Darkest before the dawn

I woke to a beautiful sunny day in the Himalayas. Dharamshala is a much more comfortable place. The hotel I'm at even upgraded my room to the one with morning sun and a balcony. I seem to be the only guest - must be the off season. It is pretty cold. I will attempt to buy some warmer clothing today and hike up the hill to the temple and residence of the Dali Lama. Not sure how long I'll stay here but I think Dharamshala will be my last destination in India - at least for this go round.

Comfort zone? What's that?

If my comfort zone was on a map, I'm so far outside of it right now, I don't even know which way to go to get back in.

New Delhi is the dirtiest, most inhospitable place one can imagine. I spent my first few days here just trying to figure out how to get out and into some place that might be okay. Initially I thought I wanted to visit the so called Golden Triangle - Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra (the Taj Mahal). But after looking into all options and experiencing Delhi for a few days, I decided it might be best to just make a run for the hills. So, I've booked a plane flight to Dharamsala tomorrow. Dharamsala is in the Himalayas and is where the Dali Lama lives. While it would be wonderful to be in his presence, I have no expectation of that happening. I just don't want to be here and would hate to flee the country without giving it a chance - Dharamsala seems like the best bet, though I do anticipate it being a bit cold.

About Delhi. If Indonesia is an education in how to protect yourself in a third world country, India is graduate school. The touters and scammers here follow you - usually striking up a "friendly" conversation. I changed hotels after the first night, and met the first of these guys during the 2km walk to the new, slightly less nasty place. He fell in stride with me and his English was excellent. After some introductory conversation, he started to tell me how the area I was going to be staying in (this is the "backpackers" area of Delhi - though I see few westerners) wasn't safe and I should take a tuk-tuk down the road to the central area where I could stay for just a couple of dollars more ("only 20 rupees" for a tuk-tuk I'm now sure he had on standby). He was quite friendly and believable but if I learned anything from Indonesia, it's that a local friendly always has an agenda. So when I spotted a McDonalds, I told him thanks for the advise, I'm going to slip in here, get something to eat and assess the situation. Which I did. As I was eating, I spotted another guy who seemed to be just hanging around and watching me. Honestly, I was feeling a bit frightened and was digging around the internet on my phone for as much objective information as I could find to figure out my next move. One of the suggestions I found on a forum was to ask a local female about the area. God bless the internet. There are few women in the streets here (another reason it's so uncomfortable), but a young girl and her mother came in and luckily she spoke enough English to be able to reassure me that the area we were in was safe "for me" in particular. I decided to give the new hotel a look and buy some time to figure out my next move. As I walked out of McDonalds, the lurker followed me and started telling me how the area wasn't safe. I politely asked him to leave me alone and when he persisted, I snapped and firmly told him I'd seen him watching me and it wasn't acceptable behavior - it took about 30 seconds to send him bolting back into McD's with his tail between his legs. I felt better after that. Though I am still very much on my guard any time I go out and cannot wait to be clear of this city.

That said, yesterday was actually a really good day. After a failed attempt at sightseeing the day before (a long boring story of discomfort and frustration), I almost had resolved to just stay in my room for the 2 days until my flight to Dharamsala. I'm glad I didn't. Humayun's Tomb is a world heritage site and is the precursor to the Taj Mahal. The site itself was impressive and interesting and I'm sure much less of a tourist nightmare than the Taj Mahal. But the real redeeming part of the day happened during the 2km walk from the metro to the Tomb. On a relatively civilized street (the first since arriving in India), I passed a street vendor with several people standing around eating. He waved me in and I accepted. They were 2 middle aged, warm and friendly men who served up a delicious, filling meal for 40 rupees (about 60 cents). While I was eating, one came over and asked me for one US dollar. Misunderstanding him, I told him I didn't have a dollar but I would be willing to pay more rupees for my meal (it really was so cheap), he walked away leaving me confused. Before leaving, I tried to offer him some more money but he refused saying they served a good meal at a fair price and hoped I would come back tomorrow. He really did just want a US dollar for a souvenir, I wish I had had one for him. It was an experience of such generosity and kindness, it brought tears to my eyes - perhaps a reflection of how isolated and targeted I'm feeling. Many people tried to tell me it would be rough here but others really love it. I suppose I am stubborn and just have to go see for myself. I am quite sure it's an experience I'll never forget and will cherish (once it's well behind me). Today is a national holiday celebrating the formation of an independent republic. I watched some of the parade on TV - no way am I going out into the streets.

Humayun's Tomb

I met a guy on a train

Though I've been thinking all along that Laos would be my next destination from Chiang Mai, it turns out it's India. I took the overnight train to Bangkok night before last and will take a 4am flight to New Delhi day after tomorrow.

The night train was great. Somewhere around 8 or 9 pm, a porter came along and turned my bench seating into a comfortable sleeping berth with clean sheets and a warm blanket. In bits and pieces, timed with starts and stops the train made along the way, I managed to get a pretty decent night's sleep.

My time in CM was a terrific break from the constant moving on that I've become more and more weary of. I spent several days working with Abby (Sean and Prang's oldest) on math and English. She's a bright and beautiful child and I will miss her (along with everyone else there).

I stayed in the guest house with Marisa who was turned out to be an instant and much cherished friend. One of the things I told her was that I felt like I had another life/work chapter in me and that the universe seemed to be telling me I need to teach. It's been coming at me in ways that are subtle and some that are not so subtle. I told her of my resistance to the idea and my attempts at bargaining with the universe ('cuz teaching has NEVER been on the list of things I would want to do in my life). Which brings me to the title of this post...

I met a German guy who gives seminars on NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) while traveling with the workshop attendees (at least that was my take on what he was up to - I suspect that I was part of his ongoing marketing efforts). One of the first things out of his mouth was "Are you a teacher?"  All I could do was laugh. I'm sure he thought me quite rude, but luckily he didn't take it personal and we went on to have a quite interesting conversation - though I still can't really tell you what NLP is... lol.

So, perhaps to teach. What, where, when and who are yet unknown to me. First up - India, Nepal, The Camino de Santiago and perhaps home for a bit to see my beloved Rasta in her last time on this earth (last summer, the vet gave her a year before she thought the cancer would return with a vengeance).

Best Christmas ever

It turns out, Sean and Prang's house isn't quite within walking distance of Chiang Mai. So, I rented a scooter for a month and google maps did the rest. Some back and forth emails and a dead battery on Sean's phone meant they weren't quite expecting me but were graciously welcoming anyway. Sean and Prang have built a loving home of barely controlled chaos, though their kids are some of the most respectful and well behaved children I've ever encountered. Every day is infinitely interesting. And exhausting. They live on a plot of land maybe an acre in size. It has 3 houses - one for them, one for their long time friends Adam and Cindy and their many, many kids (foster and otherwise) and one smaller guest house that Cindy has graciously agreed for me to stay in for a bit, along with her friend from the States, Marissa.

Erik arrived from Bangkok on Christmas morning. It was so good to see him, I cried in spite of myself. The following week was a whirlwind of northern Thailand. After collecting him on my rented scooter, we returned to Chiang Mai so he could get one for himself and made our way up into the hills to Doi Suthep national park and the Wat Phra That temple. After seeing so many temples already, this one was a bit meh. But, a day on a scooter adventure with my son was priceless!

After a night in a Chiang Mai hostel, we got on a bus (thanks to Prang for taking us to the bus station!) and headed to Pai. After a night of pigging out on Thai food at the night market, we once again rented scooters and rode 50 km over a mountain pass to the Lod cave and a truly unique experience. Entrance to the cave is only by lantern carrying guide and bamboo raft. You get on a raft and float down a river into the cave with fish swimming alongside. After disembarking there is a longish walk through a very large and cool cave. Our guide spoke very little English but was very kind and took good care of us (me actually, Erik didn't need much). After the tour, we got on another raft and floated to the exit where we made a 1 km or so trek back to the beginning. All in all it was an extraordinary day.

Into the cave - Erik's expression reflects the awe of the place

Out the other end

 
After Pai, we made the day long journey to Sukhothai. We spent the first day there visiting old Sukhothai on bicycles just as I'd done a couple of weeks earlier. I felt better this time and we explored much more thoroughly. At about the farthest place possible, Erik's bike got a flat tire and we had to walk back. Day two was a bus trip to Si Satchanalai - a place with the most impressive ruins yet. It's just far enough off the beaten track to limit the number of people who go there making it an extraordinary experience. We waited nearly 3 hours for the return bus after the 4 o'clock bus failed to show at all and the 5:00 one was very late. We were about to give up and call a taxi when it finally showed up.

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Old Sukhothai

The next day (new years eve) was time to say goodbye. Erik took the long bus ride to Bangkok and spent the night partying with half the city on Chao San Rd while I returned to Chiang Mai and slept the whole next day. Although the time felt like a blink of an eye, it was so great to see Erik and travel like we always have - packing as much adventure as possible into the time we had.

A little Thai history anyone?

While taking a break outside of a ruin in Ayutthaya, a young Thai woman who had been educated in the US stopped and chatted with me for a bit. She indicated that Ayutthaya was the 2nd capital of Thailand (Siam). Sukhothai was the first, Thonburi the 3rd and Bangkok 4th. She said there was some talk of moving it yet again since Bangkok is so congested - hard to imagine but I guess time will tell. From what little I've read, the real history of the area is much more complex and dynamic than her brief synopsis. But there is no doubt that Ayutthaya and Sukhothai are unique and interesting places.

Arriving in Ayutthaya by bus was pretty exciting. The history of the area is readily apparent - there are ruins everywhere. Old mixed with new and streets simply built around ( often unidentified) ruins. The city is actually an inland island. There are rivers on all 4 sides.

A random ruin in the middle of the road

Ruin complexes were all over - mostly Wats

According to a sign at the site of the Grand Palace, the traditional Thai belief was that where ever the King stayed was the center of the universe - "the center of supreme power and divinity". As such, a Wat (temple complex) was built in each of the 4 directions of the palace grounds. Interestingly, the Wats comprised the vast majority of the visible ruins. They were made primarily of brick and stone where the palace buildings apparently were mostly timber. When the Burmese finally succeeded in sacking the town (after 20 some unsuccessful attempts), they looted and burned the palace grounds destroying untold amounts of art and history. There was a large model speculating what the palace grounds looked like based on historic accounts, piles of rubble and traditional architecture but the grounds themselves were mostly a beautiful park with some low brick walls and foundations.

Speculative model of the Palace grounds

By contrast, the ruins of Sukhothai are separated from the modern day town (new Sukhothai) by about a 25 minute bus ride. I rented an amazing old bicycle that practically rode itself and tooled around the ruins and beautiful grounds.

There is a statue of Ram Khamhaeng the 3rd ruler of Sukhothai and acknowledged "father" of the Thai alphabet. An inscribed obelisk next to the statue tells of the area during his reign in a great deal of detail. There's an interesting write up about it on wikipedia (just search on Ram Khamhaeng). Even though the story was a bit utopian, I was disappointed to read that it's authenticity is in question. Dunno if this can be zoomed in on and read or not but here's the bulk of the translation that was in the on site museum:

I've spent the last 3 days in Sukhothai mostly resting and am feeling better. Chiang Mai tomorrow! The buses I've taken here are literally never on time so I thought it might be easier to plan a night in a hostel for my first night so probably won't see Sean and family for a day or two but I'm really looking forward to it.

Travel like a Thai

I found Bangkok to be an infinitely interesting city and could've spent several weeks there. Unfortunately for me, interesting usually equates to exhaustion and the accompanying illness which I yet again am fighting off.

The Grand Palace in Bangkok was indeed grand. The amount of detail put into the beautiful buildings was amazing and the entire place left one with a lofty opinion of a successful state.

Many beautiful buildings

Up close you realize they are adorned with tiny mirror tiles

The most boring job in the world...

There are many inexpensive options for transportation in Bangkok including my favorite of course - walking. For any kind of distance, the local river boats seemed to be the best option. For 14 baht (less than .50c) you can go to any one of 35 or so piers including ones on the other side of the river, thus bypassing all the congestion on the roads. There are also some trains that crisscross the city but they were a fair ways from backpacker central where I stayed - infamous in some circles I suppose - Chao San Road. At night, Chao San Road is literally the noisiest place I've ever been. Bars right across the narrow street from each other compete to drown out the music of the other - it's crazy. Thankfully I was in a nice quiet hostel a few blocks away.

The King's birthday was on the 5th and in the evening I went to a massive park area with some hostel mates to see the fireworks. We sat central/back from where I thought the festivities would be only to find that we were right in front of the fireworks launch pad - the first couple scared the hell out of me. I've never been so close to fireworks and was grateful nothing went wrong cuz the whole thing was a recipe for disaster. But oh so cool!

3 nights ago I took a local train to Kanchanaburi. When I got to the train station it was full of police security types and the press. I have no idea why - one of the frustrations of not speaking any of the language. At one point, right before the train before mine left, a guy was rushed in amid a flurry of activity from the press and loaded onto the train. He spoke from the platform in a manner that could only make me think of Caesar Chavez. I saw it on the news later in a shop in Kanchanaburi. I'd like to know what it was all about but probably never will.

I met a lovely man on that train - he translates new age (I told him, my church calls it new thought and he seemed to know what I was referring to) religious books from English into Thai.  I have to say, the number of deep spiritual connections I've made with random people has been extraordinary. It cheers me.

The main draw for Kanchanaburi was the history that took place here during WWII. The Bridge on the river Kwai is located here. During WWII, the Japanese brought prisoners of war to the area to build an overland railroad. Many local people were hired as well with promises of high wages, they came from all around. Conditions were horrendous and many, many died. I took a local bus the 80 km to the memorial museum next to Hellfire pass. It was a somber place and very moving.

Hellfire Pass

Am currently waiting for an air conditioned van to Ayuttaya. It should be arriving soon so I will have to postpone pictures - will try to update this posting soon. The plan is to be in Chiang Mai by the 21st. I'll be staying with Sean for a couple of days and looking for a small apartment - I'm feeling a need for an extended break and CM seems like the perfect place. I'm looking forward to seeing Sean and family and am hoping he has something going that I could be of use to him for a few weeks.

They must have heard I was coming, cuz they threw me a party!

My first night in Thailand just happened to coincide with their annual Loi Krathong festival. The tradition is to make or in my case, to purchase a boat made from banana leaves, flowers, incense, candles - add a lock of hair or some finger nail clippings (no idea why...) and then float it down the river. If it goes down stream it's supposed to bring good luck and renewed fortunes for the coming year, upstream is obviously bad luck! Along with the festival was a massive street fair with stalls selling anything from furniture to fried bugs.

I suppose I should back up a little bit... I took a bus from Melaka back to Penang in one long boring day. The intent was to spend an extra day in Penang and visit the Bat cave temple and a couple of other things I didn't have time to see the first time around. However, it was the start of school holidays and the hostel I'd booked was only available for one night - rather than breaking up the day and moving across the city, I just decided to head to Langkawi - an island north of Penang. The highlight of Langkawi  was a day tooling around the island on a scooter. There are a couple of geo parks, one has a gondola to the top of a mountain with beautiful views.  Unfortunately, the view for me was uni-directional, the other half was socked in. predictably, I got a bit wet on the way back to the hostel on the scooter.

After just 3 nights on Langkawi I was feeling a bit anxious to get to Thailand. It was clear that the trip to Krabi had a number of connections so I opted to buy a package for 110 ringgit (about 27usd).  The hostel manager took me in his vehicle to the ferry terminal, bought me a ferry ticket and handed me a brown stapled envelope with the name of a guy I was to ask for when the boat landed in Satun. I asked him if there was cash in the envelope and he said he didn't know what was in it - haha. When I got off the boat, there were the usual hucksters "where you go?" A sleazy looking guy (straight from a mexican boarder town I swear - gold tooth and all) came up and, after looking at my envelope, claimed he was "the guy" and I was to wait.  After negotiating with and gathering up several of my fellow travelers, we were all loaded into the back of an old pickup truck and the driver was given my envelope (re-stapled) and extensive instructions. A 10 minute ride to a bit of a bus station followed. The pickup truck driver talked to the guys at the bus place and they wrote me a ticket to Trang. I got a bit upset arguing that I'd paid to go to Krabi (Trang is about half way of a 4 hour journey). After a bit of back and forth in broken English they managed to impart that the driver of the van to Trang would buy my ticket to Krabi. Not really knowing what else to do, I trusted it. About 15 mins into the 2 hour ride to Trang, the van driver pulled up next to a bus at a stop light, they rolled down windows and chatted then pulled over to the side of the road and I was summarily moved from the nice new air conditioned van to perhaps the oldest running bus I've ever seen and was told he would take me to Krabi. Which he did. Once at the Krabi bus station, another pickup truck ride (which I've since learned are called Songthaew) got me within 2 blocks of my hostel. Someone had told me awhile back that stuff like this happens in SE Asia but this was the first time I'd seen it in action. Multiple connections involving boats, taxi's, vans, buses and who knows what and somehow it all just works.

It's late and I'm tired so adventures in Krabi will have to wait. I'll try to add to this tomorrow.

Nov 30, 2015

Railay is an area on the mainland that is only accessible by boat and thus feels like an island. Stark limestone cliffs make it a climbers paradise. Getting there involved walking down to the river, forking over 150 baht and waiting for 9 other people to have the same inclination. Then it's maybe a 20-30 minute ride on a banana boat to a uniquely beautiful place. I spent a few hours exploring the beaches and trudging through the jungle until the storm clouds started rolling in. By the time I'd made arrangements to return, all hell broke loose and in the time it took to get from the beach down the pier to the boat I was completely drenched and a bit worried about being on the water in a little boat in such a vicious storm. On the way back I just thought if I died out there, it would be at the end of a perfect day, my life was complete.

The following day I figured out how to get a songthaew to the Tiger Paw temple. I had seen the giant Buddha on the trip into town and wondered if there was a way to get up to it. There was, by way of 1260 steps. With the heat and humidity, I didn't see anyone who didn't struggle with the climb. But man what a view from the top! The land formations that made Railey so beautiful were just as stunning from a distance. So unique.

A 12 hour bus ride has landed me in Bangkok. I really wanted to take the train from Surat Thani (a 3 hour bus ride from Krabi) but not knowing if I could get anything other than an over night 3rd class seat and not really wanting to stay overnight in Surat Thani, I wimped out and just took the bus. Overnighters seem like a waste of a good opportunity to see the country.