Penang: Has it all!

Well, I’m going to skip an entry on the goings on at Ko Phi Phi, Thailand. If you really care to find out what kind of place it is, Wikipedia is your man. Stunningly beautiful, glad I went, but I have nothing of any value to relate, truth be told. Also, any lengthy reference to it might take away from the paradise that is Penang, Malaysia to a Thai-weary backpacker in need of some politeness, cleanliness, and safety. The border crossing between Sandao, Thailand and Malaysia was a nice taste of what was to come. The town of Sandao was dirty, crowded, and chaotic with elephants sharing the roads with the cars and bikes. The customs officers demanded a 10 baht “holiday/Sunday” fee for our driver that we’d refused to pay him. One final scam in a land full of them… However, on the Malaysian side, a friendly smiling customs official waved us cheerily through after reading the American quotes on the pages of my passport. Only the large sign that said “Be forewarned, death for drug traffickers under Malaysian law” gave any sign of a serious border crossing.

A few more hours of driving and we were in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia. As we arrived at 11pm, we had little idea of what a gem we’d stumbled upon, but the cheap lodging we found happened to be in a pre-WWII colonial house and for only marginally more, we traded our bed bug infested, mosquito bitten, non-air conditioned bungalow at Ko Phi Phi for a air conditioned, comfortable, clean room in Penang. The next day (well, today) we did a little walking tour and discovered that, true to its motto, Penang really does “Have it all.” In about six hours we’d seen the British built supreme court, town hall, and Fort Cornwallis (named for the British General of Revolutionary War fame), gone through a Chinese mansion and clan house (ORNATE), eaten naan and drank masala tea at a little hole-in-the-wall in Little India, and listened to the Islamic call to prayer while we wafted incense at one of the largest Buddhist temples (Kek Lok Si Temple).

Nathan, Meredith and I have all agreed that minute for minute, this is the best day we’ve had on our trip so far. Every meal has been a delight, the people have been friendly, and as we speak we’re canvassing bar options to feed my unfortunate Guinness addiction. Probably the best part of today has been: The Turtle Liberation Pond at Kek Lok Si Temple. Once you get past the odd name, you can only imagine how ironic it is. Picture a superheated pond about the size of a courtyard fountain. (Sarah, stop reading here). Then add about 300 turtles. Big, hefty turtles. The problem was there was only maybe a square meter of rock to dry off and get out of the water for these poor tired and hot turtles. The solution? If you were ever wondering how many turtles you could fit on a one square meter, three-four turtle high dog-pile, a careful look here could tell you. It was a frenzy (the first time I’ve ever used this word referring to turtles) of turtles as surprisingly beefy turtles kicked each other off in a mad struggle that seemed more like king of the hill than a relaxing jaunt on a rock. It was pure turtle madness and you couldn’t help but laugh your head off when a turtle-landslide caused by one unfortunate turtle swept all in its path into the water with several satisfying shell on shell thunks.

Anyway, we’re enjoying a nice break from the chaos of Bangkok and the sleazy backpackerness of Phi Phi, but it’s only a little break because it’s off to Medan, Indonesia on Wednesday! Malaysia, we’ll be back.

Thailand From the Window of a Bus

My adventures in Bangkok finally came to a close at the end of the second day and, instead of staying another sweaty night in a guesthouse, we decided to do the overnight bus to our next destination. "Twelve hours to Krabi and another one to Ko Phi Phi (in the south of Thailand" assured the suspiciously helpful travel agent woman. Without another option, we waited until 6pm and went to join the hordes of tattooed and dreadlocked backpackers waiting for the buses south. We got onto the bus, which proceeded to drive around the city for more than two hours and by the time we finally got on the road at half past 8, I was fast asleep.

I was jolted awake at 7am the next morning as the bus driver shouted for us to get off the bus as quickly as possible. "Grab your things and get off!! Go, go, go!!!" Fifteen disoriented and sleepy backpackers stumbled into the mud on the side of the road, our bags were thrown out and the bus sped away. Odd... We finally made our way to a gas station where we were to wait for our taxis to the next bus for the next stage of our journey. I was still slightly miffed at our rude awakening when the first girl realized she'd been robbed. 9,000 Baht (around $100) had been taken out of her bag while she slept. Another girl lost a camera and a third guy was missing money as well. A hurried check revealed that Nathan and I had all our valuables intact, but we were in the minority. The fast wake up and the quick getaway, it turns out, were just ways of ensuring that no one would realize what had happened until it was far to late to do anything. Disappointing...

Fully awake, I rather belatedly realized I wasn't where I was planning on going, or even close, really. However, the subsequent bus ride through some of the poorer parts of Thailand was really quite interesting. It was another opportunity to watch Thais in action, especially at school. We drove by school after school where uniformed children stood at stiff attention as the flag was raised and the song to the king was sung. Every town, no matter how tiny, poor and insignificant, had a well made and new looking school, although there was no AC and all the doors were wide open. I can't imagine trying to learn multiplication in such sweltering heat, but they were in there doing the best they could, I'm sure! Anyway, I made it to Ko Phi Phi at 4:30pm, a full 22.5 hours after we set out. Oh well, better late than never!

Last thought before I retire to my bed bug infested bungalow for the night: Thai roads are about 100x better than Russian roads. I find this surprising.

So, good night, I'll sleep tight, but the bed bugs will be having a feast tonight.

Next time I have internet: Ko Phi Phi!

Bananas and Buddhas

It's the end of my second (maybe third?) day in Thailand and it's been rather action packed... Since my post this morning, I've had, as the post title suggests, lots of bananas and other fruits (street vendors are the best) and I've seen literally hundreds of Buddhas. One of these Buddhas stands out from the rest because, despite the fact that he's laying on his side he rises a majestic 15 meters and extends another 46. That is a half football field of Buddha. Impressive...

That being said, we did have to fight the obligatory hordes of tourists (mainly Chinese and Spanish, which was odd) to see the really big sights. However, all you have to do is go through one obscure archway and you're free of the crowds, the noise, the jostling. I don't know why it is, but it is much easier to appreciate the beauty of a bejeweled spire when you're absolutely alone rather than getting literally mowed down by a particularly aggressive tour group (i.e. all of them).

One of the sights was the Thai royal palace (and I mean ROYAL- these people love their king. He is everywhere, pictures portraits, photos of him when he was a baby and little kid adorn the median of one of the main roads downtown. It's pretty impressive). Anyways, where there is a royal palace, there is bound to be royal guards. They mimic the British Palace guards at Westminster (or so I'm told) but I don't think anyone told the guards. One of them was standing erect, eyes straight and MP5 held rigidly. His buddy was resolutely cleaning dirt out of his fingernails while tourists snapped shots. Not very impressive. Anyway, I guess I notice these things...

Other than that, we walked another 8-10 miles, had more amazing food and just generally sweat all over the place. Tonight we're jumping on a bus to Krabi, Thailand to enjoy the beach. Later!

One Night in Bangkok

Well, I’m back! It’s been a year (well, almost two) and to be perfectly honest, it’s been a pretty uninteresting intervening time period. I had several pretty neat trips, to be fair, but I made the mistake of not writing my thoughts down at the time and now the minutia has been lost with the passing of time. But I shan’t make that mistake again. So here we are!

For those not intimately familiar with my plans for these next months sandwiched between the joy of graduation and the apprehension that marks the start of real life, I will fill you in now. I have been planning a trip ‘round the world with my friend from high school, Nathan for several years now, but reality and funding took its toll and we limited our plans to South East Asia. As of yesterday I had a flight to Bangkok and a flight out of Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and pretty much nothing else figured out. The plans are solidifying, but still very loose.

It’s day two of my journey now and I suppose I ought to capture some of my thoughts of Bangkok as I sit here in bed at 5am (jet lag…) and wonder why I decided to save 5 dollars and not opt for the air conditioned room. But that’s neither here nor there. I arrived Tuesday night at the airport and we stayed at a hotel only a few miles from there. We woke up on Wednesday morning and wandered outside for some breakfast and a first look at this new and fascinating country (Thailand for the geography challenged). It somewhat bizarrely fulfilled my expectations. There were tiny bridges over canals teeming with fish, colorful taxis doing their level best to run over their fares, and little motorbikes zipping everywhere, dodging scrawny chickens and scrawnier kids. We had a 40 cent breakfast of sticky rice topped with mystery meat from a toothless, grinning vendor with a Starbucks t-shirt draped rather ironically over his skinny frame.

Stomachs full, we headed out on our journey into Bangkok with only the loosest of destinations in mind. The way in involved the SkyTrain, a elevated monorail type thing. The station was only about a mile from the hotel, but it was almost surreal. The station looked like a giant metal Star Wars machine rising sinisterly over the roofs of the shacks that surrounded it. We took the escalator into the belly of the beast and were soon on our way to downtown.

We passed shantytowns, gated communities, abandoned train factories, and gleaming mega-malls. The skyscrapers started about 10km outside of town and simply grew in number and size as we continued in. Never in my life have I seen such a sprawling, massive city. We ditched the metro about halfway into the city (because it stopped…) and took the city bus the rest of the way, passing loads of kids in their Thai school uniforms, which, for the most part consisted of white shirts and blue pants for the guys and blue skirts for the gals. It looks pretty classy. We finally dropped our bags at a hostel in the backpacker’s ghetto of Banglamphu and headed out to explore.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a leisurely stroll to the hordes of rickshaw taxi drivers who cloud the area. “Sir, where you going?” he asks. “Well, we’re just walking, really.” “No, but where you going?” “umm… over there?” (pointing in a random direction). “No, no, no, sir, that’s closed! But I’ll take you to the standing Buddha for only 300 baht.” Walking away…

That being said, ‘over there’ wasn’t closed and we stumbled across Laho Prasa, a Sri Lankan style temple filled with Buddhas in all stages of laying, sitting, standing and walking. It was really a beautiful and peaceful place made all the more so by the fact that there was essentially no one there besides us and the monks. Perhaps everyone else believed the taxi drivers… The night finished with a torrential downpour and glass of pineapple juice, a fair way to end the day.

Ok, I promise I won’t have the time or inclination to go into such detail about the remainder of my 35 days, but suffice to say I’m having fun and if you’re ever in Bangkok, don’t listen to taxi drivers. Everyone else is really nice though.