Took the bus from Sukhothai to Phitsanoluk Monday morning, and then hopped on a bus to Lam Sok destined to get off at kilometer marker 80 where the headquarters for TSL NP is. This was the first time I had ridden in a bus in thailand where my destination wasn't the terminus for the bus, which meant I needed to be extra alert b/c I couldn't really tell the bus driver or attendant since I don't know Thai. It can be a little worrisome, and means you can't fall asleep on the bus. It's also a bit of a struggle b/c at different bus stops the, stops are named in Thai lettering and not in our standard alphabet. This was something I had trouble with in japan too, and a couple of times went past my train stop b/c in japanese symbols I had no way of knowing I had arrived at abiko station for example. With this one, since I knew that the park was at km marker 80 I was going to try and watch for that on the road, and I also told the attendant, in my best pronunciation, Thung Salaeng Luang and hoped she got it...but with so many influctions, risings, and aspirations in their language, it's pretty impossible to ever pronounce anything correctly. Well, I got on the bus, and it was standing room only, so I couldn't see out either window or the front of the bus, which made me a bit nervous. So I tried to time the bus, thinking it would take about an hour and a half, maybe 2 with stops to go the 80 kms. Well about 2 hours in, there was a commotion and they motioned for me, so I got off. When I got off I noticed I was at km 71. Oh, well, 9 km's never hurt anyone. However, across the road I could see a sign for TSL. I went to investigate and found it was an entrance for a waterfall in the park, but not where the HQ's or camping was. So I started to walk up the road and perhapts hitch, and before I could even stick out my thumb (actually you keep your hand horizontal and move your arms up and down), a guy in a pickup truck carrying a cow stopped. I hopped in the back with the cow (a very nice cow indeed!), and got a ride to the entrance, where I rented a tent. At the same time a canadian coming from the other way arrived. He would be the only westerner I would see the whole time. This park is a pretty off the beaten path park and really only thais go here. In fact, I didn't even get charged the normal 400 baht foreigner entrance fee b/c they didn't know what to do with me, so they charged the 20 baht thai fee.
The canadian guy's name was Rob, and he thought I was canadian for a long time, until I told him finally I was from Colorado. He was kind of a holier than thou type person, I was glad he never invited me on his walks. Though I ate dinner and had beers with him twice since there was only one watering hole eatery in the whole place. He had been to Asia 7 times and his dad worked at a university here doing biology research, so he kind of acted like he owned the place. He kind of told me, as I hear over and over (unfortunately) that ecology research doesn't really cut it. He got a masters as a fisheries biologist and used to do research for several years for a university, but every summer he'd come back from a long, hard research season, working entire daylight hours doing grunt work, and actually owe money for the project. So now he's a welder and will just do some field work here and there for his dad so he can come to asia. He said you can make more money if you're in the private sector, but that there you don't actually do research, a company will say, there needs to be 200 trout (pronounced trote in canadian) in that stream, you'll estimate 15, but you still have to write 200 or you don't get paid.
The national park was slightly disappointing, but I still made the most of it. According to LP, this park had large savannah areas with watering holes that you could hike to and had a good chance of spotting wildlife. Well it turns out that from the entrance and camping area where I was at, it was 42km by trail to get there and you could only make it on that trail in one day by bike (but of course they didn't rent bikes), or it was 70km by car around the park, but there was no public transport, so you would have to hire a car for 65 bucks which would be quite expensive for just one person. I decided not to do it b/c of the cost and if I ended up getting there, wildlife is wildlife and the chances of seeing them is always slim. The savannah ecosystem thing is a big draw for this park b/c it's the only one in SE asia, but I've seen plenty (think wyoming and the dakotas) of grassland savannah, so no big need to go to see that. So I ended up the first day taking a short hike to a river, and the 2nd day taking a long hike into the jungle. Started at 5am and just hiked 7 hours in and then 7 hours back. There's no real destination in the jungle, you just go in and look around. Saw a lot of strangler figs, dipterocarps, skinks, squirrels, birds....mosquitoes. Took a sack lunch. A thai sack lunch is not a pb and j or bagel and cream cheese with a snickers and chips. No, it's rice in a bag, the dinner and sauce from last nights dinner in a bag, and some rice crackers. very tasty actually. I also took along some sort of very weird fruit. If you look at it, it looks like a skinny potato, but it has a crunchy shell that you peel off to reveal roots around some sort of fleshy part. you peel away the roots and the fruit tastes an afwul lot like a fruit snack or fruit leather we have back home, and it has 5 seeds to spit out.
There was a campsite about 4km from my camping site in the direction of the river that you had to walk by on the way to the river and the trail I took. It was quite interesting seeing all the thais camping. They went big for sure. big tents, fancy dining areas set up, etc. looked like they were planning to stay for a long time rather than just a few days. One guy even had a satellite and a tv set up! One thing about thais (and actually several places I've been), is they don't like to walk and can't quite understand why I or any other person likes to walk. Of course none of them took the trails around. And on the 4km from the river to my campsite I was always asked by every car that passed by if I needed a ride, and they'd just give me a crazy look when I said no. Eventually I'd feel so bad, I'd jump into the back of the truck or onto the back of the scooter.
yesterday I packed up the tent and started th 9km walk along the road towards the orginal waterfall I had been dropped off at. I got about 4km before some guy and his girlfriend picked me up. He couldn't beleive I had walked so far from the other park entrance. He thought it was amazing and kept laughing about it. He quickly turned the AC up full blast, pointed it all at me and gave me an ice coffee. It was like I had just got back from trekking across the sahara or something and not a tiny little 4k jaunt. When he dropped me off at the entrance I walked the 2k to the falls.
waved down a bust back to philo and then to sukhothai. My guesthouse was having a huge new year's bash, so I helped Ex make up fliers for the party to pass out to people on the street, since apparently my english is good... For this he gave me one of the nice bungalows at the place for no charge...complete with AC and hot shower! The new years party was quite crazy. The guesthouse had a thai buffet and also some bbq stuff. had my first french fries in over 3 weeks. Of course there was also some jungle juice. After the jungle juice ran out, they brought this insanely strong thai whisky. As the aussies said, tasted like petrol. It was so strong! I was hanging out with two aussies (sam and pat), two brits (can't remember their names) and a japanese dude (Kim). Sam and Pat ended up being friends with the two aussie guys I worked with at village transportation during the ski season in beaver creek. small world. The poor japanese guy was having quite the time with the thai whiskey! He was completely red, sweating profusely, and just looked dazed. This was at about 9pm. But he made it to the new years! After the food, there was some traditional thai dance and then we released hot air prayer balloons and set off fireworks. Then we had some competitions. I did the eating contest. You had to eat a banana, eat a bowl of noodles, chug a coke, and then find a coing in a bowl full of flour. Anyone who has seen me eat (where I am trying to control my rate of consumption) knows I won easily. Everyone was quite amazed really. I had the coin in my mouth as everyone had just started there cokes, so everyone but myself had a coke mixer to go with the thai whiskey. complete domination for sure =) The british gal ended up winning the Mr/Mrs ban thai and the trip to ko samui. The dance party then commenced. for some reason all the europeans (there was only one other american at the whole shindig), thought the americans should get the party started b/c apparently we know how to dance the best (yea right) and all the dance music is our music. At some point during the night I sang karaoke to I will survive and that was quite fun. After the countdown and some more dancing, the aussies, brits and I grabbed some chang roadies as they'd call them in montana and headed out about town. We had quite a good time. I group was very fun and apparently for some reason the aussies really liked me. They told me over and over they thought I was a cool american..."a straight up american, we really like that. you're ok by us. you can come to melbourne anytime"
I think today I will be heading to Lopburi.
Well, it's now been 2009 for about 12 hours here, but back home you're all preparing for the festivities. It should be a good year, b/c as my dad would always say, the odd years are the best years.
Mom and bro, do you remember dad's infamous quote from 2000 new years with the halbach's in Tucson? "When you think of new years, you first think of being with family, then you think about being in NYC, then you thing about being in some exotic loacation" well, I guess this time I'm in that exotic locale.
Have a Happy New Year!!!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sukhothai
Took the bus into Sukhothai yesterday from Mae Sot. Packed like sardines in the bus for the 3 hour ride. I think the bus was supposed to hold about 20 people and we easily had 30. An old lady on one knee and a rooster in a cage on the other!
When I got into town, I walked around a bit checking out the town and looking for a bicycle to rent. One guesthouse I stopped in had a very nice Thai guy named Ex. He had studied for a year as a highschooler in Seattle, so he was very appreciative of Americans, though he said he doesn't see many in Thailand, which I've noticed too. I've been here nearly 3 weeks now and have seen boatloads of Germans, Dutch, french, canadians, aussies, swiss, swedes, you name it, but only 7 groups of Americans. Very interestingly, 2 groups from Alaska (seeking warm weather), one gal from Bellingham (bro's old haunts in nw washington), and then one group for Breckenridge, one gal from Winter park, and two different groups from the republic of boulder. This sampling makes sense considering when I was back home and I had a mom-son shopping day in Boulder, literally everbody we talked to from Rei to Target to the pharmacy to the boulder travel store to boulder mountaineering to best buy had been to SE Asia. I remember us telling dad how surprised we had been about that when we got home, so it makes sense I've seen a few fellow coloradans around.
Anyways, Ex went and grabbed his scooter and he took me out to a lake with a nice view of the mountains. (I made sure to ask for a helmet for sister whitney...whitney's neighbor in Seattle had thought we were brother sister b/c we apparently look alike, but now I am thinking I'm related to whitney b/c I am able to sleep through the roosters. In the rural towns, the cocks start crowing at about 4 or 5am. All the tourists complain that it wakes them up...some use earplugs, but I sleep right through it, no problem!) After that he took me to a couple of bars run by a friend and a sister. So chang beers and food were on the house. He also wanted me to drink what americans would drink, so he brought out 8 shots of tequila and limes to share between the two of us. He wanted me to make a toast to home for each one, so I toasted Mcdirrrty, sherman, yosh, and stringbean my fellow tequilla-ers.
Today I rented a bike and biked to the Sukhothai world heritage site. You can go for a two dollar bus ride and rent a bike there, but I opted for the exercise b/c it was only 16km. A canadian couple at breakfast were trying to convince me to ride the bus saying I'd never make it in time to tour the place. We left at the same time, and I was finishing up a chicken on a stick and smiling at them when they arrived (it was flat so I could really fly even if the bicycle was the same size as the one I had in the 5th grade and the bus had many, many stops along the way) It's a big confidence booster too when you're hammering away on the pedals and passing scooters. Some of the scooters here are loaded with people and aren't very powerful. My out of shape asthmatic lungs are never too happy when I push it b/c the air here is far from clean with smoke from random fires and since all the cars here have no emission standards, but it's worth it, the thais have the greatest expressions of surprise, then smiles when I pass them though.
The historical site was quite cool. Lots of huge collapsing temples and buddhas. Sukhothai was the first capital of Siam. The best way to get around to see all the sites of this ancient city is to just bike around. Makes me wonder if in 500 or so years if people will look back on cities we have built this century. Somehow I don't think so. We seem to be at an age that we tend to destroy old buildings that we don't need, or just rennovate them. We don't abandon whole cities like people use to. We're too limited on space and we have the money to tear down or rennovate. I mean wouldn't it be crazy if in 500 years people came to manhattan or paris or dubai to walk amongst abandoned collapsing sky scrapers and marvel that back in the 20th and 21st centuries humans could build such things.
I toured the main center of the city, then I went to some of the wats and buddhas further out. Though less impressive, I liked those better, b/c there was more jungle growing around and no people at all and I got to bike through some nice rural areas to get to them (the main city center was crawling with thai tourists everywhere on the monuments)
An interesting thing with Asian people, with women and girls in particular...they like to have there picture taken with me. I'm not sure why, I like to pretend it's because I'm really, really good looking (think zoolander) or they are mistaking me for some movie star or something, but most likely they just want a photo with a goofy, large white guy wearing a baseball cap. Several times when I was working for RMNP, when i was hiking the trails, the japanese women would ask for a photo. They stand next to you and then give the peace sign. Always very polite...and shy when they ask. Then when I was touring the temples in japan, lots of the highschoolers touring them as well would ask for a photo with me. And a couple times in switzerland, japanese tourists asked for pictures with me. So I figured it was just the japanese, but today 4 different thai women asked for photos. They don't give the peace sign, but instead, very timidly and awkwardly put their hand on my shoulders.
I've had a bit of change in plans. I was originally going to go from here to Lopburi and then Katchanaburi, but Ex was telling me that his guesthouse has a big feast and party on new year's eve. I've been trying to decide where I want to spend new years. I imagine bangkok would be crazy, somewhat similar to what conerd and gibby will experience in manhattan. But I'm not sure if I want to be there. Might be difficult to find a place to stay and it's much harder to meet people so although I would be in the streets will millions, I think I would feel a bit lonely. Lopburi and Katchanaburi are very small, so I figure not much would be going down there. Of course the best place would be down in phuket or ko phangnan where the huge full moon parties are, but that's pretty far from me. So I've been open to what I wanted to do, and this thing at Ban Thai guesthouse sounds cool. I guess there's a Mr. and Mrs Ban Thai award given out with a free trip to Ko Samui Island for the winner. DOn't know what i could do to win, gotta figure out some talent or something, but it would be fun. So as it's the 28th, I think I am going to leave early tomorrow for a national park that's not to far away. camp 1 or 2 nights there then come back here and proceed from there to lopburi, etc.
Also, I ran into the problem that I knew I would have with leaving much later for Asia than initially planned. Originally I was going to be here mid october during the start of the dry season. But b/c work, my roommates, work trips were all so good, I stayed longer. Which means I will be pushing the edge of the wet season. Originally I was going to explore n. thailand, than burma, then laos, then island hop in the Philippines, and then come to S. Thailand with it's magnificent beaches and islands. But I was looking at weather stuff, and it appears as though may is rainy in south thailand (rainy not only means the beach is less inticing, but it clouds up the water for scuba and makes the rocks to slick for the spectacular rock climbing over the ocean in Krabi and Railey. I think I can dance around it though by going straight to south thailand after laos and then going to the PI b/c it's dry there til the end of may. This causes a little bit of backtracking with travel, but that's ok. b/c originally from the philippines I would fly to bangkok then travel down through the south of thailand and eventually just cross into malaysia. now if I go through south thailand, I will have to go back north to bangkok then fly to the philippines, then fly back to bangkok and train back south down to malaysia. There are flights from southern thailand and KL, malaysia, but there are over 3 times more than from bangkok b/c of the high competition there, and I think you can get overnight trains and buses from south thailand to bangkok for like 12 bucks. But I'll still be checking flights anyways.
When I got into town, I walked around a bit checking out the town and looking for a bicycle to rent. One guesthouse I stopped in had a very nice Thai guy named Ex. He had studied for a year as a highschooler in Seattle, so he was very appreciative of Americans, though he said he doesn't see many in Thailand, which I've noticed too. I've been here nearly 3 weeks now and have seen boatloads of Germans, Dutch, french, canadians, aussies, swiss, swedes, you name it, but only 7 groups of Americans. Very interestingly, 2 groups from Alaska (seeking warm weather), one gal from Bellingham (bro's old haunts in nw washington), and then one group for Breckenridge, one gal from Winter park, and two different groups from the republic of boulder. This sampling makes sense considering when I was back home and I had a mom-son shopping day in Boulder, literally everbody we talked to from Rei to Target to the pharmacy to the boulder travel store to boulder mountaineering to best buy had been to SE Asia. I remember us telling dad how surprised we had been about that when we got home, so it makes sense I've seen a few fellow coloradans around.
Anyways, Ex went and grabbed his scooter and he took me out to a lake with a nice view of the mountains. (I made sure to ask for a helmet for sister whitney...whitney's neighbor in Seattle had thought we were brother sister b/c we apparently look alike, but now I am thinking I'm related to whitney b/c I am able to sleep through the roosters. In the rural towns, the cocks start crowing at about 4 or 5am. All the tourists complain that it wakes them up...some use earplugs, but I sleep right through it, no problem!) After that he took me to a couple of bars run by a friend and a sister. So chang beers and food were on the house. He also wanted me to drink what americans would drink, so he brought out 8 shots of tequila and limes to share between the two of us. He wanted me to make a toast to home for each one, so I toasted Mcdirrrty, sherman, yosh, and stringbean my fellow tequilla-ers.
Today I rented a bike and biked to the Sukhothai world heritage site. You can go for a two dollar bus ride and rent a bike there, but I opted for the exercise b/c it was only 16km. A canadian couple at breakfast were trying to convince me to ride the bus saying I'd never make it in time to tour the place. We left at the same time, and I was finishing up a chicken on a stick and smiling at them when they arrived (it was flat so I could really fly even if the bicycle was the same size as the one I had in the 5th grade and the bus had many, many stops along the way) It's a big confidence booster too when you're hammering away on the pedals and passing scooters. Some of the scooters here are loaded with people and aren't very powerful. My out of shape asthmatic lungs are never too happy when I push it b/c the air here is far from clean with smoke from random fires and since all the cars here have no emission standards, but it's worth it, the thais have the greatest expressions of surprise, then smiles when I pass them though.
The historical site was quite cool. Lots of huge collapsing temples and buddhas. Sukhothai was the first capital of Siam. The best way to get around to see all the sites of this ancient city is to just bike around. Makes me wonder if in 500 or so years if people will look back on cities we have built this century. Somehow I don't think so. We seem to be at an age that we tend to destroy old buildings that we don't need, or just rennovate them. We don't abandon whole cities like people use to. We're too limited on space and we have the money to tear down or rennovate. I mean wouldn't it be crazy if in 500 years people came to manhattan or paris or dubai to walk amongst abandoned collapsing sky scrapers and marvel that back in the 20th and 21st centuries humans could build such things.
I toured the main center of the city, then I went to some of the wats and buddhas further out. Though less impressive, I liked those better, b/c there was more jungle growing around and no people at all and I got to bike through some nice rural areas to get to them (the main city center was crawling with thai tourists everywhere on the monuments)
An interesting thing with Asian people, with women and girls in particular...they like to have there picture taken with me. I'm not sure why, I like to pretend it's because I'm really, really good looking (think zoolander) or they are mistaking me for some movie star or something, but most likely they just want a photo with a goofy, large white guy wearing a baseball cap. Several times when I was working for RMNP, when i was hiking the trails, the japanese women would ask for a photo. They stand next to you and then give the peace sign. Always very polite...and shy when they ask. Then when I was touring the temples in japan, lots of the highschoolers touring them as well would ask for a photo with me. And a couple times in switzerland, japanese tourists asked for pictures with me. So I figured it was just the japanese, but today 4 different thai women asked for photos. They don't give the peace sign, but instead, very timidly and awkwardly put their hand on my shoulders.
I've had a bit of change in plans. I was originally going to go from here to Lopburi and then Katchanaburi, but Ex was telling me that his guesthouse has a big feast and party on new year's eve. I've been trying to decide where I want to spend new years. I imagine bangkok would be crazy, somewhat similar to what conerd and gibby will experience in manhattan. But I'm not sure if I want to be there. Might be difficult to find a place to stay and it's much harder to meet people so although I would be in the streets will millions, I think I would feel a bit lonely. Lopburi and Katchanaburi are very small, so I figure not much would be going down there. Of course the best place would be down in phuket or ko phangnan where the huge full moon parties are, but that's pretty far from me. So I've been open to what I wanted to do, and this thing at Ban Thai guesthouse sounds cool. I guess there's a Mr. and Mrs Ban Thai award given out with a free trip to Ko Samui Island for the winner. DOn't know what i could do to win, gotta figure out some talent or something, but it would be fun. So as it's the 28th, I think I am going to leave early tomorrow for a national park that's not to far away. camp 1 or 2 nights there then come back here and proceed from there to lopburi, etc.
Also, I ran into the problem that I knew I would have with leaving much later for Asia than initially planned. Originally I was going to be here mid october during the start of the dry season. But b/c work, my roommates, work trips were all so good, I stayed longer. Which means I will be pushing the edge of the wet season. Originally I was going to explore n. thailand, than burma, then laos, then island hop in the Philippines, and then come to S. Thailand with it's magnificent beaches and islands. But I was looking at weather stuff, and it appears as though may is rainy in south thailand (rainy not only means the beach is less inticing, but it clouds up the water for scuba and makes the rocks to slick for the spectacular rock climbing over the ocean in Krabi and Railey. I think I can dance around it though by going straight to south thailand after laos and then going to the PI b/c it's dry there til the end of may. This causes a little bit of backtracking with travel, but that's ok. b/c originally from the philippines I would fly to bangkok then travel down through the south of thailand and eventually just cross into malaysia. now if I go through south thailand, I will have to go back north to bangkok then fly to the philippines, then fly back to bangkok and train back south down to malaysia. There are flights from southern thailand and KL, malaysia, but there are over 3 times more than from bangkok b/c of the high competition there, and I think you can get overnight trains and buses from south thailand to bangkok for like 12 bucks. But I'll still be checking flights anyways.
My White Christmas
I was reading the denver post online today and opened up this story...all of the Thai kids playing computer games in the internet place came running over when they saw me open the pictures. It was pretty funny. We all had a good laugh. They couldn't understand what I was saying, but they wre very amazed by the white stuff. I think they knew it to be snow. Then I had to go through a slide show of pictures for them (mainly went to bro's TGR posts) so they could see all the skiing and snow. It was pretty cool. Had to post this so I'd remember it!
Blizzard buries Silverton
By Nancy Lofholm Denver Post Staff Writer
Posted: 12/27/2008 08:46:02 PM MST
Updated: 12/27/2008 09:41:11 PM MST
Storefronts on Main Street in Silverton were nearly obscured by piles of snow on Dec. 26, 2008. (Courtesy of Silverton Mountain)
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The storm that whipped winds and heavy snow into blinding blizzards across parts of the San Juan Mountains on Christmas Day and today really had its sights set on one high-mountain town.
Silverton residents are calling the Christmas weather "JUST another storm to remember." It dumped 4 and a half feet of snow there, plunged the wind chill to minus 35 degrees and brought 60 mph winds screaming down from the peaks, making it impossible to see from house to house. The storm piled 8-foot-high drifts around town.
"They got the brunt of it," said National Weather Service meteorologist Bryon Lawrence.
The storm closed Molas, Coal Bank and Red Mountain passes, boxing Silverton in and closing the town's two ski areas.
Kendall Mountain — a small,
(photo)The chairlift at Silverton Mountain was nearly buried by snow on Dec. 26, 2008. (Courtesy of Silverton Mountain)
By Nancy Lofholm Denver Post Staff Writer
Posted: 12/27/2008 08:46:02 PM MST
Updated: 12/27/2008 09:41:11 PM MST
Storefronts on Main Street in Silverton were nearly obscured by piles of snow on Dec. 26, 2008. (Courtesy of Silverton Mountain)
var requestedWidth = 0;
The storm that whipped winds and heavy snow into blinding blizzards across parts of the San Juan Mountains on Christmas Day and today really had its sights set on one high-mountain town.
Silverton residents are calling the Christmas weather "JUST another storm to remember." It dumped 4 and a half feet of snow there, plunged the wind chill to minus 35 degrees and brought 60 mph winds screaming down from the peaks, making it impossible to see from house to house. The storm piled 8-foot-high drifts around town.
"They got the brunt of it," said National Weather Service meteorologist Bryon Lawrence.
The storm closed Molas, Coal Bank and Red Mountain passes, boxing Silverton in and closing the town's two ski areas.
Kendall Mountain — a small,
(photo)The chairlift at Silverton Mountain was nearly buried by snow on Dec. 26, 2008. (Courtesy of Silverton Mountain)
town-operated ski hill — was closed because an ambulance wouldn't be able to get out of town in the event of an accident. Silverton Mountain, an extreme-terrain area frequented by hard-core skiers and boarders, was closed because the road out of Silverton to the area is impassable and the avalanche danger too high.
Silverton resident Steph Reigh of the Avalanche Coffee House & Bakery, said two Boulder men who had come to Silverton to ski over Christmas helped her shovel her walks this morning "because they couldn't do anything else."
The marooned in Silverton were cross-country skiing and sledding around the snow-choked town today. Some were being pulled on skis behind cars on the otherwise abandoned downtown streets.
Over the mountains to the south, Durango Mountain Resort received a little more than 2 feet of snow, and the city of Durango suffered some slick roads under 2 feet of snow on top of last weeks 3 feet.
To the north, Ouray had only about 13 inches after residents there prepared Christmas morning to hunker down in anticipation of several feet of snow and high winds.
"It's been windy. But the storm was really a nonstarter," said Joe Salette at Ouray Mountain Sports.
Telluride also was anticipating 80 mph
(photo) A San Juan County Sheriff's Office SUV drives down Greene Street past a huge berm of snow in downtown Silverton on Friday morning. (Mark Esper/Silverton Standard & the Miner)
Silverton resident Steph Reigh of the Avalanche Coffee House & Bakery, said two Boulder men who had come to Silverton to ski over Christmas helped her shovel her walks this morning "because they couldn't do anything else."
The marooned in Silverton were cross-country skiing and sledding around the snow-choked town today. Some were being pulled on skis behind cars on the otherwise abandoned downtown streets.
Over the mountains to the south, Durango Mountain Resort received a little more than 2 feet of snow, and the city of Durango suffered some slick roads under 2 feet of snow on top of last weeks 3 feet.
To the north, Ouray had only about 13 inches after residents there prepared Christmas morning to hunker down in anticipation of several feet of snow and high winds.
"It's been windy. But the storm was really a nonstarter," said Joe Salette at Ouray Mountain Sports.
Telluride also was anticipating 80 mph
(photo) A San Juan County Sheriff's Office SUV drives down Greene Street past a huge berm of snow in downtown Silverton on Friday morning. (Mark Esper/Silverton Standard & the Miner)
winds, but all it got for Christmas and the day after was blustery winds and 34 inches of powder.
The Grand Mesa near Grand Junction clocked in the highest winds of 70 mph, and at the town of Mack on the Utah/Colorado border, the winds reached 63 mph.
Those winds blew the storm over the mountains to the east, where Aspen reeled in 27 inches of snow, and McClure Pass was closed by drifting snow.
The storm stranded two oil and gas workers who were trying to get home Christmas night from their remote rig in the Piceance Basin northwest of Glenwood Springs. The workers stayed in their vehicle and were rescued without suffering harm when searchers were able to access the area this afternoon.
Lawrence said the southwest part of the
(photo) A front-end loader removes snow from the middle of Greene Street in downtown Silverton on Friday morning in the middle of white out conditions. (Mark Esper/Silverton Standard & the Miner)
The Grand Mesa near Grand Junction clocked in the highest winds of 70 mph, and at the town of Mack on the Utah/Colorado border, the winds reached 63 mph.
Those winds blew the storm over the mountains to the east, where Aspen reeled in 27 inches of snow, and McClure Pass was closed by drifting snow.
The storm stranded two oil and gas workers who were trying to get home Christmas night from their remote rig in the Piceance Basin northwest of Glenwood Springs. The workers stayed in their vehicle and were rescued without suffering harm when searchers were able to access the area this afternoon.
Lawrence said the southwest part of the
(photo) A front-end loader removes snow from the middle of Greene Street in downtown Silverton on Friday morning in the middle of white out conditions. (Mark Esper/Silverton Standard & the Miner)
state, will begin to see some blue skies this weekend. But cold temperatures, a few more snow showers and winds will stick around for a few more days.
Seven mountain passes remained closed today. Besides the passes around Silverton, Wolf Creek near Pagosa Springs, Lizardhead near Telluride, and La Manga and Cumbres south of Alamosa are closed until they can be ploughed and avalanche-control work is done.
The next system is expected to roll in just in time for New Year's celebrations.
Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com
This photo shows Silverton Main Street on Friday, December 26, 2008. (Photo Courtesy of Silverton Mountain)
Seven mountain passes remained closed today. Besides the passes around Silverton, Wolf Creek near Pagosa Springs, Lizardhead near Telluride, and La Manga and Cumbres south of Alamosa are closed until they can be ploughed and avalanche-control work is done.
The next system is expected to roll in just in time for New Year's celebrations.
Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com
This photo shows Silverton Main Street on Friday, December 26, 2008. (Photo Courtesy of Silverton Mountain)
My dad worked in a mine in Silverton in the 30's and told me about a snowstorm that isolated the town for 3 months. Ann M Joined: Dec 26Points: 210 Permanent link to this commentAnn M (aka Native44) | 4:25 PM on Friday Dec 26
Colorado WeatherWeather warnings and watches Slide show: Buried by the blizzard School Closings, Delays Latest Weather Conditions Colorado Weather Alert Map Colorado Weather Radar Ski Report and Snowfall Totals Share your weather video Send us your weather photos, and view them online Denver Downtown Webcam Ski Report Travel Information Dec 26: Four feet of snow and counting in SW Colorado Strong winter storm pounds Colorado mountains Where to recycle your Christmas tree Dec 25: Mountains bracing for blizzard Blizzards threaten Christmas travel in mountains Winter storm blankets West with snow, heading east Dec 24: Fresh snow for Christmas for mountain ski resorts Christmas Eve travel smooth in Denver Heavy snows, winds increasing avalanche danger
Friday, December 26, 2008
Christmas with the Frenchies..."It's the bear necessities"
26/12/08
Just got back from my trek out of Mae Sot into the jungle around Umphang. It was incredible, more on that later.
Just checked my email and saw that bro skied some of the deepest powder he ever has from a slow moving storm in Wyoming (jealous) and another friend had some amazing news. I'm not at liberty to say what that is yet, but congrats!
So I'm back in Mae Sot. I really like this little border town. It's kind of a wild frontier type town. Reminds me of what I imagine the wild west of old to be. So that's pretty cool. You'll see lots of the locals around here carrying guns and apparently the police here not really too controlled by the thai government, but more by city politics, bribing, etc. There's a cool sign when you enter the town that says (actual spelling) "Toorists have funs, but no karry guns" Duly noted!
The trek was completely amazing!!! 100 times better than the one in Chiang Mai (and I had a good time in Chaing Mai). The jungle here was much more wild and pristine. In Chiang Mai it had heavily been hunted out, it was secondary forest as most of the large trees had been cut, and there were always trails and villagers and such, so you never quite felt lost in the jungle. On this one we were definitely lost in the jungle!
It was a 3 hours drive to Umphang from Mae Sot. Very cold in the back of the pickup (most people think of thailand as this terribly hot, humid place, but during the cool dry season which is now, it is quite cool and pleasant especially up here in the hills. Highs in the mid 70's and lows in the 40's. The road, though, was quite beautiful over mountains passes, through rainforest, and past some burmese refugee camps. I was on the trek with 4 others, all french all between 23 and 25. A brother and sister (here visiting their sister who works for an NGO at the burmese refugee camp)--Pierre and Alice, and Pierre's girlfriend, Anne, and another friend Jeremie. Put away all your negative french stereotypes. These guys were awesome!! And hardly spoke a word of french the whole time, and would apologize profusely if they needed to between them in order to help them understand an english thing. They were all quite fun and hilarious, incredibly nice, and extremely generous. Never let me buy a single beer or snack food!
After the drive to umphang, we ate then set off on a raft. Instead of the traditional bamboo raft that I did in chiang mai, we used a large rubber raft (normal one like you'd see on an idaho river), b/c we had a few small class III rapids to run and b/c we were carrying all of our food, camping gear and equipment on it, and the bamboo ones would be too wet. Right away we saw a beautiful kingfisher and then several monkeys scampering across branches over the river. Birds were everywhere (something you didn't see or hear in chiang mai due to hunting). The rafting was fun, mainly calm with a few rapids, but the group was definitely yukking it up the whole way down. We had two guides, Koy and Bow. The river wound through dense primary jungle complete with huge trees, strangler figs, vines, etc. You're typical jungle, and karst canyons with soaring wall all around. On river bends, the river often went under the karst for a bit, so we'd float with the boat through some cave like things. The karst, even when not in caves, often had giant stalactities hanging. We went through a fairly long section of waterfalls pouring down onto us (everything was packed in plastic bags, but I later found out I was lucky to have had my clothes and camera stuff in a couple dry bags I brough for rain in the rainforest as garbage bags are only so good and inevitably take on water) from the karst as we weaved through partial river caves, dripping moss, and misty waterfalls. INCREDIBLE!! One of the neatest and most surreal river experiences I have ever had. Straight from an animated disney movie. Something you wouldn't think actually exists. The waterfalls just falling down on us in this jungle canyon full of river caves...WOW! After that part we did some floating and came to a hot springs...a welcome break after being chilled by the waterfalls. After that a few nice rapids then just a nice easy float. It reminded me (though I think it takes place in India) of mowgly, sher khan, baloo, king louis, kaa, and the Jungle Book, especially the part where baloo is floating down the river. So I started singing the song from it, the bear necessities. The frenchies knew it, and started singing along to the tune...in french of course. Jeremie, Pierre and I were also daring each other to eat an entire thai chile. They are not very big, but insanely spicy. Pierre and I both did one, but after Jeremie saw our faces, he didn't! It was by far the hottest thing I had ever tasted. Set my mouth and nose on fire. We tried to cool it off with beer we had in the raft, but that only made it worse. We were crying and our whole faces were red. Even hours later, our lips and mouths were quite rosy.
A little more than 4 hours after setting off, we arrived at a big overhanging cliff with some sand and decided (well, the guides did) to make camp here. Anne, Pierre, and Jeremie were tired, so they went to bed early, so Alice and I stayed up pretty late into the night, me learning all about the french, and then we went for a late night jungle walk to look for some animals. She was at first very scared of her english, but it was quite good and I could easily understand. It was my first night sleeping outside since I had my lasik surgery and I thoroughly enjoyed falling asleep watching the stars!!! and of course listening to the river gurgle by and the chorus of cicadas and frogs.
Left bright and early the next day (Christmas Eve!). Rafted, a cold raft, another 3 hours. After that we got out, packed all the stuff in packs and hiked for about 4 hours to the next camp. The hike was through dense jungle on a small trail. As is usual in a rainforest, I enjoyed all of the cool little things the rainforest can provide that you pass by along the way. Tried 5 different fruits. 3 very sour, but turn sweet once they mix with saliva by some chemical reaction. So you keep eating. The first couple of bites are sour like a lemon, but then so sweet. You keep going for the pain to get the sweet. Another fruit type thing can be used as shampoo or laundry detergent. We later found out it works quite well and has a great pineapple like smell. A couple of tree branches were used as musical instruments, Koy made bamboo mugs and stirrers for us, which the french affectionately called Tuey Tueys. Took some cinammon bark for tea later. Ate some sort of root that could have easily passed for a french baguette (aggreed upon by the french). A type of peanut, sweeter than ours, and of course moist out of the ground and when not roasted. And some leaf that tasted like sour candy patch kids. Once at the camp, we quickly made camp, had a bit and then hiked just for a km to thailands highest and biggest waterfall. It, of course was beautiful. Gorgeous emerald (glacial like) water caused by the water flowing through the karst. We went swimming in the bottom portion of the falls and then since it was multi tiered...5+ levels of waterfalls, we climbed up to the bottom of the 2nd from the top. beautiful looking up at the falls and then down at the emerals pools and falls below.
For Christmas Eve dinner we had green curry and rice (my parents most likely had fondue..hehe!) We then played cards. They taught me Tarot a french game. Then jeremie and pierre went to bed and I taught anne and alice and koy hearts. Eventually anne and koy got tired, but two local guys taught alice and I a thai card game (they didn't speak english, so it was qu ite interesting), and we played than and drank their "happy water" late into the night. The happy water tasted a lot like weak sake...so it must be some sort of rice alcohol.
Christmas morning! We got to sleep in til 8, and then had pancakes (minus butter and syrup). We then packed up and hiked another 3 to 4 hours to a very remoted karen village. The only way to get here was by walking or elephant. We had lunch then just had a 10 minute walk to another waterfall. On the way we had to cross a very, very sketchy bamboo bridge (did I mention they make EVERYTHING here out of bamboo...houses, bridges, plates, utensils, cups, rafts, mats). It was very narrow, very swingy, and missing several sections of bamboo. We all made it across, but Anne almost fell in at one point. It was another amazing waterfall. We made it down to a fairly large emerald pool with some small cascades coming in, but looking across you could see behind one layer of large trees, a long string of waterfalls...hidden waterfalls! We all swam over to the other side, except for Anne who doesn't like cold water, in order to sit under the falls. The falls were dropping over karsts and Bow (little bow wow) took us a little ways up and then into a cave. It was tight getting in, but Pierre made it through and gleefully exclaimed that if he could get through, everyone could. Inside was pretty sweet b/c you could see the main waterfall outside and then the indside was dripping with little waterfalls and lots of stalactites and stalagmites. I loved it! A hidden waterfall in the jungle and then a cave within the waterfall. Very much a paradise. As guys do, we of course had throwing and skipping contests across the pond to the waterfall. After I was the overall winner, they frenchies proceeded to sing the american national anthem. "you guys win everything, so we know your hymn well"
That afternoon they all played cards, but I decided to go explore the village. It was very interesting. All the houses on stilts made completely out of bamboo and banana leaves. Of course no electricity or any of that. Most the people still wearing traditional clothes. Lots of people out working in the fields with tools that probably haven't been used in the western world for close to a century. Tiny kids doing lots of work, including toting babies around that were not much smaller than them. A lot of men just sitting around doing not much and just watching. Pigs, piglettes, chickens, dogs, cats just running around everywhere. Didn't take long to explore the village as it was very small. On the way back a group of four men sitting up in a hut called me and motioned for me to come up, so I joined them. They did a lot of talkingat me, but of course had no idea what was being said. Eventually they brought out a bottle of something and offered me a shot of it. Smelled of pee and didn't taste any better! But of course I had to take it, b/c you can't be rude and offend them. Unfortunately I had take 3 more shots. Koy later told me it was homemade whisky.
For Christmas dinner we had pumpkin curry. The tastiest thing I've had on the trip yet. We played more cards and celebrated Christmas with a fire, some Chang beer, and some happy water mixed with some sort of juice thing, sang a few Christmas songs in english and french. An interesting Christmas thing: they obviously don't celebrate Christmas here as a primarily buddhist country, but when we arrived at the hut we would be staying at there were wild pointsettias growing all around it.
The next day we loaded up elephants with our stuff and then hopped on. We had a 4 hour elephant ride ahead, but after 2 hours it started to rain quite hard (1st rain since I've been in Thailand) Since all our stuff was packed on the elephants, we couldn't get to our rain stuff, so we got quite soaked and cold. After going over a ridge we had a pretty steep descent. It was very muddy, and sitting on top of this huge animal was a little nerve wracking at first. But the elephants were quite good. When going down the muddy slopes they'd stay standing on their two front legs, but bend their hind legs so that they are on their knees, and then kind of steer and drag themselves along, maintaining quite good control. At the very end we had to cross a fairly deep river, but they had no problem powering through it, even though the current was strong and the water reached up to their chins.
The ride home in the open air pick-up was quite cold for sure. It did have a top on it, so it kept out some of the rain, but lots still came in. The girls squeezed into the cab, but pierre, jeremie, and I, just curled up in sleeping bags in the back and tried to stay warm. By the time we got to mae sot everybody and everyone was sopping wet.
Interesting climate observation: when we got back to hq, I jokingly said to Oom ( the owner of the trekking company who is about 45 or 50), that I thought this was the dry season, thinking that it obviously must rain in the dry season as we often get rain or snow in the fall in CO during out dry season. But he said this was the first time he could remember it raining in december or january for more than just a sprinkle. And because I am always interested in snow, I tend to ask different europeans I meet when they're describing where they live if they get snow. Almost all of them tell me that when they were young there used to be snow on the ground the entire winter, but now it doesn't even snow at all where they live. And several have said that this year the winter was almost the same as the summer (very warm winter and very cold summer). Of course even back home in the states we've noticed similar things. The snow isn't as good in the ski resorts as it used to be when I was in middle school, it takes longer into the winter before we can skate on the ponds, and they had to close the hidden valley ski area in Estes, due partly b/c of national park pressure, but also because of decreased snow fall. There are now only three ski areas on east of the divide (loveland and eldora, and the terrain park one in evergreen) and back in the 70's, I read there were nearly 20 on the east side in places such as idaho springs, georgetown, colo spgs, allenspark. And Sherman will tell you he can remember consistent snow in his backyard as a kid in boise. Don't know what it all means, but just interesting that all around the world i've been meeting people that notice it, and it's more than just the 1/2 a degree here or there that we typically think of when we talk about global climate change.
27/12/08
I'm letting my clothes dry a little more, and then I'm catching a bus to Sukathai (sp?) via Tak. It's not very far, but goes over a pass, so it takes about 3 hours. Sukathai has some interesting ancient ruins and was the first capital of Siam (Thailand) and the capital during the so called golden age of Thailand
Just got back from my trek out of Mae Sot into the jungle around Umphang. It was incredible, more on that later.
Just checked my email and saw that bro skied some of the deepest powder he ever has from a slow moving storm in Wyoming (jealous) and another friend had some amazing news. I'm not at liberty to say what that is yet, but congrats!
So I'm back in Mae Sot. I really like this little border town. It's kind of a wild frontier type town. Reminds me of what I imagine the wild west of old to be. So that's pretty cool. You'll see lots of the locals around here carrying guns and apparently the police here not really too controlled by the thai government, but more by city politics, bribing, etc. There's a cool sign when you enter the town that says (actual spelling) "Toorists have funs, but no karry guns" Duly noted!
The trek was completely amazing!!! 100 times better than the one in Chiang Mai (and I had a good time in Chaing Mai). The jungle here was much more wild and pristine. In Chiang Mai it had heavily been hunted out, it was secondary forest as most of the large trees had been cut, and there were always trails and villagers and such, so you never quite felt lost in the jungle. On this one we were definitely lost in the jungle!
It was a 3 hours drive to Umphang from Mae Sot. Very cold in the back of the pickup (most people think of thailand as this terribly hot, humid place, but during the cool dry season which is now, it is quite cool and pleasant especially up here in the hills. Highs in the mid 70's and lows in the 40's. The road, though, was quite beautiful over mountains passes, through rainforest, and past some burmese refugee camps. I was on the trek with 4 others, all french all between 23 and 25. A brother and sister (here visiting their sister who works for an NGO at the burmese refugee camp)--Pierre and Alice, and Pierre's girlfriend, Anne, and another friend Jeremie. Put away all your negative french stereotypes. These guys were awesome!! And hardly spoke a word of french the whole time, and would apologize profusely if they needed to between them in order to help them understand an english thing. They were all quite fun and hilarious, incredibly nice, and extremely generous. Never let me buy a single beer or snack food!
After the drive to umphang, we ate then set off on a raft. Instead of the traditional bamboo raft that I did in chiang mai, we used a large rubber raft (normal one like you'd see on an idaho river), b/c we had a few small class III rapids to run and b/c we were carrying all of our food, camping gear and equipment on it, and the bamboo ones would be too wet. Right away we saw a beautiful kingfisher and then several monkeys scampering across branches over the river. Birds were everywhere (something you didn't see or hear in chiang mai due to hunting). The rafting was fun, mainly calm with a few rapids, but the group was definitely yukking it up the whole way down. We had two guides, Koy and Bow. The river wound through dense primary jungle complete with huge trees, strangler figs, vines, etc. You're typical jungle, and karst canyons with soaring wall all around. On river bends, the river often went under the karst for a bit, so we'd float with the boat through some cave like things. The karst, even when not in caves, often had giant stalactities hanging. We went through a fairly long section of waterfalls pouring down onto us (everything was packed in plastic bags, but I later found out I was lucky to have had my clothes and camera stuff in a couple dry bags I brough for rain in the rainforest as garbage bags are only so good and inevitably take on water) from the karst as we weaved through partial river caves, dripping moss, and misty waterfalls. INCREDIBLE!! One of the neatest and most surreal river experiences I have ever had. Straight from an animated disney movie. Something you wouldn't think actually exists. The waterfalls just falling down on us in this jungle canyon full of river caves...WOW! After that part we did some floating and came to a hot springs...a welcome break after being chilled by the waterfalls. After that a few nice rapids then just a nice easy float. It reminded me (though I think it takes place in India) of mowgly, sher khan, baloo, king louis, kaa, and the Jungle Book, especially the part where baloo is floating down the river. So I started singing the song from it, the bear necessities. The frenchies knew it, and started singing along to the tune...in french of course. Jeremie, Pierre and I were also daring each other to eat an entire thai chile. They are not very big, but insanely spicy. Pierre and I both did one, but after Jeremie saw our faces, he didn't! It was by far the hottest thing I had ever tasted. Set my mouth and nose on fire. We tried to cool it off with beer we had in the raft, but that only made it worse. We were crying and our whole faces were red. Even hours later, our lips and mouths were quite rosy.
A little more than 4 hours after setting off, we arrived at a big overhanging cliff with some sand and decided (well, the guides did) to make camp here. Anne, Pierre, and Jeremie were tired, so they went to bed early, so Alice and I stayed up pretty late into the night, me learning all about the french, and then we went for a late night jungle walk to look for some animals. She was at first very scared of her english, but it was quite good and I could easily understand. It was my first night sleeping outside since I had my lasik surgery and I thoroughly enjoyed falling asleep watching the stars!!! and of course listening to the river gurgle by and the chorus of cicadas and frogs.
Left bright and early the next day (Christmas Eve!). Rafted, a cold raft, another 3 hours. After that we got out, packed all the stuff in packs and hiked for about 4 hours to the next camp. The hike was through dense jungle on a small trail. As is usual in a rainforest, I enjoyed all of the cool little things the rainforest can provide that you pass by along the way. Tried 5 different fruits. 3 very sour, but turn sweet once they mix with saliva by some chemical reaction. So you keep eating. The first couple of bites are sour like a lemon, but then so sweet. You keep going for the pain to get the sweet. Another fruit type thing can be used as shampoo or laundry detergent. We later found out it works quite well and has a great pineapple like smell. A couple of tree branches were used as musical instruments, Koy made bamboo mugs and stirrers for us, which the french affectionately called Tuey Tueys. Took some cinammon bark for tea later. Ate some sort of root that could have easily passed for a french baguette (aggreed upon by the french). A type of peanut, sweeter than ours, and of course moist out of the ground and when not roasted. And some leaf that tasted like sour candy patch kids. Once at the camp, we quickly made camp, had a bit and then hiked just for a km to thailands highest and biggest waterfall. It, of course was beautiful. Gorgeous emerald (glacial like) water caused by the water flowing through the karst. We went swimming in the bottom portion of the falls and then since it was multi tiered...5+ levels of waterfalls, we climbed up to the bottom of the 2nd from the top. beautiful looking up at the falls and then down at the emerals pools and falls below.
For Christmas Eve dinner we had green curry and rice (my parents most likely had fondue..hehe!) We then played cards. They taught me Tarot a french game. Then jeremie and pierre went to bed and I taught anne and alice and koy hearts. Eventually anne and koy got tired, but two local guys taught alice and I a thai card game (they didn't speak english, so it was qu ite interesting), and we played than and drank their "happy water" late into the night. The happy water tasted a lot like weak sake...so it must be some sort of rice alcohol.
Christmas morning! We got to sleep in til 8, and then had pancakes (minus butter and syrup). We then packed up and hiked another 3 to 4 hours to a very remoted karen village. The only way to get here was by walking or elephant. We had lunch then just had a 10 minute walk to another waterfall. On the way we had to cross a very, very sketchy bamboo bridge (did I mention they make EVERYTHING here out of bamboo...houses, bridges, plates, utensils, cups, rafts, mats). It was very narrow, very swingy, and missing several sections of bamboo. We all made it across, but Anne almost fell in at one point. It was another amazing waterfall. We made it down to a fairly large emerald pool with some small cascades coming in, but looking across you could see behind one layer of large trees, a long string of waterfalls...hidden waterfalls! We all swam over to the other side, except for Anne who doesn't like cold water, in order to sit under the falls. The falls were dropping over karsts and Bow (little bow wow) took us a little ways up and then into a cave. It was tight getting in, but Pierre made it through and gleefully exclaimed that if he could get through, everyone could. Inside was pretty sweet b/c you could see the main waterfall outside and then the indside was dripping with little waterfalls and lots of stalactites and stalagmites. I loved it! A hidden waterfall in the jungle and then a cave within the waterfall. Very much a paradise. As guys do, we of course had throwing and skipping contests across the pond to the waterfall. After I was the overall winner, they frenchies proceeded to sing the american national anthem. "you guys win everything, so we know your hymn well"
That afternoon they all played cards, but I decided to go explore the village. It was very interesting. All the houses on stilts made completely out of bamboo and banana leaves. Of course no electricity or any of that. Most the people still wearing traditional clothes. Lots of people out working in the fields with tools that probably haven't been used in the western world for close to a century. Tiny kids doing lots of work, including toting babies around that were not much smaller than them. A lot of men just sitting around doing not much and just watching. Pigs, piglettes, chickens, dogs, cats just running around everywhere. Didn't take long to explore the village as it was very small. On the way back a group of four men sitting up in a hut called me and motioned for me to come up, so I joined them. They did a lot of talkingat me, but of course had no idea what was being said. Eventually they brought out a bottle of something and offered me a shot of it. Smelled of pee and didn't taste any better! But of course I had to take it, b/c you can't be rude and offend them. Unfortunately I had take 3 more shots. Koy later told me it was homemade whisky.
For Christmas dinner we had pumpkin curry. The tastiest thing I've had on the trip yet. We played more cards and celebrated Christmas with a fire, some Chang beer, and some happy water mixed with some sort of juice thing, sang a few Christmas songs in english and french. An interesting Christmas thing: they obviously don't celebrate Christmas here as a primarily buddhist country, but when we arrived at the hut we would be staying at there were wild pointsettias growing all around it.
The next day we loaded up elephants with our stuff and then hopped on. We had a 4 hour elephant ride ahead, but after 2 hours it started to rain quite hard (1st rain since I've been in Thailand) Since all our stuff was packed on the elephants, we couldn't get to our rain stuff, so we got quite soaked and cold. After going over a ridge we had a pretty steep descent. It was very muddy, and sitting on top of this huge animal was a little nerve wracking at first. But the elephants were quite good. When going down the muddy slopes they'd stay standing on their two front legs, but bend their hind legs so that they are on their knees, and then kind of steer and drag themselves along, maintaining quite good control. At the very end we had to cross a fairly deep river, but they had no problem powering through it, even though the current was strong and the water reached up to their chins.
The ride home in the open air pick-up was quite cold for sure. It did have a top on it, so it kept out some of the rain, but lots still came in. The girls squeezed into the cab, but pierre, jeremie, and I, just curled up in sleeping bags in the back and tried to stay warm. By the time we got to mae sot everybody and everyone was sopping wet.
Interesting climate observation: when we got back to hq, I jokingly said to Oom ( the owner of the trekking company who is about 45 or 50), that I thought this was the dry season, thinking that it obviously must rain in the dry season as we often get rain or snow in the fall in CO during out dry season. But he said this was the first time he could remember it raining in december or january for more than just a sprinkle. And because I am always interested in snow, I tend to ask different europeans I meet when they're describing where they live if they get snow. Almost all of them tell me that when they were young there used to be snow on the ground the entire winter, but now it doesn't even snow at all where they live. And several have said that this year the winter was almost the same as the summer (very warm winter and very cold summer). Of course even back home in the states we've noticed similar things. The snow isn't as good in the ski resorts as it used to be when I was in middle school, it takes longer into the winter before we can skate on the ponds, and they had to close the hidden valley ski area in Estes, due partly b/c of national park pressure, but also because of decreased snow fall. There are now only three ski areas on east of the divide (loveland and eldora, and the terrain park one in evergreen) and back in the 70's, I read there were nearly 20 on the east side in places such as idaho springs, georgetown, colo spgs, allenspark. And Sherman will tell you he can remember consistent snow in his backyard as a kid in boise. Don't know what it all means, but just interesting that all around the world i've been meeting people that notice it, and it's more than just the 1/2 a degree here or there that we typically think of when we talk about global climate change.
27/12/08
I'm letting my clothes dry a little more, and then I'm catching a bus to Sukathai (sp?) via Tak. It's not very far, but goes over a pass, so it takes about 3 hours. Sukathai has some interesting ancient ruins and was the first capital of Siam (Thailand) and the capital during the so called golden age of Thailand
Monday, December 22, 2008
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!
As I will be in the jungle for Christmas...Merry Christmas to you all!!! May the powder be epic, the carolling in key, and the cookies too sweet.
I'll try and put a santa hat on a buddha =)
I'll try and put a santa hat on a buddha =)
make a run to the border
Wasn't that a taco bell slogan a while back? Today was quite the busy day. I rented a bike to go to the border with burma and then hopefully to a waterfall, cave, and hotsprings. The woman at the guesthouse said I needed a scooter to go the waterfall and such, but I figured I could do it. The border was only 14km's there and back, and then only 36km to the waterfall. Zach Guy could probably do the waterfall part in 1hr 45 up a steep singletrack in a WP race with a good bike (his older, fatter brother would probably take 2hr 10.) So of course I decided to do it. No, no, the woman insisted, so I appeased her by just saying I'd go to the border. Something zach and I have found out in our travels is that what is possible for in-shape people is always way more than what is told to you. If a time is given as 8 hours roundtrip, good chance it will only take 3 or 4. There are too many fat, lazy, out of shape, or out of touch with recreation tourists out there, that they have to be careful with times I guess. That's why I always prefer that things are listed in distance (such as this time) than time. B/c on rare occassion, the time is actually accurate. On this occassion I easily made it back two hours before dark, after a late start (10:30), hanging out around the border for a couple of hours, taking a small hike, and having lunch. So ya see, sometims you just gotta try it. If you don't get there...oh well.
The border was pretty interesting. I at first wanted to cross the "friendship" bridge over to burma for a bit, but in order to do that, when you come back you get a new visa. It used to be (like 3 weeks ago) that overland visas were 30 days just like the airport, but now it's only 15 days, so if i went, I'd actually lose 5 days on my visa which would be no good as I'm flying out to rangoon on the day my visa expires. Since this change in policy occurred during the closing of the big thai international airports during the protests, I'm guessing it has something to do with getting more people to fly to renew visas. THis is making lots and lots of long-stay tourists very unhappy as they used to make a border run (takes 2 days) once a month, but now every 15 days!! Not affecting me b/c I'm flying to rangoon anyways.
So I contented myself with just walking along the border market and the dividing river. Had some tempura like vegetables there and some whole deep fried shrimp which were tasty. Walking along the river you get frequently hounded by people selling you cigarettes, whiskey, opium, and sex enhancing drugs. I'd just respond by saying, don't drink, don't smoke (what do ya do...who sang that song again?), don't do drugs, don't have sex. That's the only way to get them to stop. If you just say no, they keep pestering, so ya gotta just say you don't do that. One guy to me, "where you from?" "America" "you must not have fun in America" "nope" "the movies lie then!" "nah, just watch office space" He didn't understand.
The border river was insanely polluted with trash. People would swim back and forth (currently thais and burmese are freely allowed to pass). Looking across the border, burma looked quite poor. People call Thailand a third world country, but I'd hardly call it that. 2nd world moving onto first (most people have ipods, cellphones, nice clothes, scooters, and you don't see any starving or hungry people). They are just lacking government infrastructure, clean water, plumbing etc. It's not near as bad as Mexico, which isn't nearly as bad as the poverty and starvation in east africa, especially places like uganda. The poverty in kenya and tanzania was bad enough, but eventually you become numb to it, but the small villages and even the cities in uganda have scarred me for life! So needless to say it's hard to compare thailand as 3rd world to some place like tanzania or uganda...or even somalia and zimbabwe... Thailand is quite nice, which is one of the reasons I think it's the most popular "3rd world, exotic destination". It's incredibly easy to travel in and not very uncomfortable in terms of modern commodities like other countries can be. I know burma will be much worse and I have a feeling cambodia and laos will be as well.
After walking around the border, I met a nice burmese man. He used to be a school teacher until he had to flee from the government. Now he helps tourists ease into the visa run process and guides them for their day in myanmar. We had tea together and he told me all about the atrocities of the past in burma and the ones still going on. The government isn't openly shooting people anymore, but if you do something they don't like (I.e., don't give them most of the money you make), they will not hesitate to shoot or anything. He told me about a couple good books written about events in early 2000's and late 90's about the genocide and monks just being gunned down. He said travel is now safe for tourists (as has everyone except the US government travel ministry--I always check the new zealand travel ministry website b/c it is much more in touch with reality...the US has warnings issued for every country in the world but 3, and has complete no-go travel warnings for countries considered safe by most standards like the philippines or peru. There's obviously danger wherever you go, but that includes NYC, L.A., and Caldwell, Idaho). He said it's good for tourists to go in and see it, and the country is quite beautiful. And like everyplace with issues, a few rotten apples, usually the gov't (hmm...george bush) or some small terrorist faction, ruins in for everyone else--he said the people there are so incredibly nice and friendly. He was also very happy to see an American going in. He said they really miss the americans...typically an overgenerous group of travellers, and the type of american travellers visiting places like burma aren't the ignorant, sun-seeking, we think we're the best in the world type travellers, but instead the very cultured, friendly type. I have actually found this true almost everyplace I've been around the world. The people always like the americans. I think in our own (would it be called pride), we like to think that we are disliked as travellers. It seems to me that the american travellers are the ones trying to learn the language the most, being the most jovial, and interacting the most with the locals (obviously not true if we're talking about the rich ignorant ones staying at the fancy resorts, but then again, we never see them). I often see europeans having an almost elitist air about them and treating the locals with disrespect. I don't know if this comes from the lack of diversity overall in terms of race in europe or what. When Zach and I have asked guides, guides we have become friends with and know they would be honest, they almost always say their favorite group of tourists are americans...so hmm, so much for us always thinking everyone hates us!! They've told us the aussies usually annoy them and the europeans are standoffish and won't get to know them. Part of it I wonder is that when europeans or aussies go abroad, it's just a normal vacation b/c they regularly get 5-6 weeks of paid holiday, where if an american is going to venture that far abroad, they are not doing it on paid holiday, so they feel less like a vacation and more of a feeling of immersion into a culture. dunno. And they also often associate us with aid as our country, no matter how far in debt we go, has always been incredibly generous with our foreign aid...disaster or no disaster. hmmm...kinda got off topic there, that's one for you all to explore as you go abroad, I guess.
Well after tea with the nice burmese man I set off on the bike ride back to mae sot and then to the waterfalls. Had quite the steed to ride...definitely no red demon or bluebird. 3 speed with no easy gear, hefty, handlebars out of alignment with the wheel, sized to fit a thai woman, sketchy brakes, and a seat that swiveled up and down so it could decide to either poke me in the nuts or on the tail bone. Perfect though! Helps to make a ride. And guess what?? No goat heads the entire ride!! As the cliche goes it was the journey and not the end result that was the best. As most people here in mae sot are either NGO's or here for a very quick visa border run, no one really goes out to explore the area, and if they do, they probably listen to the people around here and don't bike, but trake a scooter or bus. So the villages I biked through didn't get whitey tourists passing by to often I would guess. When I'd ride through everyone would look, the kids would run outside yelling, "wello!" Everyone waved, whether sitting in their shop or driving buy in a scooter (or any of several types of unknown vehicles...one was being pulled in a trailer by a think that looked like an old shopping cart pulling aid that the guys at wal mart use to move shopping carts from the parking lots). This was definitely that thailand where it gets its motto...the land of smiles...from. The villages were almost all agricultural and I could see people out in the rice paddies with the infamous asian type hats or others plowing lots with oxen. No one spoke a lick of english, but smiles, sign language, and body expression go a long ways. One of the villages I stopped by there was lots of music and commotion. I walked into the field where it was going on, and the boys were playing soccer, and the girls some sport similar to basketball but without dribbling, and a fellow teammate holding a basket as a hoop. They were all brightly dressed, lots of parents and others watching, music, trophies on display, food everywhere. The funny thing is when I walked into the event area, basically everything stopped except for the soccer game. I was quite embarassed, but after a few minutes everything resumed to normal and I had little kids running up to me pulling on my shorts wanting high fives. Made it to the cave and hot springs easy enough as they were signed, but had trouble finding the waterfall. Asked several people for nam tok, but of course all they could do was point towards the mountains. Amazingly I somehow ended up finding it. It was cool, a waterfall coming out of a cave and some cave formations even outside of the cave.
Once back at the guesthouse, the woman couldn't believe I had biked there. We went into her garden and picked some tasty fresh starfruits!!
Tomorrow I leave for the trek out of uphang with Oom for days. We first have to drive over death pass (so called b/c back in the late 80's burmese guerrillas killed many people on the road, but now only failed breaks cause any fatalities) before we begin the trek...well actually we have to raft into where we begin the walking party.
The border was pretty interesting. I at first wanted to cross the "friendship" bridge over to burma for a bit, but in order to do that, when you come back you get a new visa. It used to be (like 3 weeks ago) that overland visas were 30 days just like the airport, but now it's only 15 days, so if i went, I'd actually lose 5 days on my visa which would be no good as I'm flying out to rangoon on the day my visa expires. Since this change in policy occurred during the closing of the big thai international airports during the protests, I'm guessing it has something to do with getting more people to fly to renew visas. THis is making lots and lots of long-stay tourists very unhappy as they used to make a border run (takes 2 days) once a month, but now every 15 days!! Not affecting me b/c I'm flying to rangoon anyways.
So I contented myself with just walking along the border market and the dividing river. Had some tempura like vegetables there and some whole deep fried shrimp which were tasty. Walking along the river you get frequently hounded by people selling you cigarettes, whiskey, opium, and sex enhancing drugs. I'd just respond by saying, don't drink, don't smoke (what do ya do...who sang that song again?), don't do drugs, don't have sex. That's the only way to get them to stop. If you just say no, they keep pestering, so ya gotta just say you don't do that. One guy to me, "where you from?" "America" "you must not have fun in America" "nope" "the movies lie then!" "nah, just watch office space" He didn't understand.
The border river was insanely polluted with trash. People would swim back and forth (currently thais and burmese are freely allowed to pass). Looking across the border, burma looked quite poor. People call Thailand a third world country, but I'd hardly call it that. 2nd world moving onto first (most people have ipods, cellphones, nice clothes, scooters, and you don't see any starving or hungry people). They are just lacking government infrastructure, clean water, plumbing etc. It's not near as bad as Mexico, which isn't nearly as bad as the poverty and starvation in east africa, especially places like uganda. The poverty in kenya and tanzania was bad enough, but eventually you become numb to it, but the small villages and even the cities in uganda have scarred me for life! So needless to say it's hard to compare thailand as 3rd world to some place like tanzania or uganda...or even somalia and zimbabwe... Thailand is quite nice, which is one of the reasons I think it's the most popular "3rd world, exotic destination". It's incredibly easy to travel in and not very uncomfortable in terms of modern commodities like other countries can be. I know burma will be much worse and I have a feeling cambodia and laos will be as well.
After walking around the border, I met a nice burmese man. He used to be a school teacher until he had to flee from the government. Now he helps tourists ease into the visa run process and guides them for their day in myanmar. We had tea together and he told me all about the atrocities of the past in burma and the ones still going on. The government isn't openly shooting people anymore, but if you do something they don't like (I.e., don't give them most of the money you make), they will not hesitate to shoot or anything. He told me about a couple good books written about events in early 2000's and late 90's about the genocide and monks just being gunned down. He said travel is now safe for tourists (as has everyone except the US government travel ministry--I always check the new zealand travel ministry website b/c it is much more in touch with reality...the US has warnings issued for every country in the world but 3, and has complete no-go travel warnings for countries considered safe by most standards like the philippines or peru. There's obviously danger wherever you go, but that includes NYC, L.A., and Caldwell, Idaho). He said it's good for tourists to go in and see it, and the country is quite beautiful. And like everyplace with issues, a few rotten apples, usually the gov't (hmm...george bush) or some small terrorist faction, ruins in for everyone else--he said the people there are so incredibly nice and friendly. He was also very happy to see an American going in. He said they really miss the americans...typically an overgenerous group of travellers, and the type of american travellers visiting places like burma aren't the ignorant, sun-seeking, we think we're the best in the world type travellers, but instead the very cultured, friendly type. I have actually found this true almost everyplace I've been around the world. The people always like the americans. I think in our own (would it be called pride), we like to think that we are disliked as travellers. It seems to me that the american travellers are the ones trying to learn the language the most, being the most jovial, and interacting the most with the locals (obviously not true if we're talking about the rich ignorant ones staying at the fancy resorts, but then again, we never see them). I often see europeans having an almost elitist air about them and treating the locals with disrespect. I don't know if this comes from the lack of diversity overall in terms of race in europe or what. When Zach and I have asked guides, guides we have become friends with and know they would be honest, they almost always say their favorite group of tourists are americans...so hmm, so much for us always thinking everyone hates us!! They've told us the aussies usually annoy them and the europeans are standoffish and won't get to know them. Part of it I wonder is that when europeans or aussies go abroad, it's just a normal vacation b/c they regularly get 5-6 weeks of paid holiday, where if an american is going to venture that far abroad, they are not doing it on paid holiday, so they feel less like a vacation and more of a feeling of immersion into a culture. dunno. And they also often associate us with aid as our country, no matter how far in debt we go, has always been incredibly generous with our foreign aid...disaster or no disaster. hmmm...kinda got off topic there, that's one for you all to explore as you go abroad, I guess.
Well after tea with the nice burmese man I set off on the bike ride back to mae sot and then to the waterfalls. Had quite the steed to ride...definitely no red demon or bluebird. 3 speed with no easy gear, hefty, handlebars out of alignment with the wheel, sized to fit a thai woman, sketchy brakes, and a seat that swiveled up and down so it could decide to either poke me in the nuts or on the tail bone. Perfect though! Helps to make a ride. And guess what?? No goat heads the entire ride!! As the cliche goes it was the journey and not the end result that was the best. As most people here in mae sot are either NGO's or here for a very quick visa border run, no one really goes out to explore the area, and if they do, they probably listen to the people around here and don't bike, but trake a scooter or bus. So the villages I biked through didn't get whitey tourists passing by to often I would guess. When I'd ride through everyone would look, the kids would run outside yelling, "wello!" Everyone waved, whether sitting in their shop or driving buy in a scooter (or any of several types of unknown vehicles...one was being pulled in a trailer by a think that looked like an old shopping cart pulling aid that the guys at wal mart use to move shopping carts from the parking lots). This was definitely that thailand where it gets its motto...the land of smiles...from. The villages were almost all agricultural and I could see people out in the rice paddies with the infamous asian type hats or others plowing lots with oxen. No one spoke a lick of english, but smiles, sign language, and body expression go a long ways. One of the villages I stopped by there was lots of music and commotion. I walked into the field where it was going on, and the boys were playing soccer, and the girls some sport similar to basketball but without dribbling, and a fellow teammate holding a basket as a hoop. They were all brightly dressed, lots of parents and others watching, music, trophies on display, food everywhere. The funny thing is when I walked into the event area, basically everything stopped except for the soccer game. I was quite embarassed, but after a few minutes everything resumed to normal and I had little kids running up to me pulling on my shorts wanting high fives. Made it to the cave and hot springs easy enough as they were signed, but had trouble finding the waterfall. Asked several people for nam tok, but of course all they could do was point towards the mountains. Amazingly I somehow ended up finding it. It was cool, a waterfall coming out of a cave and some cave formations even outside of the cave.
Once back at the guesthouse, the woman couldn't believe I had biked there. We went into her garden and picked some tasty fresh starfruits!!
Tomorrow I leave for the trek out of uphang with Oom for days. We first have to drive over death pass (so called b/c back in the late 80's burmese guerrillas killed many people on the road, but now only failed breaks cause any fatalities) before we begin the trek...well actually we have to raft into where we begin the walking party.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
some answers
Gibby was asking about costs here and a few others that might be coming were asking about the toilet situation, so I thought I'd just put it on the blog so anyone interested could see.
As far as money goes, it's incredibly cheap if you're just travelling around, it gets a bit more expensive, still very cheap though if you do lots of activities. Bangkok is the most expensive as are the southern resort islands. The high season nov-feb has the highest prices after that things can drop 30% they say.
I'll put things in baht as the dollar exhange rate is bound to fluxuate wildly. My book published in 2007 lists the 1 dollar equals 45 baht. Currently it is 1 dollar equals 33 baht.
A cheap guesthouse with shared bathroom and cold shower is about 50-200 baht. the upper end sometimes has private bathroom and hot shower (read, not cold). If you're with another person you can get even nicer places for 200-300 baht, which of course would be divided by two. If you spend just a bit more 600-1000baht for a two person room, you can get quite the luxury
Taxi rides in bangkok are all about 50 baht or less, 400 to the airport and 100 to far out places Tuk tuks range from 20-100 baht.
Tuk tuks to most places in the towns I've been to (train and bus stations seem to be pretty far out) are 50-100 baht. But in town I try to walk if I can.
Meals the way I do them are about 25-40 baht for lunch and dinners. These are eating at the market stalls, street food, or thai restaurants. Very tasty, but some people are scared of them for some reason. Much more of a thai experience if you ask me! If you eat at the tourist places or bars, you'll probably pay about 70-100 baht for thai food and 100-200 for american, european food (pastas, steaks, burgers). For breakfast I buy a few bananas (10 baht) or some other fruit. I also regularly spend about 50 baht a day on snacks...there are so many crazy things to try on the streets and in the markets, and they're so cheap.
I get 1 to 2 1.5L bottled waters a day. at 7-11 if you get the cheapest brand it's 12 baht. They also have "western" ones for 15 baht. If you buy water in more touristy areas it can be from 15 to 25 baht. I have found 7-11's to be the cheapest.
beers range from a can of chang or leo or singha at 25 baht to bottles at 35 baht to large bottles at 50baht, even at bars. I would guess that they are cheaper at stores. Fruit smoothies and shakes are about 30 baht.
long haul busses going 2nd class from bangkok to chaing mai for example are about 180 baht, 300 for first class with air con. the overnight sleepr train with beds and fans is 350 baht, with ac is 550 baht., with no bed is 200 baht I think. Most transport seems to be in the 100-300 baht range via bus as long as you go by public bus.
15-40 baht an hour for internet
So that's the basic cost if you're just living and traveling around. Very easy to keep it at 400-500 baht for the day and be very comfortable. But it gets dramatically more when you start doing the fun things: rafting, trekking, hiring boats for snorkelling, etc.
National park fees are 400 baht for westerns (50 for thais)
elephant trekking is about 500-1000 baht depending on the place
my 3 day trekking including rafting, elephant riding, and 3 nights of accomadation at a nice place with a pool and private bathrooms and all meals during the trek and np fees was 2700 baht. Don't know what it would be like if you booked up front in chang mai. A scooter is about 100-150 baht for the day, a bike is 30-50 baht. I hear scuba averages about 25-50 US$ for 2 dives. Most temples are free, the really amazing ones are 50-200 baht entrance fees. Then there are lots of little costs you don't think of i.e. 30 US here or there for visas.
laundry is 30-40baht per kilo, though I've been doing mine in the shower. western toiletries (your favorite contact solution, deoderant, shampoo are quite expensive comparatively here). You can buy clothes here incredibly cheap t-shirts 100baht starting before the bartering part. The key is to always buy things in thai rather than tourist areas!! Just wander a couple streets down and you'll find the local markets and shops...don't be the lazy tourist!! And also barter like heck on most things. For example my tuk tuk ride today started at 200 baht and I got him down to 40. always decide on the price BEFORE you go or hand any money to anyone.
The toilets are a fun situation here. THey have the typical asian squat toilets. Much better than the longdrops experienced in east africa, but nowhere near the heated accessorized japanese toilets. Unless you're in a touristy area or nice guesthouse you have the squat toilet. Just a hole in the ground that you squat over. There's no TP (unless you bring your own), but there is a bucket of water beside the toilet and a cup. You use the cup to clean the behind first and then also use it to flush the toilet via scooping water into the toilet. A couple of the more remote, off the beaten track places I've been to just send you out back behind the main street. There is a big pit dug and then a wooden plank over the pit. You walk onto the plank and squat from there....I suggest that you definitely have your squating down to a T before that b/c a fall into the pit would be quite disastrous. If you do have TP never put it into the toilet. Just
put it into the provided waste bucket.
As far as money goes, it's incredibly cheap if you're just travelling around, it gets a bit more expensive, still very cheap though if you do lots of activities. Bangkok is the most expensive as are the southern resort islands. The high season nov-feb has the highest prices after that things can drop 30% they say.
I'll put things in baht as the dollar exhange rate is bound to fluxuate wildly. My book published in 2007 lists the 1 dollar equals 45 baht. Currently it is 1 dollar equals 33 baht.
A cheap guesthouse with shared bathroom and cold shower is about 50-200 baht. the upper end sometimes has private bathroom and hot shower (read, not cold). If you're with another person you can get even nicer places for 200-300 baht, which of course would be divided by two. If you spend just a bit more 600-1000baht for a two person room, you can get quite the luxury
Taxi rides in bangkok are all about 50 baht or less, 400 to the airport and 100 to far out places Tuk tuks range from 20-100 baht.
Tuk tuks to most places in the towns I've been to (train and bus stations seem to be pretty far out) are 50-100 baht. But in town I try to walk if I can.
Meals the way I do them are about 25-40 baht for lunch and dinners. These are eating at the market stalls, street food, or thai restaurants. Very tasty, but some people are scared of them for some reason. Much more of a thai experience if you ask me! If you eat at the tourist places or bars, you'll probably pay about 70-100 baht for thai food and 100-200 for american, european food (pastas, steaks, burgers). For breakfast I buy a few bananas (10 baht) or some other fruit. I also regularly spend about 50 baht a day on snacks...there are so many crazy things to try on the streets and in the markets, and they're so cheap.
I get 1 to 2 1.5L bottled waters a day. at 7-11 if you get the cheapest brand it's 12 baht. They also have "western" ones for 15 baht. If you buy water in more touristy areas it can be from 15 to 25 baht. I have found 7-11's to be the cheapest.
beers range from a can of chang or leo or singha at 25 baht to bottles at 35 baht to large bottles at 50baht, even at bars. I would guess that they are cheaper at stores. Fruit smoothies and shakes are about 30 baht.
long haul busses going 2nd class from bangkok to chaing mai for example are about 180 baht, 300 for first class with air con. the overnight sleepr train with beds and fans is 350 baht, with ac is 550 baht., with no bed is 200 baht I think. Most transport seems to be in the 100-300 baht range via bus as long as you go by public bus.
15-40 baht an hour for internet
So that's the basic cost if you're just living and traveling around. Very easy to keep it at 400-500 baht for the day and be very comfortable. But it gets dramatically more when you start doing the fun things: rafting, trekking, hiring boats for snorkelling, etc.
National park fees are 400 baht for westerns (50 for thais)
elephant trekking is about 500-1000 baht depending on the place
my 3 day trekking including rafting, elephant riding, and 3 nights of accomadation at a nice place with a pool and private bathrooms and all meals during the trek and np fees was 2700 baht. Don't know what it would be like if you booked up front in chang mai. A scooter is about 100-150 baht for the day, a bike is 30-50 baht. I hear scuba averages about 25-50 US$ for 2 dives. Most temples are free, the really amazing ones are 50-200 baht entrance fees. Then there are lots of little costs you don't think of i.e. 30 US here or there for visas.
laundry is 30-40baht per kilo, though I've been doing mine in the shower. western toiletries (your favorite contact solution, deoderant, shampoo are quite expensive comparatively here). You can buy clothes here incredibly cheap t-shirts 100baht starting before the bartering part. The key is to always buy things in thai rather than tourist areas!! Just wander a couple streets down and you'll find the local markets and shops...don't be the lazy tourist!! And also barter like heck on most things. For example my tuk tuk ride today started at 200 baht and I got him down to 40. always decide on the price BEFORE you go or hand any money to anyone.
The toilets are a fun situation here. THey have the typical asian squat toilets. Much better than the longdrops experienced in east africa, but nowhere near the heated accessorized japanese toilets. Unless you're in a touristy area or nice guesthouse you have the squat toilet. Just a hole in the ground that you squat over. There's no TP (unless you bring your own), but there is a bucket of water beside the toilet and a cup. You use the cup to clean the behind first and then also use it to flush the toilet via scooping water into the toilet. A couple of the more remote, off the beaten track places I've been to just send you out back behind the main street. There is a big pit dug and then a wooden plank over the pit. You walk onto the plank and squat from there....I suggest that you definitely have your squating down to a T before that b/c a fall into the pit would be quite disastrous. If you do have TP never put it into the toilet. Just
put it into the provided waste bucket.
the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Made it up to mae sot today on the border with myanmar (burma). The drive in went over a very beautiful pass with some large karst formations around. Some very nice mountain jungle scenery. Got into town and walked all over and over up and down the same street looking for no 4 guesthouse where I am planning to do the trek with, so i wanted to stay with them. First the tuk tuk driver could not find it so he just dropped me off. I asked at least 20 people, and they all pointed in different directions. I must have spent 2 hours walking around the tiny town looking for it. Finally some nice man was friends with Oom, and called his number. Oom came over on his scooter and said that he was in the middle of moving his guesthouse, so I had to stay somewhere else. So I'm staying at a nice guesthouse run by a teacher and her husband. My trek doesn't leave until the 23rd, so I've got a couple days here (another problem with being alone is you have to wait until other people sign up for things like this as there is a minimum of 4 people/max 6 for this trek). Haven't had much time to explore around Mae sot other than looking for the guesthouse, but have already seen lots of different tribal people around. It's a cool town, kinda rugged, dirt roads, not near as nice as the previous places I have been in terms of the town being upkept, which I prefer. Much less western influence. In fact, have hardly seen any whiteys, fahrang, mzungus, gringos, haoles, whatever you wanna call us white tourists around. In fact all day today have only seen 4, all 4 americans (hardly ever see any of those in asia really), but are here working for NGO's at the refugee camps. I'm very, very happy to be here away from the tourist path. I guess I've done quite a bit of travel, so I get jaded and like to get away from the mass of tourists. Unfortunately the very best spots are always touristy, but there are lots of hidden gems everywhere, or the other thing I've found is go to places really early or go the hard way (trekking, etc, the average tourist is not up for exercise of adventure it seems). Anyways, it's very nice to be here. At these non touristy places, the locals are much more approachable, friendly, and helpful. THey're not trying to make a buck off of you. Bangkok was the worst, seriously couldn't trust a single Thai and the majority of the younger people there were constantly stupidly drunk or on drugs or vomitting while the rest like me were just trying to get out. Chiang Mai was better, though still highly touristy, and highly developed, Pai was great, but still lots of tourists (thought the cool hippy type). But here, nada! It's fun to be in the touristy people with all the fellow travelers, but sometimes it's very nice to get away from it. Think: would you rather be in estes park in july or on the other side of forest canyon!? They say, and I believe it, that Thailand is the most touristy of the se asian countries. Most of the more travelled people I've met really like cambodia and laos the best b/c there are just not many tourists. And I've been told that outside of the airport, I might not see another tourist the entire time I'm in burma...crazy!
So I'm sure some of you are aware of the issues in Burma, which Mae sot borders. A terrible millitary run junta government. Terrible, absolutely terrible to the people. Lonely planet gives guidelines of how to best limit the amount of money that goes to the gov't when visiting, but I've heard it's likely they will have someone following you the whole time. They are really suspicious of americans (they would take none of our aid when they got smashed by the typhoon not too long ago) and will in no way let journalists or photographers into the country. I will have to be very careful what I photograph. scenery and tourist things only. In the mountainous regions of burma, like the area near where I am, there are several hill tribes with insurgent armies fighting the burma army (and not winning). Because of this there are many refugees flowing into thailand. THus all the refugee camps that the NGO's have set up. Only a few countries are taking refugees, thailand, the U.S., and Japan has just started. Because of the fighting going on in the mountains, which are all along the border with thailand, this is why you can't go overland into burma, and must fly into yangon (rangoon). You can cross for a day to make a visa run to renew the thai visa, but can't go any further, but those one day border crossings are often closed due to fighting. Right now I haven't heard any gunshots or mortar rockets or anything yet, though they say it isn't uncommon to hear them. I'm safe here though. I made sure to check that there wasn't heavy unrest (there isn't currently), and the fighting is all in Burma. Thailand has a strong army and keeps the local insurgents on the burma side. I've pasted below a little thing from the place I'm doing the trekking with that may describe the town better:
Mae Sot is on the western border of Thailand with Burma. Sometimes the border is open for a day crossing, sometimes it is closed depending on the current political and military situation. In any case, the local people are always crossing the river to trade goods from teak to gems to Burmese banana leaf cigars. Dozens of ethnic groups live in this area and on any day one can easily run into 4 or 5 different exotic hats and faces. The Karen, Mao, Yao, Lahu, Buddhist and Muslim Burmese all live together in this frontier town speaking different languages, wearing different clothes, eating different foods, and dancing different dances. It's a fascinating place to walk around and learn about many cultures and peoples. A visit to one of the many refugee camps nearby helps one understand very quickly how and why the citizens of Burma are fighting for freedom from the military dictatorship.
So don't worry, I am safe here though, and the jungle trek I will be doing is only in the thai side as well. Down south towards Umphang and thailand's largest waterfall. I think since I have the whole day tomorrow I will rent a bicycle and bike to the border market and bridge. It's only 5km away then maybe bike to a waterfall that is 16km's away. THe woman in charge of the guesthouse tried to tell me it would be way too far on bike and I should rent a scooter...dang, I hope I don't look that out of shape. I'm pretty sure I can do those! Plus, even if I couldn't, I'd rather exercise and save the money if you know what I mean.
So I'm sure some of you are aware of the issues in Burma, which Mae sot borders. A terrible millitary run junta government. Terrible, absolutely terrible to the people. Lonely planet gives guidelines of how to best limit the amount of money that goes to the gov't when visiting, but I've heard it's likely they will have someone following you the whole time. They are really suspicious of americans (they would take none of our aid when they got smashed by the typhoon not too long ago) and will in no way let journalists or photographers into the country. I will have to be very careful what I photograph. scenery and tourist things only. In the mountainous regions of burma, like the area near where I am, there are several hill tribes with insurgent armies fighting the burma army (and not winning). Because of this there are many refugees flowing into thailand. THus all the refugee camps that the NGO's have set up. Only a few countries are taking refugees, thailand, the U.S., and Japan has just started. Because of the fighting going on in the mountains, which are all along the border with thailand, this is why you can't go overland into burma, and must fly into yangon (rangoon). You can cross for a day to make a visa run to renew the thai visa, but can't go any further, but those one day border crossings are often closed due to fighting. Right now I haven't heard any gunshots or mortar rockets or anything yet, though they say it isn't uncommon to hear them. I'm safe here though. I made sure to check that there wasn't heavy unrest (there isn't currently), and the fighting is all in Burma. Thailand has a strong army and keeps the local insurgents on the burma side. I've pasted below a little thing from the place I'm doing the trekking with that may describe the town better:
Mae Sot is on the western border of Thailand with Burma. Sometimes the border is open for a day crossing, sometimes it is closed depending on the current political and military situation. In any case, the local people are always crossing the river to trade goods from teak to gems to Burmese banana leaf cigars. Dozens of ethnic groups live in this area and on any day one can easily run into 4 or 5 different exotic hats and faces. The Karen, Mao, Yao, Lahu, Buddhist and Muslim Burmese all live together in this frontier town speaking different languages, wearing different clothes, eating different foods, and dancing different dances. It's a fascinating place to walk around and learn about many cultures and peoples. A visit to one of the many refugee camps nearby helps one understand very quickly how and why the citizens of Burma are fighting for freedom from the military dictatorship.
So don't worry, I am safe here though, and the jungle trek I will be doing is only in the thai side as well. Down south towards Umphang and thailand's largest waterfall. I think since I have the whole day tomorrow I will rent a bicycle and bike to the border market and bridge. It's only 5km away then maybe bike to a waterfall that is 16km's away. THe woman in charge of the guesthouse tried to tell me it would be way too far on bike and I should rent a scooter...dang, I hope I don't look that out of shape. I'm pretty sure I can do those! Plus, even if I couldn't, I'd rather exercise and save the money if you know what I mean.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
"The game is on again..."
Yep a lyric from ABBA. took the bus today from Pai to Chiang Mai (attempting to get to Mae Sot). They played abba the whole way down. It was great. Reminded me of a day long drive with the bro in the philippines listening to abba the whole way. that's when they first grew on me. I'd heard them before when my dad played them, but sometimes certain situations (i.e. traveling in an awesome, foreign place with the fam) makes music stick out more and you grow fond of it. Anyways, it was some nice deja vu today with abba on the bus driving over rainforested mountain passes. Can't wait to get back to the PI though for all the millions and millions of karaoke bars with the 80's music. I read somewhere recently, I think in a lonely planet, the top 3 karaoke songs in the PI, number one was whitney houston's I will always love you, #2 was an abba song, can't remember which, and I don't remember number 3 either. Too many mango shakes I guess! Well I'm stuck in Chang Mai tonight. I had hoped to be in mai sot, but the bus from pai to chang mai broke down so we had to wait about 4 hours, so i missed my connecting bus tonight. decided not to go into the touristy part of town tonight as the tuk tuk ride is kinda pricey and instead walked around near the bus station looking for a place. A nice man on a scooter picked me up and took me to a place. It's really nice b/c it's typically only for thais, so it's the same price as a cheap bungalow, but has a private hot shower, a tv, and a large room. Also had the most amazing and huge meal tonight for 30 cents!
Today I did the volunteer thing at the elephant camp in the morning and then b/c I liked how the place treated them, I paid for a two hour ride to support them. 1 hr up the mountain, and then 1 hour in the river. the river was quite fun. the elephant would splash you with it's trunk and spray you and then shake all about to knock you off into the water. then it would fall in and roll around, and dunk it's head in, holding its breath for a while. Good fun. A korean guy and a nice older german couple also did it as well as Lieke a dutch gal. From the elephant place, you could hike up a tiny ways to a hot springs, which lieke and I did. She was pretty cool, 19 and just graduated from highschool in holland. Travelling for 3 months. I was pretty impressed to be doing that alone as a girl, right after highschool. She's interested in geology and wants to come to the states for part of it to study as we have actual rocks and mountains there. Thought she should meet my brother, the expert geologist turned skier, so he could show her around. I think you'd like that bro as she is nice and definitely very attractive. After the hot springing, we headed into town to get a bite to eat and then had some amazingly tasty mango yoghurt drinks! First yoghurt drinks I had found this trip, and I am glad she knew where it was. It was very interesting sitting with her on the deck of the yoghurt place on the main drag b/c all these solo backpacking dudes would walk by and give the ole double take, so it was fun to give em a little wink.
So speaking of travelling alone...to travel alone or not?? A pretty big question. In my case the answer was obvious mainly b/c I couldn't really find anyone willing to go get lost in Asia for around a year. At first I was really nervous about doing it by myself, knowing I would have tons of fun if lucas or bro or ben came along (the 3 most likely travellers). I was asking everyone and anyone if they were willing to come down. I had travelled alone a bit in europe and then with people (robert and jared, then dianna and david, then the jovial bison), and I'd always had much more fun with the friends. Though I think europe is a totally different travel scene...not so much the adventurous, easy going backpacker type as asia is. Only 10 days into the trip, I can see pros and cons to both, but thus far, I am glad I am going solo at the moment. With only me and my backpack I can decide to go wherever I want (the backpack says nothing unless it's a really tight space), stay wherever I want, and do whatever I want. No need to worry about appeasing someone else or making certain sacrifices to make someone else happy. It's just all me. I know I won't go home thinking, dang I wish I had climbed that cool mountain, but I had to give in to so and so's desire to go see a temple, etc. It also, I think, has opened me up to meet a lot more people. Groups or couples are a lot less approachable, so by myself it's easy to meet and talk with other solo people (who are usually very similar to me). The travelling is also more challenging, and thus rewarding, b/c there is no one else to lean on in scary situations, during crucial decisions, etc. It's forcing me to learn a lot, and a lot about myself. So definitely some huge positives. And bro said when he and stevo biked through central america that by the time they got done they had been together so long they had nothing to say to each other. They didn't hate each other (which can often happen with people travelling for a long time together), but they had just said everything that needed to be said! Also some negatives though. Cost is a big one. single rooms often cost, say 5 dollars, where as a double costs 6 or 7. Doesn't seem like much, but in the long run, it will add up. Think 2 dollars times 360 days! Group adventures can cost more. For example it's 3 bucks to rent a scooter for a day in Pai to explore the villages and waterfalls and temples around the area. Two people can fit on a scooter, so you can split the cost. Or a 2 hour ride on an elephant is 30 dollars for two people, but if you're only 1, you have to pay the price of two. And of course taxis, tuk tuks, chartered boats would all be nice to split with another, as would 2-person tent rentals. The other thing is that sometimes at night in a new place it can be a bit lonely. I'm not very good (at least yet) at meeting people at the bars at night, though I guess I haven't tried too hard, I usually just find a nice book instead. So you'll walk around town at night after eating, and I'd wish I had a friend or two to go drink some chang's or singha's with. There is always quite the huge night scene in all these town. Of course after doing a trek or some group tour or activity or after hanging at the guesthouse for a bit, you tend to meet people and then you have a group to go party with; however, it's never the same, as they are only new acquaintences, as going out on the town with yosh or sherman or the bean or the elephants (the boys in b-ham, not the pachyderms). (though come to think of it, I'd hate to see what would happen to yosh with only 50 cent beers or the 2 dollar buckets of cocktails). But all in all, as long as I can make it through the year without running out of money, I think I am very glad that I am alone. Much more freedom and carefree, more personal exploration and challenges, and I still get lots of fun hangout town with people from all over the world. But I think I have it about perfect though b/c I will be on my own most of the time, seeing the sights, meeting new people, but I do have some great friends coming down for visits. Amy is going to be around in Jan-Feb, so I hope to see her when I get back from burma for a bit. Lily is also in thailand and I hope to bump into her at some point. Then boom, out of the blue the Conrad and the Whitney buy a ticket to come down for 3 months! I also think that Lucas will be coming down for a bit too, and I definitely hope to be having some travel time with him! And never count Zach Guy out. He likes travel just a little too much. His only problem is that if there is still snow on the slopes (almost eternally if you consider where he usually resides, colorado, wyoming, washington, british columbia), then he has a harder time pulling away. And then of course my australian mate sharman (shaaaaman), may be meeting me in darwin. So it looks like I will have the perfect mix, so I am very, very excited. Gotta love traveling!
Bus to Mae Sot tomorrow and then hopefully Oom hasn't left without me for the trekking!
Today I did the volunteer thing at the elephant camp in the morning and then b/c I liked how the place treated them, I paid for a two hour ride to support them. 1 hr up the mountain, and then 1 hour in the river. the river was quite fun. the elephant would splash you with it's trunk and spray you and then shake all about to knock you off into the water. then it would fall in and roll around, and dunk it's head in, holding its breath for a while. Good fun. A korean guy and a nice older german couple also did it as well as Lieke a dutch gal. From the elephant place, you could hike up a tiny ways to a hot springs, which lieke and I did. She was pretty cool, 19 and just graduated from highschool in holland. Travelling for 3 months. I was pretty impressed to be doing that alone as a girl, right after highschool. She's interested in geology and wants to come to the states for part of it to study as we have actual rocks and mountains there. Thought she should meet my brother, the expert geologist turned skier, so he could show her around. I think you'd like that bro as she is nice and definitely very attractive. After the hot springing, we headed into town to get a bite to eat and then had some amazingly tasty mango yoghurt drinks! First yoghurt drinks I had found this trip, and I am glad she knew where it was. It was very interesting sitting with her on the deck of the yoghurt place on the main drag b/c all these solo backpacking dudes would walk by and give the ole double take, so it was fun to give em a little wink.
So speaking of travelling alone...to travel alone or not?? A pretty big question. In my case the answer was obvious mainly b/c I couldn't really find anyone willing to go get lost in Asia for around a year. At first I was really nervous about doing it by myself, knowing I would have tons of fun if lucas or bro or ben came along (the 3 most likely travellers). I was asking everyone and anyone if they were willing to come down. I had travelled alone a bit in europe and then with people (robert and jared, then dianna and david, then the jovial bison), and I'd always had much more fun with the friends. Though I think europe is a totally different travel scene...not so much the adventurous, easy going backpacker type as asia is. Only 10 days into the trip, I can see pros and cons to both, but thus far, I am glad I am going solo at the moment. With only me and my backpack I can decide to go wherever I want (the backpack says nothing unless it's a really tight space), stay wherever I want, and do whatever I want. No need to worry about appeasing someone else or making certain sacrifices to make someone else happy. It's just all me. I know I won't go home thinking, dang I wish I had climbed that cool mountain, but I had to give in to so and so's desire to go see a temple, etc. It also, I think, has opened me up to meet a lot more people. Groups or couples are a lot less approachable, so by myself it's easy to meet and talk with other solo people (who are usually very similar to me). The travelling is also more challenging, and thus rewarding, b/c there is no one else to lean on in scary situations, during crucial decisions, etc. It's forcing me to learn a lot, and a lot about myself. So definitely some huge positives. And bro said when he and stevo biked through central america that by the time they got done they had been together so long they had nothing to say to each other. They didn't hate each other (which can often happen with people travelling for a long time together), but they had just said everything that needed to be said! Also some negatives though. Cost is a big one. single rooms often cost, say 5 dollars, where as a double costs 6 or 7. Doesn't seem like much, but in the long run, it will add up. Think 2 dollars times 360 days! Group adventures can cost more. For example it's 3 bucks to rent a scooter for a day in Pai to explore the villages and waterfalls and temples around the area. Two people can fit on a scooter, so you can split the cost. Or a 2 hour ride on an elephant is 30 dollars for two people, but if you're only 1, you have to pay the price of two. And of course taxis, tuk tuks, chartered boats would all be nice to split with another, as would 2-person tent rentals. The other thing is that sometimes at night in a new place it can be a bit lonely. I'm not very good (at least yet) at meeting people at the bars at night, though I guess I haven't tried too hard, I usually just find a nice book instead. So you'll walk around town at night after eating, and I'd wish I had a friend or two to go drink some chang's or singha's with. There is always quite the huge night scene in all these town. Of course after doing a trek or some group tour or activity or after hanging at the guesthouse for a bit, you tend to meet people and then you have a group to go party with; however, it's never the same, as they are only new acquaintences, as going out on the town with yosh or sherman or the bean or the elephants (the boys in b-ham, not the pachyderms). (though come to think of it, I'd hate to see what would happen to yosh with only 50 cent beers or the 2 dollar buckets of cocktails). But all in all, as long as I can make it through the year without running out of money, I think I am very glad that I am alone. Much more freedom and carefree, more personal exploration and challenges, and I still get lots of fun hangout town with people from all over the world. But I think I have it about perfect though b/c I will be on my own most of the time, seeing the sights, meeting new people, but I do have some great friends coming down for visits. Amy is going to be around in Jan-Feb, so I hope to see her when I get back from burma for a bit. Lily is also in thailand and I hope to bump into her at some point. Then boom, out of the blue the Conrad and the Whitney buy a ticket to come down for 3 months! I also think that Lucas will be coming down for a bit too, and I definitely hope to be having some travel time with him! And never count Zach Guy out. He likes travel just a little too much. His only problem is that if there is still snow on the slopes (almost eternally if you consider where he usually resides, colorado, wyoming, washington, british columbia), then he has a harder time pulling away. And then of course my australian mate sharman (shaaaaman), may be meeting me in darwin. So it looks like I will have the perfect mix, so I am very, very excited. Gotta love traveling!
Bus to Mae Sot tomorrow and then hopefully Oom hasn't left without me for the trekking!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Oh my Buddha!
Chillin out in tiny Pai right now. It's a pretty big hippy hangout and lots of expats who have come to live here. Took the public bus from Chang mai. 130km, but 5.5 hours b/c it's a steep road and I swear at times the tribesman on the road were walking faster than the bus. You could pay twice as much and take the ac minivan, but you get to see the real thailand on the public bus. Sat next to two monks in the bright orange robes. ALso several chickens, a pig, and a bag or rice around me. And we were also the mail bus too! Met a beligan guy, 55 years old, at the bus stop. He comes here every winter to hang out, so it was great to hear his stories and he'd tell me how things have changed.
Pai is a cool town. very artsy, musicy, etc. and it sits on a river in a valley below the mountains. Lots of unique bungalows here, all on stilts b/c it floods alot here, some even in trees. It's rather cold here. probably 40F at night and highs in the low 70's, so it's also a popular spot for affluent thais from bankgok to come on the weekends, so its quite happening at night. Walked around the town yesterday. bought some necessities at the market (the lost journal, some nail clippers, a heavenly bottle of milk!), and tired lots of completely delicious street foods. spent the afternoon and night in a hammock, with a mango shake by the river reading a book and watching thais float by on bamboo rafts with a guy at the helm (much like venice!).
Today Steve the belgian, ex coalminer from antwerp, took me up on a 18km rt hike to a waterfall. I was very appreciative b/c it's kind of a secret waterfall. guides could take you there, but for a fee, and otherwise impossible to find. Quite a beautiful falls, and exciting hike. Had to hike through the river a lot and up steep canyon walls and jungle. We did it about 2 hours faster than he usually does it. "because we don't have girls with us" was his answer. Had to laugh at that. Though some of it could be scary for sure if you weren't used to it. Came back and he treated me to dinner and several beers which I really appreciated. Really nice guy for sure.
Tomorrow I'm going to an elephant rescue camp to volunteer for the morning (and I think you get to swim with them and go through the river with them), then off to Mae Sot, a border town with burma. To get there I have to connect in Chang Mai. THere is no way to look up bus schedules, call anyone, or talk to anyone (I've tried), so hopefully i can make the connection in chang mai to Tak and then mae sot, otherwise I'll find a place to crash in chang mai (easy) or Tak (more difficult). I will then be doing some more intense jungle trekking near mae sot is the plan. Met a cool Australian gal at the bungalow today...into conservation stuff and avoiding school by travelling. Also a cool guy from Chile who wants to move to colorado to ski. apparently they no longer get much good snow for skiing in chile near where he's from. suuth yes, but not near santiago
Pai is a cool town. very artsy, musicy, etc. and it sits on a river in a valley below the mountains. Lots of unique bungalows here, all on stilts b/c it floods alot here, some even in trees. It's rather cold here. probably 40F at night and highs in the low 70's, so it's also a popular spot for affluent thais from bankgok to come on the weekends, so its quite happening at night. Walked around the town yesterday. bought some necessities at the market (the lost journal, some nail clippers, a heavenly bottle of milk!), and tired lots of completely delicious street foods. spent the afternoon and night in a hammock, with a mango shake by the river reading a book and watching thais float by on bamboo rafts with a guy at the helm (much like venice!).
Today Steve the belgian, ex coalminer from antwerp, took me up on a 18km rt hike to a waterfall. I was very appreciative b/c it's kind of a secret waterfall. guides could take you there, but for a fee, and otherwise impossible to find. Quite a beautiful falls, and exciting hike. Had to hike through the river a lot and up steep canyon walls and jungle. We did it about 2 hours faster than he usually does it. "because we don't have girls with us" was his answer. Had to laugh at that. Though some of it could be scary for sure if you weren't used to it. Came back and he treated me to dinner and several beers which I really appreciated. Really nice guy for sure.
Tomorrow I'm going to an elephant rescue camp to volunteer for the morning (and I think you get to swim with them and go through the river with them), then off to Mae Sot, a border town with burma. To get there I have to connect in Chang Mai. THere is no way to look up bus schedules, call anyone, or talk to anyone (I've tried), so hopefully i can make the connection in chang mai to Tak and then mae sot, otherwise I'll find a place to crash in chang mai (easy) or Tak (more difficult). I will then be doing some more intense jungle trekking near mae sot is the plan. Met a cool Australian gal at the bungalow today...into conservation stuff and avoiding school by travelling. Also a cool guy from Chile who wants to move to colorado to ski. apparently they no longer get much good snow for skiing in chile near where he's from. suuth yes, but not near santiago
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Pig on a stick...
Just got back from 3 days in the jungle in Doi Inthathon NP near Chang Mai. On the trek with my new friends Adrian (romania), Stefano (italy), and Guy (UK). Also three pretty cool australians on half of it (Chip, Joshy, and Wyly). As the guides called it...no woman no cry tour. First day of we hiked up into the jungle and mountains and to some pretty cool caves. Temps this time of year are perfect for jungle hiking, not too hot. still obviously sweat like crazy, but not near so bad as the summer or rainy season. Oh, on the way out we had to stop by the thai tourist police. An ex-pat american police came out and said make sure you wear mosquitos as malaria, dengue, and another flu that gives you the runs, vomits, and 42 degree C fever are rampant. Also, watch out in town for thieves stealing cameras on one shoulder, make sure you drink 3 liters of water or you will get sick...and welcome to thailand! Haha. Not so bad as he makes it out to be though. The jungle trek was steep, but not too hard. A couple of the guys had some trouble so I had to put their stuff in my pack as I had a big one, but it was ok. The first night we stayed in a karen village. Way up in the hills...no roads, no electricity, no nothing. Just stayed in bamboo huts. We all took a shower in the nearby waterfall, which we later found was directly below the long drop (outhouse) and where we washed the pig we killed. Yea...so we killed a pig...or the villagers killed one for us. We got into camp around 3pm. I went off to explore the forest and go up the stream. Everyone else was too tired so I went off by myself (bro, I need my exploring broski!). When I came back, the aussies had decided they wanted a pig for dinner. the villagers brought one down. What happened next was difficult to watch. I admit I love to eat meat and I know the treatment of animals is never the best, but I sure hope they kill most animals more humanely (read quickly), then this. They brought the pig down, put it in a bag, then beat its head for several minutes with a piece of firewood. The pig was still not dead, so they all jumped on it, and tried to strangle it. All in all it lasted about 10 minutes...10 horrible minutes for the pig. The aussies loved it, which we couldn't figure them out b/c they lied a lot b/c these are the same guys who refused to ride the elephants b/c of human reasons. The pig, though, was quite tasty once cooked on the fire. We got to watch the whole cleaning and gutting procedure...kind of like a biology dissection lab. Of course we could now say that we had had pig on a stick. Everything in thailand is on a stick and so tasty, chicken on a stick, fish on a stick, eggs on a stick, etc, etc. It's a big joke between adrian and I b/c we love things on a stick. We always yell at the stray dogs if they charge us that we'll put them on a stick! That night they brought out the opium as we were in the golden triangle area, famous for opium. I just tried a little bit, but not enough to do anything. The next day the aussies and their guide tiger left us (which we were glad for as the 4 of us had formed a good bond) and we, along with our guide JJ, left for the next village. We trekked up some more jungle hills (poor Guy vomitted from exhaustion several times up the final hill) to a waterfall for lunch. I helped some local kids catch some sucker fish and then we hiked to the next village to stay. Saw Mark from the train on the trail with his guide before reaching the gorgeous waterfall and village we stayed at. Went for a sweet and refreshing swim in the waterfall and enjoyed the evening at the camp by the waterfall playing poker and sitting by the fire. The next day we hiked back down into the valley for some elephant riding. It was kind of a touristy thing and not the best, and they did use poking sticks and would hit the elephants from time to time to get them to cooperate. Don't know how much it hurts them...they do similar things to horses I think, though the only time I've done serious horse riding was when I learned horsemanship up in wyoming and they treated those horses quite well. So I'm not quite sure what to thing about the whole elephant thing...they used to use the elephants has work machines to carry stuff, etc, but now since there are trucks and tractors most of the elephants have been orphaned as there is no use for them except some for tourism. So they actually have lots of elephant orphanages around too. After the elephant stuff, we went on a sweet bamboo rafting trip. Adrian, Guy, stefano, and I had quite an awesome time. Fell in a lot on the rapids and did lots of hooting and hollaring to the excitement of the locals along the riverbank. On the trek out we got stopped by police to check our bags. They had sneakily planted opium in our backpacks and threatened to send us to jail. Of course we bribed them with money. I was prepared for things like this. You keep a smaller amount of money in a separate place so they don't see how much you really have and take all your money. THis is common near the burmese border where drug trafficking is quite high. I had 200 baht (6 dollars) in a spot with my diving log and pictures of friends and family (they say to bring pictures of friends and family to share with others and for memories on long trips). The one policeman looked through the pictures. They took the bribe of 200 and wanted a picture. Oddly enough they took one of Conrad and Whitney Frank. It appeared as though there were mainly interested in conrad =) They don't see biceps that big in these parts. So unfortunately I no longer have pics of the Franks, but I hope to see them when they
visit anyways. But the overall jungle trip was quite cool. Neat to see people living in more traditional ways up in the hills and tasting some unique fruits and plants up there.
The night we got back, we chilled out at the pool, then all went and had some very, very interesting fondue type street food. Cheap and good. I personally think it's always best to eat on the street as it's cheap and the tastiest. Then we went for thai oil massages and then went out on the town. The crazy thing, and I didn't even realize it until everyone talked about it was just the incredibly large amount of prostitution going on. Quite sad. You really feel like brad pitt as you walk along the streets. All these attractive gals calling to you, grabbing you, hugging you. Really crazy. Then the really mind boggling thing to me is the lady boys. Lots, and I mean lots, of boys dress up and even have procedures to look like girls. And believe you me, they look just like them. Very attractive, etc, etc. You have to look real close to tell them apart (look for the adam's apple). They mostly "prey" on drunk tourists who definitely can't tell the truth. Good thing I'm not in thailand for the sex (which apparently lots are) and more for the culture, nature, beaches, and adventure. If you are looking for sex, you have to learn what is called the Thai handshake where you crab the crotchal region to check for certain parts. Though the lady boys can even have their junk removed too. Haha...it's really fun to watch it all go down in the streets though. Quite the spectacle.
The 4 of us spent the last day, exploring chang mai, the temples, drinking beers at stops along the way and exploring the markets and of course sampling all the crazy things we can. We found squid on a stick today!! big score!
It will be kind of sad tomorrow to say goodbye to the guys as we all part ways (me to Pai and they go to Laos, Ko Phi Phi, and Krabi).
hasta pasta
visit anyways. But the overall jungle trip was quite cool. Neat to see people living in more traditional ways up in the hills and tasting some unique fruits and plants up there.
The night we got back, we chilled out at the pool, then all went and had some very, very interesting fondue type street food. Cheap and good. I personally think it's always best to eat on the street as it's cheap and the tastiest. Then we went for thai oil massages and then went out on the town. The crazy thing, and I didn't even realize it until everyone talked about it was just the incredibly large amount of prostitution going on. Quite sad. You really feel like brad pitt as you walk along the streets. All these attractive gals calling to you, grabbing you, hugging you. Really crazy. Then the really mind boggling thing to me is the lady boys. Lots, and I mean lots, of boys dress up and even have procedures to look like girls. And believe you me, they look just like them. Very attractive, etc, etc. You have to look real close to tell them apart (look for the adam's apple). They mostly "prey" on drunk tourists who definitely can't tell the truth. Good thing I'm not in thailand for the sex (which apparently lots are) and more for the culture, nature, beaches, and adventure. If you are looking for sex, you have to learn what is called the Thai handshake where you crab the crotchal region to check for certain parts. Though the lady boys can even have their junk removed too. Haha...it's really fun to watch it all go down in the streets though. Quite the spectacle.
The 4 of us spent the last day, exploring chang mai, the temples, drinking beers at stops along the way and exploring the markets and of course sampling all the crazy things we can. We found squid on a stick today!! big score!
It will be kind of sad tomorrow to say goodbye to the guys as we all part ways (me to Pai and they go to Laos, Ko Phi Phi, and Krabi).
hasta pasta
Saturday, December 13, 2008
crosswalking
Finally managed yesterday to get the visa for Myanmar (burma). They only let 100 americans in a month so I felt fortunate they chose me, especially since it's high season. Had to fill out lots and lots of extra paperwork...felt like I was applying for college, health insurance, and a job all at once while italians, germans, and frenchies just walked right through. And had to sit for an observation period while they watched me to make sure I was of normal mental state. They did give me internet. Felt like going to pro war, i love bush, etc, etc sites just for fun, but decided best not and after looking up important hockey scores on espn, I went to greenpeace.com and amnesty international (apparently it worked!) After getting the visa I couldn't find a taxi that would give me a non-ripoff deal, so I ended up walking the 5k back to the central part of bangkok. gave me a good chance to see a non-touristy part of bangkok where people aren't constantly trying to get your money and attention. Walking through the narrow markets was quite fun, though a challenge with my large backpack. The best part is trying to cross roads through bangkok. The traffic is incredibly nasty. yes they have crosswalks but no little walking men. there are constantly cars so you just have to run in front of them and trust they will break. pretty crazy! But I adapted quickly thanks to all those similar situations in Philly with Ms Sara. The people I met up here in chang mai are impressed, it takes them much longer to cross.
I ended up booking a sleeper train that night to chang mai. I had originally hoped to go to kanchaburi or lopburi first but that late in the day there was no guarentee I could get a room, but with the sleeper train it was obviously overnight. I also ended up booking a 3 day two night trek and another 3 nights up in chiang mai through the tourist agency. the price seemed pretty awesome so I did it. Might have been cheaper to do once I got up here, but it sounded great and it's at what I consider a luxury guesthouse for this trip: private bathroom, strong fan, and swimming pool.
The sleeper train was quite cool. Previous sleepers I had been on in tanzania and europe had fully glass enclosed rooms with beds. I got on this and there were just seats. I had figured I must have bought the wrong tickts, but after dinner they came buy and oulet they pulled beds from the floor and sealing to give you your nice personal space. my bunk mate below me and person I shared the table with was a really cool and very nice (read very gay) Brit named Mark. He was quite fun and entertaining.
I had been journaling on the train and when we got to the station I left my journal onboard. Nothing too bad to lose, just mainly sentimental value and copies of my passport and color passport photos for visas. Nonetheless I decided to take a tuk tuk to the train station to look for it thinking that no one would really want to steal it. It was a major to do with all these people at the station trying to help me, but none understanding what a lost in found was. I eventually just got on the train to look for it with no luck. They told me to call the thai police. They tried several (at least 5) numbers to reach the police but all were wrong numbers, very interesting to think security guards, train headmaster, and tourist info people did not know the number for the police. The Tuk tuk took (haha) me back to the hotel where I asked if they could phone the police. No we'll take you there by motor bike. That was quite the adventure! I've had plenty of experience dealing with the insanity of undeveloped country driving. east africa was pretty bad as was central america, but by far the worst has been the philippines. passing huge semis all the time on blind mountain passes and just passing on congested roads assuming any oncoming traffic, semis, bicycles, tricycles, people, chickens, cows, dogs, etc will yield. At first it can be quite scary ( i can still remember my mom screaming everytime the driver would pass in the philippines, which was about 5 times a minute until we put her in the back and told her to sleep), but after a while you become numb to it. So now thirdworld driving doesn't even phase me. But riding on the back of this fast motorbike, with no helmet, spending the majority of the time in the oncoming traffic lane weaving through cars and trucks that were coming straight at us, all the while the driver was looking back at me trying to carry on small talk (so it snows in colorado?), was quite frightening. after the 30 minute drive to the police station, I had dug my hands quite deep into the poor guides shoulders. But going back I had relaxed and even stayed on without using my hands. The people at the police station just wrote down lost and found in thai and told me to go back to the station which I did. The people at the station informed me that the teacher and students I had been with on the train had picked it up. So I may or may not get it back depending on how that goes. But the whole ordeal with all of them helping helped to restore my faith in thai people after bangkok. I had felt in bangkok like you really couldn't talk to anyone b/c there were always trying to scam, fleece, or con you. That added with insane traffic, pollution that hurt the longs, and beuaracratic bs made me quite sick of bangkok and ready to get out. At first I thought I was the only one feeling like that, but everyone I have talked to absolutely despied bangkok. They had all been conned in the same ways and taken for the ride. that made me feel a lot better b/c I actually got off better than most b/c I never actually lost any money to them b/c I would refuse to pay the high prices or get terribly duped.
At the guesthouse here in chang mai I met some interesting guys, Germans, at the pool. They were basically in thailand for the sex and prostitution. They typically go to eastern europe for that, but decided to come here b/c of the price, and thankfully not for the child prostitution that is fairly rampant.
I met up with some other people that were a bit more to my style. A funny italian named Stephano, a romanian (turned pro soccer player in germany but is out for IR) name Adrian, and a brit named Guy. We had a good time tonight exploring the hopping night markets of chang mai and daring each other to eat the incredibly spicy thai peppers. At the briefing for the trek, they told us to not have more than 2 beers tonight to be ready for the hiking. Well at about 50 cents a beer, you can better believe we each had about 7 (but half of mine were for Conrad ;), so it wasn't quite so bad!)
A slight annoyance here and its the first time in an undeveloped country I've experienced, but all the europeans have cell phones here now. One of my favorite things about traveling is leaving all that technology crap behind, no cell phone, limited email, no tv, no news, no nothing. Leaving all those unnecessary stresses behind. It's always very freeing. In fact, I usually wait at least a week before I turn my cell phone on once I even get home.
here's a story of my naivety...Went to my room to get some things for going to dinner. Two nice thai gals were coming out of the room next to me. They invited me and adrian to a bbq. I said that would be awesome especially since they had a car. Adrian quickly said no and pulled me a way to go. Later found out they were prostitutes! I'm too easily taken in by nice people!
So for the itinerary as I know it now. Going to be trekking for 3 days in the jungle west of chang mai towards to border with myanmar (apparently we may run into some fleeing burmese from myanmar and other karen refugees)...some hiking, some elephant riding, some rafting, so no internet or any of that. I also booked a flight for yangon, myanmar jan 10 coming back 20 days later.
ciao
I ended up booking a sleeper train that night to chang mai. I had originally hoped to go to kanchaburi or lopburi first but that late in the day there was no guarentee I could get a room, but with the sleeper train it was obviously overnight. I also ended up booking a 3 day two night trek and another 3 nights up in chiang mai through the tourist agency. the price seemed pretty awesome so I did it. Might have been cheaper to do once I got up here, but it sounded great and it's at what I consider a luxury guesthouse for this trip: private bathroom, strong fan, and swimming pool.
The sleeper train was quite cool. Previous sleepers I had been on in tanzania and europe had fully glass enclosed rooms with beds. I got on this and there were just seats. I had figured I must have bought the wrong tickts, but after dinner they came buy and oulet they pulled beds from the floor and sealing to give you your nice personal space. my bunk mate below me and person I shared the table with was a really cool and very nice (read very gay) Brit named Mark. He was quite fun and entertaining.
I had been journaling on the train and when we got to the station I left my journal onboard. Nothing too bad to lose, just mainly sentimental value and copies of my passport and color passport photos for visas. Nonetheless I decided to take a tuk tuk to the train station to look for it thinking that no one would really want to steal it. It was a major to do with all these people at the station trying to help me, but none understanding what a lost in found was. I eventually just got on the train to look for it with no luck. They told me to call the thai police. They tried several (at least 5) numbers to reach the police but all were wrong numbers, very interesting to think security guards, train headmaster, and tourist info people did not know the number for the police. The Tuk tuk took (haha) me back to the hotel where I asked if they could phone the police. No we'll take you there by motor bike. That was quite the adventure! I've had plenty of experience dealing with the insanity of undeveloped country driving. east africa was pretty bad as was central america, but by far the worst has been the philippines. passing huge semis all the time on blind mountain passes and just passing on congested roads assuming any oncoming traffic, semis, bicycles, tricycles, people, chickens, cows, dogs, etc will yield. At first it can be quite scary ( i can still remember my mom screaming everytime the driver would pass in the philippines, which was about 5 times a minute until we put her in the back and told her to sleep), but after a while you become numb to it. So now thirdworld driving doesn't even phase me. But riding on the back of this fast motorbike, with no helmet, spending the majority of the time in the oncoming traffic lane weaving through cars and trucks that were coming straight at us, all the while the driver was looking back at me trying to carry on small talk (so it snows in colorado?), was quite frightening. after the 30 minute drive to the police station, I had dug my hands quite deep into the poor guides shoulders. But going back I had relaxed and even stayed on without using my hands. The people at the police station just wrote down lost and found in thai and told me to go back to the station which I did. The people at the station informed me that the teacher and students I had been with on the train had picked it up. So I may or may not get it back depending on how that goes. But the whole ordeal with all of them helping helped to restore my faith in thai people after bangkok. I had felt in bangkok like you really couldn't talk to anyone b/c there were always trying to scam, fleece, or con you. That added with insane traffic, pollution that hurt the longs, and beuaracratic bs made me quite sick of bangkok and ready to get out. At first I thought I was the only one feeling like that, but everyone I have talked to absolutely despied bangkok. They had all been conned in the same ways and taken for the ride. that made me feel a lot better b/c I actually got off better than most b/c I never actually lost any money to them b/c I would refuse to pay the high prices or get terribly duped.
At the guesthouse here in chang mai I met some interesting guys, Germans, at the pool. They were basically in thailand for the sex and prostitution. They typically go to eastern europe for that, but decided to come here b/c of the price, and thankfully not for the child prostitution that is fairly rampant.
I met up with some other people that were a bit more to my style. A funny italian named Stephano, a romanian (turned pro soccer player in germany but is out for IR) name Adrian, and a brit named Guy. We had a good time tonight exploring the hopping night markets of chang mai and daring each other to eat the incredibly spicy thai peppers. At the briefing for the trek, they told us to not have more than 2 beers tonight to be ready for the hiking. Well at about 50 cents a beer, you can better believe we each had about 7 (but half of mine were for Conrad ;), so it wasn't quite so bad!)
A slight annoyance here and its the first time in an undeveloped country I've experienced, but all the europeans have cell phones here now. One of my favorite things about traveling is leaving all that technology crap behind, no cell phone, limited email, no tv, no news, no nothing. Leaving all those unnecessary stresses behind. It's always very freeing. In fact, I usually wait at least a week before I turn my cell phone on once I even get home.
here's a story of my naivety...Went to my room to get some things for going to dinner. Two nice thai gals were coming out of the room next to me. They invited me and adrian to a bbq. I said that would be awesome especially since they had a car. Adrian quickly said no and pulled me a way to go. Later found out they were prostitutes! I'm too easily taken in by nice people!
So for the itinerary as I know it now. Going to be trekking for 3 days in the jungle west of chang mai towards to border with myanmar (apparently we may run into some fleeing burmese from myanmar and other karen refugees)...some hiking, some elephant riding, some rafting, so no internet or any of that. I also booked a flight for yangon, myanmar jan 10 coming back 20 days later.
ciao
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Frustration...then Ahhh!
Hmm...Siam. So I'm finally in the steamy metropolis of bangkok. Internet is cheap here...1.10 for an hour, so I'm going to blog. Don't expect me to follow in the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau and write anything poetic...or deep or meaningful at all. This blog is mainly for my family (and anyone else) to follow where I'm at, and most importantly know that I'm ok. So for the most part it will probably be "i'm here, I'm safe, no i'm still not addicted to drugs"
So an incredibly long trip finally got me to Thailand. I started off in Estes on Tuesday at 4 in the morning due to a nice snow that required an early departure. The flights all went smoothly and of course due to my incredible amount of flying for work, I was able to live it up in class at all the airport lounges. The ones in denver and san fran are of course nice, but the one in seoul was outstanding...or course all the booze you could want, but showers, massage chairs, and tasty food. I arrived in Bangkok at 1am on thursday morning. Met up with a couple and then another random dude to share a cab. The couple was from "canada"...but really embarassed americans from Bellingham, WA. Bro, they have had the infamous b-town dumplings. The other guy was from UA-Fairbanks. A surprising amount of Americans considering I haven't met one since and every thai I meet shakes my hand vigorously when I say I am american..."glad you are here, we miss you guys, not so many americans any more...etc, etc" They seem to appreciate american generosity and ability to be laid back compared to "nose in the air europeans" (not my words btw), but apparently there has been a huge lack of Americans due to a certain administration putting SE asia on the terrorist watch and also likely a struggling economy. The dollar was worth 55 baht in my 2006 guide book, but is now 31 baht! A funny side note is they all want to offer me free obama buttons. I told them the election is over, but considering recent events here, they believe bush will not relinquish his crown. I figure we'd do more than just peacefully shut down an international airport of he were to stay in!
Got into the hotel around 3am and couldn't really fall asleep out of excitement and who knows what else.
Woke up early to head out for the US embassy as I have run out of passport pages (obviously nothing to complain about) and to the Burma/Mayanmar embassy to get a visa. Decided to stop by a few of the tourist stops on the way and got willingly conned into a "promotional" tuk tuk tour of the city. Typically a tour costs 500 baht, but b/c it was a government holiday (yea right), gas was free for tuk tuks and they would do it for 20. I had read about this scam in lonely planet, but figured I could outdue it and it's hard to pass up such a bargain. The way it works is between each tourist stop they take you to places hoping to get commission...jewerly stores, fashion stores, souvenir, tourist agencies, etc. In my travels I have gotten pretty good at saying no to touts and others, so I did it. It was worth it. cheap, got to see some cool sights and it was easy enough to say no. "no I can't book a trip now b/c my girlfriend is coming in tomorrow, and she controls me so I can't make a decision" "yes your jewerly is beautiful, but I do not have a girlfriend...'are you gay?' "no", 'what is wrong then, your are so good looking and american and strong' "exactly...haha!" 'well what about your mother' "She has several boyfriends, she doesn't need any more jewerly" At the end, I went to some of the biggest sites (wats, buddhist temples) on my own. They were incredible...huge, plastered in gold and jewels with amazing architecture. Also took a ride down the river to look at the city. Touts offered boat rides for 25 bucks, I decided to go on the water taxi for locals at about 10 cents!
So of course it was obvious I had put off going to the embassies. I had originally wanted to leave bangkok today as I generally do not like cities and much prefer the villages and wildlands, but I found bangkok nice, much more interesting than Manila, and the temps are actually pretty nice here right now.
So the frustration issue...I hop onto a Tuk Tuk to take me to the backpackers part of the city to get a room, but he ends up driving me to some place different b/c he couldn't really understand me. I paid him b/c I felt bad. hopped on another tuk tuk to go back. This one was much more expensive, but at least he knew where he was going. He took me to a TAT office so I could discuss visa stuff there. Luckily instead of a Thai person running it as the previous two had been, it was a kiwi, so he was easy to understand and he knew what I wanted. Found out that Laos and Vietnam now require americans to get an advance visas at a hefty price (ok, only 50 bucks, but this is SE asia!). As I'm not going to vietnam until the end I could avoid that for now, but had to do laos. So I have to send in my passport to the embassy and get it all passed which takes about 7 days. Luckily they can send it to chiang mai so I don't have to stay in the city for 7 days, but that leaves me without a passport for at least 15 days (the time it will take me to get to chiang mai), which during that time I will be close to cambodia which I could use as a visa run to renew my thai visa, but of course I won't have the passport. Also, since I need pages in my passport, I still have to go to the us embassy, then back to TAT, before I can leave tomorrow, which is annoying! I really wanted to go into Burma/myanmar as it is the least touristy, most undeveloped and it its pre-westernization state, or so I'm told. But TAT is no longer able to issue visas for American citizens (THANKS BUSH!). Apparently we have listed them as top terrorist threats and have been sending in CIA and other spies into the country in what possibly could lead to war on terror campaign. Any other country is fine, well except for Columbia due to competition with the opium trade, but geeze! But imagine this, they only accept US dollars in the country for trade! This means I have to personally go for an interview to the burma embassy and they will decide if it is true that my main purpose for the visit is tourism. I'm not sure if I should wear my nicest clothes i brought and try and look respectable or come in all sweaty, drity, and backpacker looking. How would CIA dress? Perhaps I'll wear one of those Obama buttons...
At this point I was feeling completely frustrated seemingly wasting time and money on all that visa junk. But then I found Khao San (sp?). The backpacker area...think where leo arrives in bangkok in the movie the beach. HAPPENING! that's what I'd say. Lights everywhere, 80's music blaring out of every club (believe it bro!), drink specials left and right (80 cents for a beer), pad thai and other dishes for a buck, lots of weirdos, and lots of 20-something backpackers. Tons of shopping stuff. Low alpine and northface backpacking packs for 20 bucks...obviously rip offs but the real ones are made in asia too. Similar deals bro to manila, 20 movies for 2 bucks, cd's for 50 cents. awesome clothes for real cheap. someday I figure I need to come to asia with an empty backpack and just cash in on the deals, but I want to keep my pack light, so no shopping for me. Actually no beer or beverages of that sort either tonight...wasn't feeling the drinking alone thing, though you better believe I have had several mango, guava, passion, and starfruit smoothies! hey, when they're 50 cents and actually fresh you can't beat it. puts jamba juice to shame. Also enjoyed an hour thai massage for 3 bucks! I had tried to get my international student ID card (requirment is not school but under 27 years or something) before I left, but the CU-boulder store was closed. Would have cost about 20 bucks there. Here they did a fake one, that looks dang real for 4 bucks. Considered getting my UK drivers licencse, hollywood press pass, or california commercials drivers license, but decided against it =) The clubbing appears to be pretty sweet and I might stay up for it tonight, though i need to be at the us embassy by 6am when they open to get a rush on the extra pages...but wish you were here bro or stringbean b/c the dancing appears to be quite sweet with all the 80's music. It's funny b/c throughout the day at all the temples you had to wear pants, shirts with sleaves, etc. You come down here and every bar and club has like 18 year old thai gals wearing hardly anything trying to get you to come in. I'm avoiding the red-light district until yosh and sherman come down though...kirk gave yosh all the SE asia diseases already, right? I'm staying at a little guesthouse thing right above all the action, so I'll be able to fall asleep to air supply, and if I'm lucky abba =) it too is incredibly cheap. 6 bucks, and it's not trashy at all, nor a dorm, but a private room. They say bangkok is the most expensive city in the country, so I can't imagine what the rest will be like. The night life in the city appears to be quite extensive and fun, but as I'm by myself still, I am excited to get out, to get to the wilderness areas where it should be easier to meat people doing activities etc. But I'd love to have a few nights here with the quads and of course the bro! Heading off next to...hmm..can't remember the name right now, but where the kwai river death bridge was, the one made famous by the bridge over the river kwai movie...can hear dad whistling the tune now. There is some good trekking the area, and one of the worlds best tiger orphanges that I would like to support. After that I will be slowly making my way north to chiang mai heading through places such as potburi, and possibly mae sot for some 3 or 4 day jungle treks.
Time to go get some grub, haven't eaten all day, been too busy...you know the drill lael and jayne! maybe i'll go try the crickets and cockroaches on saw being vended on the street...
Best question of the day: "oh you're from America, wonderful. Do you visit Russia a lot?" I guess I should though since it borders wasilla alaska.
How's the blower pow bro? hopefully balls deep. ski a Granite Canyon run for me!
see you when i see you
So an incredibly long trip finally got me to Thailand. I started off in Estes on Tuesday at 4 in the morning due to a nice snow that required an early departure. The flights all went smoothly and of course due to my incredible amount of flying for work, I was able to live it up in class at all the airport lounges. The ones in denver and san fran are of course nice, but the one in seoul was outstanding...or course all the booze you could want, but showers, massage chairs, and tasty food. I arrived in Bangkok at 1am on thursday morning. Met up with a couple and then another random dude to share a cab. The couple was from "canada"...but really embarassed americans from Bellingham, WA. Bro, they have had the infamous b-town dumplings. The other guy was from UA-Fairbanks. A surprising amount of Americans considering I haven't met one since and every thai I meet shakes my hand vigorously when I say I am american..."glad you are here, we miss you guys, not so many americans any more...etc, etc" They seem to appreciate american generosity and ability to be laid back compared to "nose in the air europeans" (not my words btw), but apparently there has been a huge lack of Americans due to a certain administration putting SE asia on the terrorist watch and also likely a struggling economy. The dollar was worth 55 baht in my 2006 guide book, but is now 31 baht! A funny side note is they all want to offer me free obama buttons. I told them the election is over, but considering recent events here, they believe bush will not relinquish his crown. I figure we'd do more than just peacefully shut down an international airport of he were to stay in!
Got into the hotel around 3am and couldn't really fall asleep out of excitement and who knows what else.
Woke up early to head out for the US embassy as I have run out of passport pages (obviously nothing to complain about) and to the Burma/Mayanmar embassy to get a visa. Decided to stop by a few of the tourist stops on the way and got willingly conned into a "promotional" tuk tuk tour of the city. Typically a tour costs 500 baht, but b/c it was a government holiday (yea right), gas was free for tuk tuks and they would do it for 20. I had read about this scam in lonely planet, but figured I could outdue it and it's hard to pass up such a bargain. The way it works is between each tourist stop they take you to places hoping to get commission...jewerly stores, fashion stores, souvenir, tourist agencies, etc. In my travels I have gotten pretty good at saying no to touts and others, so I did it. It was worth it. cheap, got to see some cool sights and it was easy enough to say no. "no I can't book a trip now b/c my girlfriend is coming in tomorrow, and she controls me so I can't make a decision" "yes your jewerly is beautiful, but I do not have a girlfriend...'are you gay?' "no", 'what is wrong then, your are so good looking and american and strong' "exactly...haha!" 'well what about your mother' "She has several boyfriends, she doesn't need any more jewerly" At the end, I went to some of the biggest sites (wats, buddhist temples) on my own. They were incredible...huge, plastered in gold and jewels with amazing architecture. Also took a ride down the river to look at the city. Touts offered boat rides for 25 bucks, I decided to go on the water taxi for locals at about 10 cents!
So of course it was obvious I had put off going to the embassies. I had originally wanted to leave bangkok today as I generally do not like cities and much prefer the villages and wildlands, but I found bangkok nice, much more interesting than Manila, and the temps are actually pretty nice here right now.
So the frustration issue...I hop onto a Tuk Tuk to take me to the backpackers part of the city to get a room, but he ends up driving me to some place different b/c he couldn't really understand me. I paid him b/c I felt bad. hopped on another tuk tuk to go back. This one was much more expensive, but at least he knew where he was going. He took me to a TAT office so I could discuss visa stuff there. Luckily instead of a Thai person running it as the previous two had been, it was a kiwi, so he was easy to understand and he knew what I wanted. Found out that Laos and Vietnam now require americans to get an advance visas at a hefty price (ok, only 50 bucks, but this is SE asia!). As I'm not going to vietnam until the end I could avoid that for now, but had to do laos. So I have to send in my passport to the embassy and get it all passed which takes about 7 days. Luckily they can send it to chiang mai so I don't have to stay in the city for 7 days, but that leaves me without a passport for at least 15 days (the time it will take me to get to chiang mai), which during that time I will be close to cambodia which I could use as a visa run to renew my thai visa, but of course I won't have the passport. Also, since I need pages in my passport, I still have to go to the us embassy, then back to TAT, before I can leave tomorrow, which is annoying! I really wanted to go into Burma/myanmar as it is the least touristy, most undeveloped and it its pre-westernization state, or so I'm told. But TAT is no longer able to issue visas for American citizens (THANKS BUSH!). Apparently we have listed them as top terrorist threats and have been sending in CIA and other spies into the country in what possibly could lead to war on terror campaign. Any other country is fine, well except for Columbia due to competition with the opium trade, but geeze! But imagine this, they only accept US dollars in the country for trade! This means I have to personally go for an interview to the burma embassy and they will decide if it is true that my main purpose for the visit is tourism. I'm not sure if I should wear my nicest clothes i brought and try and look respectable or come in all sweaty, drity, and backpacker looking. How would CIA dress? Perhaps I'll wear one of those Obama buttons...
At this point I was feeling completely frustrated seemingly wasting time and money on all that visa junk. But then I found Khao San (sp?). The backpacker area...think where leo arrives in bangkok in the movie the beach. HAPPENING! that's what I'd say. Lights everywhere, 80's music blaring out of every club (believe it bro!), drink specials left and right (80 cents for a beer), pad thai and other dishes for a buck, lots of weirdos, and lots of 20-something backpackers. Tons of shopping stuff. Low alpine and northface backpacking packs for 20 bucks...obviously rip offs but the real ones are made in asia too. Similar deals bro to manila, 20 movies for 2 bucks, cd's for 50 cents. awesome clothes for real cheap. someday I figure I need to come to asia with an empty backpack and just cash in on the deals, but I want to keep my pack light, so no shopping for me. Actually no beer or beverages of that sort either tonight...wasn't feeling the drinking alone thing, though you better believe I have had several mango, guava, passion, and starfruit smoothies! hey, when they're 50 cents and actually fresh you can't beat it. puts jamba juice to shame. Also enjoyed an hour thai massage for 3 bucks! I had tried to get my international student ID card (requirment is not school but under 27 years or something) before I left, but the CU-boulder store was closed. Would have cost about 20 bucks there. Here they did a fake one, that looks dang real for 4 bucks. Considered getting my UK drivers licencse, hollywood press pass, or california commercials drivers license, but decided against it =) The clubbing appears to be pretty sweet and I might stay up for it tonight, though i need to be at the us embassy by 6am when they open to get a rush on the extra pages...but wish you were here bro or stringbean b/c the dancing appears to be quite sweet with all the 80's music. It's funny b/c throughout the day at all the temples you had to wear pants, shirts with sleaves, etc. You come down here and every bar and club has like 18 year old thai gals wearing hardly anything trying to get you to come in. I'm avoiding the red-light district until yosh and sherman come down though...kirk gave yosh all the SE asia diseases already, right? I'm staying at a little guesthouse thing right above all the action, so I'll be able to fall asleep to air supply, and if I'm lucky abba =) it too is incredibly cheap. 6 bucks, and it's not trashy at all, nor a dorm, but a private room. They say bangkok is the most expensive city in the country, so I can't imagine what the rest will be like. The night life in the city appears to be quite extensive and fun, but as I'm by myself still, I am excited to get out, to get to the wilderness areas where it should be easier to meat people doing activities etc. But I'd love to have a few nights here with the quads and of course the bro! Heading off next to...hmm..can't remember the name right now, but where the kwai river death bridge was, the one made famous by the bridge over the river kwai movie...can hear dad whistling the tune now. There is some good trekking the area, and one of the worlds best tiger orphanges that I would like to support. After that I will be slowly making my way north to chiang mai heading through places such as potburi, and possibly mae sot for some 3 or 4 day jungle treks.
Time to go get some grub, haven't eaten all day, been too busy...you know the drill lael and jayne! maybe i'll go try the crickets and cockroaches on saw being vended on the street...
Best question of the day: "oh you're from America, wonderful. Do you visit Russia a lot?" I guess I should though since it borders wasilla alaska.
How's the blower pow bro? hopefully balls deep. ski a Granite Canyon run for me!
see you when i see you
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