Familiar Thais

I flew to Chiang Mai on the Monday and almost instantly remembered what I preferred about Thailand, but what I also disliked about it. I had a 6 hour layover in Bangkok and didn't feel like checking my bags and making my way into town for such a short time, so I just hung out at the airport, reading and watching movies. Even in the airport I was quickly reminded of just how prevalent prostitution is here. There were plenty of older western (that's the backpacker's official pc way of saying white) men with young girls who were either going on trips together or saying goodbye. I hate to assume it's all prostitution because I have met some lovely and legit western/thai couples, but sometimes when's there's such an age difference, it's hard not to assume. Anyways, I killed 6 long and expensive hours in the airport without much event. I ate at the mcdonald's there, which is the first time I've had rotten ronnies since getting to Asia. I had the samurai pork burger just to make it a little more authentic.

I finally arrived in Chiang Mai in the evening and went to my guesthouse. I had to argue with them to get a room because I had booked online last minute, and I guess they hadn't received the reservation yet. But I had an email confirmation from the booking website, and when I started demanding my deposit back, a room magically became available. Crisis averted, I unloaded my bags and went and explored a bit of the town, stopping at one of the many roadside massage places to work some of the travel stress out.

The main reason I was in Chiang Mai was for Songkran, the Thai new year. In theory it was supposed to start on Wednesday, but the festivities kicked off early as I learned the hard way on my way to meet up with Kim and Carissa at their guesthouse. Songkran is a water festival, and I believe the symbology is that the water is meant to wash away all the bad from the previous year and leave people with a clean start. I'm not sure how the festival looked when it was first celebrated, but now this pretty much means it's one big city-wide water fight for 4 days straight. So I was caught a little off guard on my walk when I got sprayed and splashed. The girls and I quickly bought some waterguns and decided to join the festivities. Songkran is such amazing fun. I felt like a kid again, spraying anybody and everybody with water as they passed by. That's the tricky part about Songkran – nobody is immune, so if you're outside, you're getting wet. It was such good stress relief too. As you could probably tell from recent posts, my nerves had been worked pretty thin in Vietnam. So spending 4 days blasting people in the face with a supersoaker was very therapeutic, and re-energizing. The second day was grey and rainy, but that didn't stop everybody from lining the streets once more and dousing eachother. I think I overdid it a bit because the following day I could feel my cold flaring back up, so I decided to lay low in order to not make it worse. Unfortunately this also meant I couldn't leave my room until after dark as to not get drenched again. So I went out on the last day and made the most of it, my clothes saturated within minutes. Chiang Mai has a big moat that runs in a big square around the old town. This is where the majority of the water ammunition comes from since they're not about to waste that much clean water. The downside to this is that the moat water in Chiang Mai makes the Rideau Canal water look potable. I bought a drink at one point during one day and within 1 minute of leaving the 7-11 I got sprayed, and undoubtedly got some water in my drink to. I chucked it and learned my lesson... only eat/drink indoors during songkran.

Once the sun went down though, the waterfights stopped and there was lots of celebrating... long streets were lined with vendor stalls selling food, clothes, and anything else you might need. The food in the street markets is the cheapest around, and often the tastiest, so we would go there as often as possible. Once the festival ended I spent the next few days just hanging out in Chiang Mai, exploring what the town had to offer. I also met back up with Gabriel, one of the two Americans I met when I had landed in Bangkok in January, and travelled to Phuket with. So we had a couple good nights out as well, catching eachother up on our travel stories. Unfortunately for him, he was at the end of his trip, so he had to head down to bangkok a couple days ago to fly home. He was kind enough to give me his thai cell phone, which has come in handy. I've been perfectly content without having a cell for the last 7 months, but it has definitely proved useful, trying to set up meeting times with friends I've made.

I finally said goodbye to Kim, Carissa, and Joanna (also from the volunteer program in Cambodia who met us in Chiang Mai). They were headed down to Bangkok as well to move on to other places, and I headed north on my own again. I haven't travelled on my own without friends being in the same city for more than a day or two since Cambodia, so it's a nice feeling.

I arrived in Pai two days ago and already love it here. It is a very small, laid back town. There aren't many attractions here, just a quiet respite from the hectic pace down south. Since being here I have not been offered a tuk tuk ride, drugs, or souvenirs once... you have no idea how nice of a break this is. I'm staying in a little bamboo hut, so I was surprised on my first morning to be woken up early, not by drunks, but by roosters crowing and birds chirping. It's messing with my head man! It's very much a hippie town, and it turns out you need to be careful. Not in the sense that you might get mugged, because I've never felt safer on this continent. Let's just say you have to be very cautious when ordering food with mushrooms in the ingredients. That aside, everybody here is very friendly and introduces themselves quickly. People actually smile here because they're happy, not because it will help their bottom line! So today's my third day here and I don't plan on leaving for a few more days yet. I'll be taking lots of pictures in the next few days hopefully, so check out my album a little later and there should be some new pics. I couldn't really get any photos of the craziness from Songkran due to the inherent danger of getting the camera soaked. Then how would I be able to take all these pictures, right? Here's a random video of it I found on Youtube if you want an idea of what it's like. Until next time, have a happy Easter!

A pleasant beginning of the day to you, Vietnam

I headed up to Dalat on the 29^th, which I soon realised was poor planning on my part. The 29^th was my birthday and the prospect of spending 8 hours of it on the bus was not appealing. It turned out to be the best bus ride I've had since arriving in Asia as the seats were comfortable and I actually had leg room. So that was a pleasant surprise. I arrived in the evening to a less pleasant surprise. Dalat was friggin cold! It's up in the mountains, which means the temperature actually dips beneath 10 degrees at night. I know that sounds kinda whiny to some of my Canadian friends still dealing with snow, but when you're used to lows of 35 (read: neener neener neener), 10 is a shock to the system! Luckily I had kept some warm clothes from Europe, and lugging the heavy hoodie and jeans around in my pack for 3 months finally paid off. Carin had left for Dalat the night before, so we ended up meeting up for dinner and she was kind enough to buy me a birthday beer. It was a much more subdued birthday than in previous years, but when I think of all the partying I've been doing on this trip, it's just one more day anyways. The following day I did the easy rider tour of the Dalat country side. This is where a bike driver will take you around the hills and some of the small villages nearby. It turned out to be a great day, and an amazing experience. The views were breathtaking. I could tell something was different in the hills, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I climbed one of them for the view. There's pine trees there! That's how friggin cold it gets, there's pine trees! Anyways, we made lots of cool stops, including a temple, a waterfall, the aforementioned hike up the mountain, a coffee plantation, a rice wine factory, a cricket farm, a flower farm, a silk factory, a “crazy” house designed by an eccentric architect and a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting. My driver offered to take me to a dog factory, where they raise, slaughter, skin, and butcher dogs for their meat. As curious as I was, I think I made the right decision in declining. Dalat itself is an aesthetically impressive town. You can really tell the French spent some time here as French villas line the streets and hillsides – a few even still have some bullet holes in them from the war.

I'd had enough of the cold weather, so the following day I took another bus down to Nha Trang. The bus ride was only a few hours, but the views were just as impressive on the way down. We were in the clouds for a while, making visibility tricky at times. But the views were similar to the Amalfi coast bus ride, except instead of the Mediterranean to the right, it was gorgeous valleys and other mountains off in the distance.

Nha Trang was much warmer, which I was happy about. It's a beach down on the coast in the south central part of the country. The weather can be spotty, so you have to take advantage of the sun when you can. The beach itself is nice and very spread out, as opposed to the compressed beach in Sihanoukville. There's also fewer people bugging you to buy things on the beach. However, there are just as many in the streets. I must admit, I reached my breaking point for patience in Nha Trang. Normally I give a friendly no thank you to the touts and moto drivers, but it just gets so tiresome after a while, that it's impossible to stay polite. So now I either ignore them or give them grouchy grunts if they're lucky. One guy kept calling out to me “my friend my friend” but I just kept walking. So he jogged up to me to ask why I didn't want to talk to him. I told him I didn't know he was talking to me and he said “I said 'my friend'”. To which I replied that's why I didn't think he was talking to me, because he's not my friend. He then said “yes, I'm you're friend”, and I responded with “no you're not my friend. You're just another stranger trying to sell me overpriced shit that I don't need. You're the exact opposite of a friend”. Possibly too harsh, but it wears on you, having several dozen similar interaction day after day. The other thing that I must point out is that out of the 3 countries in Asia I've been to, the Vietnamese are the least friendly people from what I've seen. Most other backpackers seem to say the same thing...after having been in Cambodia, Thailand or Laos where people are generally laid back, the Vietnamese people just seem more aggressive. I get stared at constantly and many locals just blatantly point at laugh because of my beard/size combo. It's hard to explain if you haven't been here, but take my word for it...there's just a certain underlying hostility that's there. Not that this isn't a great country – I've been having a blast here. Certainly it's the most scenic I've seen so far. Just another aspect to deal with.

Anyways, back from my rant. I had fun in Nha Trang. Carin ended up making her way over the following day, so we went out for some drinks and made some new friends. We even found a shisha bar, which was a nice blast from the past. I spent my few days there relaxing on the beach when possible and taking in the sights.

After a few days I said my final sad goodbye to Carin and took the sleeper bus up to Danang. This was a less than enjoyable experience. The sleeper bus differs from regular overnight buses in that instead of seats, they have beds. I thought this was a great idea so that I wouldn't have to wrestle for leg room. Turns out they build those to Vietnamese specifications as well...the beds are tiny. I had to lie at an exact angle to have any sort of comfort. And I was on a top bunk in the middle of the bus, which meant that I was always dangerously close to falling off whenever the bus would take a sharp turn, which was quite frequent on the winding roads. There were tiny handle bars on either sides of the bunk, but not nearly enough to make me feel secure. I think I only got a couple hours of sleep, so when I arrived in Danang in the morning, I slept most of the day away. When I finally did get up in the afternoon and explored, I quickly discovered I hadn't been missing much. I was in a crappy part of town and there wasn't a whole lot to see or do. It took me three different restaurants before I finally managed to get somebody to serve me lunch instead of just laugh with other patrons about me. Clearly they don't get a lot of tourists in that area. The only reason I was really there was to catch a flight the next day anyways, so I holed up in my room for the rest of the day and just watched a few movies.

The following morning I got up very early to catch a flight up to Hanoi. When I got to the airport, I wasn't exactly thrilled to learn my flight had been delayed by 3 hours, but that's life on the run I suppose. I ended up meeting a couple cool people and hung out with them for a while. Once I finally arrived in Hanoi I made my way to my hostel where I met up with Kim and Carissa, two of my friends from Sihanoukville. We went out for drinks that night and caught eachother up on our travel stories. Another sign of my waning patience came on our walk to dinner. We were looking at the prices at one menu at a roadside eatery when a guy came up to me, poked me, and said “hello how are you” to me and then went back to his table, giggling with his friend. I kinda snapped and yelled “yeah fucking hilarious! You said hello to a big fat white guy with a beard! It's a barrel of monkeys!” I think it may be time to move on from Vietnam. Unfortunately the following morning I woke up with a bad cold. All of the buses and flights here are terribly over-air conditioned so going from extreme heat to extreme cold tends to wear on the body. So for the last few days I've just been lying low, recovering from the cold. I can't complain too much since this is my first time getting really sick (aside from the occasional Molson flu) since my bout of food poisoning in Italy. It's too bad since I really wanted to spend the time hanging out with Kim and Carissa, but I just haven't had the energy. They're heading to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand for the Thai new year in a couple days, so I decided to meet up with them and make up for missing out here. So that's where I'm heading tomorrow. I'm looking forward to moving on, since I've heard Chiang Mai is beautiful, but I will miss Vietnam, despite all of my complaints. Like I said, aside from all the hassle, it's a nice country.

Here are some pictures from Dalat. I've reached the max capacity for my former Picassa account, so this is a new one if you're keeping track.

Just in case, here's the first account with all of my pictures up until Saigon.

And here's the account from Dalat and whatever else the future holds for me.

Lalala Miss Saigon Lalala

From famine to feast! I've been pretty busy this past week so I may as well get right into it. As hard as it was to leave my friends in Sihanoukville, my visa was running out and it was time to see something new anyways. I did have one last trick up my sleeve though as I had told everybody that I was taking the night bus out on St Patrick's day, but I decided to delay the trip one last day and surprise everybody by coming out for the celebrations. I'm told I had a good time.

Finally, on the 18^th, I left Cambodia. I rode the night bus to Ho Chi Minh City and got there around 10 the following morning. My first day there was mostly spent recovering from the long and cramped bus ride, but I did manage to finally get out in the evening and have some dinner (pho, of course). I met a fellow traveller and together we explored the streets a bit, checking out the night market and swapping travel stories.

I really didn't like Saigon at first. It's so damn big and dirty and busy. After two weeks of chilling on the beach, it was a shock to the system. The buildings here are all compacted togther. They're all really skinny, but tall. It's not uncommon to have to scale at least 4 flights of stairs to eat at a restaurant or get to your hotel room. Also, the traffic is nuts. I thought Phnom Penh was bad, but this is 10 times worse. There are 9 million people who live here and something like 4 million motor bikes alone. Crossing the street requires full concentration, some skillful dodging, and a change of underwear. I must admit though, after a couple days the city has grown on me.

When I returned to my room that first night I had an email from my partner in crime and good friend Carin that I had met a few weeks previous in Sihanoukville. She happened to be in Saigon as well, so we agreed to meet up the following day. After some lunch (pho, of course), we headed over to the War Remnants Museum, which documents the Vietnam war (or as they call it, the American war – makes sense since every war they've fought is technically the Vietnam war, and vise versa). This museum had a lot of interesting exhibits and displays, but I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by how one-sided it was. Obviously the Vietnamese aren't going to have a lot of nice things to say about the American army, but from reading their pictures and texts, you wouldn't even know the Vietnamese soldiers carried guns. The most affective display was that of the victims of agent orange. Its effects are still being felt today by kids born in the areas that were sprayed with the chemicals. I've seen plenty of people with severe disfigurements in the streets that were caused by it, and it is heartbreaking. I also picked up my first souvenir of my entire trip at the museum. I bought a zippo that (so they told me) at one time belonged to a Marine fighting in Khe San. Most of them had inscriptions on the back, with quotes about peace or victory, etc. I decided to pick the one with the most eloquent poem:

ONE THOUSAND MARINES

WILL SHIT TODAY

AND WIPE THEIR ASS

WITH GREEN BERET

The following day Carin and I did a walking tour of the city based on her lonely planet book. This was a great time. We walked to a giant indoor market, the museum of art (closed when we showed up), an outdoor market where I picked up some much needed soap and zippo fluid, stopped for a coffee in a cafe, walked along the fancy commercial district, checked out the opera house, went into the Ho Chi Minh city museum and sat in a park where we saw a woman squat at a tree 100 metres from us and relieve herself. There were a few more things on the tour that the book recommended, but by that point we were wiped. I was soaked in sweat due to the oppressive humidity and ready to call it quits, so we headed back for some late lunch.

The next day I did a tour of the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels. The temple was beautiful and we were allowed in to watch their prayer ceremony which was quiet but impressive. After this we headed to the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Viet Cong would hide out during the war. There were close to 1000 km of these tunnels in the network during the war. These tunnels are tiny. The guerrillas would engage the Americans in a battle, and then when they would get close, they would disappear into the tunnels that were nearly impossible to penetrate. They expanded one small section of the tunnels so that tourists could go through them. The average sized person has to crouch and hunch in order to fit inside them. I had to crawl, and even then I barely fit. This, combined with my mild claustrophobia meant that I took the first exit possible, only 15 metres or so from the entrance. It felt like a mile. When I got out, I was breathing heavy and very near a panic attack. I walked to the end to wait for the rest of the group to exit. My ego took a bit of a bruising when the third person to come out was a 7 year old girl eating an ice cream cone. One awkward moment occurred on the bus ride home. There was a German hippie couple that kept going on about the “American imperialists” and every time our tour guide said anything about how the American forces treated the Vietnamese, they'd nod and say something about how this reflected their superiority complex or whatever. Now, I'm by no means an American-apologist (despite this being the second time in one post), but I just got so fed up with them implying that all Americans were automatically bad that I finally said “yeah, it must be great coming from a country with no recent history of war crimes”. Needless to say our conversations were limited after that. That night it poured rain and the street we were having dinner on flooded. We had to wade through nearly a foot of water to cross the street, all the while dodging more motorbikes.

On Thursday Carin and I did a 3 day tour of the Mekong Delta. Our first stop was on an island where the locals specialize in making honey related products, so we sat and had some traditional honey tea and honey-based snacks. We also got to pose for photos with a python for no apparent reason. After that, we walked through the island for a while and then stopped to have some fresh fruit where we were serenaded with traditional Vietnamese songs by the local women. After that we got in a canoe and were taken down a canal until we stopped at another island where we saw how local coconut candy was made and were given lots of free samples. Next stop was lunch and then it was back in the boat. After some more boating and busing, it was time to stop for the night. We had the option of staying at a hotel or a homestay with a Vietnamese family. Carin and I, along with an Aussie man opted for the homestay. I'm glad we did because it was a good experience and our host, Thuy, was great. Thuy showed up on his motorbike and said his friend was on his way with another one to take us to the boat. The aussie and Carin both kinda bluntly refused to ride the motorbike, so we ended up waiting around for a taxi. When we got dropped off at the boat, Thuy even apologetically tried to pay for the cab, but we eventually persuaded him to allow us to pay. Then it was another 20 minutes by boat in the dark, which was pretty cool. They provided us with a local meal that was more or less fresh fish spring rolls that we assembled ourselves. Dinner was great, and afterwords we got into the drinks. Colin, the aussie, had picked up some coconut whiskey earlier in the day so he was sharing shots of that. Our host, wanting to return the favour gave his 10 year old daughter some cash and she returned 10 minutes later with a big bottle of rice whiskey. Where else in the world can a 10 year old run out and buy booze? I knew the night was going to go downhill, I just had no idea how quickly or how far down. Carin was smart and went to bed early, knowing we had to be up very early the next morning. I wasn't in the particular mood to make it a full night, but who am I to turn down free local drinks? It's a cultural experience! I just couldn't believe how often they kept pouring the shots. So every 10 minutes or so, it was moh hai bah, yo! Which over here is one two three cheers. Thuy had lots of interesting stuff to say and Colin was alright at first, but as the night went on, he became more obnoxious. For whatever reason, he felt he needed to talk like a caveman instead of using regular English, even when he was just talking to me. For example, instead of saying “I like this rice whiskey”, he would say “me like” and point. Uh...dude, I speak English too. Finally when the whiskey was running low, Thuy's mom started yelling at him for making so much noise, so we decided to call it a night. Well I decided to. Colin decided to make an ass out of himself. First, he stepped up to relieve himself in the river. He lost his footing, tumbled down the hill and fell into the river. I've inherited a certain family member's predisposition for laughing at somebody falling, so I couldn't keep from bursting out. When I finally regained my composure, I went into my room and heard another crash. Turns out he face planted outside of his room, and apparently he fell a third time that night too. He had a cut above his eye in the morning. I also found out the next day that he had tried to pull his door open, when it turns out he needed to push it. Hence the door sitting off its hinges next to his room when I woke up. I felt pretty bad about this since he didn't seem to care that he had damaged this poor guy's property. Carin also said he sat outside of his room (which was next to hers but mercifully out of earshot of mine) talking to himself for at least an hour. Carin's not exactly one to disguise her displeasure, so there wasn't a whole lot of talking between the two of them for the rest of the day.

After a light but early breakfast (luckily Thuy wasn't bullshitting when he said rice whiskey doesn't give you a hangover, because I definitely should have had one), we took off in his boat and met up with the bigger tour boat that had all the people who stayed in the hotel. We said our goodbyes to Thuy and climbed on board the boat. The boat took us to the floating market where the locals trade from their boats. You can buy anything from meat to fruit to coffee and cigarettes. After this we went to a rice paper factory and blah blah blah it was boring as hell. Ditto for the rice husking mill we visited afterwards. No offence to people in the rice industry, it just wasn't that interesting. After that we had some lunch which turned out to be a fun experience. I was sitting with 3 nice New Zealanders and they got great service, and I got terrible service. They got their beers right away, but I had to ask for my coke 3 different times. When they finally brought it, it was diet coke, so I ended up waiting for just my drink for a thirsty 20 minutes when they already had their meals. And then when my food was finally brought out, it wasn't what I ordered, but we had to get going, so I just ate it. We were all laughing and trying to figure out what I did to deserve it. After that we made our long journey down the Mekong to our next hotel. It turns out we were staying at a floating hotel which is basically a big permanently docked boat. Everybody else we were with had paid extra to stay at the floating hotel, when we not only didn't pay, we weren't even told this was an option. Bonus I guess. We walked into town for some dinner and it's clear this part of Vietnam doesn't get as many tourists because I was getting gawked at from every direction. It's like big hairy white guys aren't common here or something. Finally I stopped at a delicious and cheap place for dinner (pho, of course). Afterwards I called it an early evening and put a good dent in my book, which I ended up finishing on the way home the next day. If you haven't read the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson (girl with the dragon tattoo, etc), I strongly suggest you pick the first one up. I've read all three in the last few weeks, and they're some of the best novels I've read in a long time.

The following morning we got up early again and took another boat to a fish farm. This is basically a houseboat with a giant net underneath it where they raise bass and red snapper. I gotta admit, this wasn't exactly thrilling either. Then we went to a small island village and visited their Islamic temple. Afterwards we had some free time to wander around the village which was nice to see. Every single child we passed seemed to know the drill, yelling hello at us as we went by. After this we got back on the boat and made our way down the river back to our bus and took the long journey back to Saigon. If you're wondering why I keep switching between calling it Saigon and Ho Chi Minh, it's because it's called both here. It's officially HCMC, but because it was named after the communist leader back during the war, most inhabitants still call it Saigon. The communist Vietnamese call it HCMC, and the non-communists call it Saigon. All in all I enjoyed trip since it was nice to spend a few days cruising down the river, even if most of the attractions were a little lame.

When I got back to Saigon where I once again had internet connection, I was surprised to learn that Canada's got another election coming up. Also, when I first arrived in Saigon I was a little taken aback when I learned the government here blocks facebook. There are certain ways around it if you know what you're doing on a computer, but it's still weird to be confronted with that kind of censorship when you're used to the freedoms that come with a democratic country like Canada.

Tomorrow I'll finally be leaving the big city and heading to Da Lat, a smaller mountain several hours north of here. I'm looking forward to getting away from the hustle and bustle.

I'd like to end by giving a couple shout outs to two important parties I've missed in this past week. The first is the birthday party with Matt and J. Sorry I couldn't celebrate with you guys this year, but that just means we'll have to go big to make up for it when I get back. Happy birthday to both of you!

The second is my dad's surprise retirement party. It's already happened, so don't worry – I'm not ruining the surprise. I've told him this already but missing this hurt more than missing Christmas. In order to make up for it, I recorded a video message which was apparently well received, so I'm glad for that at least. It's kinda sappy so I won't post it here. Dad, congrats once more. You've more than earned it, and I'm so proud of you. You'll have to take up golf or something to pass the time. We will also have to celebrate upon my return to make up for it. Also, big thanks Vicki for recording dad watching the video!

And finally, pictures. Yes, I actually took some. Here are pics of Saigon, the temple, and the tunnels. And here are some pics of the Mekong Delta tour.

Sand Trapped

 I'm still down in Sihanoukville, where I've been a beach bum for the last two weeks.  It's a very relaxed town, as far as SE Asia goes anyways. There is still the inevitable constant hassle from tuk tuk drivers on the road. The main beaches are even worse. Kids walk up and down selling bracelets or collecting can. At night, they sell fireworks. Girls who are slightly older walk around with trays of fruit on their head. Then the older women either try to shill foot massages or walk around with a grill, selling lobster or squid. These are tied by string to a stick that balances on their shoulder, with a bowl on the other end containing supplies – it looks like a big tasty scale of justice to give you an idea. The older guys try to sell sunglasses. And every one of them has stories of how business is bad. In the time it took to type this convoluted paragraph, I said “no thank you” three separate times. Yes, this is being written on the beach.

Ah well, that's a small price to pay to be in paradise. Sihanoukville has several different beaches, all within 10 minutes of eachother. The cheapest way to get around is by motorbike. So, in continuing with the give-my-mom-a-heart-attack theme that has been my trip to Asia, I've ridden my first motorcycle! Luckily the drivers, like everybody else here, are more relaxed than their Phnom Penh counterparts. Sihanouvkille has a similar feel to Jamaica. Those who know my feelings on Jamaica will understand how much of a compliment this is. The main beach – Serendipity beach – is kind of like a backpacker's Negril.

At the end of the long day in Phnom Penh I'd described in my previous post, the three of us went out for dinner with Kim, another girl staying in our guesthouse. There I found out she was heading down to Sihanoukville to volunteer for a program that focuses on painting with kids, as a way to keep them off the streets/beaches. We've met up a few times and I've gotten to know the people at the Centre, so it's nice to have a group of people to meet up with every couple nights and hang out.

Friday was a little tense with the Tsunami happening in Japan. We were never in any real danger, but everybody seemed to have at least one eye on the waves as we dined on the beach. The water did actually come in a couple feet further than it normally does, but that was about it. The bigger excitement came at around 2 in the morning when I was falling asleep. Outside my open window I heard a bit of a scuffle, and then a guy yelling “you stole my wallet! Give me my fucking wallet!”. It didn't take too long to figure out that this guy had hired a hooker with less than scrupulous morals. If you can't trust a Cambodian hooker, who can you trust? Since I could hear everything clearly anyway I decided to go outside for some air and watch the show. It turns out it was this 60ish year old American guy I had talked to a couple days ago, and a ladyboy being seperated by staff. She was claiming he hadn't paid her, he was claiming she stole his wallet. My favourite part was that he was getting angry at the guesthouse staff for not calling the police as he demanded. Uh dude...you illegally hired a prostitute (with testicles)... the police aren't gonna be too sympathetic. I don't think he realised how big a favour they were doing him. Ah well. I went back in around the time where he was saying she could keep his wallet but he wasn't giving her her shoes back. If I see him again I'll make sure to ask him how it turned out and let you know.

I've walked past a couple cinemas in the last couple weeks that are pretty much air conditioned rooms with big tv's in them and all sorts of pirated movies to watch. One sign also said they had video games, so when it started raining yesterday, I decided to cave. I went into one and played Call of Duty: Black ops for four hours straight. I gotta admit, this was awesome. I haven't played video games since I left, so it was a lot like being back at the apartment, just hanging out. I just wish I could have been playing with the guys, but I guess this is the next best thing for now. It's just not the same without Delage whining about screen-watching, or whatever his excuse is for getting destroyed.

I don't have much else to say about Sihanoukville since I've been reading on the beach all day and hanging out with friends most nights. So I'll end on an anecdote from Phnom Penh that I had completely forgotten to include in my previous post. Our tuk tuk driver on our busy day was a really nice guy, and on our way back from the killing fields, he leaned back and said he used to live in the neighbourhood we were in. He asked if we wanted to see his old house and we said yes. He took us into this little courtyard that had several tin huts. There were a bunch of kids playing in there and they just stopped when they saw us. This was clearly not a normal tourist stop, so they were pretty surprised to see a few white guys walk in. They came up to us, but I could tell some of them were scared of me, most likely due to my beard, especially this one boy wearing camouflage shorts and tshirt.. One little girl even came up to me and hit my leg and then ran away. We went into the hut and I was shocked. It couldn't have been more than 8 feet by 8 feet, and all that was in there was an elevated platform that took up 2/3 of the space for sleeping on. He said 8 people lived in there when he was there. Our audience of kids grew around us as we stood in the doorway and I could tell my beard was still the focus of attention. Wanting to disarm the situation, I tried to think of the most mature and adult way to handle it. So naturally, I made moose antlers with my hands, crossed my eyes and stuck out my tongue at them. They loved this...after that, they were all laughing, trying to imitate me and trying to show me their various toys. My favourite part was when we got back in the tuk tuk and started to drive off, the little boy in camouflage was running after us, making antlers, sticking out his tongue and laughing.

Holiday in Cambodia

I know it's been a while since I wrote a new post, but to be honest, I didn't have much to write for a while. After I got back to Bangkok and Paul headed back home, I just felt like taking a bit of downtime, which I did.

When we last left off, we were getting ready to go out for Paul's birthday. It ended up being a great time out on Khao San road, but luckily it wasn't nearly late or as crazy as our previous adventures there. After Paul took off the following day, I was kind of scratching my head wondering what to and where to go next... it's a lot easier travelling in small groups than it is solo over here. Funnily enough that afternoon I went down to the lobby and bumped into a couple friends I'd made back in the hostel I had stayed at in Budapest in December. Small world. I ended up hanging out with them here and there for the next few days which was fun. I didn't really feel like doing much sightseeing, so I mostly stuck to walking around to the markets and different neighbourhoods near my hostel during the day. I decided it was time to move on to the next country, so I chose Cambodia. I had to get a photo taken for my visa, so I went in search of one of the many camera shops I had seen on my previous outings. Unfortunately none of them would take my picture, including the ones that said “passport and visa pictures” on their signage, so I ended up walking for over an hour until I found one. As you can imagine, walking around in 35 degree heat in muggy Bangkok for an hour did not lead to the most flattering photo. I wish I had a scanner to share this photo because I basically look like a serial killer who got thrown into a pool at a party while dehydrated and perhaps punched in the face with a crack pipe. More or less.

Nevertheless, I flew into Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital) on the Saturday. The drive from the airport to my hostel was something else. Back in November when my dad visited me in Italy, he was blown away by the chaotic driving. When I saw Thailand I chuckled at that because it was much worse. And then I got to Cambodia. That place takes the cake (so far) by leaps and bounds. I would rather ride motorcycle blindfolded in Rome than attempt to drive here. In theory there are lanes for traffic going both ways, but they are very much up for interpretation. Bikes, cars and tuk tuks all jockey for position as they drive, narrowly missing eachother by inches as they pass. And that's only the folks going the right way down a street. There are one-way streets and lanes seperated by medians, but if it is more convenient for a driver to go the wrong way to make a turn, then that's what they do. I quickly learned to stop watching for impending doom on the roads as a passenger, because the heart attack would kill me if the drivers didn't.

I got settled into my hostel and walked around for some exploring. I wasn't a huge fan of Phnom Penh. It's a lot poorer than Thailand, but thankfully a lot less overdeveloped too. There's only a few palaces and museums to see, which are apparently not as impressive as those in Bangkok so I didn't bother. The main tourist attractions are the killing fields and S21 prison, which I wasn't in the mood to see. So after a couple days, I hopped on a bus north to Siem Reap. I'll spare you the complaints about this bus, but if ever you're in Cambodia, do yourself a favour and spring for a “deluxe” or “vip” bus over a “standard”.

I arrived in Siem Reap after dark, but immediately warmed to it. The staff at my guest house were friendly and helpful. I had booked a room, but accidentally booked it for the following night. They only had their biggest room available, but were willing to give it to me for the price of the cheap room. I felt like royalty, having two king-sized beds and a private room to myself. A friend, Jamie, that I had made in Bangkok got in on the same evening, so we met up and hit Pub Street, the main nightlife drag in Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a little more touristy than Phnom Penh, but because of that it also means better facilities in general. It also means a lot of aggressive touts. I could not cross the street to get from my guesthouse to pub street without at least 4 tuk tuk drivers barking at me (“hello sir!”) to give me a lift. It got old real quick. I also came to learn that when I was with Jamie they would only offer us tuk tuk rides. When I was by myself at night, they would also offer drugs and prostitution. It got to the point where on my way from walking Jamie back to her hotel, as soon as a tuk tuk or motodop (motorcycle taxi) driver would approach me I wouldn't look up, I would just say “no tuk tuk, no ganja, no boom boom!”. They seemed to find this entertaining, but wouldn't push, so I kept that strategy when walking solo. There were also a lot of children begging/trying to sell crappy trinkets during the day. While sitting out at a restaurant, it wasn't unusual to get asked for money at least 5 times in different ways by different people. One amusing note on this is that most of the kids have a little script prepared based on where you are from. So a kid would ask where I'm from and when I'd tell him, he would respond robotically: “Canada. Capital: Ottawa (well shit...you already know more about it than most Americans I've met on this trip kid). Prime Minister: Stephen Harper. Biggest city: Toronto. Languages: English and French. Do you speak French? Bonjour. Capital of France: Paris...”. It was cute, but it can get pretty tiresome when all you want is a quiet meal in peace.

The main tourist attractions in Siem Reap are the temples. I have to admit, I wasn't in the mood to see these either so I think I'm the only tourist to ever visit the city and not go to any. I was happy walking around and just discovering the city on foot, strolling the city, especially along the river. Jamie's grandmother was in Cambodia with her, so one night the three of us went out for dinner on pub street. Jamie and I were feeling adventurous, so we got the Khmer bbq, which is a little contraption they bring to your table. It's gas powered and you cook your own food. It has a rim around the edges that you fill with water, vegetables, and noodles, and as you cook the meat in the middle, the juices drip down to create a tasty soup at the end. Those who know me won't be surprised to learn that it wasn't the ability to cook my own food that appealed to me. It was the food that we were cooking. We were given 5 different meats. Pork, beef, frog legs, cobra, and crocodile. I wasn't too impressed with the snake because it was very tough and chewy, but I did like the crocodile. Kind of like a slightly tougher pork. Siem Reap also has lots of massages, so we treated ourselves to a couple. I quickly learned you get what you pay for though, as we found one with a rather cheap price tag. The girl would basically just dig her thumbs in everywhere, which felt nice in some areas, but not necessarily the base of my spine. She seemed legitimately surprised that I winced in pain when she did that. Ah well. The other fun option is the fish massage, where you set your feet in a big tank of water full of fish. These fish eat at the dead and dry skin, leaving your feet uh...less dry and dead skin-ish? I lack the dermatological terminology. Anyways, they tickle like all hell and it's a really weird sensation as they just swarm your feet as soon as you dunk them. I felt bad for Jamie because I guess after months of being on the road, my feet were pretty dry. She had a dozen or so fish on each foot...I had the rest of the 200 or so.

Jamie had to fly back to Korea where she teaches English and I had had enough of Siem Reap, so I headed back down to Phnom Penh on Saturday. I was only planning on staying one night as stop over on my way down to the beach town Sihanoukville. However, in the morning I was talking to a couple of English guys who wanted to go to the Killing Fields and I decided I'd stay the extra day to see it. I'm glad I did, because we ended up having a very good, although sad at times, day. I've never had a day more violence-oriented day in my life I think. It started when we were still sitting out at the common area of the hostel. We could hear a Cambodian woman screaming from inside, but ignored it. It got louder and louder until all of a sudden the owner comes barging out with the woman's hair grasped in his hands, trying not to let her get a swipe at him with the mug she was wielding in her hand. He dragged her into one of the tuk tuks and yelled at the driver to take them away to wherever they went. We were kind of stunned, but shook it off as a lover's quarrel. Then about 10 minutes later the staff started shuttering and locking the entrance to the hostel and we quickly saw why...the woman had taken a motodop back on her own because she wasn't done screaming apparently. She just sat down at the table next to us and screamed at the top of her lungs for a solid 10 minutes, and just got louder when the owner finally got back. We took that as our cue to leave. The killing fields are a little out of town, so the tuk tuks tend to cost more. There's also another somewhat notorious tourist attraction out there that one of the Brits in particular wanted to go to, so even though it wasn't the most appropriate day for it, we started there nonetheless. Uh... you may want to just skip down to the start of the next paragraph mom. We went to the shooting range which has such a bizarre set up, it's almost comical. The employees sit you down at a table and bring you a menu. Except instead of food, each page has a different gun with its own price on it. Depending on how much money you want to spend, you can shoot anything from a handgun all the way up to a Rocket Propelled Grenade. Rumour has it that for extra money, you can go somewhere even further out and shoot said RPG at a cow... apparently Cambodia doesn't have much of an active PETA presence. Having never shot a gun before, I decided I'd give the shooting range a try and settled on the AK-47. My Brit friend chose a machine gun. It was an interesting experience, but now that I've done it I can't say I'm itching to fire a gun again. It was just more of a boys and their toys curiosity than anything. Impressively I actually hit the target with about half my rounds.

From there we went to the killing fields. This is where the Khmer Rouge regime would take prisoners by the truckload from the S21 prison and kill them with various rudimentary and horrific measures and bury them in mass graves. Walking around the fields was a very disturbing experience. Because of the heavy rainfall they get for half the year, there are still bones and clothes that come up through the soil every year. So as you walk on these paths you are actually walking over bones and torn clothes from the dead beneath you. It is very sobering. At the centre of the fields is a monument that is stacked with thousands of skulls and bones in a glass case. You can see that many of the skulls have fractures in them from being killed by blunt force trauma and missing teeth from torture.

After this, we went to the S21 prison, where the prisoners were held before being murdered. It used to be a school, but was turned into a prison where unspeakable torture took place. The very quick history is that the Khmer Rouge regime wanted to eliminate anybody with ties to the previous government or anybody they felt would threaten them, so they would imprison them, torture them, and eventually kill them and their families. This included women and children, as they wanted to minimize the chances of somebody coming for revenge later. Back at the killing fields there is actually a spot on a tree that is marred because that is where they would swing children by the feet to smash their skulls. I knew a bit of what to expect back when I visited the Dachau concentration camp, but this one took me completely by surprise because we didn't learn about this history in school. What really struck me was that it took place less than 10 years before I was born. If you want to read more about this, wikipedia explains it all a lot better than I can.

By the afternoon, we had gotten to know the tuk tuk driver we had hired, Tom, pretty well and he told us there was a Cambodian kickboxing match going on in the evening. We decided to go, so he took us there after S21. When we got to the hangar it was happening in, we looked around and saw that the bleachers were completely packed. I figured we'd have to stand for the whole show, but Tom quickly made his way to the gate next to the ringside seats and spoke a few words to the girl sitting there. She waved us right through and next thing I knew, we were sitting a row behind the timekeeper and announcers table, ringside! I have no idea how we got those seats or why we didn't have to pay, but I got the strong impression it had something to do with the colour of our skin. Either way, we sat back and enjoyed the fights. There were 5 in all and were quite entertaining. At one point a man came and sat in the row in front of us, just a few seats over. I noticed pretty much everybody, including the trainer in one corner started to glance over a lot. According to Tom this man was pretty much the biggest boxer in Cambodia. We had no clue who he was, but were nonetheless impressed to be sitting amongst the high society.

So after a long day we finally returned and had dinner and a couple drinks. That was last night. This morning I woke up and finally caught my bus to Sihanoukville. I just arrived a couple hours ago, but am already looking forward to reading a book or two on the beach. I'll let you know how that goes.

Photos from Siem Reap, the Shooting range, Killing Fields, S21 and boxing match.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the bucket

I had a great time in Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee - hehe). When we first got off the ferry it was a little daunting since we'd heard accommodations book up very fast on the island, and it's not uncommon for backpackers to have to turn around and get on the ferry going back since the whole island is full. Luckily we managed to find a little guesthouse for a decent price. The guesthouse itself was very basic – two beds, a fan, and a small bathroom, but that's all you really need since you're not there to stay inside. Our first day there we went up to the Phi Phi viewpoint, which had some spectacular views of the beach, which you can see in the pictures posted in the previous entry. The climb up is incredibly humbling though...it's about 15 minutes of climbing stairs that are very steep. That combined with the heat means you have to take your time. There are a couple places along the way where you can rest and buy some water, but of course the people that run these establishments are no fools and charge three times the normal rate for a bottle of water. It's unavoidable though, since I lost at least a water bottle's worth of sweat climbing up. Even people in much better shape than me (hard to imagine, I know) struggled. But it was well worth it to finally get there and observe the beaches below.

Phi Phi is a beautiful island, but it's very overdeveloped and crowded. There are no cars on Phi Phi, so there is lots of foot traffic, and some locals riding bikes, constantly shouting “beep beep” at the oblivious farangs (Thai for tourist) in their way. It's one of the more popular destinations for the young crowd. Luckily this also means it's not too hard to find some parties at night, which we did on our first night there. We even got into the spirit and bought a couple “buckets” which are basically small sand pails filled with a vile concoction of cola, red bull, and plenty of Thai whiskey. One is more than enough as we quickly discovered. They're not so bad at first, but once the ice starts to melt and the coke loses its fizz, it's just brutal. At night, there are fire shows along the beach, which are basically some Thai people juggling fire with various levels of expertise. Afterwords the beach bars blare music of all different tastes, so if you don't like one place, you can easily move on down to the next bar. One of my favourite memories from Phi Phi was on the walk home one night when Paul had drank one bucket too many (total: one bucket) and was given an impatient beep beep by a passing cyclist. For the rest of the way there, Paul managed to mimic the tone and cadence perfectly, shouting “beep beep” at anybody in front of us. Watching them jump out of the way was priceless. Sometimes this actually did get us around some slow pedestrians, but as often as not the people in front of us would be a good 5 yards in front of us and walking at the same pace. Guess you had to be there.

The following day was spent relaxing in the shade on the beach, where I managed to put a good dent into Rainbow Six, a 900 page tome that I conquered within a week. The great thing about most hostels is they have lots of book shelves, so when you're done your book, you can simply swap it for a new one.

On our third day, Paul and I did a boat tour that lasted all afternoon and took us to many different spots. The first was Monkey beach, where hundreds of tourists line up each day to take pictures of the monkeys that inhabit the beach. Then we went to a little bay with warm shallow water for a quick swim and to snack on some pineapple. After that we went to another bay to do some snorkeling where you can see many different tropical fish. I've only snorkeled once before and find it tough to breathe only through my mouth via a tube, but after a few minutes I got the hang of it. The trick is not to tilt your head too much, otherwise you get a nice throatful of sea water. After this we went to Maya Bat, which is famous in backpacker circles as the filming location for The Beach. Its appeal in the movie is its extreme seclusion. Now it's notoriously overrun with longboats and people, as you can see in some of the pictures. Pretty much every tour boat goes there, so it's not quite that special any more. The trip ended with enjoying the sunset on the water. At less than 10 dollars canadian, it was quite the deal.

After that it was just a lot of reading on the beach and checking out the nightlife. Luckily I managed to wake up early on Monday morning and caught the Superbowl, which was the first full football game I've seen since leaving. While it was a little slow at times, it was great watching the game, regardless of the time.

Finally on Friday we decided it was time to move on and came to Ao Nang, a smaller beach town on the south coast of the mainland. We booked a thatch hut guesthouse, which I think threw Paul off a bit. It's a nice spot and very social atmosphere, but the amenities are barebones at best. It reminds me a lot of Baboo's Gardens, the campground in the mountains of Jamaica that I've visited twice. I must admit I was a little unsure too when I heard some critters scurrying across the ceiling right above my bed in the middle of the night too, but thankfully nothing attacked me – that I know of.

So right now we're just waiting in Ao Nang to catch the bus back up to the belly of the beast – Bangkok. Unfortunately it's a 14 hour ride, so it'll be a long one. Paul's flying home on Tuesday, and I need to go there to finally get my new bank card sent. While there I may also apply for a visa to visit one of the neighbouring countries as well. I'm not sure where I'll be heading to after Bangkok, but when I do, I'll be sure to keep you posted. Later!

By the way, happy birthday mom! I wish I could have been there to celebrate with you. Love you!

Update – we made it to Bangkok after the terribly long bus ride. We managed to sleep a bit in some real beds upon arrival, so we're well rested. Which is good, since it's Paul's birthday tonight and we're gonna make it a good one. Beep Beep Bangkok!

Phi Phi pictures

I don't have time for a new post at the momnet, so in the meantime, here are some pics of Phi Phi
https://picasaweb.google.com/jeffwright.trip/PhiPhi#

This could be heaven or this could be hell

I wanted different, and I certainly got it! I left my hostel in London early Friday morning and went to Heathrow to catch my flight. The trip over was pretty uneventful. I flew on Air India and stopped over in Mumbai, but only for a couple hours. It took about 14 hours total, and with the time difference, I got into Bangkok early Saturday morning. It was kind of weird seeing two sunrises out the plane window in just over a half day. I took a few trains to my hostel and was impressed with myself for only really getting lost once. The hostel let me check in early and I pretty much slept all day. If ever you're in Bangkok, stay at the Saphai Pae Hostel. It was brand new, clean, friendly, and extremely cheap. One of the nicest hostels I've ever stayed in. That night, I made a few friends in the hostel and we decided to head out and explore a bit. About 20 minutes of walking later, we found the Silom night market, which was kinda crazy. Street vendors lined the sidewalks with everything from bootleg dvd's to clothes to various exotic foods. Along Silom are Sois, which are basically side streets. Down these sois are bars, massage shops (both legitimate and otherwise), restaurants, storefronts, etc. Wandering these sois gave us our first experience with the uglier side of Bangkok, since you can't take more than 5 steps without encountering a Thai person with a big fake smile on his face and something to sell you. They're pushy too, trying to get you in their tuk tuk or taxi, or shady bar (girls girls! Lots of young girls for you!). Needless to say, it was quite the culture shock. Before coming over, I'd heard as much as you have about Bangkok's sex industry, but it still didn't prepare me for what I saw. Seeing a 60 year old white guy walking down the street with a Thai girl on his arm that's no older than 13 is revolting and depressing the first time you see it. Unfortunately it doesn't get any easier to digest the 10^th time you see these human pieces of shit (ex-fats or sex-pats as they're referred to by us morally righteous backpackers) in the same night. Aside from this, I enjoyed my first night out, strolling the market and getting to know my new friends.

The following day I did some more exploring, seeing a few sights, but still tired from the jet lag. That night, we met Ian the rowdy Irishman in the hostel and a few towers of beer later, he said he knew a good party spot so the 5 of us crammed ourselves into a tiny tuk tuk and headed out. Turns out the party spot was Soi Cowboy, which is a street lined with go-go bars, which it turns out, are basically fronts for prostitution and an excuse to charge 7 times what a beer is worth. There we met Greg, a creepy sex-pat who wouldn't leave us alone. Here was a classic example of all that's wrong with people who come to Thailand for all the wrong reasons. He tried clinging onto us by trying to buy us drinks and basically pay his way into our friendship. Which is how he obviously gets all his intimacy. Luckily he stayed away from me for the most part because I made it clear to him the first time he talked to me that I wanted no part of him. We made the most of our night despite all this, finding a pub with more pool tables than hookers and we even ate some fried bugs sold by street vendors. I think given the circumstances we managed to leave with our dignities in tact.

The following day, a few of us decided to check out Khoa San Road, which is backpacker central in Bangkok and close to many of the big sites, such as various temples and the reclining Buddha. Khoa San was like the Silom night market, but during the day, and a lot less sleazy. I needed to find a new pair of sandals, which ended up being a much more difficult task than it would seem. Turns out there aren't a lot of size 13 feet kicking around Thailand, but I managed to find a comfortable pair at a good price (haggling is not only expected, it's an integral part of the experience!) After some more exploring and shopping, we decided to sit at a bar and do some people watching. This was great except for all the touts who would come bug us with whatever trinkets they were selling. If we went 2 minutes without getting bugged by one of them, it was considered a long break. Regardless it was fun watching the world go by. My favourite were the backpackers who had clearly just gotten in from the airport with a bunch of gear on their backs and a dazed look on their face as they tried to find their guesthouses. Still in shock, we kept it a lot quieter that night, opting to stay in the hostel for some pool and a few more towers of beer.

The following day a few of us hit up MBK for some supplies, which is a huge shopping mall that has a lot of the same types of stores as western malls, but also areas with stalls and stalls of goods, much like the outdoor markets. I managed to pick up a power converter and some much-needed shorts. When I got back to the hostel, 4 of us – Eli and Gabby, the Americans, Paul, another Irishman, and I figured out logistics for getting down to Phuket the following day. We booked our hostel and our flight for really good prices. Our flight was pretty early the next morning so we decided to have another quiet night in. What's that road paved with good intentions again? A few other people wanted to go check out the night life on Khoa San road, so we agreed to go see what it was like at night and have a drink or two and leave. This did not go as planned... we did some more people watching, and then it was decided to head to a club (not my decision) for one last drink. One last drink turned into several not-last drinks, and before I knew it, it was 3 am and the club was closing. That's fine, I figured, we could still get home and get 5 hours of sleep. Wrong. Somehow an impromptu dance party started in the street and I knew I was in trouble. Not wanting to be a party pooper, I just went with the flow and had a good time. It was actually a lot of fun and I was having a blast, I just couldn't shake the fact that there was this early morning flight. It was my favourite night out in Bangkok by far because it was just people having a good time... there was no exploitation, no sleaze. We finally made it back to our hostel at 6 and got a couple hours of sleep.

The next day could be described as rough. I managed to wake up, pack up, and be out at the agreed upon time despite my entire body wanting otherwise. It was then that I discovered my bank card was missing. I had the card cancelled, but there wasn't much else I could do since it was night time back home with the time difference (Thailand is 12 hours ahead of Ottawa). We managed to make it to the airport on time and check in. Right after we checked our bags I had my much needed coffee spilled on my shirt. Since my luggage was already on its way to the plane, I had to just grin and bear it...which was fine, because that was the least of my concerns. The flight down to Phuket was about an hour (and kind of rough for the 4 of us but we survived). We bussed into Phuket Town where our hostel was booked and got directions from somebody at the bus station. So we walked in the hot sun for about 20 minutes and finally found the place, except we had been directed to the wrong place. So after sitting down for a few and figuring out where it was we were supposed to actually be, we made our way back to the hostel...which was about 3 minutes away from the bus station. This hostel was actually really nice as well. It's basically a pretty fancy hotel with one floor of dorm rooms. We were actually afraid to go ask at the counter if we had the right place because it was way too nice. Needless to say, we kept it pretty quiet that day and went to bed at a decent hour. The following day we made our way down to Karon beach, which was what we were all waiting for after the craziness of Bangkok. We spent the day relaxing on the white sand, enjoying the view and occasional swim in the turquoise water. This was way better than the smoggy metropolis of Bangkok. This was capped off with an evening on the balcony that included a singalong, some russian win lose or draw, and some asian whiskey. On another note, after several headaches, it looks like my bank card situation is slowly working out, so I will be able to continue on my journey without resorting to begging for Baht to get home. Thanks for all your help back home mom, sorry for the stress!

So that's where we're at now. Tomorrow Gabby and Eli are going to head over to Rawai to stay in a Muay Thai training camp for a few weeks. Paul and I are going to head down to Ko Phi Phi, a small island just south of Phuket. Apparently it's a paradise down there so I'm looking forward to exploring it.

I just re-read this post and it really comes off like I hate Bangkok. I don't really hate it, I just don't really like it either. It's got some beautiful parts to it, but it's got a very ugly underbelly as well. So far I really like Thailand in general. The culture is cool, the climate is amazing, the food is delicious, and everything is a lot cheaper than it was in Europe. I also feel like I'm experiencing more if that makes sense. The many European cultures were cool to learn about, and they're certainly different from Canadian culture, but they still have a very distinctive Western feel to them. This is a completely different kettle of fish though. I know I'm breaking new ground here, saying that Asian culture is different than Western. I guess the best way I can explain the experience is that in Europe I felt more like I was sight-seeing whereas here I'm discovering. So my advice if ever you're out this way is to stay in Bangkok to say you've seen it, but get out to the more peaceful parts of the country as quickly as possible. I can't wait to explore more and report back.

Pictures to come soon

Roamin' Numerals

The European leg of my journey, by the numbers:

15748: distance travelled, in km, by vehicle since leaving Ottawa

4032: pageviews on this blog

126: days

29.98: weight, in lbs, of my gear

28: hostels

22: new facebook friends

21: blog posts, including this one

18: coach bus trips

15: train trips

12: countries

4: currencies spent

4: pro sporting events attended

3: flights

3: live music shows attended

1: anti-celibacy old British lady who fed me homemade curry and Guinness

0: regrets

Family Matters

The last couple weeks have been a nice break and change of pace. I went to Bayreuth (pronounced Bye-roit) to visit family as planned. What didn't go to plan is that I ended up staying way longer than I had been planning. First of all, my new cousin Lexy is pretty much the cutest baby you'll ever see...and I'm not even a baby guy. My apologies to any readers with babies...I'm sure yours is just as cute. She's got huge brown eyes and a great smile. I've never seen so many people stop and look at a baby like they do with her. Lisa and Rinaldo informed me that my mom gave them a mission on Christmas to get me to want to provide her grand kids. That won't be happening any time soon if I have anything to say about it, but Lexy's definitely a good baby representative.

The other new family member I was grateful to meet was Osvaldo, Rinaldo's brother. I didn't make it to their wedding in the summer, so I never had the chance to meet him. I can't say enough good things about Osvaldo as a host or as a person. This is despite Rinaldo's repeated pleas to “destroy him” in this blog – I've never seen two siblings break eachothers balls as much as these two do. He went out of his way to make me feel at home, which was more than appreciated. Having been on the road for 4 months, this was one of the few times where I truly felt anything close to being at home. That, combined with his great cooking led me to extending my stay from a couple days to nearly a week and a half.

On my second day there we went to watch Osvaldo's team play. He plays pro basketball in Germany and has been over here for 3 years. In the first city he played in, Osvaldo met a family that took him in as one of their own, teaching him how to speak German, and providing some of the comforts that only family can provide. They came out to watch the game too, and I could see why Osvaldo loved them... they were very warm and sweet people. By the end of the night they even insisted I come visit them on the weekend with the rest of the gang, which is what twisted my rubber arm into extending my visit. The game itself was lots of fun. Unfortunately Osvaldo's got a shoulder injury so he wasn't able to play. His team clearly missed his absence since they ended up giving up a 15 point lead and losing the game. The atmosphere in the gym was crazy though. There were about 2000 fans there and it was louder than most Sens games. I'm sure the smaller room contributed to the acoustics, but still... Ottawa fans could learn something from European sports fans! So now I can add professional basketball to my ever-growing list of sports I've seen on this trip.

The following day, Elke and Kui, the mother and father of the family, gave Lisa and I a tour of Bayreuth, which turned out to be quite the cool little town. Afterwords we stopped in at the opera house's cafe. It was fancy in and old lady/doiley kinda way. It really reminded me of my grandmother, as that's the sort of thing she would have enjoyed.

The rest of the week was spent relaxing, with the occasional stroll through town. The baby was still getting adjusted to her new surroundings and the time change, so Lisa and Rinaldo were also pretty tired from that. That was fine by me, to sit down, relax, watch some Sons of Anarchy (or SOA as Lisa liked to call it), or play some playstation.

Finally on Friday we left to visit Elke, Kui, and the rest of the family in Nordlingen, which was about 2 hours away. This was the first town where Osvaldo played basketball and it was beautiful. I mentioned in my previous post about how WWII wiped out most buildings in the big German cities. Luckily Nordlingen was mostly untouched by the bombs since it was so small, and so the medieval town has largely remained the same. The town is over 1000 years old, and nearly every building in the centre is a few hundred years old.

All in all, I am so glad I got to meet everybody I did over the past couple weeks. If you're reading this, thanks Lisa, Rinaldo, Osvaldo, the Molls, and Lexy...although Lexy probably isn't reading this.

I've received a few enquiries as to my cliffhanger from the last post. So here it is: next Friday, I'll be flying to Thailand. As much as I've enjoyed Europe, it's time to move on to the next part of this journey. I'm thinking I'll be travelling South East Asia for a few months, but as I, and probably you, have learned, plans on this trip tend to change pretty easily. I'm looking forward to the change. And not to mention the warmth! I'm also a little nervous which I haven't really felt since I booked my flight to Dublin back in September. If you've been over that way and have any tips, I'm all ears because this is completely new territory for me. I'll be keeping up with the blog as much as internet access will allow, so if you're still interested, you're welcome to continue down this strange and winding road with me. Wish me luck!

As for pictures, I was just as lazy with my camera as I was with everything else the last few days. So no pictures except this one with a cute girl I met:

I swear she's not terrified...that's just how big her eyes are. Ok, maybe she's a little terrified.