Friday, October 31, 2008

Laos - "the most remote country in Asia"

This country, or at least Luang Prabang, is overrun with wealthy Europeans looking for a little adventure. This wouldn't be so bad but the cheap backpacker scene has been replaced with over-priced restaurants serving French wine. Argh! How am I going to get my $1 meals!!?!

I know this post sounds negative but in reality I really do like Laos and wish we could spend more time here - especially off the tourist track! The Laos people are very friendly and a ex-pat restaurant owner we met described the Laos people as having "big hearts" and I really can see that. But I think they really got to our hearts the first time we were served Laos coffee. It's so strong and black that adding cream doesn't change the color. But true Laos people only add sweetened and condensed milk to their coffee so it's really tasting like the coffee version of India's chai and Kat and I absolutely love it!

I'd write more, but unfortunately Kat and I got a little excited in the market and forgot how much money we had left (easy to do when a beer costs 10,000 kip) and we have almost run out of cash. It's a problem here because there are no ATMs, so until the money changers open up tomorrow morning we have about $7.50 to live on!!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Back into the wild

Kat and I were lucky enough to have the wonderful Nick Postornino visit us in Chiang Mai! We had a great time together riding scooters and lounging around this great city. He was working down in Singapore for a few weeks and decided to fly up and meet us. It seemed as though we spent a good amount of time hiding from torrential rain but it didn't seem to dampen our spirits!

Tonight Kat and I leave for Laos. We're taking the night bus to Chiang Khong and the we'll be taking a 2-day river boat ride to Luang Prabang. I don't think there's much internet activity in Laos so we may be out of contact for a week or two. We've met a few other travelers heading in the opposite direction so we've heard very good things about Laos. In case we can't make contact, our plan is to boat to Luang Prabang, then bus to Vang Vieng, then another bus to Vientiane, and then fly to Hanoi. Hopefully we'll be in Vientiane by the 4th so that we can vote!!!

Elephants! One of the 'must do' things on my trip list was to ride an elephant.






This is a waterfall that we relaxed at during our jungle trek. As you can tell it was a pretty difficult journey.










A waterfall in the jungle.











I saw two of these spiders in the jungle! With their legs they're about the size of my hand.







This is the jungle hut we stayed at on our trek. The entire structure was made of bamboo! It was pretty incredible. The man made a deck while I watched. His skill at cutting the bamboo with a hatchet was pretty incredible. He made the lower deck you can see in an afternoon.



We saw a lot of ants in the jungle. I like ants so I thought I'd share this nice snapshot.





Big trees and lush foliage in the hills around Chiang Mai.











Another waterfall with the classic long-exposure shot.







Kat near a field of tiger lilies. This was during our visit to the palace atop the hill above Soi Suthrep above Chiang Mai.






Orchids are everywhere! We saw georgeous specimens at temples, around town, and of course perfect ones like this on at the palace.






I found this moth lying on the ground. I have size 13 feet so I hope this puts it in perspective for you!






This wood carving was just out and about in the palace grounds. It seems wasteful to put such a work of art outside in this climate!










This is a giant bamboo grove at the palace. Nick is wearing a bamboo hat that he made himself.






Badass #3











Badass #2











Badass #1

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Monk Chat

Today I found out that there's a Wat in Chiang Mai that has 'monk chat'! Basically it's a chance for foreigners to sit and talk with Buddhist monks so that the monks can practice their english. It was a great time! The monks that Kat and I chatted with were very interesting. They were both from Cambodia and came to Chiang Mai to study at the monastery (it's basically a full fledged university). One of the monks I chatted with had to take a 3 day journey by bus from his hometown in Cambodia to get to Chiang Mai. He didn't speak thai or english yet so he said he barely ate for 3 days! It was a great experience and the monks were wonderful to talk to.

Friday, October 24, 2008

We don't want to leave this place...

We're still in Chang Mai, and I don't regret this one bit. And Nick Posternino gave us an excuse to stay an extra day or two! He's in Singapore right now and decided to fly up for the weekend and meet up with us here! So far in Chang Mai we've kept very very busy. We're meeting more people here than anywhere else before and also getting the chance to take some classes and do other fun activities that we had hoped to be doing all along.

So far we've taken a cooking class, trekked through the jungle, attended a kickboxing fight, and eaten some of the best food so far on this trip.

The cooking class was a full day and we cooked 6 dishes. I LOVE Thai food so this was an excellent day. Not only did I learn how to make some delicious dishes, but I got to eat Thai food all day long. I received a cookbook from the class so I'm eager to continue making these dishes. The surprising thing was how easy most of the dishes are to make. Some ingredients may be harder to find in Seattle, but I don't think I cooked anything that cooked be whipped together in more than 30 minutes.

The trek took 3 days and 2 nights into the jungly hillsides surrounding Chang Mai. The first day we rode an elephant and then hiked our way up to the top of a hill. The view from our hut was amazing! And our bamboo huts were authentic. I expected touristy crap but we actually got to stay in bamboo huts with a hill tribe with chickens and cats running around. The next day we stopped at a waterfall to lounge before getting to our jungle camp. This was also a bamboo hut but this time beside a creek in the dense and lush jungle. Butterflies the size of birds flew around and a papaya tree stood right in the middle of camp. The 3rd day we rafted down some whitewater and then made our way back to town. But by far the best part was the fun group of people that trekked with us! I'm sure I'm spelling these names horribly, but thank you Peter, Andrea, Eoin, Sonne, Jon, Laura, Monica, and Ellen for such a great time! Hopefully we'll meet up again down the road!

Anyways it's noon now and a good excuse to eat some more food. But if I don't get online again before I leave Chang Mai, our plan is to take a bus north to Laos and then take a river boat down the Mekong for two days. I'm not sure that internet is widely available in Laos, but I think that may be one of the more appealing things about laid-back-Laos. So I hope everyone at home is doing well!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Thailand!

Kat and I have made our way from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Bangkok was a GREAT city and it seems as though Chiang Mai may even top it! There are a lot of touristy classes here such as cooking, meditation, and even muay thai kickboxing. But most importantly we'll be booking a trek to get in some of northern thailand's beautiful greenery! We arrived into Chiang Mai at about 5am and quickly made our way to the very popular Julie's Guesthouse. We'd heard about the place from another couple and we decided we really needed to stay there. So we camped out in the lobby (we really did - I napped on their cushy lounge chair) and were first in line at 8am when it opened. It really paid off because between 7 and 8am about a dozen or so people showed up! But we got a room there so we're very pleased.

I'm getting behind in my pictures so here's a few from the past week or so


This is the largest monolithic structure in the world. Its at the Allura caves site near Aurangabad. It was pretty impressive! This site had a lot of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples but this was the most impressive one.




This is also at the Adjunta caves site. The stairwells are not lit but I caught Kat by suprise with a flash! We had to be really careful not to fall. It's not like there's a hospital nearby! We had to take a bus for over an hour in the countryside to get there.




A family of monkeys on Elephanta Island! We took a ferry here from Mumbai and saw more caves. By this point we were a little burned out on caves but it was still a fun trip with the boat ride and the monkeys everywhere.



These fishing boats were lined up on the beach of Elephanta island. The muck looked a lot like Birch Bay (near where I grew up). And by the look of the fishermans feet the muck was at least a foot deep.



Kat and I found this little restraunt near our hotel and Khao San road. The owners were very nice and the food was about the best we've had in Thailand! And that's saying a lot because the food here is excellent. We ate here about 4 times.


In Bangkok we visited the Wat Pho temple. The tilework was amazing and colorful. The cleanliness and well kept buildings and plants really contrasted to India.


Still in the Wat Pho temple. This is the main chamber. The monks on the left were chanting.


This was a flower in the garden around Wat Pho temple. This place was amazing!


Yes, another Wat Pho photo, but this is the main attraction. It's a 50m lying Buddha statue. The scale is impressive but perhaps even more so is the intricate ingravings you can see on the Buddha's feet.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Most mammals do not lay eggs

But apparently there is a hairless ape in Bangkok that does.

Enough said.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

The Temples of Dhoom!

We didn't actually visit the temple of doom but I see the word Dhoom used a lot here. For example, just about every city has a Hotel Dhoom. Not too appealing is it? Anyways, since the last post Kat and I made our way from Mumbai to Aurangabad. Aurangabad is a nice city on the smaller side. We found a great hotel near the train station. The main attraction of this area is the Ellora and Adjunta caves. They're two seperate sights that house the largest monolithic structures in the world. Basically they're huge temples that are cut directly out of the mountain - and they are damn impressive! We spend a day at each site and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Then we caught yet another overnight train back to Mumbai. We visited Elephanta Island which is another sight of temple/caves. The only problem is that we had just done that for two days alraedy so we were pretty burned out on caves. But the boat ride out to the island was great! I guess I can say I've sailed the Arabian Sea now, but I don't know if that's one of the seven seas or not.

I have a friend from work (Dev) who lives in Mumbai that was kind enough to put Kat and I up for the night. He was in incredible host! Thanks Dev! We spent some time walking around his neighborhood and visited Juhu Beach at sunset for some great dinner. It is a very nice beach and the food we had was excellent.

Kat and I caught a flight from Mumbai last night and now we're in Bangkok. I should have known better but we flew Air India. Talk about a crappy airline! Our flight left over 2 hours late and they kept switching the gate number of the board. So an entire airplane of people, actually only half an airplane because it was only half full, was in complete confusion. And the ass that worked the check-in counter was not any help to everyone. It's no wonder that Air India couldn't fill their plane. But the food was actually pretty good. I'd definetly say better than what's served on the US flights.

Friday, October 10, 2008

A colorful few days...



After our amazing stay in Jaislmer Kat and I boarded yet another train to Jodphur. Since we only had the day in this city we stowed our bags near the train station and headed out to explore this city. Our expectations were low, after all this was just a train stop on the way to Mumbai, but we were quickly corrected. Jodphur houses a giant fort and palace on a rocky hilltop above the modern city. We tuk-tuked up to the top and took an audio tour of the fort. It followed the Rajastani style in that it was extravagant, elegant, but also bold. The walls were tall and thick but the interior buildings held many couryards full of ornate sandstone carvings. I have some great pictures to upload later!

The other highlight of this day, well maybe more for me than Kat, was the Omelet Man! Just outside the bazaar is a stand that sells omelets and toast. It's really just an egg sandwich but after almost 3 weeks of curry it was a life saver! I walked up to his stand and he immediatly pulled out 2 buckets for kat and I to sit on while he told us that he splits 6,000 eggs a day! His food was delicious and he sold a local cola called Black Horse that only cost 5 rupees (10 cents!!!). Great tasting food for cheap is pretty much my favorite thing in life so this was an amazing experience for me! But I'm sure Kat will be rolling her eyes when she reads this...

After Jodhpur Kat and I took another train to Mumbai. What an expensive city! I guess I should have expected this but it still hurts the budget. But it's also a very western city by Indian standards, which is a great change for Kat and I. It means that she doesn't get lewd stares as often, she can wear a skirt, and we can hold hands in public! These may sound like small things but it definitely raises our comfort.

Last night Kat and I had a very unique experience. We made our way to Chowpatty Beach to watch the burning of a statue. The beach was packed with viewers and there was a stage set up that was acting our some scene involving Hindu gods. Anyways, we were walking home from dinner afterwards very near the Gate of India and we heard music. Upon closer inspection we saw a pier that was housing what we thought was a wedding. We walked up to the well guarded gate just to ask what was going on inside but they quickly ushered us in without explanation - we thought we were about to crash a wedding! But it turns out it was a dance party to celebrate the last day the 9 day festival of navratri! It was a very wholesome dance party where everyone in the family dances. There was dancing in circles and a dance that involves sticks. The people were so accepting they basically forced Kat, myself, and a German couple we met to dance. They taught us how to do it and we had SUCH a great time with them! They were so friendly and accepting and I think they loved that Kat and I enjoyed their festival so much.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Hari Boonbari, Camel-a Safari!


Today Kat and I got back from our much anticipated camel safari! We did a two-day-and-one-night trip into the desert on camels! We booked a great one with our hotel that took us out to a lesser known area and it paid off. We didn't see another camel group the entire time. Most of the landscape was desert scrubland but we did get through a couple of sand dune areas. The dunes are pretty fun on a camel because they really get moving on the downhill side of a dune! Camels are extrodinarily weird creatures. They have really long legs, huge eyes, and they make the strangest gargling yelping sounds imagineable. Luckily none of us were bitten or spit on the entire trip.

Our guides cooked an excellent dinner for us over the fire complete with Chai. We started having some fun with our two fellow travellers with the camera at night and came up with some pretty wild photos like the one shown that Kat so artfully drew. The youngest camel boy especially had fun dancing around at night with the flashlights! After we settled down a bit the camel guides sang some wonderful songs. We slept on blankets under the stars - it was probably the only night in India that we actually have to have a blanket to stay warm.

The other great view in Jaisalmer is the city fort. It's actually endangered right now due to poor water management (get on this Frei!) and it's doomed to self destruction soon. It's a shame because it's beatiful and it's really the crown jewel of this great city. The intricate work done in sandstone makes this city truly unique. Also, the hospitality and generosity of the people of Rajastan has been unrivaled so far in India. I realize this sounds hokey, but this is pretty unique for us so far in India so it is a very welcome change.
Tomorrow we board the train for Jodphur and then Mumbai!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

In Jaisalemer at last!



Well, it's been awhile since I posted, so I will try to add a few highlights that Jeremiah may have missed. I have also added a few pictures to previous posts, so make sure to take a look!


From Darjeeling we headed back to Kolkata to catch a train to Varanasi. I enjoyed Varanasi, however the huge amount of pollution there is upsetting. Besides the ritualistic burning of bodies into the Ganges, according to our Lonely Plant the river is heavily polluted with E. coli and other nasty bugs. During our boat ride we were all very careful not to touch the water. Our boatmen, two young 10 year old boys, happily informed us that their grandfather had caught a Ganges Dolphin, and was proud because the dolphins "have very good oil!" We were all horrified because there are only about 4,000 of those dolphins left in the Ganges! But, how can you compete with the lure of "good oil"?
One highlight of Varnasi was the holy cow man we encountered while wanderling lost in the streets. We were taking pictures of a particularly large cow when an old man approached us and told us that he was a caretaker for the cows, and showed us a tiny stable where a 13 day olf calf was resting. He didn't even ask us for money (which totally surprised us), all he wanted was that we mail him a copy of the picture.

Varanasi is somewhat of a tourist attraction not only for foreign travelers, but also for people from all over India. We were able to watch a nightly ceremony performed near the river, and while it was interesting we didn't understand anything that was going on, and had to leave after 2 hours (it kept going for several hours after that!).
After Varanasi was Agra, where we spent the minimum amount of time. The Taj was gorgeous but due to a train delay we didn't have enough time to see the fort. We did, however, have enough time to store our stuff in a cheap hotel for a couple of hours while we visited the Taj, and and discovered to my dismay that ants had totally infiltrated my bad while we were gone.


After Agra was a horrific train ride to Jaipur. Traveling second class to save money (which actually equated to about $10) was a terrible idea. The train was late, was filled to the brim because they didn't check any tickets, there was a hole in the ceiling about a fot wide above my bunk that I was sure was full of cockroaches, and even though it was a night train there were so many people hanging around talking that none of the lights were ever turned off. I wanted to take pictures but I was afraid to take out my camera!
Jaipur turned out to be a lifesaver because we found a clean, cheap hotel and were able to catch up on laundry and sleep. We saw a Bollywood movie called Drona, which was in Hindi so we couldn't understand most of it. Basically it was a story about a guy who found out he had a magical destiny to defeat a strange puppet loving man. It was pretty funny to us, although I don't think it was meant to be. :) The whole moviegoing crowd got into it though, cheering and yelling throughout the whole 3 hour long debacle. Hilarious.
We are now in Jaisalemer and are having a terrific time. The city is in the desert and the main attraction is a beautiful fort. It's beginning to sink into the ground due to an overtaxed plumbing system, so I am glad that we have had the chance to see it. It's VERY hot here. I have a nifty digital cloclk/calculator/thermometer that I have been carrying everywhere, and it read 102 in the shade! I put it in the sun to see just how hot it really was, and after a couple of minutes the whole screen turned black! I cooled it down on my water bottle and it started working again, everything except the thermometer function. I permanantly burned it out!

Anyway, we are going to get an early start tomorrow for our camel ride in the desert- I hope everyone is donig well!

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Ganges and the Taj Mahal

Right now Kat and I are in Jaipur, but we arrived here from Agra and before that Varanasi, so I have some catching up to do!

We spent 3 days and 2 nights in the wonderful city of Varanasi. We ended up staying at the same hotel as Mark and Monica, a couple we've been running into since our first day in India, so we ended up spending some time with them. Varanasi is a very old city. I've never been to Italy but I've heard some of the old cities are made of narrow passages - Varanasi was just that way. This makes for an interesting layout but it poses two problems: it's easy to get lost (but you can always pay a boy 10 rupees to take you to your hotel), and sometimes it's difficult to bypass the larger holy cows. Yes indeed, even Varanasi has free-roaming cows - maybe more so than the other cities we've visited.

The real magic of Varanasi is the spirituality. Varanasi is one of the holiest spots in the world for Hindus. As a result there are priests and worshippers throughout the ghats along the Ganges. In the morning many people come down to the Ghats to bath. The first day I was there I let Kat sleep in and I wandered down to the main Ghat myself. It really was an amazing place. It also helped that the 'Chai Wallahs' were out that early in the morning - Kat and I have found that few people rise early in India!

We also visited the 'burning-man' ghat. Basically it's a cremation process where the bodies ashes are put into the Ganges. Hindus pay huge amounts of money for this rite. The wood is carried downriver to the ghat, and the flames used to ignite the pyre are from an eternal flame that is said to have been continuously burning for 3,000 years. After the fire the 'little body' that is left (basically the charred remains of the chest cavity) is thrown into the river along with the ashes. There is a LOT more to the ceremony but it is very fascinating. I'm sure there's better descriptions on the internet.

From Varanasi we took the train to Agra for the day. We only wanted one day because our only destination was the Taj Mahal. As I'm sure everyone's heard, the Taj Mahal is supposed to be the most wonderful architectural achievement of mankind. And I really have to say that is doesn't disappoint! It's large, but not huge, but it's position makes you have to constantly look up to it. And especially after having been in India for a while the perfect green gardens contrasted with the white marble and the blue sky is beautiful. Inside the mausoleum is the sarcophagus' of the rulers. Surrounding them on the white marble walls are inlays from floor to ceiling. The detail of the marble work is astounding. The Taj is the must see sight in India and Kat and I were both very impressed.

Right now, as I said previously, we're in Jaipur. It's really just a between point on the train for Jaisalmer, but it's been a blessing in disguise. We thought it would be a boring town, and it is, but that's just what we needed! Since we left we're been constantly on the go, around the clock, and it's nice to be somewhere that we don't have an agenda of sights to see or touts to barter with. And after the worst train ride yet - I'll have to tell about this later - we found a great hotel to catch up on sleep in. So far the highlight of this town for us has been the McDonalds. I don't normally eat at McD's at home, but this was the first one we've seen in India so we had to try! I knew something was wrong with the menu but it took me a minute to figure out why I couldn't find the Big Mac - there's no beef! This should have been obvious to be sooner. So I had the Chicken Maharaja Mac. It's not really the same thing at all. For starters it's thin chicken patties and second the sauce is curry flavored! So I didn't really get a taste of home but at least it was entertaining.

Next up.....Jaisalmer and camel rides!!!

PS - pictures are still difficult to load on most computers but I'll keep trying!