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Uniquely Cambodian

January 12th, 2008

I walked outside at the appointed time to catch my ride to the boat dock for the trip to Battambang. My ride wasn’t quite what I expected as a motorcycle pulling a hay trailer pulled up. I piled into the trailer already holding a hoard of other foreigners. We drove to the boat dock passing through a village of wooden and thatch houses up on stilts. At the boat dock I saw that two boats would be making the trip. As the boats were already full (we were late), I had to get a seat on a hard wooden bench in the back. We set off down a narrow water passage that led us to Tonle Sap which is a big inland lake. We skirted along the edge of the lake and into another small channel. We spent the next seven hours going through small waterways. The trip is normally about four hours, but this late in the dry season, the water level is low. We also had to keep stopping to get the water lilies (also a bane to boaters in Louisiana) out of the propeller. The landscape was flat and dotted with small shrubs and elephant ears, like one would see traveling in coastal Louisiana. We passed through several floating villages. The houses, stores, schools, etc. are all built on rafts and rise and fall with the rain seasons. Read the rest of this entry »

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Angkor part deux

January 4th, 2008

After my first day of temple exploring, I was hungry and decided to try some of the food stalls around the market. They run about $0.75-$1 for a meal instead of paying $3 for the same meal in the restaurant. They are also quite clean looking and frequented by foreigners. As I walked to a nearby restaurant, I felt a strong tug on my arm and looked down to see this little Cambodian boy >3 hanging from my arm with a huge grin on his face. He had his legs up and was swinging. I am not sure where he came from, but I swung him around for a while and then managed to disentangle myself from him. He ran off somewhere with a younger looking girl. I believe they were children from one of the stall workers. I made it to my chosen stall and sat down. I ordered fried rice and a dragon fruit shake. The food and shake were very good as I had never eaten dragon fruit before. Sitting next to me was a German who decided to have a conversation with me in German with about two English words thrown in. All I could make out was there was some area in Thailand with lots of people trying to push girls on you (not Bangkok). I could never figure out how he felt about that, so I just nodded and made agreeing noises at what seemed appropriate times. After supper I went in the market just to see what a Laos guidebook would cost. I had paid $11 for a used four-year-old one in Bangkok. Wouldn’t you know, the latest Laos guidebooks were on sale here for $3.50 brand new. I went ahead and bought one. I will trade both books when I get back to Thailand and hopefully make all of my money back on the brand new guide book plus some. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Cambodia, Travel | 2 Comments »

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Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor

January 3rd, 2008

I woke at 4:15 am on New Year’s Eve so that I could catch my train to Cambodia and finally got to bed 24 hours later……. Read the rest of this entry »

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More Bangkok

December 30th, 2007

My last three days in Bangkok have been an interesting mix of close animal encounters and high fashion. I found a tailor on the street near the apartment where I am staying. It is run (or staffed anyway) by a group of Burmese men. I spent an hour or so with them picking out fabrics and suit styles. I decided on getting two suits. I picked one to be a very traditional business suit. The other is a more casual suit one can wear to a day function. I also picked some fabric for two shirts. My total bill was 15,000 baht (33 baht = US$1). I was measured from just about every angle and then told to return at 8:00 pm for the first fitting. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Thailand, Travel | 6 Comments »

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Bipolar India and Impressed in Thailand

December 27th, 2007

Well, I am sitting safely in Bangkok as I type this in the apartment of a friend of my father’s. I spent my final few days in India in Mumbai and what a finish it was. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in India, Thailand, Travel | 4 Comments »

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Off the Beaten Path

December 21st, 2007

My second day in Pushkar was also my first true sightseeing day. My goal was to walk around the man-made lake and see the Brahma temple. Most Hindu worship focuses on Shiva and Vishnu as Brahma basically created the universe and then went off to meditate leaving the daily affairs of the universe to them. As a result, Brahma temples are very rare. The other reason is that Brahma went to Pushkar to perform self mortification but instead ended up getting married. The problem was that he was already married and his old wife wasn’t very happy with the new competition. In anger she cursed him and said that he would never get any new place of worship outside of Pushkar. On my way to the temple, I met up with a British couple who were also looking for the temple. We ended up walking too far and having to ask for directions. We stopped at a tea shop and asked a group of men whom included people ranging from a man in a business suit to a loin cloth wearing man painted from head to toe in red and white paint (looking slightly like a candy cane). Perfect example of eclectic India for you. We made it to the temple. Outside were several sadhus pulling around cows on a rope. These cows were a bit unusual in that they had five legs. The fifth leg grew out of various positions on the cows’ bodies. They are considered holy, but unfortunately I didn’t get that sense due to the fact that the sadhus kept following us around with the reluctant cows saying “picture, picture, picture” ad nauseum. Of course they would expect a handsome payment afterwards. The temple was surprisingly small and simply decorated for it being the only temple of its type. The central idol of Brahma appeared to be made from metal. The eyes were made of some sort of glass or crystal. There was also a subterranean shrine to Shiva holding the usual lingam. After the temple I seperated from the English couple and just wandered around the shops for a while looking at the whitewashed buildings on the lake. I found a clinic that offered Ayurvedic massage and decided to get one despite the 750 rupee price tag (90 minutes). It differed from the Chinese massages in that it seemed to focus more on long rubbing strokes with less pressure point manipulation. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in India, Travel | 3 Comments »

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Far West India

December 13th, 2007

After typing the blog and wandering in circles around the lawn at my hotel for a few hours, I headed to the train station at around 22:00 to catch my supposed 00:15 train. I normally don’t come this early, but I didn’t want to walk the 15 minute walk too late. As soon as I arrived, I was kindly informed by the train status board that my train was going to be two hours late (though I did find out that I now had a berth). I now had to figure out what to do for four hours. I decided against getting a retiring room (beds at the train station where one can sleep while waiting for trains). I noticed for the first time that there were different lobbies for classes of tickets. Despite having a cheap (sleeper class) ticket, I decided to see if I would be allowed in the upper class lounge. Probably because it was so late, no one appeared to be checking tickets so I went in. To my surprise upper class lounge in India, at least at this train station, means the same hard wooden seats as are around the rest of the station. I believe the luxury comes into play in the fact that it isn’t absolutely packed with people. The rest of the station was rapidly becoming a minefield of sleeping people and dogs that one had to step over and around to get anywhere. Most of the trains looked to be an hour late. I read until it got closer to my time and then I went and sat in the main lobby in front of the board. I watched with increasing aggravation as everytime my train time approached it would slip by another 20 minutes. This went on for another 1.5 hours unitl I finally got into the train at 3:30 am. I was then pleasantly surprised to find that no one else, but me, was in my six berth compartment or across the aisle. This meant that I could run the fan to try to drown out some of the snoring. Indian people appear to get cold with the slightest wind so fans are usually out of the question. Randomly though people kept stopping in my compartment to tie a shoe or adjust a sarri. They would then turn off my fan as they left and I would have to turn it back on. I arrived in Jodhpur three hours late as expected. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in India, Travel | 3 Comments »

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Agra and Jaipur

December 5th, 2007

I arrived at the Varanasi train station about an hour early and found my train already at the station. This was not so surprising as the train orginated in Varanasi. I boarded the train and got my first view of sleeper class which is the second lowest class of the eight available in India. The car is arranged with six berths on one side of the aisle stacked three high and two berths running lengthwise along the corridor on the other. I had a top berth in the six. Much to my surprise, all the other five bunks were taken up by foreigners. Most travel at least 3 AC (the next class up). The windows opened but the windows had bars on them for security. In this class, no bedding is given, but this okay as I have a sleeping bag. The main difference between sleeper and 3 AC is the air conditioning and the bedding. As it wasn’t hot, I didn’t feel the need to pay a 2-3 times higher price for it. The train did get a little warm when we weren’t moving though. The bottom two bunks form a seating bench during the day.

I spent the first few hours visiting with the other people on the train and reading a newspaper that I had bought. As there is no dining car on the train, an attendant came by and took dinner orders. The choice was thali and only thali. This came about an hour later and was decent. It only cost 30 rupees. There were also many people selling tea and coffee. There were people passing selling different things to eat. Unlike China, I didn’t see any chicken feet for sale. We went to bed (everyone sort of has to agree on the time as we all share the bottom bed as a seat). At around 9:00 pm we went to bed. I didn’t get much sleep that night due to the cacophany of snoring around me. We were supposed to arrive in Agra at 6:00 am. Upon waking, we found we were going to be four hours late. In the morning, I ate my remaining crackers for breakfast. I passed the time watching the scenery out the windows and observing the policeman armed with rifles roaming the train. At one point, a cross dressing eunuch came strolling regally down the aisle bedecked in a bright sarri. He stopped at our section, waved, blew kisses, and then kept going. There are a caste of eunuchs and transgender people in India. They tend to show up uninivited to parties and weddings in groups requesting money. If you give them what they want they perform if not, I believe, they curse you. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in India, Travel | 3 Comments »

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Maoist Rising and Overwhelming India (Varanasi)

November 29th, 2007

I spent my last evening in Kathmandu eating dinner at the house of Steve’s host family. They were an extended family, as is usual in Asia, with the grandparents also living there. The house was typical Nepali architecture and consisted of three floors. Steve lives on the top floor. I spent most of my time visiting with the grandfather who still managed a hotel in Chitwan National Park. The dinner consisted of dhal bhat, but there were also some curried eggs which were quite good. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in India, Nepal, Travel | 5 Comments »

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Winding Down Nepal

November 23rd, 2007

I spent the morning after returning from the embassy finishing the rafting post and then napping and watching TV. I was exhausted. The all night bus adventure, early departure and long bus ride to Kathmandu, and then early morning Indian embassy romp left me without much motivation to do anything. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Nepal, Travel | 5 Comments »

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