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Bangkok was, as always, a good time. We made it into the city around 8pm and headed straight for Ta’s place to drop off our stuff and get ready for dinner. Unfortunately, shampoo had exploded in Kate’s pack so it took us a while to clean everything up. Then it was off to go find the restaurant which was an adventure in itself. We got lost. Very lost. As in driving in a circle for 40 minutes looking for this one street and reversing because you can’t see the street signs lost. But we finally made it and her friend from work was there and dinner was delicious. It also burned my mouth because we were like, “order something spicy” and Thai spicy is so on another level if you haven’t had it in a few months. For example I took a bite and immediately my eyes started watering and my mouth was on fire. It took several surreptitious gulps of water and an ice cube before my mouth went back to normal. One funny thing: the restaurant was on the river with an amazing view of one of the new bridges. Apparently all of the new bridges look the same and have similar names (Ramses 1, 2, etc) so no one quite knows which one they’re near.
We got home around 12:30am which meant that we finished packing and fell asleep around 1:30am and had to be up by 3:30am to take showers and finish packing to leave Ta’s by 4:30 to get to the airport by 5:30 to have enough time to check in and go through customs to make our 7:30 flight. Oh. And Ta agreed to take us which was kind of amazing given that she had to go to work the next morning. Kudos to Ta! But the stress leading up to take off was…draining. And the sad thing was it wound up being necessary because it took close to an hour to get our tickets and also get through immigration because they were sooo slow. We found a wedding present though, which almost made up for the ungodly hour.
Once we hit Delhi we were met by one of Kate’s mom’s friends and ushered to the car where we got our first look at Delhi. Traffic here is scary. There’s a lot of pulling out and forcing people to stop so you can cross the road and gunning it to make left turns while careening into the wrong lanes. But it was fun. We got to Shalini’s (Kate’s mom’s friend) sister’s house and were immediately welcomed with open arms. Everyone is so nice and so friendly and funny. They made manicure and pedicure appointments for us and we were pampered late that afternoon. We got back in time for dinner and hung out with amazing food and good wine. Debbi and I were exhausted at this point and barely keeping our eyes open. I think we looked like little lost children. Kate had managed a nap earlier that afternoon and was doing much better than either of us. We didn’t get to the place we were staying until close to midnight and by then we were seriously dragging.
The people we are staying with are so nice. They’re an older couple who live in both India and Berkeley and were like, “Make yourselves at home. If you want something to eat ask the cook or knock on our door at any time.” They are lovely and waited until we got up this morning to have breakfast so they could eat with us. Papaya’s are in season here by the way so they were delicious at breakfast.
Today was the day for mendhi (henna) and a huge lunch at the bride’s house. My hands are all henna’d and I took a picture with my blackberry to upload to facebook so you can see it. It’s awful quality mainly because I still haven’t been able to upload photos. I’ll figure something out. Anyway. The henna looks beautiful and I think everyone got some done. The house is decorated with a tent in the front where the top is colored ribbons and strings of flowers and lights are hanging from the trees. It’s like stepping into a fairy tale. Even the clothes that people wore kept with the theme. The colors that people were wearing today were incredible. Lots of golds and blues and gorgeous silk sarees worn by the older people. One thing that’s really interesting is that the bride’s hands and feet are completely covered in henna and the groom’s name is hidden somewhere in it for him to find. But, it takes hours to dry especially since you put oil on to deepen the color (my hands took about an hour and a half and I should have left it on longer). We left the bride’s house around 9:30 and she was still waiting for it to dry…6 hours later… The food was delicious as well. Lots of different dishes and served in a way that you could have small tastes of everything. Which was really nice after yesterday’s over indulgence that wiped me out. I think there were something like 250 people in and out of there so I will admit that I went inside for a breather since there were so many people crushed together at any given point. Although the wedding itself is like over 600 people and lasts for close to 12 hours so I guess I should get used to the crowds quickly. Oh. And 600 people is considered small/medium in India. Just so you know.
Once the party was over we went shopping for clothes to wear to the wedding and wound up only with clothes for tomorrow night’s event. I got the drawstring pants and a saffron kurta for the jazz night. I still need something for the wedding though since I am decidedly lacking in formal Indian wear. Debbi picked up a kurta and the skinny pants and Kate grabbed a saree. We were thinking about doing sarees but we’d have to go and find petticoats and blouses so I’m not sure that will happen. We actually dropped by one of the street markets but couldn’t find anything that wasn’t covered in sequins and fake jewels. I am feeling a little cursed.
I don’t know if I can really describe how nice everyone is. We’re the odd men out but they never make us feel that way and are so welcoming and willing to explain things we don’t understand and even go through all the food on the table and answer questions-every time. Dinner tonight started with us hanging out in the living room and chatting with everyone about you name it and ended much the same way with some dancing thrown out in-between (for the older people I heard, I was upstairs).
I’m actually exhausted right now and typing this in bed. Tomorrow is jazz night and then Monday is the wedding which will be pretty much all day (I’ll elaborate on that later). Fingers crossed I find something suitable for Monday!
So it was fun. Really.
We started off at an Italian-Thai fusion restaurant which was really good. We started off with what the menu called “Complicated Noodles” which were lettuce cups with flat noodles and a spicy pork paste. It was so good. I had liver pâté spaghetti in a spicy tomato sauce which sounds icky but was actually really good. Kate had this awesome sun-dried duck with spicy sauce and a mango salad. It’s funny that we have yet to have a bad meal in Thailand. That probably explains why I’ve been able to gain 5 pounds and still be so happy about it.
We left and went to this gourmet supermarket and picked up tons of dried fruit for the next few days. Thank God for Ta because she helped tell us what different things are and helped us get smaller packages of the fruits when the prepackaged ones were too big. We found this fruit called mangosteen (which Debbi has likened to ambrosia and does taste like heaven) and another fruit that’s delicious but I don’t remember what it’s called. Then we hit Forever 21 because we didn’t have anything to wear and apparently it’s the biggest Forever 21 in Southeast Asia. It’s huge. I was impressed. I wanted to stay and shop all night and I don’t even like the store. I found a cute top, in jersey, that I would actually wear again so life was good.
We went to this restaurant on the top of a hotel called Sky Bar and it was really cool. It’s outside on the rooftop and you get this amazing panorama of the city. The only jarring note was this one couple with two cameras who kept taking pictures of themselves. It was so weird. Like they didn’t really their meal because they were too busy taking pictures of themselves weird. I thought that maybe they were spies or thieves casing the joint behind them for two hours but Kate called it “very postmodern” and I think I have to agree with that. Although I have to say that I like my idea more. It was much more inventive. And by then I think the mixed drinks were getting to me anyway.
So it was off to Jet, one of the more popular clubs in Bangkok. It was…. loud. And people were very drunk. And I was way too sober to be around that many drunk people. So Kate and I toughed it out before going outside to wait since the club closed like 30 minutes after we got there (clubs in Bangkok close around 2, then people go get food at a night market or a restaurant) and there we met the most persistent guys I’ve ever met. We said we were lesbians, and they wouldn’t believe us or go away. Ta’s friend finally had to go over and say in Thai (with the corresponding drunken hand gestures), “they’re a couple. 101%!” He earned major points. If he weren’t 19 and in school I totally would have made him come traveling with us just for the entertainment.
From Kate via Debbi’s thumbs:
After a relaxing day and a half in bangkok during which we did practically nothing cultural except eat excellent food, we headed off to meet Debbi in Cambodia on the 4 week anniversary of my arrival in asia. Getting out of bangkok proved to be much simpler than arriving; per Ta’s advice we just took a cab to the airport which took an hour and required nothing more than for us to sit and chat. This was infinitely less painful than the wandering from the train station that happened on both arrivals. We got to the airport with time to spare which meant that we could enjoy a lovely sushi and sandwich lunch at a gourmet counter. The flight itself was short and uneventful except for the talkative German man sitting between us who offered unsolicited advice on navigating Cambodia (and he spat-adds Mikey). All his warnings in addition to the horror stories that we’d heard over the last several weeks made us feel incredibly grateful that Debbi was picking us up from the airport with her uncle’s driver (posh much). Getting through visa and immigration was incredibly slow and disorganized (except for the part when they take your money), and my immigration guy even forgot I was there for a while as he took a call on his cell phone. Isn’t that illegal? I took it as a good introduction to Cambodian society (or at least their attitude towards rules). This impression proved to be reinforced on our car trip through the city during which I discovered there are fewer traffic rules than in Indonesia which I thought was as bad it could get. Indeed, cars (rather, motor bikes)- now Mikey’s thumbs-here don’t even get a chance to go until their light turns red. That is, if they can navigate all the people walking through the middle of the street.
Despite all the stories I had heard and warnings I had been given, I still wasn’t prepared for the reality of Phnom Penh. Admittedly, we saw it all from the safety of the car’s tinted windows but the sheer numbers of people, the dirtiness and the poverty were overwhelming. Coming from Bangkok and even KL which are major international business cities, Phnom Penh is like an industrial Midwestern town.
Back to Mikey:
I have to say that nothing prepares you for the poverty here. It’s depressing that there are children begging on the streets alone and mothers carrying babies begging for money to feed them. The worst is that there’s nothing you can do because there are just so many needy people.And I think it’s a countrywide problem. For example cops only make about US$15 a month and have to rely on bribes to see them through because it costs a dollar a day to eat even simple meals. Another example would be that the meat here is not good meat and yet because very few of the locals can afford it, when you can you’re considered wealthy even though it’s really not fit to eat. When we were driving earlier we saw oxen (or the Asian equivalent) in the middle of the street and even they looked malnourished. It’s just sad.
Phnom Penh is a very depressing city and I’m actually glad we’re only here for a day. I might change my mind tomorrow, but I doubt it.
OK. That’s it for now. It was a long day on very little sleep and I’m tired. Hope everyone is well!
Yesterday was lovely. We got up late, leisurely packed our bags, dropped them off at the front desk and then went off to explore Chiang Mai one last time before saying goodbye.
Because we’d been so tired when we first got in that we didn’t leave the main street and the day before we’d spent out in the countryside, we decided to be good tourists and visit a temple. That turned into “visit some temples”. There are a lot of them. As in, we walked for 15 minutes down one street and passed at least 4, and often times they were right across from each other. I’m not kidding. At one point there was a large complex and then across the street there was a smaller temple. Apparently, in Thailand if you’re wealthy building temples is the thing to do. I think it builds up karma points. My understanding is that it’s like buying those Catholic indulgences. They are all gorgeous though and it’s well worth going to them. Most of them are like mini oaises because there’s no smoking or drinking and there are flowers everywhere so it smells fantastic.
One funny thing is that in the largest temple we went into we saw a large sign of “Dos and Don’ts in Thailand” aimed at Westerners and some of the behavior they were warning against was so appalling that you wouldn’t believe anyone would do it. Such as climbing up while laughing to have a picture taken of yourself with the Buddha. I was so shocked because that’s like spitting in church. But obviously someone did it if they have to tell you not to. Another thing I found funny was the part about how Westerners shouldn’t wear hot pants or revealing clothing because it’s not modest. I’m sorry, but I’ve been in Thailand for about a week now and I have seen some of the shortest skirts and shorts I’ve ever seen in my life. Almost on par with what you’d see in Malibu but in the middle of a city and so short I wonder how these girls can walk and stay decent. And no, they weren’t hookers so get that out of your head right now!
Lunch was a vegetarian restaurant that we’d been meaning to go to but for some reason hadn’t been able to find. Because even though we’ve passed it at least 5 times and said “Oh, cute”, it never once occurred to us to look up at the sign. You’d think we’d learn by now. But it was delicious and I love tofu and Khao Soi. And it was a good thing we had lunch because yesterday we had another overnight train ride to come back to Bangkok.
These train rides are killing me. I’m always good for the first two hours but then it turns into, “Oh my God, get me off of this train!!” I read a book, I listened to music, and went quietly stir crazy. The worst bit was that I was able to sleep on the last one, but this one was so bad because there were drunk Spanish tourists who were so loud even after the conductor had made up everyone else’s beds and it was obvious that people were trying to sleep. They were so loud I could hear them through my earplugs. It was not a good time and I didn’t sleep very well before finally waking up around 6 when the train jolted to a stop.
So our train was about two hours late getting in to Bangkok and from there we decided to walk to our hostel. We will never learn. We got lost. Again. And what should have been a 20-30 minute walk turned into an hour and a half of us lugging our big ass packs around trying to find a street sign because they’re not all visibly marked. It’s like trying to find your way through Tokyo. They want you confused. I’m convinced it’s a conspiracy initiated by the cab companies. Seriously. Everytime we stopped to look at the map to see if we could figure out where we were going, at least five different cabs would stop and say, “Where you going? I’ll take you!” or “Taxi? Taxi?” OR they would just honk and stop. Cab driver conspiracy. I think the idea has merit.
Whatever, we made it. It’s lovely. You walk in and there’s a small courtyard where breakfast is served in the morning and then you take off your shoes and are in this cool little reception area with hardwood floors. Our rooms are lovely as well. So all’s well that ends well.
We meet up with Ta later today and she’s going to take us out for a night on the town so that’s exciting and I’m really looking forward to it. But right now, I just need a nap.
So that trip I hinted at last night? Yeah. We totally went on a day trek and rode the elephants.
Our trek was outside of Chiang Mai in the jungle. It started off a bit weird because we weren’t sure who all was going on the trip since the first van was just a pick up. We ultimately wound up going with 6 Brits and an older Dutch couple. The ride up was a little tiring since it was so early in the morning but it was so pretty that you forgot about how tired you were. The drive wound up through the mountains and through farmland. The rainy season is over so the rice had all been harvested and now the terraced fields are full of soy beans and corn. You can see the changing seasons in the leaves but it’s still so green.
Our trip started with a walk across a rickety bamboo bridge where I nearly peed my pants I was so scared. But! I made it safely across only to be confronted by the beady eyes of an elephant! There were about 8 of them, 7 females and one male. All huge. All eating and wandering around and even though I know they’re vegetarian, I still thought one was going to pick me for lunch! To ride the elephants you have to climb into a hut and step onto their backs from there. There are seats on top, but how stable they are depends on the size of the elephant as Kate and I soon found out. Ours was the smallest. We started out on the walk tethered to the only male who stopped quite often on inclines to eat. Because our elephant was so small, when we stopped on an incline, we almost fell off. So there we are, clinging for dear life to the seats and trying not to step on the poor elephants head to prop ourselves up! Our arms are still tired. But it was so cool. It really gives a sense of what an unstoppable force one of these creatures is. They’re so powerful it gives me the shivers to imagine that they were once used as tanks.
We left there and went to see a hill tribe. We actually saw two today and it was not my favorite part. There’s something about the exploitation that makes me uncomfortable. It was interesting to hear about the history and watch the weaving, but the villages were decked out like a market with lots of trinkets and again, it just made me uncomfortable.
We went to a waterfall and hung out for a bit, but the coolest part has to be the bamboo river rafting. They literally tie 4 pieces of bamboo together and then you just drift down the river with a guide who looks almost like a gondalier. It’s so pretty and almost surreal. If it hadn’t been so hot I would have sworn that we were in the English countryside. The funny thing came when you passed other people who were taking rafts down the river (because the Thai people do it themselves instead of having guides) everyone splashes one another and it’s a game of trying to get the other person wetter than they can get you. This one group we passed was so drunk it was hilarious. This girl dunked herself and her friends shouted at us, “she’s a hippo!” It was just a good time all around. Although, I will say that I was grateful that I’d brought a change of clothes since I was soaked.
Once we were done, it was time to grab beer and get back on the mini bus for the ride back to Chiang Mai. One thing that was kind of sad: there was a British boy who we thought was really cute but since he had a girl with him we didn’t do anymore than think. Turns out she was a friend. He’s single! We were annoyed. I’m still annoyed! He was really cute- and funny!
We went back to Aum (a bookstore we were at yesterday) for lassis. They were plain but so good. Seriously, we went back for them. Then we went on an expedition to find the restaurant Just Khao Soi which serves khao soi, a Chiang Mai noodle dish that’s amazing. It’s noodles, coconut milk, broth, and chicken or vegetables. Soo delicious.
On the way home we passed through the night bazaar since I still need a sarong. It was not my night. I found plenty of fake watches and Gucci purses but no sarongs. So I comforted myself with rotee from a street vendor which was awesome.
All in all it was a good day. My allergies are acting up a bit, but who cares? I rode an elephant!
I want to start off by saying that I absolutely adore Ta. We arrived in Bangkok after the worst train ride ever exhausted and smelly and just wanting to not think. We were totally overwhelmed by the city because it felt like everyone was talking at first, then Ta came and was like, “Since you leave tonight, why don’t you shower at my place?” Sounds simple, but seriously, a shower went a long way to repairing our frazzled (don’t I sounds old?) nerves. We had manicures and pedicures then booked it back to the train in time to grab food before settling in for another overnight train ride.
Yes, that’s right. We took two overnight trains in two days to make it up here to Chiang Mai. And I have to say that it was worth it. This morning we rode through the mountains and watching the mist rise through the trees was surreal. It felt like we were in a fairy tale. There’s no other way to describe it. The sunlight slanting through the trees and off of the river was beautiful.
Our hotel here isn’t very interesting. It’s very basic and that’s good enough. The ladies working the front desk are very cute though. They convinced us to sign up for a river cruise earlier this afternoon which was so pretty. I basically tanned and ate pineapple all afternoon so it was lovely. We met some nice older people on the boat. And by older I mean the youngest one graduated from college the year I was born so no snarks from the peanut gallery!
There are a lot of English used bookstores here. We went into three because I was looking for a John Burdett book and passed three different ones on the way back home. There are so many tourists here, though. Walking down the street means that you hear anything from German to Italian to Australian. And it’s funny because you’re happy to see them from the standpoint of it’s always nice to see Westerners when you’re in a new country, but at the same time they’re still very foreign since you don’t even have a common language to bond in. You just smile and nod.
Dinner was fantastic. We found a place recommended in the guidebook called “The House” which is a food and shopping center. The food was amazing. We started with a cheese plate because Kate missed cheese and then I had rice with spicy chilis and seafood and she had pad thai noodles. So good. Dessert for me was a fruit plate and I’m pleased to report that there was not a single piece of cantaloupe or melon on the plate. I had mango, strawberries, pineapple, apple, and other deliciousness. And it was a lot, none of the puniness. The plate was bigger than my face. It was awesome. I love mango. Well, I love fruit. Can you tell?
Speaking of food, one really nice thing that happened today was that Ta’s mom dropped off food for us at the hotel this morning! She gave us a sampling of Chiang Mai cuisine and it was delicious. It’s the sweetest thing anyone’s done in a while and we totally appreciated it. There were chilis and meats and sticky rice. We were very excited. It was also a great way to start our day since we were still slightly exhausted from the trip.
So far, I really like Chiang Mai. The people are really nice, no one’s really pushy (like in the markets), and there’s just a slower pace here. We’ve still got a day and a half so I’m excited to see how things go. We have a trek planned for tomorrow so I’ll keep you in suspense until then!
Here’s hoping we don’t get eaten by anything!
Maybe thinking that we could do +20 hours was a little too ambitious. It’s about 6am now and I’m in my little upper berth, slightly cramped (the beds are not sized for tall people) and really just wanting to get there already. I’m also too afraid to go to the bathroom while the train is moving because you have to squat (it’s not a hole, but the regular squating toilets) and falling would not be fun.
When we crossed the Malaysia/Thailand border we had to go through passport control. Slowest line of my life. The Malaysia side was fairly easy, they just stamped your departure card and that was that. The Thailand side was another story. I’m not quite sure what they were doing other than taking our picture but it had to have been something because it took more than 20 minutes to even get near the window and there were only maybe 10 people in line ahead of us. I will say that it was almost worth it when Kate got to the window and the guys were so cute and kept calling her “Miss Universe”. She was not as amused. But it’s cute, right?
I’ve been asked to describe the weather here so I’ll do my best. Imagine the sunny weather at the beach where the sky is really blue and the sun is shining really brightly. Then imagine a time of high humidity, like summers in DC or the south or even the San Fernando Valley. If you combine both of those you get an idea for what the weather is like here only it’s both hotter and more humid as there are no real beach breezes inland. We’re at the beginning of the hot season so the rains don’t even provide a few minutes of relief the further north we go. At times it’s difficult to breathe because it’s so humid and you’re always covered in a thin sheen of sweat no matter what time of day it is. The weird thing is that it sounds bad but it’s really not that unpleasant. You adjust fairly quickly. You only wear denim while traveling otherwise you’d smother, you can almost hear your legs saying, “air! I need air!”. You wear very thin layers and duck inside air conditioned stores to cool off for a few minutes during really sunny days. You make sure that you’re drinking enough water and that you put sunscreen on-I forgot my first two days here and now have a sad sunburned nose. Maybe it’s because it was so cold in DC when I left, but I don’t mind the heat. It’s so nice to be able to wear the same thing all day and all night without worrying about getting cold. I will add that the humidity is making my hair awful. I’ve never seen it so frizzy. But that’s my only real complaint about the weather. Mostly it’s nice to be warm. I’ll probably change my tune in India since we’ll be there when the hot season is in full swing, but I’ll enjoy it for now!
EDITED TO ADD:
So. About thirty minutes after that post our train stopped. Apparently there was an accident up the tracks and we couldn’t go any farther so we had to switch to a bus at 6:30 in the morning. The bus ride took another 3 hours so we didn’t get into Bangkok until about 10:30am. Still earlier than we were supposed to get in by train though. The Thai bus drivers are crazy. The two that were taking the train passengers into Bangkok were racing each other on the freeway and weaving in and out of traffic. It was so scary!
So we made it fine and we’re now with Ta for the day and are going to get manicures before catching an overnight train to Chiang Mai. Hooray for manicures!
Footloose & Fancy Free 