Khun Woot

Colors of South Africa 2010

2010-06-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

We've had a blast in South Africa. Almost everything has exceeded expectations. The roads are drivable and high quality, Kruger national park has animals that you can see on your own self guided tour, the cape of good hope is stunning.

Stunning views on the Cape Penninsula

A mission we began on this trip was to get a picture of us with one of every fan from every team. See the gallery below. We have pictures of all but one team- email me if you can guess the missing team and you'll be rewarded with ten points.

Unfortunately I have not blogged sufficiently during this period. We were in South Africa traveling with a friend of mine who works at the WashingtonPost, however, and who has helped start there blog- Please feel free to back read all of his posts to get an idea of what we were up to!!

http://wapocup.posterous.com/tag/mattbrooks

Italy Corner Kick Right in Front of us

USA USA DEUTSCHLAND

2010-06-14T00:58:00.000-07:00

Woo! The party is raging in SA. I will have to post more pictures in the coming weeks as for now we are constantly on the go. Had a great time at the USA England match in a central square in Cape Town. Happy to get a fluke goal and a 1-1 USA England Tie. And no english hooligans later, just arrogant comments.

Had a spectacular drive down to the cape fo good hope along the coast yesterday. Unbelievably beautiful. Following which we headed to the Pauler brewery (a German brewery based in Munich) for the Serbia and Germany matches. Serbia lost unfortunately (Jel (girlfriend) is serbian), but we quickly rebounded with a live band and signing and dancing. The bar went nuts when I had Jel switch from a serbia jersey into a Germany one. In fact, we were soo animated that all of the german national network television cameras came to our half of the bar to film the pre-party. Deutsche Familie- habt ihr mich im fernsehen gesehen? ARD, RTL und RTLII?

Germany pummeled Australia 4-0 (sorry Barto) to the ecstasy of the hundreds of germans packing the bar. I was happy to see some goals.

As far as my allegiances, I stand by the US all the way, but can't help but have loyalties to the Germans as well. I am hoping that those two won't have to play each other..

By Request, the games I am slated to see next are:
Italy Paraguay (cape town) (GOOOO PARAGUAY)
USA- SLOVENIA (Johannesburg) (USA USA USA)
Italy- New Zealand (nelspruit) (GOOO NEW ZEALAND)
Spain Honduras (Johannesburg) (VIVA HONDURAS)

West of SouthEast Asia...

2010-06-12T05:01:00.000-07:00

Across a massive ocean is South Africa, home of the 2010 WorldCup. I had made arrangements to attend the WorldCup quite sometime ago, having made a vow to try and get to every WorldCup for the rest of my life. Some 30 hours in transit from Bangkok found us here, in beautiful CapeTown. Having concluded the temporary job I was doing in Bangkok, we've come halfway around the world to meet some friends and celebrate sport and humanity.

The atmosphere here in Cape Town is unreal. South Africans are trying to unite and soccer/football is helping. Everyone is excited- locals and the countless foreigners from all corners of the world that are here. The opening concert on the streets of CapeTown was awesome. Dancing and Singing and celebrating with tens of thousands of South Africans. We are trying to get a picture with a fan from every team at the worldcup! So far we have most of the African Nations, but not all. We'll see how far we get- we know that places like North Korea may be the hardest!!

The first day of matches was electric. After a morning of climbing table mountain, we were treated to stunning views of the cape of good hope, the city of capetown and the cape flats. We could hear the vuvuzelas all the way up the mountain!!

Later, when South Africa scored the first goal of the 2010 worldcup to take the lead over Mexico, the city and the nation exploded. Bafana Bafana! The South African team ended up with a tie, but the country was proud beyond belief. We walked to the stadium in Cape Town for the France Uruguay match amidst a massive celebration- the game was great- highlighted by some Irish Fans who sat behind us and heckled the French Team and Henry (the French "cheated" to get into the world cup). After the match the whole of capetown was paralyzed by street parties. We found a bar with a balcony and watched the chaos on the streets below as everyone toasted the start of a new WorldCup.

I will write some more on the legacy of apartheid and the other cultural stuff we've been looking at at some point but for now I am off to the fan park where I can watch the US-England match with 25,000+ others!

Vietnam

2010-06-04T03:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we hopped over to Vietnam for 3 days, empowered by another Thai holiday! We spent time in magnificent Halong Bay on an overnight boat trip, and a few days in Hanoi. Vietnam appears to be halfway between Thailand and Laos in terms of development.

Halong Bay

The people are considerably more curt and less smiley than in Thailand, which I kind of appreciated, until I got punched by a cab driver.

We were leaving the temple of literature, a very cool temple dedicated to knowledge and education, and called a friend to consult on the appropriate taxi fare back to his side of town. He told us a price and what cabs to get into and we naturally hopped into the first car without considering what was written on the side. Well, when the fare had exceeded what we were told to pay within the first 2 blocks we asked to be let out, which the driver refused. He stopped after loud protests from us somewhere on block 3. When we didn’t pay he continued to shout “Money” after us, but then surprised us both by leaving the car in traffic and running after us only to curse at us in Vietnamese. It was somewhere there that he started jabbing me with his fist. Luckily I have been taking Muay Thai lessons in Thailand and was able to paralyze him with a nifty trick using a lonely planet guidebook and my big toe. No, truth be told he left after an awkward 2 minute standoff where we just watched him curse at us and jab me in the stomach (note to others reading this- punching me in the stomach is not an effective way to get me to give you something).

Temple of Literature Courtyard

I only relay the story here for humor, otherwise everything in Vietnam was splendid, including the delicious food (the French influence in the area is not without its merits). I love Vietnamese food and really enjoyed our quick trip.

Bangkok Smouldering

2010-05-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

We returned from Hong Kong once the violence subsided in Bangkok. The atmosphere here is tense but getting back to normal. Downtown has some charred remains of malls and other buildings that were lit on fire as the red-shirts retreated. Despite a large scale cleanup effort, signs of conflict linger in some places (sandbag fortifications, black stains on the streets, the singed shell of one of the largest malls in SE Asia). Everyone went back to work on Monday like nothing happened. The future is uncertain for the country, but for now the protesters have left, piled on trains by the military and shipped back to the country. In this context I enter the last few weeks of my job here.

Returning to Bangkok- Bad Idea?

I realize now as I approach the end of my temporary job (aka internship I suppose) that I have neglected to spend any time explaining what I actually do for 40 hours a week (when not traveling or fleeing).

I work at a small company that does all sorts of environmental investments. The company essentially develops small scale projects for investors. There are several segments to the company- some people focus on renewable energy- constructing biogas or biomass plants or using hydropower. Others focus on the water business- wastewater recapture and recycling for industrial facilities is the most common project there. There are carbon projects involving reforestation as well. All of these projects have to promise a return, as the word investment implies. The company will not build a biomass plant unless the local farmers want a biomass plant and agree to purchase electricity (in all cases the cost of the power or water we provide is significantly less than the prevailing cost before a project is implemented). As a 3 month intern, I was able to assist with many of these projects in various stages, but did not get a chance to visit project sites. On the whole it was very interesting and refreshing to climb behind the cliché of “sustainable development” and see what that actually entails. The projects rely on profit motives and careful assessment of local conditions. I am thankful for the opportunity I've had here.

Hong Kong and Macau

2010-05-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

Please note that I do not intend to make light of the violence in Bangkok, which has upset me and I am hoping for a expedient and peaceful resolution.
What better place to be a refugee than Hong Kong? A delicious remnant of colonialism, the city is nestled between the hills of a few islands and the Chinese mainland. Luckily for us we had friends with places for us to stay on the beach and in a town called Stanley. Hong Kong is a very cool place and very different from other parts of SouthEast Asia. We spent several days exploring islands, beaches and the urban core. A highlight was the bun festival, which on initial appearences consists of all 7 million of residents cramming onto an island that normally has a population of 10,000 in one of those wierd 'how many people can you fit in a phonebooth' types of stunts. What the festival is actually about is eating those chinese buns filled with red bean, or sesame, or something else you don't want to know about. The highlight of the festival is when several young men climb up a large pole covered in buns, gathering as many as they can into a bag. We came for the crowds, but didn't stick around until the middle of the night to witness the scaling of the bun phallus (see slideshow for pictures).

One day we did a daytrip to Macau, a former Portuguese city that has a very funny dynamic with European influences. The food was fabulous- we had some delicious egg tarts and a great steak and seafood dinner prepared in Portuguese style. I particularly enjoyed the greyhound race track, which was a depressing collection of gambling junkies and a few tourists stuck in a several thousand person stadium. (We did not go to the Macau casinos, which are the main source of revenue for the tiny island state). Dog Racing is quite funny, and we lost a few dollars placing bets on losing contenders as we were unaware of what we should be looking for. The dogs are paraded around the track once so that everyone can get a good look at them and then place their bets (each race had tens of thousands of dollars riding on it, not bad for a group of ~100 people). What is funny to me is that all the dogs appear to be trained to relieve themselves on this display lap. I didn’t know this the first time and thus put my $0.50 bet on the first dog I saw break out of line with its handler to fertilize the track. I ran to the bookies and placed my bet. Only on the next race did I note that ALL of the dogs do this. As you can see from the pictures, this was an amusing venue and makes me question what greyhound racing elsewhere might look like (this was billed as “world class greyhound racing”).

Bangkok Burning

2010-05-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

On the day we were set to return from Chiang Mai we got word of a curfew in Bangkok due to escalating violence and scrambled to change our flight to the next day as fighting between armed troops and protesters increased…

Red Shirt Barricade On My Morning Commute

We made it back and learned that our offices were closed until Wednesday as part of a declared national holiday. This was fine and we worked from internet cafes… but as the violence escalated we began to plan a trip outside of the country. When the “holiday” was extended through the end of the week, we booked a flight to HongKong. As my American colleague said “Thailand finally makes up for not having any snow days” – but not in the way you want it to.

We fled on the morning of Wednesday, May 19. I say fled mostly because my girlfriend got a call from someone telling us that the army was moving into the center and that most roads in the city were being closed. In a panic she ran into the room and told me to get everything together and that she was going to try and find a taxi although she couldn’t be sure that she would find one. For my part, I was a bit startled: Partly because I had just discovered a small salamander on my sandal, but mostly because I was expecting her to be getting breakfast for the two of us and she had returned empty handed. But she insisted that I hurry, so I collected our pre-packed luggage and met her in the taxi, where to my relief I discovered that she had cleverly placed two ‘to go’ brunches. As I munched down some sausage and toast in the cab I realized that she was still very concerned, but had calmed considerably since we now had a car. Once at the airport things were easier, although we could see the troubling news on the tvs everywhere: Central Bangkok was a mess- protesters, military, fires. As we lifted off from the Airport I watched the dark smoke clouds rising above downtown and was grateful that we had left in a bit of a hurry.

Chiang Mai

2010-05-17T20:22:00.000-07:00

I know that many of you have contacted me to ask me about the political situation in Thailand, so I will address that now, particularly as the situation got increasingly more interesting this weekend while we were away.

This time we headed away for a weekend in beautiful Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. It’s a great place- a small city of 1 million people with a calm downtown and so many temples it’s easy to lose track. I think it’s even prettier in the rainy season when things are greener.
We stayed with my ladybird’s Thai professor in a cool teak house.

While we were there a few interesting things happened in Thailand. First some context:

Thailand is a country dominated by one city: Bangkok. In recent years there has been a growing disparity between the elites of Bangkok and much of the rest of the country. Some of this is just perceived, but much of it is undoubtedly real. The current government was put into place by a military coup in 2006 which ousted a billionaire telecom tycoon named Thaksin, then prime minister (pronounced “toxin”, the irony is not lost upon the English speaking Thais who oppose him). He was corrupt, but had also accomplished many things for Thailand including economic growth, elevated highways and increased access to mobile phones (thereby fueling his own personal telecom company). In 2006 he was ousted by a military coup because of his corruption and potentially because many elites in Bangkok opposed him.

The recent protests in Bangkok started with the combination of several groups, collectively known as the ‘United front for Democracy against Dictatorship’ or popularly the red-shirts, demanded better representation and a new election (again I am not certain but I do not believe the current government was elected). The government and its supporters (multi-colored or yellow shirts) opposed this idea of shaking the status quo. What started as a protest in a certain neighborhood of Bangkok slowly escalated into an occupation of certain neighborhoods in the city. There was initially some evidence of some protesters getting paid by Thaksin to protest. Most of these people came from the countryside and began protesting in between farming seasons, during the hottest time of the year when there isn’t much to do (see my post on Laos and BeerLaos at this time of year).

Both sides have been ‘negotiating’ for weeks, but it is unclear that either side is willing to make concessions. The red-shirt protest relocated to downtown Bangkok, a stones throw from my office, and promptly fortified their position. The government has been issuing warnings for several weeks now, and there have been some clashes (early April saw some casualties). There was also one incident of grenades being launched at the elevated train I take to work with scores of injuries and one death. As such the situation is decidedly tense. I do not have sufficient space to explain all of the details, but I will say that as we left for Chiang Mai things started changing- a key general in the red-shirts who had defected from the army and was critical to explaining strategy etc. was shot in the head by a sniper while he was being interviewed by a NYTimes journalist, who claimes the bullet "felt like it grazed my head."

This has led the red shirts to become more aggressive, blocking other roads and lighting tires on fire. We were happy to be in Chiang Mai for the weekend as it’s quite stressful in Bangkok. Unfortunately, it is hard to escape the daily saga of the protests, which are consuming the nation (as a coworker of mine said “Why do I need soap operas? The daily news had more action than any fiction”). Most places you go people are watching tv or listening to the radio, where you can see live shots of downtown Bangkok and armed confrontation.

It was under these circumstances the we toured around Chiang-Mai, a up to now largely peaceful place that is a red-shirt stronghold and Thaksin’s hometown. We tried to distract ourselves during the day, but inevitably would watch the political developments in the evenings.

I include a video here of the city pillar festival which we attended at night. You can see a small white thing in the upper right hand corner which is full of blessed water that you can dump on the temple by pulling it up a pully. I did this with my girlfriend and was then told that it means we shall find each other in our next lives! Also note the elephants in the middle of the temple.

Chiang Mai City Pillar Festival

We spent one day out at this really cool elephant sanctuary where domestic elephants are rehabilitated and taken care of (despite their iconic status in Thailand, Elephants are often abused).

Temples and Palaces

2010-05-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

I finally had a full tourist day in Bangkok a few weekends ago. Starting relatively early, we headed straight for the historic section of the town. We took the canal and walked through the old down towards the famous palace complex. On the way we came across a different majestic temple and stopped in- this whole part of town is the old town where Bangkok was originally founded.

We chanced upon a monk ceremony (most men in Thailand become monks for at least a short period of time during their lives). We watched some of the ceremony in a huge and impressive temple. As one of the future monks was being escorted in, all of his friends and family lifted him up to touch the top of the 15 foot doorway to the temple.
The palace and temple complex is very impressive- everything glitters with gold and colors. There is a famous “emerald Buddha” temple- apparently some monks in another part of the country were transporting a gray Buddha statue and they dropped it and damaged it. What they had actually done was crack the case around a smaller Buddha made entirely of emerald. Later this was transported to Bangkok and put in a temple.

Sightseeing is great, except for the heat. Thais like to joke that they have two seasons “hot and hot”. This year has been particularly hot, and although it is May and the rains should be starting, its still very hot. (recall that the SongKran festival in mid April is supposed to be the hottest part of the year). It was only the other night that I realized how much my heat tolerance has changed- I was commenting on how nice it was and looked up at a sign with the temperature on it- 32 degrees Celsius (~85 degrees Fahrenheit).

Also, see the Bangkok photo album for some pictures of delicious fruits: mangostein and rambutan!

Kanchanaburi Thailand: Life on the Lake

2010-05-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

We headed four hours outside of Bangkok this past weekend for a houseboating experience. This turned into a total 2 day party atmosphere. We a big group of fifteen to twenty people and rented two houseboats that they attached to each other. We were then towed across a lake and anchored on a more remote shore, where we cracked beers, swam and partied for the whole weekend. We had food and beer delivered to us by boat, and had a liveaboard assistant who would clean all of our dishes and make sure we had ample ice to chill our beer- he also made sure the one electronic device we had was working- a karaoke computer.

Aside from the stunning nature and views, the highlight of the trip was likely when I joined forces with a friend of mine (Also named Alex) from Bangkok to assail some of our neighbors. One houseboat full of Thais had been parked around a bend from us. In the late afternoon, we saw a bamboo raft full of people wearing life vests drift into sight. Curious we swam closer and saw that it was a bunch of Thai people hanging out.
We said hello and they asked where we were from “Isaan,” I replied (a very remote part of Thailand). “It’s a small village of farang (white foreigners) who speak English”. Then laughed and I asked where they were from:
“Kanaadaaaaa- small village where speak Thai”. Ha, fair enough. Somehow Alex and I got the idea that flipping the bamboo raft would be quite fun. The guys on the raft thought this was funny, but the ladies did not enjoy getting put in the water… this was probably due to the fact (later revealed) that none of them could actually swim... We ended up having to swim their raft back to their houseboat.

The whole experience was a great change of pace from hot Bangkok.

Transportation in Bangkok

2010-05-07T23:33:00.000-07:00

This is a post dedicated to transportation in Bangkok. Its inspired by the fact that the oldest part of town is not on the skytrain, so heading directly there involves:
(A) Walking down our soi to ThongLor and catching a big red hot bus which crawls along just faster than you could walk, always looking to pick up a few extra people (at $0.18 its still worth it), (B) Getting off the bus at the Klong (canal) and walking underneath where the road crosses the klong to find a small raft platform. You stand on the platform and hail passing canal boats. The canals are notoriously disgusting and smell like a night at Dr. Dremo’s wed to a sulfuric explosion. In fact, the boats are long and wide and have a tarp that you pull up along the sides to prevent the warm and zesty sewage water from getting in your eyes. The boats pass under low bridges and thus the roof can be adjusted down. The people that take your money hang off the sides of the boat and where helmets (presumably to protect themselves from the low bridges). Its quite the experience, best done a few times but not too often (again at $0.50 it’s a bargain). When you dismount from the boat you can either (C1) Get a cab, which defeats the purpose of going on a bargain voyage (C2) get a tuk tuk, which will turn into a heated debate about price- these drivers are terribly hard to deal with near the tourist sites (C3) take a motorcycle- This is perhaps the most adventurous and dangerous form of transportation around Bangkok. Many use the Motorcycles to go a short distance from a subway or skytrain station to their finally destintion. Every major street corner has a bunch of moto drivers standing around, playing checkers and waiting to take people somewhere. While most drivers are reasonable, many are clinically insane (as was the one who ran a red light with me on a six lane intersection the other night..)

My first moto experience was exhilarating, though I later found out that I violated several unspoken rules of motorbike. Apparently you are allowed to ride either side saddle (for the ladies) or regular. There is a place to hold on behind you, which you can grasp with one or both hands (or if you are cool, you can check your blackberry and drink an ice tea instead). Most people don’t wear helmets are they are only going a short distance and generally have a complete disregard for their life (aka trust moto drivers). My first experience I had my ladybird communicate to the driver where I wanted to go and bid her adieu. While trying to figure out how to mount the moto, the driver noticed my hesitation and tried to make a joke which I failed to understand. Once I got myself situated, I put one arm on the driver’s shoulder, which made him recoil a bit. Not taking the hint I said “lets go” and off we went. As we picked up speed I didn’t know what to hold on to, so I reached around and held onto the driver. He tried to say something but his words were swept away by the wind before they got to me. At the next stop, he gave me an oversized helmet that I strapped on. Its only now that I painstakingly look back on that experience- a tall lanky farang (white foreigner) wearing a lopsided helmet hanging that’s too large holding on to a small thai man zooming through traffic. I’m sure I provided a good bit of entertainment to the Thai nation that day. I haven’t been back to the street corner where I got the moto since…

Singapore for a Day

2010-05-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

I will write briefly about Singapore, where I spent a night in transit on the way to Indonesia and a day on the way back. Its a super efficient city that feels like Europe in some parts although it has distinct neighborhoods (little india, Chinatown, arab street) Flying in you can see all of the container ships lined up in the ocean- its quite an impressive sight, but according to some locals I met this makes it less appetizing to go for a swim. The place does not have a long history, but the national languages include English. I saw Chinese and Hindu temples, and a church built by the wealthy Armenians and also enjoyed a break in some of the very nicely manicured parks. I was, however, feeling a bit down as the whole place seemed to lack character and be a bit like Disneyland meets the financial district of New York with a Chinese theme.

Astounding After a Beer

Then, I came across a brewery near the Singapore River. This perked me up and as I sipped beer and looked at the skyline, I began to feel a lot better about the place. Afterwards I was inspired to start taking some more pictures of the area, which I did. I was particularly impressed by the “surfboard” buildings, 3 buildings that appeared to have a surfboard strung across the top (later I found out this is the famous casino). As I was wandering around taking pictures of various insignificant landmarks in a tipsy and excited state (“Look- it’s a palm tree with Christmas lights- how hilarious! *click click*), I lost track of time and the day had advanced pretty far when I got back on the subway and realized my flight was leaving quite soon. Suddenly my impressions changed and I hoped that the $10 budget flight I had booked would wait for me. Somehow I knew it wouldn’t, but was able to make it make to the airport in time to catch the plane (thank you Singaporean subway system and efficiency!).

South of the Equator

2010-05-04T22:24:00.000-07:00

Java, Indonesia

I headed south for a 5 day weekend thanks to labor day and coronation day here in Thailand. My Indonesian experience started off very well. At the border in the Jogjakarta airport, I made friends with some people from my flight and agreed to share a car downtown, conveniently hitching a free ride. As I had not yet accessed an ATM and did not have any money when we arrived at their hotel, I shrugged and offered to find an ATM, but they did not want to wait. I’m saving this scam for future use.

I took a bicycle rickshaw to a cheap area of town and walked around looking at various places. Bahasa Indonesia is a fairly easy language to pick up. They write using the same alphabet that we do and most words are pronounced in a logical way. Sosrowijayan is an area of town with lots of budget guesthouses and hotels. The neighborhood is really cool, full of 3 to 8 foot wide little alleys that no cars can drive down. I walked around looking at various homestays, most of which I found a bit overpriced. A small boy asked me to come with him to his house, so I obliged (knowing full well that he would get a commission)- I stayed in a great no name house for $8.

A big "gang" (alley) in Sosrowijayan

I walked around the bustling market street (full of Indonesians going shopping)- unfortunately I only had our nice camera so I’m a bit light on pictures. One thing that was cool was the motorcycle valet- one side of the street had thousands of motorbikes lined up in 3 to 4 rows with motorcycle valets attending to them. Jogjakarta is a really cool city and I recommend it to anyone considering Indonesia (most people head past the cultural to the resorts of Bali- a sort of Cancun equivalent for Australians).

Moto Valet (there are two to three more rows to the right)

I spent two days on a round trip to Mount Bromo, being driven at crazy speeds across the island of Java. There are many volcanoes dotting the landscape, but Mount Bromo is particularly famous and I wanted to see it firsthand. I signed up for a cheap tour and only later realized this would involve consecutive days of 10+ hours in a minibus. Waking up at 330 AM, we headed to a viewpoint, shrouded in clouds to see the sunrise, which we were unable to see, though I snapped a few other pictures. I should mention that being at 2500 meters was a refreshing experience- it was only 40 degrees or so at dawn by the volcano.

Mt Bromo in the clouds

At Bromo

Though I was travelling alone, I was rarely lonely. I made friends with many travelers- there weren’t too many foreigners around so it was easy to strike up a conversation. Indonesian people also speak English pretty well, and are constantly trying to practice. In fact, on our 10 hour minibus odyssey, I was approached at a pit stop by a girl who just started chatting me up. He older brother/father then came and asked if she could ride in the car with us for an hour, speak English and then get dropped off. I found this to be a bit ridiculous and refused. Luckily the other people in the car were German or French, so they were not asked.

Borobudur in the Morning (See the Volcano?)

After returning late and grabbing food with friends, I set my alarm for 4:30 and got up for another early morning tour to the temples at Borobudur. This Buddhist temple is the laragest in the world. It was pretty amazing. Here I was again confroned by scores of young Indonesians trying to practice their English. I was also able to meet up with a friend who is working in Jogjakarta at a sexual health clinic. I went out with her coworkers and had a blast before waking up at 5 AM to catch a plane.

Prostitutes, Lady Boys and Ghosts (Bangkok)

2010-04-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

Bangkok has continued to function, despite the protests and I have not been extremely inconvenienced. I live far from the protests but work very nearby, but again have not been directly impacted. More harrowing was a recent visit to Nana, an area of the city which has a lot of ‘entertainment’. I went with some friends to grab a drink at happy hour and watch the older sex-pats come and browse for female escorts. Its quite a site, and I think given the recent lack of tourists, the ratio of women to men was absurdly high. We were able to avoid any direct confrontation while we were having drinks as there were several of us, but once that number dwindled to just 2 of us we were targeted.

Nana "Entertainment" Plaza

The lady boy phenomenon is quite interesting in Thailand. I could never beat Wikipedia, so I recommend you read up on it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathoey
There have been quite a few instances of disappointed sex-tourists returning to there hotel rooms to discover they have brought home a lady boy.

Note: Walking around a red light district with professional clothes on during a relative recession is not a good idea if you are not interested in paying for something. We wandered around a bit, got groped, propositioned and offered ‘great happy hour deals’, but ultimately found some street food. I’m glad to see some of the things Thailand is famous for, but ultimately was more interested in delicious food and beer than anything else.

Thai Ghost Movie Poster

Another quick note: Thai people are a bit obsessed with ghosts. One of my coworkers just moved into a new apartment – after the first night he pronounced that he shared the apartment with a ghost. I’m not sure if its frightening or not, but most Thai people acknowledge being visited by ghosts or seeing ghosts. Our other coworkers scolded our friend for not checking out the apartment or sleeping there before moving in. During the course of this discussion, I found out that there is a headless ghost who occupies our office. Incentive to not work late at night!

All Seasons Place Floor 10: Headless Ghost

Laos Redux and Happy New Year

2010-04-22T04:11:00.000-07:00

“Pei Mai”- The SongKran festival takes place in both Thailand and Laos in the middle of April, right during the hottest week of the year. This is a great time to celebrate the new year, as the next agricultural season approaches, along with the rainy season. It’s a multiday festival, where people drink, eat and celebrate by throwing water on each other. As we’d been in the hills, we hadn’t seen to much of it, but returning to Vientiene we were immediately immersed in what must be one of the world’s largest waterfights. The entire city was throwing water on each other and sipping (err.,. pounding) beer lao.

We couldn’t escape it and overcame fatigue to go party with the locals (given the political situation in Bangkok I think the festival was much more subdued in Thailand). I don’t have pictures of this (it look my wallet three days to dry afterwards), but if you can just imagine people pouring water on each other and on strangers themn you’ve about got it. Occasionally the water was iced which makes for an unpleasant surprise.

To sum up Laos:
1. Beer Lao
2. Friendly People
3. Remote and Out of Touch with the world.
4. Beer Lao

Hilltribes, Trekking and LaosKao

2010-04-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

We had arranged for a flight to Northern Laos to do some trekking, but had been warned that planes are often cancelled for little or no reason, so we were not surprised when arriving at the airport we were told its bad weather. Turns out half of Laos is actually on fire during the dry season, as farmers use slash and burn agriculture to clear jungle and make way for rice paddies. Luckily, a seemingly sober pilot showed up and declared himself confident enough to fly us through the inferno- and we were able to forgo the 18-24 hour busride on windy old roads.

The North was very beautiful. We spent a night with Mike’s boss before heading into the jungle with a guide for some trekking. The forests are varied and the climbing was strenuous- We came across some burned earth and some bamboo forests, rivers (which served as our daily showers) and areas cleared for rice. This remote part of the earth has several hill tribes (Ahka, Kamu, Mong)- and it was in their villages that we stayed. Even Mike struggled to communicate with the locals as they speak their own languages, not necessarily Laos. Our guide had some program for us to follow, but upon arriving and playing with the village kids for a bit, we quickly abandoned the plan. As dusk fell, we strolled around the mountaintop village.. without electricity things started getting very dark, but we found a group of younger guys sitting around. Mike asked if we could sit with them in Laos, and they made space for us.

Unfortunately, hilltribes can’t really afford beer, which would have to be carried for 6 hours uphill. More unfortunately, they still relish drinking, and are thus left making rice whisky ("LaosKao") and drinking it in a large circle by taking turns. The whisky is painful, strong and I was only comforted by the knowledge that it was definitely sterilizing the motor oil cap I was drinking it out of. As I slugged each shot down and passed the cap, I noticed that the locals were not very enthusiastic about drinking themselves, often trying to refuse. We would immediately heckle them “Ginn! Ginn! Ginn!” (drink drink drink!) and they would be forced to drink. Unfortuantely they were equally enthusiastic about inflicting pain on me once the cap has made its round. Slowly I began to notice that some were very good at not drinking! In fact, in this odd man-faceoff drinking game, its apparently totally acceptable to spit your drink behind you, or through some of it on the ground. (the second night we were sitting at a table with some older villagers and they thoroughly sanitized my feet by pouring several rounds out under the table.

Village Kids

Village

Our last day we were able to convince some of the local boys (young men) to take us fishing with them (according to our guide the first time white people and akha villagers have ever fished. We spent a whole day trekking through the jungle and up a river, including a delicious lunch that was prepared from fish they had caught for us. We hiked back out of the hills and picked up a car back to Mike’s bosses village near the airport, where the New Year celebration was going strong. People were drinking and playing music all around. We evaded the masses and made it to Mike’s boss house, where we found him lying down and holding his head saying “I’m veryyy drunk”.

We were very tired and so we ate and joined him, falling asleep quickly… until about 3 in the morning, when a local band climbed into the house and started jumping up and down singing and beating on drums and demanding whisky. I thought the whole structure, which was built on wooden stilts, was going to collapse. Luckily the lady of the house provided some whisky and the band only sang 5-6 songs so that by around 4 AM we could sleep again…

Laos

2010-04-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

We agreed to let our friend, Mike, plan our trip to Laos for us. He insisted that this would be the best way to actually see the country, rather than obsessively stick to the lonely planet’s recommended places. Ceding control to him turned out to be both the best and worst idea I’ve had since being in SE Asia.

Things started off calmly enough with a cheap flight to northern Thailand and some antics to get across the friendship bridge into Laos and into Vientiene, the capital. BeerLao, one of the best beers in seasia, is available in certain places in Bangkok, but it hard to come by. I was looking forward to drinking my fill in Laos, but was surprised to see how omnipresent the beer is- You can’t escape it!

“The Beer of the WholeHearted People”

We rented motorbikes again with the plan of driving a few hours outside of Vientiene to see the countryside and presumably sleep at a guest house (Mike had other plans). We picked up a friend (named Ty) of our hosts at a place up the street who was from the area we planned to visit. Driving was a bit stressful in town, but the traffic slowly gave way to more lonely roads between rice paddies framed by hills on the horizon. As it was the height of dry season and the hottest time of the year, there were few people working their land, but each village had at least one party going on- many Laos under tents drinking beer lao and dancing in front of speakers the size of pickup trucks. Each group would wave at us as we drove by, inviting us to join. When the heat became unbearable we pulled up to one of these.

The people of Laos, I would learn, are both extremely friendly, moderately alcoholic, and unrelenting. As soon as we pulled over we were invited into the party and onto the dance floor, where we were offered beer lao (Beer Lao is usually consumed in a circle out of a communal glass filled with ice. You down your beer and pass the glass along. If someone offers you a glass its very impolite to refuse them…) upon entering the tent I was assailed by a few girls who wanted to dance and several visibly drunk men who wanted me to drink. I was adamant that I not drink because I knew we intended to continue driving eventually, but as the fourth glass of ice cold beer laos was reunited with the third glass in my stomach I began to feel at home. Baby powder was splashed on my face and I noted that our host, my girlfriend and our Laos accomplice Ty were having similar experiences. I danced and discovered the only way to avoid drinking beer was to have a pepsi in hand at all times. I should briefly mention that it was 2 pm.

We pulled away from the party and had a mellow afternoon ride over some hills to an impressive lake/reservoir. As the sun was beginning to set by this point, I asked where we planned to sleep, but Mike was not concerned, saying “hopefully with Ty’s family”. We drove through the festival in the darkness of night and stopped in front of a farmers house. Mike announced told us we had arrived at Ty’s house, where we would sleep after returning from the festival. I accidentally stepped on his brother, who was lying face down in a pile of rubble and was too drunk, according to Ty’s mother. We spent the night on some blankets in what in the US we might consider a foundation- disturbed only by the drunk father returning to ramble at us.

Fertility Celebrations. Beer Lao!

Our second day, which began at sunrise (rural areas with minimal electrification) involved motorbiking, swimming in a beaufitul river with tens of kids, a visit to the laos zoo and a return to the festival, which had seemed much more subdued in my delirium and drunkenness the night before. It was the day for the rocketfestival, which involved hundreds of drunk men carrying heavily decorated bamboo shoots into a field and launching them into the air. The rest of us danced around and drank beer lao in merriment. The day wore on and it became apparent that we would stay with Ty’s family again. I should briefly mention the fertility festival- which involved a bunch of women carrying around penises carved out of wood and making people touch them for good luck.

Somehow we made it back to Vientiene alive and exhausted…

Getting Stuffed by a Lao Boy

Easter in Bangkok

2010-04-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Exploring Bangkok has been really fun so far. From Chinatown to Little Tokyo (an area of the city near where I live), there are many distinct parts of town. The food here is incredible. Prices vary, mostly based on real estate and availability of air conditioning. There is great street food near my apartment- sitting on the street meals cost about $1, sitting off the street with fans meals might be up to $2. Bangkok has other extremes of course, and you can find yourself paying western prices if you go to air conditioned restaurants in modern buildings. Most people eat street food (I think). As I don't even have a kitchen in the apartment, I eat out all the time. The food is healthy- lots of vegetables and rice- and spicy at times. One of my coworkers always asks me if I think something is spicy, declaring "you're turning really red"- which made me blush at first and just reinforced his hypothesis that I can't handle spice.

Street Food Nearby

We celebrated Easter with a few ex-pat friends in a regal tea house/garden. The place was full of "hi-so" Thais, who were obsessed with taking pictures of each other in the gardens. This pearl is just a few minutes from some of the busiest streets in Bangkok.

Agalico Tea House Garden

With the recent protests, there has been considerable excitement in Thailand- but things have not directly impacted me as of yet. I'll be in Laos over the Songkran holiday, which should provide a nice break from the traffic and noise in Bangkok.

Evening Traffic near Sukhumvit

Here is a quick glance at Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) as seen from a riverside cafe.

More from Laos in the coming days!

Bangkok

2010-04-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

I’m enjoying every second of the sweltering heat I’m experiencing right now. Not just because any day when the high is less than 90 degrees some Thais will complain about how cold it is, but also because it’s a welcome change from the harsh DC winter. We’re approaching the Thai New Year year (mid-april), which coincides with the hottest part of the year and is celebrated by multiple days of waterfights in the street (a colleague advised me not to wear a suit as she had been doused in water in full professional attire the year before)!

I’ve started my job at a sustainable development company that engages in a variety of activities ranging from water projects to renewable energies and conservation efforts. It’s a smaller firm so it has the distinct feel of a startup with the associated excitement and latitude to interpret tasks. The company does have a long history of projects and I am very excited to help out for a few months. The staff in Bangkok is more Thai than foreign, but everyone speaks English well and I quite enjoy the dynamic. Potentially more to come on this later.

Each morning I am whisked away on the ultramodern BTS, an elevated train system that is icy cold. I step out of the ice box into the blazing heat of a Bangkok morning. By the time I reach my office some 400 meters away I am glistening with sweat. I work on the 10th floor of the All Seasons Place- near the American embassy and in one of the nicest parts of Bangkok.

The BTS

My first act after selecting a desk and admiring the view and the décor of the office (which is very nice- the walls in the lobby are made out of river reeds and have a unique texture)- was to setup my computer and get situated. I plugged in my handy “travel surge protector” and immediately recoiled my hand as I had caused a minor explosion…

I removed the surge protector and noted the plume of smoke emerging from the side. As the office filled with the potent scent of burned electronics, a few of my coworkers gathered behind me and chuckled, telling me that american electronics can be plugged directly into thai outlets… I sheepishly tossed my singed surge protector into the trash and followed their advice.

Unfortunately, my laptop charger appeared to no longer work. It was only one hour later that my colleague, "Tee", asked me if I had power. We realized that I had actually blown out the power for 6 desks including the receptionist, who had already relocated to another desk.
Luckily, a maintenance man came in the afternoon, saved me by finding the circuit breaker box and restoring power to our office.
Apart from starting with a bang, things have been quite seamless and it was easy to immediately take a liking to all of my coworkers. They are very friendly and we all eat lunch together daily- its a tour of local cuisine. More on impressions of Thai people and Food soon!

Koh Samui

2010-03-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

After several days on the relatively more remote Koh Tao (which has only a few kilometers of road on the island)- we headed to Koh Samui and spent a few days in style at a pseudo-resort (you would be amazed at what $20 a night can get you here). Koh Samui is much larger and we rented motorbikes and explored the island. Overall a splendid time- although we learned alittle bit about the perils of renting motorbikes.

On our second day my girlfriend and I were riding along the coast and saw a large Buddha on a little island connected to Samui by a causeway. We started taking pictures on the causeway and were having a grand time when my gfs bike had a malfunction that cause it to rocket off the causeway down a 10 foot rocky cliff/hill and into the ocean with her dragging behind. (CAVEAT: don’t worry she is fine now– read on) I had been about 20 feet up the road at that point but was quickly alerted to the situation by some passing german tourists. My girlfriend was in pretty good shape all things considered, but still had a number of scrapes and a few deeper cuts on her legs. Several Thai people helped me retrieve the bike from the ocean while my girlfriend got attended to by an ambulance truck that showed up. Luckily we were able to start the moto and some local shop up the street helped me wash it off so that it looked less damaged. I spent the afternoon with my ladybird in a hospital getting her wounds sanitized- again nothing too dramatic in terms of injuries- although she did scream a bit when they doused her wounds in alcohol and definitely scared away a few potential clients from the hospital we were in.

Perhaps the highlight of the whole affair was that evening, when we arrived at the airport and the woman at check in asked if we would like a wheelchair (my girlfriend had a few bandages on her right leg, but was walking around just fine)- we both laughed at such a silly proposition and then accepted the offer. Bangkok airways has a monopoly on flights in and out of Koh Samui, which explains why we paid an exorbitant fee for the one hour flight to Bangkok. It also explains why the airport is absurdly nice. From the aquariums in the mens room to the full childrens playground and the lounge with complementary newspapers, food and beverages, we had it all. A young gentlemen from Bangkok airways came and tapped me on the shoulder to inform me that it was time to board. I said rather loudly “no one else is boarding” to which he shrugged in the direction of my girlfriend, who was enjoying a complementary magazine, lemonade and Danish. Thus, with VIP fanfare we were escorted to a private van to drive us to the aircraft before anyone else was allowed to board using the larger buses. I felt a bit guilty sneaking in this way as I was clearly in good health (the other 90+ year old couple that boarded regarded me skeptically as I hopped out of the van)- so I made it seem as if I were a crutch for my girlfriend. On arrival in Bangkok we received even better service, with a wheelchair awaiting us with an employee prepared to push us anywhere we wished to go. As of now my gfs wounds are healing without much trace of a “Samui Tatoo” (aka what resident expats have dubbed the motorbike induced scars they have accumulated in their days on Samui).

Koh Tao - Islands of Thailand

2010-03-20T23:55:00.000-07:00

We headed down to Koh Tao (Koh means island in Thai) for a relaxing few days before I start a job I lined up for my time here - took a lovely bus at 6 am down the coast and then a ferry over to the island. The bus stopped for some snacks and I had a field day perusing the various fruit and nut combinations. I settled for some guava which looked pretty interesting. Amusingly, Thai people are as obsessed with sugar as they are with spicy food: when you buy fruit here, they will frequently include a packet of powder to dip your fruit in. Often (as in the case of my guava) this will consist of super sweet flavored sugar. Sometimes, however, the packet will contain spices- or best of all- a combination of spice and sugar. I’ve taken to eating just the fruit and just sampling the powders...

Koh Tao is a smaller island north of the more famous Koh Samui and Koh Phaangna (where they have the ‘ full money parties’- let google fill you in on the details of that). Koh Tao consists of one long beach strip with a few discos, and a few other smaller beaches. We headed to a more remote beach and Buddha view divers (so named because of the view of a rock that looks like Buddha). I spent a few days with friends here learning how to scuba dive- initially in a pool, then near the shore, and ultimately out in the ocean where there are some pretty cool coral formations.
The highlight of the affair for me was the experience of getting comfortable breathing underwater and looking around (we saw a fabled trigger fish, which is super aggressive but won’t harm you as long as you keep your distance). The highlight of the course for the others was my “james bond” entry in the water. Rather than jumping in feet first, apparently you can (with some help) flip into the water- while everyone did this more or less properly I somehow managed to botch it and collected a considerable amount of water in my nasal cavaties that I think will take some time to drain…

[Credit to friends Greg and Louise for almost all the pictures (except the underwater images)- Thanks!]

Bangkok

2010-03-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

Arrival! Waved through customs hastily- shed my winter coat and hoodie and step outside into the warmth of the hot season in Thailand. Of course my cab driver tried to convince me that he didn’t have a meter in his car and that 300 baht was a fair price to take me downtown. I put up a fight but was ultimately a bit too jet lagged and eventually submitted (I ended up overpaying by about 30 baht or $1 USD- not worth fighting about on the first day).

I watched the traffic for awhile and decided to make peace with the driver, offering him a piece of gum. He was alarmed at first as he did not understand my request and he turned around 180 degrees to face me. This sufficiently quieted his anxiety but unfortunately also caused us to creep up on a stopped van in front of us such that by the time he turned around we were already path dependent. I’m not sure how much bumper damage there was, but the impact evenly distributed the contents of my bag across the floor of the cab. As I collected my things and as we both sat watching the driver in front of us get out to assess his vehicle, my cabbie turned around and took the gum from me. The other driver glared at us and we must have looked a bit ridiculous, chewing our gum like a cud and staring vacantly in his direction. Luckily he had only a few choice words for us in a language I couldn’t understand and so we were spared. Regrettably my driver now thought we were chums and felt it was appropriate for him to get lunch by stopping at every street vendor, rolling down his window and getting some food. I was pleased when we finally arrived in Thong Lo.

Thong Lo is a nice neighborhood off of Sukhumvit (a primary artery in Bangkok well known for a variety of things).

Compared with other countries, Thailand’s road numbering system is genius. Large streets divide a city and rather than naming all of the side street individually, each side street or soi (literally “alley”) is numbered in order. The only drawback is that even sois are always on one side of the street and odd sois on the other- which can lead to some mismatches. Thong Lo is actually Sukhumvit Soi 55 (and as I mentioned it is somewhat illogically directly across from Sukhumvit Soi 38). I’ll be staying off of Thong Lo while in Bangkok- it’s a good place that has a fair amount of foreigners, good restaurant food, shopping/groceries and most importantly good street food (more on food later). Perhaps most importantly, Thong Lo is near a BTS (elevated express rail)- an ultra modern elevated train system built and operated by a Japanese company. This facility allows easy access to many areas of Bangkok- or at least gets you going in the right direction- and spares you the expense of a cab or the pain of other methods of transport in the heat.