Off Grid on an Island in the Andaman Sea

I have been off on a retreat on a very small island in the middle of the Andaman Sea called Ko Phra Thong (Golden Buddha Island). So called because there's supposed to be a Golden Buddha buried treasure somewhere on the island. No, sadly I didn't find it!

The Island is run on an eco-friendly basis for example the coconut milk we drank was from the coconuts gathered that day from around the camp, the jam we ate at breakfast was made from the local Hibiscus trees, fish we ate was caught by the locals from the surrounding seas.



Hibiscus flowers drying

There's a central reception/lounge/restaurant area that is owned by an American who's lived in Thailand for the last 30 years. Surrounding the main reception congregation area are cabins which stretch out along the gorgeous beach. All the cabins are built with native wood, bamboo and have Thai thatched roofs. The bathroom is an attachment to each cabin but is actually outdoors and surrounded by nice thick bamboo walls. Nothing beats having a cold water shower at 6:00am in the morning watching the sunrise.

I shared my cabin with some other residents, though I was supposed to have a single room. There was Larry the Lizard, Harry the Bullfrog, George the grasshopper and his extended family and finally Hermin the Ferret House (rat really). Hermin had this habit of stealing my little bars of soap so kindly provided by the cleaning staff every day. He only liked the manufactured soap, natural soaps were not to his taste. And on occasion a curious macac monkey would hang around the cabin at night, it's green eyes glowing in the dark.





Cottage #3, also called Hibiscus, before tsunami




Cottage #3 after tsunami


Electricity was available during the day between 6:00pm and 11:00pm, provided by 2 generators on the island. The generators were old and cranky and had fits where they simply stopped working, so everyone carries torches just in case, and repairs were inventive as access to spare parts or a store to replace a broken piece is not an option. Goods deliveries were once a day by local longtail boat.

Internet access and phone connections were all via satellite, which is a little unreliable and extremely expensive to use. Besides the fact that there was only 1 laptop connected for guests to use email.

The island has a Sea Turtle Conservation project which monitors for turtle laying very early each morning. One of the volunteers, Rebecca, gave me a great introduction to what her work and the Project was all about. In the little pool under attached to the Conservation Project 3 baby turtles were being reared, and would later be released to the sea.




Sea Turtle Project

Yoga classes ran from 7:30am - 10:00am and from 4:00pm - 5:30pm and were held on the outdoor yoga deck which faced the beach. Each morning we faced Sunrise to start our yogic day :-)



Yoga Sala where yoga sessions were conducted morning and evening

Long-tailed macac monkeys, who are native to this island, seemed to find us a curious sight. Each day they came down close to the yoga deck and sat a little way off 'watching' us while eating their early morning breakfast of coconuts. They ran up the coconut trees to throw coconuts to the ground, then they peeled off the outer layer of straw and used a rock or stump of a tree to crack open the coconut for it's delicious milk and flesh.

In the center is Savannagh like area. Originally it was tropical forest like the rest of the island, but it had been mined for tin, leaving a flat landscape which now looks like the African Savannagh with sand so white and fine it's nearly blinding in the mid-day sunlight.



Savannah region in the center of the island

One day off from Yoga took us to the Surin island where snorkelling is about the best in the world. I'm sure I found the Garden of Eden, it's under the water in the Surin Islands. The coral is absolutely magnificent, with gardens of all different kinds popping up everywhere you look. Reef life is abundant and it's fascinating to watch fish fight for their terrirtory, defend their young or simply feed off the corals.

I saw my first black tipped reef shark - about a meter long but still just awesome. I'd been hoping to see one and had come close a few weeks earlier when we were snorkelling around the Ko Phi Phi are, but though I saw after that one I missed seeing it.

Around the Surin islands are small villages of Moken Sea Gypsies. These people are a seafaring culture, about 1000 years old who live on their boats. Only coming ashore to temporary stilt villages by the oceans edge when there are storms or it's not the fishing season. They have a distinct language and roam around Thailand and Burma as they have always done. As a result they really don't have any citizenship. However Thailand recently has begun issuing those Moken who can speak fluent Thai with residency cards.

Visiting one of the few remaining Moken villages on the Surin islands was a humbling experience. People survive here with even less than I carry in my backpack. As their lifestyle is threatened by the approaching tourism Thailand has created a barrier by creating the Surin National Park, stopping local Thai from fishing these waters so that the Moken can continue their traditional lifestyle. We were one of only a very few visitors who go to this particular island to visit with the Moken.



Moken village Ko Surin Island

After ohm'ing and yoga'ing for 8 days I don't think I've ever been so flexible or relaxed in all my life. Now if only I can keep that feeling going ;-)

So for now, Namaste, Happy XMas, New Year, Hannuka and all other celebrations.

UPDATE: I wrote this from Patong Beach shortly after the Retreat ended. I stayed on Patong Beach until 22nd December, going to Bangkok on that day. On December 25th Jeff and I flew to San Francisco. Needless the ensuing weeks were terrible. The tsunami had taken everything I had experienced away in it's wake.

Heading to an island in the Andaman Sea for Yoga

I had been lookinig forward to the Yoga Retreat on Golden Buddha Beach for a long time. An email from the Yoga teacher had let me know that about 30 people would be taking part. Wow. I had only expected about 10 - 15, this was way more Farang together in the one place than I had anticipated or had been around in a long time.

One description of GBB goes "Golden Buddha Beach is a sweeping green lawn under the coconut palms overlooking a serene bay with two gem-like islands. A remote island where the wildlife population far exceeds the human". And it's true.




I can't improve on the descriptions already about GBB so here's more:

"Koh Phra Thong, so the story goes, is named such because the hidden treasure of the Golden Buddha is buried on the island. Apparently many years ago, pirates came here and hid the solid gold statue of the Buddha. But the question is, does it still remain hidden?

Fishing is an important industry for the island. The island has three fishing villages and they are reliant on the resident squid, shrimps and jellyfish of the Andaman Sea for their livelihoods. A famous delicacy is gabi, (fish paste) where at certain times of the year, shrimp appear near the beach, where the boats scoop them up in their spool like nets. Islanders then ferment the shrimp into a paste and they will trade it on the mainland.

Communities on the island prosper and in recent years, the local government enlarged the three schools, one for each village. Every year, volunteers conduct conservation classes in the schools, sponsored by Golden Buddha Beach Resort. This ensures that outsiders' influence and impact is as positive as possible."

THIS IS THE POST I HAD PREPARED BEFORE THE TSUNAMI HIT THAILAND.

Clubhouse Before Tsunami






Clubhouse After Tsunami - view of pond





Clubhouse After Tsunami - Entire building is gone

Rented a 4 wheel drive for a day

We rented a 4 wheel drive truck and took off to tour around the area and specifically more of the beaches further along than Patong.

The first stop though was at the go-kart racing. It's so much fun and the karts are able to move pretty fast. Not like in the US where they are slow-karts, not go-karts. People don't normally sue in Thailand whereas the US fears that from any customer.

Ya Nui Bun near Kata beach was lovely. Kata beach is somewhat similar to Patong except it was way less touristy. It still had the umbrellas and chairs and the inevitable vendors but it didn't have the regretable girlie bars of Patong.

We had lunch at the Palms right on Kata Beach which was fine, if a bit expensive. But then I guess it is a bit more 'up market' than what we usually go for.

The most interesting beach was Nui Beach. Luckily we had a four wheel drive as the road to this beach was literally a dirt track and up and down-hill. We travelled along it at a snail's pace avoiding the huge pot-holes and other debris along the way. Finally at the entrance to our surprise it had a cover fee. And this was expensive. A whopping 250 baht each. Yet looking down on the beach it looked like it was worth it. So we paid up.

The beach had about a half a dozen very well spaced chairs and umbrellas. It was just about possible to catch the sound of a neighbors conversation on the breeze. Quite the opposite of most of the other commercial beaches. The entrance fee included a soft drink. The bar was set at the back of the beach up on the hilltop so it was a bit of a hike to get to it.

The sand on the beach was rough with large grains of sand, really good for an exfoliation actually. The waves came at the beach from two angles, and there was a large undertow. Close to the shore it took only moments to go from knee-high to shoulder-high water levels because of a steep shelf. I can imagine in rough weather this is not the place to be.

Despite the undertow and the steep shelf it was so great to swim in and against the waves.

As we left the beach 2 other tourists were enquiring about the entrance fee. They decided it was too much for them and began walking back up the steep hill. They'd left their motorcycle some distance away to walk the final road down to the beach. As we pulled out of the parking space we offered them a lift. The girl knew quite a bit of Thai, her companion I think was from France and had neither much English or Thai.

Later at the Guest House that evening we met Carl from San Diego, a new resident just arrived that day, and already 2 sheets to the wind. Jeff stayed and chatted with him while I went up to pack and shower. Later joining them for a glass of wine.

Carl used to be a Chief Petty officer in the Canadian Navy. As Jeff and I left to get dinner - some chicken soup at the local vendor's stand, relly good, I figured Carl would be completely soused by the time we got back.

Dinner was followed by stopping off at the Aussie bar Two Black Sheep for a couple of beers. To entertain ourselves we started playing a game of Eye Spy. I know, there must have been much more entertainment available simply with the passing crowds, but you get really really tired of watching the white Farang guys with the tiny Thai girls attached to their arms. Most of our game was around the signage we could see. It's amazing how many signs there are in this partular part of Patong. They tend to actually obscure what they are attempting to promote as they make little or no sense in lots of instances.

The King's birthday celebrations

Dec 5th is the King's birthday and official celebrations take place all over Thailand. Restaurants are open but Bars are closed. It's strange to see the tourist bar strip area in Patong closed and quiet.

However the hotels with restaurants could keep their bars open so we headed for the Lamai and it's nightly music. Well that's what we thought. As soon as the band started up playing the local Police came into the restaurant/bar and told them to stop. I guess you can't play on the King's birthday.

Taking a trip to Ko Phi Phi island

Jeff's arrived down from Bangkok ready for a break away from work. As we'd had such a lovely time in Ko Phi Phi the last time we were there we decided that's where we'd go for a couple of days away.

It's easy booking the tickets and making all the arrangements. But don't get too impatient when the minibus that takes you to the boat is 45 minutes or more late. We were up at 6:30am, ready and waiting by 7:00am. The minibus decided to arrive about 7:40am. They had to hold the boat at the pier for us for 15 minutes. At least they held it, anywhere else I think it might just have taken off on time.

Knowing the accommodation is pretty slim on Ko Phi Phi we positioned ourselves to get off the boat first and made a beeline for the Pavilion Resort Bungalows. It was worth the effort. Once we checked in we returned to put our valuables in the reception lockers and at that point they were turning customers away because they were full.

Swimming on the beach again was just amazing. That evening we went in search of our favorite Beach bar. The bar is litterally on the beach, has straw mats set in the sand and candles lit to see by. Sadly it wasn't there anymore and worse, had been replaced by it's evil twin. Someone had taken the casual beach bar idea and spiffed it up, made it popular and destroyed the original idea and atmosphere.

Later on we ate at Salsa & Pepe and figured out a snorkelling trip for the next day.

To our surprise the next day the snorkelling boat was big. We'd expected a little speed boat, but this was comfy and the crew were great. We snorkelled off Monkey island, Phi Phi Ley. The visibility and coral reefs were not the best, but we did manage to snorkel through the Viking cave, timing the swim-through to co-incide with the waves crashing through the cave hole.

That evening we had dinner in the muslim district of Ko Phi Phi. Boy can they make hot (ie bird pepper hot) food. I could nearly see the steam coming out Jeff's ears. After dinner we sat at a new beach bar we found, had a Samsong set and watched the night crabbers at work.

The following day we rented some Kayaks and took off to do our own little snorkelling tour back to Monkey beach. This time we saw an absolutely huge Parrot fish, a really long Flute fish. In the evening we had Pizza, ice-cream and beer - what else!

The next day we made the reverse boat/minibus trip back to Patong. The boat trip was just gorgeous, sitting up on the top deck for the nearly 2 hours it took to get back to the mainland. However finding our minibus for the final leg back to Patong was pretty difficult. To find your minibus you gave the tour guide the village you were going to, he then shouted out the village name and the driver of the bus to that village raised his hand for you. But the tour guide guy was surrounded by everyone who had just got off the boat. Hundreds of people, it was utter chaos. We did get the right minibus finally and headed 'home' to Patong and the iNet Guest House.

Beach and Spa fun

Everyday I head for the beach to work on getting a tan, or in my case to add more freckles to those already there. Onother goal is to have a Spa Day. In researching the spas and options around town, the prices are not that different between the so-so Spa's and the very high end Spas.

I chose the Apsara Spa at the Holiday Inn as it was the most salubrious and gracious of Spas. The entire treatment consisted of a head to toe body scrub (yes, everywhere), a head to toe massage, a manicure and pedicure and a facial. I came out feeling like a drip of water, completely and utterly exfoliated, massaged, calmed and relaxed.

Dinner is usually from the street vendors, but most are just a little more expensive than in Bangkok. I paid 20 baht for steamed sweetcorn, in Bangkok it's only 10.

In the evening, just at dusk, an enormous flock of sparrows gather on the side wall of a local restaurant. They chatter away for about 20 minutes while the sun does it's final last fling of the day and then disappear to their night resting spot.

Heading to Phuket for a bit of sunbathing

Jeff's working extraordinarily hard and so I'm taking a break away from Bangkok for a little while and heading for the sunny beaches of Southern Thaialnd. Patong Beach in Phuket specifically. It'll be easier for Jeff to fully concentrate on work and get here as early as he can while I get the benefit of beach time.

I'd booked my Nok Air flight only a couple of days before. It was an e-ticket. At the airport all I needed was one photo id to register me for the hour and a bit flight. There was a 45 minute delay, but that didn't bother me.

From Phuket airport it's about a 45 minute ride to Patong Beach and costs 150 baht. I set out in a minibus full of other folks heading for the beaches. Along the way we stopped and were divided up between the minibus and a car. As usual there was a lot of confusion around who should be in the minibus and who should take the car. I waited until everyone else had decided their fate and asked the driver again which one should I go in. This time instead of telling me it was the minibus he said the car. Aha. I knew he hadn't been paying attention before.

I shared the car with an older German couple who were heading for Kata beach, a little further along than Patong that I was headed for. They'd been there before and had some specific bungalows by the beach in mind where they would again stay. They'd were well travelled and awfully nice. You meet the neatest people while travelling.

I'd booked myself in the Tatum Mansion Guest House for 2 nights. Arriving in the late evening I simply settled into the room and headed out to get my bearings. Patong Beach is a high dose concentrate of all the bad tourist things.

There's the Red Light district stuffed with Bars of every kind. Australian, Irish, Japanese, American, Swedish you name it there's a bar there for it. All parading Young Thai girls who shout out welcoming phrases in whatever language they think you speak. Their goal to get the White Middle Aged White Males into the bar. There they go to work on selling not only beer but also their escort services. And it works.

Around town it's common to see Middle Aged White Men with tiny Young Thai girls hanging off their arms. The girls of course are looking not only to get paid for their escort services but to have nice things bought for them. And the 'lucky' few who manage to snare someone to marry them literally have it made.

But there are the cool interesting places too. You just have to look for them. On the beach front there's the Laimai hotel. It's got musical entertainment and a bar outdoors. Then there's the little bar on a corner about a block back from the ocean where the two waitresses will teach you Thai and expect you to speak it back to them the next time you visit.

On the beach the umbrella and chair renting guys are a hoot. They live all their lives here and are so tanned they're way darker than the normal Thai. The sandwich guy is always laughing and sings as he runs along the beach delivering lunch sandwiches and beers to his sun-bathing customers.

There's probably no need to ever leave your lounging chair on the beach as practially everything comes to you. Have a massage, get your nails done, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, drink beer, buy your vacation gifts and trinkets, get some new clothes, all from the beach vendors.

The conundrum though is that because it's so easy to be there many foreign tourists ignore the fact Thais consider nudity vulgar and sunbath topless. It's an affront to the Thai sensibilities but somehow because it's such a tourist trap people feel like it'snot really Thailand, they feel like they're at home and can do whatever they want.

Home again to Bangkok

The train journey back from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok was pleasant. As we pulled out the train was full of school kids wearing their uniforms. They were on their way home after school had let out. The entire journey from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok takes about 2 hours, along the way we dropped off school kids at stations or little stop platforms that seemed to be quite a ways from their school in Kanchanaburi town.

One more night in Bangkok and Evelyn and Julie headed back for the reality of the US. I know they'll be back. Julie had agonized over going back and had even thought of extending her stay. That's what Asia does to you, you want to stay.

Temple touring around Kanchanaburi

We had hired a driver to take us around the various temples and roadways surrounding Kanchanaburi the previous evening. Early this morning we headed for the river to watch the Karaoke boats and to see if we could get some early morning coffee. But no such hope. Because of the night-to-morning nature of the Karaoke boats and supporting restaurants and cafes, early morning coffee was an unreal expectation.

The day turned out to be very pleasant and full of contrasts. From walking up the steps of the dragon temple, to avoiding the homemade fireworks set off at a local funeral ceremony.

Along our way we came first came across several Chinese graveyards. They were not the usual small stone urnlike headstones with Chinese symbols and characters. Rather they were large half-moon shaped and lavishly decorated monoliths. Our driver told us that the Chinese think it's good luck to have a grave facing water and with it's back to a mountain.

Of course it's only the wealthy Chinese who can afford these kinds of ornate burial sites. I was surprised at how many there were on the hillside.


Hillside Chinese Graveyard

Wat Ban Tham, or the Dragon Temple, is a quiet local temple on the way to the more famous Wat Tham Seu. The stairway is the tail of the dragon. The entranceway it's head. The walk up the steps is a good hike while inside is a cave. A monk sleeps on a raised bamboo bed in one corner to the right. To the left is a small Buddha in front of which children's toys and things have been placed. The central Buddha is set towards the back of the cave. It's quiet and very peaceful in here. A mother and her young son and daughter sit in front of Buddha to pray and gain merit.


Wat Ban Tham Dragon Stairway

Wat Tham Seu is in a compound that actually holds several temples. Wat Tham Seu has an unbelieveably huge golden Buddha sitting at the top of a steep set of steps. This time instead of taking the steps we paid the 10 baht for the cable car ride to the top.


Large Golden Buddha

There are several temples in the compound, all in every day use. And they come from near and far. As we arrived two tour buses full of smiling Thai people had just parked.

Some of the temples have large bells hanging in rows. To gain merit one uses a small stick and gently dings each of the bells in sequence.


Ring the Bells with the wooden stick to gain merit

Later we saw a monk at one of the temple altars sitting praying and receiving gifts from a family group. It looked like they were getting special merit blessings for a family event.

One temple had a spectacular ceiling, hard to capture in a photo, so I lay on the floor and shot upwards.


Decorative Golden Ceiling

I don't remember the name of the next temple we visited. It's not on the general tourist trail. Again it was at the top of a steep hill and had many steps to walk up before we could see the temple. It was a tiny temple. The round room is about 20' around and about 25' tall. In the middle is an imprint of Buddha's foot and to the left was the temple caretaker. He took his job very seriously. As we entered he ceremoniously turned on his microphone and began welcoming us and giving us the speech tour - for all of the 20' * 25' temple! If he'd whispered we would have been able to hear him. However we listened politely and then gave a contribution to the temples rebuilding fund. As we turned away he suddenly called us and gave us some gold leaf pieces to put on the Buddha's footprint and gain merit. I'd always wanted to do the gold leaf pieces on a Buddha and this made my day. Perhaps I even gained a little merit.

As we started back down the steps I heard a loud exploding noise. I stopped and looked around wanting to figure out if we were in danger and needed to duck or whether it was something 'normal'. It turned out to be the end of a funeral celebration in the small chedi at the bottom of the hill. Apparently once the ceremony is over homemade fireworks are released. Made out of bamboo not only did they explode very low in the air but there was no way to know which direction they were heading. It was a very curious thing to see.

Khanchanaburi, Erawan Park and the Bridge over the River Kwai

After Angkor Wat it seemed strange to be back in Bangkok, but not for long. Julie, Evelyn and I set off for Khanchanaburi, West of Bangkok,by train the next day.

Khanchanaburi is most famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai and also for Karaoke boats along it's river. Two so utterly contrasting sights it's difficult to comprehend they're both part of the same town. Khanchanaburi also has a good national park, Erawan Park, to visit.

We could have lived without the Karaoke boats. They played musak at ballistic noise levels, roamed up and down the river all night, pulling into shore about 7:00am in the morning to disgorge the pathetic tourist cargo who spent the night on board.



From BKK our train to Khanchanaburi was a local and only had 3rd class seating which meant it had wooden benches, wide open windows and great views of the countryside. Neither Evelyn nor Julie can stomach sitting backwards, so I ended up watching the countryside receding behind us. A unique perspective. I love the clickety clack sounds a train makes as it travels along the tracks. The train stopped at some very small stations along the way. Some wern't even an official platform, people simply hopped off the train down onto the tracks when it stopped.



Arriving in Khanchanaburi we found our Guest House, Apple Guest House, after a little searching. At 200 ($5) baht a night it was extremely inexpensive, but clean, dry and had hot showers - bonus! Apple Guest House also has a really good restaurant where we tended to eat most of the time. The curries were truly hot, not just Westerner hot. Yum.

We took a day trip to the Erawan National Park. All three of us were a bit apprehensive doing the 'tour group' thing as it's not usually our cup of tea. Erawan National Park is located is known for it's waterfalls and especially the Erawan Waterall, which is well-known in Thailand because of it's height and size. The mountains, caves, cliffs and smaller waterfalls contributet to a beautiful and scenic backdrop. Because of the atmosphere surrounding us it felt like we were in a primeval forest.

As we walked through the forest we fell well behind the tour group of people so we pretty much did it at our own pace and that made all the difference to the enjoyment of the Park. The trees are covered with large climbing plants and wild orchds. We could hear the songs of birds way up high. Along some of the lower, smaller waterfalls, enigmatic stalactities and stalagmites sweep the ground.

The climb itself is not exactly steep or extremely difficult, but it is testing and can be tiring in places and it does take about 2 hours to get to the top. We rested up when needed and simply sat and enjoyed the wonderful scenery displayed in front of us.



In the middle of the forest we came across a huge tree wrapped with layer after layer of colorful ribbons around the base of the trunk. Thais believe that trees have spirits and pay respect and pray to gain merit to the trees. This particular tree must have been very powerful or loved.



Butterflies in the forest are large, colorful and playful. They land on rocks in sunny spots in the river and lap the water from the rock's surface. They are constantly moving, consequently it's difficult to get a good photo of them. But it's sure fun trying.

Among the tree tops are troups of monekys. They behave like any normal family, all busy doing something. The children playing, the adults getting food. Like all families there were funny moments watching them swing through the trees. And moments of discord where youngsters fought with each other, yet the a few moments later they were playing again. One of the littlest babies hung onto this tree vine very nonchalently.



The next day we took off for a trip to the Bridge over the River Kwai. I'd been reading quite a bit around the history of how the railway line was built by Prisoners of War and local Chinese and other laborers, under horrific conditions. The Japanese force-built the railway line to supply their troops during an attempt to invade Burma. During it's construction it's been estimated 16,000 prisoners of war and 49,000 laboroers perished.



The bridge itself is not the original. Remember, it was bombed out of existence several times during the War. The currrent bridge was built after the war. None the less, as we passed over the railway tracks heading for the famous bridge I couldn't help but think about the people who lost their lives in such terrible circumstances. The train stops just past the bridge and lets us out to walk back onto Bridge span. I couldn't believe I was standing on it. Again my mind kept wandering back to the scenes and stories I'd read about it's construction and it was humbling.

Back in Khanchanaburi itself we went to visit the Jeath War Museum. It's an exact duplicate of the huts POWs and laborers were housed in during the Bridge building process. It's open air bamboo huts and houses pictures and descriptions of the life of the people in the camp. It paints a horific picture. Long benches line the walls, stretching out into the center of the room about 6' - the height of a man. Men slept side by side there. Each man getting about 18" of space to himself.

Bunny's birthday party in Siem Reap, Cambodia

In order to see the temples of Angkor Wat it's essential to have some sort of vehicular transport. Walking is not an option, unless you've got weeks as most of the temples are several miles apart.

We'd hired two Tuk Tuks for the four of us, two to a Tuk Tuk + the driver.
Bunny was one of our Tuk Tuk drivers, always ready to stop at a moments notice and driving us from temple to temple through some pretty bad and chaotic roads and traffic.

One evening as we were walking back towards the Guest House after another gorgeous dinner we passed Bunny's house where he and his frinds were gathered to celebrate his birthday.

They were so enthusiastic to have us join them it felt like an honor. So we sat outside the house talking, drinking cans of beer and singing Happy b'day many times over to Bunny. It was a family affair, we sat there surrounded by beautiful children, brothers, cousins, wives and daughters.

Cambodia, Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat Monks

Cambodia is one of the most fascinating, interesting and difficult experiences to write about. It really is a place where you have to be there to feel it. Though I'd read a lot about Cambodia, it's people and it's checkered history before arriving, it couldn't prepare me for the reality of being there. Simply seeing Angkor Wat for the first time moved me almost to tears.

As I walked around Wats and Temples that used to be huge Citiies inhabited by advanced civilizations, I couldn't help remembering the many wars and conflicts that had also been fought on these grounds.It felt like the spirits of the previous occupants were still there. Yet it wasn't a sense of evil I got, it was more a sense of the ancestors watching over their people.

The town of Siem Reap is the nearest base tourists can use to visit the Temples that are dotted throughout the jungle and countryside. It's only been open to tourists for about the last 6 years. As a result the tourist industry here is still in it's infancy. Sadly not for much longer. Many huge international hotels are in the process of being built. Soon it's dusty and pot-holed roads will be tarmaced over to smooth the air-conditioned buses of the tourists to the temples.



The Temples are very old, the earliest dating from about 967 AD. In the Lonely Planet Guide to Cambodia it describes the temples as "the heart and soul of the Kingdom of Cambodia, a source of inspiration and national pride to all Khmers as they struggle to rebuild their lives". The Cambodians (or Khmers) may have had many struggles but they have survived with their personalilties and smiles intact.


Sunset Angkor Wat

The most famous Temple of course is Angkor Wat. To see Angkor Wat at Sunset or Sunrise feels like completing a life cycle. The incredible vistas visible from the top of the temple glow with fire at Sunset and glimmer with pink health at Sunrise.Walking up the causeway towards the entrance gateway, into the courtyards and up to the main tower is said to be metaphorically travelling back to the first age of the creation of the universe. Symbolism on many levels abound at Angkor Wat. The senses are overloaded by it all.

Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat 190m wide. It is a giant rectangle 1.5km by 1.3km in size. The stones for Angkor Wat were quarried some 50km away. Around the outside balustrade are spectacular Bas-Reliefs depicting such ancient tales as The Battle of Kurukshetra, Heaven & Hell, Churning of the Ocean of Milk and The Battle of the Gods and Demons.


Bas Reliefs

Monks in their orange robes spend days here praying. We met a couple of monks one evening at Sunset who had been there for 2 days prayer and were very excited to practise their English with us.

The spectacular Temple of Bantay Srei (967-1100) is classical Khmer. Said to be a citadel of women, it's a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. Cut from pink stone with some of the finest carvings ever, it's also said to have been built by a woman as the carvings are too fine for a man.

Angkor Thom spreads over 10sq km, said to have supported a population of 1,000,000 people at it's zenith. London would have had 50,000 at the time. Second to Angkor Wat it has many stooped corridors and is famous for it's 216 huge smiling stone faces of Avalokiteshvara. Their beautiful smiles at Sunrise are a sight to behold.

It's enclosed by a square wall, 8m high and 12km long, encircled by a moat 100m wide supposedly inhabited by fierce crocodiles.The entrance gate is 20m high and decoarated with huge stone elephant trunks. The East gate was used as a location for the movie Tomb Raider.


A temple vendor selling incense

It has the steepest of stone steps up to it's main tower. Half way up I wondered how on earth I was going to get back down. Yet the locals, the monks and the children run up and down them with no problems.

The Temple of Ta Phrom (1186) is dedicated to the mother of Jayavarman VII and because it has been left to the jungle, it's the most atmospheric of all the temples. A unique other world experience because of the dappled light that filters through the huge trees and vines choking the walls and temples. The large roots of the trees slowly engulf anything in their way, no matter how huge. Carpeted everywhere by lichen and crumbling slowly it feels somewhat like a fairy kingdom.


Bayon Tree embracing the temple

It's said that it took 80,000 people to maintain Ta Phrom. 2,700 of whom were officials and 615 were dancers.

On our last day we took off for a trip to the Tonle Sap Lake and the floating village of Chong Kneas. During the west season from May to October the waters from the Mekong flow into the Tonle Sap Lake swelling it from it's normal 2,500 sq km to 13,000 sq km. As the waters recede at the end of the wet season the Tonle Sap reverses it's flow draining back into the Mekong river. It's also a bird sanctuary and wildlife preserve and it's fish stock supports the local fishing community of 1 million people.

The road trip up to the outskirts of the lake was rough and pot-holed. At the outskirts the local roads were still submerged by the west season waters so we switched to the local bus boat. It took us to the floating village where we stopped for a real Khmer lunch at a local's floating house.


Houses of the floating village


It was tantalizing to watch how the community adapted to it's water base life. Older children rowed themselves to school, younger ones played about in what I can only call a round bucket on the water. There is no electricity here, there is no indoor plumbing.Instead of going out to the shops, they come to you on a boat. To talk to your neighbor across the street you shout across the waters, or you pop onto one of the passing shops and hitch a ride across. Children appear to be able to swim from the moment of birth because those not going to school swim, dive, jump and play in the waters below their houses.

Our guide told us that when the waters recede and the village is dry the community move further back up river to a second floating village. They have to stay close to their source of income, fishing.

It's not enough to visit Cambodia once. I know we'll go back again.

Getting himself from one side of the street to the other, children are very independent here at an early age

Evelyn and Julie come to visit

We picked up Evelyn and Julie from the airport on 28th October. Their baggage took a long time to come trough because three large planes had landed simultaneously. We were beginning to get worried about them just as they emerged into the Arrivals hall.

They looked a little tired and dazed, not surprising. We took a Taxi to the City. We’re so used to how they drive here it doesn’t phase us now but the look on Julie’s face was classic. She thought we were going to be killed as they cabbie weaved in and out of the traffic. I know how she felt. When I first got in a Taxi from Bangkok Airport to the City I too thought I was going to die! Touch wood, so far I’ve never been in an car or other transport accident here.

Stopped off at 7-11 to get some beer. After checking them into their room in the same hotel we stayed up chatting and drinking until about 2:00am.

The next day we all headed out to the obligatory Royal Palace and Wat Po visit. This time as I wasn’t taking photos I saw much more than I had ever seen before. Little details of flowers on the sidewalls of temples and such. The Royal Palace is a deep well of things to photograph.

Breakfast was a very Thai. Rice and chicken in one of the Thai vendors in Sala Daeng.

On the 30th we took Evelyn and Julie to Chatachuk weekend market early in the morning. It’s the biggest market in the world. It’s so huge it needs it’s own map to have any hope of navigating your way through. Everything in the world is on sale here, including exotic and rare animals. Unfortunately we found the animal section of the market and got stuck in it trying to find our way out. It was very upsetting, and to Julie the most of all. I don’t understand the need for some people to feel like they have to own exotic and rare animals. I think they have a twisted gene somewhere.

There are supposed to be about 12,000 vendors here and the numbers of visitors is supposed to be about 200,000 over the weekends.

We found a great silk vendor. They had a large and inexpensive selection and understood we wanted to take our time and look at our leisure. Not that they didn’t try to sell us their wares, but they did it in a nicer than the hawkish street vendors and brazen tuk-tuk drivers. After some negotiation we all walked away with some nice silks.

After dropping off the goodies at the Hotel we took off for the airport and our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

A visit to Bumrungrad Hospital, Bangkok

As a fair skinned Northern Euorpean lady nudging towards 47 years old, I’m more likely to suffer from cancer of the skin than many other darker skinned nationals. Since we’re going to be in the sunnier parts of the world for the next couple of years, I thought it would be prudent to get the moles and skin blemishes removed as a preventive measure.

In Bangkok this is no problem and it is relatively inexpensive. When we set out on this journey we did take out Health Insurance, but as this would be an elective procedure it’s not going to be covered. So I’ll have to use my own dime for the moles and skin blemishes.

Bangkok City has some of the best hospitals in the world. Many non-Thai nationals come here to have cosmetic surgery and other highly specialized procedures done, at a relatively inexpensive rate.

The Hopsital I chose, Bumrungrad, is so well attuned to servicing foreign nationals that it has the sense and feel of a Western Hospital. As far as I know it’s actually American owned and run. Packages available range from a ceasarian section, heart surgery to reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. Included in the packages are stays at the Hospital Hotel-like Residence, connected to the main building hospital by an overhead walkway.

Bumrungrad’s web site lets you search for and get details on Doctors from disciplines. I found it easy to search for a dermatologist, read their bios, see their photos, and feel happy about making a choice myself. There is no need to have a recommendation from your practitioner to attend a specialist like in the States. You simply look them up and make an appointment.

From Bumrungrad’s web site I emailed them the day and time period I wanted an appointment. Within 30 minutes I had a reply giving me an appointment time close to my chosen window with my chosen Doctor.

Bumrungrad’s entrance is a little whacky in that it’s down a very small side street, more like an alley. But there is signage so you can find it fairly easily.

Amazingly there is no smell of hospital at all. It seems more like a huge Hotel , with food and shopping areas on the 2nd floor. It even has a McDonalds. Weird.

The Skin Center is on the 3rd floor of the Residence building and as I’d come in the entrance of the Main Building used the overhead walkway to get there.

Around me there were patients and visitors from many countries. Over hearing people talk I could make out that there were Northern Europeans, Americans, Arabs, Japanese and Thai at the least.

One Arab looking gentleman who had some sort of a reaction or allergy problem on his arm arrived with his friend who took great care of him. He was already missing half his left leg and moved around on crutches. It seemed that the leg injury probably happened quite some time ago.

A tall young guy who I think was Japanese looked to have just finished his facial laser surgery. His skin had that redness and spottedness I associate with the procedure.

The Receptionists speak English, some better than others, but they’ve got enough to smoothly get you through the sign-in sheets and paper trail process and hand you over to the relevant appointment administrator. Curiously they ask you if you have a fever today as a standard part of the check in process. I wonder what they’d do if you said Yes?

Your blood pressure, pulse, temperature, height and weight are taken by the assistant nurse. The nurse apologies while she measures your height as in Thailand you it’s not acceptable to touch the top of a person’s head. Mind you she wasn’t touching it, the measuring bar was, but the society is so polite she apologized anyway. After that I sat in the waiting area for about 15 minutes.

A Thai lady sat down beside me and shortly thereafter struck up a conversation . Such a nice lady. Her name was Gaew and she was married to an American. They live in Bangkok. He had been in the hospital for about the last 3 weeks with some sort of problem on one of his legs. She had broken out with a small spot on her face and was at the Skin Center to have it looked at. I think she was a bit lonely from spending so much time in the hospital looking after her husband and just wanted to talk with someone.

I was greeted very pleasantly by the Doctor as I entered her office. She asked what I wanted done and then asked me why I would like the moles and blemishes removed. I had been wondering if I would be asked that question or would it be assumed I was there just for cosmetic reasons?

In about 10 minutes she had reviewed the moles and skin blemishes, explained to me the differences between each of them and gave me options on what I could do to have them removed. Most of them will be removed by laser, while the two moles will be surgically removed and sent for biopsies. I don’t have to get the moles biosied but I chose to as I feel it’s better to do it than not. We made an appointment for the following Wednesday to have the procedure done.

After leaving the Doctor’s office I spent a couple of more minutes talking with Gaew. She said she’s in room 889 with her husband most of the time and she’d be happy for me to visit, she’d even teach me a little Thai. Then I checked out by paying a whopping 80 Baht ($2) for the office visit.

All in all a very nice experience.

Back 'home' in Bangkok

It’s nice to be ‘home’ again in Bangkok and have dinner at our usual Isan restaurant. Dinner was delicious. I’ve forgotten most of the Thai I knew and tend to mistakenly use the few Laos words I picked up while there. Oh well, it’ll only take a day or so to get back into Thai.

What do a Mickey Mouse headboard and the 2008 Beijing Olympics have in common?

Our Guest House bedding and furniture are hilarious. The headboard is a pink and blue rendition of a bad Mickey Mouse cartoon celebrating the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Mickey is kicking a soccer ball. The mattress has a teddy bear and some words like Congratulations, weird.

As we leave Phonsovan we stop to have a soda in the ‘departure lounge café’ which is a bamboo walled wooden building. It can hold about 35 people when full.

They serve Laos, Vietnamese and Chinese fare according to the very old French language notice.

The runway is invisible because of the tall grass surrounding it. The local cows and water buffalo enjoy the tall grass around the runway, and have to be moved on before the plane lands by the guy who also acts as the brake guy for the plane.

Chickens peck about outside the door of the departure lounge Café.

We fly from Phonsovan directly to Vientiane, then take a taxi to the Friendship bridge to do our Laos into Thailand crossing. We were able to get a 30 day visa for Thailand, saving our 60 day visa for after our trip to Cambodia with Jeff’s Mom and Julie.

We stopped in Vientiane on the way to the Friendship bridge to pick up some pastries at Joma baker. Our driver was talkative and had fairly ok English. He told us he was in the Laos Air Force from 1965-1982, he had flown sortees over Phonsovan and the Plain of Jars area, where he had dropped bombs. He had been in the States for about 3 years where he learnt English and was trained in the military camps there.

Plain of Jars in Phonsovan

The honking geese and crowing cocks wake us up throughout the very early morning. We'd seen a small accident yesterday where a motorbike had crashed. Korean motorbikes cost 6 million kip whereas the Chinese motorbike only costs 4-5 million kip, more affordable. Here they also use ploughs attached to trailers as means of transport. Lots of satellite dishes surprisingly.

Tourism is highly controlled in Laos. We were registered by the tour company with the government as tourists to the Plain of Jars. I guess all our movements are known.

My memories of visiting the Plain of Jars, site 2 and 3 today, are many. Snippets of women and children, the children happily playing in the fields, on the road, everywhere. Babies carried on the backs of mothers and fathers in the traditional baby sling. Older children carrying younger siblings on their backs with slings.

Rice fields everywhere, water buffalo wallowing in ponds or wandering the roads caked in mud.

Travel on the road means avoiding ducks, geese, turkeys, cows galore, water buffalo. Not many cars so mostly the center lane is used on the good road. On the dirt tracks we used whatever side didn’t have a pot hole.

Swallow catching is a seasonal thing. Our guide stopped at one swallow catchers hut and explained how they captured them. There are several methods all employed at the one place. They stick the feet of some swallows to the branches of a thin tree. Others are thetered by thin fishing line to the ground, but they still make attempts to fly up – this is what attracts the other swallows. Once the unthetered swallows land by the captured ones, the nets on either side are suddenly snapped over them. Apparently in the high season for swallows 300 or so can be caught in one day. They are not only used for the locals food, but are sold at the markets to make extra money. The extra money means the family can afford to buy school books or other necessities for their children to go to school.

We walked through the rice paddy’s to get to site 3. Site 3 was my favorite. At both site 2 and 3 today we were the only one’s there. It’s an amazing experience to be standing on a hill in the middle of rice fields in Laos utterly alone. Peace and quiet.

Lots of subsistence farming as there’s not much else to employ people here. Without their farms the people would starve.

The tourist industry is only in it’s infancy, which is great for us. In 10 years time I’m sure Phonsovan won’t be recognizable as tourism takes over.

The old capital was wiped out by carpet bombing during the war. It’s being rebuilt and repopulated but it’s still only a tiny proportion of what it used to be and very simple.

The Wat in the old town was also bombed during the war, which destroyed it almost completely. The Buddha is still standing though, if a little the worse for wear from bombs. It’s still a working Wat and we talked with the one monk who was walking around the field where the temple and Buddha were. The field was home to a cow that was grazing happily in front of the Buddha.

There’s also an old stupa overgrown with trees and shrubs, just about visible still. A second stupa is so covered it’s hard to see it or to believe there’s a stupa under there. But there’s just enough outline to make out the stupa shape.

Had breakfast at Café Simalay and had a beer there after we finished the day’s tour of Sites 2 and 3.

The bull at Site 2 put me off going up to the second hill, but overall it was a gorgeous site. Especially with the herd of cows who took up residence around the jars and were not happy that we were there disturbing them.

Before climing the hill up to Site 3 we stopped at the Café at the bottom of the hill. The Café is more a hut with tables and chairs and a local lady who provides one item on the menu, noodle soup. They were also very happy to share some sips of Lao Lao whiskey with us. It’s the custom to share a drink with your host/hostess.

People wash themselves in the streams outside their houses. There’s not a lot of in-door plumbing.

A couple of quarries are close to town. Our guide said they are limestone – not the same as the ones the jars were carved from.

Many women and children wear the traditional Laos style skirt. More so in the outlying villages than the ‘Capital’, Phonsovan.

There are many new buildings and houses here. It’s obvious that a little money goes a long way here and the influx to the town from the small amount of tourism makes a huge difference.

Eventually Phonsovan will become a well known tourist destination and the simplicity and beauty of the town as it now is will be gone.

MAG is the bomb disposal program who have an office locally in Phonsovan.


The safe path marked by MAG signs

Internet access on a shared 56k dial up modem line to Vientiane sucks.

Our guide told us the story of why the water buffalo is the beast of burden for the farmers. Initially Buddha had asked the water buffalo to go to earth and tell the people that he wanted them to eat once every 3 days. On his way down he went into a dream and forgot the directions the Buddha had given him so when he got to earth he told the people that they should eat 3 meals a day. Buddha was very upset and as a result he gave the water buffalo to the people as a beast of burden to work for them.

It’s cold in the evenings here, you need a fleece to keep it at bay.

We saw an old lady sitting slowly making straw roofing.

For every adult there seems to be about 1 baby, 1-2 infants and an older child around.

Friday night beers and Lao Lao with our guide and his friends. Then off to the local disco on the back of their motorbikes. The disco is called FIFA and has a soccer ball as part of it’s signage. It had the usual strobe lights and loud music.

Our guide, Le, is getting married in February 2005. His fiancée is in Vientiane learning to be a chef.

The local electricity is supplied to outlying housing by means of one single cable. To get the cable to the house often in the middle of a rice paddy field the trunks of bamboo trees are used as electricity poles. Often with their branches still attached, though cut short.

Vientiane to Phonsovan

We flew from Vientiane to Phonsovan through Luang Prabang. Phonsovan and the eastern side of Laos is a UXO area. But as long as you stick with the well worn paths, you’re probably going to be fine.

Saw a little boy playing with a giant sharp knife.

Had dinner at Phone Keo Restaurant.

This is a very small town. As we walked from the Guest House (Maly Guest House) towards the town we came across a section of the road that had been entirely dug up for road work. It meant we had to walk downone side of the steep bank and up the other.

There are not many Farang here.

We found a driver /guide and car for touring the Plain of Jars. There are 3 official sites around the town that we are allowed to visit. Today we visited site 1. It was a little disconcerting to see the mine clearing team walking around the area we were just about to visit. It’s a well worn area which I would have thought was clear of mines by now. Our guide told us that they still find about 4-5 UXO per day around the area. I’m thinking it’s probably not on the well worn areas, but then why were they checking it?

The Plain of Jars are a series of stone jars that could be about 3,000 years old. The limestone they are carved from is not available at the site, apparently they were carved at a limestone quarry some distance away and carried to the hilltops to be set down. Our guide told us it was elephants that moved them. He also told us several stories about what they were used for. One story tells of giants who used them as rice wine cups. Another says that they are for funerals. Most experts are supporting the theory of funeral jars, but there’s no evidence one way or the other to indicate that’s true.


Plain of Jars, Site 1

Some local Laos teenagers were dallying with their girl-friends around the area. Eventually one of them plucked up the courage to talk to us and ask that we take their photo. Which we very willingly did. It was hilarious to see the girls pretty themselves up first for the photo. They were laughing and giggling all the while.

We promised to print the photo for them, but that proved difficult as the town doesn’t have a digital photo printing capability. After searching around we found a photocopy and traditional film developing place that had PC’s with a color printer. We printed it on the color printer and left it at our Guest House for the teenagers to pick up.

Our driver’s name is Le, but he kindly said we can call him Lee if we can’t pronounce it the Laos way. But we managed.

There are 11,000 kip to a $1. This is a very poor country.

The town has very little street lighting at night and after we had finally got the photo printed it was pitch dark, most of the tuk tuks or other forms of commercial transport had gone home. The town was very quiet. It was too dark to walk back to the Guest House along the road. Eventually a tuk tuk that was obviously taking some locals home after they’d been out on the town stopped to help us. They didn’t speak any English but we were able to communicate the need for a ride home, and they knew the name of the Guest House. The driver communicated the amount of money he wanted by showing us the bills, and that worked fine. A ride home was negotiated.

Border trip to Vientiane, Laos

Took the train from BKK to Vientiane, with a 2nd class sleeper. At the Thai/Laos border we took a tuk-tuk to the Friendship Bridge where the immigration posts for both countries are. First we paid our ‘tax’ to leave Thailand, then walked a few yards to the Laos Immigration where we paid an entrance ‘tax’. Everything to do with immigration of any sort costs money, money, money.

Took a taxi from the Laos Immigration side of the Friendship Bridge to Vientiane, about 20km away. We had asked to be taken to the Boulichanh guest House on Lane Xang Ave, but he took us to another one. Obviously he was going to get a commission if we took a room there for a night. Which we did as it was the end of a tiring journey and late. The room was fine and Jeff talked them down from $15 to $10 for the night. Unfortunately the Guest House was way out of town so it was a fair walk to anything. But we walked to the center of town and had dinner at Le Provence, beside the fountain in the center of town. It’s a lovely restaurant but spendy. After that we found the Khop Chai deu bar and restaurant. A local ex-pat hang out which is packed every single night of the week.

Had a lovely walk along the Mekong river, eventually walking into the poorer end of town.

We rented a motorbike and biked around the city for a little. Got myself another motor bike burn on my right leg. Driving in Laos is crazy. There’s a third invisible middle lane that everyone uses to overtake, turn left, turn right, whatever they need to do. What with the third invisible lane and one way streets galore it’s challenging to ride around Vientiane. But it’s a lot easier than Chiang Mai.

Vientiane is a very dusty city. I’ve also noticed there seem to be a good number of NGO’s here. They’re the ones with the cars and trucks.

Found the JoMa café for breakfast. It does bagles and waffles which are very good. Unfortunately Jeff’s waffle order seemed to get lost in the kitchen and he ended up waiting ages for it. I was well finished my bagel and coffee by the time it finally arrived.

Our goal is to get a 60 day visa from the Thai consulate here in Vientiane. We missed the time to drop our passports in on Monday so dropped them in on Tuesday. Our next stop is Phonsovan and the Plain of Jars, but there’s no flight on Tuesday. We ended up getting a flight for Thursday and returning Saturday to Vientiane. Then take a train on Saurday from Vientiane to BKK, arriving Sunday morning.

Most evenings we end up at Khop Chai deu bar. The pitchers of beer there are only $1.50, way cheap.

One of the local strings of mini-marts is called Pimphone.

The town has 135,000 is the Capital of the province. But it’s more like a small countrytown in Ireland about 40 years ago.

Lao coffee with sweetened condensed milk is just delicious. The Full Moon Café for dinner. Quiet and relaxed. Big cusions on long benches, subdued lighting, very well placed paintings from local artists. Owned by the Laos wife of a local American NGO officer.

Tables at Full Moon have table settings in a basket, so it’s easy to set the table without having it already set. Had Indian curry with chicken and fried rice. Food is very good. The chicken was a little too prepared in exact bit size pieces. Jeff’s tasted better. It was a real chicken piece, skin and all. Done well and very tasty. Som taw was spicy but not too spicy. It also has a book exchange where you take a book and leave a book.


The temple is the playground for this little Laos boy

Yoga, Thai classes, photo work and Irish Banking woes

I do yoga in the mornings these days and Thai classes in the afternoons. It makes for very full days so every so every so often I take a down day to catch my breath. Today was a down day for me. Some days just are like that. I took it very very easy.

September 22nd – did some photo work to 400 pixel size and uploaded to the web site. It’s much faster than the 600 pixel size photos up there. I’ll have to redo the entire site.

I spent a lot of time with the Bank of Ireland trying to sort out the automated payment for the mortgage. It’s very frustrating to look for Customer Service and get no help what so ever. The Bank of Ireland hasn’t moved to the internet electronic age very well yet. Sure I can get on-line account information but nothing about transactions or other stuff. And if I want to do serious stuff like set up automated payments, that has to be by paper with a physical signature on it. Aaagggh

September 23rd, 24th – spent time finding guest houses in Vientiane as that’s where our next visa run is to.

Thai classes and internet access at the Victory

Spent some time researching local serviced apartments that have internet access in the room. Found the Victory hotel and we’ve booked a one-bedroom with internet access for a month, starting 19th September.

September 19th moved into Victory Hotel. I headed out to AUA to see what their Thai classes were like. It’s certainly different to most ways of teaching I’ve had before. They give you a class pass so that you can go in and listen to one lesson to see what you think. There is no study or homework required, all you have to do is look and listen. At about 800 hours they figure you’ve listened and looked enough to start speaking Thai. Before that they don’t want you speaking Thai.

All the teachers are native Thai speakers and that makes a big difference.

Construction started outside our apartment block today. It’s very noisy, however we hope it won’t last too long. We found a local restaurant for dinner, Tida esarn.

Back 'home' in Bangkok

I don’t sleep very well on trains so I’m tired as we reach Bangkok and descend from the train. It was nice to get a Taxi and arrive back in a familiar bedroom at the Wild Orchid Guest House, even though it was still very early in the morning the room was ready.

Then we headed out to My House for breakfast and checkin to email. There’s a gorgeous looking girl sitting casually back on the low Thai seats and pillows. All the Farang guys can’t help but look at her. Though I think she’s aware of the looks she is getting, she takes it in her stride and casually gets on with eating her breakfast and reading her book.

Two of the guys checking her out are from the train we just got off. It’s a small world when you got to Khaosan Road or Banglamphou. I’d heard the older guy talking on the train about how many girls he had slept with. It sounded sordid and nasty they way he talked about ‘making out’ with girls. I don’t think he had any respect for women. Luckily the younger guy now with him had better manners and taste.

Leon gave me a CD with lots of old news articles about the 1953 floods and flooding of the fjords in Holland and how they shored up the dykes and made dams over the following 12 years that still stand today.

Songkran Movie, Ganga and leaving Chiang Mai

Leon and I had toured the town early in the day on a small photo shoot. As we returned to the Triple NNN Café for a quick coffee we noticed a film crew, actors and extras all milling around the moat Gate to the night markets. It looked like a recreation of Songkran, the water festival held in April each year. Some of the extras were Farang and some were Thai. The crowd had high powered modern water pistols as well as the usual buckets and other containers for water. The idea behind the water Festival is that you drown whoever passes by with water.

Along with the water dousing are parades which include a water buffalo, Buddha images and other important reliquaries decorated and paraded high above the crowds heads. All were recreated for the movie.

Beside the Safe House Guest House we’re staying in is a little hair dressers. This is where I get my hair washed and blow dried. They have a dog which was paralyzed in it’s back legs. But they had managed to turn a pair of small wheels into a cage for his back legs which allowed him to walk on his front ones and ‘wheel’ along on his back ones.

Booked tickets to Bangkok and picked up the replacement power supply for the MAC.

My leg is much better, it definitely needed the visit to the Chiang Mai Ram hospital to get lanced and cleaned out.

This evening two Americans from Hawaii arrived at the Guest House. They’re here to get dental work done. They’re middle-aged to older and are way into ganga. One’s a Rastafarian. But they were too loud about the ganga and I was nervous for them. Eventually we thought we got the point across.

It transpired that a friend of theirs lives in Chiang Mai with his Thai girlfriend. He arrived later with a load of ganga and they immediately took off to their room to smoke it. As they are in the room next to us it’s impossible to not smell it.

Torrential rain again last night so I didn’t sleep very well.

This evening as I waited for Jeff, I met a lady called Jill. She and her husband and baby son Henry have come from Indonesia to live and work in Chiang Mai. She’s an English teacher. They figured it’s better to raise their son in the family-oriented and community environment of an Asian country rather than the States.

Leon was very sad to see us go. I think he will be more lonely now.

On the train our seats, 30 and 32, were occupied by other Farang. They didn’t realize how the seating numbering worked, but all turned out well once we’d worked through it. The gentleman we were talking with about the seats was from Madagascar originally, but had lived in Paris for the past 25 years. He was traveling with a group which didn’t really seem to suit him. He didn’t like the fact that they kept moving on day after day, mostly by bys. Unpacking and packing every night.

I can’t say I blame him. The group he was with included a French lady who was very rude. Her seat was by the diving doors between the carriages. At one point a Guard walked through the door and forgot to close it after him. She literally screamed at him to close the door. As he was Thai, and an authority figure, he didn’t understand what she was saying but understood the rude manner in which it was delivered. He politely closed the door, but you could hear the whispers about her actions make their way down through the entire carriage. An obnoxious woman. God help her husband.

We pass many small towns. Some with very picturesque stations, others just railroad crossings. Many dogs, many chickens.

Triple NNN and Farang who lost his backpack

While sitting doing email and blogging I couldn’t help but overheard an American tourist who was explaining to the waiter how he had ‘lost’ his bag in the Café yesterday. He appeared to be a guest in the Hotel part of Triple NNN.

His prescription medications were in the bag, as were his passport and other valuable documents related to his work and life in general. His story was that he had been in the Café yesterday with a Thai lady friend who he had taken pity on when she had approached him to help her.

It sounded like he had stupidly talked to the girl, expecting that if he helped her she would return the favor by being very friendly with him. After some time she was ready to go home or somewhere else and he called a cab for her. When he returned to the Café his bag was gone.

He offered the waiter a reward if his bag could be found. He figured that the waiter would have a better chance of scouring the local town and community to get information about it and get it back.

Apparently it worked, he returned the following day and the bag had been returned, with the prescriptive medicines and documents, but minus the money. Ouch.

Food, Transport and Leon's Stories

The different kinds of food, bbq, noodles, fried rice, boiled rice, coconut wrapped in banana leaves, quail eggs cooked on little griddles, papaya salad, spicy kai lob (chicken) made with the freshest of herbs give unblieveable taste and flavor to dishes from street vendor to high class restaurant. I love the Pad thai, the Papaya salad, the bbq chicken sticks, the bbq corn on the cob.

Each day or evening the street vendors set up their little stalls. On the stalls they have either the noodles or rice that has been precooked and ready to be reheated or being kept hot over a boiling pan. They have hot-coal pots that sit neatly into the cart with the coal-rack just at the same level as the cart, keeping the hot coals below and out of the way of passing people and danger. On the cart they also have all the herbs, fruit or vegetables that they’ll use for making their particular dishes. They also usually have a glass cabinet that sits on top of the cart that holds the meat or other delicacy that is their particular thing to sell. It can be everything from pork, chicken, fish and other unknown meats to just noodles for Pad Thai. The bug vendors exclusively only serve bugs such as worms, scorpions, cockroaches and crickets.

The variety of fruit is enormous, dragon fruit, rambutan, lychee like fruit that taste a little like grapefruit but just a tad sweeter. Watermelon, pineapple, papaya, melon, apples, small local bananas that taste so good bbq'd, Farang fruit, and endless amount of new fruits to taste. Orange juice squeezed from the most delicious little fruit oranges I have ever tasted.

I don’t recognize half of the stuff they are selling. I do know that the round balls on the skewers can be anything, pork or chicken or a combination of stuff that I probably don’t want to know.

The rice or noodle sausages are interesting but I think the one time I tried it it wasn’t from the best vendor. Or else they are simply not my thing.

Banana leaves are used extensively as plates or coverings on rice baskets. They’re also used to make containers for coconut or other delicacies and they are also used as little dishes to cook quail eggs in over the hot coals. It’s surprising how versatile they are.

Leon’s stories about his time in Jail in Iraq are harrowing. He was locked up for 14 months in Iraq. Tortured by electricity. Not allowed to use toilet facilities so his toilet was his jail cell. His back is destroyed because of the torture and he never uncovers it in public.

He was evacuated from the Iraqi jail by the US Royal Marines in a helicoopter, after which it took him a year to recuperate from his experiences. The man’s indestructible. And that’s after he had encephalitis twice, 2 paralyzing strokes as a young, numerous other diseases from trips in Africa and other wild places. His legs still show the marks of the disease he picked up in Africa. Now he has been diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour. It’s on the stem of his brain which means it’s inoperable. He’s had chemo twice already.

Round the town there are Akha women dressed in traditional tribes clothes selling their wares. People who are paralyzed don’t have wheelchairs or perhaps they are using the sympathy vote by not using it to get money. I can’t tell.

Craig the idealistic British student of Thai brought his teacher to the Guest House one evening. All I can say about his teacher is that he looks like he’s on so many drugs he never sleeps. His eyes are sunken deep into his face and the dark circles under his eyes are not just circles they are half moons. He’s dangerous but Craig just can’t see it. He’s also very rude and uncommunicative or social. I put it down to the fact that he’s strung out on something. He looks close to death. His dour countenance and personality only make him seem more sinister.

Transport here is all Sengthaw which I believe are left over small troop movement trucks from past wars. But I think they're made as a general means of transport now. A Sengthaw can be hailed at any point in it’s journey and you negotiate where you want to go and what the price is. Then you climb into the back of the truck which has wooden benches on both sides and is covered by a canopy top. The sides are open to the air. Anytime in your journey the driver may stop to pick up other passengers. The more people he can get into the truck the more money he will make on each trip.

Photo work for www.ourlifesucks.com

For the last couple of days I’ve spent the early mornings working on photos to get them ready to upload to the web site. It’s been a while since we uploaded stuff and I really wanted something there just to get it started. I find that as I go along that I think there are better ways to prepare the photos, to set up the way they look on screen, the way they flow from one into another and that they are lacking description information that would be so useful to someone looking at them. I can see a lot of work ahead to get that rearranged and in better order to make sense to site visitors.

We continue to lead a fairly quiet life her in Chaing Mai. Mostly it's so Jeff can get his work done. On occasion we come across Oliver who still hasn’t got money from his brother or a job.

Chiang Mai Wat visiting and Lawyers for Monks

Yesterday we visited the Airport Plaza, a fairly nice shopping centre. Then went to see The Terminal with Tom Hanks. It’s a good movie and I was surprised at how well Catherine Zeta Jones did in it.

Jeff got his hair cut today while I visited the wats. I visited Wat Pan Ping opposite our Safe House Guest House. It’s a fine Wat but the best part was chatting with a local Thai person. He was a lawyer and had an office beside our Guest House. He’d been educated at the Wat as a young monk, as that’s the only way he could afford to get educated. Now he was doing lawyer work for free for them in repayment. He was a very nice person and enjoyed telling me about the Wat, his education there and his working in Bangkok and other places before returning to Chiang Mai.

Watched The Green Mile again. Met a Dutch guy at the Guest House while waiting for Jeff to come back from work at Starbucks. He had some very interesting stories to tell. He had lost his right hand at 28 years old in a fireworks accident. He had a tough life, he smoked and drank to excess but made no excuses for it. He freely admitted to being an alcoholic. He kept a couple of cases of beer in his room all the time. The stories he told about being in Brooklyn and fights he got himself into were hair raising. He has a girlfriend of 10 years. He survives on disability payments but also trades in T-shirts which he exports from Thailand and sells in Holland at huge profit.

Also met a US TELF teacher. She and her husband and 10 month old son were in Chiang Mai to continue their careers as TEFL teachers. They wanted to bring their son up in Thailand or the Asian community as they felt that it was a better upbringing for a child than in the US. They’re right. They’d taught in many places including Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Java.

A necessary visit to Chiang Mai Ram Hospital

Triple FFF was closed so we had breakfast in the UN Irish Pub. It was sufficient, nothing spectacular. Then we headed for the Chiang Mai Ram Hospital (pronounced ‘Lam’) as my leg was still suffering from the run-in with the wooden spinning top at the Hilltribes games. The bump had not reduced and the swelling and bruising was still continuing along my leg and foot.

The hospital experience was unbelieveable. In the space of just 50 minutes I registered as a new patient, got my ID, was seen by the pre-check nurse, had an initial consult with the doctor, had an x-ray and surgery on the wound to open it and remove the infected haematoma, got my drugs and paid the huge sum of $57. In the US first I would never have been seen immediately unless it was in the Emergency, where I would have waited for probably 2 hours before being even acknowledged as present. And it would have cost my health insurance company probably close to $1,000 for the whole process.

The doctor gave me a local anaesthetic around the wound, Jeff came in to hold my hand. The doctor opened the wound with a scalpel and remove the debris inside, then proceeded to squeeze it to get the last infection out. Now that part I felt. Afterwards they dressed the wound. I was on anti-biotics for a week and had to change the wound dressing every day. The next day it felt so much better it was unbelievable. I had gone so long not having something done about it I'd got used to the discomfort, now it was going to get better.

Leaving Luang Prabang and nearly losing our luggage

Jeff is still incapacitated today but much improved, even well enough to get us to the Airport and survive the one hour plane journey. Yeah! It was $4 for a ride to the Airport, rather more than we would have paid if we’d bargained. But we got it through the Guest House so we were committed and it made a huge difference to Jeff’s comfort.

The driver was very very helpful too, I think the Guest House had told them his back was a problem because he helped lift everything for us.

As we flew from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai the skies were absolutely amazing. Lots of fluffy cumulonimbus and other clouds. I always think they are like the ocean, except an ocean of clouds. I feel like I am sailing the cloud ocean as we fly through the air.

Time and again I’m surprised at how utterly inappropriately some people dress when visiting Buddhist countries. In front of us were two Italian girls. One of whom had shorts on that started at her but crack and ended above the curve of her butt. Her top was of similar sizing, from the top of her bust to well above her belly button. It would have been less ugly if it was an attractive reveal, but her flesh just hung out all over the edges. Yeuch! Her companion was a bit better, in a dress which though figure hugging was many times more discreet when compared to the shorts and top girl.

As we were standing in line for our immigration processing Jeff noticed that our bags had begun to come out on the conveyor belt. In front of us the two Italian girls were having problems getting through immigration. It appeared that things were not in order somehow for them. As we waited interminably the other lines moved through quickly. Then Jeff noticed our bags were the same as two others, and one of the guys who owned the same looking bags had picked up mine!

As I was processed by the immigration officer I watched the guy head for the exit to hand in his papers. I rushed over to him just in time to stop him going through and ask him would he mind doing a check of his bag because we have exactly the same luggage has they did. I checked the bag, knowing it was mine, and found my name tag on it. As I said ‘Great minds think alike’ he kind of laughed and he and his companion walked over to the conveyor belt with me. They picked up the right second bag for them and we picked up Jeffs. It seems incredible that two other people with the exact same Arcteryx backpacks and exacty the same Lowepro duffle bag cover should be on the same plane as us.

That evening we had dinner with Leon in Chiang Mai

Walkabout in Luang Prabang

As Jeff’s back was still not very good, he took it fairly easy today. This afternoon I took off for a walk to stretch my legs and get a bit of fresh air.

In the center of Luang Prabang I came across the Van Nong Sikhounmoung Wat. In the courtyard, over to the back and right, there was an open shed with two very large rowing canoes. They had obviously been stripped and were in the process of being repaired and repainted. I wonder for what? The head of the boats were adorned with nagas.

As I stepped back from it and over to the Chedi in the middle of the courtyard a young monk called out “Hello”. Monks love to practise their English and I was curious to find out what they were doing with the boats.

After the usual “Where are you from?”, “What’s your Name?” and a couple of other pleasantries and bits of information I asked him what the people were doing with the boats. He replied that they were getting them ready for the boat races in 2 weeks. Each year the temples hold a boat race, each temple having it’s own boat or boats in the race. The boats were being prepared by the locals for the upcoming race. The monks don’t work on the boats, nor do they row them. The townspeople do. It takes 48 people to row the boat. With 2 in the race, that meant 96 village people would be rowing this Wat’s boats. The monk was very excited as this was the first time in 3 years that it had entered the race.

That evening we went for a short walk through the night market. I was afraid Jeff would overdo it. Later we had too many beers and slept very well.

Pak Ou Caves

Some of the Buddhas at the entrance to the Pak Ou caves

The best part of the Pak Ou caves river trip was the boat trip up the Mekong. The caves themselves are interesting. The Laos are very proud of them.

It was surreal being on a boat on the Mekong. I’d seen and read about it so many times. To be there was a moment I’ll always remember. We were headed up river first to visit the Capoper village where they made Lao Lao whiskey and then to the Sapaper paper making village.

The land on either bank of the Mekong is beautifully green and lush. Yet behind it lies hardship and a farming community that uses small patches of the banks to grow vegetables to support themselves. Clearing the patches on the banks causes disintegration when the heavy rains come. The farmer and his family then have to move onto the next path. Much of the Mekong hillsides and mountains are being destroyed by the slash and burn farming here. But how else are the farmers supposed to make a living? It’s a vicious circle unless the Government steps in and does something about it.

Some days we heard that the smoke from the slash and burn effect causes the hills to be misted over all day. We did see the effect later that day as we returned to Luang Prabang.

Very shortly after we’d started out on the trip we pulled over to the Sa paper making village. I was disappointed that we had stopped so soon, I was enjoying the ride. But it was worth it.

We saw how the paper starts out as a watery kind of pulp, it's set out to dry on bamboo baskets and when dry is made into the various kinds of lamps, painted and decorated. Also in the village were the silk cloth weavers, We had seen many of the silk products at the night market and in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. They said that it takes somewhere between 20 – 30 days to make one of the cloths, depending on their size. It certainly looks extremely time consuming.

After the sa paper village we continued up river. This time we had lost our front seats as we were slower getting back on the boat (read last). Being at the back of the boat was noisier and more uncomfortable. The seats here didn’t have cushions like the ones up front. I think everyone on board had been a bit surprised that the Jaspanese pair had taken over the front row seats. Thereafter that they made sure to always be first back on the boat to get these seats. Oh well.

A good deal later we stopped at the whiskey making village. Lao Lao whiskey is quite a lovely drink, though very potent. It’s distilled from rice. First the rice is put in what looks like water but potentially has more in it, for 5 or so days. Then it’s put through a still where it's distilled and the resulting whiskey tricles out into a large jar. The jars used to be made in the village here, but not any more. They are brought in from outside. The jars themselves are very large, holding a huge quantity of the lovely liquid.

We bought some of it for gifts for friends but left behind the bottles that had additional flavorings such as the scorpions, lizards and other nasties.

At the Pak Ou caves we spent about 30 minutes looking around. It was much smaller than I expected, but then it is just a cave. It was dark and difficult to take photos even with a flash. The caves are in two halves, a lower cave and an upper cave. We walked up the 220 steps to the upper cave. Inside is extremely dark luckily Jeff had brought his little LED light which just barely enough to see by. You can rent a torch from the two little girls outside the cave if you forget to bring a light with you.

After the caves we crossed the river to a couple of bamboo covered restaurants. Here we had a long leisurely lunch before getting back on the board and heading back to Luang Prabang.

It was an amazing journey back through the Mekong river. I watched the eddies and whirls that surfaced everywhere and canonly think that there was so much more turbulence bellow the surface that we didn’t see and was dangerous.

Unfortunately back at the Guest House Jeff’s back had paid the price of having to duck to get to the back of the boat all day, while carrying his heavy Brian’s Hot Tub in front of him. He was out of action for the next couple of days. Only barely being able to move to get to breakfast or a short walk across the street and back. Just as well we took this more expensive Guest House as it made it so much more comfortable for him to be suffering with a bad back. Especially the bed, it was good for his back.

Luang Prabang's Surrounding Environment

The number of different kinds and sizes of butterflies that scurry about in the air is amazing. Some dancing together in a mating frenzy, others busy sunning themselves or skipping from flower to flower to get the nectar. Scarabs fly hither and dither. I’ve never seen a real scarab let alone a flying one before. Any I’ve seen have been on TV or dead in display cases.

The Laotian people are very beautiful in contrast to us Farang. They seem so petite and elegant as opposed to our largeness and fair skins. It makes one feel clumsy just walking around. The Laotian's like Farang and not just because the tourism provides them with a living, they really seem curious to learn about us as individuals.

Our waiter told us his salary is $25 /month. He's a student and studies during the day, working at night. He gets 2 days off a month.

Many youth join temples as apprentice monks so that they can get an education. Otherwise their families don’t have the money to allow them to take higher education. Rather they need them to work to earn money to help support the entire family.


The local Royal temple

The ubiquitous motorbike is everywhere. Touts are not so pushy here, they back off the moment you say you’re not interested in whatever they are selling. Very polite. It’s curious to see people riding motorbikes while talking on cell phones, or holding umbrellas against sun or rain. A motorbike is a family vehicle here, with up to 4 or 5 people sharing the seat as they go about their business.

Again the children are beautiful, disarming in their innocence and big eyes. They look and sound happy which is not something that can be said a lot of US children or young adults. Gryffin of course being the exception.

In Luang Prabang the Mekong converges with one of it's tributaries. The waters of the Mekong are always muddy, it has many undercurrents and eddies and is very dangerous for an inexperienced person to travel on. Underneath are submerged logs and other debris swirling about. The local boatmen know the river well and it's safest to hire one of them to take you around on the river.

We got a Laos phone chip for the cell phone. But it doesn’t seem to want to call Ireland. It’s fine to the States.

Visited Wat Xienmouane Vajiramangauram during the day. That evening we went to a local family’s house who were hosting a dance and music event for tourists at Le Tam Tam Garden bar. It really was someone’s front living room. It had been converted and expanded to host about 25 Farang and served a buffet-stlye dinner. Beer was available for purchase. The show was performed by the entire family. Grandpa and Dad and friends were the orchestra. The mother, daughers and other female family members were the dancers. It was utterly charming, more close to the real thing than I could ever have expected.

Later that evening we had a gorgeous sunset followed by lightening and a little rain. The humidity had been high today. The rain was a relief.

In the afternoon I’d seen a little boy totally absorbed with his game of marbles. He had 3 marbles, but it was the best thing since sliced bread to him. Later three little children played with the lamp posts, shimmying up them with no problem. Children played using their imagination and whatever was around them. Not a Toys R' Us in sight.

First Day in Luang Prabang

Our first morning in Luang Prabang, Loas, we had breakfast at Café Ban Vaysone. They served the most delicious coffee and breakfast. If this was an indication of breakfast then we are in heaven.

After breakfast we moved out of the Heritage House and into the Luang Prabang Bakery Guest House. After the AC at Heritage House which had no controls, the AC of Luang Prabang Bakery Guest House was perfect. The bathroom was clean, well lit, not smelly and dry!




Street Life from the Luang Prabang Bakery Guest House

That afternoon we had picked up a flier from a local boy advertising the Ngam Laie Theatre Royal Ballet. They were having a music and dance event that evening. We headed out for the Theatre about 7:00pm. It's a small simple Theatre. The orchestra comprised of a xylaphone like instrument, Laotian drums and a couple of Laotian stringed instruments. It was lovely sitting listening to them before the main event started.

The main event was a Chapter from the Ramayana. The devils and gods throughout the act were local highschool students or early 20-something boys and girls. Their movements were elegant, well timed and they portrayed their characters with peace and joy.


The Orchestra

Afterwards we had a lovely time back at our Guest House talking with the waiters and waitresses, who were all eager to practise their English in a relaxed and easy way.

We found out that the naga headed cloth hanger we got for Bonnie and Darren is supposed to be good to get a boy baby! Oops!