Latest books

I have managed to make my way through a few more books, but will confess I'm unmotivated to write any half-hearted reviews, but I will say that they were all entertaining and worth the read. Click the links for more details:

• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• The Quiet American by Graham Greene
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Pakse, the Four Thousand Islands, and in to Cambodia

After five days in Vang Vieng we decided to head south, skipping Vientienne (the capital) and heading straight down to Pakse, a 14+hr bus ride that included a 4hr breakdown in the middle of the night. Pakse wasn't much to speak of, besides hot. When we finally arrived it was boiling and we stopped at the first guest house we came to. Half of the group quickly decided to head out the next morning for the 'Four Thousand Islands' further south. Chris, Vered, and I decided to stick out one full day in Paske and spent the day exploring two nearby waterfalls that were amazing. No one else was there and we hiked and swam the day away.

The day after our waterfall adventure we followed the others down to the 'Four Thousand Islands' which are literally thousands of big and small islands near the Cambodian border in the widest part of the Mekong river. I had been planning to stay in the islands for for several days but the heat was stifling. The first day was spent swimming in the river, which felt like a warm bath, getting fried by the sun and laying in a hammock. Again, the others decided to quickly move on. Not to to be undone Chris and I decided to stay another full day and spent it cruising heavy, vintage bikes around the island and taking a boat ride out to a rock in the middle of the scorching heat in an attempt to catch a sight of the rare fresh water irrawady dolphins that inhabit that part of the Mekong. I can say that we caught glimpses of far off sprays of water but might have been looking at the Loch Ness monster. Despite the oppressive heat we made a full day of it, but early the next day hopped another 14hr bus into Cambodia. After three fun filled weeks of traveling together we split in Penom Penh; Chris heading up to see the magnificent Angkor Wat and I heading down to the coast to spend a few days at the beach before my buddy Clint arrives and he and I hit the Cambodia tourist circuit.

Photos: Pakse, Four Thousand Islands

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a fairly small town that resembles a slice of Bangkok's Khoa San Road that was just dropped in the middle of nowhere...things here seem to largely (entirely?) be driven by tourism (mostly drunken tubing down the river) and the eating and drinking that comes with it. The town/vilalge consists of about 2 main roads full of restaurants that play movies or reruns of friends constantly, a couple of internet cafes and tour operators, and of course guest houses...that's about the extent of it.

On our first day there we got a late start (a disadvantage of such a large group; at this point our group had grown to 8 people), but did get our tubes and hit the water close to 2pm, after a stop at a nearby organic farm for a tasty noon-time breakfast. It didn't take us long (about 200 meters) to find a spot along the bank with a huge rope swing, bar/restaurant, volley ball courts, and places to lounge. We stopped here and spent close to 2 hours enjoying all that was on offer.

The day had been a warm if slightly overcast one but soon after we started rolling again the sky quickly (within 10 mins) turned sinister (before and after). The wind picked up, blowing leaves and dust everywhere, and the next thing we knew we were caught in a freezing, heavy downpour. Thunder and lightening quickly made an appearance at which point we decided it might be worth getting out of the water. We scrambled up a small bank and began a long, cold walk along a small road towards what we hoped would be the main road. Out of nowhere came a tuk-tuk who offered to drive us all back for about $1 each, which we hurriedly agreed to. It was only once we had been driving for a few mins that we realized how far from the main road we really were (about 2km) and how fortuitous the tuk-tuk was. We also noticed that the tuk-tuk was leaking something and so had to pile out and push more than once along the way. We were glad to get back to warm showers.

We ended up spending five days in total in Vang Vieng mostly doing nothing. Our second to last day we had a spontaneous fish bbq, which generally being an organized person I admit I was skeptical of its success, but turned out great. We bought fresh fish and other food (including fake oreos) at a local market, found a small spot on the banks of the river, wrapped the fish in banana leaves, grilled and ate them with some homemade salsa and baguettes. We must have been quite an oddity as lots of locals and kids (one, two, three) came by to watch and offer help (a knife and mats to sit on) and we shared our food with them. What a great day.

Photos: Vang Vieng

Luang Prabong

The city of Luang Prabong had a great atmosphere and pace, with wide streets with lots of restaurants, cafes and shops and most things within walking distance, surprisingly even a bowling alley(!); it was not at all what I expected to find in the middle of Laos.

Chris and I made several friends on the second day's slow boat (who we would end up traveling with for about 10 days) and on our first day in Luang Prabong we all caught a tuk-tuk out to town to explore a series of nearby waterfalls; the color of the water reminded me a lot of the waters at the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. We did some hiking around and rewarded our efforts with a dip in the brisk water and some fun on a rope-swing.

On the way back to town our tuk-tuk blew its front and back driver-side tires and our driver narrowly avoided rolling us over. Luckily because there were so many of us we were traveling in two tuk-tuks each with a spare...unluckily one of the spares was flat, so we ended up waiting an hour or so for a similar make tuk-tuk to come past with a spare they were willing to part with.

We spent half of day two walking the wide streets, enjoying the atmosphere and seeing some of the city's temples, at this point I was getting pretty templed out and so only went to the few that were free. And then it was time to press on to Vang Vieng.

Photos: Luang Prabong

Slow Boat

We made the cross into Laos without event; made the short boat ride across the river, got my visa and stamps, and walked 20mins down to the dock. By 9am I had navigated the circuitous ticket buying process and had a ticket for Chris and I on the boat leaving at 11am. We boarded by 10am just in time to grab a two of the last bench seats at the back, an hour later people were still loading on with each bench holding two people and the aisle packed. Just when we would think 'surely we are full' they would squeeze on more people. Finally close to noon, in the presence of much grumbling, the powers that be decided to use a second boat as well, docked next to ours. The scramble for the new seats became a free for all with lots of people jumping from one boat over to the next...of course I made the jump, and Chris and I snagged two plastic chairs, a significant upgrade from the wooden bench, however our luggage remained on boat 1.

The ride down the Mekong was nice, but would have been gorgeous had the inversion not been so bad. It was a crazy experience being on a long wooden boat as it was navigated through rapids and around sandbars, with a few narrow misses. Overall it was mostly a good time to catch up on some reading and swap travel stories with other travelers.

We pulled into the small town of Pakbeng around 6pm towards the end of daylight, but waited another 30mins for our bags to show up on the other boat. When the other boat did finally show, grabbing out bags was total chaos; we stood on a small ledge of jagged, crumbly rock waiting for a chance to hop over the small plank and onto the boat for a chance to look for our bags while at the same time people from the boat tried to diembark...all in the dark. Chris finally made it on to the boat for a look around and after 30mins or so of looking I discovered that two locals standing near by were wearing our bags and demanding to carry them up the short hill for money. I'm sorry to admit that after the long, hot day cultural insensitivity overwhelmed me and I lost it and started yelling at this guy who at first remained obstinate but finally dropped the bag. On the 5 min hike up the hill I had to say no to illicit drug offers about every 50ft, a record so far.

Day two on the slow boat saw everyone on one large boat. Unfortunately the inversion continued to be bad, at times to the extent that it was hard to see beyond the banks of the river. Evening found us in Luang Prabong.

Photos: Slow Boat

The Chiangs

After a few days of apathy in Bangkok it was time to move on. I decided to catch the overnight train up north to Chiang Mai. The train was considerably smaller than those in India and hot as blazes but still comfortable. About an hour before we reach Chiang Mai I started talking with my neighbor passenger, Chris, who turned out to be from San Diego and had been traveling for the past six months in Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, mostly surfing. We ended up at a cheap guest house, $4/night, but were kicked out 2 days later when we didn't sign up with them for an over priced trek.

Chris and I spent about four days in Chiang Mai getting late, lazy starts, walking around and viewing lots of the Temples throughout the city, and having a few 'Monk Chats' with local monks. We looked at a few multi-day trekking options but couldn't make up our minds and decided to try and find one further north of in Laos.

One day we rented scooters and drove out of town to Doi Sutep, a large temple on a hill. Sunday night we took in the large night market and some local cuisine including crickets, bamboo worms, and ant and bee omelettes, and I finally had my first thai massage...for the $5 it cost for an hour I can't really complain, but it was lacking any real method. When we arrived in Chiang Mai we noticed that there seemed to be a lot of pollution in the air, it turned out to be inversion ('An atmospheric condition in which the air temperature rises with increasing altitude, holding surface air down and preventing dispersion of pollutants') caused by slashing and burning that was going on in Laos. On day four the inversion became bad enough that we decided to head further north in an attempt to get away from it.

We ended up in Chiang Rai, halfway between Chiang Mai and the Laos border. Unfortunately for us the inversion proved even worse in Chiang Rai, and worse still there was nothing to do or see in the more expensive town...to paraphrase the Lonely Planet, 'Chaing Rai is more suited for living than visiting'.

And so we headed out the next day to Chiang Khong and the Laos border. We got a room at the charmingly rustic 'Bamboo Guest House', with what would have been a great view of Laos sans pollution and where much to my surprise I had the best Mexican food I've had on this trip! A day wandering around Chiang Khong and breathing in the increasingly worse inversion was enough to see everything and push us to cross the border into Laos.

Photos: Chiang Mai, Chiang Khong

Into the Wild

Towards the end of my time in Kerala, having run out of reading material, some fellow travelers were nice enough to pass along 'Into the Wild' by Jon Krakauer. The book had come highly recommended from them but based on the short description on the back I didn't have especially high expectations. I ended up being pleasantly surprised; it turned out to be so good that I ended up reading it all on my ferry ride through the backwaters. It's the true story about a man that graduates from college and decides he wants to live more freely and to that end he donates what money, abandons all his possessions save a small backpack, and he spends two years hitch-hiking around the US before ending up in Alaska to go into the wild and live off the land and ultimately ends up not making it out alive. It's a pretty quick read, and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in travel, the outdoors, or looking for a good story.

Getting out in Bangkok

Five days in Bangkok and I finally motivated myself enough to get out and do a little exploring. The day before I had dropped by the American embassy to get a refill on my passport pages and then dropped my passport off at the Vietnam embassy to get my visa taken care of. I figured I'd walk towards the Vietnam embassy and then stop by the 'Siam Center' (a giant shopping center I saw the day before from the taxi) on the way back. I made the mistake of waiting until mid-day to get started, and then rather than consult any map at the onset I figured I could retrace the route the taxi had taken the previous night when it dropped me back from the embassy. As a result I got fairly lost and spent 2 1/2hrs walking around in 100 degree heat, but I did get to see a bit of the city. I did finally make it to the embassy, just in time to pickup my passport before it closed at 4pm, and then caught the skytrain over to the 'Siam Center'...

The 'Siam Center' was an amazing conglomeration of several giant malls all in one place and all linked by large sky-bridges that let you go from one to the next to the next without ever having to go back down to the ground. I spent about 4-5hrs just wandering and wondering around at this place. As a result of my time there I'm going to have to revise one of my previous observations...the young white guys with thai girls are severely overshadowed by the old and entirely unattractive white guys, most of whom seem to be American, with beautiful Thai women on their arms. While at the Siam Center I did manage to stumble into some runway modeling going on for the 'Mango' store, pick out a few Bently's for sale on the top floor, see the tiny new Sony palm-top computer, have some iced-coffee from Starbucks, grab dinner at the 'Lee Cafe', see some crazy cartoon characters decorating the walls of one mall, and cross about 10 different sky bridges without setting foot on the ground. A tiring day...I still hate shopping I realized.

I also had my first close up encounter with a ladyboy who sat down next to me in an internet cafe, reaking of too much cheap makeup, stale cigarettes, and fruit juice, who later tried to grab my arm outside the cafe as I was leaving...I was nice in my rebuff this time, but I won't rule out a freak out if that continue's to happen.

Another observation: compared to those in India, the auto-rickshaws here are like trading in a push-mower for a suped-up limo-length riding mower built by 'tim the toolman', not only can I lay back and stretch out as we fly down the road at 80km/hr...I watched the guy next to us wheely his!

Photos: Bangkok

Bangkok

It's been a few days in Bangkok and I confess I've done pretty much next to nothing. I wake up late in my tiny hotbox of a room, eat some scrambled eggs, wander around the streets, read and write, eat the occassional street food (pad thai, mangoes and sticky rice), surf the web, and sleep. It's been nice. It's so much calmer here and I've enjoyed just relaxing it in a bit. The only excitement to speak of was my first nights battle with bedbugs (surprisingly my first of the entire trip), which resulted in me having to switch hotels in the middle of the night, but was fairly easily resolved thankfully.

I have yet to see a single tourist attraction and so photos have been few. I have been stuck here for a few more days than expected while I got additional passport pages and my Vietnam visa which will be ready today. Then I'm off to the north for a bit.

Hyderabad to Bangkok

The next day when I arrived in Hyderabad Josh's driver Steven (who has an affinity for the 'backstreet boys' or at least playing it while I'm in the car) was there to greet me with his big smile. Josh was kind enough to let me crash at his apartment for one night before my flight to Bangkok, despite being back in the US himself. It was nice to sit in front of the TV watching movies and eating pizza and doing nothing for a night.

Steven took me to the airport at 11am for my 1:30pm flight and I big him farewell and went to check in, only to discover that the flight had been changed a couple of weeks before from 1:30pm to 11:55pm. When I realized that I would be stuck in India for 12 more hours a bit of the frustration I'd managed to hold off finally caught up with me. I wanted to be angry but realized I should have called to double check the time, so I stomped off to kill my day at an Internet cafe instead. On my way I did try to mail two postcards (that were already stamped) and was greeted with additional frustration as such a simple task was turned into 'mission impossible, with me walking from one shop to another and finally being directed to the 'speed post' office, only to have them redirect me to the actual post office. The post office turned out to be at the back of what appeared to be an abandoned building at the end of an obscure, small, non-descript, dirt side road with no signage. Several rickshaws, 2hours, and handfuls of Rupees later I finally got them in the mail.

I did head to the airport again at 9:45pm and it was total chaos, I can't really bring myself to describe it; it leaves me drained just thinking about fighting my way through the orderless entry, security check 1, check in, security check 2, and boarding. The only aspect with a semblance of order was the immigration. Of course once you've gone through immigration you can't go back to where Toilet 1 resides nor can you go through the second security check until called, on the other side of which Toilet 2 resides, so you're stuck in bladder purgatory, waiting and holding. I was almost forced to use my empty coke can which I still held thanks to there being no garbage cans until after security check 2. Fun stuff!

Arriving in Bangkok after an uneventful but tiring flight was a breath of fresh air; I was off the plane, through immigration, had my bag, cash from the ATM, a SIM card for my phone, and had found a place to stay using an Internet kiosk all within 30mins of landing.

My first impressions of Thailand: I haven't seen this many white people in a while; there are a somewhat surprising number of young white guys with Thai girls on their arms; this is going to be a lot easier than India.

Kathakali

Around 6pm I made my way to the 'Kerala Kathakali Centre' to see a Kathakali which some fellow travelers had said was a must see while in Cochin and I have to say it was one of the funnest things I've seen in India. Essentially Kathakali is a dance form of story-telling that re-enacts Hindu epics. We started by watching the characters spend upwards of an hour apply their elaborate makeup, follwed by a brief introduction to what Kathakali is and then a demonstrations of some of the standard actions...'mother take care of your baby' being by far the most interesting. Finally a one hour performance of part of a story, about Lord Shiva testing a warrior, was performed. Apparently there are 112 stories in all and each one is 8-9hrs in length; the first 30mins or so of what we saw was very interesting and engaging but I started to drift after that, and I can't imagine watching it for 8-9hrs...very convoluted after a while.

Photos: Kathakali

Fort Cochin

As soon as I started wandering around Fort Cochin the next afternoon I was immediately accosted by a rickshaw driver, this one offering to take me on a tour for an hour of all the sites for only 50 Rupees. I decided to take him up on it. I have to admit that he did a great job. First we stopped at the Santa Cruz Basilica, a church 500+yrs old built by the Portuguese, followed by a bit of driving and pointing things out, such as an old water tower. I noticed pretty quickly that he had a penchant for pointing out anything over 100+yrs old, no matter how obscure of run down, and then repeating and emphasizing the age. I finally caught on that I was supposed to be impressed by these old buildings, all the more so for the dilapidated ones (such as the big, rusty, tin shack that looked more like a garbage pile to me), and I started to ooh and ahh, which gave him a smile. Eventually we did end up at a small market down by the water where fishermen were still making use of giant 'Chinese fishing nets', although it looked like they were mainly successful in catching garbage and sewage than anything else. I'm still not sure why they are 'Chinese'.

From the fishing nets we went to a big warehouse/factory for ayurvedic medicines and treatments. In the main room there were big burlap sacks with material that looked like it was probably sold over the counter in scoopfuls. We also had a peek into the large store rooms further down the lane past more giant white sacks filled with who knows what. In these rooms were giant piles of everything from tree barks, to wax, to tar, shrubs, spices, sugar, etc...most of which I was told was for export to China for medicinal purposes.

Next we headed to another similar warehouse explicitly for drying, packing, and storing ginger for export. Here we saw massive piles of ginger being sorted by quality and spread out in long rows to dry in the sun and then put in large bags. I was told that 1KG of the best quality ginger there was 'very expensive' at 200Rupees...about $2.50. That wrapped up the 'official tour' but then of course came the 'shopping' which started with a tea and pickle store at the ginger warehouse (where I escaped buying only a little tea), followed by a giant shop where I was prodded toward buying gaudy jewelery and giant bronze scupltures but somehow managed to resist, and then on to a varitable strip-mall of spice and curio shops by which time I realized that all these stops gave my guide a chance to have tea with his buddies...and then we were done.

Photos: Cochin

The Night Rickshaw

After the ferry arrived in Allepey I still needed to get up to Cochin, 65km away, somehow. I hopped a rickshaw to the train station and halfway there the driver offered to drive me all the way to Cochin himself. Realizing I could make it to Cochin before the train even showed to pick me up in Allepey I decided to pay the extra and take the rickshaw all the way...what a ride it was.

We got out of Allepey proper and started to pickup speed. At first we appeared to be behind a drunk driver, at least that's what my driver seemed to think, but I admit that in India I sometimes have a tough time telling the drunk and sober drivers from one another. The 3-wheeled, open-air rickshaw becomes considerably more scary at night, especially when speeds exceed 30km/hr. We cruised on for about 25mins during which we had at least two extremely close, near collisions where I heard profane utterances escape from my mouth, at which my driver caught my eye in the mirror and just laughed.

After 25mins we pulled over at my driver's local tea joint for a couple shots of masala chai and a few laughs, after which I was feeling significantly more optimistic going into round 2. When we did almost find ourselves in the grill of an on-coming bus we both just laughed together. True to his word he got me to Fort Cochin before 9pm and no worse for the wear.

Kerala Backwaters

To get back up to Cochin I caught the early morning train to Kollem where i Boarded the ferry for a ride through the backwaters to Allepey, my consolation prize for not finding someone to do the one night houseboat ride with. I ended up spending most of the 8hr ride reading 'Into the Wild' by Jon Krakauer, but finally did manage to glance up for the last 2+hrs. The ride was nice, but I wasn't super comfortable in my red plastic chair with its weakened back, and at one point (why I'm still not sure) the boat was tipped slightly right so that everytime I adjusted my chair I almost tipped out of it. I think I'll have to do the houseboat at some point to really appreciate the backwaters.

Photos: Backwaters