Oh my Buddha!

I can never get over how well night train compartments are put together. After a few hours, the attendant comes through and in about 5 minutes - top bed down, sheets made, pillows fluffed - both bunks are ready to go. Curtains with bed numbers on them, reading light behind the cushions, and cup holders - just so well-designed. Now if I could just figure out how to brush my teeth without falling over...

After spending some time lazing around and journaling in Chiang Mai (the weather is not a great incentive for activity), I enrolled in a cooking course. Someone should've warned me to avoid eating breakfast before I got in because, between 9 and 4, I was in for a longer progressive meal than Christmas day. These photos are just part of it:

My 3-day trip to Samoeng seemed like some sort of Tom Sawyer childhood I never had, set in northern Thailand. Hiking through the hills, with the smell of fermenting mangos in the air. Eating fresh, tart lychee off the trees. Swimming in the lake and sitting around chatting with other hikers afterward, enjoying the breeze and the spray of the waterfall. White-water rafting, then floating down the river on a bamboo raft, with the rower's occasional response of "oh my Buddha!"

Not bad for something I signed up for without knowing much about it.

As seems to be the theme with my hiking experiences (or perhaps all hiking?), the first day was spent scaling a rather large hill jutting out of the jungle. But, as always, the end justifies the means. After watching the gorgeous sunset over the mountains and eating stir fry for dinner, we hikers got to sit back and watch the local children sing and dance for us (yes, a contrived tourist gimmick, but those kids were just so cute).

After a second day of treking, we arrived at the elephant camp. When we woke up the next morning, the elephants were coming in for our ride. My elephant du jour was Mae Bun Tung, a fiesty balding elephant that realized I'd feed her bananas if she stuck her trunk back and breathed out, spewing me with elephant snot. Such an effective trick, she realized, that she would stop every 20 feet to negotiate another.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to Chom Tong, in another part of my trip that resembles "Eat Pray Love": a 10-day Vipassana meditation course at the Wat Phradhatu Sri Chomtong temple. Which will involve getting up super early, wearing white all day and night, very little talking, no use of electronics (so no internet), and no reading or journaling. Not sure how this is going to work, but it should be a cool experience.

Those fabulous places where we long to be...

I have a tendency to arrive somewhere new and wonder why I’m so tired by midday.  Then I check out the weather and realize that it’s not just super humid, but also 95̊ º.

Sooo many tourists!

In light of this, I got up at 6 am on Thursday to beat the tourist crowds and sweltering heat of Bangkok, especially after realizing that this meant long pants and closed-toe shoes.  Of course, everything’s closed until 8:30 am, when massive crowds of Chinese tourists pile out of tour buses.

The crowds and the wait were well worth it to see the Grand Palace and the many buildings around it, all shimmering in gold paint and intricate stonework.  Thinking about just how many man-hours it must have taken to construct all these buildings without today’s manufacturing methods boggles my mind almost as much as the fact that the universe is constantly expanding (into what??).

Reclining Buddha

And then to think that the royalty needed to reaffirm its Buddhist values by building the huge Reclining Buddha.  At around 43 m long, it’s the same in length as the height of the Kawarau Bridge in New Zealand that I bungeed off of.  It couldn’t fit in one photo, let alone the room they placed it in (or built around it, I’d like to think) – the head ornament even hits where the wall meets the ceiling.

I also had to admit to myself that I need air-conditioning.  After the first long night of watching the small ceiling fan circulate the hot air, I moved over to an area much more accustomed to tourists – which I discovered makes me uncomfortable.  I’m halfway around the world, only to find myself in an area overwhelmingly white.

It’s here that I’ve discovered a new varietal of the classic Ugly American.  Instead of the less-than-classy tourists I’ve seen in France who fill entire sidewalks and complain loudly about how rude their waiter is in a crowded restaurant, now it’s the party-minded college-student variety.  I know that every major city has its share of these, but it’s more incongruous when early-morning drinkers walk alongside Thai monks and Caucasian tourists show up to temples in hobo chic right behind devout, modestly-dressed Buddhists.

 

Lotus flower

But, tourists aside, Bangkok is itself a hodge-podge of conflicting ideas.  The streets have the typical big-city smell, with spurts of curry, freshly-cut fruit, and flowers coming from the sidewalk stalls.  The water taxi that criss-crosses the river connects the temples with Chinatown and immaculate shopping centers, while passing by ramshackle huts on stilts over the water, held up by who-knows-what force.  The Grand Palace, images of the royal couple that litter the city, and a twice-daily broadcast of the national anthem remind everyone of the royalty’s power, but it’s too easy to forget the political uproar of the city just a year ago.

This pretty much sums up the tuk tuk experience

It’s been so much fun so far exploring each completely different area of town, from the flower markets in Chinatown with stall upon stall of carefully put-together flower arrangements, to the old city center with its plethora of temples and Buddha statues.  The food has been absolutely amazing, like the crab curry dish and fried prawns (another first!) I got with a Cornell friend last night.  And I’ve been enjoying the variety of transportation methods, from water taxis to the Skytrain and tuk tuks.

More Buddhas

Tonight I’m heading off to Chiang Mai, a city known for its massage schools, cooking classes, and nearby mountains that are excellent for hikes – a perfect place to relax for a while!

I hope everyone is doing well back at home!

Back to the States.. well, US territory

My trip to Guam was ridiculous.

Family!

The cheapest flight (can't blame not wanting to pay $3000 to get to Guam) routed me from Christchurch to Melbourne to Singapore to Manila to Guam.  Almost all the flights were red-eye.

The first flight went smoothly enough.  The second flight just about didn't happen.  Several of us were jumping on the same plane and shared the same confusion, as the airline wasn't posting the departure gate for the 11 am flight.  10 am: nothing.  10:30 am: nothing.  10:45 am: I started asking around.  11 am: posted as cancelled, right after I found out from a different airline's steward.  Well, that's what I (didn't) pay for.

They bumped us to the next flight on Qantas.  So instead of starving on a poorly-serviced JetStar plane, I got regular meals, free movies, and a row to myself on a new Airbus.  No complaints.

From Singapore, I took my flight to Manila, where I discovered that my bag was missing.  Not only that, but I couldn't find my baggage claim ticket anywhere.  Of course.  I filed a complaint in Manila, which I repeated in Guam, but after several days in Guam, I still don't have my bag.

But losing my bag in Manila wasn't the worst part of my day.

My first lobster

Amazing dessert

Most normal people would catch a taxi to a nearby hotel and get some sleep during a 20-hour layover.  But not being normal, I took an alternate room to a good day's sleep: riding an ambulance to the health clinic to sleep on a stretcher.

New friends

I'm not quite sure what happened.  Perhaps it was having slept very little two nights in a row.  Maybe the cup of noodles I got wasn't boiled long enough and the water was still contaminated.  But in any case, I was nauseous and shaky, so the observant airport cleaning crew called the clinic for me.

After a good rest in the health clinic, I was back to normal and off to Guam.  I guess I really did need to take it easy!

Now I'm in Guam, hanging out with the family, napping and catching up between meals, which have all been delicious (like the one above!)  We spent the other day at one of the fiesta lunches and enjoyed the food, music, and dancing with dancers in grass skirts (I'll have to get those pictures off my dad).

It's been great being with family again, especially so soon after Easter - kind of like a belated holiday.  Just a few days in and, for all the craziness, I'm reminded of why I enjoy being around my family.

Wilson-Battel family's emo rock poster :P