Saturday, December 28, 2013

wander with melissa

that is the working title for my website for book promotion.  you can find it at

www.wanderwithmelissa.com

there's not much there yet so be patient.

:)

Thursday, December 19, 2013

My other blog...

If you're wondering about keeping your house on Kauai dry or mold free, this is my other blog...


Rescue Services Blog





or check out the Rescue Services website.


More on my book later!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Book update...

My next travels aren't planned until my first book is finished.  Although the book is a little late I plan on a nice, long trip in about 6 months, possibly planning my second book.  Starting to think about where I'd like to go...

Just to show you that I am actually working and not just lazing at the beach, here's a pic of me writing.  Or, thinking about writing.  Or, looking for whales.  Actually, all of those.

I look like I'm working, and that's the important bit.

And check out my writing facebook page and like it if you haven't.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melissa-Burovac-Writer/508311785881218

Monday, April 22, 2013

Travel book

The book is in progress!  So excited!  Kinda slow but I've decided that that just means it'll be better...

The link to my RocketHub account:
http://www.rockethub.com/projects/22022-wandering-help-support-solo-female-travel-writing-by-melissa-burovac

Now that I'm back in wifi I'll have more book updates...

Friday, February 22, 2013

airport thieves

this is total bullshit.  i really was expecting to check my bags in thailand and wake up on kauai.  maybe walk a few feet here and there to find another plane.  not even close.

i'm now in japan for an hour, i'm getting back on the same plane that i landed here on but i wasn't allowed to stay onboard.  its 'rude' to have passengers already on the plane while others start boarding.  huh?  so we had to go through security to walk a giant loop back down to the boarding gate that we just came from.  and they took my fucking water again.  i've now bought 3 waters today that have been confiscated.  or stolen, that's what i'm calling it now.  there was no need for them to cause me to lose my bottles of water.

i've been through security 6 times since i left last nite.  and when i get to honolulu i have to get my bag from baggage claim and start from scratch at the check in counter.

to make it worse, i was seriously craving bacon and eggs this morning.  so bad.  in a chinese airport, ha.  the closest i found was steamed pork buns with edamame and tea.  12 more hours.  i can make it.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

baanchang elephant park


for the final adventure of my trip we went to the baanchang elephant park.  i must take a moment here to sincerely thank shanti for setting up our activities and schedules for the past 3 weeks.  i'm so burnt out i couldn't have cared less if i had done nothing but ride tuk tuks and eat.  but shanti researched, organized, motivated and made it all happen.  i am very thankful for that.  love you shanti.

our van pulled into the park and the first thing we saw was a field of elephants of all sizes and ages, each chained by the leg so they didn't touch one another.  they seemed pretty happy and healthy.  sol was in heaven.  after a short briefing our first task was to feed them bananas and sugar cane.  and we were told which elephants we couldn't touch, the blind one, the angry one, the people hater.  each of the elephants had come from a working environment where they were mistreated and are here to recover and give rides to tourists like us.  

we grabbed bunches of bananas and as much sugar cane as we could carry and walked to the different elephants to feed them.  their trunks were so cute!  as we approached they'd sniff us out and if there was food the trunk would snuffle and grab and it was really like some sort of alien being.  truly weird.

after going through several bushels of food it was time to learn how to sit on an elephant.  we were going to ride them bareback so learning to climb on and off was important.  many of the elephants at the park were recovering from being tourist transit with the giant wooden platform seats on their backs, which are not healthy for them.  we learned the command to sit (but no matter how much we screamed it the elephants only listened to their personal trainers), the elephant would kneel down, you step on the front leg, throw yourself on top and the elephant would start getting up.  i can't equate that feeling with anything else i've ever done, it was definitely unique.  like climbing a small mountain and then being in an earthquake?  

we sat way high up on the neck with our knees tucked in behind the ears.  the tigers were much comfier.

after practicing sitting we learned how to steer an elephant and did a practice loop, turning in both directions.  the command to go is 'pai pai' while kicking your elephant repeatedly in both ears (not hard kicking, more like flapping their ears for them).  to turn we yelled 'kwek' and kicked the ear on the opposite side of the way we wanted to go, like a giant turn signal.  stop was 'how' and we squeezed the neck with our knees.  the elephants just humored us by making us think they were listening but really they've done this loop probably about a million times in their lives.

sol's first elephant ride was a success.  pablo got up, i passed sol to him, they did a loop.  he loved it.

after lunch was the real fun, a jungle walk.  we got on our elephants (shanti pablo and sol had one and i had my own) and were each led by the animal's personal handler.  some people's elephants were a little rowdy and had to be led by a rope, some handlers used their spiky axe thing for reminders of manners, but my elephant, tong toom, was excellent.  all she did was follow her guy and never did anything naughty.  

riding an elephant bareback is something that everyone should try once.  it was incredible.  i locked myself in with my knees (sort of), my hands were on her giant head for balance, and we lumbered around for about an hour and a half.  the skin and prickly hairs were so fun to touch.  her eyes were beautiful and old and sad, with 2 inch long eyelashes.  she did have some scars from her past life but was super healthy looking otherwise.  occasionally she'd wander to the side of the trail and scrounge a snack and chomp as we walked.

the commands we learned were just to make us feel important, the elephants didn't listen to a word we said.  tong toom's trainer walked right in front of us and every time he stopped, elephant stopped, whichever path he took, elephant followed.  i still pretended to steer.  

i looked back a few times but shanti was too far behind to see them much.  i did see the 3 of them happily riding.  turning around to look at things while riding an elephant is not easy.  i relaxed as much as possible but the balance thing was far from anything i've tried before and maybe another hour of practice and i would have it no problem.

elephants have a pretty clever/gross air conditioning system.  as they walk they stick their trunks in their mouths and suck water, spit, slime, food bits out of their throats and spray themselves down.  they keep a lot of water on hand, just in case.  the sound was maybe like a 2000 lb man hocking a giant spitwad.  through a 4 foot long nose.  ok i'm not sure how to describe  it.  trunk in throat, sucking accomplished, then tong toom would alternate sides and bottom, spraying whichever part was hot.  which included me.  after our ride i was soaked with elephant phlegm.  truthfully, though, it wasn't bad because it kept me pretty cool too.  stinky but cool.

after our jungle tour it was time to wash our elephants and let them rest.  we ended the walk at a pond of brown water and floating elephant poop and walked our elephants in.  we got buckets and scrub brushes, although i don't see how we could accomplish any cleaning in poop water.  the elephants laid down and we got to scrubbing.  i enjoyed this part immensely because my trainer let me lay on my elephant and strike calendar poses, and i got to stand on her too.  but i scrubbed and washed and loved.  shanti pablo and sol were having a blast washing their elephant (moon, i think), she kept snorkeling water and spraying them the whole time.  

when the trainers started getting their elephants to lead them in for the nite my trainer let me ride tong toom one last time.  this was an unforgettable, amazing experience.

i said my goodbyes to shanti pablo and sol and went to pack for home.  surprisingly everything  i bought fit in my bags.  i think i kinda like this shopping thing, i'll have to try some more. 

i know i'm sorta jet lagged and travel weary but its 1pm now.  my flight leaves china at 2:30pm.  i have 17 hours of travel left and i'll still get home at 1pm today.  which is right now.  i'm going to think about this again after a good week of sleep. 

one lucky little boy.  and big boy.  and girl.

why am i in china

i'm so confused.  is taiwan china or not?  i think it is now, but the dutch had it, then japan.  and for some reason i keep thinking that england had her fingers in it too?  which island around here did england keep until 1999?  i did a report about that in high school and now i can't remember.

so as you can tell i'm in taiwan for a few hours.  nothing like going somewhere and realizing you don't remember a thing from high school history.  i'm sitting in a big comfy chair (the one i slept in last nite) looking outside and its cold here.  coats and scarves cold, so why would they have the air conditioning cranked so high inside?  i woke up a few times shivering.  i bought an extra bag to carry on and crammed it with presents and clothes and i had to keep rummaging through it for blanket material.  when i woke up for good i was wearing my regular clothes, jacket, tshirt and yoga pants, plus 4 tshirts i bought stuffed in my jacket hood and 2 dresses wrapped around my legs.  i have become an airport bag lady.

this is a super confusing airport.  in chiang mai they would only check me in through here and i had to find a desk for my next flights.  but they said my bag would make it to lihue?  doubtful.  none of the desks were open when i arrived at 3am so i was wandering around looking for a place to sleep and people kept shooing me to places i didn't want to go, namely away from the desk i needed.  there were big comfy chairs nearby but all the doors were locked and i ended up getting escorted through security to the next floor.  nap and worry about it later, i guess.

the desk was open this morning and i had to talk my way back downstairs.  i ended up walking backwards through security with all my bags and setting off every alarm they had.  but they let me do it.  the women at the desk could only check me in through honolulu, then i'm going to have to go to baggage claim and start check in all over again.  i was really hoping for one check in and done, now i have to do it at 3 airports, this really sucks.  i showed them my baggage claim ticket for lihue and the women just giggled and said they're 'searching for it now'.  thanks, thailand.

another problem with that is the booze that is on my shopping list, there are miles of duty free shops.  if i go to check in in honolulu they will confiscate my booze at security.  and that really pisses me off.

i've been wondering why every single chinese person i've seen at airports repacks all of their bags while waiting to check in.  it was really starting to bother me.  last nite in chiang mai i was the only white person in the entire airport (seriously), there were loads of tour buses and me.  every single person opened their checked luggage and rummaged around and repacked.  and i'm watching people do it here.  and i've seen it before.  but just asian travelers.

is it the last minute duty free packing because they know their airports all suck and they have to keep checking in every where?  i think that might be the answer.

there's not much left in my backpack that's legal for carryon but i think i can find space enough for a couple bottles of booze if i wear more clothes.  or tie my sneakers onto my carry ons.

we had the most amazing day yesterday riding elephants and here i am blogging about my airport problems.  i'll get to the elephants, i promise.






Wednesday, February 20, 2013

chiang mai tiger kingdom

today we went to the chiang mai tiger kingdom and it was the best 420 baht i've ever spent.

oddly enough it cost more to cuddle a baby tiger than a giant one.  who knew.  pablo and i signed up for the big cat snuggle and shanti went with sol for a cub.  children under a certain height aren't allowed in with the big cats because they look too much like food.

i will admit that i was a bit nervous going into the cage.  there were about 5 big tigers, about 300 kilos each, walking around waiting for people to lay on them.  pablo and i went in together with a guide who carried a small stick, if the tiger did anything that looked even remotely aggressive or impolite the guide tapped him on the head, and the tiger behaved.  all but one tiger in our pen was male, and the female was pacing back and forth making little growling noises the whole time.

i had seriously considered asking at the reservation desk if it was ok to go into a cage with wild animals while i had my period, i couldn't help but wonder if they'd think i was either ready for mating or a dying animal that they could snack on.

the tigers were so comfy.  they mostly just laid there while we petted and scratched and draped ourselves on top of them for good pictures.  there was a sign on the door that we were required to read before entering, like no poking and prodding, no antagonizing, approach from behind so they don't think you're coming to play, so we were careful to walk away from their heads.  one of the tigers was named roy and it made me think of the circus guy who got his throat ripped open by his own pet.

altogether we spent about 20 minutes in the cage.  quality time.

next up were shanti and sol with the crazy little babies, each about 3 months old.  they were the size of small dogs and totally cute and playful.  they sat by a sleepy one and petted it and sol got to make his 'rowr' tiger sounds.  they spent about 20 minutes as well.  at one point sol was more interested in the guy running a hose because all the tigers decided to pee on the floor at once but there was alot for him to process.  i wonder what he thought of the experience.

after possibly the only scary tuk tuk ride we've had, shanti and i went out for some serious shopping.  we headed first to the grocery store and i loaded up on shampoo, toothpaste, typical beauty aisle products because they sell the same things here at a fraction of the price as home.  we found some spices and thai products that we couldn't get on kauai.  after that were the markets for more spices and gifts and lots of bargaining fun.  i spent close to $100 and had to buy a big bag to carry on the plane.  i definitely made up for 9 months without shopping.

to end my day i got my last thai foot massage and first pedicure.  i will truly miss this aspect of southeast asia, considering i was there for almost 2 hours and it only cost me about $13.  the spa i went to employed only women from the chiang mai women's prison to help them keep stable jobs and stay out of trouble.  as i watched the women i tried to imagine what each of them might have been in prison for but i was having a hard time just imagining what is illegal here.

today was the last full day of my trip, 23 hours from now i'll be at the airport.

better than a hostel pillow


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

chiang mai

so much accomplished in the last few days but now that shanti and i are certified thai cooks i feel i need to post and brag about it.  i'll catch up first, though.

we had a hard time getting tickets out of ko tao, all modes of transportation, crappy as they are, were pretty booked.  we did find a travel agent to get us connected and it turned out to be a bus, then a boat to ko samui, then another bus to the airport, a plane to bangkok (not the super cool airport boo), then a plane to chiang mai.  we decided that one overnite train ride for sol was enough and even though the train was cheap it would end up being 2 overnites all the way here.

our first flight left almost an hour late and we only had a 2 hour layover in bangkok where we had to collect our bags and check in again.  shanti spoke to the woman at check-in and she arranged to have someone meet us to help expedite our connection.   we arrived in bangkok and a tiny woman in a golf cart loaded us up for the trip to our gate, and its a good thing she did, what a confusing airport it was.  she wasn't a very aggressive driver so we ended up going about exactly as fast as walking.  but she already had our boarding passes and after asking about 20 times she assured us that our bags would follow.  i wasn't so convinced.

we made our flight with shopping time to spare (there was a really strange everyday clothes shop and that's about it, i bought a black shirt for $2).  and miracles do happen, our bags arrived in chiang mai at the same time we did.

after getting settled into our not so fantastic hotel we hit the sunday market, the biggest in chiang mai.  the city closes some streets and its actually called the sunday walking market.  it was pretty huge but not like bangkok, and open till midnite.  i had gotten up at 4am so i wasn't too keen on staying late, we got just enough of a taste to last us until the next market, which was the next day.  there's a market somewhere every day so no worries that we'll miss something.

monday was the zoo day, a long anticipated event.  we were getting sol psyched up about it but it turned out to be the coolest zoo ever for all of us.  we could interact with all of the animals (ok, not the lions or tigers or bears), but we fed giraffes and hippos and elephants and actually got to touch them.  the only zoo 'security' were the guys selling the food, 10 baht (30 cents) for a bowl of cucumbers and radishes to dump into the gaping hippo mouths, another 10 for cucumbers and sugar cane for the elephant and its baby (while trying not to get trampled), and 10 more for long beans for the giraffes and their unexpectedly long tongues.  amazing stuff.

for 20 baht pablo got a bunch of bananas for the monkeys.  there was a moat between us so we couldn't touch them but pablo would get a monkey's attention, throw a banana, and the monkey would catch it, peel it and eat it from its tree branch.

every day shanti and pablo review the previous day's activities with sol in hopes that he'll be able to remember some of this when he's older, and the monkeys were the cause of sol's first grown up sentence today.  he said 'dadda throw monkey banana'.  subject, verb, awesome.  better than my spanish, and equally good to most thais' english.

after the zoo we went to possibly the greatest vegetarian restaurant ever, all thai food.  it was a giant all you can eat buffet (a real one this time) and most things were labelled.  deep fried pumpkin, omg.  when we ate all we thought we could, there was the dessert table.  i found the most glorious looking chocolate pudding, and although it was with the salad bar that's where you usually find chocolate pudding, so i took a giant bowl full.  i can't remember the last time i ate chocolate pudding and i was super excited.  i took a big spoonful and it was the most extreme opposite of chocolate pudding that could be imagined.  this was the closest i've come to barfing out food on this trip.  after several tries at communication i was able to understand that it was a type of dark fluffy vinegar.  not cool.

shanti also had a plate of something that didn't turn out to be raspberry jello.  more like spongy smoke meat.

we ended our day at a nite market stuffing ourselves with crepes and gelatto  and buying knockoff sunglasses and slippers.  $5 raybans and hawaiianas but who cares if they only last a month.

today was for me and shanti, cooking school.  we signed up (or more correct, shanti signed us up) for a full day class, learn a 7 course meal and eat it as we go.  there were multiple options for each course and i picked chicken coconut soup, pad thai, mango salad, sweet and sour vegetables, red curry, pineapple red curry, and pumpkin in coconut milk.  shanti picked other dishes so we'd be able to share and i'm not kidding that everything we made was better than any thai food we've had yet.

our group was 8 people and we started at the prep table cutting and dicing our ingredients.  we prepared 2 dishes at a time then went to the gas stoves to cook.  even though we all chose different dishes, each group (appetizer, salad, main, etc), started with the same basic ingredients.  after cooking our 2 dishes we went to eat while the army of kitchen helpers magically cleaned our workstations and readied them for the next round.  we were lucky to have the owner of the school as our teacher, her english was great and she loved to throw in the cooking sexual innuendo.

the curries were fun to make, no matter what color they all started exactly the same, only the final ingredients differentiated them red from green from yellow from the rest.  we diced our veggies and spices and dumped them into mortar and pestles and got to work.  the motion we were taught for grinding was very dirty and if we did it with a smile we could be considered for 'best wife' status.  there were guys in our group but i'm guessing they already knew how to do it.  i was the only unmarried girl at the table and my curry was considered done first but i'm not speculating on what that means.

shanti and i ate all day, well past what we thought possible.  we ended up getting some of our creations as take away, and i still haven't tasted my sweet and sour veggies.  i will say that my pad thai was outrageously good, the soup was freaking awesome, pineapple curry incredible and the coconut pumpkin dessert is something i might make every nite for the rest of my life.  definitely a successful day.

i only have 2 more days left of my trip.  i'm a little sad about it but i recognize that its time to come home and recover.  shanti has planned our time with the tiger kingdom, temples and a full day being elephant mahouts so there's not a moment wasted before i leave.  going out with a bang.


we also ate worms at a market



Friday, February 15, 2013

rainy day crap

yesterday had a very promising start before crashing and burning (much like the meteor that hit russia only not as exciting).  pablo rented an atv and i got a scooter and we all went exploring.

the roads here are a mix of pavement, dirt and rock.  and there are alot of hills, nothing too extreme but i haven't driven a scooter in some years so it took me a few minutes before i was comfortable.  shanti pablo and sol had rented an atv a couple days ago so they had their system down, sol up front standing and holding onto the padded bars, pablo driving, and shanti behind, holding onto sol.  sol got a cute little helmet with a visor and looked like a true biker baby.  except none of the local babies wear helmets, they're just for tourists.

we went up and down some pretty steep hills to get to our first beach on the other side of the island and swam for a bit.  we went to this particular beach because our boat taxi driver took us there the first day and showed pablo a giant rock that he could jump off.  the rock was pretty high and after swimming out and climbing the base he had to use an anchored rope to get to the top.  he made a successful jump, sol practiced his new swimming moves, and we went to sit in a nearby restaurant to escape the unexpected rain sprinkles.

as soon as the rain stopped we loaded onto our bikes to find another beach.  up and down some hills, some of them pretty sketchy, and we ended up going pretty vertical towards a resort with a view.  it was called 'eagles nest' and that's pretty much what it was.  i was not particularly looking forward to going down the giant hill we climbed to get there but i had a very new scooter with good tires so i wasn't worried that i'd have any problems.  it did occur to me that if i did any damage to the scooter i wouldn't be able to hide it since the scooter was so new, and when we were at the rental place we had to sign forms with the price lists for replacing parts.  we also had to leave our passports as a guarantee so there wouldn't be any ducking out of payment.

we pulled up to the resort right as the rain started coming down, might as well stay here for lunch.  the eagles nest was an open air restaurant with a metal roof and cushions on the floor by the tables.  as we were looking out over the incredible view the storm really blew in and it was a total white out, pouring rain blowing onto us wherever we sat.  sitting in the only building above the treetops high up on a hill during a thunderstorm under a metal roof made for an exciting lunch.  the food was really good too.

the storm lasted about an hour and finally it blew off to the other side of the island.  we were ready to get back home for sol's nap before we headed out again.  to add to the excitement, the giant hill we climbed was soaking wet from the storm and we slowly started making our way down.

about 2 minutes into our descent i heard tire squeals and yelling and before i could look an atv plowed into me from behind.  the guy had the whole open road to fly out of control but he had to steer right into the tiny bit i was already on.  he was fine but i'm laid out under my scooter, so mad that 'fuck' is about the only word that was coming out of my mouth.  another guy ran up to help get my scooter off me and the idiot on the atv was just sitting there.  i yelled at him.  a lot.

after assessing my arms and legs (and thanks for even asking if i was okay, asshole), i started looking at the damage on the scooter and thinking about how much it was going to cost, and that i didn't want to pay it.  i told him that he needed to pay for the scratches and dents and my adrenaline was spiked pretty high and so i wasn't being very nice.  all he kept saying was 'calm down', not 'are you okay' or even 'sorry' so i thought i was going to punch him in his smarmy face.  if he had even offered a small word of concern i might not have been so fucking mad.

his friends were much nicer and it was decided that they would follow us back to the rental place to pay for the damage to my scooter.  we had seen warnings about rental places charging outrageous amounts of money for minor damage so this was not something i was looking forward to.  if the guy ditched us on the way i'd be stuck paying or lose my passport.  to add to my worries i didn't want the guy driving behind me down the giant wet hill but his friends assured me that they would stay between us.  the guy and his friends were covered in fresh bloody scrapes from earlier in the day so it didn't make me feel much safer.

we made our way to the bottom of the hill and across town without incident, although i was shaking from post accident energy the whole way.  the rental place had a fairly steep incline and i gunned my scooter up and smashed right into an atv parked in the driveway that i couldn't see.  which caused me to dump my bike again, this time right in front of the doorway of the shop about 2 feet from the owner who was sitting on the stoop.  fucking great.  i haven't felt like such an asshole in a long time.

instead of having the guys deal with the damage and the owners alone i had just put a fresh set of scratches on the front fender to pay for.  awesome.

the owner brought out a price list (which i had ignored when renting the scooter) and the amounts were ridiculous.  there was also a condition that no matter what damage is done the price charged will be to replace the entire part.  my front fender, although there were just a few scratches that could be sanded out and good as new, was going to cost me 4500 baht ($150).  the mirror and exhaust cover damage from the accident also had scratches that weren't too horrible but the owner was going to charge them 3500 baht ($115).  and so started about an hour of arguing and bargaining and i was pretty sure that i was going to have to break into their shop at nite to rescue my passport.

the argument went round and round and the owner was not willing to come down in price below 4000 baht for all of the damage.  it was pretty ridiculous that a few scratches would make him insist that each part needed total replacement.  some sandpaper and paint and the scooter would look brand new.  but he wouldn't budge.

pablo had come with me to help and i am so grateful for that, i was pretty useless.  i was angry and bruised and not feeling like being nice.  pablo took charge and was amazing.  finally the guys realize that they are going to have to pay what is asked and gave me 2000 baht for their part and we let them go.  the problem now is that i don't have money.  i was supposed to come up with 2000 for my part and i only had 1350 in my wallet.  pablo had dropped shanti and sol at the hotel with their bags and he didn't have any money either, so we're stuck there because i couldn't come up with the amount for my damage.  that makes me even more pissed off because if the guy hadn't hit me in the first place i wouldn't have rammed the atv.  but nothing to be done about that now.

pablo is being reasonable and respectful and i started apologizing and telling them i had no more money and please accept what i have and they keep refusing.  so we all just stand there getting no where.

after another 20 minutes or so the old woman at the shop said something to the man and she took my money and called it even.  finally.

i was supposed to have the scooter for the rest of the day, until 9am the next morning, but i was worried that they would 'forget' that we had paid for the damage and have to start this all over again so i exchanged my key for my passport.

i think what i'm maddest about is that both my knees and both my ankles are bruised and sore and that puts an end to cheap foot and leg massages, my favorite thing to do here.


pablo on his rock

Thursday, February 14, 2013

my valentine

life has been pretty laid back here on ko tao.

tuesday we hired a water taxi to take us around the island (all the way around) and stop at some snorkel spots.  sol has become exceptionally proficient with his water wings and is looking to be a fearless swimmer, if you show him what to do he'll give it a try.  blowing bubbles underwater, back floats and kicking are in his repertoire.  goggles have been purchased and that's his next big task, watching fishies from below.

the last stop in our trip was a beach resort on a separate nearby island.  it was a pretty pleasant place for lunch and swimming and there was a lookout we climbed for a great view.  there wasn't any music and people were pretty mellow, a very quiet calm place.  we were lazing in the water waiting for our taxi pickup and out of nowhere came 2 fighter jets screaming across the islands.  it was so loud it was shocking.  there isn't any air transportation here so it really took us by surprise.  and no wifi so the next world war could have broken out and we wouldn't have had any idea.

that nite my friend lynn sent me a state department update that there is possible terrorist activity at the us embassy in chiang mai.  interesting.

after shanti and pablo took sol to bed i went to watch the muay thai fights at the stadium.  the word stadium is used very loosely here, it was a ring with some plastic chairs and metal benches in a field.  there were 7 fights and it wasn't as bloody as i'd imagined.  i used to do kung fu and muay thai and was super excited to see it.  i especially loved the side of the ring smashed with screaming thais.

the womens fight was disappointing, a norwegian girl, undefeated in several months all over thailand, was up against a local girl.  she kicked the local girl's ass up and down the ring and then lost on decision.  total crap.  the biggest surprise was an english guy named charlie (ha ha charlie don't surf).  when i saw him posing for pictures before his match i thought maybe there was a tourist division, he looked like a computer programmer, all pasty white and goofy.  but he was in the main bout and put up a good fight against the giant, oiled, ripped thai guy that eventually crushed him.

i spent a good portion of the next day sleeping while shanti guys rented an atv and explored more beaches.  i did manage to go out long enough to get a massage and a hair cut.  and i just need to say it, i got my hair cut by a lady boy.  i've gotten my hair done by drag queens when i lived in seattle but they were dressed as boys at the time so this was something new and awesome.  it was cheap and fun and maybe the worst haircut i've had since my dad cut my hair before my sister's wedding.

today pablo and i did a couple dives.  after diving belize, roatan and the great barrier reef recently this was pretty non-fantastic, but i had to do it, check it off the list.  the visibility was crappy and there wasn't alot of stuff, but i love to be underwater so i appreciated the things i did see.

my group was a divemaster and 2 scuba instructors from other countries.  it was a small group to keep together but the problem was that there were so many other divers at the same sites that it was crowded.  towards the end of the first dive i saw my divemaster duck into a swim through, i was a ways behind him and the other 2 guys were far behind me.  i hung back to show the guys where we were going and another group (pablo, actually) entered the swim through in front of me.  when i got out i looked around and my guys and i couldn't find our divemaster, he hadn't looked to see if we were behind him and probably went into another swim through.  i wasn't about to go dive into a hole that possibly didn't go anywhere and we didn't see any sign of him so we hung out to wait for him, and he appeared about 6 minutes later to collect us.  when we got back on the boat he was so pissed and said 'if you don't want a divemaster just let me know'.  like it was our fault he didn't wait for us to show us the way.  big baby.

still a good day, though, shanti and sol met us for lunch on the beach and more swimming, then naps, then sunset and dinner on the beach.  there were guys selling giant lanterns shaped like hearts, people wrote messages on them and sent them burning off into space.  they didn't look real environmentally friendly.  i got my valentines kiss from sol and we called it a nite.

i'm gonna photoshop in some fighter planes







Tuesday, February 12, 2013

all you can eat pizza nite

pablo and i got real excited for the all you can eat pizza nite at a local restaurant.  199 baht, we figured we could do some real damage, and were considering putting some money on who could scarf more.

we showed up to a pretty crowded restaurant, about 30 tables full.  seemed that everyone had the same idea, but no matter, they had a great looking pizza oven and we were starving.  given our experiences in southeast asia so far i'm not sure why we expected it to be like home.  starving ourselves for pizza nite maybe blocked our sense of reality.

we didn't really look at the situation until after we had ordered.  30 full tables of 3-4 people each, one guy making one pizza at a time, one waitress running around with one pizza with 6 slices serving a single small slice to 6 different people, then getting the next pizza from the oven, serving 6 more.  i've never seen anything quite like it.  she seemed to remember who she had served last so it worked out that every 8-10 minutes pablo and i each got a tiny piece.

there was an entire restaurant of people sitting with empty plates, staring at the waitress, hoping it was their turn.

at the rate we got pizza we were digesting faster than we were eating so 'all you can eat' was impossible.  we could have sat there until closing and waited everyone out but after an hour or so we just gave up.

the waitress came by once when pablo had taken sol for a walk and i stole his piece from his plate.  so technically i won the contest.

killing giant mosquitos between slices



Monday, February 11, 2013

ko tao

what an adventure in third world transportation today.  the train quickly got old, i was a bit tipsy, there was no air conditioning in my car, and the fumey smell made for a long nite.  pablo came to wake me up at about 3:45am and i had just fallen asleep.  i thought that i could sleep more on the bus on the way to the ferry, i envisioned a nice cushy tourist bus, but it was actually a big open air truck with long benches, sorta like a troop transport.

don't get me wrong, i totally enjoyed every minute, its not often that i get to ride in such outrageous vehicles.  we were smashed into the bus then all the luggage was loaded onto the back all the way to the top effectively blocking our only means of escape if one was needed.

we rode for about 20 minutes to the ferry station.  keep in mind that its 6am and still dark out.  there are already dozens of people sleeping all over the ground waiting for the boat when our truck load shows up, and we were only about half the people from the train.  i had a feeling that our tickets might not be totally legit so i wandered down to the dock to check and surprisingly, i got our stickers for boarding.  which was great because moments later they started lining people up and we could jump the whole line and get first pick of seats.  we chose the door that said 'air condition' and sat down while the giant crowd trickled on.  it was hard to tell what the boat looked like but our section of about 30 seats wasn't too bad, just a bit run down.

sol was loving the morning.  he slept on a choo-choo, then got on a big truck, and now was on a boat.  he kept saying 'bye bye caboose'.  not sure a cuter boy was ever made.

the giant mob is finally on the boat and we didn't leave, just hanging out on the dock.  because we're waiting for the next truck load of people from the train station, apparently.  this is what happens when all the boats are sold out for the holidays, we got tickets with the only company that lonely planet doesn't like and they smashed as many people on board as there was deck space.  we were thankful to get seats in the only air conditioned area.

about 5 minutes after we pull away from the dock a thai man came into the room with a sign that said 'air conditioning 30 baht per person', and started collecting money.  aaah, that's a good scam.  people were grumbling because the sun had come up and it was already hot in the room.  the guy behind me argued, but finally paid but demanded that he turn on the air if he's going to give the money.  apparently the air had been on the whole time.  so we paid extra to sit in a hot room.  great scam, actually, since by now there wasn't a single other spot on the boat to sit.

a few minutes later it was pretty obvious that it was going to be a furnace in our cabin so we made him open the 2 small windows and although there was a bit of breeze it quickly filled with diesel fumes.  i think that's what lulled me into my 20 minute nap.  when i woke up shanti had taken sol onto the deck in the front of the boat because the smell was making him sick.  i stayed inside to watch our bags and pablo followed them, he wasn't feeling so great either.

it was about 15 minutes after that that pablo stuck his head through the window and asked for his bag.  and what he described was the funniest thing i'd heard in days.  i didn't see it but i'll try to recreate from eyewitness reports.

shanti had gone to the front of the boat to get sol fresh air but none of the people would let her have a seat where she could lean back against the pilot room so she was standing at the very front, trying to nurse him, hoping that would make him feel better.  the wind was pretty strong and there were about 10 other people behind her.  almost the moment sol is done nursing he vomited, which shanti described as taking a glass of milk and throwing it into the wind.  it instantly coated the people that were sitting behind her.  as they sat there in shock with milk running down their faces sol barfed again, the wind caught it and they got another spray.  and then once more, just to make sure everyone was covered.

i would have given anything to have seen that.

shanti's milk was dripping down people's foreheads, they couldn't see out of their sunglasses, all over their clothes.  now they'll think twice before they refuse a nursing mother a seat, i hope.

the fumes were a bit too much for me at this point so i started making my way outside.  i hadn't been outside the room since the sun came up and the boat looked exactly as i'd picture a refugee boat would look, falling apart and not an inch of space that didn't contain a person.  this was truly the picture of a tragic ferry accident that's in the news now and again, overloaded boat capsizes in channel killing all 800 aboard.

i opened the door and banged a woman, 3 people had to move so she could move so i could get out, then i had to tip toe my way between people's legs and arms, apologizing the whole way because i couldn't help stepping on them.  2 guys had to hang over the edge of the boat to let me past to get to the front, where i found shanti, pablo and sol, and some other unhappy people that smelled like curdled milk.

and its only 8am, what more fun can today bring?

we did finally make it



Sunday, February 10, 2013

bangkok


yesterday we explored a bit of bangkok.  we took the air train further into town and wandered until we found the ferry station.  i had taken ferry rides, like taxis, through brisbane and sydney but bangkok's water transportation was a whole new world.  instead of the giant, new, high powered cats of australia these boats were long and wooden and rickety and jam smashed with people.  everywhere in the dirty brown water there were crazy old boats of every description flying in every direction.  some were long and pointy and some had roofs that made them look like houses.  there was definitely no speed limit and the wakes from all of the boats made the docks rise and fall and tilt.  when our boat arrived it barely slowed down, as it approached a man whistled and jumped off the back and threw a line over a metal pole, then the captain threw it in reverse and slammed into the tires on the dock.  we had about 10 seconds to jump onto the boat before the guy whistled again and we were off.  a woman pushed her way through the crowd jingling a box of money and somehow she found every new person in the crowd to get the fare.  this was definitely the chicken bus of the sea.

we got off at wat pho, which is thailand's oldest and largest temple, also the national headquarters for traditional thai medicine and massage.  and it holds the biggest collection of buddha images in the country.  the area was walled in and contained several temples and ornately decorated buildings, most of which had dozens of buddhas inside.  pictures, statues, more buddhas than can possibly be described.  some had altars and people praying, some were just rooms of dozens of statues lining the walls.  we had to remove our shoes to enter each of them.  in one i was required to wear a shawl because again, of course, i was not wearing a sufficient amount of clothing.  

the main attraction for most tourists at wat pho was the giant reclining buddha, measuring 46 meters long by 15 meters high.  it was enormous.  and it was enclosed in a room that barely contained it so people were jammed inside taking pictures.  its eyes and feet were covered in mother of pearl, and the bottoms of the feet held over 100 images of buddha in various stages.  i'm quite happy that shanti wanted to go see that because with the sky train and transfer and walk to the ferry i would never have found it by myself.

it was quite an intense morning with the chinese new year festivities so we went back to the hotel to recover.  i napped.  

pablo was the first of us to get a massage in bangkok.  i offered to buy him a 'happy ending' but he didn't want anything to do with that.  he limped back to the hotel an hour later and was in more pain than when he went in, these ladies are nuts.  my theory is that they are such tiny women and they see big people like pablo or me and they feel they have to work extra hard to make it an effective massage.  but when they use elbows and knees and jam them in your soft places they really don't need to add any extra effort.  pablo actually has bruises on his back today.  shanti and i heeded his warning and only got our heads, necks and feet worked.

today we had to check out of our hotel so we stored our luggage and headed to the outdoor markets.  bangkok has the largest outdoor market in southeast asia (that seems to be a theme in my travels, the largest this, the biggest that, the deepest whatever, kinda cool).  this market was definitely big.  we could see tents and stalls well before the tram stopped at the station.  it was very like the market at chichi in guatemala, just rows and rows of everything you could imagine.  street food and clothes and shoes and tools and jewelry and sunglasses and pirated cds and every once in a while a dirty looking man with a table of condoms and vibrators.  i bought a couple tshirts for about $3 each and since we have plans to go to the markets in chiang mai i didn't want to carry anything else for any longer than i had to.  i wanted to get some food but the smells from the street, sewers and dirty water and unwashed people, made me think that it might not be a great idea for the nite we sleep on a train.

we picked up our luggage and went to the train station for sol's first official train sighting.  we had ridden the subway and the sky rail but not the trains.  he was so excited.  every once in a while for days he'd just say 'all aboard choo choo' like in his thomas the train videos.  he was so stoked when he finally saw them on the tracks.  we were early so we got some dinner at the station, possibly the hottest curry i've yet eaten.  they don't make things gringo hot here, they're full on thai hot.

finally its time to get on our train.  we had booked our tickets so late that pablo and shanti got the last spot in first class and i got one of the last in second class.  they have a sleeper room and i have a seat that folds out into a bed in a whole car full of people.  we each have our own space and curtains but its very hostel-like in here, where i'm currently writing this.  my nearest neighbors are french guys and they're pretty nice but fairly uninteresting so i plan on writing and drinking vodka until i fall asleep.  our stop in chumphon is at 4am so i'd like to pass out in a couple hours.

the waiter just brought me my drink, i had intended on having a screwdriver (the only mixer they have is orange juice) but what he brought me is a bucket of ice, 2 large containers of orange juice and an entire bottle of vodka.  its a smaller bottle, but way more than i had planned on drinking.  this is so awesome.  screw first class, i'm slummin it with the rowdy crowd tonite.  french guys are gettin cuter with each sip.

i enjoyed the the small bit of bangkok that i saw.  i didn't explore as much as i would have liked but i'm so lost in big cities that i didn't want to do this one alone, and shanti and pablo were busy with sol.  i can't figure out how to get where i want to go by rail, nothing ever makes sense, and a taxi is useless here in bumper to bumper traffic.  so i behaved myself and stuck close to home.  it was a weird place in some respects, very reminiscent of panama, old fat white guys and their flashy dressed 20something girls who never smile so much as grimace with slightly upturned lips.  worse than that, though, are the old fat white guys that are walking around by themselves.  everyone knows what they're doing here, they just haven't found the child sized thai girl (or boy) of their dreams yet.  i found myself very grossed out by them and giving them dirty looks when they walked by.  i don't think i'd object if i would have seen a white guy with a girl who was within 25 years of his age, but that doesn't happen.  

we're 3 hours into our 8.5 hour train ride, and i've got a good hour's worth of vodka left.  that'll give me about 4 hours of sleep before i need to catch a bus at chumphon, then the ferry to ko tao.  i should be nestled into my new room by the beach about 13 hours from now to sleep this off and get ready to scuba dive.  

and now i've spilled vodka on my computer so i think its time to put it away.  the computer, that is.

go train go



Saturday, February 9, 2013

never again...

i can't think of a worse time and place to be travelling right now.  actually, i've been plagued by this since i left for australia at christmas.  it was so hard to find hotels or hostels due to christmas, then new years, then the australian holiday month, then the boat races and shows.  everything that was available was so inflated in price that i spent more money in the 5 weeks in australia than i did in 4 months in the rest of the world.

i was so relieved coming to southeast asia, i'd get back to $20 rooms, cheap food, plenty of space, but how far from correct that turned out to be.  happy chinese new year.  this entire week has been searching online for places to stay, modes of transportation that aren't sold out, paying way more money than normal, worrying that we'll be homeless.

we went to the train station yesterday and bought tickets to ko phi phi, an overnite train to a bus to a ferry to the island.  we got home and every hotel on the island is booked.  we spent hours searching. even the way overpriced luxury places with 200 rooms were all sold out.

tickets to an island with no where to stay.  great.  so today pablo and i went back to the train station to change our tickets to ko tao on the eastern side, its a shorter trip but we didn't get any of our money back.  there were hotels available and we scrambled and booked the first decent one we found.

but that changes our departure, we were going to take a flight from phuket to chiang mai and now we are on the opposite side of the country to do that.  so we're back to searching for ways to get to chiang mai and it seems that it'll add an extra day for travel any way we do it.

i gotta say that i'm over this travel thing.  i'm ready to be done, but i hate thinking about how much worse its going to be finding a place to live on kauai.  i wish there were some magical housing fairy to make this all go away.

great public transportation here




cambodia-thailand border crossing

yesterday we crossed the border from cambodia to thailand.  there are daily buses that do the route but we thought with sol we should take a private taxi to make life easier, it wasn't that much more expensive.

our first taxi picked us up at passagiero in siem reap at 7:45.  our driver didn't say a word the entire trip, he just gunned it, layed on the horn, and blew through all the towns.  shanti mentioned that she's probably never used a car horn as much in her entire life as our driver did on the 3 hour trip.  every car, truck, motorcycle and bike we passed got honked at to make sure they knew we were flying by.  it was awesome.

shanti and pablo had pretty much gotten over whatever sickness they had, i was envisioning several stops at the side of the road for bodily functions that needed attention, but we only stopped once so the driver could smoke a cigarette.  they both felt pretty horrible but nothing was leaking.

the rest of cambodia was flat and dry and dirty.  people burning garbage and leaves and anorexic looking cows between the small towns filled with markets and shops and absolutely nothing written in english.

we were dropped off near the border and were instantly mobbed by thais that wanted to sell us a bus ride or food or take our luggage.  it was pretty crazy.  between us we had 3 giant backpacks, 3 smaller backpacks and 3 or 4 small bags of food and random stuff.  we hauled it to the departure lines and stood in sweltering heat with dozens of other people to get processed out of cambodia.  this first line was close to an hour long.  sol was fairly unhappy but pretty amazing through the whole ordeal, shanti and pablo felt like they wanted to die.

after departure there was around a quarter mile walk through no mans land to the thai immigration offices.  the difference between the countries was incredible, one poor and one not as much, i guess.  they're both kingdoms as well, i didn't know that.  cambodia had pictures of the king but thailand had them every 5 feet, on buildings, bridges, everywhere you looked.

we found the line for immigration and again it was huge, we must have arrived at the same time as the buses.  again, stand in line in the heat, carrying all of our bags, sol getting his diaper changed, pablo about to fall over from not eating for 2 days.  and just when we're getting near the front of the line they open a second line because the one line had gotten too long and was going into the road.  we are not at the front now, but in the middle.  grrr.

after about an hour in this line outside we are finally let into the building, which is packed with more people standing in more lines.  but at least its air conditioned, and shanti, pablo and sol can sit in chairs at the side and recover while i hold our place.  this line was about half an hour.  right when we got to the front we noticed signs that were mostly in thai and they had dollar amounts on them and we started worrying that we didn't have enough money to get in and would have to start all over again.  i had some thai baht from my luxurious nite at the airport but not enough for all 4 of us.

we didn't end up needing any money and made it through.  and getting out on the other side we are once again mobbed by people trying to sell us everything in existence.  we settled on a tourist agency to get a taxi to bangkok and started to relax.  almost 3 hours in the horrible smoggy heat carrying all of our bags and a tired little boy with 2 sick people.  this day was truly a test of patience and we made it through.

we had about 10 minutes till our taxi left and i took that opportunity to find a bathroom.  way back near customs was a stone building with 'toilet' written on the side.  in retrospect it may have been more pleasant to just pee down my legs than enter that building.

the toilets were bowls on the ground, alongside were tubs of water with scoops.  the floor was flooded, over my slippers, and the smell was unbelievable.  the woman next to me was scooping water and the splash was hitting the floor and bouncing up and dripping down my legs and arms.  i was nowhere near as low as the bowls so i can't imagine what she was doing.  the first thing i did when i got out was rub antibacterial all over my body.

that experience cost me 3 baht, to add insult.

our second taxi drive started with the driver trying to make us keep our luggage in the car with us.  he had packed his trunk so full of other crap there wasn't room for our stuff.  hell no.  i got kinda angry and told him to get his shit out of there, we're not sitting smashed in a car for another 3 hours with all our luggage at our feet, the taxi was only a regular 5 seat car.  they tried and tried to make it all fit and sneak things in the seats but we won in the end and he took a load of stuff to the taxi office.

another 3ish hours of crazy trucks and cars and highways and bridges with giant portraits of the king and we made it to bangkok.  to sit in traffic.  dead stopped.  no one moving for several minutes at a time.  so close yet we couldn't go anywhere.  the driver wanted to drop us off at a corner saying our hotel was right around the corner but after almost 12 hours we were gonna get to the front door or sit in his car till we ran out of gas.

finally we're in our hotel in crazy bangkok.  street vendors and massage parlors and bars.  surprisingly the air quality was much better than cambodia, even with nonstop traffic jams and giant high rise hotels.

time to explore.

welcome to the kingdom of thailand


 

Thursday, February 7, 2013

temples and monkeys and vomit

i've been in cambodia 4 days and spent 3 days at angkor wat.  sambo took us to so many temples i'm having trouble keeping them straight.  my favorite 3 were on the first day and everything else has just been extra fun.

shanti and i climbed up to one temple today that was so steep i couldn't believe it was allowed.  the stone stairs were about 6 inches wide and slightly slanted downward, getting up was pretty sketchy i had to use my hands to pull myself as i went.  of course i didn't think about what that meant to go back down.  i walked around and saw the views, then started down.  and stopped.  and for the first time ever i thought i would throw up from a height.  the teensy curvy broken stairs didn't inspire a feeling of safety at all.  shanti scrambled down like a little mountain goat but her feet are about half the size of mine (or that's how i'm justifying this).  i walked to the other side of the temple and those stairs seemed better somehow and i crawled back down.  slowly.  like a giant wuss.

its amazing what's legal in third world countries.  and that you don't hear news reports of people tumbling off ruins to a bloody broken death.  i can't imagine it hasn't happened.

sol was with pablo so shanti and i wandered through the ground floor corridors and found a small toothless man beckoning us to walk through a tiny opening in the walls.  i think we were in preah kahn but i'm not sure any more.  most of the openings had rocks tumbled down and blocking them but the one he wanted us to go through was open so we went, he didn't speak any english so we couldn't tell what he wanted us to see.  a couple small passages and we found an alter with a statue and it was beautiful.  i gave a dollar and we were given incense and allowed to make our prayer and eventually got the man to understand that we wanted our picture taken there.  with acres and acres of ruins i can't imagine how many secret alcoves are hiding.

sambo took us to a couple more temples but by this time it was outrageously hot and sol was starting to have a hard time, instead of exploring we stopped for pictures and kept moving.  on the way home we found a big family of monkeys and that was maybe the highlite of sol's morning.  they were on the side of the road and playing and so happy to see us.  they loved shanti's skirt and wanted to climb her and pablo had to run around shooing them away.  they seemed fun but who knows if they actually wanted to eat us.  sambo said they only bite sometimes.

we went back home for the usual late morning swim and hide from the sun.  we went to lunch at a great vegetarian restaurant (i've been finding so many pumpkin curry variations here i may never be happy with regular food again).  shanti and i went for yet another foot massage, an hour this time, best six bucks ever, and did some shopping in the markets.

and then it went to hell.  shanti and pablo were so sick the rest of the nite.  i took sol to play for an hour or 2 so they could vomit in peace.

i feel great.  i'm sitting on the balcony of the hotel drinking khmer palm wine and listening to a domestic in arabic?  yiddish?  i have no idea.  i feel bad that i feel so good and they're so miserable.  hopefully they'll puke it all out tonite because we are driving to bangkok in the morning and that could possibly be the worst 6 hours in their recent memory.

angry monkey



Wednesday, February 6, 2013

siem reap and angkor wat


2 days in siem reap and its fairly overwhelming for a small third world place.  mostly what i've been struck by is garbage and pollution and heat, also beautiful temples and wonderful people.  

it took me a total of 29 hours to get here from tasmania.  sambo was waiting at the airport for me and took me to the golden mango in his tuk tuk, where i immediately found shanti and sol in the pool.  its so wonderful to have travel buddies again!

the golden mango is a little far from town so sambo dropped us off for lunch, we wandered around a bit, pablo got a haircut, and shanti and i stopped at one of the dozens of foot massage places for a half hour of wonderfulness ($1 for 15 minutes!).  the main streets have chairs set up everywhere, small women yelling 'foot massage lady?'  there are also giant tanks of pedicure fish, sit on the wooden plank, dangle your feet, the fish will nibble off your dead skin while you drink a beer.  no thanks.

i had scheduled a full body khmer massage, pretty much the same as a thai massage, for the evening.  this was my third foot and leg massage of the day, I'm not sure why i thought that was a good idea.  but it was only $6 per hour so why not.  in total i spent $20 for 2 hours of massage.  since its too hot to run outside maybe i'll just keep in shape this way, isn't that what they do for paraplegics?  

tuesday was our first day at angkor.  we hired sambo to drive us around and what crazy traffic there is here.  there is a line down the middle of the main road but its really just a suggestion, people drive buses, trucks, cars, motorcycles, tuk tuks, bicycles everywhere in every direction, people walking as well.  it was a little weird at first but after observation it made sense.  just keep moving and everything will be alright, if you stop you're screwed.  it was very common to see cars and trucks coming straight at us on the wrong side of the road but everyone gives way and allows others to get where they're going, very polite.  horns are only used to let someone know that you're there.  it looks like a free for all but its perfectly choreographed if you've been driving here all your life.  

crossing the street on foot was fun, real life frogger.  there's no point in looking both ways, it'll only scare you.  just take a deep breath, step out when there's a small space, and keep moving at an even pace.  don't panic and you'll get through no matter how much traffic there is.

angkor is about 15 minutes outside of siem reap.  the first temple we visited was angkor wat, the largest religious building in the world.  and it was massive, an entire complex of buildings surround it, with a moat around it all.  the walls were completely filled with carvings depicting battles and history and so much more.  i couldn't possibly do it justice so just google it.

you could climb the main temple but when i got in line with pablo i was turned away.  i had worn what i thought of as a modest outfit, considering what i'd been wearing at the beach for the past few months, but too much leg was showing.  and too much arm.  so i got to sit and watch with sol while pablo climbed to the top, then shanti.  no big deal, though, there are ruins everywhere, that one just happened to be further above ground.

it took about 2 hours to see a small portion of angkor wat, then time to find sambo and move on.  the tuk tuk drivers all parked in the shade to wait for their tourists, some listen to music, some played a crazy version of hackeysack, but most had a hammock that attached in the back and they napped their time away.  the tuk tuks here are 4 person carts with a shade roof bolted to the back of motorcycles.  

our next stop was bayon, known for the 216 faces carved in the stone looking down at you.  if there was just one correct definition for surreal this might be it.  google it.  we did a downwind run of this one with sambo picking us up on the opposite side.

our final stop for the morning was ta prohm, known to most people as the tomb raider temple.  the cambodian scenes were filmed here and it was every bit as amazing as it looked on tv.  giant trees were growing over the ruins of the temples and the scene was quite dramatic.  it was really hard to get any good pictures because of the massive amounts of people, there was always someone somewhere.  or a dozen someones somewhere.  no matter, it was cool.  

the openings (i don't think 'windows' conveys the exact image) in the temples were spooky.  they were made so precisely, with the corridors exact duplicates, that i thought at first they were mirrors.  but then someone on the other side would move and i'd realize i wasn't looking at us.  extremely freaky.

it was around 1pm at this point and steamy hot.  we were puddles of sweat.  i don't know how sol made it through but he did great.  he loved climbing the rocks and his favorite saying of the day was 'broke house'.  

it really pains me that i can't begin to describe angkor wat.  everything about the place was magical, the stones everywhere from efforts at rebuilding, the carvings, the statues, the forests, the extreme dirtiness of my feet, the shear size of the complex.  we bought 3 day passes but we'll only get to see a tiny fraction of the ruins if we spent all of our time doing nothing else.

after ta prohm we headed back to the hotel to swim and eat and recover until our sunset hike.


i'm going to take a moment here to describe my current situation before i continue.  we switched to a hotel closer to town center today, we arrived at about 12:15 to find out that the power is down on this block until 5:30.  no a/c, no fan, no light, nothing.  i'm laying in bed naked, sweating, in almost total dark because my room is near the road so the windows are blacked, i had to use my waterproof phone to figure out how to take a cold shower.  we were going to do more temples this afternoon but cancelled on sambo because sol was so hot he projectile vomited out his nose.  thankfully, he's been asleep for the past 2 hours (and shanti and i snuck out to get our feet rubbed again).  its too hot to do anything.    

and i think this is where i'll leave it for now, there's an hour till the power comes back on and i'm going to find the pool (i'm only sitting here sweating b/c i feel guilty i haven't updated in 2 days).  if there was a bar with air conditioning that's where i'd be.  but there isn't.  


postscript: 5pm no power, 6pm, 'yes, it'll be on in half an hour', poor sol vomited again and had diarrhea 3 times (once in the pool, oops, poor guy), showers by candlelite, we went up to the roof and spotted a 'mall', it had mild air conditioning but nothing good to eat.  still no power at our hotel.  walked, sweated, swore, as every other block in town had lites.  we found an internet restaurant with a/c, had dinner until sol needed to come home, and as we left the entire city lost power.  siem reap lit only by headlites.  the full cambodian experience.  

biggest surprise of the nite, as we turned the corner, our block was the only one that had lites!  how's that for awesome, they were blowing out the candles as we walked in.  first things first, charge all my toys for the next time it happens.  

shanti and sol at ta prohm

Sunday, February 3, 2013

suvarnabhumi airport, bangkok


i flew from sydney to bangkok and have a 10 hour layover until my flight to siem reap.  i was deciding what i should do with the time, maybe take a taxi to the city and explore, but i landed shortly after midnite and was outrageously tired and thought it best maybe to stick around the airport, nap, not get lost and miss my flight.

this airport is amazing.  its like walking down 4 floors of rodeo drive with bits of thailand stuck here and there.  duty free shopping throughout and cute little restaurants and thai specialty stores and massage parlors.  when i first got here i walked for 2 hours just taking it all in, 2am and everything is open and there are people everywhere.  crazy statues and pagodas and dried fruit stands amidst dior, rolex and coach.  this is the kind of airport that you could live in for a few weeks.  they have shower rooms and bed rentals and travel stores for whatever you forgot.

first though, some sleep.  i'd walked roughly a quarter of the airport in my 2 hours and passed hundreds of people sleeping wherever there were chairs.  there were areas with small couches and comfy recliners, mostly full, but i found a couple nice padded chairs, pulled them together, and slept for a couple hours.  

i went through another time zone change and have no concept of what time it might be here or in australia or at home but i had plenty of time, that's something to worry about later.  wouldn't even upset me too much if i missed my flight.

when i woke up the first thing i saw was a giant glowing chanel sign, made me feel like a bum in a cardboard box waking up in beverly hills.

coffee was next on the list, and surprisingly, some cafes were closed.  most places never closed, you just had to wake up the person napping at the counter.  starbucks was open, of course, and the first one ever without wifi.  

another hour or so of wandering and it was 5:30am, time for a thai foot massage.  i did have to wake up the women but they're all so cheerful anyway.  my foot and leg massage was 40 minutes and cost about $12, and it was glorious.  since i still have 3 hours until my flight i might go back for a full on thai massage, its the same price.  traveling makes me sore.  but i felt good enough to continue my exploration through the booze and cigarettes and chocolate and perfumes and shoes.  

i stopped for dried mangoes and ginger, that seemed like an appropriate breakfast, more coffee, and a sunrise.  

greatest airport ever.

nap time in the orchids

Friday, February 1, 2013

tasman peninsula

yesterday's trip was to the tasman peninsula and port arthur.  i wanted to see penguins and the historic penal colony, neither of which i actually saw, so while it wasn't a total waste of a day i wasn't super thrilled about it.

port arthur is also the home of australia's worst mass murder, a guy gunned down 58 people in 1996, killing 35 of them.  this led to australia banning semi automatic shotguns and rifles.

the trip began on another van with some random sight seeing.  tasmania grows opium poppies.  i had no idea.  they produce 25% of the world's legal supply for medicine.

most of the trip down the coast was through the recent bush fire areas.  they started with a farmer burning a stump on his property, he thought it was extinguished, high winds the next day and weeks later 110,000 hectares (about 275,000 acres) and a couple hundred homes, schools and businesses destroyed.  bet he feels like shit.

the landscape was literally black.  crews were out removing the larger trees that would probably fall over, people had tents set up next to the remains of their houses and the state was setting up emergency trailers to be used for the elementary school until it could be rebuilt.  as we drove we saw perfectly preserved houses and yards with summer flowers blooming, with destruction all around, interesting how small areas escaped the fire.  our tour guide was on the wrong side of the fire when they decided to close the roads and he and his group had to spend a week away from home.

our first historical spot was eagle hawk neck, home of the infamous 'dog line'.  tasman peninsula held the worst of the criminals from australia and eagle hawk neck is a thin strip of land connecting it to the main land.  authorities chained lines of half starved dogs across to prevent escape attempts.

we boarded a large raft to visit the sea cliffs and tasman island.  this is the point where i realized i wasn't thinking too clearly before i left and was wishing i had more clothes.  and wasn't wearing flipflops.  they gave us long water proof jackets but i was freezing, again.  people are pulling hats and gloves and scarves out of their bags and what do you think is in mine?  a bikini.  cuz i'm going on a boat ride.  i think that qualifies as irrefutable evidence that i was dropped on my head as a baby.

i was actually wearing my one pair of pants and jacket so it could have been worse.

the boat tour was about 3 hours and went down the tasman peninsula to view the highest sea cliffs in the southern hemisphere, about 300 meters, and finally to see tasman island before heading back.  the cliffs were beautiful but nothing compared to amazing na pali at 1200 meters.  i need to stop comparing everything to kauai.

i didn't get to see penguins but there were cormorants, and if you squint they really look like penguins.  also fur seals, and albatross with 9 foot wing spans.

we were pretty far off the mainland and only 2000 kilometers of open ocean straight to antarctica and i would not have thought twice about clubbing one of those seals for its fur if i had a baseball bat.  it started raining and it was like someone throwing thumbtacks at my face.  cold.

i did ask the crew for more clothes and eventually ended up wearing 3 coats and 1 wrapped around my feet.

i spent the morning hanging out with steve, a truck driver from the gold coast.  he and his girlfriend had booked a tasmanian holiday but they broke up at christmas so he was here by himself.  turned out that he and i were surfing snapper rocks on the same days.  and as usually happens being the only person with a waterproof camera, i took pictures of him that i was going to email, but he told me he has no email address.  what?  seriously?  i've met people that don't have email before but they tended to live in dirt floor shacks and still make their own clothes.  i ended up getting his son's email address instead.

after our sight seeing it was time to zip back and the crew took this time to talk about wildlife.  the sea birds migrate and every year there are less and less of them.  they find all sorts of plastic junk in the dead ones, and estimate that even if there isn't another piece of plastic added to the ocean all of the birds here will still be extinct in about 20 years.  there's a medical waste dump nearby that they haven't been able to contain and is seeping into the water killing the fish.  and the phytoplankton, important for creating a huge amount of oxygen, is on a severe decline.  i know its important to learn about these things but between half freezing and the depressing information it didn't end up being a cheerful trip.

the harbor we left from is the only harbor in australia that doesn't have limits for amounts of fish caught, so people come here to catch as much as they can.  the crew said that the japanese come here alot because they have a 20 year back stock of the local tuna and are trying to catch every last one so they can get hundreds of thousands of dollars per fish when this type is extinct.  i don't know how true that is, and if these guys are so conservation minded this seems like an easier thing to fix than plastic or toxic waste.

after lunch we went to a chocolate factory, a cherry farm and 'remarkable cave'.  about half way through i realized i had made a mistake and didn't book the port arthur historic sites.  crap.  the rest of the day was fairly boring and annoying, there was a small group of women from sydney that took about 300 pictures everywhere we went.  first the group (4), then in couples, then singles, then do it all over again with each person's camera, squealing the entire time.  we literally waited an extra 20 minutes everywhere we went for them to finish their pictures.

today i'm catching up on blogs, doing laundry, and wearing every warm piece of clothing i own while i get ready to leave early tomorrow.  i can't wait to be sweaty hot again in cambodia.  i also have to finish all of my local chocolates and tasmanian wine, just waiting for noon so i don't feel guilty.

i've become friends with the owner of this hostel, we hang out when i'm here, he's an older guy from portugal who has lived here most of his life.  he keeps asking my why i haven't brought home any tasmanian guys yet to sample more of the local flavor (this is one of those 'the odds are good but the goods are odd' kinda places).  he even offered his services in case i was feeling like it was something i had to do.  but instead i just let him drive me to the store when i'm too lazy to walk.


me and a seal







wineglass beach, tasmania

wednesday i took a day trip tour to freycinet national park to see wineglass bay, supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  this was the first van i got into that had almost nothing but older people, slightly dismaying, but it turned out quite fun with a group of italians.

the one younger guy on the bus was bob, from china.  bob, of course, is his english name.  someone asked him to say his chinese name and it reminded me of when darryl hannah tells tom hanks her name in that mermaid movie.  impossible for any of us to make those sounds.

along the way the road was covered in dead wallabies.  i haven't been sad about roadkill in a long time.  chickens, who cares.  but these were like tiny kangaroos.  well, not tiny, like hitting dogs with really long tails.  the speed limit at nite is half that of the daytime because all of the animals are on the move but that doesn't really help, especially with the road trains they have here.  the one rule they have is that if you hit a wallaby you have to stop and check its pouch to see if there's a joey inside, and bring it to a vet.

i didn't see any dead tasmanian devils, they're getting pretty scarce.  there's a cancer that's spreading here and there is no cure or preventative.  the government is collecting healthy devils and making parks for them to breed, hoping that the cancer will wipe out the rest and then they can repopulate the island.  they believe the wild devils will be extinct in 2-3 years.

and speaking of extinction, i asked about invasion day and the mostly white scene at the protest.  there are no native tasmanians alive anywhere, so anyone i thought might be aboriginal was not from here.  when the english were settling they were having trouble with the aboriginals so they formed a giant line of men, the 'black line', that spent weeks walking the island killing the natives.  some got away to a smaller island but eventually they all died out.

we arrived at the trail head to wineglass bay lookout and beach, and had a choice.  the hike to the lookout is 40 minutes uphill, the hike to the beach is an hour and a half.  the italians are old and could only tour in the van so they are going to be driven around to accessible lookouts while the rest of us hike.  2 australian women only wanted to go to the lookout, and bob wanted to go to the beach.  i couldn't decide.  the four of us started off together and the trail was beautiful, all carved rock between 2 'mountain' peaks.  one of the women had chronic fatigue so bob and i took off and made a plan to meet them at the lookout.

we hiked up for about half an hour until the trail started sloping downwards.  i had decided to only go to the lookout then back to the van with the rest to see more overlooks in the park, i had gone running the day before and my legs were pretty sore.  but bob and i walked and walked and there was no lookout and pretty soon i stopped and could hear ocean.  i saw an old lady making her way down the rocks slowly and figured that she couldn't be going all the way to the beach so bob and i kept going.

part of the bush around us had wildfire damage and the smell was incredible, burnt eucalyptus, very dreamy.

but pretty soon it was apparent that we missed the lookout.  the sound of the waves was loud and we were far too low for any sort of viewing vantage point.  guess i'm going to the beach.

wineglass beach was definitely beautiful.  miles of white sand and clear blue water.  the wind was up and there was a gnarly beach break, probably close to 10 feet, which gave me molokai flashbacks.  we were told to bring our 'swimmers' but of the 8 people that were on the beach no one dared try to go out.  and the water was freezing cold.

i've seen alot of beaches on this trip, many of them called the most beautiful, but so far nothing has been prettier than hanalei.  wineglass wasn't even close, although it was definitely nice.  it wasn't even shaped like a wineglass, the closest anyone could figure about the name was that it used to be a big area for whaling so the water was always reddish.

bob and i hiked the beach, climbed rocks, took pictures.  we did find the lookout on the way back and it was pretty obvious, not sure how we missed it.  especially since there were dozens of people there and we could hear them talking from a half mile away.

finally found the lookout

bob and a wallaby