On-the-Road Tales

Up at 0500, we jetted out to the airport for our 0800 flight on Bangkok Airways to Siam Reap, Cambodia. We walked through what seemed like endless shops and stores to the gate and were bussed out to our ornately painted 737. It was a short 45 minute flight to Siam Reap and I was surprised at the terrain as we approached. I had always envisioned the ‘jungle’ to be dense mountainous forest like S.America but the area was surpringly flat and the trees sparser than I expected. We landed and stood in line for a $20 photo visa. Nancy is much less inclined to go with the ‘wherever I end up’ approach to travelling I revel in. In addition, she stated Air con and hot water were mandatory so my hostel accomodation choices were definately not in the running so she had prebooked a guesthouse and our transport was waiting outside. Our vehicle, and the mode of preference, is a tuk-tuk. Basically a two wheeled carriage of sorts that attaches to a moped. So us and our backpacks climbed in and hung on as the journey began. The 15 minute ride from the airport was our introduction to Cambodia. We could not quite figure out what side of the road they drove on because, well, they drove on every side in both directions. It was a cacophony of bicycles, mopeds, tuktuks, pedestrians, pickups, cars, and trucks. Sounds like a normal road except there were left hand and right hand drive vehicles and the pickups and mopeds were stacked with everything you could and could not imagine. The tiny two-wheeled motored transports often carry whole families mom, dad, toddler, toddler holding infant. The pickups had whole villages perched in the back, in the cab, on the roof, and on the hood! with motorbikes, rices, plastic chairs etc in the mix. Mopeds would cruise by with a bamboo cylinder attached full of piglets or 2 or 3 full size pigs strapped down on the way to be sold at the market, When this is your only form of transport – you do not have a hell of a choice.

We made it to The Villas at Siem Reap and checked into our room. Angkor Wat is one temple in an area chock full of similar ruins. You buy a pass to visit the whole complex and can go out after 1700 the night before your pass starts to watch sunset and enjoy 3+ days. So we purchased our 3 day $40 pass and headed to Phnom Bakheng. We climbed a small hill to perch on the top of a ruin. It was hard to concentrate on the setting sun when there were no fewer that 1000 other tourists milling in your space. Apparently the largest tourist group to Cambodia are Koreans and they were everywhere, by the busload. Next were Japanese with more Nikons than one could count. There were surprisingly few westerners. We descended the mountain after the nice sunset with the hordes and amazingly found our Tuk Tuk driver amid the melee. We headed into town and had dinner on pub street at the Red Piano.

Today is May 1. Today is the one year anniversary of my Dads death. I can not quite believe it has been that long and in all honesty I remember every detail of that day like it was yesterday. There is some sadness but truthfully, more regret that I can not share all the awesome things I have been through. My father instilled in me a love of travel and learning languages. Together we travelled the country getting from NY to Arizona via North Dakota “because we could”. Standing on the open field where Custer actually took his last stand sunk in a lot deeper than reading about it in a history book. The whole family stuffed with our bags of oranges in a tiny Camaro all the way up from Florida because “‘it was a free rental through car relocation'” – probably explains why I prefer backpacking and sleeping with animals to 5 star resorts! So I will blame dad for that too. Yes, it is cheaper but you do not get half the adventure when things are easy or predictable. Were it not for losing my father, there is little chance I would have been sitting in Bangkok this day. Those stark reminders that life does not last forever are painful but ever so necessary. They are the wake-up calls to reevaluate and decide why you have not done with life what you set out to and do something to change that. Hence, here I sit in Thailand. Having seen Machu Picchu, Patagonia, Easter Island and looking forward to what is next on my list and make the most of it…

My sister, Nancy was scheduled to fly in today so it was a nice way to spend this anniversary with family. I headed to BKK airport to pick up the sister from her 17 hour flight. Since it was a public holiday for something royal or another, traffic was light and in 45 minutes I was at Suv. She made it successfully and we grabbed a cab back to Koh San road. Catching up on sleep was a bit difficult as Thailand apparently has never grasped the conept of double glazing so all the street noise filtered right through. I can sleep through Armageddon like Dad but Nancy unfortunetly took after mom and wakes at a pin drop. So when the demolition team started knocking down a building at 0500 directly across the road, she was wide awake. Occasionally I would open an eye to a comment like ”I can not believe you did not wake during that thunderous tumbling of brick”‘ or ‘”they are hammering with flipflops on”‘ yes job site safety is a different game here.

The next day we explored the city. Stopping by the Grand Palace with its ”emerald ‘buddha'” really jade. We grabbed a hotel shuttle water taxis to go check out one of the riverside resorts and got free water and wet clothes to wash off the grime before setting foot on their property I imagine. I will have to remember that in the future to pretend I am staying at resorts to get free boat tours! I lingered at the Marriott long enough for some chocolate cake – due to the heat, chocolate is a rare find in Asia. We puttered around the rest of the city walking about the markets and observing.

Back in the insanity of the city, I headed to check out the public transportation. Since there were a variety of canal in the city, water taxis are often a good way to get a cheap tour. I rode the water taxi, skytrain and metro – all very limited in scope but clean and effecient. Of course I got a little too confident and ended up on the wrong boat which ended up crossing me to the other side of the river instead of going anywhere I need to go.

I checked out Chinatown which was full of markets and stalls and jewelry selling all the trinkets and junk we see in our malls. You can buy wholesale and you get to appreciate how much profit out stores make on this stuff. On my way back to the hotel, I jumped off the taxi to do some exploring and decided, since I heard thunder, I better continue on. Wrong. The waterway was now closed I was told because ‘the king was up there’. How was I supposed to get back? Tuk tuk, taxi was the answer. No thankyou. The traffic in Bangkok is horrendous and I would rather walk than sit in evening commuting. I guess DC is not the only place they close roads and airports when politicians are on the move. On Mondays and Fridays many Thai citizens wear yellow or sometimes blue shirts with a royal emblem on it as a sign of respect for the King. It is like the whole country wearing a uniform. I walked past some of the palaces where fireworks were being lit since some sort of holiday was happening and many people were sitting singing outside.

It poured continuosly during the night and I kept waking up rain hitting the galvanized roof and rushing water past underneath me. I thought about the chances the 2-3 ropes securing us to the bank would actually hold if there was some sort of a flash flood or debris coming down the river. This through process was probably initiated by my practical mother recounting news stories to me about women and children getting washed over a waterfall and drown somewhere in Thailand earlier in the week due to heavy rains! There was also an animal living above me trying to burrow into something but since the roof was metal…is made a terrible scratching sound. Occasionally, there would be a pounce and the whole roof would vibrate. Based on the circumstances, you just deal with floods and wild animals because there is not a heck of alot of options. There is nowhere else to go, and you just want to sleep top recover from the heat during the day. Not sure I would have the same reaction if there was an animal running under me on Lake Cove Drive!

Went to the Sonkaki Elephant Camp where I boarded a massive beast. I thought horses were bad? I was twice as high and twice as unstable! The little boy sitting on the animals head who helped me on was about 6, but the way he climbed up and down and over it – I had plenty of confidence in him surprisingly. Another woman ended up climbing on to be the guide and we did some touring about the camp. Amazing. Thai elephants are very docile and listen to commands. Perhaops because they were used in battle along with the burmese. The handler said they had tried using elephants from Africa and some other countries but none would listen like the Thai elephants. The handler used a tiny stick with a hook at the end and if the elephant went the wrong way, it was prodded. Seemed like such a tiny instrument to control a huge animal.

Onto the river for bamboo rafting. This was the traditional method of transport for the local, lashing reeds together. Although, the current was so fast you had one chance to get the landing right at your desired spot. After 3 very insteresting days up north, it was time to head back to the mayhem of Bangkok.

Wow – 100 – that sounds like a lotta days but does not feel so long since i left… Went to check out a national park today with a 7 tiered waterfall. I was assuming a big high drop and I could relax in a nice pool at the bottom but no, nothing is easy. It was made up of cascading pools where I had to climb 1300 meter up through the woods, over stones and up ladders to check out the various levels. I was as usual dripping with sweat by the end and wished I was the type to stay at the bottom and picnic instead having to see what is at the top. God forbid I miss out on something. Bonus was there were scads of butterflies. So at times you were walking through a sea of white fluttering wings, that alone might have been worth the effort. I got back to the bottom and was no sooner in the pond to enjoy the refreshing water, than I hopped back out again. There were some sort of strange fish that were knocking themselves into me. While they obviously were not harmful since everyone else was swimming around… in all the world over, I have never had fish purposely ram into me and I was not liking it.

I hoped that animal nibbling trend would not carry onto my next destination, Tiger Temple. The monastery beacme a refuge after the monks took in an orphaned tiger cub. Today it is full of ild animals form boars and water buffalo to antelope and peacocks and is in the process of building a vet hospital. There was a canyon full of beautiful, orange striped tigers and with a handler holding me at all times, I got to pet them lying around!!! They are magnificent animals and being so close to such fierce power was exhilarating. Some of the others were sure the cats were drugged because they were so calm. Not sure but I can say it probably was not an altogether safe thing to do if one of them decided to cause trouble in the restricted rock canyon.

All my new friends left that day back to Bangkok but there was a new batch back at the lodge. An English father, son and an israeli girl. We sat around and chatted for the night and had a grand time. They have been travelling through SE Asia extensively and had some great stories. The young bloke had done some Muy Thai the wicked form of boxing they have here and gotten fairly beaten up, brave lad!

I joined up with a minibus and headed about 1.5 hours north to Kanchanaburi. I am sure I learned something about Thailand’s past and this area in my 10th grade world history class but I had to admit ignorance since it was a whopping 17 years ago. Due to conflicts during WWII, Japan risked losing a main transport line so they essentially took over this area of Thailand and built what became known as the Death Railway. They used forced labour from Thailand, China, Burma, as well as the the Allied Prisioners of War that had been captured. The rail had to go through solid rock in many places and constructing the bridge over the River Kwai was a grueling task in the brutal humidity. The men were malnourished, and malaria, cholera and disease were rampant. Conservative estimates say that 30,000 Allied POWs and 100,000 labourers died during this construction. 38 POWS died for every kilometer of track completed and in the end, it was hardly ever used. The Allies knew the importance of the bridge to Japan so they set out to destroy it. When Japan realized there was a B24 heading to bomb and destroy the bridge, they marched the POWs out in an effort to dissuade the bombing perhaps, but the pilot had his orders. The bridge exploded and it is said the river ran red from blood and bodies. It was an incredibly emotional place standing up on a reconstruted bridge imagining what happened over that very water 50 years ago. The POW cemetary nearby is immaculately kept and the graves of known, and unknown soldiers, are a sobering and sad sight. This is the reality of war. The pain and loss is still palatable in the notes and wreaths laid by the graves of these soldiers who could not even have been brought home to be buried in their own land. I think everyone was a little pensive after that visit.

The place where we were staying was a floating lodge on the river. That meant the guesthouse our rooms, the eatery, the kitchen were suspended on a bunch of pontoons and barrels on the bank of some Thai river. It was best not to be holding a hot coffee if a speedboat rushed by because the ensuing bobbing was not going to produce a favorable outcome. It was pretty wild. Typical squatting toliet except when you poured the bucket of water down to “flush”, it sounded strangely like it was going straight into the river. Since I could see the rushing water through my floorboards, I confirmed lack of a piping system…we all ruled out swimming as an option!

We had a true United Nations group made up of slovenians, poles, german, english, welsh, belgium, dutch. It was crazy, at some point our Thai host family pulled out buckets, turned them upside down and started drumming and singing. It was better than most bands I have heard recently. Things were really hopping and a bottle, or two, of Thai whiskey eventually made an appearance. My second shot of that proved to be a major error in judgement (as if anything involving whiskey could turn out well…) as I was soon up singing Karoke with the Thai grandmother. Luckily, everyone else was as easily persuaded and we soon had tunes belting out in all sorts of foreign tongues. Good times were had by all.

On the map, Bangkok looks walkable. In real life – it is really spread out and the public transportation is not exactly where you need it to be to make getting around convienent. I checked out some buddhist wats (temples), golden mount, statues, bridges etc. The decor and detail in the wats is impressive. There are rows and rows of Buddhas in some places gold, black and the detail work in the roofs, walls, mosaics is incredible. The humidity was brutal and I had enough of the city so I booked myself a trip up north for the next few days.

Took a ‘taxi’ to the port. Read ‘climb into the bed of a pick-up truck’. With all the backpacks and scuba tanks coming to this island, no one uses cars to transport. Another 1.5 hour ferry to the port town of Chumphorn where I grabbed a “VIP” coach to ride for the next 7 hours north to Bangkok. Double-decker air conditioned, pink leather bus which plays DVDs so the time passed rapidly until they put in Texas chainsaw massacre and I decided to try and read a book instead of dealing with crazies – there are enough real threats to busy myself with – do not need to occupy myself with gore.

The bus was supposed to drop us at Khao San road, a small backpacker haven lined with places to stay. We got off somewhere that was decidely not lined with anything. Great – first time downtown in one of Asia’s largest digs, it is dark, raining and while I have a map in hand – it is not much help when I do not know where in the dickens I am on that map. No one could get a clear answer why the bus did not stop where it was supposed so I latched onto some brits who had stayed there before and we prodded directions out of people until we made our way.

What a place – neon, crowds, stalls. Anything you want on this street you can get – fake designer this and that, jewelry and amusingly fake NY driver’s license and even diplomas! Might have to pick me up a degree in something. First place was full so since it was now thundering and downpouring, I sidled to the next lit sign since next door and took a room. Not exactly sure what about about the charthouse gave me the creeps but it did. Perhaps it was the sign encouraging you to add your own padlock to the door but I checked out in the morning first thing and went back to the first place D & D inn.

I survived the night with Mr. Gecko and reclined on the deck for my morning toast – literally ‘on the deck’ since you are seated on the ground with these triangular cushion seat things. I can not get myself to try the traditional soup or noodle breakfasts yet. Thai food is amazing and cheap. You can get satay, cashew chicken, curry for next to nothing. Eating requires some caution though, my hibernian palatte tolerates little in the way of spicy or hot. I made the mistake of asking the waiter at dinner if the sauce with my fresh sole was ‘hot’, and he said no, not at all. Which for him I am sure was true, for me, I was breaking into a sweat. Different gauge.

I joined a group for snorkeling around the island. The guide was English and there were only 5 of us on a large boat that normally caters to 40 so we had plenty of room. Since the coral reefs are so shallow, we taxiied out to the motorboat using ‘longtail boat’. This is a frightfully unstable little buggar which uses a prop extending 6 feet or so out the rearend. We stopped at 4 various sites around the island to fin around and check out the underwater wildlife. First stop, I got up close and personal with some blacktipped reef sharks, very cool – lovely little creatures. I saw dozens of different coral, fish, squid at the various sites. If you are into marine life, this is the place to be. I chatted with the guide about some of the various horror stories he has experienced in 30 years of dive instructing around the world. Scary stuff, always check for aluminium coming out of your oxygen tanks! He told me how the movie ‘The Beach’, filmed on a nearby island, boosted tourism considerably to the country – quicker perhaps than the govt was prepared for considering the pollution and impact it has had on many areas. It continually amazes me the influence Hollywood has on entire societies and regions of the world. Our final stop of the day was to Nangyuan, a private island just off the coast. I climbed to the top of some rocks and got a splendid birds eye view of the shaded blue and green sea.

After way too much sun than my palid complexation can handle, I got back to ‘the shed’. Greeted my gecko. Took a ‘cold water’ shower which was near to boiling because the tank is probably exposed somewhere to the beating sun and headed back out. I witnessed another amazing sunset, probably second only to the one last night and tried out some more fish. It was a fitful night’s sleep with crickets clanking, cicada buzzing and presumably Mr Gecko knocking over all my toiletries at 0300. Glad I knew he was there or I might have been afraid there was some other creature in my bathroom…

I enjoyed breakfast on the deck watching men and women transport goods they would sell that day on the beach by balancing them on both ends of a long stick carried across their shoulders. I decided to take a detour on the way to Bangkok and stop on another, less crowded island call Koh Tao. The minivan came to pick me up for the ferry and launched my rucksack on top sans bungy or strap. I tried to protest but the guy kept telling me it was fine. I spent the whole ride to the boat expecting all my worldly belongings to go flying off into some abyss. One 1.5 hour hi speed catamaran got me to Koh Tao via another island famous for its ‘full moon parties’. (I think they are the asian equivilent of raves. an excuse for westerners to trip all night on a secluded beach).

Koh Tao, from the view of an approaching boat, is like a robinson crusoe village. There were all sorts of cabanas and huts built in the trees into the hillside above the shore. The place I had booked, AC two, picked me up and I was taken into the jungle — which would be my bungalow. The island is totally different than Koh Samui and I am not sure yet for the better. It is the most popular place in SE asia for diving so it caters to scuba people. Scuba people are a bit fanatical about their sport. They eat, sleep and breathe diving so there were cads of these junkies from all over the world.

Since I had splurged for 3 nights in a row on decent accommodation, I decided it was time to get back to basics. Somehow I feel that the less comfortable I make my travels, the more i will learn and be able to identify with the exploration and adventure aspect I seek. Yeah – this is pretty stupid but this mentality is what forced me to choose the non-ac option in 100 degree heat. My current abode is basically a shed, a wooden structure raised about 2 feet up. I can see the sandy ground through the floorboards and the room key is for the padlock I latch on over the door. The ‘ensuite’ includes a cold water shower which was fine since it is precisely 8000C inside my shed. The toilet looked normal until realized there was no lever to flush it – I noticed a bucket beside the throne and figured out this was the elaborate plumbing system. I was peachily adapting in stride to all this until I found my roommate. Now, I know I thought the gecko in Tahiti was big, but the friend sharing my bathroom is like a frickin stuffed animal. Exotic and colorful and bloody well massive. After I squealed and bolted from the shed, I composed myself and used the same logic as Tahiti – a. there is absolutely nothing he wants from me and b. if I was the adventurer my REI bill each year suggests I try to outfit myself to be – this should not phase me. So, I wish I could get a photo of him for my memoirs but moving the bathroom door to get enough light would disturb him and when he moves I move so…the image of this prehistoric beast will just have to keep contained inside my head.

I escaped the shed to go witness what turned out to the most amazing sunset I have seen on my trip and possibly ever. A big, flaming ball of orange slowly dropping and eventually dripping into thee ummm, whatever body of water this is between the island and mainland. Like Koh Samui, various bars and restaurants adorn the shoreline with little lights and flames. They sell paper lanterns which are lit and then carried up into the night sky. You can watch them for minutes float higher and farther away, it is amazing how far they go.. I am not exactly sure what it means, I suspect something about offerings or spirits. As I was still mesmorized watching the last lantern rise, the peacefulness was disrupted when a guy made a poor judgement of wind strength to launch the next one. It did not quite clear the tree in its path and burning embers started reigning down on diners below – guess that spirit was not quite ready to go!

I enjoyed a dinner at the Lotus bar which had a fire show happening on the beach. These guys were fast and talented though they occasionally lobbed a firestick at one another or in the air and did not quite catch the retrieval…could use a few more practice sessions. I made a mental note to sit a few rows back on the sand in the future.