Happy New Year!

I will dub 2010 the Year of the Elephant, just because I got to spend my New Year's Eve day with a group of amazing pachyderms. Wow. This experience was everything I was hoping for and more - by far the coolest touristy thing I have ever done in my life. Elephants are so amazing. They are enormous, first of all, and you really get a sense of how strong they are when you are standing right next to them. But amazingly, they are also so gentle. We spent about 8 hours at the Elephant Nature Park. If you Google it you will find tons of information. The woman who founded the park is also amazing. She is totally hands-on and inspiring, one of those rare people who have found a passion and made it their life's mission. She has 34 elephants currently, including 2 babies, on a swath of land that covers 150 acres, and they have recently purchased more land so they can rescue more elephants. Rescue from what, you may ask? Well, it's interesting because elephants are such a symbol of Thailand, but their story is complex. Basically there are wild elephants and domestic ones. For years domestic elephants were used in the logging industry, but logging was banned in 1989 leaving thousands of elephants unemployed and unable to be released back into the wild.

So Lek (the founder) has taken in several elephants who used to work in the logging industry. Unfortunately they were often mistreated. One of the elephants had been blinded because she refused to work after she lost her baby. Another had been addicted to amphetamines which the owners gave her so she would work all day at one operation, and all night at another. The stories were heartbreaking, but now the elephants are in a much better place. They are treated with the utmost love and respect by everyone who works and volunteers there.

Another one of the park's projects is a traveling medical clinic to care for elephants in the surrounding villages, some of whom are used for illegal street begging. In Bangkok sometimes you will see (although I did not) someone on the street with their elephant offering to let you feed it for money. They make good money off the deal, but it is very unhealthy for the elephants. They get stressed by the lights and noise and sometimes get hit and injured, or worse, by the passing cars. Some of the elephants at the park were also formerly involved in this line of work.

I learned a lot today, and I took almost 400 pictures, which frankly is a little obnoxious. I was that annoying tourist that the guide had to keep rounding up because we were moving on in this direction or that. I was just so fascinated by these creatures, though, and was more or less in my own world the whole day. I learned that it's actually OK to ride elephants if it's through a company that treats them well. I also learned that elephants sleep only 4 hours a night, but spend about 18 hours a day eating or looking for food (I knew there was a reason I loved these guys so much!), and eat up to 10% of their bodyweight each day. We watched a video about how they train them, which is not pretty. Another thing that Lek is working on is training the two babies at the park using positive reinforcement, as opposed to the brutal methods traditionally used, in the hopes that she can change people's minds. She's not opposed to domesticating elephants, just the methods used to do so.

Anyway, it was an amazing day, a great way to start the new year. Here's to a year of health, happiness, and dreams come true.


A group of elephants grazes after their bath.


Bath time!


Making friends with Jokia, the blind elephant.

2552 and other revelations

So it turns out it's the year 2552 here in Thailand, according to the Buddhist calendar, which begins from the birth of Buddha as opposed to the birth of Christ. Interesting. This explains the date on my boat ticket to Phuket and the signs I've seen for the Chiang Mai marathon around town.

Today I got out of the city a bit, taking a shared taxi up to Doi Suthep, a temple on a mountaintop. Interestingly, there was a sign for all foreign visitors to proceed this way to pay an entry fee, but Thai nationals get in free. Hmm... yeah, I just went in anyway. Granted, it was only like a dollar, but still. Anyway, this is not a Thai concept; in India it's common for Indians to pay one very low price for entry into things while foreigners pay way more. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Anyway, tomorrow is the big day I've been waiting for in some ways. One of the attractions here in Thailand is the elephants, so tomorrow I will spend the day at the Elephant Nature Park, walking with, bathing, and just generally hanging out, up close and personal, with them. I'm so, so, so excited, as elephants are by far my favorite animal. I'm hoping to get some amazing pictures of this experience. Apparently we need to bring a change of clothes as well, since you understandably get pretty wet when bathing an elephant.

There's another attraction up this way that I'm debating doing, and that is the Tiger Kingdom. Here, too, you apparently can get up close and personal with the tigers, except that they are essentially drugged up, to what extent I'm not sure, so that they don't, ya know, eat the tourists. Ha. So therein lies the controversy - sedated tigers. I've heard it's pretty amazing, though, not surprisingly. So we'll see. I expect I'll be heading out of Chiang Mai in the next 2 or 3 days, however, up to Chiang Rai and then crossing the border into Laos as my 30-day visa will expire shortly. From there the trip is up in the air - cross back into Thailand? Head south through Laos into Cambodia? Any thoughts?


I believe these are lotus flowers. They are for sale outside the temple for people to give as offerings.


Why do people do this to their dogs? Paris would never put up with this.

New feet

I had a lazy start to the day, mostly due to the fact that I now have internet access in my room, so I can check my email, catch up on news, and whatever right from the comfort of my bed. I actually listened to my favorite Portland radio station, WCLZ, as I was getting ready to go out. I finally grabbed breakfast around 11 or so, a yummy banana pancake and the world's strongest-ever ginger tea. Then I grabbed a sorng-taa-ou, which are these red trucks that are shared taxis, to Chiang Mai University. It's got a beautiful campus, which was really quiet because I think they are between semesters right now. But it was nice to walk around the tree-lined streets, get a view of the mountains in the background, and breathe some fresh air on a warm sunny day. Ahhh...

Afterwards I walked back to the center of town, stopping at several trendy (i.e. expensive) boutiques along the way. It was quite a hike, so I grabbed some food at a vegetarian restaurant before I geared up for the Sunday night market, which spans the entire length of one of the main tourist streets here. It was like the Saturday market, but times a hundred. A little too crowded for me at points, actually, but pretty incredible. There were delicious treats to be had about every ten feet and I did my best to keep up. A few stands were selling my beloved mango sticky rice, so of course I had to have some. Unfortunately the mango was a little underripe... so I had another one at another stand down the road. :) I also had some tasty little coconut cookie-type things, a coconut smoothie, taro ice cream and, just so it wasn't ALL sweets, some rice noodle veggie cakes. I may stay through next weekend in Chiang Mai just to hit this market again. As I was making my back to my guesthouse, I walked by chair after chair filled with tourists getting foot massages. Everyone looked so blissed out, and I had walked so much today, that I decided to join them. Good idea. A half hour foot rub for $2, which left me feeling like I had a new pair of feet and asking myself, why am I not doing this every day??

Tomorrow I'm going to get serious about looking into some of the touristy things I want to do here, namely visiting the Elephant Nature Park where you get to interact with the elephants, NOT ride them, which is not really good for them. Also, there seem to be dozens of cooking schools here, so I need to pick one so I can get my fix of these foods anytime I have a craving in the future. I love Thailand.


Bamboo casting shadows.


Check this out. It's called chow-guai. The sign says it's a jelly that comes from a Chinese plant. They serve it with ice and brown sugar. I might get daring enough to try this next week.

Wat is that?!

Today was my first full day in Chiang Mai, and it was full indeed. I must have walked a good 10 miles - probably an exaggeration, but it sure felt like a lot. After I realized that my guesthouse was not where I thought it was on the map (I am map-challenged), I actually got to where I was hoping to go, which almost never happens, at least not on my first day in a new place. Along the way, though, I happened upon an enormous market that seemed to go on forever. It was definitely not a tourist market as there were few foreigners in sight. It was pretty amazing, an endless maze of stalls selling everything from clothes to spices to dried fruit to meat and seafood and flowers. Because of my utter lack of Thai I was at a loss for what some of the things were, but it seems like if you can dry or pickle something, the Thais will do it. There were glass jars and plastic bags full of all kinds of exotic looking things. I got as daring as a bag of unknown baked goods, which ended up tasting more or less like angel food cake. Yum.

After getting sidetracked for a while at this market, I ended up on one of the main shopping streets where many of the stores sell hill tribe goods. Interesting, but nothing I would buy, and certainly nothing I could see selling in the U.S. Toward the end of the day, I made my way to the Saturday night street market, which was huge. There's another similar market on a different street tomorrow, which I think is basically the same vendors.

In between all of this shopping and walking, I managed to squeeze in a banana lassi, a cornflake cookie, two curry soups, and a Thai iced tea. I'm surprised at how hard it is to find this drink, actually. It's so highly addicting, at least for me and I would suspect other tourists, that I really think the Thais should be capitalizing on this and have a tea stand at least every couple blocks. But as I've mentioned before, they seem to be rather lackadaisical here about selling. Today I actually saw three vendors asleep on the job, literally - pillow under the head, newspaper over the head, you name it. The Thais are really chill, apparently.

So Chiang Mai is a good-sized city, but still small enough and the tourist areas concentrated enough that I've run into some of the folks on my plane a few times. And at the end of the day today as I was making my way back to my guesthouse, I noticed a tourist taking a picture of a wat (temple). As I think I've mentioned, after India and now Thailand I'm kind of over temples. You can't spit a watermelon seed here without hitting one, kind of like churches in my hometown. In any case, I glanced over and decided, grudgingly, that I should get my camera out and take some pictures because this one was actually kind of unique and beautiful. So I crossed the street to get a closer view and as I was snapping away I heard, "Melanie Hansen!" Turns out my friends from Delhi were at this very same temple with their family, including a former French student of mine. Wild. I knew they were here, and we were probably going to get together at some point, but what are the chances of running into each other like that? Pretty funny. It's a small world indeed.


Roses still packed tight from shipping.


Here fishy, fishy... oh wait, you're dried and cured to a crisp and on a stick. There seems to be a lot of that here, fish on a stick, either in full form or compressed into a ball. Interesting.


One vendor's colorful display.

Merry Christmas from Chiang Mai!

I spent Christmas Eve in Phuket Town on the super touristed island of Phuket. It was nothing to write home about, and this morning I caught a cab to the airport for my two-hour flight north to Chiang Mai. Ever since I arrived in Thailand I've been wondering, where are all the American tourists? Well, it turns out they are here, for better or for worse. I wasn't quite sure what to expect here, but it's a little more like Bangkok than I imagined. There's quite a lot of traffic, but it also seems like there are ways to escape it to some quieter streets.

I'm super stoked to report that the prices, for some things at least, have plummeted. I found a room for 150 baht, about $5, and this includes free wifi. Sweet. Of course, it also includes an Asian-style toilet and a cold water shower, but frankly I'm quite used to both of these things. Besides, once you've traveled enough on buses and trains in Asia, you can pretty much handle any bathroom set-up.

I spent a few hours wandering around this afternoon, trying to get my bearings and figure out where the best places to shop might be. This will likely take some time. There seem to be some cool clothing styles here (both for me and my pipedream of an import business), but I will have to hunt for quality and price. As I write this I'm sitting in a generic coffee shop as I was craving something sweet. It's Christmas, after all, so I might as well indulge in something. I settled on some mocha chip ice cream. They're playing the Carpenters, which is pretty amusing, but it's better than some other places which are playing Christmas music, which when I hear it just makes me wish I were with my family celebrating the holiday. It's about 7:30 a.m. in the U.S. and I can picture my little nephews waking up to see what Santa brought them. Awww...

So no traditional Christmas for me this year, but that's OK. It was my choice to travel at this time of the year and although I am missing my favorite holiday with family, I am not missing the cold weather.

Update: In the middle of typing this, my sister chimed in with my brother-in-law and the boys on Skype, so it was almost like being there. Technology = amazing.


I made a friend on the streets of Chiang Mai today, a newborn kitty. :)

Better than perfect

Last night as I lay on the wooden platform overlooking the sunset, getting a 1 1/2 hour Thai massage and listening to the sound of the waves I thought, "Is there such a thing as better than perfect? Because if so, this is it." I am in love with this place, and I definitely want to return, preferably with that "man of my dreams". For now, I will enjoy one more day in the sun and surf. I just booked a ticket to Chiang Mai, in the north, leaving on Christmas day. After all, how much time can one spend in the sun? Especially one as fair-skinned as I?

I'm not sure if I'll be online between now and Christmas day, so if not, Merry Christmas! Enjoy the holiday and the time together. I'll be with you in spirit!!

Perfect

It doesn't get much better than this. Last night I watched the sun set as jazz music filled the air. I'm not sure what the exact temperature was but if a thermometer read "perfect," that's what it would have read last night. It was a perfect night for a stroll on the beach and the only thing missing was the gorgeous, intelligent, multilingual man of my dreams. ;) Today was pretty low-key, as any day on an island should be. I spent some time in a café, on the beach, and in the sea, which is also the perfect temperature. I could get used to this.

Pictures!

So I am now on Ko Lanta, a bigger island with all the modern conveniences... and still with some gorgeous and quiet patches of sand - the best of both worlds. I just got here today and I'm taking the day off from the sun. Not far from my little bungalow resort, which has incredible food by the way, is this Starbucks logo look-alike coffee shop where I am enjoying a coffee frappe and free wifi. Sweetness. So, here we go... a pictorial of the past several days:


Floating market produce. Mmm...


The sweet old lady who sold me the Chinese-style dumplings filled with chives, taro, and papaya.


The dumplings.


Funky hats for sale at the market.


View from the train ride south.


Sunset on Ko Libong.


The beach at Ko Muk.


The bungalows.


Two Thai cuties.


Rubber production on Ko Muk.


Sheets of rubber drying in the sun.


A painting-like sunset on Ko Muk.


Welcome to Ko Lanta.

Island living

Ahhh... this is it, exactly what I was looking for - an island that has most of the services one would need, but where the beaches are not super crowded. I've spent the past couple days exploring the island (there's not much to it, but there's a chill vibe), lying on the beach, reading my book, and swimming in the perfect temperature waters. Soooo nice. After 2 1/2 hours of beach time with SPF 30 sunscreen, I am happy to report that I now have a tan. It's funny, though, because tan for me is actually still pretty white in the scheme of things. Nevertheless, it's a start.

I have a nice little bungalow with a fan and private bathroom. It's actually quite comfortable at night here, so no need for air con. There are all kinds of exotic sounding creatures outside, though. With just a thin layer of thatch and mosquito netting separating me from these creatures, I was a little hesitant to close my eyes, envisioning waking up to some strange animal sharing my room with me. When I went to dinner last night, I left the fruit I had bought in town in my room, along with a little packaged piece of banana cake. Upon my return I discovered that something had gotten into my bungalow, bitten into the packaging, and eaten a corner of my cake! A monkey perhaps? Apparently he didn't like it, though, because he didn't finish it.

The only thing outnumbering the exotic island creatures here is perhaps the Scandinavian tourists. It's amazing, I've met folks from Sweden, Finland, and Denmark so far. I walked into town with a Danish family yesterday with whom I connected right away thanks to my last name. Today they actually caught my attention by yelling "Hansen!" on the beach. Haha. Apparently the secret is out about Thailand. From what I've heard from folks who've been coming here for a long time, I'm about 6 or 7 years late. It's still unbelievably beautiful, though, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I leave tomorrow on a speedboat north to Ko Lanta, where I will spend a little time before heading back to the mainland to catch a plane to Chiang Mai in the north.

Floating markets, medical tourism, and the search for the perfect island

Well, it's been a jam-packed couple of days! I got up at 7 a.m. on Thursday morning to head to one of the floating markets about an hour outside of Bangkok. Because of a late start due to some oversleeping tourists we got there around 8:30, well past the time when it's a "local market," which is usually from 5-7 a.m. It was interesting nonetheless, lots of fresh fruit and ridiculous amount of cheap, more so in quality than price, goods for sale. All I did was eat (I know you're shocked) and frankly I'm surprised that all of these merchantes can make a living there. If I'm ever back in Bangkok for any amount of time I'd like to try to find some of the other markets and get there bright and early.

Following that excursion, I had about 5 hours to kill and a minor medical concern that I thought would be better to get checked out before I left Bangkok for the remote Trang Islands. Well, if I am impressed with the food here, I am even more so with the quality of medical care. I decided to go to one of the bettere international hospitals here and I have to say it was more like a 5-star hotel. The service was incredibly efficient; I was in to see a doctor within 30-40 minutes, examined, tested, and antibiotics in hand in just over two hours. There was one payment for everything and the cost for it all was about what you would pay just to see a doctor in the U.S. Amazing. And to top it all off, I was able to stop by the Starbucks on-site before I grabbed a cab to the train station. Also, a uniformed man helped me with my luggage when getting into the cab. Holy cow. Judging by this experience, it's not surprising that Thailand is a destination for medical tourism. If I ever needed major surgery, I would consider it.

Then it was off on a 16-hour train ride south to Trang. After 24 hours of travel that included the cab, train, a motorcycle, van, and boat ride, I found myself on Ko Libong. I was looking for remote, but this island turned out to be a little too remote, even for me. It's the biggest one in the Trang Islands, but the least developed, which was what was appealing. The lack of development, however, meant I was stuck eating at the "resort" restaurant paying their inflated prices for everything from food to a bottle of water. Apparently there was another resort at the other end of the beach, but the beach was strewn with broken glass - not exactly inviting for a sunset walk. The Swedish family with whom I arrived were equally unimpressed and this morning we shared a longtail boat out of there. I got dropped off at Ko Muk and they continued on to another island. I am happy to report that this island is much closer to what I had in mind. Plus, there are more services available. Unfortunately, my computer is not talking to this network, so I can't upload photos at the moment. But I'm sure you can picture it in your mind: white sand, emerald waters, lush green surroundings. It is heavenly. I will write more when I can. For now, I'm off to enjoy some fresh seafood and bask in the sun.

Decisions, decisions

Today is Day 4 in Bangkok. I wish I could say it’s as easy as pie to shift from one culture to another, but it isn’t really. Whereas in India, Delhi in particular, you have to be wary of anything anybody tells you, that seems to be less so the case here in Bangkok. Basically you try to avoid using tourist agencies in Delhi because they will scam you by overcharging and selling you a tour you probably don’t want. So I had been avoiding using any such services here, but today I gave in. I was tired of that going-around-in-circles feeling and wanted to actually get somewhere I wanted to go. So I booked a tour of the floating markets for tomorrow morning, which I’m super excited about, continuing the food theme of course. I also booked an overnight train ticket to Trang leaving tomorrow night. So I will arrive on Friday morning and make my way to Ko Libong, one of the lesser known islands in the south of Thailand. This isn’t one you see advertised on all the agency doors here, like Phuket or Ko Samui, which is exactly what I want. The place I’m planning to stay is actually environmentally conscious, which is more than can be said for most of Thailand’s island resorts. Although Thailand is blessed with natural beauty, it has been highly overdeveloped. So going this route makes me feel a little better about participating in island life here.

Another thing that I’m having to adjust to is the prices here. The food is incredibly cheap, especially if you go with street food, which frankly is the best. But the accommodations are not. The last place I paid for a room in India I was paying $4 a night. Here in Bangkok I’m paying $16 a night, and on the island I will likely be paying about $25 a night. Granted, it is high season and this is still a steal by American standards, but as I am living off of savings, I am pretty conscious of my spending. Ah, to be independently wealthy…

I finally broke down today and bought one of those counterfeit iPods here. It may look like an iPod from the outside, but it does not function like one. The software is crap, but for under $50 with 12 albums’ worth of tunes, I can’t complain. Now I’ll be able to tune out the outside world when I need to. Choosing the ten free albums that came with it was a challenge, hence the extra two. Even at that you were kind of going in blind at times since many of the tracks don't have titles. So it will be a little bit like Christmas with certain artists as I’m not sure which tunes I got. I’m considering adding a TV show or movie as well. Oh the shame.


As I was waiting for my illegal music to transfer to my illegal iPod, I noticed this dog on the table in front of me. There are a lot of handheld dogs here; this one was enjoying a snack and cooling off his nether regions at the same time.


These tall pointy structures are all over Bangkok, marking the sight of a wat, or temple, all of them gilded. Many of the temples are actually functioning, in that monks live there, some with lush gardens and a generally peaceful vibe. Of course, it’s Buddhism, how else would it be?


Close-up of a statue on one of the temple grounds.

I am making great efforts to photograph something other than food to share with you… I still think the food is the most interesting, though!

These songs of fleadom is are I've ever had

Ah Bangkok... you're almost like New York... almost. I'm sitting in my preferred restaurant, the only one I've found that has free wi-fi, it's nighttime, and most of the patrons are working on their buzz. I'm working on my blog. But we're all listening to this fantastic guitar player/singer. Up until the most recent tune I might have mistaken him for a native English speaker. That would be the Bob Marley tune which is the title of this post, pronounced with an Asian accent. I don't mean to laugh, but it just really snapped me out of this mental funk I've been in most of the day, so I'm actually grateful for this little slice of humor.

I'm starting to feel like I'm going around in circles in this city. I was thinking about how much easier it would be to travel if I weren't trying to be economical. I keep trying to get to this place or that with my Lonely Planet and local maps to guide me, but somehow I keep getting lost. Don't get me wrong, getting lost can be fun. Today, for instance, I happened upon what appeared to be the silkscreen district of the city. There's a huge t-shirt business here and they need to be made somewhere. So that was kind of interesting. What I didn't get to, however, was the Jim Thompson house, which is supposed to be a stunning example of Asian architecture. I did manage to get to Lumphini Park, though, the Bangkok version of Central Park.

A note about the Thai language. So far I know how to say "hello" and "thank you," but because there are five tones in Thai you have to say it in a specific way. This is challenging because 1) you can't really mumble and make your words pass for something sensible and 2) you can't use the normal inflection you would in English, for, say, a truly heartfelt thank you. I know I'm messing up the tones half the time; I only hope I'm not insulting somebody's mother by doing so.


Silkscreens in the queue.


Bangkok traffic. This can be maddening when you're in a taxi watching the meter tick up as you're not moving, not sure if the driver is taking the long way around to begin with.

I love this place!!

Some of my friends told me that I should spend as little time in Bangkok as possible and go visit other parts of the country. I absolutely plan to see other parts of the country, but I am in love with this city!! Maybe the people who gave me that advice don't like big cities, but I do. There's something so vibrant about them, a living, breathing pulse that you can feel. Today I took a cab and then the Skytrain to Siam Center and the Paragon, a ginormous mall complex. I think this is the biggest one here, but there are big malls all over the place in this part of the city. Apparently this is it, everyone comes in from other parts of Thailand to shop, so miraculously all of these places stay in business. The air con was on full blast, Christmas music was being piped in, and Christmas decorations were everywhere. It felt like home in a way. The funny thing is, I generally don't like hanging out at the mall back home, but I was lovin' this place. Maybe it's just the familiarity of it all. Maybe that's why I like Bangkok so much, because it's so modern and reminds me of home, in a New York kind of way.

Not surprisingly, the food court was equally impressive in this place. (OK, it's time to admit it, I'm exactly like my dog, totally driven by food!) It's been a while since I've been in a full-service grocery store and this place has what's called the Gourmet Market. It's like Whole Foods... on crack. Amazing. I just walked up and down the aisles like the proverbial kid in a candy store, admiring all the products. They have everything - Asian foods, import foods, fresh produce, and on and on. It made me wish I had a reason to buy groceries. I want to live here just for this market alone.

I left the mall and explored a bit, but later returned to the megaplex there to watch a movie. Some things here also have New York prices, I found, like my movie ticket which cost $18. Ouch! What a treat, though, a comfortably air conditioned theater with seats nicer than any furniture I've ever owned, and an enormous screen. They don't mess around in Bangkok with their entertainment. There was a good 20 minutes or so of previews and ads and, surprisingly, a short video set to the national anthem during which you were supposed to stand to honor the king. Wild. I looked around to see if everyone was actually doing this, and they were, so I joined in of course. On the Skytrain ride back I was amused to see that instead of the usual "please offer this seat to the elderly or disabled" signs you often find in metros, here it says "please offer this seat to monks". Awesome.


Thai Christmas decorations outside the mall.


A cute Thai kid toting a not-so-cute fake gun.

Long Live the King!

Well it seems that I’ve timed my arrival in Bangkok right. Last night was the last of a week-long celebration of the king’s birthday. This man is revered by the Thai people; I’ve never before seen such fanfare for a public figure in my life. All the government branches had booths set up along one of the main thoroughfares, which was closed to traffic. The trees were lit with little white lights and there were pictures of the king everywhere. There were posters and other memorabilia with the king’s image for sale, a parade, and performances. I was invited to fill out a little piece of paper with a blessing for the king and drop it into a box. Coolest of all, in my opinion, were the miles and miles of delicious food and drinks. New today were pad Thai and spring rolls. My friends weren’t kidding when they said that Thailand has some of the best food in the world. Yum, yum, yum!

Aside from the main activity of walking around and eating, I’ve been perusing the shops and stands here for other goods to potentially sell back home. It’s different shopping as a buyer rather than a tourist. I have bought a couple things for myself, though, a top, a sundress and a necklace to go with it. I have to say that my shaved head doesn’t really go with the girly sundress look. You know that awkward “I’m growing my hair out” phase? Well it’s even more awkward after you shave your head. Ah well, I still maintain that it was worth it, despite the current porcupine-like state of affairs.

There is a significant difference between the sales tactics here in Thailand versus back in India. The Indians have it down; as the expression goes, they could sell ice to an Eskimo. The Thais, though, for the most part seem as if they could care less if you buy their stuff. As in India, most places sell variations of the same thing. You see the same fabrics repeated in different designs as well. It will take a little work to find something unique to add to my Indian collection. Also, it’s looking like I might have to settle for an imposter iPod, which when you buy it comes with 20 albums’ worth of tunes. Not bad.


Making my second Thai iced tea of the day. Caffeine? What caffeine?


Wild and crazy drinks... I watched a woman order the second one from the right. I'm assuming it's got coconut milk in it, but there were also what appeared to be noodles and other food-like things.


Preparing some sort of yummy fried goodness. There's a lot of fried stuff here.

I hope you like looking at photos of food because honestly that's one of the most interesting things to photograph here!

Bangkok! Civilization!

Wow, Bangkok is cool. From the airport I shared a cab ride into town with a Welsh guy I met on the plane. He grabbed the first room he found and I continued on to another. I shouldn’t really say “into town” when speaking about Bangkok because this city is huge!!! I saw the biggest billboards I’ve ever seen in my life on the ride in; they dwarf anything I’ve seen anywhere in the U.S. The part of the city I am staying in is near Khao San Road, which the Lonely Planet describes as a backpacker haven. It’s nuts - this place is like a non-stop party. There are a ton of bars here, many with scantily clad women standing out front advertising two-for-one specials. Not my scene really, at all, but this seemed like a reliable place to start, especially since I arrived late at night. I have a room with a TV and air conditioning, which is nice because it’s pretty warm here.

After I checked into my room, or before that even, I started to sample the local cuisine. OK, truth be told I went a little crazy. There are food stalls everywhere here with just about anything you could want. In the span of about an hour and a half I consumed the following: fresh watermelon, mango sticky rice, roasted corn on the cob, coconut water in the shell, and a Nutella banana crêpe. No, I did not explode, but I was quite full. I had heard about the fruit here and I for one am pretty excited about it. I would eat fruit over vegetables any day. I plan to get my fill while I’m here, of that and mango sticky rice, something my sister and I share a passion for.

So far my initial impression of Thai people is just like I had read about - incredibly warm and friendly. The man at the 7-Eleven went way beyond the call of duty in helping me set up my phone with a new Thai SIM card. I tried to tip him, but he wouldn’t take it. 7-Elevens seem to be the Starbucks of Thailand; there’s one on every corner. I love the idea that you can get just about anything you need 24 hours a day. Not that anyone needs a Slurpee and a corn dog at 3 in the morning, but just the idea that you CAN is what’s cool.


My crêpe in the making.


My first Thai iced tea at breakfast, served with an orchid flower. :)


Aw yeah, baby, those are insects. Fried crickets, scorpions, and grubs maybe? I don't think I will be sampling these.

Waiting in Delhi

I left my friends' apartment this morning after a delicious omelet and toast breakfast prepared by their maid... relishing the last moments of being pampered before I'm thrown back into the world of being a backpacker. I'm currently sitting in the international airport in Delhi waiting to board my flight, which most likely will not be on time. There is free wi-fi though, so that's pretty sweet. There is also a Subway here, so I enjoyed what might be a typical lunch for me on a day in the U.S. This airport is pretty nice, actually, typical of most any international airport in the world. There is a huge duty-free shop where you can buy perfume, alcohol, cigarettes, and chocolates.

Yesterday I went to one of the markets in search of an iPod, but they wanted close to $200 for a nano, which I think is like twice the cost in the U.S. I hear electronics are cheaper in Bangkok, so I'm going to wait 'til I get there. I also had the good fortune of attending a Christmas party at the home of my friend's principal last night. Once again it was one of those surreal experiences where you are in a foreign country but feel like you are home. These folks have a ridiculous set-up: a huge apartment with an equally huge rooftop deck. There were candles everywhere and a seemingly endless supply of food and drinks - what a contrast from other parts of this city and this country. It might be the only holiday party I attend this year, though, so it was nice, complete with Christmas tunes in the background. Had it been 40 degrees cooler and snowing, it really would have felt like home.

I will arrive in Bangkok around 7:30 tonight. I'm excited and a bit apprehensive as well. Just as I'm beginning to feel really comfortable navigating India, I will have to decipher a new set of rules and cultural expectations... all in a decidedly more challenging language. Fingers crossed!

Home sweet home away from home

I currently find myself back in Delhi at my friends’ posh apartment. In the end, I decided that I really needed to stick to my original plan and continue on to Thailand. Goa would be cool, especially in the right company, but I’ve already deviated enough. I’m afraid that if I stay in India any longer, I will never leave. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I really feel like I need to see and do some things I’ve been dreaming of for months before I go and settle down anywhere. So perhaps another day I will get to Goa, but for now a nice quiet beach in the south of Thailand is on order. All I want to do is read, relax, and work on my tan for a little while. I arrived around 6:30 this morning after a 12-hour bus ride from Mcleod Ganj, one that was so rough that at times I expected to open my eyes to discover that I was actually in a military humvee headed for the front lines in Afghanistan. There was also no toilet on the bus, but fortunately we made a couple stops along the way. I swear, there is nothing dull about India. Everything is a challenge, sometimes fun, sometimes just crazy.

In any case, walking into my friends’ apartment early this morning was like walking into heaven. There was heat (!) and hot water on command. I’ve been taking bucket showers for a week or so now, with hot water, but there is nothing like a stand-up shower. Ahhhh… I didn’t have much for dinner last night, so this morning a breakfast of toast and hard-boiled eggs was most welcome. It’s so nice to have a kitchen at my disposal, one filled with products that I know and love. I will stay here one more day and then head out on Saturday, arriving in Bangkok early evening. I plan to spend a few days there, get myself a new iPod and fill it with illegal downloads (I’m not proud, but this is what people do here and I am in desperate need of travel tunes), then wind my way down to some less touristed island in the south.

Speaking of illegal, I wonder if the The North Face knows that there are millions of imposter jackets and other gear with their logo all over this country. I started to notice this in Rishikesh and it’s even more prevalent in Mcleod Ganj. They’re not bad quality, they’re just not North Face quality. I attempted to replace my hiking shoes here, but really good shoes are also hard to find. I settled on a pair of Converse All-Stars, that all-American classic which I have never owned before now. These too are also not real, I believe, but they will do. At least they keep my feet covered and me looking less like a flower child. Maybe I’m spoiled, but I find the quality of most goods to be much higher in the U.S. The ironic thing is, most of them are actually made here.

Major detour

Hello, friends and family. I apologize for the longer-than-usual silence on the blog front. Not to worry, I am safe and sound and have just been out of internet range for a while. If all had gone as planned, I would be in Thailand right now, but as it happens, there was a last-minute change of plans and an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. Instead of catching my bus to Delhi, I ended up hopping in my friends’ car for a 12-hour road trip to a place that many call “Heaven on Earth,” the land of Kashmir. Before you freak out, Kashmir is nothing like you hear about in the news, at least not where I was anyway. There is definitely a military presence, but it didn’t feel any less safe than anywhere else in India. The stares were just as piercing, but the supply of chai was also just as abundant.

How to summarize a week of adventures? I’ll start by saying that it was absolutely freezing at night there and the most astonishing thing to me is that there is no central heating in any of the homes. This borders on insanity, in my opinion, but also makes Kashmiris a thousand times hardier than Mainers, probably. Folks more or less live in perrins, basically big ponchos, and carry congers, or fire pots, which are small hand-held wicker baskets that are lined and filled with hot embers of some extremely long-lasting wood. I’m not sure what temperature these burn at, but I had the unfortunate experience of knocking one over at my hosts’ house and burning a couple holes in their carpet liner. Other mishaps of the trip included losing one of my hiking shoes on the ride up, leaving me with just my Birkenstock sandals and wool socks. Very hippie, indeed, but thanks to the daytime sun these were sufficient. I also got a 24-hour flu, which nobody seemed to understand… I guess Kashmiris are also immune to the flu. Despite these relatively minor inconveniences, it was well worth the change of plans. I got to experience a Kashmiri wedding, see some beautiful gardens built by the Moghuls, meet so many warm and welcoming members of my friend’s family, eat some delicious food, and drive a car. That was an adventure, driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road in a country where the rules of the road are fluid at best.

What is next? I’m not exactly sure. Thailand for sure, but I may continue my detour to the south of India, namely Goa, before leaving this country. I’ll try not to be out of touch for quite so long. As much as I enjoy having these adventures, I have to admit that I enjoy blogging about them almost as much. I hope everyone is well. Sending a big hug and kiss from India… still. :)


A group of Kashmiri kids take a break from their cricket game to pose for a picture.


In one of the Moghul gardens.


One of my friend's little cousins, sporting a perrin.