View of Bangkok

11 July 2012

Good Morning Bangkok!
We have a charming little bedroom on the 5th floor of Roof View Place in the Khao San neighborhood. We chose this neighborhood largely because it's the cheapest, but it's also where most of the backpackers come to stay when visiting this terrifyingly large city of roughly 7 million people. Furthermore, over 12 million foreigners visit Thailand each year, and most start their journey right here in Bangkok.

Our bed is lemon yellow and we have a bright blue door. There's a small balcony, and nice white wrought iron furniture. The most appealing aspect of the hotel, however, is the roof. At 6 stories high, the roof is higher than most of the surrounding buildings and we can celebrate miles of scenery in every direction. There are dozens of golden roofed temples, the tall wiry Rama VIII bridge, and the Baiyoke Sky Hotel - the tallest building in Bangkok at 88 stories high. The street noise on our own Soi Six consists mostly of barking dogs (every house has at least one, and then there are strays), the tinkling bell from the ice cream vendor, and the laundry shop across the street (the machines are lined up outside on the sidewalk, 30 Baht per kilo).

We wake up to a glorious buffet breakfast, the best we've had in Thailand, with scrambled eggs, fresh watermelon and pineapple, cereal and milk (OMG!), toast with butter and jam, and spaghetti with meat sauce (that's right). Free coffee and tea all day. What an unspeakable luxury. I have two cups of coffee to celebrate while Chris enjoys three breakfasts. It is right before we are scheduled to meet our high school friend Jake 4 hours later that I am crippled by raging stomach cramps. It was the coffee. The water hadn't been boiled and now I have Thai bacteria in my stomach giving me hell. Fortunately it is nothing more than cramps, so I power through dinner at Jenny Restaurant on Soi Four. Jenny turns out to be a Thai boy, who is very hospitable and serves delicious fresh food of the veggie persuasion. I can't believe our buddy is here with us, we haven't seen any of our hometown friends for about 10 months and it seems surreal that we meet up in Bangkok, a city none of us has been to before. It turns out we have a very nice ladyboy working at our reception, as well as a small fluffy white dog who I decide to call Cupcake. This is our first ladyboy of many, many that we encounter over the next few days. Most of the time you really can't tell, they are beautiful. Gender really doesn't play a big part in society here.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I am determined to sleep off the bacteria and drown them with the water of a thousand bottles, wish me luck!

A Paddle to Remember - Phang Nga Bay

295 days.

As I write, we're sitting on a rooftop in Bangkok. Fierce bolts of lightning silently flash all around us, and in the near distance the buildings and lights of Sukhumvit (Bangkok's ultra-modern city center) play contrast to the softly-lit golden temple sitting just across the street.

It's truly a beautiful sight, which serves to remind us of just how far we've come in that time. It reminds us of how many amazing and wonderful things we've seen, and how many amazing and wonderful places we have visited.

Yes, it's been 295 days since we left Seattle for this great adventure that is our life for the time being.

We've hiked through Australia's Blue Mountains, and surfed some of the most famous breaks throughout the Asia-pacific. We have been able to call the paradisical town of Byron Bay home. We've snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef as well as Indonesia's Gili Islands, and rode a moped across Lombok. And that's barely scratching the surface.

In my mind, however, there is one place and one experience that stands out as having provided a sense of splendor and awe that is second to none. The sheer untouched natural beauty of the hongs in Thailand's Phang Nga Bay. Truly one of the natural wonders of the world.

We set out amidst the monsoon rains of Phuket in July, to go for a canoe trip that would turn out to be the type of experience that simply leaves you speechless.

I'm sorry to say that no mater what I write here, nor which pictures I post, I won't be able to do this trip the justice it deserves.

We signed up for a tour through John Gray's Sea Canoes, and it started off like many others. We were picked up and driven across Phuket Island to the departure point, where we boarded 'the mother ship' which was loaded with sea canoes. We set off into the bay, and were served a really quite nice Thai food buffet. The islands started to loom out of the mists and passing showers as we headed out into the bay, and as the grew before us, so grew our excitement.

As we ventured out it was explained to us that many of these islands, whose sheer stone cliffs rose hundreds of feet above the water, were actually more like a ring of stone than a massive boulder. Inside this jungle-covered ring of rock lush untouched lagoons, or hongs, provide quiet sanctuary to monkeys, birds, and fish of untold quantity. Despite the assurances of our guides that we would venture into these hongs, as the mother ship pulled up alongside one, it was hard to believe it was anything more than it appeared to be; a big solid jungle-covered rock. Even harder to believe, was that we would somehow take a canoe through this seemingly impenetrable rock into said hong.

Nevertheless a small armada of sea canoes, with not more than a 2:1 ratio of skeptics to guides, disembarked to paddle towards this great rock. Our canoe quickly took the lead in what I was still half certain would be a rather embarrassing experience for these guides, who seemed so confident we should be impressed. As we approached the solid rock wall, we paddled under ledge which untold ages of waves had carved from the limestone, and our guide turned on a flashlight and handed it to me. He then instructed Krissy and I to lay down completely flat. It was only then as we tipped our heads slightly forward that we saw it. By my estimate not more than 24 inches tall, nor 36 inches wide, indeed hardly enough for our canoe to scrape though on every side, a natural cave began to welcome us into its black depths.

Fortunately these tight confines didn't last for more than ten feet or so before it opened into a black cave. Only the small beam of our flashlight, and our cameras periodic flash provided illumination for this dark world. It was, however, incredible. The cave grew and took shape in only ways mother nature could have imagined. Around another bend we saw in the distance an opening back out into the daylight. Fortunately this time there was enough space to remain sitting while we slowly paddled into the most incredible piece of this world I have had the pleasure of visiting. Perhaps covering a space as large as a football field, though roughly round and far from uniformly shaped, the lagoon we found ourselves in was incredible. Somehow dense jungle
growth clung to the sheer cliff walls surrounding us, and mangrove trees dotted the surface of the water we paddled in. Only accessible at this hour of low tide (recall the dimensions of our entry point) the mangrove roots stretched well above our heads before joining into the trunk of these unique trees. At times we paddled directly through a single tree to continue on our exploration of this quiet paradise. Monkeys chattered and chewed in the trees above us, and the calls of strange sea birds echoed throughout.

In the end we visited several of these marvels, each at least as different as they were similar. Each more incredible than words can describe.

Phuket, Monsoon to Meet You

Sawasdee (welcome)! So far Phuket (through no real fault of its own) has been a bit of a bummer. I accrued a raging cough on Day One, which Chris then netted on Day Two in our first Thai city. Then there's the fact that it's currently monsoon season, averaging 10 inches of rain per day! Here's a summery then of the past four days: breakfast, watch the rain fall, learn about Phuket online, watch the rain fall, eat lunch, go for a walk, play pool at our hotel and decide if we're too sick to consume beer (no, of course not), eat dinner, watch National Geographic and fall asleep. Rather a pathetic existence from my point of view as a traveler in a new country, in a beach town no less - we're staying on the Southern end of the island at Kata Beach. Althouth we did manage a rousing game of mini-golf at an elaborate Disney-like dino-themed park.

Flooded street

Fortunately we love our hotel, the cutely named Southern Fried Rice. Breakfast included, and cable tv! Free wifi and a cozy bed, pretty much all we're really looking for - but the tv is a bonus especially since we're sick. And since Chris' laptop (in slow decline since Australia) has finally decided to die. The Bangkok Post is available for us to ready during breakfast each morning as well as the weekly Phuket Gazette. I should not have read this publication, however, it left me with the desire to hole up in the hotel and certainly never take public transportation or a tuk-tuk. It's full of crazy (but apparently true) stories of tourists getting raped, abducted, robbed at machete point, even drugged on the bus so it's easier to relieve them of their belongings. Not to mention the tuk-tuk scams, and several recent poisonings from locally made alcohol. Good God. Anyway, we playfully ignore most of that and filed it away as potentially useful information for later.

Wat Chalong

Day Four. We have a plan to leave hotel - gasp! The rain has been holding all morning to our delight, but has just broken into a torrential downpour. A taxi picks us up (since now we are scared of any other transport), and is to take us to the Big Buddha, followed by Wat Chalong, and some lunch and shopping in Old Phuketsitting atop a very high green hill overlooking the Southern part o Town. Umbrella: check! The Big Buddha: we saw it through the window on our way from the airport, a massive stone statue Phuket. The Big Buddha reaches 45 meters high and 25 meters across at the base, and cost roughly 30 million Baht to construct - entirely through donations by the way - he stands alone on the hilltop amid a virgin Thai forest, and is a favorite spot for sunsets. I have wanted to visit him ever since we landed in Phuket. We're on our way and suddenly hit a line of cars waiting to cross a lake - a lake! - in the middle of the road. It turns out there are two more "lakes" we must cross, and they are caused by the monsoon, which has rapidly blocked up the already massive drains on the side of the road. We try to remain calm as water can be felt sloshing the underbelly of the car below our feet. We ask our driver if this is normal monsoon behavior and nervous laughter issues forth from him. He doesn't speak English very well. But we do gather that the Big Buddha is not going to happen.

Wat Chalong

Fortunately we are near Wat Chalong. The primary religion in Phuket is Buddhism, and there are over 40 local Buddhist temples and shrines. This is both due to the size of the Buddhist population, and to their great appreciation of beauty. Wat Chalong was built over a century ago, and stands as picturesque today as it must have on its very first day. It is the largest and most popular temple in Phuket. There's a long driveway lined with elephant topiaries and palm trees. Wooden signs are etched in gold Thai calligraphy denoting each temple, there are quite a few in the complex. The Grand Pagoda is bedecked in gold and red, with several gold statues of the Buddha presiding over it's entrances. Smaller outdoor temples mark each of its four corners, and have colorful dragons in place of bannisters. This is one of the most beautiful, elaborate temples I've ever seen. It's still raining, but we're both so happy to be out seeing some of the island. We hear the occasional firework, which seems odd since it's afternoon and pouring rain. I have just learned this is a common practice at Wat Chalong, they even have a giant beehive devoted to setting off the fireworks. People come from all over Thailand to pray to the famous monks who began the temple here, and when their prayers have been answered they return to the temple to launch fireworks as a sign of appreciation and joy.

Wat Chalong

There's a small house next to one of the temple buildings and we wander over to check it out. Aside: one of the things I love about Southeast Asia, you can be barefoot everywhere! We leave our shoes at the door and I strap on a sarong because, according to Chris, "There's dudes prayin' in there!" We enter the house, which feels a bit like a dusty old museum, and there are in fact two Buddhist monks praying in bright orange robes. Chris stands in front of one of them daring him to move, watching him for an entire five minutes, in awe of his focus. There's a third monk in the back of the house sitting on a chair holding two scepters. This is when I realize they are wax statues, not real people. Whoa. I look at Chris and he still hasn't figured it out yet, so I go outside to wait. Chris pops out a few minutes later, all a-twitter about how the monks didn't even move an inch. I tell him it's because they're wax and he looks at me like I'm dumb. I told him to have another look and he says "No way, those guys are real," but hops into the house for another look anyway. He comes out slightly sheepish and I'm just happy that today, he's the blonde one. We have a good laugh.

The amazing faux monk

Our taxi driver takes us to Phuket Town, which is looking pretty ghetto as we're rolling through. He looks at us to confirm "Old Town?" and we nod reluctantly. He stops at the corner of Pick-Pocket Avenue and Poor Man's Lane and we grab his card upon our exit, no way we're taking the bus home from this place. I am cursing the Phuket Gazette at this point. Once outside the cab, we see colorful albeight run down little apartments all squished together in a charming way, and a few tourists are poking around braving the rain and we breathe a little easier. We make our way up Thalang Road through the old tin town. This is where all the tin miners lived a hundred years ago and it was suitably fitted with bars, brothels and opium dens. Today its buildings maintain an ancient character but the shops are fabrics, bookstores, antiques and cafes. It also has the apperance of Chinatown with red paper lanterns strung across the streets. We stop at a cafe where ladies draped in head scarves make us a banana roti. This is an amazing treat, one of my favorites. They take a small ball of dough and slap it several times on the stainless steel counter until it is the size of a paper thin pizza dough. Then it's thrown onto hot oil on a round concave burner, similar to a crepe pan. They fold up the sides of the dough to make it square, more oil on top, bananas in the middle, fold it in half and chop it into bit-sized squares. Then it gets topped with condensed milk and sugar. Yum.

Lunch is served at Kopi de Phuket, a coffee shop with an extensive lunch menu, chalked in ornate Thai lettering on the walls. More paper lanterns. I'm a bit confused as to whether this is part of Thai culture as well, or if this indeeed is Chinatown...Lunch is delicious: fried chicken in a creamy lemon sauce and a very spicy Massamun curry with roti. And finally: Thai Iced Tea. This is a favorite treat for me and Chris when we eat Thai food back home, but we're having trouble finding many places that serve it in Phuket. After lunch we waddle over to the big shopping plaza, which is a huge disappointment. It is neither authentic Thai, nor effective Western, but somewhere in between, and not well-kept. We decide to walk toward the bus station, which we think is in a good part of town.

Several tuk-tuk drivers harass us on our way over so we decide to just call our taxi guy to come get us, it'll be dark soon. There are several communication failures, and an hour later we park ourselves at a nearby cafe for a beer. The waiter is a sweetheart and helps us call our taxi driver and tells him where we are so he can pick us up. We are so happy to be back at the hotel. A long crazy day and we are soaked through. At least it's warm here. Hot and humid would be a more accurate description. Think Florida. Although today was not the best, I think any day when you're traveling is better than a day being bored at home, and I am grateful for the opportunity to explore.

Ubud - The Heart of Bali (Part II)

I seem to have become a bit distracted with Kuta, so in this post I will actually explain why Ubud, is the heart of Bali.

For starters, it sits quite near the physical middle of the island, but that's not the half of it.

I could say its because it rests on the flanks of Mount Agung (Bali's largest mountain) who's slopes also host Pura Besakih - The Mother Temple of Bali, yet that just scratches the surface.

One might wax philosophical about the arts; given Ubud's history of silver and woodwork, or the seemingly omnipresent yoga studios, and the plentiful bookshops. However that really doesn't encapsulate what makes it so special.

Really its because... it just feels like Bali.

How do I explain that?

Ubud is all those things, certainly. And much more.

Sitting in the Monkey Forest

We decided to spend our last few days in Bali living in Ubud. We had visited previously and strolled through the main strip, the aptly named Monkey Forest Road which loops past the famous Ubud Monkey Forest. We hadn't however had the time to truly explore the nooks and crannies.

Walking up from our shuttle stop, we had selected a few homestays that had been well reviewed, and dropped in to look for a cheap room. It turns out, Ubud even just before the high season, is a busy place.  Having exhausted our pre-selected options, we opted to take a visit to the next homestay that was offered to us. For those of you who haven't visited Bali, should you go, there is no real worry about finding accomodation. You WILL be offered countless places to stay, at town. Walking around with a bag on your back is tantamount to carrying a large sign that says "LOOKING FOR A ROOM".

Where we ended up, was more than we had hoped for. We opted for an upstairs room at Brata 1 Homestay. This is a highly recommended option. They dont have a pool, or air-conditioning, but what they do have is a beautiful room, with a comfortable bed, a warm family feel, and delicious breakfast. Sadly all the pictures we took of this are on our "big camera" which we cannot access until we are back in the states. You will have to trust us. Our room looked out over the top of Ubud. Beautiful red-tiled rooftops, tall trees, and decorative crowns. The doors and windows were of marvellously carved dark wood, and made us feel like royalty.

Ubud, it turns out, is a culinary delight. While the menu selection doesn't differ much beyond what is found across the rest of Bali (Hello, Nasi Goreng. Hello, Pizza!) The quality of the food was truly worth the visit of its own accord. Additionally, the feel of the restaurants were undoubtedly more... complete than most any we had enjoyed in Bali.

We had a wonderful French dinner at the Kebun Bistro. We really could have been back in France for this, decorated in a rustic french style, they had delicious and well cooked french classics, and fine wines. For our evening, we even had a french family at the table behind us. Tres bien!

Drinks at Kafe

Another favorite from ubud was Kafe. We had a stunning and delicious lunch at this uber-busy street-side cafe-with-a-conscience. Stepping away from our daily "bread and butter" of nasi or mie goreng, we enjoyed some western treats. A chicken fajita burrito that was quite simply, one of the best I've had, and some cool and refreshing cocktails. All done an almost in-your-face (yet tasteful) environemental respect. Its a can't miss.

While we spent hours walking the streets, enjoying the art, carvings, and food, it wasn't any of these things that really made Ubud the heart of Bali,. Neither was it the relative quiet, relaxed salesmanship, or cleanlyness. It was a package deal. Its truly a wonderful place to spend some time. This is what we will always remember when we look back at our time living in Bali.

Ubud - The Heart of Bali

We ended up spending 6 days in Kuta, Bali. Afterwards, was our last stop in Bali, Ubud. It was hard to leave the air-conditioning, refreshing pool, beautiful beach, and great surf. Also, our lovely Swedish friends Emily and Daniel whom we had met in Padang Bai, and traveled to Lombok with were heading into Kuta, and we thought it would be great to see them again!

However, by the time we left, we. were. done. with. Kuta.

Where do I start?

How about the grime.

Kuta Bali, sadly, is pretty gross. Despite the local custom of heavily watering the sidewalk and street in front of their shops, the streets, and sidewalks, are gross. The dirt/road grime is literally inches deep many places. Since at any given time of day, regardless of weather, you are likely alternating between water and dirt, the end result is mud. Lots of it. Flip-flops (or thongs, as the Aussies would call them) are standard footwear here. They are really necessary, and other type of shoe would certainly become destroyed within mere moments. The result however is a thing a clinging layer of greasy road mud firmly attached to your feet.

Then there is the crowding.

A typical street in Kuta is roughly what we would in the western world consider an alley. It is (if you're lucky) one-lane wide, and only on main thorough-fares will you find anything resembling a sidewalk. This one lane road contains cars, trucks, and vans moving in both directions. Additionally, the hugely popular motor-bike, as everywhere in Bali, rapidly and perilously weaves in both directions to the left, right, and in-between the larger vehicles. Being as this is a single-lane alley, when anything larger than a car meets going in opposite directions, someone must inevitably reverse the nearest intersection or driveway. This, in turn, creates massive traffic jams. Complicating this entire mess are the pedestrians, and plenty of them. Now, the twist. Along each "road", typically on both sides and without separation, are the vendors. They usual suspects are small tourist shops hawking their wares, warungs enticing you with their menu, and spas pushing massages.

Did I mention the smell?

Unlike some of the smaller towns, Kuta (in most places) does not have open sewers running along the side of the road. Since open sewers were (and many places still are) the standard all around Bali for quite some time, as the larger areas became developed with the onset of western tourism a solution needed devising. There simply wasn't space for all these people, cars and mopeds, and the open sewers are well, gross. As I previously mentioned the streets contained exactly no room for adding sidewalks, so in all their wisdom a raised sidewalk was placed over the top of the open sewer. These are tiled with concrete slabs roughly 2 feet long, and 3 feet wide. Many are broken, teetering, crumbling, uneven, missing entirely, etc. The end result certainly does nothing to contain the smell, very little to add to pedestrian space (the aforementioned vendors have taken this space over) and nothing to increase safety. (Constant vigilance is required to avoid falling into the sewer or road, or otherwise killing yourself)

Finally, the cacophony of sound...

All those vehicles, especially the mopeds with varying levels of non-existent exhaust muffling, add up to quite a lot of sound pollution. Now lets layer on some audible excess. Each of the tourist shops, loudly (and sometimes physically) try to get your attention into their store. (lets be clear, by store I generally refer to an open-walled section of the street where they have set up their crap) It may be their limited knowledge of English, or just a somewhat shocking lack of originality, but each one seems to grab onto something about you, and ties it into their merchandise, and tries to attract you with it. For example: Krissy has some pink knock-off sunglasses she got in the Gilis. A very popular cry as we walked down the street would be "Yes! Pink sunglasses!! For you very cheap price." another example would be that I wear a hat. So our walks were often accompanied by "Yes, hats! Cheap price!!". The spas, while just as persistent were even less original "Yes, massage?". The warungs and restaurants were sometimes less aggressive, but equally as loud and attentive. "Hello, menu?" "Yes, cheap food. Very cheap price!". The other thing you will hear at least once every 10 feet, is "Yes, transport?". This is generally the remaining people, who seem to have nothing to sell but do own a moped, and are always willing to rent it out, or give a ride... for a price. And finally, the coup-de-grace - Taxi drives in Kuta have a lovely habit of  honking at you as they drive by, just to let you know that there is a ride available to you! Generous, if not for the fact that the result of this is a honk from right over your should roughly every 13 seconds. Did I mention the "Yes, transport?" dudes? All told, the end result over any 100 foot stretch of street is: 200 vehicles, 25 honks, 15 unoriginal sales pitches, 10 unwanted menus, and 5 "Yes, massage?"s.

Oh yeah, this was supposed to be about Ubud. Well, I guess I got a bit distracted trying to paint the picture of how lovely Kuta was...

Shopping in Seminyak

Finally - shopping! We walked to the next town North of us here in Kuta - Seminyak - which is known for being fancy and having loads of fabulous shops and restaurants, high-end hotels. It's a bit of a treacherous walk, there are not many sidewalks in Bali and there's a surplus of mopeds whipping about your ankles at any given time. But we haven't been hit yet...knock, knock.

Anomali Coffee

Silly us, we took directions from an Indonesian again and wound up far from our desired destination. However, we found some beautiful paved stone alley ways and even a few rice paddies!

After a few hours of shopping we break for coffee. We are very pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a Western style coffee shop (there are virtually no coffee shops in Indonesia because all the restaurants serve it), with magazines, air conditioning, ample seating and amazing coffee. Thank you Anomali! You can choose which Indonesian country you'd like your beans from, and then how you want it prepared: French press, drip, or something known as a wood neck. They roast beans on site, and offer Luwak coffee for your discerning palette.

Pretty rice paddy

More shopping, followed by dinner at a new restaurant: Locale. The Bali Hai beer was awful and flat, stick to Bintang. The food, however, was amazing. For $1.70 we caught a cab back to Legian and took a late night swim in the pool - not a bad day!

Surfin' Safari - I'm a real surfer now

Exciting day today - more surfing! Our buddies at R-Six hooked me up with a sweet fish board, I've been dying to test one of these out for awhile. A fish board is a retro style wide short board (popular in the 70's), usually with a swallow tail. This one is 6'2 with a quad fin. They're perfect for learning turns on smaller waves, which is exactly my plan. Chris is on sunbed rest from a bad cut on his foot, which he is trying to keep from infection.

I leap into the ocean and catch a few white wash waves for warm up. I can stand up with no issue, my balance is perfect. Yes! Every 20 minutes or so, there's a set with double-overhead so you have to keep an eye out (as always) so you don't get caught in the impact zone. These waves are breaking heavy, too, the big ones. I paddle out for a few of the smaller waves and catch only a few rides in 2 hours - my timing is off today. I am also having trouble with the duck dive, I can never get deep enough to avoid the wave completely. A set of big waves is coming in and I just make it over the first one. I get caught in the second. I can tell at the very last second that I will barely not make it, so I roll off my board and swim hard against the wave. I make it over the wave, but I get a hard jerk from my leggie and realize my board has gone over the falls. The board pulls me over the falls, and this is a heavy wave. I get spun through the washing machine twice, touching sand on my second time - and this is pretty deep water. I'm under for like 10 seconds (trust me, this is a long time) and come up gasping for air. Fortunately there's not another big wave in this set, so I immediately start swimming for shore to get outside the impact zone. This is when I realize I have only half my board. The wave has literally broken my board in two pieces. Pants. I make my way to shore, where an excited group of Indonesian children run over with my other half. I am pissed about the board, but strangely excited as well. I survived a wave that broke my board with no injuries. Lucky me.

Chris is not happy. We walk back to the surf shop to face certain punishment. Fortunately, we signed a contract with them and know the penalty for breaking the board: $100. At least fifteen people shout at us from the street on our way home - "Broken! Big wave?!" The guys at the shop are super nice about the board. Apparently this happened two weeks ago also. One of the guys tells me he's broken 15 boards in his life and shows me scars from his surf history. He asks about my wave and I show him my surf scar on my knee. I am a real surfer now.

Dinner is at The Balcony. Frozen margaritas for just 25,000rp! I haven't had a margarita since the States and boy do I need one after my wild day in the sea.