China

After a month in SE Asia, we've moved north to China. In some ways, it's less foreign in Beijing than it was in Thailand, Laos or Cambodia. At least the areas we've been in Beijing are ultra-modern developed areas (I realize there are other parts of the city and certainly the country that are anything but).
However, as a tourist this is a harder area to function in, or at least there's more of a language barrier. Everywhere we went the past month people, at least the people who where involved in selling things, spoke English. English menus, english signs. There is far less English spoken or written here. And the various English translations are far harder to understand.

island life

Made it to Bangkok, and after waiting an extra day (the train we wanted was sold out) we made it south to the island of Ko Pha Ngan yesterday. This is time to rest and recover, so our days are empty. Last night partied on the beach with some fellow travelers - all the bars open to the beach and play music, so the atmosphere changes as you walk up and down.
There were quite a few people out (including fire dancers) but nothing like what it will be like in a couple weeks - this is the venue of the Full Moon Party each month, when about 10,000 drunken backpackers descend on the beach to drink and dance to DJs and everything else you do when a lot of people are in one spot to party.

coup time

Woke up this morning in Siem Reap, Cambodia ready to head to Bangkok on a bus after three days of temple-seeing, then hopefully hop on a train south to the beautiful Thai island beaches. However, news of the coup in Bangkok caused us to postpone the trip at least a day, to see what's going on over there. So far it doesn't seem like it will be much of a problem for traveling, but hopefully we'll have a better idea in the next day or so.

The unexpected day of rest gave me a chance to put up some photos and the blog entries below about our time in SE Asia.

Cambodia

From Luang Prabang we took buses south. The first day to the backpacker hot spot of Vang Vieng, then to the capital of Vientiene where we caught a flight to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.
After Luang Prabang the two Laos stops were uneventful. Vang Vieng has beautiful mountains surrounding it, but the town is not pretty and filled with tourists (like us). Vientiene has very little to recommend it, other than the food offered at the night market along the river.

The temples of Angkor are overwhelming - we spent one full afternoon at Angkor Wat, then two days exploring the other temples in the area. There are a lot of temples in various state of ruin (some people estimate the Angkor area had a million people at the time Angkor Wat was built). All amazing, with the vast quantities of stone and intricate carvings. After a while, however, it's all just too much to take in.

One of my favorite moments came on the Bayon, a large monument north of Angkor Wat. I was looking at a carving of a dancer, one of probably thousands of carved dancers just in the one temple. The dancer's dress had a repeating pattern, a mark suggesting a flower with four petals. It looked like the carver had a chisel tipped with the pattern, and he made them all with the petals aligned straight up and down and across.
Except one flower, tilted just off the axis. The one slight deviation made the carver much more real to me. I wondered if he'd hurried up to get on to the next dancer, or if the slight tilt was his way of sneaking in something to mark that carving as his.



The streets of Siem Reap are full of beggars and tuk-tuk drivers even more insistent than those in Bangkok. None of the drivers or children trying to sell you books or postcards take no for an answer, they just follow you asking you the same thing for half a block or until they see a new target.
More surprising were the amount of vendors selling food, drink and souvenirs outside all the temples, and the children at the entrance of all of them, selling books or postcards. Few of them follow you into the temples themselves, but it can be jarring to leave the calm of a 1,000-year old temple and suddenly have 5-10 kids run up to you, all asking you to buy.

Luang Prabang

monk
Originally uploaded by slack13.

We didn't know how long we'd stay in Luang Prabang, but we ended up staying a few days more. The city is relaxed; the tourist area is the old town with French-style wooden buildings built during the colonial period.
The town is wedged in between two rivers. A hill rising in the center of town has a hill-top temple. At the bottom of the hill is the night market, where vendors sell cheap souvenirs and food. The food is grand, with several regional specialties (the main one is a sauce made up of chilis and dried buffalo skin).
The town has decided its main attraction to tourists are a few large waterfalls just outside Luang Prabang. As you walk, drivers constantly ask if you'd like to go to the falls in the local transport. This is accomplished with two words, so that you could be excused for thinking the name of the falls was "Tuk-tuk waterfall."

slow boat on the Mekong - Sept. 10-12

The Mekong River, even here in Northern Laos when it still has to wind south along the whole of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, is a wide, brown, smooth river. The river appears languid rather than powerful, the brown waters sitting flat under the hills. There's aren't any visible markers of movement until the water finds a rock poking through the surface, when the river throughs up sprays of white and you see how fast the water is rushing south.
We joined the Mekong's waters at the Thai-Laos border. A ferry - nothing more than a long canoe with an outboard motor - took us across to Laos. For US$31 we were issued a month-long Laos visa (Laos uses US dollars and Thai baht as much as its own Kip. Cambodia is even stranger. At 4000 rial to the dollar, Cambodians use US dollars as the primary currency and Rial notes as change (if you pay with two dollar bills for a $1.50 bill, you'll get 2000 Rial back).
After a night in the Laos border village of Huay Xia, we headed for the boat ramp. The two-day ride south to Luang Prabang cost 190,000 Kip ($19).
The boat was meant for cargo, but added 32 wooden benches barely wide enough for two people. At least 80 or 90 passengers are on board, sprawled on the floor among baggage and bags of rice. Those seated are in rows of the small wooden benches, not quite wide enough for two American tourists to share comfortable. The wooden plank making the seat is too narrow, the back too straight for any comfort even for one.
The first day, we stake out an area on the floor behind the seats, leaning against stacked bags. The second day, on a different boat, the only room is on the benches. The floor is far preferable. Benches leave your ass with a dull ache after the first hour. Regardless of how you shift, the ache will stay until you get off the boat six hours later.

up in the sky

When I woke up for the first time in Bangkok, I saw something I hadn't seen in at least a year: smog. The blue sky turned into a grey strip just above the cityscape.
There is no such thing as smog in New Zealand, and I didn't notice any in Australia. Driving past the Wellington airport with a friend one time, we watched a jet take off and noticed something we hadn't seen before in the States. The jet's exhaust left two distinct black tracks in the sky, long after it had gone. The air was clear enough to see blemishes that just blend in elsewhere.

The clear skies of New Zealand changed things even at night. More stars in the sky than I'll bet you'll find in any other developed country.
Even in the cities, the night sky offered as many dots as you'll see in most US rural areas. In NZ's rural areas, there might have been more than even my boyhood home in the middle of Montana.
But the most impressive night sky I've seen was from the deck of a sailboat in Australia's Whitsunday Islands during a new moon. The Southern Cross was nearly obscured by all the other points of light suddenly present in and among the cross.

Sept. 4 - in Bangkok

Bangkok is a frenetic place, but the chaos seems like it might just be the outer, visible layer on a city with a calm heart. Or maybe it's just full-go with a few pockets of calm in the shaded alleys.
The first impression for a tourist, at least a white backpacking tourist, is the number of people who eagerly ask you to redistribute a bit of your wealth into their pocket.
Generally they're asking for a swap: your money in exchange for transport. Every few feet on the street someone will offer you a ride in a tuk-tuk or taxi, or tell you the attraction you're walking to is closed and they have an even better destination to take you to (generally these "offers" are more indiscriminate shouting. And a tuk-tuk is a two-person cart hooked to the back of a motorcycle).
After a day, the people making these "offers" descend from the forefront of your awareness into the background noise. As your mind adjusts to Bangkok, the shouts reach annoyment status far less regularly.

Sept. 3

The day our trip shifted from Australia to SE Asia, with a 9-hour flight from Sydney to Bangkok:

Land in Bangkok near midnight. Exit customs, see the sign for our hotel's courtesy car on the railing separating the newly-departed passengers from everyone else in the airport's lower level.
We're looking for the sign because we made the decision to spend $90 (about the same as we'll spend on all our accommodation combined the next three weeks) for a Western-style airport hotel. The thought of landing in Bangkok at midnight and dealing with the chaos and transport options made overpaying for a night seem justified.
We waited with a group of other Westerners headed to the same hotel. The driver didn't show for a few minutes, then came to say the car was full and some of us would have to wait.
When it comes back, the courtesy car turns out to be a packed van and a pickup piled high with baggage. Ours are added to the load, we're ushered into the crowded vehicles and are off.

Every driver in Bangkok, whether transporting tourists or riding a motorcycle, drives the same: just a shade faster than conditions permit, trusting everyone else to do the same. The traffic flows around and through itself against all logic. On a two-lane road, there will be three lanes of traffic. On a three-lane road, there will be four lines of vehicles squeezing past each other.

The cars took us across the expressway, then off into a maze of alleys lined with tin shacks selling food or beer, lit primarily by strings of Christmas lights. Chickens walked among the small buildings, then suddenly the hotel rose out of the incongruous surroundings.
The hotel wasn't worth $90 if it was in the States, much less here where our next night's room cost about $7. The guy in line ahead of us, without a reservation, got a room for two-thirds the price. But it was easier than navigating Bangkok at night dealing with jet lag and culture shock.

Angkor Wat

It's a dodgy connection and a dodgy keyboard, so all the real updates will wait for later. Flew from Laos to Cambodia today (woke up at 4:30 a.m., flight left at 6:30 a.m., got in at 9:30 and had a half day to see the temple).
We have a three day pass to the temple complex, which is how long we'll stay here. This afternoon was spent walking and wandering Angkor Wat itself - the best thing about the place is it's completely open, you can go anywhere. The worst thing is the sheer number of tourists. The tourists aren't going to stop anytime soon, so I think the freedom will.

speeding up

We got off the slow boat and spent an equally slow few days in Luang Prebang, Laos (I realized I don't know exactly how many days it was. At this point, it's all blurring together a bit).
The town, at least the old (and tourist) center, has an easy-going feel. It has a heavy French influence from the colonial days, which gave it, at times, the familiar air of New Orleans' French Quarter. We used Luang Prabang as the base we haven't had for some time, giving us a chance to sleep in, wander aimlessly and revel in trying all the different cheap but good Laotian food. One afternoon a ride to the local waterfalls, a wander through the old palace-turned-museum. Another day walking to the hill-top temple and sampling the night market. Mostly just relaxing and enjoying having some travel companions - two Americans who also spent the past year in New Zealand.

Today, we came south by bus, traveling on narrow, winding roads along and over jungled mountains, with sheer rock cliffs jutting out of the greenery in the distance. Passed through many villages, just lines of wooden thatched huts lining the road. The road didn't even out until the final hour or so of the six-hour journey.
Vang Vieng, our stop for the night, can't be more different from Luang Prabang. It's a town that's grown up around a bus stop, with wide, dusty streets. Every other building seems to be under construction or renovation, as are the sidewalks (which often give way to an open drainage ditch). This town has no old influences, just the influence of the tourists. It's little more than a couple intersections of guesthouses and restaurants, most of which are screening old episodes of Friends for some reason.

over the river and through the woods, to Laos we go...

Spent the last two days on a long, slow boat plying the Mekong River from the Thai/Laos border south through Laos to Luang Prabang, which has a reputation as the prettiest city in Laos.

So far the main thing of note in this country is the currency: 10,000 Kip to 1 US dollar. If I traded in 100 dollars, I'd be a Laotian millianaire.

Even with the easy conversion, it's a bit tough, since all my money has already been exchanged for Thai Baht (37 to the dollar) and then to Kip. It's also a bit odd to see numbers on a menu like this: 8,000 for a beer; 15,000 for fried rice.

And after a few days in a country where a double room costs about $4.50 and food rarely breaks the $2 mark, I find myself thinking things like: I'm not about to go in that overpriced cafe - food is 60 cents more a dish!
At the night market today I heard an American couple balk at a purchase of a quite intricate carved wooden elephant. The too-high price: $6.

A few photos from Thailand:


Bangkok's Grand Palace Complex


Bangkok intersection

Ko San Road, the tourist center of Bangkok


Trekking in Northern Thailand

Dancing in a hill tribe village

Sunset in the village


the Chiang Mai market

north in Thailand

Left Bangkok after just two days to meet up with friends up north in Chiang Mai.

In Bangkok, we mostly just walked around (and sweated) in the heat to get a feel for some of the city, and checked out Buddhist temples (there's a lot of them - more than 300, the book says). Our second day was mainly spent in the Grand Palace complex, which also includes an ornate temple containing a Jade Buddha.

Took the night bus to Chiang Mai on Tuesday night hoping to catch our friends (Americans we met in New Zealand) before they left on a three-day hike Wednesday morning.
Chiang Mai is known for treks taking tourists to hill tribe villages - people well away from the Thai cities and some of the poorest people in the country. We ended up catching our friends and going on the trek with them. The hiking itself was quite nice - we carried backpacks with clothes and a few other niceties, while the food was prepared for us. The hike wasn't too demanding, although the first day was all uphill and the heat/humidity was well up there. Over the three days we walked through a number of villages. Generally they're loose collections of buildings made of bamboo with thatched roofs, with chickens, pigs, dogs and cats roaming around the dirt. The villagers subsist on agriculture - we saw mostly corn, some soybeans and other crops; the tour books say opium is also a major part of some tribes' incomes - and selling crafts to the tourists.

The second night we actually camped in a village. The local children sang and danced for us. Saw the local school as well.

The trip also through in a few extras - one afternoon the hike was eased by riding elephants for part of the route and today the final distance was covered by bamboo rafts.

Now we're in Chiang Mai for another day to finally see the city (and relax a bit). Sunday we'll head to Laos, then make our way toward Cambodia.

bangkok

typing this on a bar's free internet - so it'll be quick [shift key doesn't work, either]. flew in yesterday, walked around the city today. it's hot. after a year in new zealand, and a month in australia's winter without humidity, i'd just about forgotten what this was like. feels like i'm back in mississippi. actually, with the smog, heat and humidity it feels more like houston. not good. i'm enjoying the rest of the city so far - it's good to be somewhere a little bit crazy. the roads are hectic - crazy drivers, cross at your own risk crosswalks. tuk-tuk drivers are annoying. streets are also annoying - we wandered in a maze of alleys for nearly an hour before we found the guesthouse this evening. street vendors everywhere - lots of food on sticks. i'm always a fan of food on a stick.

In Sydney, again, after a three-day trip to Uluru/Ayer's Rock in the Red Center. We fly to Bangkok on Sunday, but our last three days won't be much for sightseeing. We're more just trying to recover after the past month and get some things sorted out - we're sending another package home (the tent and a few other things we don't figure we'll need from here).