Day 67-70: Chiang Mai

Finally, a chance to rest! We have finally made it to Thailand's north, to the city of Chiang Mai. I expected a mix of old medieval-style city and quiet hill station. I did not expect this town to be the Bangkok of the north!

We arrived and just have taken it easy. Exploring the Night Bazaar, doing laundry, watching the rest of The Mindy Project (note to others: season 1 is really funny, season 2 is decently funny, and season 3 is a bit more serious than we'd prefer), and relaxing.

We only stepped out to explore the city for the Sunday Walking market. This is a market unlike any other we've encountered. This market takes over the entire old city.

The architecture here is really like no other we've seen. It's a bit like LOTR Rohan. This area of Thailand was under the "Lanna Kingdom." What does that mean? Uhh.... look, something shiny!

The structures are all built in teak rather than in stone. It's way more 'woodsy' in it's appearance; however, I'd say it's actually more beautiful. As we came across various temples, the temples all had small wind chimes hanging off every one of their rooftops' awnings. We also found an amazing crumbling stone-built 13th century temple that was incredibly different from what we saw in Sukhothai. It had stone dragons guarding 4 of the paved over steep stairwells up to the Buddha at the top. A crumbled stone spire rose from the top of the Buddhas, crested only by the filling moon. To top it off, we came at such a time that all of the child-monks were passing by. When I say child-monk, I mean Buddhists monks under the age of 18. At least 30 of them crossed us while we were at the temple. Man, when I was under 18, all I could care about were the physical things of this world: butterscotch pudding, cartoons (as seen by my 3rd grade calendar, where every Saturday had 'Cartoon Day' clearly labeled on it), and weird stupid girl problems. I certainly wasn't contemplating letting go of the physical and searching for Nirvana - unless you mean the band.

We then high-tailed it out of the old city, with some small shopping interruptions. The city became absolutely chaotic! It was filled with hill-tribe people selling things; street performers and beggars in the middle of the narrow lane ways, and throngs of people creating walking rage in every direction. There were so many people that we got into a full sweat. Never have I been at a place where the temperature was warmer at night than it was during the day.

Cool town and just a bit more to go before we leave Thailand.

Day 65-66: Sukhothai

We have somehow made it this far through Thailand without visiting any famous temples. In a land where Buddhism is everywhere, the absence of these famous temples in our adventure is really surprising. My desire to see 'ancient' Thai cities and temples only increased after our horrible trip to Ayutthaya, where we departed having seen nothing but deceit!

The city of Sukhothai is very similar to Ayutthaya. The main difference is, as far as I have poorly understood and re-twisted my daily Wikipedia history lesson, that the Khmer empire had a seat of power in Sukhothai whereas it didn't in Ayutthaya. Other than that, the two seem to be sister cities. Both were founded roughly around the same time in the 13th century. Both formed the foundation of the country of Thailand. Both have some pretty cool ruins. Same, same but different.

Sukhothai is a much  nicer city than Ayutthaya. The ruins are quite spread out, so you can opt to rent a bike to see them more effectively. I have no idea what happened to my bike riding skills but I completely got smoked on the bicycle by Pallavi. This bicycle defeat didn't just come while we were at the ruins. It came also both nights we were there, when we borrowed bicycles from our guesthouse to bike down the street to get dinner. As I was riding the bicycle, which looked like something straight from my Grandma's 1960s cupboard, I kept thinking, it's not me, it's got to be the bike. No, it's not the bike, Sarah. Okay self, well, maybe it's that the seat's too low, so I can't get effective momentum to propel myself at great speed. No, it's not the seat, Sarah. Okay, I've gotten more pathetic in my bike riding since my old POS bike (may she rest in peace) from college. It's just as sad a story as that.

The ruins were different from ones I'd seen in the past. Like many old cities, the religious structures were the only remnants; however, I'd never seen so many Buddhas. The main temple must have had a minimum of 5 Buddhas and there must have been at least 6 temples in the main area alone (there were at least 3 areas). The Buddha adds just a different mystic to the ruins. Plus, as Pallavi added, where did people live among so many temples?

Ancient temples in Thailand. Check.

Day 63-64: Mae Sot & Visa Run

We have been on a ticking clock ever since we arrived in Thailand. Thailand recently has changed a lot of its border policies. Americans happily get a 30 day visa on arrival by both land and by air. Australians get only a 15 day visa on arrival by land and a 30 day visa by air. Most backpackers subject to these 15 day visas conduct at least one "visa run," exiting Thailand into one of its neighboring countries and then returning back to Thailand with a new 15 day visa on the same day. We knew these visa limitations prior to deciding our mode of transport into Thailand, and decided travelling by land was the more economical and doing a visa run was the more economical option for us.

Lonely Planet outlines all of the various visa run options and, after some research, we decided that the visa run that suited our schedule and timing best was the one that exists on the border of Mae Sot, Thailand and Myawaddy, Myanmar.

We arrived in Mae Sot after travelling on an overnight bus and figured we'd just get this visa thing done and over with, then go and sleep in a hotel. First things first though, let's go and find a hotel to dump all of our stuff at. The internet had told us to just walk about 1 km and then you'll start finding places. Pallavi had wanted to book a place the night before and I figured we'd just wing it. Mistake! We walked and we walked and we walked. No places to be found. We found a map and tried to ask a local tuk tuk driver - who didn't speak even a bit of English. No place to be found. We walked and we walked and we walked....we must have walked 3 kms (in my head it was farther, but I'm dramatic) before we finally just took a place up.

Up until now, we really have been spoiled with being able to use English to get around. Most people speak just enough English for us to function. Simple things like 'how much?' or 'room?' seems to work. Not here in Mae Sot! It took us taking out monetary notes and fake counting them to the bus driver for him to show us a 100 baht note to indicate how much we needed to pay per ticket. At the hotel, in what I think was my finest charades moment, it took mimicking the sound of the drill that was working outside of our drill and disturbing our sleep and pointing to my watch, to get them to tell me 5:00 p.m. was the time that drill would finish (and then they kindly moved us to a different room). Okay, maybe that one was complicated, but getting the room also involved a bit of holding up fingers, indicting people, and making some hand gestures towards money to get a price. If you want authentic non-touristy Thailand, Mae Sot is certainly it.

We got ourselves sorted and Pallavi became the only non-Burmese/non-Thai person in the immigration queue at the border. It costs $10 USD for a one-day temporary visitor permit to the town of Myawaddy, so we decided I would stay in Thailand and Pallavi would cross over for 90 minutes or so and then return. I waited and people watched. This area was quite an active border crossing. Lots of Burmese people, wearing traditional clothing, walked by selling all sorts of new foods. People passing each other things through the mesh fence separating non-mans land between immigration and Thailand. You can see  the fog-covered mountains of Myanmar in the background of the teak-built homes.

The people here seem to wear some sort of 'mud' on their face. Pallavi says they wear a similar mud pack sort of thing in India to help protect the skin from the sun. Apparently it is quite good for the skin. We hadn't seen it anywhere else in Thailand, but we see it everywhere here! Men, women, children, and adults. I'm completely fascinated. I think I might need some 'mud' on my face too! I already stand out, why not stand out a bit more.

Pallavi made it back from her adventure, which involved the Thai immigration almost not letting her leave the country even though her visa was over that day and somehow walking over 2 kms in Myawaddy to see the sights and still having time both to have a coconut water and to have a tea in just 90 minutes. She also apparently saw lots of blatant people smuggling across the river as well. Nothing like a good adventure.

New visa acquired, we slept the whole rest of the time. Now we have a bit of time to slow down and go and explore Northern Thailand. 

Days 61-62: The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Hellfire Pass & Kanchanaburi

There is so much emphasis on the WWII Pacific Theatre; however, I don't feel like we as Americans put as much emphasis on the atrocities that occurred in Asia as we do on the ones that occurred in Europe. Yes, I can agree that you can't visually see the impact of the WWII here like you can in Germany or in the UK. You don't see shell-shocked buildings or remade stain-glassed windows. Pallavi and I have both done different German concentration camps. Now was our chance to head out to Kanchanaburi, the location of the Bridge Over the River Kwai and of Hellfire Pass.

Less than 2 hours outside of Bangkok, it's hard to believe so many POWs and locals slaved under such extreme and horrible conditions to try to build this Thai-Burma railway. We arrived in Kanchanaburi and walked from our place to the Bridge. We had been told this walk was 3 kms. 5 kms later with a sun about to set, we finally made it to the Bridge. During that 5 km walk, all I could think was that I would never have made it as a POW. This walk seemed difficult and it was 6 p.m. at night. How could I have ever cut through solid rock at 2 p.m., in the sun, on minimal food and sleep (see yesterday's post about starving without energy while just sitting on a train)? Just another reason why I would not make a great Survivor contestant. I might be stubborn as, but I'm a bit precious when it comes to my basic needs.

The Bridge Over the River Kwai is not as big as I thought it'd be. It's not as high above the water. The metal skeleton is not as high. However, as I looked at it, against the setting sun, a Bodhisattva statue peaking over the top of it from a temple on the shore behind it, I felt a profound sense of sadness. This place shouldn't be one of Hollywood style tourism, with people selling things on all sides, and a restaurant overlooking the bridge. At least, it didn't feel that way to me. It should be a place for quiet reflection. There are only a few trains per day, so the bridge is open for you to walk on and across. About halfway across the bridge, the tourists dropped off. We had the entire bridge to ourselves. On the other half of the bridge, it's quiet and serene. It probably has not changed since 1945. We sat for about an hour just looking at the bridge in mostly quiet before deciding to leave.

We knew we didn't want to walk the 5 kms back, so we waited for a mini-bus right in front of an ambulance station. We waited for a good 20 minutes before one of the EMTs asked our destination and told us that the mini-bus didn't run at that time of night. She then called out to another EMT about to drive his Rescue vehicle off and he said he'd take us to the bus station. Rescue rescued us!

The next day we went to Hellfire Pass. If you haven't seen the movie The Railway Man I highly recommend it both as a film and to learn more about Hellfire Pass. Long story short, the Japanese used some odd 60K POWs and 200K locals to cut through the mountain basically by hand (with a bit of help from explosives) on 2 bowls of rice per day, working 18-24 hours per day, to help lay the railway line. Hellfire Pass is one of the biggest mountainsides they cut through. It's called Hellfire Pass both because the high death toil (46%) and for how it looked when lit up at night. After the war, the English dug up some odd kms of track at the end of the line to prevent some other not nice thing from happening, including the track that went through Hellfire Pass. The Australian government has built a memorial museum here as they had the largest POW casualty rate here of any Allied country.

Walking through Hellfire Pass feels like walking with ghosts. To channel Derek from Most Haunted, you feel the residual energy of sadness, lost hope, and desperation throughout the pass. It feels like, if you listen, you can still hear the sounds of men working. As you walk, you pass bits of track, railway ties, and other bits of iron poking out of the cliff where its owner had left it. There are mostly Australian flags tucked in little hand holds in the cliff as tributes to the fallen. As much as POWs 'own' the tragedies of Hellfire Pass, in reality, of the 100K people who died here, POWs made up only 10K of them. 90K locals died! It's unbelievable. As we wrapped up and tried to walk up the 100 stairs to the top of the memorial, again we both recognized that we'd never had made it as POWs. We can't even walk up the nicely made stairs to the top at 4:30 p.m., in the shade, with the sun setting.

Tourism is a funny thing as too much can destroy a place; however, I think everybody who is in Thailand should make the journey to come here. It's an incredibly moving reminder of our past. 

Day 60: Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya is a crap town! We thought we would take a day trip up to Ayutthaya from Bangkok to see its water market. Thai water markets are meant to be absolutely photographically amazing. As per yesterday's experience at the Artist's Village, historically Thai people moved and traded along the various canals and waterways. Thus, the water market.

Not only are the water markets great for trade, but it also makes for great James Bond action sequences. If you've seen the movie Man with the Golden Gun, you may remember a scene involving a water market. That James Bond action sequence took place in one of Bangkok's water markets.

However. the problem with finding the right water market to go to is three-fold:

1. Most water markets only take place on weekends or, if they are open on a weekday, they are only open between 7-10 a.m.. We are on a bit of a timeline at present, so sticking around until Saturday-Sunday isn't really an option. Also, 7-10 a.m. is just painful when you add in the fact we are staying on a crowded party area in Bangkok and the sounds of bad 80s cover bands do not make for effective lullabies. 
2. Most of the most colorful and crowded markets are about 90kms outside of Bangkok. Also, the more colorful the market, the more touristy (and inauthentic) the market.
3. The authentic markets that are nearby aren't very colourful. There are 7 boats instead of a multitude of boats. 

After hours of searching, we decided that the market that fit the criteria of a) open on weekends, b) not as touristy, and c) not as far was Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is about a 2.5 hour train ride away. The train costs a whopping 50 cents. I had wanted to go to Ayutthaya initially because it is the original seat of the Kingdom of Thailand. Prior to Ayutthaya's founding in the 14th century, what is now Thailand was primarily ruled by the Cambodian Khmers. As Ayutthaya and its leaders strengthened, they captured more land and founded Thailand. Ancient palaces and temples, all surrounded by a water and a floating market to boot! Sounds pretty cool, right?

Wrong! After we got off what felt like the slowest train ever, we were immediately met with the kinds of Thai people we had been warned about. Tuk Tuk drivers wanting astronomical costs to take us to the water village. Information people telling us that there is no mini-bus to take us to the water village when we know there is one, etc.

We decided screw them, we'll just walk the 3-4 kms to the water village. After a hot walk, we finally got to the water village and..... it was a fake! We had been duped. It was a replica of a water village - and not the kind that is even trying to fake you out into thinking it was real. We were so disappointed by the entire experience that we decided to get the next train out of town. No exploration of ruins. Nothing. We saw some ruins on the overpriced tuk tuk we took back to the train and called it a day.

Oh, did I mention we didn't eat anything during this entire day either! Okay, one half of a sandwich for breakfast. By the time we reached Bangkok at 5 p.m., we were hangry, exhausted, hot, sweaty, AND disappointed. We know travel is a bit hit and miss - but missing is darn frustrating.

(PS - I did make up for the food with super yummy dinner + dessert. I was basically an eating monster.)

Day 59: The Artist's House, Bangkok

Everybody had warned us against Thai people. They told us that Thai people try to take advantage of you as a tourist. Other than the questionable tuk tuk scam(?), we have found Thai people to be some of the most lovely, helpful, go-out-of-the-way people we've met. I would say I haven't met a people like them outside of the Irish. 

Our Bangkok plan was a little thwarted when we decided to not go to the Grand Palace or any of the other main temples here. The Grand Palace is very near to where we are staying, so we can see it from across the park. It is really quite grand (from what we can see). The grounds are a minimum of 16 city blocks. Thai style gold gilded rooftops filled with ornamentation peak out from above the boundary wall. However, when we read the description and looked at online pictures, the Grand Palace didn't seem worth the $20 entry. Neither did any of the accessory temples for whatever fees they charged. 

We sat around trying to find what we wanted to spend our time and money on instead. Bangkok is filled with activities, it's just hard to find the right one. We found it. We happened upon some article about a place called The Artist's House. It's tucked away in a quiet neighborhood in Bangkok, along a canal, where people live as they have lived for the past few hundred years. Judging by the lack of information on how to get their by public transportation, this seemed like a place that most backpackers and tourists don't visit. Plus, they have a traditional Thai puppet show performance at 2 p.m. The time when we made our decision to go here: 12:00 p.m. 

We went to try to find the bus. I happily went to where I thought the bus stand stood (without confirmation or asking). We happily got on the bus and, after 10 minutes, I thought something didn't seem quite right. I asked the bus driver for our intended station - he, and every other person on the bus, told us to get off and get on the same bus number headed in the opposite direction. Well, no way would we make the puppet show now! So stupid! 

We got on the correct bus and asked for our intended station. The conductor said he'd tell us when. As we traveled, the woman behind us asked for our station. We told her. When we reached the station, the conductor, the entire bus, and specifically, the woman behind us, told us to get off. The woman got off as well, and asked where we were going next. We told her in our best bad Thai. She not only figured out where we wanted to go, but she pulled over another mini bus, told the driver where to take us, and told us the price. Then she happily went on her way. 

We stayed on the mini bus, again asked somebody in bad Thai where we wanted to go, and that person also helped u get off at the right place. 

Finally, puppet show missed, but finally there, we came up and over a canal, into a quiet area, bordered by conjoined wooden houses. You just walked from one wooden house to another. As we walked, we passed locals feeding the fattest, most active catfish I have ever seen. A minimum of 50 catfish surfaced, gasping with mustached mouths at the food tossed towards them. I, of course, looked for fisherman and saw none! Why not? Not sure. 

As we went along, we passed artists' house after artists' house, until we came to the one for which we had come. We had missed the puppet show, but one of the puppeteers still had a puppet on his hand for practice. From what I could see, Thai puppetry is a mix of dance and puppets. The puppeteer moves so gracefully, even without the puppet. Each step is choreographed from head to toe. It was amazing to watch. The puppets are about 3-4 feet tall. Slim with rods to control the movements. They are held much like Jim Henson's muppets (only without any hand up the back to control the mouth movement). I'm so glad we caught this guy's practice. 

We then explored a bit more, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed the quiet and calm. This place has no tourists. People speak only broken basic English (at best). As we explored we came across a Buddhist temple, filled with monks. Sitting around. Reading a book. Sweeping the streets. Nobody else there. There is also a floating market that occurs in this area (probably on weekends, as it was empty when we arrived). 

I didn't want to leave. Absolutely magical day in Bangkok. Exactly what we didn't know we wanted. Anybody can go and everybody has gone to the Palace. Very few have made it here. 

Day 58: Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok at 6:30 a.m. to a city unlike what we had expected; however, as the day progressed, it turned out to be exactly like I had expected.

I was expecting Bangkok to be more like Jakarta - filled with high rises and skyscrapers. It is not. Bangkok is surprisingly accessible. It is a city filled with Buddhist temples, palaces, rivers, and open green spaces.

We couldn't check in to our hotel until 12, so we had breakfast, and decided that, as it was hot outside, 9 a.m., and we were a bit tired and inappropriately dressed to go into the grand palaces (which requires pants that cover your knees and shirts that cover your elbows), that we would go to the national museum. As we went along, the following things happened: 

1. A friendly man asked us where we were going. When we said we were going to a museum, he said that it was closed until 1 p.m.. He then recommended a few other free temples that we could go to. He also recommended we go to the ferry, where we could take a ferry tour. You know me and free. I'm all about it, so it seemed like a decent plan. 
2. Conveniently, a tuk tuk pulled up and the man went over and told him where we wanted to go.
3. He told us it would cost us 20 baht. Seemed good - but I seemed to recall something I had read earlier..... no tuk tuk costs just 10 baht a person. Watch for scams! Too late. We were in the tuk tuk. 
4. We went to temple #1. Temple of the Standing Buddha. We went in and poked around. It seemed alright, but nothing really that great. Whatever. Win some, lose some. We went back to the tuk tuk. 
5. We went to temple #2.Temple of the Lucky Buddha. This temple seemed closed, but we stalked a few other tourists who seemed to have a guide who took them to the back. We didn't bother going in to the temple area (I'm tired of taking my shoes off). We went back to the tuk tuk. 
6. We decided we didn't want to go to the ferry. We'd just go back to the hotel. 
7. The tuk tuk asked if we wanted to stop by the tourist information centre. We said no. Then he asked if it was alright if he stopped for himself. We said, sure no problem. 
8. The tuk tuk stopped at the tourist information centre and suggested we get out. We asked if he was getting off. He said no, he stopped for us. We went in and discovered it was a tour booking centre filled with very unhelpful people. We asked if the national museum was closed. One guy said no, it's open every day.
9. We got back in the tuk tuk and asked him to drop us off. By now, I feel very uneasy about the whole thing and a bit nervous that this thing is a scam. When we got to our road, I just asked the tuk tuk to pull over, even though we had wanted to get to the national museum after that.

End of story. We then went to the national museum, which didn't pan out because I had misread the cost. We went back to the hotel, checked in, and while Pallavi slept, I looked up tuk tuk scams. 

Events #1 through #5 were identical in all circumstances! I then read in Lonely Planet that, in addition to no tuk tuks are for 10 baht per person, also don't believe anybody who tells you something is closed! 

I conveyed my findings to Pallavi when she woke up; however, as she reasonably asked, what was the scam then? We weren't asked for money. We weren't taken anywhere we didn't agree to go (except the info centre, where they barely even answered our one question, let alone try to get money from us). How could we have been scammed? 

If this was a scam, it was the worst scam! We came out of it with just a 20 baht tuk tuk ride and a questionable tale to tell. What do you think? Scam or no scam? 

Speaking of tales, Pallavi has not allowed me my unhealthy quantity of coffees per day. This change in caffeination is mostly healthy, but a girl sometimes just wants a nice sweet hot beverage that just happens to have caffeine in it! After we ate dinner last night, a man came by with roasted scorpions on sticks. I have always claimed that I could probably complete all of the eating challenges. Here was my chance! I asked Pallavi what she would give me if I ate a scorpion. She said, "I don't know. What do you want?" I thought about it. Last time we did this back and forth I asked for too little, so I decided to ask "for you to not give me any grief anytime I want coffee or beer for the rest of the trip." Pallavi thought about it and said, "the rest of the trip is a really long time. How about until India." Sounds like a deal to me! Much to Pallavi's surprise, I called the scorpion man over. After a bit of negotiation (which I could have done better at), I had my scorpion, we took the obligatory before photos, and I ate it! It was delicious! It didn't taste insect-y at all! No claws. No shells. Just yumminess. It also had a meatiness to it which, along with the charred BBQ, was quite delightful! 

Next, we decided to go and try to find Bangkok's legendary ladyboys. They have this whole ladyboy culture, their attitude towards which is incredibly liberal. To have a ladyboy is considered lucky! We went down towards a district where they are notorious... the gaybourhood of Bangkok! We sat down at a bar that was having its birthday celebration. We made friends, we danced on stage to 'Hava Nagila' with an awesome transgendered singer (seriously - she was good!), I lost a beer drinking competition (and let my ND MBA compatriots down in the process), and finally made it home. It was an absolute ball and the best drag show I've ever seen.

Tuk Tuk scams, scorpions, and ladyboy drag shows. It was exactly what I had expected from Bangkok. 

Day 55-57: Koh Tao, Thailand & Transit to Bangkok

Another few days just relaxing on a beach. We changed locations from our splurge hotel and went back to reality, at bungalow accommodation right on the beach.

By the way, Mom, thanks for all of the 'sounds like that go bump in the night' tent checks we did in Girl Scouts. When we were growing up, every year, twice a year, we'd go camping with the Girl Scouts. And, ever year, twice a year, one of us (who we all know, but shall remain nameless), spooked at every night time sound. As such, every year, twice a year, my Mom would walk around the perma tent, doing her best to imitate squirrels, wind, falling acorns, etc. That's how I felt when I started to hear all of the unfamiliar Thai forest creatures! I'm guessing we just were hearing toads and geckos, but how would I know? It only kept me up a little bit.......

This beach had great snorkeling, but not nearly as good as it was in Indonesia. Indo spoiled us too soon in our journey! I only wish the actual beach at this place was better! Coral makes for great snorkeling but for painful beaches.

Our island timing is unfortunate! We don't feel like we've really experienced Thai beaches because, as its monsoon season, all of the islands on the Andaman sea are closed! We also are racing monsoon across all of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, so we can't even just chill on a beach on the mainland. Plus, this island is suppose to be one of the cheapest places in the world to learn how to scuba dive, which we were seriously considering; however, Pallavi's cold made the decision for us to not learn how to dive... next time diving school... next time......

Hopefully we'll be able to do a bit more beach life in Cambodia.

We decided to leave Koh Tao and head over to Bangkok. It's a mostly straightforward journey. Ferry to the train station and then take an overnight train to Bangkok. Except when, in order to get to your platform, you have to cross through the train standing in front of you!

All of the foreigners waiting for our train had the same look of shock when the answer to our question, how do we get to platform 2, was a pointed arm at the open door of the train standing in front of us. I have never seen people move their luggage so quickly as we did through that train. I did too! Man, those 15 kg bags moved up the stairs and down the stairs almost by themselves! I did NOT want to be the one stuck in some bad movie montage with one bag down on platform 2 and another bag to go when the train we were crossing through started to move. (Pallavi apparently thought, eh, this train goes to Bangkok too, worse case). I may be dramatic, but I am not made for drama!

Overnight train done, bring it on Bangkok. 

Day 53-54: Koh Tao - Island Paradise

It's been an entire country since we last took out our swim suits. We passed on several potentially beautiful and amazing beach experiences in Malaysia because we wanted to make sure we had a beach experience in Thailand. This island of Koh Tao is it.

In my head, a Thai beach experience looks much like Bridget Jones' experience in her 2nd adventure with Hugh Grant. The bungalow on the beach. Cocktails. Warm, perfect water. Some sort of flames (candles or beach performance).

We've decided to splurge for 2 days and get a nice place here before we go back to our normal backpacker life. So resort it is! Is it a bungalow? No. Are there cocktails? Yes. Is the water pretty much perfect temp? Yes. No flames yet - but I think we'll have a few more days.

I am practicing all of the things that my friend Kim taught me. Sit on the beach chair under the sun umbrella. Swim. Drink. Repeat. It helps cultivate the perfect non sunburn - of which I am still terrified. I am afraid I saw into my future when I saw all of the sunburned, mosquito bitten white tourists getting onto our boat while we were getting off of it. I know it cannot be helped. I will sunburn. It is my fate. The only goal is to make sure it's only a sun kiss that'll fade into the sunset within 24 hours.

So far - so great, so much fun, and so relaxing. We'll change to another resort tomorrow and see if we can see if Koh Tao is better for snorkeling than Indo.

Day 50-52: Krabi, Thailand

It it finally time for us to start racing the monsoon and get ourselves to Thailand. I am absolutely dreading monsoon, which starts in its full raining glory in July. I am failing my Girl Scout motto. I am not prepared. I do not have what I need to survive monsoon. Let's just review all of the stuff I do NOT have: 

• Umbrella. I lived in Ireland for crying out loud and I don't have an umbrella? Too much to carry. 
• Poncho. Nobody can make a poncho look cool. Then again, looking like a wet, bedraggled kitten when it pours also is a hard look to rock. 
• Floater Sandles. These are those rough and tumble kind of sandles. The kind that people in Portland or Seattle wear. Rugged. Unattractive. Provides good arch support in a hiking situation. Can support a hiking situation. We had wanted to buy these in Melbourne, but the price wasn't right. We tried getting them overseas from India, but my shoe size (ginormous) is apparently too big for the Indian stores to stock. We have looked for them everywhere here, but we have yet to find them. All in all - I'm stuck with flipflops - which are a recipe for disaster. Or my Toms, which also aren't the best for a flood situation. 
• Backpack Rain Covers. That's right - it pours, our stuff gets water logged. For some reason, Pallavi does not support my continued suggestion to just use garbage bags. Something about them not being attractive. In my opinion, garbage backs are a bit trashy, but functional. 

No sooner do we arrive in Thailand, waiting for our next bus to take us to Krabi then it starts to monsoon rain outside. Not actual monsoon season - but meaning when it rains so hard you think its a monsoon. What did that mean for us in our ill equipped state? No lunch! It was our only break in our trip to get food and it was raining too hard for me to face running across the street to go and get something. Good thing I've got cookies! Cookies are a completely reasonable lunch - if I was Cookie Monster. 

It's a tough time of year to be heading up to Thailand. We decided to head towards Krabi Town, in the province of Krabi. Unfortunately, all of the beautiful islands to our west on the Andaman, are closed because of the upcoming monsoon. That means some of the beaches are too. 

Tragically, Pallavi continues to feel a bit under the weather, so we haven't had a chance to explore much of Krabi Town. We've just been taking it easy so far. 

Tomorrow we do head over to Koh Tao, which is meant to have some amazing snorkeling. We are way overdue for some beach bumming time. 

Things we've noticed about Thailand so far: 

• cheaper than Malaysia
• feels a bit more congested than Malaysia
• more tourists! (we got spoiled in Indo & on Borneo with the lack of tourism)
• feels more tropical - more forests, hotter temp
• yummier more interesting food

We'll see how much we like Thailand vs. how much we want to risk being here in monsoon. Still up in the air. 

Day 45-49: George Town, Penang

Pallavi had told me a lot about George Town, having visited it before. She said, "the food is really good, and it has its own charm about it." It really does, but in a very different way from its Melacca counterpart. We stayed in the Chinatown area, which, for once, actually feels like Chinatown. Every lane is narrow, surrounded by "heritage pre-war shop-houses" and heritage hotels. There are shrines & temples tucked around corners and in lane ways. They even have their own colonial district and a proper Little India. We stayed in our first heritage hotel and decided, although it was nice, to see if we could find something a bit more in our backpacker budget.

We ended up finding a heritage hotel that met our criteria just a block down the road, run by 3 siblings, that just opened a few days ago. It's so fantastic to be a part of a new opening. You can feel their excitement as they stay up all hours of the night, hammering, moving, cleaning to prepare for their opening party on the Sunday when we are here. They also go out of their way to make us coffee, make sure we are comfortable, and even carry trays of our food upstairs for us. One day we came back from dinner, wanting to try some Nonya sweets (like in Malacca, a population of Chinese who emigrated to Malaysia in the 14th century). We asked one of the siblings, Jack, where we could go to get some sweets. We were saddened by the fact the place to purchase the Nonya sweets was too far to walk in the rain. Jack offered to go and get some sweets for us, which we politely declined. Low and behold, when we saw Jack again, he came baring a whole plate of Nonya sweets he had picked up for us! We just have to wait until we can write them up on Trip Advisor. 

In between meals, we have spent our days just exploring the city. In 2012, some Lithuanian artist decided to start some cultural street art program here. The street art mixes dimensions, coming 2D animation with 3D real artifacts. For example, he'll have a swing set against a wall, and then paint two children on it. Then there is metal artwork around different places, each with a cartoon and a historical description about the area. Between the mixed art & the metal art, there are roughly 40 pieces of art to try to spot around the city. It's such a brilliant way to get people walking around the streets and interacting with the city. Everybody poses with the art. I'll work on getting pics up someday so people can see it. 

Unfortunately, Pallavi's been a bit under the weather, so we haven't really explored the whole city. However, that's alright. This city is the kind that you can just take it easy in and explore as you want. Plus, we've been pushing pretty hard over the past week or so, so it's fine to just stay in and catch up on all of the free iTunes shows we can find and download (Last Alaskans is pretty good, btw). 

We also got an unexpected treat on Sunday when our guest house had its official launch party. The theme of the night was 'nonya.' Our hosts made a whole buffet of traditional nonya foods (I obviously tried to sample as many of them as I could). They also had nonya performers! Some local celebrity named Annie Lin, who is this 80 something year old 'pure blood nonya,' who has been in movies and on tv, etc was the guest of honor. Then, a whole troop of women dressed in nonya finest came in to dance! We learned from one of them that this is a group of older women who get together to practice, perform, and share nonya traditional dance. The younger folk aren't as interested, as each outfit can cost up to $1000. The outfits are all handmade from head to toe. Each shoe is embroidered with beads. Each sarong is patterned with beautiful designs. Each top has elegant brocade-work. Then, to top it off, diamond brochures and earrings, and a yellow flower behind the left ear. We also learned there is quite the nonya-off competition between Penang nonya and Malacca nonya. Also, nonyans do not appreciate false impersonators. As one whispered to us, "there are a lot of Chinese who wear these dresses, but they are NOT nonya.'

It was a blast. But now it's time to head off to Thailand.

Day 43-44: Last Day in Borneo

We purchased our airline tickets for last night because it was the only day in a span of the next 15 days when the tickets from Kuching to peninsular Malaysia were a reasonable cost (prices are high as everybody is returning home from Gawai Dayak). We both wish we had just a bit more time. We had hoped we'd able to go to Bako National Park so that we could have a more close up experience with the probiscis monkeys; however, when push came to shove, we decided it was just too tight in terms of time to get the bus to the park at the right tide, find 5 people to share a boat with, go for a hike, and then reverse the whole process.

It was a bit sad to say that we should have stayed on a bit longer in Sakau and gone to the Sepillok reserve, which has orangutans, sun bears, and probiscis monkeys near Sandakan instead doing the journey we did. We are just going to have to make a journey to see the probiscis monkeys sometime in the future.

Instead, we killed the afternoon by going to the Sarawak Ethnology Museum. It was set up just as badly as a turn of the century natural history museum normally is. It did have a great exhibit on longhouses though, which showcased local tribes' history of headhunting! Did you know that you have to keep a fire going under the right of heads that you have hanging in order to make sure their spirits don't go for a walk about the house? I don't know why we didn't see more skulls in the Sarawak Cultural Village! I feel slightly cheated now!

It was only after we got back to pick up our luggage that we realized something. A Czech couple who we had run into 1) in the cab in KK when we lost my ukulele, 2) on the bus leaving Brunei, 3) at the accommodation in Kuching hadn't bothered to come back to say hi to us when we had seen them in Kuching. Not that we cared. We had found them a bit cold the first time we had met them; however, the 2nd time, we'd have thought they'd strike up a conversation purely to respect the coincidence (which they hadn't). The 3rd time though without saying hello - come on! Fate must have brought you together for some purpose! Who doesn't say hello to somebody they've basically stalked throughout Borneo? Seems unnaturally cold to me.

We then headed off for a flight to Kuala Lumpur. We unfortunately arrived at 12:45 a.m. Everything, including all buses to any city, including KL, stops running from 1 a.m. until 5 a.m. By the time we got our luggage, we had only about 3.5 hours to skill before we could get on the first of two buses to get to our next destination, the city of Penang. Now, we know that once you leave departures, airports can get a bit uncomfortable to wait in. There aren't as nice of benches. It's harder to find electrical outlets to change things. Plus, once you leave, you can't come back. We chose not to leave until 4:00 a.m.

It was quiet. We had a plug point. We didn't have to keep a hand on our stuff. When we left to get a coffee and get our bus ticket, we saw an entire arrivals waiting area filled with sleeping waiting passengers. Row after row of benches had a person lying on them. Every space that wasn't in the main walking area was filled with people. The airport had become a shelter for these people stuck in the no man's transportation land! Good thing we'd stayed inside!

A few buses later, we made it safe to Penang, found a hotel and crashed.

Not sure how long we'll stay yet, but we are pretty sure we are going to wrap up Malaysia when we finish with Penang.

Day 42: Semenggoh Orangutans

Is it just me or is before 9:00 a.m. too early to have already had an adventure?

We saw orangutans in the wild in Sakau, but we wanted to get a better feel for what they actually looked like. We decided to step it down a bit and go to an orangutan rehabilitation center, Semenggoh, in order to have a closer encounter.

To help protect the orangutans and rehabilitate them while enabling people to see them, visiting hours are only during two daily feeding times: 9:00 a.m. and 3 p.m.

There are two buses to get to Semenggoh, both of which depart from the bus station that is 2 kms from our place at 7:15 a.m.. The next bus isn't until 9:50, so it's the 7:15 bus or bust! We got up with plenty of time and had an extra 10 minutes buffer (just in case). However, 6:45 happened. 6:50 happened. 6:55 happened. Now it takes at least 20 minutes to walk to the bus station from where we are staying (as we tragically found out the day of the morning thunderstorm at the bus shelter when we arrived in Kuching). We barely have enough time to make this bus!

6:56 and we are huffing and puffing as fast as we can towards the station. 7:13 and we are crossing the final turn towards the bus station. Suddenly, Pallavi sees a bus. Is that our bus????? I'm blind as a bat even with corrected vision, so how do I know? All I know is that we're almost out of time and if that's one bus, the other might not be far behind. I then hear Pallavi exclaim, run Sarah run! (Alright, maybe not in a Forest Gump style, but lets just pretend it was). Just like many bus chasers before me, backpack on my back, purse held in one hand, and a map in the other, I take off. I don't care that I look like a slightly insane person. I don't care that cars are going to have to get around me. My eyes are set on only one goal - the bus!

Which we had missed! We looked everywhere. Around all corners, asking people (who weren't so thrilled to speak to me, probably given that I still looked a bit like a slightly insane person and it was only 7:15 a.m.). We asked at the ticket counter, who confirmed that yes, we had missed the bus. "Wasn't it early?" we asked. They looked at their clock, clearly 10 minutes faster than our satellite controlled phone clocks, and said nope, we left on time. Pallavi, thinking outside of the box asked, "is there another way we can get there?" "Sure," said the ticket taker, "just take this bus here and get off at [insert station name] and you can get a mini bus from there." "Are you sure? Are the mini buses regular enough?" "Sure!"

Onto the second bus we went. We traveled along, got off at said [insert stop], and waited. No mini bus. We tried to find a local who spoke English. All of them seemed to say that there wasn't a bus. The bus had passed. What to do? It was 8:30. The feeding is at 9! We looked at a map. It didn't look like we were too far away, but how far, who knows?? Desperate, I asked our 3rd Pay It Forward ride person, who spoke English and, when I asked if she could drive us, she said just get in.

We got to the gate at 8:45 - but nobody told us it was another 1.3 kms walk, uphill, to get to the feeding. We again set off really quickly. Huffing, puffing, desperate to make it there. We've come so far. We're not even on our second cup of coffee. Suddenly a car comes towards us, from the center, and a window is rolled down. It's a woman who had seen us huffing and puffing when driving to the center, dropped off her family, and had turned back to come and get us! That's Pay it Forward ride person #4.

It was worth it. The orangutans were so cool to see up close. It does feel a bit like a cheat, but at the same time, it isn't a zoo either. Plus, the center is doing great work to rehabilitate the orangutans. The objective is for them to not have to come to be fed at all. Out of the 27-30 orangutans they have in Semenggoh, we probably saw 8 or 9 of them, including the alpha male Richie. Two of them even came down from the tree directly above our head, to stand less than 2 meters away (remembering the chimp who tore that woman's face and hands off, I kept my distance).

By 12, we were on our way home to just chill and relax. I'd say we'd earned it! 

Day 41: Sarawak Cultural Village

After travelling all of this way, it's time to go tribal. Alright, so maybe tribal light. I mean, we are #badbackpackers.

Borneo is made up of several different types of tribes. Most of these tribes still live in their traditional housing structure - the longhouse. Although each tribe builds their longhouse in a different way, all longhouses have a central area, which is a bit like a main street where everybody goes to congregate, celebrate, and chat. The main area has several individual family's "apartments" attached to it. Everything is under one singular roof.

However, other than that, most of the people who belong to those tribes live in a modern way. They only whip out the traditional clothes, food, and music for festivals and when tourists come to visit the longhouse or to stay overnight.

We had a choice for our tribal experience. Do we go to the actual longhouse and experience the 'show' the villages puts on for us or do we go to a place near Kuching called Sarawak Cultural Village, which displays all of the different tribes' long houses and is having an open house event for Gawai Dayak?

We decided to go to Sarawak Cultural Village. We figured we'd rather see more variations of the different tribes' customs, longhouses, costumes, and food, which we could only get from Sarawak Cultural Village. We also figured that the longhouse visit was a bit of a show rather than an authentic experience, so if we are going for a show, then let's go large or go home!

It was really cool. It's a bit like Iowa's Living History Farms, obviously in a much cooler, Malaysian, Borneo tribal way. They set up some odd 8 different tribes longhouses, all of which had been transferred from each actual tribal village. Each tribes' longhouse was set up in a traditional way, including traditional artifacts, clothing, decorations, and games. Inside each one was a cultural interpreter, dressed in the clothing of that particular longhouse tribe (although not necessarily of that people - although all were from one tribe or another) who walked you through the stories, set up, and any unique things particular about the tribe.

We got to see how sago is made. We learned all about the weird delicacy of preparing swallows' egg nests for consumption. We saw the blowpipe stand (although we are both still irritated that after circling that stand multiple times, the guy wasn't there to let us try blowing the blowpipe).

Plus, as it's Gawai Dayak, 3 of the longhouses were having an open house. The open house included people dressed in the unique costumes of that tribe, playing musical instruments and doing traditional welcome dances, and there was lots of jungle food! We had bamboo chicken and jungle leaf (which was a bit like kale meets spinach).

Each longhouse was really quite different. One was even a tall house, which was built on stilts at least 3 stories off of the ground. Another was more cylindrical in shape.

To top it all off, they had a dance show in a theatre area to showcase various tribes' dances. One tribe has a funeral dance that involves the men banging 2 meter-tall wooden poles on the ground and ultimately having one of them men climb on the top of an even larger pole, balance on his belly, and be spun around by the others. Another tribe has a whole dance around hunting, ending in him actually shooting a blowpipe and then inviting an audience member up to give it a try (I was not selected despite secretly hoping and dreading that I would be selected).

Was it authentic? It was authentic enough for us.  We don't think we'd have gotten much more out of going to a real longhouse. We really enjoyed it!

Was it something worth coming to Kuching for? Maybe not. Let's see how the orangutans work out tomorrow.