And so we returned to cold, cold Boston. And proved that it does indeed take a village to raise a pair of gypsies. Saul and Laura picked us up and put us up for a night. Uncle Joe picked us up from the bus in New Bedford. Aunt Laurie and Uncle Steve made sure we got our laptop and other important things. Aunt Amy facilitated us getting into Granddad's house. Kristi and Eric brought up stuff they had been keeping for us. And on and on. We are so grateful for everyone's help and support. Even though we could have probably lived in our honeymoon bubble forever, it feels really good to be home with the people we love, even though it's much colder here.
We spent our first weekend back in the States trying to get ourselves re-organized. We sorted everything into what to keep and what to put into storage (again) and repacked. We also caught up with some of our friends and family. Claire was up from DC, so we got to have brunch in Somerville with Brandeis friends and hear about all of the exciting things everyone else had been up to and share some of our stories. We also had johnny cakes and fried fish with the Lawtons. The food Kristen missed the most was brunch, so it was great to have brunch in the brunch mecca of Boston. And we miss South Coast cuisine whenever we travel, so it was great to have a very traditional meal with our family. And then we had the Tripps and Baders over for pizza on Sunday. The kids (and some adults) had a great time playing football, and the rest of the group had fun relaxing and catching up.
And then it was time to head to Waltham to move into our extended stay hotel. Mike is now back to work and Kristen is hanging out. "What next?" you ask. Good question. We still don't know for sure, but we can tell you that we are going to be spending Christmas on the Cape with the Bader/Kaysers and New Year's with the Stellji. And then probably moving into a month to month apartment while we look for jobs. So, say a prayer for us and keep your fingers crossed. We have faith that we'll end up where we are meant to and no matter what, we know that we'll be together, which makes us happy.
We feel so fortunate to have had this time in our lives. It's something that we'll always look back on with fond memories and we learned so much- about history, culture, architecture and that we aren't very good bloggers. Thank you for your patience with us as we have taken our time to tell our stories and share our pictures. But most of all, thank you for being a part of our lives.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Vietnam: Phổ, Fog, and Fun
After departing Angkor, land of many wondrous carved pediments, we headed for Ha Noi. The first thing we noticed was the weather. It was chillier than most other places we'd been during the trip (except Nepal at 8000 feet) and it was pretty foggy. We got in at nighttime and hit the hay.
The next day, we headed out to walk around the city. First we went to the lake in the center of the city and walked around a temple. Then we headed to "Silk Road" so that Kristen could get a dress made for Mariko's wedding. It took us quite a while to find the right color, but eventually we did and put in the order. Kristen also got a dress shirt made and Mike found another place to make him a pair of pants. We definitely have been enjoying the affordable tailoring!
Afterwards, we weary shoppers went to lunch at Quan An Ngon, a place that served all the good Vietnamese street food, but in... how to put this... a more indisputably sanitary way. To this point, neither of us has gotten horribly sick and we hope to keep it that way. So, we took the safe option and gorged ourselves on one delicious choice after another. Yum. After all of the heavy flavors of the other countries we have visited, the lighter cuisine of Vietnam definitely hit the spot.
We took the afternoon to visit the fine arts museum. The first exhibit featured contemporary works by an artist depicting Vietnam's struggles to adapt to a modern world. They also had ancient all the way up to contemporary art including folk art. Very beautiful pieces! There were also a lot of works that addressed the American War (known in America as the Vietnam War), so it was interesting to see the war from the opposite perspective than we are used to. After we left the museum, it was time to get ready for our overnight train to Lo Cai on our way to Sa Pa.
We arrived in Lo Cai at 5am and it was pouring down rain. And it was even foggier and colder than Hanoi! We drove an hour to Sa Pa and then huddled by the fire until our room was ready at 9:00. Few things are as nice as a hot shower after an overnight train ride. Despite the fog and mist, we went with a guide to Cat Cat Village to see a waterfall and explore a Black Hmong village. The Black Hmong women have a very clever business model for selling their handicrafts. The tourists typically trek between villages and while doing so, the women pair themselves up with the tourists. They chat with you along the way and are very friendly. In slippery areas, they will help you so you don't fall. Then, once you reach your destination, they hope you will buy some of their beautiful embroidery. Our friend for the day was Mai. When we told her Mike's name she said, "Oh, it's the same as mine." We told her that she didn't have to walk all the way to Cat Cat with us, so hopefully she could meet up with some other people in Sa Pa who were potential customers, but she made sure to find us once we got back and we got some good stuff.
The next day, we headed out to walk around the city. First we went to the lake in the center of the city and walked around a temple. Then we headed to "Silk Road" so that Kristen could get a dress made for Mariko's wedding. It took us quite a while to find the right color, but eventually we did and put in the order. Kristen also got a dress shirt made and Mike found another place to make him a pair of pants. We definitely have been enjoying the affordable tailoring!
Afterwards, we weary shoppers went to lunch at Quan An Ngon, a place that served all the good Vietnamese street food, but in... how to put this... a more indisputably sanitary way. To this point, neither of us has gotten horribly sick and we hope to keep it that way. So, we took the safe option and gorged ourselves on one delicious choice after another. Yum. After all of the heavy flavors of the other countries we have visited, the lighter cuisine of Vietnam definitely hit the spot.
We took the afternoon to visit the fine arts museum. The first exhibit featured contemporary works by an artist depicting Vietnam's struggles to adapt to a modern world. They also had ancient all the way up to contemporary art including folk art. Very beautiful pieces! There were also a lot of works that addressed the American War (known in America as the Vietnam War), so it was interesting to see the war from the opposite perspective than we are used to. After we left the museum, it was time to get ready for our overnight train to Lo Cai on our way to Sa Pa.
We arrived in Lo Cai at 5am and it was pouring down rain. And it was even foggier and colder than Hanoi! We drove an hour to Sa Pa and then huddled by the fire until our room was ready at 9:00. Few things are as nice as a hot shower after an overnight train ride. Despite the fog and mist, we went with a guide to Cat Cat Village to see a waterfall and explore a Black Hmong village. The Black Hmong women have a very clever business model for selling their handicrafts. The tourists typically trek between villages and while doing so, the women pair themselves up with the tourists. They chat with you along the way and are very friendly. In slippery areas, they will help you so you don't fall. Then, once you reach your destination, they hope you will buy some of their beautiful embroidery. Our friend for the day was Mai. When we told her Mike's name she said, "Oh, it's the same as mine." We told her that she didn't have to walk all the way to Cat Cat with us, so hopefully she could meet up with some other people in Sa Pa who were potential customers, but she made sure to find us once we got back and we got some good stuff.
It also happened to be Thanksgiving our first day in Sa Pa. There aren't a lot of American tourists that go there (apparently Americans like to go to the beach, according to our guide), so we didn't see any signs that people were aware of the holiday. A few other places we had been we had seen signs advertising turkey dinners, but we didn't see any in Sa Pa. So, though we missed turkey and pie, we found a delicious alternative- Vietnamese hot pot. You get a big pot of boiling broth and then you add in all kinds of tasty veggies, meats and noodles. Great for a cold night and for celebrating what we are thankful for. And we gave thanks for many things- for each other, for the chance to be on such an amazing trip, and for you all.
On our second day in Sa Pa, the weather was only slightly better, but again we set out for some trekking through rice terraces and villages.
It was pretty amazing to walk along and just see a wall of white in the distance. We could hear cars, but couldn't see the road. But, we did get to see some beautiful scenary up close. Our Hmong friends for the day were Mai Mai and Pam. They were especially helpful as we slipped and slided along muddy buffalo trails. Soon our trek was over and it was time to get ready to get back on the train and head to Halong Bay.
Fortunately, Halong Bay was warmer and it didn't rain. But, it still had that hazy winter sky. Nonetheless, the many limestone karsts jutting out of the water were just amazing.
It's not hard to understand why there is a legend about how they were created- they are just so magnificent. The legend is that the Chinese were going to invade and so dragons spat pearls into the bay so the Chinese couldn't find their way to the Vietnamese shores and they had to turn around. We spent the first day on a junk sailing around and checking out a cave. We also went for a beautiful sunset swim. The second day we got to explore the karsts up close in a kayak. It was a lot of fun and Mike did an excellent job steering us throughout the bay. Being right in the middle of water and surrounded by floating fishing farms meant very tasty food on the boat- lots of fresh seafood. Delicious! We spent the second night at a resort on Cat Ba Island and saw our first sign of Christmas- there was a Christmas tree in the lobby. There was also a beautiful beach which we enjoyed, but Kristen was too wussy to go in the cold water while it was so windy out. Mike was hardier and braved the cold waters for a swim. We spent our last hours on the island trekking up to an overlook in a national park and visiting a cave that was turned into a hospital during the American War.
Hard to believe, we only had two days left on our trip and we spent them exploring Hanoi. We went to several sights with connections to the American War- the Army Museum, Hoa Loa Prison, and the Ho Chi Minh Museum. It was fascinating to see the exhibits and see such a different propaganda, uh... perspective.
Remember, Ho Chi Minh is made of radiant gold and came out of the sky, with his legs folded.
Our final activity in Hanoi was to have dinner and we did it up right. We went to Cha Ca La Vong, which only serves cha ca (fish cooked in tumeric and herbs served with rice noodles). The service isn't friendly and we didn't really know what we were doing or what was going on, but we sure did know that the food was delicious. It was a great way to start our journey home.
Random photograph of Kristen at one of the historic universities in Ha Noi.
Cambodia: Wat's Happening?
After the relaxation of Laos, we headed to Cambodia, to see the ancient city of Angkor Wat. We weren’t too sure what to expect, but the descriptions we’d read sounded spectacular – a lost stone city in the jungle; a complex of giant monuments to the Hindu pantheon; the rumored site of a secret underground trove of scrolls containing the real lyrics to “Louie Louie.” Ok, the first two are true.
We decided to travel by tuk-tuk, which in this case meant a golf-cart-like trailer on back of a motorbike, and we got a three-day pass, figuring we’d probably want to take our time here. We hired a guide for the first day, and went straight for the meat of the complex, getting up early to catch the sunrise over the humongous main temple (Angkor Wat). With no discernible sunrise to speak of due to clouds, and with thus far no understanding of what we were looking at, it was still an impressive sight.
We headed back for breakfast and then came back for a proper introduction to the ancient city. It was built during the Angkorian-era Khmer empire during 900-1200 AD. Basically the region was once a massive city with a collection of gorgeous Hindu temples in the center. The temples are immense and ripe for wandering and exploration, with many doorways and walls still adorned with beautiful bas-reliefs and carvings.
In one temple in particular, there were many trees which interacted with the walls of the temple in some amazing ways.
We learned a bit about the history of the place. The Hindu religion made its way to the Khmer region before 800, and king Jayavarman II declared himself a “god-king” (a pretty snazzy title, you’ve gotta admit), marking the beginning of Hindu governance. Over the next few centuries, the Khmer built a series of increasingly sophisticated Hindu temples. (There were lots of homes outside of the temples, but they were built of wood, so they didn’t last.) The carvings at the temples represent various divinities, and some depict scenes from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana. For example, there’s that time Rama fought against the monkey army, which sounded pretty exciting as far as religious stories go:
Much of this was explained to us on the first day by our guide Wani, whose friendliness and eagerness to help us understand was not always matched by his English abilities (or aided by his hangover from partying the night before). For example, he pronounced “war”, “world”, and “wall” the same way to our ears. His heart was in the right place, however, and he struggled gamely through long, incredibly complicated explanations of stories featuring dwarves, giants, serpent gods, and various incarnations of different divinities. After each story, we would look at each other and try to merge the bits that we understood into something like a complete story. Fortunately he could spell well, because otherwise we would have never known what a ‘warf man’ was. We came out of the experience with a rich and creative understanding of Hindu mythology, certain parts of which might even be accurate.
Another thing that was interesting about this place was the interaction between Hinduism and Buddhism. After lots of Angkorian kings came and went, one of them decided that Buddhism was cool and that everyone should be a Buddhist. Under his rule the Khmer built some amazing temples depicting Bodhisattvas, which apparently are folks on the path to enlightenment, or displaying traits of the Buddha. One of the most amazing temples in the whole place is Bayon, which has hundreds of large Bodhisattva faces:
Unfortunately, after this king introduced Buddhism, a later king, who decided Hinduism was the way to go after all, ordered all of the Buddhist iconography destroyed. Many Buddha statues were broken, and bas-relief carvings of the Buddha were crudely chiseled beyond recognition or altered into representations of Hindu deities. Apparently the hundreds of Bodhisattva faces weren’t destroyed, which is good, because they are really remarkable to behold. However, in the end the Buddhists won out and the temples are now in regular use. Though, some of it seems to be only to make money through selling incense to tourists.
After 3 days of awesome exploration of temples and ancient Khmer history, we went to an evening performance of Khmer dancing. This was an interesting opportunity to learn about Khmer culture, traditional village life, and, um, the flexibility of the human arm. The female dancers make these fluid hand motions, apparently effortlessly, and it looks like the sort of thing that would be really painful if you tried it:
All told, Cambodia was an incredible experience, among the most spectacular of the whole trip. With our thirst for history and beautiful sights temporarily sated, we made our way to Hanoi, Vietnam, where more of both awaited us.
Laos: The land of the silent ‘S’
At this point in the trip, Mike had perfected the art of pre-downloading a bunch of Wikipedia pages about where we were going so he could read them on the plane. So, on the way to Laos, he learned that Laos got its name from the French. They were trying to get different Lao kingdoms to merge, so they named the country the plural of Lao, which of course is Laos. But, then because they were French, the ‘s’ is silent. Tricksy that. Our only stop in Laos was in Luang Prabang, a sleepy town that is a World Heritage Site. One does not come to Luang Prabang for great excitement and hullabaloo. One comes to meander through narrow streets and along the Mekong, to browse the stalls in the night market , try new foods and perhaps go to a spa. So, we really took our time here. We started by rolling out of bed just in time to make it to the hotel’s breakfast (though we went earlier and earlier each successive day in search of warm breakfast. Alas, there was none to be found). We visited a bunch of different wats (Buddhist temples), a museum where the royal family used to live and another that was about the different ethnicities in Laos and went shopping.
On our first full day in town, we stopped by the Tamarind restaurant for lunch. The food and their cooking class had been recommended to us by Kristen’s former boss’ daughter. And she wasn’t wrong- the food was amazing. Lao food is really interesting- it has very strong flavors- including combining bitter and sour together. Most eating is done with the hands, using very sticky rice. We both enjoyed it, though we probably wouldn’t seek out a Lao restaurant first when there are many options available. But, we were sufficiently impressed that we signed up to take the cooking class the next day.
We started out in the local market to learn about ingredients. One of our classmates threw up after trying a very small bitter eggplant. OK, to be fair, the woman was already feeling sick before she tried it, but given Kristen’s lack of preference for bitter things, she avoided trying it. Mike dug right in and agreed it was bitter. We picked up a bunch of ingredients for the class, including two live frogs that were placed on a Styrofoam tray and wrapped in cellophane. Mike volunteered to cook one of these hapless fellows. (It is not easy being green.)
He was given the option to have one of the assistants make sure the frog was ‘ready to cook’ (dead). Mike, whether out of heroic bravery or a heretofore unknown antipathy towards amphibians, opted to do the honors himself and after a few thumps with his trusty pestle he was given the next option in this choose your own cooking adventure. To clean or not to clean? Mike had gone this far, so he decided to really get close to his food in a Michael Pollan sense and gutted the frog. Then he turned it into a delicious dill curry.
Did it taste like chicken? Mike says yes, but more like a chicken foot (i.e. kinda fatty). Kristen’s participation in this was to photographically document the process and to try the frog. In her own dish she opted for curried fillet of fish, and was quite fine with that. The rest of the food was also very tasty, especially a spicy smoky eggplant dip, and herbed pork meatballs fried in lemongrass.
We also took a day to go visit a cave on the Mekong that is filled with many different statues of the Buddha. The cave itself was okay- after visiting we agreed that it was indeed filled with many statues. More spectacular was the journey itself. We had a great time watching village life along the Mekong go by as we floated along.
One of the major things people come to Luang Prabang for is to see the local monks process early in the morning. The tourists outnumber the monks, and sometimes the tourists aren't very self-aware, but overall it's still a cool experience.
Another highlight was the lookout from Mount Phousi at the center of town:
We also made a 3-hour visit to the spa that cost about 30 bucks (beat that, Pyara Aveda!), leaving us nice and relaxed. It was time to head to Siem Reap to explore the ruins of Angkor Wat.
Detail of a relief at a temple in Luang Prabang.
A reminder that "Zombie Nation Eats Your Head."
On our first full day in town, we stopped by the Tamarind restaurant for lunch. The food and their cooking class had been recommended to us by Kristen’s former boss’ daughter. And she wasn’t wrong- the food was amazing. Lao food is really interesting- it has very strong flavors- including combining bitter and sour together. Most eating is done with the hands, using very sticky rice. We both enjoyed it, though we probably wouldn’t seek out a Lao restaurant first when there are many options available. But, we were sufficiently impressed that we signed up to take the cooking class the next day.
We started out in the local market to learn about ingredients. One of our classmates threw up after trying a very small bitter eggplant. OK, to be fair, the woman was already feeling sick before she tried it, but given Kristen’s lack of preference for bitter things, she avoided trying it. Mike dug right in and agreed it was bitter. We picked up a bunch of ingredients for the class, including two live frogs that were placed on a Styrofoam tray and wrapped in cellophane. Mike volunteered to cook one of these hapless fellows. (It is not easy being green.)
He was given the option to have one of the assistants make sure the frog was ‘ready to cook’ (dead). Mike, whether out of heroic bravery or a heretofore unknown antipathy towards amphibians, opted to do the honors himself and after a few thumps with his trusty pestle he was given the next option in this choose your own cooking adventure. To clean or not to clean? Mike had gone this far, so he decided to really get close to his food in a Michael Pollan sense and gutted the frog. Then he turned it into a delicious dill curry.
Did it taste like chicken? Mike says yes, but more like a chicken foot (i.e. kinda fatty). Kristen’s participation in this was to photographically document the process and to try the frog. In her own dish she opted for curried fillet of fish, and was quite fine with that. The rest of the food was also very tasty, especially a spicy smoky eggplant dip, and herbed pork meatballs fried in lemongrass.
We also took a day to go visit a cave on the Mekong that is filled with many different statues of the Buddha. The cave itself was okay- after visiting we agreed that it was indeed filled with many statues. More spectacular was the journey itself. We had a great time watching village life along the Mekong go by as we floated along.
One of the major things people come to Luang Prabang for is to see the local monks process early in the morning. The tourists outnumber the monks, and sometimes the tourists aren't very self-aware, but overall it's still a cool experience.
Another highlight was the lookout from Mount Phousi at the center of town:
We also made a 3-hour visit to the spa that cost about 30 bucks (beat that, Pyara Aveda!), leaving us nice and relaxed. It was time to head to Siem Reap to explore the ruins of Angkor Wat.
Thailand Part II: Under the Sea
Our time on land in Thailand was punctuated with a lot of time underwater. When we left Bangkok, we headed south to spend four days aboard a live aboard dive boat. We almost didn’t make it- the traffic was so bad that we made it to the bus just in time to go to the bathroom and get in our seats. It was a little anxiety provoking, especially because our taxi driver didn’t speak any English, so we had a hard time communicating with him that our bus was leaving at 7:00. However, we made it and slept more or less soundly until we reached Khao Lak, which is near Phuket.
When we got off the bus, we couldn’t figure out where our hotel was and no one who was out at 6:00am knew either, so we called them on a street vendor’s cell phone and one of the women came to pick us up on a motorbike. We had all of our luggage with us, so there was no way that both of us were going at the same time. But, it turned out it was just around the corner so she was able to quickly shuttle back and forth to get both of us there. For both of us, it was our first time on a motorbike. We were a bit challenged to balance ourselves with all of our luggage, but we are proud to say we didn’t cause an accident.
We had a day to explore Khao Lak before we got on the boat. We walked on the beach, ate seafood and that was about it. Khao Lak isn’t really a town- it is more a launching site for dive trips than anything else. We got to the dive shop nice and early to get ready for the boat and we were treated to quite the show. The videographer and owner got into a big row right in front of everyone that involved crying and swearing and storming off. It was like being on an episode of the Kardashians or something. Fortunately, the rest of the trip was much calmer by comparison. We finally got on the boat and were shown to the ‘honeymoon suite’. This means we had our own room with one bed, as opposed to sharing bunk beds with others. It was small, because after all we were on a boat, but it was very nice and comfy. With the rocking from the ocean, we fell right asleep. The food on the boat was amazing- fish straight out of the water and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. And all of the nutella we could eat! We had it on pancakes, on bananas, on a spoon. It was delicious.
And so what about the diving you ask- weren’t we supposed to be underwater? We sure were- we did three day dives and one night dive every day. Our schedule was dive eat sleep and repeat for the whole trip. Mike was getting his advanced certification, so he had some learning to do above water and some practicing to do underwater. The diving itself was pretty good. There were lots of neat fish and other creatures. However, almost everything was on the smaller side – most of the big life had been fished out. Out of all of the dives, only one of the groups saw a shark, once. The rest had been killed for their fins. We could see fishing and squiding boats working illegally all night. So, as beautiful as things were, it was also saddening. Especially when we saw the amount of coral bleaching from the El Niño event that had come through during the summer.
We did get to go on land a few times to enjoy the beautiful white sand beaches that Thailand is famous for and play in the waves.
All in all, it was a great time. Mike is now an advanced diver and has “peak performance buoyancy” (which helps him flail around a lot less). Kristen got to see new types of underwater life and brushed up on recognizing the fish types that also live in the Caribbean. And we both got to spend a lot of time underwater with the fishies. And we felt like we were still with them for several days afterwards until our inner ears decided to join us back on land.
Thailand Part I: Bangkok, Chiang Mai
After our Himalayan adventure, we found ourselves with sore muscles and lots of dirty clothes in the great city of Bangkok. After having spent the past couple weeks in teahouses, we decided to splurge and stay at a nice hotel. When we got there, they told us we got a free upgrade and they gave us a two room suite. It was amazing! There was a washer/dryer combo in the room! And our own wireless router! Kristen made sure to wash every stitch of clothes we had over the next few days.
At this point, we were about halfway through our trip and needed to pick up a few things and get haircuts. So, the first morning we got up and went to a nearby mall to get our haircut. A very nice transvestite was there who called her friend to come and translate for us. We got quite serviceable haircuts and were on our way to explore the city. The first thing we did was go to the national museum to see the treasures of the royal family and learn about the history of Thailand. Who knew that they fought so much with the Burmese? Many people surely, but not us. Then, it was late enough that everything closed so we found a tasty lunch at a roadside booth.
The next day we were up late and decided to go to the grand palace. When we got there, we walked right into a scam. They directed us to the wrong entrance and then said it was closed for lunch and only Thais were allowed in. Then they suggested we see some sights and go to a store for a very low price in a tuk-tuk. We bought it in one sense that we thought it was closed, but we didn’t want to give them any money, so instead we walked to the infamous Khao San Road to find some lunch. Khao San was as touristy trappy as we had heard, but we had a very nice lunch and made it back to the grand palace and made it in easily this time. The grand place is amazing- lots of glass mosaics, the emerald Buddha, and lovely murals. Afterwards, we headed to Wat Po, which has a really massive reclining Buddha.
Detail of the Buddha's feet.
For dinner, we went to Cabbages and Condoms. Kristen has been a fan of the founder Mechai Viravaidya since she saw him speak at a global health conference in 2007. He and his organization, Population and Community Development Association, have done a lot to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Thailand and address poverty.
We decided that we would take a day trip to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Siam that had been sacked by the Burmese. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to go, because there was had been so much rain in Thailand that many of the roads outside of the city were flooded. Fortunately for us, the water dropped enough that we could go, but it was quite clear that there was lots of water where it shouldn’t be.
Upon arriving at Ayutthaya, it was clear that it had in fact been sacked. Many of the stupas were in ruins and all of the Buddhas were missing heads. This was in part because many of the original Buddhas were gold covered in clay, so the Burmese cut the heads off to see if they were gold on the inside. If they were, they were melted down and carried back to Burma. The rest of the heads were taken by people who sold them on the black market. It was very sad to see all of the headless statues, but the ruins were fascinating.
We got to take a big boat down the Chao Phraya river to get home. However, the river thought otherwise. The water level was so high, the boat couldn’t fit under one of the bridges! They tried a few times, but the hull kept bumping into the bridge, so they had to get a couple of smaller boats for us to transfer to in order to get home.
We headed south from Bangkok at the end of our visit to Khao Lak to go scuba diving (see separate post about Thailand underwater). After that adventure, we headed way north on two different trains to visit Chiang Mai. The first train was an overnight that put us into Bangkok at 3:00am. We took turns sleeping and buying breakfast. Mike settled a donut debt from a bet with Kristen at the Dunkin Donuts in the station because apparently, even in Bangkok, Bostonians run on Dunkin’. We then boarded another train at around 7:00am to go another 12 hours north. Kristen read all of the books she had and Mike listened to his iPod and we enjoyed the scenery. When we finally got to Chiang Mai we just crashed without any supper and caught up on sleep.
We spent our first day wandering around the city and taking care of a very important errand- buying Thai silk to use for the table runners for the NevKo wedding. We saw a lot of temples and went to the city museum to learn about the history of Chiang Mai. We also stumbled upon a parade. We had no idea what the parade was celebrating, but it was fun to watch.
We read that there was a place that had the best burgers in Southeast Asia in town, so we headed there for dinner. They were quite tasty, though the shitake mushrooms on Kristen’s burger gave it a distinctly Asian flavor.
We made up for our momentary weakness for American food by taking a Thai cooking class the next day. The class was taught by a Thai TV chef who had the showmanship aspect down. He would look away while cutting things extremely rapidly, and make pretty garnishes. He also had a lot of assistants who would hover and yell whenever we were too slow to get things done. We made several dishes- pad see yew, yellow curry with chicken, spicy shrimp salad and steamed fish.
We also had bananas in coconut milk for dessert. There were some very nice people in the class and some that were not so nice. Mike’s neighbor to the left was a French woman who made it very clear she was not fond of American cuisine. However, we met a very nice American couple who were our eating buddies.
Since we were now on the last legs of our trip, we started shopping. Our first purchase was some delicious four ply Thai silk and then we hit up a night market to work on our Christmas shopping list. When we went to leave, it started to make things more interesting with the packing. We turned Kristen’s pack into the gift bag and Mike’s into the functional bag.
We also went to see a very old temple at dusk. It was the first time we had done this and it was a great experience. The stone carvings were beautiful and mysterious looking in the fading light and we could hear a monk giving a sermon in one of the more modern temples in the compound.
Our last morning we went to church, ran some errands and did some emailing. Mike observed a game of chess between two workers at the hotel. And then we were off for our flight to Siem Reap. Our one word of caution for others who will go to the Chiang Mai airport- there is nothing to eat once you get past security, unless you want cup o’ noodles. So, we suggest you eat before you go through immigration. As you can guess, we didn’t get the memo.
At this point, we were about halfway through our trip and needed to pick up a few things and get haircuts. So, the first morning we got up and went to a nearby mall to get our haircut. A very nice transvestite was there who called her friend to come and translate for us. We got quite serviceable haircuts and were on our way to explore the city. The first thing we did was go to the national museum to see the treasures of the royal family and learn about the history of Thailand. Who knew that they fought so much with the Burmese? Many people surely, but not us. Then, it was late enough that everything closed so we found a tasty lunch at a roadside booth.
The next day we were up late and decided to go to the grand palace. When we got there, we walked right into a scam. They directed us to the wrong entrance and then said it was closed for lunch and only Thais were allowed in. Then they suggested we see some sights and go to a store for a very low price in a tuk-tuk. We bought it in one sense that we thought it was closed, but we didn’t want to give them any money, so instead we walked to the infamous Khao San Road to find some lunch. Khao San was as touristy trappy as we had heard, but we had a very nice lunch and made it back to the grand palace and made it in easily this time. The grand place is amazing- lots of glass mosaics, the emerald Buddha, and lovely murals. Afterwards, we headed to Wat Po, which has a really massive reclining Buddha.
Detail of the Buddha's feet.
For dinner, we went to Cabbages and Condoms. Kristen has been a fan of the founder Mechai Viravaidya since she saw him speak at a global health conference in 2007. He and his organization, Population and Community Development Association, have done a lot to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Thailand and address poverty.
We decided that we would take a day trip to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Siam that had been sacked by the Burmese. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to go, because there was had been so much rain in Thailand that many of the roads outside of the city were flooded. Fortunately for us, the water dropped enough that we could go, but it was quite clear that there was lots of water where it shouldn’t be.
Upon arriving at Ayutthaya, it was clear that it had in fact been sacked. Many of the stupas were in ruins and all of the Buddhas were missing heads. This was in part because many of the original Buddhas were gold covered in clay, so the Burmese cut the heads off to see if they were gold on the inside. If they were, they were melted down and carried back to Burma. The rest of the heads were taken by people who sold them on the black market. It was very sad to see all of the headless statues, but the ruins were fascinating.
We got to take a big boat down the Chao Phraya river to get home. However, the river thought otherwise. The water level was so high, the boat couldn’t fit under one of the bridges! They tried a few times, but the hull kept bumping into the bridge, so they had to get a couple of smaller boats for us to transfer to in order to get home.
We headed south from Bangkok at the end of our visit to Khao Lak to go scuba diving (see separate post about Thailand underwater). After that adventure, we headed way north on two different trains to visit Chiang Mai. The first train was an overnight that put us into Bangkok at 3:00am. We took turns sleeping and buying breakfast. Mike settled a donut debt from a bet with Kristen at the Dunkin Donuts in the station because apparently, even in Bangkok, Bostonians run on Dunkin’. We then boarded another train at around 7:00am to go another 12 hours north. Kristen read all of the books she had and Mike listened to his iPod and we enjoyed the scenery. When we finally got to Chiang Mai we just crashed without any supper and caught up on sleep.
We spent our first day wandering around the city and taking care of a very important errand- buying Thai silk to use for the table runners for the NevKo wedding. We saw a lot of temples and went to the city museum to learn about the history of Chiang Mai. We also stumbled upon a parade. We had no idea what the parade was celebrating, but it was fun to watch.
We read that there was a place that had the best burgers in Southeast Asia in town, so we headed there for dinner. They were quite tasty, though the shitake mushrooms on Kristen’s burger gave it a distinctly Asian flavor.
We made up for our momentary weakness for American food by taking a Thai cooking class the next day. The class was taught by a Thai TV chef who had the showmanship aspect down. He would look away while cutting things extremely rapidly, and make pretty garnishes. He also had a lot of assistants who would hover and yell whenever we were too slow to get things done. We made several dishes- pad see yew, yellow curry with chicken, spicy shrimp salad and steamed fish.
We also had bananas in coconut milk for dessert. There were some very nice people in the class and some that were not so nice. Mike’s neighbor to the left was a French woman who made it very clear she was not fond of American cuisine. However, we met a very nice American couple who were our eating buddies.
Since we were now on the last legs of our trip, we started shopping. Our first purchase was some delicious four ply Thai silk and then we hit up a night market to work on our Christmas shopping list. When we went to leave, it started to make things more interesting with the packing. We turned Kristen’s pack into the gift bag and Mike’s into the functional bag.
We also went to see a very old temple at dusk. It was the first time we had done this and it was a great experience. The stone carvings were beautiful and mysterious looking in the fading light and we could hear a monk giving a sermon in one of the more modern temples in the compound.
Our last morning we went to church, ran some errands and did some emailing. Mike observed a game of chess between two workers at the hotel. And then we were off for our flight to Siem Reap. Our one word of caution for others who will go to the Chiang Mai airport- there is nothing to eat once you get past security, unless you want cup o’ noodles. So, we suggest you eat before you go through immigration. As you can guess, we didn’t get the memo.
Nepal: Do you want to take the stairs?
In many ways, Nepal was the asterisk on our trip. It was the place that required long underwear and fleeces. It was the place that required intense physical activity. And it was the place with the most tourists. After coming from India, where we only saw a handful of Westerners the entire time we were there, we stepped out of our taxi from the airport and into Thamel. Thamel just so happens to be the epicenter of trekkerdom. Every shop is designed for the trekker- you can buy an assortment of North Face gear, granola bars and souvenirs then check your email all on the same block and then repeat on the next block and then the next. It was a bit surreal. There are many places you can go in Nepal that aren’t overrun with tourists, but if you want the touristy experience Thamel is your place.
We spent our first full day in Nepal going around to see various Hindu and Buddhist temples. It was interesting for us to learn that in Nepal the two religions are almost interchangeable. People of both faiths worship in the temples of the other and everyone gets along nicely. This is in part because the Buddha is thought to be one of the incarnations of the Hindu god Krishna. We also visited a great museum in Durbar Square where we finally learned why Hindu gods and goddesses have so many arms (answer: they are used to depict their various temperaments and characteristics) and many other questions we had about the two religions.
We went to bed early that night because we had a lot in store for us the next day- we were to fly to Pokhara set off on our trek to the Annapurna Base Camp.
Our trek didn’t start as early as we hoped because our flight was delayed because of too much air traffic. We happened to be in Nepal for the most major religious festival and apparently everyone was traveling. And apparently the airlines didn’t plan ahead or something. The Kathmandu domestic airport was an example in how not to manage an airport. The typical announcement started off with something that sounded like, “We regret the inconvenience of our passengers.” Yes, we were very inconvenient. Since there were no accurate signs about gates or departure times or clear speaker systems, we had to ask a lot of questions. But, we finally made it off the ground and for our efforts got our first glimpse of the snow capped Himalayas on the way.
We met our guide Ramchandra and our porter Valkrishna at the airport in Pokhara, stopped to pick up some sleeping bags and down jackets and then we were off with the driver to head to our starting point. We became very close with Ramchandra and Valkrishna over the nine day trek and it started with us being very squashed together in a little car. Once we got out we had lunch and learned the rules of the trek. The most important being don’t eat any meat, because way up far from any roads, it can take a long time for meats to get to their destination on the back of a donkey or a person and you can’t be sure of the quality. And then we were off. We kept a good pace and did what we do best- sweat. We trekked through villages and rice terraces for a few hours and then stopped for the night in our first teahouse. We stayed in teahouses throughout the trek- they are typically basic structures with shared bathrooms and showers and no heating. Some were definitely nicer than others. The biggest indicator of (non-)quality was how much of the neighbors’ room we could see from inside our own. At our first teahouse we were immediately befriended by a small boy who kept asking Mike if he liked chicken suley. We had no idea what this was, but fortunately a guide came by and told us he was talking about chicken poo. What a charming little boy!
The next day, confident in our trekking abilities, we set forth on our journey up the “three thousand two hundred steps” to Ulleri and then up even more steps to Ghorepani. Let’s just say it kicked our butts. The whole day of trekking took about 6 hours, and much of it was steep uphill climbing. Luckily, we stayed at a nice place where we could warm by the fire dry our clothes off, and eat apple cake.
The next day, we headed to Tadapani. The weather was foggy and gray, which gave everything an ethereal, Lord-of-the-Rings type of appearance. Since we arrived a bit late in Tadapani, we wound up with accommodations which were… memorable. First, we noticed that the windows in our room didn’t close and that even if they could have been closed, there was no opaque covering for the windows. Apparently the Nepalese believe in transparency! (The windows in the bathrooms didn’t have covers at all. Why were there windows in the bathrooms? Clearly to give you a nice view of the cabbage patch below while you were doing your business) Since we didn’t want to freeze and also didn’t want to change clothes in a room with a see-through curtain, we raised both issues with our guide. Ram was very helpful as always, and asked the management to fix the window and get a towel to serve as a curtain. It turns out that with enough banging it was technically possible to close the window. Problem solved!
But that wasn’t the last problem (or the most memorable). Later that evening, while on the way to brush teeth, Mike closed the door and, having forgotten something, moved to open it again. Only the door didn’t open. We asked for help from the proprietors again. This one wasn’t so easy though; the door was genuinely stuck. After a lot of budging, one of the guys came back with a big machete, and managed to wedge it under the door, opening it a small crack. A crowd gathered. Many ideas for what had happened were exchanged in Nepali. We figured it had something to do with the wooden bar (used to lock the door) which last we saw had been leaning against a wall. Eventually the door was cracked open enough that one of the proprietors was able to reach his hand underneath the door and see if he could identify or dislodge the problem. His hand came back holding… a set of women’s undergarments. (Explanation: Kristen had hung it up to dry on the back of the door). No, it didn’t have anything to do with the door being stuck, but in the midst of all the confusion it provided some additional entertainment and added to the sense of mystery.
Eventually, after over a half hour, we got the door open. The culprit proved to be that infernal wooden bar, which apparently had fallen on exactly the right spot of the door, from exactly the right spot on the wall, to be almost impossible to budge. We thanked the staff profusely, and went to bed. In the morning we enjoyed a spectacular panoramic mountain vista, ate breakfast and waved the owners goodbye, with a sense that they would not soon forget us.
The views and weather on this day were particularly beautiful and spirits were high.
The accommodations in Chomrong were great, especially compared to the night before. We were also treated to a very enthusiastic musical performance by what seemed to be a roving band of high school kids, as part of a local festival. Apple pancakes were served at breakfast the next day. Kristen’s knee had been bothering her on the descents, so Ram gave it a sports massage and wrapped it. Unfortunately, the knee didn’t hold up for the next day of trekking. Mike was also under the weather, fighting off a cold from a few days earlier. So, we stayed in Chomrong again that night, and decided to call off the (in retrospect ridiculously ambitious) itinerary, head back and take an easier pace.
The following days of light trekking and recuperation were much-needed.
We were taken to a natural hot spring, which was a great way to rest our weary bones. The sights on the way back were quite beautiful. We spent a night in Pokhara, where we saw the mountains set against a lake at dusk.
The next day we returned to Kathmandu. We departed for Thailand a bit beaten up but, all told, none the worse for wear, and looking forward to the next time we could experience the overwhelming natural beauty and physical challenge of the Nepalese Himalayas.
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