(Allie and) Hart in Seoul

Kor-e-a! We're finally back in Kor-e-a!

It's 9:20 am local time here, and we just endured a 5+ hour flight from Bangkok. As we're now facing the difficult task of re-adjusting to Central Time, we chose to stay awake all night - because, of course, a red-eye here is during the afternoon back home, and that's a bad time to sleep for a few hours. So we're more than a little punchy now, and have to wait another 2 and a half hours before our flight takes off for Chicago. We leave here at noon local time (10 pm CDT) and arrive at O'Hare at 11 am.

Not much to report since my last post. We spent Monday morning on the beach and at the pool, getting in our last taste of glorious Samui. We also had a chance to see the cutest little airport ever, in Samui - the entire thing is thatched-roof huts, with an open-air courtyard in the middle of everything. When you get to the "gate", there's a courtesy counter full of free juices, tea, and little snack items, as well as free internet. It's just the most adorable airport! It's worth going to Samui just to see it - but if you're at the airport, you may as well take a few days at the beach, too.

We got back to Bangkok without any trouble, left our luggage at the airport, and headed back to the Sukhumvit area. We browsed the night market as it was getting started, and then headed to the Bed Supperclub for dinner. It's a funky "in" restaurant where you eat on a bed. The tables aren't tables; they bring you to a section of a huge elongated mattress, and you stretch out, and they bring your food to a little table resting atop the mattress. Delicious food, and we really got a kick out of the kitsch factor. It was a great last meal and a great way to enjoy our last night in Bangkok without facing the dirt and grime.

Couldn't completely avoid it, though. Sukhumvit is one of the more popular areas for Thai women engaged in the world's oldest profession to find foreign customers. I learned this while Allie was getting a massage, when one drunk and/or stoned woman directly blocked my path and pleaded that I spend some time with her and have a drink. No thanks, I said, repeatedly, but I literally had to tear myself out of her grip (she'd grabbed onto my arm). It was really unnerving - one thing to see these women standing on the street and waiting for customers, and entirely another for this one to be as blunt as she was. I think it's quite sad that there's such a market for this behavior in Bangkok, and yet it fits in with our observation that it is a large, fast, and dirty city.

That distasteful note aside, all went well in our final few hours in Thailand. It's hard to believe we're back here in Seoul and that in less than 16 hours, we'll be back home. But now we have to earn some money to pay for these adventures...

So there you have it! Allie may post to the blog with her own observations, and we may provide some links for pictures when we can download them onto our computers from Allie's camera. Oh, and as for these spammed comments, I'll remove them from home; I can do it here, but I can't understand the Korean on the screen.

Signing off from Asia...thanks for keeping us company! :)

Greetings from Paradise

Yes, heaven can be found on earth - it's at Koh Samui.

This little island is like nothing either of us have ever seen. The beaches are powdery and white, the sea (the Gulf of Thailand, to be precise) is the blue-green everybody dreams of for a beach vacation, the barrier islands are close, lush and green, and the distant hills are the perfect frame for all of this. There are plenty of tourists here, and yet the beach never feels crowded and it's certainly never loud. Palm trees everywhere, vendors selling only the freshest fruits and grilling up delicious yellow corn, all under the warmest of suns. This really is paradise!

How are we? Not surprisingly, soaking all of this up and loving every minute of it. Most importantly, we've done very little while here. We got in (per my last post) late on Thursday, and spent the evening on Bophut beach, which is on the north coast. Bophut is relatively small, very quaint, with maybe two dozen charming little restaurants or pubs amidst the beachfront hotels, all of which are small. We had a room with a balcony that literally fell onto the beach, with the water maybe 50 feet away at most. We booked the night before - and paid less than $40 for it! We'll never find such a deal again.

Anyway, after lounging on Bophut for the morning, we headed to our planned stay at the Amari Palm Reef Resort, on Chaweng Beach. Chaweng is the largest and most popular of Samui's beaches, on the east coast. It's heaven (see above). The hotel is glorious, the pool is fantastic, and the gulf waters are so warm and soothing, it literally feels like you're taking a bath when you go for a dip. We went snorkeling for a few hours today, and though the array of fish was not the best that either of us had seen, we swam amidst a huge collection of coral that neither of us had seen before. It was spectacular - and the water was so shallow (or the coral so large), we could touch it!

Aside from that, we've spent our time sleeping, reading, enjoying the pool (both in it and along the decks), eating, and relaxing. All of these activities are quite easy here on Samui. This was the best way to end the trip; a perfect wind-down to a hectic and exciting three weeks here. If any of you make it out to this part of the world, you really must spend a few days on Samui. It truly is the most beautiful place I've ever seen.

With that, I'll end what should be our last post from the actual trip itself. We're off to Bangkok tomorrow afternoon, checking our luggage early, then into the city for a celebratory last meal - and, of course, some last-minute bargain hunting. Our flight to Seoul leaves at 1:20 am local time on Tuesday morning, so we have no hotel tomorrow night. We have a three hour layover in Korea, so you'll possibly hear from one of us then.

Back to utopia...

Mail Call!

As we are set to begin the final weekend of this trip, I think it's a good time to answer a few questions we've been getting:

So how was Singapore?

It's been a good few days here. If you've never been, Singapore is like a big, cheap American city, only Chinatown is really big and the rich white neighborhood is where Chinatown should be. A majority of the people here are of Chinese descent, though, like Malaysia, there are a number of ethnic Indians and Malays as well. Unlike Malaysia, there is also a sizable expat population of Westerners - we've met a few Americans, Europeans and Australians who live here permanently.

Everything's in English here. We thought that some form of Chinese would dominate, and that English was widely spoken as a second language. Not so - when the signs are in only one language, it's usually in English. Chinese, Bahasa Malaysian, and something else we don't recognize (I'm guessing Hindi) are the next three. So aside from the different ethnic mix, it feels a lot like home here. We can even drink the tap water!

Hart, I'm really proud of Allie for buying the Balenciaga a few weeks ago - and now I'm hearing that Singapore is a shopping paradise. Can you speak to that?

Let's put it this way: If you take Michigan Avenue, Fifth Avenue, and Rodeo Dr., and string them together, you get Orchard Road. It's like nothing you'll ever see anywhere else. American suburbs have nothing on Singapore when it comes to shopping malls, and Orchard Road is like a huge string of more upscale malls all in a row. If we could get either of our mothers to come here, we'd only buy a one-way ticket - because once they saw the shopping, I don't think we could get them to leave.

What about the food? What have you been eating?

We're not entirely sure. We've had better guesses here, but some things in Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia, you just have to take on faith. Allie's subsisted primarily on various forms of Indian food, mangosteens, and chicken rice. I've been a little more adventurous in terms of cuisine, mostly because I like this kind of food more than Allie does. Adding it up, we've had Indian, Thai, Khmer, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and a little taste of home, not to mention gobs of delicious fresh fruit. We're not starving, not by a long shot.

You've got some of that food on your face. Would you stop blogging and find a napkin?

I'd love to - but napkins seem to be the one thing this part of the world needs. If a restaurant gives you a napkin at all, it's this little dinky thing, and you have to beg and plead for a second. I guess these are the neatest eaters you'll find, because it's not like we're seeing noodles hanging from beards as we walk the streets. It's a really strange thing - and a little tough, because as you all know, we aim for a 50% ratio of food on our plate that goes into the mouth.

What is the average wingspeed of a swallow?

African or European?

So what did you do in Singapore, anyway?

A lot, considering we were only here for two days. I mentioned Orchard Road already - that was yesterday afternoon. Allie did some MAJOR shopping there, and for every dollar she spent, I earned a point for being a good sport and suffering through the whole thing. Guys, send your wives, girlfriends, and daughters to Orchard Road, and either make your way to a bar, coffee shop, or golf course. I wish I'd known that ahead of time.

Before that, we visited the Battle Box, which is the old, original bunker built in the 30s by the British to be a command post in case of attack. The Brits were the colonial powers here from the early 19th century until 1965, when Singapore became independent (actually, a few years earlier, Singapore was a part of an independent Federation of Malaya - in '65, it split to become its own sovereignty, and Malaya became Malaysia). Anyway, the Battle Box was put into use when Japan attacked in late 1941. We all know about Pearl Harbor, but what most of us don't know is that Japan coordinated a series of attacks in December 1941 on the Phillipines and the Malaysian peninsula as well. The Brits used the Battle Box to coordinate their defense against the Japanese, but in February 1942, made the decision there to surrender. It was the first time that any Asian nation had defeated the British and only the second time that an Asian nation defeated any Western one (Russia lost something to the Chinese, I think, around 1900. Is there a history professor in the audience?). Anyway, a lot of the Battle Box has been preserved, and we really enjoyed both seeing it and learning the history of this place before, during and after WW2. One notable item we learned is that while the Box was well hidden 9 meters below the ground, the ventilation was very bad. Often, the British soldiers had to take turns stepping outside to vomit, because in the hot weather, their long pants and sleeved-uniforms, and the bad ventilation, the Box was a terribly miserable place to be.

We also hit the Botanic Gardens, a wonderful oasis in this big-time metropolis. Focusing on the Orchid Garden, we spent about two hours there between the Box and Orchard Road. The orchid is the national flower of Singapore, and they've put together quite a nice area full of hundreds of original types of orchids and even more hybrids that they've invented. Whenever a celebrity or an international political somebody visits, they seem to invent a new hybrid and name it after the visitor (or, often in the case of a foreign dignitary, his wife). It was a very pleasant way to spend a bit of time here.

Did you get more points for the shopping or for the orchids?

The referees are tallying the score now. It's close, that much I know.

Anyway, after Orchard Road, we went to Little India again (we'd spent some time bumming around there on Tuesday afternoon) to dine at a place recommended by one of our travel guides. Like I said, we've been eating a lot of Indian food. I still think our best was the place in Penang where they brought us all sorts of delicious unknown edibles without us having to choose, but this place was also pretty good. After that, we dropped all 17 of Allie's shopping bags at the hotel, and headed off to the Night Safari. What an experience! It's like San Diego's Wild Animal Park, only perhaps even better (though it's been a while since I've been to WAP). They've got a great collection of animals, mostly those native to Southeast Asia, in large and unfenced (though not completely free) living areas. We took a tram around the park, and walked a few trials, getting real up close and personal with rhinos, flying squirrels, leopards, wild pigs, hippos, deer (some literally were walking alongside the tram route; if we'd stopped, we could have pet them!), and so on. The only downside was that we couldn't take photos; the flashes disturb the animals, and the last thing anybody wants is a wild South American tapir running amok (did you know that's a Malay word?). But all in all, it's an amazing place and I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Singapore.

Today, we took a tour of the old Arab St. neighborhood. When the British colonized the island, they were careful to designate certain areas in which each ethnicity was to live, along with a specified commercial/merchant zone and a warehouse district. A lot of these classifications remain to this day, and so, not surprisingly, the area around Arab St. is full of Muslims of all kinds. We enjoyed learning a bit about Singapore's history, the customs of the neighborhood and some interesting tidbits about Islam in general. The neighborhood itself is awfully cool - lots of great stores selling various fabrics and clothes, ethnic goodies and foods, and plenty of interesting smells from the many cafes and restaurants. Like Little India, it's a neat little pocket of people whose culture is both tremendously different and rich. It's also nice to see such culture in what can be an otherwise sterile country.

There's more to what we did today - but I have to cut it short because the only open Internet cafe here in Samui is way too expensive (by Thai standards, that is). We tried hitting Chinatown, but Allie's flip-flops broke, so we barely saw the neighborhood and instead hunted down a shoe store. I'm telling you, there's good shopping in Singapore.

Woof woof woof, woof woof woof woof?

Frankie, down! No chicken rice, Frankie! No!

Speaking of dogs...unlike the other countries we've seen, there were no stray dogs wandering Singapore. Only a handful of stray cats. Otherwise, lots of canines roaming the streets. It's more than a bit sad.

Where are you bozos, anyway?

Well, when I started this post, we were at the Singapore airport (which is ridiculously immaculate - maybe the only airport I've been to where, when you're there, never mind how similar all airports are, you should know it's Singapore). But the free internet there (what a treat!) only lasted for 15 minutes at a time, and with high demand, I couldn't finish this there. So here we are now in Koh Samui, in some rain. Not what we wanted from our island paradise. We're spending just tonight at a cute little place on Bophut beach, and then to a bit of a resort on the biggest beach here, Chaweng, to end this trip in style.

And since I use the word "style," I'll close with a happy birthday wish to my dad, about whom everyone can agree that he has a style all his own. So: Happy Birthday, Dad!

Mal-haze-ia

I'm not sure to what extent it's being reported back home, but there have been terrible forest fires recently in Indonesia (Malaysia's neighbor to the south). Last week, the winds blew north, leaving the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, nearly unlivable due to the haze, smoke and smog. Officials were telling people to stay inside if possible, and to wear air filter masks if they absolutely had to go outdoors.

So when we heard that news on Thursday, and internet pundits predicted that the haze wouldn't lift, we decided to change up our plans a bit. We'd been planning to go to KL today or tomorrow, and instead, decided we'd stay here in Penang for two nights, then head down past KL to...Singapore! So we changed our flights and booked a hotel here right on the beach, and off we were to a 4th country!

Wouldn't you know it - Saturday morning, we woke up to a smell of smoke all the way up in Penang. Sure enough, the winds had shifted, and now our island paradise was covered with the Indonesian haze and smog itself. We had to wear those masks all afternoon - you'll see a few goofy pictures of us in George Town (the capital of Penang state) with the masks on. It cleared up a bit last night, and while the haze returned today, it wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday. We're hoping it eases tomorrow, because we really like it here. As it is, KL's had it a lot better the last few days - but we're not changing our plans again, because there's no way to predict which way the winds will blow. Is Singapore ok? Can't be sure, but we'll just have to deal...

So back to Penang. This place is a lot of fun and one of the most fascinating destinations either of us had ever been to. First, to ease some of your minds: this is a very modern, safe, comfortable island. Malaysia is relatively well-off, so we're not facing the poverty of Cambodia. They've done a much better job planning here, so the country's not as dirty as Thailand. It really is a good vacation spot. More interesting and intriguing is that this might be the best example of multiculturalism around - and that includes the USA. Malaysia is populated primarily by ethnic Malays (most of whom are Muslim), Chinese, and Indians (Hindu and Muslim both). What's so impressive is that everyone seems to get along splendidly. We see men and women of different backgrounds walking together, eating in one another's restaurants, working together, etc. There's hardly any talk of ethnic strife, and the Malaysians are therefore, and justifiably, quite proud of the society they've built.

To be fair, there are some uncomfortable aspects of this place - though not many. This is a Muslim country, and as a result, there are many, many Muslim residents and tourists - and many of the tourists come from those places where a woman's eyes is all you get to see. It's imposing, not only in the post-9/11 atmosphere but also because, well, we're of a different tribe, one that might not be too welcome here. A funny side note is that our hotel for tonight and tomorrow (which is very comfortable) is the first major hotel I've ever seen that doesn't have a King James Bible provided by the Gideons in the nightstand drawer. In its place? What else - the Koran!

That said, we do feel comfortable here and have experienced zero problems whatsoever. We spent both Friday and Saturday bumming around George Town, and fell in love with it. It's a wild mix of people, with modern skyscrapers, traditional Asian food markets, street vendors galore, and quaint, narrow cobblestone streets. Friday, we went to the viewing gallery of the tallest building in Penang, the KOMTAR, 55 stories up. If only they'd cleaned their windows, we'd have had a great view. We also visited the famous "wet market" (i.e. fruits, packaged foods and spices), explored Chinatown, and parts of little India. Saturday, we first took a tour of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, which you may recognize as our hotel for the last three nights. The Mansion is beatiful, and the stories are even better. Cheong Fatt Tze was a 19th century Chinese entrepreneur who came to Malaysia nearly penniless and died as what the New York Times called "the Rockefeller of the east." He had his hands in every pot that could make him money, and boy, was he good at it! He became consul of the Chinese government to both Singapore and Penang, and had so much money that when the Chinese and American governments agreed to partner on an international bank in the late 19th century, Cheong put up more money than the Chinese government did. The tour, which took two hours, was great - we got to see a lot of Cheong's old belongings, hear all the great tales of his life, and explore the house in a way we wouldn't have seen by just staying there.

As for the stay there - we didn't get into the Old Kitchen room, but we were in the room next door, which was the residence of either Wife #3 or Wife #6. See, Cheong had eight wives over the course of his life (usually more than one at a time, as was the custom). His favorite was #7, so she got to stay in the main bedrooms. If you were a disfavored wife, you got exiled to an auxiliary room, or even across the street if you were really bad. Well, there we were on the side, so we must not have enjoyed the luxuries that Ol' Seven did. Nevertheless, it was a great room - we had china plates in the display case, as Allie kept observing. A very cool experience to stay in this historic mansion, and one I'd recommend strongly to anyone else coming here.

The rest of Saturday, we spent exploring the city. We visited Fort Cornwallis, where the British set up camp when they arrived in the late 18th century. Nearby is the clocktower donated as part of the gift to the then-ruling British Empire on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, in 1895. We saw two relics of the Chinese community here: the clan piers and the Khoo Kangsi house. When the Chinese arrived, they grouped themselves into their old, traditional clans, as they had in the motherland. So some of the clans built long piers into the water, with a temple in front and all of their homes in the back. Others built elaborate temples and guild halls for their meetings and secret societies - the most magnificient of which is the Khoo Kangsi building. The clans continue to operate to this day, and seem to be major forces in the local community. From there, we only had to walk two blocks to also see the 200-year old Indian Muslim mosque and a popular Hindu temple. That's the kind of city this is.

The food - good gracious, the food is spectacular. Penang is known within Malaysia as having the country's best eats, and though we can't compare, we'd agree that it's marvelous here. Last night, after failing to find a recommended Nyonya restaurant (Nyonya cuisine developed as a mixture of Chinese and Malay), we stumbled into a popular Indian place. The waiter came in, asked us what we liked, and then before we knew it, we had six or seven different dishes being scooped onto our banana leaf plates (that's right, the plate is just a banana leaf, nothing more). We could barely walk after eating that massive feast, and could only motivate by laughing at the price we paid - less than $7 for the two of us, and that's with an unexpected 20% tip!

We spent the rest of last night (and tonight) at the night market in Batu Ferringhi, the most popular of Penang's three beaches (we're staying on Tanjung Bunga, about 5 km east). Like all night markets, we've met all sorts of friendly shopkeepers who insist that their fake goods are the "best price" we'll find. Ok, so we've picked up a few things here and there, enjoying both the bargaining (we're getting pretty good, mostly by being tough) and the atmosphere.

Today, after switching from the Mansion to the Paradise Sandy Beach Resort, we took it easy for most of the afternoon - I read, while Allie got a mani and pedi (n.b. see how well I'm learning to speak Canadian!). We also took a nice stroll along the beach, which would have been nicer had it not been for the haze. We then spent a few hours at Penang Hill, which is 2400 feet above sea level. Again, would have been nicer without the haze; we'd have been able to see a lot more from up there. But that's how this has to be - we're here, and if the haze is here too, so be it. We're not likely to get back here anytime soon (Cape Cod is so much closer), so we may as well get all we can out of it.

Tomorrow, we're hoping to spend some time in the Penang National Park, which is a rainforest, and then at the Tropical Fruit Farm (if anything is better than Penang's delicious and cheap food, it's the amazing fruit they grow in these parts). Tuesday, we fly to the southern city of Johor Bahru, across a narrow causeway from Singapore, and will make our way into the city-state from there. We've also moved up our travel to Koh Samui, Thailand - we're going there directly from Singapore, on Thursday night.

I haven't written about Thursday in Thailand yet, so I'll cover it quickly. We loved Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn - a unique tower of a wat, decorated with lavish porcelain aristry that was made possible because the villagers all donated their porcelain to the project (500 years ago, mind you). We did not love the National Museum of the Royal Barges, both because the barges weren't all that impressive (the funeral chariots we saw a week earlier were much cooler) and because we spent two hours wandering around an area where almost no English was spoken trying to find it. We even tried stopping into a local cafe for lunch, but to order, you had to write your order on paper - in Thai! We conversed with the waitress just enough to learn that they didn't serve pad thai, and so not knowing what else they had, we moved on. Chalk it up to a funny experience and a lesson to try and learn a little more of the local language.

It's hard to believe that we've been here for two weeks - and that there's only one more week to go. But there's another country to visit, and a beautiful island to soak up for the last few days, and we're going to squeeze out every last drop of Asia that we can. Now about this haze...

Three Days in the Third World

When Allie and I were getting ready for this trip, we noted that we expected the two main destinations, Thailand and Malaysia, to be "middle-class." After our week in Thailand, we re-affirmed that definition. But until we got here to Cambodia, we didn't really know what that meant. This place is poor. I mean, this place is ridiculously poor. It's fascinating for how unbelievably different it is here than what we're used to. Is it crazy that these people do not live anywhere close to our standards - or, rather, is it our standards that are crazy?

Monday - The Angkor Highlights

We began the day, as many do, with Angkor Wat, the largest of the old Khmer Empire temples and, it is believed, the largest religious structure in the world. Built in the 12th century and largely intact, it is an amazing, amazing site. It's full of bas-reliefs, cut into the stone all around the Gallery, on the outermost layer of walls within the temple itself. We walked all around the temple, up as high as we could go onto the third or fourth level, where you can get an eye-level view of the massive spires with the beautiful trees and Cambodian forest as a background. It took 37 years to complete Angkor Wat, and even knowing that, it's hard to fathom how they moved all of those stones from an upriver location down to Angkor and then built the whole thing. But it's easy to know, upon visiting, why it's considered one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Angkor Wat is that impressive.

I suppose you might want a little background about all of these temples. They were built largely between the 9th and 13th centuries, when the Khmer Empire controlled nearly all of what is now Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The Khmers are the ancestors of today's Cambodian; the language spoken here is called Khmer. One of the many stark contrasts of this place is that what was, 1000 years ago, the capital area of the dominant empire and one of the most powerful civilizations up to its time, is now one of the poorest and saddest nations around. What a difference a millenium will make.

When we first got to Angkor Wat, we were immediately approached by three or four kids asking us to buy a postcard. Shoeless, knowing only enough English to ask for either a sale or another kind of handout, these kids were our first lesson in Cambodian poverty. As our guide, Ponheary, explained - it's uncomfortable to say no to these kids because they and their families really need money, but it's also uncomfortable to say yes, because to buy from them encourages the kids to keep coming back - which means they're not in school. We have found these kids at every temple and in the market area of Siem Reap itself. The ones in town have learned more English; upon learning that we're from the USA, they all tell us that Washington's the capital, that Alaska is the biggest state, and then they ask what state wé're from and what the capital is. Then we should buy a postcard! We have to insist repeatedly that we're not interested, and usually, it takes a "ok, we'll buy later" to shake the kids. That backfired once, though, when one girl to whom we said we'd buy later found us again, and when we didn't buy, out came the crocodile tears - convincing enough that we gave her a dollar to go away, only to have another kid tell us seconds later that this was her shtick. Quite the actress, the little devil...

Speaking of dollars - that's the dominant currency here. Everything's priced in dollars. The local currency, the riel, is valued at 4000 to $1. Only if your bill comes to an uneven amount will you see riel, as change. It's a little weird to be given 2000 riel as change for a buck. 2000 of anything should be worth something, and here I am with two paper quarters written in a funny language.

Back to the temples: we took a few hours off for lunch, ate at an Indian place near the market (where we met and dealt with Best Cambodian Actress for 2005), then met up again with Ponheary to visit Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom was built in the 12th and 13th centuries as the capital city, and composes many different structures. My favorite is the temple itself, the Bayon, which features 54 huge spires, each of which has a face cut into each side. It is a looming, dark, awe-inspiring temple. It's not in the same condition as Angkor Wat, but seeing the ruins is nevertheless as exciting - if not more so. The bas-reliefs here are both of some wars (almost all of the reliefs at Angkor Wat are about either wars or ancient Hindu myths - the Khmers of the time were predominantly Hindu, though today this is a Buddhist nation), but also of everyday life. So there are 800-year old carvings of a woman giving birth, of a man being chased by a tiger, and of men playing chess. It's fun to see how they thought of their own lives, and to note that a lot of what they did then is still what we do today (well, minus the tiger part). On the whole, after two days, the Bayon remains, in my mind, the best of the ruins we've seen.

Angkor Thom also features the elephant terrace, where the Khmer rulers and their subjects would enjoy various processions, parades, and victory celebrations. It's called the elephant terrace because the old wall-like structure features dozens of elephants carved into the side. Across the way are 12 tall towers, believed to have been used by dancers who would stand on ropes tying the towers together, well off the ground. The towers and the terrace were built over 1000 years ago, and as Ponheary suggested that we try to imagine the pomp and circumstance of the day, I couldn't help but note that, 1000 years later, we were standing on the very same site and glorifying these powerful, magnificient rulers, who are still revered by today's Cambodians. What will they say about us in 3005? Will they even know who we were or what we did?

That was it for Day 1. We spent the evening at the only lowlight of the day, at a dinner-and-show event in town. The food was ok, but the show, modeled after the ancient Apsara style (this was the same as performed on the towers opposite the elephant terrace), was a bit lame. The dancers would stop to chat with one another in the middle of the performance!

We got back to the hotel, and talked a bit about what we'd seen. Sure, the temples were phenomenal, but the lasting impression was the kids, these poor, poor kids, many of whom have insufficient food, no shoes, little education, and not a lot of hope. It was quite sobering - and yet it was NOTHING compared to what we'd see the next day.

Tuesday - The Real Cambodia

The temples are fabulous. They really are. They're architectural, historical and archeological wonders, and if possible, you should come out here and see them. But the temples are relics of yesterday's Cambodia. Today's Cambodia is a vastly different place...

We started out for Banteay Srey this morning, located 15 miles or so from Siem Reap. It was built in 967, it's one of the smaller temples, but considered one of the best because of the extraordinary detail of the carvings. Banteay Srey is not regular stone, but sandstone, which lends the complex a beatiful reddish-tannish color. The carvings really are special, depicting many Hindu legends, and the organization of the spires and auxiliary buildings makes for some great pictures (n.b. yes, Dad, we're taking lots of pics, but we can't upload until our return home). Between the different stones used, and that it was built well before yesterday's sites, Banteay Srey made for a great start to the morning and an interesting comparison to the biggies of Angkor.

More interesting, though, was the drive through the countryside to get to the temple. Let me explain what "Cambodian poor" means. By and large, especially outside the city, Cambodians live in one or two room bamboo huts, usually built up on stilts to avoid flooding during the heavy rains. They work exhausting hours, often on the rice paddies, and don't have much to show for it. The kids don't seem malnourished, by and large, but what few older people we see are way too thin (life expectancy, as of a few years ago, was 53 for men and 58 for women). You can see the rib bones of the cows. Again, many kids have no shoes. There are schools, and yet when we stopped to give kids pens, paper or markers (Allie's idea - bringing a little charity with us), they lit up with smiles, because they don't have such things on anything close to a regular basis. Stray dogs, men tilling fields with nothing but a plow and a water buffalo, dirt, and nothing beyond the village - that's today's Cambodia. It is unbelievably depressing. True, they have consumer goods, so it's probably not as bad as places like Niger; in other words, it's not so poor here that it makes the news. But the average salary here is $260 a year. You think you deserve a raise?!?!

So it felt very good to stop at a few points today to give out candy, pens, paper, etc. Allie's ideas, all. At one point in the afternoon, we spent about an hour in a Cambodian home, giving out these items, along with fresh fruit we bought today, drawing with the kids, making paper airplanes, sitting and watching and smiling. It clearly meant so much to them, as smiles were everywhere. It was also great for us to be able to bring a little light into their dreary lives, and a great experience to see the inside of one of these huts. Not surprisingly, it was simple, not decorated much, and unfathomably accomodating of the family of 8 (the father of which lost a leg to a land mine).

The land mines: one of the other horrors of this land is the legacy of the Khmer Rouge. The history's a bit confusing, but suffice it to say that the Khmer Rouge, which controlled Cambodia from 1975-78 and remained a vicious force until the late 1990s, was easily one of the most evil governments ever. Ponheary told us that, during the Khmer Rouge reign, each Cambodian received two shirts and two pairs of pants per year - all of which were black, perfect for a day's work in the hot tropical sun. Currency was abolished, the country was cut off from everyone else, and most notably, hundreds of thousands - if not millions - were killed. The Khmer Rouge aimed to create a Maoist agrarian state, and so anyone with ties to the old regimes or with an education was killed. That meant bad news for Ponheary's father, a teacher; her grandfather, an army commander; and her uncle, a former general. Some people were killed by being pushed into crocodile pits. It is perhaps not surprising to note that it is Cambodia that is so behind today while its Thai and Malaysian neighbors have the stronger, brighter futures. But that doesn't take away from the awful legacy of the Khmer Rouge. Oh, yeah, the land mines - they planted them everywhere, in part to terrorize and in part to keep out the Vietnamese (who controlled from 1979 until 1990 or so), and they still dot the countryside. We can't stray off the beaten path, because you just don't know what lurks out there beath the brush. (But - DON'T WORRY! We're not going anywhere like that, and the temples are all perfectly safe.)

Anyway, the other highlight of the day was our afternoon at the Floating Village. That's right, a Floating Village! Near Siem Reap is a large lake called the Tomle Sap. It lies in a massive floodplain, which in monsoon country means that the lake expands tremendously during rainy season. There are people who live, full time, on the lake, largely as fishing communities, and so these villages have sprouted up all over the Tomle Sap lake. The homes literally float, either because they're constructed on top of boats or are placed on bamboo rafts. It's an entirely normal functioning town, except that (a) it floats; and (b) because the lake levels rise and fall so dramatically, the village has to move 5 kilometers twice a year! We're here at the beginning of the heaviest part of the rainy season, so already, there are areas we saw today as completely under water that, a few months ago, were lined with the village boats. We watched a few homes get towed away toward higher ground, and if we were to go back to the same spot next week, we might not find anyone left at all. It's really cool! Everything you'd expect to find in a village, you find on a boat in this one: women rowing paddle boats full of fruits and vegetables, a travelling general store, and so on. We stopped at a fish farm to see some of the catch and to play with a python, which generally wrapped itself around each of our necks for a photo opp. Just an amazing afternoon - we thought life on Cambodian land was so different from ours, and now here we were on Cambodian waters experiencing something that we didn't even know could exist. A floating village!

And that's about it. I skipped over the smaller temple we saw after Banteay Srey, called Mabon, not because it wasn't impressive but because, well, the scenes of village life were more eye-opening. Allie noted that the temples start to blend together, which is true - but no way we're forgetting these people and the way they live.

Tomorrow, we're visiting a few more temples, including the famous Ta Prohm jungle temple. Most of the Angkor temples were re-discovered by the French in the 19th cenury, and were then covered with trees and other greenery, as they'd been largely abandoned for centuries. The French cut down most of those trees and began the restoration work, but for whatever reason, left Ta Prohm alone. So it's the "jungle temple" and supposed to be quite a sight. We'll see that, a few others, and then we're back to Bangkok for a night, before leaving for Malaysia on Thursday evening for eight nights.

If you're wondering, unlike Thailand, the lion's share of tourists here are Korean, with a good chunk of Chinese and Japanese as well. The Asian tourists come year-round; us Americans and our European and Australian counterparts tend to make it here only during dry season. Thailand, in contrast, features mostly European and American tourists.

Ok, back to the hotel for some sleep. These have been two incredible, educational, depressing and fantastic days, and we've got one more ahead of us before going back to civilization. We might have a chance to update this from Bangkok tomorrow night or Thursday, but don't be surprised if we don't check back in until Malaysia.

Wat a Weekend!

It's 9 pm on Sunday evening, and we're in the office of the Angkoriana Hotel in Siem Reap (that's SEE-em REE-ip for you grammaticians in the audience) - Cambodia! Definitely never thought I'd find myself here. Internet is expensive here (well, $2/hour), so unfortunately this post will not provide the detail of our last two days in Chiang Mai. As it is, you're probably looking forward to a simple column and not another novel. :)

Friday - Trekking in Chiang Mai

We spent Friday on a day-long Trek through the countryside around Chiang Mai. We started with an hour drive to a small elephant camp, from which we rode for an hour up and down some hills. We sat in a makeshift bench, while our leader, a native Karen villager (more on this later), guided the elephant by sitting on its head and barking orders. The tribal language is very gutteral - the elephant knows to go by something like "hwwuuuuuaeeee!" They're remarkably agile animals - up and down with little trouble, making its way through mud, and so on. We got a chance to feed them bananas - the elephant swung its trunk over its head and pointed right at us, and we simply stuck a banana in its nostril! Ours was not too happy with us when we ran out, though; it snotted mud on us! Highlight of the elephant ride was the little baby elephant accompanying its mother and father through the walk. Baby animals are always, always cute!

We arrived then at the Karen village, and spent some time walking around meeting the villagers. Thailand does not have many indigineous tribal people left, but those that remain are concentrated largely in the north, mostly because they fled the wars in next-door Burma a number of years ago. It's fascinating to see how they live now: they still build their huts on stilts, speak their native tongue, and generally avoid mainstream Thai life. But they have electricity (not for a television or widespread lights, but for the fridge at the general store), coke and other common western items, and, of course, frequent contact with us obnoxious Western trekkers. Allie had read that the villagers enjoy receving things like candy, pens and paper (which they don't have), so we got a lot of smiles when we gave these things out to whomever we came across. It's a little shocking to see people still living this way in 2005, especially because, while we were there, we kept thinking about how we'd tell all of you about them on this newfangled Internet thingy.

We went from the Karen village to a beautiful little waterfall in the nearby national park, where we swam a little and relaxed, then hiked about 30 minutes to the Hmong village. These people are truly primitive. They sleep one family to a 8x8 space, and many families share one bamboo hut. They're still hunter-gatherers, with a little added income earned by selling their crafts to us visitors and at the urban Thai night bazaars. Compared to the Hmong, the Karens are technological gods - that's how unspoiled their way of life is.

The trek ended (after a light lunch) with a fun, pretty but uneventful ride on a bamboo raft down a nearby river. More interesting than that - and, as Allie says, the highlight of the day - was our interaction with the only other people trekking with us: a nice, newly married couple from Oman. Oman, for the geographically challenged, is on the Arabian peninsula, and is not known for its kindness for our, um, tribal ways. But these two were very friendly, and we spent a lot of time talking about Omani culture, differences with American culture, Islam, and relatons between the Islamic and Western worlds. Allie marveled at how the wife could hike and ride and operate in the heat while wearing a long skirt and a long-sleeved blouse, with a scarf on her head. At the end of the day, we traded e-mail addresses and agreed to send each other pictures. They invited us to visit in Oman (the husband is a marketing guru at a beach hotel), but I think that will have to wait...

Saturday - Exploring Chiang Mai

We finally slept in a little; we'd been waking up at absurd hours, from the jet lag. Being Saturday, Allie insisted that we go to temple. So that's what we did, Thai style of course. We visited Wat Phra Singh, which is known for another of the three "Sihing" Buddhas. We learned later that the Sihing Buddha represents the stage in the Buddha's life before he attained enlightenment. While at WPS, we experienced our first real monsoon; up until then, the rains had come only when we were safely inside. Sure enough, after waiting out a 15-20 minute deluge, it lightened up for the rest of the day. We had our mangosteens to keep us company. :) Oh, and we also were blessed with Buddhist holy water by a monk, who wished us "long life and happy." Can't argue with that!

The other wat (which means temple) we visited was my favorite yet: Wat Chedi Luang, which features a 600-year old broken chedi that stands some 60 meters high. Unlike a lot of the structures at other wats we'd seen, the chedi here was not adorned with gold or jewels; it was a simple yet beautifully elegant brick and stone structure. It was once 90 meters high, before an earthquake in 1545 toppled it to its current height. It is striking and gorgeous, a real piece of history. We just marveled at it, with its broken beauty. You'll see pictures later, and that'll help you understand just how spectacular the sight is. While at WCL, we got to talk for a while with a local monk, who taught us a bit about Buddhism and life as a monk. It was a nice way to sit for a bit and learn about everything we're seeing. Like many Thais, he was quite friendly and eager to practice his English.

We strolled slowly through Chiang Mai for the rest of the afternoon, finishing by walking through a local market where the Thais (and not so much the foreigners) shop. We bought more mangosteens, looked at various clothes (nothing exciting), and headed back, where we spent the rest of the evening. On our way, while passing by one of the cute galleries on our street, a shopkeeper offered us fresh fruit from her table, just because. The fruit here, by and large, really is delicious. Some we like more than others, but more than anything else it's fun to try all of these foods that we don't get back home.

At night, after Allie woke up at 11:15 pm, we headed back to the night market, only to find it closing down. She had time to successfully drive some hard bargains for a few pieces of jewelry (where'd she get those talents from?), and then we found a makeshift massage center still open. For 30 minutes, we were pampered once again - Allie got a foot massage and I got a standard neck and back massage. These people are magicians - and it was well worth the $3 we spent. :)

Sunday - Travellin'

Didn't have a chance to do anything today, unfortunately. Had just enough time in Chiang Mai to pack up and tell our hosts how much we loved their bed and breakfast. The feature of the day was the Mad Dash Through Bangkok Airport: our flight out of Chiang Mai was delayed an hour, mainly because they had only two check-in counters for énough people to nearly fill a 747. So we had just over an hour in Bangkok to get our checked luggage, run the distance between the domestic and international terminals, check in for our flight here, pay the departure tax, clear customs (how do you saÿ "this customs officer is a turtle" in Thai?), and run to our gate. Of course, it being Thailand, our flight wasn't leaving on time - news we would have appreciated, say, a half hour before. Ok, no biggie, so we exercised a bit and sweat a lot and we made it!

Haven't ventured out into Siem Reap tonight, because we want to be fresh for tomorrow. What little we saw, we noted that this isn't QUITE the place that Thailand is. There are lots of foreign tourists, but Cambodia is simply poorer than its neighbor. The airport is simple, the town seems simple, and the development is limited to supporting the tourism - that's about it. I imagine we'll find more of what we've seen once we get into the main drag (our hotel is a few blocks away), but we'll also probably find more differences that will make Cambodia unique on this trip.

So tomorrow we're off to the temples at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. We've hired a local guide, a former English teacher whose knowledge and services have been lauded on the many travellers' forums that we consulted while back home. She's super friendly, and has some fascinating stories of her own about life here under Vietnamese and Communist rule. She had to learn English in secret, then had to learn Russian to get a job as a teacher - just in time for Communism to fall. We're super excited to see the temples here; everything we've heard is that this is truly one of the most extraordinary historic sites in the world.

I can't promise that we'll write again from Cambodia, but we'll give it a shot if it's possible. At the latest, we'll check in Wednesday or Thursday from Bangkok, where we'll spend a day before moving onto Malaysia. Toodles! :)

Soh Vin Yaa!

When the rain starts falling on a humid afternoon in Bangkok, it's a good time to grab a cold beer and head for the nearest Internet cafe. Allie's getting a Thai massage for the next hour, so I thought I'd stop in, cool off, and give today's update.

I should start with last night. We were told that many people here would try to scam us out of as many baht as they could. Our cab driver was no exception - only we couldn't understand him. "Teep" - ok, that we got. But then he said something about a dollar for "soh vin yaa" and pointed to his heart. For his temple? He nodded. For a souvenir? He nodded. And then he said "soh vin yaa" again, as if we'd understand on the 34th try. When we got to our hotel, we asked the bellhop if he could translate - and the best we could figure out was that "soh vin yaa" means "I think you're a big idiot and I'm going to take your money."

The hotel - unbelievable! Lotus flowers and fresh fruit awaiting our arrival, the plushest pillows I've ever seen, an interesting view, helpful staff - this place is just great. We can't get used to it, though, because until we get to Koh Samui at the end of the trip, we won't be anywhere close to this nice.

Anyway, as for today. We woke up this morning, grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel, and headed off for the tailor. The guy there remembered the group of Northwestern students who'd been a few months back and who recommended the place, so he gave us the same deal. We're going back tomorrow for our first fitting (they're that quick), and will have everything done by the time we're ready to leave.

After that, we headed to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Khao. The Palace is the traditional royal residence, though the king and queen no longer live there. The Wat complex, next door, is home to the Emerald Buddha. We'd never seen anything quite so opulent. The detail and care that went into the construction and ornamentation is just unreal; jewels, mother-of-pearl, all sorts of colored tiles, carvings, you name it, it's there. Words do not do it justice; you'll have to wait for Allie to upload the pictures upon our return. The emerald buddha itself is phenomenal, though not that big; it's the whole presentation, with numerous flanking Buddha statues, candles for the worshippers, incense, flowers and other fabulous works of art. The palace was similarly resplendent - in particular, I got a kick out of the traditional thrones still used for ceremonies involving the monarch. I need some chairs like that (and maybe a few dozen people to carry me around).

From there, we walked down the road to Wat Po, home of the famous Reclining Buddha. This beautiful and monstruous golden statue takes up nearly the entire building in which it rests, surrounded by beatiful murals and artistry. Simply glorious!

From there, off to Khao San road, one of the big backpacker areas in Bangkok. There are plenty of non-Thais here, mostly various Europeans and Australians but also handfuls of Americans, Koreans, Japanese, etc. We met a New Yorker as we got to Khao San and had lunch with him (for less than $6 for all three of us, and that's not the cheapest around), then wandered the streets for a bit before finding this little pocket with the massage center and this internet cafe.

So that should do for our first Thailand post. We've got to figure out how we're getting up to Chiang Mai tomorrow night, which is probably the location of our next post. Between now and then...your guess is as good as mine. :)