from 1st class to 3rd class (LOOOOONG)

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hello all,

sorry for the delayed update. we've been in more remote, rural places, as well as cambodia, where internet is not high speed, and NOT air-conditionad.

so let's see....

chiang mai:

we'd spent one last night on the town with our yankee friends, sam and austin, and ended up eating food they'd prepared in a cooking class. food was tasty, but dorota did get sick (though we really don't suspect the food - haha)

chiang rai:

we took a bus to chiang rai. made it to the bus station within two minutes of departure, and accidentally bought 1st class, aircon tickets (and we'd do it again!!). got a room in a quiet place just on the outskirts of "town" (at least until the roosters got going at 5am!) we were both a bit ill for a few days, so we laid low, with short walks to town for food. this was the hottest part of the trip till this point, so within minutes, we'd be dripping and moving slow.

we went to the saturday night market, which was jam-packed, seemingly with every chiang rai inhabitant. lots of interesting stuff, and at the center was a show, with dancers and music. adam had to run back to the room to get his recorder (one of many times with this same blunder).

he recorded a drum performance and a group of older thai musicians, playing marimba-type intstruments, with drums and a horn. beautiful music, which only seems to be called northen thai music (couldn't determine any genre name). the musicians seemed very happy to be recorded, so all was well.

we then came across a group of young music students performing with their teacher. we made donations to the school and recorded their beautiful music which was played on an instrument called an acalun. it's a strange, bamboo rattle, made with three different lengths. each player holds one in each hand, representing two separate notes. all of the students together, cover each tone in a major scale (doe, ray, me, etc.). this was surprising, as the music was decidedly "asian", yet, using a very western sounding scale. incredible sound. the kids were VERY happy to be recorded and to demonstrate their abilities.

we then paid for a day tour through several hill tribes. first we visited the yao tribe. the yao people (originally from china) make little items (keychains, carved elephants, hats, etc.) to sell at multiple stands. dorota bought a "knitted" key chain, and we moved on, as there wasn't much else going on.

we then went to the aca village. we were guided through the village by an aca woman, in full costume. the costumes take a year to make by hand (though they are started to by the basic jackets and skirts in the city markets to save time), and are beautiful, with a hat adorned with aluminum coins as a compliment. aluminum is much lighter than the original silver. they performed a short welcome dance (which was another d'oh! moment, as adam left his recorder in the van). we entered a dwelling of an older couple and were shown that the man has his sleeping space in the front, as well as his entrance, whereas the woman has her sleeping space and entrance in the back of the hut. it was explained that they would prefer to make their homes of concrete, but are afraid of losing the interest of tourists. many aca people are now schooled and work in the cities.

we then went to mae salong, which is a chinese village at the top of a mountain. tea is the primary crop here (replacing poppy/opium - one of the many humanitarian projects by the king). we were able to see several tea plantations, and went to a local tea house, to sample oohlong and jasmine teas. the tea was fabulous! we visited a museum that details the battles between the communist chinese and the non-communist chinese, that pushed the various tribes into nothern thailand and burma.

we had lunch in a chinese village, with our guide and driver, which was fun, and very good, and saw the temple built for the king's mother, when she passed around ten years ago. they brought her bones to this temple, atop a stunning mountain.

we returned to chiang rai and visited the night bazarre, had italian food, and prepared for the next journey.

travels:

we took a bus down to chiang mai, and then booked a sleeper car on a night train back to bangkok. there were a few moments of adam-melt-down, as various people pushed and shoved in various lines (not uncommon), but he averted going to prison for acting out his fantasies of revenge.

the sleeper car was loads of fun, as dorota wisely stocked it with vodka, beer, and noodle cups (photos to follow). trains are a much more fun (though slower) form of travel than buses (with their endless cellphones, and pushing and shoving passengers). we watched the countysides while enjoying our coctails. we amused the food server and conductor with our sink full of alcohol. the conductor then helped us make up our beds, and we passed out till our 6am knock on the door, so he could then remake the beds.

we arrived in bangkok, still unaware of where we were going next. we couldn't decide whether to make our way to cambodia (difficult to set up schedules of transportation and expensive visas/vans/taxi's, etc.), or to wimp-out and head down south to the islands/beaches of thailand. we were helped along by being herded (a common technique used on weary travelers in bus/train stations, and at borders - more on this to come) into a travel office, where we ended up with tickets on a minivan to the cambodian border, poi pet. the van ride was...amusing... with one backpacked vomiting in a bag (handed to him in the nick of time) and dorota getting the bus driver to pull over, ON THE FREEWAY, so that he could dispose of the smelly contents. woohoo, traveling!

cambodia - batambang

similar to our last trip to cambodia, we arrived at the border and were dumped out of our van, where we set out on foot to the thai departure office, and then onto the medical quarentine booth (everyone in thailand seems wildly afraid of the H1N1 flu). then to get our visa's. this is where we were scammed for the first time.

the sign clearly says "$20", yet no one would take dollars, and instead insisted on 1000 baht. this is around $30, and detailed in our travel book, which we read AFTERWARDS.

we get through "customs" and are followed (HOUNDED) by official-looking young men in pink shirts, guiding us through the border, where "taxi's" (any toyota tercel in cambodia is likely part of the taxi mafia. seriously!) are asking $40 for the two hour drive to batambang. we said "too much" and then were guided to free shuttles to the "bus" station, which turned out to be the taxi-mafia depot, where for $10 per person we would receive our ride. we were instructed that the buses were gone for the day, so we thought that we had no choice. this scam is also detailed in the book. study kids!

the taxi ride: let us start by saying that we've had the unique experience of having the worst bus ride of our lives (in 2005) in the same country as the worst taxi ride of our lives. we get in the back seat of the tercel, with a driver and his wife and kid (which turned out to be much bigger than originally thought) in the passenger seat. we then drive around 50 meters and pick up a young cambodian girl, who might have been the most awful person we have ever come across in asia. we are confident that this is soon to be funny (not yet!). she is the cambodian's answer to young tweeny-boppers that are obsessed with paris hilton. thick, whitening make-up, marinated in perfume, and is bored every 12-13 seconds. she consitantly asked the driver to stop and turn around, everytime she saw a store (dirty stands) that might have a drink of something shiney. we eventually let the driver's wife know (keep in mind that no one in the car spoke english) that we were getting impatiant and had a long drive ahead. the girl yapped on her phone to anyone she could think to call, and compulsively picked the dry skin from here horrible peeling hands (it appeared as though she'd had a chemical peel), brushing it on dorota's leg. her breath reeked of old fish, and she seemed to enjoy staring at dorota and watching us be uncomfortable.

then it began to rain. the windshield wipers produced loud squeals over the shattered windshield, while we continued along at 25-35 mph, for 2 1/2 hours. this actually provided our moment of levity and smiles, as we realized that if we weren't being driven to some village to be raped and beaten, it would make a funny blog (don't know if that's the effect this is having, but again, it's ALMOST funny to us 😊

the girl then led the driver off path, into a small village to pick up her sister. now there were four of us in the back seat. no seatbelts by the way. the two girls yapped loudly, while staring at us, and motioning as if we smelled (we don't think we did, but who knows, maybe toothpast if offensive to some folks). the older sister (the one we picked up) then looked at us in disgust and put on her facemaske - the ones that about a third of asia are wearing to protect themselves from H1N1.

we did eventually make it to batambang, wear the driver tried to leave us in the center of a horribly dirty and chaotic town in the rain. a motorcycle taxi was readily awaiting to charge us to drive the final mile to our hotel. we insisted that the car take us that rest of the way.

we then got a room in one of the newer hotels in the east bank. all of the hotels there are about 4 years old, and already falling apart and dirty. full of bugs, though there is aircon and cable t.v.

exhausted, we had dinner across the street (snakehead fish), which was very good, and crashed. the following day, we walked around town taking photos, and crossing the river, into the bustling market. as we remember from out previous trip, most cambodians are very, very sweet people. big smiles, very chatty. the teenage and young men, however, are very intense and aggressive, and there is a reputation for problems with robbery and violence. it's unfair to the majority of the people as it discourages tourism, which seems to be the only place for cambodians to get any money.

we looked around to set up transport out of town. there only seemed to be bus tours to bangkok, which leave at 12:30 pm and take 8-9 hours. if we were to have done this, we would get into bangkok late, having to find a hotel, and then have to travel the next day down south. we opted to set up a ride with a taxi-mafia. we found a guy who would leave at 7am for $10 toward poi pet. we walked back through town and a fellow named naruth stopped us (about the only person we came across who spoke fluent english) and asked us to come speak at his english school. we hopped on his motorbike (both of us, so all three of us) and he drove us to his village.

this made this trip for us. he spoke at length about the government situation, the people, the khmer rouge and the war, and his project to teach english to his village's children. he learned english as a poor monk when he was a child, and then improved it with help from the UN. we met his parents (his father was shot in the head and shoulder by rougue khmer rouge in the nineties, but survived. he then brought us to the neihboring school, where he coordinates several two hour classes. we entered the first class and answered the student's questions (where are you from? what's your favorite color? etc.) they were schocked at our ages and that we had no children, as it's common to have 9 kids per family. we then conducted pronounciation lessons, and moved onto the conversation class, where we conversed with the students in small groups. it was super-fun, and very rewarding. we spent a little more time with naruth, before he rode us back to our room.

another great dinner of khmer food, and the next morning (yesterday) we were off.

travels part II:

our taxi mafioso was waiting for us at 7am. he took us BACK to the taxi waiting area and stood in the street trying to find two more passengers. after 25 minutes, we told him that we needed to catch a bus at the border. the whole point of this was that we were trying to make an early bus at the thai border, to make a train in bangkok down south, and not lose another day (and hotel fee). the taxi switched drivers and drove around 30 meters, only to stop again, and stand in the street looking for passengers. eventually we actually left town and drove at well under 45 mph for the next two+ hours toward poi pet.

we did make it to the border, through customs, and onto a chartered bus in time to make the 3:35 pm train to hua hin.

the train ticketing person misheard our request for aircon car, so we spent the next 4 hours of our trip (starting on our ninth hour of travel) in the the hot, pigeon-poop-covered, cheap car, with lots of teenage boys. the teenage thing right now appears to be an adaptation of flock of seagulls haircuts, with bright red lipstick. it was fascinating to watch them primp their hair for the entire trip. as the thai's say regarding almost everything, "same, same...." as dorota points out is the teenage way, everywhere.

the train ride turned out to be quite fun, as there is a constant (inner) train of food and drink peddlers going up and down the aisl. more and more get on at every stop, so we had several beers, and some corn along the way. watched the shanty slums morph into the beautiful countrysides. saw groups of cranes in trees, birds, bats, and the brilliantly pink sunset. at one point dorota was hanging her head out the window and got hit by some sort of insect and had to pull part of it out of her skin, which is now somewhat puffy. adam also hung off of the train from between the cars. he also recorded lots of cool train sounds.

hua hin:

we accomplished our goal of making it from cambodia to hua hin within one, LONG day. hua hin is where the king currently resides. it is the palm springs of thailand. very nice, very developed, and very expensive. not many backpacker types here, more families, and people with money. we slept hard (in a budget spot) and walked for several miles along the beach today. we reached the monkey mountain, with it's huge golden buddha. we climbed the many stairs and encountered many monkies (we don't know what kind) on the way to the upper wat (temple), where we hit the bells (adam forgot his recorder again!!!) and dorota fed the aggressive monkies (photos to follow). we then walked our sweaty drained selves back toward town, where we were picked up along the way by a local taxi and had lunch at a....ahem.... burger king (dorota's choice - but she had cleaned pigeon shit off of a train seat for adam, so she had it coming!). and here we sit.

tomorrow, we're renting a motorbike and heading out to the jungle, and then in the coming days, gonna explore some islands.

we've left out lots of little details, but this is so long, we're not sure anybody would still be reading!

anyway, we love you!

a/d

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Comments

[meryl]

read book
Enjoyed, sometimes giggled at your details. Yup, Lon would clean the pigeon poop for me! (and then hold my hand)Monkey experience must be cool. Funny,like Anne Frank, teenagers will go through certain steps of development, universally-UG! Guess my Toyota could make lots of money! Hope you're feeling healthier, now. Take your RECORDER, Adam.( mom said so)Take care and enjoy, with love, mommy