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