Travels in Southeast Asia

Real life

2006-06-12T21:59:00.000-04:00

When I was teaching English in Reunion and I used to tell my friend Michael that I needed to get back to the states and to a "real job." He used to correct me and tell me "teaching English is a real job." At the time I felt that my job was a sort of "practice job" for a real job, maybe with an NGO. Then I worked with an NGO for a year and realized that every task in the "real" working world is not quite as efficient and meaningful as I might have imagined.
A customer was in the restaurant today and she had gotten wind of the fact that I have done a lot of traveling in the past few years. She asked me what I had majored in at K and then asked, "so when you stop working here what are you going to do, like in your 'real life.'" At first I was stunned, then I laughed and shrugged in that classic Lindsay manner and said "this is it, this is my real life."

Insults

2006-06-10T14:30:00.000-04:00

What is the most effective way to insult a group of young Muslims? Perhaps serve them pork and then bring up the subject of Isreal.
During lunchtime the other day a group of three young men dressed in suits came into the Thai restaurant. I took their order and then brought them their complementary wonton soup. As I was setting the soup on the table one asked me, "what kind of meat is the soup made with?" "Pork, I think, but let me check with the kitchen," I responded. The three gentlemen began to wave off the soup with vigor saying, "no, no, no, we don't want any." I quickly came to the conclusion that they were Muslims and began going over their order in my head to be sure that there would not be pork in any of the dishes that they had ordered.
Another young man in a pin striped suit joined the group of three. I asked him what I could get him to drink and he held his throat and said, "I have a cold, what kind of tea do you have?" I told him we only had Chinese Jasmine tea. He asked "d'you have any jus'regul tea?" I responded according to what I thought I had heard, "What, you want Isreali tea?" He spoke louder and enunciated more clearly "No, I said REGULAR tea." "Ohhh, no, sorry, only Jasmine" I responded.
I went in the back to fetch his tea and began to reseign myself to the fact that I would be getting no tip from the gentleman after having offered them pork and then brought up Isreal out of the blue. But I guess being a young woman serving a table of young men trumphs all political and religious faux-pas. They left a hell of a tip.

Man in the lobby

2006-06-01T18:44:00.000-04:00

"So what are you going to do with all of those languages?"
Why do we always have to do things for some greater purpose?
When I speak to my Thai co-workers in Thai and then the Chinese customers in Chinese people are impressed. Most then proceed to tell me that I should try to get a job with the big three. "You should go into business" they all say.
There was this white man standing in the lobby this afternoon talking very loudly to the co-owners of the restaurant who are Taiwanese and Thai (contrary to popular belief, these are actually different nationalities). The white man works for an auto parts supplier and he was telling the two Asian men about his trip to Bangkok and the nice limo that he got to ride in and the place that employed young women where he went every night with his coworkers for fun and the other place where he had a nice massage from a young Asian woman. Then he started talking about how you can order an Asian bride online.
I was in the dining room setting the tables for dinner and I was about to throw a plate at the man. Just listening and not having the courage to tell him to shut his fucking mouth made me fell complicit in the whole thing.
"Why don't you go into business?" If this is the culture of business then I guess my response would be "Because I believe in the value of every human life. Because I believe that girls your daughter's age should not have to work jobs that you would not want your own child to do just because they were born on a different side of the globe."
I often try to tell people this, but either I am not expressing myself very well or my message is falling on deaf ears.
When I left work today one of the owners asked me what I was going to do this evening. I said sarcastically "I am going home to buy an Asian wife online." I always make jokes about the things that piss me off that I feel I don't have the power to change. Next time, though, I need to tell the white man in the lobby that he needs to shut his mouth.

I am back

2006-05-25T11:26:00.000-04:00

I am no longer in SE Asia, but I now work in a Thai restaurant where I speak as much or more Thai than I did when I was actually in Thailand, so that counts for something, right?
I took this self-help seminar when I was in high school (called the Forum) where they told you that making declarative decisions about poeple limited the way in which you can percieve them. For example, if I say to myself, "My coworker is an idiot" she can then only occur to me as an idiot.
I agree with their theory, but I enjoy judging people. My coworker is an idiot.
The owner of the Thai restaurant was away on business over the past few days. I asked my coworker where he was. She told me he had gone to buy restaurant supplies in Mongolia. This concerned me and I thought about it several times. "Dear lord, the owner is trying to buy coconut milk, lemon grass, and shrimp in a yurt on the arid steppes of Mongolia." I was honestly concerned.
The owner got back last night. I asked him where he had been. He said on business in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. I was so releived to hear that he had not attempted to buy supplies for a Thai restaurant in Mongolia.
My coworker thinks that Malaysia is Mongolia. She's an idiot, but what can you do?

Lindsay's last entry

2006-04-12T06:58:00.000-04:00

Why is my body smarter than my mind? Since I have gotten back from Thailand I have woken up before 6 am everyday, regardless of how late I went to bed. I lay in bed and my mind tells my body "go back to sleep, you haven't had enough hours of sleep yet and it is way to early to get up!" My body replies back, "Why should I go to sleep, it's the middle of the day and I am hungy for dinner!" My mind says "It's the middle of the day in THAILAND, but you are in the U.S. now, so you can't go by that time anymore." My body replies, "Watch me!"
In the end my body always wins out and that is why I am blogging at 7 am.
Since I am back home now this little commentary on jet lag will be my last blog entry. Thanks to those you who took the time to read about my and Josh's travels and be sure to send me your blog address the next time you travel!!!

The last hours....~Joshua

2006-04-06T00:03:00.000-04:00

Today is both an exciting and sad day. At 4pm we depart from the Chiang Mai train station, heading south towards the Bangkok airport and the next morning we officially leave Thailand. This is the third time I've had to pack up my bags and leave Thailand behind and I can never help but get sentimental about it all. Of course I am looking forward to getting home, to family and all that is great and familiar about being home after such a long absence. In fact, I wouldn't be very happy right now if I was forced to stay around much longer. I don't have a job or really have that much to do here so it has become a bit boring. That being said, I can' t help but constantly be reminded of all the things I'm going to miss. The amazing cheap food for every meal, the fun of speaking a foreign language, escaping the American media machine, I could go on.....I know I will be back again sometime in the coming years, and that at least comforts me. I'm not sure how many of you are even reading this any more but I will try to make one last post, possibly once I get home, in an effort to throw together some thoughts about the 6 months as a whole.

Merit making

2006-04-04T09:16:00.000-04:00

Josh and I are enjoying our last week in Chiang Mai, seeing friends for the last time, eating favorite foods and getting all of our last minute shopping done before we head back to the states. Last night we went out with Josh's Thai tutor for his birthday. I asked him if his parents had called him for his birthday and he said "yeah, my Mom called and said 'honey, did you go to the temple today and make merit?'" He said that he told his Mom that he had wanted to go to the temple, but that he hadn't had time.
In order to "make merit" Thai Buddhists do any of a number of things. They burn incense at the temple, donate money to the temple, donate food or clothes to monks etc. The goal of these actions is to guarantee that you will have a favorable rebirth. Cetain days are more auspicious for making merit than others, like holidays or your birthday, for example. I really like the way that Thai Buddhism has no pretensions about the goal of these "merit making" activities. Of course it is nice to do good things for other people, but Thai Buddhists also won't beat around the bush in saying that they do good deeds in order to guarantee a favorable rebirth for THEMSELVES. I am not sure that other religions are so up front about the fact that human beings do good things not only to serve others, but to serve themselves as well.
It was funny to hear that going to the temple and making merit was something that Thai mothers nag their sons about, because my own mother certainly has never nagged me about making merit!

Chinese tattoos

2006-04-02T23:58:00.000-04:00

Here is another fun New York Times article coming to you courtesy of Erika Sanders.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/fashion/sundaystyles/02tattoos.html?ex=1144558800&en=087f7c4202ff795d&ei=5070&emc=eta1
I liked this article becuase I often see people in the states with Chinese tatoos that I can't read. It always makes me feel bad becuase I say to myself, "all of those hours studying Chinese and I can't even read a simple tattoo." If the people in this article are representative of the state of Chinese tattoos as a whole in the U.S. I should perhaps be glad that I can't read them...

Don't drink and vote! -Joshua

2006-04-01T22:32:00.000-05:00

Today is a national election day in Thailand. The Prime Minister, Mr. Taksin has been in big trouble lately as protests against him in Bangkok have been ongoing for the past month or so. To tell you the truth I'm not that interested in the intricacies of Thai politics or the outcome of the election. What I wanted to talk about was how when there is a national election in Thailand, the selling of alcohol is forbidden everywhere in the country from 6 PM the previous day to Midnight on the day of the election. Maybe this is commonplace in other countries as well but I had never heard of it. My Thai language tutor told me it is mainly done to stop any corruption/vote buying that could take place on the night before the election. It made me think....would a law like this make any difference in American elections? My guess would be no, Americans are not really big drinkers. I've seen stats saying that Thailand is the fifth largest consumer of alcohol in the world per capita. I'm sure the US is much further down the list. Still, it's interesting to think about.....

Super store massages

2006-04-01T06:39:00.000-05:00

Today Josh and I went to Carrefour super store, the French version of Walmart, to pick up a few cheap clothing items before we leave Thailand. Carrefour is housed in a kind of mini-mall with the super store and food court upstairs and some book stores and jewelry stands downstairs. You can also get a half hour or hour long Thai foot massage downstairs next to the jewelry stalls. The minty aroma of the massage oil that they use for the massages gives the downstairs area of the mall a pleasant smell and it is cute to see all of the Thai people falling asleep while they get their feet rubbed after an arduous trip to Carrefour. Actually, you can get a $3/hour foot massage pretty much anywhere in Thailand and it is something that I will really miss when I leave!

The gym part II

2006-03-29T04:08:00.000-05:00

I had to mention the gym in my blog yesterday becuase a gym in Thailand seems out of place. I couldn't really put my finger on why, but I think that I figured out why a gym seems out of place in Thai culture.
I told Josh's Thai tutor today that we had gone to "pow-weh hout" (Thai prononciation for Power House) gym yesterday and he said "ohh, sanook mai?" meaning, "did you have fun?" Anything that Thai people do outside of work is expected to be fun and any time you tell someone that you went somewhere they ask if you had fun. No matter what your activity was they ask if it was fun. Thai people don't ask "was your outing yesterday interesting" or "motivational" or "a good workout" or anything of the sort. They ask if you had fun because having fun is the goal of life in Thai culture. As I see it going to the gym is not about having fun! It's about paying penance for having eaten too much, or having drank too much, or having sat around too much. Going to the gym is about suffering in a way. Suffering to atone for your sins. Suffering in the hopes of looking better physically in the eyes of others. The gym does not really fit in Thai culture because gyms don't exist in order to provide fun. Unless Thais suddenly become more interested in physical suffering during their free time I doubt Power House Chiang Mai will have many Thai members of their gym.

funny in a strange way...

2006-03-28T06:36:00.000-05:00

Josh and I went cosmic bowling last week. Apparently "Brunswick" is the only company on the planet who manufactures bowling alleys because no matter where you go blowling (we went in Malaysia and Thailand) all of the equipment is "Brunswick" brand and the bowling shoes are in American sizes and the balls are marked in pounds. I like to think that they construct the entire alley of about 30 lanes in the U.S. and then put it on an aircraft carrier and ship it to Thailand already assembled. I know that this could not possibly be true, but I like the image.
Thailand's first Power House gym is in Chiang Mai right next to our building (a testament to how many Westerners live in our neighborhood). We went there today for a "free trial" and it was funny to see that all of the weight machines were from the U.S. and had an American flag on them. All of the weighs were also marked in pounds. It's funny the things from the states that manage to make their way half way around the world here to Thailand.

Culture and language

2006-03-24T07:20:00.000-05:00

I have a classmate who is Indian but was raised in Hong Kong and is now married to a Thai lady and they live in Chiang Mai. I think he probably has a good appreciation of how culture effects language and vice versa. Here is a funny article that he sent regarding words that only exist in certain languages.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4248494.stm

Field trip!

2006-03-23T04:44:00.000-05:00

Professor Bear and Professor Little, who teaches the class above ours, took us on a field trip today. It was a place where you could learn about the King's royal agricultural initiatives in the North of Thailand. Like any other country, Thailand is running out of land and water in order to grow crops for a growing population, but unlike other countries the royal family of Thailand is on the case and with their direct links with the Buddha they are well connected to solve any problems that should arise.
On the field trip you could try all sorts of crafts that are practiced in the North like weaving, throwing pottery, wood carving etc. They also had rice paddies where you could plant rice and plow the paddy using a water buffalo to pull the plow. I rode the water buffalo (I generally don't ride animals, but I made an exception for this friendly looking 2 ton animal) and planted rice. Planting the rice was kind of fun because as soon as you step down into the paddy you sink knee deep in the mud and then have to reach down into the mud to sick the baby rice plants into the ground. It was interesting for 5 minutes, but would suck to have to do in order to survive!!! (words of an urban dweller...)
The best part of the field trip was that I got the be the person going on the trip and not the person organizing it! During my days of day camp counselling and organizing the after school program for the Somali Bantu kids it was pretty stressful trying to keep all of the kids together and not damaging other people's property when we went out on a trip. The great part of the past 6 months is that I haven't had to be responsible for anyone but myself. Ahh, selfishness, so refreshing!!!

clouds or smog?......or.....another rare entry by Joshua

2006-03-19T01:41:00.000-05:00

I can't quite tell if it is clouds or smog that is covering Chiang Mai today. I can't really complain though, at least it dampens the sun a bit, making it 95 instead of the usual 100. A few words of advice, if you are ever contemplating a trip to Northern Thailand, don't come in March or April. Of course the heat is bad but perhaps even worse is the horrible visibility. A frightening mix of smoke, haze, and dust makes it impossible to see all but the faintest outline of the surrounding mountains that during the rest of the year give Chiang Mai a wonderful setting. Not being able to see more than a 300 yards down the street due to all of this is depressing and it's making me a little bit less sad to be leaving in 2 and a half weeks. I promise to provide a bit more uplifting post in another day or two! But until then, take a look outside and enjoy your air quality because it's probably a bit better than ours!

Taton plage

2006-03-19T01:18:00.000-05:00

In the summer of 2002 the city of Paris came up with this great idea to make a beach next to the Seine. They shipped several tons of sand into the capital from the beaches on the Atlantic coast and put up deck chairs and stands selling cold drinks. That July the temperature rarely rose above 75 degrees, but Parisiens still came. They donned their bakinis and sunbathed in the polluted Paris air under the sky of clouds. I thought it was funny in a kind of pathetic way. As far as I know though, Paris plage is still built each summer.
This weekend Josh and I went back to Taton, a little town about 4 hours north of Chiang Mai. We had been there in the fall and this little town on the River Kok has lots of cheap resorts with great gardens on the river. The River level was much lower this weekend as compared to the fall since it is now the dry season and it has not rained in months. The low river revealed a little sandy beach and the people of Taton were enjoying eating, drinking, and inner tubing in and next to the River (yes, all swimming in the river was done fully clothed, don't worry, the northern Thais are just a modest as the Southern Thais). Josh and I enjoyed an incredibly spicy Som Dam by the river and it was great fun to watch the kids splashing in the river. It sure beat the hell out of Paris plage.

Get away

2006-03-16T02:35:00.000-05:00

It seemed like a 6 month vacation would last forever. Indeed, there were even times during the trip when the weather was especially hot or when I was sick and I feared that these 6 months of travel would never end (although the bulk of the trip has been a pleasure!). But somehow it has come to be that we have only three weekends left in Thailand before we head back to the states!!! This weekend and next we will travel a couple of hours to some of the mountainous parts of Northern Thailand that are absolutely breathtaking. Our final weekend will probably be spent shopping and preparing for our departure, but now that our leaving is coming so close I don't want to think about it! For now I will just focus on the fact that Josh and I are looking forward to a nice weekend in the mountains with great views and hopefully cool weather.

a shameful defeat....

2006-03-14T00:18:00.000-05:00

Lindsay bought me a new journal for my last birthday, a few days before we left on this big SE Asia adventure. I'm actually using it right now to write a draft of this entry. As always I had good intentions of sticking to my journal faithfully. I hoped to write at least every 2-3 days, if not daily. Well its been over five months now and I have a grand total of 18 entries, which included a couple of 3-4 liners. I'm not sure what it is for me that makes sticking to a journal so difficult. I've had the same problem contributing blog entries as well as I'm sure you have all noticed. At least I have good ole Mark Twain on my side:
"But if he (the journal taker) only lives twenty-one days, he will find out that only those rare natures that are made up of pluck, endurance, devotion to duty for duty's sake, and invincible determination may hope to venture upon so tremendous an enterprise as the keeping of a journal and not sustain a shameful defeat."

Hot weather, fruit, and guests

2006-03-08T05:49:00.000-05:00

I don't check weatherunderground.com everyday, but as far as I know today was the first day that Chiang Mai achieved a high of 100F. Walking outside kind of feels like sticking your head under an open flame, but no matter because the fruit is all ripe right now and sooo delicious! I actually currently have about 6 kg of fruit in my backpack. You see, the market used to be right near our apartment, but since we moved it is a bit of a walk so I had to pop in at the internet cafe on the way home in order to rest a bit. I feel like enduring the heat is almost an acceptable price to pay in order to have watermelon this delicious on a daily basis!
In other non fruit and non weather related news, Josh and I will have our first visitor to Chiang Mai this weekend. While we were travelling we would run into people in several different cities since we were on the same "tourist trail" and we met up with an Australian woman several times who we got along with really well. She came to Chiang Mai 30 years ago and wanted to come back and see how it has changed. Like most cities over the past 30 years (with the exception of Detroit maybe) Chiang Mai has grown physically about 3 fold in the past 30 years and I am positive that she will not even recognize the city now. Josh and I are looking forward to reintroducing her to the city and all of its delights.

Nicknames

2006-03-05T04:31:00.000-05:00

There was a moment in Thai class on Thursday when it hit me that I was being taught the Thai language by a man who calls himself "Mr. Bear."
Every Thai person has a really really long first and last name. We are talking names that certainly would not fit in the allotted spaces on any U.S. government form. As a result every Thai person also has a one or two syllable nickname that is normally an everyday noun. My teacher gave every student in my Thai class a Thai nickname on the first day of class. As is custom in Thailand, when our teacher addresses us he always calls us "Mr" or "Miss" and then our nickname.
"Miss Star, what is you favorite fruit?"
"Mr. Sun, what is this a picture of?"
My class has six students: Mr. Little, Mr. Bird, Mr. Sun, Miss Star, Mr. Wind, and me, and we are taught my Professor Bear who has a pencil box with pooh bear to show his students the meaning of his name. Oh, and me you ask? Well, from now on it's "Miss Lychee" to all of you!!!

Return to Chiang Mai

2006-03-01T02:56:00.000-05:00

We earned our final stripes as Southeast Asia backpackers by taking the slow boat up the Mekong for 9 hours two days in a row in order to get back to Thailand. The first day the boat was packed with Western tourists also earning backpacker merit badges by travelling up the Mekong, but the second day the boat was only half full as many of the tourists who had taken the boat the first day decided that they preferred to travel on the ultra light "speed boat" that involved hurdling down the Mekong in a feather weight boat at speeds of over 50 mph while wearing a crash helmet. Josh and I stuck with the slow boat.
We arrived back in Thailand on Sunday morning and took the bus 6 hours to Chiang Mai where we got an apartment in a building with a pool in the "ex-pat" district of town. I don't really like the neighborhood as it is full of temptations. There are coffee bars on every corner, expensive western restaurants, bagel shops, movie theatres; everywhere you look there is another place to spend too much money! I liked the university district where we lived before which had only cheap street food and lots of students milling about in the streets at all hours. Mind you, Chiang Mai is small enough that these two "districts" are not more than a mile apart, so we can still go to the university district to hang out from time to time.
Josh and I are also up to our old tricks; taking Thai language classes, eating lots of street food, and swimming every day since our apartment building's pool is about 5 steps out our door.
On a completely different note, I am 25 today. This is weird for me as it seems kind of old, like there must be something else between 24 and 25. Isn't there another year of early 20s becuase I am not ready for my mid 20s yet. For the past 5 years or so I have thought of myself as in my early 20s and it was my sister and her friends that were in their mid 20s. Something seems to have happened though, becuase all of a sudden I am in my mid 20s, my sister and her friends are nearing 30 and it's my brother and his friends who have taken my place as those in their early 20s. I think once you finish college the years begin to go by about twice as fast since you are no longer counting them; Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior. So it's my brother who is in his early 20s now, lucky bastard!

Louang Prabang

2006-02-23T00:18:00.000-05:00

After a series of bus rides we made it to the northern capital of Laos, Luang Prabang, a small city that is very popular with Western tourists, and with good reason. With a population of only 26,000 Luang Prabang has loads of charm but very little traffic which makes strolling the streets of old French colonial buildings very pleasant. The Mekong and Kang Rivers also converge here and there are plenty a quiet riverfront restaurant where a "whitey" (aka Western tourist) can sip fruit shakes and watch the locals swimming fully clothed in jeans and button-up shirts "a la thailandaise." We will stay here for another night or two before earning our final stripe as SE Asian backpackers by taking the two day trip along the Mekong from Laos to Thailand and then a short bus trip back to Chiang Mai where a nice apartment and public swimming pools await. For an interesting look into Laos check out the U.S. government's "CIA world factbook." Compare some of the statistics of Laos to France or the U.S.

airplane

2006-02-19T05:16:00.000-05:00

You have to love flying in China. You can always count on something out of the ordinary to happen on the plane. Josh and I arrived early to the airport on Friday in preparation for the 50 minute flight to Jing Hong that would take us into the warm temperatures and rain forests of China's Xi Shunag Ba Na region. I had been freezing my ass off all day since none of the buildings in Li Jiang were heated and was looking forward to waiting in a heated airport waiting room. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the airport and found all of my fellow passengers wrapped in winter coats and scarves and sipping hot water from paper cups. Even the airport in Li Jiang wasn't heated!
As soon as everyone was on the plane, but a dozen or more people were still standing in the aisles stowing their carry-on luggage, the place began to taxi. Josh and I were so impressed! Never in the states could you taxi without each and every person in their seat with their seat belt fastened! All of the passengers did manage to find their seats about 60 seconds before the plane left the ground.
There were two young boys seated in the front row who were unaccompanied minors who spent the entire flight screaming. About half of the screaming concerned the fact that there were foreigners on the plane (we were the only ones) and they frequently turned toward us to scream "hello" over and over again. The stewardess spend many minutes of the flight trying to calm them, but they carried on for the entire flight. Right before we landed the stewardess checked to make sure that all safety belts were buckled, but as soon as she sat down herself in preparation for the landing one of the boys jumped up and put his back against the wall in front him (he was in the front row) and let the momentum of the plane stick his body to the wall. He screamed with delight. The stweardess yelled "sit down, sit down!" The kid stayed standing.
We are now on the border between China and Laos and will start our adventure in Laos tomorrow.

White shroud

2006-02-16T03:57:00.000-05:00

Someone once told me that in China no one who lives south of the Yangze River, regardless of the elevation at which they live, is allowed to have central heat. Accordingly, the hotel that we stayed in last night did not have heat. The room was COLD when I woke up and Josh went to the window and looked out. "Lindsay, you have to see this!" I knew without looking that it had snowed over night! I reluctantly went to the window and there were several inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. Judging from the pigs, chickens, and yaks roaming the streets of Zhong Dian I was pretty sure that there was no snow removal equpiment in the city, and Josh and I made a quick decision to take the next bus southeast back to Li Jiang, lest we be snowed in and unable to fly to the south this weekend. We made the bus and the snow covering the mountains and brown, treeless hills made the landscape that much more beautiful. We will fly to the south of Yun Nan tomorrow. Today's high in Zhong Dian was 35. The high in Jing Hong, where we are flying to tomorrow, is 89. Time to retire my "winter collection" of travelling ensembles and get the summer grab back out!

Shangri-La

2006-02-15T06:31:00.000-05:00

Josh and I are in Zhong Dian, nearing the border with Si Chuan province and Tibet. The Chinese government decided that Zhong Dian was fabled "Shangri-la" found by explorers in the past and has renamed the town Shangri-la. There is a large Tibetian presence here and we visited a Tibetian Buddhist Monastery today. The Monastery was originally build in the 1600s, but then destroyed during the Cultural Revolution of the 60's and is now being rebuilt. We are high on a 3000m mountain plateau here and the winter landscape is desolate with many small leafless bushes and yaks grazing among the dirt filled plaines for a bit of green. Out of this lifeless plateau rises a hill with the white and gold square monastery perched on top and multi-colored flags and pieces of fabric flapping in the stiff winter wind. The monks wear red robes and unlike the Thai monks, they are premitted to wear shoes and socks, although they still do not cover their bare arms. Incredibely, it even snowed a little today! Although I missed the winter in Michigan I feel like I am getting my little taste of winter cold here in Zhong Dian, especially since there is no heating in any of the buildings here in Yun Nan (yes, including our hotels!).

Tiger Leaping Gorge

2006-02-15T06:20:00.000-05:00

Josh and I hiked Tiger Leaping Gorge on Monday and Tuesday and it was truly beautiful in a very dramatic way. At Tiger Leaping Gorge the Yangze River runs violently through one of the deepest gorges in the world. When you hike the gorge you walk along a narrow mountain path that connects the villages of people that live on the slopes of the mountains that rise tousands of meters above the river. You can do the whole hike in one very long day or stop along the way and stay in guest houses located in the villages along the path. We stayed in a guest house along the way that had amazing views of the snow capped mountains rising sharply in front of us.
Josh and I both had colds when we hiked and I did my fair share of snot rockets (the Chinese way of blowing your nose) while Josh hacked and then winced in pain as he had a very soar thraot.
In order to get back to the small town that we had started from we drove along one of the most dangerous roads I have ever seen. The Chinese recognized the potential of the gorge as a tourist site and built a road that is perched on the side of the mountain with steep cliffs rising above. The road is just a few years old and there were many holes and missing guard rails caused by rock slides. As we drove out of the gorge I had the thought that I often have when I see the landscape in China "god that is beautiful and damn I wish I didn't have to see what the government has decided to do with it."

Killing me...

2006-02-11T03:39:00.000-05:00

As I lay in bed last night breathing the dry, cold, unheated air of my hotel room, unable to sleep due to the stuffy nose caused by the cold that is following up the flu from earlier this week, suddenly it all became clear to me. A thought flashed into my mind, clear as the day that does not dawn in Western China until well after 8am. "China is trying to kill me." Yes, I think that it is the goal of China to chew me up and spit me out just barely alive. The dirty, dry air, the pollution, the endless amounts of germs emitted by thousands of people blowing their nose, spitting and pissing in the streets, the loud voices of Chinese people who must yell to their friends standing next to them. All of these things are China's little ways of trying to kill me. I survived 6 months in China, but that was in 2002, when I was younger, bolder and stronger. We will stay in China for about 10 more days. And it's going to be me vs. China. If I come out alive, I will have won. BRING IT ON CHINA!

Short Update

2006-02-09T23:16:00.000-05:00

Josh and I have just visited the ancient city of Da Li and are currently in Li Jiang, another well preserved ancient city. Since Chinese kids are still off of school from the New Year both towns have been packed with Chinese tourists doing touristy kinds of things.
Li Jiang is on a plateau at over 3000m so it's a bit cold up here, even though we are rather far south in China. I have been sick the past couple of days, but once I have recovered we are planning to go and hike along Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is suppossed to be quite impressive as it is one of the world's deepest gorges.
Sorry, but I don't have any amusing stories to tell today as I have been in bed more than out and about over the past few days.

one China one time zone

2006-02-07T00:23:00.001-05:00

Thank you Erika for pointing out that one of my blogs has dissappered. I blogged a few days ago about how I yelled at a McDonald's employees for being out of vanilla ice cream. I also talked about how this "bad behavior" is influenced by the behavior of the Chinese people around me. Either by my error, the error of the blogspot website, or perhaps, just perhaps due to these commie computers that I am writing on, it has dissappered. (The government does watch the internet closely, but if they have nothing better to do than read my blog god help them!) A great blog entry has been lost.... oh well.
China is not a practical country, nor an efficient country, yet things work...
Those in charge are all about unity. One China! So, China also has only one time zone. That's right, one China, thousands of miles spanning east to west, one time zone. We are in about the middle of the country right now, but since the time zone is based on the rising and setting of the sun in Beijing, the sun does not come up here until well past 8am and does not go down until well past 7pm. When Josh and I started watching the super bowl yesterday it was dark out, but not because it was night, but because the sun had not come up yet. Imagine though, that we are only about half way as far west as you can go. In the far western reaches of the country the sun must not be coming up until nearly10am. Here in KunMing people don't start work until the sun has risen and I imagine that they do the same in the far west. One China, one time zone, even if it means not starting work until 10am.

More bad behavior

2006-02-06T04:42:00.000-05:00

We got up this morning at 6:45 in order to go to a 24hr bar that has ESPN where we could eat breakfast and watch the superbowl. By the end of the game I was a bit tired from having gotten up so early and we headed out for a few errands and some lunch.
We bought lunch from a place near the train station and when it was time to pay the man asked me to pay over twice what the meal was worth (we had not ordered from a menu with set prices). This man had caught me on the wrong day, when I was tired and not in the mood to take any shit, so I had to unleach more of my "Chinese bad behavior" on him.
I stood up and began to argue loudly with him.
"What? 25 yuan? For a little bit of rice a vegetables? Are you kidding me? That's way to expensive! We got double the food for 10 yuan yesterday!!! You are just trying to cheat us because we are foreigners and you think we don't know the price of things!!!"
We argued for about 5 minutes with all of the people in the restaurant watching and a crowd in front of the restaurant beginning to gather. He claimed that he had to charge me a lot because his restaurant was in a high rent district and I said that I would not pay more than 15 yuan. He finally agreed to 15 and I stuffed the money in his hand and stormed out muttering "good bye!" as I left.
Really everybody, I swear that I really will leave this behavior in China and you won't be in the Laurel Park Max and Erma's with me refusing the pay the bill! Don't worry...

blogables

2006-02-05T08:23:00.000-05:00

Ever since we started this blog thing, Lindsay and I have had this ongoing conversation on an almost daily basis about the things that we have seen, heard, or read recently that we deem "blogable". Some places have more blogable things than others, but China by far is the winner when it comes to blogable things seen during the average day. There are so many blogables I sometimes don't know where to start and I end up not writing anything (as I'm sure you have noticed by how little I blog compared to Lindsay). Here is a just a few of the Chinese blogables that I have found thus far:
-The toilets here are straight up nasty. Usually it involves a trough that you squat over to do your business. This would be ok, but the problem is that there is no way to flush away once you are done so things start to literally pile up during the course of the day! ( They use squat toilets in Thailand as well but at least there you are provided with a bucket of water to wash things away once you are finished!) There are also often no partitions between the squatting areas so its quite a see it all operation. Related to the toilets, chinese parents frequently let their toddlers pee in very very public areas. We were walking through a crowded pedestrian street/square yesterday and just 15 feet away was a dad holding his little girl with her pants down and legs up, just whizzing away amongst the pedestrians!!!!
-In addition to this babies urine found on the grown is the spit and saliva of hundreds of people. You rarely go more than a few minutes on the street before here a hawwwwwgggggkkkkkkkkk sound.
-The woman here are really into knee high leather boots. I find them quite ugly and unbecoming but they love them.
-Yoghurt is very big here and Lindsay and I have some every morning but you aren't given a spoon, you have to slurp it up with a straw which makes getting that last teaspoon quite dificult.
-I could go on and on but we have to catch the last bus back to our hostel and get to bed. We are planning on trying to get up early in the morning and find a bar that is showing the superbowl. I want to see my hometown!

Outing to West Mountain

2006-02-05T07:42:00.000-05:00

The commies also really like to block my e-mail as well as my blog. More often than not when I come to an internet cafe here in China I can't get to my yahoo mail. I am very unclear about how my e-mails are a threat to the People's Republic, but what can you do?
Josh and I went to West Mountain today. It's a very popular weekend spot with Kun Ming local people where you can climb or take a gondola or a bus up to the top of the mountain. We decided to walk on a dirt path with hunderds of other weekend day trippers.
When I go to climb a mountain I put on my tennis shoes and a cool max shirt because I find those clothes the most comfortable to exercise in. Chinese people, however, put on their Sunday best in order to climb a mountain. Women wear tight jeans or skirts and high heeled boots while men wear suits and dress shoes. My only guess as to why they choose to dress this way is because they take a lot of picutres while they are hiking up and they want to look good for the camera. It is kind of bizarre though, to see women hiking up steep paths in heels, clutching their black loafer wearing husbands.
While Josh's Dad, Dennis, was with us in Hanoi we got to talking about all of the people that die in stampedes at Mecca every year while they make their pilgrimage. Dennis was saying that when you are in a stampede they say that in order to stay alive you must remain standing. If you drop something and reach for the ground you will be the person at the bottom of the pile and thus the person who is crushed by all of the other people who fall on top of you.
Today Josh and I took the local bus to West Mountain, as did many of the other people that were there. There is no orderly lining up in order to board the bus. As the bus pulls up people run along side the bus in order to be right in front of the door when it stops so they can be the first person on the bus. Josh and I wanted seats on the way back home so we joined the locals in running after the bus and pushing our way to the front of the mob to get on. A lady fell down on the steps of the bus in front of Josh. He tried to leave her space to get up, but when he stopped for a split second people began squeezing around him to get on and simply stepping over the lady who had fallen down. The woman eventually got up and boarded the bus and did not die in the miny stampede, but boarding the bus here in Kun Ming is cut throat I tell you!

can you see my blog?

2006-02-02T08:13:00.000-05:00

When I have tried to view www.jlasia.blogspot.com on the computers in the past two commie countries that I have been in the site has been blocked, however, I can still write in the blog. Can you all still see the blog? If so e-mail me a quick line and let me know. I am not sure if it is a problem with the site or with the communist computers.

Chinese Wal Mart

2006-02-02T06:48:00.000-05:00

Josh and I have arrived in the metropolis of KunMing, the "spring city" where the weather is always cool and pleasant. There is a large university here, Kun Ming Univeristy, and many hip young people walking around looking stylish. In the neighborhood near the University there are lots of people riding electric motor scooters around, which is really a trip because the scooters don't make any noise at all and it makes people look like the Jetsons, floating through town on their personal space ships.
I had heard from another traveller that Kun Ming had a really impressive Wal Mart super store. I was eager to come and visit the Kun Ming Wal Mart and see the evil that they are now doing in China, as if their evil doings in the U.S. are not enough. We found the Wal Mart today and it was really dark and dingy. Perhaps they have "low, low prices" (not that you really need prices any lower than they already are here in Western China) but their store was really disgusting. One would hope that people would not shop in such a store, but there were plenty of people enjoying the "modern" super store. There are actually several Western chain stores throughout Southeast Asia, McDonalds, KFC, Carrefour (a French super store), Lotus etc. I think that these corporations have realized the money they can make from the large numbers of people in Asian countries and are eager to begin doing more and more business here in Asia. It makes me realize more and more the important role that Asian countries are going to continue to play in the world ecomony in the coming years. Maybe the sun is "setting in the West" and "rising in the East." Only time will tell...

The Middle Kingdom

2006-02-01T06:03:00.000-05:00

Josh and I crossed the border into China yesterday and took two buses for 7 hours with some fantastic scenery and arrived in Jian Shui in the early evening. One of the bus rides that we took involved going about 60 miles/hour down a brand new highway. The highway was so modern and much different from the roads that we had been driving on in Vietnam. What amazed me about this highway was that it cut right through miles and miles of people's fields. Literally right next to the highway were people using hoes and other basic tools to work their fields of vegetables, rice, and fruit trees. I could not imagine how much noise they must have to endure working next to a super highway every day! Call it "new China meets old China." I suppose that the people who work those fields also live quite near the fields since about half of the passengers on our bus down the highway got off at a stop on the side of the highway.
Although China if full of people who talk too loud, spit too much, have open sewers in their modern towns, smoke cigarettes in public buses, and stare at Westerners I find it a fascinating place to travel and crossing the border into China yesterday felt like coming home in a strange way.

Lao Cai reflection

2006-01-30T09:06:00.000-05:00

I'm writing from Lao Cai, Vietnam, the last border outpost before entering Yunnan province, China. Lindsay and I wished my Dad off at the train station less than an hour ago, and know we are hitting up the internet cafe, trying to use up our remaining Dong. Vietnam has been quite a different experience in many ways. The thing I noticed first is that the people can be quite rude and impolite, particularly coming from Thailand. There are very few smiles to be had, though if you search hard enough you could find a few. Secondly, the air is so dry, dusty, and dirty!!! There is a constant polluted haze in the air and within a few days Lindsay was searching the convenience stores for some moisturizer (which by the way, was almost impossible to find in a not skin-whitening variety!). Thirdly, you constantly have to be alert to overcharging and other such shinnanigans. Nowhere are prices displayed so you are always at the mercy of the merchants stating whatevery price they think they can get out of you.
Our last 4 days have been a bit better. We have been in the rugged mountains of the north, quite close to the border with China. We heard many reports before coming here of the good chance that you could be fogged in the entire time and not able to see more than 20 feet in front of you but we lucked out and had beautiful blue skies every day. Our hotel had a great cafe/terrace which looked out to a mountain range and valley that included the highest peak in Vietnam. It was the kind of place where you constantly want to take photos because you can't believe how gorgeous the setting is, but eventually you realize that the photos will probably come nowhere near to doing it justice.
One last note, whenever someone here asked me where I was from I always felt a bit ashamed saying "America". I'm positive that by now, 99% of the people here hold no hard feelings against our country, but it humbled me that for maybe the first time, I was travelling somewhere where my nation has caused such great destruction.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-29T02:51:00.000-05:00

CHUC MUNG NAM MOI!!! It is tet or New Year's Day today. Everybody in the town we are in, Sapa, is decked out in new clothes and the lucky color red to celebrate the new year. Families are making the rounds visiting relatives and friends, bringing gifts, and drinking and eating together. Everybody is in a festive mood and it feels a bit like christmas! The hotel employees all seem a little tired and hung over too as it is tradition for people to stay up all night drinking rice wine and toasting to the new year on the night before tet. Happy year of the dog to you all!

My dowry

2006-01-28T09:29:00.000-05:00

Josh, Dennis, and I are in the mountains of Northern Vietnam in a tourist town called Sapa. We can see the highest peak of Vietnam at about 3600 meters from our hotel room. Normally the weather is foggy and cool here in the winter, but we have had two days of bright sunshine, which provided us with some great views during our hikes. We went hiking yesterday with a guide yesterday who was 25 and going to be married within the next few weeks. I mentioned to him that my Dad was paying for my sister's wedding and he told that he thought that marriage in Vietnam was unfair. He said that the man's family had to give money to the woman's family in order to make up for the woman's family essentially losing a member of the family. Then he asked Dennis, Josh's Dad, if he had began negociating with my father yet over my dowry. The suggestion of Dennis paying a dowry to my father really had me laughing.

bike rider

2006-01-22T08:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went for a bike ride with Lindsay and my dad. We rented bikes and rode them around Hanoi for about 4 hours, visiting the Ho Chi Minh museum and a few pagodas. They were all nice and interesting, but the best part was riding in the Hanoi streets. It was truly an experience. The streets here are loud, crowded, and every-changing. For me at least, it was thrilling to soak it all in while trying to keep upright on my two wheels. I know it's a bit of a cliche but the whole experience made me feel so alive!!! I think Lindsay was petrified but I couldn't wipe this big grin off my face when we finally returned the bikes. To pass through an intersection you don't stop, you just keep going like everyone else and miracuosly everyone comes out on the other side in one piece. It was what I imagine skydivers or bungee jumpers to feel like after their first jump. A little rattled, but ready to do it again.

Crossing the street

2006-01-21T00:20:00.000-05:00

Josh, Dennis (Josh's Dad), and I have been in Hanoi for two days. Northern Vietnam is exactly like China. I am convinced that I am in China, just in a part where they speak a dialect that they write using the roman alphabet instead of Chinese characters.
The most noticable feature of Hanoi is the traffic. The streets, sidewalks, and alleys are choaked with motorbikes and there is no area that is not fair game for the bikes to go. They drive on the sidewalk when the street is too crowded, they drive into houses, they drive in the walking market. With all of this traffic it is surpirsing to learn that there are very few traffic lights at intersections. Traffic from all directions enters an intersection without yielding to others and the drivers simply swerve around each other in the middle of the intersection. Pedestrians cross the street in the same way. The pedestrian enters the street without looking either way and walks slowly across the street while the mototcycle drivers swerve around him. We tried to wait for traffic to clear before crossing the street the first night that we got here, but quickly realized that it is pointless since there are no traffic lights to cause the constant stream of traffic to ever stop. So Josh, Dennis, and I have also taken to crossing the street in this manner. I had been becoming a bit of an athiest these days, but crossing the street here has renewed my faith in God as I must trust in some higher being in order to get myself across the street.

Blog from the airport

2006-01-19T02:38:00.000-05:00

Singapore's Chengi airport has free internet for passengers in the departure terminal. I am writing this blog from the airport, just for the novelty of it!
Josh, Josh's Dad, and I are on our way to Hanoi in about two hours. I'll be sure to post and let you all know how the next leg of our trip goes...

Malaysia, Singapore, next stop Hanoi

2006-01-16T19:33:00.000-05:00

Well as I'm sure all of you have noticed, I have been rather delinquent in my posting lately. I guess what usually happens is I log on, I have limited time due to the fact that each minute is costing me something and before you knoe it, espn.com or some similar sight has drained all my time away! But the hostel here in Singapore where we have been saying has free internet so here's at least a mini entry: Malaysia was not like anything I had experienced before. So many different people all jumbled together. Sure, the US is like that in some parts as well, but it was somehow different in Malaysia. Lindsay and I did our best finding interesting places to stop and somewhat cheap/clean places to rest our head each night. I really liked all the parks and greens paces that were left behind from the British colonial legacy. The lack of parks and green spaces is sure nice compared to Thailand where they are quite sparce. The highways were huge and modern, and in better shape than most US interstates. The food is a mix of Chinese, Indian, and Malay. Everything was a bit bland compared to Thai cuisine but the Indian food was quite delicious and a welcome break. On the whole, I would return to Malaysia again, perhaps focusing on the east coast instead of the west coast as we did this time. The east coast is supposed to have a much different feel with much fewer Chinese, who dominated the west coast.
Singapore, is quite a trip. Amazingly modern in everyway, kind of how I imagine a place like Tokyo to feel. Flat screen TVs on double decker busses, fast and quiet subway, great tasting tap water, beautiful parks and museums, I could go on.......The food is also quite good, and most resonable than I was expecting. Today I plan to partake in a game of Utimate with the local club here. It should be fun! Next stop Hanoi. We'll be arriving there on Thursday evening.

Cabbies

2006-01-16T07:01:00.000-05:00

This little anecdote should illustrate the difference between Bangkok and Singapore. On Dec 15 Josh and I arrived in Bangkok off of a night bus and wanted to take a cab to a small train station in Bangkok. We told the cabbie the name of the station before we got in and he said "okay, let's go." Once we were driving he said "Where did you want to go again?" We repeated the name of the station and he said the name out loud a couple of times and then it became apparent that he had no idea where the station was. Instead of trying to figure out where the station was he suggested that he take us the the larger train station that he knew the location of. After much discussion we finally agreed and went to a different station than we were originally planning to go to since we were really at the driver's mercy.
Here in Singapore we wanted to go to the Vietnamese embassy and we only had the address and a vague notion of what subway stop it was near. We got off at what we thought was the correct subway stop and hailed a cab. The cab driver quickly addmitted that he did not know where that address was and proceeded to pull the car over and check the map in order to determine the obscure location of the embassy. He quickly found embassy on the map and then proceeded to tell us about his feelings on the Vietnam war and continued on to list his favorite American presidents and their achievements while he drove us to the embassy.

Love letter to Singapore

2006-01-16T06:55:00.000-05:00

Singapore has pretty much everything that I could ask for in a city. It's bilingual, Chinese and English, both of which I can understand, more or less. It's hot all of the time and I hate the cold. It's green and full of gardens and parks. It's multicultural and full of good food. It has an abundance of free, clean, public toilets. You can get anywhere on public transit and the new-fangled subway system makes the Paris metro look like a dinosaur. Hmm, this is starting to sound more like a list than a blog entry. Ahh, Singapore, how do I love thee (especially after having spent the last three months in nations with much dirtier toilets that I had to pay for) let me count the ways...

Melacca

2006-01-14T02:56:00.000-05:00

Josh and I are in the historical town of Malacca, Malaysia today. The town was taken over by the Dutch and then the British during colonial times so it has some very impressive colonial buildings. It also has the oldest Buddhist temple and oldest Mosque in the country. The mosque, temple and colonial buildings are all really beautiful. I was especially taken by the Chinese Buddhist temple that dates back to the late 1600s. The temple was very intricate and absolutley beautiful and it wonderful to be able to see some truly historical Chinese religious sites as there are virtually none in China on account of Mao and his Red Guards. It is wonderful to see Chinese culture preserved somewhere, even if it is not actually in China.

malls in KL

2006-01-13T07:53:00.000-05:00

When Josh and I visited Bangkok we stayed near a lot of shopping malls, but never really went in. We instead visited many of the interesting cultural landmarks that are found in Thailand's capital. It was very hot and humid in Bangkok, but we visited nonetheless because you are not often in a destination like Bangkok.
Then we spent three months in tropical southeast Asia. It is hot and humid everyday here and it is hard to walk around in the middle of the day. In fact, in the middle of the day it's best to seek air conditioning, a bed for a nap, or a park where you can enjoy shade and a cool breeze.
During our two days in Kuala Lampur, a city with lots of concrete and not much shade we decided to take refuge from the heat and humidity of this busy caopital city in the air conditioning, specifically in air conditioned malls. We actually managed to visit 4 malls and see two movies in the under 48 hours that we were there.
I am sure that there were many attractions other than malls in Kuala Lampur, but I don't think that any Malaysian would be dissappointed to hear that we mostly visited malls while in their capital city. In fact, Southeast Asians seem to see the opening of a mall as a occassion for national celebration. The princess of Thailand presided over the ceremony to open the newest mall in Bangkok. An engraved stone block commemorates the opening of one of the malls in KL. It says that the mall's opening ceremony was presided over by the prime minister and that a time capsule was placed in the ground to be opened one hundred years from that date. The time capsule contained a message for Malaysians of the future. I wonder what it says. Maybe it says something like "Dear future people of Malaysia, embrace capitolism with all your mind, body, and soul, look at the good it did the Americans!"

England without the English

2006-01-10T07:17:00.000-05:00

I should probably mention that the thing that is missing from the English country scene up here in Cameron Highlands is English people. Yes, you see the occassional bad-toothed white tourist and assume that he or she is English, but you never know for sure!
Aside from the foreign tourists Cameron Highlands is an working Malaysian agricultural area, growing all sorts of cool weather fruits, vegetables, and tea! Loads and loads of glorious tea. We visited a tea plantation today that had what seemed to be miles and miles of gently sloped hills growing beautiful forest green colored tea bushes.
The weather here in the highlands is quite cool and wet (downright rainy for the past two days that we have been here) and it was quite a pleasure to sit and sip tea this afternoon while gazing at the gorgeous hills that surrounded us.
Tomorrow we are headed to the capital, Kuala Lampur, to see what once were (I think they built some taller in Taipei) the world's tallest buildings, the Petronas towers (Petronas is an oil company, doesn't that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside?).

Asian Dairy

2006-01-09T07:05:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, back to nature. Well, if you want to call walking along a paved "jungle path" nature. Josh and I are in the Cameron Highlands, (maybe) Malaysia's #1 tourist destination. It is one of the hill stations established during British rule and stands at about 1500m, creating a climate that is much cooler than the rest of steamy Malaysia.
Strange remnants of British colonialism can be found here. Perfect English gardens, old style English country homes, and tea, lots of hot British with foamy milk a sugar. Josh and I are actually on our way right now to purchase some cadbury chocolate since there was not much chocolate that was worth eating in Thailand. Thank you British for bringing dairy to this part of Asia!

Travels in Southeast Asia

2006-01-07T05:51:00.000-05:00

Lindsay and I are spending tonight in the city of Ipoh, about a 3 hour drive north of Kuala Lumpur. He have yet to decide where to get our Vietnamese visa, either in KL or Singapore. Once we make that decision, hopefully tonight, it will help us decide where to go in the morning! We visited a beautiful mosque today and took a couple of hour long bus rides south along the way, continuing our slow march to Singapore. Malaysia is amazingly different than Thailand. Hopefully I can post soon about what makes it so unique.

Bowling

2006-01-07T05:47:00.000-05:00

Hello from Ipoh, Malaysia. The western coast of Malaysia is a land of shopping malls and good interstate style highways complete with rest stops including bathrooms and Muslim prayer rooms. Josh and I went bowling last night and I would just like you all to know that he bowled a game of 189 including 5 strikes. He even began the game with a turkey (three strikes in a row!). I bowled under 100 both games. Oh well.

Malaysia: good food and lots of English

2006-01-05T03:47:00.000-05:00

Today is my and Josh's second day in Malaysia and it is brilliant! Malaysia is very multicultural with people of Malay, Chinese, Indian, European and many other origins living together in one country. This means that there are lots of different types of foods to be tasted. It reminds me of home. Eating Indian for lunch and Chinese for dinner, the only difference is that the food is a lot cheaper than at home and can all be washed down with fresh pineapple, watermelon, mango or guava. Another wonderful feature of Malaysia is that English is the official second language. That means that two Malays will be conversing in Malay or two Chinese will be conversing in Chinese and I will interrupt them to ask a question in English and they will respond to me in perfect English. It's really quite refreshing after having spent three months in Thailand where I had to repeat myself three times before people could hear through my "foreigner accent" when I spoke in Thai.

7-11

2006-01-03T04:56:00.000-05:00

People often comment that Asian people are thin. I agree. In Thailand people are thin for a reason, they eat really small portions of food. As I might have mentioned, I go to 7-11 a lot. In a Thai 7-11 they sell all of the same stuff that you can by in the U.S., but everything is about half the size. The "big gulp" cokes in a Thai 7-11 come in sizes from about 10 oz all the way up to 22 oz. And the large slurpee is also 22 oz. No two liter slurpees to be had in Thailand. You can even buy oreos in a package of one. And you can buy bags of Lays potato chips that have 8 chips in the bag. I suppose someone could get fat on junk food here, but he would would have to buy a lot of packages of 1 oreo!

Goodbye Thailand...see you in March! ~Joshua

2006-01-03T04:53:00.000-05:00

Today will be out last day in Thailand, as we are planning to take a short boat ride into Malaysia tomorrow morning. I am a bit sad to leave Thailand, as I am very comfortable with so many things here. It is time though to hear some new languages, eat some new food, and just see what else SEAsia has to offer. Christmas and NewYears have flown by and amazingly we have been in Thailand for almost a full 3 months already! It's a bit sad to think that out trip is about half over. I hope everyone is enjoying what 2006 has to offer and remember that our thoughts are with all of you.

Thai bathing suits

2006-01-03T04:47:00.000-05:00

Josh and I returned to Sinchai's Chao Mai Resort and camped on Sinchai's property just as we had done when we were here in Southern Thailand 4 years ago. We arrived on New Year's Day and Thai people had both 1/1 and 1/2 off, so there were lots and lots of Thai people staying in the beachfront bungalows and camping on the beach as well. Thai people tend to get up rather early, even when they have a day off, so by the time Josh and I emerged from our tent at 6:40 am there were alreay kids playing in the ocean that Sinchai's looks out on.
When I was getting ready to come to Thailand I searced in vain for a one piece bathing suit for swimming on Thai beaches since I knew that Thai people tend to be conservative dressers. I couldn't find any bathing suits in Michigan in September since summer was over, so I borrowed my Mom's. I thought that my Mom's bathing suit would be conservative enough, but I was still wearing less than the Thai women! Thai women swim in the ocean completely clothed. If they are wearing jeans and a button up shirt that is what they swim in. I felt quite racy swimming in my mothers on piece bathing suit in front of them!

Leaving Thailand's cheap internet cafes

2005-12-31T03:44:00.000-05:00

Josh and I are headed to our final beach destination here in Thailand tomorrow and then will be headed into Malaysia. I am expecting the internet cafes to be more expensive and sparse during our time in Malaysia, Vietnam, and China, but we promise to update the blog whenever money, time, and internet resources are available! But don't worry, even when we are not writing we are thinking of you all.

Happy New Year!

2005-12-31T03:32:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to you all!!! Josh and I are in the small southern city of Trang for the new year. Thai people follow the Buddhist calendar in which it is currently 2548 and will be 2549 tomorrow. Actually, according to the Buddhist calendar the new year is in April, but in order to avoid confusion in corresponding with the rest of the world Thailand also celebrates the Western New Year on the 31st of December and changes the year from 2548 to 2549 in this case.
It also appears that Thai people give presents and wear Santa hats for New Year instead of Christmas. I went shopping this morning and people were frantically purchasing kids toys, gift tins of cookies and chocolate, and alcohol. I am not sure when the presents are given (at midnight perhaps), but maybe I will be able to work that out this evening.
I am not sure what is in the works, but there has been a stage set up in the town square here with the requisite picture of the king next to it and I am looking forward to some sort of show and am also quite sure that I will loose my hearing this evening as it seems the custom all over Asia to celebrate any event with ear drum breaking firecrackers. I am quite looking forward to the evening!

Tsunami one year anniversary

2005-12-30T05:56:00.000-05:00

Josh and I have been headed down the coast slowly getting closer to Malaysia. On the one year anniversary of the tsunami (12/26/05) we were on a bus driving next to the beach that was most affected by the tsunami here in Thailand, Khao Lak. There were a lot of memorial services that day and the beach was full of people wearing black attending commemorative events. The beach was beautiful and also very flat and it was easy to see how such a landscape would be gravely affected by such a huge wave. For many many kilometers along the road there were very few structures and none that had not been build within the past year. The only structures older than one year that could be seen were a few foundations of houses. As we drove down the road an eerie silence came over the bus and when we picked up passengers who had obviously been attending the events I felt sad and strange in a way. I am sure that I sit next to people on the bus everyday who have lost a loved one in a terrible way. But it was strange to see the people getting on the bus and know that they lost one or maybe several people that they loved in such a horrible way.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-26T09:02:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to all, a little bit late!
Josh and I spend Christmas on a little resort island without any elecreicity so it was a little difficult to write...
Hope that you all are enjoying the holiday season. Josh and I certainly are as we make our way down the west coast of Thailand enjoying the beautiful, clear Andaman sea!

Hot springs

2005-12-20T07:24:00.000-05:00

We weren't planning to spend any time here in Ranong, but we have a 5 year old travel guide and when we tried to go to a small beach resort on the Gulf of Thailand side of the southern penninsula of Thailand, it turned out the owner had died 5 years ago. Then we tried to take a long distance bus to a nearby by city, but the bus driver forgot to tell us where to get off and we ended up staying on the bus about 15 minutes too long. The ticket taker tried to arrange a ride to take us back to the city that we had wanted to go to, but we decided "screw it, let's continue on to Ranong."
Ranong is the northern most city on the Andaman Sea side of southern Thailand. It has people of many different ethnicities like Chinese, Burmese, Muslim, and Thai and thus a wide variety of food. The city also has a hot springs. Josh and I visited Ranong city park today and it was a beautiful network of trails through a bamboo forest, restaurants with tables set up on the rocks in a river, and hot tubs filled with water from the hot springs that you can take a dip in... for free! Even through it was over 85 degress outside Josh and I could not resist taking a dip in the hot springs pools, it was free afterall, and hot springs do have medicinal value, you know.

down south...~Josh

2005-12-19T07:49:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since out last entry and that's because we've been on the road again. We are now a long long ways from CM, roughly 1200 km if I were to guess. Traveling to new places, taking long bus and train trips, looking for a place to stay for the night, these things all unfortunately come before checking the e-mail and updating the blog. We are now in the town of Ranong, right next to the southernmost point of mainland Burma if you are looking at a map at home. We got here after numerous bus and train rides that I am too tired to go into much detail about right now. Suffice to say, we are a bit tired, but happy to be spending some time on the beach and in the ocean, even if the surf has been quite rough due to some high winds. Hopefully we will get some more detailed info up soon!

Visa fees

2005-12-14T04:31:00.000-05:00

My Mom and Dad went to Brazil recently and had to pay $100 for a tourist visa. This is because Brazil has "reciprocal" visa fees, meaning that if the U.S. charges Brazilians $100 to visit our country they will charge Americans $100 to visit their country.
People from non-European and a handful of other countries have to get a visa just to go on vacation in the U.S. It costs $100 to apply for a tourist visa, and you are not guaranteed to get one if you apply. Word on the street is that you are more likely not to get a tourist visa to the U.S. when you apply. $100 is what Josh and I paid in rent for the entire month, so it is a lot of money for a Thai person, for example.
When entering Thailand an American is granted a free one month tourist visa. After one month you must leave. Josh and I applied for a two month tourist visa in advance from the Thai consulate in Chicago and it was granted to us for $25. You can renew your one month tourist visa granted on arrival or your two month tourist visa obtained in advance for the bargain price of $50. Visa fees don't make sense. $25 for two months, but $50 for a one month renewal. Guess it depends on how bad you want a visa.
If you leave Thailand and reenter the country you are granted a free 30 day tourist visa on arrival. Many foreign people who live here in the north of Thailand make monthly visits to the border with Burma. You just have to walk over the magic line that is the international border between Thailand and Burma and you are granted a new, free 30 day visa.
My and Josh's visas will expire on Friday. We are going to take the bus across the border with Burma on Friday in order to be granted a free 30 day tourist visa upon our reentry instead of paying the $50 visa renewal fee that can be paid at the Ching Mai immigration office.
Am I complaining? A little, but it could be worse. I could be from another country and have put in a $100 request with the U.S. for the privilege and honor of setting foot on American soil and had them say "no" and not return my $100.

The price of coke in Thailand

2005-12-14T04:12:00.000-05:00

I really like drinking diet coke, but I tend to buy it one can at a time instead of in bulk because I don't think that it is very good for me and I tell myself just about everyday that I won't drink it the next day. I have been doing this since Freshman year of college, so I have bought my fair share of diet cokes and am very familiar with the price. It cost about $1 in the states, 1.50 euro in France, and 13 baht in Thailand. That's quite a range of prices for the same product varying from $.35 cents in Thailand to $1.70 in France. Obviously coke can make their product for under $.35 since they can sell it in stores for this price in Thailand and still make a profit. So what is the "real value" of the product? As much as the company can get the consumer to pay, provided that the cost of the product is covered.
The snack shop in the bottom of the dorm that Josh used to live in when he studied here in 2001-2002 sells packs of birth control pills next to the condoms on the counter right next to the cash register. You don't need a prescription to get birth control in Thailand so it is perfectly legal for them to sell it to anyone who is interested in buying it. A one month pack costs 18 baht, about $.45. Birth control in the states generally goes for about $30 a pack, unless your insurance will pay for it, in which case you might just have to pay your $5 or $10 copay. If birth control can be sold for a profit for $.45 in Thailand it makes you wonder about the price that pharmaceutical companies change for drugs sold in the U.S.

Drunk on spice

2005-12-11T06:43:00.001-05:00

Josh and I went to a little lake outside of Chiang Mai yesterday that had little bamboo rafts set up along the water where you can sit on cushions and eat. I ordered som tam and it was spicy. I mean really spicy. It was so spicy that I felt drunk, truly drunk, dizzy and disoriented while I ate it. I need people to comment on this. Have you even eaten anything so spicy that it made you feel drunk? Is it possible?

Chiang Mai Zoo

2005-12-11T06:43:00.000-05:00

Josh and I went to the zoo today. The Chiang Mai Zoo is built into the side of the mountain that begins to rise just 400 meters from our building. The road that leads through the zoo is very steep and cars are allowed to drive along this road, parking in front of the exibits. In front of certain exhibits one can buy green beans, cabbage and other vegetables to feed the animals. This makes the animals considerably more interested in interacting with the visitors and I saw men, women and children petting giraffes and hippos. There is a new panda exhibit that costs extra to visit. Josh and I decided to skip the entrance fee and instead watch the pandas for a few short minutes on a closed circuit television that was displayed outside of the exhibit. We also saw a stork vomit 4 whole fish which was kind of exciting in a strange way. It's a long holiday weekend here in Thailand and there were no less than a dozen tour buses dropping off Thai tourists in addition to the line of cars streaming into the entrance. The crowds and steep hills kept our visit pretty short and we opted instead to go and eat in an airconditioned restaurant.

Time to hit the road again......~joshua

2005-12-09T22:59:00.000-05:00

We only have about four days left here in CM. I don't have many big plans for our final days here, other than extending out visas at the immigration office, as our original sixty days are about to expire. There are a few restaurants we have been talking about going back to or trying out for the first time but it's not a big deal if we don't make it to them as we are planning on returning here sometime in March. After thinking about it a fair amount, I think I am quite ready to move on and see some new things. I did come to SE Asia to see some new things and other than a few places in Northern and Central Thailand, I have so far only revisited places I have frequented in the past. It will be more challenging and certainly not as comfortable to be on the road again, experiencing new sights, sounds, and flavors, but I think it is time I started doing exactly that. It's never good to get too comfortable in one place, right?

Running uphill by Lindsay

2005-12-04T23:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I won a trophy in the shape of Wat Doi Suthep, the temple that can be seen looming above our 6th floor apartment. The trophy is 18 inches high and weights several pounds, I think that I am going to have to buy a separate suit case for it since I only have a small duffel in which to get all of my belongings back to the states!
Josh and I went out for a run on the university campus on Saturday evening and passed a group of people and, as is not uncommon in Asia, one of the people in the gathering had a microphone and was gibbering in what was incomprehensible Thai to me. Josh, on the other hand, could understand the man and understood that this gathering was the expo for a foot race that was going to be taking place the next day. We approached and a tall man who spoke excellent English greeted us and informed us that we had stumbled upon the expo for the Doi Suthep minimarathon. It was a run up the 12 km road that leads to the temple at the summit of the 1676m mountain. The man assured us that the run was "all up hill and a good test, a very good test."
The next morning Josh and I got up at 4:45 am for the 6 am start of the race up Doi Suthep. Although I was suspicious that it was all a joke, there were several hundred people at the starting line and, as per usual in many long distance races, very few women runners. The race started a little after 6am, just as the sky was beginning to get light, and Josh and I shuffled up the 12km road, Josh finishing about 25 minutes ahead of me. The race was about as painful as your would imagine running up hill for 60 or 90 minutes would be, but the other runners were friendly and gave smiles and words of encouragement.
At the end of the race rice gruel, hot soy milk, and fresh watermelon were served instead of the traditional American post-race snack of bagels, apples, and gatorade. Prizes were given for the top 5 finishers in each age group and of the 10 women ages 20-29 I was 5th with a time of 1hour 34minutes. (I think that Josh's Dad could have walked faster!) I was awarded a giant trophy and 300baht ($7.50) in prize money, which covered the $5 entry free and bought me and Josh hot fudge sundaes at the mall later that evening. I've discovered that winning prizes in road races is all about being in an age group where there are not many entrants. This spring and summer on Sundays at 6am, while other 20-29 year old females were just coming back from a night out, I was winning prizes for times that would have gotten me last place if I were in a more competitive age group such as 30-39. Let's just hope that I get faster by the time I am 30!

Lindsay and Josh have plans!

2005-12-03T00:28:00.000-05:00

Josh and I came to Southeast Asia with certain countries in mind that we wanted to visit, but it has been a little difficult working out when to visit certain places as some countries require a visa that can only be obtained in certain capital cities like Bangkok etc. So after much debate and Josh spending many hours checking the internet for cheap flights, we have made some plans for onward travel. (The fact that our 60 day tourist visa must be renewed or it will expire in less than two weeks also helped to motivate us to make some plans).
After the lease ends on our apartment on 12/15 we plan to begin to head south to the skinny peninsula that makes up southern Thailand. We plan to visit some national parks and camp on beaches that we have not been to before and continue to head south, eventually crossing the border into Malaysia. Once in Malaysia (where English is the official language and Chinese and other Asian languages are widely spoken =)...) We will continue to slowly make our way south to Singapore where will procure a Vietnamese tourist visa and fly to Hanoi on a very cheap flight on 1/19. We are not sure of the details, but we plan to continue to make our way north through the supposedly gorgeous mountains of Northern Vietnam and eventually cross into China. Once in China we plan to travel west to Yun Nan province and eventually back south on the Mekong River to Thailand or Laos.

Mae Salong-Tha Ton-Chiang Mai

2005-12-02T09:28:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delayed conclusion to our northern road trip. I was a bit sad to depart the strange strange place that was Mae Salong but it had to be done, so we hitched an hour long ride in the back of a pick-up through some steep hills skirting the border with Burma. We were dropped off in the riverside town of Tha Ton, a very small town which stunningly did not even have a 7-11, something that Lindsay and I were slow to accept! We found a great little place along the Kok river that had super cute individual bungalows set among dozens of lychee trees and various tropical flowers . Before dinner we hiked up to a wat overlooking the town and surrounding river valley. Amazing views were all around us as we drank some water given to us by a friendly middle-aged man at the top. We had some Som Tam and noodles from a local vendor on our way back to the bungalow and then called it an early night. It was quite chilly too, the provided blankets weren't enough for me! The next morning we did another local jaunt upriver a km or two from where we were staying. We got many excited "hellooosss!" from the local children playing in the streets. After check out we hopped on a spanking new regional bus for the 4 hour trip south to the big city and our own bed.

Thanksgiving

2005-11-28T08:55:00.000-05:00

First I want to wish you all a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING. I know that it is a few days late, but know that I was thinking of you all on turkey day.
Thanksgiving was a very disorienting experience for me this year. Good, but disorienting. I didn't eat turkey. Well, come to think of it I haven't eaten turkey for the past 5 thanksgiving, but that's beside the point. The evening of Thursday the 24th Josh and I had tofu curry stir fried with veggies. The next morning (which would have been the time that you all were eating Thanksgiving dinner since it is 12 hours later in Thailand) we ate Chinese steamed buns (mantou) and hot soy milk.
After leaving Chiang Rai we grabbed a ride in the bed of a woman's pick up truck along the steep winding road to a small village called Mae Salong. The town is built on a ridge at about 1200 meters and all structures in the town are built along the main road, since the landscape drops off into a valley on both sides. The town is populated by ex-members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) who entered Thailand to flee from Mao's Communist troups as they took over the country in 1949. The people of the town have managed to preserve their southwest Chinese culture and our visit to the town was a lot like what I imagine a trip to Yun Nan (in southwest China) would be like. The people that we met all understood when I spoke to them in Mandarin since they get satellite television from China and Hong Kong and some of their parents and grandparents spoke Mandarin. We quickly realized that many people were much more likely to understand us if I addressed them in Mandarin rather than if Josh spoke to them in Thai. Suddently I was the one communicating with others and Josh was the one who was completely lost, which is the opposite of our usual situation here in Thailand. All of the signs in the village were written in Chinese characters and there was very little Thai writing to be seen at all.
Since the village was at such a high elevation it was also very cold for Thailand, with highs in the mid 70s during the day and only about 50 at night. The difference in temperature from Chinag Mai was quite a shock and my bones ached from the change for the two days that we were there.
The town was quite a mix of language and culture as there were Akha and Lahu "hill tribe" people living and farming tea and rice on the surrounding hill sides. These "hill tribe" people live in Thailand, but do not have Thai nationality as the government refuses to recognize them a citizens. Each different "tribe" has their own language, dress, and customs and both Akha and Lahu people came to the morning market in Mae Saolong to buy and sell goods. Their presence in Mae Salong just added to the dizzying array of languages being spoken in this small town. Needless to say I loved it. I was also quite happy to be able to communicate so easily in Chinese since my level of Thai often does not allow for efficient communication.
We spent our two days Mae Salong trotting up and down the one road in the town taking in the gorgeous views of the surrounding green hills. We sampled the local tea and enjoyed Chinese food that reminded me of the "good old days" in Beijing. I suppose the piping hot steamed buns and soy milk that I ate while you all were eating Thanksgiving did serve, like turkey and potatoes, as comfort food, warming and comforting me in the cold mountain air.

trip recap:part 1 ~Josh

2005-11-28T07:46:00.000-05:00

No big revelations in this post, just a recap of the recent trip that Lindsay and I took to a few provinces north of Chiang Mai:
We departed Chiang Mai on a big fancy VIP bus costing 295 baht, about $7.50. We could have taken busses that were up to 200 baht cheaper but we felt like splurging after already experiencing some not too comfortable buses during our time here. It was well worth the extra baht! The so called "VIP" busses here are amazingly luxurious, basically like sitting in Business Class of an airliner. You get a huge leather seat that seems to recline forever and forever. A nifty little footrest pops up and before you know it the hostess is serving you a damp cloth, bottled water, and some snacks. It made the 3 hour ride up to Chiang Rai zip by quite pleasantly. Chiang Rai, basically the 2nd city of Northern Thailand, is a large provincial capital. I had been there once during study abroad but could not remember much of it and after spending a day there I could see why I didn't remember much of it. It is quite spread out and it took us quite a while to get to our guesthouse from the Bus Station. The guesthouse was nice enough, but it could have been even nicer if this giant French tour group had not decided to arrive the same day as we had! It really was more amusing than annoying, but it made the decision to head on from Chiang Rai the following day that much easier......to be cont.....

road trip!

2005-11-21T08:07:00.000-05:00

Lindsay and I will be taking a trip outside of Chiang Mai for the next 4 days or so. We most likely will be headed towards the northernmost area of Thailand, near the borders with Laos and Burma. We hope to find some nice out of the way places and we will post something on Sunday or Monday on how we made out!

More on Thai language -- Lindsay

2005-11-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

When you see all of the swirly, curly letters of the Thai alphabet you assume that they spell out words that are vastly different from English, I mean they look so different that they must be pronounced completely different from English.
The Thai language evolved from Pali and Sanskrit, but in recent times has been absorbing words from many other contemporary languages such as Japanese, French, and English. The fact that Thai has more vowel sounds than English makes it particularly adept at imitating the sounds of the word's original language.
Contemporary Thai includes many English words. This is particularly funny for someone who speaks Thai at my level because it means that the man selling tiny dogs at the market last night said this to Josh when he inquired about the dogs.
"lwieht tthjwoien oiwehtine toijenpo3ur 2093ng miniature."
What? Thais say "miniature" for miniature? Crazy!
There are a plethora of other words as well. Free, Print, Film, Start, Die...
This is particularly finny when you see the word written and then begin to sound it out.
K... K-ay..... K-ay-K.... hey that says cake!!!!
When I was first learning French people used to ask me about American stars all of them time and they would always repeat the name three or four times before I would understand.
"what? You don't know Mee-khai-ell Ja-ke-son?"
"who?"
"Mee-khai-ell Ja-ke-son!"
"ohhh, Michael Jackson."
The problem with French is that they preserve the spelling of the word at the price of pronunciation.
With Thai, on the other hand, there is no allegiance to the spelling of the word in English as it must but put into the Thai alphabet anyway.
This means that Thai has incorporated English words into their language that are pronounced, much to my amusement and pleasure, with an amazingly clear resemblance to the original English word.

bangkok is hip! ~Josh

2005-11-19T23:58:00.000-05:00

I'm not really that into the whole fashion/trendy/hipster thing, but it was fun to see this article while scanning through nytimes.com http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/travel/20bangkok.html The slideshow was my favorite part.

Lindsay on learning the Thai language

2005-11-18T09:28:00.000-05:00

Josh was just commenting that I have not blogged in a while. This is entirely true and it is because I have not been to the internet lately becuase I have been obsessively studying Thai. As you probably know, I get quite a charge out of studying languages and Thai is no exception. I am actually currently enrolled in an intensive Thai language course that I attend every Monday through Thursday from 9am-12noon.
The class is a lot like kindergarten. The teacher holds up pictures and says the Thai words for everyday nouns and verbs and we repeat, most often unsuccessfully. Sometimes we have snack time when we get to taste some of the foods that we have been learning the names for (pineapple, mango, bananas one day and coffee, tea, and cookies another). Other days we get to draw or make Thai crafts.
There are 9 other people in my class who are both a great source and amusment and frustration to me. Our teacher, a young woman of 27, is great. She is extremely patient and always asks if we have any questions. With 10 adults learning anything new there are alway questions and mostly of a hypothetical nature.
"Ajaan Om, do we always have to use a subject in the sentence?"
"Yes."
"What if you are in a room with only one other person and it is obvious that you are talking to them. Do you still have to ask say 'what's YOUR name?' Can't you shorten it to 'what name?'"
"No."
You can imagine how long it takes to get through the "questions" portion of the class when nearly each of the 10 adults in the room has to have their specific concern addressed.
The Thai language itself is quite simple. You don't conjugate the verbs and there is very little grammar of any sort. There is a new alphabet to learn which is longer than the ABC alphabet. But for the most part Thai is written phonetically and there is little question of how to pronouce a word when it is written.
Imagine learning English.
"Read this!"
"I read this yesterday."
You have to pronounce "read" in two different ways depending on the context. What a nighmare! So far the reading of Thai seems to follow set rules which makes learning the new alphabet easier.
People make a big deal out of the fact that Thai and other Asian languages are tonal and you have to pronounce a word with the right tone in order to be understood. In Thai the same syllable can have 5 different meanings whether you pronounce it "high" "mid" "low" "rising" or "falling." The idea that learning the pronounce in a tonal language is harder than learning to pronounce in any other language is simply untrue. In English if you put stress on the wrong part of a word people won't understand you. "I'd like a SHH-eat of paper please." "A what?" A "tone" is really the same principle.
So anyways, to get back to my compulsive studying. I was really not to happy being surrounded by signs written in Thai that I couldn't read, so I have thrown myself into studying Thai reading and writing an hour or two per day in addition to attending class. And while my classmates are still writing in their own invented phonetic systems in order to note the words that we learn in class I am memorizing them using the Thai letters since it is infinately more accurate to read Thai using the Thai alphabet.
Josh says that I am an overachiever. Maybe.

"a national sigh of contentment" ~josh

2005-11-15T23:09:00.000-05:00

This week is a big party week in Chiang Mai. The reason for the festivities is what they call "loy khratong" or "Yi-Peng" in the northern Thai language. It involves floating cross-sections of banana leafs on whatever river, stream, canal, lake, or seaside that you can find. The cross-sections are adorned with banana leafs, flowers of all different colors, insence, and candles. According to a book on Thai popular culture I have been reading, the "reflected candlelight from the elaborate khratong floats sparks a national sigh of contentment at being Thai." Maybe it this "spark" that leads to the multitude of fireworks seen during the week of celebrations. Frighteningly, they are often of the oh my god that went off a little to close to me variety. Lindsay and I made our own khratongs in her Thai class yesterday and we plan to "loy" them tonight on the Ping, the main river that flows through Chiang Mai. Happy full moon light festival to all of you!

A different opinion

2005-11-14T05:51:00.000-05:00

I guess that not everyone is as enthusiastic about food stalls as I am. The follwing editorial appeared in the Bangkok Post today: http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/14Nov2005_opin19.php. The third letter down is from a D. Subramanian who is an elderly gentelman and finds that food stalls make it difficult to walk in the "sois" or small alleys of Bangkok.

Lindsay on food stalls

2005-11-13T00:53:00.000-05:00

One of the things that I appreciate most about Thai culture is the importance and availability of food. Especially in larger towns like Chiang Mai and Bangkok, but also in very small towns, food is always available, everywhere and cheap! A favorite place to eat among Thai and farang alike is at food stalls. These impromptu makeshift restaurants involve a fuel tank, table, and wok, pot, or grill on which to cook the food. Virtually anything can be sold from this simple stall. Kebobs are grilled, noodles, rice and veggies are fried, noodle soups are boiled, fresh fruit is cut, smoothies are blended, doughnuts are fried, ices cream is served, you can even get a variety of insect kebobs if that fits your fancy. There are take out stalls for breakfast or snacks and stalls where you can sit on plastic chairs and tables for lunch or dinner. On the street opposite our apartment there are actually three shifts of stalls that set up throughout the day. A few vendors show up with rice gruel or curries for breakfast. Then there are vendors who sell lunch and snacks in the afternoon and finally a crew who puts on a night market of food, desserts, and clothes every evening.
The other day I was near an elementary school where the children where getting out of school for the day and set up along the street was what I would call "training stalls." The food stalls had adjusted their prices and products of the elementary school crowd and kids ages 6-10 were snatching up juice, gum, candy, sodas, and little bowls of noodles. There were even extra small plastic chairs and tables set up so the kids could sit with their friends and enjoy their food, just like the adults do in Thailand. It was like a little training camp where the kids could learn the food stall culture of Thailand, a culture well worth learning, if you ask me!

Off the Beaten Book ~Josh

2005-11-13T00:40:00.000-05:00

Two days ago, Lindsay and I took a bus to the small town of Payao, about 3 hours ENE of Chiang Mai. It was just a weekend getaway to some fresh air outside of the big city and this would not be that unusual if it not were the fact that this town is not to be found in the Lonely Planet. There are, of course, hundreds of towns, even quite large ones, that are nowhere to be found in the LP. This is not really that strange when you think about it, I'm sure there is no mention of Livonia in the LP Great Lakes guide.
traveling to these unlisted towns in Thailand is a very different experience: The bus drops you off and the usual touts are not there to ask you those three magic words of "where you go??" It is up to you to find your accommodation and anything else in the town, being that there are no maps to be had. The one tourist information hut that we did see looked liked it was no longer in operation. Finding your way in a strange city with no map can be tough, and it took well over an hour of walking before we were able to find a suitable place for the night. There were a few other tourists there, but they were all old German tour group types who appeared to be just visiting for the day. The town was actually quite picturesque, set along a large lake that was shadowed by some 1500 meter peaks. It was quite surprising that the LP had failed to mention it but I guess it's comforting in some way to know that there are still places you can go that are off the beaten book.

a grimly beautiful finish.....~Josh

2005-11-09T07:35:00.000-05:00

"After running 26 miles without deciding yesterday's New York City Marathon, Paul Tergat of Kenya and Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa began a grimly beautiful sprint to the finish." Jere Longman, NYTimes. I know most of you reading this are not big runners, but I had to put up this link, it sounds like such an amazing race. After over 40k, decided by .3 seconds!!!!!!! I wish I could have seen it. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/sports/sportsspecial/07men.html

Lindsay shares a random fact

2005-11-08T09:59:00.000-05:00

I was mentioning to Josh the other day how some Thai people seemed to have really similar facial features to the Malagasy people that I knew while I was living in Reunion. Yesterday a friend mentioned to me that Madagascar was actually largely populated by Indonesians as they seemed to have discovered and populated the island before other groups. He also said that there are still large similarities between the languages of Indonesia and Madagascar. I guess that would explain why some southeast Asians have similar features to the inhabitants of an African island.

Lindsay continues with the theme of motorscooters...

2005-11-08T09:08:00.000-05:00

I was riding the Metro in Paris one day, staring at the advertisements on the walls, and when the train stopped and the doors opened a man and woman hauled a loveseat onto the Metro that just barely fit through the door. It seemed that the couch was pretty heavy since they collapsed onto it as soon as they had managed to get it through the door. Luckily it was pretty late in the evening and there were not many people on the Metro.
I guess then it should not surprise me then to see people transporting things down the street on their motorscooters, but it still makes me laugh. Every time that I see something being transported on a motorscooter there are always already two people on the scooter, and as if that were not enough, they also add some sort of large object. Recently I saw a woman cradling a computer as she sat behind her boyfriend on the scooter. Another time I saw a woman sitting sideways on a scooter behind her boyfriend holding a guitar.
I wrote to my friend Dave asking him what kinds of things he had seen transported on the Metro in Paris or in other places as well. He send me this photo http://www.davidbarber.org/Japan/D2000J2001/Winter%20break/Cambodia/pigonabike.jpg
of a man in Cambodia transporting a pig on the back of a bike. It really makes my seeing Thai people with computers on motorscooters seem tame. The only thing that I could see that could top this photo would be a couple on a motorscooter cradling a dead pig between themselves.

Lots of MPG in Thailand by Lindsay

2005-11-05T23:00:00.000-05:00

Accoding the the CIA world factbook the GDP per capita in the U.S. is $40,100 versus $8,100 in Thailand. When I left the U.S. the price of gas was nearly $3 per gallon. Here in Thailand gas is 24 baht/ liter which would put it about anout 100 baht/ gallon or $2.50/gallon. Nearly the same price as in the U.S.
I am so impressed by the amount of travel that is done per gallon of gas in Thailand. Most people travel by motor scooter and it seems that more often than not there is more than one person on the scooter. People travel in couples, groups of friends, or entire families plus the dog on one motor scooter! It may not be safe, but it sure is an efficient way to use gasoline that does not come cheap for Thai people!

Lindsay's som tam recipe

2005-11-05T22:00:00.000-05:00

My good friend Basak, who shares my passion for cooking flavorful food, asked for the recipe for Som Tam. Here is the very approximate recipe that Josh and I have used.

Som Tam

1 julienned unripe green papaya
a few (1-4) cloves of garlic
a few (2-8) small chillis
a handful (about 20) of green beans quartered
2 tomatoes cut into small pieces
a few squirts of fish sauce
juice of a few limes (1-3)
sugar to taste
crushed peanuts to taste
small dried shrimp to taste (probably sold in Asian grocery)

Place all of the ingredients in a mortar and crush with pestle until well blended. The salad should be quite juicy and the juice is mopped up with sticky rice that is usually consumed with the som tam.
Bon Appetit!

Bus vs. Songtaew ~Josh

2005-11-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

I rode a public bus yesterday in Chiang Mai. That might not sound very exciting, but for those who have any experience with city, you will understand why it was. I'm not sure what the population of Chiang Mai actually is: 300,000 or 4 or 5 or 6 but up until this week there was no public transportation, nothing with fixed routes. For a city of this size that is shocking. Until now everyone has been forced to have their own mode of transport or catch one of the ubiquitous red pick-ups that act as shared taxis. The pick-ups, called songtaews in Thai, are nice in that you never have to wait very long for one but that is just about the only thing they have going for them. Because there are no set fares, the drivers always want to overcharge you, especially if your skin is white and you don't speak Thai that well. Also, because they are shared taxis they will often go way out of the way, sometimes in the total opposite direction of where you actually want to go, just so they can look for extra passengers or drop off others who had gotten on before you. So, I was excited about the arrival of a real bus. The routes are limited right now and I don't know if there is any type of regular schedule, but at least I can go to the other side of town and know for sure where the bus is headed and how much they will be charging me.

Magnificent overseas Chinese

2005-11-02T20:45:00.000-05:00

I realize that I am in Thailand and should stop writing about Chinese people all of the time, but since I can't really understand Thai people they don't yet amuse me nearly as much as Chinese people. So humor me for another post about the Chinese and their language.
The brand new building that we are living in is run by "overseas" Chinese people. The woman in the office yesterday learned that I can speak Chinese and began rattling Mandarin off to me with quite a heavy accent, which made me think that she was probably born in Thailand, but of Chinese descent. There is actually a very sizable Chinese community in Thailand, some still speak Chinese, others don't.
I was teaching a Thai woman how to say "refrigerator" the other day. I told her that if you take the word apart it means "machine that makes things cold again" as in "re" "frigid" and "erator." Speaking your native language is funny beause you stop thinking of the parts of words and just think of them as a whole.
Chinese words are made up of many small words, each represented by a character, put together. "Bicycle" is "zi xing che" meaning "self moving vehicle." Car is "qi che" or steam vechicle. From what people have told me, Chinese people don't really think of the parts of words, they think of them as a whole.
When I was talking to the woman who runs the apartment building yesterday she told me that she was "hua qiao" or "overseas Chinese." I knew this term and thought that "hua" meant "Chinese" because Chinese people sometimes call themselves "hua ren" (ren meaning people). Then I thought that "qiao" meant "bridge." Thus I had imagined the term to mean "Chinese bridge." However, I looked the term up and this is what I found.
The first word "hua", which I thought just meant "Chinese" actually has a meaning of its own. The dictionary defines "hua" as 1. brilliant, magnificent, splendid 2. prosperous, flourishing. So when Chinese peoople were calling themselves "hua ren" they were, in fact, saying "Chinese people" as I had suspected, but the meaning behind that was "brilliand, magnificent, splendid, prosperous, and flourishing people." And "qiao" which I thought was "bridge" actually was a different character with the same pronounciation and means just "overseas Chinese."
So what I thought was a term meaning "Chinese bridge people" actually means "brilliant, magnificent, splendid, prosperous, and flourishing overseas Chinese."
How's that for a positive term for an immigrant community?

what county is that?

2005-11-02T04:50:00.000-05:00

Adding a big THAILAND to the address wouldn't hurt either :o)

Mailing Address

2005-11-02T04:48:00.000-05:00

While we are in Chiang Mai for the next 6 weeks or so (untill roughly the middle of December) our mailing address will be:

Lindsay Vecchio and/or Joshua Monthei
99/1-2 Suthep Rd. T. Suthep
A. Muang Chiang Mai 50200
Room 605-1

Cards, Letters, and Gifts large and small are welcome!

Travels in Southeast Asia

2005-11-01T10:35:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Lindsay and I decided on where we would stay for the next 6 weeks or so. It is a brand new room in a 2 month old building across the street from Chiang Mai University. Our room in on the top (6th) floor and it looks out onto a gorgeous view of the mountains that flank CM on its western edge. We could have had a slightly cheaper room with a fridge and TV but the view wasn't nearly as nice. I've always been a sucker for nice views. This will also be the first building I have ever lived in that has an elevator. Shopping for a room was surprisingly easy as there seems to be an unlimited supply of student housing here. The place where we are living is in the same neighborhood that I lived in during my study abroad time here.
All the apartment/dorm building here look alike. Big white boxes with little shops and internet cafes or laundries on the first floor. The rooms are generally small, with your own bathroom, and a double bed that comes without sheets, pillows are anything else really. Tomorrow we plan to do some market shopping for some cheap necessities as well as some decorative items.
I am close to deciding on what I will be doing for Thai classes. I'm leaning towards a private tutor but there are some nice things about learning in a small group atmosphere. Suggestions anyone?

An update from Lindsay

2005-10-30T14:30:00.001-05:00

Josh and I have arrived in Chiang Mai and are beginning our search for Thai language classes and an apartment. Some of the language schools think that beginners like me are not ready to read and write Thai and should just learn to speak. I don't agree.
We will keep you posted on our progress and I will let you know if any other interesting shoe stories should arise!

Lindsay, a confession

2005-10-30T14:30:00.000-05:00

My brother Marty has always been obsessed with looking at people's with shoes, but I was never very interested in footware until I studied in China. During my time in Beijing I began staring down at the floor much more than I did in the U.S. When I rode the subway and walked in the street in Beijing people were constantly staring at me and it made me uneasy, so I took to staring at the ground. I knew that people were still staring at me, but staring at the ground was my attempt to delude myself into thinking that they were not looking at me.
When I began staring at the ground all of the time I noticed that nearly every Chinese man was wearing the same pair of shoes. No, not all 750 million Chinese men are squeezed into the same pair of shoes, but they all have their own pair of shoes that are very similiar to the shoes of other men. The "Chinese man shoe", as I have taken to calling it, is a pair of black slip-on loafers with a small gold or silver emblem on the outside and a 1/2 inch heel that sometimes clicks when it touches the pavement. Nearly every Chinese man in China is wearing them. Those who are more affluent have a more expensiver version. The teenage cooks in the cafeteria at my language school in Beijing wore a shabbier version, but a Chinese man shoe nonetheless.
Chinese men who have recently immigrated to the West still wear the shoe. Chinese men who I have known who have been in Western coutries for longer wear a motified version. Sometimes the shoe is brown. Sometimes it ties. Still it retains the core qualities of the Chinese man shoe.
Remember the Chinese men who I mentioned that Josh and I met at the temple in Bangkok? Well, what's kind of ironic is that we were actually clandestinely taking picutres of them way before they came over to the bench that we were on and started taking pictures of the Westerners. At my prompting, Josh was holding the camera low and taking pictures of the the Chinese men's shoes. He took such a glorious picutre of a line up of Chinese man shoes.
When they came over to the bench and started taking pictures of Westerners I asked the Chinese man "Why are you taking pictures of Foreigners" and his response really should have been "Why were you taking pictures of my shoes first?"

The Giving Table - by Josh

2005-10-27T08:24:00.000-04:00

I went to a summer camp one week each summer from grades 7-10. It was a Unitarian-Universalist camp called Marwood. One of the things that I still remember most vividly about the camp is something that they called the "giving table." It may have been Native American in origin but I can not remember. The idea was that you place something on a table that has deep personal meaning to you with the idea that you are giving it away for someone else to take. You also got to go up to the table and choose something that once belonged to someone else. It was tough. People cried. It was a slap in the face to realize how attached we become to things and how hard it is to part with them. Take a minute and think about all of your possessions.................we own a lot of stuff.
Where I am going with all of this is that today in Sukhothai Thailand, amid the ancient ruins, I lost my camera. I walked away without it and when I returned 10 minutes later it was gone. It was a gift from my mother and sisters before I left on this trip. I spent weeks agonizing over which one to get and it the end I choose a super-spiffly little black Nikon that cost about $400. Now it is gone.
Today was a sad day because of this. I'm sure tomorrow and the next few days will be as well. Doing something like this makes me feel like I am 12, a little irresponsible kid. Then I am pouty for the rest of the day because of what I have done, this is also something a small child would probably do. I also lost my wallet a few weeks ago. What the hell is my problem? So there will be no photos of this trip in the end. That bums me out, but what irks me even more is that someone who should be 24 years old and an adult can't keep track of such a valuable possession. I wasn't quite ready to put it on the giving table yet.

Lindsay on wildlife

2005-10-25T08:15:00.000-04:00

I don't like animals. Sorry. I don't find them furry or cute or very interesting at all. In fact, they scare me. When someone tells me that they are a veterinarian, I shutter. Could there be anything worse?
Animals know that I hate them. I glare at dogs and they glare right back at me. As is the case in many other developing countries, Thailand's streets are filled with stray dogs. They are hungry and mostly just lay in the street, the bus and train stations, or wherever they can rest without someone shooing them away. The dogs scare me. I glare at them and I swear at them under my breath, and they glare back at me and growl.
Thailand has a town with a wild pack of monkeys that inhabit the streets. According to the guide book, every year the residents of the town prepare a sit down feast for the monkeys to thank them for bringing tourists to their town, which might otherwise go unnoticed. The town is called Lopburi.
When I read about this town I immediately knew that I did not want to go. A pack of stray monkeys is scarier than a pack of stray dogs because they have opposable thumbs and four fingers with which they can grab stuff, flip me the bird, or even hold a knife of gun.
Josh and I are currently in Lopburi. The journey from Kao Yai National Park to the ruins of Sukhothai was too long to undertake in one day and Lopburi has cheap accommodation and was in between the two destinations.
We arrived in town and I saw no monkeys, phew. We walked to some ruins, no monkeys. We went to 7-11 and bought a bottle of iced tea and some shampoo. We began walking toward the night market and there they were; monkeys swinging from the power lines. My body tensed. "Josh, let's cross the street, we need to get away from the monkeys." We crossed the street and found even more monkeys. Chasing each other. Fornicating. Glaring at me, I swear. Tourists were photographing the monkeys. I got ready to cross to the side of the street with less monkeys. Josh yelped. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a monkey grabbing the 7-11 bag from Josh's hand. The monkey removed the empty juice box and new shampoo bottle from the bag with his evil opposable thumb and four fingers. In a matter of seconds the monkey had torn the juice box to shredsthen opened the shampoo bottle and was preparing the drink it. A train had come and stopped the traffic on the busy street. We crossed to the other side into an area without monkeys.

Lindsay on crazy Chinese men

2005-10-25T07:50:00.000-04:00

One of the things that annoyed me most in China was the pictures. Chinese people would come up to me, especially when I was on traveling outside of Beijing, and ask to take a picture with me. I suspected that it was karma because I hate to have my picture taken and have been purposely sabotaging the pictures of those that love me for years. My parents have fewer pictures of me than my siblings because I hide from my father's camera and Josh has many pictures of me sticking out my tongue and grimacing. When it came to Chinese strangers asking for pictures of me, though, I always just acquiesced.
I have always wondered why Chinese people wanted to take pictures of me. Was it because I was a novelty? Was it because they found my light hair and blue eyes grotesque? I have had many theories over the years and a Chinese tourist in Bangkok recently informed me of the real reason that Chinese people like to take pictures of Westerners.
Josh and I were touring one of the biggest sites in Bangkok and the place was swamped with tourists, especially huge Chinese tour groups, the members of which were all wearing matching hats. The sun was hot and Josh and I went to a bench beneath a tree. A group of Chinese men came over and sat near us and the man next to me began snapping pictures of unwitting Western tourists who were passing about 50 meters away, not even facing his camera. I asked him in Chinese "Are you photographing the foreigners?" He was surprised to hear me speak Chinese and did not answer my question. We talked for a few minutes about my time in Beijing. When the conversation died down he began taking more pictures of white tourists. I asked again "hey, are you photographing the foreigners?" He said "yeah." I asked "why?" and he said, very enthusiastically, his round belly shaking, "HAO WAN!!! (IT'S FUN!!!)"

Josh on first impressions (for the third time)

2005-10-25T07:47:00.000-04:00

I know it's lame to start with a list type entry for my first entry but you gotta state somewhere, right?Though this is my third trip to Thailand, I can't help but be surprised by how easily you forget things after a 2 year absence. Diesel exhaust is one of the first things that hits you when you get out of the taxi from the airport. I had forgotten what diesel fuel from a dozen busses only a matter of meters away from you really smelled like. Here are a few other things that had slipped my mind:

-How excited people get when you say only a few simple words in their language.
-How damn good stick rice is with everything though it has very little taste itself.
-How utterly black the water is in Bangkok's canals.
-The way people laugh/smirk at you as you struggle around their streets with a huge pack on your back.
-How "personal space" as most Americans know it does not exist here.
-How there is at least one 7-11 in every town big or small.
-How there can be bad Thai food just like there can be bad American food.

Lindsay on lunch

2005-10-22T21:20:00.000-04:00

It happened most days on my last trip to Thailand and the cycle had alrady begun again. Each day at lunch time Josh and I begin our search for a meal among the ubiquitous food stalls that line the sides of almost every street of Thailand, where thai people eat spicy dishes morning, noon, and night. We pass the noodle stands serving bowls of piping hot noodle soups. We pass the sundry meats on a stick, fish balls, chicken, and pork among them. We pass the stir fry stands making various rice dishes. We pass the som tam stand. We search. And then we always return to the sam tam stand. Som Tam is an addictive green papaya salad made with julienned upripe papaya, green beans, tomatoe slices, microscopic shrimp, fish sauce, lime, chillis and peanuts mashed together with a mortar and pestle. The woman always asks us if our delicate western palettes can stand chillis. We always assure them that we can eat spicy food and tell them to throw in a few chillis. We sit on the plastic chairs and tables that serve as a road side restaurants and eat hungrily. We mop up the remaining juices with plain sticky rice, sold in a pastic bag and eaten with the right hand. Every day I tell myself that I'll try a new dish for lunch and invariably I find myself at the som tam stand. Today I decided to begin writing the first guide book to Thailand's som tan stands. The first entry in now written in a teal notebook. Many entries will follow.

Lindsay on Bangkok

2005-10-22T21:05:00.000-04:00

I thought that Beijing was crowded, smelly, and full of concrete. Then I went to Bangkok. Bangkok is a city without a plan. It sprawls in every direction with no center and had more than 9 million people that call it home. Josh and I arrived in Bangkok on the 18th of October and the cool season was just beginning so the highs were only reaching 90 degrees and not into the 100s. Before coming to Bangkok I had heard that the streets were filled with traffic. I imagined the traffic that I had seen on the stretch of I-95 that reaches from Baltimore to DC. I was wrong. Bangkok traffic sits at a stand still during the morning ruch hour. It stands still at 1pm, it stands still in the evening and at every hour in between. The only time that traffic begins to flow is a 11pm when most have already gone to bed. Josh and I were on a bus that became caught in traffic and stood in the same spot for 10 minutes. Two toursits that we had driven past 15 minutes earlier ambled past. We got off the bus and started walking.
Although we had planned to stay longer Josh and I only managed two days in Bangkok before the heat and constant roar of 50s style public buses, private vechicles, taxis, motorcycles, three wheeled motorcycle taxi "tuk-tuks", and motor scooters convinced us to head north.
During our short stay in Bangkok we visited Wat Phra Kaeo, the most famous temple in Bangkok that houses the emrald buddha, a small statue of the lord buddha fashioned completely of jade and perched on top of a 5 meter high pedestal. The jade buddha's robes are changed three times during the year, depending on the season. When we visited he was wearing a warm yellow robe to protect him from the cold Bangkok winter wind. The temple was filled with tourists, thai and foreign, all asked to remove their shoes and cover their shoulders before entering the temple. What impressed me most was the devout buddhists praying to this most holy buddha image among the throngs of tourists. I saw this scene repeated in subsequent temples that we visited. Among the crowds of chattering trourists and vendors selling an array of different sized buddhas, people prayed. I guess that the lord buddha can head through the background noise.