Robin & Wendy in Asia

Pictures

2005-12-19T13:44:00.000-05:00

Click to view the online slideshow of a selection of our favourite photos......

Back Home Again

2005-11-29T12:47:00.000-05:00

Well, this is our third day back home and jet lag finally seems to be catching up. I slept fine restlessly on Saturday night but woke up just before 6:00am feeling fine and made it through all of Sunday with no naps, then Sunday night I slept great and woke up refreshed to the sound of the alarm on Monday morning. First day back at work was busy and I didn't feel sleepy at all, but then fell asleep fairly early at 9:00. Then this morning disaster struck. I woke up at 3:00 and couldn't get back to sleep. I gave up after a short time of trying to fall back to sleep and actually accomplished quite a bit, including a nice run in the rain. But now I fear the worst will happen and I'll fall asleep sitting at my desk somtime around 2:30 this afternoon.

I should also point out that I am a complete boob. I thought it a bit odd that no one was commenting, even after my plea for communication from home, and then even odder that people were saying they posted but nothing was showing up on the blog. Well this morning I figured it out. Blogger was waiting for me to approve the comments! Sometime at the beginning of our second week I noticed that I had an unsolicited comment from a stranger, plugging his own site so I turned comment moderation on so that I was able to delete the comment. However, comment moderation (which I obviously did not realize) also means that I had to approve new, incoming comments. So to everyone who commented, I'm so sorry. Particulary Penny and Wendy V, who seemed quite frustrated by it, and Matt, whose note asking us to pick something up for him was missed. I'm a terrible, terrible person.

Moving on....I have had a few requests to post some pictures. With nothing else to do at 6am on Sunday morning, I downloaded the pics from the camera and had about half of them printed for my scrapbook. So now I will go through them and choose some interesting ones to post to the blog. Perhaps I will add them throughout the site to the appropriate posts. Check back in the next couple of days to view (if you forgive me for the comment screw-up that is).

The Last Hoorah

2005-11-25T09:59:00.000-05:00

As Robin said, I just finished up with my very last Thai Massage in Thailand which was fantastic. I don't know if it was just me savoring the moment or not, but I swear he was THE BEST masseur I've had so far here (out of 6). Man it was great. I also decided to treat myself to a facial because like everything else here, it's so much cheaper than having it done at home.

So that's that. You're all caught up, we're all Thailand-ed out and set to depart for home sweet home. Ciao for now and thanks for reading (because even if you all still refuse to comment, I added a counter and can see that you're still visiting!!).

The Home Stretch...

2005-11-25T08:14:00.000-05:00

Well, about 36 hours now and our adventures will conclude with an evening touchdown at Pearson International. We are sad, but only a little as we are looking forward to being back home to see everyone we have missed (especially Whiskey :).

To catch you up on the last couple of days..

Thursday we took a day trip to Phi-Phi (pronounce it like yellow stuff, not the little dog) Island, close to Phuket. The trip was supposed to be a lovely little boat cruise through the islands, some swimming and snorkeling and a little sight-seeing, and it was all of those things, but not exactly what we expected. The first problem was rain.. it rained ALL DAY. not hard, but constantly. Which makes the scenary a little washed out unfortunately and the boat ride a little cold/wet. What was worse during the boat ride was that while the outside was kind of wet from the rain, the inside of the boat (which carried a couple of hundred passengers) was FREEZING. For some strange reason, it seems very common around Phuket to have air-conditioning that turns rooms into refrigerators. Brrrrrrrrrrr. Anyway.. where was I? Oh yes.. it rained. Second problem: we were supposed to swim and snorkle at world-famous Maya Bay (which stood in for the titular "Beach" in the famed Leonardo di Caprio movie) , but for some unexplained reason, however, the boat did not stop for snorkeling there (though the boat did glide by and we did grab photos), we instead swam and snorkelled elsewhere at a beach full of crazy monkeys, well, I did anyway, Wendy was all oceaned out after the diving the day before. The sight-seeing on the Island was exactly as we expected however. Phi-Phi was the centre of devastation during last year's Tsunami, and the evidence was very much still present, so I am glad that we got to see that. All in all it was a nice day, but a little disappointing because of the above factors.

After the island trip, we had a quiet night in.. I had curried Wild Boar for dinner and watched "The Crimson Rivers 2" (our bungalow was sat-tv) in our hotel room later as Wendy slept (I think she found the day a little trying because of the wet).

We spent most of today focusing on getting back to Bangkok.. we walked to Nai Han beach for one last view of the sea this morning, returned to our hotel and made the long drive back to Phuket airport. I had a small freak-out at one of the Hotel staff at our Nai Han Beach Resort (who was bizzarly incompetent) who almost failed to get us a taxi in time to make our flight.
We arrived back in Bangkok just after 2 this afternoon and made our way back to the Khoa San Road area were we stayed before. Once there, we found a guest house (which was much harded then before.. High Season getting underway and all) and caught up on some sight-seeing we missed due to Rain during our last Bangkok stay, the lovely temples of Wat Arun and Wat Pho. Wat Pho contains the world famous Reclining Buddha statue, some 45 metres long and 12 metres high I believe.

After the Wats.. finished up a little shopping on Khoa San road, had a nice dinner, and now here I am, updating the blog as Wendy enjoys one final Thai Massage. We make for the airport early tomorrow with an 11:35 departure (Letterman will just be starting for you tonight). And then 21 lovely hours of plane travel, touching down first in Hong Kong, second in Anchorage and third in the snows of Toronto (saw some web photos today) although I also see that we seem to be bringing milder weather with us back to Canada, so I breath a sigh of relief.

See you all soon!

Diving at Racha Yai

2005-11-23T05:49:00.000-05:00

Robin elected to spend the entire day at the beach again (I think he even skipped lunch, he was enjoying the relaxation so much!) while I went out for a day of scuba diving. After a little hesitation (it's a bit expensive and I wasn't sure how much fun I would have all on my own) I decided to sign up for a one day 'Discover Diving' course with an instuctor from Seafarer Divers. A woman picked me up at 8:00 this morning and we headed back to Chalong Bay where the pier is that all the boats leave from. The boat took about an hour to get to Racha Yai and it was filled with lots of other divers. Some were certified divers that would be going out with a divemaster and others were people like me taking courses. For me, it was just me and my instructor, Sebastien.

After a little bit of instruction while were still on the boat, then a little more while getting our equipment ready, we made our first dive at about 10:30. The water was lovely and we swam around some sandy areas next to lots of coral reefs (it's safer to be near the sand so that we can touch on the bottom if we need to - you can't stand on the coral). We went down about 9m, which is close to the maximum for an uncertified diver (that's me). There were tons of tropical fish of all sizes and none of them seemed disturbed that we - a couple of very large, unfish-like creatures - were swimming near them. It was really cool. We just swam right through and around all kinds of fish and schools of fish. We saw one that's called a Lion Fish, which apparently can be quite dangerous if you get too near it. They're poisonous I think, and Sebastien explained to me later that if you get too close, they sometimes just shoot at you and bonk you in the chest which I gather to be an undesirable situation. After about 45 minutes we surfaced and returned to the boat.

After lunch, we made a second dive which was also about 45 minutes and we still only went down about 9 or 10m. This time we saw a couple of moray eels and a giant clam. The clam was too deep for us to get close enough for it to close, but it was really neat anyway. Sebastien seemed pretty excited about both so I guess it was fun that we got to see them. He said the clam was the biggest one he's seen.

The boat trip back was uneventful. Sebastien and I chatted for a while and then he decided to take a nap and I read my book. I returned to our bungalow by about 4:30 to find Robin watching the Simpsons :P Our bungalow has satellite tv.

Tomorrow we are planning a boat trip to Phi Phi Island and then we're off to Bangkok to catch our plane home to Toronto. As sad as I am that the 3 weeks of vacation are done, I'm happy to be coming home. No matter how much fun I'm having or how much I'm enjoying all that we've been able to experience, nothing compares to the feeling of coming home.

Last Stop - Nai Harn Beach, Phuket

2005-11-22T08:37:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here in an internet cafe watching a woman across the street beat a man with the handle end of a broomstick. Curious.....

We arrived in Phuket Province late Monday evening and immediately checked into the first bungalow we came to that was even remotely close to where we wanted to stay (this was in Chalong Bay, where it is not particularly desirable to actually stay). Robin was not feeling well at all, and spent the night battling some nasty traveler's sickness. In the morning I set out on my own to scope out some nearby beaches and decide where we should relocate to. I first checked out Rawai Beach and decided that although the accomodation was acceptable, the beach was not. I moved onto Nai Harn Beach and checked out the most lovely resort I've seen so far in Thailand. The woman regretted to inform me that they were all booked up for the day but I didn't mind because it saved me regretting to inform her that we couldn't afford to stay there even if they did have room for us. I looked at a place less than a kilometre from the same beach which was much more reasonably priced and still nice enough. Next I went to Karon Beach which turned out to have tons of suitable accomodation, but was far too busy and full of tourists than we prefer. All this was on the back of a motorbike and zipping around the island on the back sans helmet (!) turned out to be an experience all in itself. So, after some deliberation, I settled on Nai Harn Beach Resort where we will stay now until Friday morning when we head back to Bangkok.

Today we spent most of the day relaxing on the beach. Once settled into our bungalow, we ate lunch and then made the short walk up to the beach. It was a lovely afternoon. I went in the ocean and soaked up some sun, while Robin reposed under our beach umbrella, reading his book. We ate dinner at a small Italian restaurant next to the beach and then packed it in to head back to our resort. Nothing very exciting, but just what we were looking for out of our last few days in Thailand.

The Good, the Bad and the Spicy

2005-11-19T07:23:00.000-05:00

Dateline November 19th - Chiang Mai.

Today's adventure was a Thai cooking class offered by our good friend's at Gap's House guesthose (and Thai cookery school). We took the class with 7 other people holidaying in the area and it was a full day event. On the agenda was a trip to local food market to buy ingredients and then a day of preparing Thai delicacies.

At the market - we saw people buying crickets and bamboo worms (yummy) and learned that there are some 6 kinds of eggplant used in Thai cooking.

During our day at school we made, I believe, 8 dishes. We started off with a tutorial on making Curry Paste from it's elements and how to properly cook rice (!) and then dove straight into the cooking. The morning session produced Green Curry Chicken, Chicken and Cashew Stir-Fry, Fish Cakes with Cucumber Sauce, Spicy Hot and Sour Tom-Yum soup with Shrimp and a Fish Souflee in Banana Leaf - all of which became our lunch. The afternoon featured spring rolls, pad thai and a pumpkin custard for desert. All in all a scrumptious and satisfying experience. We just finished eating the afternoon food for dinner, and our Pad Thai was a little bland.. but other than that we think we did pretty well. Friends and neighbours beware as I am sure we will be subjecting you all to sampling our new found Thai cooking skills in the near future :) (don't worry we have learned non-spicy versions of pretty much everything for the spice-averse)

The bad news of the day is that we just learned this afternoon that our meditation retreat which we were supposed to attend tomorrow and monday appears to be cancelled. YEARGH!, we were both (I think) really looking forward to this.. anyway, no we have a day to fill tomorrow with something, which I am sure we can manage to do.

Signing out for now.

Chiang Mai Zoo, Doi Suthep, & the Night Bazaar

2005-11-19T05:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday it was Robin's turn to plan our activities for the day. It would be appropriate to have him blog about it, but he was not interested in joining me at the internet cafe this afternoon, favouring our guest house room and his book instead. Or perhaps favouring some time away from me....who knows.

We woke up late again, a terrible habit we're getting into, ate breakfast and visited the tailor for yet another fitting. Then Robin went about doing his research to figure out the cheapest way for us to get up to the top of Suthep Mountain to visit Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. First we took at tuk tuk to the Chiang Mai zoo, paid the 40 Baht admission fee and started visting the various exhibits. It wasn't actually all that different from the Metro Toronto Zoo, but they did have a large Panda exhibit that I was quite excited about. When we got to the entrance of the exhibit we were dismayed to see that it was an additional 100 Baht each to see the Pandas. Now don't get me wrong, this is not a lot of money by North American standards (around 35 cents will buy you ten baht) but relative the the price of other things and the admission to the zoo itself, this seemed outrageous. Nevertheless, we paid the money and went to see the Pandas. They were cute and we got to see them eating which was pretty interesting. I actually thought that they didn't really look real because their faces are just so fuzzy and cute.

After the zoo we chartered a minibus to take us up to the top of Doi Suthep which should have been 70 Baht each. However, after waiting for nearly 30 minutes for other passengers, we finally gave in and paid the guy 300 Baht to take us up without anyone else, and then back down and into Chiang Mai to the Night Bazaar later. It may at first seem odd, but if you think about it, this system actually makes perfect sense.

Doi Suthep and Wat Phra That were not all that exciting for me, but you all know Robin and his love for high altitudes. At the top of the mountain there is another 306 steps that will take you up to the temple. Otherwise you can pay 50 Baht and take an elevator up. The story is that in 1383, when the temple was built under King Keu Naone, relics were placed on the back of a white elephant which then climbed the mountain, taking the relics to their home at Wat Phra That. Upon reaching the temple, the elephant collapsed dead from exhaustion (or as the brochure puts it - after fulfilling it's destiny). The view of Chiang Mai was remarkable, and the temple was about the same as most of the others we've seen - decorated and impressive.

Our minibus dropped us off in the area of the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, which Lonely Planet very accurately describes as the mother of all tourist shopping. You can buy almost anything you want in any quantity at unbelievable prices. Our approach was to check out the entire thing, and once we'd seen it all, go back and start buying stuff. Towards the end of the scoping out phase I decided that I'd had enough and just wanted to buy things because it had gotten repetitive about an half hour before. We split up to go back and get the things we each wanted. However, after only about 15 minutes I started to feel really overwhelmed and actually dizzy and couldn't focus on anything. I met back up with Robin and we decided that we would have to return the next night to finish up.

Comment People, Comment!

2005-11-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

I know that there are still friends and family out there that are reading our blog because you've said so in emails, so my question is why aren't you leaving comments anymore? We really like having comments to read, even if all you have to say is 'wow that's neat'. Say more if you like, whatever, it's just nice to have some contact from the people we love. Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled blogging......

Shopping!

2005-11-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

To my extreme surprise and pleasure, we spent yesterday afternoon.....shopping! How exciting. At first Robin suggested going to a town just outside of Chiang Mai called San Kampaeng where they make and sell Thai silk. He knew I was interested in buying some and I suppose thought that if he could at least make it into a trip to see how it's done it would be worth his time spent shopping. Next we added a stop at Bo Sang along the way to see where they make umbrellas and pretty soon we were signed up for the full blown shopping trip offered by the tuk tuk driver at our guest house for 300 baht! (This is of course due mostly to the fact that, feeling tired and wanting to rest for a few moments, Robin let me plan the afternoon.)

We started out in Bo Sang at the umbrella making factory which was very neat. The work that goes into those things is incredible. And the artists that put the final finishing touches of artwork on the umbrellas are truly impressive. Next we visited the main street in San Kampaeng where there should have been Thai silk manufacturers, but apparently it had been a while since anyone had signed up for Mr. Bob's shopping tour because the Silk Village had moved! We then went first to a woodcarving place and then another factory where they make laquerware. None of the beautiful items at either place were very practical for us to buy though as everything would have been much too large and cumbersome to get home. Our next stop was at an ISO 9002 jewellry maker. We got to see all the processes that go into making a piece of jewellry and were guided around the place by a very nice salesperson. The tour ended in a huge room full of pieces for sale. It was absolutely stunning. If I had more money than I knew what to do with, I would have known exactly what to do with it after this stop. Really remarkable. What struck me the most were a few pieces that were made out of purple jade. It's a really rare colour of jade and so fabulous. It was all I could do to refrain from handing over my credit card on the spot. The price tag in the tens of thousands of Baht stopped me of course.

Finally we got to the part I'd been waiting all afternoon for - the Thai Silk Village. I was fascinated by how they make the silk. It starts with the cocoons of silk worms which they take and place in a pot of boiling water. Then strands from the cocoons are pulled from the pot by this manually operated spinning contraption. The natural colour of the silk is white and yellow so the next step is to dye the silk. Once dyed, the silk is woven into pieces of fabric, again on a manually operated loom. Don't worry, the pictures I made Robin take will explain it better than I can in words.....And finally on to the hardest part - selecting a few items to take home with me. Of course the prices at the Silk Village were inflated compared to what I would pay at the Night Bazaar, but the selection was far better and I'm sure there were things there that I will not be able to buy anywhere else. It took nearly an hour, but I managed to carefully select a few things that I felt were unique to the Silk Village and they are now resting comfortably in my knapsack :)

The evening around our guest house had more of the same from the night before in store with Loi Krathong celebrations still in full swing. Wanting to get away from the noise and the crowds, we decided to head to the Central Airport Plaza, the largest indoor shopping mall in Chiang Mai, to catch a movie. They play movies with English soundtracks there, so it was a nice little piece of home for me. We actually got to watch Harry Potter. It's a good thing we wanted to because really there was no choice in the matter. Being opening day, every screen at the theatre was showing it except one where a Thai movie was playing. I got popcorn and some kind of softdrink that was sickeningly sweet and tasted like bubble gum. It was great.

Taking it Easy

2005-11-16T22:55:00.000-05:00

Not much new to report. We spent the day yesterday just sort of loafing around, recovering from our trekking adventure. Okay, I was recovering, Robin was waiting for me to recover.

We got up late - a first since we arrived a week an a half ago - went for breakfast, then walked around (slowly!) for a while. We ate lunch at an Indian vegetarian restaurant which I followed up with another massage. And to answer a previous question - the part where they use their feet is probably the best part of the whole thing! Robin poked around a little while I did that and after stopping into a bookstore to pick up something to read, I met him back at our guest house for a rest until we had to leave for our appointment at the tailor. Onc we finished up with the tailor we headed back for the vegetarian buffet offered at our guest house and then caught a tuk tuk to the river where we could watch the festivities taking place in celebration of Loi Krathong.

The idea of Loi Krathong is that everyone takes these little boats made out of banana leaves decorated with flowers and candles and incense, adds a lock of hair or a piece of finger nail or something similar, lights the boat, gives thanks for all the good things in the past year and says sorry for all the bad things and then sends the boat off into the river, thus casting away their troubles. There are also these large paper balloons that you can buy that have a wick in the base of them to heat up the air, creating a hot air balloon. You send the balloons up for good luck. One couple we watched send up their balloon apparently did not consider their surroundings or the direction of the wind and the balloon immediately got caught in a tree directly above us. The tree briefly caught on fire and the balloon burned up as the couple looked on in shock. I wonder if they will still have good luck? The fire in the tree didn't last long because the wind was actually strong enough to put it out before any harm was done.

After a couple hours of the huge, neverending crowd of people, all the fireworks being set off everywhere (even on the street because I think kids think it's funny to try and scare people) I'd taken in about all I wanted to of Loi Krathong (and Robin had taken enough pictures) so we headed back to Gap's house for some sleep.

A Note From Chiang Mai - The Non-Trekking Version

2005-11-15T23:20:00.000-05:00

I decided to defer posting about our trekking adventure to Robin. He said the my version would probably be more colourful, but that's precisely the reason I think he should tell you about it. It was definitely not my favourite part of our trip so far. Yes, the stuff we did while we were trekking was awesome, but I'm not so sure if it was reward enough for all the climbing this time.

I will say I think the highlight for me was probably eating at the Lisu hill tribe village where we stayed overnight. It was cool to eat food that was prepared by locals in a 'local way', over a fire inside the hut! We all sat around on a big mat and shared the food and talked and stuff. It was fun because everyone was from different countries so we got to learn a lot. And the food didn't even make me sick! :)

So our first day in Chiang Mai we did the same thing we've done so far upon arriving in every new place we visit - we walked around to orient ourselves a little and see what the place is like. We walked all the way through the old city to the other side where the temple is that Robin wants to stay at for a short intro course in Buddhist meditation. We checked out the main street and then had lunch. After lunch we returned to our guesthouse for a rest and to plan our trek. In the evening we returned to Ratchamankha Rd for the Sunday walking market. The street is closed to vehicles and most of the regular shops are closed. People set up their stands or blankets and sell all kinds of stuff. It's nothing like the market was in Bangkok or Siem Reap. There were way more locals there buying stuff than tourists and no one was yelling trying to get us to buy stuff. We were able to look without being immediately harassed into buying something and it was very enjoyable.

We ended up at a tailor shop that was still open and decided to order some suits from him. We'd been looking for a tailor all along because we knew we wanted to have some things made and this place seemed as good as any. Robin is having 2 suits, 5 dress shirts and an overcoat made and so far I'm having a pant suit and a skirt suit made and later today at our second fitting I will order a few dress shirts. All very exciting. It's really reasonably priced for tailor made clothes and after our first fitting I was really impressed with the quality of the workmanship. I think the clothes are going to turn out really well.

The hotel we were staying in initially, Chiang Mai Thai House, was only a few months old, really nice and was one of only 2 hotels in the city that has a pool. However, we lost our room when we went trekking and now they are full. So we're staying at a place called Gap's house which is also nice and very atmospheric. It's older and the rooms have a much different feel but it's still clean and affordable. No pool though.

The weather here is much more comfortable than in Bangkok or Cambodia. It's a few degrees cooler during the day and it really cools off at night which is nice. I'm really enjoying it so far and am glad we've chosen to spend the week here. More details to come as the week unfolds.

A Trek and a Half..

2005-11-15T23:13:00.000-05:00

Greeting from Chiang Mai:

We have been enjoying Northern Thailand immensley for the last few days, headquartered here in Chiang Mai. The centre of Chaing Mai (a small-ish city of about 170,000) is bounded on all four sides by a very fetching moat, within are a host of traveller-friendly establishments offering tours here, there and everywhere, and fine food and accomodation to boot.

We spent the last two days trekking in the Hills north of Chiang Mai with a group of about 8 other travellers. We started our trek with a visit to a village of the oft-photographed Karen or "Long-Neck" tribe from Burma, fleeing persecution in their home land. The women wear brass rings around their neck from the age of five, gradually adding rings over the course of their life stretching their necks to an elongated state. The village was a little bit crass from our perspetcive, the residents were very much "on display", but interesting.

After the village we did a little bit of trekking by elephant, which was very fun, and then proceeded to trek through the jungle and up the mountains in Doi Inthanon national park. The hike was four hours up-hill on the first day, and three hours down on the second. Both sections were quite steep, which combined with the 30 degree heat made for a taxing climb. We were rewarded at night with a stay in a Lisu tribe village with stunning views at the top of one of the mountains. Here, the villagers just went about their normal lives, much more satisfying than the staged nature of the Karen tribe village. After reaching the bottom of the hill on the second day, we were treated to some river-rafting to end the adventure - half white-water and half bamboo raft. The bamboo raft was quite an experience as the raft was submerged under the water for most of the trip and we were visited by a friendly water snake (Wendy's favourite part :-P) during the ride.

We are now back in Chiang Mai enjoying the Loi Karthuong festival, there are markets and food and fireworks and music and dancing, it is all quite wonderful. During the festival (celebrated on the 11-th full moon of each year) locals float lotus-flower shaped boats alight with a candle on the river and launch hundreds of paper balloons in the air with a little fire within for good luck in the coming year.

Over the next few days we hope to enjoing a trip to some temples on Doi Suthep, a Thai cooking class, and a stay at a buddhist monastery to study mediation and Thai buddhist life.

Over and Out for now..

The Flooded Forest and Floating Village

2005-11-13T09:37:00.000-05:00

We spent our third and last day in Siem Reap on a trip to see the flooded forest of Kompong Phhluk and the floating village of Chong Kneas. The place where we caught the boat was a 40 minute tuk tuk ride from our hotel. When we arrived I was grateful to realize that our tuk tuk driver, still Seena, was planning to join us on the boat for the trip. He made an excellent tour guide! The boat was quite expensive and I almost fell out of it when the woman told us that it was US$60. Yikes! By then it was much too late to back out though and Robin was really wanting to make the trip. So off we went.

The idea is to cross Tonle Sap lake which, during the rainy season, accomodates the overflow of water from the Mekong River. Land that is dry during the non-rainy season is flooded with water that looked to be at least a few metres deep during the rainy season. We set out with Seena insisting that the boat would be very fast. 'Very fast' is all relative to whether or not you spent many summers cruising around on your dad's speed boat or not......So at a not-so-fast-for-me pace we made our way through the 'small water' towards the flooded forest. The trip took longer than the hour it was supposed to because our driver kept getting stuck among the trees and vegetation that were poking out of the water. By 'small' Seena meant shallow of course and a few times I got kind of nervous that we weren't getting out.

(short diversion begins....) I started to panic a little and decided to read some of our Lonely Planet Cambodia to help myself calm down a little. I had been wondering about the many 'Cambodia People's Party' signs we were seeing everywhere so I looked up the section on history and politics. I began reading, among other things, about the time not so long ago in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge were in power. It was horrible for the people and they were made to work grueling hours under horrific conditions and many were starving and dying. The Khmer Rouge also enforced genocide during this time and millions of innocent people were murdered. In 1979, the Vietnamese came in and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. A series of political events that are too detailed to get into took place over the next several years, but the part that caught my attention was that during a time around 2001/2 the Khmer Rouge made an attempt to regain control. One of the tactics they employed to achieve this was killing foreigners. Justified or not, my mind began to race. What if our seemingly good-natured tuk tuk driver and his boat friend were actually Khmer Rouge supporters? What if they were taking us into some crazy, remote jungle-lake area with plans to make examples out of us? Okay, okay so it was a little crazy. The sun was hot and I probably wasn't drinking enough water. I read on about how much the Cambodian people hate the Khmer Rouge and that no one even talks about it anymore. They are still stung by the effects of that time and that's why everything in Cambodia refers to 'Angkor'. It was a time period that everyone would like to go back to. (end of diversion)

Eventually Seena explained that the 'small waters' boast many beautiful birds most of the time, and their intention had been to share that with us. Unfortunately there were few birds and lots of places to get stuck. He promised that on the way back we would be taking the 'big water'. Phew.

Soon after my little dillusion we made it to the flooded forest and the village of Komplong Phhluk. It was incredible! The houses were on 6m or 7m stilts to keep the water from flooding them during the rainy season, and in some cases the water was right up to the bottom of the house! We stopped briefly at a raised area that held a temple and school that was packed with small children. They followed us around saying 'hi' and 'bye', the only English words I suspect they knew. It was cute. We left the village and headed into the forest. It's difficult to describe what it looked like. The trees just looked like they were suspended in water. Apparently when the water level recedes, the trees' trunks are petrified. Right now the water is quite high though. It was really amazing and well worth the money.

Our boat driver took us back through the 'big lake', stopping at a fish and crocodile farm on the way back. I'm sure the intention was to have us eat lunch there but we just looked at the fish and crocodile and declined to eat. On the way back to the dock we passed through the floating village of Chong Kneas. The houses really were floating! They were all a little like houseboats and we even saw some people moving. It brought a whole new meaning to 'moving day' for me. No one packs anything, they just tie a rope from a motor boat to the first house and we saw as many as 4 or 5 other houses trailing behind and off they went to find a new spot in the lake for their home. Talk about no fixed address!

The Temples of Angkor

2005-11-12T01:31:00.000-05:00

We spent our second day in Cambodia doing what everyone goes to Siem Reap to do - visiting the Temples of Angkor. We decided to forego biking the temple route, mostly because I wimped out saying it was much too hot to be biking, and hired a tuk tuk driver to chauffer us around for the day to the tune of US$10. He was very reliable and with only one exception we found him eagerly waiting for us to emerge from whichever temple we were in, ready to move on to the next. The one time he wasn't, we found him sleeping in the tuk tuk and woke him with the help of another driver who vigorously shook our tuk tuk until our driver, Seena, sat up rather alarmed. We messed up a little at lunch time and went to eat at one of the stalls offering food in one of the many markets we found at each temple. When we went to find Seena he asked if we were going to have lunch and we told him we already had. Dismayed, he told us that we were supposed to eat with him. We figured out that if he brings our business to one of the food stalls, then he gets to eat for free. While we were at the next temple we suspect that he tried to go back to where we ate to get some food but was understandably turned away. Robin offered to buy his lunch at the next market, which made me feel much better about our little faux pas.

The first temple we saw was Angkor Wat. It's true what everyone who's been there and Lonely Planet said about it - there are no words to describe it's splendour. It really is humbling to stand on the causeway, looking across the nearly kilometre wide moat at the largest religious structure in the world. We will gladly share the many photos we took, but they will hardly do it justice.

Next we visited Ta Prohn. This is the temple where they filmed some of Tomb Raider. There's even a "Tomb Raider Tree" there. I think we took a picture of it, but the commercialization of a place like that just kind of made me sad. It was breathtaking to see a structure like this temple that has been literally swallowed by nature over time. The roots of trees bigger than any I have seen in my life are wound around the walls of the temple, having long ago broken and crumbled much of the stone.

We also visited the temple of Bayon, which nature and the elements has also taken it's toll on over time and is now being reconstructed by a project team from Japan. It was really interesting to see how they're going about reassembling the broken pieces of the temple.

We stopped at one other temle called Baphuon which was under reconstruction and we could actually go inside of. All the records describing that were kept during a period of renovation that was underway when the Cambodian civil war erupted were lost during the Khmer Rouge years, leaving restoration experts with the world's largest jigsaw puzzle. We were able to walk on the 200m elevated walkway made of standstone that leads up to the temlple.

Our day ended at the summit of Phnom Bakheng, initally with the intention of being there for sunset, enjoying an unbelievable view of Siem Reap and most notably, Angkor Wat. It was way worth the climb! The best time to be there apparently is at sunset, but being a few hours ahead of schedule, we just couldn't wait it out.

I was very grateful to return to our room for a shower by the end of a very hot and tiring day. I was also grateful that we'd chosen to take a tuk tuk for the day, rather than the bike, because it offered a much needed reprise from the stifling heat of the sun in between temple visits. The breeze created just by driving was heavenly.

For dinner we decided to go to a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet Cambodia called The Blue Pumpkin. It's air-conditioned "Cool Room" was just what I needed by the end of that day. White clothed couches lined the permimeter of the room and after we finished eating a delicious meal, we moved to a space on one of the couches for some after-dinner cocktails (okay, I had wine, Robin had a cocktail) and dessert. It was really a drastic departure from the more local style places we'd been eating in since arriving (most of all the food stall in the market we'd had lunch at which was actually incredibly delicious - I probably enjoyed that meal most of any I ate while in Cambodia!). This place would have been right at home on Richmond Street in TO.

After dinner we made our way back to our hotel on foot only to find that the electricity in the neighborhood was out. We had lights thanks to the hotel's generator, but no air-con. I complained but true to his style Robin laid down and told me to let it go''. So I did"and it wasn't so bad because the power came back on in just an hour.

Back to Thailand

2005-11-11T20:07:00.000-05:00

A quick update from the road:

We are just about to depart for Siem Reap International Airport and a plane back to Thailand. These last two days have been filled with adventure, highlighted by the Angkor Wat temple complex and the Flooded Forest of Kompong Phhluk.

Today's agenda is to fly back to Bangkok and immediately grab an overnight train north to Chiang Mai. More news once we get to Chaing Mai.

Siem Reap

2005-11-09T07:32:00.000-05:00

We tried to wait out the rain yesterday afternoon, but just when we would start to think it might be letting up, the downpour would resume. We rested for a while in our room and then ventured out, but not too far from the guest house, in search of a few quotes for traveling to Cambodia. The 14 hour bus ride would have cost a mere C$15, but of course would have meant 14 hours on a bumpy bus. We opted instead for the much less thrifty C$300 flight that took less than an hour.

After settling that I decided to give one of the Thai massage parlours a try and it was worth every cent of the 100 Baht I paid for the half hour. In retrospect, I really wish I'd gone for the hour, but there will be plenty more opportunities for more massage in the next couple weeks. Thai massage is quite different from the Swedish or therapeutic massage I'm used to getting at home. There's more pushing and stretching and (believe it or not) slapping involved. At the end the guy held my arms behind my back, pressed his feet against my back and straightened his legs. My back cracked more than it does when I visit the chiropractor! It was like a massage and an adjustment all in one.

We spent the rest of the evening having dinner, playing cards and eventually just sleeping. We were both very anxious about waking up in time to leave for our 8am flight though and neither of us slept very much.

Our flight this morning got us into Siem Reap just after 9am and we found a cheap hotel easily with the help of our taxi driver. We had chosen a place called Angkor Thom Hotel, which he advised us was old and not so nice as another nearby hotel, Sydney Angkor Hotel. We agreed to let him drop us off his recommeded hotel and checked out on of the air-con rooms. At US$20 a night we thought we'd check out the other place to see if it was worth the US$10 difference. I think perhaps it was not worth the difference to Robin, but he graciously agreed to stay in what I felt was the much cleaner and nicer (and more expensive) hotel. For the money, it really is quite nice and comfortable. The restaurant downstairs is also very good and cheap and we've already eaten there twice for less than US$15 total.

We spent most of the day wandering around the old market in Siem Reap, trying to figure out if each merchant's bargaining power was lost by having so many stalls offering exactly the same thing. In the end only I bought a couple of things which I'm very happy with. I hope that we will return on Friday when we have more time (and money) to get a few things that I really liked.

For now we are trying to conserve money as we have only US$15 left and aren't quite sure about how easy it will be to get money at a bank here. There are no ATMs and virtually no merchants accept credit cards. Today turned out to be a holiday of some kind (Independence Day?) so the banks will not be open until tomorrow. Dad, sit tight because we might need you to send money.....there was a Western Union :P

On tomorrow's agenda.....visiting the Temples of Angkor.

Soggy but Satisfied

2005-11-08T03:08:00.000-05:00

Day two in Bangkok and we have so far been a lot more productive than Day 1, spent largely sleeping off the 24 hr plane ride. We got up bright and early (going to bed at 3 in the afternoon the previous day will do that to you) and headed out for our first day of the Grand Temples of Bangkok.
A short 45 minute walk away (after Wendy complaining I was lost at least 4 times) we started our official sight-seeing at Bangkok's Grand Palace. WOW! Opulent would be an understatement. Everything was gold, or Mother of Pearl, or jewels and gems of some sort. The most magnificent part of the complex is the site of Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. A lovely little palace with a giant tower of gold and gems, perched on top was the storied Emerald Buddha, clad in his (her?) delightful Rainy Season outfit. We should have taken this as an omen for the day.
Shortly after ending our devotions to the little green guy, the skies opened up and poured forth a little mini-monsoon. Our rain gear was, of course, back at the guest-house *sigh*. So.. after huddling inside the museum of decorations and coins for half an hour praying for the rain to stop, we sucked it up, bought opportunistically-priced umbrella and poncho and waded back to our guesthouse, leaving the rest of Bangkok's temply goodness for another day. Hopefully we can take in a little more of the city this afternoon and then perhaps on to Siem Reap and Cambodia tomorrow..

Signing out for now...

What to do When Your Traveling Companion Crashes

2005-11-07T07:42:00.000-05:00

Now I've had something to eat, realized that being outside of our room on my own is probably not going to turn out much differently than if Robin were with me, and had time to relax into my surroundings a little, I feel much better. I even ventured out beyond the lobby of our guest house to the restaurant across the laneway for something to eat. The very inviting sounding 'Wild Villa Orchid' and cozy, tropical atmosphere made it an easy decision.

Note to self: green thai curry is spicy no matter what the server says about how mild it is. I made it most of the way through my meal, but had to give up with about a quarter of it left because my mouth was on fire. It's my understanding that leaving a little behind to indicate that you got enough to eat is the polite thing to do anyway :) For my C$4.50, I still got more than I expected.

After eating, I felt comfortable enough to walk around a little on my own and decided to find out what the neighboring laneways have to offer. Much of the same guesthouses, shops and beauty parlours. To be honest, I'm most interested in the beauty parlours.....I can't wait for my first Thai massage.

Now I'm headed back up to our room, which I didn't mention before, is actually air conditioned. I feel a little spoiled for that because I didn't expect it. But for a double room with air and a hot shower it was only about C$9 each so why not? The weather here is actually not nearly as unbearable as I anticipated. With just a fan I can imagine sleeping is quite comfortable. And although the temperature during the day is in the low 30s, I still found it exponentially more tolerable than the weather in Toronto when it's that hot. But perhaps my judgement is clouded by being on vacation.

Night One in Bangkok

2005-11-07T06:36:00.000-05:00

Well, we made it! We landed in Bangkok about 6 hours ago and found a place to stay really easily. We were going to take the train from the airport to where we're staying but it would have been more than an hour wait in a scuzzy train station for the sake of saving $6. The nearly one hour cab ride from the airport cost only $9. The place we're staying in is good. It's called New Siam Guest House. The room is pretty clean and has it's own bathroom and king size bed. Okay, king size slab of concrete is more like how it feels, but Robin doesn't seem to be complaining!

After checking in we walked around for a while looking at shops and the busy downtown streets. Then Robin got hungry so we went somewhere for some food and to plan the rest of the afternoon which we were going to spend visiting a few temples and sites. The thought of food was making me a little queasy so all I had was a soda water but Robin had some shrimp pad thai.

We stopped at our room after eating to rest for a bit.....next thing I knew it was 3 hours later. That's jet lag for you I guess. So after several fruitless minutes of trying to wake Robin up to see if we were going to go do anything, I gave up, forced him to take his Malaria medicine and then came down to 'lobby' of our guest house to use the internet. I can't really go anywhere because it's not all that safe for me to be alone and having been here a mere few hours, I don't really feel comfortable fending for myself against the drivers trying to get me to take a tuk tuk ride somewhere.....much less someone with less honourable intentions! I'm also feeling like it might be in my best interest to find something to eat if I don't want to spend the night unable to sleep because of hunger. Any bets on whether I'll venture further than plain rice for tonight?

Still Here ?!?

2005-11-05T11:32:00.000-05:00

Well.. strangely enough friends we are still here in Canada at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 5. Last night's flight was overbooked and after some consideration we volunteered to be one of the unhappy few to be bumped to a flight today instead. Accordingly to Wendy's family is was a good thing anyway because they were having a "Bad Karma Day" yesterday (phew!).

So.. we invite your comment as to whether or not we made the right decision to "volunteer". The deal.. we got $20 in airport money to relax until the flight was all checked in, and then if there were no seats left (which there weren't), we got $800 in cash and are the first people booked on today's flight out... In summary.. about 25% of our flight cost back, for dropping 1 out of 20 full days off the trip.

Let us know what you think!

Getting Involved..

2005-11-02T13:51:00.000-05:00

Ok: so I though I better post something here before I got into trouble.
The countdown is on.. only 2 days, 8 hours or so before our plane will be in the air. I am very much looking forward to some deep relaxation on this trip: communing with grand temple architecture, lying on the beach, rafting slowly down the Mekong river, and hopefully not too much time in Bangkok. I have never been much of a city tourist.. I find them mostly dirtly and over-crowded. I also hope to find a mountain of some sort to climb.. but haven't yet flipped through our Lonely Planet to see what we can find. Lastly, we are planning to spend some time poking around at the area's affected by last year's deadly Tsunami's - I think it is important to get an on-the-ground understanding of what these kinds of tragedies mean to the areas impacted by them.

Well: talk to you all on the flip side!

An Unusual Diversion

2005-11-02T12:27:00.000-05:00

In a very uncharacteristic move, we've asked Meredith to pick us up from the airport when we arrive back in Toronto on Nov 26. She's always bugging me about why I don't let her know when I need to be picked up from the airport rather than taking 'the better way'. I find the TTC service at the airport very convenient and sometimes rather relaxing actually. However, I considered that after 21 hours on a plane I might not find the bus and subway ride home all that relaxing and asked Robin what he thought about asking for a ride. I was shocked when he agreed that it would be nice to be picked up, and Meredith - not so surprisingly - graciously accepted our offer to be chauffered around.

Expectations

2005-11-01T09:08:00.000-05:00

With only 3 more sleeps to go until we depart Toronto destined for Bangkok, Thailand I feel that my expectations for our trip are not going to change much between now and when we actually get there. At first I was really hoping for some good shopping in Bangkok and the opportunity to bring home lots of fun clothes and stuff for cheap. Last weekend I revised that expectation after talking to a girl at Europe Bound who spent 6 months in Bangkok. I mentioned to her that I was hoping to buy some clothes when I got there, and wasn't worrying too much about bringing a lot with me because I just figured I would buy it when I got there. She very tactfully (well, perhaps it just seemed tactful since she was approximately the same height and build as I am) pointed out that I would have challenges finding clothes that covered more than a small portion of my body since everything is made to fit wee little Thai women. So new plan: buy lots of scarves and hats and other accessories, perhaps even shoes since I have freakishly small feet, and buy clothes for my super skinny sister instead.

Clothing issues aside, I'm hoping that we will spend some time in Northern Thailand doing some trekking, elephant riding, and boat tours. I hope to be able to spend some time experiencing a typical Thai day and eating very authentic food....even if it make me sick. We are planning to visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia and I have no idea what to expect from that. It's a really old, important temple but other than that I know little about it or it's significance. So I hope to learn more about that and figure out what all the fuss is about.

One of Robin's friends, who has spent some time in Thailand, advised us on the weekend not to bother with Southern Thailand. I hope that we will not heed his advice. I'm looking forward to at least a few days on a beach and really want to be able to do some scuba diving. I anticipate that after spending most of our vacation doing stuff in the very hot weather, that I will really appreciate a few days to do nothing in the hot weather. That's really the only time I enjoy the heat.

I hope to return to Toronto with an appreciation for Asian culture, religion and way of life and in general, hope that I feel like I've enjoyed my experience so much that I would want to do it again some day.

Flight Details

2005-10-18T13:42:00.000-04:00

Departing Toronto Nov. 4 at 10:25 pm
Arriving Bangkok Nov. 6 at 10:50 am (local), stopover in Hong Kong (2h 05m)
Travel time 24h 10m

Departing Bankok Nov. 26 at 11:15 am
Arriving Toronto Nov. 26 at 8:45 pm, stopover in Hong Kong (1h 25m)
Travel time 21h 30m

The plan is that our flight to Bangkok gets us there early enough so we can find someplace to stay. We will have a full 20 days in the area, and reliable sources (okay, the travel agent at the Flight Centre) told us that Cathay Pacific is a very posh airline.