Welcome to Hanoi

Photos: Vietnam: First Days in Hanoi

On Wednesday morning, I woke up at 4am, just four hours after having fallen asleep. After putting on fresh clothes, packing up and double-checking the room, I retrieved my passport from the hostel lobby desk and went in search of an ATM to pay for a cab to the airport. On the way to a 7/11, which there are bazillions of in Thailand, by the way, a cab driver flagged me down. I told him I was going to an ATM and he waited at the corner for me. He wanted 500 baht, which is silly since the standard price from almost anywhere in Bangkok is 350 baht, and I argued him down to 400 baht. We made it there pretty quick, so I ended up giving him the 400 and calling it good. I checked in to my flight, sent off a few post cards, got a bit to eat with my last couple of baht, and waited for my flight.

You won’t be surprised that I slept from take-off to landing, a mere one hour and forty minutes, but it really did end up reviving me enough to attempt taking on Hanoi.

Arrival was quick and easy: my bag was one of the first off the conveyor belt and immigration/customs was easy. On second glance, I realized that a bunch of maps and a Top Ten Bangkok book that Jeff had given me, which I’d stashed in the side pocket of my big pack, were all gone. There’s no way they could have fallen out, so I’m bummed to say that I think they were taken. Boo!

After grabbing a map from the information center, I got out 400,000 dong from the ATM and went to purchase a sim card for my phone. As it turns out, 400,000 dong isn’t much: only about $20USD, in fact. The sim card cost 250,000 dong and so I had to go take out more cash. Once the sim card was installed and working, I headed out to find a way into the city center. I got lucky and caught a minibus for pretty cheap. Sure, I was seated on a stool squeezed into the corner by the end of one of the rows of seats, but whatever!

My first impression of Vietnam was how flat it was. I didn’t realize I’d gotten used to Thailand’s rolling landscape! On the way from the airport into the city I saw what I think were rice fields, with workers in them, and thousands of motorbikes on the road. The ride was about forty minutes and left me standing in part of Hanoi’s “Old Quarter.” From there, I just started walking.

The couple I was planning to stay with via Couchsurfing were busy during the day, so my plan was to just wander slowly and explore during the day, find somewhere to relax as it got later, and meet up with them for dinner. What I didn’t bank on was my exhaustion coupled with a pretty intense culture shock, plus carrying around both of my packs and the heat.

So I just started walking, turning down the dozen immediate offers of “Taxi?” and “Moto?” from people standing on the sidewalks. I figured out where I was on the map and saw that I was near St. John’s Cathedral, a landmark in the area. That helped me find what direction I should – and should not – go in. As I wandered, I spotted a tour guide office, which turned out to also be a hotel lobby, open to the street. I was perusing their tour offers and thinking of signing up when an energetic older guy started chatting with me.

"Going to Halong Bay? You should go to Halong Bay! And if you need a hotel, you should take our room here, it’s awesome! It’s… here, let me show you.” And he ushered me outside and then turned me around and pointed up to where balconies overlooked the busy street.

“Some people said it’s too noisy but we love it! Don’t we, honey?” At which point an older woman bustled out behind us and stared up at the balcony adoringly.

“Oh, yes, it’s great to look down on the street and see everyone going by. Are you going to Halong Bay? Don’t book here, go to Sinh Cafe and book there, it’s… oh, honey, where is it again?”

These were Canadians Phil and Nina, who adopted me on sight, apparently.

They gabbled back and forth cheerfully as I stood there, a bit dazed. At length they decided to walk me over to where they’d booked their tour, which they’d thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. On the way they gave me the card of the hotel they were staying at, in case I wanted to stay there; and told me about a great tourist information center, a Citibank ATM where I could withdraw more than at other ATMs, and told me about their upcoming Sapa trek, which they weren’t going to do originally but their absolutely fantastic tour agent had convinced them and they were leaving that very day.

Well, they left me at Sinh Cafe, with Phil popping back in twice after leaving to remind me about and give me directions to the tourist info center and the ATM. The tour agent, whose name I can’t remember, was nice and booked me on the same three day, two night tour of Halong Bay and Cat Ba that the Canadians had so raved about. She also educated me on the open bus ticket, which gave me unlimited access for one month on a bus that makes stops between Hanoi and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), daily. According to her, it only allows thirty people on at a time and is a “sleeper” bus, meaning the seats actually turn into beds. She showed me a picture and if it’s realistic, then this bus should be much more comfy than the one between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Time will tell. I booked the ticket and hopefully it works out well! The total damage for the two things she booked me for was about $130. I have no idea if I got ripped off but it didn’t seem to exorbitant to me.

After that, I went to the tourist information center, the highlight of which was the free internet and computers. I spent about half an hour catching up on a few things, then got a map and perused their other freebies. I then went out the opposite side that I’d come in, because I saw a pretty lake with benches around it.

This turned out to be Hoan Kiem Lake, which makes up the southeast corner of the Old Quarter. I plopped myself down onto an empty bench and just stared out at the water, letting everything sink in. It was really a very calming lake, with a pretty, arched red bridge going over to a small island. I decided to just chill for awhile, eating an orange that the tour agent had given me and looking through my guide book. A woman came and sat next to me, attempting to sell me a conical hat and some post cards. Before I’d left the US, I had read a book called “Lost Girls,” about three girls around my age who traveled the world. In Vietnam, they learned that smiling when declining offers seemed to help, and so I employed this technique. While she didn’t leave right away, she did eventually, so I’m going to smile at everyone trying to sell me something so that it doesn’t get combative.

At some point, a couple from the Philippines sat next to me and starting up a chat. The man spoke decent English, but the woman didn’t seem to speak any. He told me I’d been cheated on my tour price (although I don’t really care, I think $70 for three days, transportation, accommodation, food and tour guide included, ain’t bad!) recommended the water puppet show nearby, and in general tried to teach me about always, always bargaining with the Vietnamese since they tried to scam foreigners at all costs. He felt the Vietnamese weren’t friendly and only wanted money. This surprised me quite a bit, although I suppose he was just irritated from recent attempts to overcharge him.

They were fairly nice but I got tired of the negativity and excused myself to go search for somewhere to eat.

I wandered a bit more. Crossing the street is absolutely terrifying here. It’s a constant stream of motorbikes, buses and cars, all honking at each other or at nothing, seemingly, and ignoring what the street lights show. I’ve since learned that inching across the street is the best way to do it, never going backwards and rarely stopping or moving faster (you only do this when a car or bus is coming, since they can’t maneuver around you like the motorbikes can.

Anyway, I sat down at an open air food place and ate what I believe to be some kind of pho, although I’m uncertain of the meat that was in it, which was shaped into small patties. It tasted fine and satisfied my hunger, which was good. I copied another guy sitting near me and shredded some of the greens they had given me on a plate, mixing it into the soup. There was basil, I think, and other tasty greens.

After this I decided to head back to the tourist information center, use the computers and ask for a recommendation on a place to purchase a camera. They showed me on the map where a place called “Pico” was and off I went. On the way, I chatted with an Australian named Andrew. He’d been to Vietnam three times and loved it every time. At this point he was just wandering around Hanoi and he walked me to the camera store, at which point we parted ways. Once inside, I had to do some quick math as I perused the cameras. They had the exact model that I’d lost in Chiang Mai, but it was over $100USD more expensive than when I’d originally purchased it, about a month ago.

I ended up buying a model slightly less sophisticated, 12.1 megapixels instead of 14 and without the HD video. It cost me around $230USD, which hurt, but they threw in a 2 Gig memory card for me, which was nice. About the time I was paying for the camera, my stomach started to roil. I asked for the bathroom and they pointed to the stairs and held up four fingers. That was a tough three flights to climb! Turns out, the street food didn’t particularly agree with me.

Twenty minutes later, I was out on the street again. I needed somewhere air-conditioned, with something cold and clean to drink. I found Ciao Cafe and went in, ordering fresh pineapple juice and minestrone soup. They had free wi-fi so I distracted myself with that as I cooled off and relaxed. I ended up spending about an hour and a half there, ordering a water, grilled cheese sandwich and french fries to ensure I wouldn’t get rushed out. I hate to admit it, but at that point I needed familiar food, however, sub-par.

Relaxed and feeling better, I went to sit on one of the park benches. My chafing problem had returned so I didn’t want to continue wandering. Also, it was starting to get dark and I was uncomfortable, not knowing where it might be safe to hang out with my packs. I considered going back to Ciao Cafe, but then Michaela, my couchsurfing hostess, called me and we made plans to meet up. I was to head to her apartment where I could shower and clean up a bit, and then we would go out for dinner. She coached me on how to relate my destination to a taxi driver or a moto-bike. “Just say, Die Co Viet, Van Ho.” She also told me to expect to pay 20,000-30,000 dong for a moto-bike, more for a taxi. She also recommended a specific taxi company to use, who wouldn’t drive me around the long way.

I watched the street for a bit when suddenly a guy on a motorbike rolled up and said, “Moto bike?” I looked at it doubtfully, wondering how my bag would be balanced, and shook my head no. He waved at me and showed me that he would put my pack between his legs (it was like a Vespa-type bike). Suddenly I wanted to do it, so I agreed and asked the price. He said 100,000 dong. I declined and said 50,000, figuring that it was still double what I should be paying. Then a Vietnamese lady walked up and asked if I was ok, if I needed help. After talking with him, she told me it was fine, I should go and it would be 50,000 dong. So I hopped on nervously behind the guy and off we went.

I think I held my breath for the first half of the ride. To be fair, he was nice and didn’t drive wildly, but that didn’t stop the other crazies from zigging and zagging, swerving and zooming, all around us. At several points when we were going quite fast, I could have reached out and touched the face of other moto-bike drivers, they were that close!

We made it safe and sound, just after having nearly hugged the broad side of a bus. He then demanded 100,000 dong. I was too wigged out to argue and paid the guy, who looked inordinately pleased with himself.

Long story short, Michaela came to meet me and walk me to her place; I showered and powdered and wore a skirt to dinner; we went to a cafe she liked afterwards; and I slept on the floor on a couple of yoga mats and a sleeping bag.

I slept until 10am this morning!

Today, after lunch out with Michaela and Andy, her boyfriend, I walked back to the Old Quarter and visited the Women’s Museum and Hoa Lo prison (called the Hanoi Hilton by American POWs during the Vietnam war, called the American War here in Vietnam). The  former was really interesting and the latter was disturbing. Their depictions of the happiness of the American prisoners, who got to know the culture and the people and regretted having attempted to destroy it, were at extreme odds with what I’ve heard from POWs at various military functions. An interesting (and ironic) factoid about that, though: Hoa Lo prison was actually built by the French (and called “Maison Centrale”) to hold Vietnamese political revolutionaries! In fact, the prison/museum now focuses primarily on that, and on the atrocities committed against the Vietnamese people there, with just two rooms dedicated to the Americans. As my dad mentioned, it’s like the recent Iraqi prison atrocities… built for one population to abuse another, then used by the abused to further abuse others.

At that point I decided to walk back to the apartment and the chafing started in again. It was getting pretty painful to walk, even taking short steps, and of course I got lost. When I finally made it back, I changed into shorts and decided to stay in for the rest of the evening. The chafing had raised big, red welts on my inner thighs. Ugh!

My main impressions of Hanoi so far:

• Very pretty parks and lakes. When you enter the parks or walk on the pathways near the lakes, the din of the city and traffic seems to fade away a bit. It’s still there, in the background, but it’s like the volume has been lowered by remote or something.

 

• Traffic. Imagine US-1 in Miami, during rush hour. Now, change all those cars into motorbikes and have them all honking and beeping, nonstop. That is what the streets are like here almost all the time. When a traffic light turns red, you see about fifty motorbikes inching into the intersection,ready to take off. Crossing the streets is terrifying.
• The Vietnamese like to overcharge. I don’t mean a few thousand dong, or even doubling the price. I’m talking about them charging five, six, ten times what you should be paying. A lady tried to sell me two donut-hole looking things for 20,000 dong tonight. I ended up paying 2,000 dong and I think that I was still overcharged. Granted that $1USD=~20,000 dong, but still… it gets a little irritating.
• Vietnamese youth seem to enjoy practicing their English with English-speakers. Yesterday a group of teenage boys stopped me to say “Hello!” and “Hi!” and “Where are you from?” And they seemed pretty excited that I responded. Today, a group of girls in school uniforms, sitting at a picnic table in a park, called after me to speak with them too. I enjoy talking with them, although when they do in individually it’s usually a prelude to trying to sell me things.
• I love seeing the street vendors who carry their wares on a pole over their shoulders, with baskets balanced to either side or, more often, in front of and behind them.

 

--Z

Moving On

I’m six hours through a twelve hour train ride from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. This morning I got up at 6:30am, showered, packed and said good-bye to Annika. She was truly a wonderful host. Being on this bus makes me thoughtful, somehow; I get to see the Thai countryside rolling past, varying between hills and dips and rice paddies and jungle-y areas, small houses and shacks on stilts interspersed throughout.

Yesterday was such a mix of ups and downs that it exhausted me a bit. It started out well, waking up at the same time as Annika and slowly getting ready for the day. I had a general schedule in mind, the first of which involved meeting Christy, the Couchsurfer who replaced me at Lucy’s, to head up to Doi Suthep, a temple on the mountain, and then for lunch at the vegetarian restaurant we’d eaten at on Saturday, Pun-Pun. Meeting her was an adventure in and of itself, since she doesn’t have a phone and my access to internet was intermittent. We managed to connect, though, and each walked a mile or to our designated meeting place, an intersection of a main road west of the inner city and Highway 121. I got there first but she showed up not five minutes later. My walk was uneventful, although at one point I thought I was there already and sat down to relax. As I perused a map, though, I realized that I had a bit further to go, and so luckily it all worked out.

[I just looked out the window to catch a view of huge rice paddies with workers dotting them. There also seemed to be a group cutting wheat or hay. Very picturesque and very much the daydream of what Asia looks like in the countryside.]

Our next challenge was to find a ride up to Doi Suthep, which is not too far out of town but is definitely up a windy, steep mountain. Most seongtows don’t go that far, and the ones that do wait until at least ten people amass before starting out. Christy and I waited with one driver for half an hour before deciding to walk partway and see if we could hitch the rest. This got the driver excited and he started negotiating prices with us. Finally, there were four of us and we negotiated at 100 baht apiece for a round trip ride. Everyone was happy and so off we went! It was a pretty drive and Christy and I chatted almost non-stop. About twenty minutes later we arrived and we got climbing: there were stairs up each level of the temple. My knees aren’t being very forgiving these days, by the way.

The temple was golden, with huge snake heads at the bottom of the steps and their long, undulating bodies lining the way up. Then you enter the main level, which is a landing that goes all the way around the main temple area. We walked all the way around, admiring the mostly-foggy view of the city below, the huge bells and gongs, and the variety of statues and Buddhas that dotted the area. Eventually we took off our shoes and went up into the main temple, which was another whole level to itself! Even though it was a Monday, there were lots of people there, about an equal mix of tourists and locals. Encircling the entire area were golden Buddha statues, seated and looking, as always, serene. From what I could understand, there were two indoor temple areas, both of which had monks offering blessings, albeit in different ways (one shook water over the heads of people that approached on their knees, the other tied a white string around their wrists). Each had the requisite huge golden statue of Buddha looking down on the praying people. In the middle of the main square outside, there was a structure under construction, so it was hard to admire it’s full impact.

All the time there were rites being performed around us: a long line of people, each holding a lotus flower, walked around the central square structure, muttering prayers; people prayed at different aspects of the Buddha everywhere; tourists snapped pictures and stared, or started suddenly when someone gonged a bell particularly firmly. It wasn’t a solemn place, but it was sort of like a controlled frenzy. Christy and I received our blessing from the monk’s assistant, kneeling and holding out our left wrists for the white string with a knot in the center to be tied around our wrists. He said a prayer in Thai and then said, “And good luck to you,” in English. We couldn’t go to the main monk who was doing the blessings, because monks can’t touch women. And we weren’t the only people doing this: locals and other tourists were all on their knees behind us in a line, shuffling forward as each blessing was given.

[This time, as I glanced up there was a golden temple flying past!]

After a bit, we descended. We had agreed with the other two seongtow passengers to meet back at the seongtow in about an hour. We were a bit early and so we made our way up some stone steps to sit beneath a huge statue of an abbey or ancient monk. I texted Annika to let her know I would be able to make an appointment with her later that day and I called Pom, the travel agent who booked my train, to check her office hours. It turned out she was open until 7pm so I was relieved that I would have time to pick up the train ticket that day.

As I was doing these phone things, Christy had been watching for the other two passengers. At one point she cried, “There they are! Let’s go!” And up we got to clamber down the stone steps, pile into the seongtow and head down. This time there were more people, including a cute guy named Brent from Boston on a six week holiday, split between China and Thailand. About halfway down the mountain, I panicked: my camera was gone. I tore through my backpack and my purse, then tried to calm myself and looked again. One of the Thai girls riding with us yelled up to the driver to stop, and he eventually turned around and we headed back up. I figured I must have left the camera sitting on the stone steps, because I’d taken a picture from the top of them.

We got back and I raced up to where Christy and I had been sitting, but there was nothing there. I asked a blond woman sitting a few steps below where we’d been if she had seen anything, and in fact she said she had! She said she’d seen something black up a few steps, but had been chatting with her friends. When she looked back, it was gone. She said that had been less than ten minutes before. I was silently berating myself and feeling pretty upset, when the Thai girl I from my seongtow grabbed my arm and dragged me up to the police station. No one was there so she called them. Now I was starting to feel bad, on top of feeling stupid, for delaying everyone in the seongtow. Eventually, the policeman showed up on a bicycle and I left a handwritten report with my e-mail address.

On the ride back down, Christy and Brent tried to soothe me. I just felt so absolutely moronic: I hadn’t managed to go even a month without losing my damned camera! And to just leave it sitting somewhere… stupid! On the other hand, as I tried to reason with myself, if that’s the worst thing that happens during this trip, then I'll consider it lucky. Plus, I regularly back up my photos and in fact had done so the night before, so the only pictures missing were the ones from that day. Christy promised to e-mail me her pictures.

[We are now sitting at a train station and I see vendors on the platform. I wonder how long we’re staying here? Perhaps I could run out and get… but no, we’re pulling forward. Ah, well.]

Once Christy and I got dropped off, we caught another seongtow to the vegetarian restaurant and ate there again. The food was not as wonderful, but still quite good, this second time around. I particularly enjoyed the spring rolls, which contained house-made sesame tofu and some mighty tasty basil. After about an hour, we headed our opposite ways, Christy back to Lucy’s and off to a guitar concert, and me to keep my appointment with Annika.

[Odd, we just passed a small field with statues of dinosaurs in it. This was followed by a temple. We’re not quite out of whatever city we stopped at in my last aside.]

My appointment with Annika was, for me, a fantastic deal: she needed someone to practice her massage on! In fact, her program requires that she do fourteen “case studies,” of varying amounts of time, and she had asked me if I would be one of them. I’m not one to say no to a massage, especially a free one, and so I agreed to meet her at her school, ITM (possibly standing for International Thai Massage school), which is just around the corner from her apartment. I arrived about ten minutes early and found my way inside. One of the school attendants, marked my a golden, Thai-style shirt and a name tag, looked at me inquiringly and I told her I was there for Annika. She nodded and pointed to a bench for me to sit on to wait for her. After a few minutes, though, a crowd amassed and seated itself on the floor, at the same time as an older gentleman dressed in the school uniform sat on the floor to my left, facing the crowd. He kindly motioned for me to join the crowd, which I did, somewhat bewildered. He then led the group of students – and me – in a meditative chant. It was really interesting! Everyone had their hands pressed together and was chanting call-and-response style with the teacher, which I did also. When he was finished, he called on one of the students, who then led the call and response. He did this three more times before the lesson ended, lasting about ten minutes total.

When it was finished, I looked around but still couldn’t find Annika. Finally I found her outside, waiting for me, and she led me through a few rooms and up several sets of stairs to a quiet, dark room with several mats laid out. She had me lay on my back on one of these and then began an hour and a half long session of Thai massage. She did quite a good job, lightening her touch when I got ticklish or being gentle when my super-unflexible body refused to stretch. Thai massage is focused around stretching and, from the masseuse’s end, looking for lines of energy and any blockages to those lines. Annika kept a slow but steady pace, working up from my legs to my arms, then my back and a few sitting-up stretches. She’s fairly new to the skill but has very good hands – strong, warm, gentle – for it. I could feel myself relaxing and actually fell asleep at one point! I felt loose and relaxed at the end of it, and told Annika so. She seemed pleased.

After this we went out to get a fruit shake, and then we parted ways for a bit. She headed for a yoga class and I decided to walk into the city center to get my train ticket. It was about a forty-five minute walk but it felt really good after my massage. I picked up my ticket and then headed straight back toward’s Annika’s, making two stops along the way. My first stop was an internet cafe, just to catch up on e-mail, Facebook and to check on the status of a couchsurfing request for a couple in Hanoi. After twenty minutes I headed off again. My second stop was at a store where I picked up a small electric fan and a small plastic container. These were presents for Annika, whose small one-room apartment didn’t get much air circulation at night when the door was closed. She has a screen door to a balcony, but without opening her front door there’s no breeze. Air conditioning is too expensive, so it just stays warm. The fan was my thank-you to her for hosting me, giving me a wonderful massage and letting me have her bed. The small plastic container I used to scoop up some good-looking soil on the walk home, and is for Annika’s little tamarind tree, which she sprouted from a tree and which was needing a home and some good dirt.

Annika was pleased with the gifts, thanking me and putting the fan to use at once. She decided to wait until morning to transplant the little seedling. Then we headed out for some dinner, going to a little stand around the corner from her. She got fried rice with tofu, hundred year egg, and fried basil. I tried the egg doubtfully but found it rather tasty! It was fried, though, so I’m not sure if it counts. I had some kind of rice and tofu dish which was tasty and filling. All together our dinner cost 65 baht, or just over $2USD. We headed back to her apartment, stopping at another vendor to pick up some coconut-creme fried treats that Annika adores, and at a copy place to make copies of my cookbook for her. Then we settled in at her apartment, alternately tapping away on our computers and chatting with each other, primarily about guys, a universal theme amongst women.

The rest is history: we went to bed, got up early, and I headed out this morning around 7:15am to find a seongtow to take me to the train station. I thought it might be difficult and/or expensive, and sure enough, the first two turned me down. Finally a driver agreed to take me for fifty baht, which is less than I’d thought I would have to pay. I got to the station, found my platform, and then found some breakfast (white rice with a sort of fried tofu omelet and hot sauce. I bought myself a large bottle of water, too, and thirty minutes later boarded my train: train 12, car 3, seat 9. It’s an air-conditioned car and besides a gaggle of frat-boy types and one girl, it was just me. The girl, Alissa, and I started chatting pretty quickly. She’s teaching English in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and has just started her second year there. She thinks she’ll switch to either Taiwan or South American next year. She took my guidebook and circled a few places she thought I should absolutely hit, including a restaurant, a beach and some things to do just outside of her city. We also exchanged e-mail addresses so we could keep in touch and maybe meet up when I get down to Ho Chi Minh City!

I love being able to meet up with people, even though they’re really strangers, in various places.

As for tonight, I’m hoping that a request I sent to a hotel near the airport in Bangkok will have e-mailed me back and that I can stay there. If not,though, I’m undecided on what I will do. I could, as Alissa suggested, lock up my baggage at the train station, go hang out in Bangkok for dinner and maybe a market, then come back and catch a cab to the airport to spend the night there. Or, I could go to Khao San Road for a night and catch a cab in the morning to the airport. Or, I could shell out the cash and pay for a night at a hotel near the airport, booking with them directly (which is more expensive).

Ah well… it will be interesting to see what the night brings! Just another four or five hours on the train to go.

--Z

Cooking Class & Girl’s Night Out

Photos: Thailand: Cooking Class and Girl's Night Out

I will end the suspense right now: When Annika got back to her apartment last night, she had brought with her a new blanket/mat that she’d bought at the night market and which she was more than happy to try sleeping on to test out. So I took the bed and although it’s a hard bed (Annika likes a hard sleeping surface!) I slept pretty well. Comfort won out over manners, I suppose.

At 7:30am this morning, my alarm went off and up I got, showering and getting ready for my cooking class. Annika and I chatted and went down to the lobby area of her building, where there is a shared kitchen. I had some toast for breakfast, with orange jam that’s pretty delicious. Annika is an incredibly sweet girl who is in Chiang Mai for eleven weeks taking a Thai massage class. She recently discovered that this is what she wants to do with her life and she’s quite passionate about it. She’s German and twenty-eight years old and absolutely beautiful.

At about a quarter to nine I left her place and headed for nearby Wat Santitham, about ten minutes away, to await my pickup ride from the cooking school. Maybe fifteen minutes after I got there, a nicer-than-usual looking seongtow drove up and parked, a woman popped out of the driver’s seat, and I was ushered into the back and welcomed to the cooking class. We picked up several more people and then stopped at one of the open-air markets in town. In total, my class had thirteen people in it, all from English speaking countries except for two women from Germany. There were two of us who were “singles” and everyone else was a couple or with a friend or family member.

The market visit was fun if brief, and I learned a few nifty things about coconut milk, different kinds of basil and ginger, and eggs. Then Boom, the woman driving us around and a partner of the main chef teacher, ushered us back into our seongtows and drove us about twenty minutes out of town to the cooking school. In my truck were the two German ladies, two redheads (I couldn’t figure out if they were brother and sister or a couple), and a couple from Maryland along with the female half’s aunt. During the drive we all did the usual travel interrogation. It was a pretty quiet group, actually.

The cooking class lasted all day. The meals I actually got to cook myself were coconut milk and shrimp soup,  panaeng curry with chicken, sweet and sour chicken and pad thai. We also watched as he made mango with sticky rice, vegetarian spring rolls and a dipping sauce to go with, and papaya salad. The class was pretty good, although I was surprised at the size of the 

class. Also, we didn’t measure any of our own ingredients, but were given the exact amount of everything we needed. Still I got to do “adventure cooking,” as the head chef, Perm, called it: cooking oil over high heat and tossing in  vegetables to flash fry them for the pad thai. It was lots of fun, and the girl with my camera even caught a couple of the last flames dying out from when I did it. Wheee! Never fear, my eyebrows are intact.

The group got a bit more chatty during the day, which was nice. At the end we gorged on the main dishes that we’d cooked, which 

was all delicious if I may say so myself. We also had a little Thai fruit tasting, but I’d had everything already so nothing was new, although the dragonfruit they served was pink instead of white. At around 3:30pm we were all driven back to our dropoff points. I think I may have recruited some folks to Couchsurfing, because once I mentioned that I was doing it several people asked lots of questions about it and said they’d check it out.

Once back at Annika’s apartment, I relaxed and played on the internet for awhile. Then I started worrying about my itinerary for the next few months and researching flights, trains and weather conditions. I believe that my next few weeks will now look like this (although I haven’t bought the tickets yet):

• Nov 9: Train back to Bangkok
• Nov 10: Fly to Hanoi
• Nov 10-30: Take trains and buses south through Vietnam, hitting Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang and Saigon.
• Nov 30: Cross border into Cambodia (since my Vietnam visa expires then)
• Nov 30 – Dec 18: Explore Cambodia for 10-14 days and make my way to Bangkok via trains and buses
• Dec 18: Fly to Bali
• Dec 25: Fly to Auckland
• Sometime before Dec 30 fly to Dunedin to celebrate New Year’s there with friends

Anyway, I’m going to ponder that for a day or two before buying the tickets, but it feels right so I think that’s the way I’ll go. It means skipping Singapore, but time is just getting short and I think I need to slow down my pace a bit. Even this plan is too rushed!

Anyway, after satisfying my panic, I headed back up to Annika’s room and we chatted some more. She had made plans to go out for dinner with friends and invited me along. There were five of us altogether and we went to a restaurant that apparently doubles as a gay bar. It had great ambiance, almost on the fancier side, and we all had a good time. There was a French girl, a Swiss girl, Annika, me and a girl whose origin I can’t recall but  possibly Spanish. It was a true girl’s nights with fits of laughter and giggles, talking about men, and discussing Thai massage (they’re all students with Annika) and Thailand in general. Two of them (Annika being one) told me about their time at an ashram in India and I think I’m convinced to try it out, although not for one month or five months, as they did. Maybe a two week teaser to learn a bit about yoga and meditation, would be good for me. Hmmm…

A good day, overall. One more day in Chiang Mai, sad to say, and then I head south again to Bangkok. I could see coming back to Chiang Mai to volunteer or work… it’s a cute place with beautiful areas surrounding it.

Also, although it’s not really a momentous occasion to note, today is the first day I’ve written in my private journal. It felt good!

--Z

Couchsurfing in Chiang Mai

Photos: Thailand: Chiang Mai's Inner City

As I think I may have mentioned, my plan for Chiang Mai was to couchsurf for most of my time there. In Bangkok, I requested the couches of two women; one told me that she was currently traveling and so could no host me. The other, named Lucy, said I was welcome to stay with her, although she had also agreed to host a couple at the same time, so I would get floor space instead of the guest bedroom. I agreed and met her on Wednesday, with the plan to stay with her until Saturday.

For those who haven’t heard of couchsurfing before, or have heard of it but don’t know much about it, here’s a brief explanation: it’s an organization made up of and for people who love travel and travelers. There is a free website, www.couchsurfing.org, on which you can sign up and make a profile, for free, sort of like Facebook but geared for travelers. Anyway, you can be a couchsurfer and host people, which can mean meeting with them and showing them around your neck of the woods, or giving them a place to sleep in your home. There are no rules, insofar as who can host, or who can surf, or how long you have to host for, etc. It’s all about your comfort zone. For example, I’ve met people who give their couchsurfers a spare key and give them free reign on everything in their home. I, on the other hand, wasn’t comfortable with that, so I told surfers that they needed to be out of the apartment when I left, and gave them a time when I would be back. Also, this a free setup; no one charges people for staying at their place, unless it’s arranged privately (which I’ve never heard of happening unless it was for a really extended amount of time).

Anyway, Lucy, my first host in Chiang Mai, had a rules list printed up. She’s older – 72, in fact – and has hosted hundreds of people. She’s a bit of a curmudgeon but overall quite motherly. Her rules weren’t actually strict; they were more along the lines of common sense and cleaning, and listing what she’d like to do (help find Chiang Mai things to do, recommend places to eat, etc) and thinks she wouldn’t (eating out with you, etc). She also asked that people not cook in her kitchen without discussing it with her. My bed consisted of a soft pad, then a New Zealand sheep mattress pad, sheets and a blanket and a pillow. It was actually fairly comfortable, if hard overall.

On Thursday evening, I went to bed feeling just fine, but on Friday morning, I woke up feeling sick: sore throat, stuffy head, achy muscles. I put on my eye mask and rolled over, trying to stay asleep for as long as possible and drifting in and out of a light doze, feeling worse each time. Finally, the noises of the house seemed unbearable to my overly sensitive ears and I got up. I felt like a zombie and John commented cheerfully that I looked pretty tired. I let them all know that I felt like I was getting sick, that I was achy and sore and my throat hurt. They all became “motherly”, slicing up some garlic for my toast and giving me vitamin C tablets and offering me an egg.

After a shower I felt no better, but I wasn’t about to hang around the house, so I packed up, took a DayQuil and headed into Chiang Mai city center. Before I caught a seongtow, though, I dropped off most of my clothing at a laundry just around the corner from Lucy. They said it would be clean and ready by 5pm the next day.

Chiang Mai’s city center is pretty cool: perfectly square, there’s a moat-like canal on every side, and the old city wall, which dates back to the 1200s, still exists in some form. There are “gates,” or openings where roads go in and out, along each side. These make great landmarks (like, “let’s meet at the Tha Phae gate”). My plan for the day was to meet Stan and Jason, the Australians that Jeff and I met in Bangkok at the Blue Elephant, at a vegetarian restaurant where they were taking a cooking class. I was to show up around 12:30pm to eat the dishes they’d prepared with them for lunch.

It was only around 10:30am or so by the time the seongtow dropped me off at the Tha Phae gate, so I just wandered into the city, looking around. I ended up buying a used Lonely Planet guide for Vietnam, Cambodia and the Greater Mekong Region, then finding a little restaurant and sitting down to relax for awhile. I ordered orange juice, but they were out, so I got pineapple juice instead, plus a bowl of vegetable soup. It was just what I needed, almost comfort food! I ready my book and watched the foot traffic go buy and ate my soup. After that I wandered around the area, just looking at the architecture and the stores. I realized at one point that I’d left my camera back at Lucy’s, but there was no way I was going back for it.

I had two chores to complete that day: sign up for a cooking class and buy a train ticket. The bus was just a bit too hard for me and so I’d decided to suck up the price increase and take the train back to Bangkok. First, I went to the address of a cooking school from a brochure I’d seen, but I didn’t get a good vibe there: an old lady sat at an information booth which was behind a locked gate, and when I said hello, she said, “Call. Is better.” That was about all she’d say, so I walked away. Lucy had recommended a travel agent with whom she was close friends, and so I went and found her office, which was in the same quarter of the old city as the vegetarian restaurant. I figured she might be able to recommend a good cooking school to me.

Sure enough, Pom, the travel agent, gave me six pamphlets for cooking schools, going over the differences: number of dishes I could make, locations of the school and whether or not they had market visits for ingredients. I finally picked a full-day, out of the city center, seven-dish class, scheduled it for Sunday, arranged a pickup location (near where I hoped to be staying that night, with a different couchsurfer), and paid 900 baht ($30USD). Then we discussed train times and tickets, and I settled on a daytime train ride. It leaves from Chiang Mai at 8:45am and arrives in Bangkok at 8:30pm. Since it’s during the day, I didn’t get a sleeper, opting for an air conditioned second class car instead. Even if the seats aren’t the most comfortable, I can get up and walk around, which I couldn’t do on a bus. The train ticket cost 611 baht, plus a 50 baht commission for Pom.

My chores done, I wandered around a bit. Finally, at around 12:30pm, I found the restaurant and sat downstairs. Not ten minutes later, Jason came in and invited me out back and up the stairs to a balcony, where he and Stan were working on their seventh dish. They were the only ones in the class and they had two women cooks working with them. Their food looked and smelled divine. I was allowed to just sit and watch and chat with them as they cooked three more dishes, including phad thai, and then we all trooped down into the air conditioned restaurant and sat down for a huge meal. We waited for a friend of Jason’s to show up before digging in, but then there was just complete silence as we made our way through all the dishes, which tasted as wonderful as they smelled.

We spent maybe an hour or a little more eating and chatting, and then went our separate ways. Jason and Stan invited me out for drinks later, if I was still in the area. I agreed and said I’d call them if I were still there in a few hours. Then I wandered off, finding an internet cafe and putzing around on the computer for about forty-five minutes. At this point I was feeling a little better, if tired. I decided to check out a couple of the Wats I’d  seen, including the one in the city center called Wat Chedi Luang. The first one I found was Wat Phantao, which was a beautiful teakwood hall with a lovely, huge Buddha inside. I sat and contemplated for awhile, just gazing at the serene face and beautiful carving all around me. Then I wandered out and headed for Wat Chedi Luang, which was just next door. I noticed a large sign saying, “Monk Chat: Don’t Stand There Watching, Come and Talk.”

Intrigued, I headed in, first visiting the magnificent main hall, which is long, has many wooden pillars leading to the front, and has three huge, towering Buddhas at the end, which are quite imposing in their size. I went inside, sat down on the floor and just stared, taking in the details, facial expressions, and people around me, praying. I’m not sure how long I sat there, taking it all in, but eventually I wandered out and looked for the “monk chat” area. I found it and sat down, meeting a monk whose name I cannot remember. He was twenty-seven years old and had been a monk (or an initiate) since he was sixteen. His robe was bright orange, like all the monks, and he was quite adamant when we talked about the basic principles of Buddhism. It was really interesting and he was a talkative fellow. I was tired, though, so after about thirty minutes, we parted ways. There were about ten other monks in the area, talking to a variety of people and tourists. What a great program!

I wandered to the back of the Wat, where the ancient chedi, crumbled and mostly ruined, stands. A chedi is a structure built around a relic of the original Buddha – maybe some hair, or a piece of bone or tooth. This one was pretty magnificent, with the setting sun’s light hitting it. There was a row of large bells in front of it, and I watched as some Thai people came by and rang them, one by one, setting the local mutts howling.

About the time I started to get hungry again, I went back to the internet cafe I’d gone to before and used up my last fifteen minutes. A couchsurfer I’d requested a couch from had responded, so I had a placed lined up for Saturday and Sunday night! Better yet, she said she was going to be out of town and so I could have her apartment and bed all to myself! This was a pleasant surprise, since I expected from reading her profile to be sleeping on the floor again. I then called Jason, who said to meet them at their hotel.

As it turned out, we just all hung out in Jason’s hotel room, which was more like a furnished apartment. They reheated the leftovers from lunch, popped open some beers, mixed me a vodka and sprite, turned on music from their iPods, and put the tv on mute, showing a channel with music videos. It was a really chill evening. By the way, both Jason and Stan are gay, and the ‘friend’ at lunch was a Thai guy Jason had met online. So it was a perfectly comfortable atmosphere with lots of silly dancing, mocking of accents and general good humor. At one point we ran out of sprite so Sun (the Thai guy) used a vegetable juice to mix the vodka with. It didn’t taste as bad as I’d feared, although it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice.

Around 9pm, they all decided to go out to a place Sun (the Thai guy) recommended, but I decided to head home. I already knew that having a few drinks was probably not the best of decisions, likely to make me suffer getting sick more quickly, and I figured going out would make a poor decision worse. So I caught a seongtow and headed back to Lucy’s. Everyone was abed when I got there, so I changed, got ready for bed, and read my book for a little bit before dozing off. In the middle of the night I had to get up several times for an upset stomach. Every time I even pictured the orange vegetable juice I wanted to throw up. It wasn’t the kind of nausea I’ve gotten in the past from drinking too much, so I think that maybe some of the food had turned. Anyway, I finally fell asleep again around 4am and slept until almost 8am, as dead to the world as could be.

This morning, then, I got up, showered, and greeted the day feeling amazingly better! I ate breakfast with Lucy, John and Janet and expressed my plan of cleaning the bathroom, stripping my “bed,” packing my stuff, and leaving my stuff there while I went into the city and wandered about. I figured I’d come back out to Lucy’s in the evening, pick up my laundry and pack it, then head to the new couchsurfer’s place. Lucy invited me to go to the market with her, so I went. She wasn’t feeling too well, unfortunately. We made it to the market, which was just like a US supermarket but with Thai stuff, and I bought a dragonfruit, an orange and some grape-like things that aren’t anything like grapes.

On the way back to Lucy’s house, she remembered that she was supposed to meet her next couchsurfer (replacing me) at 10am at the same Wat where I met her. We drove there, picked up Christy, and headed to Lucy’s house. I checked at the laundry and they said they could have my stuff done by 12pm, so I hung out at Lucy’s until then, chatting with Christy and Lucy. Lucy eventually had to go to bed and rest, still not feeling well, and so Christy and I got to know each other and decided to go to lunch together to a vegetarian place she’d looked up on the internet.

Christy is a twenty-eight year old vegetarian chef from LA, California. She’s got some odd (to me) views, which seemed to jive with some of Lucy’s. For example, that it was too bad that the more intelligent and educated people of the world, who of course don’t eat meat or harm animals, also didn’t believe in overpopulation, and so didn’t have children, because who would want to bring a child into this terrible world anyway… that it was sort of ironic that the more educated and intelligent folk didn’t have progeny to pass on and teach their beliefs to, and so the ignorant masses would keep procreating, creating a cycle of world extinction.

Oy.

In any case, we headed out at 12pm, me with all my stuff with me, and picked up my laundry. Then we caught a seongtow to another Wat, in back of which was the vegetarian place Christy had found. It turned out to be completely wonderful and cheap food and we spent almost three hours there. The length of time was also due to the incredibly slow service, but it was absolutely worth it. Christy invited a guy she had met some time earlier, and he showed up about an hour into our lunch. Steward was a thirty-something Australian playboy, whom Christy evidently was crushing on quite hard. We all had a good time, chatting about travel and food and that kind of stuff. Finally, we split up, me and Christy heading to my next couchsurfer’s place and Stew, who threw me the occasional deep, flirty and charged over-sexed look, headed off on his newly rented motorbike to… well, to do whatever it is that Stew does.

Christy and I made it to Annika’s, my host new hosts, but she wasn’t in. It turned out that she had decided not to leave for the weekend, but she’d left me a note with the key at the front desk of her apartment building. I quickly dropped of my stuff and removed the pant legs from my pants, and then we were off. I left Annika a note telling her our plans and left the key at the front desk, as she had requested in her note to me.

We wandered around, visiting the Wats that I’d been to the day before, but this time armed with a camera. At 5pm, we met yet another couchsurfer who Christy had lunched with the day before, at the southern gate of the city center. From there we walked through the Saturday market, a well-known street lined with food and goods. We spent about two hours wandering through, admiring the woodwork and clothing and foods and purses and everything else there was to see. The market crowd was populated by tourists and locals alike, which was nice. I ended up finally buying a white Thai cotton shirt, which I’ve been wanting ever since Jeff bought one and looked so cool in it. It cost me 140 baht, or just under $5USD.

Finally, I headed back to Annika’s on my own, having made plans with Christy to meet at the vegetarian place for lunch on Monday. And here I am, sitting and typing and relaxing on my floor-bed. Annika is out for the evening but assures me I can do whatever I want, which as it turns out is not much at all. It’s been a good day, but I’m tired. I hope I can sleep well tonight on the floor. Annika said I could choose where I want to sleep, the bed or the floor, but I feel kinda bad taking the bed. We’ll see what wins out, though: manners or comfort.

PS – In case you’re curious about the picture I put in at the very beginning of this blog, well, here’s my non-explanation: Stew and Christy had both gone to the bathroom at the Wat after lunch, so I was left holding Stew’s helmet. I couldn’t help it, I just put it on and put on a weird face for when they came out. It surprised both of them to the point of giggles. Guess I was just feeling silly!

--Z

A Totally Tourist Day

Photos: Thailand: A Tourist Day in Chiang Mai

Today I played the complete tourist. If you recall, back in Bangkok Jeff and I met two Australian dudes who were going to be in Chiang Mai around the same time as me. Well, Stan, one of those guys, and I had exchanged e-mails, and Stan informed me a few days later that his hotel offered a day trip out of Chiang Mai at an elephant camp, and would I like to join him?

Well, I said yes, and so today I got up extra early so that I could shower, pack, walk up the road to a 7-11 to pick up some water for the day, and then caught a seongtow to the opposite side of the city center from where I’m staying. From there I walked for about ten minutes and eventually found breakfast in the form of a healthy shake, and several minutes after that I found Stan’s hotel. Having only met Stan once, I didn’t go direct to his room (he’d e-mailed me the number) but instead waited in the lobby, drinking my shake. Just five minutes after I’d arrived, a sleepy Stan called to me from one floor above, welcoming me to come up while he got ready for the day.

Half an hour later, we were on our way in a minivan with seven other people, a driver and a tour guide. We had an hour’s drive to the elephant camp, during which Stan and I got reacquainted and talked about a variety of things, including the difference between the Australian and American military in regards to homosexuals. How do I get into these conversations, anyway?!

We arrived at the elephant camp amidst milling elephants, crowds of tourists and beautiful weather. I promptly bought a bundle of bananas and a bundle of sugarcane stalks to feed to the elephants. Don’t ask me why, I but really like feeding the animals! A few minutes  later, we were ushered down to the river, where we climbed onto bamboo rafts and floated down the river for about thirty minutes. It was actually quite a pretty and quiet ride. The weather was cool and the sun was shining: perfect! We each got a turn at steering, too, which consisted of standing at the front of the raft and using a long bamboo pole to guide us along the river bottom. It felt a lot fast standing up front!

When we disembarked from the rafts, we caught a minivan back to the main camp, where we saw an elephant show. The show started by first bathing some of the elephants. This consisted of their trainers (called mahouts) riding them down into the river, having them lie down broadside, and scrubbing them with their hands. Then the mahouts turned the tables on the large crowd of tourists that had gathered to watch and photograph: soon the elephants were spraying us!

After their bath, the elephants were marched back up to their arena and the show started. We saw how well trained they were, got a look at their odd mouths, shaped like nothing I’ve ever seen, and applauded for each trick. The mahouts showed how they could mount and dismount, with the help of trunk or foreleg. The elephants showed how they could kick a soccer ball with accuracy, paint, play instruments, dance and twirl a hula hoop. While very orchestrated and a bit cheesy, it was still fun and amazing to watch. At the end of the show, the elephants came up to the railing and tourists could give them money if they so desired. At one point, an elephant took a man’s hat, and then replaced it and patted it into place several times!

After the show it was time for our elephant ride. This was what I was most excited for, but it turned out to be a really bumpy, swervy, swingy ride! The platform we sat on was secure, but it was thrown forward and back and the ride was anything but smooth. As we watched other people, we realized it wasn’t just us… everyone felt the same jerkiness! Not that it wasn’t cool, but when you’re trying to hold on for dear life and not kick the elephant, it can become a tough ride! We walked through the jungle camp for about forty-five minutes, getting to see some pretty great views. The mahout on the elephant behind ours sang: Holy Night, Joy to the World, Happy Birthday, you name it! Our mahout talked on his cell phone.

Ah, well, I guess youth today, everywhere in the world, can’t unplug!

After the elephant ride came the oxcart ride, which was bumpy in it’s own way but kind’ve interesting to think about past uses of the same vehicle. Once we got back to the elephant camp, we had a buffet lunch along with the other tourists, which wasn’t bad. Then we were driven off to the orchid farm, which was about half an hour away. On the way, our tour guide informed us of optional additional tours: a snake show, a monkey show or a tiger sanctuary. Stan hadn’t seen tigers yet, so we went there, and it was much better than the tiger temple I’d gone to outside of Bangkok. It was prettier, the tigers were free to run around in their gated areas, unchained, and we got to go into the penned areas to pet and watch the tigers.

Next up was the orchid farm, which was pretty but unexciting. Finally, it was time to head home. It had been a full and exhausting day, but a great one! Once back in the city center, Stan and I parted ways, he going back to his hotel and me catching a seongtow back to Lucy’s house. After relaxing and chatting with the other surfers for a bit, I headed out to the main road for some street food, which was noodles tonight. Quite yummy although not the best I’ve had so far. I also picked up a coconut milk dessert and a “rotee,” or pancake thing, with banana and raisin cooked inside. Yum!

Time for bed now. Tomorrow I explore the city center and eat lunch with Stan and Jason, who will be feeding me from their morning cooking class!

--Z

A Slower Pace, Followed by Chiang Mai

Photos: Thailand: Days on Khao San Road

Note: Please scroll down to Oct 27, 2010. I recently posted three additional “Guest Blog” entries with that date. Jan Mueller has been sending me her writing and I wanted them to fit right in to the right timeframe (Hong Kong). Please scroll down and have a read!

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted, but that’s partially in keeping with my enforced slowing of pace and change of mindset in the past few days. I’ve been focusing more on writing and replying to e-mails, updating Facebook pictures a bit and letting Thailand make itself known to me rather than forcing myself to know Thailand.

Sunday evening’s Halloween and Couchsurfing get-together was fun but as I was no feeling strictly party-ish and social, I only lasted about two hours. I wore a mask part of the time, just for fun, and played a few games of pool. I talked for a short time with a very handsome Canadian, for a longer time with a Dutch girl, and for the longest with a strange guy from Austria. All in all, it was a good, mixed and friendly crew of couchsurfers, just what I’d hoped for!

That night, Sunday, I went to bed and completely sacked out until about 9am the next morning. I let myself wake up slowly and wondered vaguely what I was going to do with myself, absorbing the twinge of panic and merely closing my eyes again. After awhile, I pulled myself upright and began preparing for the day, making myself presentable, neatening my room and packing my day bag. First mission of the day, of course, was to find breakfast!

I turned right out of the little lane my hostel was situated in and followed the curve of the road to the left. There was a fair trickle of people out, primarily backpackers of all different nationalities, but not the flood the night before had seen. I quickly came across a streetside place offering Phad Thai for 30 baht ($1), so I nabbed myself a plate and a short stool and plopped down next to a nice Czech kid, with whom I began to converse cheerfully once my stomach began to get filled. Eyeing his cool fruit shake, I ordered one for myself and enjoyed the treat. Breakfast equaled out to about $2USD and was enough to tide me over for most of the day! The Czech guy did recommend that I buy my Chiang Mai bus ticket earlier rather than later, as he had tried to buy a same-day ticket and been foiled due to buses being full at several places.

After my streetside meal, I decided to make as my goal for the day Dusit Park, which seemed in walking distance on the map and which held a number of interesting sightseeing objects: the world’s largest golden teakwood museum, Asia’s finest zoo and a number of smaller attractions. So off I went, smiling and shaking my head at all the tuk-tuk drivers who decided I should be driven for ten or twenty baht, special price for madame! I was determined to walk, however, so I politely and cheerfully declined and kept on my way. My mood was good and I had a direction, so all was well! Before I quite left Khao San Road, I stopped in at one of the hundreds of travel agents and bought a one-way, overnight bus ticket to Chiang Mai, just 350 baht and leaving Tuesday evening, giving me time to wander the area for another full day.

About a third of the way to the park, a Thai man waved at me and started to talk to me. My fine mood didn’t waver as I prepared to be told that Dusit Park was closed, but that this guy could take me elsewhere, then the ensuing gentle argument that I could walk and would just go anyway. This, however, didn’t happen! In this case, it seems the guy just wanted to practice his English and chat to a foreigner, and he in no way tried to direct how I spent my day or offer me any good deals. Instead he just confirmed my directions, asked where I was from and how long I’d been in Thailand, what I thought of everything, and so on. After five minutes I was on my way, spirits bolstered even further by the good luck of meeting a friendly, non-tout Thai.

Dusit Park ended up being a bit further of a walk than I anticipated, which resulted in my arriving pretty sweaty. I also got turned around so that while I found a number of landmarks marking the park, I couldn’t actually find the park entrance. I passed the zoo but wasn’t excited about entering and after first impressions, the inaccessible throne hall lost it’s appeal. Sure enough, I found a Thai who told me the museums were closed and that I could be much happier if I’d just let him drive me across town to another, much better place, but I declined, getting a little frustrated that I was close but not quite at my destination.

Finally I would my way around and into the park, buying a 100 baht ($3USD) ticket to all the museums. Inside the park it was serene and empty and quiet, which suited me fine. I eventually found my way to the teakwood museum and cheerfully ambled up the path. Inside, I learned that I could not take my phone or camera on the tour with me, nor even my backpack at all, and must pay for a locker to store all of it in. Fine, did that, keeping my passport purse on me. The next English tour wasn’t for about twenty minutes, so I sat and waited in the waiting area. Right up until the last moment I was the only English-speaker, but then three others joined my waiting area and I was relieved. We lined up and went through a metal detector and were then wanded. I forgot to take out my iPod from my passport purse and the demanded to know why I had a phone and a camera on me. I explained that the iPod had neither and showed how there was no camera and no earpiece. They weren’t to be appeased, however, and pointed imperiously back towards the locker.

I sighted and went back, but then was approached by the locker lady, who informed me that I would have to pay for the locker a second time if I unlocked it now. I tried to explain what had happened but she wouldn’t budge. After all, it was a coin locker, so there was nothing she could do, but I got suddenly upset, feeling that the hidden cost of the locker and the long wait and the new rule that no iPods could go past the medal detector were all quite unjust. I’m ashamed to say that I just took my bag and left, in a fury for no particular reason.

And so I wandered about the park, almost in tears I was so angry, and got angrier as I saw lockers outside each of the museums my ticket allowed me entrance to. What a scam, I told myself! How outrageous! Never mind that the cost for the lockers was less than a dollar. I finally found a section of the park that didn’t require me to store my things in a locker, and oddly enough the Elephant Museum rooms seemed to calm me down. Nothing more than removing my shoes was necessary and the nice guards just handed me a pamphlet explaining what I was seeing, which it turned out were converted elephant stables.

After the calming quiet of the stables-turned-museum, I walked to another museum, this one of Thai art forms, and found that the lockers were free. This was a beautiful (and air conditioned) set of rooms that contained all sorts of samples of Thai art, including many items inlaid with translucent beetle’s wings, silks, bamboo baskets, and jewelry of different kinds. After this, I was finished and decided to head back to Khao San Road. I began walking back and decided if I could get a tuk-tuk for twenty baht or less, I’d take it. The first one offered me a ride for 150 baht, which I quickly refused. The second guy seemed positive and agreed to take me, telling me he had to stop for gas once I’d boarded. I started to decline but he took off and I shrugged, resigned to whatever sales pitch I might receive.

It turned out the tuk-tuk driver had a friend who ran a silk tailor shop, and it was there that he dropped me with promises to return in ten minutes to take me the rest of the way, and with assurances that just looking was ok. The gentlemen inside did their damnedest to sell to me, so that I eventually used my pocket-excuse of having a husband who controlled my funds and so I couldn’t sign off on anything without first consulting him. They offered to have a car go pick him up from our hotel, but I refused and eventually was able to escape. The tuk-tuk driver was there and off we zoomed, until he ascertained that I hadn’t bought anything. Then he stopped his tuk-tuk and pointed vaguely in front him, saying, “Khao San that way.”  What a complete jerk!

So I walked the rest of the way back to Khao San, grumbling and mumbling but not getting too upset, since after all, I should have known better. And besides, I didn’t end up paying anything, so no harm! I decided to Skype with my folks and got to talk to both of them for awhile, which helped me keep my mood positive.

The rest of Monday evening consisted of wandering the streets in the Khao San Road area, people watching and enjoying the street scene: music, backpackers both hardened and wide-eyed, street vendors, bars, massage places, and so on. I ended up eating Vietnamese-style noodles for dinner, which made me sweat but was extra good. I had with it a bottle of Coca-Cola, which I almost never drink at home but find myself enjoying now and then abroad. My last main event of the night was to get a thirty minute foot massage for 100 baht (~$3USD), which was fabulous and put me in the right frame of mind for bed.

Tuesday morning I slept in a bit again and showered. Actually, I ended up eating breakfast at the same streetside vendor as the morning before, too, although I didn’t chat with anyone this time. After breakfast I checked out of my room, got my deposit back, paid a fee to store my larger pack in a locked room of the hostel, and then headed out. Today’s goal was to return to the National Museum, which Jeff and I had visited but only gotten to see a tiny piece of. I checked my map and was off. As I left the Khao San Road area, I passed a Thai guy gesticulating and chatting loudly with a white backpacker who looked patiently confused. I smiled to myself and kept on going, wondering if the Thai would be successful convincing the backpacker of… whatever.

A few minutes later, as I was waiting for traffic to lighten up so that I could cross the road, the backpacker caught up to me. I smiled at him and said, “So, did you get lots of good advice?” He laughed and shrugged, and we began talking as we waited for a break in the traffic. This was Loren (lo-REN), from France, just arrived that morning in Bangkok from Ko Phi Phi. He’d been traveling for almost nine months, of which three had been spent in Australia with his girlfriend, who was an Aussie. That didn’t work out, though, so he took off traveling on what funds he had left and here he was. We finally got across the road and had walked a block or two together when I asked where he was going. He grimaced and said he had no idea, that he just wanted to walk around and see what there was to see.

I invited him to come to the museum with me and he agreed affably, pleased to have gained a guide, as he said, since he had no map and no idea what to go see or do. The museum turned out to really be closed, as a matter of fact, and so we walked to the amulet market, and then turned down a side street and began wandering in earnest. We kept up a lively chat the entire time and I felt pretty good, felt confident that I knew where I was going (to some extent) and seemed to know a bit more about Thai culture than this guy with the easy smile and thick French accent.

We ended up taking a ferry across the river, which hadn’t been our plan but turned out ok. We picked a place for lunch and ate, then wandered the markets until we saw a Wat and decided to take a look. I told him what I’d learned about Buddha and wats in general and he said again how lucky he was to have found a good, free guide. We got along splendidly and I’ll admit that as the day went on, we flirted outrageously. I was having a great time with it! Europeans flirt much differently than Americans and I liked it. At one point he solicitously took my hand, under the pretense of hurrying me across the street to avoid traffic. Hah!

We eventually ended up back on Khao San Road and I convinced him to get a foot massage at the same place I’d gotten one the night before, since I wanted another one. He agreed and we splurged on an hour apiece, relaxing in the chairs and watching the foot traffic go by, commenting on where we thought people were from depending on their looks or accents. By the time our hour was up, it was time for me to get my pack and go to the bus pickup place. Loren went with me and we grabbed a fruit shake before parting ways, wishing each other a good trip.

Feeling a little giddy from my successful day of wandering, flirting and having a general good time, I resigned myself to the small crowd of backpackers which had gathered. I met some German women and we all began walking, following the tour company lady. We were stopped every so often, amassing more and more people as we got further from the main Khao San Road. Finally, we arrived at our bus and we all piled our stuff underneath and clambered on board. It was one of those buses where seating is just upstairs. I had hoped for a window seat but the bus was already crowded. I quickly took an aisle seat next to a Japanese girl named Yakoko, who was friendly and quiet.

That began my twelve hour, overnight bus ride to Chiang Mai. While the bus was air conditioned, and the seats reclined and the lights eventually all turned out, I was not the most comfortable. When you reclined the seat back, a foot rest also extended, but it was at an awkward angle so my legs never felt at rest. Also, the seats reclined an awful lot, so that the head rest of the seat in front of my was maybe six inches above my lap for most of the ride. Ugh! There were three rest stops that I can remember, one at about 10pm, another at 1am and I’m not sure when the last one was. Somehow, I had begun chaffing again and so at one stop I removed my underwear. This only seemed to worsen the situation, no matter how much baby powder I applied. So, for me the bus ride wasn’t as easy and comfy as I’d hoped. I think that I will splurge for a second-class train back to Bangkok.

However, I was able to get about four hours of sleep, starting at around 2am, and so when we arrived at 7am to Chiang Mai, I was ready and mostly alert. The bus company piled us all into seongtows, which are pickup trucks fitted with benches and a cover, and we were dropped at a guesthouse where we received tea or coffee and a thirty minute sales pitch on treks we could take with this company. There I met Nia, who had on a splint and had stitches under one eye. Of course I asked about it and she told me about being run over by a motorbike trying to steal her bag in Vietnam. Her wrist was broken, but because of problems with drug trafficking checks at borders, she didn’t get a cast. Poor girl! She seemed a bit shell shocked, as it had only happened a week before, but she was forging on ahead! We walked a ways together before I caught another seongtow to Wat U Mong, the agreed-upon meeting place between me and my Couchsurfing host, Lucy.

After I called her, Lucy met me at the Wat, which was really a meditation center, on her motor bike. She took my smaller pack, directed me up the road and said she’d meet me at the turnoff. Five minutes later, we turned down a lane and arrived at her house.

Lucy’s house is magnificent! Many windows, very large, a beautiful garden and a monk who apparently lives there with her. Lucy herself is an older woman with a dry sense of humor. She has hosted over a hundred people and is well-versed in giving directions, advice and discussing the rules of staying with her (which really just include common sense guest-rules, like cleaning up after yourself, etc). She loaded me up with a map and several brochures, directions to the laundry, a tour guide and her favorite Wat, and fed me toast with honey and some coffee. She’s an expat of over twelve years, having first tried New Zealand and disliking the locals (who are friendly to tourists but apparently not so friendly to those trying to move in) and then coming to Thailand. She dislikes Thai food but seems to like everything else, being involved in Couchsurfing, gardening when her body doesn’t hurt, and a local theater. After coffee, she was off for an appointment and I was left to myself. Actually, the monk was still there and he told me that the two channels from which I could get news of the elections were Fox and Al-Jazira, with the latter being better news but the former being focused on the US.

I relaxed and made up my bed, which is a corner in the living room on a soft mattress pad. Lucy seems to be a fairly fastidious person, so I’m working very hard on keeping all my things in a tidy pile on my pack. After taking a walk in the direction I thought was towards the old city of Chiang Mai, the chaffing got too bad. I stopped for a lunch of spicy soup, read on my iPod for a bit, and then made my way back to Lucy’s, sweating from the soup and the sun both. At Lucy’s, her other surfers were just arrived, an older couple from Canada. We all chatted for a bit and then I decided to take a shower and relax. I ended up taking a several hour nap, which felt really good. Guess the bus ride took more out of me than I’d supposed. Another benefit of the nap was the chance to powder my chaffed areas and air out.

Once up from my power nap, I groggily got online, caught up on a few things, made a few couch requests for this weekend and generally just took an hour to wake up again. Then I wandered out to the main road, about a ten minute walk, and perused the street vendors there. It’s a bit of a night market, although a small one, set up for the university students. I walked the entire line of stalls, maybe two or three blocks long, and got hungrier and hungrier. Eventually I picked a phad thai kind of dish and then three chicken meatball things with a nice sauce on them. I also treated myself to a banana-kiwi shake. Pretty nice dinner, huh! After eating I wandered a bit more before deciding to head “home.” Back at Lucy’s, John and Janet, the older couple, were chatting about possible plans for the next few days. We agreed that we’d like to maybe go together to the wat on top of the hill next to Chiang Mai, so we’ll probably do that Friday or Saturday. After trading travel stories and advice, John and Janet headed for their showers, and I headed for my pack. In trying to stay neat, I reorganized how things were packed, prepared for tomorrow, and in general got everything together.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with Stanley, one of the two guys I met in Bangkok at the Blue Elephant with Jeff, for a day tour of Chiang Mai. It promises to be fairly touristy, but hey, I get to ride an elephant so I’m excited!

--Z

Me Day

No pictures from today!

At around 10:30am this morning, I finally got out of bed and showered. I decided to splurge one last time and ordered a Western, in-room breakfast. I watched tv and putzed around on my computer. After breakfast, I packed and searched the room to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything, and then I was off. Honestly, I didn’t leave the hotel until around 1pm, and I took a cab to Khao San Road. I took a cab because there’s no direct sky train or subway to that area, and I didn’t have the energy to figure out the buses. My taxi driver was pretty cool and ran an honest meter, and he dropped me at a hostel he recommended. I have no idea if he got commissions for dropping folks there, but it helped me out, so I was happy!

I checked into Rambuttri Village Inn for 600 baht a night (about $20USD) for my own room with AC and a bathroom. I dropped off my stuff and then wandered the area, stopping first at a 7-11 to get a cold bottle of water and a SIM card for my cell phone.

I bought a Motorola phone from a guy off of Craig’s List a few days before I flew out of the US and just haven’t gotten around to getting the SIM card until now. The guy who sold it to me didn’t include the US SIM card and didn’t unlock the phone, but it turned out not to be a problem. For around 500 baht ($13USD), I got a SIM card, about an hour of call time and I got the phone unlocked by someone. Woo! I now have a cell phone! My Thai number is 0860760807, which I think includes the country code.

Since I had to wait for my room to get cleaned at the hostel, and I had to wait for the guy to unlock my phone,, I went to get lunch at Sawasdee House, which is the place I’m going to meet some couchsurfers tonight for a weekly get-together and Halloween party. I had some chicken, curry and rice, people-watched and read a book on my iPod touch. It was really fun seeing backpackers stagger down the road in front of the restaurant, and to watch the absolutely variety of people eating around me. I couldn’t even name all the nationalities, but there were all kinds of people: party boys, cool kids, loners, girls with dredds, guys with aviator glasses, people with glazed looks in their eyes and other talking animatedly about where they’d been or where they were going.

I didn’t get into any conversations, needing some quiet me-time to soak it all in. I’m reading “The Count of Monte Cristo” on my iPod, and that was nice to get back to a familiar story.

After lunch, I went and got my unlocked cell phone (which is really just for emergencies and to contact couchsurfing hosts, etc) and then headed back to the hostel. I got my room key and have just been relaxing in my room, catching up on my blog postings and just… being.

Here are a couple things I’ve been meaning to mention in this blog, but just haven’t gotten around to until now. It’s a hodgepodge of thoughts with no real common theme except, perhaps, travel.

1. The weather. The day we arrived in Bangkok, Jan, Jeff and I were completely destroyed by the hot humidity. It felt like a wet blanket settled on us each time we went outside and for me, it was a real energy-sucker. Our first two nights we were all three awakened by thundering rainstorms and lots of lightning. The day Jan left, though, Thursday, something broke in the weather pattern, and now the humidity seems to have lowered permanently. It’s still hot, but not as unbearable, and sometimes it gets into the high seventies, which is a nice relief. Jeff and I both commented incredulously on how nice it was several times in the past few days. I hope it stays this way!

2. “Suffer lonesome living in the forest.” That was my fortune from my visit to Ayutthaya and this phrase sticks in my mind. It’s funny, because right now that is how I feel. Jan left, Jeff left, and now I’m back to my solo travel. When I ventured off on my own in South Korea, I was excited and felt good about being on my own. This morning, however, I was fighting off fear and loneliness and a bit of self-doubt. Why am I traveling solo around the world? Will I really be ok? There are so many things to be afraid of: robbery, violence, getting lost, rape, etc. All of this started to press in on me; had really started pressing in last night, really. I can’t say that I’m completely rid of it yet, but I am hoping these feelings will go by the wayside as I forge ahead. Deep down, I know that I can do it, and that I’ll have a great time, but it’s pretty hard going from having a constant companion to being completely alone and, my own fault, having no plan. Luckily, today has gone well so far and I credit that partly to allowing myself to have a slow, no-sight-seeing, no expectation kind of day, with my only goals finding a bed and getting a SIM Card accomplished really easily.

3. Time to get my mindset back on being frugal. Not to say I haven’t done well so far, but traveling with Jeff and Jan was a different kind of travel than I plan to do on my own. Not better, not worse, just different. It’s difficult when I know I’ll be on the road for a year, and travel with people going home in a few days. Jan and Jeff were both more than generous, paying for the hotel rooms and taxis and some of the more expensive stuff, but knowing that you’re on a different budget than others can be stressful, especially while traveling. And in the past week I’ve fallen back into the “oh, it’s just a few extra dollars” mindset, which I need to shed if I want my travels to last. Also, it’s a challenge I want to meet, to be able to travel as a backpacker for an extended amount of time. I realize that this isn’t defined anywhere, but I guess I want to rough it and enjoy roughing it. Coming from two weeks of nice hotels and nice restaurants, though, that experience is harder to “want” now, although I think I’ll ease back in quickly.

4. Plans for the immediate future. I am going to hang around Khao San road for two days and then take an overnight train or bus on Nov 2 to Chiang Mai, where I have a confirmed host through couchsurfing. Hopefully I’ll meet up with the Aussies I met at the Blue Elephant, and I would love to go to an elephant sanctuary. I would also really like to go to the Mekong River Valley and explore some of the villages there. I have a flight to Hanoi, though, on Nov 10, and my visa for Vietnam is only for the month of November, so I don’t want to delay that flight. Some other considerations have come up, too: Indonesia has recently experienced three natural disasters, so I’m not sure that I’ll be going to Bali as planned. Right now, I’m thinking that I’ll go to Chiang Mai, couchsurf for three nights, either do a program at an elephant sanctuary OR find a trip to the Mekong River Valley, and then head back to Bangkok on Nov 9, to make my 6:55am flight on Nov 10. Then I’ll take twenty days to explore Vietnam, generally heading south via train or bus, and cross the Cambodian border on Nov 30th. I’ll take some time to cross Cambodia, visiting Phnom Pen and Angkor Wat, and then overland back into Thailand. At that point, it will be at least a week or so into December. Instead of taking a train from Bangkok to Singapore as originally planned, I may just enjoy my time at Thailand beaches, slowly overlanding south. I need to find out the fare to New Zealand from either Bangkok, Singapore or maybe Kuala Lumpur or Phuket, and pick the cheapest fare to make it to Dunedin, New Zealand, by New Year’s eve.

5. Malaria pills: To take or not to take?! I haven’t decided yet.

6. What to Wear: I’m sure you’ve heard of the political unrest in Thailand, and even I, who rarely keeps up with politics around the world, knew that there were two main factions that seemed to be highlighted in the protests and sometimes violent uprisings: the red shirts and the yellow shirts. It was highlighted to us  - I can’t remember now by who or what – that we should not wear strong red or yellow colors, and even orange should be avoided. We were all fairly careful, but one morning I just threw on a shirt and headed down to meet Surin for one of our tours. He stared at me and then shook his finger, saying, “Not to wear red. Please to change.” Jeff, Jan and I looked at my shirt and then blanched: it was, indeed, more red than anything else, and we just hadn’t paid any attention. I went directly upstairs and changed. Since then I always check myself in the mirror to make sure I’m not “declaring” for one faction or another with my clothing. For the most part, I haven’t seen much of either color around Bangkok, with just a few exceptions that don’t seem to have been politically motivated. It’s something else, though, that reminds me that I’m indeed in a foreign country with some pretty serious political happenings.

--Z