jasonyoungers.com

I’m traveling solo headed to Southeast Asia on the 19th of December, flying into Bangkok. I’m planning on traveling to Chang Mai and Krabi in Thailand, as well as Luang Prabang in Laos, Hanoi in Vietnam, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I may be going to Phnom Penh, Cambodia as well. About the only things I’m set on is getting to Angkor and doing some sea-kayaking somewhere pretty, probably Krabi. I’m also curious about staying at a Buddhist monestary for a few days, but I draw the line at cooking lettuce for breakfast.

I don’t yet have a feel for how long it will take to get around, or how much I will decide to fly versus travel over land or by water. This plan is subject to change. It will be interesting to see how much it does change. I’m expecting this trip to be mostly great with occasional low-grade uncertainty.

I’m packing light and expect to be mostly a backpacker, but I may splurge on some things like flying to avoid extended bus rides and land borders. I may also hire guides for certain destinations. I feel that I have missed out on some experiences in the past while traveling by going a little too low-budget. However, some of the most amazing places I’ve stayed have been very inexpensive, and Mont St. Michel was even better knowing that we were broke and hopped the fence to get in.

Well I made it. That was a long series of flights. The flight from Atlanta to Tokyo was not so much a journey as a temporary lifestyle. I watched four complete movies and some TV, ate three and a half meals, read and slept.

I’m staying at a place called the Sawasdee Bangkok Inn. It’s alright. Sawasdee means hello, so when you say “Sawasdee” to a taxi driver he says, “Sawasdee” and you look at each other until he realizes your an idiot. There are at least half a million Sawasdee guest houses around Khao San Road, which is where the backpackers congregate. The taxi driver from the airport new all of them except the Bangkok Inn.

It has been exceedingly easy to get around in Bangkok. Most of the taxi drivers and Tuk-Tuk pilots speak enough English, and there are helpful people seemingly everywhere. Yesterday, I toured my legs off seeing some of the major sights in Bangkok, including Wat Po and the Grand Palace, and took a boat trip around the canals. On the canal we were served a tasty beverage by a woman who paddled up in a small boat.

Today I got up at 11 and finally felt rested up. I’ve applied for a visa to Laos, and purchased a bus ticket to Chang Mai in Northern Thailand. I’ll head up there tomorrow night. The train was booked up except first class.

I took the subway out to an area of Bangkok that has a lot of western stores. There’s an Office Depot and a Tops supermarket and two KFCs within a block of each other. There were also a lot of American clothing stores. It amazes me that people here will pay 25 dollars for a shirt at an American mall store when they can have shirts custom made for a fraction of that, or buy them from a street vendor for a dollar. Logos are everywhere, most of them are unlicensed.

The traffic is not as bad as I expected. The motorcycle drivers are crazy, and you see some weird loads. A Tuk-Tuk is like the front end of a motorcycle with two rear wheels. They don’t seem to be much cheaper than taxis, but they’re more fun. There are also some vehicles with two wheels in the front and one in the back. Sometimes they are peddle-powered and sometimes motor powered. They’re used for hauling things that can’t somehow be tied to the back of a moped. Today, I saw one with three large (five foot long, maybe 80 pound) propane tanks. I couldn’t quite get a picture of it.

So far, so good. I am, as usual, more excited about the trip now that I’m here.

I’m leaving Bangkok tonight. The second class train tickets were sold out so I’m taking a VIP bus. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep. I think I’m on Thailand time now even though last night I fell asleep at 8pm and woke up at 1 am.

Today I went to the National Museum. An Englishwoman gave a three-hour tour. She was very knowledgeable about the various poses and periods of the Buddha. I didn’t realize before how heavily influenced Thailand is by Hinduism. It precedes Buddhism here and they kept a lot of the stories and symbolism.

Toward the end of the tour the guide started sweating heavily and felt light-headed. She laid down on the floor of the museum and drank some water. I think she was very dehydrated. She seemed to recover alright, but I encouraged her to drink much more water (remember “clear and copious”).

Later in the day I went to Wat Sudhat. I think it had the greatest effect on me of anything so far. The complex is amazing. The main temple is overwhelming and the various sculptures in the courtyard were very different than anything I’ve seen so far. The horse sculptures are considered masterpieces in bronze. I can’t put the place into words. I was able to enter the temple and listen to monks chanting. The sound was amazing and I’ll try to post an mp3.

This is just a very brief update. I’ll expand it later. I’m in Chang Mai in the north of Thailand. It’s the second largest city in the country. I got here at 6 am yesterday on an overnight bus. The trains were full. It is more relaxed than Bangkok and small enough to walk around, but the pollution is getting to me.

I saw a couple of unusual Wats yesterday–Wat Umong and Wat Chet Yot. Last night I went to a Thai Kickboxing event. It was clearly a tourist affair, but interesting nonetheless. As usual the small guys kick the heck out of each other for 5 rounds and it is decided by points. The big guys hurt each other and it’s over quickly. The last fight was between a Canadian and an Englishman. They were the only two foreigners and they were the biggest. One of them kicked the other in the left thigh hard about 20 times the first round and that was it. He was a hurting unit. For both of them it was their first fight in Thailand. I’m sure they thought it would be more dramatic. The fight before one of the Thais got kicked hard in the elbow. It happened so fast I thought he got kicked in the head and went down. There was a “doctor” there who took care of him. If you’re going to be a kick-boxer it pays to be small.

Today, I’ve hooked up with a tour group who are headed to Laos. We are traveling overland to the border where we’ll cross in to Laos at Ban Huay Sai. I don’t remember the name of the town on the Thai side. I’ll then take a boat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. I don’t imagine that I’ll have Internet or phone access for the next few days, so I wanted to get an update out there.

Right now it’s Christmas here and Christmas Eve at home. I hope everyone is having a merry Christmas. I’ve got more to write about the last few days, but I need to catch the van. The next update should be entertaining.

I’m alright. I’m sorry I didn’t get the word out sooner, but I’m just getting an idea of the scope of this earthquake this morning. I saw something on restaurant TV last night, but it was in Lao. Some French people were telling me about it this morning. It looks like I might not be doing any kayaking on the coast of Thailand this trip.

I’m in Luang Prabang, Laos right now. I was on a speedboat all day yesterday coming down from Chang Khong. Other than the news and rumor, I would not have known about the earthquake at all. There is no impact on this area. I’ll be here and around here for at least a couple of days.

I have to run, but I’ll post more later. Thanks for your concern, and thanks Jim for the resources you posted. I’ll check it out.

Because of the twelve hour time difference and the fact that I’ve was in the middle of nowhere all of yesterday, I’m just getting info about this now. It looks like a mess down there. It’s noon-thirty Monday here and I guess this hit yesterday morning. I’ll make a few phone calls, but it’s after midnight at home.

Two nights ago I was talking to people asking questions about how I should get to Krabi, Koh Phi Phi, and Phuket. It looks like it might have to wait until a different trip. I might redirect to Vietnam and skip the south of Thailand.

Being at home with the news on everywhere, It’s probably hard to understand how close I have been to not hearing about this Earthquake at all. Other than seeing some footage of messed up beaches on the news last night on a Lao broadcast, and some French travelers mentioning it this morning, I still wouldn’t have heard of it. I’m in an Internet cafe and I’ve just begun to read about it.

Everything is good here. I’m going to be in Laos for a few days, and I’ll figure out where to go from here. Most of Thailand is fine, but I might have to miss out on kayaking.

Traveling from Chang Khong Thailand to Luang Prabang is a river trip on the Mekong. There are two choices: a leisurely journey of two days spent enjoying the quiet serenity of the Mekong River and wishing there was a bathroom onboard the “slow boat” or six hours spent on a

“fast boat” enjoying the very loud serenity of the Mekong River while crammed into a very small space with seven other cadets going 70 km per hour wishing that the strap on your helmet wasn’t broken so you didn’t have to hold it onto your head the whole time. You can imagine which one I chose.

Take a look at who and what is driving these things. It’s an engine and standard transmission on a mount that allows it to be rotate side to side or tilted up or down. There’s a long drive shaft coming out the back with a propeller on the end, and there’s a long shaft coming out the front which allows the whole setup to be manuevered and has a throttle and shifter linkage on it. It’s brilliant. It’s even almost stable at 70 km per hour.

At some point I gave up on the helmet and put on the hat. Adam, I’m very ashamed of what happened a few hours later, but I can only laugh when I think of some sixty-year-old Lao fisherman working his nets in the hot sun with a bright green John Deere hat on his head. It all happened so fast. I just turned my head the wrong way and…

I arrived in Luang Prabang and immediately got price-gouged by some guys with a truck, but after being crammed into that boat for six hours, I didn’t think my legs were up to the 12 km hike into town. They wanted 100 Baht (US$2.50) each for eight of us for the ride. We got them down to 80 baht, but it was a rip-off because it was the only truck and everybody knew it. I later talked to some other tourists who sure were sore that they paid the whole 100 Baht.

Luang Prabang is fantastic, but don’t tell anybody. It isn’t big enough for the tour buses. At first I thought it was crammed with tourists, but I realized it the same tourists I was seeing over and over. This place is growing on me. There are some wats and a couple of waterfalls to see, but the people here are the best part. There are night markets where you can buy all kinds of crafts and a whole street of food vendors. There’s even a beer delivery service.

With all the pictures I’ve taken there were some great ones that got away. There was the obligatory young monk smoking a cigarrette, but better was the monk standing in the Mekong up to his knees smiling back at me as he brushes his teeth with bright yellow toothbrush. There was the video I should have of the three year old boygrabbing oranges as they fell off the pile and tossing them back on top. I do however have some video of some young kids racing each other as they roll bike tires in front of them by hitting them with sticks. I’ll figure out how to post it somewhere, but maybe not before I’m home.

These are the things that make this sort of trip absolutely worth the (actually very small) risks. If I had been at the beach when that tsunami hit, I would probably still be alive. I would probably also have been able to help other people who were injured or didn’t have a clean water supply. Yesterday I was writing in my notebook and I came across my notes from the day before the earthquake. I was talking with Nuii (a fantastic tour guide from Chang Mai) and asking a bunch of questions as to where I should go. Compare this with the newspaper reports.

In any case, I’m very glad to be here and I’m having a good time. I do wish that one of these days some of you might come with me.

For the last couple of days I’ve been taking small side trips out of Luang Prabang. As much as the city is a major tourist destination, it’s easy to get an idea of what real life is like here by going only a short distance away. I hired a small boat pilot to take me across the Mekong to a small village on the other side. The people there were very welcoming. I also made an instant friend. I took some video of kids in the village racing down the road with some bicycle tires. The video may take a minute or two to load, but it’s pretty funny. Watch the girl at the beginning. She had been doing very well until I started filming.

Later in the afternoon, I ate some traditional Lao cuisine and then took a minibus tour to a nearby waterfall. It’s one of the three or four side trips that most people take from here. Nearly everywhere I go I hear “tuk-tuk, waterfall?” Even better than the waterfall was the trip there and back. I hadn’t traveled by land in Laos before this and didn’t know what it would be like. I convinced the driver to stop for this photo of a farm, but not for this photo of the hardest working women in the thatch business.

The sunset was pretty amazing. I’ll have to put up some better photos, but here are a couple.

I’ve made it to Hanoi on a French airplane. I flew Lao Airlines and there were no Chinese YUN-12s in sight. Maybe the last of them exploded in mid-air. I was feeling under the weather today. I definitely didn’t enjoy the hour-long mini-bus trip from the airport to the City. Try explaining in Vietnamese that you might have to ask them to stop in the middle of the highway for a biological event. There were some twisted charades that caused real animation in my fellow passengers. In any case, it’s the first time I’ve had any trouble here at all and the people were very concerned and helpful.

For the last couple of days, I’ve been in hotels with English language television. I’m really just now getting the scope of the devastation in Thailand and elsewhere. When I arrived in Bangkok, I made the somewhat arbitrary decision to go north first instead of south. It looks like once again my bread hit the floor butter side up. Thanks for all of your concern and support, I’m blown away.

It was cold and dark on the way to the airport in Vientiane at 5:30 this morning. I wish I’d brought my long johns, or maybe put on the fleece or jacket that were in my pack. Amazingly, a tuk-tuk driver was waiting outside my hotel when I walked out the door. The hotel night attendant was sleeping across two chairs with a blanket and pillow in the lobby and there was a padlock on inside of the front doors. I felt badly because I’d woken him up once already three and a half hours earlier when I came in. After going up to check the room, he came down and unlocked the only obvious exit with a key from his pocket. When considering hotels in Laos, should we choose ones with a small tv in the lobby that we can throw through a window to get out in the case of a fire? Should that be in the guide book?

I didn’t notice it but there was an empty antifreeze bottle tied to the back of the tuk-tuk driver’s seat. He wanted five dollars to drive me to the airport, but we settled on 15,000 Kip–the equivalent to US$1.50. It was my second offer and the correct amount according to the travel agent in Luang Prabang. Some of the Lao people I’ve met seem to have trouble keeping a straight face when they give you a tourist price which is hugely inflated and very often paid. After less than a mile we pulled up to a corner where there was an old woman sitting behind a table in front of a shop. There were a couple of other tuk-tuks and drivers waiting for something to do. The woman came over with a funnel and 1-liter glass pepsi bottle filled with red fuel. It didn’t put much of a dent into the empty antifreeze bottle behind the seat which must have been rigged up as a gas tank. The driver gave her 5000 of my Kip.

The day before I’d had lunch in the morning market in Vientiane with a couple of Belgian guys who were five weeks into a year-long trip. It’s a huge flea market where local people buy clothing, jewelry and electronics. Every time I walked by a stand I was offered a Beer Lao t-shirt, nothing else. It’s as if this was the only thing westerners ever buy here. As I was walking by some tables I was intercepted by a young Lao woman who showed me were to sit. I hadn’t eaten in almost twenty-four hours due to bad planning, so was hungry and didn’t put up resistance. Her baby was on a blanket on the dirty concrete a few feet away playing with an old man. She was stacking things around the child to keep him from chewing on the electric cord to the fan. He was pretty resourceful, and she finally moved the fan.

The Belgian guys were going to be having a few beers down by the riverfront later for New Year’s Eve, but I never found them. I ended up drinking until two with an Australian English teacher who had a writing problem. There was an old woman working at the morning market who fried up the egg, vegetables and rice for my lunch over a crude propane stove. I was a little embarrassed to cough at the smoke. There are people cooking on the streets all over southeast Asia, very often with charcoal. The smoke gets thick and in this case had coated the cob webs overhead in black soot.

While I was eating, a woman came through the morning market dressed in the traditional clothing of one of the hill tribe minority groups of Laos. She had a baby in a loop of cloth hanging from her chest and a small boy followed her. They were very dirty and their embroidered clothing was on its way to rags. She had her hands out, but nobody seemed to notice them. They were ghosts and they kept moving. Looking back, I could have bought her lunch, but she moved on too quickly for me to figure out if the people working around me would think I was encouraging her. I guess instead I encouraged her to go hungry.

I haven’t seen a lot of beggars on this trip. Other travelers have said that the Lao people have a strong social network, and that there are no orphans in Laos. The few homeless people I have seen have been in very bad shape, many are disabled. I talked to somebody a few years ago whose friend had to cut short a trip to India because she gave away all of her money, extra clothes and backpack. When she then emptied her bank account and gave away her shoes, her parents wired her some money to complete the trip and she gave that away. This morning I understand.

By the time we got to the airport the fuel level in the antifreeze bottle had dropped significantly. I gave the tuk-tuk driver an extra 2000 Kip and it put a smile on his face. It was still dark and cold and I waited in the wrong terminal until the information desk opened up and pointed me to the international terminal building for my flight to Hanoi.

It’s weird to be a tourist here right now. A big part of me thinks I should have flown to Phuket to help with the cleanup, but I’m afraid I’d just put more strain on the resources that are there. I’m excited about Vietnam and hope to get out in the countryside later in the week. Things are going very well.

Happy New Year,
Jason

I’ve been in Hanoi for two days. I’m still suffering from a minor case of Ho Chi Minh’s Revenge. You’ve got two choices during a trip of over a couple of weeks: avoid eating or drinking anything that seems remotely dangerous and get sick after 2 weeks, or eat whatever you want and get sick after a week and a half.

Today I went to an Italian place that my guidebook suggested and the neighbor said it closed 6 years ago. I went to another Italian place that managed to make lasagna with bread in it and no sauce. It’s hard with my current lack of appetite to eat the volume of Vietnamese food that I need right now.

Hanoi is a little crazy. Imagine a city of a billion people. All of them are in the streets or on the sidewalk. All of them are either offering you a ride on their motorbike, offering to sell you their motorbike, or offering to run you over with their motorbike. The sidewalks are filled with parked motorbikes, so you have to walk in the streets. Look five ways before you cross the street and keep your head on a swivel while you’re crossing. Don’t move quickly, stop, or change speed suddenly because then your motion is unpredictable and the river of motorbikes won’t be able to change their vector to avoid yours. Nobody checks their mirrors unless they hear a horn, so everybody honks all the time.

What ever happened to the idea that it’s hot in Vietnam. It’s cold and damp here now. I wish I brought my long underwear and an electric blanket. Plugging an American electric blanket into the 220 volt outlets here could be heartwarming.

I’ve been looking into a five day riding tour through the northwest on a Russian-made Minsk motorcycle, but I’m not feeling up for it right now. I’m going to head to Halong bay on an organized two-day tour because it’s beautiful there and I’m feeling lazy. After that, I’m getting out of here as soon as I can. I’ll probably fly to Phnom Penh. I’ll take more pictures of the craziness tomorrow.

Today I was feeling a lot better. Unfortunately, everything is closed on Mondays so I wasn’t able to see Uncle Ho’s pickled corpse or his house or museum. I’m flying to Phnom Penh tomorrow morning. I ran into an Australian named Rich and his Fiancee Kish who gave me some good info on motorbiking around the south of Cambodia, so I’m out of here. As much as Hanoi was probably the low point of this trip, it’s a fascinating place and I would like to come back.

Tonight I went to see a water puppet show. It’s an old art form unique to Vietnam. It was really good. The stage is a pool with a screen behind it. The puppets are controlled by long underwater poles from behind the screen. Some of the puppets have fireworks built into them so they spit sparks and smoke. The music was really good as well, with some interesting instruments.

I also had some more lasagna. This time it was Hong Kong fast food lasagna. As bad as that sounds it was much better than last night’s, but Mom you don’t have anything to worry about. I also toured around the city a little bit and saw some war relics. I’m not sure what that thing is but I think it’s French. Maybe it’s a BOFURS gun.

There were also some sites that had relics from the war against the US. The Vietnamese government was pretty excited about shooting down B52 bombers. Part of this one crashed into this pool and they left it there and put up a plaque. Vietnam has such a young population that the war was over before most of them were born. I’d guess for the older ones it must be tough to accept American tourists, but I haven’t seen anything outward that would suggest it. Without understanding the language, I don’t really know what they think of me.

Here are a couple of random photos: nightime outside of the puppet theatre and the airport clocks at the Vientiane airport.

This will be brief. I’m in Siem Reap, the town near Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I’ve been touring around ruins for a couple of days and I’m beat. Yesterday was the best day of the trip by far. The place has been amazing. I’ll write about it later. Tomorrow, I’m headed back to Phnom Penh and will then take a bus or maybe a train to the coast of Cambodia, either Kampot or Sihanoukville. I’ll put up a post about the last couple of days soon. I need to get better access to the Internet and relearn how to use a keyboad.

I just got to Kampot in southern Cambodia last night and I went on a trip up to Bokor today. Bokor is an abandoned resort and casino on top of a mountain. It was built by the French during the colonial period here and abandoned as they left in 1972 due to the Khmer Rouge taking over the country. We hiked a few miles down the mountain and then through some farms to get back to Kampot. But that’s not what I want to talk about.

I spent three days in Siem Reap touring the ruins of the Angkor temple complexes. Angor Wat is the most famous of these, but there are dozens of ruins in the area. Maybe my favorite part was going to Angkor Wat before sunrise. It was my first day and I hadn’t seen it in the light. Walking up to it at 5am with the stars overhead was very impressive. Walking around inside in the dark not knowing the layout of the place was exceptional. The sunset from a nearby hill was no slouch either.

There’s another ruin called Ta Phrom where they’ve left the large trees in place where they grew on the ruins. The tree roots push the stones out of place and the walls collpase when the trees die. It’s a tourist favorite for good reason. There’s also a place about 80km away called Beng Malea where they have’n't restored it at all. We convinced a tuk-tuk driver to take us the whole way. The lady at this gas station thought we were all crazy. Walking around the ruins was like being in an Indiana Jones movie. Climbing around in there I found some sections standing including this hallway.

Some of the things that people haul on mopeds around here are unbelievable. I’ll tell you about some of the ones I don’t have pictures of and show you the ones I do. I’ve seen a motorbike (125cc Honda Dream II) with five people on it. I saw three motorbikes pass me on a dirt road each with 2 or 3 full size (but a little thinner) mattresses hanging off the back suspended by ropes somehow. I saw a guy on a motorbike with a full sized CO2 tank (5 ft tall, like a welding tank) tied down horizontally balanced on the seat behind him. There was no cover or protection around the valve. If he laid the bike down to the right, it was going to the moon.

Here’s one with a couple of small propane tanks on it. Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side to get a good shot. Apparently pigs take motorbikes too. I don’t know if they paid, but they were very much alive. I later saw a motorbike with four pigs on it.

I’ve updated this entry and the one about Angkor, and added a bunch of photos to both of them.

I’m in Sihanoukville now. For the last couple of days, I’ve been cruising around the coast of Cambodia on a dirt bike. I rode to a town called Kampong Trach on the road to the boarder with Vietnam. I pulled off the road to turn around and saw this man fishing in the rice paddies. It’s the dry season here so there’s not much water, but this place must have water year round.

Honda owns the market here for small 125cc mopeds, but there seem to be more Yamaha dirtbikes. Yesterday, I drove down some dirt roads and ended up on some dirt tracks between rice paddies. Some of the places I went, the people were very surprised to see me. There may not have ever been a westerner there before. One of the greatest things about riding here is that a gas station is never far away.
My face was so covered in road dirt by the time I got to this place that the woman laughed at me and gave me a wet-wipe with my soft drink. People here are amazing. I’ve had to learn to ride with one hand just to wave back at the armies of school kids walking and riding their bikes down the roads. Are those enough photos of the bike Adam, or should I take more?

It’s been a bit of trial by fire for a new rider, seeing that there are no lines on the roads, people drive wherever they want at whatever speeds they want. Trucks coming straight at me while passing other trucks on a two-lane road make me very aware of the on-road/off-road capabilities of this particular motorcycle. Oh, yeah and the only protective gear I’ve been able to get my hands on is some SPF 30.

But alas, it’s nearly over for this year. It’s going to be tight getting back to Bangkok by Friday night, but I should make it. I’ve got the bike until 2pm tomorrow when the guy will come to pick it up. After that it’s the border at Koh Kong and then on to Bangkok by whatever means possible. Just to avoid the potential shock when I come back and you’ve forgotten what I look like, here’s a photo.

I’m on my way home. There’s a long bus ride to the border then to Bangkok. Then there’s a long series of flights, so I’ll be moving for 40-some hours. I’ll send out another post once I get home, which should be Saturday afternoon at your GMT minus 5.00. Thanks for reading.

Adam (and any other motorcycle people who are lurking), look into the Honda Africa Twin, or the Suzuki DR 800 or DR 350. I think the two bigger ones don’t get imported into the US, but the DR 350 with a bigger tank, saddle bags and a better seat might be sweet for South America. There were times the last few days when going through rough dirt and rocks or through sand, when I was glad to have a light-weight bike. It would be great to go on a trip with you. The DR 350 is supposed to be a rock-solid engine. It needs more research.

I’ll see you all soon.

PS. I am in no way superstitious, but if you are never name a motorcycle “La Poderosa.” Yesterday, I lost all electrical on it and had to roll-start it to get back from nowhere. An old rice farmer helped push. They had bypassed the main fuse with some strands of wire which of course came loose.

I made it home. I managed to get about 3 hours of sleep in the last 48, so I’m well rested. The trip was good. I’ll probably post some follow-up entries in the next week or so, as well as some photos. The mini-bus trip to the Cambodian border with Thailand was interesting and I should have a couple of good photos of that if nothing else. I’d also like to go back and and add an entry about my last day in Bangkok (the third day of the trip). For now, here’s a photo of sunrise over the pacific from the airplane window.

Thanks for reading. I’ll talk to many of you in the next few days.

I’ve finished fixing up the old posts I had from the trip. There are better versions of the photos and a few new photos. I’ve also added an entry from the 23rd of December that was in a notebook I had on the trip.