Battered Suitcase

How the other .001 percent lives

caitmcl — Tue, 9 Jun 2009 21:44:00 GMT

Bangkok Airport has free, but timed, internet, so here is the speed update:

-Last two days on Koh Chang were wonderful and sunny.

-British people are literally always drunk or hungover it's astonishing

-Made Thai tranny friend on way back to Bangkok

-Stayed at the Oriental, one of the nicest hotels in the world

-Flouted every hotel rule: no sandals, no sleeveless tops, and no backpackers. Felt like Fresh Prince arriving in Bel Air

-Had a butler who cleaned the room every time we left

Now we are beginning our homeward journey catch everyone on the flip side!

Jimmy Buffett in the rain

caitmcl — Fri, 5 Jun 2009 22:22:00 GMT

Aloha from the glorious island paradise of Koh (Kevin) Chang! Christopher and I are winding down from our busy busy trip on this beautiful mountain island rising out of the Indian Ocean.

Getting here added most of the stress that we are now chilling off. Our transit out of Cambodia was based on a street encounter with a taxi mafioso, who told us he could give us a ride to the border for about $15 less than we expected. Sketchy, or worth it? We opted for the latter, and hopped in a dude's sedan the next morning. We breezed down toward the border until the driver stopped by a rice paddy and got out of the car. I thought it was trouble, and then he opened my door and reached in, and my thought became "now I'm going to die." He grabbed a sunshade and attached it to the back window, flashing me a toothless smile. Relief! The border crossing itself was haphazard and confusing, and involved about 5 unmarked checkpoints that we had to walk through, while carrying our heavy packs. Then we took a bus to a station that had no signs and no one that spoke English, and waited for a bus that we hoped would take us to our next destination. Christopher said he felt like a renagade; I felt like flipping out. Luckily, with the help of some very nice locals we made it to the town where we spent the night before catching our morning ferry.

The guidebook described Trat, our layover town, as a quiet little place that really grows on you. A more accurate primer would have described it as "a dump with absolutely nothing for tourists, including restaurants, but boasting the world's majority of ants and mosquitoes." Doom by the Lagoon. Luckily, we only had to spend a night there before hopping on a boat over here to Koh Chang.

The island itself is absolutely gorgeous- a big emerald isle rising out of the ocean. This is the low season, so everything is a whole lot cheaper than it normally would be, almost half price. Christopher and I thought we had stumbled onto the luckiest break of our trip. The rainy season, after all, has always been an hour or two of daily rain, at most, surrounded by hours of bright sunshine. Cruelly, Koh Chang seems to be the only place in all of Indochina where the "rainy season" actually means "torrential downpours almost constantly." Thanks a lot, Kevin. Even though the beach itself is a wash, though, the surroundings are beautiful, the food is great, and we take advantage of momentary lulls in the deluge to walk on the shore or check out the surroundings. After all the hard work of traveling (my life is awful) it's pretty nice to sit on the balcony with a book and listen to the rain. Especially with a pina colada and fresh fried shrimp.

Angkor WHAT

caitmcl — Tue, 2 Jun 2009 16:16:00 GMT

Two days ago, Christopher and I took one of Cambodia's two paved highways-- this one leading from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. When your bus arrives at a tourist town like Siem Reap, you are instantly accosted by tuk tuk drivers who want to take you to 'good guesthouse' (where they'll earn a finder's fee). We had a little scrap with the first driver but liked the second much better, so we arranged for him to take us to the Angkor temples (yessss) the next morning. Full with delicious Indian food and with Khmer temples dancing in our heads, we went to sleep early, because we planned to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

We were downstairs and ready in front of our hotel at the chipper hour of 4:45 the next morning. Our arranged driver didn't show up, of course, but "luckily" his "brother" was there to take us instead. Christopher called it the tuk tuk two step, but the new guy seemed nice enough and I can't imagine that the driver makes all the difference in the world anyway. The temples are located a little ways out of town, and then are spread around an enormous complex, so a driver is basically a must, but they all follow the same circuits through.

We bought our entrance tickets with no wait at all, then hustled in because at 5 it was actually starting to get a bit light out. To enter Angkor Wat, the most famous of the temples, you cross a narrow stone bridge over a moat that puts Euro castles to shame-- the thing must have been about 250 yards across. The temple itself, enclosed within a couple giant walls, is enormous and architecturally stunning. Although there were a fair number of people, this is the low season, so it wasn't insanely crowded. The sun rose behind the temple, silhouetting its outline against the orange and rose clouds. A great beginning!

We spent the rest of the day doing the "little circuit" at Angkor, which is a shorter distance through the park but includes most of the major temples. Besides our spectacular first temple, our favorites included: Bayon, which looks like a pile of rocks from far away, but has amazing and haunting faces carved all over it; a temple with tiny, steep stairs that could be climbed all the way to the top for a great view (although getting down was a bit hairy); and, of course, Ta Phrom, the temple with the jungle growing all through it. The heat was intense but we made a good day of it, staying a full seven hours to thoroughly explore the temples' expanses (and avoid Japanese tour buses like the plague).

This morning we headed back at a more reasonable 8 AM, this time to do the Big Circuit. It's a bigger distance to travel, but actually includes fewer temples, and they are the more minor type. The heat had abated somewhat due to passing clouds, and at some temples Christopher and I literally had the place to ourselves. It was a really cool explorer feeling to clamber over ruins with only the sounds of critters in the jungle and far-off traditional music. And the drive between temples was actually really nice, since it is beautiful jungle and rice paddies all around. Best of all, we made it back in time for lunch!

My dream of visiting Angkor was basically what prompted this entire trip, and it definitely did not disappoint. It was amazing to see the enormity of the temples, and the intricacy of the carvings and engravings that cover the ruins. The weather was a little rough but it was definitely worth it to avoid the crowds. We didn't make a point of seeing everything, because I think it's better to leave before reaching 'temple fatigue' and just going through the motions of seeing everything. What I did see, I loved, and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to come here. Tomorrow, we head back into Thailand and down to the island paradise of Ko Chang, for some quality beach time before heading home to the states.

The city of superflous 'h"s

caitmcl — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:51:00 GMT

If you're like me, most of what you've learned about Cambodia is through Angelina Jolie: awesome temples to plunder and all-you-can-adopt baby buffets. What Angie didn't teach us is that the internet is ludicrously slow here. Sorry for the delay, but I'll just backdate this entry (suckas!)

To save travel time, Christopher and I decided to catch a flight from Vientiane to Phnom Penh. Lao Airlines, which holds a virtual monopoly on flights in and out of the country, has a safety record rivalled by the crew of the movie Airplane!, but luckily we made it through alright. My churning stomach, however, was not eased by the inflight snack-- what I thought was cheese turned out to be some sort of sea creature (narwhal??).

Once in Cambodia, I decided to try to match my mastery of the Lao dialect (aka, how to say "hello"). I was determined to learn from the locals. It turns out, here "hello"is translated "HELLO MISS YOU NEED TUK TUK OKAY MAYBE LATER TUK TUK TOMORROW." There is definitely more hard selling including tuk tuk drivers following you while you eat, but it's not as bad as Africa. And you can hardly blame them for wanting to exercise their considerable road skills, because driving here is unlike anything I've ever seen. Vehicles come from all directions, at any time, but traffic flows smoothly, though with liberal horn honking. A left turn is a demonstration of the triumph of the human spirit-- the driver weaves through oncoming traffic, edges over to the left side of the new road, then merges through more motos hurtling head-on to get over to the right side. Crossing the street is like playing Frogger.

We were able to get in all the big sights of the city. We saw the amazing sculpture collection at the National Museum, popped in to see the king at the Royal Palace and silver pagoda, visited the center of Cambodian Buddhism, and, my personal favorite, wandered through the sprawling expanse of consumerism that is the infamous Russian Market, selling everything from Thai Buddhas to "Kevin Clein" apparel. Khmer culture is amazingly rich-- the ancient empire, at its largest, included Laos and parts of Thailand and Vietnam. Maybe for this reason Cambodian cuisine holds its own against neighboring culinary giants Thailand and Vietnam (Lao food... well... they eat dog there). We also had dinner at the world-famous Foreign Correspondents' Club, with half-price drinks at happy hour prompting the great decision of fresh-fruit passionfruit daquiris.

Phnom Penh is an interesting place, where it's unbearably hot by 10 in the morning but cools down after lunch before a torrential downpour in the afternoon. The effects of old conflicts are apparent in the limbless people around town, but all the hustling shows a determination to move on and succeed. I'm really glad we were able to experience the old "Pearl of Asia" before heading off to our Angkor adventure in Siem Reap.

All the good things of France, without (as many) French!

caitmcl — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:42:00 GMT

Ou est la biblioteque? Croque monsieur! These are a few of the many French turns of phrase I have picked up here in Laos's capital, Vientiane. The French influence is apparent in the wide, tree-lined streets and abundant fragrant bakeries. It is a lovely Parisian style town, made even more lovely by the dearth of Parisians.

Christopher and I had planned on tubing the river in Vang Vieng yesterday, but thanks to the remnants of a tropical cyclone (thanks a lot, monsoon season) our plans were looking to be rained out, so we caught a bus to Vientiane instead. The "VIP bus" we paid for was a model of Communist splendor, complete with ragged, stained seats and broken air conditioning. Not the most pleasant ride, but when we arrived in town our luck took a turn for the better. The place we had planned to stay in was full, but had a sister hotel just around the block. Quelle luck! The other place turned out to be a gorgeous, brand-new hotel that, at 30 bucks a night, was comparable to a four-star hotel in the US. "Free coffee and tea at check-in? Why, thank you! What is this, a shower door the closes?? We don't have umbrellas... oh, we can use the hotel's for the day?" After the flea-bag dump that was Vang Vieng, this place is like heaven.

The city itself has also been great, despite the ongoing drizzle during the day. After breakfast at the hotel, I asked the desk manager if he thought it would continue all day. He walked outside with me, looked around pensively, then his shoulders dropped as he sighed, "yes." He seemed genuinely sorry about the dreary weather, and I think the loaner umbrellas were a gesture of concilliation. Guarded against the weather, Christopher and I struck out into the heart of town, located about one block from our posh hotel. The first wat we visited was hosting a monk conference, quite an interesting sight. We also checked out the presidential palace, the oldest wat in town housing thousands of Buddha statues, and another wat surrounded by a gorgeous English-style (inexplicably) garden. My personal favorite, however, was our stop at the national history museum. In addressing the term "history," the Laotians were determined to do justice, beginning the tour with dinosaur bones, progressing to pottery shards, and then using the last half to demonstrate the evilness of the US imperialist and the glory of the People's Republic, including "the production of vegetables for improve the health of the people" (read: farming) and a display of a stuffed leopard. The rain might not stop anytime soon, but I've got cable TV and baguettes and my friends that means we're doing alright.

Beerlao in Paradise

caitmcl — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:42:00 GMT

We spent yesterday basically bumming around- one day was enough to take in all the sights of Luang Prabang, and it was way too hot to just walk around and see them again. It is such a nice place, though, that it was nice to hang around and just chill out. It was also good to rest up for the next step in our journey today.

Christopher and I first got up at 5:30 this morning to see the monks receiving alms. They form a long line of boys and men, heads shaved and wearing their orange robes, walking barefoot down the street opening the buckets slung by their sides, as locals, sitting on mats by the sidewalk, place bunches of sticky rice in as an offering. Kind of gross, if you think about it, but a really cool cultural tradition. After breakfast (with STRONG coffee) we got picked up (early!!) to start our trip down to Vang Vieng. We had decided to ride in a van rather than take a bus, and I think we definitely made the right call. The 5-hour drive is incredibly beautiful, over mountains and past limestone cliffs, but it was also steep and windy. I was glad I wasn't in a huge passenger bus. We got into Vang Vieng during the hot part of the day, so we braved the ants in our hotel room to make use of the A/C and watch the classic film Varsity Blues. Vang Vieng is a pretty small town in a beautiful setting, and absolutely packed with young backpackers. A lot of people use it as a stopover between Luang Prabang and Vientiane, which is exactly what we're doing. Tomorrow we're going to tube down the river, before heading to the capital the day after. Takin' it easy, Laos-style.

Can you hear me Lao?

caitmcl — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:03:00 GMT

Greetings, comrades, from our first-ever Communist country! It was not easy getting here, but it was a picnic compared with the upcoming workers' global revolution. The last two days we spent on a long, narrow boat puttering down the Mekong. The seats were Puritan-style benches, about 6 inches deep, and the boats were crammed with people AND an assortment of produce and consumer goods. It was not the most comfortable journey- especially since we spent 10 hours on the boat each day- but the scenery was amazing. The entire way had spectacular views of mountains and limestone cliffs, and there was literally no industrial development the entire time, not even a car. We spent the night in a dive of a town called Pakbeng, that runs on a generator that cuts off at 10. Oh Commies! I'm really glad we did the boat trip... but am not planning on getting on another boat any time soon. We got in to Luang Prabang yesterday around sunset, and ended up finding a great little hotel that even has ESPN international. A little heavy on the soccer, but that is the world's greatest problem. Luang Prabang, the entire city, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so it's really charming and beautiful. The people are friendly, and the food is good, if a little pricey. This morning Christopher and I walked all over town, saw 10 temples, visited an old palace, climbed a mountain, and enjoyed a traditional Lao lunch down by the river. For the rest of the afternoon, we're planning on drinking fruit smoothies (my FAVORITE), getting Lao massages, and checking out the night market after dinner. Communism = getting it done.

Last day of Thai adventures

caitmcl — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:10:00 GMT

Yesterday shaped up to be one of the best of our whole trip. We got picked up in the morning by our guide, Eddy, who had great English and a passion for Lady Gaga's song "Poker Face." We also joined an American and a New Zealander who were going on the same day trek. We headed outside of town, drove for about an hour, and with little ado jumped out of the van and onto the back of an elephant. It was an incredible experience- the animals were really methodical and slow but you could tell how powerful they were since the mahouts could barely control them, and the elephants basically did whatever they wanted. We rode up and over a mountain, through a river, and then got to feed our elephants bananas. We stood on a platform and they reached their long trunks right up to us to take the bananas out of our hands! For me, the day (and life) was complete after this experience, but there was actually much more to come. We visited a traditional hill tribe village, where they engaged in traditional crafts like "selling souvenirs" and "waving at tourists" the way they have for centuries. We left the village to start our trek through the jungle. It was really beautiful country, especially the gorgeous waterfall we visited, but it was incredibly hot and buggy so I think one day of walking was just perfect. Worn out from our trek, we gratefully stopped at a little restaurant for a simple Thai meal, complete with fresh pineapple for desert- very refreshing! Last, we got to ride a bamboo raft down the river. We were a little worried that it would be lame, but it actually turned out to be really fun. The "raft" was about seven bamboo poles tied together, and was about 35 feet long. It was amazing to see how deftly the guide could maneuver the raft, and we went through some nice little rapids and past lovely scenery. I think Christopher, having almost drowned on our last rafting adventure, appreciated how the raft couldn't take on water, since it just slipped between the poles, and cruised easily over rocks that would have stuck a normal raft. It was a really cool local experience. That night, we had dinner at a Middle Eastern place run by an Israeli lady, which satisfied my hummus craving, before checking out the night bazaar. The bazaar was insane- more shops than I have ever seen together in my life, selling everything from purses with embroidered elephants to knock off Ray Bans to hand-carved pipes. It was actually so overwhelming that we didn't end up buying anything!

Today, sadly, we will be heading out of Chiang Mai. We will catch a bus to Chiang Rai, then another to Chiang Khong, and cross the border into Laos where we'll spend the night in Huay Xai. After that we'll catch a boat to Pakbeng, spend the night there, then take another boat to Luang Prabang. I'm just spelling all this out now for those jumpy Americans who might worry if they don't hear from us. We'll be traveling for basically the next three (count em!) days, and I'm not sure what internet access will be like, but expect another update from the UNESCO world heritage site of Luang Prabang!

When Christopher puts on his adventure shirt...

caitmcl — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:31:00 GMT

Well, the elephant thing didn't exactly wrk out yesterday. Christopher put on his adventure shirt to start off the morning, and we should have known that would only lead us to a new adventure. We got up and took a bus outside of Chiang Mai to a town called Chiang Dao. It was a nice trip through the country, even when a policeman got on and dragged one of the passengers off. No worries! We actually passed our stop and then the bus lady realized we should have gotten off and we scrambled off with everyone laughing. We had planned on getting off at a bus stop, then taking a tuk tuk or taxi to the elephant farm. Instead, we got off at a 711, and no one seemed to know what we were talking about when we asked about the elephant farm. Oops. So we went with the flow and decided to check out Chiang Mai's main attraction, very long, very ancient caves filled with Buddha statues and other carvings. I thought it would be a nice like walk like Luray Caverns; it was actually a spelunking adventure, with a guide carrying a gas lamp, tight passages to crawl through, and bats flying around overhead. The statues and rock formations were absolutely stunning, and the ride there and back in the back of a pickup truck was an experience in itself. And even though we didn't get to ride elephants yesterday, we did see a guy riding one down the freeway, so that was almost as good.

So, TODAY we are actually going to go ride elephants, with an organized tour group that will take us to a waterfall and some villages, then bamboo rafting down the river. A full day, but should be fun!

Come on ride the train

caitmcl — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:08:00 GMT

Two nights ago, Christopher and I took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I heard it was a great "experience;" Christopher pointed out that "experiences" always suck when you're in the middle of it. Personally, I enjoyed the banter with our porter, "Nattalie," who was 6 feet tall and began life as Nathaniel. Christopher messed up his seat, prompting her to scream and slap him on the shoulder. Christopher's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. We went to sleep pretty early, on seats that converted into flat beds. The train was noisy and from time to time shook in a way that felt like it was designed to wake you up, but it was definitely better than sleeping on a bus. We got into Chiang Mai around noon, only two hours late, putting our total time on board at about 17 hours. Needless to say, it was a relief to come into town.

Yesterday after we checked into our hotel and had lunch, we decided to try a traditional Thai massage. Turns out it's more a cross between massage, acupressure, and Greco-Roman wrestling. They bend you, twist you, hit you, poke you, but I've gotta say, at the end you feel pretty limber. Refreshed (and slightly sore) we tried to spend the rest of the afternoon on a walking tour of Chiang Mai. We made it to one temple and a famous statue, but were already feeling lightheaded from the heat. We staggered back to our beautiful, air conditioned hotel room, and passed out. We awoke to the sound of crashing thunder and torrential rain, meaning the Sunday market was basically ruled out. So we just went back to sleep and woke up at about 5:30 this morning. Oops. Well, you can't make a 14 hour time adjustment in just a day, right? The good news is we're going to try to beat the heat, and are planning to visit the elephants today!

Oh, hi... Thai

caitmcl — Sat, 16 May 2009 11:53:00 GMT

From Seoul we had a flight of a measly five hours down to Bangkok. Contrary to the nightmares I kept having on the way down, our bags made it intact. We caught a taxi with the cutest 70 year-old driver in the world, who, despite his limited English, gave us a running commentary of the sights through Bangkok. We saw the football stadium, many hospitals that look like resorts (home to the famed "medical tourism" of Thailand), and the sprawling expanse that makes up the city. I know I should have seen this coming, but Bangkok is HOT. Like, turn the fan on full blast, walk at a slower pace, lethargy-inducing hot. My delicious papaya smoothie with breakfast certainly helped, but I expect that life will move at a slower pace down here. And that's just fine with me, escape from the ear to the grindstone and all that. Christopher and I are planning on just hanging out and walking around today, then taking an overnight train to Chiang Mai, the biggest city in North Thailand. It's really amazing just sitting around and seeing the street vendors, monks in saffron robes, and tuk tuk drivers cruising around. I can't believe we're really here!

Korea's got Seoul

caitmcl — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:42:00 GMT

A mere 14 hours after leaving the US, Christopher and I found ourselves in Incheon, South Korea, a small island just outside of Seoul. Thanks to a cocktail of modern medicines, I actually slept almost the entire time. Christopher was not so lucky, which was unfortunate because we were seated next to the baby bassinets. On the bright side, no one was reclining into our faces, but of course sitting next to infants is less than ideal. The babies by us, luckily, were actually pretty good and slept almost the whole way. We got to Korea ahead of schedule (!) and went through customs without waiting (!!). Then we had to try to figure out how the heck to get out of the airport.

Christopher and I paced up and down by the 207 million bus lines that apparently connect Incheon Aiport to the Pacific seaboard. Thank Buddha, a Korean-American dude came over and generously helped us out. We were able to catch a bus into the heart of Seoul, and despite some language-related problems we ended up basically where we needed to be. We enjoyed foreign Dunkin Donuts (sticky rice donut anyone?) before joining a bus tour that took us all around downtown. We were able to get off and on as we wanted, and saw highlights like classical palaces, a "traditional" Korean village, and even the US military base (should that be on a tour?). Seoul was really different from what I expected. It was a nice blend of modern and the typical cramped, ramshackle development of third world cities. There were also lots of nuns walking around, tons of American chains, trees and flowers everywhere, and an abundance of pop art that was about as Asian as it gets. It was a really nice city, and I guess it liked me back because at the end of our tour the guide chased me down to hand me a replica of the City Tour bus. Yessss!

Unfortunately we had to leave, because our journey was not yet over...

Liftoff!

caitmcl — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:59:00 GMT

Hey friends and family!

Welcome to this online journal where I will (hopefully!) be able to keep you updated on Christopher's and my epic trip through Southeast Asia. The plan is to fly into Bangkok, head up to North Thailand, go down through Laos, back into East Thailand, over to Cambodia to see the Angkor temples, then back to the Thai beaches before we head home! Keeping, of course, safety as our foremost priority throughout. I hope you are all doing well and we will miss you! Stay tuned!

Flight plans:

To Bangkok- Asiana (United) 6465 to Chicago, Asiana 235 to Seoul, Asiana 741 to Bangkok

To home- Asiana 742 to Seoul, Asiana 236 to Chicago, United 7552 to Atlanta