Mea Culpa

As you have probably noticed by now, I have been terrible about keeping up with my blog. I have had many plans to remedy that which have fallen through.

Honestly, between the slowness of my computer and the difficulty of posting pictures onto Blogger, I found myself not wanting to bother. That, and by the end of each day, I am so exhausted from all I've done and seen that I haven't felt like devoting much energy to it.

But that is all about to change. It is precisely because I have done and seen so much that I want to do this; this blog is essentially my own record of my travels. I actually have written several posts that I have not published, so I just need to add photos and post them. Which is what I will spend the next few evenings doing to get everything up to date. Postings will appear with the dates on which I originally wrote them (the date on this post will be altered so the others will appear after it).

So if anybody is even still visiting this site, please bear with me and keep checking back!

Here it is...

...for those of you unacquainted, the infamous squat toilet. This is a rather clean example we found at a temple. They don't use toilet paper here - something I unfortunately learned the hard way at a public toilet for the first time - just the little sprayer attached to the wall. I have yet to find out how one is supposed to dry oneself, which is why I always make sure we have some toilet paper in our pack.

Up the mountain

The day before Christmas Eve we rented a motorbike for $6 and headed out of the city and up the mountain to visit a temple at the top called Doi Suthep.


I have never been so grateful for Bob's excellent motorcycle skills. People here drive on the left side of the road, and there are seemingly no traffic laws whatsoever. Seriously, anything goes here. But he was a superstar. I took some video that I intend to post, but we're having trouble posting any video at this point; we're hoping to figure that out soon.

The ride up the mountain was a blast, and we stopped along the way to do a little jungle hiking at a national park complete with caves and waterfalls. The temple itself was beautiful and provided an amazing view of Chiang Mai below.

It also had all manner of offerings available: candles, incense, lotus flowers, coins, etc. We figured we'd cover all the bases just to be safe.

Exploring Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is full of amazing temples, and most of those we've visited here have been quiet and empty but for the monks and nuns who live on the temple grounds. The temples are breathtaking in their opulence. Each is surrounded by naga, which are dragons/serpents who act as Buddha's protectors. Golden bells hang from the red-tiled roofs and gently chime in the breeze, and the smell of incense is always in the air. Temples are like balm for the soul.


It's pretty funny, though, to see monks talking on their cell phones or walking around in their orange robes with ear buds in listening to their ipods. We had a monk the other day show us photos on his iphone of the squirrels he feeds everyday on the temple grounds.

Chiang Mai is also home to an amazing night market where, just like at Chatuchak market in Bangkok, you bargain for everything. The food here has been amazing, thanks to the bevy of vegetarian restaurants, and we're addicted to banana rotee, which are basically crepes filled with bananas and covered in chocolate sauce and sweet condensed milk and made by street vendors.



Overall Chiang Mai has a more European flair than I expected, but still very much feels like Thailand. It has lots of little open-air cafes serving amazing fresh fruit juices and smoothies and delicious food, and you can't walk five feet without seeing a shop that offers $6 hour-long massages (and they are legitimate massages), or $3 hour-long foot massages. Heaven.

Day train to Chiang Mai

We took a 13-hour train ride from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, which is in the mountains of northern Thailand. The trip took us past temples (including one teeming with monkeys, below) through rice paddies and small villages, and into the jungle. It was beautiful.


The train was pretty bare bones; Amtrak it ain't. Of the two bathrooms, one was a squat toilet. The train was bouncing and careening to an alarming degree at times. How exactly is one supposed to balance on a squat toilet through that? The other toilet had a seat, but just a hole in the bottom going right to the ground. So you were essentially going directly on the tracks. But the bathrooms also had an open window that you could stick you head out and smell the air as it got cooler the higher we climbed into the mountains.


It was a fun experience, even if we were a bit hungry because the only meal they served the entire trip had meat in it. We just ate the white rice served with it. :)

One night in Bangkok

...can indeed make a hard man humble, as the pop prophet Murray Head sang all those years ago. For those of you born before 1950 and after 1980, never mind.

Bangkok is the entry point for our two-month journey (well, my two-month journey and Bob's one-month journey) through Southeast Asia. I had mixed feelings about this city before we landed: On the one hand, it's a modern city with cosmopolitan shopping centers and beautiful temples. On the other hand, it's the epicenter of the sex trade industry and the exploitation of women and young girls. There is a very seedy underbelly to this city that made me wary of it before we even arrived, so we only planned to spend a few days before moving on.

And while it partly lived up (or down?) to my expectations, Bangkok also had some pleasant surprises in store.

First the not so great: This city has some bad, bad smells. Just walking down the street you get regular whiffs of what smells like a combination of rotten fish and raw sewage. And the cleanliness standards are slightly different. People do not pick up after their dogs, and there are many, many street dogs that just do their business all over, so you have to watch your step. There's a definite gritty feeling to the city, and the smog keeps it in a foggy haze even on the sunniest of days. On our first night we accidentally walked into one of the city's most famous red-light districts, Soi Cowboy, which was only blocks from our hotel. It was a very depressing sight. Not such a great impression on our first night.

Bangkok is a study in contradictions: It manages to be both modern and a bit third-worldy at the same time. Its amazingly efficient, clean subway system and sky train exist alongside songthaews, which are basically covered pick-up trucks with benches in the back piled with people, and tuk-tuks, which are primative three-wheeld motorcycle carts that act as taxis (and incidentally, my new favorite mode of transportation). Ancient temples sit next to modern skyscrapers, and glossy shopping centers have food carts outside that sell all manner of meat on a stick and the occasional insect. Beautiful boutique hotels can have views of decrepit housing right out of the worst slums of Bombay. And then there are the squat toilets, which - despite modern plumbing - are essentially holes in the floor with two platforms on which to put your feet as you, well, squat. And toilet paper will cost you extra. It's a fascinating place.

The rush of unfamiliar sounds, smells, and language were almost overwhelming at first. But we quickly grew to really enjoy our neighborhood. Every morning we would stop at street carts to buy fresh young coconuts, which the vendor would hack open with a small machete and stick straws in for us to drink, and bags of fresh mango and papaya slices, all for about $2. Then we would walk to the subway or sky train, located only blocks from us, to explore the city.



Our hotel was wonderful, and we were upgraded to a beautiful suite when our original room's air conditioner broke. It only cost us $63 a night for a four-star hotel, which for out trip is still quite a splurge.


The people of Bangkok are amazing. So friendly, always quick with a warm, genuine smile. That seems to be universal among the Thai people from our experience so far. They are very kind and unfailingly polite. They will go out of their way to help you, even if they don't speak your language. And most do not, which makes things a little more challenging.


The longer we stayed in Bangkok, the more it grew on us. The otherworldly soon became familiar, and even routine. We were soon greeting people with a "Sawasdee ka!" and thanking them with "Kob khun ka."

Even so, we were looking forward to getting out of the city and heading north to the mountains and the city of Chiang Mai, which is where we are now. An update on that will be coming soon...

Coming soon

We'll be landing in Bangkok on Dec. 14. Stay tuned!