Hoi An and My Son
Once again we got up early, though not as early as the day before, to head down to Hoi An, an old shipping port along the central coast. We picked an early morning bus ride as it promised some scenic stops along the way, including China Beach and Marble Mountain, I believe places of R&R for US troops during the war. The drive was beautiful, we went through a scenic mountain pass along the coast and stopped at a beach resort for some breakfast. We drove through a mountain via a tunnel where neither of us could hold our breath for even a quarter of the way through. It was a long tunnel. Unfortunately the bus skipped the scheduled China Beach and Marble Mountain so we got to Hoi An a bit earlier than expected.
We decided to do the walking tour of the old quarter of Hoi An which was one of the main trading ports with the Portugese, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch and French from the early 1600’s until relatively recently. The town has some really great architecture, some nice combinations of East meets West as neighboring buildings only occasionally looked the same. We walked around and did some browsing through the many shops along the way, stopping over a bridge to watch the bustling water activity. People were fishing, boats were dropping off passengers and their many motor bikes and bicycles. We got another great vegetarian meal, and planned our stay for the area.
The next day, we got up really early again (5:00am), hopped on our $2.75/day motor bike rental and headed out the 40 kilometers to the ancient Cham ruins of My Son (pronounced Mee Sohn). Jonathan has really gotten good at the Asian motorbike road rules. It was a beautiful hour drive. Our butts hurt, but the countryside was really nice, and we actually had the freedom to stop whenever and wherever we wanted. Down in Central Vietnam they are at a different point in their rice farming so they were all out tossing rice seeds into the muddy fields for the next crop. This was fun to observe as we clipped along at 60 kmph.
We arrived at the My Son ruins early, around 6:30, before the crowds and the heat. We got a short ride into the World Heritage site, and then headed down the jungle path to look for some of the ancient ruins. They appeared as though growing out of the jungle, and were not nearly as excavated as Angkor. Many were destroyed during the Vietnam/American War, but there were still enough ruins left intact to satiate our curiosity. We explored among them, marvelling at the apparent technique of laying bricks without the use of mortar. Again, contemporary with the Khmers, the Cham civilization had been heavily influenced by Hinduism from India and developed Shiva cults. The Cham and Khmer civilzations clashed and conquered one another at different periods, but in viewing each of their ruins, their relative similarity was visible. Not being a quarter of the size of Angkor, and some still being under excavation, we finished our explorations in about 2 1/2 hours and, after walking out of the park, we hopped back on our scooter, fired it up and zipped away.
We headed back into Hoi An, rested up at the hotel, and that afternoon cruised to the local beach, which actually stretches unbroken all the way north to Danang, 30 km away. Even though the hawkers were out selling their wares, we enjoyed laying out relaxing and swimming in the warm waters. It was nice to see all the locals coming out as well, jumping into the water with their entire family and most of their clothes on.
The next day, we spent most of the day shopping and running errands as we had only one more day in Hanoi before flying back to the US. Rushing, we grabbed a bite at a local Buddhist vegetarian food stall, and made it back to the hotel just in time to catch our taxi to the Danang airport. Upon arrival, we found out our flight back to Hanoi was 4 1/2 hours late, and would not get in to Hanoi until 1am. So we both hoppped onto the back of the same motorbike and headed into Danang, spending most of our time at an internet cafe trying to update the blog with pictures and stories. We got into a rickshaw for the way back and basically had to direct the driver how to get back to the airport. We spent the last 1 1/2 hours at the airport working on our sudoku skills.
We arrived back to Hanoi’s Old Quarter around 2:30 am and after some hotel hassle, got into bed later than we wanted. We slept in a bit and have spent the entire day packing up our stuff and organizing ourselves for the very long May 31 we have ahead of us. We also were able to get out into town a bit to go see the old “Hanoi Hilton” that the French had built to imprison Vietnamese dissidents. It was also used to imprison downed American pilots during the Vietnam/American War. Most of the structure has been demolished and in its stead a Hanoi Towers hotel/offices modern highrise now stands. We went in and Hari Jot got an ice cream. The museum was interesting and the shackles and guillotine the had French used were pretty horrid. Of course, it was posted in the museum that the later American prisoners were impressively treated. I guess only they know.
We have 2 days to spend in San Francisco decompressing and then it’s back home, where hopefully our little dog remembers us and doesn’t miss the cat too much. It’s been a wonderful journey, and though we’ve spent 10 weeks exploring SE Asia and the Indian sub-continent, we’ve barely scratched the surface. We must come again, keeping that adventurous spirit alive, exploring our world and all the people within.
We hope you have all enjoyed the journey with us, and perhaps have inspired a few to take on some adventures yourselves.
Don’t forget to check the blog occasionally for updates about our next adventure… the wedding planning……
Perfume Pagoda, Hue and DMZ
Unfortunately, we have learned that our cat, Nizhoni, had been hit by a car and killed recently near our house. Our neighbors who found her were kind enough to bury her, but it was very sad news for us. We had had her for just a year and were looking forward to seeing her again. We wanted to post her passing as some of you knew her and may miss her as we do.
The day after our return from Halong Bay, we got up early for our second tour in Vietnam to go from Hanoi city to the Perfume Pagoda, a sacred place of worship in a big limestone cave in the mountains outside Hanoi. We got picked up outside our hotel and were lucky enough to end up with the only extra seat on the bus next to us. We felt lucky, but we hadn’t changed our clothes for a couple of days, so there may have been a good reason why no one sat next to us.
After driving for a couple of hours with the rice harvesters in the fields on either side of the road, we arrived at the next leg of our journey to the Pagoda. The rice production and harvesting was impressive to watch, with lots of people in the rice-paddy fields under their sun and rain-protecting conical reed hats working so diligently in the hot weather with their bicycles parked nearby. All along the road they had the rice harvest laid out on the edge of the road to dry, the bus swerving to avoid the grains. The machines that separate the rice from the chaff were also in the road processing the crop and spewing the grasses away from the grain. Amidst such a bustle of rice-centered activity, we arrived at our destination and climbed into little red metal, flat bottomed boats sitting very low on the water. There were four of us per boat with one little person to row us upriver for about an hour. We of course had a couple of ”big-boned” Americans plus our guide (making five passengers), and the smallest of the rowers. But lo and behold, he was actually the fastest and made it in record time….at least on the way there. =)
The river was gorgeous, you couldn’t even tell we were going upriver because the water was as calm as a lake. There were men and women fishing from their little boats that we would occasionally pass by as they worked on catching their food. This is called the Perfume River, and it lazily winds through limestone hills tilled with green agriculture in small valleys surrounded by wild vegetation. The ducks didn’t seem to like us floating by, but the butterflies, swallows and eagles didn’t seem to mind a bit.
We arrived to the base of the mountain in the heat of the day, perhaps the hottest and muggiest days we’ve had yet, and began ascending towards the Perfume Pagoda. Well, our guide informed us that he didn’t think that we would have enough time to hike up the steep hills to the cave where the Pagoda was, so he suggested that the group buy tram tickets to get there. We were told when we signed up that we would have plenty of time to walk up to the cave when we bought our tour tickets. So not being easily intimidated into doing something we did not want to do, we (JGR & HJK) told our guide we thought it was a bum deal and that we should have enough time to do the hike. His response, “well, you better walk fast or we’ll start lunch without you.” As lunch was included in the tour, this hardly seemed fair. Determined as we are in not backing down, we started up with one other person who didn’t even want lunch hoping that our old hiking legs would not fail us. Thankfully we were in the shade for much of the time, but our clothes were both completely wet by the time we reached the top, and it didn’t rain…. Of course we made it in record time according to our guide, as the tram people had only been there for 10 minutes, it only took us 35 minutes to hike up the very steep trail, with ackward stone steps half the way up, for about 2 miles.
We then explored the big cave that was home to the Perfume Pagoda. There were some faithful devotees praying and making offerings there, including our guide. It was quite beautiful and peaceful. It was also really nice to be in the hills looking at the mountains and exploring the hillside cave. Then we decided to run down the hill so we would catch up with everyone and be on time for lunch as we were pretty hungry by this point. Right as we saw some of our crew nearing the bottom, JGR stepped on a random nail in the path, but luckily it didn’t break skin. However we could not for the life of us pry it out of his shoe with rocks and sticks. So off we went, one shoe on and the other off, looking for a refreshment stall along the way that might have pliers. Fortunately we found some and the people were gracious enough to extract the nail so we could continue on. We were on time for lunch, hungrily ate and washed it all down with a fresh young coconut…
The ride back in the boat was peaceful but incredibly hot. Luckily we both had our big rim hats on and survived the journey. We arrived back in the city just at sundown and visited a local silk farm as silk is an art form in Vietnam. We went back to our guest house where we had already checked out for a quick shower in the general bathroom/shower. We were leaving that evening on an overnight train down to Hue in Central Vietnam. We had dinner, finished the blog, and got a taxi to the train station.
The train was not much different from an AC sleeper car in India, but quite a bit cleaner. We shared our cabin with an 80 year old man and his nephew as they were returning to Ho Chi Minh City from visiting his deceased father in Hanoi. They were very kind and even showed us where to get the hot water for our ramen noodle soups that were given to us for breakfast in the train.
We arrived in Hue in Central Vietnam, a nice laid back city with a lot of history. It was the capital of one of the last ruling empires in Vietnam up until the 19th century. We arrived in the morning from Hanoi on the overnight train, got our packs on and headed out walking to find a hotel. We got our best deal yet for just $7/night for both of us including, AC, bathtub, hot water, satellite TV and free internet use downstairs. We checked in, took a cyclo (bicycle rickshaw) to a nice cheap vegetarian restaurant and then headed across the river that runs through town to go to the Citadel. We explored the old capital, a massive walled in city with an old palace, university, temples and other neat places to explore.
Just north of Hue is the old DMZ where much of the Vietnam/American war was fought, so one of the first things we did was booked a tour bus to go visit the historic area and places around there for the next day.
We got up at 5:00am to meet the bus for a 6:00am departure. We had a long day planned with the return scheduled for 7:00pm. Something interesting in Vietnam is that the sun is actually up by 5:00am, which is really pretty nice. We had our snacks ready for the day, hopped on the full bus of foreigners and started the tour up north.
We picked up a great tour guide who told us a lot of the history of the war in a pretty neutral way. We first visited the “Rockpile”, nicknamed by the American military during the war. It was a small granite mountain where the US military had a post used as a vantage point for the surrounding countryside. Apparent were the devastating effects of “Agent Orange” defoliating the jungle so as to burn and clear the forest in attempts to uncover the ever-hidden Ho Chi Minh Trail. What we were told is that even the fourth generation of Vietnamese in the area are still having birth defects from it’s heavy use. It was interesting to see all the hills around with the old forest gone and only the occasional young tree amidst the bushes, but also to see the people out working in the fields making a new life. It was green all around, but you could still see deep depressions in the fields where bombs had been dropped.
We then stopped at Dakrong Bridge, rebuilt after having been destroyed by US bombs. This was part of the major network of trails and roads of the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail which provided a means of transporting and supplying the South Vietnamese who supported the North with manpower and material. Many battles had been fought around the bridge, and the US destroyed the original when leaving back in 1973.
We then went to the old US military base, Khe Sahn, where the North Vietnamese were successful in creating enough of a diversion here that the US Military believed that the North Vietnamese were throwing all they had at the base. However, this was a diversion that made the subsequent Tet Offensive successful. At least this is what we have been told here. The base and museum displayed a few downed US helicopters and bomb shells. The old runway was still there, but the most interesting part was a notebook in the small museum where visitors had written their thoughts. However, the entries that felt the most real were the ones made by the veterans who had served here.
The tour then headed out to the coast to the small fishing village of Vinh Moc, where tunnels had been created to protect the villagers from the ravages of the war. The VC and North Vietnamese military subsequently expanded the tunnels into a massive system with 3 levels going as deep as 23 meters. The tunnels were hidden by dense foliage and stretched to the sea, housed families, provided drinking water, had a makeshift hospital and nursery, and no one was ever killed in the tunnels as a result of the war, but a close call by a US bomb created a nice big airshaft for the inhabitants. It was hard to believe that people lived here, and babies were born here, during such a hard time. We were able to walk through the tunnels and see the wells, the airshafts, the living quarters, and many of the passageways, entrances and exits. It was all such an incredible experience to walk in some of those same footsteps though we were very aware that we were able to do it during a peaceful time. It may be difficult for us to imagine being compelled underground during a time of war.
This day’s trip was a poignant one. After all we have seen, read and heard in the US about the Vietnam War through music, movies, television, and history books, I guess it had never seemed quite real. But here, where it actually went down, to see the people (to use a cliche) ”rising from the ashes”, using bomb craters as watering holes for livestock, and seeing all the pro-government propaganda pretty much everywhere, it has been brought to life.
Hanoi and Ha Long Bay
Angkor Wat
It is wonderful here. The people are incredibly fresh, open, and always smiling. The temples (Angkor Wat is the most famous of countless others) are wonderful in their jungle environs and fine detail. A friend of ours who lives in Singapore, Dharma, has also come and we all met each other at the Siem Reap airport, where HJK and JGR flew in from Bangkok. Siem Reap (the town that supports any visitor to the temples) has apparently grown incredibly over the past 10 years, following the demise of the Khmer Rouge, the brutal regime whose lasting effects can still be seen in the missing limbs of the landmine victims trying to make a living here. But, just like the jungle forest reclaiming the land where the temples had imposed themselves, the people of Cambodia are rebounding with joy and life. Babies are everywhere, always a good sign, on their mother’s back, on their father’s lap while riding the scooter, on their 5 year old sister’s hip, or running through puddles with no pants on, smiling, laughing and waving at the funny visitors on the bikes. Nowhere have we gone here where we have not been warmly received. The Cambodians are highly interested in who we are, where we come from, what we do, and when we are coming again to Cambodia to visit them.
We have rented what we are calling “authentic”Cambodian bicycles (rickety, hard seat, broken pedal, wheeled wonders) for a deeply bargained US$1.25 a day. (Interesting note: in addition to the Cambodian currency, Riel, the US Dollar is commonly used here, and most prices are actually shown in that denomination.) These bikes have been our major source of transportation here, and considering that the entrance to the World Heritage Site temples are no closer than 8 kilometers to us, our behinds are certainly paying the price. And considering that we have come at the beginning of the rainy season, which lasts until October, we have certainly gotten wet. Once again, our handy dandy Walgreens rain ponchos have come in handy, though they are beginning to show wear. Maybe they’re made for the New Mexico rainy season and not quite for a Cambodian one. It has rained here pretty consistently every morning and late afternoon/evening.
Riding into the temples, we are at once struck by the scale by which the ancient Khmer civilization had built these structures. The first one on the route is in fact Angkor Wat and is surrounded by a 70 yard wide moat with a stone causeway leading to the entrance. After winding our way through the throngs of hawkers and tourists, we are able to cross the causeway which is guarded the entire length by stone warriors holding a single 5 headed hooded cobra. The spires of Angkor loom 3 stories above us as we enter the rock cut doorways. Carvings of seated Buddhas, dancing aspara girls and a multitude of other figures adorn the walls as we wander through all the passageways and ascend the stone steps that were made for HJK sized feet. Exploring these ruins, which are still sites of worship by the Buddhist locals, is an adventursome journey, as the entire area is scattered with them, built over centuries under different rulers. We also see Angkor Thom, which encloses Bayon, made famous by the great stone faces, 4 to a tower, each facing a different cardinal point. Theoretically, the faces are said to be of the bodhisattva, Lokesvara, and of the Khmer king who commissioned their creation, Jayavarman VII. They sit atop what seems to be a cluttered jumble of stones, but what is truly a complex and ordered temple just fitted together very tightly with these massive, serene faces at the crown.
We have explored many other, less famous temples in the area and have really enjoyed the sense of exploration and adventure this place offers. Heading into stone ruins that the jungle has overtaken and discovering carved dancing figures, seated Buddhas, demon gods, snakes and lattice work carved into the walls, and then walking through short doorways dripping with green moss, and seeing a group of Cambodian kids running through to be the first to tell us we need to buy this or that from them, we really are enjoying our experience here.
As far as cuisine goes we have been having a great gastronomical time with it. HJK has a new favorite, Khmer Curry, of which we will have to acquire the recipe for. The fruit shakes are divine, using fresh mango and coconut. They use pumpkin in a lot of dishes which is a really great addition. The Cambodians do have a more varied palate than we do and have no aversion to eating fried grubs, crickets, or cockroaches, fresh snails, frogs and embryonic duck eggs. Jonathan has been tempted to eat outside the box, but the courage hasn’t arrived yet. Perhaps we will have to come again with JGR’s father who would be thrilled to experiment with the unique local cuisine, for the next time then…..
Tomorrow evening, we head to Vietnam to explore Hanoi and the surrounding countryside. Two more weeks and our excursion will draw to a close. Enjoy the pictures!
Bangkok
Now that we sit in our Cambodian hotel’s free (but slower than dial-up) internet services, we can finish up our Thailand posting and then move to our first Cambodian one. The last posting left off with us strolling around Bangkok’s old, but well-touristed, free-for-all shopping district. A day of that was certainly enough for us, so the next day we planned to see the historical Wats (Buddhist temples) and hopefully make it to the Muay Thai kickboxing matches that same evening, as we were slated to leave the following morning for Siem Reap, Cambodia. So we organized a day pack and headed out. Seeing that the main river in Bangkok is actually a thoroughfare, we boarded a boat taxi that took us a few minutes downriver and deposited us near Wat Pho, the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok, which houses a 46 meter long reclining gold leaf Buddha, incredible in its size and its shimmering essence. The ground surrounding the Buddha also displayed numerous statues of stone guardians and separate smaller temples. It is also an active temple, so many orange robed Buddhist monks were going about their daily affairs. There was even a grade school for children within the monastic compound. It was a very active area.
Then we took the short, but seemingly long walk to the Grand Palace, it was pretty hot out. The entrance fee was a bit more, it was so amazing within the Grand Palace. First we visited the emerald Buddha statue that had once been encased in plaster to disguise it from invaders but was then forgetten and subsequently rediscovered. It’s actually made of jade or something but it was pretty cool, they even have four sets of gold clothes ornaments that they change on it for the seasons.
We walked around the grounds and really enjoyed the beautiful temples some soaring into the sky and shimmering gold in the sun light, and others equally as impressive in height but with intricate designs all around the outside. Then we found ourselves walking down a corridor where the walls were painted with historic images. The utmost detail has gone into these paintings. The paintings cover every inch of the wall space for probably about a couple hundred feet. There are artists repairing and updating the beautiful artwork every so often. The detail was so fine and colors so bright you could really see the stories as they unfolded. The history was mythical Buddhist and Hindu stories, mostly from the epic Ramayana.
Needless to say we did eventually get hungry, hot and tired. We walked the short distance home (our cheapest joint yet), and refreshed ourselves for a night on the town (Thai Kickboxing). This was a night to remember, so I’ll start from the beginning. We took a local express boat down the Bangkok River during sunset. It was beautiful going down the river past the areas where people live in stilt houses on the river banks and then down into the city with the highrises and the major concrete bridges overhead, it was really cool, oh but did I forget to mention the green plants floating by and the big fish swimming just under the surface of the brown water practically jumping out of the water as the boat went by. So, based on the run on sentence most of you should know by now that HJK is writing and she’s read far too many fantasy novels for her own good.
We exited our boat at the pier that has a connection to the Bangkok SkyTrain that runs through the major part of the city. So we hopped on and headed above much of the city towards our destination. It was still light enough to see the city which was pretty busy. We got off at our stop and decided to do the pedestrian thing and walk the rest of the way, so far our maps and planning hadn’t failed us yet. Just like any major city we waited at a huge intersection with a crowd for the light to turn green. We crossed and headed into Lumphini Park on our way to the Lumphini Stadium where we here hoping to get tickets for the kickboxing that night. Well we picked a good time because it was aerobics time at the park. As we entered the park there was music blaring and this little guy up on stage punching out moves and instruction over some loud speaker. There were hundreds of people out there all following along doing the aerobics. It was pretty funny, free aerobics in the park with all kinds of people and only a limited audience. After filming a bit we continued along and found another huge group doing aerobics again. The park was full of exercise stuff and tons of people running and playing and getting some good fun in. Then we noticed this pretty moat area that actually had a couple of big monitor lizards in it that looked like alligators at first, so that was pretty cool to see as it got darker and darker.
We headed out of the park across another major street and down the narrow side walk to the Stadium, and there it was just a couple of blocks past the park. Upon arriving we discovered that the prices were more than we had expected, but we went for the middle ones and they were great. We were able to see the ring from not very far away, and we weren’t going to have the sweat flying on us as the combatants punched and kicked each other. We got to see about 8 matches for about 5 hours of viewing and the weight classes were all between 110- 130 pounds. I guess the Thais aren’t very big people. Though the only ones that looked small while they were up there were the 110 pounders, though these guys were the fastest by far.
The matches got better and better building up for the most anticipated fight about 5 matches in. The arena was getting louder and louder between rounds as all the locals put in their bets or changed them as the fight progressed. Needless to say the energy was really high and the fights were great. The martial skill exhibited was beautiful. At one point they even had a sort of historical exhibition before the big fight where some practitioneers exhibited the old style of Muay Thai, before going to prime time. They did a sort of dance using their martial arts grace and were dressed in the old traditional shorts of the fighters. It was really fun, these boxers can sure take and give a beating, and they were such athletes, no one even got close to being knocked out or anything. The main fight was great, very skilled fighters and full of energy, every movement brought a cheer from the crowd. After the main match most of the arena started to clear out, but we stayed put. The last fight was pretty cool, it was the 110 pounders and these guys were fast. HJK had to get on the fence behind the ring side seats to get a good look at all that was happening as these guys punched and kicked each other in this beautiful dance of martial grace. Needless to say this was the match were the little elbows did their job and both fighters were actually bleeding, no one before even seemed to get close. Not that we like gore or anything, but these guys were seriously skilled and it was amazing.
Well we made it home late that night with a shared bus scheduled for 7:00am, so straight to bed it was. It was a great day in Bangkok, though we were pretty tired by the end. We made it to the airport and headed out on our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia where we are both currently working on the blog from different computers as it’s been a few days. Next posting will probably be tonight and will have pictures. Keep checking every few days.
Krabi & Bangkok
Well, we are sitting in a Bangkok internet cafe waiting until we get hungry so we grab a bite to eat. We didn’t bring the camera with us, so no pictures yet, but you’ll live. Krabi, which we left yesterday, actually turned out to be quite a nice little town. After our previously mentioned delicious vegetarian meal, we went back for dinner and asked for “Thai spicy” on the dish. It came back loaded with chili peppers and after hiccuping our way through the meal, we were happy. Spiciest meal yet. We then strolled across the street to the night market, which was a bunch of food stalls selling a meat lover’s dream, full of barbequed everything that once walked, flew, swam or otherwise. Most of the local Thais were chowing down on their favorite dish. It was fun. We then walked to the clothing market (and remember this is all after 8pm) where all types of “Hello Kitty” t-shirts and undergarments were on display. That not being too exciting, we headed to the night vegetable and meat market, where we took a look at oddly shaped fruits and bought ourselves and delicious coconut, corn and carrot-filled waffle, quite the treat, somewhat to our surprise and enjoyment.
The next morning we boarded our flight to Bangkok. What a contrast from laid back Krabi! Upon landing, we hustled into a taxi that took us through this major metropolis that very much resembles a Western city. We got dropped off on a street with our backpacks and started hiking to look for our next bed. Nearing darkness, we decided on our cheapest room yet, 200 baht a night, with paper thin walls and a double bed. Sufficient for us budget travelers. After a good night’s rest, we have been spending today strolling the manic streets of the tourist shopping district as we are leaving Thailand day after tomorrow. There are way too many other travelers here for our taste, but with that also comes some conveniences, such as some English speaking Thais, vegetarian menus, and the ease of shopping for anything you may need.
Tomorrow we’ll see some temples and are actively trying to arrange ourselves to go to Lumphini Stadium and see 5 hours of Muay Thai kickboxing at the most famous stadium.
Ko Phi Phi
Here we sit in a Krabi internet cafe sipping Thai iced tea and Hari Jot working on the blog when suddenly as we try to save our progress, all we had written was lost….. So we start over.
We ended our last posting wondering where we would head to next, Ko Phi Phi or Ko Lanta. Considering that Hari Jot’s birthday was right around the corner, we decided to get off our budget a bit and go to Ko Phi Phi, one of the most beautiful tropical islands in the world, or so it is said. We’ll reserve our opinion until we’ve seen them all. Being that the island is 47 km from the mainland, between where we were, Ao Nang/Krabi and Phuket, we boarded a ferry for a 1 1/2 hour ride, anticipating the storm cloud we could clearly see over the water. After having no small amount of water above and below us, we cried “Land Ho!” and approached the island. It was an impressive sight, more steep, craggy island fortresses rising from the surrounding sea, covered in jungle greenery, but alas, as could be expected, other tourists had found it before us. Being that it was Hari Jot’s birthday, we put in for a room at a resort, that included breakfast and a swimming pool. We dropped our bags in the room, grabbed our day pack and took the long walk over to Long Beach to have a look. It had crystalline waters, colorful coral, and bamboo huts. As soon as we could, we rented some snorkelling gear and jumped in the water. Being that the days were still pretty stormy, the sand under the water was pretty well whipped up and we could barely see our hand in front of our mask. We swam back in and asked to get our money back, but the renter said, “all you have to do is keep swimming out to those rocks and it’ll clear up.” Somewhat skeptical, we decided to try again to get our money’s worth, and fin flopped our way back to the water. We swam back through the sand storm, dodging the rocks that would suddenly appear in front, and eventually the water did clear up. Soon after, wonderful colors began to appear below us. Purple, blue, yellow, red and green fish and coral were everywhere! It was a moving, shimmering rainbow of underwater life. We couldn’t seem to get enough, but after an hour and a half we saw our hands through the mask and they were quite well wrinkled. So we decided to flip our way back to shore, with clear intentions of what we would do with the rest of our time on Ko Phi Phi. We headed back over to the main port, grabbed some masaman curry (which is proving very difficult to find without meat) and got some rest at our hotel. Well, the “free” breakfast the next morning didn’t include any vegetarian options and Hari Jot was stuck with toast. Jonathan just ate eggs and fried rice (with egg). It was like a continental breakfast one would get at a roadside Motel 6 in the states. We also weren’t about to jump in the hotel’s swimming pool while we were on a tropical island, so we checked out, grabbed a Thai mango pancake, threw on our 30 kg packs and once again began the trek back over to Long Beach. It was Hari Jot’s birthday after all. We had to hike over the mountain, around the rocks, and down the muddy slope, but we made it, hot, sweaty and ready to get in the water. We checked in to a reasonably priced beachside bamboo bungalow (with a fan!), cracked open a coconut and got into the element. Although the day was full of dark clouds and ominous thunder, we snorkelled again and got our beach relaxation in just the same.
We spent 3 days at our bamboo hut and on our second to last night, the persistent and unrelenting lack of sunny clear skies put in it’s last breath. And what a breath it was. We awoke at 3 am to the wind howling through the bamboo slats of our hut and of palm fronds being torn from their perches. Thinking this may be a good time for protection from rain, we, being the prepared travelers we are, put our bags into their water resistant travel pouches and threw our rain ponchos over the mosquito netting that we had brought with us. Sure enough, the palm frond roof of our humble dwelling began to drip, but we kept dry and slept without a care. HJK preparing for the worst (as usual) put on her traveling pants and money belt, “just in case.” The same could not be said for most of our neighbors as most packed up and left the next day. In the morning the damage was minimal to our place, though one of the open wall bamboo huts for massages was down. Experiencing the tropical island to the fullest, we did reflect as to why they build with bamboo. It is easy to put back together, and the massage hut was ready for business by the evening.
We were rewarded for our tenacity as the next day became the sunniest and clearest day yet, and we virtually had the beach to ourselves, but for the ever-present longtail boats motoring around. Again we threw on our fins and snorkel and tromped to the water to just basically float around and take in the wonders. With the sun out it gave the fish and coral colors new shades and shimmers, it was really quite spectacular.
Food in Thailand has been a hit and miss experience for us. Being predominantly vegetarian (Hari Jot fully and Jonathan allowing for eggs and seafood), we’ve run into a bit of a hard time. Usually it’s best while traveling to eat wherever the locals eat. It tends to be cheaper and better food. However, when our grasp of the Thai language is “Hello” and “Thank you” (which we both say quite well), it is near impossible to order something without meat. And the Thais eat a lot of meat. It is practically unheard of to create a dish without seafood, beef, chicken or pork. Thailand is known for their spicy foods, but we think being in a touristy area and coming from New Mexico affected our expectations. It seems to be difficult to find anything that can get Jonathan to hiccup, or get HJK to sweat. We’ll try again in Bangkok.
Ko Phi Phi was as relaxing and beautiful as we had hoped, we had a really great time.
Now we are enjoying a day in Krabi on our way to Bangkok. So far we had a most delicious vegetarian meal, well worth the price, so we are healthy and happy for our next leg.
We’ve been thinking of all of you and hope to get to some of our emails soon. These blog entries can take a while, we’re now at 2 hrs and 47 minutes.
Ton Sai and Ao Nang
Sea kayaking is a blast. We rented a double seater, Hari Jot in the front and Jonathan in the back…..we paddled away from our beach and headed south across our little bay to Rai Lay’s bay and circled around some massive limestone pillars in the sea. Then we headed to Phranang Cave Beach at the southern tip of our little peninsula, landed the kayak and jumped into the water for a nice leisurely swim at the resort’s nicely groomed sandy beach. We then walked down the beach to Phranang Cave, not knowing what to expect. It turned out to be a huge, bright and open cut into the rockface exposing the red stone beneath. The water inside was as clear as crystal and there were small schools of fish cruising in the shallows. We spent a good hour there enjoying and as the sun was beginning it’s descent we began our paddling back to Ton Sai. As the light began to fade, the moon rose above the limestone cliffs, backlighting the palms a brilliant silver.
Upon leaving Ton Sai we have decided to spend a few days here in Ao Nang which has greater mainland access via road. Though Ton Sai is considered part of the mainland, the limestone cliffs present an insurmountable barrier between the beaches….we had taken a long tail boat to get to Ton Sai in the first place. So here we are on Ao Nang which also has a beach, albeit much more touristy…I think that a lot of Europeans travel here. We decided to rent a motorbike to zip around the countryside as Ao Nang has major road access. Today we tried to make our way to some caves and a waterfall….the distance proved to be a little further than we anticipated and it ended up taking up most of the day. But it was great fun cruising around the interior a bit on the scooter. The first cave we saw was quite interesting. The sign told us that this was the oldest archaeological site in Southern Thailand, something we had no idea about when we came. Human remains have been found in this cave system dating back 70, 000 years. That is an incredible length of time and here we were exploring where those ancient peoples once were. These caves were a fun stop and we hiked in and around for a while. We continued on our route and found the next cave, which took us down a red gravelly road for a while and when we found what we assumed was the cave area, we stopped and saw that there was a bamboo ladder up on the jungled hillside. We made our way there, up the rickety ladder, and found the entrance to the cave, an unassuming 4 foot diameter hole in the rock. Upon clambering into the entrance, the cave quickly opened up and we found ourselves in a spacious room. We both kicked ourselved for forgetting our headlamps and decided that it was in fact too dark to explore. The light from the video camera was not up to the task but it was able to rouse some bats roosting on the cave ceiling. We made our way back to the bike and headed onward. On the way we stopped at an elephant safari place and pulled in to take a look. There were some guys sleeping in an elevated bamboo hut and a few Asian elephants standing around. The men awoke and we asked how much for an elephant ride…….500 baht per hour. We decided to think about it for later, took a few pictures and fired up our speed demon again. We got back on the road and upon finally arriving where the Huay Toh Waterfall was to be, it turned out to be Panom Bencha National Park with, of course an entrance fee. Seeing that we are being budget conscious, we decided not to spend the 400 baht (US$12) for us to enter. We had had a great time up until then as it was and were just fine with our long journey. We turned around and headed back towards Ao Nang. Storm clouds began gathering overhead and so we cranked up the RPMs and our motorbike whined its engine and we kicked up some asphalt. Needless to say we got quite wet on the ride home. After a couple of stops at road side food stalls, we realized that more clouds had acummulated and then it was really raining. We got all wet and then we put on our trusty Walgreens Panchos for the last 5 Kilometers home. It’s actually been raining for the last 5 hours or so, which gave us a great opportunity to update the blog and keep in touch with all of you.
Depending on the weather we may or may not be leaving for other tropical beaches in the area tomorrow. But soon, we will be going to Ko Phi Phi (pronouned Pee Pee) and/or Ko Lanta, both beautiful islands near here. We plan to snorkel, sea kayak again, and laze around on the golden sandy beaches.
We have arrived in Thailand………….Ton Sai
Well, our India adventure is over and we have made it to Thailand, near Krabi on the Ton Sai beach, the rock climber’s mecca in Thailand. Although part of the mainland, the only access is via a local boat taxi because of the steepness and inaccessibility of the cliffs surrounding us. We however did not bring any climbing gear and have only played a little at bouldering…….
Thailand is beautiful….towering limestone rock formations jutting vertically out of the calm sea. These are however not stark rock devoid of life, but are saturated with tropical greenery and birds. The water is warm and salty, offering relief from the 100 dgr moist air. We have settled into a bungalow a bit off the beach, but they shut off the power during the day, removing our use of the fan to keep cool, essentially creating a sauna-like atmosphere in the room…..sweat oozes off of us the minute we walk in. Needless to say we do not spend any time in the bungalow during the day, but rather spend it out on the beach in the water or watching the climbers. Yesterday, we also hiked over to the more resorty beach through a steep jungle trail and spent the day there as the beach is not as rocky and the water a bit better for swimming. Tomorrow we plan on moving out of here and perhaps going to Ao Nang, finding a cheap bungalow, renting a motorbike and exploring around a little.
We will post some pictures later as we are about to rent some sea kayaks and hit the water.
