motorcycle (...err scooter) diaries: part 2

Day 3
I left the cool air of Mae Salong behind early on day three to make my way towards the town of Fang and Doi Ang Khan. There's nothing particularly interesting about Fang, but Doi Ang Khan is a peak with an agricultural center, which offers the local communities demonstrations on how to farm things other than opium. Opium really isn't produced in Thailand any more, but 20 years ago, this was at the forefront of the battle against the drug.

The road up to Doi Ang Khan was somewhat of an adventure. First I tried going up some small backroads - only to find that they'd been blocked off by the army because of its proximity to Burma. So after accidentally running into a military base I back tracked 20 miles to the main road and went up to the top the standard way. On the way back to the main road, I had a run-in with a snake. Now normally I wouldn't really flinch at the sight of a small snake, but this thing was roughly 12 feet long, basically the width of the road. I didnt have time to stop so I simply rolled right over it and kept going. Definitely gave me a good scare though.

Doi Ang Khan was pretty nice, though since it is the winter, there wasn't much in the way of fruits and veggies, mostly just flowers (hence the pictures below). The way back down wasn't so adventurous, and I spent a quiet night in Fang walking the weekly night market.

Day 4
I decided to head back to Chiang Rai today in order to leave me some time to get a few things done. So I picked out a few points of interest on the way home, not really knowing how nice any of them would be. First up was a waterfall. Turns out this "waterfall" was more like a little stream. I guess it's the dry season - oh well. Next up was Chiang Rai Winery. A little better than the waterfall but not much. There's weren't any vineyards to be seen as this "winery" only produces fruit wines. DOH! I had a small taste of their mangosteen wine and some herbal wine, neither of which I would recommend to anyone. Yuck. I didn't feel bad not buying anything since they didn't even want to give me a tour of their facilities.

Third on the list was a random bakery that was listed in my map. First success of the day. I don't normally care for sweet things much, but I could get used to eating mango pie. Delicious. Final stop on the way back was Wat Rong Khun, a modern temple that's certainly unique in Thailand. It was built in 1997 and unlike all the other temples, it's entirely white and has very non-tradition imagery like the sculpture of reaching arms when you enter the temple.

So... that's it. 4 days, 1 snake, 1 military base, about 300 miles, and a whole lot of interesting things along the way. Next up: Taipei for a long weekend!

motorcycle (...err scooter) diaries: part 1

Part of my thinking when I decided to make it back to Thailand so quickly was to get the traveling out of the way, and then have more time to do something interesting once back in Thailand. And so in Chiang Rai I made the decision to rent a scooter for a few days and check out the northernmost part of the country. So I bought a detailed road map of the area (this is a popular place for motorcycle trips, so there isn't a shortage of good maps) and started planning out the trip. I also bought a flight back to Bangkok for Friday night for a mere $60, and so that left me with 5 full days to travel.

Day 1:
I woke up early Sunday morning and found a rental shop that seemed halfway reputable. After copying my passport and leaving a deposit I was quickly on my way with a manual 110cc scooter - a real monster (which I was assured could actually make it up some of the steeper roads in the area). I headed north from Chiang Rai to Chiang Sean. A sleepy border town (with Laos) which had a good midday market - a perfect pit stop for lunch. After a hearty bowl of soup accompanied by plenty of smiles (nice to be back in Thailand), I continued just north to the Golden Triangle. It's where the borders of Laos, Thailand and Burma meet. As it turns out it's about as interesting as any other point along any your average international border - which is to say not very interesting at all. It's actually a giant tourist trap and I was glad I had my own wheels and I could get out quickly. However, just north of there is the Hall of Opium, which is a great exhibit, built by the Thai royal family, which details the history of the opium trade in and around the area.

After the museum visit, I continued onward towards Mae Sai, the border town with two bridges into Burma. The road there was a little better than the first section (which was mostly flat, boring, and under construction). As I followed the Mekong River, I passed through a number of small villages and essentially had the road to myself. I think I almost hit 55mph! When I arrived in Mae Sai, I was greeted by quite a bit of commotion. Turns out this is quite the lively little border town, and so I quickly found a hotel room, parked the scooter and walked around the market area. There wasn't much here I hadn't seen elsewhere in Thailand, so I made my way towards the main bridge into Burma. The border crossing was relatively simple. The Thais stamp your passport and wish you well and then the Burmese, err Myanmar army, takes your passport, gives you a temporary pass with your name on it, and lets you enter the country. You simply give them US$10 and they hold your passport until you leave the country. You aren't permitted to go too much further than the border town (Talichek) without a more formal permit/visa. I'd heard there wasn't really much of anything in Talichek, and that turned out to be pretty much true - not that I looked very hard. I simply went in, walked around the market (which had the same crap as in Thailand, plus some counterfeit cigarettes), found a coffee shop and had a Burmese beer. Overall I'd say it was a successful trip. I only stayed a couple hours, but I got a $10 stamp in my passport, and tried a new beer - what more could you want. Back into Thailand for the evening.

Day 2:
Today promised to have some better roads to scooter along. In fact I made my way up into the mountains and drove in and out of valleys and along ridges all day long. Despite all the smoke from slash&burn agriculture, it really was a beautiful road to travel along. I mostly stayed on very minor roads, most of which were signed in Thai, and so I got lost a few times, but eventually found my way out thanks to the map I got in Chiang Rai. First up was Doi Tung, a peak along the Burmese border with a nice temple, and when it's not so hazy, presumably a good view too. The road I took to get there followed the Burmese border, which apparently means I had to cross three military check points along the way. Each time, the Thai officials smiled at me and waved me along without flinching.

Next stop was Thoed Thai. I think this spot has some historical significance for the Chinese, but I was hungry and so the only significance it had for me was delicious pork fried rice I ate. It really was some of the best I've had in Thailand, though since the town is half Chinese, this isn't much of a surprise. After lunch I proceeded on to my final destination - Mae Salong. This is another Chinese-ish town. It was settled by remnants of the Kuomintang army who moved from Burma to Thailand after the Communist Party consolidated its hold on China. (history lesson thanks to wikitravel). It's a lovely little town up on a ridge lined with tea shops and surrounded by tea plantations. There I found a great little bungalow with internet, Cable TV, hot shower (this isn't always a given), and reasonably comfy beds for just $6. Not bad.

So that's it for now. Two days - roughly 120 twisty miles and everything's still going well. Not sure where I'm headed the next three days, but I will probably stay up in the mountains as I'm really enjoying the cooler air (minus the smokey haze). Stay tuned.

last hoorah in bangkok

My last week in Bangkok was somewhat eventful. After a fun, albeit exhausting, weekend in HK, our last week of school at Sasin was predictably full of presentations, papers and finals. Though these weren’t much fun, they weren’t especially stressful and so we still managed to have a pretty good time and fit in a few more Thai meals. Unfortunately halfway through the week I managed to also get my first bout of food poisoning (from a boring red curry at school) and so that slowed my eating for a couple days. Nevertheless we had a great going away seafood dinner on the river. Crab, prawns, various whole fried and steamed fish, goose feet, pork ears, and many other dishes were enjoyed by all (well perhaps not the pigs ear). I will certainly miss all this great food when I leave, and how easy it is to get at any time of the day.

The rest of the week was devoted to shopping. Ten new tailored shirts, two new pairs of pants, various t-shirts, a pair of shorts and plenty of other little trinkets were purchased at the weekend market and around town. The weekend market was somewhat like I remembered it (I hadn’t been back yet on this trip). It’s overwhelming, there’s tons of great food and of course there are endless deals to be had. You can buy everything from fish aquariums to giant brass horses to decorate your lawn. It’s also tremendously hot and crowded. Quite the experience.

Other than shopping and eating, I spent most of my time thinking about how much I’ll miss the conveniences of living in downtown Bangkok. Everything you could possibly need within a ten minute walk through any of the many massive malls and markets nearby, and aside from the traffic and pollution, it’s a pretty great place to live. So there it ends, now I’m off to Laos and beyond for sixth weeks before I return to reality and head back to Evanston.

boxing and buckets

The pictures below are from a Muay Thai boxing event we attended last week and this past weekend in Ko Pha Ngan. The boxing was rather enjoyable - much more interesting than last time I went in '06. Many of the fights were well contested and the crowd was really into it, which always makes it better. We saw one knock-out out of the ten fights and there were even skirmishes in the crowd... After the fights we made our way to what is supposed to be some of the best Pad Thai in Bangkok. I found it quite delicious, although perhaps not the best ever.

Ko Pha Ngan lived up to the expectations. We arrived early Saturday morning and spent the day relaxing at the hotel in anticipation of the long night that awaited us. After a thunderstorm that had us worried about the evening's plans, we finally made it to the party on Haad Rin beach just after midnight. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but it was an 18-year old's dream come true. And for a 30 year old... it was still rather entertaining to be a part of. Buckets of alcohol, lots of music and Besides the monthly full moon parties, Ko Pha Ngan seems like a beautiful island with long stretches of soft sand and palm trees in every direction. Worth visiting even if you don't attend the parties and it's certainly somewhere someone could decide to drop everything and call home. Not that I would ever think of doing that...

hiking doi chiang dao

This past weekend I opted to head back north to Chiang Mai for a little hiking, some cooler weather and a bit of an adventure. After a long night of drinking with the Kellogg folks Friday evening, we started off the weekend with a day-long Thai massage class on Saturday. Turns out giving a proper Thai massage is rather strenuous. Not ideal when you stay up to the wee hours partying the night before. Nevertheless, it was still a whole lot of fun, though I'm not entirely sure my massage skills have actually improved any.

Sunday, Joud, John and I rented scooters and went north to Chiang Dao for the day. Now this was a bit of an adventure... In general, there isn't much hiking to be dne in Thailand, and unless you're with a guide, there's not too many hints as to where trails might go, or if they even exist. Nevertheless, we wanted to do a hike, didn't want to follow a guide, and only had a day. Doi Chiang Dao, the third highest peak in Thailand, and 80km north of Chiang Mai seemed like a perfect challenge. So with that in mind, we set off at 7am to get an early start on the hike. The only directions we had were from a random blog post I had found on the internet, which claimed that the hike was doable in a day: 3-4 hours up, 2-3 hours down. The vertical was purportedly 3000 ft or so. Besides this post, there wasn't much to be found anywhere online about the hike. All the other information we had from various travel agencies around Chiang Mai claimed that it was a two day hike, and that hiring a guide was a sensible idea. course you all know how I operate by now...

So we got to Chiang Dao at about 8:30 or so and decided to fuel up with some breakfast. Fried rice for John and I and two eggs (including one heart shaped egg) for Joud. A good start. Then we had to find the wildlife sanctuary main office which was mysteriously located at a different spot than where you enter the park. After finally convincing the park ranger that we were capable of doing what she thought was at least a 6-8 hour climb in 3 hours, that our bikes would not be stolen and that we knew what we were doing, she finally sold us an entrance pass for 200baht. Now we had to find the actual trailhead, which of course is not marked. We drove about 12km up a very steep hill, which was rather challenging when you're topping out at 4mph. After stalling a couple times, we eventually found the unmarked trail head (thanks to the blog post we'd printed out), parked and locked our bikes and started up the trail.

The trail was actually easy to follow, since guides to take tourists up and down regularly. The hike was a bit more strenuous than I had anticipated but after 3 hours of straight climbing we had made it to the top... or not. actually john is the only one that made it all the way up. Joud and I essentially quit 20 minutes from the peak. What can I say - you can't win everything. Nevertheless, it was a great hike and certainly doable in a day.

The ride home was a bit of an adventure since we left as the sun was setting. A hour and a half drive on a scooter at night in Thailand is not exactly relaxing. However, the roads were relatively straight, well lit, and well paved, and we carefully made it back safely to Chiang Mai in time for dinner and a well deserved beer. Once I get John's pictures of the peak and the thai massage class I'll post those up too.

Now back in Bangkok for week three of classes and two midterms on Thursday! hooray!

vespas and temples

I spent this weekend in and around Bangkok eating, going to markets and temples, and even doing a bit of school work - gasp! Saturday night I visited the Vespa Market, which is a weekly market geared towards Thai hipsters into older scooters. It was actually more of a flea market where you could buy anything from old Vespa parts to retro household items and everything in between. It was actually one of the more interesting markets I've been to in Thailand as the pictures below will hopefully attest to. Sunday I went north to Ayutthaya, the old Thai capital. It's something like a mini-Angkor Wat. Pretty cool, but not really on the same scale as all the temples in Angkor. As for food, yesterday I also discovered the all you can eat, conveyor belt hot pot. You're given a bowl of broth and then little plates of food to cook in the broth pass by in front of you continuously on the conveyor belt. Of course, there's also all the sushi, ice cream, appetizers, fruit and soda you can possibly consume in 80 minutes. All this for $9. Ridiculous.

life in bangkok

First week of school life in Thailand is going well. Classwork seems far less rigorous than Kellogg, but the classes are generally pretty interesting. I'm currently enrolled in Competitive Strategy, Managing Human Capital in a Global Context and Spreadsheet Modeling. Most of the classes are 3.5 hours long with a 30 minute break in between. So I generally have class from 8:30-12:00 and then 1:00-4:30 every day of the week.

The best part of school by far is the outdoor swimming pool that is adjacent to the cafeteria. We often eat lunch pool side - certainly better than the LSR, and it's nice to go for a swim after class :)

So far the workload has allowed me to continue to explore Bangkok. On Tuesday I went to the Arab quarter for some tasty Lebanese food with a few Kellogg students. I hadn't been to that part of town yet, and after discovering how lively it is and how much great food there appears to be, I'll definitely be heading back. Wednesday we went to the Calypso Cabaret show, which was... interesting. Not sure how to describe it other than a lot of Thai lady-boys dancing for 45 minutes... yikes.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from school and from in and around the city over the last couple days. This weekend I'm sticking around here, hitting up a market or two and perhaps heading north Sunday to the ancient capital of Ayuthaya.

kanchanaburi and beyond

I spent the weekend in Kanchanaburi province as planned. It's about 120km or about a 3 hour bus ride north of Bangkok. I really had a good time there as there is plenty to do in and around Kanchanaburi, yet it's one of the few places in Thailand that isn't completely overrun by tourists. It's kind of like a mini-Chiang Mai. I got there midday Friday and promptly made my way to the Death Bridge Museum and the adjoining war memorial cemetery. Both commemorate the enormous loss of life during the building the Thailand-Burma railroad at the hands of the Japanese in WWII. It's a rather somber place to visit, but was thoroughly fascinating and well worth it. Once done with that I made my way to the famous Bridge on the River Kwai which was packed with tourist, but with a better understanding of the history behind it, it was worth the detour. Now I I just have to see the movie.

On Saturday, I rented a scooter and drove myself further northwest to Erewan National Park. There I climbed the seven levels of the Erewan Waterfall, which was one of the nicer waterfalls I have ever seen. After couple hours of hiking and bathing in the waterfall pools, I continues another 10km on a dirt road to visit a cool little cave. I was the only one there - benefits of not being part of a tour group - and the park ranger took me around the cave with his pressurized kerosene lantern in hand. Besides the usual stalactites and stalagmites, I also saw the worlds smallest mammal - the bumblebee bat which is 11mm when fully grown. The 100-mile round trip on a small scooter was a bit long, but definitely worth it.

Sunday, I decided to continue exploring the region on my trustee little scooter and headed northwest once again (albeit on a different road) to Hellfire Pass and on to the local hot springs. This trip was a bit longer - about 90 miles each way, and while I'm glad I stopped at Hellfire Pass, I could have passed on the hot springs. Hellfire Pass was also part of the Thailand-Burma railroad, and was considered a particularly difficult stretch to build. The workers essentially dug through 25 meters of solid rock in some spots to build the rail bed. Thousands died in the process. Seeing the mass of rock that needed to be excavated manually was definitely impressive. Meanwhile, the hot springs were overrun with vacationing Thais and busloads of Russians, which made for a not-so-relaxing stop. I decided to go on a little further to the town of Thong Pha Phum simply to see a bit more of the countryside. Overall a great day of exploring.

Now I'm back in Bangkok about to go to school orientation. Not sure what the blog will be like when I'm actually "studying," but I'll try to keep it going.

bangkok

I've spent the last few days with the family in Bangkok. It's is a huge, quite exhausting, rather frustrating, very hot, and yet thoroughly fascinating place. The pictures below are from the touristy side of Bangkok. A canal tour along the Chao Praya River, a trip to the Jim Thompson house, a visit to the grand Palace and Wat Po and some good food along the way. Next time I'll try to capture the craziness of the city a bit more, but here are the pics for now. Now Liz and I are off to the Philippines, while the rest of the family heads back to the cold. We'll be heading towards some hopefully not-too-active volcanoes and will try to get some r&r at the beach.

2010

Happy New Year from Bangkok!

baby muay thai

I've taken a few videos in the last couple weeks. Below are some of the highlights... Well mainly it's the baby Muay Thai fights Lan and I saw in Ko Phi Phi. Hopefully you all have a sense of humor and can appreciate this very amusing fight. These were the real Muay Thai fighters' sons, and will surely grow up to be show fighters and they were already good actors. Also included is an elephant dance from up in Chiang Mai.

Round 1


Want more? Round 2


Round 3... And the winner is...


And now for all you PETA activists

atop of thailand

Sorry I’ve been slacking on the blog… been rather busy, I have a ton of pictures to sort through, and I’ve had some lousy internet connections. Spent last week in Chiang Mai - this time around with the family, and it was just as enjoyable as the first time. We had a bit more time on our hands than when I was with Nate, Lisa and Lan, so after visiting the temple atop Doi Suthep and riding elephants again, we took a Thai cooking class, a trip to Doi Ithanon National Park and spent a bit more time exploring the temples of Chiang Mai. The cooking class was a bit on the basic side, but fun nonetheless. We cooked up some delicious pad thai, tom yum kung, sticky rice with mango, various curries and a couple other dishes. We basically cooked and ate all day long. Doi Ithanon National Park, which boasts Thailands highest peak at 8400-some feet, and the King’s and Queen’s Pagodas also made for a worthwhile day trip. We climbed to the top of the peak with our trusty taxi driver Pongsak, who drove us around all week, and taught us a few words of Thai in the process. Now we’re in Siem Reap, near Angkor Wat for the weekend before spending most of next week in and around Bangkok. I already have a ton of pics from Angkor, but still have to sort through them. All in all, not a bad way to round off 2009.

street food

Waiting for the family to arrive in Chiang Mai after what appears to have been a long and delayed-filled trip, I decided to take a stroll through the food stalls at the Saturday night street market and snap some pics. Couldn't tell you what half of the stuff is, but I'll try to get Picassa descriptions where I can identify things. I ended up eating crispy pork and rice for a grand total of $0.75. Oh, and yes, this is the stuff all those retarded travel doctors tell you to avoid.

ko phi phi

I’ve spent the last couple days in Ko Phi Phi - a small set of islands about an hour and a half from Phuket – with Lan. It’s a gorgeous little rocky island which has been turned into backpacker heaven. There are no cars or motorcycles, just push carts, a zillion backpackers and a lot of bars. It’s not exactly authentically Thai, but then again I don’t think there are too many places like this in the world. Yesterday we took a snorkeling boat tour over to Phi Phi Le, which is the smaller uninhabited island south of Phi Phi Don, which is where we’re staying. We were supposed to catch the sunset from the boat but it started pouring just as the sun went down. Nevertheless, it made for some spectacular scenery. At night we went to Reggae Bar which featured a Mui Thai ring with fights catered exclusively to the young crowd. We saw, babies, and drunken male and female backpackers get in the ring (not at the same time) to duke it out, as well as a couple “real” fights with Thai boxers. Unfortunately, even those resembled a WWE fight more than anything else. A good time was had. Now I’m headed back north to Chiang Mai to meet up with my parents and sisters.

day at the beach

Made it down to Phuket and have been enjoying the sun and sand since our arrival. We're staying on a quieter part of the island which seems filled with Europeans - primarily older slightly obese Scandinavians... The beach is beautiful though and the waves are fun to play in. Not surprisingly, I got a pretty sweet sunburn and I'm exhausted. Also not surprising is that we continued to eat a lot. We started the day with a spicy pork noodle soup (see pictures), drank at least three coconuts each (among other things) and finished the day with a big send off meal for Nate & Lisa. Deep fried fish, roasted chicken, two soups and green papaya salad were all enjoyed - as was the finale of a Thai drama which the staff was watching on TV. Tomorrow Lan and I make our way to Ko Phi Phi while Nate & Lisa begin their long ride back to Boston.

day eating with the fifty

Yesterday we continued to eat our way across Chiang Mai. We basically did nothing but wander from market to market, eating, getting massages and occasionally stopping to relax too :) I had the 50mm lens on all day, so it made for some good food pictures at the night market. And yes, we tried some of the tasty little fried worms... Today we fly down south to the Andaman Sea.

back to asia...

So I'm back in Asia... I landed in Bangkok late Tuesday night and have been gently adjusting since then. Bangkok is pretty much as crazy, immense and hectic as I remember it. There's a zillion people - and they're out late each and every night - eating, partying, bargaining, etc... Traffic remains as bad as anywhere I've ever seen, but at least the public transportation system works pretty well. The food - and especially the street food - has been pretty good. I've definitely enjoyed a bunch of soups and curries though half the time I couldn't tell you exactly what I'm eating.

I ended up walking about eight miles through town on Thursday which was rather exhausting - there really isn't much in the way of green areas aside from a couple large parks. I hit the Chinatown street market which is a network of passageways with all sorts of vendors cramped into the tiny alleys. Definitely not for the claustrophobic. I also stumbled into a rally being held by the red shirts - the opposition party, though it all seemed rather tame and peaceful. Along the way, I had a plate of chicken rice from a street vendor that wasn't half bad. It's quite literally just boiled chicken and rice, but it tastes so much better than it sounds. The rice was perfectly cooked, and the chicken is boiled to perfection in chicken broth. Then you top the whole thing with any number of Thai condiments that accompany meals.

Now I'm in Chiang Mai with Lan, Nate and Lisa and we've been enjoying the laid back atmosphere and cooler mountain weather. Lot's of street food has been consumed, with everything from pad thai to random grilled meat products. Saturday we spent a majority of the day at an Elephant park, riding and feeding the giant animals and laughing quite a bit along the way. We ended the day visiting a tiger petting zoo (seriously...) and the temple atop Doi Suthep, the peak which overlooks the city. It's one of the nicer temples I've been to, and I really enjoyed revisiting it.

In store today is a lot of food and relaxation, then off to Phuket tomorrow for well... more food and relaxation. It's a tough life. Pictures below are mostly from Chiang Mai, nothing from Bangkok yet...