Back to Basics

Today was a great day. While it rained all day outside, I spent the whole day watching football from my couch. After a long weekend, beginning with my bus ride from Philly to Easton on Thanksgiving, to my bus ride on Friday from Easton to New York, to my train ride from New York back to Philly yesterday, I was totally pooped. I've had more than my share of public transportation and traveling in general, and I was really looking forward to passing a day at home, by myself, and without any distractions. The weather played right into this plan. And I really, really enjoyed my relaxing day.

But I'm back to business tomorrow, as I've gotta prepare for a hearing this coming Wednesday morning. It'll be good to get to work.

One Night in Bangkok

Classic 80s song that I wanted to post onto my blog from Bangkok. Please enjoy responsibly:



Lyrics can be found HERE.

More buses

It seems that my traveling on buses doesn't end just because my trip to southeast Asia is over. Yesterday I took a bus from Philadelphia to Easton, where my sister lives, so that I could celebrate Thanksgiving with her and our dad. And once again, the traveling gods were on my side:

In typical fashion I arrived at the Greyhound bus terminal just 5 minutes before the bus was scheduled to depart; it was irrelevant to me that it was a holiday, so there would probably be lots of people there (and there were). The line was too long to wait to buy a ticket. So without even having a ticket, I went directly to the line to board the bus; I figured I would ask to buy a ticket at the first stop at Broad & Olney in North Philly.

Well, 10:40am, the scheduled departure time, came and went. There were about 6 people in front of me in line. And we were being told that the bus was full; there were no more seats. But somehow still, I didn't panic or worry in the least. I would just wait out the situation.

At about 10:45am, a woman Greyhound worker came up to those of us still waiting in line, and explained that they were going to switch buses: the bus already full only had a capacity of 47, while another empty bus right next to it had a capacity of 55. Doing the quick math, I knew that I could get a seat.

So I took advantage of the time that it was going to take to unload the first bus and then board the second bus, and I ran back into the terminal to wait in line to buy a ticket. I waited for nearly 10 minutes before I finally got up to the ticket counter. I told the woman, "one ticket one-way for the 10:40am bus to Easton." She said that bus already left; I told her, no its still outside. Then, she asked me if the bus driver told me to come inside to buy a ticket; without a moment's hesitation, I said yeah.

And just like that I bought my ticket at 10:55am for a 10:40am bus that was overbooked when I got there. And thus I was able to make it on time for Thanksgiving with my dad and my sister.

When I handed my ticket to the woman checking tickets at the door to the bus, she said, "oh there you are! I knew we had one more." HA!!!

ps. I'm writing from my sister's apartment in Easton right now. I leave in a little bit to catch yet another bus: this one from here to New York City to spend some time with my friend Corey. More buses!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for checking in! I don't have much time to write since I have to run to catch a 10:40am bus to Easton, where I'll celebrate the holiday with my sister and dad. But I couldn't leave without first posting a big THANK YOU to everyone who has contacted me since I've been back and to all who've kept up with my adventures on this website. It's great to be back, and over the course of the weekend, I'll do my best to hit everyone up.

Also, because today is Thanksgiving, I want to offer the following two quotes:

"The true history of Thanksgiving reveals embarrassing facts. The Pilgrims did not introduce the tradition; Eastern Indians had observed autumnal harvest celebrations for centuries. Although George Washington did set aside days for national thanksgiving, our modern celebrations date back only to 1863. During the Civil War, when the Union needed all the patriotism that such an observance might muster, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday. The Pilgrims had nothing to do with it; not until the 1890s did they even get included in the tradition. For that matter, they were not commonly known as "the Pilgrims" until the 1870s."

"The archetypes associated with Thanksgiving -- God on our side, civilization wrested from wilderness, order from disorder, through hard work and good Pilgrim character traits -- continue to radiate from our history textbooks."

These two quotes come from the book, "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong" by James W. Loewen, pages 90 and 88, respectively. I offer them simply as a reminder that we've gotta get our history straight. Without an honest understanding of our roots, we can't truly understand who we are today. And that principle applies at the personal level as much as it does at the national level.

Alright, I would write more, but I've really gotta get running. I hope you have a wonderful day with a generous helping of good food and whatever else you enjoy about this holiday (see the poll to the upper-left for reference). HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Bangkok airport under siege

While lying in bed this morning, listening to the BBC World News Report on NPR, I heard that anti-government protesters stormed the Bangkok airport, thus suspending all outgoing flights. This is the airport that I flew out of exactly 66 hours ago!

It reminds me of the advice of our taxi driver on our first morning in Bangkok: he said not to wear either red or yellow, because those are the respective colors of the government supporters and the anti-government protesters. As the BBC reported (see the article and video clip HERE), hundreds of yellow-shirted members of the People's Alliance for Democracy broke through police lines and entered the main terminal of the newly-built Bangkok airport.

Bangkok's two year-old Suvarnabhumi international airport is really nice; it may be the nicest airport that I've ever been in. Its architecture is sleek and modern: a steel lattice framework with large transparent windows, all lit up in a cool blue light (good photo HERE). It is spacious without seeming immense. It is multilingual and thus inviting to all visitors. I can only imagine the reaction of travelers at the sight of hundreds of yellow-shirted anti-government protesters; the article describes it as one of "bewilderment", I would guess that it would be one of incredulity along with a sick realization of misfortunate bad timing.

Home Sweet Home

Here I am. I'm sitting at my desk in my apartment at the double-deuce and Spruce. Rocky is curled up on the bed, leaning against the sweater that I wore yesterday to keep warm on the trip from Newark-Liberty International Airport to 30th Street Station Philadelphia and from there back home. The Baby is on the other side of the bed, leaning up against my pillow, and she's cleaning herself diligently. I'm drinking a cup of Costa Rican (Tarrazu) coffee that I just made. So, for the moment at least, things are good.

On the flight from Tokyo to Newark, I decided to watch the movie "Philadelphia", which I've never seen; I thought it was appropriate to see since I was on my way home, and also since I can't see myself ever renting it back home. The opening scenes of the movie, as well as the opening and closing songs (i.e., "Streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen and "Philadelphia" by Neil Young), really tugged at my heartstrings. I was so ready to be back home. While the closing credits of the film were rolling, I wrote a few lines on the flight menu:

as far as i roam
i will always come home
to my city of philly
the place that i love

It was such a warm feeling to see the illuminated skyline of Philadelphia as my Amtrak train made its way alongside I-95, then through North Philly, then across the Schuylkill River, and finally into the station at 30th Street. The train pulled in at 5:30pm; only 24 hours earlier, I was boarding my flight in Bangkok.

The flights were pretty uneventful. From Bangkok to Tokyo, it was a quick 5 hours, 30 minutes. From Tokyo to Newark, it was a steady 11 hours, 45 minutes. Both flights were faster than at the beginning of the trip; flying east is always faster because you're going with the flow of the jet stream.

Well, that's all for now. Keep an eye out for some interesting tweaks and additions to all my posts from TLC over the next day or two. Since I mentioned it, I'll conclude this post with a video for your viewing and listening pleasure:



By the way, I'll be sure to post some reflections of my TLC trip very soon, the kind of stuff that never fit into my narratives.

Runnin' on empty

I got food poisoning yesterday. I'm recovering now, but I'm really angry that the trip has to end this way. I'm not sure who or what I'm angry at, but it fucking sucks that my trip is ending on such a terrible note.

It began with the taxi ride from Siem Reap to Poipet, two towns in Cambodia, the former is where we had stayed for the previous three nights, the latter is the town on the Cambodia-Thailand border. Poipet is the stereotypical border town: dirty, dusty, and just plain nasty. Paul and I were fortunate to get hooked up by our remork (the Cambodian word for tuk-tuk) driver, Mr. Prom Meta, with a personal taxi ride to the border; Meta called up a Thai friend of his who then drove us the three hours to Poipet. The ride was through the Cambodian countryside, which was characterized by flat marshlands. The first two hours, from Siem Reap to the town of Sisaphon, was on a bumpy, rocky, dirt road; this is when I first realized that I wasn't feeling normal, because I could hear a lot of liquid sloshing around in my stomach with every bump in the road, which was literally constant throughout the ride. The ride from Sisaphon to Poipet was not as bad, because it was a paved roadway, but by then I knew that I had to get to a toilet as soon as we'd arrive in Poipet. When we got there, I went inside a hotel within 50 meters of the border crossing to use their toilet. The bathroom was nasty and looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time. There was no toilet paper in the men's room, so I went into the women's bathroom where I found a half-full/half-empty bag of napkins, which I took back into the men's room. This time I emptied my insides in a way that felt different that other times on this trip; even though I had diarrhea for many days on this trip, I never felt so terribly unwell as I did this time. Previously it was just a matter of letting loose and then going on my way, feeling better for letting it out. This time I still felt like crap afterwards.

We walked across the border and the barrage of putrid smells -- from garbage to fish -- began to make me feel nauseous. But I kept going, knowing that I had to reach my ultimate goal of making it to Bangkok, where we had a nice hotel, with all the amenities, already booked. We walked through customs, and entered Thailand. Upon walking out into the streets, we got a tuk-tuk, which took us the few kilometers to the bus station of the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet. We were just in time; a 4:30pm bus bound for Bangkok was already loaded and about to depart. So we quickly bought our tickets and had our luggage put under the bus. Taking our seats on the bus, it seemed like the ride would be comfortable.

But for me, it wouldn't be. Not long into the ride, I realized that any smell would begin to make me feel nauseous. Paul had bought some potato chips, and I didn't say anything to him (he still doesn't know now), but the smell was making me feel sick. It wasn't more than a few minutes later, while looking out the window, that I felt the sudden impulse to run to the bathroom; I made it just in time to puke for a few minutes straight. The last meal that I had eaten, breakfast at Angelina's in Siem Reap that morning, came out. I continued vomiting until nothing was coming up, and still I kept gagging. I felt like shit, hunched over because the ceiling was too short for me to stand up, in a cramped bathroom at the back of a bus in Thailand. And right then, I knew it was going to be a long bus-ride back to Bangkok; it was four and a half hours long, and we hadn't been on the road for very long at that point.

There is no point belaboring how shitty I felt for the rest of the ride, or how various smells continued to nauseate me. By the end of the trip, after other passengers had gotten off at earlier stops, I was sitting in the very back of the bus, in an open area behind where the bathroom was, gagging and spitting up the last of the fluids from my insides into a plastic bag that someone had fortunately left behind. I had tried drinking some water when the bus stopped for its only pitstop, and while sitting in the seat next to Paul, and I had started puking that water into a long-sleeve dress shirt that I had in my hands. The entire experience was wretched.

Upon arriving to the Bangkok bus station at around 9:30pm, we hired a taxi to take us to our hotel, Suk 11. That ride was about 20 minutes long, and was uneventful. Paul checked us into the room, while a woman at the hotel took me directly to the room, where I immediately dressed down into more comfortable clothing and settled in for a few minutes. When Paul came up to the room, I told him that I was giving in, and he gave me an antibiotic, Levaquin, to begin killing the bacteria in my system. Then I got up to take a long, warm shower, and then got into bed. At that point it was probably 10:30 or 11pm. I stayed in bed for the most part until almost 12noon today. I only got up once in the middle of the night to puke out the one slice of white bread that I had eaten earlier in the night and the bottle of green gatorade that Paul had gotten for me.

Relative to that entire experience, I'm feeling better today. Thanks to God, I'm holding food and drink in my system today. I've drank some more gatorade and eaten some more white bread, and just before coming to this internet place, we went to a Starbucks, where I drank some hot English breakfast tea, and ate a cinnamon bun. I'm sure I've lost a couple more pounds in the past 24 hours. I'm happy to be ending this trip and returning home. A comment that I made to Paul earlier today is really unfortunate: I told him that I don't think I'll ever come back to this part of the world; out of 16 full days here, I had some degree of diarrhea for all but probably five days, that's not my idea of a good time. But I guess that's what I get for trying to eat the local food and for not being a tight-ass about washing my hands every two minutes. I don't mean to discourage anyone for coming to this part of the world. And maybe I won't feel so bitter once I'm home and I'm able to re-read this blog and look at all the photos from this trip. I guess you can just say that I'm ready to go the fuck home. I miss Rocky and the Baby. And I miss my regular and humble life at the double-deuce and Spruce. I guess I can really say, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."

Anyway, I may post once more later tonight; I leave to go to the airport at around 2 or 3 in the morning. My flight out of Bangkok departs at 6am, then I'll have a layover in Tokyo, and then it's on to Newark-Liberty International Airport, in beloved New Jersey. The flights will be about 6 and 14 hours respectively, so I'd appreciate your prayers that I maintain my constitution throughout the flights and continue to feel and get better quickly. Once again, thanks so much for keeping up with my travels. I look forward to seeing and talking with everyone once I'm back home.

Philly, here I come!!!!!

On the road again

I'll have to post a more complete blog entry later tonight, but for now Paul and I will be leaving momentarily to once again hit the road. We're leaving Siem Reap, and all of Cambodia, to head back to Bangkok, Thailand. Thus, our trip is about to come full circle. It's gonna be another long travel day, as we've gotten somewhat used to doing: 3 hours or more from Siem Reap to the Cambodia-Thailand border in a taxi, then 4 hours or more on a bus from the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet back to the capital city of Bangkok.

Yesterday we spent the entire day, from sunrise to sunset, at the temples of Angkor Wat. I'll have to write some details about that later, but if you haven't been there before, I'd suggest that you look at some photos online to familiarize yourself before the written word comes later; just a suggestion, that's all.

Okay folks, hope you're happy and healthy, or at least moving positively in that direction. I'll write again soon, God willing. Peace!

R & R

Today was a day of rest and relaxation. Our marathon traveling, on buses and planes, definitely caught up to us. We were gonna wake up at 8am this morning, but we never heard the alarm (if it even went off in the first place). We woke up on our own a little past 10am. So we decided to just bum around the town of Siem Reap today, which wasn't such a bad thing. We went for a really good breakfast at a place called Angelina's, which I assume was named after Angelina Jolie, who came here to film the movie Tomb Raider at Angkor Wat and also to pick-up a child to take home with her too. After breaking our fast, we went to Blue Pumpkin, a fancy-looking cafe, but with refreshing coffee products for about US$2 each and very easy-to-look-at-and-talk-to (too many dashes) Cambodian waitresses. The rest of the day went by as a blur of just walking around, going back to the room to fall asleep while listening to tunes, then walking to the Lucky Mall where we acted like goobers (as Evan would say) by going up and down the same escalator at least 20 times -- no exaggeration; everyone was laughing at us, even the security guards. After that, we walked to a nearby Thai restaurant to eat some pad thai. Tonight we went for just a couple drinks at the Banana Leaf, a nice spot located on Pub Street (a kind of Bourbon Street type atmosphere sans beads). Well, as you can probably tell, I'm a little too tired to type tonight, plus its gonna be a 5am wake-up to go to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat tomorrow morning. Hope all is well wherever in the world you happen to be!

See, we made it to the C in TLC

Cambodia. More specifically, the town of Siem Reap.

Immediately after signing out of this 'ere blog last night in Savannakhet, Paul and I deliberated our choice of options. Option #1: stay in Savannakhet for the night, take a bus to Pakse, then try to figure out how to get from Pakse, Laos to Siem Reap, Cambodia, a pretty good distance apart, including an overland border crossing. Or, option #2: leave immediately on a 9:30pm bus from Savannakhet to Pakse, Laos, go to the Pakse airport, and see if we'd be lucky enough to buy plane tickets for a 10:30am flight from Pakse to Siem Reap, Cambodia, the next flight not being until Thursday.

We chose option #2. Although we were still pretty wiped out from being dropped-off at the side of the road outside of Savannakhet at 2:30 in the morning less than 24 hours earlier, we decided that the benefit to gaining a lot of time -- with much less hassle -- by flying to Cambodia outweighed the cost of pushing ourselves back on the road so soon.

The bus ride from Savannakhet to Pakse was about five hours long: 9:30pm to 2:30am. It was more comfortable than the hellish bus ride the previous day from Vientiane to Savannakhet. But, for me at least, there was one pretty good highlight. So I'm sitting toward the back of the bus, on an aisle seat near the stairwell that led down to the lower deck (it was a double-decker bus). Sitting next to me on my left was the stereotypical small, gray-haired, old Asian guy. Over the course of the trip he took off his sandals and his legs were short and frail enough to pull them up towards his chest and rest his feet on the edge of the seat. Anyway, about three hours into the trip, the old guy slides open the window next to him, grabs a plastic bag from the ledge in front of us, and tosses the contents of the bag out the window. I kinda chuckled at that. Oh, by the way, the bus was completely dark, as there were no street lights on Route 13, there were no other vehicles on the road besides our bus, and all the lights on the inside of the bus were turned off so people could sleep -- the only light was from the headlights of the bus and the moon high overhead. So that's the set-up when this old guy is holding the now-empty plastic bag in his hand; he then inches up to sit on the very edge of his seat, and angles his body slightly toward the wall. He sat in that position for a solid 30 seconds or more, then cautiously took the plastic bag filled with his warm piss, held it out the window, and let it fly. He sat back with a look of contentment, and I just laughed to myself.

For the second night in a row, Paul and I were dropped-off on the side of the road in the middle of the night. We were on Route 13 -- the major north-south artery in Laos -- just outside of Pakse. A Laotian guy who I had been joking with showed me his watch, and it read 15 minutes to 3am. Paul and I sat there as there was an intermittent light drizzle, until finally, about half an hour later, I was able to wave down a motorcycle with a sidecar, the driver willing to take us to the Pakse airport. But he was already taking another fellow who had to sit behind him, while Paul and I squeezed into the narrow sidecarriage, and our bulky backpacks had to be strapped to the back. We were dropped-off outside the airport, which was closed, at about 4am. We had no choice but to rest/sleep under an awning of a wooden shack on the side of the road across from the airport. I barely slept because the mosquitos began to harass me a bit. I watched the sun rise over the Laotian countryside.

We were successful at buying tickets for the 10:30am flight from Pakse to Siem Reap: US$106 each. So that now brings us to our arrival here in Cambodia. We're now staying at the River Star Hotel, right in the center of town for $15 total per night, with air-conditioning and cable television. We're within easy walking distance of tons of bars and restaurants. And I got the business card from the young guy who drove us from the airport to downtown, in case we decide to take him up on his offer for a discounted rate to drive out to the temples of Angkor Wat.

Anyway, Paul just came up to me here in the lobby of the hotel. We're gonna head out now to get a bite to eat and get things rolling for the evening. By the way, please click HERE to visit Paul's blog; his goal is to get 1000 hits before the end of the trip, so he'd appreciate your help in his cause.

Alright folks. Peace in the Middle East. Health in the Illadelph. I'm audi!!!

The world's universal sport

Futbol. Or as we United-Statesians call it: soccer. It certainly is the world's universal, unifying sport, as you'll see just a lil bit below.

Earlier this afternoon, after a long, long conversation -- concerning life and love -- over coffee (for me) and ice cream (for Paul) at the Dao Savanh restaurant here in Savannakhet, I suggested that we take a stroll to let everything digest and to see the town a little more since we're leaving tomorrow morning for Pakse. While walking along, we saw a typical storefront selling all sorts of clothing and various random items. Among those other things I noticed several soccer balls hanging there; we tried to bargain the guy down from the 60,000 kip price tag, but he wouldn't budge. We moved on, but the idea was set in my head; we had the rest of the afternoon to kill, so why not? We fortuitously came upon another shop on the other side of the nearby intersection, and were successful in bargaining down to 40,000 kip for a small soccer ball. But where were we to play? I looked down a side street right there, and saw a group of kids milling about; a couple of girls were flying a kite high, high in the air. So we walked over and tossed the ball towards the the young boys, all probably around the ages of 10-12. For the next half-hour, Paul and I played soccer with them. At the beginning they tried to dribble the ball past us. But by the end we all gathered in a circle to see how many times we could hit the ball without it hitting the ground. I should also mention that, while Paul and I were wearing sneakers, all of these kids were running around barefoot on a gravel and dirt side-street. Older people in nearby buildings would stop to watch us play with the kids. The kids had asked us where we were from, so we told them "America." At the end, having sufficiently worn ourselves out, we went around to each boy -- I shook their hand, Paul gave them a high-five -- and left them with the soccer ball. When they realized that we were leaving the soccer ball with them, the kids' faces lit up like it was Christmas morning; they were thrilled! Paul and I felt proud that we had played our role as positive intercultural ambassadors. Those kids won't forget that a couple crazy guys from America had lots of fun playing soccer with them on their little street. As I told Paul, that's the kind of shit that's not in the guidebooks, and when we look back on this trip, whether it be in just a few days or weeks or months or even many years from now, that's the kind of memory that we'll feel good about, knowing that so many other tourists stick to their Lonely Planet itinerary and follow the elephant-train of tourists from one spot to the next. We had a blast kicking the ball around with those kids, and all it took was a $5 ball and just making shit happen.

Alright, time to make a decision. We might actually take a bus out tonight, in order to get to Pakse in time to fly from there to Siem Reap, Cambodia tomorrow morning. Do I really feel like leaving right now? Not really, but we have to be mindful of the fact that time is at such a premium at this point in the trip. I gotta sign out now; time to figure out what the heck we're doing . . .

"Sabai dee"

"Hello" in Lao. I'm writing now from Savannakhet, Laos. There is much to catch up on. But I'll live it backwards: ooooh, crazy, huh? It's now Monday early afternoon in this here part of the world. What time is it in your neck of the woods? [I just made you look at the clock in the lower-right of your computer screen and answer that question with that little voice -- that sounds a lot like you! -- inside your head].

Right before coming to this internet place, Paul and I went into St. Teresia's Catholic Church, purportedly the only Catholic church in Laos, built in 1930. It's located right in the middle of town. We went in and took a few minutes to say our respective prayers. I thanked God for, among other things, allowing me the freedom and ability to make a trip like this. As much as I'm missing home right now, I'm still quite aware of the fact that I'm living a life experience, and that so many people throughout the world never see much beyond their immediate surroundings. I'm tremendously grateful to be here, and to share the sights, sounds, and smells with one of my very good friends is a very fortunate thing too.

Yesterday was a major travel day; hence the fact that I've appeared -- to you, at least -- to have been absent for a little while. We left Vang Vieng on a 10am VIP bus for Vientiane, the capital city to the south. Despite the fact that the bus was labeled as VIP, and we thought the ride would be quick, the bus moved at a snail's pace. The main redeeming aspect of the trip was that I sat next to a French girl, with whom I spoke for most of the five-hour bus ride. I was interested to find out that she's a law student back in her hometown of Paris, studying abroad in Vietnam, and -- get this -- that one of her favorite groups is The Roots (Philly's premier hip-hop band, and yes they're most certainly a band). I'll take the liberty, and risk, in admitting right here that talking with her really made me miss the companionship of a girl. To save my ass from certain retribution back home, though, I'll immediately follow-up and say that the Parisian girl and I parted ways as soon as the bus arrived in Vientiane. But the residual of that conversation got me thinking about Philly for the rest of the day and night:

"All this roamin's got me missin' home 'n' all this globe-travelin's got me unravelin'" - me

We took a very long and quite excruciating bus ride from Vientiane to Savannakhet last night; we departed at 6pm and didn't get into Savannakhet until after 2 in the morning. There were long stretches of that ride that I was staring out the window, looking out at the outstretched moonlit fields, convincing myself foolishly that I was on Route 70 back near Medford, New Jersey. And for the first couple hours of that ride, I listened to The Roots' albums "Things Fall Apart" and "The Tipping Point" back-to-back. About two hours or more into the busride, the bus driver pulled over to let everyone go take a piss in the high grass alongside the road (even an old woman went into the grass to squat down and do her thang); after relieving myself under a midnight blue canopy pierced with thousands and thousands of stars, I talked with Paul for a few minutes. I told him that I felt so homesick that it felt like my heart hurt; it felt to me that my heart was just gonna jump out of my chest and run to the airport for the next flight back to the Two-One-Five. Oh well. I understand that a trip like this comes with the full gamut of emotions.

The bus ride was rough, but I was so serene in my own dreamy thoughts that I guess it could've been worse. I sat in the second to last row at the back of the bus, so I didn't want to recline my seat, knowing that the last row couldn't recline theirs. And Paul was sitting in the seat directly in front of me, reclined as far back as possible, so my room to manuever was quite minimal. And the guy (French I think) sitting next to me didn't afford me any room to move my upper leg past the dividing line between my seat and his. I was packed in like a sardine.

When we arrived in Savannakhet, the bus literally dropped us off on the side of the road. We had no clear idea what direction to walk, as everything was closed and pretty dark. We decided to walk in the direction that we'd seen a couple Laotians walking, but we were really clueless. The first two guesthouses that we saw were locked up and inaccessible. So we just kept on walking. A security guard pointed us in the right direction, but as we found out later, we were still pretty far from the center of town. We were certainly blessed when a guy drove up and offered us a ride into town and directly to the Savanbaohao guesthouse, which happened to be one in our guidebook. The main gate was padlocked, so I hopped the fence while Paul waited outside with the bags. I walked around the entire premises, but "not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." Finally, I saw the reception area, behind the desk there were two tents, so I did my best not to startle their inhabitants; I noticed a clock that said just a few minutes to 3am. Fortunately one of the guys woke up and let us have two rooms, we didn't really care what the price was, we just wanted to lay down our hats and get some shut-eye, which we definitely did.

But rewinding back to the beginning of the bus ride, something very interesting happened. Our bus was scheduled to depart at 6pm from Vientiane, which it did. But as soon as it pulled out of the station, not even one minute later, it pulled over to the side of the road. A horde of vendors came onto the bus and began hawking their candies and drinks to all the passengers. They were literally elbowing each other to be the first one down the aisle. I thought that was pretty funny, but pretty normal. Eventually they all got off the bus, but for some unknown reason we continued to sit there. After several minutes, I noticed the bus driver squating down next to the sidewalk and smoking a cigarette; by this time it was almost 6:30 and I thought to myself, what the hell is going on? Then the driver started messing around with this motorcycle; this made no sense at all. Until a couple minutes later, when I realized that two guys were bringing the motorcycle on to the bus! Let me repeat that: they brought a fucking motorcycle on to the bus and parked it in the narrow aisle between passengers. And it was not only one motorcycle, but two! Absolutely amazing. I was just laughing incredulously, especially when I realized that the Laotians were looking back to see our (the falangs': the foreigners') reaction. Later, as I said, we got out of the bus for piss breaks, those of us toward the back of the bus had to step on and climb over the motorcycles in order to get out. And that's when I also realized that they squeezed in even more passengers by making several people sit on plastic stools in the remaining section of the aisle that wasn't already used as a parking space for motorcycles. Only in the Third World, I tell ya, only in the Third World.

So let's continue on our odyssey in time from the present back to the not-so-distant past. I told you how we left Vang Vieng on that bus ride to Vientiane. Well, the day before was our big day in Vang Vieng. I mentioned in an earlier post that the main attraction in the double V is floating down the Nam Xong River on huge tractor inner tubes. What I did not mention, though, is that there are several bars located right along the river, that patrons stop at to drink Beer Lao, Tiger beer, and Mekong whiskey. Each bar is also equipped with enormous speakers, blasting out electronic music (e.g., Kernkraft 400), alternative rock (e.g., Sublime, Green Day, The Killers), and classic shit (e.g., AC/DC, Bon Jovi). These bars are filled with mostly early 20-something backpackers, wearing bikinis and bathing suits, everyone just getting fucked up from all the alcohol under a hot Lao sun. The scene can best be described as Spring Break / MTV Beachhouse, Laos style. Besides the tubing, each bar has ziplines and high platforms that revellers can ride or jump from into the river. Because I had heard that a guy had literally cracked his head open the day before (and our Rough Guide book says that people have died), I decided to be a little more cautious, and only rode one of the tamer ziplines out into the water. But other spring breakers were doing flips and all sorts of stupid tricks. An older Canadian guy who we had met on our bus ride from Luang Prabang the day before actually dislocated his shoulder on the zipline at the second bar; they had to boat him over to the other side of the river and take him back into town for medical attention. We had a lot of fun, although it was certainly tantalizing to see all those girls in bikinis; fuck I wanna go home! [straightening my tie and regaining my composure]. Umm, so anyway, another highlight was playing volleyball in a large puddle of mud (no intentional reference to the rock band) at the third bar; I would serve the ball and fall face-first so that I could splash all the other players, especially the girls [stay focused], with mud. At the last bar that we stopped off at, there was a very real feeling that we were at spring break. The Laotians had built a huge slide that shot you out into the middle of the river; the interior was lined with bathroom tiles. Paul gave it a try, while I took a photo of him, his body spit out like a rag doll into the river. There was a rosy-faced white guy manning the dj booth at that bar, and people were dancing as drunk people do. A large circle formed, so Paul and I realized that our skills were being called forth. Paul entered the circle, kneeled down in the middle, and held a bottle of Tiger beer up in the air, but not too high off the ground; everyone held their breath, wondering what I would possibly do; so I dramatically stretched and showboated for a minute before approaching the bottle, bending over, putting my mouth on the bottle and then did a flip over Paul and the bottle to land like a jackass in the dirt on the other side. I think I kinda messed up my right wrist, which still feels a little weird, but it was all for a good cause. The final stretch from the last bar to our point of disembarkation was really, really long; for at least 20 minutes we were just gently floating down the river, as the sun set behind the limestone mountains that rose imposingly not far from the riverside. It was really quite beautiful.

Well, this has become an incredibly long post. So I think I'll stop it here. What's that? You want more? Well, we'll see what we can do to deliver so more tomfoolery and shenanigans your way; our skylarking and horseplay will surely continue.

From the double V

Vang Vieng. I'll keep this one short, because I'm in a chilled out mood tonight. Two quick stories and a personal message from me to you:

For our last night in Luang Prabang, Paul and I decided to check out the much-talked about bowling alley. There is a city law that alcohol cannot be served past 11pm in Luang Prabang. To get around that law there is a bowling alley just outside the city limits that continues to serve alcohol for a bit longer. We took a tuk-tuk (that sounds funny) from the night market to our guesthouse to drop off our stuff, then we were driven out to the bowling alley. It was a really good time. I think there were eight lanes, with electronic scoreboards on monitors both above the lane and next to the chilling-out area. Around 11pm, when some more people started showing up, they began playing popular hip-hop tunes, like Cyclone, One-Two Step, and others I can't remember because the Beer Lao's were starting to get to me. For the record, I beat Paul in our first two games, by two points and then by five points, ha!

Now tonight we just went out for a bite to eat on the main drag here in Vang Vieng. Very interesting to get a "happy menu," which is apparently quite common here in VV. The happy menu literally lists a bag of weed, opium tea, a ganja joint, and about 15 other similar choices for sale. You can see why Vang Vieng is a very popular stop-over for the backpacker crowd.

Finally tonight, I just wanna thank everything for continuing to check in. I know that my writing style is very detail-oriented; for those that enjoy it, cool, for those that don't like it, you can go to hell. As much as I'm very happy to be able to pass on our stories to everyone back home and around the world, I'll admit that as much as anything, my blog -- just like my previous handwritten journals -- is a way for me to remember things after they begin to slip into the past. You see, the thing is, I've had a very bad memory for experiences my entire life; I don't know why, but that's the way I am. So, more so than most other people, I really, really need photos and my own personal words and descriptions to eventually remind me of good times past. Believe it or not, if not for these things, I would forget all but the most striking experiences. And, selfishly, I'd like to relive these memories over and over and over again. So thank you very much, kind reader, for accepting me for who I am, and also for joining us for a good ride through SE Asia.

With that said, I wish you a very good night from Vang Vieng, Laos! Buenas noches! Boa noite! Bon soir! Good night!

I've got the runs and I've got to run

That was the title that I would've used if I had written an entry first thing this morning; it was too good not to use now. The title concisely describes how I began this Friday here in Laos. My ass was explosive, creating a hazmat situation in two separate toilets at Viradesa. And Paul and I once again left one place to go to another new one.

We left Luang Prabang on a scheduled 9am mini-bus that actually departed at about 9:15am, so I could unload in the main toilet at Viradesa guesthouse, while the group of six other travelers waited for me. The bus ride was a solid six hours, with two pitstops at about the one-third and two-thirds points. Because Paul and I were the last two to get onto the minibus we were stuck having to ride shotgun -- normally a good thing, but in this case not so much so. I sat in the middle of the front bench seat, right next to the driver, so that every time he shifted to third gear, he was jabbing me in my left thigh. Paul was squeezed up against the passenger door in order to make room for my legs, which necessarily had to face away from the stick-shift. It was a difficult six hours, with pins and needles and also cramping in our muscles. I was so tired from last night, though, that I was in and out of sleep for a good part of the ride.

When I was awake, there were many observations to be made. The road from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng is not particularly long, but it winds and twists and bends through some high mountain terrain, thus making the trip much longer than it would seem on paper. The scenery looked very much like it does in the Vietnam war movies: high, limestone mountains rising straight up out of the ground, interspersed by rice paddies and open fields. The road, once again, was quite stereotypically Third World: wooden shacks on small stilts built right next to the road; more little kids running around naked than you can count; cows, water buffalo, pigs, and even ducks with ducklings walking idly along the side of the road -- or in the case of some cows, in the middle of the road; the road itself so beat up and potholed in places that the driver drove just as much on the shoulders than on the actual road.

We finally pulled in to the new bus station on the outskirts of Vang Vieng at 4pm. From there, I somehow convinced Paul, along with a British couple: John and Jenny, to walk into town -- like authentic backpackers -- instead of hiring a tuk-tuk for the umpteenth time. The 3km walk into town wasn't too bad; I passed the time by talking with John. He told me that he and Jenny quit their jobs back in the UK to come backpacking for a solid 6 months; they'll keep going until the beginning of February.

Paul and I checked into Pan's Place right on the main strip in town. Our room is in a modest bamboo bungalow, with mattresses on the floor, and geckos running on the wall (I told Paul that they're our friends because they eat insects and save us 10% or more on car insurance). This place will be our first experience with a shared toilet/shower; Paul was a bit reluctant but I told him it would be a good way to meet other travelers. We both liked the fact that there's internet right here on the premises and a television room upstairs, fully stocked with tons of movies on dvd. So that's where we stand now.

Tomorrow we'll go tubing down the Nam Kong River; it should be an awesome experience, but I won't ruin the reader's surprise by telling you why this town is packed with backpackers and exactly why the tubing will be a kick-ass experience. You'll just have to check back, ya heard?

To be continued . . .

Bad Moon Rising

Earlier tonight, while we were picking up the laundry (proud to say: first time on this trip) from another guesthouse down the lane from Viradesa, we saw the large, orange, full moon rising immediately to the left-hand side of the well-lit Buddhist temple at the top of Phou Si hill. It was surreal. That alone justified our decision to stay an extra night in Luang Prabang.

Tomorrow morning we leave at 9am on a mini-van to the village of Vang Vieng, located about 4 to 5 hours to the south. Just a few minutes ago, after we had a nice dinner -- at the Hive Bar -- of pizza and Pepsis (hey, every once in a while on a trip like this you gotta give your digestive system a break, especially after my sticky situation this morning), we popped our heads in the Lao Lao Beer Garden, just a few doors down. And whaddaya know? Who else was there but Nick and Josh, our fast-growing friends from the land down under. We found out that they're heading down to Vang Vieng on an 8am mini-van tomorrow. So we'll very likely have some more good times with those guys in the double V (not to be confused with the double-deuce and Spruce).

Well, I'm having some more rumblings originating in my intestinal area, not unlike the sounds that Jeff Daniels hears in the movie Dumb and Dumber. I think Vesuvius might be getting ready to destroy Pompeii, aka our toilet in room 12 of the Viradesa Guest House. I'll be thinking of all you guys back home while I'm doing it. Cheers!

Oh shit!

Today got off to a shitty start, as you'll soon see. Paul and I slept in this morning after a really rockin' good time last night at the full-moon party (more on that below). Actually, although we both woke up at 10am, I stayed in bed to listen to some tunes on my iPod in order to ease into the day, while Paul went out to a local internet spot to do some emails. I took my time getting up, but eventually made my way out to meet him. From there, both of us feeling quite hungry at that time, probably about 11am, I suggested that we find a place to eat along the wide, brown, "mighty and mellow" Mekong River, on which we had not eaten since our first evening after checking into our guesthouse here in Luang Prabang. As a sidenote -- and in response to a beautiful reader's question -- we are staying at the Viradesa Guesthouse here in LP (not to be confused with Linkin Park). Back to the story, then: we went to a wooden table overlooking the Mekong; I ordered a crepe with honey and Paul ordered a full omelet with a baguette. As you can see, the legacy of French colonialism here continues to endure, most especially in the cuisine. Well, I'm just finishing up my crepe, when I feel an urge that many of us feel day in and day out: I discretely picked up one ass-cheek and let one rip, but instead of a toot it was a squirt. Oh shit! The look on my face immediately telegraphed to Paul what had just happened; I told him to pay the bill and I'd get him back later, I asked the waitress where the bathroom was, she said across the street, just wonderful I thought to myself. So I gingerly stood up and made my way, step by step, across the street, into the woman's own personal home, and went directly to the bathroom, where I took off my boxers, wiped down and left them there as souvenir. Of course I went back to Viradesa, where Paul had already returned, and I took a nice long shower (the water pressure and temperature has been as good here as anywhere else). I'll have to be a bit more deliberate when busting ass throughout the rest of this trip.

Yesterday evening, after we had gotten back from the waterfalls, we decided to follow a fellow traveler's (not that kind, at least I don't think) advice, and climb to the top of Phou Si hill, which is located on the center of the peninsula that comprises most of Luang Prabang. At the top of this tall hill there is a Buddhist temple with a golden spire that can be seen for miles around. We were told that watching the sunset from the top of Phou Si is priceless, as much as or more so than any Mastercard commercial. We found out first-hand that watching the sunset from Phou Si is beautiful, perhaps even borderline magical. The sun sets behind typical green Asian mountains -- by that I mean that they look like the ends of French baguettes sticking up out of the earth -- with the slow-moving Mekong down to our right-hand side, and all below you can see the village of Luang Prabang. This experience alone -- watching the sunset -- convinces one immediately why Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

A funny little thing also happened just after the sun set. All of a sudden a guy with a heavy French accent starting asking everyone (and there were tourists packed in shoulder to shoulder) to move out of the way in order to do some filming. A couple guys with professional cameras and a guy with one of those boom microphones on a long pole were there too. Then this actor with a backpack comes running up the steep steps to the cement landing where all the tourists had been taking their photos of the sunset. A minute later, a few more actors, some a bit older, came up. Since I was standing right there, one of the French actresses asked me, in French, what my nationality was. I answered her directly: "Je sui americain." I'm really losing track of all the languages I've used at least once on this trip! When the filming was over, I asked the sound guy what the filming was for; he said it was for a French reality television show called "Peking Express." Seeing all of that proved to me once and for all that reality tv is nothing but a fabricated illusion.

After climbing down the multitudinous steps from Phou Si back down to the LP night market, Paul and I headed to dinner. It was a shame to see a group of several young tourists causing problems with the Laotian owners of the restaurant. At one point I heard a young tourist say loudly, "do you know how much money we've spent here all day?" The arrogance pissed me off; I mean, really, they probably spent a total of $10 for their entire meal for all of them, which they'd be lucky to get an appetizer for that price back home. That's the kind of cultural arrogance that really irritates me. As Paul said, those tourists probably think they're superior to the Laotians; really shitty approach to life. And unfortunately I know people like this back at home. When you peel away all the money and material possessions, these kinds of people are essentially really pathetic and insecure, if you ask me. That's my two cents; which can buy a nice drink here, ha!

The highlight of the day yesterday was our night. Earlier we had stopped off to get a cup of coffee at a little spot on the lane where our guesthouse is located. We ended up having a nice conversation with a young Laotian woman there, and she recommended that we go to the full-moon party at Wat That Luang, a Buddhist temple just outside of the main drag, but not too far from Viradesa. Paul and I had met a couple Swedish girls the night before while walking through the night market, and we ran into them by chance after climbing down from Phou Si and while walking to find a place for dinner. We told them about the full-moon party and asked them if they'd wanna come along; they said yes, so we met them later in the evening so we could all walk together to the party. We also mentioned the party to Nick and Josh, the Aussies, and they ended up meeting us there later on.

The full-moon party was such a fun time! As we walked there, we could hear the music from the main road, so we knew we were heading in the right direction. Once we got there, we realized it was a summer carnival type atmosphere: games were set up all around the outside of the temple, there was a tent under which there was a guy on a microphone and another guy on a keyboard blasting out all sorts of beats and music, there was plenty of plastic patio furniture for everyone to sit down, and there was beer aplenty. We walked through the carnival and realized quickly that we were the only non-Laotians there; this was true for the rest of the night, with only one exception that I observed. Finally we had come upon a truly authentic cultural experience that was not overrun by throngs of tourists taking photos! We went to the back of the grounds, where many Laotians were offering yellow flowers as a donation at the foot of the golden Buddhist shrine, then perambulating the outside of the temple. Back that way, too, there were games set up for the kids. Of course we got involved. One game was darts, which you had to throw toward balloons stuck in wooden cubby holes. For 1000 kip, you got 3 darts. I went first and got 2 out of 3, so I got a little coffee-flavored candy. All four of us took turns throwing the darts and we laughed a lot when someone threw a bad turn. While we were doing this, a group of Laotian kids came by and watched us. Later, when Paul won a carton of orange juice, he gave it to one of the kids, who looked so happy to get it. After tossing darts for a while, we walked back toward the front of the grounds and sat down to play a game of large dice that is just too complicated to explain right now; we'll have to show you the photos when we return. Needless to say, we were surrounded by tons of kids at this point and we kept giving away our "yellow cards" (which you use to play the game) to the children so they could take part in the game with us. We all had so much fun.

And then we ended the rest of the night as a full-moon party should be enjoyed: dancing under the full moon and drinking lots of Beer Lao. And still we were the only "white" people there! We did all of this back where the microphone and dance area had been set up. While Paul, me and the Swedish girls (Linda and Emma) were having fun dancing with all the Laotians, the Aussies showed up and joined us on the dancefloor. At one point we created a circle among us and the others that were there, and we took turns jumping into the middle and dancing like fools. Also, when what must've been a traditional Laotian song came on, and the Laotians lined up in two parallel circles, I got up to join in, and did my best to mimic the hand movements that they were making. The Laotians, particularly the girls, seemed to get a real kick out of that. And then later, we all joined in a Laotian line dance, kinda similar to the electric slide, though not as corny. All of us had so much fun that we danced there for a long, long while. But eventually the girls left because they had to get up early today to go on an organized tour that would take them elephant riding. And then not long after that, the four of us guys began the walk back into the village. We agreed unanimously that it was an excellent night that would not be forgotten.

So, to all my friends reading this, wherever you may be, I hope you're enjoying the stories, and Paul and I will do our best to keep the good times rolling, hopefully with some time here and there to share our good times on our respective blogs. Because we really like this town so much, we'll stay an extra night, then tomorrow morning we'll head out to our next destination: Vang Vieng. After my long shower, I now feel fresh and ready to stroll the streets of Luang Prabang!

"Waterfalls" by TLC

For those not up to their 90s pop music, the title refers to a song from that era in American music history. I'll have to post the video from Youtube retroactively upon my return home. But for now, hopefully I have you singing the song in your head while you read this entry.

The highlight of the day was going out to Kuang Si waterfalls, about 35km outside of Luang Prabang. We started our day by going to a small open-air restaurant on the main road where the night market takes place later at night (of course). We each ordered foe mu = traditional noodle soup with pork. And actually, on our way there we went to a roadside vendor to have a shake; I got a blend of banana and dragonfruit, into which was mixed milk, coconut milk, a light-colored water (which we assume was some kind of sweetener). The fruitshake and the soup really hit the spot for breakfast.

From there we continued on to the Lao Lao Beer Garden, which is where we hung out and played pool last night (winning our first game, but then letting the Beer Lao affect us too much for our second game, which we lost). We had to go back there to meet up with Nick and Josh, a couple of guys from Australia who've been traveling throughout southeast Asia for a while. We met them back at Lao Lao Beer Garden at 11:30am, so that we could pool our kips (the Laotian currency) to get a covered flat-bed pick-up truck to take us out to the waterfalls. The four of us bargained hard with a couple of guys, until we finally got this young, good-natured (possibly high on something) Laotian guy to take us out for 140,000 kip for the four of us. Did I say 140,000?!?! Yes, the exchange rate is about 8,600 kip to just 1 U.S. dollar; it wasn't easy switching gears from the baht-dollar calculation to the kip-dollar calculation, but we college-educated American boys can roll with the punches.

Kuang Si waterfalls are amazing. The water is the color turquoise. The water was chilly, as mountain water all over the world must be, but it was tolerable, especially once you jumped in. And jump in we did. Well, actually I was the first one to wade into the water to check the temperature and more so to check the depth of the water to see if it was safe for diving; it was. So then we each, the four of us, took turns jumping off of a large branch overhanging the water, probably a good 15 feet above the surface. It was exhilirating. And the backdrop was absolutely gorgeous: tropical grass growing among the rocks right near the ledge of the waterfall, bounded by a forest on both sides and behind. The sun was shining brightly and we were all very happy to be there.

I must say, before I finish this entry -- as we will get ready to go to a full-moon party at a local temple, replete with dancing, drinking and merry-making -- that the ride to and from the waterfalls was also memorable, for me because of its nostalgic qualities. The small wooden shacks lining the road, the narrow bridges either wooden or metallic over small creeks, the high green mountains rising in the not-too-far distance, the young children running barefoot or in flip-flops along the sides of the road, and the overall ambience of the whole scene was so reminiscent of so many other roads throughout other parts of the Third World -- I was especially reminded of remote areas of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. It made my heart feel warm. People all over the world really do have so much in common.

And with that, I leave you to enjoy your Wednesday back home as my Wednesday night is about to begin. Hasta la proxima, mis amigos!

A lil' banged up in Luang Prabang

Our flight arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos earlier this afternoon. Met a group of about 12 women from Brazil (Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo) on the flight; they taught me some key phrases in Portuguese.

Paul and I walked through the night market tonight, cool stuff. Then we went to hang out at Lao Lao Beer Garden, where we drank a few Beer Lao's. We played pool with a group of Aussie blokes; we'll meet some of them tomorrow morning and we'll all go to the Kuang Si waterfalls together. They were nice guys. The bartender gave us all a free shot of some pretty harsh stuff that was the color green: might've been Mekong whiskey. Didn't go down easy, although I did order some french fries and then garlic bread to soak it up afterwards. But I'm off to bed now either way.

Hope all is well in the States. Plus the computer that I'm on really sucks right now, so I'm done for the night. I'll write again tomorrow, God willing. As Will Smith said, "yo homes, smell ya later!"

Up in the sky again

It's now 11:40am in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In just a little over an hour, we have to catch a songthaew (the Thai version of a taxi) to the Chiang Mai airport; our flight departs at 3:05pm and arrives in Luang Prabang, Laos exactly one hour later at 4:05pm.

Now, to continue where I left off on the last entry. Paul and I rented motorscooters for the past two days. The day before yesterday we picked up the bikes so we could ride from the center of town out along one of the main roads that then climbed up the mountain just west of town to the Doi Suthep shrine. This was my first time riding a motorscooter, so I was a bit excited and nervous at the same time. Don't worry, though, I wore a helmet that said, in large letters on the back: "BEER".

Surrounding the ancient city of Chiang Mai is a moat in the shape of a square. The rest of the city has continued to grow beyond the outside of the moat. Trees and sidewalks line the banks of the moat, and then immediately on both the inside and the outside of the moat are three-lane roads that run in opposite directions (one clockwise and the other counterclockwise) around the moat. So Paul and I rode our bikes from the center of town, near our hotel, to one of these main roads, riding alongside the moat, until we got to one of the corners of the square. From there, we had to turn onto the major road that ran diagonally out from the corner of the moat and out towards the mountain. We had stopped for a red light at this intersection and we were at the front of the traffic, since the motorbikes can manuever their way to the front of all the cars. When the light turned green, I took a wide left turn to go onto the right-hand side of the road, as is normal in the United States, when I quickly realized that I'm in Thailand, where vehicles drive on the left-hand side of the road. This meant that I was driving my motorbike directly into oncoming traffic! Fortunately for me, that traffic was stopped at a red light, and I reacted quickly enough to drive my motorbike up onto the sidewalk next to that traffic. From there, I slowly drove along the sidewalk until I got to a break in the traffic and I drove across the road to the other side, where Paul was pulled over waiting for me. After the initial scare, I started laughing my ass off, and thought to myself that I'm not gonna screw that up again.

Paul and I continued on the road out toward the mountain, and after just a couple kilometers the road started climbing up the mountain. The road reminded me a bit of the road that one takes through Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica when leaving San Jose for the Caribbean coast: two lanes in each direction, with many turns and bends in the road, with amazing vistas of the lush, green mountainside below and beyond.

As we were making our way up the mountain, we saw a big sign of a Thai word; Paul joked that it said "Hollywood." That sign was on our left, and just after that the road turned very sharply to the left, while also climbing very quickly, thereby putting the sign that we just saw below us and to our left-hand side. I made the turn first, and while making the sharp turn, I tried to look down at the sign from above. But by doing this, I started veering toward the left curb, and before I could right myself, I crashed up onto the curb. I let go of the bike and because of my momentum I had to run a few more feet. Luckily the curb was large enough to stop the bike at the side of the road. Please don't worry, dear reader, I was only slightly injured: I've been wearing cargo pants my whole time here, so the long pants protected my left leg when it was caught for a second between the bike and the curb as I lost control. Even now as I write this, I have just a slight surface bruise on the inside of my left calf. For the rest of the day after it happened, my muscle felt a little cramped, but I feel fine now.

After that minor mishap, we continued riding our bikes up the mountain, honking our little horns at other motorbikes that we passed and waving at people on the side of the road. We stopped at a couple of places to get photos of the fantastic view of the city below us. From this perspective, we could see that the city of Chiang Mai really did appear to look like a city, spreading out along much of the valley below us. I think it is only because there are no tall buildings that Chiang Mai does not seem so much like a city when we Americans are inside of it.

Finally we arrived at the entrance to Doi Suthep, near the very top of the mountain. We parked our motorscooters with the long line of other motorscooters and we walked up the stairs that led to the entrance. The final stairway leading to Doi Suthep is tall and beautiful. In place of handrails, there was a dragon-head at the foot of the stairs and the tail of the dragon went the entire length of the stairway, all the way to the top. On both sides there were many trees, providing shade, and giving it a uniquely Asian feel. We made the laborious climb to the top and entered the grounds of Doi Suthep. There were beautiful buildings gilded in gold. There were also many large bells along the outside of the buildings. One larger bell, not unlike Philly's very own Liberty Bell, was inside an open structure; we took a photo with that one. All around there were courtyards and open areas. The views of the city were spectacular; and the view down the forested mountainside was breathtaking and peaceful. Also there was the International Buddhist Center; we went into an adjoining bookshop and did some reading about the basics of Buddhism. The entire scene was very serene and, as with so many ancient sites, got one to wondering about how it was all built nearly 700 years ago, how the materials were transported there when cars did not exist at that time. We took some time after we had walked around to sit down for a few minutes. I took the opportunity to drink a cantaloupe milkshake, while writing in my handwritten journal (those entries will be uploaded to this blog once I get home).

We eventually left to head back down the mountain, realizing that the sun would be setting soon. About halfway down, we decided to stop off where there had been a sign for a waterfall. When we pulled off the mountain road, we noticed a sign that the site had already closed at 5pm; at that point it may have been about 5:30 or even a little bit later. Of course we decided to continue toward the waterfall anyway. So we drove the mile or so through a very thin, although paved, roadway back towards the waterfall, hoping to take some photos. By the time we got there, though, dusk was already setting in so much that we couldn't get any quality photos. We joked that we were gonna get stuck and lost in a dark park like we had in Costa Rica five years ago (the reader can find that post on this blog somewhere around March 2003). Wanting to avoid that type of harrowing experience again, we decided to get on our bikes and get the heck out of there as quickly as possible; which we did.

We got back to Eagle House No. 2, our hotel, just in time to meet up with Andrea, a 22 year old recent college graduate from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. We had met her soon after we had checked-in, as she was staying at Eagle House too. Since her friend had just left her to go somewhere else, and Andrea was by herself, we had invited her to come with us to the Chiang Mai Night Safari; she said yes. As we had discussed with her earlier, we met her at the hotel at 7pm, so we could hit the road to the Safari, which was located about 12km outside of town. We all sat at an outdoor table in the courtyard of the hotel, looking at maps to figure out how to drive to the safari. Then Paul gave her his helmet, and she got on the back of my bike, and we all rode out into the streets of Chiang Mai. Our next mini-road trip on the motorbikes was beginning, and I was hoping that this time it would be incident-free!

While leaving on a different road out from the city, Paul started zooming ahead on the bike. Because I had someone else on the back of my bike, though, and because I wanted to make sure that we were going in the right direction, I was more moderate in my speed. Well, we soon got to an intersection, where I knew we had to turn left onto Canal Road -- the two directions of the road are divided by a canal in the middle -- but Paul had already sped through the intersection. We had no choice but to pull over at the corner of the intersection and wait for Paul, and wait we did. Finally, about ten minutes later, I heard my name being shouted from somewhere, but I couldn't tell where. So I just started waving my hand in the air. Then I saw Paul stopped at the opposite intersection; I waved for him to turn right, so that he could get to where we were waiting and we could all start driving along Canal Road toward the Safari. The road seemed to go on for a long while, in part because I had noticed that my gas-tank indicator was on "E" and of course there were no gas stations anywhere in sight. Finally, after several miles of the wind blowing briskly in our faces on this fast highway-like road, we saw signs for the Chiang Mai Night Safari. We turned right off of Canal Road and drove a little farther until we reached the entrance.
Chiang Mai Night Safari was really fucking awesome. There's no other way to put it. It was a very modern place, with all the amenities, I felt that we could be at a theme park in the United States. And in fact when we paid for our entrance tickets and the attendant told us that we had just two minutes to make it to the tour, we hustled our way to the tram, that's when I commented that this was exactly like Jurassic Park. Seriously, watch the scene in the movie where they climb into the SUV and drive through the park, well this was the same exact thing, except we were in open-air trams or trolleys. There were two circuits/tours at the park and we did both. We saw, and amazingly close to the tram: lions, white Siberian tigers, orange and black Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, rhinos, hippos, emus, zebras, giraffes, leopards, cheetahs, and all sorts of deer and antelope and ibex. It was an awesome experience that really cannot be expressed in words. These animals were not behind cages like any zoo that I've ever been to; although I'm sure there were boundaries to their areas, these animals were out in the open. For the big cats, only a large moat separated them from the tram's roadway. For many of the other animals, they were right there, some (like the zebra) even within arm's length of the tram. It was really cool!

Besides the two tram tours, we also saw a laser light show, which was projected on to a natural screen of mist, along with an accompanying fountain show (like you would see at the Bellagio or Longwood Gardens). Before leaving, we also walked along Jaguar Trail, a trail along the outside of a lake, along which there were lots of other animals, like lemurs, flamingos, turtles, and tropical birds.

By this time we were all pretty exhausted, since all of us (including Andrea) had come into Chiang Mai earlier that day from overnight travel. We drove back to Chiang Mai, stopping off to finally get some gas, and went back to the hotel. Andrea went to her room for the night, and Paul and I, starving as we were, went out for some food. We went to a place across the street from the hotel, and not long after we had ordered our food, met a couple girls who have been living in Thailand for a while: one for months and the other for over a year. We invited them to sit down with us and we talked over dinner. A couple interesting points to our conversation. First, we talked about the king, and how there is a very real and omnipresent reverence for him throughout Thailand -- there are photos of him in practically every restaurant and establishment of any sort; his face is on all the money; and there are large posters and billboards of him alongside all the roads. The king is now 82 years old, I believe, and there is apparently a very real, though unspoken, concern about what will happen when he dies, since the people don't seem to like his son, the prince, a guy who has supposedly fathered hundreds of children with hundreds of women, and who lives a decadent lifestyle. The other interesting point of conversation was my question to the girl who has been living here for over a year: why do so many Thai men, and some women, constantly use Vapex: these nasal vapor bottles that they stick into their nostril and sniff? They use it incessantly, as if it had some kind of narcotic effect. The girl said that it is more prevalent in Bangkok, due to the smog, and that the Vapex really opens up the airways with its strong menthol odor. It is very commonly used among cab-drivers, since the Vapex is something of a stimulant, kinda like coffee. We went out with these two girls for just one round of beers at a local hang-out: the Rooftop Bar. I had a Tiger beer and Paul had a Leo beer. But by then we were really feeling beat. So we said good-bye to the girls, and Paul and I went to crash for the night.

Well, that was a long and detailed re-cap of the day before yesterday. Yesterday was pretty uneventful, but I'll catch that up later. Now we have to get ready to go to the Chiang Mai airport to catch our flight to Luang Prabang. Speaking of stimulants, I'll get a coffee now. Next time I write, it'll be from Laos. So until then, take care!

Greetings from northern Thailand

I'm absolutely exhausted today, in spite of getting 7.5 hours of sleep last night. In this kind of a trip, there are inevitably days like this one. Thankfully the weather has been perfect today -- as it has since our arrival in Chiang Mai: highs in the mid to upper 80s, lows in perhaps the upper 50s -- warm sun and dry air in the day, cool and pleasant at night. So it's not the weather; it's just that over the course of a weekend back in Philly, I would normally lay out on the couch to watch some college football on Saturday and some pro ball on Sunday; none of that here, though, since we want to see as much as (reasonably) possible. So please bear with me on this post, mis estimados amigos.

Yesterday will quite likely go down as one of the best -- and most memorable -- days on the trip. The highlights can be broadly divided in 2. First, the Doi Suthep shrine, and second, the Chiang Mai Night Safari.

[Well, Paul just arrived from his late afternoon nap, and I desperately need to lay down and shut my eyes, if even for just an hour. So I will pick up this entry either later tonight or first thing tomorrow. But hey, you got your little tease for the day; you can look up the photos online. LOL!]

Chiang Mai, Thailand -- early evening

I'm sitting now at the top of the mountain ridge just west of the city of Chiang Mai. Doi Suthep is the holiest shrine of Buddhism in the north of Thailand. A steady, cool wind is blowing, making the windchimes chime, and rustling the leaves on the trees. The vista from here reminds me a bit of Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica, although perhaps not so tropical since we are in the north of Thailand. There is music playing from a nearby tourist shop: mostly the sound of lutes.

Paul and I rode motor scooters to arrive here at the top of the mountain, very much a la Motorcycle Diaries. At one point, while rounding a very tight curve, and uncautiously looking back over the ridge, I lost control of the bike and ran into the curb, which was thankfully there. I slightly bruised my left inner calf muscle; the bruise is not bad at all since I'm wearing cargo pants, but my muscle feels a bit tight or sore right now, nothing too serious though.

Also, since I'm talking about the motor scooter, I have to say that I'm having issues with the lane patterns here; more specifically cars drive on the left-hand side of the road. Not long after we drove out of the center of Chiang Mai, we stopped at a major intersection; when the light turned green, everyone made a hard left right there, but I went wide, aiming for the right-hand side of the road, right towards oncoming traffic that was fortunately stopped at a red light. To salvage a very bad decision, I drove the motor scooter up onto the sidewalk right next to the stopped traffic, then I slowly drove ahead along the sidewalk until I was able to cross to the opposite lanes, where I met up with Paul, who was pulled over on a median. I laughed my ass off. But I'm hoping not to make that mistake again.

Alright, time to drive back down the mountain into town. Final thought: from up here, Chiang Mai looks much bigger than it feels when you're walking around inside of it.

Chiang Mai, Thailand -- afternoon

Chiang Mai is a clean and beautiful large town. The ancient city is surrounded by a moat. Paul and I checked into our hotel after walking from the train station into the heart of the ancient city. We're staying at the Eagle House 2; hopefully that bodes well for the Eagles' game later tonight against the Giants.

I just took a shower after getting a haircut from a local Thai man for 70 baht, about 2 dollars. He did a very good job; I feel much cleaner now.

Not far in the distance a fairly large mountain ridge overlooks the small city. Its really quite a scenic place. I'm happy to have left the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, as much as I did like it, to come to another authentic side of Thailand.

I'm still amazed that I'm here, halfway around the globe. I truly thank God for the opportunity to travel and see other parts of the world. People here have been very nice and friendly. Of course some of the taxi drivers and tuk-tuk drivers and vendors can be a little bit pushy, but I don't fault them for trying to make a living. Besides them, everyone else has been very welcoming. I've already seen and done things here that have made this trip totally worth it, and yet there's so much more to see and do. Well, I've gotta get dressed now to get ready for some more experiences.

I sang "hi" in Chiang Mai.

We arrived at 7:30 this morning (today is Sunday) in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city, although as throughout much of the world that term "city" is used more loosely than in the United States. Chiang Mai, at least based on our first impression, is more like an overgrown village.

The overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was 12 hours long. We bought a second-class ticket for seats in an air-conditioned car; tickets for the sleeper car were already sold out. We had bought the tickets the day before yesterday, so we knew that we had to make it on time for our scheduled 7:20pm departure. Well, at least that was the plan...

As I said in yesterday's post, we got a late start. So our time was limited to just the afternoon. We decided to visit the Grand Palace, which we had missed the day before, and to get there, we decided to take the express boat along the Chao Phraya River, that is very efficient (I really wish Philly could develop this kind of transportation, and in general more development along the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers). Anyway, we took a boat down to the pier that put us near the Grand Palace. By the time we got there, we only had about half an hour until they closed. And that seemed to typify our luck for the rest of the day. The thing is, we were moving much slower than the first day due to going out late and having several beers the night before.

After the Grand Palace, a huge palatial estate within which were pagoda-like temples gilded with gold, we decided to find a place to find some cold drinks. So we walked to a small place across the street. The ambience of the place gave me the feeling of being in a small biermart in Germany: dark wooden panelling and dim lighting, all in a small area, with small round tables and chairs, the wall onto the sidewalk were sliding and folding wooden doors. Paul and I took our time, I had a pineapple fruit smoothie while he had two glasses of iced tea (hand-made, not commercially pre-made). We had a nice conversation, mostly talking about stuff from our past, but then also talking about our hopes for the future, especially what --and whom -- we look forward to seeing when we return. The whole time we were in the small shop, it was pouring rain outside. The weather in Bangkok has been typically humid during most of the day, the sweat sticking stubbornly to our body, as all the Thai people look as cool as cucumbers; we cannot escape our Americanness after all. Then, both afternoons in Bangkok, the clouds rumble in and the sky opens up to relieve the humidity. Yesterday's rain was more persistent than that of the day before. But Paul and I have already grown to love the rain. At least psychologically it makes us feel cooler, although the bottom of my pants invariably get soaked.

After spending a relaxing hour or so in the shop, we decided to move on. Based on a recommendation, I suggested that we try to go to Jim Thompson's house, the house of a former CIA undercover agent here years ago, and an architecture aficionado, who built his elaborate and unique house without any nails whatsoever. But according to our guide book, we had to get there before 5pm. Well, we walked back to the pier to get another express boat heading south on the river to the final stop, where we could catch the Bangkok Skytrain that would get us very close to JT's house. While we were on the train, of course, 5pm came and past; again our luck with timing didn't seem positive this day. But speaking of the train, it puts the Broad Street subway to shame; its air-conditioned, clean, modern, and even has flat-screen tv's on every car, very nice!

Since we were too late for JT's house, we decided to catch a train back one stop to Siam Square Mall. This mall puts the Gallery to shame (trust me, I still love the city of Philadelphia!), the best way to describe it is that it looks like the type of mall that you would expect to see all the rich, neo-punk/hip-hop kids in Tokyo to go to. The four-floored mall was clean and very modern; the prices reflected this, though, since they were on par with the KOP mall outside of Philly. Paul and I went to the food court on the top floor and each got a bowl of noodle soup with pork in a large, enclosed area called "Food for Fun." When we got to the check-in counter, I asked the kid if they had food there, he said yes, then I asked if it was fun, and he said yes again, that was very reassuring. Of course we had to eat there, sitting on plastic, orange-colored seats, with several groups of teenagers, mostly girls, either doing homework or gossiping as girls of that age tend to do. After that, we realized that our time was getting tight, because we still had to go back to our hotel on Khao San Road (all the way on the other side of this large city) to get our backpacks, and then still go from there to the Hualamphong train station to catch our 7:20 train for Chiang Mai. At that point, it was just past 6pm; uh oh!!!

For whatever reason, perhaps ignorance, perhaps a slight hangover, perhaps being brain-dead, Paul and I were as serene as the Buddha, despite all indications that we had screwed ourselves with our timing. We decided that we had no choice but to catch a taxi from Siam Square Mall back to the hotel, and we realized quickly that traffic was bumper to bumper, probably because it was a Saturday night in Bangkok. Our cab-driver was doing as much as he could to make it through intersections and weave through the traffic, but I realized later that it probably had more to do with his gas-tank being near "E" and less to do with us -- but who knows. He dropped us off at the end of the pedestrian-packed (think South Street on a weekend night in the summer) Khao San road, and we didn't waste a second running like Brian Westbrook, dodging and sprinting through the crowd to get back to the hotel, get our bags, then start running back out to the end of the road. We did all of this in about five minutes; when we got into our next cab, it was 7pm on the dot, we had only 20 minutes, we told our new cabbie our predicament and he told us that it would be 30 minutes to get to the train station. Again, we were resigned to our fate, whatever it would be. Well, the cab somehow pulled up to the train station at 7:22, two minutes late, but we ran directly to platform 10, hoping for the unlikely. There was a train there, we ran up to the train conductor and he said that it was our train, so we sprinted to the first car, jumped on and went to our seats, where we unloaded our bags and then looked at each other in amazement as the train began pulling out at that very instant. If we were even 30 seconds later, we would have been out of our tickets and stuck for who knows how long. We just started laughing and then slapped hands. Finally, our luck turned right when we needed. FAITH, baby, faith, that's what it's all about.

With that, I'll leave you all. Thanks again for checking in! We're now off to book a safari for tonight, to see some lions, tigers, and elephants. Don't worry, we'll take plenty of photos. Peace from the Southeast (of Asia)!!!!!

Another day in Bangkok

Another day in Bangkok begins now. We got a late start today due to our late night last night; we figured we couldn't pass up the opportunity to drink a bunch of Singha beer on a Friday night in Bangkok. When I get back to the States and have more time on the internet, I'll have to post the video for that song ("One Night in Bangkok" (?), an eighties song) on to this site.

Well, we're on Soi Rambuttri, a very beautiful tree-lined, red-brick road -- located near Khao San Road --that we'll walk to the end to get to the Chao Phraya River again. From there, we'll get on an express boat like yesterday and visit the Grand Palace, an enormous compound that looked absolutely amazing from the outside yesterday, and will almost certainly blow our minds away in just a short while.

The weather is a bit overcast today, but it's keeping the temperature slightly down. Nevertheless, I'm sure its still much warmer here than in Philly.

Finally, because we're gonna get going in a minute, I want to say that I loved the feeling I got from Bangkok as soon as I got here. As much as I thought language might be a problem, it hasn't been at all. Although I feel badly to appear to be a typical American tourist speaking English in a foreign country, it doesn't seem to be taken badly here, so I guess it's okay. But I always try to show my respect for their culture and language by using the Thai greeting and by saying thank you in Thai.

Well, folks, thanks again for checking in. I'll likely post again later this evening, before our 7:20pm overnight train to the northern city of Chiang Mai. Alright, bye bye from Bangkok for now!

Sawat dii!!!

"Hello" in Thai. So I'm finally here in southeast Asia, more specifically I'm writing from a small internet cafe in one of the tiny alleys behind Khao San Road, here in Bangkok, Tighe-land.

Despite getting a pretty solid 7 hours of sleep last night, I still feel a bit fatigued from a combination of the 3 hours of sleep I got on my last night in Philly before the trip, the 13.5 hour flight from Newark to Tokyo, followed by the 6 hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok, and also the fact that here in Bangkok we are exactly 12 hours ahead of the clock in Philly (meaning that I'm typing this at 9:20pm Friday night in Bangkok, while it's currently 9:20am Friday morning at the double-deuce and Spruce). But, in spite of any fatigue or jet lag, I'm loving the fact that I'm here. But bear with me if my prose in this entry is not quite up to par; I'm just gonna go in chronological order so I don't miss anything.

So last night (i.e., Thursday night), Paul and I met up near the baggage claim in the brand-new (and beautiful) Bangkok airport. Because our hotel for the first night was already booked, and it is located near the airport, we were hooked up with a pre-arranged van ride to the airport to the hotel. Once we got there, a hotel worker slid open the door to the van, bowed with his hands pressed together in a greeting of namaste, and said sawat dii khrap, thereby greeting us. We went up to the room, and after taking turns in the shower, hit the sack by 2am.

This morning we got things started at about 9:30am. We brought our backpacks down to the front desk, and then went for a walk to get some food. I had a bowl of egg noodles with roasted pork in brown broth, healthy and very tasty way to start the day. After that, we got a taxi to take us to our next hotel, located off of the famed Khao San Road, for better or for worse, main street for the backpacker crowd. The cab driver was a guy who asked us to call him Mr. Pao, and he was a really nice guy who spoke pretty good English. We took advantage of the half-hour car ride to ask him lots of questions. During the ride, Paul mentioned to me that there had been a bombing the other day here in Thailand. So I asked both Paul and the driver where the bombing had taken place; the cab driver said that it was in Bangkok and that it had to do with the ongoing demonstrations regarding the prime minister. The cabbie also warned us not to wear red or yellow, because those are the colors of the two respective political parties that are in disagreement. Fortunately neither one of us was wearing either color, and I'm pretty sure I didn't bring any shirts of those colors. The cab driver also pointed out a road where some demonstrators were camped out; of course by total accident Paul and I walked down that very same street later in the day, no bombings much to our relief.

The hotel that our cabbie delivered us to is called Sawasdee Banglumpoo Hotel, and it's located amidst a maze of back alleys, lined with vendors' stalls, selling everything from leather products to food to bracelets to cds to sandals. And as narrow as these alleys are, we learned when we got here that the Thais are skilled enough to drive motorbikes through these alleys, somehow managing to avoid the shoppers. The road itself that lends itself to the hotel's address -- Khao San Road -- is lined with all sorts of street-front restaurants and bars, with signs everywhere. Now that it's nighttime, it looks like a smaller, Thai version of the Vegas strip -- all the signs and lights and people just sitting at roadside tables and also walking by on the street.

After checking in to our room, we began our exploration of the city of Bangkok, and as any journey truly begins, we started one step at a time by setting off on foot. Navigating by the useful maps in our Rough Guides book, we slowly and not-always-certainly made our way to Chao Phraya River. From there we actually accomplished our plan of riding a boat down the river to get us closer to our first cultural destination: Wat Pho.

Wat Pho is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it surely deserves that recognition. It's centerpiece is a 45 meter long statue of the Reclining Buddha. The smile itself is 5 meters wide. The enormity of it can only be appreciated live, and its beauty was breathtaking. Because it is a holy Buddhist site, we had to take our shoes off before entering the building in which the Buddha reclines. The statue was the color gold and its feet were inlaid with iridescent mother of pearl. Also very interesting was seeing Buddhist monks walking through and taking photos of the Buddha with their digital cameras -- welcome to the 21st century.

But Wat Pho is really a large complex of temples, fountains, and courtyards, all within the confines of a white wall about 15 feet high. After leaving the Reclining Buddha, we started walking around the compound, and that's when I thought to break out my iPod to listen to the songs "Shambala" and "Boddhisatva Vow" from the Ill Communication album by the Beastie Boys; the first track is an acid jazz track that begins with the chanting of Buddhist monks and the second track is MCA's hip-hop track laid-over the subtle background of the chanting, dedicating himself to the Buddhist faith. Hearing those tracks in the heart of a holy Buddhist site was something very special. And I will always think of Wat Pho when I hear those songs.

Right before leaving, I pointed out a small temple that we had not yet entered. And boy was that a good decision. When we started to take off our shoes, a couple of guys said that we couldn't go in because there was a film being made inside the building. We looked in and saw a couple of beautiful young women who were getting make-up put on by others. After much cajoling and many attempts to get information, we eventually got the name of the film. But we did it by asking one of the guys to take our guide-book to one of the attractive actresses and have her autograph it for us. She did so, writing the name of the film as "In Search for Sunshine"; she signed her name as Miss Thailand Universe 2006. So we met a star!

Anyway, time is getting long here, and it's nighttime in Bangkok, so we oughtta live some life. Our afternoon and evening after the visit at Wat Pho consisted mainly of walking around, lost for much of the time, but not minding it since we were exploring the city. We ended up eating at a restaurant where we were the only "white" (European-descent) people. There we had our first taste of Chang beer. Then we got a taxi to Hualamphong train station to buy tickets for an overnight train to Chiang Mai, which we will take tomorrow evening at 7:20pm.

Alright, amigos, thanks for checking in. I will continue to post everyday if possible. With love from southeast Asia. Peace!