MID LIFE AT THE OASIS

So it’s been awhile since I last checked in with y’all and you may be wondering, “Did Rich and Cheryl finally drop out of society for good and join a Buddhist mountain colony?” Well, not exactly, but we have made it to fascinating Northern Vietnam and are still amazed at the energy and pace of changes here in Hanoi. But first to keep to my chronological blog roots, I must bring you up to date on our past two weeks first. We left Bangkok after a great week visiting ex-pats (semi-locals)and flew South again for a very relaxing week on the little Thai island of Koh Phi Phi on the central Andaman coast of Thailand. The incredible Karst limestone scenery, snorkeling right from the beaches (no motorized day trip to adjacent islands required), and a car-free environment were the draws as well as the small goal of really resetting our bodies from the polluted air of the Northern Thai cities prior to visiting Vietnam.

THE SAFER SIDE OF THE ISLAND, LONG BEACH, KO PHI PHI

Koh Phi Phi has an interesting dynamic right now as it is still recovering from the horrible tsunami of December 26, 2004 that took over 2000 lives on the island. (about 2/3 tourists, 1/3 locals) The greater tragedy of the tsunami is that with a little warning, most of the people could have survived, as over 95% of the island lies above the height of the waves which crushed the middle isthmus of little resorts and hotels, while inflicting minor damage on the more substantial land masses and beaches adjacent to the isthmus. The main tsunami wave split around the west side of the island into two separate wave forces, one was 3 meters high, the other 5 meters high. The two waves met in the middle of the isthmus in a hydraulic collision that completely devastated everything and everyone in its path. There is apparently a small memorial to those that lost their lives but we couldn’t find it in the mass of reconstruction and tourists once again sunburning and drinking beer smack dab in the middle of the isthmus again.

Now it’s human nature to ignore the often constant danger in our lives and move on, but the insanity of rebuilding on parts of this island are striking. (Says guy living in earthquake country for 16 years?!) Unfortunately, all the easy and flat land to develop is below the 5 meter line and there seems to be some insatiable greed (and desperation perhaps) by those reconstructing. Despite attempts to redevelop smarter, the island has nearly completely rebuilt and the tourists have come back in droves. And the island is amazingly beautiful, so people can’t help wanting to visit. And it is somewhat romantic in the fact that there are no cars or roads on the island to speak of, except some trucks building a huge new reservoir on the East side of the Island (to fuel more development for sure!). Koh Phi Phi especially seems to be a favorite of Scandinavians and other pale Northern Europeans as we saw some amazing sunburns and dark, dark brown tans that will glow on the streets of Helsinki well into April.

Now in defense of the Thais, there is a new national Tsunami warning system in place and a big warning tower at the center of the isthmus, but I’m not sure if the whole system is up and running yet, as there has been some financing struggles in the Thai government. Regardless, I couldn’t as a Civil engineer in good conscience stay below the historic or potential Tsunami water level and we opted for an old bungalow about 25 meters above the shore. I wouldn’t have slept well down by the beach, and besides, the views were more than fantastic.

MORNING COFFEE FROM OUR WEE BUNGALOW

Parts of the island are completely again inundated by tourists and overall, the vibe of the tourist-local interaction was not the best. It feels like a place where the locals have been displaced from the nice coastal areas and now live up in the hotter interior hills and forests in the middle of the island. Even a pack of monkeys I ran into while walking in the hills looked pissed off that about half of their habitat had been clear cut.

DISPLACED MONKEYS AT THE EDGE OF NEW CONSTRUCTION

Thier loss was for the new reservoir and junky “houses” inhabited by the displaced locals and temporary construction workers trying to at least get thier share of the boom in development.
There is also still a sense of the recent tragedy in the eyes of the locals as they all seem a little shell shocked and disenfranchised with the whole Farang scene. Not many Thai smiles here, although some of that may be a result of the fact that the people are clearly from a different sub-ethnicity than the central and Northern Thais(More Malay).

NEW RESERVOIR ON SOUTHEAST PENNINSULA

It’s hard to tell how many locals were really profiting from the influx of tourists, although there are no megaresorts there yet, so the operations tend to be family run, which is good I guess. Luckily, we found a fairly rustic bungalow at the end of the island and it had good access to a hidden little beach (Hat lo Moodi) on the East coast of the island where we could escape the heat, crowds and long boats to take in a beautiful slice of undeveloped “old” Thailand. The snorkeling was also really magnificent on two nearby beaches with large reefs and about a hundred different species of fish visible, including small reef sharks (or some kind of FRIENDLY shark that they said posed no danger). The two samll sharks I saw completely ignored me as a sort of followed them as best as possible.

HAT LO MOODI – WONDERFUL AND EMPTY BEACH – WILL IT LAST?

So you can probably sense that this place really made me question the impact of our travels. The real issue obviously is the type of development and how it is affecting the locals. Thailand has had the luxury in the past 20 years of a seemingly endless supply of beautiful coastline and islands to develop haphazardly and randomly with little regards for resources or sustainability. Maybe it’s actually more sustainable to go to Waikiki than the latest island discovery that is getting it’s beaches developed and forests chopped down to allow even more people to visit. Lots of questions for the future of our travels, but we will certainly do our homework prior to travelling anywhere where questionable environmental impacts are occurring or there is clear social or economic injustice. (i.e unfair land grabs from indigenous fisher-people)

But “being part of the problem” is a huge question and opens the whole question of travel in general, which I am more convinced than ever is a great thing, as long as some attention is paid to how you interact with the people and place you visit. We have tried to reduce the impact of our travels where possible (bikes or walking versus tuk-tuks) and try to eat local foods and products as much as possible. (local made fruit chips versus Lays potato chips, etc) And of course, I always try to stay as local as possible when it comes to beer. But we always think that our flying around the world is certainly adding to the climate change occurring around the world and I can’t help but think that our very visit to the magnificent coral reefs of the Andaman Coast may just be hastening their demise.

This half way point of our RTW travels has also made me reflect on what we have experienced and how this has already altered my understanding of my place in the world. We are starting to comprehend that this is a momentous trip at a perfect time in our lives to both appreciate what we are seeing, while still being young enough to endure some discomfort and physically challenge ourselves on occassion. No matter what happens in the next 5 months, we will treasure our new perspectives and take this with us to our graves. We will return to San Francisco with renewed optimism and appreciateion for the lucky chance of birth that we were born to our families and raised in a healthy place with vitually every opportunnity. Sure, we have both worked very hard to get this opportunity, but so has almost every person we have encountered around the world. They work hard or harder, but just happen to make $2 or $10 a day for their efforts, which makes global travel inconceivable. We are very, very lucky.

So we said goodbye to Thailand last Friday and hello to Vietnam which has already surprised us at every step. But that will have to wait until the next post, which I promise will be more upbeat!

-R

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.

So the Thai people have this concept known as “Sa Nook” or “Sanuke” which basically boils down to the attitude that if you not having fun doing something, then it really isn’t good, since everything should have an element of Sa Nook or playful fun in it. This includes work. Over the past three days, we really got to get out in the countryside and see the more rural side of Thai life. The rural people are even more friendly which just boggles the mind, since the city folk are so cheery to start. I’ve never encountered such an outwardly endearing culture. After sitting on the train for a few hours from Chumphon to Bangkok and reading between the lines a bit in the Lonely Planet, we decided to stop for a few more days in Thailand before crossing into Laos and Vientiane and boy are we glad we did, as the little city/town of Nong Khai is a great place to visit and access the more laid back and traditional side of Thai life. The area around the city contains dozens of little villages that still survive though farming and agriculture, including fishing along the Mekong river, beautiful rice paddies, and flower farms.

We rented some nice mountain bikes and were therefore able to cover a good 60km on our first day (yup, butts are sore!) on a fabulous loop that the nice people at our guest house had laid out on maps. We crossed rickety bridges, travelled along little dirt paths connecting villages, and were fueled by dozens of hellos per kilometer that made you feel like you were crossing through some mysterious fairyland where everyone is happily working away in the fields, cooking, or folding laundry.

Cheryl on the Rickety Bridge

I’m not sure if there is an unhappy person in Thailand. I’m really not sure. The Thai seem to have life pretty well figured out and it was so refreshing to see such a way of life, from both the rural to the small cities. Bangkok will be different, but boy, if I had to pick a place to drop out and live the cheap Expat “off the gird” life it would be here. And from what we saw in town, there were a lot of Brits and Aussies that had done exactly that, including the owner of the wonderful Mut Mee Guest House (www.mutmee.net) This guest house sits on the Mekong and has about 20 rooms of varying rusticness (ours was a really cool little duplex bungalow with outside shower and bath) all around a great garden, restaurant, and community gathering place. So we decided to stay 3 nights and just chill, ride bikes, and soak up as much of the warm vibe as possible.

On the third day we biked to the amazing sculpture garden which will require it’s own post when we get all the photos. I also headed out by myself and ended up meeting “Tam” a Buddhist monk in training that was trying to practice his English and was the most outgoing of group of 6 teenage boys that I chatted with for 15 minutes or so, gave them my email address, and convinced the shy one to take the photo below.

Lots of Sa Nook for us too as they accidently broke a street lamp behind them and I told them they could blame the American. It was pretty funny and another encounter that I will cherish (and I may have a Thai monk email buddy, who knows).

Last night on Christmas eve, the Mut Mee had a big buffet dinner and party with really great local musicians and dancers. We met a really nice German couple and spent most of the evening talking with them and drinking Singha and Leo beer (“The Beer that Roars!”) until Christmas eve became Christmas Day (no, we just stayed up to midnight or so, no all night are you kidding!). And yes, I got pulled up by the 4′-10″ Thai women dancers to join them in an embarrass the gringos moment; lots of SA Nook there and not a Christmas eve that will blend with the rest for sure.

And today we crossed the “Friendship Bridge” to communist Laos and are now sitting in the somewhat dreary and rundown capital city that time and capitalism has left behind. We are only staying the night on the good advice of other travellers coming South and will be heading North to Vang Vieng and more promising parts of Laos tomorrow. We did sample some great local food at lunch today (See Cheryl’s blog for more on this) and are going to try a good sounding French Restaurant this evening as there is still the legacy of the French colonialism here both in the architecture and food, although the basic food of the people shares much more with Thai and Vietnamese cultures. And yes, travel is all about the food, as long as it is prepared with a smile and Sa Nook.

Update…6 Hours later….. I had to write about it now didn’t I? Yup, the swells were huge again and about 10 minutes into the two hour trip I knew that I was in big trouble. My stomach started to cramp and I broke out in a solid sweat while successfully “maintaining” for nearly an hour. I tried the IPod, but that failed to help, so I finally succumbed and joined the legions of bag fillers on the old tilt-a-whirl also know as as the Lomprayah Koh Tao high-speed Catamaran! Funny thing seasickness is; you can weather all sorts of bad rides and then some day your number comes up and blam. The good news is that I felt much better after returning my chicken curry lunch and made it to the dock with minimal extended misery. Cheryl was the stronger sailor today although she was pretty green as well (it didn’t help having me next to her!) and we were both VERY HAPPY to get off the boat onto solid ground. Amazingly, I was eating again at the night market in Chumphon just hours later! Who can resist the food of Thailand even when you can’t always keep it down!

Coconut Custard Street Treats

Hello Mainland!

Greetings All:

We’re wrapping up 8 days on the islands of the Southwestern Gulf of Thailand and about to get back on the high speed catamaran to Chumphon, which is about two hours away on the main coast. Goodbye beaches…. 🙁 The weather this time of year in these islands is pretty variable due the the fact that it is the middle of the Northeast monsoon. This has meant some spectacular weather, rain, and wind, along with plenty of sunshine in between. It’s really my idea of perfect island weather as all sunshine would be a bit too much, well, correction, ideal except when you need to make open ocean crossings by boat! The protected beaches and bays were fine and saw little wind, butt when we boarded the catamaran in choppy seas on Northern Ko Samui, the big swells required the crew to grab and hold each passenger as the loose dock, ramp, and boat were varying in height by up to four feet. No problem. So it didn’t seem so bad at first as the catamaran sliced through the swell at a good clip, and we made it to the adjacent island Koh Ph Ngan is about half an hour or so, on our way to Koh Tao. At this first stop, about a hundred or so of the party crowd got on the boat, as Ko PhaNgan is known for its full moon all night parties and raves, which is why we bypassed it with little hesitation. Many of these ragged bunch looked like they may have partied a little hard the night before, which made getting on the boat a bad idea under good conditions. However, theses would not be good conditions. Unfortunately I think no one on board realized that the next leg would really take us out into open seas and that we’d be crossing in huge winds and swells that caused the front of the boat to rise way up and slam down continuosly, while sending your inner ear to the moon. Also, the rain started and the seas got dark and nasty, which made looking for any horizon impossible. It was actually a bit scary at times, since the typhoon conditions seemed to get worse and worse.

But soon it started. The first woman bolted out the side door dangerously onto the front side deck and started to add chum to the ocean. Then the next few started in the front rows. The woman next us was hunched over and limp-green. Finally, the crew realized what was happening and went into a Stage 5 Hurl Alert. They passed up and and down the two aisles of the airplane like interior with plastic bags and plenty of toilet paper. They even had some sort of menthol smelling salts that they gave to people to sniff, which may have helped a few, but it was pretty ugly. Hands continued to go up and the guys would run down the aisle to the rescue, like medics pulling soldiers off a battlefield. I’d say at least a quarter of the boats 200 passengers succumbed to hurling, and another half were very green. As anyone knows who has been seasick, the smell of another getting sick can set off a wave that it is hard to stop. Amazingly, Cheryl and I resisted the pull and held on for nearly two hours, although I have to admit it was a bit dicey for awhile. I actually made the mistake of heading back to the bathrooms (for standard purposes) but discovered that the areas in the back around the “heads” was like a refuge camp of the ill and miserable. I looked away, held my pee, and headed back to my seat, and told Cheryl, “DO NOT go back there!” When we finally docked, there was nearly a stampede of sick folks pushing out the doors as they clearly didn’t want to be on that boat for 1 second longer than necessary.

So crazily enough we are about to get back on the same boat for another two hour crossing, but the weather looks o.k. today (but not great, still quite windy). We are going to eat early, sit near the back of the boat (but away from the heads!) and hope for the best.

Other than the boat crossing, everything is pretty lovely here on the islands so please don’t feel too sorry for us, with great people, beaches, and we even managed some snorkeling, although it has been a challenge with the wind and certainly not ideal conditions on the reefs.

We hired a long boat to take us over to a small island off Koh Tao for some snorkeling and even that crossing hit some windy open chop that had us all laughing at the showers we got before even getting to the island. Luckily, the long boat pilots are great and of course, come complete with the wonderful Thai disposition where everything is fun, happy, and a laugh. It’s very endearing. The island, Koh Nang Yuan was actually three little islands connected by two sand bars that were getting pummelled by the wind driven swells. there is one little dive “resort” with some bungalows, bar, and restaurant. It’s a very cool and unique setting, although the conditions were just too rough for an good snorkeling. We nicknamed it “Danger Island” as everything there was kind of scary, including the crossing, the rickety old dock, and the waves breaking the sand bars with the open seas just a hundred meters away. Very Robinson Crusoe, but with a tiki bar.

Yesterday, we hiked over the ridge of the Island to a small bay on the East Coast which had better snorkeling (including beautiful green coral and large rainbow fish), but still pretty rough with the swells from the Northeast coming around the point into the cove.

It was great to see more of the island as walking from side to side and back we saw more of the local people, housing and lifestyle which you don’t see much of down on the coastal beach areas, where most of the prime property is now inhabited by “farangs” (gringos to the Thais). We’ve had some fantastic food and are looking even more forward to getting more authentic food on the mainland.

As for our direction….well, due to our friends being gone during the holidays in Bangkok, we’re now going to head straight up to Laos after an overnight on the mainland tonight and then a night train North tomorrow. Why not. So it looks like Christmas in Vientiane. We have heard nothing but positive things about the Lao people and travelling there is supposed to be quite rewarding and very laid-back. We tplan on heading north through Laos and exiting back into Northern Thailand (where we get a new 30-day visa) and then working our way back to Bangkok. We are slowly adjusting to the heat, but the inland areas may be a test along with the bugs, as we discovered yesterday while eating our new improved Museli, “now with more added ants!” as the little devils crawled into our “sealed” bag somehow. But when you have yummy overpriced Museli and yogurt already prepared in your room, you just can’t bear to throw anything out. So we ate a few ants that didn’t clear the yogurt swamp. Mmmm, protein. Clearly, we need to up our defenses in the jungles as the bugs here are serious. Everything is bigger and more colorful in the tropics.

Well, some photos of Thailand will be coming soon, but for now, just the prose.

We miss you all and hope you have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Rich

Well we made it out of Mumbai, but not without India throwing us some final punches on the way to the airport. We caught a safe looking private taxi from outside our hotel to the airport, allowing 2 hours to go less than 20 km based on Mumbai’s legendary reputation for traffic. Everything seemed great after the mandatory 5 men finished their discussion about the pending journey for another few minutes (It appears to take a minimum of 5 men to complete most service tasks in India, I think this may be law)

Now there is a way to get to one train station closer to where we were staying, take a local train to a station closer to the airport (but not that close) and then catch a taxi form there, but it would have been at rush hour which every guide book says is a crazy thing to attempt, especially with backpacks on. The trains are packed and nuts. Just take a taxi they say. And getting to and from each end would have meant even more tedious negotiations with taxi divers. Now believe me if this was Vienna, we would have taken 8 connections to get to the airport as needed and it still would have been easier and less stressful. (In fact, we did take 3 seamless connections to get to the Vienna airport)

So the drive started out calmly enough as we settled into the thick traffic heading out of the Colaba neighborhood of South Mumbai, but then we started to slowly realize that our 20-something driver was a testosterone laden nut. He proceeded to use the oncoming lanes frequently to try to pass on quasi-highways and alternately would use the inside “curb” lane to try to make some progress when things had stopped for about 10 minutes halfway into our trip. He was not gaining anything as the inside lane was clogged with throngs of carts, people, and dogs also trying to make there way along the streets. When he passed on the outside, he would often spend more time trying to merge back into traffic then those just residing themselves to the slow pace of Mumbai’s nightmare transportation system. (And yes, we felt guilty that we were adding to this mess). Meanwhile we passed glitzy new high rise “neighborhoods” with lines of nice cars streaming out into the clogged mess alternating with some of the worst slum living that I have seen, including piles of trash burning, tarp cities, and men defecating 5 feet from the car traffic. India is so disturbing, that I still get upset with people who glamorize it in any way. It’s a mess, both socially and environmentally. Sure, it’s not all bad and you have to look forward, but please be realistic. Any yes, I know the South is much different, so again I speak for the 13 places we visited.

So when traffic really started to crawl, he turned and asked what time are flight was and we told him midnight, so we still had plenty of time. No panic, my crazy friend was the tone of both our voices….but it did not seem to matter. He proceeded down a side six lane boulevard which seemed to have a variable flow traffic system in place similar to the Golden Gate Bridge as the crush of traffic was taking 4 to 5 lanes and only one lane was managing to squeeze by in the opposite direction. (Of course this system was voluntary) That of course was until our brainiac driver decided to take the sixth lane as a “shortcut” and then couldn’t merge back into the other lanes as the intersection ahead was completely and seemingly girdlocked. So one of the old 1950’s style Fiat like black and yellow Mumbai meter taxis approached and slowed as it looked like he might be able to squeeze by. Sccreeeunhch! Nope, his bruiser taxi with 3-inch thick steel bumpers proceeded to tear off the back corner panel and part of the bumper of our taxis shiny new Tata compact sedan. So the two taxis actually got stuck together with interlocked bumpers and no way to maneuver out. If the bruiser taxi had proceeded then our car would have lost the whole bumper and probably part of the small trunk. So now we’re thinking great, we really are never going to get out of India and this now going to take an hour to sort out, although clearly our driver was completely at fault for being three lanes over into oncoming traffic. The frequent feelings of claustrophobia that I had in India came back quickly, filling me with a panic that being in a sea of 20 million people can only induce.

Well, luckily 20 of the 1000 men on that particular block of Mumbai all started to offer their opinions on how the two cars could get apart, and then proceeded to help lift the back and back bumper of the bruiser taxi to the side. More crunching steel on plastic and other bad sounds as the cars finally came apart. Now, clearly our driver did not own this car and it was obvious from the expression on his face after surveying the damage that he was going to be in a world of hurt when he got back to the boss man. Despite his “Fast and Furious” inspired driving style, we felt really bad for him. But there is no need for paperwork since only the one (at fault) car had real damage, we were actually on our way in about 5 minutes. We still think that the bruiser taxi did this on purpose as his tank was untouched and he wanted to teach our driver a lesson for gridlocking all the oncoming traffic. Yup, cars are stupid, and they are multiplying in India along with young males and an advertising campaigns showing blinged-out hipsters racing through the imaginary streets of the new India.

So did he proceed to mellow out and take it easy the rest of the way? No way. We were both certain that he might have at least 1 or maybe 2 more accidents before we made it to the airport. He was just a bad driver, but we had no choice as we were where the taxis would only be passing by full, since no taxi would be cruising empty in 10 miles of crawling traffic. But we screeched into the terminal 2 hours later, completely wigged out and shaking a bit, but happy to have made it in one piece. I’m sure he’ll have a completely different story for his boss (the Camel came out of nowhere!), but I still gave him a good tip out of sheer pity for the fact that was clearly a fellow in the wrong profession and I suspect would be looking for other work now. It’s hard to be a saint in the city of Mumbai.

So we had a short 3 1/2 hour flight to Bangkok and managed to get a few hours of sleep prior to a 5-hour layover in the somewhat cavernous new Bangkok airport. Everything in the airport was orderly. We got off in Surat Thani, got our baggage in 5 minutes and then asked how we could get to Ko Samui island. Here is your ticket, there is the bus that will connect you to the ferry terminal in an hour or so and so were getting off onto the island about 4 easy hours later. No hassles, everybody mellow. Taxi from the pier to the area of island that we wanted to look for housing. Everything easy and only one person completes each task. Very strange.

So we lucked out and got two nights at my first choice little place called the Lodge, on the Bo Phut beach. It was fabulous and probably one the most pleasant places that I have ever stayed. (and for $34)

They were booked from today on, so we took a little walk down the beach yesterday and checked out a few other places and found one we liked for a similar price. No hassles, they tell you the price and show you the room. I can’t really describe the difference from India as a traveller. The Thai people are so nice, and so mellow. Ho honking, no running you off the road out of sheer motorized arrogance, and they ask you once if you wold like something and give a clear answer to questions. Granted, this is an uber tourist island, so it may be different as we hopefully encounter more genuine Thai life in the interior and mountains of the North.

Oh, and yes the food is great, with the more casual and local looking places off the beach strip serving the best food. (An easy rule of thumb anywhere).

Yup, it’s paradise here and on Saturday we are going to head to the more coral laced Koh Tau for another 4 nights, as long as we squeeze out some accommodation prior o the Holliday onslaught due in a week or so. Then we’ll be ready to get back to some more challenging travel again, as we now just need now a vacation from our travels.

Peace to all and especially the 1.1 Billion Indians. May you rise and prosper.