Thailand Abridged

I haven't updated the blog in awhile, obviously.  This is purely an indication of my how interesting, diverse, and engaging Thailand is, not an indication of blogging laziness.  It's a is fascinating place. I am leaving tomorrow for Laos so here is Thailand: The abridged version.  I am sad to leave.



Stranger in a Strange Land, Satun January 14, 2012


After many great nights with many great people in Langkawi, Malaysia I decide to shift gears and find some solitude.  Ko Tarutoa is the island I choose for this. It's an island which is largely untouched by the modern world (read: no tourists).  I will camp out, literally, on the beach for 3 or 4 days.  I must first go to the mainland and stay for a night in a town called Satun.

• I arrive in Thailand via ferry boat from Malaysia. I'm the only white person out of the 70 or 80 people on the boat, only white person in my hotel, only white person at the night market, only white person in the entire town I think.  No one speaks English, bus routes are not labeled, this place was challenging.  

• I fall into my first Thailand scam quite nicely.  I pass through immigration with the mass of other Thais and walk through the ferry station, a man calls me over and asks if I need a boat ride to some nearby island (which I'm not going to), I explain I'm going to Ko Tarutoa, and we talk for a couple minutes.  Something seems odd about it though, like it's some kind of rip-off or something so I tell him I'm not interested and move on. You begin to get a sense of these things after awhile.  At this point, I look up to see the shared taxis driving into town are leaving: I just miss them. Damn. Luckily the guy I was talking to has a friend with a cab to help me out.  He's the only cab left at the station so I need to take it into town, for an exorbitant rate.  Scam explained: Guy selling boat tickets holds up as many foreigners as possible long enough for the shared taxis (cheap) to leave, then his friend comes to the rescue and drives everyone into town, for a rate 3 or 4 times the shared taxi rate.  Now I know.

• At night while searching for a reliable internet connection, I hear a strange sound out the open window:  A dog scowling in terror or pain as if someone cut it's leg off...then silence.  This probably happened 4 times.  I've heard about the eating dogs in Thailand, and I can't verify what was happening but wow.  Welcome to Thailand.

• I eat at the night market and have to use the universal pointing and sign language method of communicating.  The various things I got were really good.  I'm no sure what some of it is.

• The next morning while searching for a bus in obvious ignorance of where or how to catch it, a nice older gentleman helps me out.  He spoke some English, I told him where I needed to go, we waited for a couple minutes, he ushered me into a songthaew which pulled up, talked to the driver in Thai, I jumped in, and I was off...to somewhere.   I begin to wonder if I would have helped someone out in the same position.  I hope so.  It's an odd feeling being forced to trust complete strangers, but sometimes you don't have a choice.  I ride in the back of this  songthaew while people are constantly jumping on and off for over an hour not really sure if I was even going in the right direction.  My faith in humanity is restored (and my sanity) as the driver pulls up to the jetty.  I pay him the equivalent of 2 US dollars. 

  

A Tent on the Beach, Monkeys, and Things that Go Bump in the Night, Ko Tarutao
January 15,16,17 2012

• I arrive on Ko Tarutao via speed boat, rent a tent at the park office, and head out to find a nice spot on the beach.  There are no hotels, no stores, and very few people on the island.  I quickly realize that there are a lot of animals on the island though.  I pass a group of  Macaques eating some kind of fruits from a tree.  I set up camp and relax.  End of story.

• I walk up to the little general store to buy a lighter so I can make a camp fire at night.  On the way, I see the group of Macaques have found a bottle of red soda in front of the general store.  They've dumped it on the ground and are lapping it up with haste.  All of their faces were stained red, I laugh, and walk closer.  This was a mistake.  The big one sees me and stares me down, then starts walking over to me slowly, rearing his teeth and scowling.  I decide to get the lighter at a later time.   

• The sunsets on the island is crazy.  The pictures don't do it justice.  I meet a couple Australians one night and enjoy it together and again, relax. 

Sunset from tent

My swing

My friend

Me

The most noteworthy thing that happens on this island occurs when I decide to go out and explore the rest of the jungle island by foot.  I spend an entire day walking the main route through the island which goes from one end to the other through the jungle.

• This journey starts with another encounter with a Macaque.  As I begin to walk, I see a lone monkey sitting in the middle of the path.  As I approach it doesn't move; it just stands there, so I decide to just walk around it.  My alert level is on high from the other encounter I had with them.  These monkeys can be mean!  I get close and it jumps up and starts running at me, with teeth showing.  A moment of pure adrenaline sets in and I jump back and scurry back up the path.  WTF!  This monkey is not that big but I don't want to get bitten, get rabies, have to kill a monkey with my bare hands, or a combination of the three.  None of these options are good for me.  As I decide what to do, I notice that a ranger on a motorbike is approaching from behind me.  He, or course, sees all of this and is probably laughing.  The motorbike scares the monkey off the path and the Thai ranger stops and makes sure it runs off.  Onward, with a large "walking" stick I go.

• I see  a different variety of monkey called a langur.  There is a whole family of them in the trees so I stop and watch for about a half and hour.  There's a mom with a baby, and 7 or 8 others eating in the trees.  They see me but don't pay too much attention since they are high in the trees.  It is funny watching the baby langur.  Every once in awhile it tries to get away from the mother and she continually has to pull it back.  The interaction looked and felt oddly human.

• I pass by another section of beach where a couple more people are camping.  I talk to a guy and tell him I plan to go to one of the waterfalls off the main path.  He tells me that it's getting too late in the day to make it out there.  I ignore his advice and continue on thinking how nice it will be to go swimming in a fresh, cool waterfall after hiking all day.  After all I've hiked in New Zealand in the dark with no problems.
• I get to the turn off for the waterfall and it's starting to get dark so I stop to make a decision.  I'm going to be walking back in the dark either way, it's just a matter of how long.  The waterfall is another 2k into the jungle off the main path.  It's too far away to spend any time there in daylight since it gets dark earlier in a dense jungle, so I head back.  It will take a couple hours to get back to my tent.
• Within an hour, it's almost dark and the night animals, bugs, and sounds are in full force.  I'm not terribly worried at this point because I know there is nothing on the island that could seriously give me trouble.  There's no tigers, bears, or poisonous snakes for example.  Right after this reassuring thought runs through my head the nightmare starts.  I realize my headlamp is not as powerful as I would like. I can only really see in a narrow beam in front of me; nothing in the periphery.  I start to hear noises in the trees around me but i can't tell what's there. I catch a glimpse a a huge snake next to the trail slithering into the jungle.  I pass by a group of the Macaques in the trees and cannot see them but they all start screaming and shrieking loudly.  I cannot get the thought out of my head of seeing a dozen monkeys run out of the darkness and start attacking me.  I'm in straight up panic mode now.  I walk faster and hold my walking stick like a broadsword.  I see a giant pig dart across the path in front of me and crash through the jungle.  When I say 'see' I mean I see a flash of something go by and I have to think about what it is.  I walk faster.  I see something flying around through my light.  I cannot tell if its a bat or a small owl...it might as well been a monster at that point.  Now I have things darting across my light...in the air.  I'm being assaulted on all fronts.  I start running.  This flying monster continues to hunt insects or whatever through light on my head. After an hour of this I finally see the lights of the ranger station.  It's good to be alive.  I laugh and decide never to hike in the jungle at night ever again.

Millions of little shells on the beach

The nice langur

The evil macaque

Thai Massage, Trang January 18, 2012

• I've hear about these Thai massages so I go searching for one.  1 hour is anywhere between 5 to 8 dollars and it's well worth it.  This is the only thing I do in Trang other than eat and sleep.  Thai massages are great.  Go get a massage.    

Markets and Clear Green Water, Krabi

January 19-January 22 2012

• Krabi is a fun little town; another jumping point to the southern islands in Thailand.  
• At my guest-house, I help a French woman figure out her email for about an hour.  She had to catch a flight the next day and had managed to lock herself out of her account. She was panicking, so I offer my assistance. After letting her describe what she had done in broken English, letting her show me what was happening, an me telling her to do this and that to no avail; I tell her to "let me give it a try" (with a tone of "get the hell out of the way, idiot!").  It turns out she changed her password, and was simply typing it in wrong...again, and again, and again.  I reset it to something easier, write it down for her.  Problem solved.  She buys me dinner at the night market.
• I meet a guy from Sweden, we share our time (and drinks) for a couple hours.  He tells me that 10 years ago Thailand was so cheap that you literally couldn't spend your money and how Thailand looks completely different now.  I find his stories interesting.  At the end of the night, he starts talking to me in Swedish which is met with blank stares.  We laugh.
• I meet a German guy at the night market who tells me about India.  I begin to get both excited and anxious about going.  He tells me I'll like it and hate it, want to go home and immediately after I'm gone will want to come back.  It's shocking and exciting.  Everything is in your face; good and bad.  
• I take a trip out to the islands.  I meet an old Japanese guy who I become friends with on the boat.  The water is emerald green and crystal clear.  It almost looks as if the boats are floating in mid air.  I've never seen water like this before; it's amazing.  We go snorkeling, swimming on a couple beaches, and ride around in our speed boat to a couple caves.   I see people rock climbing on the cliff faces at Railley Beach, see kite-boarders doing tricks off a beach, and see para-sailors riding between limestone outcrops in the water.  There are hundreds of these little 'islands' everywhere.      

Scuba Time, Ko Tao
January 22-January 28 2012

• Ko Tao is a cool little island where I decide to get scuba-certified.  It takes 4 days to complete.  There's a bit of studying and homework involved, but mostly it's just practicing on the reefs which surround the island. My scuba instructor is a Canadian guy named Adrian who looks like Kurt Cobain and has the typical personality of a scuba guy; sort of a toned down, intelligent version of the stereotypical surfer dude.  I was the only one in my class which I think is unfortunate at first because I wanted  to meet some new people, but it turns out to be perfect.  See next bullet.
• The second day I'm on the island, I'm walking down the main route down the beach and I glance up and see a face which I recognize.  I immediately know who it is, but cannot believe it at first.  It's Antje from New Zealand!  We (her husband included) hung out at various places in New Zealand before departing to go our separate ways.  The crazy thing is they were a couple of the coolest people I met in New Zealand.  Now I'm not sure how to calculate the odds of this occurrence, but it must be astronomical.  What are the odds that I someone in New Zealand over a month ago, then meet up again randomly in a country which is at least a 15 hour plane ride away on one small island of many in Thailand.  It's mind boggling really.  We hang out every night until we leave.  
• Chinese New Year falls on my 30th birthday and I spend it out of a reef scuba diving.  Chinese New Year is a big deal in Asia and for the Ko Tao travelers just another reason to buy a big Chang beer and celebrate being alive.  Many people light off lanterns at night on the beach.  They look like orange stars in the night sky.
• Scuba diving down to 19 meters for the first time is a cool experience.  It feels like some kind of dream world; bright corrals everywhere, thousands of colorful fish, you can feel every breath in and out, and the blue water ascends high above you.  Scuba diving is one of my favorites now.
• Since I have to wake up early and scuba dive everyday and in general we are all over the stage where we need to party every night, we find a place to eat dinner and talk.  Many nights we go to a bar which plays new movies and curl up and relax to a movie with a beer.  On the way back to my bungalow at the end of the night I get a banana rotee (thin pancake type thing) from this crazy guy who makes them in front of you in his street corner stand.  These things are delicious. 
• One night we decide to celebrate my graduating scuba school, Antje's birthday, Conner's lead on some work, and Inga's (their friend from Germany) first time being to Asia.  We all had to pick something to celebrate!  We grab dinner and start our pilgrimage from beach bar to beach bar.  We watch fire-dancers on the sand, listen to modern pop music, laugh, and have a great time.  At one point Conner finds a lantern and we light it off on the beach near the end of the night.  It is supposed to symbolize your worries and problems floating away.  We watch it float higher and higher until it's a star in the sky.  

My home on Ko Tao

My hammock

Sunset

Lantern

Our lantern

Muay Thai, Khaosan Road, and Ladies of the Night, Bangkok
February 29-February 31 2012

• Arriving in Bangkok for the first time is a like being swept up in a tornado.  It's fast, big, noisy, loud and crazy.  It's pure sensory overload.  Khaosan road is where I first arrive.  There are tuk tuks everywhere zooming around, hawkers trying to sell you anything from custom tailored suits to little helicopters which light up from rides to ping pong shows to bugs.  There are people everywhere and music blasts from the bars which line the street.  I grab dinner with Conner, Antje, and Igna before finding a ride to the airport to pick up the brother.       
• On arrival, we buy a big beer, eat some bugs, and wander down Khaosan to observe the madness before retiring to our guest-house.    

Big, delicious bugs

• The next day we head out o n foot to check out the big Buddhist temples in the city.       

• We go to a Muay Thai fight at one of this big stadiums in Bangkok.  There are 10 different fights with varying degrees of bloodiness.  We see a fighter get his leg broken with a swift kick.  He gets carted off in a stretcher.  We see a fighter catch a punch to the face, blood everywhere.  In fact, he is so bloody they have to stop the fight.  We then take motorbike taxis to Cowboy Road to have a beer and check out the 'night life' (read: gogo bars and prostitution)  We skipped the ping-pong show because well, it's sad and pathetic.  No one is a better person for seeing this.

Motorbike taxi through the streets of Bangkok

Elephants, Opium, and Motorbikes, Chiang Mai & Pai
February 1-February 7 2012

• The train ride to Chiang Mai was challenging.  It was 14 hours long and unimaginably cold.  The AC must have been on "Freeze the Farangs to death."  In the end I'm wearing 3 layers of clothes and a blanket over my head.  All adventures have trials.
• In Chiang Mai, we go on a whitewater rafting-elephant riding-bamboo rafting-orchid farm touring-waterfall excursion; an everything-in-one trip.  We meet some Canadians who we hang out with on the trip.  We see a home/store with a small t.v. enclosed in steel bars and a group of people watching intently.  Everyone finds this comical; the enclosure probably costs more than the t.v  The Chinese guy on our trip laughs so loudly that the people watching the t.v. take notice.  He then pulls out his giant camera to takes pictures. Riding the elephants was the highlight.  They are enormously powerful animals.      
• We go to a tea house and relax for an afternoon drinking green and pu erh teas, eating healthy food, and lounging on the pillows in the tea garden.  This might be my ideal heaven.  
• We watch a flower parade.
• We go to the night market in Chiang Mai one night and get some shopping in.  We find these sweet waffles that are delicious after a couple Changs.  

• We get into Pai after dark after a long winding minibus ride through the mountains.  Our first order of business is finding a place to sleep.  Preparation, as it turns out, doesn't always lead you to the best end; sometimes winging it in the present moment leads to superior results.  We get turned down from the first four places we check in town, and after walking down a quite mountain road find a place with two guys huddled around a small fire.  We ask if they have any rooms left and they do indeed have one left. Score! We talk with them for about 45 minutes.  They offer us shots of Jamison whiskey which some Spanish couple had given them; we oblige.  They offer us some smoked sausage with lemongrass; we oblige.  We learn that one of them is from Burma, his dad built the bungalows.  We have pleasant conversation until we get the key for our room.  Nicest people in the world.
• We decide to grab dinner at a Mexican place.  We walk up as a big group walks up and immediately walk away.  We are the only ones there, which usually isn't a good sign.  I can't even remember why we chose this place, but it turns out to be some of the best Mexican food I've ever had and the Thai woman who ran the place was the nicest woman I've met in Thailand.  She basically tells us her life story and we talk for over a half an hour until a Russian girl joins us at the table.  We learn that she has been doing a yoga retreat for the past week.  

• We rent motorbikes (mine pink and Matt's red) and go on an adventure exploring outside of town.  We go to waterfalls, an old bridge, a temple, some canyons, and other small towns.  On the way we pass opium fields with locals trying to push their crop.  We respectfully decline while zooming by on the bikes.  Matt's new Nexus becomes a victim of the motorbike trip.  It turns out the smartphones and gravel roads don't mix very well and Matt joins the broken smartphone screen club.  We pass by elephants, countryside farms, and stray dogs.  We see a wild chicken get hit by a car, and we get lost for a about 30 minutes before finding another way home.     
• We meet some dutch guys in a bar and end up hanging out all night.  We talk about politics, where we've been, where we're going, life in America, life in Holland, healthcare among other things.  We're the last ones in the bar.  At some point the bar operator shuts down the bar, tells us to blow out the candle on our table when we're done, and just leaves.  He gets on his motorbike and drives off!  We stay for another 45 minutes or so to finish our beers.  We light off a lantern off and watch it disappear in the atmosphere to end the night.  The town is unbelievably nice, slow, and carefree.  It's almost as if everyone is smoking the hill tribe opium.  This is Pai. 

Rooftop of hostel

Tea

Guesthouse in Pai

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A Look Inward, Wat Rampoeng Buddhist Monastery 
February 8- February 18 2012

• After the brother goes back home, I decide my last dance in Thailand will be with a meditation/Buddhist 'retreat'.  I get a recommendation and take a tuk tuk out to the temple to meet with one of the monks to see what I need to do.  I tell him I would like to start tomorrow,and he tells me that I must start immediately.  Not really having anything important to do, I agree and shoot back to the guesthouse to grab my bag.  The daily routine is as follows:

04:00 am: Bell rings to wake everyone up to start meditation
06:30 am: Bell rings for breakfast
07:30 am: Clean up and sweep grounds
10:30 am: Bell rings for lunch
05:00 pm: Meet with teacher
10:00 pm: Bedtime

• Everything outside of these times you are meditating; walking and sitting.  There is strictly no talking except during reporting with the teacher.  You cannot leave the monastery grounds.  You cannot sit next to women.  No computer or cell phones, no reading, no eating food after lunch.  I do this for 10 days straight.  Everything is free too: food, accommodation, education.  
• I quickly realize that meditating for only 15 minutes straight is maddeningly difficult at first.  In normal life, you are always stimulated by something: work, t.v., internet, friends, telephone, etc. For me, I have been constantly seeing new things, going new places, meeting new people, planning, scheming, thinking.  When you shut all this down and just sit there your brain doesn't know what to do. It panics and trys to get you to do something...anything. If you don't believe me try it.  Try sitting down in a quiet room for 15 minutes straight and do nothing, when you are awake and alert. It's hard.
• As the days go on I can do more and more hours and longer and longer sessions.  The first day I could do about 6 hours with 15 minute intervals of sitting and walking meditation.  By the end I could easily do 9 hours with 1 hour intervals of sitting and walking meditation.  
• An odd thing happens after awhile.  You start to have this heightened awareness of your senses.  This includes sensing your own thoughts and feelings.  You begin to become aware of all the inner chatter that occurs.  It's almost as if you develop this other awareness which can directly watch you and everything that is happening in your head.  This allows you to get to know your own mind; the tricks it plays, it's default ways of thinking, how it reacts to things like being tired, bored, excited, etc. because you are only focused on what is happening right now in the present moment.  Nothing else.
• I learned that meditation is not just sitting around relaxing with your eyes closed.  It's about really focusing on what is happening in the present moment.  It takes a great deal of concentration and effort to do this.  I almost went crazy a couple times, but in the end I learned a great deal.

Teacher

Other Impressions

• Thailand has great food a combination of sweet, spicy, and sour.  Hawker stalls are the way to experience the variety of food.  Some nights I buy 5 different things while walking around with a fruit shake in hand.
• Thailand is in many ways has more personal freedom than elsewhere I've been.  In Ko Tarutoa they will rent you canoes to paddle down the river.  If you want to wear a life jacket you can, if you don't want to no problem.  In Ko Tao you can rent motorbikes. If you want to wear a helmet you can, if you don't want to no problem.  I saw so many people with bandages, limping down the road...victims of motorbike accidents.  I saw a girl get hit by a motorbike.  There's nobody watching out for you in Asia.  This is not good for stupid people.
• The variety and height of 'things' stacked on motorbikes is as comical as it is amazing.  We saw a stack of boxes stacked 12 feet high on a motorbike.  
• Everything happens on the street; markets (malls), restaurants (food stalls), people making goods, and everything you can imagine.
• English is misused everywhere.   One of my favorites is "Please, do not do laundry in the toilet"(probably meant sink here) and "Fragrant barbecue chicken drumstick of garlic" on a restaurant menu.  

Tanah Rata, Cameroon Highlands, Malaysia

Searching for Higher Ground January 4, 2012

My next stop is Tanah Rata in the Cameroon Highlands.  This is an area where vast swaths of hillside are cut out for farming; fruits, vegetables, tea.  Since the elevation is higher, the weather is less of a raging inferno and more of a pleasant hillside breeze.  I will even get to wear my fleece at night!

I get into town and my first order of business is to find a laundry place.  After the jungle trek everything I own is damp.  I don’t think it’s even possible to get clothes completely dry in the jungle.  Even if you do, they will be wet the second you put them on and start walking, chewing gum, or even thinking too hard.
I wander through the town to get my bearings.  Local hawker stalls here, convenient store there, laundry place here, bus station there, fruit stand here, Indian restaurant there, group of tourists here, local family of 4 riding a motorbike (one motorbike) there, etc. etc.  

Back at the hostel I meet a couple of people hanging out of the front porch.  We talk and a German girl and I decide to go to a Buddhist temple and check out some waterfalls tomorrow.  I go out on the town to search for something to eat for dinner.  I find a Tom Yum soup (spicy hot Thai soup) place and dig in.  The food in Asia is cheap and amazing…all of it.  Afterward I shoot back to the fruit stand and get a couple different ones.  My criteria is to simply pick the weirdest looking ones.  I give them to the woman at the front who then proceeds to help me find ripe ones.  I thank her.  Back at the hotel I cut them up and offer some to the folks out front.  They ask what they are and I respond with ‘I have no idea but we should try them out…for science of course.’ All of them are good.

I realize that one of the best parts of exploring the world (I hate the word traveling) is that everything is new again.  The food is new, the people are new, the places are new, the languages are new, the environment is new, the customs are new, the cultures are new, and so forth.  It’s almost like being a kid again because you constantly have to figure out how everything works.  

The countryside

The town

Temples, Waterfalls, and Crazy Malaysian January 5, 2012
I get up around 9am and meet Charlotte (pronounced Shaw-lot-tuh in German).  She has been volunteering in Indonesia for the past couple months and is now exploring a bit of Malaysia.

We wander down to the bus station to catch a bus to the next town over.  We talk to about 6 people trying to first find the bus station, then trying to find the actual bus, then trying to figure out where we need it to stop.  This is the most efficient way to get information almost everywhere.  We get off the bus and rack up another 2 people worth of questioning and finally find the temple.  We walk up to a door and an older gentleman tells us that the main entrance is around the corner, but lets us walk in the back way through a kitchen.  We look at one another with a ‘ok, cool’ nod and go through the door.  

The temple is pretty neat.  The smell of burning incense (sp?) fills the air and we walk around in a slow, respectful, and quiet manner looking at the Buddha’s and candles and paintings.   A monk walks past, does some ritual, and rings a big gong-type thing.  I’m glad there wasn’t but a couple people in the temple…I always worry that the local people think they are some type of zoo animals when the tourists walk in and start taking pictures.  I buy a book on Buddhism for 5 Ringet (1.5 dollars) and we leave.
We grab lunch at a Chinese place and proceed to walk back to the bus stop.  A couple taxi drivers try to temp us with a 6 Ringet ride back to the town; the bus only costs 1 Ringet.  We decline.  After about 30 minutes of waiting for the bus, we realize that splitting a cab was only going to cost 66 Dollar cents for me and even less of Charlotte’s Euro cents.   We get the cab.

Back at the hostel I read up on Buddhism via my newly purchased book and relax during the hottest part of the day.  At around 4, we meet up and go out to find a waterfall close to the town.  At the waterfall we meet a local banker who is getting some peace and quiet at the waterfall.  When we arrive he is excited to talk to us and show us pictures on his phone of the waterfall when it was flooded.  He offers to take us to a local village but we decline because Charlotte needs to meet some friends for dinner.  I am a gentleman and don’t let her walk back to town alone.  I think he wants Charlotte to go more than me anyway for obvious reasons.  He gives me his business card and tells me to meet him tomorrow if I want to go to the village.

On the walk back we talk about the motorbikes because we see someone texting while motor biking.  People here do everything on motorbikes, carry everything on motorbikes (including babies), and ride everywhere on motorbikes.   We talk about crossing the road because we see quite a few people who are hesitant.  You have to just make your move and commit to it.  If you wait until both sides are completely clear, you’ll be waiting for a long time.

I grab dinner at an Indian restaurant and grab a banana juice of the way home from the fruit stall.

Dinner!

A Lesson in Tea January 6, 2012
The most popular thing to do in town is to take a guided tour of the area by Land Rover, so I do it on my last day here.  The itinerary is tea fields in the morning, trekking through ‘mossy forest’, tea plantation, local animal farm.  I am most excited about the tea parts!

We take the land Rover out of town and around some hilly dirt roads.  At every turn the driver beeps the horn to let other vehicles coming down the hill that we are there.  I wonder what happens when both vehicles honk at the same time.  The tea fields are massive. We see workers picking the leaves and get a lesson on how they prune the trees, when they prune them, everything you would want to know about the process of growing tea.  I find it thoroughly interesting.

Next we do a small trek through the ‘mossy forest’.  It is basically what it sounds like; there is moss everywhere, on the trees, on the ground, on the rocks, everywhere.  We see some of those pitcher plants as well.  The guide tells us about the other local plants.

We pile back into the Land Rovers and head to the tea plantation where they actually make the tea.  Briefly, they first dry the leaves and then crush the leaves to break them apart.  The older leaves are harder and thus break up into finer pieces than the young small leaves.  This is why the tea you buy in bags is the lowest quality: It contains the finest particles from the older leaves.  The tea is then left to ferment or oxidize.  This basically means the tea is left to sit and the oxygen in the air changes the composition of the leaves.   The longer you ferment, the darker your tea is (i.e. english tea is fermented longer than green tea).  This is the conclusion of your tea lesson for today.

After the tour I eat lunch with a couple of Americans from Colorado who were on the same tour.  Sometimes it’s good to talk to someone from home.  I relax the rest of the day.

At night a group gathers outside.  A couple Canadian girls join with beer-in-hand and a guy from Germany walks over a well.  We talk about the oddities I will encounter in Vietnam; eating bugs, killing a live snake on the table and drinking the blood, eating dog.  The Canadians tell a story of a bus ride in Indonesia where they rode with a crazy woman and her chickens.  They talk about teaching English in Korea and the funny questions they encounter.  “Hey teacher, why do you have yellow hair” was a funny one.  Obviously the kids only see people with dark hair and dark eyes.  

Tea Fields

Penang, Malaysia

Exploring with a Bag of Juice January 7, 2012

I arrive in Penang by bus in the late afternoon.  It's an island on the western side of Malaysia known for it's excellent hawker food.   Penang is somewhere in between a city and a town.  There's not really any tall buildings, but there are still motorbikes racing about all over the place.  I basically spend the day exploring the city on foot.

I check out:
-the odd products and smells in Chinatown
-the interesting music from Little India
-a couple temples and Chinese assemblies

Somewhere along the way I find a hawker stall which sells fruit shakes and buy one "to-go".  The 'to-go cup' is a plastic bag, the 'handle' is a plastic string, and you drink out of it with a plastic straw.  At first I found it odd, then I actually preferred it to a real cup.  You can hold onto the thing with one only finger, or hang it on the handlebars of your motorbike, or tie it to your belt...whatever you want.

The only other thing to note is that I haven't had a beer in a long time.  Muslim countries are not big fans of alcohol and thus it is taxed heavily (i.e. it's expensive)

Not my photo, but a cool view of the hostel I stay in.

Penang 

Penang

and the bag of juice, of course

Badminton and Grocery Store Oddities January 8, 2012

After waking up at around 10:30am (I can sleep in if I wanna), I find that the free breakfast is still out.  Apparently the hostel has breakfast until 11am: The Old Penang Guesthouse is my kinda place.  I decide that today is going to be the day I go out and eat as may interesting things as I can find.  The hostel gave me a list of the food specialties of the city so I go forth to eat as many as I can find.  The food is so cheap and good, you're doing a great disservice to not try as much as possible.

Cendol- A dessert with green pasta, beans, ground up ice, some kind of milky stuff, and a sweet sauce.  It's interesting...not everyday you find pasta and beans in a dessert.



Roti Canai- It's similar to a crepe or very thin pancake.  My favorite one is with banana in the middle.  It usually comes with a spicy sauce so you get a mix of sweet and spicy.  Obviously the ones from the hawker stall are not presented so elegantly, but they still taste excellent.



Kuey Teow- This one is a fried noodle and vegetable dish with egg, shrimp or chicken, chilies, and bean sprouts.  You find this everywhere and it's quick to make, cheap, and good.


In between eating my second and third lunch I find myself in a shopping mall.  It has one department store, one grocery store, and a bunch of other random stores.  I notice a group of people ahead watching something on a t.v. in an electronic shop so I stop and watch.  It's a badminton match which is apparently quite popular in Malaysia.  Upon closer examination I see that it is China (Lin) vs. Malaysia (Lee) and the crowd watching is really into it.  It's like a football game in the States or a soccer game in Europe, people are cheering and cussing.  I'm not exactly sure what is being said but I know a cheer and a curse when I hear it.  I watch for about 30 minutes with the growing crowd, cheer for Malaysia of course, and when the home team wins, I move on.  Go Malaysia!

I next wander into the grocery store.  I always find it interesting to explore the grocery stores in different places.  There's always a fair amount of "What in the world is THIS stuff" or "THAT looks disgusting".  In this particular case, after noticing a box with a birds nest of the front,  it was "How in the hell do you cook a birds nest?"  I know it's some kind of Chinese thing but it boggles my mind how this could turn into something edible.  Onward.

I finish the day with dinner in Little India with a Chinese guy I met at the hostel.  He is also and engineer so we have some common ground.  I learn he has been in India for over a month.  Back at the hostel we watch a soccer match with a couple English guys on the t.v.

"Ain't that a bit racialist"

Some sort of...things

Adventures on a Motorbike January 9, 2012

I start the day with a conversation about the differences between China and the United States over toast and tea with my friend from last night.

I decide I must rent a motorbike, blend in with the locals, and expand my reach.  You can only explore so far on foot.  The guy renting motorbikes simply asks if I have a drivers license, I say "yes", and this is apparently all that is needed  ...no proof .  Then I fill out a form.  I don't have my passport since it's currently at the Thai embassy so I just make up a passport number.  It's all a formalily anyway.  There's no insurance, no nothing.  All of the liability is on you.   It's a bit  less strict than renting a car for example. He gives me a helmet and a bike and I'm off.

Now I've bungy jumped, skydived, hiked glaciers, and tramped though rivers in limestone caves in NZ, but driving a motorbike in a Malaysian city is by far the most dangerous thing I've done so far. First they drive on the other side of the road, second they don't respect traffic order (i.e.  motorbikes go down the shoulder, middle, wherever there's an opening), third they don't use signals, and fourth they don't even always drive on the correct side of the street.  I start by simply following other bikers to get a feel for the sport and practice a little.  After awhile I learn that there is a certain order to the chaos.  Bikers rule the road, get to the beginning of the line, weave up the the front during red lights.  I follow suit and find it's oddly enjoyable for someone who absolutely hates traffic with a passion.

I really feel like part of the city on a bike instead of a outside observer.

I confirm my notion that I can never buy a motorcycle.  I was going down highways at about 60-70 mph at the fastest and the speed is intoxicating.  I would most likely kill myself after getting more comforable riding o the thing.

After exploring the city for awhile I decide to get out and head down the coast to see what outside of the city.  My first discovery is a tropical fruit farm.  They have a tour and you get to try a bunch of different local fruits.

My second discovery is a small fishing village which I eat lunch at.  I meet a guy who has been to Louisiana.  He was working on an oil vessel in the Gulf of Mexico.  What a small world.

I basically ride around all day until its dark.  I return the bike (I am alive and unscathed I might add) and look for a good hawker stall for dinner.  I find an interesting one and talk to a local while we stand in front and eat.

I get my passport back from the front desk, and quickly say hello to a dutch woman from yesterday.  Another Thai sticker has been added and the damn thing is starting to look like a stamp collection or something.

Possibly the coolest motor-biker in all of Malaysia

Fishing Village

Lunch @ fishing village

I liked the fishing village

Deliciousness.