Angkors Away

After our brief return to Bangkok, we split for Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. Now, before we embarked, we had been warned in no uncertain terms and with all severity that the road from Poipet to Sisophon which makes up roughly half of the journey on the Cambodian side was vicious on the spine and ass. Still, we were optimistic. We were wrong to be so. The road is dirt and in the middle it is covered in tiny, deep, jarring potholes that would be spine crumbling if you had to drive it the whole way but along the sides it is filled with crater sized holes in which our car all but disappeared before rolling up the other side (did I mention we were in a sedan?). The deeper pits saved us from total spinal destruction. However, while this may seem perilous enough, our driver was not at all satisfied. Not only did we have to be bouncing up and down through these pits, but we had to be doing it at breakneck speed, passing any and everything from other motorists to 7-year-olds herding cattle at as close a range as possible. I thought on several occasions that we surely had run someone off the road. To make matters worse, just outside of Sisophon we heard a sudden hissing and our driver pulled to the side of the road. It seems that our car was powered in some way by natural gas and one of his maneuverings had split some tubing so that now natural gas was spewing from underneath the car and the trunk. We had to stop in Sisophon for 45 minutes to get it fixed, which we were glad for because riding in a powder keg down a bumpy road is not our idea of adventure. In the end, we arrived in Siem Reap safe and tired.

What neither of us had thought of or realized was how much of a tourist center Siem Reap is. It's absolutely lousy with tourists of every stripe. From hordes of Asians traveling in packs, flashes constantly going to more subdued travelers months into around the world trips. As a result, the restaurants were superb, but we, as everyone else, were flocked by vendors and beggars. We took to joking with them as most were children. It seems that they must teach US state capitols in school here because everyone began reciting them when we told them we were from the States. We asked one little girl about Oregon and she snapped right back, "Salem," without even batting an eye. We were impressed, but not so much that we bought anything.

Anyhow, more important than the people at the temples were the temples themselves, and they did not disappoint. We bought three-day passes and hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us around (tuk-tuks are motorbike pulled carts). The first day we headed to Banteay Srei which is regarded as the jewel of the temples and is the farthest out into the park. It was as fantastic as advertised. The walls are ornately carved with all sorts of Hindu figures, including Krishna, Shiva and Arjuna. We tried to get there early, thinking 9:30 would be sufficient, but it wasn't. The park does open at 5:30 for sunrise, so many people had long been there.

From Banteay Srei we headed to Pre Rup, another spectacular temple. To be honest, they were all spectacular and you really have to see them to appreciate their beauty and impressiveness. There really is no way we can capably convey what it is to see them in person. Sure we can describe them, the carvings, they measurements, the flora growing from their brick foundations and walls, but none of that would give you a fair understanding of seeing them rise up before you. Suffice it to say, if you can, you should really see them for you self. We saw several more Wats that day and were dizzy with awe by the end.

For our second day we did the sunrise at Angkor Watt... along with 1,000 other people. Our driver insisted that it was the only Western facing temple and thus the only one where the sun rose from behind it. We thought perhaps 5:30 was a little early for most people but clearly we were wrong. Once inside the gate, the place was a zoo. People lined the surrounding walls and every few steps you had to step around a person's tripod. It seemed everyone in Siem Reap was there to get that famous picture of the sun cresting the high towers of Ankgor Wat. We were somewhat disappointed, but made due. Instead we went around back and explored. Finally, when the sun was up, we went inside. I climbed to the top, but Hilary wisely opted to stay on the second level. The stairs are absurdly steep and while going up is easy enough, coming down is damn harrowing. I opted for a lesser used staircase as the one with the recently fixed steps and handrail was packed and if any one fell, they'd take the rest with them. Forget that. Aside from the view, there wasn't much at the top to see anyway. We saw several more temples that day and were exhausted by the afternoon. That evening over a bowl of Korko Soup, we decided that 13 hours over two days was plenty and that we'd move on to Battambang the next morning via river boat.

The river boat was reportedly a beautiful ride on which you could see much of the country side and both were true. What wasn't true was the suggested time of travel. Magically what was supposed to be a 5 hour trip became a 9 hour journey down narrow streams. The scenery was indeed special and we passed many floating villages and other such sights, so we managed to keep our cool, but we were extremely thankful when it finally ended. And that's where we stand now, in Battambang about to head to Phnom Penh.

(Please note that these Wats are in no particular order as I had a hard enough time simply getting them on here.)

Khorat, Phimai and the Future!

From Ayuthaya, we headed east as was our original plan when we left Bangkok. However, having looked over our itinerary, we realized there is very little to see in east Thailand and we might need to adjust our plans, so we did. Our new plan became this: we would spend a night in Khorat (Nakhon Ratchasima) and then head up to Phimai to see a Wat that supposedly pre-dates Ankgor Wat. We have very little to report about Khorat because we were only there for a night and did very little other than eat and roam the city in search of food, but in the opposite order obviously. Khorat, according to the Lonely Planet guide, is very seldom visited by tourists and so makes little or no effort to accommodate them. This we found to be true right from the bus and were pleased. As we looked for the hotel we planned to stay at, we stopped and asked a person that looked like they might be able to help us with directions. From this man we received our favorite response thus far from a person unable to answer our question, and that response was this: “I’m sorry, I don’t speak English. I’m from Thailand,” said in perfect English and in a very cheery tone. It was great.

That’s about all for Khorat.

We got up pretty early the next morning and headed for Phimai on the bus. We found Phimai to be small and without many tourists or attractions beyond a superb plate of honey glazed chicken wings which you can read about in the food blog. The Wat however was magnificent. It was not only wonderfully preserved, but it was intricately carved and there were placards in front of each structure explaining what it was, how it was used and what it had housed. We spent the better part of the day wondering around inspecting the different carvings in the walls and over the doorways. Many of the buildings were over 800 years old and still bore inscriptions now protected behind hard plastic casing in their limestone walls. The text was not transcribed and as neither of us read or speak Thai, we did not know what they said. Naturally we hope it was something eloquent and beautiful, but they could’ve said something as simple as “take your shoes off before entering or die a miserable death you scalawag.” Who’s to say?

That night at the market we saw our first insects-as-food booth. They were selling roasted grubs, crickets and some other crawling thing with more than four legs. Neither of us cared to try them, so we cannot report on their flavor. We’re sorry, but our stomachs, strong as they are, were not tempted.

Ayuthaya for Two

After barely surviving a night without air conditioning, we asked for an upgraded which we got, and we rented bicycles. We thought about renting mopeds, but decided perhaps they were a little too much machine for us jest yet, especially with the activity on the roads being so fast and if not furious, at least more aggressive than we’re presently prepared to handle. So, having paid our 50 baht for the day-long bicycle rental, we took our trusty iron steeds and hit the road, aiming for the nearest Wat, temple or adventure, all after a healthy breakfast of Coke served in a plastic bag and soft-serve ice cream from some random street corner vender who was also selling wooden furniture (the ice cream was great, but it was so hot that it began to melt through the bottom of the cone only 5 minutes after buying it). We found several Wats and temples in down town Ayuthaya as they pretty much litter the streets of the city almost as much as wild dogs, but most charged an entrance fee and were clogged with tourists and touristy activities which, as we’ve said, we try to avoid whenever possible. We neither entered these nor took pictures. Hopefully our words about them suffice. We have this to say about them. They look like the average Wat and Temple that has been restored or built within the last 10 years.



Instead of continuing to blunder into these attractions, we, being the intrepid travelers and explorers and not the automobiles of Dodge make, decided to ride our bikes around the rim of the city and see what we might find. This proved to be a successful venture indeed as we found a beautiful and almost entirely deserted Wat that we were able to inspect at length without interruption or entrance fee. The Wat was called Wat Rathaburana in Sri Nakakharin Park. It was old, rustic and scenic, just the way we like it, but we only took pictures of an intricate tree and a supplicant in its roots or trunk, we’re not sure what they were.

Ayuthaya

We left for our first venture beyond the boundaries of Bangkok last Friday. Ayuthaya (I-You-Tia) is a smallish town about 70 miles to the northeast of Bangkok and is Thailand’s old capitol. We took the train.

The first hostel we tried was full, so we moved on to the next one in sight which, due to the cities large tourist population, was within spitting distance. We took an A.C.-free room in the aptly named P.U. Hotel and signed up for the evening boat tour. You see, Authaya is an island by virtue of the fact that it is surrounded on all sides by three converging rivers. Situated at various points in and around the city are no less than ten Wats and temples. The boat tour took us to three such Wats: first Wat Phanachoeng, second, Wat Phutthaisawan, and finally, Wat Chaiwattanaram. Of the three, the final one was the most spectacular, though all were impressive. The first was much more modern than we like and had a heavy Chinese influence, another thing we’re not so ecstatic about. It’s not that they’re not beautiful or ornate, but that they’re much more recently constructed and usually refurbished so that you can’t tell what’s original and what isn’t, which is to say that they look very new. We prefer our Wats scenic and in ruins or at least dilapidated. These things are hundreds of years old and they should look it damn it. We didn’t even bother to un-holster our camera.

Anyway, Wat Phutthaisawan proved to be more what we were looking for. This Wat was best known for its reclining Buddha and we found it to be appropriately weatherworn and aged, and we took several pictures starting from the boat. In all, the Buddha was probably close to 20 feet long and must’ve had many local visitors, for there were several offerings about it. Also, there were several meditating Buddhas about its head that were equally impressive. This Wat, unlike the last, was free and had much less tourist-oriented activities. There was virtually nothing for sale but snacks and beverages, whereas at the previous Wat you could buy everything from saffron robes to gold Buddhas.

At last we headed to Wat Chaiwattanaram and got to see what we’d come for: a real, unmolested Wat full of age and presence. Wat Chaiwattanaram was stunning in its beauty and originality. From the moment we got off the boat the history and sanctity of the place was palpable and everyone was dully awed. The place was truly amazing and breathtaking. We walked through the entrance slack-jawed. At the center stood the temple, an imposing staircase pushing straight up into a vacancy. Naturally, we scaled the stairs and went inside where we found a statue of Buddha along with a lot of pigeon shit. The pigeon droppings did not detract from the beauty, surprisingly. Looking out from the top of the steps, you could see the towering Wats and buildings that surrounded the main temple and even at that height, they were magnificent, especially so set against the vibrantly green grass. We loved every moment and had to take a couple breaks to just stare and take the whole thing in, just feel the power and energy of the place. Sadly, night was coming on pretty fast and we still had a 20 minute boat ride to the night market, so we had to leave before we were entirely ready, but that’s usually the way with these things.

The night market was interesting, but nothing to write home about, so I won’t. The night however, was brutal. Suffering through a Thai night without A.C. is similar to getting into a hot tub in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.

ELECTRONICS!

For those of you in the know, Circuit City is now on the list of establishments that get the butt smear. You see, shortly before we left for Thailand, we bought a camera and an extra memory card. Before paying, we asked the sales rep that helped us whether or not the card and the camera were compatible and she assured us they were. However, yesterday when we tried to put the card in for the first time we had a rude surprise. The card and the camera do not work together as the card is too big to fit in the slot where it is supposed to. We’re certain that anyone can understand our frustration considering we can’t just pop over to Circuit City and explain the conundrum.

So it was that we headed out today to go to Panthip Plaza, an electronics bazaar as we were told. Once again, we walked over to the train, which we’ve done just about every day. We feel very local, if one can feel so. Anyway, we took our time finding the place, but when we did, we were not at all oversold. The place is absolutely ridiculous. It is at least 5 stories tall and crammed with electronics. If the Terminator were to need a new limb or an eye, I think he could find it at Panthip Plaza. If the Transformers were looking for relatives, they would start here. It was a visual overload.

We shopped around as we were instructed to do and ended up saving roughly 300 baht, which may only be $10 but sounds like a whole hell of a lot more, okay. We are back on track and everything is a go. We also couldn’t avoid buying a couple DVDs. They have just about any recent movie you could want, including the newest Harry Potter and “Die Hard: Live Free or Die Hard”. We didn’t buy either. The best part of buying them was hearing the person at the counter ask us to come back in 15 minutes after she’d burned our copies. Got to love the black market. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that they’re not camcorder jobs, or that if they are, the camera man wasn’t sitting in the front row. (Let’s hope Jerry was working the camera.) While we waited, Hilary got some sesame balls. It turned out that they seemed to be filled with sweetened plantains. They tasted strikingly similar to sesame snacks, but soft and warm instead of cold and crisp.

That was about it for our day. We’re ready to get out of the city now.

Something I forgot to include yesterday was that we stopped by the Peace Corps office and the place is about 10 times bigger than the office in Fiji, which is in no way an exaggeration. It is 3 or 4 floors tall and has a separate building for the medical office and volunteer lounge, which is embarrassingly better in every way than the one in Fiji. Volunteers here have access to internet, cable TV, numerous DVDs and VHSs, a refrigerator, a large catalog of work materials and a respectable library of books actually worth reading, for the most part. They also have 24 hour access to the lounge. Oghale, we hope you read this and think about the possibility. (The improvement of the volunteer lounge was one of my last projects before I finished work on the Volunteer Advisory Committee and my PC service, but it never happened.)

Wat?!?

It has rained every single night we’ve been here so far, but not once during the day. Very nice. It hasn’t been the best weather however, more overcast than anything, but we’ll settle. We’re not greedy. We were even treated to a thunderstorm last night, complete with lightening. We’re getting the full treatment, I guess.

Anyway, thus far we’ve been slowly venturing further and further into the city, and today we looked to get ourselves from Eileen and Kristina’s all the way to the Ko Ratanakosin area. This part of town is littered with wats and Buddhist temples and is a fair distance from where we’re staying. We had to take two separate trains and a ferry to get there. Naturally, the place is a major tourist destination, and so the path there was fraught with hustlers and scam artists looking to lighten the pockets of any inexperienced tourists available, all by legal means of course, which is to say by convincing tourists to purchase meager tour packages and other extraneous goods and services. We did pretty well avoiding this sort of thing, not that it’s all that difficult. Besides, not being overly overweight, extremely pale, having camera bags slung across our shoulders, or wearing ridiculous, supposedly authentic local clothing, we make for less appealing marks. We don’t look like we’ve got money hanging out of our pockets. All it really takes is some ingenuity, and a smile and polite wave of the hand indicating “no thank you”.



Anyway, before getting on the boat to head up river to Ko Ratanakosin, we made a detour to Wat Yannawa (pictured here with trees leading to its entrance). The wat was almost entirely empty and it was nice to have it pretty much to ourselves. Its placement is kind of odd considering it’s in the middle of the city and not at all serene. I imagine it was quite nice a hundred plus years ago when there weren’t busses chugging past and street corner vendors cooking on every sidewalk.

After a brief visit, we headed over to catch a river taxi up to Ko Ratanakosin. The boat dragged us up river while a tour guide gave a review in English of every hotel we passed, noting its opening date and star rating, presumably for the benefit of the non-locals. Occasionally he’d break from the routine to point out a wat, temple or church. We got a pretty good picture of the Temple of the Dawn this way, though we took it from the dock after we disembarked.

Straight off the boat, we walked to the side of the Grand Palace, which is no longer used, but is instead a major tourist attraction, and is surrounded by a large, white wall. Next to it stands Wat Pho, which was supposedly closed for a Buddhist ceremony, but that information was gained from a Thai that we’re pretty sure was trying to dupe us into taking a tuk-tuk to another wat at an exorbitant rate that he might split with the driver. He got us, sort of. What happened was that we believed him, but didn’t immediately take a tuk-tuk. We walked a block and took one. We’re not certain, but we think our driver just drove around a bit and dropped us off in front of a random wat instead of the one we’d requested. Anyway, we felt that the 40 baht we paid wasn’t excessive, and besides, 40 baht is all of $1.16 USD, so we could afford it. It went to a good cause.

We found ourselves in front of what we think was Wat Ratchabophit, which is pictured here, including the one of Hilary. If you can’t tell from the pictures, the wat was amazingly ornate and we were taken by its beauty. The detail was stunning. From there we just wandered until we came upon Wat Ratchapradit. Again, the architecture and detail was remarkable. I can’t really do these places any justice in writing beyond saying that you need to see them your self to really appreciate them. We hung around this wat a little longer because we’d been befriended by an English teacher who mentioned possibly going inside, but it never happened and instead we spent 20 minutes awkwardly conversing with him about his daughter who is going to spend next year on an exchange in Alaska. She’s going to have a hell of a surprise when she feels the cold and the endless winter moon. Hopefully she’s done some research. He seemed pretty intelligent, so I think she’s probably adequately prepared. Finally, when we realized we were not getting inside, we excused ourselves and continued wandering. Next we went to the Grand Palace and peaked in through the front gate. The entrance fee was something like 250 baht which may be less than $10 USD, but is still too rich for our blood. Besides, we really want to see the older, less tourist-visited sites outside of Bangkok.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the sidewalk market looking at the different tables, which are actually tarps laid on the concrete. Again, I think Thailand has the market cornered on odd combinations of things for sale together. As Hilary said, “it’s like somebody went around their house thinking, ‘what can I sell today.’” Great. This has become one of our favorite things about Bangkok. This and the fruit carts. There are these carts that cruise around the city with peeled pineapple, papaya, green guava, watermelon, green mango and sometimes cantaloupe city atop ice. When you buy it, they put it into a plastic bag, chop it into bite size chunks (the fruit only, they cut inside the bag) and throw a skewer in for you to use as a utensil. It’s great, and all for 10 baht each, though occasionally we have to pay 20 baht.

Sorry for the length of this entry. One last thing. We learned today that most people park their cars in neutral. Due to the number of people in Bangkok, there are not nearly enough parking spots, so people routinely box each other in. The cars are left in neutral so that if you are boxed in, you can simple roll the car out of your way. There are whole parking lots filled with cars that have to be strategically moved. It’s incredible. You’ll come out sometimes and your car will be blocks away. Again, sorry about the length of this post.

Not Tourists, Visitors

Today, we made our first real adventure out from under Kristina and Eileen’s wing. We started the day going to the Vichayut Hospital to get our vaccinations for Typhoid and Japanese Encephalitis and once there we were treated to top notch care and given our own pair of guides to help us through the process. We got the Typhoid shots today and will get the others on Wednesday (it is Monday her because we are 14 hours ahead of the west coast). The Typhoid shots cost 525 baht each which is about a third of what they would’ve cost in the U.S. (Kids, friends, Americans, come to Thailand for your medical treatment. It costs less and is better service.)

Having taken care of our first order of business, we headed out into the city, buying our rail passes and feeling very much like locals, or at least visitors privy to information that most other travelers aren’t. We felt special and elite, though the feeling was probably completely unwarranted. Our big ticket item for the day was the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson evidently led the rejuvenation of the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and with his considerable wealth he built a traditional Thai house, or rather, reassembled a set of Thai houses from around the country and connected each to the next. In the center, he planted a veritable jungle, which is precisely what he called it according to our guide. After the grand opening in 1959, he opened the house to the public with all the proceeds going to various Thai charities (today the proceeds go to the school for the blind). Inside he had arranged a massive collection of ancient religious artifacts and pieces of art, included beautifully ornate cloth paintings from the 18th century and Buddhist statues from as far back as the 14th century. They were all quite spectacular, but we cannot provide any photos because cameras were not allowed inside the house (we did take a picture looking into the living room).



The other draw for the House, besides the architecture and art, is the fact that on March 26th, 1967, Jim Thompson disappeared from the face of the earth, or seemed to anyway. It is doubtful to us that he actually disappeared. Disappearing entirely is near impossible without a lot of TNT and even then, people at least know that you disappeared. In this case, what happened to Jim Thompson is what isn’t known. Anyway, what makes this even stranger is that a year later his sister, living in the U.S. vanished herself. Weird stuff.

Anyway, having had our fill of tourist-like activity (if you recall, we decided that we are not tourists at all, but rather, we are visitors), we went to the Siam Mall to get something to eat because there was very little street food to be found. (For those who might be interested, they had Harry Potter at the IMax.) Now we’re back, hot, sweaty, sticky and tired, but embuoyed with a sense of accomplishment.

Markets, Flea, Food and Otherwise

Eileen didn’t have to work yesterday so she and Kristina squired us about the city. In the morning we headed out to Chatuchack which is an enormous indoor/outdoor market that carries everything from throwing stars and diamond earrings to t-shirts and produce, though naturally, none of those products were sold at the same shop. It was swamped with tourists, which is fine and well, if you’re into that sort of thing.

We weren’t in the market for anything as we are at the beginning of our travels and would rather discard material than take more on. Kristina did buy us some snack thing that came wrapped in betel nut and was served on skewers. You eat the whole thing and as Hilary said, “it’s like an explosion of flavor.” We think it was filled with shrimp, some kind of nut and some citrus fruit, but we’re not entirely certain. They were very good, but there was no way we were going to be able to finish the 5-6 skewers that we had. Hilary accidentally left them at the restaurant where we ate anyway.



After Chatuchack we went across the street to a rather large market and got some fruit and vegetables. The market was rather sizeable and had all kinds of fruits, many of which we had never seen before, and could well have been aliens from another planet (rather than from another country). The big pink thing with the flippers is called a dragon fruit, the purple thing with the coconut like top is a mangosteen and the red, hairy thing is called a rambutan. You have to split them open to get at the fruit of all of these. I haven’t tried the dragon fruit yet but the mangosteens are extremely sweet and fibrous while the rambutan pale white and is a lot like lychee in appearance, taste and texture. We’ve eaten a lot of the rambutan.

After the markets, we went back to the house and Kristina cooked up a fantastic dinner. She made a really good tomato-cream sauce with some button mushrooms we got at the market. And when we finished, we head out to a weekly flea market that, contrary to Chatuchak, was bereft of tourists. The flea market was held in a parking lot and was somewhat of a Vespa expo. We should’ve taken some pictures but we didn’t.

The variety was stunning. You could find Vespa parts, rotary phones, stuffed animals and used shoes all at one booth or on one tarp (many of the goods were sold on tarps much like at a garage sale). Often, I wasn’t sure how any of the things could ever be sold or where they came from to start with. There were even mice and rabbits available, which Eileen assured us were not to become pets but rather food. Also, I’m pretty certain that band t-shirts come to this flea market like aging music acts go to county fairs, which is to say, as a last ditch effort to stay popular. Again, we did not purchase anything, though many of the rotary phones were tempting.

Kristina and Eileen have been fantastic. They've made the adjustment to Thailand so much easier and we'd like everyone to know how much we appreciate all their help and guidence since we arrived. This whole thing would've been so much more difficult for us without them. Thank you.

Here and There

So, first let me apologize for the length of this blog entry before you get deep into it because it is going to be pretty long due to the amount of travel and interactions we’ve had in the last two days. We departed roughly 36 hours ago and quite a lot has happened in that time, so allow me to start at the beginning.

The universe as we know it began with a bang roughly 13.7 billion years, give or take. At first the earth wasn’t the most hospitable place, but over the passing years it became more comfortable until around 1.9 million years ago, homo habilis emerged. Then, several millions of years later, a homo sapien sapien developed the aircraft. And then, 36 hours ago, we boarding one of those flying contraptions and headed to Thailand.

Wednesday, we were dropped off at the airport about 3 hours prior to our scheduled departure so as to have ample time to deal with the throngs of people scuttling about the world via SFO. As it turns out, this was extremely fortunate because our flight was delayed such that it was impossible for us to make our connecting flight in LAX. But fortune smiled upon us and a wonderfully funny and high-pitched United employee named Lawrence took a liking to us (we know this because he said as much). Lawrence became the first person on our journey to go beyond the strictures of his job to help us. He switched us to the 8:30 so that we might catch our connection. (As a side note, Lawrence was appalled that we were flying such a great distance without either of us having frequent flyer accounts and so he demanded that we fill out the paperwork then and there so that he could comp us. Lawrence, wherever you are, the sun will be on your face and the wind at your back. Thank you.)

In LAX we were met with yet another set of hurdles. First, there was a massive line to check in at the Malaysian Air ticket counter. Luckily, having caught the earlier flight, we had plenty of time. When we finally reached the counter, the attendant, upon seeing that we only possessed one way tickets, became concerned. Apparently they frown on that sort of thing. He informed us that he was not supposed to allow us to fly but he’d see what he could do. Again fortune blessed us. The attendant produced a document absolving the airline of any responsibility for us and asked us to fill it out. When we’d finished, he informed us that somewhere along the line someone may demand that we purchase an exiting ticket, so, slightly concerned, we boarded.

As it turned out, we had absolutely no problem getting visas and no one mentioned that we had no visible exit strategy. To be fair, Hilary was not at all concerned and knew that as long as we maintained the good vibe that we’d been putting out from the beginning, everything would work out.

Our friend Kristina met us at the airport and helped us get back to her house where we’re staying now and I’m presently writing from. Once we’d cleaned up, she took us off to get Thai messages that are cheap and should be available at every international airport around the world. For 1,150 Baht we were each given hour-and-a-half messages. At this point I was feeling pretty questionable. I had air legs which are like sea legs, but not. I kept feeling like we were experiencing turbulence. Luckily I did not fall down on any of those occasions. The message was just what I needed, though it was much rougher than I had expected. I seriously doubt the woman who gave me mine needs a nut cracker as she could probably crack a filbert between her thumb and forefinger. Thankfully she did not squash a bone or major nerve.

From there we found a street vender and purchased our first authentic Pad Thai which was delicious (if you want more on this, check the food blog). Eileen and Kristina have a beautiful house with a lot of room. We’ll probably hang around for another week or so checking out the city and firming up visa stough. That’s about it for our day.

On a personal note, we recommend Malaysian Air very highly. The staff was very helpful and attentive and each seat had its own screen and remote set-up that allowed the passengers to pick from a list of 20 new and classic movies, 10 TV series, 30 video games and even shopping. It was great. But I would not advise eating the food. Perhaps that’s only because I didn’t let a single meal pass me.

We started today with modest ambitions – to visit Coit Tower and Ina Coolbrith Park – but before the day was even two-thirds done, we had traversed Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, and Italy. Not an easy task by foot. Who knew they were all in such close proximity, and all in San Francisco too? One led right directly into the other. To be completely honest, we’re not entirely certain of whether or not we crossed through the Republic of Korea. We did however pass a building that said it was related to the Republic of Korea, and so perhaps we just concluded that we were in Koreatown. And if so, well, the mistake is regrettable, but minor. We do apologize for any confusion.
The park was very nice and at the top of an excruciatingly steep hill, but the view was pretty good if you’re into that sort of thing. Coit Tower was lovely as well, and we had a marvelous view of the Golden Gate Bridge fading into the fog. We did not go inside as the cost of entry was $5 and we are currently cheapskates due to our desire for extended travel and our present lack of employment. We did look at the mural in the lobby briefly. On the walk down we discovered two things. First, there was a wild flock of parrots, five to be exact, living in a tree on the side of Nob Hill (on a related note, do you call a group of parrots a flock?). And second, a bird had at some point pooped on my shoe, but spared my head and only grazed my shorts.
We attempted lunch at an Italian place that coerced us to enter via unrelenting explanation of their menu. However, they were far too expensive for lunch, so after 15 minutes spent pouring over the menu, we left. Seriously, who pays $15 for lunch? Instead, we ate lunch at Buster’s, which was very good if you like Cheesesteaks, and only cost $15 total (more on that in our new food blog).
The rest of the day was spent braving the buses in preparation for Southeast Asia while attempting to avoid the look of tourists. We’ve decided we’re visitors no matter where we go, not tourists. The term “tourist” just smacks of bula shirts, Bermuda shorts, zinc-ed noses, and general rubbish behavior that we don’t aspire to, and downright hope to avoid all together. Besides, visiting is much more intimate.
We’ve got little more than 24 hours to go until our visit abroad officially begins. Yessss!

(This picture wasn’t actually taken during this visit to SF, but it is of the Golden Gate Bridge and we don’t as yet have any other pictures of the city.)

Setting Up

We are still in the country at this point (in Ashland visiting family and friends), but will be leaving in just over a week. We're getting pretty excited, but we still have a fair amount of planning to do. This post is just to make sure that this thing is going to work. We've been battling its short-comings all morning, so keep your fingers crossed, I guess.
We'll be flying into Bangkok after around 24 hours of travel. From there, we plan to head south into Cambodia, circle through Vietnam and Laos, re-enter Thailand and travel down its pan-handle into Malaysia and Indonesia. We've already begun the process of applying for our teaching jobs in South Korea, and it's looking pretty good.
Hope everyone's well.