A few days ago we were in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, and also one of the centres of the Khmer Rouge Genocide that took place in the mid 1970's. While we were there, I visited (Joanna wasn't up to come along, because she was feeling sick, and the experience is known to be extremely emotionally draining) the Tul Sleng museum, and the Killing Fields, . These two places were responsible for the deaths of some Twenty Thousand People. During about four years, the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the murders of around Three million completly innocent Khmer people."Khmer" is the Cambodian word for the Cambodian peoples. From what I've come to understand, the story goes as follows:
During the 1960's and early 1970's Cambodia was in a state of civil war. One of the parties was a communist party called the Khmer Rouge. This party was led by a man called Polpot, and his party's time in power will not be forgotten for a very generations to come. The Khmer Rouge ended up winning the civil war, and promptly "revolutionized" the state; Destroying almost every single factory and bank in Phnom Penh, and burning all of the money in the banks, turning the capital city into a ghost town. The Khmer Rouge wanted to get rid of the unwanted people ie: Intellectuals, athletes, elderly people, anyone affiliated with the previous government and anyone who was a "traitor"or a "spy". The party favoured the "Base peoples" which were the uneducated and simple farmers from rural towns. These people were apparently the future of the Khmer people, even though they had little or no education.
To eliminate the unwanted peoples, Polpot set up various prison camps for political prisoners, often converting schools, turning all of the classrooms into prison cells and torture chambers. The rest of the people, from elderly people to people that had ever been to school, women and babies, mothers and fathers and anyone else, often for being affiliated to wrongly accused political prisoners or wrongly accused spies or traitors of the state, were sent to fields outside of towns, and murdered them. No bullets were ever used, because bullets cost money, and the traitors weren't worth it. The people were killed with knives, hatchets, clubs and hammers. Their hand were bound behind their backs, and they were blind folded and they were beaten to death, in every case. Their throats were cut with the ragged edges of palm tree leaves. Women were often stripped naked, and people were ofter beheaded. The prisoners were forced to dig pits up to 8 meters deep, and then they were executed and thrown into the pits. At the Killing field I visited, Government workers who found the graves after the Khmer Rouge was thrown out, found the bodies of Four Hundred and fifty human beings. Completly innocent people from all over Phnom Penh and the surrounding communites were brought to the field by the truckload and murdered on the spot. I should mention that Polpot favoured young and teenaged boys to be his soldiers and guards. Only boys and teenagers were allowed to be guards. The boys were brainwashed into believing that killing was the only thing to do, and were responsible for all of the murders at the Prison and killing fields. These boys murdered everyone that came to those fields. They would even kill their own families if it came to that.
My guide told me that most of the time the people being executed had been falsly accused, or had been turned in by a relative or co worker on suspicion of being a traitor. Most of the time there was no basis to these accusations and thousands upon thousands of innocent people were murdered in the most barbaric and merciless way. It seems like anytime someone got into a position of power, even if they were promoted, they were watched, and often arrested for charges that had nothing to do with them. My guide just said "these men crazy, they kill people for no reason, they kill everyone".
The killing field I went to was only on two hecteres of land and you could walk around the whole thing in about 10 or fifteen minutes. The ground is covered in the shallow grass covered dents of what were once mass graves. About half of the park is covered by a pond now, preventing the further excavation of half of the bodies. But on that little piece of farm land outside of Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge managed to murder and bury 20 000 people. Arm and leg bones have been placed in little piles along with bits of rags which were prisoners clothing on top of important sites around the memorial park.
At the entrance of the park there is a very large pagoda like building that houses the 8,129 human skull that excavators found on the land that isn't covered by water. The inside of the hollow structure has 8 stories of skulls, with glass casing around square platforms all the way up to the top. Just below the first level of skulls is a collection of clothing that was found on prisoners. The first few levels of skulls have sliding windows that are left open during the day, so visitors can fully grasp the reality of what has taken place there. There is a little shrine outside to place incense and pray for those who lost there lives during the regime's reign. There were times that it was all too terrible to try and understand, and I just cried, sat and cried. It still makes me tear up and feel sick thinking about all of it. I think I'll go into more depth about my experience at the museum later, it's all very heavy to think about.
I feel very honored and fortunate that I was able to see and experience both the fields and the museum, and it makes me wish that more people from the west are able to experience the terrible realities of modern history.
I think it would make everyone realize what can't be allowed to be repeated and how extremely lucky we all are.
-Ben
Friday, December 29, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Rollin, rollin, rollin on the river
SOOOO,
We are in Siahnoukville (see-en-oo-ville), Cambodia and we're loving it here. But First, Tales from Bangkok:
We ended up staying in Bangkok for three nights, and had a lot of fun. Bangkok was still really crazy and overwhelming, but we weren't nearly as hot this time around, or as cranky. Climatization at work I guess.
Bangkok is a kind of like a sweaty, diesl-ey, smelly slap in the face after being anywhere else in Thailand for longer than a day. There are two large scale traffic jams everyday, temples and high rises sit side by side. Street vendors selling all kinds of delicious fried foods can be found in the most obscure alley ways, and wild dogs roam the streets and sleep wherever they please. There is often so much going on in your line of sight that you have trouble focussing on any one thing, and it gives me at least, a headache. I think that's what the first day of being in Bangkok has been like for me every time we go back. I feel more comfortable with everything now but its still an insane place to be for more than a few days. And By the time we left this time I was coughing up flem and stuff, probably from a combination of smog and sickness.
Solange took Jo and I to MBK, which is one of the biggest malls in bangkok. There is fake everything there; Designer clothing, perfumes, sunglasses, electronics and everything else. There are six or seven floors, and we spent all day there. It was draining just to be in all that chaos, but we survived, and got some dope new "kicks" (shoes mom, shoes) We all ended up spending more than we would have liked, and I ended up spending like $85 that day, which is an insane amount of money here, but I got some sweet stuff. Solange and I bought some burnt cd's mine were:
CCR greates hits (hence post name)
Coldplay greatest hits
Razor Light
Motown 5 cd complation
Red Hot Chili Peppers Greatest hits
and some others I can't remember right now.
ANYWAYS
As I was saying...
We just hung around Soi Rambuttri and Khao San Rd, and shopped and ate a bunch for a couple of days pretty much. We decided to start to head to Cambodia, And after a string of mini-bus rides we arrived at the Cambodian border crossing. The crossing went very smoothly and a nice dude who spoke very good english offered to give us a lift into town for 300 baht. He taught us a few words in Cambodian like "Suicydie" which is hello( but sounds a lot like suicide) and "Awkun" which is thank you. One of the first things I noticed was that they drive on the right side of the road, unlike Thailand where they drive on the left. And we all immediately felt a sense of relaxation, because there were many less people around, life just seemed to be moving at a much slower pace. It was also a beautiful sunset, which didn't hurt either. We were driven to a nice hotel that was actually a converted french colonial style house, with big rooms, and an upper level that you could have ballroom danced on. There were no street lights in Koh Kong, the town we were in, and the only internet we found DIAL-UP. DIAL. UP. It was like being in a museum, I swear to God. We went to a nice little restaurant to eat, and the owner's 5 year old son translated the prices for his mom, it was sooooooo cute. I gave him a little tip and said goodbye. The currency in Cambodia is Riel, but everyone uses the US dollar as currency. 4000 Riel is about 1 US dollar, so when you get change, they always give it to you in Riel, because they don't use American change. To complicate things further, Koh Kong is a border town, so they also accept Thai baht. It was a bit tricky-ish to figure out what somethings cost but it wasn't that hard.
The next day we caught a four hour speed boat ride to Sihanoukville (see-en-oo-ville) We caught three motos(motorbike taxis) to the ferry terminal and secured ourselves a very selfish 3 seats each so we could sleep the whole way. About half way we stopped to more people on, and some Cambodian children came running on with food to sell. They woke me up and in a daze I agreed to buy a baguette from one of them, and right after that they were all shoving food in my face trying to get me to buy me some. I said no thank you, and Solange was watching me and laughing, because she's been to Cambodia already and knows what its like to be mobbed by children. The ride got very, very bumpy after that. I just kept on lying down, and had nice day dreams of bouncing around a rubber room.
We arrived safely at Sihanoukville, and caught some motos to a backpacker part of town on a hill that overlooks the ocean. We found a nice hotel that was again a converted French colonial house. It was only $2 each a night, and had satellite tv. we all fell asleep for the afternoon, and woke up at sunset. We wandered around the little strip of restaurants and stores and found a restaurant that was owned by a very eccentric Finnish man with a hitler moustache. He was very odd, although I very much doubt he had an allegiance to the reich. We had some burritos and some samosas. We went back to the hotel and watched "Striptease" with Demi Moore, whcih was a very bad movie, before we read and went to bed.
And there you have it, the last few days of my life.
You guys to email us more though, or at least comment, because we always read them all.
If you want to know more about how were doing, you need to email!
I Love erbody
-Ben
We are in Siahnoukville (see-en-oo-ville), Cambodia and we're loving it here. But First, Tales from Bangkok:
We ended up staying in Bangkok for three nights, and had a lot of fun. Bangkok was still really crazy and overwhelming, but we weren't nearly as hot this time around, or as cranky. Climatization at work I guess.
Bangkok is a kind of like a sweaty, diesl-ey, smelly slap in the face after being anywhere else in Thailand for longer than a day. There are two large scale traffic jams everyday, temples and high rises sit side by side. Street vendors selling all kinds of delicious fried foods can be found in the most obscure alley ways, and wild dogs roam the streets and sleep wherever they please. There is often so much going on in your line of sight that you have trouble focussing on any one thing, and it gives me at least, a headache. I think that's what the first day of being in Bangkok has been like for me every time we go back. I feel more comfortable with everything now but its still an insane place to be for more than a few days. And By the time we left this time I was coughing up flem and stuff, probably from a combination of smog and sickness.
Solange took Jo and I to MBK, which is one of the biggest malls in bangkok. There is fake everything there; Designer clothing, perfumes, sunglasses, electronics and everything else. There are six or seven floors, and we spent all day there. It was draining just to be in all that chaos, but we survived, and got some dope new "kicks" (shoes mom, shoes) We all ended up spending more than we would have liked, and I ended up spending like $85 that day, which is an insane amount of money here, but I got some sweet stuff. Solange and I bought some burnt cd's mine were:
CCR greates hits (hence post name)
Coldplay greatest hits
Razor Light
Motown 5 cd complation
Red Hot Chili Peppers Greatest hits
and some others I can't remember right now.
ANYWAYS
As I was saying...
We just hung around Soi Rambuttri and Khao San Rd, and shopped and ate a bunch for a couple of days pretty much. We decided to start to head to Cambodia, And after a string of mini-bus rides we arrived at the Cambodian border crossing. The crossing went very smoothly and a nice dude who spoke very good english offered to give us a lift into town for 300 baht. He taught us a few words in Cambodian like "Suicydie" which is hello( but sounds a lot like suicide) and "Awkun" which is thank you. One of the first things I noticed was that they drive on the right side of the road, unlike Thailand where they drive on the left. And we all immediately felt a sense of relaxation, because there were many less people around, life just seemed to be moving at a much slower pace. It was also a beautiful sunset, which didn't hurt either. We were driven to a nice hotel that was actually a converted french colonial style house, with big rooms, and an upper level that you could have ballroom danced on. There were no street lights in Koh Kong, the town we were in, and the only internet we found DIAL-UP. DIAL. UP. It was like being in a museum, I swear to God. We went to a nice little restaurant to eat, and the owner's 5 year old son translated the prices for his mom, it was sooooooo cute. I gave him a little tip and said goodbye. The currency in Cambodia is Riel, but everyone uses the US dollar as currency. 4000 Riel is about 1 US dollar, so when you get change, they always give it to you in Riel, because they don't use American change. To complicate things further, Koh Kong is a border town, so they also accept Thai baht. It was a bit tricky-ish to figure out what somethings cost but it wasn't that hard.
The next day we caught a four hour speed boat ride to Sihanoukville (see-en-oo-ville) We caught three motos(motorbike taxis) to the ferry terminal and secured ourselves a very selfish 3 seats each so we could sleep the whole way. About half way we stopped to more people on, and some Cambodian children came running on with food to sell. They woke me up and in a daze I agreed to buy a baguette from one of them, and right after that they were all shoving food in my face trying to get me to buy me some. I said no thank you, and Solange was watching me and laughing, because she's been to Cambodia already and knows what its like to be mobbed by children. The ride got very, very bumpy after that. I just kept on lying down, and had nice day dreams of bouncing around a rubber room.
We arrived safely at Sihanoukville, and caught some motos to a backpacker part of town on a hill that overlooks the ocean. We found a nice hotel that was again a converted French colonial house. It was only $2 each a night, and had satellite tv. we all fell asleep for the afternoon, and woke up at sunset. We wandered around the little strip of restaurants and stores and found a restaurant that was owned by a very eccentric Finnish man with a hitler moustache. He was very odd, although I very much doubt he had an allegiance to the reich. We had some burritos and some samosas. We went back to the hotel and watched "Striptease" with Demi Moore, whcih was a very bad movie, before we read and went to bed.
And there you have it, the last few days of my life.
You guys to email us more though, or at least comment, because we always read them all.
If you want to know more about how were doing, you need to email!
I Love erbody
-Ben
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
I thought you should know
...that the reason that I haven't been updating isn't because I've been kidnapped or died, simply because we've spent the last week doing nothing but relaxing on the beach(when it isn't raining) and hanging out with Emily and Solange.
The full moon party was insane, like I expected, and we hung out with a group of awesome australians and danced and drank the night away. It was a little too crazy for me, and I realized that my idea of a good time out is not a huge rave on a beach. There was just too many people and too much going on, and I was a little to drunk. I had a good time, but I don't think I'll be going out of my way to attend another one.
A couple of days ago the four of us decided to leave Koh Phangan for Koh Chang (Elephant Island in English) for a change of Scenery. We took a very cheap(bad sign) bus from Koh Phangan to Bangkok, from where we'd catch a bus to Koh Chang.
The bus ride to Bangkok was actually pretty good, we decided to sit in some of the seats in the bottom level of the bus where we'd have more leg room. Good idea in principle, bad idea in retrospect. The leg room was very nice but was overshadowed by the overpowering smell of urinal cake and sewage whenever someone opened the bathroom door. Unlike any of the bus rides we have taken in Thailand, the bus arrived in Bangkok early. This never happens. The bus arrived at 5 am beside Khao San Road, the main backpacker haven in Bangkok. We ate a very early breakfast at a twenty four hour restaurant, and giggled and dragged ourselves up the road to Soy Rambuitri, a very nice and quiet little hostel street we've all become very fond of. We found an internet cafe and I made some phone calls to some very surprised people. I finally got to talk to Jena on the phone and got very mushy and very homesick(well, I actually just missed her, really, really badly, sorry everyone).
Once the travel agents opened at 7am we got some bus tickets for Koh Chang that left at 8 am. I wasn't tired or grumpy after talking to Jena, and leaving Bangkok sooner than later was like music to my ears. On that bus ride, the drivers played some very bad(and by bad I mean terrible) Folk-Rock-Polka crap that was sung by a very bad thai singer singing in english, over the bus speakers. I wanted to die. I think we all did, actually I know we all did. We had been travelling for over 24 hours, and did not want to hear any Folk-Rock-Polka music ever let alone when we were trying to sleep. Thankfully they switched to some South African tribal music about Nelson Mandella(how bad is it when I'm actually relieved by that change). After about halfway we had a lunch break and when we got back on, One of the drivers came through and Joanna heroically asked him to turn the music off in the rest of the bus. Amazingly, he turned it off. We got to the ferry terminal, got on the ferry, and I had a chicken burger in a triple stacked sandwhich (or sandwith as it said on the menu) with a side of sliced hotdog wrapped in bacon (yummy.) We caught a sung thao to a beach called "Lonely Beach" and found a nice little hostel with a very posh outdoor bar and restaurant, and very unposh bungallows.
Sadly, Emily will be heading to bangkok to catch a flight down to Koh Samui to be with some relatives for Christmas in a day or two, but she'll be able to meet up with Jo and I again in Cambodia and Vietnam mid January.
Solange, Joanna and I are going to head to Siennaville in southern Cambodia, where we plan to spend Christmas. I'm most excited about this because of the reference to the very famous Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia". Although in the song, Cambodia does not sound like a nice place to be for a holiday. Of course, it is an older song, and the Cambodian totalitarian regime the "Khmer Rouge" was still in place, and still executing massive amounts of they're own people. On a lighter note, Cambodia is thankfully a totally different place than it was even ten years ago, and Solange tells me the Cambodian people are incredibly nice. I'm really excited to get out of Thailand to see more culture, and less westernized everything. I'm also looking forward to going to Phenom Penh and Siem Reap, to see the Killing Fields and see the extent of the Khmer Rouge's damage on the Cambodian people (finally, some modern history). We'll also be heading north to Angkor Wat, the massive walled town of Temples, where we plan on renting bycicles for a couple of days to see it all. Tomb Raider was filmed in one of the temples in Angkor Wat if that helps anyone.
Solange is off to meet her loverboy Josh on January 4th, so Jo and I will be on our own for a couple of weeks. I hope that we'll all be able to meet up again though, we've had a lot of fun. "The Dinks", that is to say another group of friends from Victoria, will be in Cambodia and Vietnam around the same time as us, so we'll probably meet up with them along the road.
I think that pretty much brings you up to speed on everything, and I promise I'll post more when we get into Cambodia, because we'll actually be doing something other than hanging out in hammocks and reading by the beach.
love you all
-Ben
The full moon party was insane, like I expected, and we hung out with a group of awesome australians and danced and drank the night away. It was a little too crazy for me, and I realized that my idea of a good time out is not a huge rave on a beach. There was just too many people and too much going on, and I was a little to drunk. I had a good time, but I don't think I'll be going out of my way to attend another one.
A couple of days ago the four of us decided to leave Koh Phangan for Koh Chang (Elephant Island in English) for a change of Scenery. We took a very cheap(bad sign) bus from Koh Phangan to Bangkok, from where we'd catch a bus to Koh Chang.
The bus ride to Bangkok was actually pretty good, we decided to sit in some of the seats in the bottom level of the bus where we'd have more leg room. Good idea in principle, bad idea in retrospect. The leg room was very nice but was overshadowed by the overpowering smell of urinal cake and sewage whenever someone opened the bathroom door. Unlike any of the bus rides we have taken in Thailand, the bus arrived in Bangkok early. This never happens. The bus arrived at 5 am beside Khao San Road, the main backpacker haven in Bangkok. We ate a very early breakfast at a twenty four hour restaurant, and giggled and dragged ourselves up the road to Soy Rambuitri, a very nice and quiet little hostel street we've all become very fond of. We found an internet cafe and I made some phone calls to some very surprised people. I finally got to talk to Jena on the phone and got very mushy and very homesick(well, I actually just missed her, really, really badly, sorry everyone).
Once the travel agents opened at 7am we got some bus tickets for Koh Chang that left at 8 am. I wasn't tired or grumpy after talking to Jena, and leaving Bangkok sooner than later was like music to my ears. On that bus ride, the drivers played some very bad(and by bad I mean terrible) Folk-Rock-Polka crap that was sung by a very bad thai singer singing in english, over the bus speakers. I wanted to die. I think we all did, actually I know we all did. We had been travelling for over 24 hours, and did not want to hear any Folk-Rock-Polka music ever let alone when we were trying to sleep. Thankfully they switched to some South African tribal music about Nelson Mandella(how bad is it when I'm actually relieved by that change). After about halfway we had a lunch break and when we got back on, One of the drivers came through and Joanna heroically asked him to turn the music off in the rest of the bus. Amazingly, he turned it off. We got to the ferry terminal, got on the ferry, and I had a chicken burger in a triple stacked sandwhich (or sandwith as it said on the menu) with a side of sliced hotdog wrapped in bacon (yummy.) We caught a sung thao to a beach called "Lonely Beach" and found a nice little hostel with a very posh outdoor bar and restaurant, and very unposh bungallows.
Sadly, Emily will be heading to bangkok to catch a flight down to Koh Samui to be with some relatives for Christmas in a day or two, but she'll be able to meet up with Jo and I again in Cambodia and Vietnam mid January.
Solange, Joanna and I are going to head to Siennaville in southern Cambodia, where we plan to spend Christmas. I'm most excited about this because of the reference to the very famous Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia". Although in the song, Cambodia does not sound like a nice place to be for a holiday. Of course, it is an older song, and the Cambodian totalitarian regime the "Khmer Rouge" was still in place, and still executing massive amounts of they're own people. On a lighter note, Cambodia is thankfully a totally different place than it was even ten years ago, and Solange tells me the Cambodian people are incredibly nice. I'm really excited to get out of Thailand to see more culture, and less westernized everything. I'm also looking forward to going to Phenom Penh and Siem Reap, to see the Killing Fields and see the extent of the Khmer Rouge's damage on the Cambodian people (finally, some modern history). We'll also be heading north to Angkor Wat, the massive walled town of Temples, where we plan on renting bycicles for a couple of days to see it all. Tomb Raider was filmed in one of the temples in Angkor Wat if that helps anyone.
Solange is off to meet her loverboy Josh on January 4th, so Jo and I will be on our own for a couple of weeks. I hope that we'll all be able to meet up again though, we've had a lot of fun. "The Dinks", that is to say another group of friends from Victoria, will be in Cambodia and Vietnam around the same time as us, so we'll probably meet up with them along the road.
I think that pretty much brings you up to speed on everything, and I promise I'll post more when we get into Cambodia, because we'll actually be doing something other than hanging out in hammocks and reading by the beach.
love you all
-Ben
Sunday, December 03, 2006
the little mo-ped that couldn't
oh hayyyyy,
Jo and I met 4 people the first night we got to our hostel, two are from belgium; Stan and Babette, and a german named Guerit and a Brit named Lauren. We started playing poker and drinking and and a really fun night. Today we went with them on a little scotter tour with just our three bikes to see a couple of waterfalls. Unfortunatley, our mo-ped didn't like going uphill much and would start to rattle and make this horrible clicking noise all the way up. It was a bit worrying but mostly funny. The first waterfall we went to turned out to be a little stream in a huge riverbed. I guess we came to see at the wrong time of year. but before we realized that, we hiked 500 meters up hill through the brush before we got to a lookout point. The hike was fun, but tireing, so we went back down and had some nibbles and water. We kept on moving and the roads got a little rougher with big pot-holes and bumps we had to ride over. But it was a lot of fun, other than our rattling little mo-ped. The second waterfall we went to had a very nice little pool with a stream running right into it. It started to rain, and the rain brought out the greens and the yellows in the trees and leaves, and it was beautiful. There were super hyperactive pre-teen thai boys jumping off the rocks and yelling at eachother, and Jo, Lauren and I jumped in and jumped of some of the rocks aswell. It was very refreshing and was a nice end to the day. I dropped off Joanna at our new hostel on a different beach, and went back our old hostel and wore both backpacks and drove to our new hostel. I must have looked funny. Although, we have seen more ridiculous things on Scooters like :
A family of three and they're dog sitting calmy on the back of one scooter.
Four Teenagers on one bike.
A man with two chainsaws on his lap.
I'm sure I've seen more, but those are the ones that standout right now. Anyways, I've got to go get Jo and meet our friends for dinner at the restaurant on the hill.
Stay tuned for our next episode, "the update that erased itself"
-Ben
Jo and I met 4 people the first night we got to our hostel, two are from belgium; Stan and Babette, and a german named Guerit and a Brit named Lauren. We started playing poker and drinking and and a really fun night. Today we went with them on a little scotter tour with just our three bikes to see a couple of waterfalls. Unfortunatley, our mo-ped didn't like going uphill much and would start to rattle and make this horrible clicking noise all the way up. It was a bit worrying but mostly funny. The first waterfall we went to turned out to be a little stream in a huge riverbed. I guess we came to see at the wrong time of year. but before we realized that, we hiked 500 meters up hill through the brush before we got to a lookout point. The hike was fun, but tireing, so we went back down and had some nibbles and water. We kept on moving and the roads got a little rougher with big pot-holes and bumps we had to ride over. But it was a lot of fun, other than our rattling little mo-ped. The second waterfall we went to had a very nice little pool with a stream running right into it. It started to rain, and the rain brought out the greens and the yellows in the trees and leaves, and it was beautiful. There were super hyperactive pre-teen thai boys jumping off the rocks and yelling at eachother, and Jo, Lauren and I jumped in and jumped of some of the rocks aswell. It was very refreshing and was a nice end to the day. I dropped off Joanna at our new hostel on a different beach, and went back our old hostel and wore both backpacks and drove to our new hostel. I must have looked funny. Although, we have seen more ridiculous things on Scooters like :
A family of three and they're dog sitting calmy on the back of one scooter.
Four Teenagers on one bike.
A man with two chainsaws on his lap.
I'm sure I've seen more, but those are the ones that standout right now. Anyways, I've got to go get Jo and meet our friends for dinner at the restaurant on the hill.
Stay tuned for our next episode, "the update that erased itself"
-Ben
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Jammy Dogers
YO,
What up?
Trev and Carl, our two hillarious friends from Britain, left today, much to our dismay. We've been hanging out with them almost everynight, and laughed harder than I have ever. We leave for Koh Pangan and the full moon party tomorow, even though the full moon party isn't until the 6th. Incase you don't know, a Full Moon Party is the worlds largest beach party, held on the full moon of every month, year round. The average attendance is between 5 to 10 thousand people. We are both very excited to dance and party all night, and we're meeting up with Solange, Hayley, Emily and their friends from Victoria, so it will be even better. Joanna and I havn't been doing a whole lot since last I updated.
My average day on Koh Lanta goes a little something like this:
I usually wake up around 11:30, I put my board shorts on and grab my sunglasses(White rimmed Ray-Ban aviators or White Dior sunglasses. Both of which are fake. Both of which make me look like a tool.) I grab my cd player with the new "Brand New" Album in it, my towel, my book and head outside to sit in a hammock or an elevated hut in the shade. Someone from the hostel restaurant comes out with a menu and I spend a maximum of four dollars on breakfast. I still have a couple of hours before Jo wakes up so I just chill and read, or listen to music, occasionally get up and have a swim, or order some more water. I've read three books so far, they have been:
High Fidelity
A million Little Pieces and 1984.
I'm almost finished reading 1984 and I've loved every book I've read so far. After reading 1984, I'm pretty sure I know where most Sci-Fi film makers get their ideas from. There is a little bit of 1984 in almost everyone of my favourite sci-fi movies. When Joanna wakes up(haha) we'll usually have a swim and get something to eat. After that, we take our motor bike out for a spin, or just drive into town for supplies and cheap internet. Around sunset, we meet at Carl and Trev's hut and have nibbles and cocktails and watch the sunset. We usually go somewhere to eat, and then meet up with some other people at a bar, all the while laughing hysterically. At some point we'll return to our hostels' restaurant and sit in one of the three elevated huts and chill out until we all end up going to bed, usually around 3 am.
We love it here.
One of my favourite things about it on the southern islands are the tropical thunder storms. Thunderstorms roll over the beach around once a day, but last only about 5-20 minutes at a time. The Biggest storm yet was yesterday, and it started to pour, the rain is so thick and the water is so warm, so I kept on swimming. There is always thunder and lightning, and I stayed in the water in complete bliss and in awe of how deep and loud the booms and cracks of the thunder got. I literally would duck sometimes when the thunder boomed. I stayed in the water until I saw a lightning bolt hit the water about 100 meters away from me. I walked out of the water and walked along the beach. I wasn't afraid of the lightning because the chance it would strike me is crazy. it was still pouring and there was no one left on the beach. I slowly walked over to an abandoned bamboo sun chair and laid down. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done, or witnessed. I just sat lay down in the puring rain, in the booming thunder and crashing lightning, and watched the show. Joanna thought I was crazy, but you and I know better...don't we.
Joanna and I are both very Sad to be leaving Koh Lanta, but we're ready to head out to meet our friends and take our scuba diving course on Koh Tao after the full moon party. I'll post soonish,
hopefully,
-Ben
What up?
Trev and Carl, our two hillarious friends from Britain, left today, much to our dismay. We've been hanging out with them almost everynight, and laughed harder than I have ever. We leave for Koh Pangan and the full moon party tomorow, even though the full moon party isn't until the 6th. Incase you don't know, a Full Moon Party is the worlds largest beach party, held on the full moon of every month, year round. The average attendance is between 5 to 10 thousand people. We are both very excited to dance and party all night, and we're meeting up with Solange, Hayley, Emily and their friends from Victoria, so it will be even better. Joanna and I havn't been doing a whole lot since last I updated.
My average day on Koh Lanta goes a little something like this:
I usually wake up around 11:30, I put my board shorts on and grab my sunglasses(White rimmed Ray-Ban aviators or White Dior sunglasses. Both of which are fake. Both of which make me look like a tool.) I grab my cd player with the new "Brand New" Album in it, my towel, my book and head outside to sit in a hammock or an elevated hut in the shade. Someone from the hostel restaurant comes out with a menu and I spend a maximum of four dollars on breakfast. I still have a couple of hours before Jo wakes up so I just chill and read, or listen to music, occasionally get up and have a swim, or order some more water. I've read three books so far, they have been:
High Fidelity
A million Little Pieces and 1984.
I'm almost finished reading 1984 and I've loved every book I've read so far. After reading 1984, I'm pretty sure I know where most Sci-Fi film makers get their ideas from. There is a little bit of 1984 in almost everyone of my favourite sci-fi movies. When Joanna wakes up(haha) we'll usually have a swim and get something to eat. After that, we take our motor bike out for a spin, or just drive into town for supplies and cheap internet. Around sunset, we meet at Carl and Trev's hut and have nibbles and cocktails and watch the sunset. We usually go somewhere to eat, and then meet up with some other people at a bar, all the while laughing hysterically. At some point we'll return to our hostels' restaurant and sit in one of the three elevated huts and chill out until we all end up going to bed, usually around 3 am.
We love it here.
One of my favourite things about it on the southern islands are the tropical thunder storms. Thunderstorms roll over the beach around once a day, but last only about 5-20 minutes at a time. The Biggest storm yet was yesterday, and it started to pour, the rain is so thick and the water is so warm, so I kept on swimming. There is always thunder and lightning, and I stayed in the water in complete bliss and in awe of how deep and loud the booms and cracks of the thunder got. I literally would duck sometimes when the thunder boomed. I stayed in the water until I saw a lightning bolt hit the water about 100 meters away from me. I walked out of the water and walked along the beach. I wasn't afraid of the lightning because the chance it would strike me is crazy. it was still pouring and there was no one left on the beach. I slowly walked over to an abandoned bamboo sun chair and laid down. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done, or witnessed. I just sat lay down in the puring rain, in the booming thunder and crashing lightning, and watched the show. Joanna thought I was crazy, but you and I know better...don't we.
Joanna and I are both very Sad to be leaving Koh Lanta, but we're ready to head out to meet our friends and take our scuba diving course on Koh Tao after the full moon party. I'll post soonish,
hopefully,
-Ben
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Ho Lanta
Koh Lanta so far...
Oh, I forgot to mention, I pierced my nose and shaved my head into a mohawk.
We also met up with the coolest brits ever. again.
Jo got a lebret piercing(just below the bottom lip) aswell.
The view from outside our hotel is unbelievable.
That's all for now, but I'll try to post some older pictures in the older posts soon.
And mom, before you freak out, The tatoo place where we got our piercings was very sanitary and clean and used all the proper equipment. And I'm still your son, not some rebelious punk.
MuWahahaha, Love you all
Ben.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Koh Phi Phi Remixed
Hello,
So my orginal post just got erased when my computer just crashed, which is a bit annoying, however, my dedication to you, the people, has pushed me beyond giving up. So here we go again...
Joanna and I ended staying on Koh Phi Phi for longer than we expected, a full three nights actually. It was really nice to get to spend some time in one place and get to know it a bit. We stayed at this hotel on long beach and stayed in a little bungallow that was way too hot but very close to the beach. The first day out Joanna got very burnt and got sun stroke. She did try to be careful, but we all know how white she is. No really, she's totally white it's insane. Anyway, we got carried away snorkeling on the beach and I burt my back too, but also got tanned which was dope. Needless to say Joanna isn't as pale anymore(Joanna is protesting me writing any of it and hitting me, but we all know the truth). Everynight we spent on Ko Phi Phi was spent in Ton Sai, the main port there. it is only a short but expensive five minute long tail boat ride away from the beach we were staying on. The longtail boats are thin wodden boats with a car engine mounted to the rudder and a long shaft for the propeller to steer with. To steer the boat, they turn the whole motor to do so. I found out that Ko Phi Phi was one of the islands that was hit the worst in Thailand by the tsunami. The death toll was up around three thousand, which is very high, and very devastating for the main tourist destination in Thailand. Ton Sai is located on a peninsula that connects two parts of the island and the tsunami hit Ton Sai from both sides of the Peninsula. Very sad. Not that there is any evidence of the damage left though, although I here that most of the locals who live there now are new to the island since after the tsunami. Most of the bars on the island are on the beach and our favourite, Hippies Bar was no different. The Bar has nightly fire shows in which locals dance with Poi Balls( Chain with lit sandbags at the end) and staves lit at both ends. It is pretty cool to see. The first night we went there was a stage game of musical chairs. The prize was a bottle of vodka or a bucket of redbull, vodka and cocacola for second and third places. So naturally, Jo and I volunteered. The group of brits we were with volunteered aswell. When there were only five chairs left, the game changed. In order to get sit down in a chair, you had to get an item from the audiance that the host asked for. The items started off innocent; a straw, a cigarette. From there came a black bra(which Jo gave to one of the brits we were with) then a condom, then lastly male boxer shorts. The last was by far the most hillarious, because a man (presumably very inebriated) just dropped his shorts in front of everyone and threw them at our friend, who ended up winning. After the game there was dancing and the dance floor was made of raised sand with plexi-glass slabs on top of it. And that was pretty much our time on Koh Phi Phi. Wake up, beach, boat to ton sai, eat Roti(thai pancakes) lemon shakes, smoke, dance, boat home. We both had a great time but were ready to move on. I got an email from Kirsten, one of the brits we became good friends with in Chiang Mai saying that she was on Koh Lanta, so the next day we took a boat to Koh Lanta and met them on the beach. I would write about our time here and post pictures but I'm still choked about the post getting erased.
I'll post more soon...ish
I need to go dance with Brits and Sweeds
Later
Ben... and Joanna, even though she's not writing this. But she's been saying that she will this whole trip. we will see won't we?
Love you guys.
So my orginal post just got erased when my computer just crashed, which is a bit annoying, however, my dedication to you, the people, has pushed me beyond giving up. So here we go again...
Joanna and I ended staying on Koh Phi Phi for longer than we expected, a full three nights actually. It was really nice to get to spend some time in one place and get to know it a bit. We stayed at this hotel on long beach and stayed in a little bungallow that was way too hot but very close to the beach. The first day out Joanna got very burnt and got sun stroke. She did try to be careful, but we all know how white she is. No really, she's totally white it's insane. Anyway, we got carried away snorkeling on the beach and I burt my back too, but also got tanned which was dope. Needless to say Joanna isn't as pale anymore(Joanna is protesting me writing any of it and hitting me, but we all know the truth). Everynight we spent on Ko Phi Phi was spent in Ton Sai, the main port there. it is only a short but expensive five minute long tail boat ride away from the beach we were staying on. The longtail boats are thin wodden boats with a car engine mounted to the rudder and a long shaft for the propeller to steer with. To steer the boat, they turn the whole motor to do so. I found out that Ko Phi Phi was one of the islands that was hit the worst in Thailand by the tsunami. The death toll was up around three thousand, which is very high, and very devastating for the main tourist destination in Thailand. Ton Sai is located on a peninsula that connects two parts of the island and the tsunami hit Ton Sai from both sides of the Peninsula. Very sad. Not that there is any evidence of the damage left though, although I here that most of the locals who live there now are new to the island since after the tsunami. Most of the bars on the island are on the beach and our favourite, Hippies Bar was no different. The Bar has nightly fire shows in which locals dance with Poi Balls( Chain with lit sandbags at the end) and staves lit at both ends. It is pretty cool to see. The first night we went there was a stage game of musical chairs. The prize was a bottle of vodka or a bucket of redbull, vodka and cocacola for second and third places. So naturally, Jo and I volunteered. The group of brits we were with volunteered aswell. When there were only five chairs left, the game changed. In order to get sit down in a chair, you had to get an item from the audiance that the host asked for. The items started off innocent; a straw, a cigarette. From there came a black bra(which Jo gave to one of the brits we were with) then a condom, then lastly male boxer shorts. The last was by far the most hillarious, because a man (presumably very inebriated) just dropped his shorts in front of everyone and threw them at our friend, who ended up winning. After the game there was dancing and the dance floor was made of raised sand with plexi-glass slabs on top of it. And that was pretty much our time on Koh Phi Phi. Wake up, beach, boat to ton sai, eat Roti(thai pancakes) lemon shakes, smoke, dance, boat home. We both had a great time but were ready to move on. I got an email from Kirsten, one of the brits we became good friends with in Chiang Mai saying that she was on Koh Lanta, so the next day we took a boat to Koh Lanta and met them on the beach. I would write about our time here and post pictures but I'm still choked about the post getting erased.
I'll post more soon...ish
I need to go dance with Brits and Sweeds
Later
Ben... and Joanna, even though she's not writing this. But she's been saying that she will this whole trip. we will see won't we?
Love you guys.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Were here!
Finally. That Bus Ride ended up being a lot more of a hastle than the last one if you can believe that. We met at the travel agent's we booked the tickets from at 7 pm, just like they told us to. We made sure we got the agent to book us tickets straight to Phuket, with no bus changes or anything, otherwise we told the agent we would take a train and transfer. So we're led to a double decker bus, and these things are pimp in Thailand, the amount of colours and lights they put on the outside of these things makes XiBit look bad. Well maybe not...but you get the idea.
Anyway, The bus we got into was actually nice; it had more air conditioning and the seats actually reclined back far and there was a tv for a movie to be shown. By far nicer and fancier than the piece of junk we took to Chiang Mai. However, Once the bus ride started, so did the problems. A movie started playing(it was X-MEN 3 so we were stoked) and no sooner had we started enjoying said movie, aswell as some irish dudes next to us, but a girl in the back complains that it is too loud. This would have been an understandable complaint had it not been 7 o'clock. I don't know what time she goes to bed usually but whatever, this story isn't about her, it's about what happend after. Everyone that was watching the movie suddenly couldn't hear anything, so one by one we gone down stairs and ask if he could turn it up just a bit, but turns out none of the three drivers can speak any english, so instead he pushes a button and says " kaput" and the screen goes black. We try to communicate but it doesn't work out, so no movie. But that's okay because we had books and those little personalized reading lights they have in airplanes and buses, right? wrong, well half right because the other side of the bus didn't have any light. Bummer I thought, whatever though, lucky for us we're on the side with the lights haha. Hahahahahuhoh? oh too bad, no lights for anyone by like 9 o'clock. Oh man, it was kind of funny/annoying but I just decided that I had only paid three times the price of the ticket to Chiang Mai for one to Phuket of the same duration, and I guess if I get there without any troubles it's worth not have a few luxuries right?. But of course, this was not the case.
I actually slept for quite a lot of the ride but at around 6:30 we were woken up and told to get off of the bus and that everyone would be tranfering to their respective buses for wherever their destination was. "But didn't we make sure we had direct to Phuket tickets?" Joanna said to me. "Well, yeah but whatever" I said. I guess we would have to see where this leeds.
That's the one thing that Joanna very cleverly pointed out: that when you go to a travel agent in Thailand you never really know what you're going to get. And if the people driving the bus or sung tao tell you to get out or wait here or eat here or wait for another bus, all you can do is do what they tell you. All the passengers are just kind of hearded around without much clue as to where they are, but they know that if they want to get where they paid to go, you just have to follow. So follow we did. We were told that a connecting bus, bus being the keyword here, would arrive at seven o'clock at the very same store that we had been dropped off in front of. so we waited and waited, and at just after seven a sung tao, not a bus pulls up and asks for people going to phuket to get in, "man, this is going to be a loooong ride to Phuket" I thought to myself. Joanna and I got in, and three other guys get in with us. Turns out that two of them are from B.C. and they just arrived in Bangkok a couple of days ago from Australia. We swap stories and then we all come to the conclusion that this sung tao may infact be our ride to phuket, which we were told was a four hour trip from the town we had been dropped off in.
Thankfully, the sung tao was not our ride, and instead we were driven to an outdoor cafe place with a couple of "mini buses" parked in the driveway. I have heard horrorish stories of this very situation happening; a person signs up for a bus trip but the bus turns out to be a "mini bus" which is actually a mini van with nine seats instead of six, and being driven the whole trip in a van. "crap." we said. It looked like we'd been had by that freaking travel agent afterall. So we get out of the sung tao and the driver mumbles something incoheren't about a mini bus picking us up sometime. sometime. awesome. We all take a seat at a table and there are another 10 or so people who look to be in the exact same position. some of them have been there since seven, another says he's been there since 6. We start to make bets as to how long we have to wait. It turns out the reason we are waiting is for another mini bus to show up and be able to take all of us at once. We only have to wait for an hour before the other van comes. we cram into one of the mini vans and they do have air conditioning which would be nice but the vents close or their own and there are eleven people in the van including the driver. We drive for 2 hours and the drivers stop for lunch. I say drivers because none of the passengers had any say in the matter, and the drivers did seem hungry. It was ok, Jo and I dared to eat a hot dog each, a hot dog that has yet to come up I'm happy to say.
We finally get to phuket and the deal was that the vans take us into phuket town. So we stop instead at a travel agent just outside of town. We're told that we need to get out to figure out where we are going to stay. This stop was not part of the deal, and neither was more travel agents trying to rip us off. One of the travel agents told us that if we wanted to go anywhere but the travel agents we would need a taxi, or pay the van we had come in another 70 baht for what we all thought we had already paid for. We refused and then they acted as if it were an accident and that the drive into Phuket town was free, of course. And then our driver drives us into a part of the town, but no where specific and tells us to please get out. And then leaves us standing there without a clue as to where we are, and in a part of town that the street signs are not in english aswell as Thai. We were kind of stunned really, that any of us had paid for the trip. We were told at the agent that we would arrive in phuket at 10:30 the following morning as opposed to 12:30 which it was now. Joanna and I caught a sung tao with a british couple and this time we made sure we had found a vacant hostel before paying the driver.
All in all it has been a very long two days, but it didn't stop me and Joanna from going to patong beach and swimming. What a bus ride that was.
A word to the wise, never forget to barter the crap out of a travel agent because you never know what you are in for.
Jo and are going to take a couple of ferries to get to ko lanta just south of Phuket. There we hope we ca relax and snorkel and scuba.
I'm out.
Ben
Finally. That Bus Ride ended up being a lot more of a hastle than the last one if you can believe that. We met at the travel agent's we booked the tickets from at 7 pm, just like they told us to. We made sure we got the agent to book us tickets straight to Phuket, with no bus changes or anything, otherwise we told the agent we would take a train and transfer. So we're led to a double decker bus, and these things are pimp in Thailand, the amount of colours and lights they put on the outside of these things makes XiBit look bad. Well maybe not...but you get the idea.
Anyway, The bus we got into was actually nice; it had more air conditioning and the seats actually reclined back far and there was a tv for a movie to be shown. By far nicer and fancier than the piece of junk we took to Chiang Mai. However, Once the bus ride started, so did the problems. A movie started playing(it was X-MEN 3 so we were stoked) and no sooner had we started enjoying said movie, aswell as some irish dudes next to us, but a girl in the back complains that it is too loud. This would have been an understandable complaint had it not been 7 o'clock. I don't know what time she goes to bed usually but whatever, this story isn't about her, it's about what happend after. Everyone that was watching the movie suddenly couldn't hear anything, so one by one we gone down stairs and ask if he could turn it up just a bit, but turns out none of the three drivers can speak any english, so instead he pushes a button and says " kaput" and the screen goes black. We try to communicate but it doesn't work out, so no movie. But that's okay because we had books and those little personalized reading lights they have in airplanes and buses, right? wrong, well half right because the other side of the bus didn't have any light. Bummer I thought, whatever though, lucky for us we're on the side with the lights haha. Hahahahahuhoh? oh too bad, no lights for anyone by like 9 o'clock. Oh man, it was kind of funny/annoying but I just decided that I had only paid three times the price of the ticket to Chiang Mai for one to Phuket of the same duration, and I guess if I get there without any troubles it's worth not have a few luxuries right?. But of course, this was not the case.
I actually slept for quite a lot of the ride but at around 6:30 we were woken up and told to get off of the bus and that everyone would be tranfering to their respective buses for wherever their destination was. "But didn't we make sure we had direct to Phuket tickets?" Joanna said to me. "Well, yeah but whatever" I said. I guess we would have to see where this leeds.
That's the one thing that Joanna very cleverly pointed out: that when you go to a travel agent in Thailand you never really know what you're going to get. And if the people driving the bus or sung tao tell you to get out or wait here or eat here or wait for another bus, all you can do is do what they tell you. All the passengers are just kind of hearded around without much clue as to where they are, but they know that if they want to get where they paid to go, you just have to follow. So follow we did. We were told that a connecting bus, bus being the keyword here, would arrive at seven o'clock at the very same store that we had been dropped off in front of. so we waited and waited, and at just after seven a sung tao, not a bus pulls up and asks for people going to phuket to get in, "man, this is going to be a loooong ride to Phuket" I thought to myself. Joanna and I got in, and three other guys get in with us. Turns out that two of them are from B.C. and they just arrived in Bangkok a couple of days ago from Australia. We swap stories and then we all come to the conclusion that this sung tao may infact be our ride to phuket, which we were told was a four hour trip from the town we had been dropped off in.
Thankfully, the sung tao was not our ride, and instead we were driven to an outdoor cafe place with a couple of "mini buses" parked in the driveway. I have heard horrorish stories of this very situation happening; a person signs up for a bus trip but the bus turns out to be a "mini bus" which is actually a mini van with nine seats instead of six, and being driven the whole trip in a van. "crap." we said. It looked like we'd been had by that freaking travel agent afterall. So we get out of the sung tao and the driver mumbles something incoheren't about a mini bus picking us up sometime. sometime. awesome. We all take a seat at a table and there are another 10 or so people who look to be in the exact same position. some of them have been there since seven, another says he's been there since 6. We start to make bets as to how long we have to wait. It turns out the reason we are waiting is for another mini bus to show up and be able to take all of us at once. We only have to wait for an hour before the other van comes. we cram into one of the mini vans and they do have air conditioning which would be nice but the vents close or their own and there are eleven people in the van including the driver. We drive for 2 hours and the drivers stop for lunch. I say drivers because none of the passengers had any say in the matter, and the drivers did seem hungry. It was ok, Jo and I dared to eat a hot dog each, a hot dog that has yet to come up I'm happy to say.
We finally get to phuket and the deal was that the vans take us into phuket town. So we stop instead at a travel agent just outside of town. We're told that we need to get out to figure out where we are going to stay. This stop was not part of the deal, and neither was more travel agents trying to rip us off. One of the travel agents told us that if we wanted to go anywhere but the travel agents we would need a taxi, or pay the van we had come in another 70 baht for what we all thought we had already paid for. We refused and then they acted as if it were an accident and that the drive into Phuket town was free, of course. And then our driver drives us into a part of the town, but no where specific and tells us to please get out. And then leaves us standing there without a clue as to where we are, and in a part of town that the street signs are not in english aswell as Thai. We were kind of stunned really, that any of us had paid for the trip. We were told at the agent that we would arrive in phuket at 10:30 the following morning as opposed to 12:30 which it was now. Joanna and I caught a sung tao with a british couple and this time we made sure we had found a vacant hostel before paying the driver.
All in all it has been a very long two days, but it didn't stop me and Joanna from going to patong beach and swimming. What a bus ride that was.
A word to the wise, never forget to barter the crap out of a travel agent because you never know what you are in for.
Jo and are going to take a couple of ferries to get to ko lanta just south of Phuket. There we hope we ca relax and snorkel and scuba.
I'm out.
Ben
Thursday, November 16, 2006
In Transit
Yaooo,
As awesome a time as we were having in Chiang Mai, Jo and I decided yesterday to head for a beach, and quick. We took a train last night(not a sleeper though, bummer) and we arrived in Bangkok a couple of hours ago. I am SO tired right now. Apparently there aren't any trains that run directly to the island of Phuket so we're going to bus it overnight tonight. And as much as we don't want to sleep sitting down two nights in a row, it is much cheaper than flying and I can't wait for tropical islands to snorkel around. Also, Bangkok is an extremely overwhelming place to be if you haven't slept very well or don't like very humid dirty-ish cities. So we're getting the hell out of here.
In other news, Jo and I rented a scooter yesterday for our last day in Chiang Mai and zooted around the moat area of the city and had a lot of precarious fun zipping through Thai traffic. Just in case some of you are not aware, Thai traffic is insane, the only rule is that there are no rules. Jo volunteered to put both of our lives in my hands, I know I wouldn't. Just kidding! It did take some getting used to but I have ridden scooters before and by the end of the day I was taking advantage of being able to do whatever I want; passing anyone not going fast enough as there are no speed limits(within reason), cutting people off without offending anyone, and if for some reason traffic does slow down scooters and motorbikes can just drive between the lanes of cars to the front. I loved it. Although I know that in Canada I would probably be incarcerated within a minute or two. But I was cautious and I wasn't driving like a crazy person, just like a Thai person. We ended up finding this market that isn't meant for tourists but for locals and everything was sooooo cheap. There was also a kind of trendy punkish clothing store where we found some funny copies of brand names and I got a polo that says Trikets instead of Dickies. There were also some national flags there. I should mention that right behind the American flag, there was a nazi swastika flag. We couldn't believe it. I haven't even seen one in a museum let alone held one in my hand. Something like that is so offensive to the west that you just don't see them in North America, aside from a few skinhead gangs(ie: American History X, and if you haven't seen it go rent it now). Of course I got a picture holding both the American and Nazi flag up. But Internet is super slow here so I can't upload it now. But yeah... ummm... that's about it.
I'll post when I'm brown-er and have seen some tropical fish.
Peace,
Ben
As awesome a time as we were having in Chiang Mai, Jo and I decided yesterday to head for a beach, and quick. We took a train last night(not a sleeper though, bummer) and we arrived in Bangkok a couple of hours ago. I am SO tired right now. Apparently there aren't any trains that run directly to the island of Phuket so we're going to bus it overnight tonight. And as much as we don't want to sleep sitting down two nights in a row, it is much cheaper than flying and I can't wait for tropical islands to snorkel around. Also, Bangkok is an extremely overwhelming place to be if you haven't slept very well or don't like very humid dirty-ish cities. So we're getting the hell out of here.
In other news, Jo and I rented a scooter yesterday for our last day in Chiang Mai and zooted around the moat area of the city and had a lot of precarious fun zipping through Thai traffic. Just in case some of you are not aware, Thai traffic is insane, the only rule is that there are no rules. Jo volunteered to put both of our lives in my hands, I know I wouldn't. Just kidding! It did take some getting used to but I have ridden scooters before and by the end of the day I was taking advantage of being able to do whatever I want; passing anyone not going fast enough as there are no speed limits(within reason), cutting people off without offending anyone, and if for some reason traffic does slow down scooters and motorbikes can just drive between the lanes of cars to the front. I loved it. Although I know that in Canada I would probably be incarcerated within a minute or two. But I was cautious and I wasn't driving like a crazy person, just like a Thai person. We ended up finding this market that isn't meant for tourists but for locals and everything was sooooo cheap. There was also a kind of trendy punkish clothing store where we found some funny copies of brand names and I got a polo that says Trikets instead of Dickies. There were also some national flags there. I should mention that right behind the American flag, there was a nazi swastika flag. We couldn't believe it. I haven't even seen one in a museum let alone held one in my hand. Something like that is so offensive to the west that you just don't see them in North America, aside from a few skinhead gangs(ie: American History X, and if you haven't seen it go rent it now). Of course I got a picture holding both the American and Nazi flag up. But Internet is super slow here so I can't upload it now. But yeah... ummm... that's about it.
I'll post when I'm brown-er and have seen some tropical fish.
Peace,
Ben
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
So
Joanna and I decided to take the advice of the Brits and do a two day trek through the jungle. I can tell you now that it was amazing, but I want to go into more depth about it here.
It's 9:18 pm and Jo just checked her email and I wantd to write the post so she's just gone to go read for a bit. Our journey started at 9 o'clock yesterday morning, and we hadn't slept a whole lot the night before as you can tell from the post below. So we were tired, but ready so we crammed some stuff into the ruck sacs the hostel gave us and crammed in with eight other people into a sung tao(7 of which were British, one of which was Canadian) with our guide. The first thing we thought was that what the hell is with all these Brits? we sound british enough after the last three!. The drive should've only taken a couple of hours but we were taken to a waterfall to look at. The waterfall was huge, and beautiful of course, like most things over here(except for the sewage lines that run under the sidewalk, gross). But anyway, we walked the path up to the falls with Kyle, our new Canadian friend from Toronto. We took some pictures and I climbed down some rocks to be cooled by the mist. Joanna and Kyle followed, and soon Jo got adventurous and waded through the foot deep stream that started the river, and over to the other side. then Kyle and I followed and we got soaked by all the mist we were wading through. The mist was sooo nice though because its so damn hot here all the time. Before we knew it we had started a trend and soon everyone and their mom was doing it. We stopped or lunch at a little outside restaurant and were given a lot of fried rice with vegitables and some corriander soup. The rice was delicious but I'm not a big fan of corriander so Jo(who loves it) ate mine. I'm getting moe used to eating rice and noodle dishes for breakfast, but it is a bit of a change from the west's sugary breakfasts.
So after the falls we got back in the sung tao and headed for our starting point in a national park an hour away. When we got there we were given lifejackets to tie to our packs for the bamboo rafting we would be doing the following day. Some of us asked if the trekking would be very difficult because "I'm fairly unfit" said one of the Brits. I agreed, I'm hella unfit. Our guide, whose name is Doh, responded with a saying that he would use for the rest of the tour when asked about the difficulty or the duration of the trek. "Not hard, up and down." Up is freaking right. Within about twenty minutes of hiking we started walking straight up the mountainside, no cutting corners, just up. That portion lasted about 25 minutes, and we really needed a rest at the top. Not hard my ass. In his defence, the rest of the hiking wasn't as "lets walk in a straight line up a mountain" as much as the first bit, and the views from those mountains were Freaking unbeleivable. Nononono, more like unreal. There were so many different kinds of trees and the hills were totally covered, not patchy bits or anything. The brush was thick and the downhil was downhill, but it all had this kind of sureal look to it because I really realized where I was, Thailand. Up until this trek most of what I had seen of thailand was in the cities and temples, and course it's very easy to see where you are but there is something about seeing large open space that are completely alien way more real. We stopped for some water at one of the hill tribes and our guide told us that the hill tribes have their own language and that most houses are raised off of the ground because of the slants of the hills. He also showed us a two note flute he has from his village made from an old cow horn. It was pretty cool to see. When we left I asked him where we were going to next. He just pointed vaguely at the huge hill infront of us. Of course we were going up that huge hill, "up and down" just like he said. at the top of another hill we stopped for a drink of water and I sat down on a log. When I put my head down I saw something red between my toes, and when I pulled my toes apart I saw a little leech had sucked onto the skin between my toes! gross. I flicked it(shrieked and flailed my leg) and it fell onto the ground infront of me. Doh sat down beside me and told me not to worry about the bite, then he picked up the leech with a leaf and then set the leaf of fire, all while everyone else huddled around to watch. It was bizarre, I didn't even feel it it bite me and there was a lot of blood for that tiny thing.
A couple of hours later as we approched the village we were to sleep in, Doh dissappeared mumbling something about getting cups. He re-appeared with a long branch of large bamboo and started to cut it into pieces and he started making everyone a bamboo cup for our time in the village. It was really cool and Jo and I both still have ours. It's amazing what kinds of things Thais use bamboo for. When we got to the village we were shown the house we were all sleeping in, with a toilet out side and a fireplace with logs around it next to the toilet. Showering was another adventure because there they have a little hut with a basin and a bucket to dunk yourself with. The water was cold but refreshing, and we all smelled terrible(our guide told us we had to shower or no dinner). we were given curry with chicken on rice with fried beans and spices for dinner and it was excellent. Everyone slept in one big room in double beds/bed shaped blankets over bamboo. We all had mosquito nets but we didn't really need them, we were also exausted and were in bed by 9 o'clock. Jo and I thought we would have great sleeps, wrong...ish. Unlike the rest of the world, the roosters in Thailand Cockle doodle doo whenever they fell like it, not just at sunrise, all the time. By morning Jo and I wanted to murder very last one. but it wasn't all bad, I'm not really a light sleeper so they only woke me up around 4 then 5 then 6 and then 7 and eventually I just stayed up. Freaking roosters. Our guide wokeus up at 8 o'clock ad we ate some very nice scrambled eggs with onion and tomatoes and toast and pinaple jam.
*Sidenote, Jo and I have had pinaple almost everyday we've been here and it tastes amazing. Also Jo could eat all the fruit in the world if it were infront of her. I had no idea.
So After breakfast we climbed another big ass hill, right away, but this time it was a lot more refreshing and we both really liked it. After awhile we started going down the huge hill and it was really really steep. I was behind a bunch of slow girls(no offence) who were being a little too cautious so I jumped ahead of them to the front of the group with Kyle and our guide. Our guide showed us that if you move faster downhill its actually easier on your legs(well this guide speak any english and he started to go faster so we did too), soon we were pretty much running downhill and it was a blast. At the bottom of the hill was the village where the elephants are kept. Then we saw them, and it was really incredibly unbeleivably cool to actually see let alone ride on them. Elephants. We walked onto a higher platform and were shown how to step on the elephants head to get on the seat. It did feel a little bit inhumane, but the elephant didn't even seem to notice!. Joanna and I were like giddy little school girls, giggling and repeat the phrase " o my god I can't beleive we're actually doing this, elephants! hehehehe". The elephant we were on was part of a little family of elephants in this group. There was a little elephant who followed its mum the whole way!. We were taken on an hour long ride down the river on them. It was so cool, they would just march right into the water and not be pulled by the current or anything. And the baby would submerge itself and swim around, and man was it cute. The hair on the elephants was way more corse than we both expected and the skin was really cool to touch aswell. After the elephants we got to another village and put our life jackets on for the rafting part of the day. The rats were made up of very long pieces of large bamboo tied together, with a cross sticking up at one end to hold our back packs. Kyle and I were told to stand at the back of one of the two that we used, and were given long pieces of bamboo to help steer with. The girls were to stand in the middle, and none of them were given bamboo. Apparrently that's a nono. Needless to say the girls were a bit annoyed but they gave in. we started down stream with a thai boy in the front steering and Kyle and I to steer the back end. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. The current is strong and pushing is hard aswell. We had only been rafting about thirty minutes when we pulled over to the side of the river and the girls were told to get off and walk for the next bit, the boys however were needed for our brute strength to navigate some through some big rocks. If that isn't blatant sexism I don't know what is. But I didn't care though right? I was still on the boat. The girls put up a good fight but the guides explained that they need to do it on every trek. The girls agreed and we headed through the rocks. The rocks weren't particularily difficult to go around, just big. The rest of the river was lots of fun and Kyle, Joanna and got to jump in at one point to have a swim. The day ended with phad thai for lunch and and very bumpy ride home. I know that Joanna and I both are really glad we went on the trek and experienced a lot of incredible things in 48 hours. I'm tired and I don't have the camera with me so I'll post some pictures soon.
This post took me a longer time than I expected but I'm glad I got it all down.
If you managed to read all of this congrajulations, if you skipped to the bottom you missed out, so stop being so lazy and read through it.
ALU minium part 2
Holy crap,
we have been having a way better time the past few days. I say better time because the first four or five days were very overwhelming and were spent sulking about home and the ocean. I know, I know, we shouldn't be sulking when we're in Thailand but it really was very overbearing to be separated from everything and be planted in fairly large cities. We were rescued(I'm being a bit dramatic but whatever) by three new British friends of ours called Kelly, Kirsten and Mary. They were very welcoming and got us to get off our sulky asses and go see the sights. I'm sure they weren't aware of doing any of it but they did.
so on Sunday, the day they left for the sandy beaches of southern Thailand, we went Wat-ing and saw some really amazing things. We caught a sung tao(pick-up truck taxis) to take us up to see Doi Suthep, a beautiful Wat on top of a mountain that overlooks Chiang Mai. The ride was precarious( like all sung tao rides) because the drivers drive very fast no matter what the circumstance. When we got to the top of the Mountain, there was a three-hundred step staircase we had to climb up first. The staircases of many wats here have serpent like dragons carved out of stone for railings and the staircase and Doi Suthep is no different. When we got to the top of the staircase, the sight of the city was awesome, but the Temples brilliance far out shone the view of the city(haha). But seriously, the Chedi (large spires in every wat) was all in gold leaf, and the way the sun hit it and the temple it was unreal. We had heard that the best time of day to visit the temple was at sundown, and visit it at sundown we did. The temple itself has a very interesting story as well, a story I will tell you now:
Some time ago, the king at the time wanted to make a new temple, so he placed a relic of Buddha himself on the back of a white elephant(Only Thai royalty are allowed to own white elephants) and said a prayer for the elephant to know where Buddha would want the temple. The elephant proceeded to climb up the mountain and when it got to the top it trumpeted three times and then laid down and died. The act is seen as an act of divine inspiration and the temple was built exactly where the elephant died.
I think the story is really cool and it only added to the beauty of the most beautiful wat I've seen yet.
After that we came back to the hostel(the brits were staying in the same hostel, Eagle House 2 which I highly recommend) and decided to go out for dinner by the river. we caught a sung tao over there and had a really good dinner complete with live music. After dinner we came back to the strip of clubs right next to our hostel and partied. We went to a really cool reggae bar with a really good live band that played dub and ska covers. then two Thai children showed up with their mothers, who were selling hill tribe necklaces and bracelets. The little girl was very cheeky and we played with them and had a good laugh. As soon as Jo took out the camera they went nuts!. They loved the camera, and I'll definitely try to add some of the pictures taken in a bit. After dancing and drinking for a long while the bar closed and the lights went out but we stayed and hung out with the guitarist and a couple of others who stayed as well. An acoustic guitar was brought out and the guitarist started to do Bob Marley covers. It was rad. I met a dude with dreadlocks there that had a Vietnamese mother and a French-English father. We started talking and before I knew it we were alternating talking in both languages. He would ask me a question in English and without even thinking about it I would reply in french and vice versa. It was so cool. I just kind of let go and talked in which ever language suited the topic best. I've always wanted to do that and without even thinking about it I just did. That was definitely the highlight of the evening for me.
anyways, next post is the trek.
Ben
Sunday, November 12, 2006
ALU MINIUM
oh my god freaking blogspot just deleted the massive post I just wrote.
well, I'll have to re-write it in a couple of days when Jo and I get back from trekking. SO frustrating. anyways I'll post again in a couple of days.
peace.
Ben
well, I'll have to re-write it in a couple of days when Jo and I get back from trekking. SO frustrating. anyways I'll post again in a couple of days.
peace.
Ben
Friday, November 10, 2006
word.
I changed the blog settings so now anyone can post comments annonymosly without an account, so start commenting! and, my email is ninja_turtle33@hotmail.com and my inbox has been empty. where's the love?????
We got to chiangmai yesterday and we could tell right away that it is way more relaxed here. we slept through most of the day on account of the bus ride the nigt before. we didn't get gassed thankfully and we didn't have anything stolen. which is a plus. Our bus however, well, the back tire blew up on the higway causing the bus to literaly grind to a halt. it was kind of funny really, and everyone on the bus just laughed. I tink everyone on the bus assumed something would go wrong on the trip. We only had to wait an hour for another bus to come and get us, so everything went smoothly after that...kind of. Instead of being dropped off at a bus station, we were dropped off at a gas station. and then crammed into the back of two converted pick-up trucks with roof racks. Of course, there wasn't enough room for all of us so the driver calmly told me and two british dudes to stand on the back gate and hold on to the luggage rack. And, naturally, the driver didn't drive any slower either. It was a lot of fun actually, albeit a little sketchy. After the ride we took our packs and headed to find a hostel. We found a very nice one called Jonada, and decided to to stay there for a couple of nights. It is a little pricey(350 baht - or $10 between us) but we have our own bathroom and hot shower. We met three british girls last night and hung out with them, we went to a restaurant that had all you can smoke shi-sha for 150 baht(!!!) and got our own houka at the table. They took us to this night bazaar and to a reggae bar on the roof of this building where we met more brits and had a bucket of rice whiskey: a mickey of it, a bottle of redbull and coca cola, and it was only 300 baht. It was SO much fun to talk to other people and just chill out. There is a huge flower festival on right now that we are going to buy tickets for tomorrow. Also, the big thing here seems to be trekking through the jungle to see tribes, so we will probably go for a day or two.
anyway, that it for today, I'm going to go wat-ing (temple-ing)
peace out.
Ben
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Khao San Road.
Hello.
So we left the comfort of our hotel yesterday morning and headed for Khao San Road. We left the hotel and were immediately mobbed by tuktuk drivers, so we got into one and asked for khao san. Apparently tuktuk drivers are notorious for dropping their passengers off at a travel agent that they get a commission from instead of where you'd actually like to go. This driver was no different. After arguing for a few minutes I wrongly gave him some money and hailed a cab and headed for Khao San. In our defence we were very jet lagged and not accustomed to being ripped off at every turn. When we got there we had no trouble finding a room for 200 baht (6 dollars) and we put our backpacks down, bought a pad-lock for the door and headed out to deck ourselves in hippy apparel. We spent all of yesterday walking up and down the streets around Khao San. One thing about Bangkok that was surprising is how freaking hot and smoggy it is here. Joanna and I were dying from the heat. The fan in our room did help a bit, as well as the missing window and pink tiled walls. Our room consisted of a window, a twin sized bed, peeling ceiling, pink tiled walls and a box-spring like mattress. it was AWESOME. but the sleep was a little rough due to the constant traffic and beeps from the tuktuks. We really like the atmosphere here, it's so different and smelly and colourful. We've both decided that we need to get out of Bangkok soon, it's too busy and we want to see something other than buildings and high rises. We went to book a train ticket to chiangmai yesterday, but all the trains are booked until the 11th. Unfortunately we have to take the bus there tonight. I hope that 300 baht is enough to not get ripped off/gassed. It's a recurring joke of how funny it would be to see everyone suddenly pass out in the bus at the same time. We might go see the Grand palace before we go but that means lugging all our crap around with us, so...
Anyway, that's a little recap of whats gone on so far.
See you later,
Ben and Jo
So we left the comfort of our hotel yesterday morning and headed for Khao San Road. We left the hotel and were immediately mobbed by tuktuk drivers, so we got into one and asked for khao san. Apparently tuktuk drivers are notorious for dropping their passengers off at a travel agent that they get a commission from instead of where you'd actually like to go. This driver was no different. After arguing for a few minutes I wrongly gave him some money and hailed a cab and headed for Khao San. In our defence we were very jet lagged and not accustomed to being ripped off at every turn. When we got there we had no trouble finding a room for 200 baht (6 dollars) and we put our backpacks down, bought a pad-lock for the door and headed out to deck ourselves in hippy apparel. We spent all of yesterday walking up and down the streets around Khao San. One thing about Bangkok that was surprising is how freaking hot and smoggy it is here. Joanna and I were dying from the heat. The fan in our room did help a bit, as well as the missing window and pink tiled walls. Our room consisted of a window, a twin sized bed, peeling ceiling, pink tiled walls and a box-spring like mattress. it was AWESOME. but the sleep was a little rough due to the constant traffic and beeps from the tuktuks. We really like the atmosphere here, it's so different and smelly and colourful. We've both decided that we need to get out of Bangkok soon, it's too busy and we want to see something other than buildings and high rises. We went to book a train ticket to chiangmai yesterday, but all the trains are booked until the 11th. Unfortunately we have to take the bus there tonight. I hope that 300 baht is enough to not get ripped off/gassed. It's a recurring joke of how funny it would be to see everyone suddenly pass out in the bus at the same time. We might go see the Grand palace before we go but that means lugging all our crap around with us, so...
Anyway, that's a little recap of whats gone on so far.
See you later,
Ben and Jo
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