The next 10 to 40 minutes where a little hazy, partly because it was raining so hard I could hardly see and partly because I was able to calm myself and enjoy the moment. It just wouldn't have been the same bike ride if everything went fine. Amazed and relieved I reached a gas station 40 km and about an hour an a half after it had started to rain.

It was still raining when I got to Chaing Rai. I figured I knew how to get back to my guest house but it was 7:00 dark and wet. Nothing looked like it did that morning. Worse then being completely soaked was that my bike would stall when I stopped and it was getting harder to start the thing (even with gas in the tank). My maps were useless now because they were completely soaked. After about an hour of wondering around the city trying to keep the motorbike running I finally found something I recognized and managed to get to my guest house. I took a shower then had something to eat and went to bed.

The next day as I sifted through my still wet belongings I re-read the contract and realized that it specified a 100km maximum daily usage. I didn't bring that up when I gave the keys back to the guest house and checked out. I took the bus back to Chaing Mai. On the way we stopped at a police check point. I had seen several as I was biking but they had never stopped me. I think the check points are because of ongoing tensions with Myanmar. I guess in 2002 there was a minor conflict but I'm not sure why there were so many check points now because everything I saw seemed very safe and there was no news reports on the subject. Anyways this was the second time I had to show my passport at a police check point (the first being in Malaysia).

I've spent the last two days in Chiang Mai. I haven't had a lot to do and because its low season and it's been raining fairly frequently there hasn't been a lot of activity on the streets. Today I plan on taking a train to Bangkok then heading to the closest Island I could find on my map (Ko Samet) for a 3 day break from city life. I need to be in Bangkok on the 29th to pick up plane tickets and get a suit fitting. I don't have much time, but I rather go to an island then spend another week in a city that I've already been to.

I hear Calgary has had a lot of rain. It's interesting that in Asia if the temperature drops below 5 all the schools close and in Canada if it rains for a week like it rains in Asia for a couple months the rivers flood and people are evacuated.

Week 6 and 7 Thailand

Last I left I had just been in Bangkok a few days. Bangkok is an amazing city and I spent several days walking around exploring. I've taken public transit in most of the major cities I've visited and did the same in Bangkok. Bangkok has every mode of public transit imaginable. It includes, skytrain, subway, train, river boat, and bus. The buses and river boat are about 5 baht (10 cents) and can take you almost anywhere in the city if you know which one to use. There are no transit maps, so its sorta like going to the bus station in Calgary when you only speak french and trying to get somewhere when you have no idea what that somewhere looks like.

I've talked to a lot of people that didn't like Bangkok, but like everywhere you hear good and bad about every place. I find travelers a lot different in Thailand then in Malaysia. Thailand seems to be the starting place for most travelers and I've met a lot of fresh travelers who have only been to Australia before coming to Thailand. You can tell the difference by the way they spend money for Western comforts, and eat in restaurants. Theirs a larger variety of travelers (even in the low season). I've met people of all ages. Strangely the majority of the travelers seem to be women and couples. I have yet to meet a lone male traveler. Some of the highlights of Bangkok was Ko San road, and Street Markets/food. Kho San is the capital of backpacking. The streets are full of overpriced food, clothing, backpackers, and Tuk Tuks (small motorbike street cars). I didn't like shopping or eating on Kho San road but people watching was amazing. It was like an urban zoo with a huge selection of different kinds of human. I had only one meal on kho san road all others were in markets or street vendors off the road. Thai food is amazing and I love buying it in markets where the selection, quality, environment and cost is unbelievable. Every city has a day and night market. Street vendors sell fruit, meat on a stick, soups and a wide selection of none western food, clothing and merchandise.

I'd like to continue but at the place I'm typing in Chiang Mai the internet has gone down once and the power just went down erasing a few minutes of my typing (thunderstorm outside). Its 10:00pm and I'm going to Chiang Rai at 6am so I think I'll pack it up and post more about Bangkok and my travels to north Thailand later.

rice fields in the middle of the forrest.

kids playing in a village during treking in Chiang Mai

navigating the river in Ayutthaya

massive stone budhas (everywhere!)

Budhas in Ayutthaya. (even stone budhas get thirsty)

Thai Boxing in Bangkok

more lizards in Bangkok

khaosan road Bangkok

huge geckos in the perhentian islands in Malaysia

Longest Canopy in the world in Tamen Negara Malaysia. Its about 10m off the ground.

beautiful El Nedo

mmmm mangos

I've seen these things everywhere I've gone. The largest was about 3m long with a body about a foot wide.

The Twin towers just after thunderstorm

Week 5 and 6 Malaysia and Thailand

My last major update was in Kota Bharu. After Kota Bharu I headed off to the Perhentian Islands. The Perhentian islands were nothing like any beach I was on in the Philippines. The perhentian islands is made up of two islands and several beaches on each island. I only visited three beaches as the others were the resort beaches where prices are 10 times more. The beach I stayed at was called long beach. Simply said it was a backpackers beach. The beach was a lot smaller then others I have visited it had no roads (the only access was by water). There were a lot of white foreigners on the beach nearly all of which were in there 20s. Many of the waitresses and scuba diver instructors were also foreign. The beach was very clean and other than taxi drivers (that took people to the main land and other beaches) there was nobody asking you to buy something. The prices were about double the regular mainland prices (Beer in Malaysia costs alot). I stayed at a place that had a 24 bed dorm (which as practically empty for most of my stay).  I spent most of the time relaxing and reading.  On my third day I went Snorkeling.  It was a day long trip and we went to about 5 sites.  The neatest thing was the giant sea turtles (with up to 1m diameter shells).  Well you're swimming along looking at them they'd occasionally come up to breath and surface right next to you.  I think I enjoyed the fish and coral better in the Philippines but it was still really amazing here.  It seemed like older coral or at least coral that was exposed more then what I saw in the Philippines.

 

I was planning on leaving the next day but I came down with some food poisoning that lasted about a day.  It was ok though lots of people came in that day (about 12 new people into the dorm) and it rained most of the day anyways.  So I just visited most of the time.  I decided to skip the beaches in southern Thailand and head straight to Bangkok from the Perhentian Islands.  Beaches get boring and it seems I've spent most of my time on them.  Unfortunately I didn't find anyone to travel with on the Perhentian Islands (and thus save money on long distance taxi).  I took a Taxi from the Perhentian Islands to the border crossing about 1 and a half hours and it cost about 20 Canadian.  I was a little surprised to come a cross a police check point on the way.  They asked to see my passport and then let us pass.  The border crossing was really easy in fact a little to easy.  If I had wanted I could have easily walked across without getting my passport stamped, I had to look for the booths to stamp my passport.  on the other side I took up an offer to get a bike ride to the train station.  At the train station I hooked up with a couple people from Calgary.  Unfortunately the computers were down so we had to take a train to Hatt Yai in the hopes of finding another train to Bangkok (the train was just about to leave when I arrived so it was perfect timing).  It took about 5 hours to get to Hart Yai, here I changed what was left of my Malaysia Ringets to Thailand Baht and grabbed some lunch/supper.  The next train was about 2 hours later so it was great timing and the food was really good.  From Hart Yai to Bangkok the train was about 16 hours we took a sleeper train so we could sleep on the way. 

It really is amazing the diversity of places the world has. I guess I didn't really know what to expect but I've been shocked just how different each place is. It really is an eye opener. Bangkok is amazing. I've spent the last day catching up on sleep and checking into travel plans but throughout it all I've got a pretty good first impression of the khao san road area. I can't really describe it... but in simplest terms its a stable chaos. Theres a lot more police in Bangkok. I've even seen one give a ticket for an illegal left turn. In the Khao San Road area their main purpose is to protect the tourists. People really do a great job of milking money out of tourists, especially on Khao San Road. Chang Beer is 6.5% and comes in can or 640mL glass bottles. After a day in the Thailand heat and walking around that one bottle will make anyone pretty tipsy. The price ranges from 40 baht to 80 baht that is around 1 to 2 dollars Canadian at most restaurants. Water is 5 baht for a 1L container. Prices fluctuate everywhere its not a shock to walk just a few steps and find something half the price. My lunch today was fried noodle and beef from a restaurant on Khao Sand Road, it wasn't that great but I paid 65 baht for it. My Supper was beef and yellow noodle on a street stall a little ways from Khao Sand Road it was 20 baht and much much better then my lunch.

I think the strangest thing about my travels is the fundamentals of life in other countries. Overall in Asia there is little to no enforcement of the law, and so for some enforcement breaking has severe penalties. Still many laws are not in place. I have not seen a real DVD since I was in Canada. In the philippines you where asked if you wanted to buy DVD's. Elsewhere (Malaysia and Thailand) people openly sell and show pirated DVDs on the street. I've watched several at guest houses and restaurants. The DVDs come out within a day of the release of the movie. The quality is ok, however they also include English subtitles which are usually very bad, written by someone who seems to have very poor English. It seems the poorer the country the less the law matters. I never experienced the Philippines like I've experienced the rest of Asia but its definitely the poorest area I've travelled. In the Philippines I saw several signs that seemed to advertise that beer is good for driving (keeps you cool). Just now on Khao San Road I saw several things that surprised me (all within the watchful eye of the tourist police). One sign at a liquor cart said they didn't ID people and just next to that you could get fake ID (student and press ID). You would think that this lack of laws and enforcement would make it extremely dangerous to travel. I'm sure this is the case in some parts of the world but from what I can tell Asia is a very safe place. Of course I still consider things around me and protect my stuff as I know that if some wrong doing happens to me there is little I can do about it. Manila looked the most dangerous of all the places I've been and this for the most part could be attributed to the incredible poverty, overpopulation and lack of other white people (making me stand out). In Malaysia and Thailand white people don't stand out as much, and in many places there are tons of them. People are friendly, and often honest (I don't trust anyone that approaches me on the street to sell me something). Things are left very much in the open and look like they would be very easy to steal.

 

4 more days in Bangkok then I'm off to Ayutthaya.

Meeting People

Meeting people can be difficult at times. Especially when travelling in areas where white people don't frequent (less english speaking people to talk to). I usually meet people in dorm rooms or while travelling. I never imagined that I would meet so many Canadians and have been shocked again and again by where the people I live are from. Starting in the Philippines I found that only met locals while I was away from Lorena and Peter. The only time that happened was in Boracay when I went on walks by myself (I've been doing a lot of treking like this). Unfortunately few locals spoke enough english to make a conversation. In Malaysia I spent two days in a Dorm in KL before I had a good conversation with some one. This only occurred the night before I left when I first met a Girl from Argentina and talked for about 3 hours then later the next morning when I met the other girl in our dorm who was from Montreal Canada. Unfortunately like every person I've met relationships only last about one day. After KL I met a couple of people from Switzerland on the Bus to Jarantut. In Jarantut I met a guy from California in the dorm. I also gave some advice to someone just arriving. I met up with that same guy on the perhentian islands but only talked briefly with him. The first two days on the islands I was in a dorm with few people and only started meeting with people after two days there. This is where it got weird. First I met a girl on the beach from Calgary, then when scuba diving I met two girls from Calgary and about three others from different places in Europe. Then a few days later I met another girl from Calgary. I didn't have substantial conversations with any of these fellow Calgarians but was shocked by how many I met in like one day (4 out of 5 Canadians). The only people I talked with for a while where a couple of people in the dorms. Its so strange, you hardly know a person and yet you find you can talk to them for hours. I met one guy from the UK who had been travelling for about 7 months... mostly in Australia. Then I met an Architect from USA (I think it was Oregon) and I talked to her most of the day that I stayed because of food poisoning. Meeting people this way reminds me a lot of my third year in engineering where I met and got to know so many people in just one year. Only here its for just one day and have yet to give my contact information to anyone other then a local who wanted to talk to someone from Canada. On the train to Bangkok I met two Calgarians. Since being in Bangkok its been hard meeting up with people (I have a single room). Two times while walking on the street I met up with people, both were from Canada (totally a coincidence I'm not looking for Canadian flags) and one of them was from Calgary. So I guess my question is... Does anyone notice the lack of people in Calgary? Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a guy I met on the street that wants to visit Canada.

Arriving in Thailand

I just arrived in Bangkok

Thailand is completely different from Malaysia and the Philippines.

I'll post something soon.

Tentative travel plans for the rest of my trip are.
Thailand for three weeks
I'll spend a little time in Bangkok finalizing travel arrangements and catching some of the sites then make my way north to Chiang Mai. This may include dropping by Ayutthaya on the way. Chiang Mai is in a mountainous forresty region of Thailand and I've hard has a large concentration of buddhist monks. Around Chiang Mai is the golden triangle which is supposed to be really interesting. I've been going fairly slow and staying fairly long as each point as I go and in many ways I think this is better then forcing the trip and seeing a few more sites. By staying a week in one place you get a good idea what the place is all about. After Chian Mai I'll head back to Bangkok. I'm aiming at doing this in about a week in a half, leaving me about another week and a half before I have to extend my Thailand visa by re-entering the country. This I'll probably spend on a beach either one near Bangkok or one in southern Thailand (Krabi, Ko Phi Phi, or Ko Phangan). When my Thailand Visa expires I'll fly to either Vietnam or Auckland, New Zealand.

New Zealand or Vietnam for 2 weeks
This is going to be a hard choice to make. I have an aunt and uncle and two cousins in New Zealand. The trip will cost about 1000 dollars more then Vietnam but will still be less then if I flew from Canada. I may go to new Zealand on another trip but I'm not certain when that would be.
I've been told by a lot of people that Vietnam is a really great place to visit. I'd either go to Vietnam by plane or bus through Cambodia. I think two weeks is just enough for Vietnam and may be rushing it a little. I think it may be better to save it for another trip with Australia, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, and China (all of which I've heard are excellent). Then again it might be better to save New Zealand for another trip.

EDIT: I've decided to go to New Zealand, because I overbudgeted my trip here I have the extra money required to go and its somewhere I always wanted to visit. Its unforunite its winter there but a good stepping stone for getting use to the 10 to 15 degree weather I'm expecting in Calgary. Vietnam will have to wait. This only leaves me with about 23 days in Thailand. It would be hard if not impossible to change my return ticket from Bangkok so I'm going back to Bangkok before heading to Calgary. That means I'll be spending 2 days travelling. Auckland to Hong Kong (12hrs w/ 1 hour layover) Hong Kong to Bangkok (3hrs w/8 hour layover) Bangkok to Taipei (3hrs w/ 1 hour layover) Taipei to Vancouver (12.5 hrs w/ 5 hour layover) Vancouver to Calgary (1 hr). I leave Auckland noon on July 16 and arrive in Calgary late afternoon July 17.