Well, this is a little late, and I hope I don’t forget things, but here is the last instalment for spring break. Cambodia and Ankor Wat ( the largest religious complex in the world). I have been real busy here in Singapore doing all kinds of things, and a little bit of school work too. That’s why I am a little late. But without further ado… Cambodia!
We flew into Penom Phen, the capital ( not sure on the spelling) early in the morning and spent the day walking around the capital but gound out that most of the places were closed for lunch and we wanted to get to Ciem Reaf ( that is where Angkor Wat is). So we jumped onto the funnest bus ride of my life. I got a lot of reading done seeing that the bus driver kept honking his horn to avoid accidents on the highway. And when I say highway, I mean a two lane road with not marking on it. There was only one close call, that was when the bus driver was dodgeing some natives on bicycles and then had to swerve back into our lane to avoid oncoming traffic. We stoped at a little food place where we saw the coolest kid in the world. Screaming at the top of his lungs, “Sir, pineapple mango sir!!” I went over and bought one. It was good. The only other thing to mention is the baby across the issue that peed on me. It was pretty funny. But the real fun came when we got off the bus at Ciem Reap. As soon as we got off the bus we were surrounded by seven tuk tuk drivers. And I don’t mean they were around us, I mean they were touching us. Right up against you, trying to get you to take theirs. After a few minutes of this we picked a random tuk tuk and headed to our hostel.
Now the reason why they want to take you to your hostel so badly is because they know you are there to see Angkor Wat and that you will want someone to take you around for the day or two. So once we were at our hostel Kiam (our driver) told us his price which was very good (15 USD for the day) and we said we’ed see him tomorrow morning. That night we ate at a street vendor that was very good.
The next morning started at 5 am. We got up, got into the tuk tuk and got to Angkor in time for the sunset. It was very beautiful. After that we spent the rest of the day seeing the temples with the rest of the tourists, mostly Japanesse tourist groups. And at every temple there were sure to be cute poor kids waiting to sell you things. You grow used to it eventually. By the end of the trip, one exchange with the kids went like this. “Sir, flute for a dollar,” “ I don’t play the flute.” “sir, postcards one dollar.” “I don’t like postcards.”
Many of the kids are very smart and speak multiple languages from talking with tourists. The girl I bought a scarf from could speak almost five languages and could sell in about ten. At the end of the day we went to a good temple and watched the sunset. We were there nice and early and got the best seats. We were those people that you wonder how long they have been and how they can still be having fun and joking with each other after two hours of sitting in the sun. People were taking pictures of us, that is how popular we became at sunsets.
The next day was pretty much the same, only different temples. They are all very steep steped and by now we seemed pretty used to them. But once you see pictures, you’ll be like, “wow, that is steep.” For one of the temples further away, the girls went ahead and me and Julio stayed behind at a food stall to enjoy the hammocks and take much needed naps. While there we got to know the kids pretty well. Even translated a text message one girl about twenty years old got from a friend. Yeah they have cell phones, but who doesn’t, honestly. We wraped up the day with another sunset (which we completely rocked) and it was back to Ciem Reap to enjoy most street food. The girls went and got another massage and me and Julio made callie mocho (red wine and coca cola), it is a weird Mexican drink that Julio likes. We toasted to a great spring break and then headed to bed because it was another sunrise the next morning.
After the sinrise we headed back to the hostel, checked out and then were flying back to Singapore in no time. We got back completely beat. What a trip, but the next morning all I wanted to do was go back to Cambodia and Thailand. It was really great and everyone I went with was great, wouldn’t have changed a thing. I guess there are more little stories here and there still to be told, but you will have to by me lunch to get those.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Report 11.2: Northern Thailand
We landed in Chang Mai early in the morning, like 8 or something. Once there it was off to find our hostel which was no problem, we stowed our gear on a shelf there and had breakfast as we waited for our cooking school to pick us up. In about an hour an old van pulled up a few yards down the road and the husband of our cooking instructer came in right on time. We were off to A Lot of Thai cooking school for the day.
Yui, pronounced like the nickname of a U-turn, was our instructer, she and her husband and young child sid run the school right from their house. We cooked on the back porch of her house and were taken to a market just down the street. The day was fantastic. We cooked three dishes, ate all of them, then went to the market to learn all about how to pick good ingredients, and then came back and cooked three more dishes. Our favorite was Pad Thai. It is noodles and a bunch of other stuff thrown into a Wok and cooked up nice. Everything is very precise, you put in the garlic first, for five seconds, then the next thing, and the next. The order being very important. And all of our dishes turned out great. Except of course for Alicia’s soup that resembled dish water. I bought an apron from the school so that is what I will wear while I cook amazing Thai food for all of you.
Then we got to see Thai Boxing. Some think that is kinda brutal because you can kick and knee your opponent as well as punch the crap out of him or her. But it was actually pretty entertaining and not very bad. Actually, each match was fought very well and the sportsmanship was incredible. The best match by far was between a huge white guy and this tiny Thai guy that fights just for the money and barely trains. We learned that this man does not train at all from a Scottish guy in front of us that seemed to be friends with the waitress who told him about this. Anyway, the little guy was just beating on the big dude the whole time, until he went after the big guy with all he had, I mean he just tore into him. The big guy hunkered down and took every blow. Then before you could blink, he came out with a huge punch that knocked the little guy out cold. I mean out cold. It was crazy.
The next day we decided to ritz it up a little bit and spent some money to get a great tour including elephant rides, an elephant show, a rafting ride, and a tour of a long neck hill tribe. We got picked up at like seven in the morning, went to the best elephant reservation in Chang Mai. We got to watch a really cool elephant show to see the work that they used to do for real and see some neat tricks like putting their riders hat back on when it falls off. Then we got to take a long ride on them. Than had a really nice lunch. Most of the people eating beside us where families on vacation, not cheap backpackers, so it was a change from the company we usually keep. Than we took a long bamboo water rafting trip. While going our paddler let me drive for a while, but when Jen and Alicia took the paddle he jumped to the boat beside us. He was a really funny guy. Then after the long neck village (where the ladies have those brass rings around their necks) we were back in the hostel for the night.
The next two days are a little blurry. In these two days we traveled from Chang Mai to Sukothai, to Phitsonalok, to Ayuthaya, and back to Bangkok. A few highlights for you, Sukothai-very cool. It is an ancient capital of Thailand and was filled with ruins. We spent an afternoon here riding bicycles throughout the old city. It was also here that we had some really good cheap local food, always a highlight for me. More great eating was had in Phitsonalok. I ate more satay then I should have. There was this really good chicken and beef satay that was huge. Biggest satay I have ever had. I got Julio, Jen and Alicia to all try it as well. However I got to eat most of Alicia’s after a local guy said she would get fat from it. I don’t think she appreciated many of my comments after that. The train to Ayuthaya found us back in the presence of cheap travelers. In third class. At one point all four of us were touching all of the other four as we squeezed into our seats. After a while though we moved around and found the empty seats around us. Back in Bangkok, we went to one more night market and got Julio some McDonald’s as he does not enjoy cheap local food as much as I do. The next morning had Cambodia written all over it…
Yui, pronounced like the nickname of a U-turn, was our instructer, she and her husband and young child sid run the school right from their house. We cooked on the back porch of her house and were taken to a market just down the street. The day was fantastic. We cooked three dishes, ate all of them, then went to the market to learn all about how to pick good ingredients, and then came back and cooked three more dishes. Our favorite was Pad Thai. It is noodles and a bunch of other stuff thrown into a Wok and cooked up nice. Everything is very precise, you put in the garlic first, for five seconds, then the next thing, and the next. The order being very important. And all of our dishes turned out great. Except of course for Alicia’s soup that resembled dish water. I bought an apron from the school so that is what I will wear while I cook amazing Thai food for all of you.
Then we got to see Thai Boxing. Some think that is kinda brutal because you can kick and knee your opponent as well as punch the crap out of him or her. But it was actually pretty entertaining and not very bad. Actually, each match was fought very well and the sportsmanship was incredible. The best match by far was between a huge white guy and this tiny Thai guy that fights just for the money and barely trains. We learned that this man does not train at all from a Scottish guy in front of us that seemed to be friends with the waitress who told him about this. Anyway, the little guy was just beating on the big dude the whole time, until he went after the big guy with all he had, I mean he just tore into him. The big guy hunkered down and took every blow. Then before you could blink, he came out with a huge punch that knocked the little guy out cold. I mean out cold. It was crazy.
The next day we decided to ritz it up a little bit and spent some money to get a great tour including elephant rides, an elephant show, a rafting ride, and a tour of a long neck hill tribe. We got picked up at like seven in the morning, went to the best elephant reservation in Chang Mai. We got to watch a really cool elephant show to see the work that they used to do for real and see some neat tricks like putting their riders hat back on when it falls off. Then we got to take a long ride on them. Than had a really nice lunch. Most of the people eating beside us where families on vacation, not cheap backpackers, so it was a change from the company we usually keep. Than we took a long bamboo water rafting trip. While going our paddler let me drive for a while, but when Jen and Alicia took the paddle he jumped to the boat beside us. He was a really funny guy. Then after the long neck village (where the ladies have those brass rings around their necks) we were back in the hostel for the night.
The next two days are a little blurry. In these two days we traveled from Chang Mai to Sukothai, to Phitsonalok, to Ayuthaya, and back to Bangkok. A few highlights for you, Sukothai-very cool. It is an ancient capital of Thailand and was filled with ruins. We spent an afternoon here riding bicycles throughout the old city. It was also here that we had some really good cheap local food, always a highlight for me. More great eating was had in Phitsonalok. I ate more satay then I should have. There was this really good chicken and beef satay that was huge. Biggest satay I have ever had. I got Julio, Jen and Alicia to all try it as well. However I got to eat most of Alicia’s after a local guy said she would get fat from it. I don’t think she appreciated many of my comments after that. The train to Ayuthaya found us back in the presence of cheap travelers. In third class. At one point all four of us were touching all of the other four as we squeezed into our seats. After a while though we moved around and found the empty seats around us. Back in Bangkok, we went to one more night market and got Julio some McDonald’s as he does not enjoy cheap local food as much as I do. The next morning had Cambodia written all over it…
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Report 11.1: Bangkok
Ok folks, sorry for the delay, but I have become very busy over the past few days, namely trying to catch up in classes and watching episodes of Prison Break. But with my trip to Hong Kong coming up this weekend, I suppose I should write about spring break now. So here is the first third of the trip. Bangkok.
The whole crew was in Bangkok by the time Julio and I arrived late Friday night. We went to the baggage claim and got my umbrella that I had to check and grabed a cab. It was nice cause the hostel had emailed us a paper that gave us some tips and some Thai words to tell the driver. Our driver was rather impressed with Julio’s Thai talking ability. Once at Big John’s Backpacker Hostel (a very nice hostel run by this big Austrailian dude named John) we found our friends and hit the sack, them in their private rooms, Julio and I in the common room.
The first day was spent touring the city. Julio, Jen and I left very early to go see a few sights and meet the rest of the group later in the day. We saw the grand palace, a few temples, and stuff like that. One of the coolest things was the golden mountain. It is just a tample on top of a hill, but it has these winding staircases that we ran up cause they were closing soon. Jen, Julio and I made it to the top and got to see a great view of the ginormous city that Bangkok is. The thing is, that in most cities you can see where the center of the city is. Take Pittsburgh for example, when you are looking at it, you see the city and then the buildings all get smaller and see that you are out of the city. Bangkok has 10 million people and when you stand on the golden mountain you cannot see where the city begins or ends. It is just tall buildings all around. After our quick walking tour of the city me and Jen went to a Thai masked dancing show, although it was a little expencive I figure Im only in Bangkok once so bring it on. It was really cool. After they play a video about how the King rules and every sits back down, these guys come out and sing stuff while other people dance around. The story was about king Rama and his main muscle Hanuman the white monkey. Basically some evil thing steals Rama’s wife and the white monkey goes in a lays down the law. Then there is a huge war where the white monkey dominates. So that was really cool and bought a book about it so you can see what exactly I am talking about. After that it was back to the hostel and off to sleep.
The next day we woke up even earlier. After some negociations with a taxi driver, Jen, Alicia and I headed off to the floating market, about an hour and a half drive out of the city. But wow was it worth it. There is a network of steams and river that all these boats come together. Some people have there shows just right up against the water, some people have there boat full of goods and stuff, some have a stove and are selling food, while others just rent the boats and take tourists around the market. It was a lot of fun. And I bough t a wooden bowl with an elephant on it. The highlight would have probably been the lady that gave me a massage in an attempt to sell me tiger balm. Boy was she angry when I didn’t. After that we went back to the hostel and after hanging out there for a while we went to another market to walk around. While there Sascha and I had my favorite satay so far, and that is saying a lot, because everywhere you walk in Bangkok there is someone selling satay. After that market it was time to meet Aunt Marina. She is the aunt of the exchange student that stayed at my house about seven years ago who lives in Bangkok. We emailed each other back and forth and figured out a time and place and Julio, Jen, Alicia and I went to the market and all got to meet her. After I tried to get some ladies attention by calling her Aunt Marina, I walked a little further and Aunt Marina saw me and recognized me, so we sat down a little place and enjoyed the evening there. I even got to meet Mauro’s cousin Gabbi as well. After we had talked for a while, we all climbed into Aunt Marina’s party van and she drove us back to our hostel on her way home. The next day started early and we were off to northern Thailand…
To be continued
The whole crew was in Bangkok by the time Julio and I arrived late Friday night. We went to the baggage claim and got my umbrella that I had to check and grabed a cab. It was nice cause the hostel had emailed us a paper that gave us some tips and some Thai words to tell the driver. Our driver was rather impressed with Julio’s Thai talking ability. Once at Big John’s Backpacker Hostel (a very nice hostel run by this big Austrailian dude named John) we found our friends and hit the sack, them in their private rooms, Julio and I in the common room.
The first day was spent touring the city. Julio, Jen and I left very early to go see a few sights and meet the rest of the group later in the day. We saw the grand palace, a few temples, and stuff like that. One of the coolest things was the golden mountain. It is just a tample on top of a hill, but it has these winding staircases that we ran up cause they were closing soon. Jen, Julio and I made it to the top and got to see a great view of the ginormous city that Bangkok is. The thing is, that in most cities you can see where the center of the city is. Take Pittsburgh for example, when you are looking at it, you see the city and then the buildings all get smaller and see that you are out of the city. Bangkok has 10 million people and when you stand on the golden mountain you cannot see where the city begins or ends. It is just tall buildings all around. After our quick walking tour of the city me and Jen went to a Thai masked dancing show, although it was a little expencive I figure Im only in Bangkok once so bring it on. It was really cool. After they play a video about how the King rules and every sits back down, these guys come out and sing stuff while other people dance around. The story was about king Rama and his main muscle Hanuman the white monkey. Basically some evil thing steals Rama’s wife and the white monkey goes in a lays down the law. Then there is a huge war where the white monkey dominates. So that was really cool and bought a book about it so you can see what exactly I am talking about. After that it was back to the hostel and off to sleep.
The next day we woke up even earlier. After some negociations with a taxi driver, Jen, Alicia and I headed off to the floating market, about an hour and a half drive out of the city. But wow was it worth it. There is a network of steams and river that all these boats come together. Some people have there shows just right up against the water, some people have there boat full of goods and stuff, some have a stove and are selling food, while others just rent the boats and take tourists around the market. It was a lot of fun. And I bough t a wooden bowl with an elephant on it. The highlight would have probably been the lady that gave me a massage in an attempt to sell me tiger balm. Boy was she angry when I didn’t. After that we went back to the hostel and after hanging out there for a while we went to another market to walk around. While there Sascha and I had my favorite satay so far, and that is saying a lot, because everywhere you walk in Bangkok there is someone selling satay. After that market it was time to meet Aunt Marina. She is the aunt of the exchange student that stayed at my house about seven years ago who lives in Bangkok. We emailed each other back and forth and figured out a time and place and Julio, Jen, Alicia and I went to the market and all got to meet her. After I tried to get some ladies attention by calling her Aunt Marina, I walked a little further and Aunt Marina saw me and recognized me, so we sat down a little place and enjoyed the evening there. I even got to meet Mauro’s cousin Gabbi as well. After we had talked for a while, we all climbed into Aunt Marina’s party van and she drove us back to our hostel on her way home. The next day started early and we were off to northern Thailand…
To be continued
Monday, March 5, 2007
Report 10: I'm Back
Well the trip was fantastic!! I just got back a few minutes ago. It is 12:30 am on Tuesday morning. I will be presenting the trip in a series of three, a trilogy if you will. The first will be Bangkok, the second instralment will take you on a journey from Chang Mai back to Bangkok, and in the third and final post you will explore the ancient city of Angkor. I am going to bed because I have class very early tomorrow and am ill prepared.
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