Ace and Penny at Large

Just in case

aceite4 — Mon, 1 Feb 2016 10:09:00 GMT

Just in case anyone is still reading and wondering what happened . . .

Ive been home a little more than a week now. I wasn’t getting better on the gastro-intestinal front and was starting to get a little worried. Turns out I had giardiasis which I probably got from petting cows and not washing up properly. Its usually transmitted through contaminated water (from poo), but thats not the only way you can get it. When I got home, I took some antibiotics and am definitely much much better.

Part 2 of my travels will have to be done at a later date. I definitely feel like I do want to continue and complete the journey. Probably not this year though. Maybe next? Until then I’ll be enjoying the many small adventures of life at home. Sigh, and it IS good to be home!

Smooth as silk

aceite4 — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 00:45:00 GMT

While California gets drenched with rainstorm after rainstorm (yay!), I have had a nearly rain-less time while traveling in Asia. Until yesterday.

It was misting a little when I left the hotel at around 11am to go silk scarf shopping (for those special someones). I flagged down a rickshaw who took me about a mile down the road to a silk shop recommended by Lonely Planet as being one of the only honest silk places in town. It was an inconspicuous place, off the main drag.

I was greeted by a young indian woman who took me into the stockroom lined with shelves filled with folded scarves in plastic wrappers. The floor of the room was covered with foam cushions. She took her shoes off and sat on the cushioned area. I sat on a bench along the edge. She took out 5 or 6 silk scarves and unfurled them in front of me. “Tell me which one is the best quality” she said to me. They were all different in texture, weight, grain and I really didn’t have much of a clue, but I took a guess. Turned out it was a trick question and all of the scarves she had shown me were fakes! Then she schooled me on the silk trade in Varanasi and how most people get ripped off— most of what is sold is not really silk but polyester which can be made to look and feel just like silk! She showed me the way to tell if its really silk or not— you have to actually burn a small piece of it and if it smells like burning hair and the ash crumbles, then its silk. She demonstrated by burning the end of one of the tassles on an actual silk scarf.

A day or two earlier, I had been walking around looking for a drug store and a guy asked me if he could help. When he said, “follow me” I knew that I was getting sucked into some kind of trap, but I was also curious to find out what would happen. He said he didn’t want money for helping me find the drug store, but instead, "I have a little shop that maybe you would want to take a look at". It was a silk shop. I said, ok sure, having never been to a silk shop before. So he walked me down the road about 10 minutes and up a flight of stairs to a small silk shop, allegedly family run— 5 generations and they allegedly make their own silk. They sat me down and started unfurling silk bedspreads on the cushioned floor in front of me. I told them I didn’t need a bedspread, so out came the table cloths, one being unfurled on top of the next. I said they were not really my taste. So out came the silk scarves. I got the feeling that they would just keep unfurling one on top of another until they’d unfurled every single scarf in the shop. Who was going to fold all of these scarves and things back up and put them in their wrappers again? I could see they were working some sort of guilt-trip angle with all the unfurling, so I said none of it appealed to me and stood up and left.

Back at the legit scarf shop— I bought a couple scarves and was back out on the street. I figured I would walk back to the hotel and ditch the scarves and go out again. As I walked, the mist in the air became droplets and then sprinkles and soon a light rain was falling.

Dont quote me on this, but I dont think it rains here that often, or at least during this time of year. The main effect that the rain had was to dissolve all the piles of shit in and around the street into puddles of diarrhea which was then splattered everywhere by the various wheeled vehicles. I was very pleased that I had brought a pair of waterproof hiking shoes with me on the trip, as I dont know I how would have survived this day without them.

As I walked, I was mostly looking at the ground and at other people’s feet. No one put on rubber boots or tried to avoid the muck in any way. They just squished right through the muck in their flip flops, cardboard-thin-soled sandals, or more often than not, bare feet. Everyone had the muck in between their toes and up their shins (I stayed to the edge of the road to avoid getting splattered).

So, let it be known to the silk scarf recipients, the story of this day, on which the pristine silk scarves were transported through a virtual shitstorm so that they could be delivered safely and spotlessly to you.

I kept thinking, am I just a prissy germophobe in my thick-soled waterproof boots? I mean, they seem perfectly ok with walking through the nastiest filth in their bare feet. Is it them who has the problem or is it me? I guess the answer depends on what country you’re from.

Next I headed down to the river to check out Manikarnika Ghat, otherwise known as “the burning ghat”, where rumor has it that up to 300 bodies per day are cremated by their families out in the open by the edge of the river. I started my walk a few ghats down the river and slowly worked my way up. The river twists and turns, so coupled with the smog, you cant really see too far ahead.

I hadn’t seen any photos of the burning ghat because taking photos there is strictly prohibited, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I had a feeling I was getting close when I started seeing ginormous stacks of firewood piled up at the top of the preceding ghats.

Then I rounded a turn and wow what a sight! It was like I was looking onto a set from the Game of Thrones. There were piles of wood stacked as big as small houses— not your usual chords of wood, but big logs and branches stacked up a storey or two. In back and above the ghat were the tops of a bunch of pointy shrines. Everything was grey/brown/black from all of the soot. There was smoke and flames billowing up from around 4 different funeral pyres. Groups of people were standing around the fires. The steps down near the river were covered with ashes, marigolds, burnt and unburnt wood.

I stayed at a pretty good distance to take in the whole scene. At one point I saw what I think was a body being carried down to the river on a handmade wooden stretcher. The body was covered/wrapped in a sheet of gold foil. Im not sure what happened to it after that. I started getting harassed by a couple touts and didn’t feel like putting up with it, so I took off, thinking I might return another time for a closer inspection of the place.

Photos: Varanasi sights

aceite4 — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 01:28:00 GMT

Varanasi (Part 2)

aceite4 — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 01:06:00 GMT

So now that my health has taken a dive (I still have lingering GI probs and now a cold to top it off), I am re-thinking my ambitious plans to make it all the way around the globe which I didn’t really plan out that well in the first place. I always knew there would be several long-haul flights involved to get home going west, but I think I was in denial of how unappealing that would seem when the time came, especially in a weakened state.

So, although a big part of me is ready to run home in the other direction, tail between legs TODAY, the adventuring part of me is still whispering in my ear, "why the hell not chill out, take your time and hole-up here in Varanasi for a week and slowly, and perhaps more thoroughly, maybe, get to know this particular city and enjoy the fact that you’re half way around the world in an utterly amazing place with so much to learn and experience? Then, when you feel better, get on a plane to Delhi or Bangkok and from there go the rest of the way home."

Then the vanquished part of me says, "but you’ll never get better here, the place is such a dive.”

Then the adventuring part of me says, well maybe you just need to change hotels.

Its true, although I really came to like the very helpful and trustworthy owner of my guesthouse, Vinesh, and even though his guesthouse was clean, in an interestingly crumbling residential neighborhood that looked like it had been built before the turn of the last millennium, and on a fascinating stone-paved alleyway filled with fun animals, all the rooms in his hotel were ridden with mosquitos, there was trash being burned nearby on a regular basis, and the scary Assi river which is literally an open sewer lined with garbage, ran swiftly right behind the place. So it was kind of like sleeping at the dump.

I moved hotels today to a more central part of town and there is indeed a noticeable improvement. I think the two parts of me are in agreement that the new plan is at least worth a try.

I’ll let you know if and when something interesting happens.

Varanasi (Part 1.5-ish)

aceite4 — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 23:59:00 GMT

Health update: slowly but surely getting back to normal and focusing mainly on that. I should probably wait until I am closer to being 100% to give my honest opinion about Varanasi. Right now, it is probably the last place in the world that I want to be, which in a way is kind of a cool experience to have. I mean, even when bad things happen, its still part of the adventure, and sometimes the toughest things while traveling (in my experience) make for the best and most memorable stories in the long-run. India has not defeated me yet! (India, please, this is not a challenge!)

The entrance to my guesthouse room is on a fourth floor balcony. When I went out this morning, I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of kites in the air. Small, diamond-shaped, hand-made paper kites. And the rooftops of the buildings all around me were covered with people (all guys) with kite strings in their hands, aggressively maneuvering them. Walking through the alleyways, there were kites on the ground, kites in trees, kites caught up in telephone wires. And everyone was shouting (Im not sure what). I asked the hotel owner what they were saying and he said people were competing with their kites (Im not sure how) and whenever someone wins, they, and all their friends shout that they won, or something like that. Its their once-a-year kite festival. Who knew?

Just from my few short walks in my hotel vicinity, I can tell you that this place, Varanasi, could take volumes to write about. Penny & I thought Myanmar was “different”, but this takes the cake. I find myself wondering a lot of the time what planet I am on.

Oddly, I see hardly any tourists here. I mean, I can sort of see why-- the place is an extreme dump, to put it mildly. I think "apocalyptic cesspool" would more accurately describe it. I guess thats good for keeping tourists away; otherwise, I dont see why this place wouldnt be flooded with them and loose all of its other-worldlyness.

By the way, there are some very dear sweet cows in the alleyways around here. They will flirt with you and bat their eyelashes. I pet one for a while the first day I arrived and then walked away and paused to look at something and felt a wet nose on my elbow. The same cow had followed me like a puppy dog wanting to be pet. Aw!

The cows here really get treated like, well, sacred cows. There are also goats and dogs in the streets and every now and then I see pigs. I think goats are the scapegoats of the bunch. They’re always getting chased away and seem timid and afraid, where as the cows are just walking around flirting with everyone. No chickens anywhere though— I think probably because of the rooster problem they’d have. Everyone here seems to go to bed at the same time 10pm? and wake up at the same time 5 or 6am?. Its completely silent at night except for the odd yelling goat or barking dog or bellowing cow.

Last thing, I have been down to the Ganges a few times now too. I actually saw a snake charmer with a real cobra in a basket there. It was super cool. I keep meaning to go back and check it out further but I only saw him one time.

Varanasi (part 1)

aceite4 — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 18:01:00 GMT

So Ive got good news and bad news. Good news is I am feeling much better. Bad news is Ive spent most of my time in Varanasi so far having a bad case of nausea and diarrhea. I think by tomorrow I will be able to once again face the outside world, but the past 2 days have been spent feeling very far away from home.

The owner of the guesthouse Im staying at gave me some psyllium husks mixed with water and a little sugar and lemon yesterday— its a natural remedy and kind of like chia seeds in that they expand and absorb water (and toxins). So the husks were supposed to clean me out. I was skeptical about taking them, but someone else here at the guesthouse said she’d had the same problem I was having and vouched for the husks. I felt a soothing effect as soon as I drank them and they stopped the nausea in its tracks. The rest of the problems are taking a bit longer to go away, but I think the husks definitely helped. Maybe I’ll bring some of the husks home.

A couple people have said that what I got is my “initiation” to India and that I’ll be able to eat whatever I want from here on out. Fingers crossed!

So, so far India has been a little rough, but Im not giving up yet. Im going to stay here in Varanasi until I actually see some stuff and then plan to take an overnight train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I figure I may as well bag the Taj since Im fairly close. Then probably on to the state Rajasthan. We’ll see how it goes . . .

One full day in Delhi

aceite4 — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 19:16:00 GMT

I had one whole day in Delhi to figure out what to do with. I didn’t intend Delhi to be much more than a travel hub, so I didn’t do a heck of a lot of research on it. Trying to tackle it was not recommended, and I wasn’t tempted to. But, it did have one big sight that was a must-see: The Red Fort.

So I thought, ok I’ll hopefully be able to walk over to the Red Fort, spend a good chunk of time there, then come back for dinner. I asked the hotel desk about walking there and they said that even though it was only a 25 minute walk, that I couldn’t do it. Why? Because I didn’t know the way. In fact, they seemed to think that the whole idea of walking was preposterous. I figured they probably knew what they were talking about, so I asked how much I should pay a tuk tuk to take me there. They said 100 rupees (about $1.50).

So I went out and immediately a tuk tuk driver was in front of my face asking where I was going. I said The Red Fort and got in. I said, is 100 rupees ok? He unhesitatingly said yes. I thought, great, that was easy, we’re off to a good start!

We went for a block or two and then he pulled over and asked if I had a ticket already to the Red Fort. I said no. He said in that case he’d have to take me to the Government Travel Agency first. But why can’t I just buy my ticket at the Red Fort, I asked?? He said to trust him, it was better this way, the lines were super long at the Red Fort and I should really go to the agency first for the ticket. He seemed trustworthy, so I said “ok". That was my first mistake.

So we roll up to the “Government Travel Agency”, an unofficial-looking storefront on a busy street. The driver told me to go inside and he’d wait for me. So I went in and a guy wearing a black sweatshirt with gold brocade on the arms greeted me. I immediately sensed a scheister.

I said I needed a ticket to the Red Fort. He said he could help me with that, but then started asking me questions to size me up such as, first time in India? how long are you staying? what hotel are you staying at? where are you from? what do you do? Then, under the guise of being helpful, he started giving "advice" to plan out my whole stay in India (trains, planes, taxis, hotels, etc). I told him several times that I wasn’t going to buy anything and I just wanted the damn Red Fort ticket, but I got the feeling that he didn’t actually have that.

What he DID have, was a tour of Delhi in a private “government” taxi which would take me around to all of the important sights for 1000 rp ($15). I told him that I already had deal a with a tuk tuk who was waiting outside and I wasn’t going to buy his stupid tour.

Then Mr. Gold-Sleeves said that the tuk tuk couldn’t actually take me to the Red Fort because you needed a special permit and tuk tuks weren’t allowed. Then I got confused. Clearly there was some elaborate scam going on that I couldn’t quite get a handle on. They brought the tuk tuk driver inside and he admitted he couldn’t go there. So I was basically fucked. It seemed like, either I go back to my hotel and start all over, or I just do the tour for $15 which they actually made sound like a good idea. So I did it. Which would have been my second mistake had it not actually been a fun day because of my driver, Deepak.

Deepak was a petite middle-aged guy who seemed a little frazzled and introverted. I sat up front in the taxi with him and he didn’t talk. He drove me to the Red Fort. We parked in a dusty lot a few blocks away and he led me down a dirt path, through a busy market and across a life-threateningly busy street to the outside of the Fort. Before I went to the ticket counter (which had a very short line, btw and there were tuk tuks there too btw), he told me in a very thick indian accent that I could barely understand, not to talk to guides, photographers, rickshaws and not to trust anyone. There would be pickpockets. Meet him back at the taxi in one and a half hours. He must have had really good faith in my directional capabilities to think I knew how to get back to the taxi (luckily I had made a mental map in my head as we walked, i.e. turn left at the sneaker stand, right at the jacket seller, etc).

The Red Fort was cool. It was HUGE. Basically a fortress built out of red sandstone enclosing a large (half mile?) area on the inside which was primarily tree-shaded lawns, but also had many ornate buildings scattered about and a museum or two that had old weapons and interesting do-dads in them. I didn’t pay much attention to the history, so can’t say much more than that. It struck me that it would have been a good place to hang out and read for a day or have a picnic.

I went back to the taxi when I was supposed to, but Deepak wasn’t there and it looked like a line of cars had parked in front of our taxi, blocking the way out. Sigh. Then Deepak appeared. Turned out he hadn’t trusted my directional capabilities after all and had been looking for me. Then a cool thing happened. I asked how we were going to get the taxi out with all those other cars blocking us, and he showed me by pushing an entire line of around 8 cars out of the way like a train (no one had left their parking brakes on). I laughed.

Next, he took me to an old mosque close by. When we got there he told me I couldn’t go inside because there was bread inside. I said, “what?" He said “if you go inside now you will find bread". "I’ll find bread?" "Yes, bread." That didn’t sound like a reason not to go, so I tried to enter and got stopped because there was *prayer* inside. Oh ok, now I get it, prayer, not bread. I was only just starting to get the hang of Deepak’s accent.

Next we drove to New Delhi (we’d been in Old Delhi up til then). But first, I would be leaving out an enormous part of the story if I didn’t describe what it was like to drive with Deepak in Old Delhi. We never drove in a straight line for more than a second or two. No one pays attention to the lanes on the road. Every 3 seconds it seemed like we were coming within hairs of a head-on collision. No joke and I am not at all exaggerating. There is nearly every form of transportation on the road that you can imagine. I was sorry I sat up front because it was a constant “oh my god, we’re going to hit that (fill in the blank)!!!!” After a while I realized I could relax if I just focused my attention out the side window instead of the front. Penny, nothing we’ve seen up til now compares with the roads in India!!!

I was really friendly and smiley to Deepak and after a while he started talking to me.

“Do you have children? Deepak asked. "No, do you?” I said. “No", he said.

The first stop in New Delhi was a building called the Lotus Garden, but the line to get in was around the block, so I said, lets skip it. It did look super cool though, kind of like the Sydney Opera House— a huge white flower. I guess the inside doesn’t have much to see— its used primarily for meditation.

“Are you married?” Deepak asked. "Nope, how about you?" I said. “No", he said. “No marriage, no problems", I said. "Ha ha, some marriage good, some bad" he said.

Next stop was a market which I was in and out of in about 10 minutes, I wasn’t in the shopping mood.

“You have boyfriend?” he asked. No I said. Then he turned up the radio before I could ask him the same question. I had a suspicion that he might be a little queer, but I wasn’t going to ask. Instead, after a pause, I said “is that ok?” He said "yes, why not?!"

Next stop was another temple covered with pigeons. After the Red Fort, the quality of the stops had dropped dramatically, I noticed. I spent 5 minutes in the temple but found a large park nearby that I could have spent the rest of the day in people-watching. I eventually made it back to the taxi and Deepak was sleeping.

On our way to the next stop, he said, “why you dont have a boyfriend?” I said it just wasn’t my thing. I didn’t think he was being rude, he just seemed like he wanted some education. I said, "is that ok?" He said, "yes! why not?!" Then I said, "what if a girl has a girlfriend, is that ok?" He said, "yes! why not ?!"

Then we started joking around on a variety of subjects. A lot of the time a conversation would end in a non-sequiter though. For example, “So whats the secret to getting these touts to leave you alone?” I asked. And he said, “sometimes good sleep, sometimes bad. Not good mind”.

Towards the end of the day he started coming along with me when we stopped (we saw like 10 places, most of which weren’t particularly worth the drive I thought) and we kept joking around and teasing. He turned out to be a silly, tongue-in-cheek kind of guy.

When there were a couple stops left, I started trying to persuade Deepak not to take me back to the Agency when we were done (when we left the agency earlier, Mr Gold Sleeves said presumptuously that he’d see me after the tour and we’d have a chai and book some tickets). I told him I didn’t like that Gold Sleeves guy, that he was a jerk and I didn’t want to buy his stupid tickets. I had Deepak almost convinced (I said I’d even buy him a small bottle of whiskey in exchange), but in the end he was too afraid of getting in trouble. He said gold sleeves would call him up and yell at him. He told me just to say I was tired and would come back the next day and buy the tickets then, but dont say that he told me to say that.

So we went back, and this time it wasn’t Gold Sleeves, it was someone else who I liked better at first, so actually considered buying one ticket from him, but in the end, the train tickets were sold out for the day I wanted, so I got out of it. But I basically had to walk out of there with the guy still trying to sell me a plane ticket.

Back in my hood, I had Chana Masala (chick peas in a spicy tomato sauce) at a different restaurant but I thought I could make it way better at home, so I didn’t even finish.

I should mention, one of the tour stops was an absolutely delicious restaurant where I had tandoori chicken, dal, naan and a mango lassi.

Im in Varanasi now which is absolutely kick-ass. I might not post again for a few days . . .

Photos: Touring Delhi w Deepak

aceite4 — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 14:28:00 GMT

Arriving in India (Delhi)

aceite4 — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 04:20:00 GMT

On the morning of my flight to India, I realized I was sad to leave Thailand. I would miss the giggly thai people who I had come to admire a lot. I never really connected with any of them though. They seem shy, or reserved when it comes to interacting with foreigners, unless you are forced into a 1-on-1 situation, like in a cab or having a massage. Then they seem totally ready and willing to engage in a service-mode kind of way. Otherwise, they tend to stay at a distance. But I really admired how happy and completely non-judgemental they always seemed, and how they seemed unfazed by anything around them. I wondered if it was the buddhism or just something in their genes.

About Buddhism, the trip so far has been pretty eye-opening. Call me stupid, but I was under the impression that Buddhism was kind of a boutique religion (which it is in the U.S.). But, no, if you add up all the people in Asia, most of whom seem to be either practicing Buddhists or Muslims, its got to be up in the top 2 or 3 world religions.

So after taking the 6am Skytrain and then the Metro subway to Suvarabhumi airport, I said my final and genuine “Krap Koon Kha” (thank you) to the smiley thai ticketing agent at the India Air counter, and was ready to take on India.

There were plenty of Indian people in line for my flight at the ticket counter. The first guys I noticed were wearing gold chains and shiny leather shoes and were fussing over a brand new appliance in its box that they wanted to check onto the flight. They were treating it like a holy relic and wrapping it in shrink wrap before they’d let anyone else handle it.

Then, while I was next-in-line waiting to get frisked at the gate, an Indian woman blatantly and unapologetically inserted herself into the line right in front of my face. It was so beyond rude! The woman she was with came up from the side and seemed poised to do the same thing, but I put my arm out to stop her and motioned that clearly I was next, not her.

These annoying people, coupled with my experience trying to get an India Visa in the U.S. (one of the most frustrating experiences of my entire life) and the bureaucracy of trying to get train tickets online, made me start feeling like I hated India and all of its people before I’d even left the Suvarabhumi airport.

(by the way, while in Bangkok I did manage to find another way to circumvent the Indian bureaucracy of buying train tickets online. I remembered my U.S. Indian friend Preeti and emailed her for help. I basically needed an Indian phone # to be sent a one-time-password. Preeti emailed right back saying she was in India currently—Chennai-- and I could use her phone # and she’d email me the OTP when she got it. And Voila, I can now buy train tix online! Take that, bureaucracy of India!)

On the flight, I had a window seat and knew we were getting close to Delhi when I could no longer see down to the ground due to the smog. When we landed, it was a good news, bad news situation. The bad news was that the level of air pollution was astounding. It looked like a S.F. fog. The smog even came into the airport— the large spaces had a haze in the air. It smelled different from the smog of S.E. Asia though, more like there was smoke mixed in. The great news was that the temperature in Delhi was actually a bit chilly! I was SO relieved to be out of the 90-100* temps of Bangkok. Praise the Lord!!!!

I was expecting the Delhi airport to be like Grand Central Station, but actually it was chill and easy. When I got to immigration, I was horrified to see a hopelessly long log jam of sad-looking Indian people waiting in the domestic passport line. But just beyond that was the line for folks with an e-visa (me) and praise the lord a second time, there were only 4 people in that line! White privilege triumphs yet again. Sigh.

I had a pick-up service from my hotel (called Cottages Yes Please, a Lonely Planet recommendation) which I found easily and I was off. It was a 45-minute ride to the hotel. I had sporadic conversation with the taxi driver on the way. His unsolicited theme seemed to be that india has a population problem, few jobs, little space. He himself had gone to the online university, as do lots of Indian people, and had many impressive and seemingly unrelated degrees (Civil Engineering, History, and a few others I forget). But there are no good jobs available so he has to drive a taxi.

The neighborhood of my hotel could be described as a charming pit. I guess its what you might expect being so close to the major train station. Narrow dusty cavernous streets, with all manner of activity happening on the street. Dogs sleeping in piles of trash, street vendors selling peanuts and popcorn, rickshaws, tuk tuks, taxis, cows pulling carts, people strolling on foot or just hanging out and chatting. The storefronts lining the street are all dusty and dirty too, but once inside, as with the hotel Im staying in, everything is sparkling clean and well-cared for.

I checked in to Cottages Yes Please, and then went looking for food. Right across the street were a couple vegetarian restaurants. I went into one and ordered spinach with cheese (I forget the indian name for it, but I should get good at indian food names by the end of the trip), garlic naan and a mango lassi. It was VERY good. I did notice there was a lot of cream/butter in the spinach and the naan had lots of butter on it too.

While I was eating, I noticed a somewhat young but very very thin woman going around to people outside on the street asking not for money but for food. Everyone was shoo-ing her away. Although I was far from the window (probably 20 feet), she seemed to catch my eye and then she posted up right outside the door to wait for me to come out. When I left I didn’t give her anything (lest I become like the pied piper of Delhi with people following me everywhere) but I realized I was going to have to come up with some kind of policy for how to deal with people wanting something from me, as the majority of people probably would. This neighborhood, and Delhi in general, and probably India as a whole, seems very poor.

I talked to a guy at the hotel desk for a while about my next plans (he wanted to sell me train tickets) in which i got some good info and some maps but didn’t buy tickets (ha ha, because I can buy them online myself!) and then I went to bed on the early side.

I woke up a few hours later and barfed up my first indian dinner (sorry for the overshare). It wasn’t a big deal, I just woke up, barfed, and felt better and went back to bed. But I decided I probably wouldn’t go back to that restaurant again.

Last day in SE Asia, Thailand, Bangkok, Sukhumvit

aceite4 — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 16:05:00 GMT

A couple weeks before I left the U.S., I had a cavity filled in one of my back teeth. My dentist said it would be sensitive for a while, which it was. But I noticed a week or two ago that it had gotten a little bit more sensitive and I suspected something was up with the filling but I didn’t worry too much. Then at the boxing match the night before, I had some popcorn and it REALLY hurt. So when I got back to my hotel, with the help of a flashlight and a toothpick and the mirror, I realized that the filling was completely gone and there was a gaping hole in my tooth. Damn!

So I was either going to have to chew only on the left side of my mouth for the next month and not drink anything hot or cold, or I would have to take advantage of being in one of the healthcare capitols of the world and find a dentist on my last day in Bangkok.

Luckily, there are 5 dentists on every block here. I only had to turn the corner on Soi 19 to find “19 Dental Clinic”. A sign said “closed” but I rang the bell anyway and a young thai girl came to the door in a surgical mask. She seemed super busy. I asked if they had any appointments for today but she said they were full. Crap. On to the next one, the Bangkok Dental Spa, in an upstairs office in a nice building which also said “closed”. I rang the bell and a smiling receptionist opened it. I asked if they had any emergency appointments and she seemed happy and eager to sign me up for a slot at 1:30 that day. I asked how much a new filling would cost and she said 1500 Baht ($45). I looked around their fancy suite and saw marble, built-in fountains, posh furniture, stylish decor and thought that Id probably be able to do better price-wise somewhere else, so I took the 1:30 appointment but decided to keep looking.

I forget the name of the next place I went to, but it just had a plain wooden door street-side with a sign that said “dentist” on it. I rang the bell and a middle-aged thai woman came out, happy to greet me. A new filling would be 1000 baht ($30), providing it was one surface and not two; she’d have to look at it and see.

I knew it was only one surface, so I said ok. She took me down a short dimly-lit hallway to a back room that seemed less like a patients room in a dental office and more like a regular office (with a desk, papers, etc) that happened to have a dentists chair and equipment on one side of it. I didn’t have a chance to look around much though. She sat me down and had a look in my mouth. Yep, one surface. I asked if she took credit cards. No, just cash. I said Id have to go to an atm. She said I could go later. I said ok, lets do it (i figured nothing could go too wrong, right? She’s just sticking a filling in the hole. I could always get it re-done later). She seemed very pleased with my decision and started talking and giggling with her assistant in thai.

Drill-like tool in hand, she told me to open up again. I said, wait, you’re not going to use anesthetic?? She said, “no, not necessary”. I said, “so its not going to hurt?”. She said “no”. I thought for a second. How could that be? It hurt even when no one was touching it. I distinctly remembered getting not just one, but two shots of anesthetic in the U.S. and not being able to control one side of my face for 4 hours afterwards due to the numbness. Getting very nervous, I said, “are you SURE its not going to hurt?” She paused for a moment, considering the question. Then she said, “I try”.

Before I could jump up and run away, they had my mouth open and had started. And of course, it hurt like a m.f., but never to the point where I had to call it off. It was actually fairly do-able. I dont think I’d ever had dental work done without anesthetic before. Not the worst experience of my life.

The procedure, aside from no anesthetic, seemed legit. They did basically the same stuff that they do in the US. When she was done it was sore for the next few hours, but by evening seemed good as new and an unintended adventure was successfully in the bag! (knock on wood)

On my way back to the hotel I stopped at the Bangkok Dental Spa and cancelled my 1:30 appointment. I then spent the mid part of the day hand washing laundry and figuring out how to dry it. They of course had laundry services at the hotel, but it took more than 24 hours to get it back and I didn’t have that kind of time. There was a small ledge with the air conditioner motor on it outside my 7th floor window and I was able to stick a chair on the ledge and put my clothes on hangers and hang them off the chair. With my luck it then got overcast, the first overcast day of the trip (Ive only had 2 days on this entire trip that had rain, and then only a quick downpour followed by sun). So the rest of the day I had to spend monitoring the clothes and flipping them constantly, lest I have a backpack full of wet clothes for india.

I went out a few times though, once to unsuccessfully try to find the Pad Thai vendor on Soi 33 that Nomadic Matt seems to think is the best in the city. And another time to go back to May’s Veggie House for another salad and a pineapple + holy basil smoothie which was the best smoothie in thailand so far. Penny, take note! (Penny is the smoothie queen at home).

On another outing I went to the Continent hotel, a giant, new tower (actually most towers around here seem built within the past 20 years— thats when the skytrain was put in in 1999). I went there because there was something at the top that I was almost certain could not be just a penthouse/residence. It had to be something else. Sure enough, there was the Axis bar on the 38th floor (which sounds like it should be a rotating bar, but it isn’t) and the windows of the bar were at a 45 degree angle that encouraged people to look down onto a pool that was on the 37th floor below. I didn’t bring my swimsuit so I couldn’t really do much about it, but it was a cool find.

On my last outing of the day, I planned to go check out a “Little Bangkok Sangha” meeting (a meditation group open to the public) at a “boutique” hotel at the end of Soi 1. The boutique hotel was SO nice. It wasn’t a tower, it was like an old wooden mansion surrounded by lush gardens. Everything inside was made of wood and seemingly antique. I went to the front desk and asked them where the library was because I was there for the meditation group meeting. “Oh, we’re sorry”, they said, “the meditation group is on Sundays.” As usual, the information I got was wrong, as it seems to be about 90% of the time here. However, after a week of having these disappointing experiences, I had a plan B this time. I had my swimsuit with me and was going to go back to the Continent hotel. The front desk people seemed sympathetic to my disappoint though, and told me I could still check out the library and the meditation room, which I did. It was super nice and I had both rooms all to myself. Their library wasn’t that extensive, but the meditation room was really architecturally beautiful with lots of wood. I did a token meditation there for 10 minutes and then I was off for the Continent hotel.

First I went up to the 38th floor, the Axis bar, and surveyed the sights. It was a small bar with several small couches situated perpendicular to the angled windows. There weren’t that many people there, so I wouldn’t have to feel too self-conscious during my swim. I went straight down to the 37th floor which had a small stylish bar poolside and then the pool was out in the open air on the edge of the tower with a very narrow (1”) walkway around the edge and a transparent chin-height plexiglass fence being the only thing between you and the 37-floor drop. There was no one manning the bar and only one other person on that floor (a woman camped out in the water at the pool bar doing something on her cellphone). So I pretty much had the run of the place and it was free (I was assuming Id have to at least buy a drink to be able to use the pool).

It was truly an awesome swim! I’d swum on rooftops before, but never on the 37th floor in the open air surrounded by the tops of skyscrapers. Every now and then I’d get out and go right up to the plexiglass, stick my head over the top and look down. It was an unsettling experience to say the least and I couldn’t take it for more than 5 seconds at a time. Nothing like being less than half an inch from certain death (that was the thickness of the glass). I thought it was kind of funny that the plexiglass had “please do not lean on glass” printed on each panel.

After a good amount of time floating around in the pool (it was a pretty small “boutique” pool so actual swimming wasn’t really what it was intended for), I got out, used one of the turquoise hotel towels to dry off and was on my way down the elevator to go have a Skype conversation with Penny (we were both flying out the next morning).

Dusit Zoo and Muay Thai Boxing

aceite4 — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 03:34:00 GMT

Im now in India! First things first, I have a little catching up on the blog to do too.

(Back in Bangkok . . .) Day before yesterday I spent the whole day in the Dusit area of the city which I liked because on the map it looks very green. I just needed to get to a more reasonable part of town for a day where I could actually hear myself think for a change. I was able to take the Skytrain fairly close to Dusit and then walk a little ways and get on a bus.

Even a short walk in Bangkok can seem long though, depending on the street and the time of day. All over S.E. Asia (and Bali and at the Taiwan airport even), lots of people wear surgical masks in response to the air pollution. I see the masks from time to time on asian people in SF too (I guess they get in the habit at home). I keep thinking its probably an excellent idea, but so far haven’t strapped one on. After a mask, sunglasses and earplugs, the only way it could get any better is if I had on my own spacesuit complete with air-conditioning on the inside. Then I could manage to stay out a looong time.

My ultimate goal for later that day was to attend a Muay Thai Boxing match at the Ratchadamnern Stadium which started at 6:30. Before that, I thought I’d check out the Royal Thai Elephant Museum which was relatively close by and next to the Dusit zoo.

I dont know if Ive mentioned this, but Ive found that more than half the time I can’t find the places Im looking for. It could be my fault, but I usually dont have this problem. I have a suspicion that the thais are really bad at giving directions.

Such was the case with the museum. I couldn’t find it. So, although I knew that Penny would not be pleased (she loathes zoos with a passion), I went to the zoo. The idea of being in the company of other species for the day sounded good.

Before entering, I almost bought a small grilled catfish on a stick from a street vendor until I realized that the fish hadn’t been cleaned (it had been grilled with the guts inside). Ummm, maybe on the way out. I got the chicken instead.

I won’t say too much about the zoo since Penny will be reading, but in all honesty, I did kind of enjoy it. The zoo had all the big hits: lions, panthers, monkeys, elephants, bears, giraffe, and huge snake collection: at least a hundred different types including several different kinds of cobra. Most of the snakes were hanging out at least partially or completely submerged in their water bowls (trying to keep cool).

At one point I was watching the monkeys who I know are notorious for doing nasty things in front of people to get their feelings across. And this one monkey came over to me and threw up right in front of me, then swung away. Another monkey then came over and ate it. It just seemed too strategic to be totally innocent. Right after that, right in front of me at waist height, a snake came out of a hole in the rusty railing. It was a bright green snake with black spots. It was on the “wrong side” of the cage (or the right side, depending on the point of view). After that I started jumping at everything that moved, thinking that there were snakes on the loose. Later in the day I swore I saw a python swimming in the lake in the middle of the zoo, but then I saw some big lizards roaming the lakes edge and figured it could have been one of them.

After the zoo, I walked a few blocks to the neighborhood Penny & I stayed in last time we were in Bangkok and turned down a street that had lots of massage parlors and also Mai Kaydee’s vegetarian thai restaurant (the place Penny and I took a cooking class at previously).

I’d always been leery of the sketchy-looking massage parlors, but today I thought I’d try one out. After all, it was only $6 for an hour thai massage and honestly, just sitting in air-conditioning for an hour would be worth it to me. It turned out to be the best. massage. ever! I was more than pleasantly surprised. Once inside, the place smelled great (like spearmint), it was clean and well-organized, and the masseuses were super friendly. The massage “tables" were foam mattresses lined up on a knee-high platform and separated by curtains. First she washed my feet in a basin with warm water and limes. Then she gave me pants and a shirt to change into, which was kind of awkward to do in the little massage cubicle (I had to stand on the mattress). But then, the massage was so awesome. She cracked my back in a bunch of places, stretched, twisted, bent and manipulated me into a bunch of different positions. Its not a massage you can fall asleep during; its pretty active. Afterwards I got a delicious cup of lemongrass/ginger tea.

Then I walked a few more blocks to Mai Kaydee’s and had a veggie spring roll and mango lassi. Which was good in a healthy sort of way.

Next, lest I be late, I grabbed a quick cab to the stadium for boxing. I probably paid way too much for the ticket but I did get ringside seats along with 100% other white people who took up the entire seating section near the ring, about 8 rows deep. All the thais stood in the back or up in the bleachers which I wished I did.

The boxing went on till 10pm but I only stayed for 3 matches. I didn’t count, but it seemed like the matches were about 8 rounds each, except for the 2nd match where one guy got knocked out after about 5 rounds and had to be quickly taken away on a stretcher.

I dont really follow american boxing, but the differences I noticed were that

not only do you punch with your arms/fists, but you also use your legs, knees and feet to hit.
there was a live orchestra of hand drums, oboe, cymbals and maybe some other instruments that played during the actual fighting time. The music sounded kind of like snake charmer music with a samba beat.
before each match, the fighters prayed at each corner of the ring
the fighters were all really skinny

Aside from that, it seemed like regular boxing to me, but Im sure there were other differences. The expressions on the fighters faces never changed throughout the match. They never showed any kind of emotion or thought process or anything. Ive noticed the same thing with thais in general though— they always seem very clear-headed, like they’re never lost in thought or affected by any emotions other than happiness.

Stuck in Sukhumvit

aceite4 — Thu, 7 Jan 2016 14:40:00 GMT

Last night I decided I was done with the Sukhumvit area, or more like, I decided I just can’t physically take this area any longer . . . but I didn’t make a 'next plan' for today.

I had a vague plan of doing yoga, eating in an actual restaurant, finding a post office to send Pennys postcards that she left, printing out my India visa, and there were a couple other places of interest I thought I’d check out too.

Its easy to slip into “vampire mode” here. A lot of things stay open till at least 1am (the latest Ive stayed out), and probably a lot later. But since i have to be up by 6am on Friday to get to the airport, I need to start trying to reign in the late-night stuff.

(My India plan was to fly into Delhi and soon after that take the train to Varanasi. However, it doesn’t look at this point like I will be able to buy train tickets online because-- to make a long story short— of their bureaucracy. There’s a work-around that Im trying, but it takes *at least* a week to process and times running out. From what I gather, there are other ways to get a train ticket once Im there. So I will start praying now. Im sure I’ll figure something out. Regardless, after spending a week in the busiest part of Bangkok, Im not feeling that psyched about more big city time. I am dreaming of mountains, which India has (Himalayas), but its the wrong season for that. Maybe Darjeeling or some of the lower foothills could still work. I’ll see what trains are available to me once I get to Delhi where I have a room within walking distance of the train station. There’s also the option of taking the relatively shorter trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, which Im considering since I was told not to miss Ankor Wat in Cambodia, and . . . I missed it.)

Stuck in Sukhumvit for another day, I took the Skytrain down one stop to the “Thailand Creative and Design Center” which took up the top floor of the Emporium shopping mall. I think if I lived in Sukhumvit (god forbid), the design center would be a place I’d spend a good amount of time. They had an enormous really well organized library of quality books and videos on designing stuff. Everything from designing bridges to engines to clothing to treehouses. Serious stuff. And, Im not sure why, but everything was in English. They also had a materials library where they had 1000s of samples of all different kinds of materials— synthetic and natural, old and new (they boasted that Nike, Target and Aveda had all come there to look for materials to use in their nefarious plots of world domination). They also had an exhibit that compared unique designs that came from different countries. And an exhibit on sustainable design (mostly complex hi tech ways to generate energy like an energy-generating dance floor). There was also a section of the place that showcased different innovations that people from Thailand had created.

I ran the errands at the post office and printed my visa to India.

I decided it was time to eat at a sit-down restaurant. I picked a place that was a short walk from my skytrain stop which was a vegan place called Mays Veggie House. I was honestly just craving a freaking salad. I had the delicious plan of just camping out there in the restaurant for a few hours-- I fantasized about just ordering one thing after another for the next few hours while reading/blogging. I did have a satisfying avocado salad but I also ordered crimini mushrooms wrapped in (fake) bacon which they recommended. It was pretty good but it totally filled me up and ruined me for anything else.

I came back in the hopes of getting to sleep on the early side and having a full day out somewhere else tomorrow.

Halong Bay Cruise

aceite4 — Wed, 6 Jan 2016 12:10:00 GMT

Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves. I took over 100 in 3 days but these are my favotite. The views were amazing. The cruise very touristy. My favorite part was the people I met (mostly German and from the UK -England and Scottland). Will write more later when I have better computer access!

A walk on the seedy side

aceite4 — Wed, 6 Jan 2016 00:15:00 GMT

I felt like I needed some greenery again this morning, so I took a walk to a park which didn’t look like much of anything on the map, but turned out to be a really awesome oasis, complete with singing and chirping birds that were quite pleasant to hear after the roaring cacophony of the previous night.

I walked for a bit and admired the greenery and the towers all around and then perched in a chair and read my book for an hour or two.

On my way back, I found a supermarket hidden on the bottom floor of a giant department store and perused the isles, noting that a full pint of Haagen Daas is more than $11 here (presumably due to the refrigerated shipping I would think). While there, I picked up a flask of Hong Thong thai whisky which I often see the thais drinking. Im curious about it but also think it will just look cool sitting on the bar in my swanky hotel room.

I picked up a pork satay and another green papaya salad on my way back to the room. Both were good, but not in my top 10 (Im getting jaded).

After lunch, emails, blogging and a quick siesta, I psyched myself up for another adventure. I felt like I had the lay of the land now, so I just had to execute.

To last longer than I did the previous night, I had a 3-tiered plan: ear plugs, sunglasses, and a shot of Hong Thong.

First stop was going to be Cheap Charlies, an ex-pat dive bar on Soi 11 which, according to my travel guru (nomadicmatt.com), is his "favorite bar in the world".

Cheap Charlie’s is on a jog in Soi 11 that’s only open to foot traffic. Its literally a hole in the wall with a bunch of interesting-looking junk decorating it (kind of like Cafe Van Kleef in Oakland) with a few token bar stools. But since the bar only has one wall, most people just stand around in the alleyway yaking. It seemed like a good-natured ex-pat group. I went up to the bar and got a thai Tiger beer and started talking to the first person I saw who wasn’t talking to anyone else.

And I quickly learned why he wasn’t talking to anyone else. I asked him if he was from around here and he said, “oh GOD no! Oh HELL no!” His name was Nicholas, or “Nick", from London but now living in Australia, probably in his mid 60s. He was very outspoken and opinionated and had something racist to say about just about everyone, but still seemed to be oddly good-natured, friendly and funny. “Well at least Im HONEST”, he said.

So since he was so honest, I got right to the point. I said, “Nick, what do you think is going on here? Why are SO MANY people here in Sukhumvit? There’s shopping, good food, cheap hotels, thai massage . . . but there’s no casinos, no gambling, so what is it? Is it sex???”

And Nick said, “Boys, girls, anything you want here you can have it. You just have to pay for it.” (thats not why he was here, of course. Just on a Christmas holiday with friends). We chatted some more about his life story, why he was such a curmudgeon and never married and when I could take no more, I said, “So Nick, I am out to have an adventure tonight. What do you think I should do?”. He said to go to Soi Cowboy, one of the red-light streets and have a drink. He said, “If you go there, they’ll tear you apart, they’ll rip you apart!” I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but it sounded interesting. Nick shouted after me down the street, “be good. But not too good”.

The earplugs turned out to be one of the best calls of the night. They cut down on the sensory assault by 50%. I figured out one reason why this area is so loud— its because the concrete skytrain runs above Sukhumvit Rd and that, combined with the surrounding buildings create a concrete tunnel that amplifies the traffic noise.

Soi Cowboy is a short alleyway between Soi 23 and Asoke Rd. It is lined with red neon and go-go bars. Apparently there are 2 other red-light streets in the area as well (Nana & Patpong).

As soon as I turned onto Soi Cowboy I immediately felt eyes on me from everywhere. I just looked straight ahead and walked through, which took about 3 minutes. Then I turned around and surveyed the scene. It was still early in the night (maybe 9pm) so the bars all looked at half-capacity or less. They all had open fronts right out onto the street, so you could see everything that was going on inside. It didn’t look that scandalous— mostly guys just sitting around drinking (both white and asian) but there were also some couples too. There were a lot of young asian girls just standing around too trying to make eye contact, and a lot of them were also sitting on guys laps. At the back of every bar there was a small doorway that I’d occasionally see open up and a tourist go through. I knew the adventure wouldn’t be complete till I knew what was behind that door.

I had to pick a bar, so I chose “Cockatoo”, the one-and-only bar that advertised “ladyboys”. I figured it was some kind of AsiaSF deal (transexual guys who looked more like women than real women) and I was right. There were a bunch of “ladyboys” (the thai word for transexual is “kathoey” I think) in the outer part of the bar and when I walked up, they smiled (thinking I was a dude) but then realized I wasn’t and rolled their eyes and looked at one another like they were thinking, “what are we going to do with this one?”. When I pointed at the back door, they seemed glad (like "oh good we’re going to get rid of her now").

( Bangkok is supposed to be a great place to get a sex change, by the way. The hospital where most of that work goes down is Bumrungrad Hospital, just a block or two from where Im staying (dont worry mom, I dont have enough time for that). Bangkok is also big on plastic surgery and is reputedly one of the top spots to do it, as well as all other kinds of surgery. People come here to have it not only done cheap, but done really well. “Beauty” is a huge industry here and the thais seem obsessed with it, to the point of all lotion having “skin whitener” in it (for women AND men). My favorite skin whitener here is called “Snail White”. )

I went through the door and inside was a Blue Velvet-like go-go bar scene with a small glowing stage in the middle and seats all around it with individual glowing tray tables. Immediately all the trannies inside (4 or 5) came over to me and sat me down and handed me a drink menu. Most of them did look more like girls than real girls except one who was clearly a dude in a wig.

They invited me to order a drink for myself and also a drink for one of them and then, according to them, “they would talk to me”. I said I’d have a water. They said, ok, now who do you want to talk to (and buy a drink for)? I said, “but what if I dont want to talk?" They said I had to talk. I said, ok lets talk (meaning, like, “hey girlfriend! whats it like being trans in this city? I know a lot of trans people where Im from in SF!”). But, no of course it wasn’t like that, it was all business.

My water arrived and I said I was just going to sit there and drink it, but no they said they wanted to talk. There was a little back-and-forth in a teasing kind of way about talking/no talking (Monty Python’s “argument sketch” came to mind— its about a guy who goes in to a shop to pay someone to have an argument and ends up arguing about how much the argument costs and winds up getting a free argument) until I saw a nasty glint come into one of their eyes and I remembered Nicks words ("they’ll tear you apart!") and decided I’d better just pay for the water and get the hell out. They charged me $5 for the water (its usually 25 cents for a bottled water), which I gladly paid. Then they left me alone for a minute like it was going to be ok for me to just sit there. The guy in the wig was the only one who stayed sitting beside me like he actually did want to talk and have a real conversation.

I stayed long enough just to survey the scene and get a distinct vibe of “yuck”. The yuckiness was just the self-deprecating vibe between the girls and the guys in there. It probably didn’t help that I noticed a huge bruise on the shoulder of the guy in the wig next to me and that he didn’t look very happy. Anyway, Ive seen it before in SF, nothing that new here. Onwards.

A redeeming quality of Soi Cowboy is that it has good street food. I got some fried fish there (small, whole fish complete with fins and tail) with rice and it was good.

I then tried getting to the top of several of the more interesting-looking towers in the area, but found that the tops of these towers were inaccessible unless you had a key card. Someone told me they were residences/penthouses at the top and there wasn’t anything cool for the public. Unlike in SF, here they all have their restaurants and bars and lounges in the middle, not on the very top.

On my walk around, I met another sex worker named Esthow from Rwanda. I was walking by a restaurant and she made eye contact thinking I was a dude and said hi and started talking. Ive known a few sex workers in SF, so its no big deal, they’re just people like anyone else, so I sat and talked for a little bit and she seemed to be able to relax and just have an ordinary conversation. She comes here every now and then to work for a couple weeks and then goes back to Rwanda. Its more money than you could ever hope to make there. She seemed a little skeptical of me when I told her I was queer and had a girlfriend, so I asked about gay people in Rwanda and she said there were lots but you dont ever see them. She started focusing mostly on her cellphone, so I told her I was off to my next destination.

I was off to check out a dance club called Club Q which was not where it was supposed to be and instead I found a blues club in which some live music was playing. So I sat down and had a gourmet brownie with vanilla ice cream (really good) and listened for about an hour. The drummer had a “West Coast Oakland” t-shirt on. It was a pretty decent band with a good harmonica player. That was the last stop of the night.

P.S. Penny is doing well in Vietnam and having a great time for the most part. She only has her iPhone and poor internet access, so she might not be doing much blogging. She goes home on Friday (same time I leave for India).

New digs in Sukhumvit

aceite4 — Tue, 5 Jan 2016 03:04:00 GMT

This morning I checked out of my middle-of-nowhere hotel and into a kick-ass hotel a couple miles away. Before doing so, I visited a landmark near my old digs called “Golden Mountain”. Its another temple as you might guess from the “Golden” name. It was a 15 min walk from my hotel. When I got there, a sign said I needed 20 baht to get in (about 75 cents) and I didn’t have any money on me.

Golden Mountain looked kind of like they’d started building a big white lighthouse and then stopped 1/2 way up and put a flat golden roof on top with a golden pagoda on top of that. The entrance was a switchback staircase on the exterior. I walked around to the back and found the beginning of a spiral staircase that wound 3/4 of the way around the outside. There wasn’t anyone asking for 20 baht there, so I proceeded up. I did notice that most people were coming down these stairs and I was the only one going up. Then I noticed arrows on the stairs pointing up with a red circle and a slash through them. So i guess you were only supposed to exit via those stairs. I was a good ways up though, so I just looked down at my feet and kept going. It was a long way and I passed a lot of people. I felt like a lame-ass, bullheaded american (which I was) but no one stopped me. Thais seem too laid back to care that much about policing people and telling them what to do or not do like they would in the U.S. (Lucky for me!)

The roof of the Golden Mountain had great 365* views of the whole city. The skyline was a couple miles off in the distance, but despite that and the veil of smog, I recognized the tower where we spent New Years Eve and was amazed at the extent of the skyline. It really makes SF seem like a “boutique” city compared to this mega-opolis

After a look inside the temple and a few obligatory turns around the roof’s golden pagoda, I descended the stairs without shame and headed back to catch a taxi to my new place on Sukhumvit Soi 19. This new room is truly kick-ass with a couch, coffee table, bar, big fridge with a good sized freezer, kitchen (sans stove), bathtub, staggering floor-to-ceiling views, pool on the roof, gym, and all this for $25/night. And to top it off, its strategically located 5 min from a dual Skytrain/underground subway station meaning that I can connect easily with several other areas of the city. So its really quite stellar.

I had missed my new hotel’s free breakfast (most hotels offer a free breakfast), so I went on the hunt for street food straightaway. What I found nearby was grilled chicken and green papaya salad. I was hoping for more of an adventure, but being hungry, this would have to do. Everything was great except despite my request for “medium spice” on the salad, it proceeded to burn a hole through my tongue. But despite that, I couldn’t stop eating it, it was so good.

I have started carrying a toothbrush around with me in my backpack because most thai food has sugar in it and I’ve never had such bad and constant tooth sweaters in my life. The other thing Ive noticed, food-wise around here, is that on virtually every corner there is a busy pizza place (usually Dominos). When I first got here, I wondered why on earth anyone would come here and want to eat pizza (and worse yet, Dominos)?? But slowly, I realized that yes of course, there is zero cheese in thai food and after weeks on end of no cheese, the pizza cravings inevitably start. It’s happened to both me and Penny.

After an afternoon siesta in which I reveled in my soft bed with flat, not cylindrical, pillows (I figured, with a western name like Best Comfort Hotel, the odds were Id get a western bed), I was up again and determined to have an adventure. I wasn’t sure what it would be, but I was going to find out.

Right out the door, just as it was starting to get dark, I came face-to-face with a guy that I swear I knew. He looked at me as if I looked familiar too, and then turned and started walking away. If it was really who I thought it was, it was a gay guy named Ben who I knew from 20 years back— a not very savory character who I never really liked, but still it would be cool if it was really him. So I tailed him. He took me down Sukhumvit a ways, then down Soi 11. He didn’t do anything scandalous or shady as the old Ben would have, but still I scandalously followed him for about 20 min until he stopped and I asked if his name was Ben. It most certainly wasn’t, he said in a british accent. I said ok, sorry.

The thing about Bangkok (and all of Thailand really) is that it is incredibly hot. That must be why everyone drives and no one walks or bikes. I heard somewhere that Bangkok is supposed to be the hottest city in the world, which I was skeptical about since theres cities in the Middle East which must surely be hotter, but then I thought that those are desert places and they probably cool off at night like California does, whereas Bangkok stays hot all. night. long.

At least at night the sun goes away, and thats when the city seems to wake up. During the day, you wouldn’t think much about this area— its fairly ugly actually, with lots of towers and not that many people out and about. But at night it transforms into a Las Vegas-like glam fest and the streets get so crowded and stifling and noisy and suffocating that sometimes I start thinking that Armaggedon could happen at any moment.

So after my adventure with “Ben”, it quickly got dark, all the neon lights came on and started flashing, hordes of people came out and I quickly got overwhelmed and my head started spinning with everything to look at, all the lights and people, zero empty space, the heat and general confusion. And my determination to have an adventure eventually transformed into a determination to find food and then figure out how to get home and go to bed. I settled for some so-so pad thai (nothing has yet compared to the 50 cent plate that I had under the freeway by the ferry terminal on the last visit), went into a 7-11 for a couple $3 Belgian Chocolate Haagen-Daaz mini-cups to drown my disappointment in, and slumped back to the hotel room determined to try again another day/night.

Lumpini Park + odds & ends

aceite4 — Mon, 4 Jan 2016 03:26:00 GMT

After Mandalay, it took a minute to be able to trust street food again, but now Im back (knock on wood) ! On our first day back here Penny and I ate at restauraunts, but then I remembered how good the street food was and that it is about a tenth of the cost of the restaurant food (which is already pretty cheap).

On my outing this morning, I sampled grilled chicken from a couple different street vendors and it was simply DELICIOUS. I dont usually eat much meat, so every time I push myself to try something that I ordinarily wouldn’t, and find that its GOOD, I get emboldened to try more stuff. By the end of the trip, who knows, I may even try sea cucumber (at this point, its probably one of the last things I would ever try).

For the grilled chicken, you just point at the piece you want (its grilling right there on the street) and they put it on a cutting board and whack it 3 times with a butcher knife and put it in a little plastic baggie for take away.

Although Bangkok is a great city for walking (sidewalks are in great condition, its clean, and its totally flat), hardly anyone walks unless its in the shopping/market areas. So theres LOTS of traffic and traffic noise and the air quality is poor. So after the previous nights megamall experience and my 2-hr stroll down Sukhumvit Rd, I was ready for some peace and quiet and greenery this morning. I made my way across town to Bangkok’s central park, Lumpini Park, one of the few options for greenery in the city. I had to pass through Chinatown on the way and from there I took the MBT subway the rest of the way (different from the BTS Skytrain).

Lumpini was a pretty small park compared to GG Park or NYC Central Park. It takes up just a few blocks, but it was a great place to chillax for a few hours and stroll around and read my latest book (“The idiots guide to the middle east conflict”). It has 2 large ponds where people boat around in white swan-shaped paddle boats and lots of open meadows shaded with big trees throughout. The views of the surrounding financial district were pretty spectacular too (see pix).

After Lumpini, I ate lunch at the noodle shop across the street from my hotel again. I tried a different soup than I had last time, but it was basically the same thing except it had some wontons and some different veggie/fish balls thrown in. It was still red and still delicious though.

Back at my room, I booked a different hotel in the more “happening" part of town for the next day. My other big reason for switching hotels is that, and I know this is a Thai thing in general, the bed is as hard as a slab of granite and the pillow is as thick as a tree trunk here. The thais have great hospitality but I honestly dont know how they sleep very well.

Being my last night in the Khao San area, I thought I’d pay another visit to the magical flower market (which Penny and I went to before and is within a 40 min walk). Due to not checking the map enough, I ended up in a completely different part of town which was a bit of a bummer because I was really looking forward to the flower market. I did find a fruit market though, or rather a mango and pineapple market— Ive never seen so many of one kind of fruit in a single place before (see pix). I also ventured to have crispy pork and rice for dinner from a street vendor which, as usual, was delicious. It came with a garlicky/cilantro-y bowl of really good broth. I think my faith is only getting stronger in the street vendors— you can pretty much blindly choose anything they have and chances are it will be REALLY GOOD (knock on wood).

On my walks Ive noticed that in Bangkok there are lots of very chill street cats lying around and I haven’t seen a single dog. The cats are super calm, friendly and pet-able. It just adds to the vibe of Bangkok being a very friendly, hospitable place! In Myanmar we didn’t see many cats, but there was a virtual dog and puppy epidemic. The dogs there were a little anti-social-- mostly they just minded their own business looking for food.

Photos: Halong Bay Cruise

aceite4 — Sun, 3 Jan 2016 11:56:00 GMT

Halong Bay cruise

Photos: Bangkok II

aceite4 — Sun, 3 Jan 2016 02:12:00 GMT

Penny-less in Bangkok (Chinatown/Megamalls/Sukhimvit)

aceite4 — Sat, 2 Jan 2016 22:47:00 GMT

The last entry (the Happy New Year one) was written by Penny but she got a phone call halfway through from the front desk saying her taxi to the airport had arrived, so she didn’t have time to finish (hence all of my interjections and a few small edits).

So begins PART 2: "*Just* Ace at Large". Im here in Bangkok until Friday, and then I take a big step and depart for India (after an unsuccessful time trying to get a visa through the Indian embassy in SF, I got one easily while traveling in Myanmar using an online agency!)

After tucking Penny into her taxi, and waving a teary goodbye as they drove down the street, I went back to the hotel room and got a daypack together and went for a walk to get my bearings in this particular neighborhood and find out is within striking distance. Im located on the outskirts of the Khao San area, which is the “backpacker” area, full of cheap hotels. Unfortunately, I seem to be in a bit of a desert zone as far as street food goes, but Chinatown is within a 15 minute walk. So I headed there through a bunch of quiet alleyways.

Bangkok seems a bit cooler temp-wise than it did 3 weeks ago when we were here last. Then, you couldn’t be out for more than an hour before rivulets of sweat were running the length of your body.

Bangkok’s Chinatown goes way farther than the Chinatowns back home in terms of the exotic sorts of food on parade. I walked down an narrow covered alleyway which was a marketplace for food vendors. I gaped at the amazing array of 100s of kinds of meats, veggies, teas, fruits that were completely foreign to me. Half the time I couldn’t even tell if something was a veggie or a piece of meat. Everything from fresh sea cucumbers to flattened dried squid, to bowls of marinating tentacles, to a huge variety of mushrooms/fungi, dried flowers, bulk teas, and just about every kind of meat and every animal part.

One thing that seemed popular was freshly roasted chestnuts. They were roasting them in big mixing vats filled with black pebbles (?) and the nuts. I figured the pebbles stored the heat and helped spread it through all the surface areas while everything was being mixed (?) (see photo). I’d never had chestnuts before so I bought a bag and they’re actually pretty tasty — they’re soft and a little sweet, kind of like sweet bean paste. I was eyeing some dried kiwis too because Id never had those before, but when I tried one, they were a little salty, so I ashamedly snuck away after asking to try a sample!

I decided Im going to have to get adventurous with food this week, since it would be a shame if I just ate Pad Thai, coconut milk soup and green papaya salad every day of the week. I decided to try the Chinese noodle shop across the street from my hotel for lunch. All the clientele were asian and nothing was in English. Also, nothing there was vegetarian, so I got the fish noodle soup on recommendation from the server. They put some kind of sauce in it that turned the soup an artificial red, but aside from that, it was good! It was rice noodles in a sweet and spicy red broth with various types of fish cake, fish balls and maybe a pork ball or two and a couple pieces of chewy squid and one piece of some kind of sea sponge. Definitely out of my comfort zone as far as food goes, but it was good and a fun experience!

Next it was siesta time. Pretty much whenever I lay down these days I fall asleep almost instantly, so thats always nice! I also started trying to register to buy train tickets online for India (which so far is not happening easily).

At around 6pm I got up with a mission: to go downtown to the mega mall area (40 min walk from hotel) and buy some much needed clothing accessories to avert a wardrobe malfunction. The mega malls here are insane. I didn’t even scratch the tip of the iceberg and my mind was completely boggled by the enormity of a single megaplex. The malls here are not just shopping, but also concerts, movies, rollerskating, bowling, restaurants, and who know what else. I went to the one thats supposed to have the best deals which was 6 stories high and when you looked down the center it was hard to see the end. I got my cheap bras and I was out!

Next, I took the BTS skytrain from downtown to the Sukhumvit area. Sukhumvit is the name of a very long street that has all kinds of action on its alleyways (“sois”). Supposedly it has some of the best street food too according to my travel guru www.nomadicmatt.com. I took the skytrain to the outside border of the area and thought I’d try to walk all the way back (the great thing about walking here is you can always just bail and take a taxi since theres usually one within 10 feet and its very cheap). Sukhumvit is an area of giant fancy hotels, street vendors and mega bars. I basically walked back to downtown on Sukhumvit (2hrs?) and didn’t go very far down any of the Sois. By 11pm I was too tired to go any further, so I took a cab back to my hotel and fell asleep but not before witnessing a cockroach as big as a mouse in the bathroom! I will probably change hotels to the Sukhumvit area soon since its more interesting and theres way more street food!

Happy New Year!

aceite4 — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 22:45:00 GMT

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

(Ace writes) On the morning that we left Mandalay, Myanmar, Penny said, “its sad when you find yourself looking forward to airplane food.” We never managed to break in to the Mandalay food scene. On one of our last attempts to eat there, we consulted Lonely Planet and went around to some of their top recommendations (non-street food) only to find Sizzler-quality diners or places that didn’t have any vegetarian options. We arrived safely in Bangkok, and immediately went out to eat.

(Penny writes) We were grateful to celebrate the New Year together in a now (somewhat) familiar place. We are at a different hotel from last time that has AWESOME internet services and wonderful guest services. I printed everything I need to leave for Vietnam today and then we took off hunting for some decent food and were not disappointed.

Last night for New Years Eve, we went downtown to the Paragon Mall (imagine blocks and blocks of familiar stores like Aveda and H&M) and a Times Square feel with all kinds of giant tv screens and lighting. We went to see Star Wars at their 1000+ seat (plush leather reclining comfy seats no less) and big screen theater (an experience itself). I enjoyed that they had 3 different versions of “gourmet popcorn” although the plain/original was the best in my opinion.

(Ace writes) We got out of the movie around 9pm and decided to find the tallest building around and get to the top. We walked until around a corner we spotted a really cool futuristic-looking skyscraper with a spiral band of light wrapped around the outside that kept changing colors. The very top few floors of it were all lit up and made of arched glass. It was close, but not too close, so we had to wind our way around through temples and chanting groups and gated alleyways until we got to the bottom.

(Penny writes) We spent the midnight hours at a restaurant in a high rise over looking the downtown area. You needed reservations for floors 43 through 55, so we settled on a restaurant on floor 23 with a still nice view of the fireworks. We had a banana split and I drank a diet coke to stay awake and we wrote a list of New Years goals. Well, one goal really, we’re going to get a dog when Ace gets home and our goal is to learn how best to train and love and spoil the newest member of our family once s/he comes!!!!!!

There wasn’t the usual drunkenness and debauchery that I’d expect to see on NYE, although Khao San Road (the tourist area) today had some evidence of party aftermath when we went looking for souvenirs today.

(Ace writes): The fireworks were great. Much bigger, more varied and colorful than the ones we’re used to. They seemed to be happening all over the city (we were in a pretty central location for viewing). However, they only lasted about 15 minutes as opposed to all night long. The best ones seemed to be coming from the Sukhumvit area which I plan to do some exploring of this coming week. When the fireworks ended we started trying to walk back to the hotel (an hour walk approx), but the crowds were really dense, so we flagged a tuk tuk and got home by around 1pm.