Day 19 - 20 Phuket to Bangkok-Tokyo

Greetings from Tokyo! Every time I say that this is the last time, I find a way to do one more entry on my blog. The Narita International Airport has a free internet cafe sponsored by Yahoo! where about 50 laptops are available free of charge to anyone filling out their name, passport number and nationality! They give you a little thumb drive which activates the laptop, and I figure they are using that to record what websites we are surfing. Fine by me.

Backtracking to Phuket... Nora was leaving us, as she was getting on an overnight bus to Bangkok. We said our goodbyes (I kind of thought it would be a tearful goodbye for Lai and Hannah, but it wasn't) and sent her on her way. The girls went to a camera shop to go download their almost full memory sticks onto a CD while I was at the internet cafe. Of course, when I was done and waiting for them to come back, a bus to Phuket zoomed by, and I worried that it was the last one of the day. When we asked the travel agent, they said they didn`t know. That`s the frustrating thing about bus schedules in Thailand -- no one knows what it is!!! Anyway, the girls came back and I told them that a bus passed by just a few minutes ago, and we were bummed as we sat in the sweltering sun, worrid that we would have to spend another 1,000B to take a taxi to Phuket. But our spirits soared as I spotted a bus coming our way, and we boarded a deluxe air-con bus! We were so excited to leave Khao Lak. Khao Lak has turned out to be the best diving destination that is very hard to leave, not because we love it but because it is not very convenient to transportation.

We rolled into Phuket town after dark, and it seemed to be a small town but with a pretty happening main drag. Still, it wasn't at all what I was expecting with the fancy resorts and lots of farang. Then again, bus stations are never in a good part of town, so that might have been the issue. With my Lonely Planet in hand, we tried to shake the tuk tuk drivers and taxi drivers offering to give us a ride to our guest house by making walking motions with my fingers indicating that we don't need a lift. But here we were again, arriving at night with no reservations, walking around with our packs on our backs. Hey that rhymes! We went to the most recommended guest house with me in the lead, the two girls trailing behind me asking if we were almost there yet. It was hot, and our packs are heavy, and when we finally found it, they told us it was full. The next closest one was one that Lonely Planet said was old and musty, and THAT turned out to be a generous description. We were so desperate to dump our stuff that we took a double (the girls shared a twin bed) and when we walked in, we were greeted by a 2 inch cockroach scuttling along the floor. The bathroom was dingy, and had no hot water. The girls have been traveling in places without hot water, but this old lady had hot water everywhere except the liveaboard.

We went out for dinner, walking around aimlessly again before settling on a fancy-ish cafe and Chinese restaurant. I know, it sounds strange but it was nice. While discussing our menu choices, a white girl sitting alone helped us -- we were wondering what 'congee' is, and I thought it might be a shellfish (conch) or a kind of fish, and she corrected us that it was a rice soup (okayu in Japanese). I invited her to sit at our table, and she was another Brit, from the north, even. She was traveling for a little while after spending 6 months in Hong Kong as an attorney for her firm. She had just gotten back from her trip to see the Temples of Angkor, and she showed me her amazing (I mean postcard-quality) sunrise photos. I am SO JEALOUS! I gave her my email address and asked her to send it to me, so you guys can see it too when I publish it on Shutterfly like I took it myself (hehehehehe). Laura was staying at a different guest house than us so we said goodbye and safe journey before heading back to our scary/dumpy guest house.

When the hotels have been not-so-nice, I have been sleeping in my sleep sack -- mine is deluxe because it's made of 100% CoolMax. It's a handy dandy little thing, like a thin sleeping bag so that you don't have to touch the sheets/blankets of your fine lodging establishment if it doesn't life up to your standards. We had the air con on max so I was a bit chilly, and woke up about every hour from the noise outside and from the loud air con unit. One time I woke up and I was completely inside my sleep sack and had NO IDEA where I was. I thought I had been kidnapped and the bodies in the bed next to mine were Cambodian bad guys and I needed to figure out how to get away without waking them up. I think I watch too many movies. It took me about a full 5 minutes to realize that I was in the shitty guest house with Lai and Hannah.

I always wake up first, and decided that I was not about to shower in the scary bathroom with no hot water when I was already freezing from the air conditioning. Both of the girls managed to take very quick showers and we were just about ready when our cab driver knocked on the door just before 6am. Once at Phuket Airport, we said our goodbyes and they headed off to the international terminal to catch their flight to Singapore. I camped out on a massage chair until a rep showed up at the Orient Thai Airlines counter so I can try to standby on the earlier flight to Bangkok (I didn't want to pay for a taxi to the airport by myself). After several visits to the counter, I got on the earlier flight but didn't have enough time to call Sam Noppadol to let him know that I was coming in earlier. I figured it was early anyway (woke him up last time I called at 9am) so I would rather wait until I was in Bangkok and wait for him if need be.

Once I got to Bangkok, I called and reached Sam to find out that he was unavailable for the day due to an emergency meeting for work. I told him no worries, and that I would go into town and do some shopping and say goodbye to Bangkok. He really seemed upset that he had no way of reaching me, so I promised I would call him again around 5pm. While in the restroom, I saw a girl I recognized from my flight talking to a farang about needing to take a shower but that she was leaving Bangkok that night. I approached this girl, and we decided that the best thing for us to do was to get a room in Bangkok so we can shower. In fact, because it was our last day, we decided to go to the D&D, a very popular hotel on Khao San Road with a swimming pool up top. This is where Nanda and I got my first Thai massage. Carolina is a 21 year old girl from Israel, though she is ethnically Argentinian. She had just finished her 3 years in the military (mandatory for all Israelis, even women!) and had been in Thailand for the last 3 months. We shared a cab into the city and managed to get a room, though it wasn't ready for us so early in the day. We went out for some street food and walked around a bit, but it was a really really really hot day and Carolina was really really really hung over. After lunch, we headed to the pool and enjoyed cooling off. Carolina is a free spirit with the personality of a puppy -- she approaches people with reckless abandon (and this is coming from me, so you can imagine what she is like) and expects them to all adore her. She is very charming, but I saw that she knew lots of people at the pool, and not all of them seemed as excited as she was to see them. She bounced from one guy to another in the pool and I chatted with some but wound up chatting it up with two Australian girls and hanging out with them for most of the time. Sam and Bianca are friends from college, and Sam was chatting with some Canadian boys (she was topless and the Canadian boys seemed really excited about that). Around 4pm, I was getting bored so I told Carolina that I was going to walk around a bit and do some last minute shopping. I had to pick up a Buddha for Laura Blacklock per her request (I hope she likes the 'subduing Mara' pose, because that one is my favorite) and picked up some funny panties (Chanel, Adidas, Puma) for Sasha and a knockoff Adidas warmup jacket for the plane ride home (I lost my Nike DriFit jacket in Chiang Mai). There really isn't alot of good shopping on Khao San Road, other than cheap shirts, cheap designer knockoffs, pirated CDs and the like. I called Sam at 5pm and he said he was done with his meeting, so we should get together for dinner. He said he would pick me up at 6pm in front of the Burger King off of Khao San Road. I rushed back, showered, packed and went to tell Carolina my plan. I told her to be ready at 8pm so that when Sam drops me off at the hotel to change for the flight, she would be ready to go.

Keep in mind that I only met Sam and his wife once, and that was 2 or 3 years ago. Sam told me that he would pick me up in a black Honda CRV so that's what I was looking for, but they actually came in his mom's BMW. I could tell they weren't sure if I was the right person either, because Janice rolled down the window and said, Asami??? I got to meet their 14 month baby boy, Tahs(sp?). We drove to a lovely riverside restaurant (when they asked me what I wasnted to eat, I told them that I can't get enough of Thai food) where we were able to see the sunset while enjoying a nice breeze. It turns out that Janice has a journalist friend who wrote a review on this restaurant and recommended it to them, and even said to use her name to get a 10% discount. The food was absolutely delicious -- I told them that I eat anything (even proudly proclaimed my crickets conquest), so they ordered what they thought would be best, but asked to make it a bit less spicy for me. We had fried chicken, coconut soup, a cold but spicy mushroom salad, some Chinese-style fried fish all with white rice. It was the best meal I had on my entire trip, the most wonderful ending of my travels in Thailand. I told Sam that because he got his entire family together for me on their day off and because he picked me up and is taking me to the airport, I wanted to treat. But they refused, so I told them that they have to come visit Chicago again or let me visit again and I will pay next time. I KNEW they were going to do that, but what could I do!? It was really, really nice to get to spend time with both of them and I was so happy... until we rushed back to the hotel to pick up Carolina and my stuff.

I knocked on the door at 8:20pm -- traffic was bad -- and I heard the shower running. She wasn't ready! I knocked again, more frantically, and said that it was me. She said she's coming about 20 times before she finally opened the door to reveal a guy in the room -- Nathan from South Africa, who I met earlier at the pool. Sigh. Well, she's 20, I guess I should have figured something like that was going to happen. But she was so not ready that we took another 10 minutes to get downstairs, and the front desk would not let us leave until they had confirmed that we hadn't trashed the room (I am realizing that this is probably a recurring problem for them). They have to do that because they take cash when you check in, which means they have no recourse if a guest destroys the place or steals something from the room. Plus, you may have seen on CNN that there have been protests in Bangkok for the resignation of the Prime Minister, snarling traffic further in an always gridlocked city. Sam seemed stressed about getting us to the airport quickly, but I told him that when I last flew internationally out of Bangkok, I arrived 20 min before the flight and managed to get on. I thanked Sam and Janice profusely for spending time with me, for the most delicious dinner, and for the ride to the airport. I really hope I can repay them sometime soon.

Sunday night at the end of the month in Bangkok's airport is super busy, and I have to say that BKK is the single most crazy, disorganized airport I have ever been in. There are massive groups of tourists with no clue where to go, just standing around blocking traffic every where you turn. Carolina was freaking out about going home -- her parents don't know that she's coming back today, and her boyfriend won't pick her up now that she has flirted with too many boys during her 3 months. Plus, she hasn't traveled much so she was completely overwhelmed. I figured out where we both had to go, and went to check in before meeting up with her in her area.

Flying into Israel is quite an ordeal, and they have their own checkpoints and security processes. She first got interviewed by a guy who shooed me away, then had to have her bags opened and inspected. When I went in line with her to get her boarding pass, they told me that I wasn't allowed to be in the area unless I was flying with El-Al Airlines. The security folks asked her if I had given her any packages, and I could have been fined. Carolina never went to a currency exchange to cash her travelers checks because she was at the pool all day, so we had to take care of that. We went through getting our boarding pass, paying the departure tax, getting our departure voucher stapled to the boarding pass and went to our gates -- right next to each other -- as she whimpered and clung to my arm. She was so glad to have me there because she wouldn't have figured it all out on her own (but someone would have done it for her, she's that kind of person). As she was writing down her email address for me, I took a picture of her, only to have a woman tell me that I was not allowed to take photos at the gate. Good god, it's not like I took pictures of the aircraft! I always thought I would love to visit Israel, but it really isn't worth all the trouble they put you through. She wrote me a sweet note about how happy she was to meet me and to keep in touch. I was happy to have someone share my cab ride and hotel room too, but I was really glad I ran into her on my last day because I would NOT have wanted to babysit her any more than I already had to!

I sat next to a Thai man who thought I was Thai and started talking to me. I asked him if he was visiting Japan or continuing on somewhere else, and he said he lives in Chicago. In fact, he lives at Broadway and Foster, just 10 blocks south of me! Crazy stuff. The world really is a small place. He slept while I watched Elizabethtown and Into the Blue on board, trying to stay awake so I can sleep when I get on my second flight.

So here we are, just about caught up to the present. I still have 4 hours to kill, but this airport has lots of cool ways to spend time. The free internet cafe is fantastic, and there are audio/visual rooms where you can pay to listen to music or watch movies. There are reclining chairs in the relaxation area, as well as Japanese and English CNN on huge flat screen TVs. I might go visit the massage area (but it will probably be too expensive) after cruising through the Duty Free Shops.

So this time, it's really goodbye, and I will talk to you soon in Chicago!!!

love,
asami

Day 17 and 18 Khao Lak - Khao Sok - Khao Lak

Sorry that yesterday's post was short and boring. I was getting into my blog when the girls that I was traveling with were getting ready to leave, so I had to cut it short.

The dinner and pub crawl with the folks from the liveaboard trip didn't go as planned. We got together at 7pm for dinner at Sala Thai, a restaurant recommended to me for great seafood. We picked our dinner from a cart with fish on ice out front and sat down for some drinks. There were 7 of us -- Lai from England, Phil from England, Patrick from NZ, Lars and Jens from Norway and my friend Jen whom I met the day I left for the liveaboard. Dinner was delicious, costing each of us only $5.00 (the boys had lots of beer too). Phil and Patrick are teachers at the international school in Bangkok, and they left us to meet up with other friends for more diving somewhere else.

After dinner, I got the true backpacker experience. We had left our packs at the dive shop, which was closing at 9pm. The remaining 4 of us and Jen (who was already in a room) got our packs and tried to find a room, only to be told place after place that they were fully booked for the evening. I had previously arranged to room with Jen, but I decided that I was going to try and leave Khao Lak early to catch an earlier flight back to Bangkok, so we decided that it would be better if I roomed with Lai. After visiting about 8 guest houses and talking to every tourism information agency that was still open, we were being told that everything was sold out. Jen was starting to realize that she was going to have 4 more people in her room than she had originally planned. At 11:00pm, we finally found a guest house with 2 rooms available for 800B ($20) per room. It was way more than the backpackers' budget but we had no choice. After dumping our bags, Lai decided that she was going to stay in due to her ear infection (which she got after the last dive, thank goodness) and the 4 of us decided to hit every bar on the main drag.

Khao Lak is a great diving town, but not a great party town. It seemed no one was out that night due to diving first thing the next morning, which is usually leaving around 6am. We still hit a few bars and had some drinks, but we were pretty exhausted from our dives. The bars closed at 1am anyway, so we headed home.

The next morning, I woke up at 6:30 again, even with no diving. I guess I'm on a weird schedule now. After getting ready, Lai and I had breakfast at a nearby restaurant, where 2 of our dive masters walked by and we got to chat a bit. Lai was waiting for 2 of her friends to come on the 3:30pm bus to meet up with her, and I was going to go back to the dive shop to see if I can get on an earlier flight. Unfortunately, all flights were sold out until Sunday, which was my original plan. Mikel (not Miguel) from Spain had emailed me saying that he was back in Bangkok until he was leaving for home on the 25th, so I emailed back saying I wanted to go back to Bangkok early but it wasn't going to work out. It would have been neat to meet up and hang out together, but it just wasn't meant to be. Because my "go back to Bangkok" option didn't work out, Lai invited me to visit the Khao Sok national park with her friends. It was going to work out great because they were a group of 3 anyway, and adding me would make it 4.

Hannah, Lai's college buddy from England and Nora, a Swiss-German girl they met somewhere along the way, arrived around 3:30pm while we were getting foot massages. I fell asleep during mine, it was THAT good. I got a 30 min massage and pedicure for $6. I am so spoiled here! The Norwegian boys were still around, trying to figure out the cheapest way to get to Bangkok. Their 12 hour bus wasn't leaving until 6pm, so they went out to film a "documentary" on their camcorder about the tsunami (fake one, obviously). Lars was spoofing a reporter with very exaggerated speech (I am imagining a serious reporter who talks like the Crocodile Hunter) and it was funny to watch even though we didn't understand a word he was saying. They even found some chickens on the road and made another report on the avian flu. These crazy 20 year old boys will be amused (and amusing) no matter where they go.

Shortly after their bus left, we found out that the last public bus to go toward Khao Sok left an hour ago (I hear this every time I try to take a public bus). We didn't believe the taxi drivers and waited another hour, but it was started to get dark and there was no bus in sight. We reluctantly paid a taxi 1000B to drive us an hour and a half to Khao Sok to a lodge in the jungle.

The jungle huts we stayed in was just that -- simple rooms with AC but without hot water. We got lucky though, and found a room where all 4 of us could stay for only 100B ($2.50 each). We had dinner at the lodge and got invited to a jungle party by some English lads, but we were too tired to go out (plus Lai is still under the weather). We planned an excursion to the jungle with an elephant trek for the morning and went to bed.

This morning, we all got ready and had breakfast at the lodge overlooking amazing foliage and mountains surrounding us. Our lodge guys drove us out to the elephant trek and we went walking around for an hour and a half with the gentle giants. At the end, we got to feed our elephants some bananas. Elephants are really interesting creatures. They have super thick skin, so their trainers' prodding tools look really scary but they don't hurt the elephants. But these were so well trained, they responded just to verbal responses. When they walk, the put their left hand and left foot forward simultaneously, so their gait is quite uncomfortable. The first elephant I was on with Lai was a 40 year old male. He didn't have gas, but had a very uncomfortable gait. We switched elephants on our way back from the little waterfall, and the second one was a 30 year old female which had a much smooth gait. I liked that one much better.

We then had lunch back at the lodge and showered, then went out to catch a public bus back to Khao Lak, where Nora was catching the bus to Bangkok and the rest of us were going to head to Phuket. Lai and Hannah are flying out of Phuket to Singapore, and I am flying back to Bangkok later on the same day.

Prior to meeting Lai on the liveaboard, the three girls had been partying it up in Koh Lanta and Koh Phi Phi and every island on both sides of the Thailand isthmus. They showed me tons of photos of them drinking drinking drinking with people they met along the way. Both Hannah and Nora found boyfriends during their travels which led to more drinking and hanging out in the same place for a long time, which was partly why Lai decided to do the liveaboard trip on her own. I imagine it's hard to travel with someone for so long, whether it is a good friend or with a significant other. Traveling is stressful enough, not to mention carrying a year's worth of stuff on your back from country to country, city to city, catching a bus, train or plane one after another. It never ceases to amaze me how many couples remain intact for the duration of their journey. I have been on the road for 3 weeks and I am getting sick of carrying my stuff around! As much as I have enjoyed the experiences on this trip, I am ready to go home and feel clean again, and to wash all my clothes and have the whites actually look white again.

This may be my last blog entry from overseas. Lai, Hannah and I will catch a public bus from Khao Lak to Phuket tonight and stay in a guest house for the night, but they have an 8am flight to catch tomorrow morning. I figure I will share a ride with them tomorrow morning to save money and try to catch the first flight out instead of the scheduled 1:25pm flight to Bankok. When I figure out my flight time, I will call Sam in Bangkok, who is picking me up so I can spend the day with his family until I head back to the airport to catch my flight to Tokyo. I have a 5 hour layover in Tokyo (ugh) then it's home to Chicago.

Thanks for following me through my trip, and for those who posted comments, I really enjoyed reading them. It's great to be experiencing new things, but it's always really nice to hear from family and friends when you're on the road.

Talk to you soon!!!

love,
asami :-)

Day 17 Khao Lak

Sorry, no long post today, but wanted to write something so you don't think I was abducted by aliens. Leaving Khao Lak tonight for Khao Sok, a national park where we can go trekking and do jungle stuff. Report back soon.

asami :-)

Day 17 Khao Lak

Sorry, no long post today, but wanted to write something so you don't think I was abducted by aliens. Leaving Khao Lak tonight for Khao Sok, a national park where we can go trekking and do jungle stuff. Report back soon.

asami :-)

Days 13-16 Liveaboard Trip

I have had the most amazing 4 days of my life! As I mentioned in the previous blog, I had 13 dives on a liveaboard boat over the 4 days. The location of the dives are the Surin Islands and Similan Islands, and they sure lived up to their expectations! I saw the major things everyone wants to see -- sharks, dolphins, rays and turtles in addition to thousands and thousands of colorful fish. In addition, I met the most amazing people -- I hope I keep in touch with many of them!

The Andaman is a liveaboard boat designed to hold up to 20 divers. There are bunks inside for sleeping, and a full staff who takes care of us during our trip -- cooks, diving helpers, and captain in addition to the 5 dive masters. I first got to the dive shop, which might as well be a garage open to the street with some tables and some display cases with dive equipment, t-shirts, etc. I got signed up by Roger (the instructor of our boat) and hung out until other people from our group filtered in. With 3 liveaboard boats, it was hard to figure out who was going on which boat. When the time came, we piled into two minivans and drove for 1.5 hours to the pier where our boat was waiting. Before we left, I met my dive buddy -- Lai (pronounced like "lie"), a British girl with Chinese parents. It turned out that we were the perfect buddy team; we have about the same number of dives, and we are both Asian looking from English speaking countries. Of course, we had lots of people on the boat confused as to which one was which. Fun!

The neatest thing was that I was the only person from the U.S. There was a Canadian guy from Vancouver, some Brits, Welsh, Swiss, Norwegians, French, Dutch, Austrian, Slovakian, Kiwi, Aussie and a German. Very international -- just my style. Interestingly enough, the most spoken language on the boat was French, but 3 of the dive masters were German-speaking so there was alot of German being spoken on the boat.

We didn't dive on the first night. We got on the boat, got ourselves a bunk and headed upstairs for our first general briefing about diving and the dive sites were were going to see. After the briefing, we went to bed knowing that we were going to get a 6:30am wakeup call for our first morning dive. I was so excited that I woke up even before the wakeup call and got some great sunrise photos while chatting with my divemaster, Rebekka.

I can't even remember each and every dive, but Richlieu Rock off of the Surin Islands was the best dive of my life. We dove that site twice, for our morning and lunchtime dives. There were SO MANY fish there that in some places, you couldn't even see the rocks/coral underneath. I said that it must have been "rush hour" for the fish. Of course, there were 6 other boats full of divers, but it was still amazing, and ranks as my best dive of my life (29 dives so I have many more to go!).

The thing that most people look forward to are the big stuff -- sharks, dolphins, turtles, rays. I actually like the small stuff just as much. I get excited every time I see a Nemo (western clown fish) and they are still my favorites. The big deal shark in these waters is the Whale Shark, which I could have seen in Honduras but wasn't lucky enough to see. My dive master said she saw a smallish one far away, but I got distracted by a Cobia (which kind of looks like a shark) so I didn't see it. We did see white-tipped reef sharks and a sleeping leopard shark. Still, very exciting. I didn't see any dolphins in the water (they don't like the noises divers make with all of our bubbles) but we did see them from our boat. In fact, some of my friends got extensive video of the dolphins jumping and racing with the boat, darting on both sides. I was too busy watching to film it. The other huge thing in the area are the Manta Rays -- they look like they are about 10 ft wide and float through the water like a Stealth fighter. We were lucky enough to see two of them in the same dive (I didn't even know that they were two different ones) and it was really amazing to watch them move through the water. I guess Mantas are very curious about divers and will sometimes come and "play" -- swim above the divers so that our bubbles tickle their bellies and circle above us. But don't worry, despite their size, they only eat plankton. I did have a close encounter with a deadly sea animal. The banded sea snake looks very cool while moving through the water, and it was coming right in my direction. As it passed by, I floated on my back and watched it swim less than 4 inches from my face right above me. Afterwards, people told me that the sea snake is 10 times more poisonous than a cobra, but their tiny jaws are too small to bite us over our wet suits. Of course, he could have given me a little nibble on my face or ears! I had no idea it was poisonous, which was a good thing because I may have panicked a bit if I had known. I was getting a bit bummed that we hadn't seen turtles yet when we saw 2 in one dive. They were about 15 feet away from each other, chewing on coral, when one came over toward the other from behind. The one that got snuck up on seemed to get mad and keep chasing the other one, snapping at its head. I later found out that they were mating. I am thinking that the one doing the snapping was the female, then!

So enough about the diving, as not all of you are interested in that stuff. The color of the water is really amazing, every shade of aqua blue and teal that you can imagine. We did get to visit some sandy beaches, and they were as white as snow and the finest grains of sand. It's kind of scary how you get used to such beautiful surroundings as you look out the boat and think, oh it's just another day of diving...

I am sitting in the Internet Cafe with the two Norwegian boys -- Jens and Lars. They just finished their year of military service and are traveling around before starting university. They are the most gorgeous guys I have seen on this trip. Think Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise or A River Runs Through It. Don't worry, I took pictures. It turns out that they gravitated toward me because my English is the easiest for them to understand, with all the American TV shows they get in Norway. The Brits, Aussie and Kiwi are harder for them to understand, and of course, other Europeans who speak English as a second language are more difficult. And I thought they liked me... No, we had a good time. Another guy I really liked is a Swiss guy who I later found out likes boys. He's a repeat customer at Sea Dragon Dive Center and has done this trip many times before, and knows some of the dive masters and crew. He has spent alot of time in Thailand and understands the culture pretty well.

Okay, I just wanted to let you know that I am back safe and sound, with no decompression sickness, injuries or illness. Those left from our boat are going to go out for dinner then a pub crawl tonight, and I'm looking forward to it!!! Lots of pictures tonight.

love,
asami

Day 12 Bangkok - Phuket

I decided to pop into an internet cafe before leaving for my 4 day, 4 night liveaboard trip. To the paranoid Hachiumas: I will NOT be posting anything until Thursday evening Thai time (I am 11 hours ahead of you) so please don't assume that I have been kidnapped by drug lords or terrorists, or swallowed up by a tsunami. If there is an earthquake/tsunami, I will be safer at seat than on land. I am in Khao Lak, which was one of the worst-hit areas of the 2004 tsunami. Tourists who come here and put money back into the community are helping the area recover economically!

So last night, after posting my last blog, I walked around Khao San Road for kicks. It was midnight when the internet center closed, but the street is like a huge street fair -- food vendors everywhere, stores are open, people are walking around, music is blaring out of the many clubs and bars around. It's a bit disconcerting to hear a local Thai band playing the Cranberries' "Zombie" then a few stores down hearing "I Will Survive" blaring out of an Irish pub. I saw the bug lady again but decided that I had enough bugs for the trip. The most interesting thing was going in a beauty products/drug store. There are familiar brands like Pond's and Olay, as well as Thai and other Asian brands (lots of Japanese stuff). The most interesting stuff was in the skin care section. For those of you who may not know, the ideal beauty in Asian culture is to have pale skin (essentially, to look as caucasian as possible). There were L'Oreal, Olay and Nivea products with "whitening" properties in their lotions, cremes and elixirs which you don't find in the west. It got me thinking... maybe I should stop by and buy some of this stuff before heading back to the U.S.! I was walking around in the first place because I wanted to find these hysterical panties that one of the street vendors sell. These panties have fake brand names across the butt -- Chanel, Von Dutch, Puma, Adidas, you name it, they've got it. Isn't it funny!? But the panty lady was gone for the day... maybe I am not meant to have them.

I got up this morning and realized I had passed out with the lights on. I guess I was alot more tired than I realized. I forgot to mention yesterday that when I was at the Siem Reap airport, I used one of my handy wipes to clean off my face, and I was shocked to see how much of the terra cotta dust had formed a film on my face. I thought I got most of it off, but my shower revealed that I had alot more everywhere else -- imagine how dirty my clothes must be! I always have to shower at night to get all the grime of the day off -- dirt, sunscreen, DEET. Anyway, my feet were SUPER SORE when I got off the bed -- alot like how my feet feel after 4 hours of salsa dancing. But there was no dancing last night, it was just from walking around.

I made a phone call to Sam, the guy who was getting his MBA in Chicago, to apologize that I wasn't able to call him last night because it was too late. Unfortunately, due to my dive trip, I wasn't going to be able to meet up with them today either, but hopefully we will see each other next Sunday. He said he and his wife are looking forward to seeing me again and offered to pick me up from the airport next Sunday! I'm grateful, because I have 9 hours to kill at the airport otherwise. I told him I'll give him a ring from Phuket airport when I figure out what time our flight is REALLY leaving (I'm flying Orient Thai back to Bangkok, the airline that is always late).

I then went to exchange my dollars to bhat when I found that both exchange booths were closed, even though they both indicate they open at 8:30am (it was 8:45 at this point). But lucky me, I got to meet a nice guy from Ibiza, Spain named Miguel. He is traveling alone as well, and had 6 hours to kill before getting to the bus station. We went back to the restaurant at my guest house and sat at the terrace chatting while he had tea and I had a banana shake. Unfortunately, he was coming up north from the south, and I was going the other way. Plus, he's not a diver so we wouldn't have been able to travel together anyway. We exchanged email addresses and he said I can come visit him in Ibiza. Anyone want to join me!? Did I mention that he is muy guapo!?

I got on a taxi and headed to the airport to catch my flight to Phuket. Speaking of taxi, I forgot to mention that on my cab ride back into the city last night, I had the most hysterical cab driver. He spoke really horribly broken English, but he wanted to talk talk talk. He asked the first three questions most people ask me -- where am I from, am I single, how old am I. When he found out that I am Japanese living in the U.S. he got very excited and started talking about The Beatles (not sure where the leap was there) and said that John Lennon had a Japanese lady and started singing "Love Love Me Do" so I joined him. I think singing a Beatles song with a Thai cab driver will be one of the funniest memories I will have of this trip. He then told me that he knows a Japanese song and started singing Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki." He was so hysterical I couldn't stop laughing. But my cab driver this morning wasn't as colorful. I just had to throw my cabbie story in there.

The flight wasn't delayed until we boarded the plane -- apparently, there was a "VIP hold" in the airspace above Bangkok and all non-VIP flights were grounded and the airport closed for 30 minutes. I know that Jacques Chirac was due to visit Bangkok while I was in Cambodia, but maybe it was just Britney Spears or Brad Pitt flying into town. I have never heard of a VIP hold before, but we were delayed. This was a problem because I already had a tight connection in Phuket to an hour and a half bus ride to Kao Lak to get to the Sea Dragon Dive Center. By the time I picked up my bags, it was 3:10pm and I was supposed to check in at the dive center at 3pm. After losing several coins in the pay phone, I got an information booth girl to help me make the call. Making calls from a pay phone in a foreign country has got to the the most frustrating thing in the world. But the friendly British woman on the phone assured me that I would be okay but that I should take a taxi to get there (she didn't mention that it would cost me $30). It seemed I had no choice as the information booth told me that all buses to Kao Lak have left for the day -- how do buses stop running at 3pm on a Sunday, I don't know.

Ok 7 minutes to departure time -- I met another solo traveler from England named Jen, and after getting our dive trips in order, we had dinner together. It turns out that we aren't on the same boat (she is on the 3 day trip, I am on the 4 day) but when I get back, we are going to share a room together at the local guest house. She's been traveling for a few weeks and has an open-ended itinerary. She hopes to travel for a year. The Europeans sure know how to do this!

Anyway, I am super psyched about my dive trip. My boat is the Andaman, and it will hit the Surin Islands, Richelieu Rock (one of the best dive spots in the world), another island, then end with the Similan Islands. I think I am doing possibly the top 2 best dive areas in Thailand in the next 4 days. With only 16 dives under my belt, I am excited to add 13 more. I have never spent 4 days and nights on a boat before, so I hope I will be okay. I will write when I get back!

hugs & kisses,
asami :-)

Day 11 Siem Reap/Temples of Angor and back to Bangkok

In Cambodia, there must be a Zagat's for mosquitoes that mention a fine delicacy called Japanese girls' elbows. Specifically, the left one. I am not kidding that I have a cluster of bites that has been itching me to death, despite the DEET that was supposed to keep them away and the hydrocortisone that is supposed to stop the itching...

Anyway, it was starting to rain like crazy when I wrote yesterday. Well, it continued for an hour. My poor driver guy (his name starts with S and I can't pronounce it so we'll just call him "S" for the blog) apparently doesn't feel comfortable sitting in the lobby of the guest house with me, so he waited outside next to his motorbike, squatting in the way only Asian folks can for a long time. Now you'd think that traffic pretty much stopped when it was monsoon time in downtown Siem Reap -- but no, everyone was out and about, mildly annoyed with the rain but it didn't stop them from being out and about. Kids were on grown-up bikes, a family of 3 was on a motorbike, etc. etc. I was in awe. When the rain finally let up about an hour later, I finally gave S the go-ahead to head back into Angor. He is so sweet, he made sure he went slowly so my feet wouldn't get wet/dirty (they were already wet and dirty anyway) and drove extra carefully. When we got to the street along the river, it looked like a river!!! The drains are so clogged up that the street had about 4-6 inches of standing water. But the Cambodians are a tough bunch, they just keep on driving. A motorbike ahead of us had stalled (where the heck is the engine in these things, but it can't be that high up!) but S cleverly sought out the highest ground/shallowest areas and navigated through that flawlessly. We never took that stretch of street again (smart guy!).

So I have to admit that I was so worked up about these ruins that the first day was kind of a downer. But that afternoon, I saw Bayon, which is near the main Angor Wat ruin, and fell in love. There are HUGE Khmer-style heads with the all-knowing eyes and creepy smile all over the place, jutting out between crumbled piles of boulders, all with a jungle background! I couldn't get enough. You won't believe how many photos I took of the ruins -- I am sure I will never be able to identify which shots were from which temple when I get back, but I just can't help myself. The whole experience was much more enjoyable after the rain, as the temperature dropped about 15 degrees and was almost chilly as we zipped around on the bike going 40km/hr (not sure how fast that is in mi/hr). As we were going from temple to temple, I noticed some monkeys on the side of the road, and S stopped for me (I squeal each time I see animals) so I can "take photo." And whaddaya know, we passed the Swiss couple from the sunset mountain hike! It's pretty cool when you randomly run into someone you know in a big place like that (for those of you who may not know, the Temples of Angor span about 40 miles total). The monkeys were cuter from the road, because they were pretty aggressive. They lunged for S's plastic bag with books, thinking it was food. When I made kissing noises at them, it swiped at me! Time to go.

I am not sure what happened, but S has decided that instead of waiting for me outside of the temples, he will join me on my sightseeing. I thought that $20/day or $40/3 days was a steep price for admission even for one of the most amazing World Heritage Sites in the world, but it's actually free for Cambodians. I'm glad it's free, but I am not sure why they say that only licensed guides can go in with tourists. So we go in separately, and he finds me later on, far away from the guards. Instead of having a ton of shots just of the ruins or of hordes of strangers, I started taking pictures of him, which make it seem like we are... a couple. Pretty funny. Cambodians think that I am Thai (and that he is too), so we seem like Thai tourists. S has started to try and guess Japanese/Korean/Chinese with the large tour groups, and it's pretty entertaining.

After I was done watching temples, I asked him if he could drop me off at the Red Piano, a bar that Angelina Jolie frequented while filming Tomb Raider. I hate to be such a tourist, but I wanted to check out where she would hang out in the Psar Chaa (old market) area, which was the place with the dirt/mud streets with a million power lines all over the place. I invited him in for a drink, but he said no (he is 20 but I am not sure what the drinking age is there - maybe he's not old enough? - or if he said no because he is working). I had a mixed fruit drink on the 2nd floor terrace overlooking the busy intersection.

I need to make a comment about traffic here. I am not sure how old you have to be to drive in Cambodia (esp. the motorbikes) but there seem to be only two loose rules of the road: 1. Don't hit other vehicles, people or animals. 2. Try to stay on the right side of the road, but this rule is highly optional. There are almost no traffic signals, and people move into oncoming traffic when they are about to turn. Keep in mind that there are motorbikes with a family of 4 all over the place, in addition to pigs in a basket, tuk-tuks, motorbikes pulling little carriages, tour buses, moms with 2 year olds precariously balancing behind them, 6 year olds on grown-up bikes, pick up trucks with about 16 people on the back (that's what the locals use as taxis, even for 3 hour rides to Phnom Penh). Utter chaos! I have to close my eyes every time I get to a busy intersection for fear of making sudden movements that may endanger me and my driver. Not to mention that there are huge puddles everywhere that won't recede because the drains are all clogged.

While having my fruit smoothie, my eager to speak English waitress asked me 20 questions. "Excuse me miss, where you from? How old are you? Are you married? Are you lonely (people often confuse "lonely" and "alone," an understandable mistake which has me thinking about how we differentiate it)?" etc. etc. She grew up a few hours away, but came to Siem Reap to go to college. She likes Siem Reap because it gives her lots of work opportunities where she can interact with foreigners and practice English, but she misses her family. On and on she goes, until her colleague calls out to her that she needs to deliver an order to another table. She seems bummed to go back to work. It's funny how everyone asks me about my age and my marital status first, which is a bit taboo in the US. I think it's totally understandable for them to wonder, as it's unusual to see travelers alone, and it's easier for them to approach a "lonely" person in conversation. I am definitely interacting with the locals alot more now that I am traveling solo.

Okay, this is getting super long. S drove me back to the guest house, and I went out for dinner at CVSG across the street again. The girls remembered me from lunch and I got to take pictures with them. They did the peace sign that all Japanese people do for pictures, and I noticed that their body language was pretty Japanese too! There were large groups of Japanese people, presumably volunteers for CVSG visiting from Japan. The kids (most of them are 16 so they're not that little) hover around the tables a bit awkwardly, wanting to chat with the group but finding it hard to jump into conversation... so they come over to me. They are so eager to please, and so eager for attention. I really hope that their language skills get them good-paying jobs (like it does for the tour guides and drivers!). There are little signs on each table (in Khmer, English and Japanese) that explains that this is a training restaurant and apologizes in advance if they scold the children in front of the clients. But I didn't see any get scolded, just shooed away from me when the kids linger a bit too long. The food is tasty and the service slow but so earnest, that I just love the place. Plus my entree with drink costs me $2.50. I thought about buying a t-shirt as a donation, but I really don't have room in my bags for more stuff.

I headed back to my room early so I can organize my stuff for checkout tomorrow and to get to bed early for my 6am departure to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. While watching the same story repeat on both CNN and BBC, I did laundry in the sink and hung everything up to dry in front of the air-con unit. Maybe not such a good idea to start laundry at 11pm, but it was better than packing clothes full of terracotta dust, mud, dirty water, sweat, sunscreen and DEET. Oh yes, I am feeling extra sexy these days.

I woke up at 5:30am and was ready to go at 5:45. I headed downstairs to find S waiting for me, and we headed out in the dark. As we rode out toward the ruins, the sky was getting lighter and lighter, but they were full of clouds. I suspected that it would be pretty busy for watching the sunrise, but it was PACKED in front of the reflection pool at Angkor Wat. The Korean tourists were nowhere to be seen, but the Japanese retirees were all out and poised with their cameras. Unfortunately, it became clear that we wouldn't see the sun rise as it was far too cloudy. I was a bit bummed.

The next item on our agenda for my last day of temple watching is the small but most beautiful temple, Banteay Srei. It's a bit far away, I read, about 45 minutes' drive from the main temples. As we headed out, it started to rain (not as hard as yesterday) and when we saw that it didn't look like it was letting up anytime soon, S went and bought some ponchos for us to wear. I had a yellow one that looked like I was wearing one of those cheap shower curtains you can buy at the grocery store. Going 40km/hr, I had to close my eyes so the rain wouldn't wash away my contacts. S isn't wearing goggles or a helmet so I have no idea how he could see anything, but he kept on going. We stopped for breakfast (Grilled chicken on rice -- there is no distinction between breakfast, lunch and dinner food here) at a kind of scary looking village, but it was tasty. I got a bit worried when I saw the girls fetching water from a well (it may have been one of CVSG's 400 wells they dug for the locals) and hoped I wasn't going to get a stomach ache. I was okay.

When we got to Banteay Srei, it was raining steadily. But gosh, it is an exquisite temple. It wasn't commissioned by a king, but by a Brahmin priest, and some archaeologists think it may have been designed by female artists because the intricate decorations are so much more detailed and elaborate than temples that came even later. S found me in the temple after locating an umbrella for me so I can continue taking a million photos of every little detail. It turns out that he asked one of the vendors outside if he could borrow an umbrella, which I figured out later when we stopped there to buy bananas (but we just ate!). There was a puppy there named Toto and his proud owner (a teenage girl) as very proud to show him off to me. Anyway, Bayon is still my favorite site, but this one comes in a close second. If you ever go to the Temples of Angor, cough up the extra bucks to drive out and see this.

We rushed back to check out of the guest house, and we headed back in the park to see more ruins. We eventually went back to Angor Wat and hung out there for a long time, sitting at the top of the highest level, watching people crawling up the steps. I am very impressed with the Asian retirees who insist on climbing up all the while complaining about how steep/scary/hot/hard it is. It might be easier if they didn't have their cameras/umbrellas/fans in their hands! One Spanish girl was almost at the top and decided to hand her buddy her backpack... but it slipped off her shoulder and tumbled down the steps. The steps are about 50 feet high, and everyone gasped as it tumbled tumbled tumbled down the steps and landed in a puddle. A guide fished it out a nanosecond later and hurried up to deliver it to her. Now I had heard them speaking so I knew they were from Spain, and I couldn't resist trying to chat it up with them. They didn't seem all that surprised that I spoke Spanish, so I was a bit disappointed.

S was bummed that I couldn't hang out to see the sunset with him, but it as time to go. We went back to my guest house at 5:00 so that I could be at the airport 2 hours before my 7:30 flight. He gave me a postcard of Angor Wat with his phone number and address and asked for mine. It was kind of cute. I gave him my card (I printed some up with my email address on it before the trip) and wrote my address on the back. He said he would call me (what, you have to be kidding!) so I said email is better with the time difference. He seemed thrilled that I offered him $12 for today because he took me much further, for a total of $20 for both days. I later heard in the airport that the average Cambodian worker in resort areas (receptionists, cleaning crew, etc.) makes about $100/mo. So S hit the jackpot when I fired my driver and tour guide. I'm happy for him though -- he sure earned it in my book!

OK the internet center is closing for the day. I am heading to Phuket tomorrow morning, and boarding my boat which will stay at sea for 4 days, so this may be the last entry for a while. I will try to write tomorrow, but I am not sure I can. I am so excited to go diving!!!!!

love,
asami :-)

Day 10 Siem Reap/Angor Temples

Hello friends,

I am so sorry to distress everyone with my sober report on Siem Reap. I am amazed with the awe-inspiring ruins and learning a ton about the old empire, but the oppressive heat and humidity make it hard to enjoy. Every time I go back to the car, I am assaulted by the children -- and Laura yes, they do like to cite the capitals of countries. "Miss, where you from?" "I am from the US but I am Japanese." "Washington DC is capital of USA." "Yes, you are very smart." "Do you want to buy cold drink/pants/book/postcard, etc etc" Sigh. I wish I could give each of these kids a dollar, but then I"d REALLY be swarmed.

My driver is very nice, but it's hard to communicate with his broken English. I was able to find out that he is from Siem Reap and has been a driver for about 10 years. He lives in the coutryside with his wife who also works, and his two sons, 12 and 4. I asked him what his 12 year old wants to be when he grows up, and his response was that his son is lazy and does not like to do homework. Kon goes home after work and tries to teach his son English, but he's not interested. They seem to have a modest life, and said that he wanted his kids to go to private school but it's too expensive. I was thinking, you make $25 a day driving tourists like me around, that's can't be too bad in Cambodia...

Kon took me to a few more temples, and I broke down and bought a Lonely Planet Cambodia from one of the kids. She said it was a photocopy, but it is a pretty darn good copy. I think she may have made a mistake and confused a real book with a copy. Anyway, I feel much less "lonely" with my Lonely Planet now.

Kon said that I can watch the sunset from the mountain, so I set off on a little hiking trail winding up a mountain (hill, really). I met a Swiss couple (actually the guy's an Aussie but he lives in Zurich right now) on the way up, and we chatted for a while. They told me about their cheap guest house (they are only paying $3.50/nt when I am paying $20!) and that they rented bikes from their guest house. Of course, they have a week in Angor to my 2.5 days, but I was starting to realize that I am paying way way way too much for my experience here.

I got home and researched a place for dinner in town, and headed to Khmer Kitchen Restaurant off of a small alley. I was starving -- I ordered lychee juice, a liter of bottled water, and the Amok again, this time with chicken. The most hysterical thing was that the waiter brought me someone else's entree (veggie lab with tofu) but I didn't know what my dish was supposed to look like so I started eating that and he didn't come by until I was halfway finished! So I got to try 2 entrees for the price of one. This restaurant was much tastier than the lunch I had, which is probably why that place was empty and this one was packed.

The main drag of the Psar Chaa district is called "Bar Street" now that tourism brought new bars and restaurants to the area. I guess the streets didn't used to have names (they still don't have pavement) but tourism is improving things around here. As Laura posted in the previous day's comments, this is the NICEST part of Cambodia -- which makes me really scared to see any more of the rest of this country. The streets are kind of dark and I felt a bit uncomfortable walking around by myself at night, but I walked briskly and with purpose and was able to shake off the 7 tuk tuk and motorbike guys offering me a ride. I took the best shower of my life when I got home and lay down to read more of my Lonely Planet.

But what really happened was I passed out. I guess all the stair climbing, walking and general heat is really tiring me out. Even though $20/nt is alot for this area, I like my clean sheets, my BBC World News and CNN, and the air-con!

I got up this morning with a heavy heart. Some of the people I talked to at the restaurant last night said I should fire my driver and tour guide and get an English speaking guy to ride me around on his motorbike for $8/day instead. The thing is, I thought that the tour guide was going to be the driver of his own vehicle... but he's not. Paying $25/day for each makes it $50/day, and I really can't afford that for 3 days. I didn't have a way to get in touch with these guys last night, so I had to talk to them this morning. I explained my predicament and apologized profusely, knowing that they may not get work for the day. I paid Kon for his time yesterday and hope that because it's high season, they will get a call from the Tour Guide Association for another tourist. Conveniently, a motorbike driver was hanging out in front of my hotel, and he agreed to take me around. This whole thing was a bit sketchy (too convenient, don't you think) but I am saving $42/day with my new friend, so I was happy.

I thought it was going to be a lot less comfortable on the back of a motorbike, but it's quite breezy and feels good. I spent 2.5 hours at Angor Wat today and took tons of pictures. Kon was right -- there are tons of Korean tourists, and they are kind of rude, yelling at each other and other tourists. I had several men shoo me out of their photos, but two of them took my hand and included me in their photo, and offered to take picutres of me as well. Climbing the main structure (the steps are about knee high -- it's not an easy road to heaven!), I met a young Korean guy who asked me to take a picture of him as I crawled up the stairs. He offered to do the same when I realized it's going to be much harder going DOWN than going up. I was thinking, am I in Cambodia or in Mexico walking down the steps of Teotihuacan!? These ancient folks must have had tiny feet and really long legs, or it's a universal rule that monuments must be difficult to go up and down. Give it 10 years and there may be ski-lift looking things installed around here.

The really amazing thing here is the tranquility of the grounds. Other than the swarms of tourists, the sounds of the palm fronds waving in the wind are so soothing, and the cooing of pigeons inside the porticos are really spiritual. I am not a fan of the moist sandstone (think of that dusty smell of the sidewalk right as it starts raining) mixed with bird poop smell inside the temples, but they are often masked by the incense burning in front of the headless Buddha images. I am really starting to like that burning incense smell -- reminds me of my grandma offering incense every morning to my great-grandmother's mini-Buddha shrine. Okay, so I am hping you are kind of getting the feeling of being in the ruins.

As you can imagine, I took tons of photos so my battery died. I had my new driver take me back to the hotel and decided to grab lunch. I read about a place called Cambodian Village Support Group restaurant, right behind my hotel, which is a Japanese-funded NGO. They fund lots of projects, and this one is a training restaurant for kids who are orphaned, homeless or have disabled parents. The girls greeted me in Japanese and bowed politely, offering me a menu and asking what I would like to drink. When I responded in English, they seemed confused, but they seemed impressed that I speak both Japanese and English (but one asked me if I speak Khmer and I had to say no). The food was tasty and the girls were adorable. There were photos showing all the projects the CVSG supports, from HIV/AIDS projects in the remote areas to this restuarnt and other training programs. It's good to see Japanese money impacting these kids in a direct way! I got a tear in my eye reading about the projects and seeing the photos.

Speaking of eating, the Khmer mosquitoes love my blood. I got about 8 mosquitoes on my left elbow while typing this blog. I may get malaria right in my hotel without going out to any swampland! OMG it is raining like a monsoon now!!! I don't think my motorbike buddy is going to drive in this rain -- or is he!? Of course, I have a white shirt on and no rain jacket.

Oh I had another culture shock moment today, while riding on the motorbike. I so wanted to take a picture but I don't dare let go while the bike is in motion. I heard the bleating of pigs behind me, and when the motorbike passed, I saw that there were two full-grown pigs laying on the seat behind the motorbike driver -- they are laid on their backs, with their legs in the air, secured by bungee cords. Really! The poor piggies occasionally bleat and snort, as I can't imagine it's a comfortable way to ride. Then again, I don't think the driver is all that worried about their comfort as they are going to be dinner for someone soon. I won't be eating pork today. :-(

More reports to come tomorrow -- I am supposed to see the sunrise over the ruins and I am psyched!

love,
asami :-)