We left Chiang Mai on Sunday morning, and arrived at Luang Prabang on Tuesday evening. It was a long trip and it was worth it.
The bulk of the travelling took place in a slow boat on the Mekong River. Sounds romantic and scenic (just what Alex and I are looking for), but turned out to be narrow rows of hard benches with white faces all around. We waited on board for two hours before the engine was even on, and we "docked" (pulled over to the beach-rocks-jungle) every five minutes to let off the local Laotians at their villages. Despite the inconveniences of the 16-hour ride, it was one of the best experiences yet.
The Mekong is muddy. It's brown, cloudy, and seemingly unclean. But it works. It's sprawling, vast, and imposing. Green soy bean plants grow on white beaches between rock outcroppings, and water buffalo graze in the knee deep water. Lush jungle forms a solid wall below countless misty mountains.
Every few minutes we would pass a group of huts and several people between them, or the frequent solitary man in a long fishing boat on the river. They would wave or they would ignore us, but either way I felt relatively unobtrusive. At one point we came upon a particularly large group, women beating their laundry against the rocks with bamboo brushes, children swimming and playing, men fishing or farming. I glimpsed one man standing at the shoreline washing a pair of shorts in the river, completely and unabashedly naked, going about his daily routine as I'm sure the rest of the villagers were.
As the boat passed he raised his head to look, and upon seeing the foreigners passing by he casually moved a hand to cover himself. It was a simple gesture, but it obliterated the sort of "cultural experience" one naively hopes for when travelling. It threw up a barrier between the villagers on the beach and the interlopers on the big boat. It said not just that we weren't a part of their lives, but that we did not and could not understand those lives. It said that cultural sensitivity, while certainly worthwhile to endeavor toward, is simply not enough. And it said it all with a gesture.
All the amateur anthropologists out there would have a field day, I'm sure, with my experience, what I've unknowingly presupposed or forgotten or misanalyzed. But regardless, it was a meaningful experience, so I thought I'd tell you about it.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Easy or not?
I thought I'd check back in today after shirking on my posting duties. The truth is, I haven't felt much like writing recently because what I thought I would end up writing would be more negative than I actually felt or would want to convey. Today was a good day though, and we're headed to Laos tomorrow which is quite exciting.
Briefly recapping the past few days is probably in order, as we did actually do more than munch on bugs. Not much more and nothing as exciting, but probably worth a mention still. Two days ago we took a day trip to Chiang Rai, north of Chiang Mai. At least that's what we thought we were doing, as that's what we had been told it was. Unfortunately, as seems to be the pattern, things were not exactly as they were presented to us.
We got to the bus departure place at 7 AM and were put in a big 11 passenger van around 7:45. Over the course of the day, we visited a temple, the golden triangle (a muddy, nondescript region where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet) and several markets. Mainly, though, we sat in the van and drove. The temple more or less resembled most of the other temples we've seen and the markets were essentially identical as all the markets we were shown on our three-day trek. What it didn't do was actually go to the city of Chiang Rai, which was slightly obnoxious.
Thailand is currently trying to revitalize its tourism industry after the tsunami and coup, yet the picture it presents to tourists is that it is one giant market and all the visitors are simply walking ATMs. Surely that's a disservice to the country and I wish not every tour was so market-centered. Perhaps that's just the ones we've chosen, but I somehow doubt it.
Yesterday we rented bikes with our Wesleyan friend with whom we met up and just pedaled around the city for a while, getting away from all the gringos. We know we're on the right trail when our presence in a certain place causes locals to point and laugh. Or it could just be that I had sweated through my t-shirt, again. This country is hot. Although it was low-key, it was so much more enjoyable than the actual tours. A dip in the pool followed by dinner at the big outdoor night market completed a very pleasant day.
Today Andy and I took a 6 hour cooking course. It started at the local market where a guide took us around and explained all the local produce, which was definitely beneficial. Then, we learned about and assisted in the cooking (I say assisted because most of the chopping and prep was done for us) of 8 different dishes. Our instructor would repeatedly demonstrate something relatively simple, then ask the group "See, easy or not?" which I found hilarious for some reason, hence the title of the post. All in all, definitely a good experience.
That's enough recapping for now. To talk more broadly, I'm very excited for heading into Laos tomorrow but also a bit nervous. I've been struggling greatly with how much to give to beggars and street peddlers, and with whom to give. It seems necessary to have a system. Doc, a friend from Wesleyan, explained to us after refusing one particular person "She had all her limbs." It seems a fair statement, and I'm sure it will resonate more once I've spent more time in the other countries we're visiting.
So I'm just trying to deal with the guilt and figure out what I can do with it and how I should be dealing with all of it. It all relates back to figuring out what I actually want to get from this trip. Having some guilt and appreciating my immense privilege seems to me more of a means than an end, so I need to work through how to make it inform all of my actions/thoughts. Not easy to do, it would seem so far. Regardless, I'm looking forward to getting off the tourist track and hopefully we can delve a little deeper and go beyond the superficial traveling I feel like we've been doing to this point. I'm not actually sure that that means and what a 'real' experience would be in the relatively short time-frame we have, but I'd at least like to believe that the people I'm talking to haven't all rehearsed their lines hundreds of other times on other silly foreigners.
And on that note, that's quite enough rambling for one post. I should post more frequently so I don't have all these pent-up things. If you've made it this far and you're still reading, I appreciate it. If you have advice on how to deal with beggars and accompanying guilt and all of that, please leave it in the comments and I'd really appreciate it. Actually, if you've been reading the blog and haven't yet left a comment at all, it'd be great if you could, just so we know for whom we're actually writing.
Next update from Laos, inshallah
Briefly recapping the past few days is probably in order, as we did actually do more than munch on bugs. Not much more and nothing as exciting, but probably worth a mention still. Two days ago we took a day trip to Chiang Rai, north of Chiang Mai. At least that's what we thought we were doing, as that's what we had been told it was. Unfortunately, as seems to be the pattern, things were not exactly as they were presented to us.
We got to the bus departure place at 7 AM and were put in a big 11 passenger van around 7:45. Over the course of the day, we visited a temple, the golden triangle (a muddy, nondescript region where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet) and several markets. Mainly, though, we sat in the van and drove. The temple more or less resembled most of the other temples we've seen and the markets were essentially identical as all the markets we were shown on our three-day trek. What it didn't do was actually go to the city of Chiang Rai, which was slightly obnoxious.
Thailand is currently trying to revitalize its tourism industry after the tsunami and coup, yet the picture it presents to tourists is that it is one giant market and all the visitors are simply walking ATMs. Surely that's a disservice to the country and I wish not every tour was so market-centered. Perhaps that's just the ones we've chosen, but I somehow doubt it.
Yesterday we rented bikes with our Wesleyan friend with whom we met up and just pedaled around the city for a while, getting away from all the gringos. We know we're on the right trail when our presence in a certain place causes locals to point and laugh. Or it could just be that I had sweated through my t-shirt, again. This country is hot. Although it was low-key, it was so much more enjoyable than the actual tours. A dip in the pool followed by dinner at the big outdoor night market completed a very pleasant day.
Today Andy and I took a 6 hour cooking course. It started at the local market where a guide took us around and explained all the local produce, which was definitely beneficial. Then, we learned about and assisted in the cooking (I say assisted because most of the chopping and prep was done for us) of 8 different dishes. Our instructor would repeatedly demonstrate something relatively simple, then ask the group "See, easy or not?" which I found hilarious for some reason, hence the title of the post. All in all, definitely a good experience.
That's enough recapping for now. To talk more broadly, I'm very excited for heading into Laos tomorrow but also a bit nervous. I've been struggling greatly with how much to give to beggars and street peddlers, and with whom to give. It seems necessary to have a system. Doc, a friend from Wesleyan, explained to us after refusing one particular person "She had all her limbs." It seems a fair statement, and I'm sure it will resonate more once I've spent more time in the other countries we're visiting.
So I'm just trying to deal with the guilt and figure out what I can do with it and how I should be dealing with all of it. It all relates back to figuring out what I actually want to get from this trip. Having some guilt and appreciating my immense privilege seems to me more of a means than an end, so I need to work through how to make it inform all of my actions/thoughts. Not easy to do, it would seem so far. Regardless, I'm looking forward to getting off the tourist track and hopefully we can delve a little deeper and go beyond the superficial traveling I feel like we've been doing to this point. I'm not actually sure that that means and what a 'real' experience would be in the relatively short time-frame we have, but I'd at least like to believe that the people I'm talking to haven't all rehearsed their lines hundreds of other times on other silly foreigners.
And on that note, that's quite enough rambling for one post. I should post more frequently so I don't have all these pent-up things. If you've made it this far and you're still reading, I appreciate it. If you have advice on how to deal with beggars and accompanying guilt and all of that, please leave it in the comments and I'd really appreciate it. Actually, if you've been reading the blog and haven't yet left a comment at all, it'd be great if you could, just so we know for whom we're actually writing.
Next update from Laos, inshallah
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Me v. The Water Bug
The cricket went down easy. It was the water bug that wanted me to suffer.
Walking the streets of a few Thai cities I've visited a lot of vendors and eaten a lot of strange food. On several occasions, though, I've noticed a different kind of vendor. I've seen a young man riding a bicycle with a small illuminated cart hanging off it's side, a sort of sidecar of magic and wonderment and fried insects. He doesn't aggressively advertise his wares but simply pedals leisurely along the back alleys and side streets, knowing that he need not approach a potential client; the client will find him. And find him I did.
On this particular night we had decided to meet up with a friend from school who happened to be in the area. We made our way to an open city square, leisurely partaking of the local firewater all the while. Our friend (we'll call him Larry Parsons), well-travelled and worldly though he is, had yet to know the enchanting culinary delights of the formerly jumping, orthopterous Gryllidae I held in a small plastic bag purchased from a vendor an hour before. We took a sip of the moonshine and a bite of our respective crickets and, with little discomfort and actually some enjoyment, we had chalked up another cultural experience.
Several hours later, back at the guest house, I felt somehow unsatisfied. I had bypassed the grubs and maggots with little thought (they're for the amateur, I presumed), but I couldn't quite shake the thought of the massive beast anchoring the little plastic bag. Three inches long if it was a millimeter. Legs like jackhammers, a shell that could stop a bullet. Alex grabbed the camera, I grabbed the bug, and with a quick snap of the jaw I decapitated the bastard.
A bastard it was. Shards of shell like broken glass and the stench of death all over. It was a bitter massacre, but I emerged victorious.
(We've got photos but can't presently get them online. Soon we hope.)
Walking the streets of a few Thai cities I've visited a lot of vendors and eaten a lot of strange food. On several occasions, though, I've noticed a different kind of vendor. I've seen a young man riding a bicycle with a small illuminated cart hanging off it's side, a sort of sidecar of magic and wonderment and fried insects. He doesn't aggressively advertise his wares but simply pedals leisurely along the back alleys and side streets, knowing that he need not approach a potential client; the client will find him. And find him I did.
On this particular night we had decided to meet up with a friend from school who happened to be in the area. We made our way to an open city square, leisurely partaking of the local firewater all the while. Our friend (we'll call him Larry Parsons), well-travelled and worldly though he is, had yet to know the enchanting culinary delights of the formerly jumping, orthopterous Gryllidae I held in a small plastic bag purchased from a vendor an hour before. We took a sip of the moonshine and a bite of our respective crickets and, with little discomfort and actually some enjoyment, we had chalked up another cultural experience.
Several hours later, back at the guest house, I felt somehow unsatisfied. I had bypassed the grubs and maggots with little thought (they're for the amateur, I presumed), but I couldn't quite shake the thought of the massive beast anchoring the little plastic bag. Three inches long if it was a millimeter. Legs like jackhammers, a shell that could stop a bullet. Alex grabbed the camera, I grabbed the bug, and with a quick snap of the jaw I decapitated the bastard.
A bastard it was. Shards of shell like broken glass and the stench of death all over. It was a bitter massacre, but I emerged victorious.
(We've got photos but can't presently get them online. Soon we hope.)
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The Trek, etc.
We're back in Chiang Mai after an unexpectedly strenuous three-day trek in the hills to the north. Rather than chronicle the entire trip, here are a few highlights worth mentioning:
Beautiful waterfalls deep in the jungle.
Sleeping on the not so soft floor of a village hut.
Whitewater bamboo rafting. And falling.
Herbal self-medication with the native villagers.
Riding an elephant (actually a pretty sad affair).
Eating local food. Apparently no one really worries about leaving meat out in the sun for many hours.
More Waterfalls.
Bleeding from two wounds within the first five minutes of a pick-up soccer game.
Being very blatantly and very uncomfortably wealthy.
And much more. It was a welcomed change from the steamy, sweaty, smoggy cities, and we hope to do a fair amount more hiking. For now,we eat Pad Thai from the monk who makes his tamarind sauce from an old family recipe; get extraordinarily painful massages involving a Thai woman standing on my back; drink cheap beer; meet interesting (and not so interesting) people; get much appreciated emails from friends and family back home; and always say yes.
Beautiful waterfalls deep in the jungle.
Sleeping on the not so soft floor of a village hut.
Whitewater bamboo rafting. And falling.
Herbal self-medication with the native villagers.
Riding an elephant (actually a pretty sad affair).
Eating local food. Apparently no one really worries about leaving meat out in the sun for many hours.
More Waterfalls.
Bleeding from two wounds within the first five minutes of a pick-up soccer game.
Being very blatantly and very uncomfortably wealthy.
And much more. It was a welcomed change from the steamy, sweaty, smoggy cities, and we hope to do a fair amount more hiking. For now,we eat Pad Thai from the monk who makes his tamarind sauce from an old family recipe; get extraordinarily painful massages involving a Thai woman standing on my back; drink cheap beer; meet interesting (and not so interesting) people; get much appreciated emails from friends and family back home; and always say yes.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Chiang Mai
We're in a new city, smaller and cooler and generally nicer than Bangkok, although we've been surrounded by fellow round-eyes since we got off the bus, so we'll have to take care of that as soon as possible.
We made the overnight voyage on the Airbrush Express VIP double decker bus, serenaded by horribly bad and incredibly loud Thai power ballads playing over the loudspeaker, which made the trip seem like only a handful of hours, rather than the ten it actually lasted.
Off to the hills tomorrow for a three-day trek. We're not exactly sure what that entails, so if you don't hear from us again, know that the adventure was worth it.
We made the overnight voyage on the Airbrush Express VIP double decker bus, serenaded by horribly bad and incredibly loud Thai power ballads playing over the loudspeaker, which made the trip seem like only a handful of hours, rather than the ten it actually lasted.
Off to the hills tomorrow for a three-day trek. We're not exactly sure what that entails, so if you don't hear from us again, know that the adventure was worth it.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Back on the Horse
The toughened travellers of day 2 ran far from the touristy areas of the city this morning. We're in Bangkok's Chinatown right now, having just walked through a crowded and delicious maze of alleyways lined with vendors and not a single other white person.
Attracting glances, stares, and many laughs from the locals, we threaded our way among the crowd, bumping our heads on the umbrellas and elbowing little old women in the forehead. A bowl of fried rice and a smoothie had seemed a sufficient breakfast, but we couldn't resist the balls of coagulated pig's blood, long-cooked eggs, and slices of meat reminiscent of the scraps of bacon left on your plate because they are all fat. Delicious. Different curries, fried balls of things, women hacking away at pig intestines, frogs and fish in various stages of life and death, and lots and lots of rice.
So far, today's been better.
Attracting glances, stares, and many laughs from the locals, we threaded our way among the crowd, bumping our heads on the umbrellas and elbowing little old women in the forehead. A bowl of fried rice and a smoothie had seemed a sufficient breakfast, but we couldn't resist the balls of coagulated pig's blood, long-cooked eggs, and slices of meat reminiscent of the scraps of bacon left on your plate because they are all fat. Delicious. Different curries, fried balls of things, women hacking away at pig intestines, frogs and fish in various stages of life and death, and lots and lots of rice.
So far, today's been better.
Yesterday's misadventures
Fuck. FUCKING FUCKING FUCK. I just wrote this fucking blog post again. Really really long. And again, it disappeared.
One more time, from scratch. Every time I rewrite it, it gets worse.
Ok, so maybe yesterday wasn't all misadventures. Some questionable adventures and one definite misadventure. I blame the lack of sleep.
Starts off well enough. We get into a Tuk-Tuk and start getting carted around from temple to temple. That's nice enough. Maybe I'm dead inside, but the giant Buddhas (Buddhi?) dont' do that much for me. I mean, I appreciate the grandeur and effort, and I think they're pretty, but they don't really move me. (An aside: I find it interesting that Buddhism, which in my admittedly limited understanding seems to be among the more grounded, anti-materialistic religions, would place such an emphasis on golden shrines. Anyway.)
Still, so far so good thus far. We're seeing the city, we're cruising around, the breeze is blowing, it's not that bad. Next stop: The tailor. No, we didn't ask to go to the tailor, but we're go-along-to-get-along types, so we went along. The instant we walk in, we're handed a card for free gasoline for our driver. At this point, a well-rested Andy or Alex would've raised a suspicious eyebrow or two, but we were decidedly not well-rested. We go talk to the tailor. Apparently, buying suits is A Thing To Do over here, so we talked to him for a while.
We somehow talked each other into buying suits. I'm not quite sure how. And this goes into the questionable adventure category, because it was cheap and assuming we get what we paid for, I won't be mad about it. Still, probably not the best idea on the first day of the trip. After that, more Buddha.
Next stop is the TAT info Center. TAT stands for Tourism Authority of Thailand, except for when it doesn't. Clever travel agents like to incorporate it into their names to fool less-clever travelers, including your humble narrator. Again, though, this isn't quite a misadventure. Our agent, Ninja (seriously), had some good ideas and recommendations and we booked some transport and accomodations for the next week. It may not have been the absolute cheapest way of doing it, but as long as we get what we pay for I won't be upset.
More Buddha.
After that, we have the biggest disappointment of the day, unquestionably a misadventure. Lunch. It should've been easy. Our driver asked us if we liked seafood and we said we did, assuming we'd be taken to a good seafood street market or something along those lines. Far from it. We ended up in a ridiculously expensive restaurant that did a very good job of not showing prices until it was time to pay at the end. Let's just say it was WAY too expensive, obscenely so, for the completely underwhelming food we were given.
Somewhat upset after being scammed, we were taken to one more temple and then separated from our driver. This temple offered a scenic view of this crumbling, crowded, sprawling city.
We walked back to our hostel and accidentally took a four hour nap. Jet lag's a bitch. The evening was better. We wandered around, ate some cheap and decent street food, drank a couple beers and listened to a Thai band do a passable cover of "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis. Definitely the highlight of the day.
It's all uphill from here.
One more time, from scratch. Every time I rewrite it, it gets worse.
Ok, so maybe yesterday wasn't all misadventures. Some questionable adventures and one definite misadventure. I blame the lack of sleep.
Starts off well enough. We get into a Tuk-Tuk and start getting carted around from temple to temple. That's nice enough. Maybe I'm dead inside, but the giant Buddhas (Buddhi?) dont' do that much for me. I mean, I appreciate the grandeur and effort, and I think they're pretty, but they don't really move me. (An aside: I find it interesting that Buddhism, which in my admittedly limited understanding seems to be among the more grounded, anti-materialistic religions, would place such an emphasis on golden shrines. Anyway.)
Still, so far so good thus far. We're seeing the city, we're cruising around, the breeze is blowing, it's not that bad. Next stop: The tailor. No, we didn't ask to go to the tailor, but we're go-along-to-get-along types, so we went along. The instant we walk in, we're handed a card for free gasoline for our driver. At this point, a well-rested Andy or Alex would've raised a suspicious eyebrow or two, but we were decidedly not well-rested. We go talk to the tailor. Apparently, buying suits is A Thing To Do over here, so we talked to him for a while.
We somehow talked each other into buying suits. I'm not quite sure how. And this goes into the questionable adventure category, because it was cheap and assuming we get what we paid for, I won't be mad about it. Still, probably not the best idea on the first day of the trip. After that, more Buddha.
Next stop is the TAT info Center. TAT stands for Tourism Authority of Thailand, except for when it doesn't. Clever travel agents like to incorporate it into their names to fool less-clever travelers, including your humble narrator. Again, though, this isn't quite a misadventure. Our agent, Ninja (seriously), had some good ideas and recommendations and we booked some transport and accomodations for the next week. It may not have been the absolute cheapest way of doing it, but as long as we get what we pay for I won't be upset.
More Buddha.
After that, we have the biggest disappointment of the day, unquestionably a misadventure. Lunch. It should've been easy. Our driver asked us if we liked seafood and we said we did, assuming we'd be taken to a good seafood street market or something along those lines. Far from it. We ended up in a ridiculously expensive restaurant that did a very good job of not showing prices until it was time to pay at the end. Let's just say it was WAY too expensive, obscenely so, for the completely underwhelming food we were given.
Somewhat upset after being scammed, we were taken to one more temple and then separated from our driver. This temple offered a scenic view of this crumbling, crowded, sprawling city.
We walked back to our hostel and accidentally took a four hour nap. Jet lag's a bitch. The evening was better. We wandered around, ate some cheap and decent street food, drank a couple beers and listened to a Thai band do a passable cover of "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis. Definitely the highlight of the day.
It's all uphill from here.
Day 1
Yikes.
I had an awesome blog post ready to go and Blogger ate it. It was great. Seriously. Instead, you get this for now because I'm too frustrated to attempt to recreate it. This frustration is minor compared to the rest of today's, but have no fear. Your intrepid narrators will prevail and will regale you with bloggy goodness soon enough. In the meantime, keep this advice in mind: It's better to read about scams in Lonely Planet before your tuk-tuk driver takes you on a ridiculous journey through space and time (and tailors and bogus travel agents posing as government workers and ridiculously expensive seafood eaten only by oblivious or obnoxious tourists.) Yippee.
I had an awesome blog post ready to go and Blogger ate it. It was great. Seriously. Instead, you get this for now because I'm too frustrated to attempt to recreate it. This frustration is minor compared to the rest of today's, but have no fear. Your intrepid narrators will prevail and will regale you with bloggy goodness soon enough. In the meantime, keep this advice in mind: It's better to read about scams in Lonely Planet before your tuk-tuk driver takes you on a ridiculous journey through space and time (and tailors and bogus travel agents posing as government workers and ridiculously expensive seafood eaten only by oblivious or obnoxious tourists.) Yippee.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Here We Are
Thirty-two short hours after leaving the Holiday Inn Express, thirty-two hours filled with stale airplane air and rehydrated "natural flavor" in plastic dishes and absurdly little leg room, we have arrived at the Baan Sabai Restaurant and Guest House in Bangkok. We have sweat considerably more than anything I would ever have thought natural (although the manpris do help), and - despite the only five hours of sleep in the last two days - are filled with excitement and hunger for food and adventure. In reverse order.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
holiday inn express
we don't have to do two of these posts, but it's our first night out. no parents. so i'm trying to keep it real. don't worry, i'm sure the posts will get more interesting once we get out of jamaica, ny. although this place is pretty exciting. lots of suitcases and foreign accents and formica walls. and four hours sleep if we're lucky. ok, two days from now: bangkok.
Getting ready to take off
After a lovely dinner with the Catalano family, we hopped in a cab and were efficiently shuttled to the incorrect Holiday Inn. After that mildly inauspicious start, we were able to make it to our Holiday Inn Express around midnight. We now have about four hours to sleep before catching a 5 AM shuttle to JFK and starting our 26 hours of travel to Bangkok via Vancouver and Tokyo. Sweet. We leave Monday at 7AM local time and arrive Tuesday at 10 PM local time. Good times.
Yeah, so this is a pretty dull post, and I'm sure as we see things and actually, you know, have new experiences, it will liven up a bit, so bear with us and stay tuned for actual adventures. And insight. And recipes. And pictures of kittens maybe, because everyone seems to enjoy those.
Next post will be from Bangkok. I'm excited.
Yeah, so this is a pretty dull post, and I'm sure as we see things and actually, you know, have new experiences, it will liven up a bit, so bear with us and stay tuned for actual adventures. And insight. And recipes. And pictures of kittens maybe, because everyone seems to enjoy those.
Next post will be from Bangkok. I'm excited.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)