Yesterday, I joined my first hash in the US of. I joined my friend Jon and sister Katie and about a dozen older folks for a nice jaunt through some suburban wastelands. The hare was a 40 year old gentleman who went by the name of "Duzzy Cum".
It was quite a different course from what we have done in Japan. Even though we had city hashes in Kumamoto, a lot of those went through a lot of parks and wooded areas. The hash yesterday involved a lot of street running and crossing over busy six lane roads. I have been involved in over thirty hashed in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, but yesterday's hash involved two new experiences that I assume are common elements to American hashes.
1) For a stretch of the course, we ran down active railroad tracks. Oh, there are lots of railroad tracks in Japan but for one reason, we tended to avoid them in most hashes. The reason is that while train tracks in America my have some traffic from time to time, it is still less than the train-every-5-minutes you get in most areas in Japan. Train tracks are simply not a smart place to hang out, also considering there is often few places to get out of the way when a train approaches. I also might think that the instances of suicide by train blocking would make some train officials quick to react seeing a group of foreigners jaunting down the line.
2) The course also took us through a large cemetary. The fact that bodies are cremated and the shortage of usable land makes the traditional western cemetary exceedingly rare in Japan. Many of our hash courses passes by shrines and family memorials no doubt, but a course winding through the headstones and memorial statues was not often experienced. (We even had to take a detour because a lady was praying beside a headstone on the course. Luckily we saw her in time and refrained from yelling "ON ON" or some other hash gab.
Because Katie lost her keys on the course and I drove her back to look for them, we missed the circle and religion, but my friend Jon, as a hash virgin, was given a plunger with which to drink Milwaukee's Best Light and donned a toilet seat as he was serenaded by the Big Hump St. Louis Hashers. At a nearby pub, Katie was recruited to be a hare at next Sunday's hash, almost assuring her immortalization. I plan on being there for it. On On!
Monday, November 14, 2005
Thursday, October 27, 2005
More Photos
I swear my Myanmar summary is coming, I promise to post it soon. In the mean time, you can check out a few more photos I posted from Cambodia and Laos. They correspond to my travel stories posted previously, so if you read those, these are the photos that go with them. Sorry for the inconvenience.
For the past three years while I've been away, two of my friends, Jon Biscan and Ben Klein have taken up a unique hobby. They've been blowing glass at a local Glory Hole and have made some pretty good stuff. Here is a picture of an amazing lamp that has been purchased by a private gallery in Kansas City. Check out some of their work at FUOCO.ORG I've been photgraphing some of their work and hopefully soon those photos will be posted on the site. Support starving artists!
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Photos, Finally
Hey peoples, sorry its taken me so long to post any pictures, but at long last, here's a taste. I posted a few from the first leg of my trip, Cambodia. All the ones I posted so far are from Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of the phenomenal Angkor Wat and surrounding temples. Click here for all of my photos or here for the photos I just added, from Cambodia.
I promise to get more posted when I get back to the states. (That's October 9th!)
To Myanmar - Part 1
This story begins in an unlikely place: an outdoor bath buffeted by strong winds off the Ariake Sea in the Amakusa Islands, Southern Japan. We must go back to early 2003, a spring day still fresh in my mind, the day itself full of accomplishments and the source of rich ideas and plans. That morning, I had run in the annual Amakusa Pearl Line Marathon, a 20km run across the five Pearls--the bridges of Amakusa. I ran the race and was whipped by Austin, another English teacher from Yamaga. My brother Joe was exempt from participation because of a recent basketabll-induced ankle sprain (even though sister Katie, visiting for 2 weeks, ran the 5km race). After the race, Joe, Austin and I relaxed our tattered bodies in the healing waters of the onsen and discussed the upcoming Golden Week vacation. We had about 12 days off and had the whole of Asia virtually at our fingertips. I don't claim to know the evolution of the idea, but we bagan to talk about going to Myanmar. Not many people we had known, in fact no one, had ever ventured to the country formerly known as Burma.
We chatted about it that day, our eyes glowing the the prospect of visiting a place so far away, both literally and figuratively. We knew very little at that point, only that it has had its problems with human rights, was not really on the tourist trail and was run by a military junta government. This was all the more appealing to young adventurers. Over the next few weeks, we talked about it more, but things just didn't work out. I don't really remember why, I think the flight was pretty expensive and the enthusiasm we had that day simply faded a bit. Regardless, Joe and I went on the have a legendary trip through the (allegedly) SARS-ravaged Vietnam that Golden Week.
Two years passed, Austin and Joe returned to their lives in America and I left Japan for more adventures in Southeast Asia. There were three countries I was certianly going to visit--Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Other than that, I had my dreams if things worked out better than perfectly. Perhaps I would go to India or Nepal, maybe Indonesia or the Philipines. Then there was Myanmar. I kept a Myanmar Lonely PLanet travel book I had picked up somewhere in Japan and had it in my luggage the whole time. But I never really thought about opening it until I reached Southern Thailand. At every place I went to in the South, I was accompanied by thousands of other westerners. Scuba sites in Ko Tao, beaches and Full Mooning in Ko Phangan, the rainy Krabi, the breathtaking Ko Phi Phi and the farang filth and tourist purgatory of Patong Beach in Phuket. The day I walked around the foreigner haven of Patong, I decided. I walked into a tour agency and checked the prices for a plane ticket to Yangon, Myanmar. Hordes of people go to Thailand because it is easy, caters to foreigners and their dollar, and is a great place to party and do things you couldn't get away with normally. For these reasons among others, I was ready to leave. I felt I had to find something real, a culture unspoiled by western ideas and still plagued by problems of developing (or stagant, some might argue) nations.
To many people during my travels, I mentioned the prospect of Myanmar and recieved many inquisitive looks. "Myanamar?" they asked. "Burma...?" I replied. Does that ring a bell? I delighted in the prospect of going to a place most people didn't know the name of, let alone be able to find it on a map. (Can you?)
So after my trip to Kanchanaburi to wait for my visa, I was more than ready to go. What happened in Myanmar far exceeded my expectations. I hope I can accuratley convey my feelings about what I experienced in my regrettably short trip (one week)to Myanmar. I think it's gonna take a little more time to be able to do that.
Check back for part 2.
We chatted about it that day, our eyes glowing the the prospect of visiting a place so far away, both literally and figuratively. We knew very little at that point, only that it has had its problems with human rights, was not really on the tourist trail and was run by a military junta government. This was all the more appealing to young adventurers. Over the next few weeks, we talked about it more, but things just didn't work out. I don't really remember why, I think the flight was pretty expensive and the enthusiasm we had that day simply faded a bit. Regardless, Joe and I went on the have a legendary trip through the (allegedly) SARS-ravaged Vietnam that Golden Week.
Two years passed, Austin and Joe returned to their lives in America and I left Japan for more adventures in Southeast Asia. There were three countries I was certianly going to visit--Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Other than that, I had my dreams if things worked out better than perfectly. Perhaps I would go to India or Nepal, maybe Indonesia or the Philipines. Then there was Myanmar. I kept a Myanmar Lonely PLanet travel book I had picked up somewhere in Japan and had it in my luggage the whole time. But I never really thought about opening it until I reached Southern Thailand. At every place I went to in the South, I was accompanied by thousands of other westerners. Scuba sites in Ko Tao, beaches and Full Mooning in Ko Phangan, the rainy Krabi, the breathtaking Ko Phi Phi and the farang filth and tourist purgatory of Patong Beach in Phuket. The day I walked around the foreigner haven of Patong, I decided. I walked into a tour agency and checked the prices for a plane ticket to Yangon, Myanmar. Hordes of people go to Thailand because it is easy, caters to foreigners and their dollar, and is a great place to party and do things you couldn't get away with normally. For these reasons among others, I was ready to leave. I felt I had to find something real, a culture unspoiled by western ideas and still plagued by problems of developing (or stagant, some might argue) nations.
To many people during my travels, I mentioned the prospect of Myanmar and recieved many inquisitive looks. "Myanamar?" they asked. "Burma...?" I replied. Does that ring a bell? I delighted in the prospect of going to a place most people didn't know the name of, let alone be able to find it on a map. (Can you?)
So after my trip to Kanchanaburi to wait for my visa, I was more than ready to go. What happened in Myanmar far exceeded my expectations. I hope I can accuratley convey my feelings about what I experienced in my regrettably short trip (one week)to Myanmar. I think it's gonna take a little more time to be able to do that.
Check back for part 2.
Through the Hellfire
Last week, while awaiting my Myanmar visa, I took a three day trip to Kanchanaburi Province, a two hour ride west of Bangkok. It is a beautiful area, with many tropical forests and amazing National Parks. Also, it is the origin of the infamous "Death Railway". For a year and a half in WWII, Japanese forced POWs captured from Malaysia and Singapore to construct a railway from Thailand to Burma (Myanmar) amid unfathomable conditions. The dense jungle harbored all manners of dangers and hazards, including but not limited to Malaria, lack of food and water, deadly heat and lethal monsoon rains, allied air attacks, not to mention the treatment from Japanese and Korean captors.
I fist visited the War Cemetary, where the remains of thousands of victims are buried. All of the victims buring here are English, Australian or Dutch (the few American victims' remains were sent back to America). I stayed in a riverside guesthouse just a few hundred yards from the "Bridge Over the Kwai", made famous in the movie. On the second day, we had a chance to visit the museum at Hellfire Pass. At this remote site, the POWs were forced to make a massive cutting into sheer rock using no more than primitve picks and metal tools. Many died from exhaustion, sickness and malnutrition. The nearby museum was created by the Australian Veterans' Association. There was an amazing audio tour that you could listen to as you walked along the former railway, through the massive rock cutting created so horrifically. It was done as tastefully as any other memorial I have been to.
On the final day, our small group visited Erawan National Park and the breathtaking seven step waterfall. For those of you familiar with Kumamoto, imagine Kikuchi gorge stretched over 2km, with towering waterfall at almost each step only these falls cascade over limestone, which has been smoothed over a lot more easily than the jagged volcanic rocks. We went swimming at every step and located a possible jumping point from a 12m fall. There were two Dutch gentlemen who were strongly opposed to a jump, but a Brit John and I would not be denied. We tested the depth and finding a deep pool, we plunged from the top and were delighted.
Another interesting expeience happened on my first night in Kanchanaburi. I was put in a room with an Irish guy Damien, and his two Irish friends Jim and Sinead. I have traveled in New Zealand and Australia and have been around English speakers from nearly every English-speaking country, but never have I been more dumbfounded by someone's language. As I shared a beer with the three on the banks of the Kwai River, I just listened. The three went on talking for five minutes, and honestly, I could not tell you one thing they were talking about. They were from Belfast and Dublin, but talked so fast in with such different inflection and vocabulary, I just sat back and smiled. It was quite a humbling experience for an amateur linguist such as myself.
With the end of my three days in Kanchanaburi, I (and luckily my visa) was ready to go to Myanmar.
I fist visited the War Cemetary, where the remains of thousands of victims are buried. All of the victims buring here are English, Australian or Dutch (the few American victims' remains were sent back to America). I stayed in a riverside guesthouse just a few hundred yards from the "Bridge Over the Kwai", made famous in the movie. On the second day, we had a chance to visit the museum at Hellfire Pass. At this remote site, the POWs were forced to make a massive cutting into sheer rock using no more than primitve picks and metal tools. Many died from exhaustion, sickness and malnutrition. The nearby museum was created by the Australian Veterans' Association. There was an amazing audio tour that you could listen to as you walked along the former railway, through the massive rock cutting created so horrifically. It was done as tastefully as any other memorial I have been to.
On the final day, our small group visited Erawan National Park and the breathtaking seven step waterfall. For those of you familiar with Kumamoto, imagine Kikuchi gorge stretched over 2km, with towering waterfall at almost each step only these falls cascade over limestone, which has been smoothed over a lot more easily than the jagged volcanic rocks. We went swimming at every step and located a possible jumping point from a 12m fall. There were two Dutch gentlemen who were strongly opposed to a jump, but a Brit John and I would not be denied. We tested the depth and finding a deep pool, we plunged from the top and were delighted.
Another interesting expeience happened on my first night in Kanchanaburi. I was put in a room with an Irish guy Damien, and his two Irish friends Jim and Sinead. I have traveled in New Zealand and Australia and have been around English speakers from nearly every English-speaking country, but never have I been more dumbfounded by someone's language. As I shared a beer with the three on the banks of the Kwai River, I just listened. The three went on talking for five minutes, and honestly, I could not tell you one thing they were talking about. They were from Belfast and Dublin, but talked so fast in with such different inflection and vocabulary, I just sat back and smiled. It was quite a humbling experience for an amateur linguist such as myself.
With the end of my three days in Kanchanaburi, I (and luckily my visa) was ready to go to Myanmar.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Waterwheel on my Mind
As I am blanketed with e-mails regarding the upcoming Waterwheel party in Amakusa, Kumamoto, I think back on all the great jumps I made from the bridge at the hallowed site. Whether it was an early morning plunge or a late night/mid-thunderstorm suicide jump, I always enjoyed it. So when I arrived yesterday on Ko Phi Phi island in Southern Thailand and saw a sign for cliff jumping, well, I was delighted to say the least.
I met my guide Roy at about 10:30 am and was happy to learn no one else would be joining us. No one else to get in the way of Roy's cliff jumping expertise and my willingness to absorb his tutelage. We headed out on a small boat in the intense sunshine to some cliffs overlooking the center strip of the I shaped island. Roy gave me some substantial rubber shoes and rubber gloves and I was quite happy he did as we climbed up razor-sharp limestome formations. Over the next hour and a half, I attempted six jumps.
#1 - 8 meters (Hey Americans, 1 meter ~ 3 ft [Got Metric?])
#2 - 12 meters from a tree branch
#3 - 20 meters and 2 lungs full or water
#4 - 12 meters from the rocks
#5 - 20 meters on video and significantly less water in the lungs
#6 - A dive from 8 meters and a sore scalp
Standing on the ledge looking down at the ocean 20 meters below, I felt pretty nervous as you could imagine. However, I have been trained well and honed my skills over the cornucopia of waterfalls of Southern Japan.
It was an intense experience no doubt, but I had a nice chat with my man Roy between jumps and he told me all about his experience and the terrible tsunami of last year. I don't know the death toll form this small island, but it was significant. All over the island are signs of damage, abandoned hotels, eerily green hotel pools, random bricks everywhere; a sense of devastation nearly overcome. Roy's family all survived, but he lost many friends. I have been very lucky to avoid the plethora of natural disasters that have seem to have become very common recently and hopefully will continue to miss them.
As I took a walk this morning, I saw a group of foreigners who looked as if they should have been fast asleep recovering from a night of buckets, but they weren't. They were working on a massive garden just behind the beach, others picking up trash and junk that has become pretty much an endless job here. I think I may join them tomorrow.
I met my guide Roy at about 10:30 am and was happy to learn no one else would be joining us. No one else to get in the way of Roy's cliff jumping expertise and my willingness to absorb his tutelage. We headed out on a small boat in the intense sunshine to some cliffs overlooking the center strip of the I shaped island. Roy gave me some substantial rubber shoes and rubber gloves and I was quite happy he did as we climbed up razor-sharp limestome formations. Over the next hour and a half, I attempted six jumps.
#1 - 8 meters (Hey Americans, 1 meter ~ 3 ft [Got Metric?])
#2 - 12 meters from a tree branch
#3 - 20 meters and 2 lungs full or water
#4 - 12 meters from the rocks
#5 - 20 meters on video and significantly less water in the lungs
#6 - A dive from 8 meters and a sore scalp
Standing on the ledge looking down at the ocean 20 meters below, I felt pretty nervous as you could imagine. However, I have been trained well and honed my skills over the cornucopia of waterfalls of Southern Japan.
It was an intense experience no doubt, but I had a nice chat with my man Roy between jumps and he told me all about his experience and the terrible tsunami of last year. I don't know the death toll form this small island, but it was significant. All over the island are signs of damage, abandoned hotels, eerily green hotel pools, random bricks everywhere; a sense of devastation nearly overcome. Roy's family all survived, but he lost many friends. I have been very lucky to avoid the plethora of natural disasters that have seem to have become very common recently and hopefully will continue to miss them.
As I took a walk this morning, I saw a group of foreigners who looked as if they should have been fast asleep recovering from a night of buckets, but they weren't. They were working on a massive garden just behind the beach, others picking up trash and junk that has become pretty much an endless job here. I think I may join them tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Full Moon to Krabi
First of all, I must apologize. I have yet to post any photos of any of my travels in SE Asia. I have my adapter right here in my bag and I was just ready to upload some photos when I looked down and there is no USB port on my computer. The one next to me in this cafe has two, but is out of order. Such is Thailand.
After finishing diving on Ko Tao, I got on a ferry to Ko Phangan in very rough seas. I made the mistake of pounding a 7-11 hot dog as I got on the ferry, but luckily it didn't make a reappearance. As we docked at the town of Thong Sala, the ropes holding the boat to the dock quickly snapped and a deck hand lost part of his and was seen hurriedly seeking medical attention. Finally, we were able to get off the boat when they tied it to another and we climbed over both onto dry land.
I spent three nights at the family-oriented Nai Pan Noi beach where I did some serious relaxing and reading. One afternoon, I set out to explore a nearby waterfall (barely a trickle) and ended up climbing some hills more inland and ended up at this amazing view point. It was a thin granite rock jutting out almost 1000 feet above the ocean and a sheer 200 ft drop to the forest below.
The next day, I decided to try out the scuba diving on Ko Phangan. We went to the nearby Ang Thong Marine Park and made two dives. The first dive was great, saw a few Sting Rays and some nice coral even though the water was pretty cloudy. The second dive was with a Master in training, and this young lady had some problems. We got separated from two other gentlemen in our group so we surfaced to find them. They were very far away. So we went back under and our guide apparently set a course for us to swim and get nearer to the others. However, she bagan to swim in circles and my buddy and I looked at eachother and shook our heads but had no choice but to follow her. Finally, we surfaced again and found that we had been swimming exactly the opposite direction we needed to go and we were now a good 1000 ft from the boat. It was an exhausting 20 minute swim back and our guide felt pretty bad.
On Saturday, the day before the Full Moon Party at Haad Rin Beach, I boarded a ferry and made my way to party central. I located a nice bungalow that was surprisingly available on a quiter beach away from the action. For two days, the wind off the ocean barely dipped below 30 mph. When I layed on my hammock on the porch of my dwelling, the mosquitos didn't stand a chance in the wind so I was naturally protected.
The next day, the town was noticeably more packed. I knew a few people staying in town from scuba diving and random travels, and I tried to meet up with them as the party got in full swing. I strolled over to the beach around 10 pm. All along the beach, there was massive speaker systems blaring terrible techno crap and all the glitter and neon paint that go along with it. I walked around a bit more, slightly surprised by how many Thai police were on the beat. I briefly talked to my man E.T., an Israeli guy I had hiked with in Chiang Mai. After taking it all in, I was ready to retire to my windy bungalow and was happily asleep by 1 am.
The next day, I crowded onto a ferry with 300 hungover party-goers for the four hour ride to Surat Thani, from where I caught a bus to rainy Krabi. On the ferry was one of the scuba instructors I had dove with and he busted out a portable cd player. I traded him my ipod for a bit and was able to finally listen to the brand new Kanye West that Katie had bought me in Ko Tao. Tight beats, cop that.
So I am now in Krabi, land of amazing rock-climbing, gorgeous beaches and breathtaking kayaking...when the weather is good. It's been mostly raining. I rented a motorbike and put an enjoyable 100km on it today and will try to do the same tomorrow.
I am still having an amazing time, but I seem to be ready to go back home. Perhaps its "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson that has got me itching to get back to the states. There is so much to see here, and yet I have seen relatively little of America. I don't have a plan yet for the rest of my time in Thailand(nor a plane ticket home), but I think I will go to Myanmar before I get out.
After finishing diving on Ko Tao, I got on a ferry to Ko Phangan in very rough seas. I made the mistake of pounding a 7-11 hot dog as I got on the ferry, but luckily it didn't make a reappearance. As we docked at the town of Thong Sala, the ropes holding the boat to the dock quickly snapped and a deck hand lost part of his and was seen hurriedly seeking medical attention. Finally, we were able to get off the boat when they tied it to another and we climbed over both onto dry land.
I spent three nights at the family-oriented Nai Pan Noi beach where I did some serious relaxing and reading. One afternoon, I set out to explore a nearby waterfall (barely a trickle) and ended up climbing some hills more inland and ended up at this amazing view point. It was a thin granite rock jutting out almost 1000 feet above the ocean and a sheer 200 ft drop to the forest below.
The next day, I decided to try out the scuba diving on Ko Phangan. We went to the nearby Ang Thong Marine Park and made two dives. The first dive was great, saw a few Sting Rays and some nice coral even though the water was pretty cloudy. The second dive was with a Master in training, and this young lady had some problems. We got separated from two other gentlemen in our group so we surfaced to find them. They were very far away. So we went back under and our guide apparently set a course for us to swim and get nearer to the others. However, she bagan to swim in circles and my buddy and I looked at eachother and shook our heads but had no choice but to follow her. Finally, we surfaced again and found that we had been swimming exactly the opposite direction we needed to go and we were now a good 1000 ft from the boat. It was an exhausting 20 minute swim back and our guide felt pretty bad.
On Saturday, the day before the Full Moon Party at Haad Rin Beach, I boarded a ferry and made my way to party central. I located a nice bungalow that was surprisingly available on a quiter beach away from the action. For two days, the wind off the ocean barely dipped below 30 mph. When I layed on my hammock on the porch of my dwelling, the mosquitos didn't stand a chance in the wind so I was naturally protected.
The next day, the town was noticeably more packed. I knew a few people staying in town from scuba diving and random travels, and I tried to meet up with them as the party got in full swing. I strolled over to the beach around 10 pm. All along the beach, there was massive speaker systems blaring terrible techno crap and all the glitter and neon paint that go along with it. I walked around a bit more, slightly surprised by how many Thai police were on the beat. I briefly talked to my man E.T., an Israeli guy I had hiked with in Chiang Mai. After taking it all in, I was ready to retire to my windy bungalow and was happily asleep by 1 am.
The next day, I crowded onto a ferry with 300 hungover party-goers for the four hour ride to Surat Thani, from where I caught a bus to rainy Krabi. On the ferry was one of the scuba instructors I had dove with and he busted out a portable cd player. I traded him my ipod for a bit and was able to finally listen to the brand new Kanye West that Katie had bought me in Ko Tao. Tight beats, cop that.
So I am now in Krabi, land of amazing rock-climbing, gorgeous beaches and breathtaking kayaking...when the weather is good. It's been mostly raining. I rented a motorbike and put an enjoyable 100km on it today and will try to do the same tomorrow.
I am still having an amazing time, but I seem to be ready to go back home. Perhaps its "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson that has got me itching to get back to the states. There is so much to see here, and yet I have seen relatively little of America. I don't have a plan yet for the rest of my time in Thailand(nor a plane ticket home), but I think I will go to Myanmar before I get out.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Anatomy of a Perfect Day
Once in a while, a day is extraordinary. Not just one amazing experience, but three or four, or even a whole series of events work out perfectly. On days like these, acquaintances become friends. You have little time to stop and think about these fun things as you are experiencing them, but the slow pace of Ko Tao Island has allowed me to spend a little time thinking about it, so I share this day with you.
7:00 am - Wake up and get ready to go out diving. Today I am doing two of my five Advanced Level dives. In the morning, I do my Multi-level dive. In this dive, I go with my Danish instructor, Henrik. We spend the first part of the dive at 18 meters then move to 12 meters for the rest of the dive. The point of the dive in to use charts to track the amount of residual nitrogen in the blood and maximize dive time while minimizing time spent on the surface between dives. The dive goes very well, the water was a bit cloudy, but I am able to enjoy some stellar views of some coral-covered boulders and exotic fish.
10:00 am - Upon sufacing from my first dive and getting back on the boat, Henrik tells me it would be alright if I go ahead and join him and three beginner students on the next dive at no extra charge. On this dive, I am able to basically go on my own and practice some buoyancy tricks like floating upside down at a constant depth. While Henrik is occupied with another diver, one of the beginners begin to approach a pretty large fish. I don't know what it was, but see some pretty large teeth in its mouth. The next thing I know, Henrik is swimming towards this young Dane and grabbing him and pulling him away. It is a Triggerfish, known to attack and severely bite some humans if disturbed.
12:00 pm - Our boat returns to our dive shop and resort. I enjoy some delicious Pad Thai for lunch. I relax for a bit, enjoying the amazing setting of our resort. I am staying at the Big Fish Resort. It is a haven for German and Danish scuba divers, all the instructors are multi-lingual and very skilled. The operation in run by an older American guy named Bryan who has been on the Island for 20 years. He was one of the first foreigners here to exploit the scuba opportunities and immense growth potential of the Island. His small resort now sits nestled among countless others on a secluded and calm bay on the South of Ko Tao. This time of year, the weather can change from day to day. These two days, it has been sunny and perfectly clear until late afternoon when the clouds move in.
3:00 pm - Enough with relaxing, time to do something. I have a night dive leaving at six o'clock, so I have about three hours to do some exploring. I grab a snorkel and a mask and make up my mind that I will get to Buddha Point. It is a large crop of rocks that marks the left tip on the cove we are in. The entire side of the cove consists of massive granite boulders. Buddha Point is the tallest formation, with a smaller boulder perched precariously on top on a very large round one, roughly resembling a sitting Buddha. A Billiken, perhaps. If you are familiar with the unique and exotic places of Southern Missouri, it's like Elephant Rocks with the ocean surf splashing against them. As I looked out at the rocks, I notice something that makes my heart jump. A newly constructed basketball court belonging to a neighboring resort calls me. There was a flat soccer ball nearby, so I take the opportunity to polish my skills that I sadly haven't used in months. The rims are a bit lower than usual, nine feet perhaps. As I rise to dunk the soccer ball, I fall woefully short, barely skimming the net. An old Thai man watching nearby cracks a knowing smile. I try it a couple more times, getting higher each time. At last, I rise, tuck the ball against my wrist, then release, slamming it home with authority. As the ball rolls to a stop, I walked off the court, satisfied I could still do something so important as dunk a basetball on a lowered rim. Really, it's been a lifelong love of mine.
So I head out into our cove. It is impossible to climb across the rocks at first, so I swim and snorkell out into the bay. Finally, I am able to scramble up onto the rocks and follow a seaside path along the coast. Again, I am forced into the water. The boulders begin to get larger as I get further out. I climb back onto the rocks painfully close to the sitting Buddha. The rocks are balanced in such a way that at some points, I have to split my legs and climb using pressure, as one might do in a thin hallway. A couple places, I have to use a well-placed rope to get up. As I climb higher, I crawl through a small crevice with a stiff wind coming from it. When I get through, I look up and see nothing but open ocean. I am about 30 meters above the lapping waters and can clearly see the entire bay and tiny bungalows on the beach. But I am not at Buddha yet. I climb higher, grabbing the odd tree branch for support. All of a sudden, a severe pain directly on my buttocks, then another on my hand. Bees! Before I had time to see how many I had stumbled into, or how big the nest was, I was sliding back down the hill, falling over the same tree branches and glancing for bees in pursuit. I am only stung twice and I am safe. Now for the Buddha. I wisely choose another route up the hill and am soon staring at the boulder that is Buddha's head. I made it. I jumped across the last few boulders and sit on Buddha's shoulder. I took in the view of the ocean, back at the Island and at the ever-clouding but still clear sky. It's a feeling like dunking that dusty soccer ball, but a perhaps a little sweeter.
5:00 pm - I get back and join my sister Katie and her freshly stitched up friend Gwen at the restaurant. They were ordering fruit shakes and inconspicuously adding the secret ingredient named after the fine city of Malibu. I was too hyped about my approaching night dive to eat anything more than my own non-alcoholic Tomato shake.
6:00 pm - We head out on the very rough seas to our night dive site. Among the divers was a 20 year old German named Moritz who proudly professes a fondness for women with ancestral origin in the continent under Europe. Another diver Patti, from California, had been working in Australia and took a vacation to Bali, from where she took a vacation to Thailand. Christian is another Dane doing his Advanced Certification as I am. When we get to the dive site, there are several other boats and lights coming from swimming divers under the surface. We get the dive plan from Henrik, then plunge into blackness. We take our powerful torches to the depths and quickly encounter a dryer-sized jellyfish floating effortlessly above us. I glance over and see something rather unnatural. There is an abandoned pair of goggles resting on the sand of the bottom. I snatch them up and with Moritz's help, stow them in my pocket. For nearly 50 minutes, we swim through the dark, encountering three Sting Rays, two Squid, two Crustaceans tucked away in massive conches and countless other startled fish. When we surface and get on the boat, I whip out my new prize and am told by Henrik they're a nice set of 50-dollar goggles and are mine to keep. Bonus.
9:00 pm - When we get back to Big Fish, I join Patti and Christian for a well needed dinner of fried Squid (my mouth was watering when I encounted them in the deep). Following dinner we go to the nearby bar and order two "Buckets". A massive container filled with a delicious blend of Saengsom Rum/Whiskey, Coke and Red Bull. After some good conversation and entertainment from several fire-swingers, it is getting a bit late.
1:00 am - We leave the bar and head to the only late night destination at our disposal on this tiny Island adrift in the Gulf of Thailand, 7-11. One of us three indulges in a foot-long hot dog and a liter bottle of coke. Unbelievably, it is not an American. As we stroll back down the street, I see it. One of the diving resorts trains its divers in a pool before unleashing them into the ocean. We quickly disrobe and jump into the darkened pool. We were a bit worried about getting caught and ejected from the premesis, but all we got were the odd group of drunken tourists asking us how to find So and So Bar.
2:00 am - Another moment of inspiration seeps into my brain. I scale the wall next to the pool then hop on the overhanging roof of the nearby resort. For the next 20 minutes, we proceeded to make several noisy jumps from the roof into the deep end, drawing the attention of exactly no one.
3:00 am - We wind down with another covert swim in the resort next to ours, with Patti commandeering several table cloths for use as towels. A beautiful ending to a beautiful day.
In two hours, I will leave the Island of Ko Tao and take a ferry to another Island called Ko Phanang. More adventures await, including one known as the "Full Moon Party".
7:00 am - Wake up and get ready to go out diving. Today I am doing two of my five Advanced Level dives. In the morning, I do my Multi-level dive. In this dive, I go with my Danish instructor, Henrik. We spend the first part of the dive at 18 meters then move to 12 meters for the rest of the dive. The point of the dive in to use charts to track the amount of residual nitrogen in the blood and maximize dive time while minimizing time spent on the surface between dives. The dive goes very well, the water was a bit cloudy, but I am able to enjoy some stellar views of some coral-covered boulders and exotic fish.
10:00 am - Upon sufacing from my first dive and getting back on the boat, Henrik tells me it would be alright if I go ahead and join him and three beginner students on the next dive at no extra charge. On this dive, I am able to basically go on my own and practice some buoyancy tricks like floating upside down at a constant depth. While Henrik is occupied with another diver, one of the beginners begin to approach a pretty large fish. I don't know what it was, but see some pretty large teeth in its mouth. The next thing I know, Henrik is swimming towards this young Dane and grabbing him and pulling him away. It is a Triggerfish, known to attack and severely bite some humans if disturbed.
12:00 pm - Our boat returns to our dive shop and resort. I enjoy some delicious Pad Thai for lunch. I relax for a bit, enjoying the amazing setting of our resort. I am staying at the Big Fish Resort. It is a haven for German and Danish scuba divers, all the instructors are multi-lingual and very skilled. The operation in run by an older American guy named Bryan who has been on the Island for 20 years. He was one of the first foreigners here to exploit the scuba opportunities and immense growth potential of the Island. His small resort now sits nestled among countless others on a secluded and calm bay on the South of Ko Tao. This time of year, the weather can change from day to day. These two days, it has been sunny and perfectly clear until late afternoon when the clouds move in.
3:00 pm - Enough with relaxing, time to do something. I have a night dive leaving at six o'clock, so I have about three hours to do some exploring. I grab a snorkel and a mask and make up my mind that I will get to Buddha Point. It is a large crop of rocks that marks the left tip on the cove we are in. The entire side of the cove consists of massive granite boulders. Buddha Point is the tallest formation, with a smaller boulder perched precariously on top on a very large round one, roughly resembling a sitting Buddha. A Billiken, perhaps. If you are familiar with the unique and exotic places of Southern Missouri, it's like Elephant Rocks with the ocean surf splashing against them. As I looked out at the rocks, I notice something that makes my heart jump. A newly constructed basketball court belonging to a neighboring resort calls me. There was a flat soccer ball nearby, so I take the opportunity to polish my skills that I sadly haven't used in months. The rims are a bit lower than usual, nine feet perhaps. As I rise to dunk the soccer ball, I fall woefully short, barely skimming the net. An old Thai man watching nearby cracks a knowing smile. I try it a couple more times, getting higher each time. At last, I rise, tuck the ball against my wrist, then release, slamming it home with authority. As the ball rolls to a stop, I walked off the court, satisfied I could still do something so important as dunk a basetball on a lowered rim. Really, it's been a lifelong love of mine.
So I head out into our cove. It is impossible to climb across the rocks at first, so I swim and snorkell out into the bay. Finally, I am able to scramble up onto the rocks and follow a seaside path along the coast. Again, I am forced into the water. The boulders begin to get larger as I get further out. I climb back onto the rocks painfully close to the sitting Buddha. The rocks are balanced in such a way that at some points, I have to split my legs and climb using pressure, as one might do in a thin hallway. A couple places, I have to use a well-placed rope to get up. As I climb higher, I crawl through a small crevice with a stiff wind coming from it. When I get through, I look up and see nothing but open ocean. I am about 30 meters above the lapping waters and can clearly see the entire bay and tiny bungalows on the beach. But I am not at Buddha yet. I climb higher, grabbing the odd tree branch for support. All of a sudden, a severe pain directly on my buttocks, then another on my hand. Bees! Before I had time to see how many I had stumbled into, or how big the nest was, I was sliding back down the hill, falling over the same tree branches and glancing for bees in pursuit. I am only stung twice and I am safe. Now for the Buddha. I wisely choose another route up the hill and am soon staring at the boulder that is Buddha's head. I made it. I jumped across the last few boulders and sit on Buddha's shoulder. I took in the view of the ocean, back at the Island and at the ever-clouding but still clear sky. It's a feeling like dunking that dusty soccer ball, but a perhaps a little sweeter.
5:00 pm - I get back and join my sister Katie and her freshly stitched up friend Gwen at the restaurant. They were ordering fruit shakes and inconspicuously adding the secret ingredient named after the fine city of Malibu. I was too hyped about my approaching night dive to eat anything more than my own non-alcoholic Tomato shake.
6:00 pm - We head out on the very rough seas to our night dive site. Among the divers was a 20 year old German named Moritz who proudly professes a fondness for women with ancestral origin in the continent under Europe. Another diver Patti, from California, had been working in Australia and took a vacation to Bali, from where she took a vacation to Thailand. Christian is another Dane doing his Advanced Certification as I am. When we get to the dive site, there are several other boats and lights coming from swimming divers under the surface. We get the dive plan from Henrik, then plunge into blackness. We take our powerful torches to the depths and quickly encounter a dryer-sized jellyfish floating effortlessly above us. I glance over and see something rather unnatural. There is an abandoned pair of goggles resting on the sand of the bottom. I snatch them up and with Moritz's help, stow them in my pocket. For nearly 50 minutes, we swim through the dark, encountering three Sting Rays, two Squid, two Crustaceans tucked away in massive conches and countless other startled fish. When we surface and get on the boat, I whip out my new prize and am told by Henrik they're a nice set of 50-dollar goggles and are mine to keep. Bonus.
9:00 pm - When we get back to Big Fish, I join Patti and Christian for a well needed dinner of fried Squid (my mouth was watering when I encounted them in the deep). Following dinner we go to the nearby bar and order two "Buckets". A massive container filled with a delicious blend of Saengsom Rum/Whiskey, Coke and Red Bull. After some good conversation and entertainment from several fire-swingers, it is getting a bit late.
1:00 am - We leave the bar and head to the only late night destination at our disposal on this tiny Island adrift in the Gulf of Thailand, 7-11. One of us three indulges in a foot-long hot dog and a liter bottle of coke. Unbelievably, it is not an American. As we stroll back down the street, I see it. One of the diving resorts trains its divers in a pool before unleashing them into the ocean. We quickly disrobe and jump into the darkened pool. We were a bit worried about getting caught and ejected from the premesis, but all we got were the odd group of drunken tourists asking us how to find So and So Bar.
2:00 am - Another moment of inspiration seeps into my brain. I scale the wall next to the pool then hop on the overhanging roof of the nearby resort. For the next 20 minutes, we proceeded to make several noisy jumps from the roof into the deep end, drawing the attention of exactly no one.
3:00 am - We wind down with another covert swim in the resort next to ours, with Patti commandeering several table cloths for use as towels. A beautiful ending to a beautiful day.
In two hours, I will leave the Island of Ko Tao and take a ferry to another Island called Ko Phanang. More adventures await, including one known as the "Full Moon Party".
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Fingerhuts Underwater in Ko Tao
My older sister Lynn and I have been scuba diving every day for the past 5 days. We got to Ko Tao Island and found a nice little row of bungalows called Big Fish. The guy who runs the place in an old American dude who has been here for 20 years. For some odd reason, most of this resort's customers are Danish or German. The scuba instructors speak English so that's all that mattered. We signed up for the PADI Certification course. We watched the videos and read the textbook, flashback to half-ass homework assignments in high school.
After practicing some basic skills, we were ready for the open water. Our first few days we spent in water up to 18 meters (about 54 feet) just getting comfortable adjusting our ears and monitoring our breathing air. Yesterday, we finished the beginner's course. Lynn got a ticket for the ferry to the neighboring island of Ko Samui, and I chatted with our instructor Henrik about the advanced diving course. When Lynny heard that I would be going to 30m (100ft) today, she had to do it too. With one swipe of the pen from Mr. Boat Ticket Man, she got it changed. This morning, we descended to the deep and tested ourselves for nitrogen narcosis. It is a condition some people get when diving at deeper depths. Some people can get almost delirious from excess nitrogen in the blood. (It is said that some narcosified individuals offer their breathing apparatus to fish swimming nearby. Luckily, we kept it in our mouths.) We had to perform a simple number test. On the surface, I did it in 15 seconds. Down below, I took a sluggish 18.
I spent the day today keeping a 150cc motorbike from slipping, sliding and crashing down the unsealed roads of the island with 3 Danes and a German. Lynn finally got on the ferry this afternoon, off to explore more of Southern Thailand before flying back next week. I got an e-mail from younger sister Katie who said she is coming here Sunday or Monday with her friend. As I undergo the Great Southern Thailand Sister-Swap, I will continue with my advanced course, tomorrow diving during the night. We will take torches (flashlights) to see what kind of shenanigans go on under the water after dark. (I heard at one point, we all turn them off at once. Can't wait!) I am thinking of continuing here until I get a Diver Rescue Certificate, still a few steps away.
On a different note, I want to call attention to the Kyushu Hash House Harriers. They are once again going strong. After a very solid Hash in Miyazaki to open the year, there will be a huge City-Hash this Saturday. I cannot wait to hear all about it. If you are checking the Champon Adventures from Japan, I suggest you get out and Hash! Good job to everyone involved and keep up the good work. Brother Disco Ass is watching from afar(even when I am underwater).
After practicing some basic skills, we were ready for the open water. Our first few days we spent in water up to 18 meters (about 54 feet) just getting comfortable adjusting our ears and monitoring our breathing air. Yesterday, we finished the beginner's course. Lynn got a ticket for the ferry to the neighboring island of Ko Samui, and I chatted with our instructor Henrik about the advanced diving course. When Lynny heard that I would be going to 30m (100ft) today, she had to do it too. With one swipe of the pen from Mr. Boat Ticket Man, she got it changed. This morning, we descended to the deep and tested ourselves for nitrogen narcosis. It is a condition some people get when diving at deeper depths. Some people can get almost delirious from excess nitrogen in the blood. (It is said that some narcosified individuals offer their breathing apparatus to fish swimming nearby. Luckily, we kept it in our mouths.) We had to perform a simple number test. On the surface, I did it in 15 seconds. Down below, I took a sluggish 18.
I spent the day today keeping a 150cc motorbike from slipping, sliding and crashing down the unsealed roads of the island with 3 Danes and a German. Lynn finally got on the ferry this afternoon, off to explore more of Southern Thailand before flying back next week. I got an e-mail from younger sister Katie who said she is coming here Sunday or Monday with her friend. As I undergo the Great Southern Thailand Sister-Swap, I will continue with my advanced course, tomorrow diving during the night. We will take torches (flashlights) to see what kind of shenanigans go on under the water after dark. (I heard at one point, we all turn them off at once. Can't wait!) I am thinking of continuing here until I get a Diver Rescue Certificate, still a few steps away.
On a different note, I want to call attention to the Kyushu Hash House Harriers. They are once again going strong. After a very solid Hash in Miyazaki to open the year, there will be a huge City-Hash this Saturday. I cannot wait to hear all about it. If you are checking the Champon Adventures from Japan, I suggest you get out and Hash! Good job to everyone involved and keep up the good work. Brother Disco Ass is watching from afar(even when I am underwater).
Friday, September 02, 2005
An Irishman's Close Call
I recently went on a three day/two night trek up into the mountains outside Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand. The first day we hiked up a mountain and stayed the night in a small hut among a hill tribe. We had a group of about twelve people and I think we just about put the village children through college with the purchase of some choice beverages. It was a beautiful place to watch the sunset and the approaching rain.
The next day we set out in the downpour slipping and sliding down the other side of the mountain before spending some time at a massive gushing waterfall in the jungle. This being the rainy season here, the rivers are all swollen although fortunately, the leeches stayed away.
We made our way to our lodging for the second night, anohter hut on the banks of a massive raging river. Wanting to cool off and remove layers upon layers of mud, we ventured a few feet into the river just enough to get wet and clean up a bit. As I was standing there, I glanced over and saw Dez, one of five Irish university students, out further than he should be. He was quickly swept into the massive rapids and he was down river and out of sight before the rest of us could believe what was happening. The other 7 people I was with had their shoes off in the midst of bathing, but I luckily had my shoes on. I sprinted as fast as I could along the banks, falling over rocks and onto the sandbars. I really didn't grasp the gravity of the situation until I paused running, looked down the river and didn't see his head above the water. I continued to run and scramble over the rocks on the side until I finally saw that he had managed to grab onto a bunch of bamboo poles in the middle of the river. I told him to hold on as he screamed for help. I grabbed another bamboo pole and stuck it out to reach him. By this time, our Thai guide Sing was there and he also had a pole. Using both, we managed to pull him to the side. He collapsed on the bank but he was conscious and alive.
There are certain situations in life that happen in fast motion. Something as simple as washing off in a river can escalate into something so far out of our control in a matter of seconds. I can't imagine how things may have turned out and I am certainly not going to spend time thinking about it. Just seeing his body cascade down the muddy water among the jagged rocks of the river and his head barely bobbing above the water was surreal. True, Dez was a lucky Irishman this day and the beer tasted a little better that evening.
The next day we set out in the downpour slipping and sliding down the other side of the mountain before spending some time at a massive gushing waterfall in the jungle. This being the rainy season here, the rivers are all swollen although fortunately, the leeches stayed away.
We made our way to our lodging for the second night, anohter hut on the banks of a massive raging river. Wanting to cool off and remove layers upon layers of mud, we ventured a few feet into the river just enough to get wet and clean up a bit. As I was standing there, I glanced over and saw Dez, one of five Irish university students, out further than he should be. He was quickly swept into the massive rapids and he was down river and out of sight before the rest of us could believe what was happening. The other 7 people I was with had their shoes off in the midst of bathing, but I luckily had my shoes on. I sprinted as fast as I could along the banks, falling over rocks and onto the sandbars. I really didn't grasp the gravity of the situation until I paused running, looked down the river and didn't see his head above the water. I continued to run and scramble over the rocks on the side until I finally saw that he had managed to grab onto a bunch of bamboo poles in the middle of the river. I told him to hold on as he screamed for help. I grabbed another bamboo pole and stuck it out to reach him. By this time, our Thai guide Sing was there and he also had a pole. Using both, we managed to pull him to the side. He collapsed on the bank but he was conscious and alive.
There are certain situations in life that happen in fast motion. Something as simple as washing off in a river can escalate into something so far out of our control in a matter of seconds. I can't imagine how things may have turned out and I am certainly not going to spend time thinking about it. Just seeing his body cascade down the muddy water among the jagged rocks of the river and his head barely bobbing above the water was surreal. True, Dez was a lucky Irishman this day and the beer tasted a little better that evening.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
On to Chiang Mai
I have made it back to Thailand. I am writing from the beautiful town of Chiang Mai.
From the capital of Laos, Vientiane, I took a short bus ride north into the mountains and stayed in a small backpacker's town called Vang Vieng. There are some amazing limestone cliffs overlooking the town and the lazy Nam Cha river winds through. The main bus center of town is on the massive airstrip, built by the American Military "to perpetuate countless crimes." Taking a page from the Southern Missouri's Beer-Drinker's Handbook, tubing has become a popular pasttime. My first day there, I was shuttled about 3km north of town, given a tube and hopped in the Meremac of Northern Laos. Along the way, people have set up little bars serving the excellent BeerLao and other enticements such as rope swings, tree jumps, caves to explore and so on. The next day, I joined a kayaking trip. This time, we were shuttled 20km north of town and stopped at several caves and jumping spots as well as facing the occasional class 2 rapids. My evenings I spent at several establishments in town, drinking cold BeerLao with some Canadian lawyers, sampling the "happy" garlic bread and avoiding the restaurants with episodes of "Friends" playing 24 hours a day, no joke.
From Vang Vieng, I took the breathtaking 7 hour bus ride way up into the mountains of Northern Laos. It was amazing to see how people live along the thin mountain roads. They build their houses on stilts hanging over the side of sheer drop-offs and even carry on some kind of agriculture even though the mountainsides are all over 45 degree angles. The views from the winding road was incredible. Finally we came back down and entered the World Heritage former capital city of Luang Prabang. It is renowned for its French architecture and beautiful temples. The night market was one of the best I have been to--a long street filled with high quality fabrics, scarves, lamps, clothes and the highly sought after BeerLao T-shirts. Most importantly, the sellers did very little hassling, you were free to browse without any pressure, and the crowds were minimal. I spent the day there bicycling around, locating a waterfall not too far from town and having a nice swim, then coming back to relax a bit before climbing the large hill located in the center of town and watching the sunset from a Buddhist temple with views of the town and the majestic mountains in the distance. It was at this point that I realized I had asked myself the question upon arrival in Luang Prabang, "why is this a World Heritage city?" Looking at the town and all the surrounding temples among the pristine mountains, I got the picture.
I made the decision to make it all the way from Luang Prabang to the Thai border at Huay Xi, Laos. To do this in one day would require use of the suicidal, unsafe at any speedboat previously seen crossing from Cambodia into Laos. It was going to be a 6 hour trip up the Mekong river. This time, we were provided with life vests and crash helmets. Despite the deafening engine, I somehow managed to doze off a few times, only to quickly awaken paranoid that I would somehow slump over into the Mekong which was flying by us at about 70 km/h, most likely decapitation to ensue. Arriving in Huay Xi, I was told I could cross the border before it closes and have enough time to catch a 5 hour bus to Chiang Mai in Thailand arriving at about 11pm. With a healthy supply of sleep-aids legal in these countries, I happily agreed and was whisked across the Mekong one last time. I must have slept through a rather powerful thunderstorm in the car, but was delivered safe and sound the the jewel of Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai. I will attempt a 3 day trek/raft/climb/meethillpeople/barbeque/waterfall/elephantride/feedthemonkey/cowtipping adventure in the mountains here before heading back to Bangkok for a mini-Fingerhut reunion of sorts.
My trip count so far: 5 days in Bangkok, 11 days in Cambodia, 9 days in Laos, Chiang Mai - 1 day and counting.
From the capital of Laos, Vientiane, I took a short bus ride north into the mountains and stayed in a small backpacker's town called Vang Vieng. There are some amazing limestone cliffs overlooking the town and the lazy Nam Cha river winds through. The main bus center of town is on the massive airstrip, built by the American Military "to perpetuate countless crimes." Taking a page from the Southern Missouri's Beer-Drinker's Handbook, tubing has become a popular pasttime. My first day there, I was shuttled about 3km north of town, given a tube and hopped in the Meremac of Northern Laos. Along the way, people have set up little bars serving the excellent BeerLao and other enticements such as rope swings, tree jumps, caves to explore and so on. The next day, I joined a kayaking trip. This time, we were shuttled 20km north of town and stopped at several caves and jumping spots as well as facing the occasional class 2 rapids. My evenings I spent at several establishments in town, drinking cold BeerLao with some Canadian lawyers, sampling the "happy" garlic bread and avoiding the restaurants with episodes of "Friends" playing 24 hours a day, no joke.
From Vang Vieng, I took the breathtaking 7 hour bus ride way up into the mountains of Northern Laos. It was amazing to see how people live along the thin mountain roads. They build their houses on stilts hanging over the side of sheer drop-offs and even carry on some kind of agriculture even though the mountainsides are all over 45 degree angles. The views from the winding road was incredible. Finally we came back down and entered the World Heritage former capital city of Luang Prabang. It is renowned for its French architecture and beautiful temples. The night market was one of the best I have been to--a long street filled with high quality fabrics, scarves, lamps, clothes and the highly sought after BeerLao T-shirts. Most importantly, the sellers did very little hassling, you were free to browse without any pressure, and the crowds were minimal. I spent the day there bicycling around, locating a waterfall not too far from town and having a nice swim, then coming back to relax a bit before climbing the large hill located in the center of town and watching the sunset from a Buddhist temple with views of the town and the majestic mountains in the distance. It was at this point that I realized I had asked myself the question upon arrival in Luang Prabang, "why is this a World Heritage city?" Looking at the town and all the surrounding temples among the pristine mountains, I got the picture.
I made the decision to make it all the way from Luang Prabang to the Thai border at Huay Xi, Laos. To do this in one day would require use of the suicidal, unsafe at any speedboat previously seen crossing from Cambodia into Laos. It was going to be a 6 hour trip up the Mekong river. This time, we were provided with life vests and crash helmets. Despite the deafening engine, I somehow managed to doze off a few times, only to quickly awaken paranoid that I would somehow slump over into the Mekong which was flying by us at about 70 km/h, most likely decapitation to ensue. Arriving in Huay Xi, I was told I could cross the border before it closes and have enough time to catch a 5 hour bus to Chiang Mai in Thailand arriving at about 11pm. With a healthy supply of sleep-aids legal in these countries, I happily agreed and was whisked across the Mekong one last time. I must have slept through a rather powerful thunderstorm in the car, but was delivered safe and sound the the jewel of Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai. I will attempt a 3 day trek/raft/climb/meethillpeople/barbeque/waterfall/elephantride/feedthemonkey/cowtipping adventure in the mountains here before heading back to Bangkok for a mini-Fingerhut reunion of sorts.
My trip count so far: 5 days in Bangkok, 11 days in Cambodia, 9 days in Laos, Chiang Mai - 1 day and counting.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
The long road from Phnom Penh to Vientiane
For about the last 5 days, I have been making my way north from the capital of Cambodia to the capital of Loas. It's been an arduous, but surely interesting journey on the backroads and the Mekong.
The first step was a 5 hour short-bus ride north to the small city of Kratie. There was no leg room and my left arm got terribly sunburnt because there wasn't room for it in the bus. In Kratie, me and this geologist Brit John took a short boat ride to see the endangered freshwater Iyerwaddy dolphins in the Mekong river. The next day after falling victim to conniving Kratie driver/transportation system, we set off for Stung Treng. We were guaranteed only 3 people in the back of a taxi for the 4 hour ride because we paid an extra 6 bucks. But sure enough, as soon as we rounded the corner, another guy jumped in. Fleeced again!
In Stung Treng, we boarded a small canoe-type raft with a Toyota car engine attached to it. Needless to say, we flew from Stung Treng to the Cambodia/Lao border crossing. When we left Stung Treng, it was a very sunny day. As we made our way further up the Mekong, it became apparent it was gonna rain. Our tiny boat was unsheltered. As the wind kicked up and our boat driver kept the speed up, we were battered with rain, although it might have been glass shards. Finally, it let up and as we approached the stilted shack known as Cambodia immigration, the super-duper immigration officer got out of his hammock and put on his shirt. He stamped us on our way and collected his "official" $2 overtime fee. Although we thought we paid for transport all the way to Laos, we were then charged another dollar to get to the Laos immigration office across the river. Happy to be out of Cambodia for the time being, we got stamped in Laos, paid the overtime fee there and headed for town as it began to get dark.
We were set on getting to the bungalow/backpacker town of Don Det, located in Si Phan Don, or 4,000 islands area. Here, the mighty Mekong diverges into countless channels creating many islands and picturesque waterfalls. We were able to stay in a nice riverside bungalow for a dollar a night. We spent the next day strolling a couple islands, checking out mile-wide rapids and falls, wading through flooded paths, enjoying the extra-happy menu of the local restaurants and like the Lonely Planet suggests, recovering from Cambodia. On Don Det, I believe I have recovered evidence of the fist ever Ducken--the ducks and chickens of the island have a very good relationship. Recovery complete, we reserved a seat for the next leg of our journey.
Pick it up from my journal entry:
The journey from Don Det to Pakse was an interesting one. John and I got on a Lao truck/bus thingy at 8:40am and told we'd leave at 9am. People were loading bags of all sizes onto the truck. One guy got on, opened one of the bags, pulled out a few frogs and ripped off one of the legs of the still-living thing. Sure enough, we felt the other bags and there were animals of some kind in there. Six Spaniards got on and objected as more and more bags and baskets were loaded on. It got to be 10am, we were still there and the Spaniards weren't happy. One guy displayed his expertise in Spanish cussing. "Joder! Tu puta madre!" Me too. They got off and got there money back, setting off on foot. Finally we set off. On our truck, there were about 20 people, several bags of rice, several bags of animals: species unknown and in various stages of near-death, 2 large pots of fish swimming in Mekong River water (one of whcih fell off onto the road spilling the water and depositing the fish onto the hot pavement), baskets of unknown groaning animals and finally a large wicker cage containing about 40 chickens all crammed together and shitting onto aforementioned bags/baskets/passengers. We happily got off the Farmyard Connection in Pakse, Laos.
John and I recovered with a few of southeast asia's best beers, BeerLao. He was off on an overnight bus to Vientiane, while I was getting a morning bus (the VIP, no farm animals) to the town of Savannakhet. Savannakhet is a town on the Thai border which was heavily bombarded by American troops around the time of Vietnam. I checked out an amazing Buddhist temple then checked out the local Museum. Most of it was an homage to national communist heroes and pictures of farming and Laos' burgeoning "industry" as evidence of its place in world communist powers! Yeah, I was the only one at the museum. Upstairs they had a few old bombs left by America and a few pictures with captions like: "U.S. imperialists and puppet soldiers use Savannakhet Airfield for perpetrating countless crimes." Good stuff. Outside there was an old US fighter plane and some cannons on display. There were a group of teenagers sitting and talking on the fighter plane. One guy was laying on one of the wing flaps. As he got up, the flap turned and he tumbled to the ground. Ah, sweet victory! Vindication! Go USA!
I opted for an overnight bus to Vientiane("local" = no animals, just bags of rice piled 2 deep in the aisles and from floor to cieling in the rear). I managed some good sleep on the bus despite the Loatian karaoke hits blasting all night and rain blowing in the windows in the middle of the night.
So now I am here in Vientiane, not much going on here. I think I will go to Vang Vieng tomorrow, where I here they have some good tubing. Can't wait...
The first step was a 5 hour short-bus ride north to the small city of Kratie. There was no leg room and my left arm got terribly sunburnt because there wasn't room for it in the bus. In Kratie, me and this geologist Brit John took a short boat ride to see the endangered freshwater Iyerwaddy dolphins in the Mekong river. The next day after falling victim to conniving Kratie driver/transportation system, we set off for Stung Treng. We were guaranteed only 3 people in the back of a taxi for the 4 hour ride because we paid an extra 6 bucks. But sure enough, as soon as we rounded the corner, another guy jumped in. Fleeced again!
In Stung Treng, we boarded a small canoe-type raft with a Toyota car engine attached to it. Needless to say, we flew from Stung Treng to the Cambodia/Lao border crossing. When we left Stung Treng, it was a very sunny day. As we made our way further up the Mekong, it became apparent it was gonna rain. Our tiny boat was unsheltered. As the wind kicked up and our boat driver kept the speed up, we were battered with rain, although it might have been glass shards. Finally, it let up and as we approached the stilted shack known as Cambodia immigration, the super-duper immigration officer got out of his hammock and put on his shirt. He stamped us on our way and collected his "official" $2 overtime fee. Although we thought we paid for transport all the way to Laos, we were then charged another dollar to get to the Laos immigration office across the river. Happy to be out of Cambodia for the time being, we got stamped in Laos, paid the overtime fee there and headed for town as it began to get dark.
We were set on getting to the bungalow/backpacker town of Don Det, located in Si Phan Don, or 4,000 islands area. Here, the mighty Mekong diverges into countless channels creating many islands and picturesque waterfalls. We were able to stay in a nice riverside bungalow for a dollar a night. We spent the next day strolling a couple islands, checking out mile-wide rapids and falls, wading through flooded paths, enjoying the extra-happy menu of the local restaurants and like the Lonely Planet suggests, recovering from Cambodia. On Don Det, I believe I have recovered evidence of the fist ever Ducken--the ducks and chickens of the island have a very good relationship. Recovery complete, we reserved a seat for the next leg of our journey.
Pick it up from my journal entry:
The journey from Don Det to Pakse was an interesting one. John and I got on a Lao truck/bus thingy at 8:40am and told we'd leave at 9am. People were loading bags of all sizes onto the truck. One guy got on, opened one of the bags, pulled out a few frogs and ripped off one of the legs of the still-living thing. Sure enough, we felt the other bags and there were animals of some kind in there. Six Spaniards got on and objected as more and more bags and baskets were loaded on. It got to be 10am, we were still there and the Spaniards weren't happy. One guy displayed his expertise in Spanish cussing. "Joder! Tu puta madre!" Me too. They got off and got there money back, setting off on foot. Finally we set off. On our truck, there were about 20 people, several bags of rice, several bags of animals: species unknown and in various stages of near-death, 2 large pots of fish swimming in Mekong River water (one of whcih fell off onto the road spilling the water and depositing the fish onto the hot pavement), baskets of unknown groaning animals and finally a large wicker cage containing about 40 chickens all crammed together and shitting onto aforementioned bags/baskets/passengers. We happily got off the Farmyard Connection in Pakse, Laos.
John and I recovered with a few of southeast asia's best beers, BeerLao. He was off on an overnight bus to Vientiane, while I was getting a morning bus (the VIP, no farm animals) to the town of Savannakhet. Savannakhet is a town on the Thai border which was heavily bombarded by American troops around the time of Vietnam. I checked out an amazing Buddhist temple then checked out the local Museum. Most of it was an homage to national communist heroes and pictures of farming and Laos' burgeoning "industry" as evidence of its place in world communist powers! Yeah, I was the only one at the museum. Upstairs they had a few old bombs left by America and a few pictures with captions like: "U.S. imperialists and puppet soldiers use Savannakhet Airfield for perpetrating countless crimes." Good stuff. Outside there was an old US fighter plane and some cannons on display. There were a group of teenagers sitting and talking on the fighter plane. One guy was laying on one of the wing flaps. As he got up, the flap turned and he tumbled to the ground. Ah, sweet victory! Vindication! Go USA!
I opted for an overnight bus to Vientiane("local" = no animals, just bags of rice piled 2 deep in the aisles and from floor to cieling in the rear). I managed some good sleep on the bus despite the Loatian karaoke hits blasting all night and rain blowing in the windows in the middle of the night.
So now I am here in Vientiane, not much going on here. I think I will go to Vang Vieng tomorrow, where I here they have some good tubing. Can't wait...
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh
Yesterday, I returned to Phnom Penh from Sihanoukville. This is a little beachside town on the southern coast of Cambodia. I relaxed for 2 days on some excellent beaches and hopped on a scooter to explore a nice waterfall.
After returning to the capital yesterday, I decided to check out 2 places that most tourists visit when in Cambodia. First, I went to the Tuol Sleng Museum. In 1975, the genocidal Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge forces took over this high school and made it a detention compound and interrogation center. The aim of the Khmer Rouge was to rapidly create a communist state, to undergo its own "Great Leap Forward". Many intellectuals, people who knew foreigners and sometime people who simply wore glasses were rounded up form all over Cambodia and sent to prisons like this. Here they were interrogated, tortured, beaten senseless until they gave name of friends, family members and anyone else they knew to be traitors of the state.
After thorough torture, the prisoners were loaded into trucks and taken about 20km outside the city to The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. I made the very same trip on the back of a scooter after visiting the museum. Here the remains of 8985 people have been unearthed. There is a memorial pillar with many of the skulls and bones stacked inside. As I walked around the fields, there were many holes, some with signs saying things like: the remains of 420 people were found here or 166 bodies of women and children were buried here - without heads. As I walked, I looked down and was amazed to see bones still protruding from the dirt. I brushed my hands across them in disbelief and was further amazed to see clothing, worn by the victims on the day of their execution, sticking out from the dirt.
On a lighter note, I continue to meet very interesting people: A former Canadian Football player who now works on oil pipelines in western Canada, on vacation until the roads freeze again and he can drive on the ice; A young Japanese kid who has been bicycling through Japan, China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. "I love to bike," he says; A former English teacher in Japan who has opened his own shop in Phnom Penh. His business: loading up peoples' ipods with albums for $.75 per. I got 10 bucks worth.
Keep checking back here, I will head to Northern Cambodia tomorrow then into Laos soon after.
After returning to the capital yesterday, I decided to check out 2 places that most tourists visit when in Cambodia. First, I went to the Tuol Sleng Museum. In 1975, the genocidal Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge forces took over this high school and made it a detention compound and interrogation center. The aim of the Khmer Rouge was to rapidly create a communist state, to undergo its own "Great Leap Forward". Many intellectuals, people who knew foreigners and sometime people who simply wore glasses were rounded up form all over Cambodia and sent to prisons like this. Here they were interrogated, tortured, beaten senseless until they gave name of friends, family members and anyone else they knew to be traitors of the state.
After thorough torture, the prisoners were loaded into trucks and taken about 20km outside the city to The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. I made the very same trip on the back of a scooter after visiting the museum. Here the remains of 8985 people have been unearthed. There is a memorial pillar with many of the skulls and bones stacked inside. As I walked around the fields, there were many holes, some with signs saying things like: the remains of 420 people were found here or 166 bodies of women and children were buried here - without heads. As I walked, I looked down and was amazed to see bones still protruding from the dirt. I brushed my hands across them in disbelief and was further amazed to see clothing, worn by the victims on the day of their execution, sticking out from the dirt.
On a lighter note, I continue to meet very interesting people: A former Canadian Football player who now works on oil pipelines in western Canada, on vacation until the roads freeze again and he can drive on the ice; A young Japanese kid who has been bicycling through Japan, China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. "I love to bike," he says; A former English teacher in Japan who has opened his own shop in Phnom Penh. His business: loading up peoples' ipods with albums for $.75 per. I got 10 bucks worth.
Keep checking back here, I will head to Northern Cambodia tomorrow then into Laos soon after.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Holiday in Cambodia
I just finished up 3 days in Siem Reap and I am now in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. The first 2 days I spent checking out Angkor's countless ancient temples and crumbling structures. I opted to get shuttled around to them by a guy working at the guest house I stayed at on the back of a scooter. His name was Phech Sopaul, or just Paul. I also met 2 lawyers from CO who met in the courtroom (facing eachother)and have been engaged for over a year.
By the third day, I was pretty much tired of seeing the temples, so we did something a little different. There is a huge lake in the middle of Cambodia and of course many people who live on the lake fishing and raising alligators. I shared a boat with a Brit banker who was on his way back from working in Bogota, Colombia. We checked out the floating villages and I was the only foreigner to jump into the muddy, flooded canal with the Cambodians.
Then Paul took me to what he called the killing fields. It was a site at which many people were massacred during the Khmer Rouge's regime and institution of communism. Today, it is a Buddhist monastary complex. There was still a pile of bones as a memorial along with pictures and diagrams of different ways in which people were killed. As I began to feel pretty emotional thinking about this, I strolled over to a classroom where there was a foreigner teaching english to a classful of young adults. I stepped outside and there was a Buddhist funural service going on. There was the body in a concrete pyre and men began to put burning wood inside to cremate the body. I saw some women and kids crying for the deceased. It was an amazing place with so many real things happening.
I then asked Paul if I could go to his house. He lives in this tiny, one room shack with a hammock for a bed and a dirt floor. He cooked me a little food he usually eats and his mom brought over a special dish too. We strolled around the neighborhood and talked to a few people, one guy who makes genuine engravings like the ones at Angkor Wat and sells them to hotels and rich tourists. Last night, I paid Paul more than what he asked for for the 3 days. He was pretty happy and invited me to drink with him, some other co-workers, the guest house owner and the owner's family. It was great fun an we raised our glasses every 2 minutes to drink Anchor Beer poured over ice. I did the usual foreigner thing of repeating funny Cambodian phrases to everyone's amusement. I was sad to leave Siem Reap this morning, giving Paul my e-mail and a recieving a promise that he will ask me to invest in a new guest house he wants to open.
Land mines are a part of everyday life all over the country. Millions of mines were laid in the decades of war in the 60s to the 80s and they are still a huge problem today. I visited the Siem Reap mine museum. This small one room building has tons of old mines and bombs gathered by the museum's creator, Aki Ra. He was a child soldier for the Khmer regime and he actually placed many of the mines when he was a child. Today, he works on locating and disarming the old, but still active mines. Several children live at the museum. They are all amputees or are blind. Being in Cambodia, I have seem so many people walking or crawling around missing legs, arms, or everything. There is really no reason for these terrible devices to exist in the first place. Most mines are created by the huge powers: Russia, China or the good old USA, and end up in extremely poor places like here and Laos. About 90 Cambodians are victims of land mines every month.
More to come from Cambodia...
By the third day, I was pretty much tired of seeing the temples, so we did something a little different. There is a huge lake in the middle of Cambodia and of course many people who live on the lake fishing and raising alligators. I shared a boat with a Brit banker who was on his way back from working in Bogota, Colombia. We checked out the floating villages and I was the only foreigner to jump into the muddy, flooded canal with the Cambodians.
Then Paul took me to what he called the killing fields. It was a site at which many people were massacred during the Khmer Rouge's regime and institution of communism. Today, it is a Buddhist monastary complex. There was still a pile of bones as a memorial along with pictures and diagrams of different ways in which people were killed. As I began to feel pretty emotional thinking about this, I strolled over to a classroom where there was a foreigner teaching english to a classful of young adults. I stepped outside and there was a Buddhist funural service going on. There was the body in a concrete pyre and men began to put burning wood inside to cremate the body. I saw some women and kids crying for the deceased. It was an amazing place with so many real things happening.
I then asked Paul if I could go to his house. He lives in this tiny, one room shack with a hammock for a bed and a dirt floor. He cooked me a little food he usually eats and his mom brought over a special dish too. We strolled around the neighborhood and talked to a few people, one guy who makes genuine engravings like the ones at Angkor Wat and sells them to hotels and rich tourists. Last night, I paid Paul more than what he asked for for the 3 days. He was pretty happy and invited me to drink with him, some other co-workers, the guest house owner and the owner's family. It was great fun an we raised our glasses every 2 minutes to drink Anchor Beer poured over ice. I did the usual foreigner thing of repeating funny Cambodian phrases to everyone's amusement. I was sad to leave Siem Reap this morning, giving Paul my e-mail and a recieving a promise that he will ask me to invest in a new guest house he wants to open.
Land mines are a part of everyday life all over the country. Millions of mines were laid in the decades of war in the 60s to the 80s and they are still a huge problem today. I visited the Siem Reap mine museum. This small one room building has tons of old mines and bombs gathered by the museum's creator, Aki Ra. He was a child soldier for the Khmer regime and he actually placed many of the mines when he was a child. Today, he works on locating and disarming the old, but still active mines. Several children live at the museum. They are all amputees or are blind. Being in Cambodia, I have seem so many people walking or crawling around missing legs, arms, or everything. There is really no reason for these terrible devices to exist in the first place. Most mines are created by the huge powers: Russia, China or the good old USA, and end up in extremely poor places like here and Laos. About 90 Cambodians are victims of land mines every month.
More to come from Cambodia...
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Greeting from monsoony Cambodia.
Yesterday morning, I boarded a bus in Bangkok and set out for the Thailand's Eastern border with Cambodia. This was a smooth 4 hour drive. Despite arriving at the border and already possessing a Cambodia visa, I waited in a line for a good 2 hours for 2 stamps in my passport. After the nice a/c bus and the paved roads in Thailand, Cambodia was not quite there. The road from the border to the nearest big town of Siem Reap was about 130km of muddy, potholed, washed out slop. We set out from the border at about 4pm and arrived at about 12:30am. Plus, I was in one of those temporary pull down seats in the aisle on our short bus.
This morning I woke up and hopped on the back of a motor-bike with my new friend Paul as my guide. This nice young Cambodian man proceeded to drive me 80km East to the ruins of an ancient Khmer temple. There was no one around there, I had the chance to explore the crumbling stones in the middle of the jungle for several hours. We repeated the same incredible journey back to the city, speeding down the muddy red roads thourgh rice paddies, dogs laying on the road, naked kids waving as a white man passed by, women bathing near the well in mid-afternoon and dump trucks trying to avoid us.
Every time I open my eyes, there is another photograph I am sure I have seen as I paged through our monthly National Geographic as a kid. The culture here is just so amazing. Cambodia is a very poor country and people do what the can to make some money. Cattle are the means to bring crops to the market, sharing the busy roads with scooters and 3 year olds on full sized bikes. Need some gas? Pull over and buy it by the liter from soda bottles recylced as gas containers.
This evening, I walked the grounds of Angkor Wat. This is perhaps the most expansive structure I have ever been in. Oh, and it's 800 years old. I have taken so many pictures the past 2 days and I can't wait to share them. I will spend the next 2 days exploring Angkor Wat and countless other ancient Khmer temples in the area. Stay tuned.
Yesterday morning, I boarded a bus in Bangkok and set out for the Thailand's Eastern border with Cambodia. This was a smooth 4 hour drive. Despite arriving at the border and already possessing a Cambodia visa, I waited in a line for a good 2 hours for 2 stamps in my passport. After the nice a/c bus and the paved roads in Thailand, Cambodia was not quite there. The road from the border to the nearest big town of Siem Reap was about 130km of muddy, potholed, washed out slop. We set out from the border at about 4pm and arrived at about 12:30am. Plus, I was in one of those temporary pull down seats in the aisle on our short bus.
This morning I woke up and hopped on the back of a motor-bike with my new friend Paul as my guide. This nice young Cambodian man proceeded to drive me 80km East to the ruins of an ancient Khmer temple. There was no one around there, I had the chance to explore the crumbling stones in the middle of the jungle for several hours. We repeated the same incredible journey back to the city, speeding down the muddy red roads thourgh rice paddies, dogs laying on the road, naked kids waving as a white man passed by, women bathing near the well in mid-afternoon and dump trucks trying to avoid us.
Every time I open my eyes, there is another photograph I am sure I have seen as I paged through our monthly National Geographic as a kid. The culture here is just so amazing. Cambodia is a very poor country and people do what the can to make some money. Cattle are the means to bring crops to the market, sharing the busy roads with scooters and 3 year olds on full sized bikes. Need some gas? Pull over and buy it by the liter from soda bottles recylced as gas containers.
This evening, I walked the grounds of Angkor Wat. This is perhaps the most expansive structure I have ever been in. Oh, and it's 800 years old. I have taken so many pictures the past 2 days and I can't wait to share them. I will spend the next 2 days exploring Angkor Wat and countless other ancient Khmer temples in the area. Stay tuned.
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