"Happy Happy Chiang Mai No Problem"

Sawadee-ka!

[The title of this entry is dedicated to the guy on the corner in the alley we pass by every day--thanks for the greeting.]

Our adventure is coming to a close--and, fingers crossed, it seems like we'll be able to fly out of Thailand as scheduled. Civil unrest has wrought the country for the last few months, a people's political anti-government protest, which recently escalated into what they termed their "final battle:" the occupation of Bangkok's two main airports. For over a week both airports were closed completely, stranding some 300,000 tourists in the country and crippling the country's economy. Finally this week, just days before the national celebration of the King's 81st birthday (today--Long Live the King), the prime minister was forced to step down, the demonstrators left peacefully.

Recently we've still been in the northern part of the country, spending time in the villages of the Golden Triangle, museums of Chiang Rai, countryside of Pai, and city life of Chiang Mai. The mountains have been chilly--our bikini lines have faded and been traded for scarves. Something divinely therapeutic about soaking in hot natural springs--we've found a couple to soothe our travel-tattered selves. We learned the history of the opium trade and its effect on the region dubbed 'The Golden Triangle' by a U.S. politician in the '60s (to draw attention to China's ban on the crop). We stayed at a bungalow in a traditional Akha hilltribe village in the Golden Triangle run by a local villager--ask us to sing the traditional "thank you" song the next time we're all around a campfire...

Wats are as common as pad thai here, so it was refreshing to visit a contemporary version of the traditional Thai wat. Still under construction (started in 1997), this glittering white wat is the mastermind of a painter-turned-architect who has depicted Buddhist worldview on the wat's interior walls using modern-day cultural references. Images of Superman, cell phones, gas pumps, planes crashing into the Twin Towers, rocket ships, Matrix' Neo, man pleasuring woman, and nuclear explosions mix together leaving a powerful impression.

We bungee-jumped! One of those things we never felt we had to do with any kind of conviction, but after we were already at the Xtreme Sports center in Chiang Mai for Zorbing (a hilariously silly recreation where you're strapped inside a giant plastic ball and rolled downhill), we couldn't pass on the chance to free fall from 50m. Its more terrifying than we imagined, we discovered, but what a rush!
Pai (pronounced pie or bye) is a tiny hippie community in the mountains where you can't be caught dead without your trendy scarf or Aladdin pants. Two coffee shops per block, delicious Thai and Western food, nestled along a river in wide mountain park, this was a great place to chill out for a few days. Originally settled by Westerners, we were surprised that most the hipsters were Thai--equally surprising was the number of photos they posed for in front of any imaginable object or place. The rest of the Pai people were Westerners with dreadlocks, I think you get an idea for the place. So we tried to be as cool as possible while we were there--you know, to fit in. It was from here that we motorbiked to a natural hot springs converging with a river creating tiered pools of just the right temperature in a sunlit forest!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Chiang Mai with an alms offering to over 11,000 monks! Then we fly to Bangkok and home Tuesday the 9th. Happy to have traveled and happy to be homeward bound. We'll miss the land of smiles, a country of warm people, spicy food, awesome natural places, and fascinating culture. The menu at our guest house the 1st week of our trip read: "Going be Memorious..." and it has been.

Festivals, elephants, monks and oranges

Loi Krathong in Chiang Mai

After a whirlwind Indonesia trip, we found ourselves back in Thailand. This time, in Chiang Mai in the North. We arrived during the Loi Krathong festival which happens every November during the full moon. The festival lasts a few days - we arrived near the beginning. Every day (and all night) people set off fireworks. All over the city there are markets with stalls that sell all kinds of Krathongs - which are little boats made from banana leaves, flowers, incense, candles, etc. which people purchase in order to light and set afloat in the river. They range from simple to the more beautiful and ornate displays. Every night the sky is lit up with lanterns - giant white paper lanterns which you have to light and hold onto until it can fly into the sky on its own. The releasing of the krathongs and lanterns represent the releasing of suffering. We bought a krathong, lit the incense and candle and released our suffering into the river...well, not too much suffering over here but we wanted to take part in the tradition. The sky is alive with thousands of lanterns and fireworks! There are parades, dance performances, crowded markets (which does not stop people from setting off fireworks among the crowds). Every night we snacked on random market food for our dinners: mussel omelette puffs anyone?

Trekking

In Chiang Mai, the big thing is to go trekking into the surrounding mountains. We decided our stay here would not be complete without partaking. We decided on a 3 day, 2 night trek in Mae Taeng area. Our guide was a Thai man named Bond (James Bond). We began with an elephant ride! Ridiculously touristy, but we have to admit it was super fun... Our elephant was named Binteea--she was chill. We bonded. Next a super fast paced and rather steep climb up to a Lahu hill tribe village for the night. We were joined by a second guide - Jack Sparrow. Yes, we are sure that is his real name. He was the most nimble, resourceful, and entertaining guy in army pants, and two machetes on each hip which helped him fashion hats out of leaves and various bamboo creations. We were fed delicious food, some Lahu women made us a fire, and we slept in a bamboo hut under mosquito nets. The next day we had a significantly easier trek down to a waterfall for a refreshing jungly swim. That night we slept in a similar bamboo hut in a "jungle camp". After a short trek on our third day, we whitewater-rafted, grateful that our boat was the one that did not capsize completely in the rapids. Bamboo-rafting was touristy also, and goofy, as the raft floated a foot under the water--from shore I'm sure it looked like we were oddly bobbing along...

Monk Chinnaworn's Organic Farm

We stayed on an organic farm run by monk Chinnaworn. The advert for it reads, "Second Home is located in the tiny village we call Pang Term. It is an educational institution in the valley to train your mind, learn how to live a simple life, close with nature,meditation, Buddhism, cook vegetarian food, build mud house,gardening, monk chat and meditation every night at 8:00pm." Everything here is monk- or volunteer-made, including all bamboo or earthen buildings, paths (we hoed a hillside path through avocado trees), gardens, irrigation, plumbing, etc. The meals are created from vegetables and fruits from our organic garden there, or from Chinnaworn's mom's garden (she comes often, bringing food from her own fields--Chinnaworn is from the local mountain village of 80 people). Six of us foreigners are here, making the atmosphere intimate and laid-back. Everything is open-air, there is a laptop that sits on a table beneath only a homemade leaf-roof and mosquito net. We prepared three spicy,creative, wholesome meals together daily and sat on a covered bamboo-board patio in mindful eating: one day we had assorted fruit, banana patty, steamed pumpkin, sesame seeds, and a ramen noodle dish topped with flowers, vegetable protein, and corn for breakfast. Each meal is finished with ripe papaya. One day we weeded peanut, green bean, and cilantro rows in the garden. While a Welsh girl here built her own mud hut to stay for 1-2 months, we stayed just four nights in our stone, 3-walled hut (overlooking rice fields & banana trees). We spent our last day helping finish this mud hut. We dug up the dirt, hauled up buckets of water, smashed it with our feet (like grapes!), added rice husks and mixed in hay. We wrapped the muddy hay around the bamboo frame and then flung handfuls of mud at the walls for a more "finished" and refined look. Chinnaworn himself is great--smiley, present, a great cook and even great badminton player (we think he has yet to lose). In the end it truly felt like a second home - in our little peaceful valley in paradise.

Fang Orange Orchard

The town of Fang is listed in Lonely Planet as hardly more than a truck stop on the way north from Chiang Mai. For us it was the agricultural setting for a fun & interesting weekend with Thai friends. We met 4 of our Bangkok friends in Chiang Mai & bussed 3 hours north to Fang. P'Poi & company used to work in Fang and had many friends & connections--we were still farang, but felt like locals. We toured the orange orchard with the managers, picking & eating Juju fruit & oranges. We picnicked at the local hot springs national park. Most the weekend we spent in the back of one pickup or another, wind in our hair, taking in the quiet countryside. We ate countless oranges, and our hosts kept us fed with delicious & unusual snacks, such as coconut sticky rice with custard wrapped in banana leaf, papaya salad with fermented fish juices (mmm....), fried cassava root stick snacks, longan fruit, and more! Thanks to our friends for making Fang more than a dot on the map...we hitched a ride with a Fang friend to Mae Sai, not on the itinerary, but here we are in the northernmost town of Thailand--on the river-border between Thailand & Burma (Myanmar).

Mikaela Sparkles Indonesia

October 29 - November 10

Our Indonesian adventure began with Mikaela greeting us at the airport and she took us via hot, sweaty, crowded, karoake & live music-filled public transport to her home in Gresik, Java. Mikaela's been teaching English at a Muslim high school for 3 months now, thus she's a stellar tour guide: speaks the local tongue, knows the best snacks...

Her host family was so welcoming! They cooked us delicious food: fried tempeh, ginger tea, Gado-Gado (boiled vegetables with peanut sauce), krupbuk (fish-flavored crackers that accompany edible dish). We visited the high school Mikaela is teaching at, getting a taste for celebrity. Mikaela brought us into every classroom: "These are my friends from Alaska!" - they screamed an approving greeting. Every kid had a cell phone to take pictures of us. Apparently bules (Western foreigners) are few and far between in Gresik. Just walking to school, we were stared at, followed, and felt on display in our bule parade. Mikaela just seems to accept this as everyday by now, as well as the 5-times daily Muslim call-to-prayer, Mosques, and factory smokestacks (Gresik is an industrial city).

We visited Mt. Bromo, one of the more famous active volcanoes on Java. We woke at 3:30am for a beautiful sunrise and a foggy sand dune hike to the brim. Another Java highlight was Borobudur, an ancient Buddhist temple outside of Yogjakarta: an architectural and spiritual wonder.

After a whirlwind tour of Java, we spent the rest of our time in Indonesia in Bali. One night in Kuta - the hectic tourist scene where a night club was bombed in 2002 by Muslim extremists opposing Western hedonism (they were executed while we were in Bali) - after some time in the surf, we headed inland to Ubud.

Anyone read Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love? The author finds the love portion of her book in this artistic, agro-rich, mountainous, chill town. For four days, we indulged our senses in everything Balinese: traditional dances (Kechak, "monkey"), art museums, shadow puppet shows, local organic food, bicycle rides winding through rice paddies and traditional villages, glimpses into traditional practices of rice harvesting, sipping locally brewed coffee, motorbike taxi rides, monkey sanctuary, temples.

Everywhere, everyone, and everything in Bali embodies the ancient dualism and wholesome balance, evident by daily beautifully arranged banana leaf/flowers/food/incense offerred at each curb, temple, doorstep, and dashboard. Of the less Balinese but equally awesome, we enjoyed multiple nights of live reggae music, and celebrated Lena's 23rd birthday and Obama's victory by having ultimate dance party with Balinese locals, and tacky covers of popular American music: you bet it was as great as it sounds.

OBAMA!!!!

With the world we watched the election results, and celebrated big time, Bali style. In a crowded expat-filled bar called Naughty Nuri's, we toasted our new president elect with Bintang beers, tears, cheers and sighs of relief.

Read about Naughty Nuri's:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/30/barack-obama-absentee-voting-bali

Next stop in Bali: the beachside town Amed. Beautiful bungalow, more diving (we dived the wreck of the U.S.S. Liberty torpedoed in 1942), Bintang beers on the beach, delicious loempia (spring rolls), friendly locals, beach bonfires with the local palm spirits (arak) and moonlit bay/volcano views.

One last night in Gresik with Mikaela before flying back to Thailand.

Under the Sea

It's been a while since we blogged.

October 24-29 ?

We are certified. For scuba diving, that is. We spent six days on Koh Phi Phi where we decided to try out scuba diving for a day. Turns out - it's amazing - we're addicted. Hence, the certification, which took 3 days. We ended up going on four incredible dives in different areas around Phi Phi. Morray eels, Nemo clown fish, turtles, Morrish Idols, box fish, pufferfish, so much beautiful coral! Sebastian was right: "darling it's better, down where it's wetter, under the sea!" Our low season luck continued, as we enjoyed the privacy of a huge dive boat with just the two of us and instructor Vicki. For the course, we were just 3 + instructor. We ate lunch at Maya Bay, which is where the movie The Beach was filmed (The actual beach was swarmed by tourists, but we got to see it from our dive boat). The moral is, try scuba please.

Koh Phi Phi is possibly one of the most beautiful - and touristy - places on earth. White sand beaches, limestone karst formations jutting out of the emerald water, and islands of lush (yes mosquito, spider & lizard infested jungle) rainforest. We'd seen slides of Phi Phi of our friend Skip from 16 years ago. The island then wasn't developed and the difference is dramatic. Skip also visited prior to a tsunami a couple years ago, from which the island is still recovering.

Katie and Lauren, friends from Juneau, met up with us for a couple of days. After a quiet week on Phi Phi's sister island, Koh Lanta, this was our time to get a fix of the backpacker social scene, bargain at the markets... There's quite a party scene and tons of drunken westerners roaming the streets - they actually sell alcohol in buckets, that's the big thing there apparently. Don't worry, we only shared a couple and managed to avoid joining the drunken parade of farangs (we hope).

Pendulum Edges of the Island

For those who will ever visit Koh Lanta: rent a motorbike - cruise from morning til after sunset. Drive to each of the end of roads, kin to Juneau's isolation. We moto-crash-coursed on the dirt road south from our bay, sticking our lines and avoiding major potholes so as not to crash our uninsured moto. Ups and downs and many bends later, we came to a National Park headquarters. We swam in sweat by the time we hiked the short way to the peninsula lighthouse with sweeping views of the ocean and surrounding islands. Monkey sightings abound... Next stop, trail to a waterfall. A seemingly deserted parking lot/restaurant at the trail head; we followed a meandering creek "trail" through dense jungle, encountered a giant lizard of some kind. We cruised to 100 year old Lanta Old Town - houses, shops and restaurants on stilts over the ocean - reminded us of Pelican, tropics style. A picturesque, laid back fishing village.

We strapped on our helmets (unlike the locals) and biked to Mae Kaew Cave where we bought tickets from a couple sitting near a hand written sign for cave tours. Our guide sauntered out from a nearby bungalow in flip flops, smoking a a cigarette and holding 3 headlamps. His name was Hek. We felt the familiar travel mantra for us: go with the flow, suspend judgement, see what happens. We followed him on a mostly silent 2 hour trek through jungle and then through the tunneling cavernous limestone caves. He didn't speak much English, and our Thai doesn't really apply to spelunking, but he knew the important stuff such as "watch your head", "slippery", and "picture?". The nimble guy scrambled through the muddy, slippery caves in his flip flops like it was nothing. We squeezed through narrow passage ways and crossed somewhat sketchy bamboo bridges and ladders, sometimes squeezed through little passageways on our hands and knees, only to come out into a huge awesome cathedral-esque cave with amazing rock formations. (And bats!) In the end, upon emerging into open air, our clothes and skin had acquired a nice muddy outer layer - which didn't stop us from driving to the supermarket and hitting up a nice restaurant. Let's hope that cave mud doesn't stain...

We're very much enjoying the laid back atmosphere of island life here and our little bay in paradise...we think it suits us very well.

Happy Alaska Day

NOTE: WE HAVE NOT FIGURED OUT HOW TO FORMAT OUR BLOG. CAN YOU TELL?

Yo Ho! Long tail boat
Wooden tradition afloat
Tropics life for me!

...We heard them before we saw them. In the complete dark of the narrow cave, their voices were boisterous and loud, echoing off the walls. As the cave narrowed, the water pushed us into their envoy. It was a chain of swimming Thais. Two wide and at least 75 long, their heads bobbed in their lifevests as their chain snaked past us. They cheered and laughed, flashlights illuminating their smiling faces. They were headed in to the pirate cove where they once kept treasure. We had been, and were swimming back out the the long tail boat waiting for us in the ocean. Watch out for the stinging jelly fish! (No, really.)

BUS RIDE TO SOUTHERN THAILAND: 25 hours
We have devised a new way to evaluate a bathroom's cleanliness: how many toads are there in the porcelain?

Also, we've discovered life in a bungalow on the laid back island of Koh Lanta can be quite difficult. Should we go snorkeling today? Maybe just hang out on the beach in our seemingly private bay? Or maybe ride a motorbike around the island? It's stressful, to say the least.

Nation - Religion - King

We took a trip to Cambodia for a few days - which turned out to be quite the journey. First the bus from Bangkok to the border, then on to another bus to Siem Reap (where Angkor Wat is). The contrast between Thailand and Cambodia is quite striking - as soon as we hopped off the first bus - children ran up to us begging. One boy was pulling on my arm because I was carrying a bag of fruit. Poi Pet (border town) is dusty, has bumpy dirt roads, it's full of little kids begging and people everywhere hanging around. The bus ride to Siem Reap was on a bumpy dirt road that they are apparently working on, as is evidenced by the little bumpy detours every couple of minutes (the rumor is that an airline is paying the gov't not to develop it). The road goes through a rural area with green flooded fields with people in the water the whole way - men throwing their fishing nets, children swimming and even two kids riding a yak. There are rural towns of sorts with houses along the road; very minimal sort of shack-like bungalow kind of structures - some over water. Food carts, people on bicycles, people washing dishes, gas stations (carts with racks of glass and plastic reused bottles filled with gas), beasts of burden, children playing and dogs lined the road.

We arrived at night to Siem Reap to find an abundance of 5 star hotels, but turn a corner and you find evidence of the poverty so rampant in Cambodia--people sleeping on their motos and food stands lining the streets - the contrast was amazing.

We spent two days biking through the temples of Angkor - we ended up biking around 67km total (not an easy task in scorching heat/when it's raining cats and dogs - we experienced both).

There is a huge amount of kids near the temples. As soon as they see you, they run after you "Lady, you buy my water!", "You buy my pinneaple!", "Ok, you buy on the way back", "You buy my postcards, 10 for 1 dollar, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10". One boy counted to ten in English, French, Spanish and something else. "Where you from?" - United States- "Capital Washington D.C.". Their English is good considering these children are savvy salespersons not students. Beneath their rehearsed roles as profit-slingers, they are sweet and fun kids--our Belgian travel friend Jeroen won a temporary hiatus from the onslaught when he bought a round of icecreams for them all!

Also quite captivating about Cambodia is its recent genocidal history. Something like a third of the population, and most of the educated, were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime in 1975-79. These atrocities have left a scar on the country, and the current government is struggling with choosing long-term benefit over short term profit, thus much corruption.

Did we mention how long the bus ride was? A day there and a day back. But worth it for the enchantment of the temples and ensuing adventure. Angkor Wat at sunrise with mists rising from the rainforest within the temple walls...slurping fresh passion fruit inside the temple where Angelina Jolie's 'Laura Croft: Tomb Rader' was filmed...drinking coconut juice straight from the nut...dodging yaks, tuk-tuks, motos, hot clam carts in highway traffic on bicycle...