leaving Rishikesh

I'm finally heading out from Rishikesh tomorrow (Monday) morning on the 8 am bus, for Uttarkashi. I guess it takes 6 hours somehow even though it's only about 100 miles. It's hard to imagine how it could take that long, even on windy mountain roads, but I doubt they're wrong about the time, so I'll see why it's so slow going tomorrow. Uttarkashi is a fairly good-sized town, about 15,000 I think, so I should still have internet access there. It sounds like a pretty nice little town, and I admit I'm ready to get off the tourist trail here in Rishikesh as well as just see something different. Although, Uttarkashi is actually on a tourist trail of sorts, as it's on one of the routes that tons of Indians make to visit 4 different temples in the mountains north of here. Uttarkashi is on the way to a temple located at Gangotri glacier, which is considered the source of the Ganges (although there are several rivers that merge coming out of the mountains, before it's actually called the Ganges). But the Indians aren't making that pilgrimage until summer when the higher elevations are accessible, so there most likely won't be too many people up there, but I guess I'll find out. I just checked the forecast, and it's supposed to be partly sunny tomorrow, but with a low of around freezing, and then there's a couple days next week where it calls for rain, possibly mixed with snow. So, it's going to be cold.

I forget if I already mentioned, but one of the reasons I'm headed up there is because on the train from Delhi to Haridwar, I met an Italian couple who lives in Rishikesh, and asked them about some good spots to check out in the mountains, that I could still get to in winter. So they recommended this place called Gangnani (not the same as the glacier at Gangotri) which is about 30 miles north of Uttarkashi. It's apparently not even a village really, but just a spot on the road where there's a nice hot springs, a small temple and a few lodges of some sort, and they highly recommended it. So I'm hoping those hot springs, which I think are free, will help out in the keeping warm factor up there, as long as they're actually plenty hot. But it sounds like a good place to just hang out for a couple of days in the mountains, do some hiking around, sip some tea (I bought my own herbal tea bags and mug, since I don't drink the caffeinated, overly-sugared chai), read the couple of books I bought and who knows what else. So I'll just see how it goes, if it's too cold I'll just hop on a bus back south and then most likely head for the deserts of Rajasthan. What I really need to do is come back to this area in late spring and early summer sometime and explore the same area, because it sounds really awesome, especially if you can get up into the higher elevations. So anyhow, that's the plan. I may write again from Uttarkashi. But in case I don't stay there long or for some other reason don't get online, then it's possible I might not check internet for a week or more. Just depends on how it goes, and how well prepared I am for the cold (particularly while sitting around my hotel room, since there probably won't be any heating as usual...but maybe up in the mountains they're better prepared, I can hope so at least)....

Happy New Year

(Some photos with people from the meditation/yoga retreat at Sivananda Ashram, including myself on the left, Mami (pronounced "Mommy") from Japan, Om from India and Harri from South Africa)....

Happy New Year! I'm still hanging out in Rishikesh, the little town on the Ganges in north India. I guess I haven't written in a while, partly because not too much has happened. The main thing is that I participated in a weeklong yoga and meditation retreat at one of the ashrams here, that I accidentally stumbled upon right before it started. When I arrived in Rishikesh, a week or so before Christmas, I was keeping my ears open for anything that might be happening for Christmas. I ended up asking someone, I forget exactly who, that said they thought something was happening at the Sivananda Ashram, which I didn't know anything about. It's just across the river from where I was staying at the time, so I walked over there to find out what exactly was going on. They said there was something happening on Christmas Eve, but that I should talk to the person in charge of it for more details. So, to make a long story short, in the process of enquiring I found out that the X-mas Eve celebration, which was open to anyone, was the unnofficial beginning of a retreat, starting officially on Christmas Day, that included meditation, yoga, lectures and satsangs (Hindu chanting, etc.) that was geared towards Westerners, so everything would be in English.

I thought about it for a couple of days and then the day before it began, I went up to see if there was still room to join. They said there was, so I decided to go for it, despite the fact that the morning meditation began at 5 am. But I figured it would do me good to get a little more acquainted with the early morning, since I tend to sleep until 9 or 10. It included room and board at the ashram (and was all very reasonably priced, fortunately), so I moved up there on Dec. 24th in the afternoon. I ended up rooming with one of the few Indians who was participating (a businessman from Mumbai, who spoke good English and told me he'd done another retreat there in the summer, that was more for Indians and drew 2,000 people from all over India). There were about 60 people altogether at the one I attended, from all over the world, I think every continent was represented (other than Antarctica, obviously). Although it was a fairly full schedule, the afternoons were left open to do what you wanted, and they weren't cracking the whip about showing up to everything. So a couple of times, after going to early meditation and yoga and then breakfast, I just went back to bed for the rest of the morning and missed a few things to catch up on sleep. But otherwise it was nice to change my routine a bit, as well as to meet lots of other folks, after traveling solo for the past couple of months. And it was a great mix of activities, with several different people leading yoga classes twice a day, some of whom were people attending the retreat, and lectures given by a number of different swamis associated with the ashram. And given that it started on Christmas Day in India with people from all over the world there, it was open to all different viewpoints and so wasn't too rigid about the philosophy, although it was also clear that the man who'd started the ashram, Swami Sivananda (who died in the 1960s) was held in high regard. This morning was the final meeting for the retreat, but I'm staying there again tonight. Then tomorrow I'll have to look around for another hotel room back on the other side of the river, since I plan to stay in Rishikesh a little longer. I was hoping to get my old room back, which was both cheap and I liked pretty well, but they're full up because there's some other big conference or retreat or something going on around here that involves several thousand people. By the way, in case anyone's curious, the website for the organization associated with the ashram is http://www.divinelifesociety.org.

So, from here I'll be heading north up into the hills a bit to get a little more of a taste of winter and of the mountains around here (aka the Himalaya). But I'm in no big hurry, since I've still got almost 3 months left in India. So I'll just see when I'm truly ready for the 6-hour bus ride on a windy mountain road, to the first destination of Uttarkashi, and sufficiently prepared both mentally and physically for a bit more cold. There were several people at the retreat who had been up in the area I'm headed for, some of them just a few weeks ago, and they all said it was gorgeous, but that it was going to be pretty darn cold about now, and also you don't have the food selection in the restaurants that you have here in Rishikesh, since it's not as popular with Western tourists. By the sounds of it, the only reason that it isn't more popular is simply because it's a section of the Himalaya that gets overlooked by other areas of north India to the west, and then Nepal to the east. But otherwise, it has some of the tallest peaks in the world and is supposed to be pretty spectacular. My exploring options will be limited obviously being the middle of winter, but it sounds like there's still places where you can go now that will at least give some pretty good views of the higher peaks. And basically, as soon as I get too cold, I'll just hop on a bus south, most likely coming back to Rishikesh again before heading for some other spots around India.

Favorite places in the world (not necessarily in any order)....

(Photo of the Kalalau Valley on the Na Pali Coast of Kauai, Hawaii)

—Na Pali Coast, Kauai, Hawaii
—Rishikesh, India
—Lost Coast, California
—Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, California
—Santorini Island, Greece
—Hampi, India
—Bangkok, Thailand
—Western Scotland, United Kingdom
—Highway 50, Nevada and Utah
—Highway 1, California
—Oregon Coast
—Portland, Oregon
—Denali National Park, Alaska
—land where I was raised near Willits, California
—Vancouver, B.C., Canada
—Cascade Mountain Range, Oregon
—Rainbow Gathering sites in Wyoming (1994), New Mexico (1995), Montana (2000), Idaho (2001)
—Pelloponnesus, Greece
—Tenakee hot springs, Alaska
—Bagby, Cougar and McCredie hot springs, Oregon
—Arcata, California
—Marble Mountains, California
—Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming
—Jaiselmer and Khuhri, India

some more about India

I thought I'd write an addendum of sorts to yesterday's message, just to fill in some details since I got to India, because some pretty funny stuff has happened. The first thing was getting a train ticket at the New Delhi railway station, which is a long story unto itself....

There's a tourist desk upstairs there where foreigners can go in order to skip over the hassle and confusion of doing it the normal way, which will make perfect sense in a second, because it's pretty convoluted. I needed to take the train (trains are always preferrable to busses in India because there are almost no freeways here, it's all two lane roads that are filled with obstacles, and is a very nerve-wracking experience, to say the least) about 4 hours north to Haridwar, where the train tracks end because it starts to get mountainous, and then it's just a short 16-mile bus ride from there to Rishikesh. So I wandered down to the train station, which was only about a 15-minute walk from my hotel, the day before I planned to take the train. I knew about the tourist desk, but also knew that it can be a long wait, and it's quicker to use the normal ticket booths downstairs once you figure out the system. But for starters I figured I'd head up to the foreigners office and just see how things looked. As you walk in there's a desk just to the left, where you basically get general information as to how to proceed from there. After that there's a bunch of seats with people sitting in them, and you have to figure out which form to fill out and then which area to sit in. So I asked at the desk and realized the first thing I need was my passport, which was back in my hotel room. So with that, I decided to go ahead and try dealing with things downstairs.

Back downstairs, there's a series of windows, with metal bars leading up to them that create a mandatory line, which avoids the usual bunching up of people at the window basically jostling to be the next person to be served. So I picked a line, and as I was standing there I read a sign up front in English that stated that you could get a ticket for any destination at any one of the windows, of which there were about a dozen. Also the line was moving quickly enough, so within a few minutes I was at the window. So far, so good. Most people working with anything dealing with tourists will likely speak at least some English, so I told the man at the window I needed a train ticket to Haridwar. He responded with: "Go to booth number 32", and pointed off to the left. I looked up and this was booth number 6 or 7. Darn, not so easy.

So I headed in the direction he'd indicated, which led outside, and then there was another room next door with another series of lines leading up to ticket windows. Of course, these ones didn't have the metal railings that helped maintain the line. I found booth number 32, and miraculously there were only about 5 or 6 people in the line, or rather the bunch. So I stood in the back, meanwhile watching out for people trying to cut in front or go straight to the window, which happened regularly. The first thing is just that you have to make sure and leave no space between you and the guy in front, or someone will definitely cut in. So everyone ends up all bunched together. Then, people still try to simply walk straight up to the counter, acting as if they hadn't even noticed there was a line there at all. Several times I had to tap people on the shoulder and point to the back of the line. Every time I did this though, they were quite polite about it and begrudgingly went to the back of the line. About halfway into the line, I then noticed that everyone had a piece of paper, which I didn't have. I pointed at someone's piece of paper and gave a quizzical look, asking where to get one. He pointed to the far side of another line, so I made a gesture asking him to hold my space. He seemed okay with that, so I went and got the necessary form. The guy let me get back in line, and then I looked over the form.

I realized that I needed to know the number of the train I was getting on before I actually got up to the window. Somebody else indicated to me that there was another window nearby marked "Enquiry", and that was where I needed to find out the train number. So with that I relinquished my place in line, and went to stand in the other line. Once I got through that line, the guy there gave me the number of the train I would be getting on, #2055. Then, back to the other line. While I was standing there, I filled out the rest of the info, my name, place of departure, date of departure, destination, address, signature, etc. Finally I got to the front of the line and slipped my form through the hole in the window to the woman there. She didn't speak any English as it turned out, but indicated that there was a problem. She pointed to the ticket woman next to her, who apparently spoke some English. I was able to nudge my way to the front of that line, with the understanding that the woman from the other line had sent me there. The woman there then told me that I could only get tickets there for trains leaving on that same day. For advance reservations, I had to go to another building, three buildings down the street. With that, I decided screw it, I didn't want to waste my whole afternoon dealing with this, so I'd just come back to the same ticket booth #32 the next day, now that I had the appropriate form and knew where to go, and hope that the train wouldn't be full.

So, fast forward to the next day. The train left at 3:30 in the afternoon, so about 12:30 I made it down to the train station. As I was standing in the line for booth 32, with form in hand, I noticed something written in English just overhead, which I hadn't noticed before, that read "Tickets issued 2 hours until 10 minutes before train departure". It was 3 hours before the train departed. But you never know if a sign is accurate, so I continued waiting in the line. Once I got to the booth, there was a different woman this time who spoke some English, and after looking over the form, she handed it back and said "Come back in half an hour". Okay, no problem, I expected that might happen. I figured the two hours might refer to the time of boarding, rather than departure, since it was still almost 3 hours before the train actually departed. I went outside and stood in the sun for about 10 minutes, then figured I might as well get back in line since that would take another 15-20 minutes anyway.

Back in line. By now I'd somewhat gotten the hang of things, and there were other Indian guys coming up and asking where to get the forms to fill out. So one guy came up along my left side, who it turned out spoke English, but in an extremely formal manner. He said to me something along the lines of "Can you please to tell me sir where must I get the necessary forms which you currently obtain as is most required as necessary." These forms where off to the right. So, I abruptly went to point over in that direction, out of my sight since I was looking to the left, and in the process I ended up punching a guy squarely in the face, who was trying to sneak up to the front of the line. Oy ve. He had glasses on and luckily I hit him in the jaw, because otherwise I probably would have broken his glasses. He stood there stunned and rubbing his jaw, as I apologized profusely and tried to explain what had happened. So eventually that was all okay, and then I moved up to the front of the line. I handed over my form again, she took a quick glance at it and said "Come back in a half hour." Of course, I was seriously frustrated at this point, and exclaimed that it had been a half hour since she'd said to come back in a half hour the first time. She explained that it wasn't possible because the information wouldn't be in the computer yet, since it still wasn't two hours before the train departed. I gave up and went and sat outside again.

Fifteen minutes later I was back in line. About twenty minutes or so after that, I was up at the counter. This time she took my form, looked it over carefully, and busily started typing away at the computer in front of her. After about 3 or 4 minutes though, she handed it back to me and said, "You come back in another 20 minutes." I was of course completely exasperated by now, and refused to do so until I understood exactly what the problem was. She conferred with the woman in the line next to her, who spoke the better English, and that woman managed to explain to me that the computer was running a little slow, the information still hadn't been uploaded, but it could be accessible at any minute. So, back out of line. At this point I decided to go get some change for the 500 rupee note that I had, because the price of the ticket was 107 rupees and I was anticipating that if there was going to be another problem, it would be that they didn't have proper change, which happens regularly. But I knew also that no one ever wants to give change, especially for a 500 note, but it was worth a try. So I tried several different snack shops in the train station, and the third one broke it down into five 100 rupee notes. I also had a 10-rupee note, so I would have it covered. Back in line, and this time, finally I got my ticket, with barely enough time to run back to my hotel room, pack up, check out and then catch the train. That pretty well sums up India.

So the trains tend to start on time if you're at the originating point, but oftentimes are late actually getting there. This was the case this time, and we got to Haridwar about 8:30, an hour late. I then walked to the bus station, and managed to find the bus that was going to Rishikesh. I sat down along with about a half dozen other people and waited. After about 10 minutes, everyone mysteriously got up and got off the bus. Then someone who spoke English came back and told me the bus wasn't leaving now for another half hour. So, I decided to just stay the night in Haridwar rather than get to Rishikesh in another hour at best, and then try to find a room late, since it's a small town. So, I found a funky place that would do and went to sleep early that night. There were a couple of things I wanted to see in Haridwar anyway.

The next morning I got up relatively early, and then left the hotel room about 9, with enough time to hike up to a temple on a hill overlooking town, and then get back in time to check out of the room by 12. First though, I wandered down to the end of town, to an area on the Ganges river where pilgrims gather on the stone steps that line the river, and where they also do a candle ceremony similar to Thailand, where they place little lit boats into the river in the evening. I took a couple of photos there just of people gathered around the river, then headed over to the steps that went up to the temple. Right where the steps went up from the street, a woman was selling little plastic bags of various things that apparently were part of worshipping at the temple. It was 25 cents, and had some incense in it, a little plastic bag of stuff to feed the monkeys along the way, some flower petals, a colored headband, and I forget what else. On the way up the steps a little later, I came across some Indian men coming down the stairs, who were gesturing at me in a strange way. One of them then explained in some English that I should put the bag away under my shirt or in my pack, because the monkeys would try to grab it, since it contained monkey food (which I think was puffed rice). Right at that moment, I felt something brush against my leg, and a little monkey snatched the bag from my hand and ran off. This didn't bother me that much since I didn't know exactly what to do with everything anyway, and now I didn't have to carry it. So we all just laughed and I continued up the steps. About 15 minutes later, and halfway up to the temple, I decided to take a break and snack on some nuts and bananas that I had in my bag. Keeping my eyes on the monkeys, I sat down on the steps and ate one of the bananas and a few handfuls of nuts. Then I heard a monkey coming up from behind me, so I grabbed my bag and got out of the way, since I was getting a little paranoid at that point. In the process I grabbed the bag of nuts, but forgot about the bananas, and the rascal took off with my other two bananas. But, I'd only paid 5 rupees, or about 15 cents, for all three of them anyway, so no big loss.

Rishikesh, India

(Photo 1 is a self-portrait on bicycle, with a farmer trudging along in the background. The next is while on the bike trip with Dhane (who had adopted all the Burmese kids), Puck (who was also staying there for a few days) and the Burmese boys. Photos 3 and 4 are of myself with two Thai friends, Ae and Tig, who picked me up hitchhiking near Sukhothai, Thailand. Photo 5 is at Red Fort, Delhi. Photo 6 is a man dressed as Hanuman, the monkey God, in Haridwar on the way up to the Mansa Devi temple)...

I'm now in Rishikesh, in northern India right at the base of the Himalaya and on the Ganges River. But it's only at about 1,000 feet, so I'm not buried in snow or anything. It's just chilly at night and pleasant during the day, although it'll get colder if I stick around here for a little while, which I plan to. But I was last here 8 years ago during my first trip to India, and it's really an oasis from the craziness of most of India. Coming into Delhi was still a bit of culture shock, despite the fact that this is my third time here and I was coming from Thailand. But India is just a completely different world. I guess the difference between here and Thailand is pretty much the difference between second world and third world. So it's good that there are places such as Rishikesh that are a little easier to handle, but where you still get the flavor of India. But I'll talk a little more about where I'm at at the end, since first I should try to catch up with things.

Just so you're forewarned this will probably turn into a pretty long email, although I'll try to skim over things a bit. I think the last time I wrote a detailed message was from Pai, the touristy little village in a valley in northern Thailand, which I guess was just early last week, but feels more like about a month ago. From there I went west almost to the Burmese border to another small town in the hills, Mae Hong Son, the "Switzerland of Thailand" which was also a tourist destination, but for Thai tourists instead of Westerners. At that point I realized that I was running out of time and needed to pick up the pace a little. So I stayed there just two nights, and then took a bus down to Mae Sariang, which didn't have much in particular to see but was on the way and sounded interesting just to check out. So I stayed there two nights as well, spending a day just biking around the town and the valley. Then I hopped on a "songthaew" for the next segment of the journey, because it wasn't frequented enough to have a bus covering the route. A songthaew is just a pickup truck that has been converted into public transportation, with two benches running along the sides front to back, and then sides and an overhead covering. So it's relatively secure, and actually takes the curves better than a bus, but not quite as comfy to sit on, especially for 5 hours as was the case this time. So we headed down a road that skirted the Burmese border through some pretty remote areas, with just a few little villages along the way, to my destination of Mae Sot, which is a Burmese border town. There are tons of factories employing cheap Burmese labor there, and apparrently Calvin Klein has a factory there as well as other big name companies.

So the reason I was heading there was I'd happened upon this guy online who lived there and took care of Burmese refugee children. He was just a single guy living with a Burmese couple, who had one daughter of their own, and then he had 14 Burmese children he'd adopted, all boys except one girl. I came across him on the Intentional Communities website, which I'd checked just out of curiosity to see what sort of communal arrangements were going on in Thailand. There were only three entries and the other two I also emailed, but they weren't really communities, and although this guy wasn't exactly either it sounded pretty interesting to stop by. He said I could just come by whenever and stay for as long as I felt like it, hang out with the kids and go bike riding or whatever. During the day he worked as an English teacher at a local school.

I'll skip over most of the details, but basically I managed to get a hold of him over the phone once I got into town and then took a taxi out to his house which was just outside of the town of Mae Sot. As it turned out he had another American guy staying with him, who had been there about a week, who lived on a commune himself on the east coast, I think in Virginia. And the guy who was taking care of the kids was American as well, so it was cool to catch up with some fellow countrymen, especially in terms of not having to speak slowly and carefully so people could understand me. I just stayed there one night, on a mattress on the floor of their big wooden house, with half a dozen of the kids sleeping nearby. The next day was Saturday so the guy (Dhane) wasn't teaching at the school, so he, the other American, and 4 of the Burmese kids and I went on this big bike ride, that involved stopping by a market alongside the river separating Thailand and Burma, near the Burma-Thailand friendship bridge (it's a rather rocky friendship to say the least).

That afternoon I then said thanks and goodbye to those guys, hopped on a bus and headed back east to Sukhothai, which is another former Thailand capital with some excellent temple ruins. The thing is that the temple ruins are about 8 miles from the modern city of Sukhothai. According to my guidebook there were hotels and guesthouses near the temple ruins, which was on the way to the new city, so I decided to get off there (at about 8 pm) and get a guesthouse there so that in the morning I could just get up, see the ruins quick and then head for Bangkok, and avoid going there and back from the nearby modern town. Problem was, although there were guesthouses there, there weren't very many and they were all full. It wasn't a huge problem, since I could take a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled little taxi like a rickshaw) from there into town. During the day you could catch one of the shared songthaews for super cheap, but they didn't run at night and the tuk-tuk ride was going to cost about $4.50. That doesn't sound like much of course, except that you can get a hotel room for that, and I'd paid only about $3 for the past 3 hours of bus rides getting there, so didn't want to shell out that much just to cover 8 miles. So, I decided, what the heck, I'll try hitchhiking for the first time in Asia. It was worth a try, and there was a good spot under some street lamps right in front of the last hotel I'd checked that was full. I figured I'd just try it out for 10 minutes or so and if it didn't work then I'd break down and get the tuk-tuk.

To make a longish story shorter, it took about two minutes, and I got a ride in this new pickup truck with an extended cab, driven by a woman about my age and a guy a little younger, both Thai. The woman spoke just enough English to get across the basics, whereas the guy didn't speak any. But we managed to have something of a conversation along the way, and once we got into the new town of Sukhothai they drove me to a guesthouse I'd found in my book, then they invited me to go have a beer with them. I checked into a room quick, then went with them to this restaurant with live Thai music, where I was the only foreigner. We had a great time, the band was super hip, pretty much looking like a rock band back in the States, other than the fact they were Asian. So, that was great to actually get to hang out with some Thai folks one-on-one other than just doing assorted business transactions.

The next day I managed to get up early, take a cheap songthaew to the ruins, bike around there fairly quick, then get back to my room to pack up and catch a bus 6 hours south to Bangkok, arriving late in the evening. But Bangkok is pretty much open 24 hours so I had no problem finding a room there, on the legendary backpacker's haven of Khao San Road (Leonardo DiCaprio stays there, I think, in the beginning of the movie The Beach). To give an idea of what it's like there, you can buy a bucket of beer and then drink it on the sidewalk. Neon lights, clubs and pounding Western music are everywhere. Not exactly my scene, but I wanted to check it out anyway, and I managed to find a hotel room that was just down a little alley and so was fairly quiet. It was definitely a happening place, and I'd actually stay there again, since if you want a change of scene you just take off and walk or catch a bus elsewhere. Otherwise you have all the amenities you might need there, plus plenty of interesting people-watching while eating your breakfast.

Well I should wrap this up as the internet cafe I'm in here is about to close up. But basically I just cruised around Bangkok for two days, which is a really cool city, very modern and fairly clean and orderly (definitely compared to India), then hopped on a plane to Delhi, northern India, on Wednesday. Delhi was really crazy as usual, I just saw one fort yesterday and then was ready to get the heck out of there. So then I hopped a train yesterday up here. Rishikesh is just a little village on the Ganges, with an area across from the main part of town that's only accessible by two walking bridges, so there are no cars, and it's very quiet, mellow and relaxing. I'm planning to hang out here for a while, until whenever I get bored basically, then I'm thinking of heading a little farther north, just to get a little more sense of the Himalaya, without getting too far up into the snow. Well I should leave it there, so take care all and stay warm; oh yeah and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Not sure what I'll be doing exactly but it will probably involve several cups of hot chocolate at least, and who knows maybe I'll happen upon something genuinely Christmassy around here.

hopping on a bus...

(originally written December 3rd)

I'm hopping on a bus from Pai to Mae Hong Son in a little while today. Mae Hong Son is another little mountain town basically west and then a little south (3-4 hours on the bus), so getting pretty close to the Burmese border. It's known as the Switzerland of Thailand, supposed to be a lot of hills around there and nice scenery. Basically I'm headed back to Bangkok from here but with a little bit of a roundabout route, as I have about 10 days left. Pai has been great, really a mellow, easygoing place although it's way too touristy. But I can see why, as it's in a beautiful, pleasant valley, with lots to do in town (row after row of shops, restaurants, guest houses, little bars, massage shops, bookshops, etc.) and lots of activities to do in the area in general. But things are done in a pretty cool way, it's not tacky touristy and there's no big hotels or anything, it's all just wooden or bamboo huts or little concrete guest houses that blend together pretty well and fit into the small town vibe.

So basically I spent one day here bicycling all over the valley, including a big ride uphill to a waterfall, and then I spent yesterday hiking to another waterfall, which I didn't make it to because it was a little longer hike than I'd expected, my legs were already sore and besides you know already pretty much what a waterfall looks lik. Then the other two days I just hiked to one nearby temple with a good view of the valley, and spent the afternoon hanging out at a swimming pool at one of the resorts. Also I ran into one of the guys that I hung out with by the river for the Loy Krathong festival. Well I should run as the bus leaves in about a half hour. Looking forward to the bus ride, it was fairly scenic getting here, but I think this one will be even more so, maybe even Switzerland-like, we'll see.

Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai, etc.

I've been in Chiang Mai almost a week and am realizing that somehow my time here in Thailand is already coming to a close (at least until spring, when I'm back for another month). I fly out of Bangkok in two weeks, and so rather than try rushing things by going north up to Laos and spend too much time on busses, I'm going to be making my way more or less back towards Bangkok. So in the next day or two I'll head west over to the little town of Pai, which is also fairly touristy but is supposed to be a pleasant little town in the hills, with good access to hiking, some hot springs, as well as seeing some of the more traditional hill tribe villages (many of whom are refugees from Myanmar and Laos). I was considering doing an organized trek for a few days, but it sounds like they kind of rush things, shuttling you from a short walk to a waterfall to a hill tribe village (which might not even be a real village, but one basically set up for tourists, which is a weird concept) and then a quick elephant ride and then some river rafting. I'm thinking I'd rather just hike and bike around and do my own thing, and that area sounds like a good place to do it. Then from there I'll start making a more southerly route.

So, back to Chiang Mai. The Loy Krathong festival was quite amazing. The festival is centered around the end of the rainy monsoon season, so it's a time to celebrate abundant crops as well as release negative energies; which they do by floating these flowery candle boats down the river, releasing lanterns into the air and also setting off tons of fireworks. And by releasing lanterns into the air, yes, I mean lanterns, which are aflame and untethered, and go floating up into the sky, to land who knows where. This is not a festival that would be allowed in southern California. It's neither environmentally friendly nor safe, though the intentions are certainly good. But the best image I can think of is something like armageddon, or a war zone, except that everyone's having a great time. Fireworks are shooting off with little discretion in every direction, as well as cherry bombs and other explosive firecrackers. The river is filled with the lights of candles floating down it, and the night sky is filled with thousands of these lanterns floating up and over the city (they're simply a large paper tube, maybe 3-4 feet high and 2 feet wide, turned upside down and with a bundle of waxed cardboard inside them, which is lit and then causes it to float). This goes on for hours and hours after it gets dark, and happens over several nights.

The only reason this doesn't result in the entire country burning down, at least as much as I can figure, is because it takes place at the end of the monsoon and so everything's damp. Also, in theory at least the lanterns don't actually come down until the fires inside have already burned down. But of course that's not foolproof and some of the floating lanterns inevitably fall into trees. But they don't end up starting a fire due to the wet conditions, but just burn themselves out. You would think some of them would start fires somewhere, especially during a drier year, but if so it's obviously not enough of a detterent to change the tradition at all. Either way, I'd hate to be downwind from a city where all of these things end up landing.

The large Ping River flowing through town is the place to be, so I headed down there with my own Krathong (the candle boat) and took a spot by the river to watch the action; which involved a lot of Thai teenagers having too much fun, since the drinking age is 18, you can drink on the streets and most of them had fireworks on hand. But overall they behaved themselves fairly well, no fights or puking in the street, at least that I saw. Eventually a couple of travelers ended up sitting near me and we chatted a bit while watching the spectacle, and drank a beer or two too many ourselves (which means only three in my case, but that will do it); which was fun until I got back to my hotel room with a bit of a spinning head, and a stomach that wasn't so excited about the sausages I'd bought from a street vendor on the way back. So sometimes you have to pay for your fun the next day, but it was still worth it. It was definitely a trip, and I'm left impressed at how the Thais can be such friendly, easygoing people, and yet put on a heck of a party at the same time. There was also a nighttime parade and assorted music and street fairs that showcased various aspects of Thai culture, both more traditional and modern.

So, other than that I've just been checking out the mellow city of Chiang Mai a bit, including a number of temples and a museum I biked to today that illustrated the various different hill tribe cultures of northern Thailand (including the "long neck" women, with the series of rings around their necks, who are the ones who unfortunately have become something of a tourist spectacle. They are refugees from Myanmar (Burma) who have fled to Thailand to escape persecution from the Burmese government). Also I've been enjoying the wide range of dinner options here, where they're catering to all the Western tourists. I found a great Mexican restaurant, where I ate for Thanksgiving. Last night I headed there again, but they're closed on Mondays so instead I stopped into another place and had an excellent chili burger with fries (although the chili was just literally chilis). I figure I've got to take advantage of the food from back home while I can, since most places I'm not going to have the options.

Chiang Mai

(A Buddha statue in Ayuthaya)...

I'm now in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. I arrived early this morning after an overnight bus ride from Ayuthaya, where I stayed for two nights, after leaving Trat. Getting from Trat to Ayuthaya was a bit of a trip, because I had two very different bus rides. There wasn't a direct Trat-Ayuthaya bus, so I had to take a bus to Bangkok's northern bus terminal (in which I avoided having to actually go into the heart of Bangkok) and then catch another bus from there just 30 miles north to Ayuthaya. The bus ride from Trat to Bangkok was a government bus and it was very clean, only about half full, with a bathroom on board (they're not in the back but in the center of the bus where you go down some stairs, which also leads to a second exit door). At the start of the trip they handed out these snack boxes to everyone, that had water, a yogurt drink and cookies. It was a pretty nice and fairly new bus, where the driver and his assistant are separated by a barrier with a door at the front of the bus. So you only see the assistant guy come around every once in a while to check tickets or whatever. Also the bus made very few stops along the way, so we covered 200 miles in about 4 1/2 hours. Most of the highways here in Thailand are divided highways or freeways so you move along pretty good. Basically, it beat Greyhound and was about 8 bucks.

The next bus ride was a little different. It took 2 1/2 hours to go 30 miles, not because of traffic out of Bangkok or anything, but because the bus stopped every chance it got to drum up more passengers in order to cram it full. It was more like the typical India bus, sort of falling apart, with lots of colorful religious decorations (Buddhist in this case) all over the interior. There were four guys including the driver manning the bus, and I ended up sitting in the first seat right near the driver and the other guys, who were all rather boisterous. We got out of the bus station pretty much right on time, but then we stopped at a snack shop right away so that they could all buy cigarettes. Then we stopped at another snack shop so they could buy a bunch of shish-ke-bobs (which they gave me one). The bus was only maybe a third full, so when we got to another market area where there were a lot of people standing around, they pulled over and started drumming up the passengers. We stayed there for at least ten minutes while all the assistants went around through the crowd yelling all the places they were stopping along the way. Basically it was sort of a city bus that was taking people to various points outside of Bangkok on the way to Ayuthaya, but it was clearly a private bus, which is a bad combination if you're actually ready to get to your destination in reasonable time. So then we stopped at several other points to let people off, and then hang out for a while to get more passangers. Then we pulled alongside a canal and the three assistants got out with white plastic buckets, filled them up with water from the canal and then washed out the luggage area, for some reason, which I presume didn't have any luggage in it (at least not mine) because they just sloshed water all over the place. Then we continued on, stopping along the way all the way up to Ayuthaya. The way it was going I was thinking it was going to take even longer, so I was pretty stoked when we finally pulled up there.

Ayuthaya is essentially a rectangular island about 3 by 4 miles created by three different rivers coming together. It was the capital of Thailand (or at least that part of Thailand, the borders have shifted around a lot) from somewhere around the 14th to 17th centuries. There's now a modern town on part of the island, with tons of ancient temples (more than a hundred) scattered all around the island and then a few places across the rivers. Basically, it was the ideal place to just rent a bicycle and bike all over the place checking out these temples, which was what I did, managing to get thoroughly lost at one point just because road signs aren't entirely reliable (although they almost always are in English as well as Thai, dang convenient).

The next day I had an overnight "VIP" bus (which basically means they have a TV up front and play a lot of dubbed action movies) reserved leaving at 9pm, so I checked out of my hotel room and then just walked around and went over some of the ground I'd went over the previous day. The bus that night was entirely foreign tourists because it was coming directly from a popular backpacker's area in Bangkok. Other than stopping at Ayuthaya it stopped only once for a snack stop in the middle of the night. Basically it was a long, boring overnight trip in which I got no sleep and was thinking maybe it was worth it to take the day bus (the advantage to going overnight is you skip paying for a hotel room for that night). The one good thing about it was I ended up sitting next to a French Canadian woman who was also traveling alone and so we were glad to have someone to catch up on our travels with. Fortunately they turned the action movie off around 10pm and then it was dark and fairly quiet after that, and we got into Chiang Mai around 7 am.

After a rather exhaustive search for guest houses this morning I found something good, a little more than I wanted to pay, but I just wasn't finding anything super cheap that I wanted to put up with. So I got a pretty nice room on the second floor of sort of a mini-hotel, with tons of windows, private bathroom with hot water and two twin beds with a great mattress (the mattress is what makes or breaks a lot of rooms) for 200 baht, or 6 bucks. Not bad, this same room in a touristy place in the U.S. would probably be 80-100 bucks or something. Also I have a nice view looking down on the quiet lane that it's on. I'd found one other room that I really liked, it was all teak hardwood for the same price, but then the lady warned me that the bar next door played loud live music at night, so that pretty much ruined it.

So after that bus ride and then hiking all over the place I was beat, and just took a shower, slept for the afternoon, then found a nice restaurant for dinner and then found super cheap internet here at 15 baht an hour, or 50 cents. Other than the room being a little more than I wanted to pay, it looks like I'll be able to keep the budget a little more reasonable here with lots of cheap restaurant options, especially since I plan to stick around for a while, at least a week or so. There's tons to do here, lots of temples, museums, a zoo, bookshops, bars, and it's a really cool town to just walk around, super mellow with lots of small little lanes with various shops and characterful restaurants. It's also crazy touristy, in some areas you see as many westerners as Thais, but there's plenty of exploring you can do outside of this area (where all the affordable guest houses are), where I'm sure it will feel a little more authentically Thai. Also there's hiking and overnight trekking in the hills nearby, where you hike from one village to another and then spend the night in village guest houses, so I'll look into maybe doing one of those for a couple of days.

back in Trat

(A pier on Ko Mak)....

I'm back in Trat, the little town (which now feels like the big city) that's basically the jumping off point for the Ko Chang islands, and where I was almost two weeks ago. I had a great time, got more than enough sun, did some snorkeling (although the conditions weren't perfect, it sounds like the water will be clearer later, since it's still transitioning from the monsoon season) did some hiking around, went swimming in a pool at a waterfall, had plenty of banana shakes (not with ice cream, I think it's just fruit, milk, ice and sugar put in a blender, but they're pretty good) and plenty of good Thai food. A couple of nights ago I mentioned to the waiter at the restaurant to make it plenty spicy, since previous dishes weren't quite spicy enough. "How spicy, Thai style?" Sure, I said. That was a mistake, it was so hot I could barely finish it, although it was still pretty good. He was a little apologetic and I couldn't quite tell if they'd accidentally made it even spicier than normal, or if that was just the norm. But now I know what Thai style is and for them to make it about half as spicy as that.

Anyway so I first went to the little island of Ko Mak. I was avoiding Ko Chang, which is the most popular island and also the biggest and most expensive. Ko Mak was great, pretty beaches, warm water and nice folks, etc., pretty much just what you'd expect of a tropical island. I met a Norwegian couple on the boat there and hung out with them a bit, as well as a woman from France who had lived on the island previously for 5 years, and had a great little wooden hut with private bathroom and a porch with a hammock (good thing I didn't haul that hammock all the way from home). After a few days I realized though that there wasn't a whole lot to do there activity-wise (especially trying to watch my budget, everything's pricier than normal there) and I was getting a little bored of just being a beach bum. I stayed there for a week though and then took another boat over to Ko Kood, which is bigger, almost the size of Ko Chang, but not nearly as popular mostly because it's farther away. That was a nice change, as there was a lot more to do, more beaches to check out, waterfalls, etc. and just a different vibe. The weather didn't cooperate completely though, it was hazy and overcast a lot, so I ended up getting started on an article about my recent trip to the Kalalau Valley in Hawaii, which I've almost finished (just writing in a notepad) and has turned out pretty well. So at some point I'll type it up and then start looking at who or where I could possibly sell it to, which is one of the plans for this trip. So we'll see how that goes. Also once I do get it written up then I'll go ahead and pass it along.

So the other wrinkle with Ko Kood was somewhat ironically that it wasn't quite touristy enough. I stayed there for five nights and there were at least a dozen rooms, but I was the only person in my guest house for all except one night, when another couple was there. There were other tourists on the island, but from what I gathered the real tourist rush starts next weekend. So I was thinking of hopping over to Ko Chang to perhaps find some other travelers to hang out with, or at least a little more sense of something happening, but it isn't easy to get from Ko Kood to Ko Chang. Basically it was cheaper to take a boat all the way back to Trat, and then go to Ko Chang from here. So, I'm still pondering maybe going over there from here, but instead I'm thinking I'll probably save the island thing for another time, and see some other parts of Thailand.

I was considering going from here into Cambodia to see the temples at Angkor Wat, but I don't really feel like leaving Thailand already and dealing with getting across the border, etc. So maybe I'll come back and do Cambodia at another time and check out Ko Chang then. Instead I'm planning to head north in the general direction of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is a small city of around 150,000 people, pretty far north, but it's said to have all the cultural benefits of Bangkok, without all the hassle. It's quite popular with travelers, the hotels are cheap (and I need to do cheap for a little while after the islands) and there's a lot going on, i.e. meditation courses, yoga, massage, etc. as well as dozens of temples to check out, plus there's trekking in the hills nearby. So it sounds like something completely different from laying around on a beach and I think is more what I'm up for right now. There are a few destinations I'll most likely hit along the way, particularly Ayuthaya and Sukhothai, which are both towns with tons of temples, as I think they were both the capital of Thailand (aka Siam) at one point. Also Chiang Mai is heading in the direction of Laos, which has been highly recommended, so I may end up going there while I'm in that area. Another possibility is to then make a loop and go down into Cambodia from there and then back here, but who knows.

So I'll probably hang out here in Trat for at least a day or two, it's a good place to get reoriented, do shopping, get a cheap massage and trade in some books, etc. I'm staying at the same guest house where I was before, the people there are nice and at least a few speak some English so that you can make onward travel arrangements easier. Plus they make a mean banana shake....anyway that's all for now...

Trat, Thailand

I'm now in the little town of Trat, about 5 hours by bus southeast of Bangkok, and pretty close to Cambodia. Yesterday morning I had to decide whether to go into the concrete jungle of Bangkok (since I was in a hotel on the far eastern edge of it) or head this way for the islands (just some of the islands, most of the Thai islands, and the more popular ones, are due south of Bangkok a ways). Although Bangkok sounds extremely interesting, I decided to save it for later in my trip and go straight for a mellow island.

So I packed up, got some good directions for catching the appropriate bus here from someone at the guest house, and then arrived here about 5pm. So far I'm definitely impressed by Thailand, even though I really haven't seen much. The drive here was inland, cutting across diagonally from Bangkok, so I didn't have the ocean to look at, and it was fairly uneventful but pleasantly green scenery, going through smallish towns. But it just has a good feel to it, and the notable thing, after going to India, is that it's way cleaner, mellower, less crazy and less third world than India. I would say that it even seems about halfway between second world and first world, maybe close to the equivalent of Greece, from what I remember of it (although it may have changed a little in 17 years). There are lots of private cars, they mostly seem fairly new, there's almost no garbage on the streets, almost no beggars or homeless, people are dressed pretty similarly to people in the west, nice but pretty casual, you see few animals around other than stray dogs, I didn't even notice any cows until a few right before I got here.

So all considering I'm pretty amazed that it's as cheap as it it. When I got to the bus station here in Trat someone came up to me with a card to recommend a guest house. So I decided to check it out, and it's quite nice, although a much simpler room than my other one. It's very small, like barely larger than the double bed that's in it, with just a fan and small table, but a quiet neighborhood, clean (other than lots of geckos, but I don't mind them) and it's about $3.50/night. They have a nice restaurant that's reasonably priced and really quick internet for about a buck an hour. The town is really mellow, about 15,000 people and I was walking around last night and it feels really safe, there were young kids out and about after dark and families going to restaurants, etc., but the streets weren't packed at all like India.

I'm on a small side street that's a short walk from the center of town and the market. The only thing is that grapes are apparently quite expensive, unless someone was giving me the inflated price. I went through the market last night, and asked about some grapes at one of the stands. She put a fairly large amount on the scale, maybe three handfuls, and then asked for 150 baht. That's about 5 dollars. That probably doesn't sound like much, until you figure that my hotel room is $3.50. And my budget is 10 bucks a day. So I passed on the grapes and instead bought some bananes, which were about 40 cents for a rack of 16 of them. That isn't quite as good of a deal as it sounds though, because the bananas were literally only about two inches long, and I had 10 of them in a row. They're usually pretty small in India as well, but not that small. But the thing is they taste a lot better than larger bananas.

Well anyhow I should probably wrap things up here. It's now about 10am, I've had breakfast and am planning to just explore the town here a little today. It sounds like there really isn't all that much to do around here other than see some temples, maybe rent a bike and go out of town a little ways, or just hang out and read or whatever. The reason this is a popular tourist town with lots of guest houses is simply because it's the jumping off point for the nearby islands. It was overcast yesterday and so I was thinking I might hang out here (rather than go straight to the island of Ko Mak) for a few days since there's no reason to rush to the beach when it's cloudy (and accomodations are going to be more expensive there). But then today is nice and sunny so I might just stay here one more night and then go tomorrow, but I guess I'll just see.