Well, it’s taken us awhile but those remaining photos are up on facebook. One more post left with links to the new chocolate site. Enjoy!
It’s true, Rob and I are back in the States!
The last weeks of traveling are easy to sum up – excessive amounts of beer (Belgium) and chocolate (Belgium and Paris)…
We traveled to Brussels and met family friends and a friend of a friend who all showed us a wonderful time between the time we spent at Belgium beer bars and chocolate shops. In Ghent we couchsurfed with a lovely couple who shared with us some of the best beers in the world and introduced us to really excellent Belgian food. We took a day trip to Brugges and that was enough to see the town’s brewery and visit one great beer bar.
Our last stop in Belgium was the Orval Abbey, where one of the world’s seven trappist beers is made by monks. (Well, technically the operation is overseen by one monk and staffed by locals). We stayed for a couple days as retreatants, accompanying the monks for their chanting. One of the mornings we were very lucky to be whisked through the brewery for a tour. Tours are reserved for beer professionals only, so I had an in.
We rode the high speed train into Paris. It was Rob’s first visit, so in between the seventeen chocolate shops, we saw the city’s landmarks – the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Georges Pompidou, etc. Paris has incredible chocolates. My favorites were Patrick Rogier, Jacques Genin and Pralus (for bars) if you’re ever in town.
After five chocolate-filled days, we made our way home via a long long layover at Chicago O’Hare to Arkansas where we’ll spend the next couple weeks catching up with family and friends. Then it’s on to Boulder, Colorado where we both plan on following our dreams of beer and chocolate. More on that soon, under new blogs and with a whole new world of adventures.
So this is it. Now that we’re home, keeping a blog titled ‘from the other side of the world’ seems a little insincere. I’ll post twice more – once with photos of Mongolia through Europe and once with an update on the new chocolate blog address.
Thanks so much to everyone who’s kept up with us over the past year. I’m really looking forward to seeing you in person soon…
So I’m playing catch up here and last I wrote we were headed into Mongolia from China…
After spending four days in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, if you’re going to visit Mongolia, spend at least a couple weeks and get out of the capital. Downtown Ulaanbaatar was full of dreary, gray neo-communist architecture with peeling paint, metal and mud. The outskirts are studded with one room canvas tent homes, called gers, a reminder that most Mongolians once wheeled their homes on the backs of carts as they scouted grass for their herds. These days many of the city’s one million residents are former nomads struggling to make ends meet as they adjust to living in one place.
Everything is spread far apart in Mongolia, so four days isn’t enough time to visit the mountains or desert. We heard stories from other travelers returning from the Gobi and others who had camped on the steppes. It is beautiful and wild out there. So few tourists let alone people, roads shifting with the sand, no crops, no power, only sunrises and large expanses of land – if you really want to go off the path, Mongolia is the place to do it.
In the city we visited an excellent museum on Mongolian art. The detail in the painting was really impressive.
Crime is high in Ulaanbaatar. A friend of ours was robbed twice in the same day outside our guesthouse. I caught a guy as he was reaching into my pocket, but even if he had made it he would have ended up with nothing more than a fistful of dirty tissues.
Mongolian food is not good, not good at all, especially for non-meat eaters. Nomads don’t have the chance to plant crops, so the traditional diet includes meat dumplings and fermented milk. One night we broke down ordered pizza. Then it came with mare’s milk cheese, which just doesn’t taste right (sweet and fatty).
The cheese was a sign – our time in Asia had come to an end and it was on to Germany, land of beer, bread and cheese and beer that tastes like bread that is best consumed with cheese. I’m not going to lie – the amount of cheese and bread that I’ve had in the past couple weeks is not normal. The amount of beer is another story…
So I’ll sum up the week and a half in Germany very quickly: beer.
Rob’s good friend since college, Neil, joined up with us the day after we arrived in Berlin. The three of us spent a few days walking around the city (with beers, because that is totally normal in Germany) and saw the Berlin Wall transformed into an artist’s gallery, the famous gates of the City, the German history museum, and some great cafes and bars.
We couchsurfed with a longtime East Berlin resident who recounted the story of the day the Wall came down. We met up with another couchsurfing host who led us through some of the City’s funky neighborhoods. Berlin was such a great, liveable city. It is my new favorite town in Europe.
After Berlin it was on to Bamberg, home of the smoked beer, where we visited nine breweries in two days. On the first day, we started tasting at 10 a.m. and we weren’t alone in the brewery. There were groups of 60 and 70 year old Germans who had brought picnic breakfasts and were playing cards.
To date – my favorite beer to date is the Speziale Keller Rachbrau. The strongest version of smoked beer tastes like bacon. That was a little much.
Bamberg is a beautiful, perfectly preserved town that missed out on the bombing during the war. It was cute and quiet and we met a very nice German friend who works at the university and met up with us each evening.
Next was Koln (Cologne to us Americans). A large-ish city famous for its Kolsch. It’s also known for the largest German cathedral, which was pretty nice too. Kolsch in Koln is way better than Kolsch outside Koln, where it can taste flat and doesn’t have the same creamy head. Across the river is Dusseldorf, where we drank Alt beer. Alt beer tastes like bread and is much hoppier and darker than the beer from its rival city.
After Dusseldorf, we left Germany for Amsterdam and have been here about three days. This afternoon we rode bikes along the water and in the countryside and it was scenic and peaceful. We’ve been drinking Belgian beers here, gearing up for our next stop. I’ve had my first chocolates with ganache here. (Germany loves its marzipan, but the chocolates weren’t as great as the beer). I’m ready for Belgian chocolate and the beer is Rob’s favorite…
Neil leaves us in the morning and Rob and I take the bus to Brussels…
Over the past month in China I’ve been collecting a few blog topics to post outside the country. They’re quick and general, but here goes…
Freedom of ___?
Despite increasingly opening itself to other countries whether through trade or tourism, the government wields much control over its people.
The majority of Chinese are atheist, though religious groups must be registered with the government and any materials, like sermons or religious texts, must be pre-approved and may be edited. For Chinese Nationals, there are two types Christian churches in practice. One is registered (legal) and the other is a “family church” where people practice “underground” in homes (illegal). Foreigners can legally attend a church outside the system
The internet is censored which means no facebook, youtube or blog sites. You can get around the blocks by using a foreign-based VPN, but most Chinese don’t go to the trouble or don’t own a computer. You must register with the government if you frequent an internet café and they can monitor the sites that you visit.
One child rule
China has had a rule in place for a while now that says each married couple can have only one child. Couples can pay a “fine” (read: tax) if they have a second child. The goal is not to maintain the 1.4 billion population, it’s to reduce it. The country supposedly hit its peak population in 2008 and, as residents over the age of 65 reach enlightenment, it is still declining. There is an exception. Minority groups can breakeven with two kids.
The rule has had significant cultural effects. Imagine a whole nation of children with no brothers or sisters, where older populations were once raised in extended families. In middle/upper class families, the only-child, Type A personalities are muted by parental control. Parents are very protective of their one child to the extent that they make the decisions — where to go to college, what to major in, etc. — and the children are left with no responsibilities. When the parents have the money to spend, the child gets whatever he or she wants.
This has created a generation of new materialism and the changes have had an effect on the Chinese economy. Before, families saved whatever they could. Now, the children spend the money and China’s domestic economy is booming. Its ability to export competitively is still important, but now the country has new market for its goods — China.
Because the parents put so much effort into raising their child, they expect the same treatment from the child when they reach retirement. We read about one case where the parents sued their child for not caring for them properly in old age. Among the middle class, the parents have a good life. They often live with or near the child’s family. During the day when the child is at work, they exercise in the park, play Chinese chess, meet with friends, etc.
“New Communism”
China is communist (or “new communist”) at the national level, but at the local level it is more like a democracy where citizens elect representatives. They don’t use the term democracy, of course.
You can see aspects of capitalism in China. Private individuals own businesses, businesses are publicly traded on the stock market, etc. It may be confusing to hear about capitalism in a communist country. The government says that it’s a “new form of communism” that it invented. That’s the line whenever something is successful that falls outside the strict tenets of communism. It does make it easy for them.
The farmers
…are the poorest group, especially in rural parts of China where access to healthcare, etc. is limited if at all existent. The farmers receive limited government services. For example, they do not receive the equivalent of Social Security when they reach a certain age.
The government says that it is looking for ways to aid the farmers. Southwest China didn’t receive snowfall this past winter. Now there is a severe drought and the farmers cannot grow any crops. The government is sending water to remote villages.
Working in China
We met a few foreigners who work here in China and I think cultural differences would make it a tough environment. Questioning your boss is disrespectful, especially implying that your boss may not know everything in front of others. Foreigners get reprimanded. Chinese can lose their jobs if their boss loses face.
Chinese bosses tend to micromanage. Your highest ranking executive may stand every morning by the entrance and personally take down the names of workers who are running late. He may patrol the office to make sure shirts are properly ironed and that workers are at their desks. Appearances are very important.
Careers progress through a system of favors. Once a businessman assists enough or the right people, he will call on those contacts to help in a career move or with a sale. In China, you never get something for nothing. The same is true for family and friends. If you accept a favor, gift, etc., then you are expected to aid the person later on. Sometimes a friend may help you a few times in small ways, only to ask for one large favor later on. (Foreigners may be exempted.)
A few other random thoughts –
–Alcohol imports are heavily taxed — 48 or 49%…
–Individuals cannot ship electronics outside China. Same goes for newspapers, even to pack a box…
–Doctors who practice western medicine do not integrate eastern medicine and vice versa.
…All said though, we really enjoyed China. The people were nice, the scenery in the South and at the Great Wall was beautiful, we loved the time at the monastery, and the food was good too…
Ok, more soon on Mongolia!
Rob and I are on the train from Beijing to Mongolia. It left early this morning. He’s asleep and I’m taking advantage of the outlet in our compartment to catch up on writing.
It’s a 28 hour ride to the capital, Ulaanbaatar. The Mongolian train is great compared to the train to Beijing. No one is smoking and you can see farmland for miles out the window. This time I packed better food – sandwiches, apples, cookies, crackers, soups and milk tea. So far, we have the compartment to ourselves.
The past week in Beijing was good, despite the worsening cough. Sometimes it gets so bad that it triggers my gag reflex or I can’t breathe. Quite a few foreigners get the cough. There’s something in the air and there’s little you can do other than wait for it to go away.
Both of us have had very little sleep, since I’ve been keeping Rob up at night. Fortunately our Canadian friend was kind enough to let us stay for the week. His place was quiet and comfortable. During the evening when we were too exhausted to see more of the City, the boys would pick up some beers and we’d watch kung fu movies.
Rob and I met a super nice American girl who speaks Chinese fluently and went with us to sample Beijing food. We had a crepe-like pancake with fermented soy paste, green onions, an egg, lettuce, chili paste and a fried cracker wrapped inside. It was an odd combination, but it worked. For lunch we tried hot pot, similar to the type of fondue where you boil meat and/or veggies in broth until they’re cooked and then dip them in a peanut sauce.
More on Chinese food –
In general, Chinese food is oily and boiled. The food does not have flavor without oil and it’s not safe to eat without boiling it. KFC has become hugely popular with the younger Chinese. They love fried, salty, greasy meat.
For breakfast, it is common to eat noodle soup, rice porridge or steamed buns, always with a cup of soy milk. Tea is induces appetite, but not usually sipped with a meal. Lunch and dinner are similar – plates of meat and vegetables served family style with a bowl of rice. Steamed rice is eaten at the end of the meal to fill up, rather than with the meat or vegetable dishes.
Butter or cheese was nearly impossible to find outside of Beijing. In the big city it was more than triple the price than in the States. Baked goods were a total miss. The exception to the cheese was in Dali. Yak’s cheese is a bland, very hard cheese stretched into sheets and then fried until it bubbled.
In the Yunnan province, we had Lijiang pancakes (a fried dough topped with sliced bananas), Yunnan coffee (which was inconsistent, but when it was good it was delicious), bitter melon (more like a bumpy, bitter squash), pickled cabbage, milk tea (a strong tea with milk and agar “bubbles” or coconut pulp).
Photos –
I’ll soon post photos from China on Facebook.
May 29th
It is 8:52am and I am sipping a small green bottle of 56% Chinese alcohol (translated Red Star) for my cough. I look outside the window as I’m typing from the 15th floor of this apartment building. The buildings across the street are wrapped in a shawl of white gauze. Behind them, a grayish nothingness. My first morning in Beijing.
May 24th: The mask
You know those Chinese tourists in big American cities who wear the surgical masks on the streets? You do a double take and wonder ‘if China is so polluted, just how bad could Denver be?’ Truth is, they’re wearing the facemasks because the air outside of China is too clean.
I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum. I think I may be allergic to China. The pollution from the cars, factories and construction is palpable. It has a chalky taste. Couple the pollution with the incessant smoking – every Chinese man lights up at least a pack a day in small enclosed spaces – and my throat is feeling pretty rough.
So yesterday I broke down and bought a facemask. Yes, that’s right — I wore it for three hours on the smoke filled train today and it was a godsend. I’m holding out for Beijing to find a hello kitty, american flag or camo-loving facemask and then I will take glamour shots. Rob says that the one I have now looks like I’m prepping for surgery in the 50s. It’s white, bulky and fashioned from thick layers of gauze. I may have lost all self-respect, but hopefully I’ll sleep through the night soon.
May 20th: Fu you!
Last I wrote Rob and I were headed up the mountain for a week of kung fu (Rob) and tai chi (Jenny). It was a great experience. Another guy describes the daily routine in his blog (http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Dali/blog-489895.html). He does a good job, so I won’t rehash the details.
We practiced with some wonderful people. Including us, there were nearly a dozen foreigners staying at the monastery. The young monks were our teachers and during the five hours of practice a day it was ‘no pain no gain’ (which was funny coming from a monk who speaks little English).
The monks may have been trained warriors, but there was a tenderness about them. They are very special. One day I gave basic English lessons to a few of the younger monks during their school time (our nap time – they never stopped working). At the end of the lesson, one of the monks snuck me something like a Chinese moonpie from his stash to say thank you.
The monks were hard on each other, but they looked out for each other too. Rob joked with a couple that their kung fu was lazy and all of them sprang to their defense. He had to learn how to say ‘your kung fu is very good’ in Chinese very quickly.
We were lucky to have the flexibility to spend the week in such a beautiful place. The monastery was tucked into the mountainside, overlooking Dali and Erhai lake. Most of the food we had was grown in their gardens. We could drink the spring water straight from the tap. It was such a luxury – we’ve been living on the bottled stuff for a long time.
May 22nd: Tiger Leaping Gorge
After our week at the monastery, Rob and I left to hike what many call the most beautiful hike in China – Tiger Leaping Gorge. It did not disappoint. You’re hiking the sides of mountains, so the views up and down were spectacular for the whole eight hours.
We met another nice Canadian (man, they really get around China) and a very friendly couple from the UK at our first guesthouse at the start of the trail and hiked together the morning. It was good to have the company. The trail is peppered with guesthouses and places to eat, so we did the bulk of the hike on the first day and then stayed at a place with a wonderful view (even from the squat toilet, which helps to take your mind off things).
The trip back to the start of the trail was a whole other adventure, since the road is under construction and technically not open. We took a minivan partway, then got out to walk a couple miles (run at one point in intervals as rocks slid down the mountain), and then took another van the rest of the way.
May 24th: Back to where we started
Rob and I took a van from the Gorge to Lijiang. The streets were so crowded with tourists that you can’t lift your arms. This morning we took the new train back to Dali, a much quieter, cuter version of Lijiang, with windy stone streets and early morning steamed dumplings. We will stay here til we return to Kunming for the train to Beijing.
Today again: Beijing
The train was a wash really. We thought the two day trip would be a great way to see the countryside on our limited schedule. It rained the first day and the rain brought fog, so we didn’t see much past the landscape immediately outside the window. The next day as we inched closer to Beijing, we riding through cities and the pollution blocked the view in the same way.
The view wasn’t as much of a let down as the smoking. The attendants rolled metal carts down the aisles, selling whole cartons for the two day trip. Even the facemask couldn’t live up to the challenge. By the end of the trip, you could roll my t-shirt and light one up.
Rob and I had gone to the grocery store before boarding and stocked up on instant noodle soups, fruit, fragrant teas and treats. Our compartment had a hot water thermos, a tablecloth and a vase with a red rose, which was a funny touch. No plug though to watch kung fu movies on the laptop, so we did crossword puzzles for about 20 waking hours.
…and now we’re in Beijing, “couchsurfing” with another awesome Canadian (seriously, more Canadians than Europeans in China). Rob will wake up in a bit and we have plans to see the Forbidden City and then tomorrow, we’re off to hike the Great Wall, where I may be the only hiker carrying my medication in a green bottle about the size of my palm.
We got a new camera — another Canon — and it is way better than the other two combined. Getting the camera was an experience though. We tried and failed in Laos so the next stop was Kunming, China. For those of you who think that “made in china” means cheap electronics are abundant here, you’ll be sorely disappointed. We were. That’s right, the cheapest electronics in the world are a quarter mile down the road at your nearest Supercenter. Like, 25% cheaper.
We went to a Best Buy equivalent called Sunning and found a very patient, non-English speaking staff member to assist us. It is tough to find someone who speaks English outside of the guesthouses and restaurants advertised in the European guidebooks.
This guy went above and beyond. On the first day we negotiated. We agreed on the price and hour later learned that they couldn’t take credit cards, but the banks had a limit on ATM withdrawals. Day two: we found a way to withdraw the cash, returned to the store, bargained a little more, bought the camera (with Chinese instructions), set up the camera and registered the camera. All in all, it was a 6 hour process.
On the second day our helpful friend had opened up one of those handheld pocket translators from the store in an attempt to better communicate with us. The translations on both ends were deplorable and it was like cracking a lunatic’s puzzle figuring out what the hell he was saying. “Don’t worry” became “no paste” and at one point we were told: “you take the get and way the flower.”
Our troubles should have been no surprise. Chinese is complicated and so much of the language depends on tone. “Wa” is used at the end of a question. Said with a different inflection, it means “horse” and with another tone, a bad word (though we’re not sure which one). So if I said, “Vegetarian Dishes, wa?” that could come out: ‘Do you cater to vegetarians?’ or ‘Do you have vegetarian dishes plus horse meat?’ or ‘I want vegetarian dishes, asshole.’ You see how delicate the situation can be, but we still try and get laughed at often.
The Chinese people are nothing but nice. They will go out of their way to help you. Really, they are across the board the nicest people we’ve met on our trip. We were ordering a soup at one of the stalls and the woman next to us stopped to help translate. We didn’t know which bus to take and someone walked us to the right stop (twice). Even the people trying to sell us touristy stuff for the most part aren’t pushy. Older women in Dali will walk up to young-ish Westerners, asking if they want to smoke the ganja. You say ‘no, no Chinese prison’ and they will leave you alone. In Laos they often followed you, just to make sure you weren’t interested in snorting heroin. Just to make sure you weren’t having any second thoughts.
Chinese food
It is so good! We’ve had wonderful new dishes like battered rose petals in a honey lemon dipping sauce, stir fried asparagus and garlic, agar jelly in a delicate sweet broth, and tea. Green tea is served with every meal and the flavors of tea are complex. Some are savory like grains and others are fruity, infused with apples or pomelos.
…Rob and I are in Dali in the Southwest Yunnan province of China. This evening we’re headed up the mountain to a monastery where we will practice Kung Fu (Rob) and Tai Chi (me) over the next week. There’s no electricity at the top of the mountain, so it will be another week til the next post.
Just to be clear: his part of the trip is not fun. What I mean is that the Southeast Asia we’ve visited is no roller coaster ride at Disneyland, riding horses along gently rolling hills, sipping frozen pina coladas on a beach.* We have had some remarkable and memorable moments, but I can’t recommend traveling around these parts for weeks of pleasure. Our travels around Cambodia, Northern Thailand and Northern Laos have taken lots of patience, a willingness to make compromises, an ability to pick our battles, and most of all, great stomach bacteria. In other words, come here for life lessons, not for decompressing.
*Full disclosure: we did not visit any beaches in Thailand, Cambodia or Laos – but we hear lots of people do go to those spots to relax.
For the record, my bacteria is winning between the two of us. We ended up staying in Luang Prabang for a week. On day four, we were packing up our bags to catch an early morning bus and something awful hit Rob in the gut. It took him out for three days.
Later we found out that he got sick from draft beer or maybe an unclean pitcher at one of the bars in LP. A friend who shared the pitcher with him had suffered the same fate. That’s so evil – of all things, beer should not make Rob sick.
LP is a small town and after staying there a few days I started to run into the same people. No one’s in a hurry, so you stop and talk for a bit before you continue walking. It’s a comforting feeling that I haven’t had since going to college in a small town. But, then you stay here long enough though, and your friends have moved on and you start to feel that you should too… that it’s not the same place it was a few days ago.
Hanging on for dear life…
While we were there, we met a wonderful couple from Luxembourg. We visited the Kuang Si Waterfalls together, about an hour drive outside town. The main falls are quite tall and then cascade into a series of pools where people go swimming or chill their beers for nearby picnics.
The falls are nestled in thick jungle. With the rainy season starting it was luscious and wet. We were hiking along the water for ten minutes when Rob felt a thud on his sandal. He looked down and tried to shake off what he thought was a slug, but the little guy just wouldn’t let go. A few minutes of trying to pry him off the shoe with a branch and it clicked – it was a leech. Rob lifted up his pants leg and another one was crawling up to take hold, but brushed him off in time.
We continued walking towards the falls. Rob put his feet in the water and I was sitting next to our bags on a rock watching the might of the water hit the pool, when he suggested that I recheck my legs. Sure enough there was a leech clasped to my ankle! It was much bigger now than the others, its body pulsating. I screamed and the leech went flying. They use a numbing agent when they bite, so I hadn’t felt a thing. They also give you an anti-coagulant so the little hole didn’t close for hours. My first leech. I hate them.
That evening our friends invited us to a dinner that they had heard about the night before at the market. A couple of Americans were volunteering with a local Laotian who was starting LP’s first “public” library. (Public meant public access, not publicly funded.) Anyhow, the Americans were organizing a dinner to raise some funds for books.
We had a great time. It was the best traditional food we have had here – Mekong “seaweed” fried with garlic and sesame and served with a chili paste, spicy eggplant puree, sautéed veggies in sweet lemongrass and soy, sticky rice, buffalo laab, and for dessert – fresh coconut rice in a banana leaf.
Even better was getting the chance to talk with locals about their work and culture. One friend who showed up worked with the government on a new program to encourage villages to set up their own credit unions. With the local unions, they are able to lend money to villagers at affordable rates, gather the interest on the money and reinvest it into the community. Pretty great stuff… it was a good evening.
Once Rob came back to life, we skipped Vang Vieng and headed straight for Vientiane, the capital city. Vang Vieng is a bit of an anomaly in Laos. By day, drunk 20-30 year olds float a truly scenic section of the Mekong River in inner tubes. By night, they drink more. Lao lao whiskey is only a $1 a liter and it doesn’t take much to make you forget your name. People either love VV or hate it.
The bus ride to Vientiane was a long 12 hours, but then we settled into our favorite guesthouse in Asia. It’s been a good respite during the hot weather. Yes, it’s Cambodia hot out there again – 115 F heat index and humid.
I have lost my dignity…
I am carrying around an umbrella for shade. That’s right, it’s not raining. But none of you are allowed to make fun until you’ve walked for three hours in this heat.
Many Lao people do it, but few Westerners, so I admit it – I do feel a little self conscious when passing the touristy areas… until this morning, when I looked up and there was a Western guy walking toward me with the same periwinkle umbrella. He smiled sheepishly.
Rob tried the umbrella once, but thinks it keeps the heat closer to his head. That’s good, there’s only one umbrella.
Next up
…is China. We’re heading out early Monday morning. A couple of notes –
1) Our camera was lost at the night market in Luang Prabang. A nice Polish woman picked it up and then left for Cambodia the next morning. We may not be able to take photos for a while, so I’ll try and link in other people’s shots from the internet.
2) I’ve heard that it’s really tough to blog and access Facebook from China, so I’ll keep writing, but you may not be able to read the posts us until we reach Mongolia at the beginning of June. We’ll have to wait and see…
Who knows, but its posted everywhere in Luang Prabang. LP is a quaint colonial style town wrapped by the Mekong River and nestled in mountains. It’s the type of place where tourists come to sit at sidewalk cafes, sip wine and smoke cigarettes. Then the mold, moss and mosquitos remind you that you’re still in Southeast Asia.
We’ve been here for a few days, taking it easy. Today we hiked to the top of Phousi Hill, where you can get great panoramic views of the City and surrounding mountains. I’ve posted some new photos on Facebook (here). I’ve also added some photos of Luang Nam Tha here.
Rob and I ended up staying in Thailand about 10 days. First a short ride through Bangkok to go north to Ayutthaya for a couple nights. The first day visiting temples, which put Rob at his temple threshold. There are so many. Unless you’re an historian, after you see more than thirty, your eyes start to glaze over and you’re concentrating more on the heat than the pile of rocks in front of you.
On the way back to the guesthouse, we took a wrong turn an ended up on a mile long street lined with people celebrating Songkran. They were hanging off truck beds, armed with buckets of water and super soakers. People ran up to us, wiping talc on our cheeks for good luck. Everyone was dancing to the pop music and the traffic was barely inching along. When we finally made it back to the guesthouse, I was as wet as a full sponge.
The next day we visited an elephant sanctuary and couldn’t resist feeding the mamas cucumbers. They are such incredible creatures. So smart and gentle, and dancing for us when they saw our bucket of veggies. When I touched their skin, it was like leather studded with toothbrush bristles.
We read about one mama elephant who had been violently separated from her baby years ago. The trauma made her aggressive and she killed four people who had treated her poorly. In the end, the Queen of Thailand intervened and brought her to the sanctuary. The mama was given three babies to raise and she’s been calm since then.
As a side note, the King and Queen have been deified in Thailand. Their photos are everywhere. Huge, 10 foot billboards of the King on every big store. Every business is required by law to hang a photo of the King. His face is on the money. He never smiles. Instead, he has the look of an all-knowing parent you will never satisfy. We would be thrown out of the country if someone overheard us speaking negatively about the King.
The royal couple does good things for the country. They paid the hospital bills for those injured and funeral expenses for those who died in the protests. They built elaborate his and her temples in the north to give jobs to poor workers who would have otherwise been growing opium.
Anyways, after Ayutthaya, we took a fairly comfortable overnight train to Chiang Mai. It’s a great town – our favorite spot in Thailand. We didn’t do much there other than take it easy. Woke up late in the mornings and walked 15 minutes to have breakfast and kombucha at a health food cafe. Read our books and before breakfast was over, it was lunchtime. One day we went outside the city to a natural health center.
A couple of nights we ventured out to a bar in town that served hard to find Belgian beers. It was overrun with “bar girls” – Thai women who are tipped heavily by tourist men for flirting and listening to them intently. They also bring the men their orders. We were left alone to enjoy the beers.
After Chiang Mai, we headed further north to Chiang Rai. It’s a quiet town with a large-ish night market. We met a great Thai-English couple and a couple of Australian travelers and had a fun night at the rasta-bar. The next day we headed into Chiang Khong to cross the border into Laos.
Land of Smiles?
Thailand is accustomed to tourists. In Cambodia and Laos, when you travel on a moped or truck, kids stand by the side of the road, wave and shout hello. We were nothing new in Thailand.
Foreigners or farang pay more for everything from food to admission at parks – sometimes three, four times as much. It’s based on how you look too. Thai citizens who look like Westerns pay the price.
Thailand is not a developing country. There are new cars on the road, four lane highways and lots of concrete buildings. They do some unexplainable things that aren’t quite shortcuts, like install traffic lights on the wrong side of the road. When we asked a Thai about the traffic lights, she said – that’s just Thai people.
We talked to a few people who had moved to Thailand years ago from other parts of the world – the United States, Italy, Germany, etc. Each had a similar story. They moved because the people smiled and the pace was slow and patient. After a few years living in the country, they became disillusioned. They weren’t able to make friends with native Thais, especially as they opened businesses. Some commented that Thais have a love-hate relationship with the farang. Tourists bring them money, but they also want to be left alone.
One exception was a guy from Denver. He moved to the country after retiring from real estate. Now he volunteers in a small village and wakes up in the morning to the sound of the rooster shuffling around under his house. He was enamored with the country.
I hear the southern part of the country with its miles of coastline is another world, but this trip we just hit the north. Maybe next time…
