A taste of Hong Kong (and now I want more!)

Gabe and I snuck out of the Pan-Pacific Manila at probably 4 AM. Jesse was still tossing and turning, but definitely asleep. We decided not to wake him, as he had a two day layover in Tokyo he'd likely want to be rested for.

For the first time on my trip, I forgot to tell the taxi guy to turn on the meter. We had to endure an overpriced cab ride with a driver who was annoyed we decided not to get to the airport three hours early. Whatever man.

We knew about the airport tax at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, so we passed through security and customs with no problem. Gabe had been moved up to business class, so when we got to the gate, he tried to get me moved up. As it turned out, business class was full. Or so we were told.

As I handed in my ticket to board the plane, the gate worker took my boarding pass, and then wrote a new seat number on it. 9E? wow that sounds like...BUSINESS CLASS!!!!!

So yes, I had gotten moved up after all. I got to enjoy another super comfortable seat, warm towels, and unlimited juice in the short flight from Manila over to HK. Definitely helped to get a little more rest before going nonstop for a day. There was "only" 12 hours or so between the landing at HK and when we had to be back for Gabe to catch his flight to San Francisco (his 2nd layover). :)

But Gabe knows the city well, so once we got off the train in the city, we were all set to have dim sum. At the train station - a joint called Tim Ho Wan. Yes, a Michellin-starred dim sum restaurant, at the train station.

10 AM. Dim sum. GOGOGOGOGOGO!!!!!!!

We had a bunch of classics, and they lived up to my every expectation. Granted that the majority of my Canada/stateside dim sum expeditions have been with Gabe, or James (another dim sum connoisseur), I shouldn't be surprised that the renditions I have had on this side of the Pacific have been fantastic. But even so, I was still blown away. I was equally entertained by the fact that the people eating on either side of us were Chinese tourists from Vancouver.

From there, we walked through the city. Strangely enough, the streets were only kinda overrun by people - "dead" by Gabe's standards. It felt a little bit San Francisco-y to me, except for the fact that it was clearly Hong Kong. And I was actually THERE!

Our walk led us to the ferry across the water to Kowloon. After a nausea inducing jaunt across said water, we made our way into Kowloon. We didn't have enough time to see everything, so at Gabe's request, I made the decision that we would focus on food. Gabe knew of a famous wonton [soup] place in the middle of tourist town, so we made our way there, along the way getting lost in the bajillions of Indian dudes trying to sell me Rolexes and suits. If I had more time, I may have gotten a suit, since they can be cheap - maybe next time.

Somehow we found our way to the place, Chee Kee, and sat down to enjoy what turned out to be the best wontons I've had. The nomming continued.

Afterwards, we walked back to the subway, and returned to HK proper. Gabe was on a mission to find egg tarts. We stumbled upon a bakery after walking past Occupy: Hong Kong (a bunch of people asleep in tents). Gabe had the last egg tarts in hand, ready to pay, when a man came out from the back with a piping hot tray full of fresh ones. Audible! Audible! I went for an onion roll, which I had previously tried in the Convoy district of San Diego. It was amazing. I almost got a second one, but I wanted to save room for more food.

I tried the egg tart, though - amazing.

At this point we had to start thinking about making our way to the tram up the mountain. We had a planned 5:00 PM meetup with Sandy and Joe, who were in Hong Kong for a few days. At this point it was after three. We decided to take the double-decker trolley back towards the center of the city. I started to nod off, until I saw this bus, which made me smile.

And as I looked around after we passed the bus, Gabe pointed out a place that served xialongbao. Long story short, we made a detour, and stopped in for xialongbao, and more dumplings. Pretty much the last essential food could now be crossed off my list. Okay there were probably more foods, but this was essential. The restaurant, Din Tai Fung, also Michellin-starred, exists stateside, too, but according to dim sum master Gabe, it's actually reall, really good in HK. Consider me sold. I'd like to note now that there is plenty of food porn from my brief excursion to Hong Kong on my facebook album for this final stop of the trip.

xialongbao!

That's four trips to eat now, if you've been counting, and three of them were quite large. I'd also eaten some breakfast on the plane. But by the time we'd finished, we were clearly late to meet Sandy and Joe. We scrambled around trying to find a cab, and finally jumped in one, to race to the trolley station.

When we got there, the line was huge. Instinctively, we wondered if we'd even be able to find Sandy and Joe. Yet somehow, as soon as we get out of the cab, there they are, also having recently arrived. Sometimes you do find needles in a haystack - immediately.

We agreed it made most sense to just cab it up the mountain. It was foggy, but by the time we'd paid and maneuvered our way up to the viewpoint, I was not disappointed.

The view of Hong Kong from the mountain truly is one of the most incredible urban views on the planet. I had planned on the view being the last big event on my trip, to sort of put everything in perspective (amazing views have a way of doing precisely this, for me), and sure enough, I felt a wave of clarity come over me. Somehow, everything made sense, everything was real. I went through with this trip, and I felt like an ever so slightly mature person.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get any really good pictures, so I'll leave you with my best effort. Ultimately, the memory was what I wanted, and it seems probable I will return to HK again, likely with a camera that isn't six years old. So I didn't feel all that bad leaving without pictures. Kowloon and the mainland were a bit obscured by fog, but the experience felt just as magical.

Yeah, that's Gabe's camera. Look at what mine came up with:

Regrettably, I couldn't stare out at the city forever, and we had to make our way to the airport. We thought about having more food, but honestly, our stomachs just couldn't take any more.

Soon it was time for Gabe and I to part ways - he to catch his flight, me to go wait three hours for mine. Once I was settled in my seat at the gate, the emotions started to overtake me. I was incredibly excited to return home - five weeks on your first trip is quite a lot! And one of my best friends, a different Jesse, was meeting me at SFO to visit for a few days. But at the same time, the trip was over. I was ready to go home, but I wasn't ready for the adventure to end. I actually made this happen. 6 countries, 4 travel buddies, and many new friends later - I had undoubtedly the best five weeks of my life.

As I finally finish this blog, months later (yeah yeah, I got lazy), the travel bug is eating away at me on the inside. I'm dying to eat, drink, and backpack my way through Europe. I'm itching to become absorbed in China and Japan. To make my way through Peru and Brazil. New Zealand. Vietnam. Hell, anywhere.

I want to get back out there as soon as I can. I want to travel with friends again, as I struggle to decide if I could really backpack on my own. I want to see more of the world. And now I know it's possible.

I don't know what's next, but it will be something. I appreciate from the bottom of my heart those who traveled with me, the people I met, and even the people following along from home, wishing me well. This trip was more than I ever could have imagined, and I wish it never had to end.

That's all I got. I'll try to blog my next trip, whenever that is. Thanks again for following along, and if you ever want to travel with me, do not hesitate to ask :)

Love always,

dacrON

The thought-provoking "city" of Manila

Yeah yeah, I know, I failed to finish the blog. Aarrghh. Well here - I'm going to finish it now. I'm only what, three months late? Not bad! :)

We had added Manila to the trip when we realized we could extend the trip with doable flights by a couple days. The Philippines wasn't the top place on my list to visit, but when I found out we could add it in, I was pumped. It was cool to not know what to expect about a city, at all. It was only two days, but I got a good feel for the city in that time.

So if you'll recall, I was getting rather sick. But I wasn't about to let that slow me down. We had barely checked into our hotel at the Pan Pacific in Malate before we were off to go explore the town (okay fine, we took a swim first). We were all exhausted after having spend the previous night on a train from Vientiane to Bangkok, but we wanted to at least get a little exploring done, to have some ideas for the next two days.

We wandered around for awhile, before stumbling upon a local bar. We ordered some beer and "satays". Now, we were accustomed to SE Asian satays. We were not expecting what we got. Actually the chicken intestine turned out to be pretty good. The other pieces? Not so good - no idea what it was even, cartilage?

But the sickness was catching up with me. Even Gabe was feeling sick. Not to mention we were all exhausted.

I'll leave out the details, but I didn't sleep well that night, and had to break out the azithromycin. Thanks to Matt Canik for entertaining me during those painful early morning hours.

I knew Gabe and Jesse were excited to see the city, so I decided to buckle down and enjoy everything as best I could, given the condition of my body.

There was a nearby mall, so we stopped in to get lunch before heading out to explore. Manila was beginning to make an impression on me. Gone were the crazy malls of Bangkok. Yep - this mall felt like it was straight out of the states. And the restaurants at the food court? Well let's just say my stomach was relieved to have Sbarro over chicken intestine. It's totally cool to see stuff like Jollibee everywhere.

Gabe fulfilled a Krispy Kreme craving, and we then took a cab to the Intramuros (I guess I'd describe it as the Spanish Quarter?), and walked around, with no general direction in mind.

It was some point during this morning that I realized that despite the similarity to the US, it was going to take time to get used to seeing so many people armed with firearms.

We stumbled across Fort Santiago, and decided to walk through it. In a truly busy city, Fort Santiago is an extremely peaceful escape in the middle of it all. While there was a lot of walking involved, I did get to sit down and rest some, and get some nice pictures (didn't say high quality).

When we next went to search for a cab to go to Makati to meet Jesse's new friend Roxy for dinner, the drivers laughed at us. "You want us to take you from the Intramuros to Makati at rush hour? Yeah, right!"

Finally, an older gentleman volunteered to take us. He was uneasy about it, but could tell we were frustrated. Sure enough, the traffic was like nothing I have ever seen. NYC rush hour has nothing on Metro Manila. It took us two hours to get from the Intramuros to Makati, almost an hour late for dinner - a drive that wasn't more than a few miles. Our driver looked crestfallen that he'd agreed to a price that would've been fair during off-peak hours. He didn't have to ask - we paid him double, and even THAT felt like highway robbery (so I think we tipped him on top of it). But during the ride, we did get to talk with him about what it's like being a cab driver in the metro city. He said that with gas prices and traffic, it's sometimes hard to justify even taking passengers to some locations. I personally didn't see how he could profit, but he assured us he was working incredibly long days to support his family. But his chin was up, and I give him props for that. I also had mad respect when he started taking side-street shortcuts - driver after my own heart.

Thank the lord I didn't have to pee this entire time...seriously so thankful.

Roxy just laughed when we finally found her. We sat down to catch our breath and have a beer before going in search of dinner. We settled at a place called Fely J's. Unfortunately, I was still sick, so I didn't eat nearly as much as I would have liked - especially as Filipino cuisine is really adventurous, which any other day of the year would be fantastic.

I did get to at least try everything, though, and it was good, but my stomach was more interested in being totally lame. It was cool to talk to Roxy about growing up in the Philippines, as well as our common interest of Ultimate (she and Jesse had met at a tournament in Manila just two weeks before). Jesse also turned into Santa.

After dinner we found a bar to grab some beers and relax. Jesse ended up with a Happy Horse beer (google it). My stomach was screaming at me to go to bed, but with the trip so close to ending, I wanted to savor every last minute. It soon became apparent though that shennanigans were about to go down. And soon enough, Roxy procured two balut eggs. Again, Wikipedia it. Jesse had tried it before, and I couldn't believe he tried it again. Gabe also went for one full force, and can now wear the title of "FEATHERS" proudly. I already am not a big egg fan, and was still feeling sick. I just had to wimp out here, and I don't regret it one bit. And then Roxy had to have some. Best facial expressions ever!

Eventually, we decided to call it a night, and parted ways - Gabe, Jesse, and I taking a cab through a notorious red light district, hehe.

I went to bed that night praying I'd feel better the next day - I wanted to be able to gorge!

And somehow, that next morning, I felt better! It was a Manila Miracle!

Lunch (we slept in) was at the Filipino institution of Max's Restaurant. Being not a fan of bone-in chicken (lame, right?), I had a beef stew, which was very tasty. The chicken looked great too. We split a dessert sampler, which had all sorts of goodies, including, unsurprisingly, delicious flan.

Then we went to Goldilock's to go polvoron shopping. Polvoron is a Filipino shortbread cookie which is a popular food given as a gift. We stocked up to bring back to our friends at home - undoubtedly some of the people reading this got to try it. I know my best friend, Noah, went through his box in about two days.

Next it was time to go to the Imelda tour, at the Cultural Center, which we heard was supposed to be amazing. You can imagine how silly we felt holding 6 bags of polvoron throughout a two hour tour. Ah, well. Anyway, the tour turned out to be fantastic - the guide was engaging, intelligent on the subject matter, and hilarious. The subject matter is essentially the Marcos-era of the Philippines through the eyes of his wife Imelda Marcos (yeah, the lady with all the shoes). The take home message, said the tour guide, was to ask yourself if the Philippines really were better off without the dictatorship - with democracy instead. This question confirmed a lot of the feelings I had wrestled with over the past two days, and put a lot in perspective for me. Do I have an answer to this question? No - I don't know that much about the country, and would be trying to sum up an entire people through a two day excursion. That'd be wrong to do on so many levels, but that said, I do talk about some of my thoughts below.

But this tour was incredible - if you should find yourself in Manila, you must must must must sign up. I will remind you of this at the end of the entry.

Dinner that night was with Gabe's college buddy, Merrill. We left a bit more time on this evening, and didn't have too much trouble with traffic. We met at a mall in the seemingly wealthy Bonifacio Global City. The "mall" (it seemed never-ending) was extremely high end, like something out of Beverly Hills. The restaurant we ended up, Abe, at was a part of the same restaurant group as dinner the night before, coincidently.

Fortunately, I was ravenous this time. We gorged on dishes including the most DELICIOUS lengua (beef tongue) I have ever had. I think I had fifths, on it. Dessert included halo-halo, which is...uh, a conglomeration of tasty stuff (read: Wikipedia it - bottom left of dessert pr0n below). It's possibly the strangest dessert of the planet, but it sure is tasty! Not to mention more amazing flan...

After dinner, we had to catch a cab back to Malate as we all had to get up early the next morning for our flights - Gabe and I at 3:30 AM!

But there were a lot more people than there were cabs. We couldn't get a cab at the taxi stand, figuring we'd be able to hail one down more easily. 75 minutes later, we were half a mile from the mall, in a desserted, but clearly part of the same extremely wealthy neighborhood, on a street where a cab was a rare occurrence. We made irrational decision after irrational decision, but eventually got that cab. Should've stayed in the taxi stand - oops.

We settled in for the night, knowing the next day was going to be super long. One more day and one more city of the trip lay ahead.
___

Manila was the most thought-provoking part of my trip. I'd like to insist that I mean no offense by any of my following comments to my Filipino friends.

It felt to me that Manila (perhaps the entire country) is in the middle of an extended identity crisis. As Merrill explained to me, the population is somewhat segregated into 4 or so wealth classes. These classes are very distinctive - I was constantly being solicited by homeless people, yet dinner at the mall in felt like I was at Fashion Valley in SD, or third street in Santa Monica. There was no attempt to hide the disparity - it was undoubtedly there. It's not like this is a unique occurrence in the world, but it was my first experience dealing with it so blatantly.

Additionally, it was clear that the infrastructure was really old, and there were transportation issues that so clearly needed to be fixed. Also, reading about the corruption issues was telling. Not to mention the amount of armed security guards roaming the streets. And the hyper-capitalism everywhere.

This is the best way I can sum it up: Manila felt like the US without rules. On one hand, I'm not sure how safe I felt, but on the other hand, it was so much more lively and exciting than the states. Positives and negatives added together usually come out to a positive, and Manila is no exception. It was a whirlwind of an experience, and I have to say I'm really excited to see how the city develops as time goes on. I don't know if there is a city quite like it on this Earth, and I encourage anybody in the area to visit. If you don't leave feeling thoughtful, then you haven't had the Manila experience. And TAKE THE IMELDA TOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best money I spent all trip.

Maybe I'll go back someday - Cebu Pacific Airlines offers cheap flights to and from Manila and many cities in Asia. I'm so glad I went, though. And if I did, I'd go beyond the city limits, even if the US government does tell me that's not such a good idea. C'mon, who doesn't want to go to Borracay?

P.S. is there a gene in Filipino people that enables them to make freaking amazing flan? Talk about a PhD thesis that needs to happen...

Vientiane: A Taste of Urban Laos

When we last left off, we had just arrived in Vientiane. We took a taxi to the hotel we hoped we were staying in. As it turned out, the only room they had was a loft suite, so we broke down and paid an extra $20 USD for what turned out to be a ridiculous room.

For some reason which I cannot remember, we decided to ask James for advice on where to go. James has never been to Laos, but of course he had a recommendation!

We were very hungry after our huge lunch at the Xiengkhouang airport just hours before (the wearing off buzz and the 45 minute flight made it seem like 8 hours, when really it was more like 2). So we set off for the Vientiane streets to try and find Makphet. I encourage you to visit the website and read about what they are doing. It's totally awesome.

We had no reservation for dinner, and didn't really expect to get a table, and after getting lost for twenty minutes, found out that there were in fact no tables available for the evening. But then the manager said, Well you can sit upstairs if you want, but we don't really have enough servers for you and you will not enjoy your experience.

He seemed so apologetic, but we rather had our hearts set on eating here. And looking around the room, it was clear that we had beaten the dinner reservations (it was only about 6:00 PM or so), so we decided to eat upstairs!

Not only was the service great, it was some of the most attentive service I have had at a restaurant, ever. Our food was served promptly, yet we were not at all rushed. And we had the entire loft upstairs to ourselves, which was nice - we could just spread out and relax. After the Phonsavan escapade, a nice meal was really all we wanted.

My favorite dish was the water buffalo stew. Really a step up from the low quality of beef in South East Asia.

The rest of the food porn from this meal can be found on my facebook page. This was truly a delightful meal, and exactly what I needed. So good.

This was our only night in Vientiane, so after dinner we walked over to the night market on the river. Te night market is clearly the happening place in Vientiane. Everybody was out on a Tuesday night with perfect weather. We walked down the steps getting closer to the Mekong, and I had one of those moments of reflection staring out across the river to the Thai side. I didn't have all that many chances to stop and think about the last month, but it dawned on me that I had arrived in Thailand a month ago, already, and that this trip was almost over. I was getting so used to the quirks as well as the friendliness of the Lao PDR, and heading back to Thailand, even if it was just passing through, already felt "normal", as if I was returning home...

...but the ambling through Vientiane was not yet over, as we walked up the riverwalk and saw the big statue dude:

It's basically a statue of a Laotian farmer holding his hand out to greet you, and honestly, I think it's a nice representation of the Lao locals we ran across in our 9 days here. Everyone was just so friendly.

Walking back to the market, we may have decided to be those nerdy tourists who went on the swing set and teeter-totter that just happened to be there. Photo evidence exists on a camera that isn't mine. We'll see when Jesse or Gabe posts pictures *nudge nudge*.

After that, it was bedtime. zzzzzzzzzzzz.

We woke up bright and early to go explore the city some more. We only had until about 3:30 PM until the journey back into Thailand began, so it was up and at 'em.

You have to keep in mind that Vientiane is the only "big city" in all of Laos, and really it's population is similar to San Francisco proper (JUST the city). But the "big city" vibe here is akin to what I'd feel the "big city" vibe is like in Fresno. Vientiane just isn't a very fast moving place. There's not a lot of big tall buildings, stuff is fairly spread out, and the pace of life isn't that quick.

Our research prior to the trip suggested there wasn't all that much to see in Vientiane, and in hindsight, there's probably some truth to these reviews. It's a really nice city, absolutely worth a stop if you're in the area, but unless you just love visiting wats, there's not too much to do in the capital city itself - the adventure lies in the country's interior, as I hope my blog has aptly described!

So for most of the morning we did in fact walk around and look at wats. Wats are really pretty, and Buddhism is a fascinating philosophy, but after awhile, the wats start to blend together into some sort of wattage.

Our aimless wandering happened to lead us in the right direction for touristing. After stopping in a market to buy a loaf of bread (which was promptly devoured), we walked up what was unmistakably the country's widest road, towards the Laotian Arc de Triumph.

But first, the other best sign of the trip:

Once we arrived at the structure, we walked up the stairs to get a view of the entire area. As I mentioned before, Vientiane is pretty spread out, so the city seemed to expand infinitely.

We had time for about one more tourist stop in order to save time for my one request in Vientiane, so we tuk tuk-ed over to the main tourist attraction, That Luang. I guess after going to Doisuthep in Chiangmai, That Luang wasn't quite as impressive as I'd hoped, but I suppose it's still pretty cool!

In all reality, I was starting to get rather hungry and dehydrated, and really wanted to make sure we had time for the final stop before we left Laos. That's right, we had to have lunch at Hungry Burger! And as it turned out, we did have enough time, since it was reasonably easy to find and close to our hotel. Feel free to read my review (yes that's right, I have a blog about cheeseburgers!) of this oddly Portlandesque food cart!

But after a taste of home, it was time to leave Laos. I'll spare a lot of the details, but it was another small fiasco filled with changing vehicles, language barriers, and overall general confusion. One moment of note was that we shared a songthaew with a bunch of Aussies who had clearly just come from Vang Vieng (the tourist party town 6 hours north of Vientiane). They asked us why we would ever skip Vang Vieng on a trip to Laos, and went on to explain that it was such a cool time - only 14 ODs in 2011! OK, so I admit, I did kind of want to spend a night in Vang Vieng, but we only had so much time, and I couldn't be happier with how we allotted that time.

Eventually, we took the only train in the entire country across the border into Nong Khai, Thailand. Here's a final view of the Mekong, denoting this part of the Thai-Lao border:

After crossing the border, we found a place with Pad Thai across the street from the train station, and we all chowed down before boarding the overnight train to Bangkok.

Actually, the overnight train was pretty nice. I took my first sleeping pill, and was comfortably sleepy the entire night. I actually quite enjoyed the experience, and would totally take a sleeper train in Thailand again, should I have more time than I did this time around :)

I'll throw in one more story here, since there is a bit of a travel day at this point in the trip. When we arrived at the Business Class lounge at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, we all took nice warm showers. I then promptly went in sandals, a t-shirt, and shorts to sit in the lounge which understandably had the AC blasted. Long story short, I gave myself the chills, and spiked a fever on the plane. Fortunately, I was pretty confident that I had self-inflicted myself with chills, so I didn't worry too much about the symptoms (except when the Manila Airport informed me of mandatory temperature checks - which never happened).

I also got my worst case of bad food at this point too. I can only assume it was that the tasty lounge food had been sitting out a bit too long, or wasn't cooked enough, as I felt quite sick the next couple of days. I was proud of myself for not freaking out too much, given the awkward timing (getting the chills/fever at a similar time to a case of food poisoning). Logic works, self! :)

But I won't leave out the free Thai massages that business class travelers receive. They hire the best of the best. What an absolute treat.

So that concludes the Laos portion of my trip. I still can't believe I went there, and I wonder if I'll ever have the opportunity to go back (and if so, who knows what it will be like!). The days were winding down, and it was almost time to come home. But first, a completely unexpected Manila experience!

Phonsavan: The Plain of Jars.

Note: there are so many pictures associated with this stop of the trip. Trying to post them here would not work, so I invite you to view the entire Facebook album. This was an awe-inspiring experience, and I hope you will take a minute to look at how beautiful it was. If you cannot access the album, please email me (conradbb@gmail.com) and I'll find a way to get the pictures visible to you (if we're Facebook friends, you should have no problems).

So when I last left off, we checked into our hotel in Phonsavan, and learned that it contained the only elevator in the entire province. We walked down the road to get some dinner, at which time we learned that Phonsavan is FREEZING. It was only fitting then that dinner was noodle soup for all. This was double-fitting, as it was the closest I got to Vietnam for the entire trip, so this was the closest I could get to a pho fix. When we got back, it was time for an early sleep, thanks to the nausea-inducing minibus ride, but not before Gabe booked us a tour guide and van for the Plain of Jars.

If you haven't heard of the Plain of Jars, read about it on Wikipedia.

We set out the next morning around 9:30 AM, after Jesse found his again-missing camera, and after I had to go back to the hotel to get batteries for my newly-dead-batteried camera. We met our guide, and he turned out to be a hilarious Lao dude, who had a passion for...Barry Manilow. Yes, he sand Barry Manilow all day, and we got to listen to it in the car all day. What country were we in, again?

As we arrived at the first Jar Site, I was disappointed to learn that there were many tourist (although this time, it was Lao and foreigners alike). The first site wasn't that memorable, despite being the largest site, and having the largest jar (which I will admit was pretty epic). It was clear that the site was catering to the war-torn recent history, and less towards the beauty of the land. We also walked up a hill to get a view of the jars, and of the valley.

It was a long drive to Jar Site 2, and of course the roads stopped being paved quickly. After stopping at a Whisky Village (locals make "LaoLao" - homemade whisky here), we made it to the second jar site, and had some lunch. I was thrilled to find that there were almost no tourists here - and as I would soon find, we were the only ones there at the time, and had the mystique to ourselves.

After lunch, we hiked up the hill. Jar Site 2 has two parts. The first part was cool, but it was the second part that blew my mind. Words can't really describe what it's like. If you've been to a wonder of the world, I suspect you can relate to how I felt, but I don't know how to describe it. It was only the fear of stepping on a mine that kept me from running down the hills into the endless pastures, and losing myself in it all.

It was a long drive on from there to the third site. We had to walk over the world's sketchiest bridge and then through a farm in order to get to the site.

The third site was unreal. It was like something out of a painting. Beautiful scenery with these mysterious jars, in a patch of trees, surrounded by hillside. I just can't believe how beautiful it was.

Again, to see my Plain of Jars pictures, please visit the Facebook link at the top of the entry. You will not be disappointed.

After we returned to the town, it was time for dinner. We picked another place on the main road, only to find that it had the exact same menu as the place the night before. No matter - we just had more noodle soup, and the world's largest plate of delicious $1 US fried rice.

We then visited the MAG center to learn more about the Secret War. Laos was heavily bombed by the US/CIA after we pulled out of the Vietnam War, and as a result, much of Laos is littered with unexploded ordnance. Phonsavan is one of the most bombed areas. MAG works to free the land of UXO and mines. If you see me wearing my MAG t-shirt, you'll know what it means now :). To put it in perspective, MAG has won a Nobel Peace Prize. Amazing.

An example of what was at one point UXO:

It was time to leave Phonsavan the next morning. But before heading out, we got to walk around town, see the morning food market. At lunch, I finally got to try the "other" Laotian beer - Namkhong. It was pretty good, not really better or worse than the ubiquitous BeerLao.

We caught our ride to the airport, and were dumbfounded by what we saw. The "terminal" was essentially a shack.

The security machine didn't work.

There was one flight out of the airport every three days or so.

With a couple hours to kill, we decided to walk to the food shack next door and have lunch - chicken flavored peanuts (surprisingly good) and BeerLao.

The next couple hours, including the plane flight to Vientiane are rather hazy, but many good laughs were had at the absurdity of this airport. We walked up to a gate to watch our plane land - but seriously, walking onto the tarmac would've been totally easy to do. And thus we traveled on to our last stop in Laos - the capital city of Vientiane.

Luang Prabang Part 2: Around Luang Prabang in half a day

Between the three of us, we slept a combined 35 hours or so after returning from Muang Ngoi. Fortunately we had all gone to bed by 10:00 PM, so this meant we were all set to go explore early in the day still! We walked north until hitting a random bamboo bridge, and crossed it. Some young monks ahead of us took a more hidden path, so we decided to follow them. Soon, we were on a dirt road that appeared to be a part of residential LP. It was clear that at least a few tourists did come this way, though, as there was the occasional fabric store.

After many twists and turns, we stumbled across another restaurant on a random swamp/pond, that looked like it would be a sweet dinner spot. Unfortunately they weren't open for lunch, so we turned around and kept walking. Soon we made it to a paved road, and realized it was the road from the airport to town. So we headed in the direction of town (which is much farther than it sounds). We kept walking for awhile along the side of the road. Jesse got some random street food, but lunch was on the mind. We ended up at a random beer garden on the side of the road. Delicious food was had, although I can't remember the Lao names of the dishes.

From lunch, we kept walking towards town. Gabe stopped to get some knockoff Pocky known as Hockey Sticks. This food is probably the worst thing I have ever eaten. It was like eating stale cardboard, with a hint of fake moldy strawberries. It now occurs to me that we didn't bring any Hockey Sticks with us back to the states for you all to try :)

After we confirmed we were not poisoned by the Hockey Sticks, we approached a car bridge, which appeared to have a pedestrian walkway along the edges. It didn't occur to me until I was a third of the way across the bridge just what exactly Lao bridgework consisted of:


Well, I'm still alive, so I'll consider it a success. Jesse then spent the rest of our money at a stand, so we had to take out some more on the way back to the hotel, which was about another mile down the road. After a bit of a rest, we decided to go backtrack a bit of our first day in LP to try and find Jesse's camera. When we got to our first lunch spot, the owner called her husband, who claimed he did, in fact, have Jesse's camera.

The lady informed us that her husband would be there fairly soon. Gabe and I, ravenous as always, headed over to the market to find a donut. We did in fact find donuts. They tasted like donuts. Craving fulfilled, we walked back to see Jesse OMG SPRING ROLL STAND AND I WALKED RIGHT PAST IT. Fortunately, Gabe noticed it, so we got some fried spring rolls on the way back to meet Jesse. Naturally, we had to go back for more soon after.

The guy arrived at the restaurant soon after we got back, and it was eventually made clear that he did in fact have the camera. I tell this story not to embarass Jesse, but rather to show another example of how incredibly friendly the people were to us in Lao.

Camera in tow, we looked around for a dinner spot. We settled on an upscale, well reviewed Lao place. We were not disappointed by the food, or the Khantoke-like show. The four Khmu (I think, from Southeast Asian music class in university) musicians looked as if they could possibly be four generations of the same family. The food consisted of fresh fruit shakes, a beef stew, laab, papaya salad, and the unequivocal favorite, a pumpkin curry:

Seriously, you will not ever go hungry in Lao. Lao food is phenominal.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. It seemed like the trip wouldn't be complete without seeing the Alms Ceremony.

Sure enough, Jesse and I got up at the crack of dawn to witness the tradition. Unfortunately, research suggests that the tradition is more forced in recent times. The monks are required to accept the alms given to them, even if a stupid tourist should decide to give them dirt. The government has threatened to replace monks with laypeople dressed as monks if they should decide to stop. You'll also note that the picture file I borrowed from Wikitravel says "bad tourists". Tourists literally walk up to the monks and take flash pictures. It seemed kind of insulting that what was probably once a wonderful tradition has been degraded into such a spectacle. For what it's worth, we just so happened to stand at almost the same spot from where the picture was taken. It was cool to see the locals give alms, as well as the monks to hand some off to children who were clearly from lesser-off backgrounds.

Jesse was unable to convince either of us to go meet a monk at one of the temples. I wanted a nice relaxing shower before the inevitable vomit-inducing minibus ride looming before us, and was afraid we'd be unable to meet the guy. As it turned out, Jesse may have went to the wrong monestary, as he was unable to locate the guy. I think he later got an email when we were in Manila asking what happened.

But Jesse did stumble upon a wonderful French bakery, and we enjoyed a wonderful baguette along with our breakfast. It was most unfortunate that we did not stumble upon the place sooner, but hey, better late than never, right?

After breakfast, it was time to catch the shuttle to the bus terminal. I was dreading the approaching ride, although I figured the scenery would be amazing. We made it to the terminal, and ended up being relegated to the back three seats of a filled-to-capacity minibus. The saving grace was that it was a slightly newer bus, so the seats were slightly more comfortable.

Armed with 6 baguettes, 3 packages of wafers, and about a gallon of water, we set off for Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars.

I won't say much about the minibus ride beyond the fact that it was in fact vomit-inducing, but was nonstop stunning views for the entire trip. The best picture I can paint is I80 from Auburn to Reno, except the Sierras are replaced by Lao villages (and there is no snow), and you're on a terribly paved two lane highway. Jesse and I actually got to throw a frisbee around at the first rest stop. There were no rest stops the rest of the way, so at one point we just pulled over on the side of the road for a little break, if you catch my drift. At this point we were out of the mountains, and the scenery looked oddly like coming out of the mountains heading North into Central Washington. Gabe concurred on this fact as we dove into some baguette (finally being relieved of carsickness for the moment).

Our bus arrived early into Phonsavan, but I will leave off here for now.

Luang Prabang Part 1 - What to make of it?

Landing in Laos was the start of the last "main" part of the trip. It became obvious as soon as we landed that this was a very different country from anywhere else I'd been. Yet as we drove into the town, it seemed oddly...wealthy. This was a constant source of confusion for us, despite the knowledge that Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage City. My guess is that a fair amount of money is pumped into this city because of this status, and as a result, the country's widespread poverty is unseen in this tourist town.

We checked into our guesthouse, and went to look for some food. We ended up at a tourist restaurant overlooking the Mekong river. We ordered a bunch of dishes, and they were all solid, but not overwhelmingly awesome. Afterwards, we went back to the guesthouse to plot our next day, in which we hoped to overnight up north. Walking around town, we found out that the 100 Waterfalls tour was not only a ripoff, but took up way too much time, so we quashed that idea quickly. However a new idea surfaced, and you'll hear about that idea in the next entry. After we booked some transportation for the next day, we went to the main wat, in order to watch the sunset over the Mekong. Despite being overrun by tourists, we were treated to a magnificent sunset, and a fantastic view of Luang Prabang town. From here, we could see the "rest of the town"; that is, the part which wasn't all touristy. We vowed to explore it later.

From here, it became dinner time. We were all in agreement that we wanted to stay off the main drag, so we walked. We made a few turns. And then walked a few blocks. And then a few more. And it became less touristy, and more local. But we weren't finding anything. We were about to turn back, when all of a sudden we came across what appeared to be a hot pot restaurant on a swamp. Bingo! We figured this was it, so we sat down and ordered a huge heaping plate of meat. It wasn't traditional hot pot; rather, you put a cube of pork fat on the grill in the center, and then put broth around the side of the grill. You cooked veggies and noodles in the broth, and grilled meat on the grill.

This meal also marked the first liters of the Lao national pastime of drinking Beerlao. And I have to say, it wasn't all that bad. Now once I was made aware that the cmpany actually sanitizes and reuses empty Beerlao bottles, I was a bit sketched out, but beer is beer, and Laos is a communist country, so your options are limited. Jesse and I took down a bunch of Beerlao which led to superior picture taking skills like, and Gabe became the grill master.

So we finish this gigantic plate of food, and then Gabe wondered if we should get some more. Long story short, before an incredulous Jesse's eyes, Gabe and I proceeded to order a second gigantic plate of meats...and we devoured it.

It was definitely one of the besr meals of the trip because it was just one of those moments (er two hours) where everything was just in perfect harmony - at a local joint on a swamp on some random street in Northern Laos.

Afterwards, after inadvertantly getting ripped off by a tuktuk driver due to the launggae barrier for a grand total of like 25 cents, we walked through the market, basking in the glow of our surprising dinner success. I picked up a Beerlao t-shirt, and then we headed back to retire for the night. We were all exhausted (Jesse and I were still recovering from Causeway), and the next morning was to be an early one as we journeyed off still more north into the depths of what we would soon find to be a breathtakingly beautiful country.

I don't like buzzed pictures of myself much, so this mid tuk-tuk ride picture was actually a totally fine effort on my part.

And the next morning, we were picked up by a minibus already full of people going to our transfer point (Nong Khiaw), as well as Phonsavan, our future destination a few days down the road. And then more people got in. And then our baggage was moved to the roof because MORE PEOPLE GOT IN. And we couldn't figure out why we all were in the same minibus if we had different destinations...and then, an hour after getting into the minibus a mere three miles away, we showed up at the bus station. The journey hadn't even begun. Welcome to transportation in a country with almost no infrastructure...to be continued.

Johor Bahru and Singapore – So Close, yet So Far.

So I wrote part of this entry a few days ago too – and yet I’m just finishing it now. Needless to say, we’ve been incredibly busy. But to thank you for dealing with my tardiness in posting, please accept this entry, filled with pictures! :D

I feel so bad for everybody on this flight. I feel worse for myself, since I am closest to who is undoubtedly the loudest, most annoying baby on the face of this planet. Now the dad is PTFO, and the mom must not really give a crap either. Can I smack the parents? Someone smack me if I ever let my kids misbehave so badly someday.

We only got a brief view of Singapore en route to the Zon Regenecy Hotel  By The Sea in Johor Bahru. It was a fairly comfortable bus ride, minus the stops for immigration in both countries. But when we got to the Zon, I was overtaken by the cigarette smoke everywhere. It was absolutely disgusting. We didn’t even make it into our first hotel room, as it was worse than the poison in the main atrium. But of course there were no nonsmoking rooms available, and we ended up in a renovated room which was marginally better, although I found myself having trouble breathing even in that room. Fortunately, Dielle showed up and we went out to dinner nearby at a hawker stall. The food was decent, but not as good as Bangkok.

There wasn’t really much else to do other than try and get some sleep for the tournament. And be amateur acrobats:

Since this isn’t a Scrabble blog, I won’t drone on and on about the tournament, but just touch on the non-Scrabble highlights.

Well first, a picture of Jesse and I playing. I won this game, but I drew very good tiles.

The food overall was quite good, but maybe not quite as good as Bangkok. Actually, my favorite meal in Malaysia was a Chinese dinner, but a simple Nasi Goreng Daging (beef fried rice, Malaysian style) is super tasty. I would liked to thank KL-er Vannitha for taking us to some very tasty street food, and providing some insight and translation (since she speaks Malaysian!)

The main story happened on the last night. We went to dinner at a noodle shop in the mall below the hotel, which tried to close 45 minutes early on us, rather than accept our orders and money. Eventually we convinced them, and despite the fact that they were out of most of the food, it was actually a pretty solid meal. We next went to KTV (Karaoke), also in the mall. After buying one hour of karaoke time, we struggled for a good 15 minutes figuring out how to get the machine to work, which was clearly an old and well-worn system. Jesse was visibly angry. But a pitcher of Tiger later, we were hard at work singing to some very strange covers of pop music (and the occasional actual song). Highlights of the night included Jesse singing Jay Chou, Sandy and Vannitha going all out at “Dancing Queen”, It’s MY Life (Bon Jovi) and of course, THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. According to everyone else, I killed on “Bad Romance”. Karaokeing was actually pretty fun – maybe I’ll try again sometime (yes, this was my first time karaokeing.

So what happened after karaoke? Well, we tried to buy another hour, but were told by the workers, who were very tuned into their facebooks, that they couldn’t give us more time because there was a police search. We were rather befuddled, since there were no police inside. After about 10 minutes, we gave up and left. But then, from outside the karaoke place (keep in mind, this is the fifth floor of an incredibly seedy mall, which is below an additional 11 story hotel), we saw down to the floor below, where a bunch of Malay police had surrounded a restaurant. Drunk guys kept staggering out, but finally the cops walked away with what we could only assume were some hookers. It was probably the most boring shakedown ever, but all the locals seemed rather enthused. By this time, I was falling asleep, and headed upstairs, while the others apparently took down a tower, and listened to the “cellophane slappers”. Who are the cellophane slappers? They are the lounge singers who sing every night in the cigarette smoke infested “open air” lounge at the Zon Regency. Apparently in the past they have been downright terrible, but honestly this batch wasn’t too bad. I heard them sing Bad Romance at one point, and didn’t think it was too bad, but it got far less rave reviews than my karaoke performance, so take my words with a grain of salt. *shrug*

As it turned out, in the Scrabble tournament, after lots of upswings and downswings, unending exhaustion, and lots of frustration from the word list difference previously explained in my entry on the Princess Cup, I ended up in 6^th place, and won $700, which paid for a couple more flights, and the tournament itself. Granted, I lost my last 4 games to get 6^th, but this tournament has one of the strongest fields each year, and I already had the huge dictionary handicap, so it was hard to be too upset.

Not the best picture ever, but all we could get of me receiving my prize from a higher-up in Johor:

We hung around for a bit, trying to figure out the best plan of action on how to get to Singapore. Somehow, we convinced Dielle to tag along to Singapore with us for the evening, so eventually the three of us headed off to catch a taxi to the bus station. Before we left, we talked to Pakorn (tournament winner) and Sha-Lyn, and agreed to possibly meet up at a blues club in Singapore later that night, which was supposedly a pretty awesome joint.

We hopped a taxi pretty quickly, and made it to the Causeway without incident. We then got on a bus to cross. Once we tried to go through the Singapore customs, we realized we had not filled out departure cards. So we waited in line a second time, got through, and headed down to find our bus. Apparently our bus was running rather infrequently because we had to wait for close to an hour in the stuffy bus terminal for our bus to some place in the city. Our dinner reservation was for 8:00, and I'd say we showed up at maybe 9:15. Actually we were saved by Jesse's Chinese speaking abilities when hiring a taxi in Singapore itself to get to dinner because the cab driver had no idea where to go otherwise, or so it seemed.

Actually I was pretty impressed with Jesse's fluency in Chinese. I think he took it for a couple years at Yale, and then spent what sounded like a pretty darn awesome year in Beijing learning the language more after undergrad.

So it was finally time for the meetup with Gabe. He was there, with a couple friends, as well as Sandy, who had taken a private car from Johor to Singapore and was actually likely the only person who was actually on time to the dinner.

Lots of food had already been ordered, so we jumped right in. Crab was everywhere, as well as shrimp, noodles, rice, veggies – so much good food. And quite frankly, I’ve never had such big pieces of crab meat. And so tasty, too. And then you take a bunch of the chile sauce and mix it with the fried rice. Oh man. Regretably, I took no pictures since we were so late, but suffice to say it was a delicious meal. A picture with 3 of my 4 main travel buddies this trip (Dion was home by then):

We wanted to drop off our stuff at the hotel, and then Gabe finally clued us in on where we were staying. He booked us a night at the CONRAD HOTEL!!!!!! The hotel was absolutely GORGEOUS. Once we got there, I didn’t really want to leave because it was so nice. And then everything had my name on it! EVERYTHING! I made plans to bring a bunch of things home.

So then we finally got out of the hotel to go to the blues club. We tried to take a “maxi cab” (to fit 5 people), but instead ended up in a pseudo-limo that cost S$45 for like a 10 minute ride. We found the club, which was cool, but no Pakorn or Sha-Lyn. Oops. We walked around for awhile, found no other exciting bars, and then found a building with KTV places. We got off on each floor, heard the super expensive prices for all-night rates in incredibly strange dark, many-colored rooms (only pictures can describe, or just being there), and then walked back to another outside bar, where we took down a tower of Tiger. Eventually, we stumbled back to the hotel and had a nice long sleep – my first full night in quite awhile.

One KTV joint:

When we finally got up at 11 AM, there wasn’t much time to do much of anything except swim. So what did we do? Well we swam, obviously. The pool was gorgeous, up to par with the rest of the hotel, and we got every last minute out of it. I’m not sure the rich tourists were thrilled by our frisbeeing in the pool, but hey, we had a blast.

Jesse in pool-layout mode:

So yeah, staying at a Conrad Hotel, in Singapore no less, was totally awesome. Thanks so much Gabe! That was so incredibly awesome.

And yes, I got plenty of Conrad swag.

I was disappointed we didn’t have more time to see/do stuff in Singapore because it is a pretty unique place, so clean and pretty, but I get the feeling that I will probably layover through there again in the future, and will see more then. But it was a nice little break. Which leads me to the title of the post.

I can’t really speak for all of the city of Johor, but at least the area we were in was just so dingy, smoky, dirty, seedy – I could only spend 5 days at a place like that if there was an awesome Scrabble tournament there. Otherwise…eek. Now Singapore on the other hand, just a complete polar opposite. Yet somehow, these places are just a causeway away. Just a very interesting dichotomy. I’m not saying Johor is like a ghetto or anything, but it just wasn’t for me.

So then we got to the airport and found out our tickets were actually business class! So we got to fly Thai Air business class from Singapore to Bangkok! The food was fabulous, the wine was great (and free flowing), and the reclining seat was just too cool. Not to mention warm towels. And I didn’t even mention the lounge buffet. Thai partners with Singapore Air, so we got to use the Singapore Airlines Business Class Lounge. Speechless. Words cannot describe. My attempt: so much food, drink, awesome, everything, I wanna go back. Actually, it turns out our tickets from Bangkok to Manila are business class, too, so that’s something to look forward to! Good surprises rule.

PTFO, yo.

So needless to say I was nice and relaxed going into Bangkok for the overnight stop. It turned out Siam Journey was full, so we stayed near the airport in the Lat Krabang neighborhood. We walked around the nearby night market, Jesse bought an absolutely ridiculous[ly awesome] puffin-like ceramic(?) thing which we named “Sandy-Puff”, and then walked down the alley our hotel was on. It was a trip to be in a suburb of Bangkok because there were no bright city lights – it felt like we were somewhere totally different. It turned out that night was the King’s birthday, but we didn’t really go outside in time to see any celebrations, oops. Still super tired, and we had to get up bright and early to catch our flight to Luang Prabang.

And sure enough, we made it to our flight on time, and I won’t say much else about it, since you undoubtedly know how annoying the screaming baby was and the damn careless parents. Next post will start our journey to Laos. We’re currently in Phonsavan, going to see the Plain of Jars tomorrow. I don’t really think I’ll have the blog finished by the time I get home, but I will finish it – I promise! Hope you’re all well wherever you are.

P.S. Thanks again to Michael Tang for putting on an awesome event. I’m so glad I finally got to attend (and in the nick of time apparently), and I will undoubtedly be back for more international Scrabble. The atmosphere in the tournament room is just so much more enjoyable than in the US.

P.P.S. Especially for you, Mom:

This picture was taken from the room in Singapore, no joke.

Ni Hao Laos!

Bangkok Part 2: Pat Pong, Ping Pong, and Thank Goodness No Ping Pong Show.

Well, I’m sorry I haven’t written more, for those of you who are reading this blog. I’ve actually gotten some comments from completely random people, so I guess more than 5 people are actually reading this blog. I’m writing this at 17,000 feet on an ATR 72 (what?) plane headed to Luang Prabang, Laos, for what it’s worth. Screaming kids whose parents don’t care, a super loud propellor. Solution? Blast death metal. Problem solved. My ears are going to hurt anyway.

Super update: sorry for posting this three more days late, aarrghh!

So when I last left off, we had gone back to Bangkok. We headed back to the Siam Journey Guesthouse where we stayed last week, and got our Monopoly Deal  fix. We still had to figure out what our plans were going to be though. It was becoming increasingly clear that the best idea would be to split up, because Dion’s flight home was out of Kuala Lumpur, and getting there (and then onto Johor Bahru) was far more expensive/inconvenient than just flying directly to Singapore a couple days later. I mulled this idea throughout the afternoon, as we unsuccessfuly attempted to play badminton at Chulalongkorn University. We decided our main plan for the night would be to go to Pat Pong and the Bangkok Red Light District – something we had managed to skip the week before. After some pad thai and noodle soup, it was off. We once again fit 7 people into a taxi, complete with beer – this time uneventfully.

We wandered amongst the stalls, and eventually ended up at some gogo dancing bar, which was pretty unexciting. We stumbled into a couple more, which all reeked of smoke, and then finally we decided that the solution was to go dancing. So Mai suggested we go to his favorite club. And Mai is a total life of the party, so it was bound to be a hopping place.

And wouldn’t you know it, Mai’s favorite club, since Mai is gay, his favorite club just happens to be one of the biggest gay bars in Bangkok (called Cabaret, I think). No getting out of that one. I lasted all of 5 seconds before getting hit on, and yet somehow it took us a good five minutes to squeeze all the way through to the bar. Shots ensued, and we awkwardly huddled into our own group, and tried to dance. It just wasn’t quite working, so we looked for a less crowded spot. And then we found the cages. Yes, Dielle, Dion, Bryce, Leo, the random Polish guy with us, and Mai spent the next 90 minutes taking turns dancing in cages at a gay bar (no strangers were involved). It was actually a ton of fun, and it wasn’t super crowded right there, so we kinda just did our own thing, and got our groove on.

After the club closed at 3, we wanted to head to another club, so we broke our record, and stuffed an additional person into the cab, for a grand total of 8 people (including the driver) in the cab. We had to pass through a checkpoint, and the cop just looked at us and laughed (and waived us through). But then we found out the club had a huge cover, so we stopped for some 4AM fourth meal. By this point, I was literally falling asleep on my spring rolls, but Leo wanted to stay out, so Mai and I called it a night, and from what I understand, the rest went to Khao San Road, shot pool, and hung out at a rooftop bar for two more hours.

And this entire night, we managed not to go to a ping pong show. Way too expensive! *laughs*

The next day was decision time. I had decided that the best course of action was to stay in Bangkok for a couple extra days, and the Saldanhas would head out to KL the next morning. Once we were all finally ready for action, we attempted to play badminton again, at another location this time. This time, the joint was full, so we had to settle for playing ping pong. I actually worked up a sweat sparring with Nate, and also worked up an appetite. But we did make reservations to play badminton the next day.

Next, we grabbed some street food from nearby, and went to Stephanie’s (a German girl living in Bangkok) apartment rooftop in Saphan Khwai. Remember, a little money goes a long long way in Thailand, so a lot of the people we met living in Bangkok were on 28^th floor apartments with panoramic views of the city, with rooftop gardens and pools fit for a king. We in fact ate our dinners up on the rooftop, and shot the breeze for a couple hours. Too much of this time was spent talking about Twilight, but hey, just about any discussion is better than one about Scrabble politics.

See, what I was starting to find pretty cool about my return to Bangkok, and what was making me even more glad that I was staying the extra couple days, is that I was already starting to feel at home. I no longer felt like a tourist, but rather like just another person. I already felt like I’d made some cool friends, and the activities we were doing were far more reminiscent of everyday life, than of being tourists. And I loved that.

When we went back home, we played lots of Monopoly Deal, and I started uploading pictures. And then it was 4 AM. And then, Dielle, Dion, Bryce, Leo, and I started telling life stories. Bedtime = 6 AM again. Oops. Well, no bedtime for Dielle and Dion, whose flight left in two hours.

Holy hell, someone shut this kid up in the row behind me. In more positive news, there is absolutely no civilization below us right now, and there are approximately 94.38 trillion trees. Where was I?

Oh yeah, so when I woke up, Dielle and Dion were long gone, and our badminton reservation was almost up. CRAP. Bryce and I stumbled/ran over to the badminton place by way of BTS, and met up with Nate. Fortunately the place was empty, so we were able to play for an additional hour. I hadn’t played badminton since after-school league in middle school, but there was some muscle memory there, and I had a blast. Definitely something to look up when I get home.

Next, we walked over to the weekend market, which had started up again since the floods. Reenergized by Thai tea and pad Thai, we met up with a few friends and walked around. I’m not much of a shopper, and the only item I wanted (a specific shirt) I was unable to find. But then I decided I’d get a Christmas present for my Mom (who is undoubtedly reading this, so I’m not saying what). After awhile, exhausted and sweaty, Nate and I took the subway to another part of town to go to a weekly dinner at another guesthouse, Thailek’s.

There were lots of random people from all over at this dinner, and we ate on the floor (on mats) which was fun. And wow, was the food amazing. The best [green] curry I have ever had, hands down. I had four bowls, and that doesn’t even count the Tom Kha I finally got to have, and assorted other homemade Thai classics. After dinner, yes, we played Monopoly Deal (the game had migrated from Thailek’s with Bryce to Siam Journey).

I think that kid just made me deaf. And now my deafness is deaf.

The next day, my final one in Bangkok, Nate and I attempted to take a day trip, but it just wasn’t possible, and a lot of the options were unfortunately still flooded. So we met up with Carmen, another German girl, and did some sightseeing. We actually went back to Wat Arun, which was not nearly as cool during the day. We also went to Wat Po, with the sleeping Buddha. The sleeping Buddha was pretty awesome, but I honestly just wasn’t that into sightseeing.

But by the time we were done, Carmen had to catch her flight back to Germany after a quick meal on the rooftop of Nate’s apartment building, and Nate wanted to show me his secret cheap massage place. It was definitely a bargain, and I learned that you’re actually supposed to tip for massages – apparently the only thing you do tip for in Thailand. It was a good place, although my legs were sufficiently burnt by a towel. *shrug*

We tried to get onto some tennis courts, but they were booked. Actually, the lady let us rally for 15 minutes, which was cool. Speaking of old hobbies I should really get back into, hah.

Nate then insisted we take motorcycle taxis to BTS. I reluctantly agreed. Amazingly I still have my legs, as the driver squeezed through too-tight spaces surrounded by busses and SUVs. I was pretty scared for my life, yet somehow it was amazingly exhilarating, even if it was only for 5 minutes.

Back at the guesthouse, a group of us went out for dinner, which may have been a double cheeseburger and fries, and then went back and played more Monopoly Deal. I actually had to wake up for my flight the next day, so I went to bed at a reasonable time.

Tuesday morning, it was up and off to the airport again. I flew Tiger down to Singapore, and got in on time. I finally got in contact with Jesse, who was arriving an hour after me, and we met up in Singapore. From there it was a quick snack (and potable tap water!), and a bus over to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, for the Causeway Scrabble Challenge. And that’s where I will stop for now.

I figured the least I could do was add some pictures for this entry, but there reall aren't any good ones / ones that should be posted here, so I'll save them for the Laos part of the trip, which so far has been unbelievably beautiful.