Death, waterfalls and some silk

We finally reached Kanchanaburi after a long hot bus ride, which was supposed to be on a "VIP" bus with air-con but turned out to be a old, smelly ride with this pitiful amount of air that wouldn't cool a camel in winter. Luckily, it was only a couple of hours and the scenery was beautiful enough that we didn't care too much. Its always interesting to see the quality of long distance travel is in each country but I had expected a little bit better in a place with as much tourism infrastructure as Thailand. But we did decide to take a government run bus. All our guidebooks said to avoid the tourist buses that left from the Khao San Road area like the plague so we were willing to take our chances with the Thai government than their travel agencies.

But we quickly forgot our bus ride once we stepped out of it. Bangkok was like another other big city except maybe with more palm trees but it didn't really have enough to really give you a feel of what Thailand is like so it was great to get out of there and experience the country. Kanchanaburi is a little town with 2 or 3 main roads and stretching about a kilometer long and the complete opposite of Bangkok. It was a real laidback place with people sitting on their porches and motorbikes puttering past. We decided to book into the Blue Star Guesthouse, a small quiet place overlooking the Kwai River. It was so great to stand there and take in the scenery with nothing but crickets and munching cows in the background. Ahhh, peace and quiet. You really can't put a price on that.

Yay! Our first bungalows in Thailand!

The view from our front porch. Well, actually we were too cheap to get the bungalow with the view but it was a very short walk away. Basically the same, right?

Kanchanaburi is famous mainly because its the site of the Death Railway Bridge. During World War II, the Japanese used prisoners of war (not necessarily Thai people as Ang aptly pointed out to me after laughing for about 10 minutes at my expense - thanks, Ang!) to do manual and construction work like building this one railway though the conditions were horrid and many people lost their lives. Its a sad moment in Thai history though the bridge itself is pretty unremarkable. Its just a bridge covered with tourists, though I guess that's a sight to be seen in itself. We were obliged to snap photos ourselves but our hearts weren't in it.

And here's the bridge. That's pretty much it.

Probably the best part of going to the bridge was seeing the sun set over the river. That was really nice except for the annoying floating karaoke bars and restaurants in the way. Like I said, lots of tourists here!

The real reason Ang and I had put Kanchanaburi on our preciously short list of things to do was to see the 7-tiered waterfalls in Erawan. Especially in that heat, we were pretty excited to swim under beautiful waterfalls. Really, in the humidity, there is nothing better than taking a dip! And the waterfalls definitely delivered. It was a long hot hike up to see each of the 7 waterfalls but each was beautiful and well worth the slippery rocks and oozy mud. The swim was even better.

Waterfall #2. Just look at the color of that water! Each waterfall was small enough to swim in the pools below so it was just perfect.

Posing in front of waterfall #4. It looks pretty lame but its hard to come up with new poses with so much travel!

This could be on a postcard! This is #5. It has pools on either side of these falls so we decided to swim here.

Walking across the pool. There were tons of fish in the pools that kept nipping at our feet. We were freaking out and dancing around the water. This DOES NOT bode well for scuba diving!

Finally made it to the top! The climb to #7 was slippery (we each fell at least one really hard on the butt) and muddy but it was definitely worth it. You can see the sun above the top of the falls and it was just perfect. I've seen lots of falls in my trip and these were definitely the best swimming ones!

We also saw the funniest lizard with a blue head. Its really blue! What??

We didn't have that much time in Kanchanaburi though we were able to find the night market and sample some pretty crazy foods. Having 2 people is way better than 1 for eatings since you can try twice as many dishes. The market was definitely not geared towards tourists so we spent a lot of time, scratching our heads and trying to figure out what was being sold, though it was awesome to get the local experience. At least the locals took pity on us and let us sample or buy very small portions of things. We ended up trying papaya salad, weird meatball things, miscellaneous meat on a stick, sticky rice balls with coconut, lots of indistinguishable fishy fried things and some of the strangest crepe-like desserts that came with gooey green stuff. Everything was absolutely divine and it was quite an adventure. But food is my thing so I was in heaven.

Look at all that meat on a stick!! We had the most amazing bbq pork and these weird meatballs that were sooo good.

We headed back to Bangkok to catch our overnight bus to Chiang Mai but we had some time to kill so we decided to see Jim Thompson's house. Jim was an American who settled in Thailand in the sixties and was instrumental in opening Thai culture to the West and introducing the wildly popular Thai silk worldwide. Before he mysteriously disappeared in 1967 (most people think he was probably run over by some Malaysian truck driver who then hid the body) he amassed a collection of Thai antiques, including the buildings of his house, which was then converted to a museum. It was interesting to see the house as it was with all the antiques, beautiful landscaping and tasteful decorations. With all the gaudy kitch in Bangkok it was nice to see something with some class.

The lush greenery outside the house. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any photos inside but the grounds were really lovely.

The house itself is an antique and was disassembled and reassembled in its current location. How do I get a house like this??

And next is Chiang Mai! Though there has been some flash-flooding in the north, we still want to go up and do some elephant-riding and trekking. We've heard some pretty great things about Chiang Mai so rain or shine, we're going!

Couldn't escape bangkok without...

...seeing the sights, of course! After all, I am a professional tourist. And I couldn't let Ang down and waste her precious vacation days (ah, the joys of working). Ang got here on Thursday night and we've been hard at work, tracking down elusive shopping deals and catching the sights.

You have no idea how happy I was to see Ang. We've been friends for practically forever and I haven't seen her since Christmas so it was really great to see her again. Also, its unbelievably nice to see a familiar face. Don't get me wrong. I've met some really amazing people and had such a great time traveling together. Its half the fun of traveling! But I only have a week or usually less to get to know the people I meet and that's hard. You're barely scratching the surface with that amount of time and constantly having that "Hi! My name is Jane!" face on is really tiring after awhile. Its like living freshman year all over again. Finally, I really miss home. I mean really. Traveling for an extended amount of time means having to leave your friends and family and sometimes I can feel so lonely and disconnected from my support network. So being able to be with a close friend again is priceless. We can joke about stupid things, talk about real things and enjoy all the comforts of being with someone we love. Its a good thing.

Yay!! Ang is here! We went to this amazing roti (kind of like Indian pancakes) place that had great curries and even better banana-covered rotis. Sooooo good.

But since Ang is only here for 2 1/2 weeks (boo), we have to move pretty quickly to cover a lot of ground. Our plans are pretty ambitious. We want to see Bangkok, Northern Thailand and Angor Wat before finishing in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Yeah, its a lot but we're pretty intelligent, capable young women so it should be fine. With my hardened experience and her fresh enthusiasm, it'll be a piece of cake, right? We'll see.

We at least did everything we wanted to do in Bangkok. Our plan isn't to spend a lot of time in the cities so we sped through Bangkok in just 2 days. Well, at least through the Grand Palace and the notorious weekend market. The Grand Palace was appropriately grand. Its the home of both the royal family and the Emerald Buddha, which is really made of jade but considered very holy nonetheless. When we walked into the palace, all we could do is stand in awe. And squint. Every building has such incredible architecture but are also completely covered in shiny, colored glass pieces. You couldn't look anywhere without 10,000 glass and crystal shards winking back at you. It was very impressive and beautiful is a bit gaudy. We tried to see every impressive building but it was just so hot, we gave up after a couple of hours. The heat just zaps you out here. Fortunately, we splurged on an air-con room so we quickly left and escaped into our cool oasis. Air-con is precious.

So impressive. Its probably the most impressive, amazing palace I've seen though its hard to tell. It was so shiny, it was hard to look at it for very long.

There's Ang, always ruining my shots!!

But really, the intricate work on the buildings were pretty amazing. The patterns, the statues and all the gold. It was way more impressive than the Forbidden City!

The Grand Palace even had a miniature of Angor Wat, a sign of good things to come!

There were a zillion workers, constantly upkeeping the palace. The entire place looked as good as it did over a hundred years ago.

We even saw this huge reclining buddha. Its gotta be at least the biggest indoor reclining buddha in the world. I love that about buddhas. Each has its own claim to fame. Its always the biggest something or other, not matter how ridiculously obscure.

Me resting by the reclining buddha (the coloring of the photo got a little messed up. Oops.).

We originally planned on leaving Bangkok the following day but we realized it would be a tragedy to leave Bangkok without shopping at the immense weekend market. So we left early in the morning to "beat" the heat but because we were desperate for an air-con bus, we left much later than we had hoped (after seeing innumerable regular buses pass us by). But don't worry! We still had plenty of time to shop. And shop we did. And shop and shop and shop. There are over 8,000 stalls at the weekend market, hocking everything from fake flowers to trendy clothes to every type of souvenir to puppies crying loud enough to break your heart and your ears. In the end, it was way too overwhelming. I would love to spend my time, coming and going, to figure out what to buy but to try and accomplish that in a single day is impossible. But we did come back with a few good finds so it was worth it (lots of people will be receiving "silk" pillowcases as presents!). We bought some fruit shakes to celebrate the end of another long day. Too bad they were Thai shakes that came with salt. Yuck. Word of advice: make sure they don't put salt in your shakes if you ever come to Thailand.

Tomorrow we head out of Bangkok to Kanchanaburi to see some caves and swim in some waterfalls. Finally out of the city!! We had planned to spend a bit more time out there but because of flooding in Chiang Mai (damn monsoon season!), our train was canceled so we have to buy bus tickets instead. It was a nightmare trying to figure out a contingency plan in very little time and I'm so glad Ang is here to help figure things out. But we have a plan and we're leaving (sort of) on schedule!

Yum!! Pad Thai and ice coffee in a bag. Probably 2 of my most favorite things about Thailand!

(Im)possible rest in bangkok

As a traveler with a relatively short period of time (I know, its a whole year but still its not enough!), I pretty much race through cities, countries and continents. I try to spend as much time to see all the things I want to see and do all the things I want to do and I rarely stay in one place for more than 2 nights. But I have to tell you, after about a week in Bangkok, I'm ready to move on!!!! There's a reason I only spend 2 or 3 nights in one place! This place is starting to infect my brain and I need out.

But I needed the break though Bangkok really isn't the right place to rest and recharge (more on that later). Traveling is pretty exhausting since I have to make every moment count and make sure I plan all my transportation and tours perfectly. After about 6 weeks or so, I usually find myself pretty burnt out and instead of appreciating the things I experience, all I can do is focus on how crappy my accommodations are and how tired I am. After Tibet I was definitely in that place. I was thinking that I would extend my time in Nepal after Tibet to see more of the countryside and do some more trekking but when it came down to it, I was too tired to pickup my guidebook and plan the next step. It wouldn't be fair since I wouldn't be focusing on the experience as much as the hassle. So I decided to come to Bangkok and spend about 4 days hanging around while I waited for Ang to come.

And it was good for the most part. I read a little, sat around a little and tried to escape the heat as much as I could. I even found an internet place that is FREE and even with good connections!! There are certain things that become absolutely precious when you travel. Sturdy boots, quick-drying clothes, Purel, toilet paper, iPod, camera and blog immediately come to mind. But so is a good internet connection, which is so important for posting photos!! And the fact that this place is free is like finding an extra present hidden away under the Christmas tree. So I ended up spending many many hours in front of the computer, posting pics (I was shamefully way behind), catching up on school prep stuff, sorting my finances and catching up on all my favorite tv shows (its May sweeps, folks!). I also started to get well acquainted with Thai food and beverages, especially green curries and watermelon shakes.

Where do I even begin on the street food? If you're envisioning little snacks on tiny carts, let me shed some light. The "carts" are basically fullout kitchens with all the ingredients for every Thai dish possible. They have grills, pots, woks, everything!! And on every street corner. Truly amazing. And delicious!

Finally! Fresh fruit! I eat fruit almost constantly. Good source of vitamins and refreshing. Perfect cure for the oppressive humidity here.

I even saw a movie! I wanted to act like a normal person rather than a tourist freak so I hit the mall, sat in coffee shops (okay, ice cream shops. Hey! Its really hot here!), and didn't even take my camera around (hence no photos in this part of the write-up). I really can't wait for the day when I hang up my camera for good. The good thing is that my photo-taking has gotten better but its heavy and a curse around my neck. But back to the movie. I ended up seeing the Da Vinci Code and enjoyed it thoroughly. I really love summer blockbusters, no matter how stupid so it was a great way to start off the season. And seeing movies in Thailand is pretty fun. For the same price as a US ticket, you can get a seat in the super-duper titanium platinum deluxe seats. They have full-on leather loveseats, waiters to take your munchies order and special bathrooms. Alas, I am a backpacker so I cheaply opted for normal US$3 seats. Lame but the other seats were expensive!! The other funny thing about Thai theaters is that they play the royal anthem and everyone has to stand up to commemorate the king. They also show this ridiculously propagandistic clip showing idealized peasants all worshiping the king. I tried not to laugh too loudly.

But its hard to really relax in this city. I'm staying in the Khao San Road area, notoriously full of backpackers and it loud and obnoxious here. So many travelers treat Bangkok as the last-stop party town and people go nuts here. Not just the annoying partiers everywhere, there are so many touts and lady-boys trying to get you to go to some bar or club, baring electronica or worse, bad American pop music. Ack!! You guys know this is NOT my scene. Especially after China, its really jarring to be treated just as a walking wallet.

Let me through!!

Though Bangkok hasn't been ideal, I needed the time here, not traveling and not planning. I haven't even seen any of the major sights in Bangkok! At least I've been able to take care of everything I needed to so it was time well spent. I have been able to find whatever ways to decompress so I really can't complain. But I'm really here waiting for Ang to arrive. Sitting and waiting.... Ang, where are you???

Tibet free no more

Okay!! Finally finished posting on Tibet! Check over the last 3 posts for new pictures!

The last part of our Tibet trip brought us to the bigger Tibetan towns of Shigatse, Gyantse and the capital, Lhasa where we had the opportunity to visit some of the most impressive and tragic monasteries in Tibet. They held some amazing statues and chapels where they revere historical figures, high lamas and images of various buddhas. But they are just a shell of their former grandeur.

In all we visited a ton of monasteries and I was beat by the end. We visited the Tashilhunpo Monastery, the home of the Panchen Lama, in Shigatse, Pelkor Choede Monastery in Gyantse, Sera, Ganden and Jokhang monasteries in Lhasa and Potala Palace in Lhasa. That's a lot of monasteries! Though each one was interesting in their own right, I was pretty tired of visiting chapels (the 99 rooms in Gyantse were killer) and smelling burning yak butter. Here are some select pictures of the monasteries but none really capture the grandeur of the statues, the sound of monks chanting, and the reverence of the prostrating pilgrims that permeated each room.

The facade of the monastery at Gyantse. The building to the right is based on a mandala, which is design by the 5th Dalai Lama that is purely symmetrical.

Prayer wheels. They are outside every monastery.

Some monks goofing off at the top of a temple. They were supposed to be doing some construction work but they stopped to pose for our pictures!

The view from the Gyantse monastery. That's an old fort in the background from when the Tibetans weren't so peaceful.

A pilgrim bringing yak butter for the candles. There were pilgrims everywhere and it felt like sacrilage to take photos while these people were worshiping.

A rare photo from inside the monasteries. The monks charged up to 150 yuan to take photos in each chapel. It was way too expensive plus all the chapels started to look alike after awhile.

Monks engaging in traditional debates at Sera in Lhasa. Some of them really got into it and they punctuated each question with a very dramatic clap.

Pilgrams prostrating outside Jokhang monastery in Lhasa. It holds the most holy statue in Tibet and the pilgrims lined up to pay tribute to it. I was lucky to get a view of it!

The nicest Tibetan woman who guided us through Jokhang. She even showed us a small statue of a sheep that looked like it was coming out of the wall. According to her, the statue was very small about 50 years ago and grows mysteriously on its own every year. Fact or fiction, folks?

I got blessed by a monk! The black on my nose is for protection. No laughing!

We were lucky to catch these monks chanting at the Ganden monastery, way up in the mountains just outside Lhasa. Here's one of the high lamas who seemed more interested in posing for photos then leading the monks in chanting.

The main chanting hall in Ganden. I could have sat there all day, listening to the soothing chanting of the monks.

But the monasteries had this tragic feel to it also. Tibet was invaded by the Chinese in the 1950's in what the Chinese called a "liberation" campaign. The Cultural Revolution in 1959 also brought mass destruction to the monasteries, Potala Palace, other cultural sites and the Tibetan way of life. During the cultural and actual genocide (over 1.2 million Tibetans are believed to have died), the Dalai Lama fled into India and has vowed not to return until Tibet is their own once again. It breaks my heart to see how Tibetans have been oppressed and become a minority in their own land. Every where you can see how the Chinese are imposing their way of life on these people. Each house is forced to put up pictures of Mao and other Party officials while possessing a picture of the Dalai Lama is punishable by jail time. The Chinese don't understand the Free Tibet movement. Afterall, they've brought infrastructure, schooling, and commerce to Tibet while dramatically increasing their standard of living. That's true but at what cost? They've lost their land, religion, culture and independence. And its visible at every turn in Tibet, especially the major towns and monasteries, as beautiful as they were.

Each monastery holds only a fraction of the monks they used to house and the cities look more Chinese than they do Tibetan. It makes the first part of our trip, when we journeyed through the small Tibetan villages, that much more unique and precious. Han Chinese continue to stream into Tibet and I can't even begin to imagine what it will be like 5, 10, 20 years from now. So I'm glad to have made it here when I could. Its possible to imagine what it was like before the Chinese "liberated" Tibet and its sad to think it will never go back. You can't help but feel for the plight of the Tibetans and maybe that's at least one benefit from the increased tourism and spectacle the Chinese have turned Tibet into.

The outside of Potala Palace, the former seat of the Dalai Lama. You could feel the intrusion of the Chinese the most here. This is where the Dalai Lama should be, presiding over his people rather than in exile in India. It is so sad.

Here are some parting shots of the Tibet trip. Our Intrepid group was great! We had some laughs but mostly we bonded by huddling together through our altitude sickness. Trust me, you get past the polite stage pretty quickly when everyone is looking haggard and sick together. Our leader, Puskar, was also amazing. Always quick with a smile and reassuring words on such a difficult trip. His cure for altitude sickness? "Think happy thoughts!" Yeah, right. :)

Our group at lunch! Tibetan food leaves something to be desired but at these altitudes, we didn't feel like eating much anyways.

That's me getting attacked by a yak. We went to a Tibetan culture show where we saw some traditional dancing (like this one where the domestication of the yak is celebrated) and had some traditional Tibetan foods like yak butter tea (disgusting) and tsampa, a mixture of barley flour and yak butter tea (also disgusting). As you can tell, I'm not a huge fan of yak in any form.

Okay, I've been in front of this computer for 4 hours and I can feel myself turning to mush. I don't know how I used to spend 15 hours a day in front of a computer when I was working! How am I supposed to do it again???

Into thin air

My head wouldn't stop pounding, I could barely breath, the bathrooms were nightmare-inducing, snow was constantly blowing in my face but the trip to Everest Base Camp was everything I had hoped it would be. It was just so amazing to be standing in the same spot as the climbers who defied human limitations to climb the highest peak in the world.

We arrived at Rongbuk monastery and you could immediately feel the difference in alititude from the moment we stepped out of the car. We had spent the last few days trying to acclimate, moving from 1300 meters at Kathmandu to 4200 meters at Tingri. We were already pretty battered from the altitude (you try sleeping with your heart racing and head pounding!) so the thought of staying at 5000 meters was pretty tough. Every step was a struggle and I had to stop every few minutes to give my head a rest. I think our group spent something like 5 hours just sitting in the dining room, trying to nurse our headaches. I also decided to stay in the monastery (you could chose to stay at the lodge just 5 minutes away) to have the "true" experience and it was pretty basic. Actually, really basic. It was musty, dirty and a bit moldy but at least it had some beds to sleep on. Not that we actually slept that night.

The lucky winners who got to stay at the monastery. Later in the day, some guys took away the stove, leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling. That definitely came in handy while in snowed at night. It also stank. Actually lots of things on our trip stank. I don't even want to talk about the bathrooms!

But it was definitely an achievement to stay at Rongbuk and I wouldn't have changed a thing. We were staying at 5000 meters (17,000 ft), which is higher than Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48. I've never stayed at this type of altitude so I'm glad to say I did it though its not very fun. And the views. We had a picture perfect view of Everest from our door steps, shining like a beacon and beckoning us to come. The monks at the monastery were also pretty nice so it added a spiritual feel to Everest.

Our first view of Everest from Tingri, where we stayed the day before arriving at Rongbuk. Can you feel the excitment yet? That's Everest!!

And there she is!! Imposing, impressive and stunning. The view from Rongbuk was perfect.

This woman really wanted her photo taken so I kindly obliged. We sat next to each other for about 15 minutes afterwards, smiling and nodding though we had no idea what the other was saying.

The stupa from the monastery. It definitely felt like being on holy ground.

The next day, we hiked just 8km (around 5 miles) to Everest Base Camp, which is at 5200 meters. Though we only gained 200 meters in altitude, the hike was tough. Every small hill looked like an unsurmountable mountain and every step was a struggle. It also snowed that day (pretty rare) so we couldn't really see anything along the hike or when we got there. But still, it was Base Camp for godssake so we couldn't miss the opportunity. We spent a frigid half hour there before the snow drove us back to Rongbuk. Because of the snow, we decided to take donkey carts back to Rongbuk. It seemed like an easy option at first but it was the most undignified and ridiculous thing I have EVER done. We were bounced all over the place, barely able to hang on while the driver kept looking back at us and laughing. It was also frigid, ice-cold. I couldn't feel anything after about 5 minutes except hail and snow hitting my numb face. The hike was hard but I would chose it over the donkey cart any day! Never again!

This is all we saw from our hike. Clouds and more clouds.

It was actually pretty miserable to hike in the snow. Even these yaks looked frozen!

Hotel California, indeed. There were all these tents at the top, waiting to serve us hot tea and cocoa at ridiculous prices. We were, of course, happy to pay.

Yeah!! Made it to Base Camp! It was truly an epic moment.

Look at those unsuspecting fools in the cart. Little do they know how ridiculous the trip is. We bounced so hard on those benches I thought I would break every bone in my butt!

We also got to see some expedition tents at Base Camp. I thought it was nutty to stay at 5000 meters but that's chump change compared to the people climbing Everest. Those people are TRULY CRAZY. The top of Mount Everest reaches an unbelievable 8848 meters (29,029 feet) and thousands of people attempt it every year. The climb takes a couple of months in order to acclimatize and the climbers spend their going back and forth between camps before attacking the peak. I can't even imagine what its like up there. The altitude was so painful at Base Camp and that was only 5000 meters! The air at the top of Everest is so thin that if someone was just dropped off at the top, his head would explode in minutes. Also, 1 in 10 climbers don't make it. Not as in having to come back but as in they DIE. Its something that seems exciting in theory but I would never do it. I don't think I'll ever go back to 5000! (Well, maybe. Kilimangaro is definitely on my list...)

Look! Its the crazy people! The expedition tents from Base Camp weren't that impressive but apparently climbing from the Nepal side is more popular.

It was quite a relief to come back down to 4,200 meters but we were definitely sad to go. We were right there! In the face of Everest! This is what legends are made of!

At our last dinner, we went to this place where we could commemorate our trip to Base Camp (held by Puskar). Congrats on making it, everyone!