Good to hear from you again! Where are you teaching now? We enjoyed our visit to Burma in Dec 1974...I guess not much has changed since then although it's about to.
Hello from Thailand Good to write a little bit again and good to hear from you guys. We are at a high school on the campus of Mahidol University outside of Bangkok. This trip was last summer but I want to get caught up soon
The lady Good to see you travelling again Dan! I really enjoyed this post...it's interesting to get a sense of politics at the local level, and that lahpet thoke sounds fabulous. Myanmar has fallen off our travel list for many reasons, but I think we may have to reconsider. Safe travels.
Hey, awesome to hear from you, the post is actually from last summer but we got some great time in Myanmar and are doing some here in Thailand when we can. The recipe for the lahpet thoke is on Tara's website if you follow the link, but the fermented tea is a bit difficult to get. Where are you now? I could totally see having reservations about Myanmar but it was really quite a trip.
Forgot my camera! Thanks! The day we went to Shwedagon was the day I forgot my camera and I had to snap this with my phone. Hard to believe the quality the smartphones can take these days, sometimes I wonder if its better than the camera! Great to hear from you
John Speis book? Would be interested to get hold of copy of the book. Can you tell me the title. I would guess its self published and only available at the lodge.
wild times The name of the book is wild times, my guessis that its only at the lodge but I'm not sure. It really is a fantastic read, particularly his encounters with hill tribe people near chiang mai and mae hong san in the late 70s
a pleasure.. I just can't wait to get there and explore on my own in a couple weeks!! The pics look amazing and again, Love the blog! The best ancient ruins I have been to so far has been Palenque we'll see how Angkor stacks up!
Respect Your words of observation are wisdom. It is sad when travelers are tourist and don't respect the places they have been lucky enough to visit. Reading your blog made me sad. I think some how we need to teach people about respect. Clearly it is not common sense.
Dave and Merry Jo, thanks so much for reading. It really is a sad thing, I have been having a hard time writing since this experience, it really made me question a lot of things about myself and travel in general - like maybe I am a part of the same problem as these people. I felt disillusioned, but all we can do is go out there and do the best we can to at the very least cause as little harm as possible. I think getting past this blog is going to help me get back to feeling passionate about finishing my stories again. Thank you for your comments!
From heaven to hell How fantastic that you'd learned that Bayon was the hordes' second stop, so you could have that early morning, magical experience! I don't know if there's a high season for Chinese package tourists or for Thailand, but I generally avoid popular places in the high season. I'd rather deal with inclement weather than with tourist masses. I recently read that in 10 years, 75% of urban Chinese will have enough money to travel--yikes! I appreciated your historical reflections on tourism. Happy travels!
Thank you so much Tara - that is a seriously frightening thing to consider. I am 100% with you on going in the low season if it means avoiding the masses, even if the area is in the midst of blistering heat or tropical monsoon. It also seems like the best people I meet are always the people in the low season, maybe it's just because everyone is going at a slower pace and you really get to slow down and enjoy the company. Great to hear from you
GREAT entry! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! And while I agree with everything u wrote there is a flip side which is even though we respect sites like this and put forth respect or honor, These sites are in the business of making money so these tour buses are full of higher paying tour guided flunkies that will no doubt buy many things us backpacking folk wouldn't...I.E. Mexican Sombreros in Cambodia etc etc. It's totally a shame, but I do think it's a necessary evil we as travelers unfortunately have to deal with as best we can. We ALL find certain places on this earth that while we wish would stay traditional and not sell out to mega hotels and be packed to the gills everyday..we LOVE to blog about..letting more and more people in on the secret...Catch 22....This blog reminds me so much of what Chichen Itza had become....Fuckin' light shows at night from the pyramid..droves and droves of tour buses and stupid tourists that are on a 5 day vacation with family and friends and don't respect the place as we do or see it as we do...
Thank you Greg, you totally hit the point that I forgot to mention, the $ is always the lowest common denominator and brings out the lowest in everyone. It does seem like some places though (Singapore, S. Korea, Hong Kong) are starting to realize that the extra money isn't worth the hell it puts the local people through. Then again, in a place like Cambodia how can you expect people to go against their own financial interests, but that itself brings up an interesting point. Who is more likely to go eat at the roadside stand, buy a cheap bottle of whisky from a tiny shop, stay in a small family guesthouse or rent a motorbike and go give business to a small market on the outskirts of town? Sure the Coach purse stores mega-hotel conglomerates and Duty Free supercenters may benefit from this type of tourism, but what about the people a step or two down the ladder? Really appreciate your perspective and very bummed to hear about Chichen Itza - I wonder how many other places are on the verge of ruin...
Its a shame because at other points we had nothing but the most beautiful and memorable times... I also didn't mention the tour groups that had hired out about 80 tuk tuks and were just traveling around in a convoy as far as the eye could see.
I appreciate that Gina, is there actually a specific contest you know of or is that just a compliment... either way thank you! One thing I've learned from this website though is that there are A LOT of talented bloggers... glad to hear you are still following along :)
Hey guys! As I am planning my Angkor trip next month I wanted to read some recent blogs and came across yours which is amazingly written!! Thanks for all the great info! --Greg
thank you I hope you enjoy your time in Siem Reap, feel free to send me a message if you need any info, I went a lot if other places also. You'll have to read my next blog when I finish it about the package tourist waves there... Not cool
Jeremy, when I read your name I thought it sounded familiar - you are jeremyaroundtheworld who has been cycling the silk road. I was just reading your wrap up of your trip and have been following your blogs everytime I see them pop up. I have a good friend named Mike Roy who has been cycling South East Asia for about a year now and I have to say your blog and his are two of my favorites. I wish I had started following your trip sooner than I did but definitely look forward to going back and reading more of them... thanks for the comments!
I first developed a love for travel writing on this site. Today I am a photographer specializing in portraits and events, as well as selling prints for my travel and fine art work. You can check me out at:
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Good to hear from you again!
Where are you teaching now? We enjoyed our visit to Burma in Dec 1974...I guess not much has changed since then although it's about to.