Middle East 08

Having spent the last 26 hours in the India airport, the Qatar Airport, the Thailand airport, or on actual planes, I have had time to freeze and look back on my experiences thus far. 

For some reason, and I’m sure someone can tell me, they keep these airports at sub zero temperatures. It is ridiculous.  We got reprimanded here in the Qatar Airport for playing cards, even though it was for fun and not for money. We then did another faux pas and were eating in the gate area unaware that this is the month of Ramadan and it’s a no-no to eat in public.

Get me back to Jordan already! We slept in the India airport, and on the second leg from India – Qatar. 

When we arrived here in Qatar, my dreams of visiting for our 6 hour layover were shattered due to the price of a visa. As a consolation prize, they gave me a voucher for some free disgusting food.

Okay, here is my Top Ten so far: (in no particular order)

1. The Iraqi taxi driver who was convinced that Tony Robbins is behind all of our Government’s decisions. (Amman, Jordan)

2. The Taj Mahal (Agra, India)

3. Hiking Petra (Jordan)

4. Sunset on Hat Ton Sai (Railay, Thailand)

5. Yom Haatzmuut (Tel Aviv, Israel)

6. Udaipur (India)

7. Weekend in the Golan Heights (Northern Israel)

8. Turkish Baths (Alanya, Turkey)

9. Hiking Mount Sinai (Sinai Peninsula, Egypt)

10. My Birthday (Tel Aviv)

That concludes my free internet time here. Will write from the next stop.

As my time in Bangkok comes to a close, I am anxious and sad to leave. The next week will be tough, as the “travel” part of travel always is, but at least I’m getting to see more and more of the world’s airports.

Bangkok has been great as always.  We’ve been taking advantage of much more public transportation, and seeing much more of this city than a typical (read wealthy) tourist.  Yesterday, we were on our way back from the Siam Center, and a guy on a bus kept looking at us and speaking in Thai, and we thought he was kind of crazy.  It was clear to him and everyone on the bus that we didn’t understand him, which prompted him to add hand gestures that also didn’t translate.  After a half hour (rush hour) ride, it became clear that he was telling us how long until our stop, and how to get to our place once we got off.  What a nice guy!

Josh and I were joined by some friends – Josh’s buddy from LA and a friend of ours from NH (go Dorner!) who was on our program in Israel.  It’s been really nice with the new additions.  Yesterday we took a boat ride down the river and jumped on a SkyTrain with no real destination, but found ourselves kind of wandering around and enjoying the views.

Embarrassed, I admit that last night we went to the Patpong (red light) district to take in a Ping Pong show.  We all went with a girl from Australia that Dorner had met on a trek, and set off for the adventure.  The shows are actually pretty disgusting and really sad, although it’s incredible what some Thai women (and former men) can do with their body parts.  I’ll leave it at that. It’s probably a blessing that photography is not allowed. 

Tomorrow is the end of this part of the tour.  We will take the bus to the airport, take a flight to India, spend the night there, then fly to Qatar and spend the day.  We fly at night from Qatar to Jordan,  and spend the night there, in Amman.  Friday morning, we will wake up at the crack of dawn to catch the bus to the border by Jerusalem, where we will cross on foot back into Israel.  We then take a sherut to Jerusalem, then a bus to Tel Aviv, where we can once again kick it by arguing about the price of everything, enjoy some hummus, say goodbye to some favorite places and people, and commence the journey home.  I’m not sure if I will have internet anymore, but I’m sure there will be some great stories from the travels home, which will eventually be blogged, possibly accompanied by some pictures.

I’m not sure at what point the “authorities” decide not to chance sea transport on days when the waves are over 5 feet, and there is no “code” so to speak for any vessel to pass before attempting to transport nice, innocent passengers from one Thai island to another point, but if it wasn’t yesterday, I don’t think they do. I think it’s just “chance”.

 I have never been more scared in my entire life then I was yesterday.  During this trip, I have been plagued with sea sickness, and, for avid readers, they may call back to a prior post from Turkey where I was plagued with “sea legs” for a few days after getting off the cruise.  I found something to overcome both of these ailments.  Being scared out of my pants.

In order to save money and not pay for accomodation for the night, we decided to take the afternoon boat from Koh Tao back to Chumphon, where we would there pick up an overnight bus (8 hours) back to Bangkok. Now, in a further attempt to save money, we choose the cheap boat. You know, the one made with what appeared to be popsicle sticks and either spit or gum.

We board the boat, knowing that the weather sucks and it will be a little choppy.  It had been overcast and yucky the 5 days we were on the island, which brought out the ants, which is a whole other blog entry in itself.

So we’re on the boat, there are probably 35 or so people plus backpacks. The boat is rocking back and forth and i’m like, okay, i’ll probably vomit, but we’ll be kosher.

The boat not only went back and forth, but up and down, and people are screaming, i’m white knuckled holding the seat in front of me, the boat is going everywhere, a thai guy is passing out plastic bags for everyone to vomit in, and we hear it (vomitting) all over the boat, and it’s a small boat that I am CONVINCED is either tipping over, or breaking in half. 

As you can probably guess, we made it safely, but I am not lying when I say I’ve never been more scared in my life.

We arrive in Chumphon, where we had been a week before after a series of bad decisions involving travel (We stayed in Ao Nang for one night, then took a bus to Krabi, where we took a bus to Phuket (thus backtracking completely) only to arrive and see that it’s raining and decide to leave on the next bus out of there which was to Chumphon, which I thought was Cha-am, and arrive in a creepy city at 1am after another 13 hour bus ride and no idea why we’re there, hence the trip to Koh Tao in the first place). 

Anyway, we were obviously lied to when booking, because we didn’t get free transfer to town to get dinner, we got cold overpriced fried rice at the port. We then had to wait for 3 hours for the overnight bus, which was uneventful, other than the fact that the driver never took his (lead) foot off the gas and we got here at 4:30am instead of 6am and the driver was 45 minutes late picking us up.

So, here I am, safe again in Bangkok, eager for cheap internet to get some news, cheap food, cheap everything. That concludes my stays on islands for this trip. And, I have to say, I am in absolutely no hurry to ever get on a boat again.

Lastly, I haven’t had enough time to resize my pictures and add them to the blog, so, if anyone is interested, let me know and I can send a link to pictures.

This is the sign inside of our hut. 

Koh Phi Phi was just as I remembered it, only a little more touristy.  When we got off of the boat upon arrival, I remembered where these awesome bungalows were right on the beach that I had seen last time. We snagged the last one and put our stuff in. Now, this “bungalow” is basically some straw held together by a nail gun, but I still think it was a staple gun.  The huts are too low to stand up in, and there is no bathroom.  But, it was great… until we wanted to sleep and the rave on the beach was in full force.

While on the island, we took a big boat out for some snorkeling around and to see the other uninhabited islands around.  At one point, in lieu of cliff jumping, we jumped from the top of the 2 or 3 story boat.  I also saw a muy thai boxing match, where, for lack of better english, the beat the shit out of each other until one is unconscious and the other is the praised and obvious winner.  It rained a lot on the island, which was okay, until it rained on us and our stuff in our hut.  Waking up in a pool is not that fun. So, we got another night for free and they patched up the roof (with more staples – those crafty Thais).

So, I left the Middle East and thought I would shake off all of the bad going on around me.  The situation in Northern India has escalated, not to mention the monsoon rains where we were supposed to go, so I guess it was premonition and not my inability to travel that got me out of that country.  Additionally, in Thailand, when I first arrived there was trouble down south with the Malaysia border (the Muslim area).  Now, there are anti-government protests all around Bangkok, and at the Krabi and Phuket airports, which have both been shut down inevitably, which doesn’t really affect me as I’m still on the boat and train budget. I’m sure I’ll be able to fly out in 2 weeks.

So now, paradise. After Koh Phi Phi, we took a boat to Krabi. They oversold tickets on the boat, and when it started to sink and the lower cabin (where we were) filled with exhaust, they had to reposition the passengers and speed up.  We arrived in Krabi without a plan. So, on a whim, we jumped in a taxi after we missed the public bus to a port for long tail boats, and grabbed one to Ao Tong Sai. I’m not lying when I say this is paradise.  The only way to get to this part of Railay Island is by long tail boat – 20 minutes from mainland. 

We get off the longtail and meet some guy who directed us toward the best bungalows, which are dirt cheap. I’m talking $4.50 a night.  We walk up the steps to “reception” and are welcomed by a sign stating that on the island, “ELECTRICITY 6PM – 1AM”. Our hut was not much different from camping, although we had a mosquito net and a super out house. This part of the island is tiny. It’s a rock climbing island, and incredibly relaxed. There’s not much to do except kayak, watch the crabs, admire the rising and lowering tide (full moon now), and relax and read. There aren’t really stores, which is okay, considering I’m about a third of the way through my 900 page book and it’s absolutely beautiful.

Internet is ridiculously expensive, such is life….

I’m guessing I’ll be here for a few more days (it’s only been 2) so no more posts for a little… But, I’m safe and happy and eager for more to write.

That is what going to the bathroom in a hole on a moving train feels like (I’m guessing, as I’ve never urinated on an actual moving walkway).

I look back at my last post and laugh at the wording of this train trip. Such ease, just normal, as if hopping on a train from Bangkok to Phuket would be as simple as signing my name as I have thousands of times.  What was supposed to be an 11 hour journey ended up taking a full 24, long, smelly hours.

The thing is, in Thailand, although nicer and “easier” than India, there are still glitches in the system.  After asking 8 different tuk tuk’s for rates to go to Huampalong train station, and getting ridiculous numbers, haggling, and eventually walking away, we found a guy to take us for a reasonable rate.  We arrive at the train station with enough time to sit down and grab some fast food dinner. The station is packed, with every seat taken, and about 200 Thai’s sitting on the floor between the rows of chairs. This is where Josh and I planted and brought our food. I had forgotten about the Thai tradition of raising and saluting for the National Anthem every day twice (all that I remember is the 6pm one, the one we were there for). It was great.  I love visiting places where the people have such pride in their country. In fact, you can get arrested and jailed for talking smack about the royal family here.

Alright, we board the overnight train. In an effort to save money, we went for Second class, with a fan.  I don’t think it made any difference. The train was old, in another effort to save money Josh and I had top bunks.  The train smelled, I already told you about the bathroom incidents, and no one spoke English. But, I had stopped on the streets of Bangkok to have someone put the last season of “The Office” on my Ipod for the ride. It was blissful, except for the fact that I couldn’t sleep.

When we arrived in Surat Thani, we got ushered onto a bus with a bunch of other Westerners and dropped at the Westerner bus depot. We told the people where we were going and were given a sticker (very official) stating where we were going.  So eventually, a small pick up truck comes to get about 10 of us to take us to a travel shop, where the alleged bus was picking us up. On the truck were 2 Israeli’s, 3 Austrains, 2 guys from Minnesota (one of which had fallen through a roof the night before the train ride and hadn’t cleaned the blood off of his face or clothes yet), and 2 other Germans.  We arrived at the travel place and waited for a mini bus to pick us up. One did, drove us a block, and we arrived at yet another travel office.  A crazy Thai woman started yelling at us that we needed to pay another 200 Baht (33 b to the dollar) to go straight to Patong, the area of Phuket we were all going to. We all declined, yelled, and got picked up by a LOCAL BUS, that made 25 stop along the way, to Phuket town, not even Patong. To make a ridiculously long story shorter, we arrived in Phuket town, Josh staked out the best way to get to Patong, which was, in fact, another local bus, which saved us a bunch of money, but again made too many stops that were unnecessarily long.

We arrived, found a cheap place with the Israeli’s, and have been relaxing ever since. It has been raining here today, so we may see a movie, but are taking a ferry tomorrow to Koh Phi Phi, my favorite place in the world. If I remember correctly, they have cheaper internet, and I will finally be able to return some emails.

As always, I hope this finds my reader(s) well.

xx

I couldn’t be happier to be back here in beautiful Thailand. In the three days that I’ve been here, my smile has been permanent.  It’s such a relief and a pleasure – no one staring at me, blue skies, temples, but no forts, there is a grand palace, but I’m not going until I’m back here in 3 weeks.

Tomorrow, Josh and I are taking an overnight train from Bangkok to Phuket. I didn’t get to Phuket last time I was here, and am really excited.

Today, we sat at the pool, switched guest houses, walked until we got lost, took a tuk tuk to a market, saw 3 markets, walked until we got lost AGAIN in Chinatown, found a flower market, took a boat taxi, and relaxed for some dinner.

One positive about coming here from India is my diminishing demands for where I stay.  Aside from the fact that in India, whenever I wasn’t visiting a tourist place I wanted to be in the hotel, it seemed as though we were almost always the only people (dumb enough) to stay in that particular hotel.  Now, we stay dirt cheap in guest houses (and huts to come once we get to the islands). Our current guest house doesn’t allow shoes, and there isn’t a bathroom or shower on our floor, but it is PERFECT.  I love it here, I can’t wait for tomorrow.

But now, I need to just walk around, eat some street food, and keep on smiling.

Two weeks in India… That is how long I lasted out of the 6 in which I was supposed to stay. So, my dear reader((s) in case Dad tuned in too), I covered 2900 kilometers, saw countless forts, palaces, monuments, and temples, sat in awe in front of the Taj Mahal for hours, escaped “Delhi Belly”, counted my blessings, and traded in my rupees for baht.

The past week I saw more of India, totalling my cities to some crazy number for 2 weeks.. Udaipur and Jaipur were probably my favorite, and Agra of course for the Taj Mahal. I did love the Indian food (and the prices), but now it’s time to dig into some noodles.

I am back in “The Land of Smiles” – Thailand.  Josh and I went to the Jet Airways ticketing office in Delhi yesterday to check out flights to Thailand. As it turned out, we could fly out for relatively cheap right away (7 hours later). This also meant getting out of paying for a hotel for a night, and dinner as well, which is always a bonus when you’re counting every cent.

So, without much hesitation, we bought tickets, went to the Pahaganj market one last time, and bid adieu to Delhi for the time being.  We arrived in Bangkok at 6 something in the morning, took a bus to the center, and happily trekked down Koh San Road to look for cheap accomodation. Koh San Road is like backpacker central on speed, and alcohol, and most likely heroin.

I have to be honest, that, as soon as we landed in Thailand, I have had a smile on my face that cannot be removed. I feel like this malaise has been lifted off of me.  I was incredibly stressed the whole time I was in India. Although I saw a lot, I was extremely uncomfortable, and felt confined to the tourist areas (forts, palaces, and the like) and didn’t like walking around outside of them. The stares, the everything….. And, the weather sucked. We were planning on going up north to the Himalayas, but the weather was bad everywhere. I guess that’s what you get for going during monsoon season.

So here I am, smiling at a computer, with mayhem waiting steps away from me, and I can’t wait to go step into it and smile at the other travellers and walk around and get lost – but at least I’ll get smiles and not stares.

this culture shock is really kicking my ass.  India has proven to be overwhelming, frustrating, exhausting, everything… it is also incredibly interesting.

so far, I’ve been in the state of Rajasthan.  I went from Delhi – Mandawa (shekawati) for some Jain temples.  from there, went to Bikaner, where I saw the Laigarh Palace, Jaswant thada, and forts galore.  After Bikaner was Jodphur, where I spent a few days at marbel memorials, and the Mehrangarh fort.  From there, to Ranakpur, an absolutely beautiful village in the hills.  I left Ranakpur today for Udaipur, where I write to you now.  Today, I visited Saheliyon Ki-Bari; a beautiful ornamental garden for the 48 women who came as part of a princess’ dowry.  My favorite part was the lotus pool.  Tomorrow, I go to lake Pichola, Jaghiwas Island, and the city palace.

Our days here are spent in transit, drinking chai tea, riding through small villages, cursing at the power outages, seeing palaces, forts, playing rummy or texas hold ’em, talking about the frustrations of travelling in India, and all around enjoying being here – to an extent.  I am having a hard time with the stares.  I cover my entire body with baggy clothes, and still get stared at.  My mom thought that the little kids asking for money would be the hardest part for me, and it does make the top ten list, but there is much, much more.  this is an incredibly poor country, which is hard to see in itself. I read today that 41% of the population lives in one room homes, that is, their entire family, including the parents’ parents.  It is sad to learn that schooling is free for all children, the uniforms, lunch, and transportation – and some parents still make their children go out on the street to beg.   It is hard to be covered in this incredible heat.  It was not incredibly wise to come to India in the middle of the monsoon season, because, well, it f’ing rains cats, dogs and cows here.  Which, in turn, brings on the bugs. Thank whomever for inventing malaria pills. 

I’m signing off to get some sleep.. but will update in a few days hopefully in higher spirits!

 I’m trying hard to keep pushing through this difficulty and to enjoy my time here, but it is difficult to always be on edge, never relaxed, and acknowledge that this is the end of an extended vacation. 

after tomorrow, I’m going to Pushkar, Jaipur (the pink city) , agra (for the taj mahal!) and back to delhi, before starting my train journey up north to rishikesh.

My departure from Jordan was superb – I had a lovely taxi driver from Iraq with fantastic English, who spent the entire ride talking about opening a shwarma stand in California, and Tony Robbins.  He told us that he knows that the United States Government consults with THE Anthony Robbins before making any decision.  The guy was great.

The flight to Qatar was uneventful, as was the flight to Delhi, neither of which I slept on with those fancy little tv’s in front of me. I haven’t had television in 6 months.  I watched. and watched. and watched.

Arriving in Delhi at 3am was a trip. I don’t mean that in a positive way.  The Mexico City Airport has nothing on this place. We arrive, it’s dark, it’s raining, it’s 100 degrees with oppressive humidity. We get a rickshaw driver to take us to our hostel.  Now, we get in the rickshaw, it’s crazy.  I mean, traffic rules do not apply in this country. I’m holding on for dear life.  We get to the area of the main bazaar, where we are staying, and the streets are like 2 feet wide, and there are cows EVERYWHERE.  There are creepy people out, and it’s dark and dirty and I’m wondering why I came to India.

We arrive at our hotel to find that they have no record of our reservation. shocking.  We go next door, get a room, and try to sleep for a few hours. When we woke up, we walked out to the train station to see where we could get a ticket to the next day, of course, you can’t book there.  The Lonely Planet says there is one travel agent in all of Delhi that you are to book through. So, we go.

Arun, our salesman, really got us. The trains to where we wanted to go were booked for the next 4 days (of course), so we got talked into hiring a car.  We spent the rest of the day visiting the Prime Minister’s house, India Gate, a Sikh temple, and grabbed a ridiculously delicious dinner on the street of the bazaar for $2.

We got picked up the next day to leave for Jhunjhuno, which would have been a 4 hour drive but ended up taking 6 because of flooding on the streets.  Now, the streets in India, aside from the fact that they drive on the other side, are crazy.  What we call a one lane dirt road is a 3 lane highway here.  And don’t forget the cows, camels, trucks, rickshaws, and bicycles also on these streets.  Drivers here use their horns to signal: i’m about to pass you, you’re in my way, you’re driving to slow, move out of the way cow, slow down camel, i’m about to exhale, i’m inhaling.. everything. a 30 minute segment is more like a painful opera of awful horns.  So anyway, Jhunjuno was okay.. we did some sightseeing, slept in a cute little garden hostel where the power went out just as it did the night before in Delhi. 

I’m writing now from Bikaner.  Today I toured a fort and a palace… and guess what? We lost power again tonight. Luckily, it’s back for me to add this little update. I can’t remember the name of the place i’m going to tomorrow, but after that it’s Mt. Abu for a few days, then Jaipur. I’m planning on being in Agra to see the Taj Mahal on the 21, and after that, hightailing it up north toward Rishikesh for more of a backpacker clientele.  Will update soon!

So, three days in Amman may be one or two too many. 

The city is huge, but there’s not that much to do or see.  Basically, the best part is walking down the “downtown” streets having people glare at us, sometimes ask where we’re from, and often say “you’re welcome”, after hearing we are from America.

It’s much different here than in Wadi Musa, where, because of its closeness to Petra, which is touristy, most people speak English.  Here, in the shitty downtown part of Amman, no one does, so all we can do is give thumbs up.  We learned a few days too late that when Josh thought he was saying thank you, he was really saying goodbye.  We have since worked on our Arabic vocabulary.

We are sitting now in an internet cafe, which, when I think of, I think of nice rows of computers in a relatively clean room.  This place is a dump.  It is dark, and looks like the back room of the Bates Motel, or at least a place that is often used for ritual massacres.  That said, Josh is sitting next to me with his stopwatch making sure I don’t go over my allotted time on the computer we’re sharing, so I will sign off. Our flight is in a few hours for Qatar, then India. The beep on his obnoxious watch just went off signaling my sign off.

I bid you all adieu, and look forward to crazy stories to come in India.