Sawasdee Thailand

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Abby

See our gallery of photos tagged with “thailand”.

Our flight out of Thailand departed five weeks after we first landed in Bangkok. During this time, we traveled in and out of the country to visit Vietnam and Cambodia, but Thailand — and especially Bangkok — had come to feel like home by the time we left. It is an easy country to love, with its friendly people, delicious food, very affordable prices, and beautiful weather. We were sad to bid farewell to Thailand, but at the same time, we left feeling certain that we will return and excited for the next stop on our itinerary.

We’re still not sure how we got so lucky, but we were re-booked on a flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong on Friday, December 5, the same day that Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport resumed full operation (read more here) and only two days after our originally scheduled flight. The only signs of the the previous week’s shut-down were a line-up of security officers on the road leading into the terminal, a dance group performing next to signs thanking tourists for their patience, and many flights showing a status of “Canceled” on the boards within the terminal. Based on what we read and saw on TV, in addition to a few conversations with other travelers on our flight, we were very lucky to have faced as little inconvenience as we did.

Sign in Suvarnabhumi airport on its first full day of post-protest operation

During our final few days in Bangkok, we spent time hanging out with Dan’s friend Bill, who has lived in Bangkok for the past four years and was a tremendous host to us during our stay. We also took a final tuk-tuk ride and revisited some of our favorite restaurants where you can get a fantastic entree for US $2. We already miss all of the amazing food in Thailand, particularly the abundant and always delicious street carts. You can get everything from pre-cut & bagged fresh fruit (US 50 cents) to coconut & red-bean pancakes (US 60 cents) to grilled pork skewers (US 60 cents). But our favorite vendor has to be someone we spotted in Koh Chang, whom we affectionately refer to as the Banana Man. You couldn’t miss his rockin’ music — and his production speed was truly awesome. We can also vouch for his excellent product: banana crepe with chocolate sauce.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=63881
Koh Chang’s Banana Man in action

Due to the shutdown of the airports, the streets around our guesthouse in Bangkok felt quite a bit more empty than they did at the beginning of our stay. We are very hopeful that the tourism industry will bounce back quickly, but there is no doubt that the country has been dealt a big blow. We also saw the effects of the shutdown when we visited Wat Arun on our very last day in Bangkok, where we practically had the beautiful temple to ourselves. From a very selfish perspective, it was quite an experience to wander up the steps and around the top platform of the amazing structure virtually on our own.

View of Wat Arun

View from the top of Wat Arun

Our very last stop on our very last day in Bangkok was at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for a cocktail. It was a beautiful setting that we won’t soon forget (never mind that the bill for our two cocktails and fizzy water amounted to more than one night’s stay in our guesthouse). Until next time, Bangkok!

A taste of the good life at Bangkok’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel

Thanksgiving: Koh Chang style

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Dan

See our gallery of photos tagged with “koh chang”.

As we described in our last post, the PAD protesters’ occupation of the airports forced us to abandon our plans of flying down to the famous beaches in the south of Thailand, leading us to instead choose an overland trip to Koh Chang. This island is a five hour bus ride from Bangkok, followed by a 45 minute ferry ride. We left late morning, and were there by dusk.

View from the ferry to Koh Chang

We arrived without accommodation, but knew that we wanted to stay somewhere along White Sand Beach on the west coast of the island. After taking a songthew to the center of the hotel strip along the beach and walking door-to-door checking out places, we finally settled on this beach-front spot:

White Sands Beach in front of our hotel

We spent the next four days relaxing. Each morning, we settled down on two beach chairs right between the hotel pool and the beach, and spent the rest of the day reading and taking dips in the water. Around dusk, we continued our South African tradition of enjoying a sundowner cocktail.

Sundowner, White Sands Beach

Our second night in Koh Chang happened to fall on Thanksgiving and also became one of the most memorable nights of our trip. After a beachside sundowner (photo above), I decided it was the right moment to ask Abby a rather serious question. After getting our bill, we walked out onto a small island that had formed as the tidal waters receded. It was here that I asked her to marry me and was delighted when she said “yes”.

Two people that just got engaged on the beach!

We went out for a celebratory (and Thanksgiving) dinner at Ton Sai, which is a fantastic restaurant perched up in a banyan tree. We had yellow curry, phad thai, and minced pork cakes while we thought about all that we are thankful for and how excited we are for the future.

We spent the rest of our trip relaxing, only leaving White Sand Beach once to visit “Lonely Beach,” which is a less developed part of the island further south. This area has more of a backpacker feel with a bunch of cheap bungalows, bars, and restaurants.

Lonely Beach

Another highlight of our excursion to Lonely Beach was this sighting of a mother and daughter monkey pair traversing the power lines:

Making it work

Posted on December 3, 2008 by Abby

See our gallery of photos tagged with “bangkok”.

We returned to Bangkok from Phnom Penh on a flight that arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport around 6p.m. on November 24. Little did we know that approximately 24 hours later, that airport would be overwhelmed by protesters and shut down entirely to inbound and outbound flights. (Read more here.) Had we returned one day later, we would have been caught in the craziness of the airport takeover. Two days later and we would have been stuck in Phnom Penh. So when we first heard the news, we were feeling pretty lucky about the timing of our travel arrangements. The only remaining problem: we had already purchased round-trip tickets to Krabi in and out of Bangkok that departed on the 26th.

We soon realized there was no way we would be flying to Krabi (which was to be our jumping-off point to the island of Ko Phi Phi), so we channeled Tim Gunn and set about making it work. After consulting our guidebooks and the recommendations of an old friend, we picked Koh Chang as our alternate beach destination. Koh Chang is a beautiful island on the Eastern Gulf Coast of Thailand, and most important, is accessible by ferry from a town that is accessible by bus from Bangkok. So, one five-hour bus ride, 45-minute ferry ride, and 30-minute songthiew ride later, we settled into our beach-front hotel and never looked back. (More on Koh Chang to follow in our next blog entry.)

Koh Chang

When we first restructured our beach plans, we thought there was no way the protest would still be underway one week later when we were scheduled to fly to Hong Kong. How could Bangkok’s main transit hub possibly be out of commission for that long? Slowly but surely, however, we realized the protest showed no sign of ending and we needed to figure out a back-up plan for leaving Thailand. So that’s what we did yesterday. Luckily we were booked on Thai Airways and they have been doing everything they can to accommodate inconvenienced travelers. After a visit to the downtown Thai Airways office, we left with stand-by bookings on three different “evacuation” flights that were departing from a naval airport about 90 miles from Bangkok, as well as confirmed seats on a December 6 flight that was departing from BKK’s main airport. By the end of the day, a constitutional court had ruled that Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was banned from politics for five years, which appeased the protesting PAD party and led to their announcement that they would leave the airports by Wednesday, December 3.

So, long story short, we have confirmed seats on a December 6 flight to Hong Kong and it appears that we will be able to fly out of the main international airport. Our time in Hong Kong is thereby shortened from four days to one day, but we’re determined to make it dim-sum-packed! We feel quite lucky compared to all of the other travelers who have been struggling to return to jobs or families back home, as well as all of the Thai merchants and businesses that rely so heavily on the tourism industry. We will be sad to leave Bangkok and Thailand as a whole. We’ve had a wonderful time here and would recommend a visit to anyone.

One day in Phnom Penh

Posted on November 29, 2008 by Dan

See our gallery of photos tagged with “phnom penh”.

Although our time in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia’s capital and largest city, was limited to 24 hours, it was one of the most moving and thought-provoking visits of our entire trip. Phnom Penh is a city that is very much shaped by its relatively recent history. It possesses great architectural and metropolitan beauty, as well as warm and engaging people, but is still recovering (along with the whole country) from the brutal policies of the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia for four years starting in April 1975.

On the architectural front, evidence of colonial times is present everywhere, from the city’s broad, open, French-inspired avenues, to some of the old buildings that still manage to stand upright after years of neglect.

French colonial building, 1918

Sadly, evidence of the Khmer Rouge is also quite visible. In April 1975, Communist Party leader Pol Pot implemented a radical scheme to turn the country into an agrarian collective, leaving the cities mostly empty from forced relocations, imprisonment, and executions. The entire population of Phnom Penh was ordered to leave the city and take on new lives as working peasants in the countryside. Additionally, under Pol Pot’s directive, the Khmer Rouge tortured and executed nearly all educated people, including teachers, doctors, writers, and their entire families. Many more Cambodians died due to malnutrition or starvation. By the end of the Khmer Rouge’s four-year rule, between one million and three million Cambodians lost their lives. We visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former Khmer Rouge prison, which is quite depressing, but also houses exhibits that provide very thorough historical context.

The city of Phnom Penh is still recovering from the loss of so many lives and from the lasting blow to its economy. As a result, the streets don’t seem as crowded as they do in other main SE Asian cities, and the population is noticeably poorer. Tuk-tuk drivers aggressively pursued us (for legitimate business), and once delivering us to our destination, they would often insist on waiting for us in the hope of guaranteed business in the form of a return trip, which we soon realized may be one of their only chances of additional business for the night with tourism having taken a recent downturn. Children selling postcards and photocopied books were omnipresent on the street — as well as at every Angkor temple we visited — and somewhat heartbreaking, though it was encouraging that they often did so in their school uniforms. Amazingly, despite their recent hardships and ongoing recovery, the Cambodian people were warm and welcoming.

Despite the heaviness of what its population has been through and survived, Phnom Penh today is actually quite a pleasant place to visit. The royal palace in the center of town was beautiful:

There was also a fascinating market, with concrete architecture and a wide variety of things for sale, from shirts, to shoes, to fake watches, to fried critters (a popular snack food).

Phnom Penh is very easy to get around as well, since there was no shortage of tuk-tuk and cyclo drivers to show us around:

Cyclo tour

In awe of Angkor

Posted on November 28, 2008 by Abby

See our gallery of photos tagged with “angkor wat”.

After our eight-day tour of Vietnam, we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia, which serves as the launching point for day-trips to the magnificent temples of Angkor. We had been looking forward to this visit ever since reading about the temples while researching our trip, but especially after meeting and hearing stories from other travelers doing the SE Asia circuit.

The temples of Angkor were built by successive kings of the Khmer empire between the 9th and 15th centuries. They served as monuments both to the king and to the gods, and are absolutely stunning in their structural perfection and decorative intricacy. The best-known and largest of the temples is Angkor Wat, which is the world’s largest religious building. When the Khmer empire fell to the Siamese army in the 15th century, the entire complex of some 100 temples was abandoned and eventually completely overgrown by jungle. It remained this way until the mid-1800′s when they were rediscovered by a French botanist, which led to years of restoration work.

We spent two full days exploring the temples with the help of a fantastic guide who taught us a lot about the temples and their history, as well as more recent Cambodian history and ongoing national issues.

Highlights included:

Angkor Thom — This walled city was one of the last building efforts of the Angkor era and was enclosed by four defensive walls, as well as a moat. To enter the complex, you cross one of five causeways lined on one side with god images and on the other side with demons. The main temple within Angkor Thom is called Bayon and was one of our favorite sights. Each main tower has four smiling images — one at each compass point — that are possibly in the king’s likeness. They are huge and impressive, even in their somewhat crumbling state. These towers are surrounded by an outer wall that is chock-full of incredibly intricate bas-relief carving. Our guide explained many of the different carvings, which show aspects of daily life in the Angkor empire, as well as stories of warfare and battle.

Towers with smiling faces on all four sides

Descending one of the stairways in the Angkor Thom complex

Angkor Wat — This is one of those places where you arrive and can’t really believe that you are seeing through your camera’s view-finder the same image that you have seen in so many travel guides or coffee-table books. Walking down the causeway toward Angkor Wat gives you a first glimpse of the stunning temple, and we were more and more blown away by its scale and beauty the closer we got. Like at Angkor Thom, there is beautiful, intricate, and symbolically complex bas-relief carving on the main lower walls of the temple. We were glad to have our guide with us because he was able to explain the religious stories depicted in the carvings, and also give us background information such as how in the early ’90s an Indian restoration crew used a chemical for cleaning that ended up causing visible decay of the stone towers. Since the Angkor complex became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992, apparently there are new and more regulated policies in that arena.

Standing in front of the Angkor Wat vista

Ta Phrom — This temple was not completely cleared of its jungle covering, so there are still trees growing from the tops of walls, as well as roots that completely penetrate and snake out of the temple walls and roofs. It is a very cool sight and also served as one of the filming locations for Tomb Raider.

The temple doorway that was featured in Tomb Raider

Benteay Srei — Some 30 kilometers from the heart of the Angkor temple complex, this tenth-century temple is well-known for its incredible intricacy and state of preservation.

One example of the amazing carvings

Floating Village — During the afternoon of our second day in Siem Reap, we drove out of town to visit a floating village located on one of the river branches leading to the huge Tonle Sap Lake. We took a two-hour boat ride through the fully functioning village and saw floating restaurants, stores, battery generators, fish nurseries, and even a floating basketball court.

Floating store pulled up next to home in the floating village

Finally, on our last night in Siem Reap, we met up again with our new German friends Joe and Bine, whom we originally met in Hanoi. We had been following a very similar route as they had been, so we ended up meeting for dinner in three different cities: Hue, Hoi An, and Siem Reap. (Hi, Joe & Bine!)

Ho Chi Minh City – In Pictures

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Dan

See our gallery of photos tagged with “ho chi minh city”.

We spent less than 24 hours in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), but thought it was still worth sharing a few pictures from our experience:

8:54pm – Motorbikes whiz by “Allez Boo” restaurant

9:53am – Typical Ho Chi Minh City street

9:57am – Motorbikes avoiding traffic by using the sidewalk

12:20pm – Cong Vien Van Hoa Park

12:39pm – Abby enjoying Pho at a fancy (i.e. indoor) restaurant

Hoi An vs. Noul

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Dan

See our gallery of photos tagged with “hoi an”.

After our brief visit in Hue, we reboarded the Reunification Express and headed south along the beaches and through the mountain range separating Da Nang from the north. Upon arrival in Da Nang, we took a taxi to Hoi An, the next stop on our journey.

Thu Bon River, central Hoi An

Hoi An is a beautiful town that feels as if it is stuck in a bygone era. French colonial buildings and preserved 19th century houses, many with strong Chinese and Japanese influences, are scattered about. Silk lanterns and wooden & silk crafts are for sale at many of the local shops that line the narrow streets joined by even narrower alleys. There is also a river that runs through the heart of the city’s old town, so there is a wide selection of river-front cafés, as well as atmospheric footbridges and walkways. Between the bicycle, motorbike, and pedestrian filled streets are narrow alleys that wind between buildings, often just a few feet wide.

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street

Tan Ky House

Silk lanterns for sale

Aside from its wonderful atmosphere, many people come to this town for the many tailors that line the streets. As you walk through town, touts frequently approach you asking if you’d like any clothing made. After some research online (as these places vary widely in quality), Abby and I decided to have some clothing made at A Dong Silk, one of the more reputable places in town. We picked out styles and fabrics, got measured carefully, and came back for several fittings. In the end, I ended up with a new suit and dress shirt, and Abby got a shirt-dress and trench coat. All of these fit and look great, and cost significantly less than even the non-tailored versions back home. All-in-all a great experience.

The only unfortunate part of our visit in Hoi An was our encounter with Noul a tropical storm / depression that wandered into town for the last two days of our stay. On the day that we were scheduled to visit the nearby My Son ruins, we woke to a torrential downpour that unfortunately led us to cancel the day-trip. Instead, we outfitted ourselves in heavy-duty raingear and ventured into town for more sight-seeing and coffee-shop-visiting. By the end of the day, the passageway underneath the river’s main bridge had been reduced to a few inches and the surrounding streets were flooded. This is apparently not too unusual in Hoi An, however, and none of the shop-owners seemed particularly fazed. Fortunately, it had no impact on our flight out of there, which brought us to much drier weather.

Noul

What Is It?? Round VII – Official Results

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Abby

While we thought this was a tricky one and wanted to give all of our loyal readers a chance to chime in, it turns out that the winning response was submitted less than nine hours after the original posting. This round’s congratulations goes to Dani! As her research proves, these are the phone numbers of concrete drillers offering their services. So if you’re interested in a good Skype prank-call, one of these may be a good choice.

We learned a lot about our readers this round as we saw guesses roll in related to gangs, “professional women,” and illegal business. It’s not that these activities do not occur, but they are advertised in different ways.

Crispy like a broken bubble

Posted on November 17, 2008 by Dan

See our gallery of photos tagged with “hue”.

Crispy like a broken bubble – This is how the menu at our hole-in-the-wall lunch spot in Hue described the dish on the bottom left, part of an elaborate Hue-style meal:

We’ve had some amazing food here in Vietnam, ranging from the ever-popular Phở (very popular in Seattle these days as well), to tasty regional dishes like the ones above that we had not experienced before. We were directed to Hang Me, the restaurant listed above, after asking our hotel staff for tips on a good neighborhood eatery. The waitress did not speak any English, but understood that we wanted to sample some local specialties. She brought out a laminated pamphlet that looked like it may have been part of a travel guide, and pointed to the food we were about to eat. The first dish consisted of 10 shallow saucers, each lined with a little bit of rice noodle and topped with some dried shrimp and some sort of crouton. We were instructed to pour sauce on them, and then use a spoon to scoop each bundle out into a single bite. Delicious! Four more courses of food followed, each being something new for us. Meanwhile, a woman in back was preparing more food, in this case putting meat onto a rice noodle to be wrapped in a banana leaf:

Many restaurants in Vietnam are quite different from what we’re used to in the United States. Rather than being enclosed air-conditioned store fronts with bound menus and a kitchen in back, they’re often open-air eateries that spill out onto the street. Here’s an example of such a restaurant in Hanoi. The plastic tables and chairs, as well as the outdoor cooking, are all very common in this country. Note the woman preparing chicken feet.

Another difference is that some restaurants only serve one dish. For example, when we walked into Bun Bo Nam Bo in Hanoi, we sat down at two of the few open seats, and within minutes were served the following dish without any questions asked:

It was great — a finely crafted bowl of Abby’s all-time favorite dish!

And other restaurants take on a completely different form… In Hoi An, we went to an outdoor restaurant near the river and noticed that the waitstaff was very aggressive. One waiter would tell you to sit down at a table on one side of the restaurant, while another would be trying to steer you towards their table. It turned out that this place, which had about ten tables, was actually a bunch of separate restaurants, with each owner running two tables. No wonder they were fighting over customers! We decided to eat at Mr. Rin’s fine two-table establishment:

One last thing I feel obligated to mention. Vietnam is one of the few places where you can still buy a beer for less than 25 cents. Mr. Rin’s was only 4,000 dong, and was ISO 9001 certified to boot! What a wonderful country!

Rules of the road in Hanoi

Posted on November 16, 2008 by Dan

See our gallery of photos tagged with “hanoi”.

Here’s a short video that Abby took from an intersection in Hanoi. We both think it’s a great example of the crazy street traffic in Hanoi, since it captures so many elements:

There’s a man crossing the street. Since traffic in Hanoi rarely stops, his method is the only way to do it — slow and steady.
A short parade of cyclos drives by. This is a common way for tourists to get around, however it can be a little nerve wracking given the lack of driving rules.
Near the end of the video, a woman walks by carrying baskets of fruit hanging from a wooden beam strung across her shoulder. Again, very typical.
You can hear bike bells ringing in the background. Many of these are from cyclo drivers offering us rides.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=63881

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