MID LIFE AT THE OASIS

We arrived in Bangkok on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. on a night train from Chiang Mai and have happily begun to readjust to city life. The night train was another lovely Thai experience as we had managed to finally reserve a first class 2-person compartment which was cosy, clean, and a nice way to travel down from the North. And unlike Amtraks brutally awful food, we were brought two quite tasty Thai dinners!

CHERYL SHILLING FOR HEINIKEN IN OUR TRAIN COMPARTMENT

In my transit based opinion, Bangkok has now entered the world of sophisticated world cities with two “SkyTrain” lines and one metro line. Sure, there is a lot of work to do and the pedestrian scene on the streets is a bit neglected, but the Sky Train (1999-2000) is really cool as you feel like your gliding through “Tomorrowland”, with walkways, overpasses, and direct connections into buddings and shopping centers in virtually every direction.

BANGKOK OR TOMORROWLAND?

The whole downtown core seems to be filling in around the Sky Trains with even more building along the 2 lines, adding to the effect. Strangely, the one new metro line (2004) is doing well, but apparently not as crowded as the Sky Train (which is busy all the time and packed at rush hour). We heard an interesting reason for this is that in most of the Thai-Buddhist culture there is the belief that demons live down low and below ground. Therefore, a Metro may not be the best idea here and it explains the popularity of the higher transit. Let’s hope the transit planners have figured that one out?!

CHECKING OUT THE BANGKOK ROYAL SPORTING CLUB FROM THE SKYTRAIN PLATFORM

Bangkok has great energy and food, with an endless supply of things to do….although for us, riding the public transit is always a focus as we just love seeing unique urban forms and the way people react to them. There are also some very interesting old alleys and smaller streets still full of “Old Bangkok” and it can be quite a contrast where the new high rises meet the old low-rise neighborhoods.

Shopping in the MANY malls here is quite humorous as I have been casually looking for some size 14 running shoes. Although there are loads of Westerners in the malls here, there has not seemed to be an adjustment in the stocking of sizes. I am beginning to believe that there is no pair of shoes in SE Asia larger than a Size 12. The even more humiliating part is that every time I ask in a store or department store, I get a lookeof stunned disbelief, usually followed by the gathering of 3 to 4 sales people. They sometimes laugh a bit and sometimes seem to recoil in true horror. I think most Thais cannot believe that a human from the same race could possibly have such a shoe size, and the whole scened makes them uncomfortable. Of course, I am often shocked just how tiny some of the Thais are. No racism here, just complete cultural shock on both sides as to the natural state of the human body. We certainly have many more generations of blending and cross-breeding before everyone starts to look alike and approaches the same range of sizes. I guess I may have to wait to New Zealand to start running again….but by then we’ll have our bikes, so I think I’ll just make do with my ratty old Tevas and Merrell hiking shoes.

We have been staying for 4 days with some friends of my sister-in-laws brother. (How’s that for a reach). Charlie and Lizzie have generously taken us in and its been great to get away from the hotel and guest house scene for awhile. They have been very generous, especially not really knowing us at all, and they have a fabulous place on the 11th floor with great views of the downtown core of the city.

They also have a son who just completed the 1500 mile “Tour of Thailand” bike ride over 25 days which is just amazing as he is only 13! And he raised $6,000 for charity. Pretty cool, and we are trying to encourage him to keep riding, although Bangkok is certainly no Copenhagen for cyclists, so hopefully he can find a place to continue to develop his obviously strong form. We are just heading off to another friend of ours from San Francisco, who now is working for Bristol Myers Squibb here in BKK, and she has also generously invited us to stay with her until Friday. It should be fun as she is hosting her entire office of all Thai workers on Thursday night and we are invited to join in and meet some of the locals! And Best of all, we got haircuts again….of course, at the mall!

LOOK MA, NEW HAIRCUTS!

By the way, you can now click on any photo to go to our Flickr site and we now have ALL of our photos on Flickr, including India, Laos, and Thailand.

-R

Greetings friends! We have now been hanging out in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a week as the “Golden Triangle” spit us out earlier than we expected and our first-class sleeper train to Bangkok is on Friday night. By the way, I must elaborate on my distinction between “travelling” and “hanging out”. People who are “hanging out” do not fret at missing some of the standard tourist sights in lieu of say…..Bowling!

COSMIC BOWLING IN CHIANG MAI – OH YEAH

Sure, many people on Holiday or travelling think they are doing what they want to do, but the obligation to see “important things” on a short trip often pulls people into museums, tours, and to bizarre rock formations that really are not that interesting. We have seen about 50 Wats (Budhist temples) to date in Thailand and Laos and don’t really feel the need to see another of the 120 in Chiang Mai, although we have still managed to see dozens while cycling and couldn’t resist looking at some of the artwork in one of the more famous Wats in the city from the 15th Century. One thing we share is an interest in the history of the people, and this information is often missing from many of the tourist sites other than a few of the good ethnographic or cultural museums around. And we all know by now that finding things on your own is 10 times more rewarding than being told what to look at or interpret.

Some of this relaxed state is definitely a bit of travel burnout, but in our case, it has manifested itself as attempt to return to our “normal” lives back home by making some of our meals (we have a fridge and hot pot in our room), cycling a lot, reading, seeing movies, and even shopping at the insanely extensive night markets here. (We are going to ship some things home from Bangkok!). We have even discovered the wonderful world of SE Asian malls, complete with karaoke rooms, bowling alleys, movie theaters, and really good food courts (15 stations of various home made Thai and other Asian foods!)

LOVE THE MALL FOOD COURT

Believe it or not, we went to 3 Hollywood movies in 5 days at the nearby mall , but now have exhausted the supply of even marginally decent Hollywood fare being shown in English. This is a record for us by the way. I have even been thinking a lot about my return to the workforce again, which was inspired by a few recent career related email correspondences. Strange.

We ended up getting out of the “Golden Triangle” near Burma a bit early due to boredom and a lack of good outdoor activities. We loved the hilly countryside around Chiang Rai (not Mai), but the mountain town of Mae Salong was past its charming prime and the day trekking we found was somewhat unpleasant and unrewarding on foot, although we did pass through some very interesting old villages. Lonely Planet is amazing how they can write 3 pages on a place (Mae Salong) and never really tell you that it is really a dull, spread out cultural mish-mash laid out on a single road in the mountains that is terrible to walk and way too hilly to cycle. I am over Lonely Planet, by the way. (I have said this 10 times so far on our trip…but this time I mean it! Really.)

SO TRUE…..SO VERY TRUE

Chiang Mai is one of the big tourist destinations in Northern Thailand (Hah!, so we are following the masses after all) and the second largest city, although way, way behind Bangkok at a mere 200,000 people or so. My first impression of Chiang Mai was that it is a bit overrun with both tourists and traffic as the booming Thai economy is clearly starting to diminish the quality of life in many places in Thailand. The air in downtown is filled with the fumes of tuk-tuks, scooters, and the now thousands of LARGE cars that ply the streets of the historic city. The wealthier Thais seemed to have graduated from the scooter directly to full-size pick-up trucks and SUVS. No need to have the small sensible sedan in between. There is almost NO public transit except the thousands of pick-up truck mini-buses that clog every nook and cranny of the city belching noxious diesel clouds while plying for passengers on somewhat random movements somewhere between a bus and a taxi.

We have found nice new city tire and light equipped Trek mountain bikes to rent (Cacti bikes) and have had some pleasant riding in the disappearing countryside surrounding the city. The core city itself is one of the worst places I have ever tried to ride a bike with the nuevo-motorized masses of the city filling just about every inch of roadway. Don’t get me wrong…any adventure on bikes is great, included vaulting through rush hour ring road traffic, but “pleasant” it is not. But it beats dealing with the tuk-tuks, and taxi mafia whom have apparently managed to kill most attempts at public transit here.

To escape the flat city, I naively set out last Saturday morning at 7 am to ride up the 3000+-ft mountain just west of the city called Doi Suthep, which also contains a huge temple and a bunch of inappropriate development in a large national park. I believe this was only second to my famous “jogging in the Atacama Desert” attempt of 1995 in the archives of permanent damage I may have done to my body in the name of “exercise”. But as always, I rode on.

What I didn’t realize (or read) is that it seems that going to the temple at Doi Suthep/Doi Pui is the #1 activity for the locals on the weekends (not sure about the weekdays) and that they get an early start. (One web site said don’t ride up the mountain after 8, but didn’t go into details!?) So I started up the mountain road around 7:30 and soon found myself being passed by mini-bus after mini-bus loaded with people heading up the mountain. Now you have to understand that the old Toyota diesel mini-bus/pick-ups lumber on the flats with 10 people, but up a 8-15% grade? Forget about it. Imagine the worst old out-of-tune Mercedes diesel that you’ve ever seen and you have a rough idea what these trucks were each spewing. The completely still air did not move the smog an inch and I could see the thick clouds of diesel particulates glistening in the low morning sunlight like a thick mist above the asphalt.

So I’m thinking “Wow, there’s a lot of people heading up the mountain at 7:30?, but I’m sure this is just a special group and will soon end.” Wrong. They mini-buses got thicker and thicker and about half-way up the mountain I seriously thought about turning around. The traffic was also getting so heavy that I was losing the battle to “take the lane” in the shoulderless left lane that had been my buffer. I really was feeling sick from inhaling so much exhaust and thought I might hurl at one point. So did I stop? No way, that would be giving in to their lousy transportation system and besides I had already gone more than half way and permanetely reduced my lung capacity.

A QUIET BREAK IN THE MINI-BUS TRAFFIC UP DOI SUTHEP

However, the cheering encouragement and smiles from the back of every loaded mini-bus just made me want to press on even more. That’s how the Thais get you, with their endless enthusiam and smiles. Sure, their one road up into a national “park” has no pedestrian or bike accomodation and the smog is so thick you can cry, but they are so nice and happy, you just can’t stay mad or be bitter. As I always remember, I am a visitor to this strange land where no one walks or cycles anymore. (O.K. most of America is like this too, but not the Bay Area and not in my previous urban life)

By the way, I did see 4 teenage Thai boys riding slowly up the mountain on their bikes and we all exchanged hearty “Sawadees!” I hope their lungs are stronger than mine. They were the only ones, besides two Farangs that were descending the mountain at 7:30 (they knew better).

So I did make it to the top and was stunned at the thousands of people there already at 9 am! (Duh, they all passed you) At the top, I took a moment to take in the supposed views of Chiang Mai completely obscured by smog.

THIS REALLY WAS THE VIEW LOOKING DOWN AT THE CITY 3000 FEET

The ride down only took 15 minutes and was very fun as I could actually pass many of the mini-buses (to their amazement) and cars on the windey road. They are actually very cautious and somewhat considerate drivers here and I was feeling good with my sense of accomplishment. My lungs, not so much.

-R

Today, after entering back into Thailand this morning, we were cruising in the backseat of a a nice little local bus from Chiang Khong to Chiang Rai (A pleasant return to the Muppet Bus!) and looking out on the scenery. A gentle, slightly warmish breeze was coming in the window and open back door of the bus as we passed golden farm fields and small mountains draped in evergreens. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought….I am home…. I am back in Northern California….driving in the old Toyota pick-up to Ukiah…or maybe Anderson Valley….ah yes…Anderson valley would be nice. It felt so real and so close, but then I was back. In a little bus in Thailand, just rambling along with no real purpose, other than to see what’s out there, and where I fit in the picture of the world. But I ramble and daydream yet again, so let’s catch up on the past few days.

TRADITIONAL VILLAGES ALONG THE MEKONG RIVER – LAOS

Two days by boat on the Mekong was both relaxing and beautiful, as we watched each day develop from dawn to dusk, and from thick fog to bright winter sunshine. Mind-boggling communities of people still living subsistence lives…harvesting bamboo, weaving, farming, fishing….it’s hard to imagine this world still exists.

THE VILLAGERS WERE LOADING MASSIVE BAGS OF RICE FOR TRANSPORT – OUR “BARGE” WAS DOCKED BETWEEN THE OTHER BARGES

The river is also much rockier than I imagined and is an amazing challenge to navigate as there are jagged rocks everywhere, many just below the surface waiting to slice a boat in two. (Apparently upstream of where we travelled in laos, the Chinese are busy blasting all the rock from the river to help navigation, but unfortunately this is also doing in the Giant Catfish [up to 200kg] native to the river that live and breed in the caves below the water surface.) Luckily, our boat captain clearly knew his way and we only travelled with some semblance of daylight. We spent the night midway in our boat journey in a lodge in Pak Beng.

This 2-day, 1-night “cruise” was the first organized multi-day tourist thing we have done to date as independent travel is my passion and I rarely relinquish control of anything related to travel, and I abhor marching around to sites with large packs of camera-wielding zombies. Nevertheless, we booked this tour/transportation as it seemed like the best option of 4 to get from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai, Laos and back into Thailand.

1) Short-haul flight by Lao Airways…….sketchy safety record and environmentally wasteful short-haul travel.

2) Slow barges: Uncomfortable to miserable seating for two 8 hour days upstream

3) Speedboats…..totally environmentally incorrect, scary, loud, uncomfortable, and very dangerous (like 1 death/week somewhere on the river!)

4) Context-sensitive Barge boat built to comfortably take 40 passengers up the river with some scenic stops, guides, food and drink. (We only had 23, 40 would have been crowded!)

LOTS OF TIME TO PONDER LIFE ON THE MIGHTY RIVER

Despite my general reluctance to ever sit still for 10 hours, the “cruise” was very pleasant and you could really take in the sights along the river; however, the overnight lodge was a bit worn, and the food just o.k., and as we predicted, we were about the youngest on the boat (besides someones child) Once again we found ourselves caught between the backpackers and the retirees and this mini-cruise took us into the latter realm. One of the funniest moments was the fact that our boat had many French tourists that just looked shocked when our guide told them after our 6 p.m. arrival at the lodge that dinner would be a 7 p.m. and breakfast at 6:15 a.m.!!! “Quell domage? We eat dinner in the middle of the day and have breakfast in the middle of the night…what is this?” O.K., we just heard their mumbles of shock, but Cheryl and I imaged the rest of the statement and laughed.

CHERYL BIKING (ON OUR OWN!) IN THE BEAUTIFUL LANDS NEAR CHIANG RAI

All in all, the boat trip was certainly memorable, but rushed upstream (downstream is only 7 hours on the boat), and overpriced as we could have done nearly the same thing on our own organization for 1/3 the price, with likely a less comfortable boat, but a better lodge and food. So as fairly intrepid independent travellers, it was nice to say “Au Revoir” to the crew and get back to travelling the way we like to……on our own.

The communist attitude here in Laos sure makes the country feel different. People are much more reserved and subdued than in Thailand and there just doesn’t seem to be a rush to do anything. It’s also harder to get people to smile, but once you get past the more somber veneer , I have found the people to be warm, kind, and very good natured. And they do like to party as was evidenced here in beautiful Luang Prabang over the New Years weekend. The city was packed to the gills with locals and tourists including a big government sanctioned celebration that included lots of cultural performances, food, BeerLao. and of course “Funy(sic) Paper Hats!” There was a huge table of completely different and hand-made paper party hats that you could buy for $1, so Cheryl and I sidled on up tot eh booth boldly and careful selected our festive wear for the night. Amazingly, we were the only foreign tourists who bought the hats, as the cautious and somewhat righteous Western Europeans here seemed to be above the simple fun. Well, pooh on them I said, and we wore our hats proudly and even managed to get the photo below, in which my new Lao friend seems a bit bewildered and terrified at the same time.

NEW YEAR’S EVE IN LUANG PRABANG

But first let’s catch up on how we got to be wearing funy paper hats on New Years Eve in Northern Laos. Getting to Luang Prabang by bus is not easy as it involved 12 very curvy hours on buses, but luckily with a 4-day break near the middle in Vang Vieng (VV), which is somewhat plain town in a magical location along the stunning Nam Song river. The river winds through dramatic valleys bonded by limestone cliffs and mountains on all sides. Now VV has certainly been discovered and there is a heavy backpackers scene primarily based on cheap beer and access to tubing, biking, caving, kayaking and other outdoor activities. There is also a mini building boom going on as fancier guest houses and even mini “resorts” are starting to accumulate along the riverbanks faster than carbon dioxide above LA. With the fancier digs has come more families from Northern Europe on cheap holidays. We also saw four trucks full of developers, easy to identify with logos on some of the few doored vehicles in the town. (it’s mostly scooters and tuk-tuks) It made us sad, since they seemed to be looking at the far river bank, which is solely inhabited by natives right now, but looks to be under threat due to a new single-lane auto bridge just opening. No question Vang Vieng will look completely different in 10 years, but if brings better lives to the poor in the area, then it’s better….right? Still working on that big question.

So we had a great time swimming in blue lagoons outside of limestone caves, cycling on the worlds heaviest and ill-fitting bicycles, kayaking, and even partaking in the ritual tubing procession on the lower part of the river. The 3km tubing stretch of river is conveniently lined with bamboo pavilions and “bars” playing bloody awful music, but selling an endless supply of BeerLao to the tubing masses. Other than the fraternity party vibe, the prime entertainment is provided by people of various skills and blood alcohol levels jumping off high platforms on huge rope swings and zip lines.

Now I’d like to say that at the mature age of 39 that I was above all these post-collegiate shenanigans, but I’m not. As many of my friends know, I’m a huge sucker for beer in beautiful outdoor venues. And the Nam Song is beautiful. It was lots of fun, although the lack of a decent medical facility in the entire country kept me from doing the highest water jumps and swings. Just one run on a tamer zip line, but a good time for sure. Once again we found ourselves wedged between the backpackers and the retired people and constantly switching worlds. We visited 4 caves that were all amazing. including one with a day kayak-trek tour group that required wedging ourselves through a pretty small opening to get out of the cave. Amazingly, my lanky legs just levered though the crack, although even our guide looked a bit concerned with me at one point. The limestone formations are just spectacular and seem to be endless in this region of Laos. They also have some history with the locals as they have served as very safe and convenient hiding places during the many wars that have plagued the country in the past century. Not to mention the bats.

Again, cycling out of town to the villages has been extremely rewarding, as you see the real Laos, and get a hundred interactions per mile. We even found some girls in native costumes willing to pose next to the giant freaky American, and had a delicious,. but mysterious meal of BBQ meat at yet another roadside eatery. We honestly couldn’t identify many of the meats on our plate, although there were definitely some cholesterol-rich organs on the platter (liver, heart?). We prefer the Anthony Bourdain (by the way, I must mention again that his travel/food show “No Reservations” is the best travel show ever made! Period) coined “squeezle”.

MORE AMAZING COUNTRY FOOD (AND SQUEEZLE)

(Dr. Brinkman please do not read the following….) We are breaking many of the “rules” of safe eating in our travels including eating some fresh vegetables, but so far have been lucky to avoid any major ills, although I did feel a bit ratty the past 24 hours. But the food is so good! This is one of the huge advantages of travelling for a year as you get less freaked about being down and out for few days or even a week. Lots of wood to knock on here, but I would certainly regret not trying things even more.

Tomorrow morning we are getting on a “cruise” boat that will take us up the Mekong River the Huay Xai and the Thai Border in two days with an overnight stop and more cave visits along the way. It should be really nice if I can manage to sit still for two days straight on a boat. No typhoon induced waves on the Mekong either, so the Squeezle should stay put this time!

Happy New Year to you all and may 2007 find you happy and free.