I Think I Finally Get How This Works...

Before I left the US, I had the grandiose idea of making a travel blog. I bought a small net book to burden me throughout my trip, a luxury I usual forgo when backpacking. I even went so far as to make bold claims across Facebook, "check out my blog!!" Well, ha ha jokes on you, and me for that matter...Turns out having a computer and wifi makes it terribly easy to escape into a new TV series or movie after a long day of exploring a new city. To stay up late in the common room of the dorm so you don't have to lie cramped in your rock hard bed trying not to disturb the other people with flickering blue and white lights of your screen. These are the things I have done instead of writing about these wonderful places I have had the privilege to visit.

Yesterday, I rented a scooter and navigated my way through the hair-raising traffic of the city to a quite country road the ancient Sun Temple. That is when I wished I could make a movie and show it to everyone I knew. The exact moment that my scooter weaved its way through a malingering herd of cows under a canopy of bright green trees that seemed to go on forever.  So, what is this realization you ask? Easy, a blog does not need to be delivered is hermetically sealed packages including pictures, quotes and annotations. I can just write. Since, I am still in the midst of my travels then I will continue on. Although, don't be surprised if there is a sudden shift away from my current locale. 

Puri, India is on the east coast on the Bay of Bengal. Finally, the ocean! I haven't seen the ocean in over a month. Instantly, I took a liking to the place, just for the sheer contrast of its clime to Kolkata. So when I found out I could rent a scooter and go up the coast I jumped at the chance. Unaware that they only give you enough petrol for the first few kilometers, I began my journey by running out of gas on an empty country road. Pushing the bike along the road someone stopped to help me then a few other people. A stranded foreigner being a point of interest. Needless to say after much dicussion they agreed that I was out of gas. I hitched a ride to a station and bought 3 liters of petrol. When I offered to pay them for their troubles, they graciously said no. But, they insisted that I call them and arrange tours with them the following day. Be that as it may I am leaving today so no luck for them. Unfortunately, all I can give them is my gratitude in my unfrequented blog. 

Shaking off the frustrating bump the road, I began my journey anew. Further down the road, the landscape was all sandy browns and rusty reds, spotted with green trees and gnarled shrubbery. I shot my way down the road at a blazing 60km/hr (about 36m/hr), dodging stubborn cattle, slower moving bikes and monkeys springing across the road at odd intervals. The are was cool and salty, hinting of the ocean beyond the dunes. I hadn't felt so relaxed in weeks. That is when I saw the first temple in the distance, standing along in a spiral tower swirling to to the sky painted like the twisting board of Candy Land. Speckled in bright blues, pinks, purples and greens, complete with colorful lions guarding the entrance. These multicolored apparitions would wave past me as I made for my destination, The Sun Temple.  

Upon arriving at the Sun Temple, I had to dodge a small crowd of street vendors assuring them that, "I don't need a statue or a necklace or a postcard..." The temple stood before me ancient and welcoming. Its brown weathered stones standing with a crumbling strength before me. This is not an unfamiliar sight, to be honest my mind immediately compared it to on of the temples in Angkor Watt. I have seen similar architecture in Indonesia as well,but that made it all the more compelling. There is much of this interconnectedness throughout Asia and is never ceases to surprise me. This temple in particular is famous for its sexual carving all around the facade, in addition to the giant wheels on the side that made it like a chariot, with horse statues in the front pulling the chariot into the heavens. 

It is with these thoughts my head that I returned to Puri swinging by the train station to attempt to buy a ticket to Chennai. The problem being, that in line people crowd you to point you cannot get into your bag for your form or passport. It took about 5 minutes to get my ticket situated and the entire time I was squished in the window by the 8 people behind me. I am used to this by now, but every once in a while it gets to me. When I was finally done I spun around ticket, money and passport in hand, having been shoved out of line. There was a little girl barefoot in a dirty red dress tugging at my arm begging for money. She hadn't been the first that day, hour, even in the last 15 minutes. My hands full, I muttered,"No..." under my breath and spun around with my back to her frantically pushing my money and documents in to my overfull day bag. She came around to face me again as I fumbled and moved toward the exist, pulling at my arm she kept saying  "money, money, you give." I said, "No, sorry please go." I moved faster trying to keep her behind me. The station was crowded and I had been warned of pick pockets. At this point, I just wanted to get out of there...she kept poking at me and I kept moving faster. Then I reached my scooter and sped away. That is when I started to feel bad, thinking of what I looked like to the other people at the station, spinning and practically running away from a beggar. Just a note in my defense I am usually calm and collected and have no such reactions when people ask me for money. Suffice to say we all lose are cool sometimes. 

This a good illustration about a typical day of traveling for me. I succeed, blunder and vacillate between amazement and frustration. But, the difficulties and slip-ups are what smooth out the rough edges of my experiences. I hope that upon reflection I can become a better person.  

Aloha means Hello and Goodbye...

I couldn't have chosen a better place to bid farewell to the United States than Honolulu, HI. It was like slowly shuffling my way westward in the most beautific and relaxed manner possible. This was do in part to my gracious hosts Sumi and Rob Kirk, and the locale in which they lived, Hawai'i Kai.

The who know me best know I love to try to the local brew wherever I am, my very first pit stop at Waikiki beach after I disembarked was accompanied by a six pack of local Maui brewing company beer. Those first few hours in Honolulu were spent on a crowded beach sipping cold beer and watching tourists with questionable beach attire parading past me. Sufficiently sun-soaked for my first day I made my way to Sumi's place.

Diving an underwater-world: An enitrely different trip...


I knew diving in Hawaii would be great, but it was for a different reasons than I thought. Although, there were many tropical fish and warm waters with decent visability the thing that made it special for me was the wreck dives. I have been fortunate enough dive in a variety of tropical venues, but wreckage is unique because of how the animal and plant life forms an isolated and well rounded micro-causim. Unfortunately, do to my lack of practice, and a dead battery my pictures cannot accurately show you in technicolor glory what I saw with my own eyes. The first wreck pictured below, was the deepest dive I have ever done at 106 ft. It  is a singularly unique experience descending into the depths of the ocean. The surface is entirely caotic and you are pre-occupied on the descent by constant minor adjustments of your body and position in the water. The there is an emmence release when you reach the bottom. Being equalized and neutrally boyant you are free to look about and absorb the amazing sights around you.

I was fortunate to dive for 3 days while I was in Hawai'i. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance. Regretfully, I wrote this blog with the full intention of publishing it when I wrote it. It is now 6 weeks later.

Thanks to Sumi and Rob I had some great friend time including a very scenic drive to the North Shore. Despite the rain, I managed to see some turtles and squeeze in some snorkeling. There an endless amount of things to do in Oahu, but really all you need is a towel, sunscreen and a good book, the beaches to the rest.

Cambodia Can Have An Impact

I have no idea why I never got that post onto my blog, but as I am now heading off to another adventure. I would like to share this with you...

Traveling brings moments of brevety and deep contemplation. I suppose that emtional and intellectual growth are some of the purposes of visiting another country. I have learned alot in the past 2 months about communism, dictatorships, and capitalistic enterprise among poverty. South East Asia is as diverse as it is similar. "Same-same but different." Aside from intermitent adventures, I feel that this is the greatest essence of travel outside of the scope of the western world.
After repeated occupation by other countries, every type of war, genocide and recent independence. I had the opportunity to observe a country in the fluxes of recovery. Here is an example of something I experienced:

When I entered my steps were heavy and my mouth was silent. I let the black spots ringed like an eclipse fade from my vision before proceeding any further. I was in a room, long, square rough brick peaking though chipped plaster a classroom. The sun pushed its way though the cracks in the walls and the rusted bars on the windows. The phospheresant particles of matter floated down the beams of light urging reverence. Each brick wall 8 X 2 meters just enough for one person. The red brick was not ancient, it was cracked and stale with abandonment. I gazed down at a 35 yearold plastic jug slowly decomposing next to a rusted lunchbox that once held M-16 bullets. As I walked down the corridor between the tiny dilapidated cells and half unhindged doors. I heard a voice echoing down the passageway. I followed the sad voice slowly not knowing if it was a monk lamenting the past or a Cambodian practicing his kareoke skills. I ducked through the crude doorway made by smashing throught the connecting wall. I stood still listening intently to the voice straining to place it, and wondering what sounds were heard here 35 years ago. The voice changed as I approached the window, it appeared my later assumtion was correct. But, for those 2 minutes I felt the life that was once here. A haunting and intimate moment with all of my senses hightened. That was the moment I experienced Toul Sleng Prison.
I was there in Cell Block B, where the genocide commited by Pol Pot's regime became tangible for me. This wasn't Ankor Wat or Rabbit Island, this was a place in the center of the capitol where thousands of people's lives were lost. Over shadowing this tragic place are the Killing Fields, where millions of people died in killed and thrown into ditches all over the country. Of the 85 sites all over Cambodia the Khmer people have no choice but to remember, and I had a chance to learn from that.

Happy Pii Mai, Unhappy Journey

Although I am now in Vietnam. I still want to take the time to talk about the Lao new year. Pii Mai is celebrated in the middle on April every year. In Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. In Laos it is all about the water. Waterguns, water hoses, and water balloons. We met up with a friend of Christine's from the Peace Corps named Nicole. We just happened to run into her at dinner the night before. We met with some local hostel owners and their friends and proceeded to get drunk and drenched (not in that order, more like continuously one, the other, or both). We were running around like wild monkeys looked for our next victims armed with only a bucket of water and a healthy mischievous nature aided along by copious amounts of Beer Lao. We danced and sang most of the afternoon pausing only to move the party to another location. By the late afternoon we were all partied out and a little pooped. We ate inside of a riverside bungalow on stilts slowly recovering from the days antics. As we were headed home we had the brilliant idea ò stopping at the African tent. Most of the people were from Nigeria or Ghana, but we did get some Fu Fu and it was awesome. If you haven't had it I recommend you to try it. After an eventful day we made it home and prepared ourselves for the 24hr bus ride the next. Little did we know what was in store for us.

We boarded the bus at 7pm and headed for the Laos/Vietnam boarder. It was a normal bus by Laos standards and had "A/C." We arrived at the border at 1:30am. With no explanation the bus parked on the road and shut of the A/C. We all made an effort to just sleep until the border opened, but the bus began to swelter for the heat of over 50 bodies all trying to sleep. No windows = no sleep. One by one we exited the bus and took to sitting in the middle of the road, praying for sunrise. It was very dark and throughout the night more buses came and lined up behind ours. We figured that the border would open at 5am, but at 5am when the purple dawn was approaching and giving us an idea of what surrounded us, we realized we were wrong. The border opened at 6:30am. The guards came out of there house and made there way to the stream to wash themselves and pee. After they returned and lifted the gate our bus let us out at the first check point. We figured it wouldn't take long and like she all the foreigners made a line in front of the visa window on the Laos side. (There are no such things as lines). The drivers from all the buses started collecting passports and taking money. Shoving the piles of hundreds of peoples' passports through the window at the 2 desk clerks. We reluctantly gave ours to someone from our bus and hoped all went well. The system worked and we were sent walking to the Vietnam border. Once we arrived there it was pretty easy, but we had been trying to cross the border for 2 hours already. Over an hour later, we finally got on our way to Hanoi. It was another 10 hours until we arrived in the capital. That is why I never want to take a 24hr bus again.

What Haven't Said About Laos

There are a great number of things I have seen and experienced in Laos. I think I was just fortunate to have traveled here. Reading the guide books and internet reviews I have found writers refering to such and such a country as, " having the most friendly people in the world." I suppose that you could use that absolute about many peoples, but here I find it very close to a truism. We have been treated very kindly, and there is no fear of theifs or of being missled. One girl who lives in Vientiane said,"the Lao people will try to price gouge a tourist, but they will tell you they are doing it."

Though this post is reaching coming from Vietnam, I have to try and squeeze in a few of the adventures that helped form my previously stated opinion.

1. Our four days in Luang Prabang were a wonderful "hello" to Laos. We watched the sunset from a temple on a hill in the center of the city. It looked like a orange orb that slowly ( we waited and hour) decended behind the mountain and cast a ever changing glare of color across the Mekong river. We met a really fun guy named Sai, who worked at our guesthouse, and after a few bottles of Lao Lao (local made whiskey that comes in used water bottles) mixed with Pepsi he invited us to go with him and his friends to the waterfalls near the city. At the Kuangsi falls we saw endangered bears that are being potched for thier bile of all things, for traditional chinese medicines. The falls were amazing we jumped of waterfalls into deep cool pools a color unseen in America. There was a rope swing, and given my lack of coordination an uncomfortable rope burn. There at the falls we met Sai's college friends, about 25 people all eating and drinking beer with ice ( a common occurance that I got used to). We drank, ate and played guitar, it was so nice to be with local people and avoid the mass of tourists there. Unfortunately, later that night after dinner I had my first and only so far bout with my stomach. I had to wake early the next day to take an 11 hour bus and it was not pretty.

2. Phonosavan and the Plain of Jars. We traveled far to see The Plain of Jars, a UNESCO sight and current archilogical sight. It was worth the trip. Basically, there are about 4 or 5 sights in the area containing large groups of stone jars. The 2 most interesting thing about these objects are that no one knows what exactly they were used for, and that they were and to some extent are infultrated by unexploded cluster bombs. We learned about the USA's "secret war" in Laos during the Vietnam war. About 7 million bombs were dumped in northern Laos, supposedly to deter the communist threat there. Later in the war planes would just use the country as a dumping ground. It is still a problem and people are still dying from the unexploded bombs even today. That something I was glad I learned more about. It is a bit different when you are in the country where things like that happen.

3. After breif stop in Vientiane we went across the center of the country see a 7 km long underground river/cave. We were also fortunate enough to be able to stay in a local village for 2 days. The cave was a real wonderful sight dark and cool with stilatites and stilagmites. We glided along the river in small boat with a motor. Although, we had to walk a few times because it was dry season. Pictures will explan beter than words.

Lastly, because I feel this is a bit long, I will save Laos new year, and my venture to Vietnam for my next installment.

Windy Roads and Sore Bottoms

Laos is a beautiful country with crystal clear water and jagged limestone mountains. The key word is mountains. To go to most destinations in the north and central parts of Laos we were warned that the rides would be long, but not that they were up and down mountain roads full of blind turns. Not to mention, buses hurtling down the road and the crawling ever so slowly up. It is a shock to your senses, bodily dizzy and shaken, your nostrils are filled with a mix of exhaust fumes and burning brakes, and your vision is blurred when you seek entertainment in a book. On occasion, the bus can't make up a steep grad and you have to get out and walk a bit to lighten the load. This all can make an 11 hour trip just a bit worse. After this, I hope I don't have to explain the sore bottom...

Escape to Laos

Two days ago, we left from the Thai border town of Chiang Kong and crossed the river into Laos. We took a 2 day slow boat down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang. Slow really means slow. We were on the boat for about 7-8 hours each day sitting on small wooden benches. But, aside from the sore bottom I am feeling great. We were smart enough to get the seats toward the front of the boat so the engine wasn't drowning out the soft lap of the water on the sides of the boat. Mark and I opted for the floor part of the time, and it was much more comfortable. We met many new people on the boat many who were traveling anywhere from 2-6 months. I guess our idea wasn't so original =)

Luang Prabang...well, it is by far the most relaxing place we have been to. We walked the small streets last night, that were lined with 19th century french architecture. Here cafes and restaurants abound gleaming with soft yellow light reflecting off the shiny dark wood furniture and paneled walls. It was a comforting sight. This place is full of the average tourists and hippie backpackers. It is a mix of travelers, but far from the teeming crowds we encountered in Thailand. As far as first impressions go Laos has me sold.

Right now, it is daylight and some of the magic has faded with the presence of the sun. But the calming nature of the place has not been lost upon me yet.