Jan 2006

After another flight, a nightmareish train ride and more severe travel drama, we managed to get to Koh Phangan from Bangkok. Our train was pretty scary and dirty and random dodgy Thai people were jumping on and off it throughout the night. The only privacy we had for the 14-hour ride was a curtain we pulled across our "beds" and I kept tossing and turning, worrying if one of these "dodgy Thai people" were going to pull back the curtain and mug me. The inside of the train resembled a prison actually, because of the metal luggage bars and tiny compartments. Hmmm, wait, maybe more like the inside of those submarines your see in the war movies... Anyhoo, it was a nightmare.

After we got off the train, which was 2 hours late, we got on a bus to the ferry port. When we arrived there, they told us that there were no ferries to Koh Phangan that night. This was a huuuuge problem because we had non-refundable reservations there and we just had no clue where we were or what we should do. They said we could stay in that town overnight, pay for another bus to Krabi, on the other side of the southern strip of Thailand, or, we could buy another ferry ticket to Koh Samui because, "Government say no ferry, dangerous ocean today." You know, we had just gotten screwed over so many times that I automatically smelled a rat. I got a little tisky with one of the staff and he finally said that we could probably get to Koh Phangan if we first go to Koh Samui. Which all that of course means, buying another bus ticket to another port AND buying another ferry ticket. So, we went to Koh Samui and sure enough, we could in fact go to Koh Phangan from there. We normally would have been so angry because we missed a whole day on the island because of their scam, but, we were so glad to finally get to our resort that we just couldn't get too upset about it.

Our resort was great though. Our bungalow was pretty nice and the beach was great. Koh Phangan is much less developed than Koh Samui, so at times, we were the only ones out on the beach! I enjoyed getting up pretty early a couple of mornings and walking along the beach. I felt like I owned the whole thing! You just wouldn't believe how many coconut trees there are along the beach either. One late afternoon, I found a coconut that had just fallen from the tree and took it to the maintenance man at our resort and asked him to open it for me. He made a small hole for the straw and I drank the milk. When I finished that, he opened it up and I ate the coconut inside. A couple of days, we went to the local market and got fresh pineapples and ate them while we were sunbathing. The fruit was soooo delicious!

I also really enjoyed renting a motorbike and riding around the island. There were so many little jungle roads that were so secluded that all I could see at times were forests of coconut trees and rivers. I literally rode all the way around the island over the course of the week, stopping whenever I liked to catch an overlook for a fantastic view. It was absolutely gorgeous. One day, I was riding around and found an old Chinese temple on top of a small mountain. I was the only one there, besides a little old Chinese lady that was cleaning the steps. From the temple, I could see out to the ocean, so I just walked around and enjoyed the spectacular view for about half the day - I just didn't want to leave.

We had a couple of very rainy days when we got there so we were kinda bummed out for a while. But by Christmas Eve, the weather cleared up. That night, I had Christmas Eve dinner on a restaurant situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean and the next island over, Koh Samui. After I got back to the bungalow, a group of Thai people from a Christian church came by and sang carols. I was so excited because I was actually missing Christmas at home and they were so adorable singing with their heavy Thai accents. I have a video of them singing, so if you want me to email it to you just let me know... Anyway, they invited me to their Christmas program the next night, so, I went and it was again, just so adorable. I have pictures of that below. We had Christmas dinner with our "Adopted Travel Mom" and her family from Canada. It was very very good, but I have to admit it was a little strange having a barbeque and fighting off mosquitoes during Christmas dinner!

Afer a couple of days in Bangkok we took a one hour flight to Siem Reap. It's the second largest city in Cambodia and it's the location of the famous Angkor Wat.

I wasn't expecting a beautiful relaxing time here, I just really wanted to see Angkor Wat and that's all I imagined about Cambodia before I actually got there. It's just an experience I'll never forget.

Our hotel in Siem Reap was ironically amazing. That's what's so strange about Siem Reap. On one side of the road, you've got a four-star hotel with a huge swimming pool and valet parking, on the other, a dirty, smelly, run-down shack with people begging you for a dollar as you walk by. It's just stange because they've tried to boost tourism so much and so soon after a major war that they just haven't recovered. It's just so surreal because you are literally in paradise and a war-torn place all at once. You can still see the burned buildings and so many of the people I saw had such blank and dark expressions on their faces. They are actually very kind people and I never really felt unsafe, it's just that they had zero joy about them at all - but they really have no reason to have any, especially compared to the lives that you and I have. I think that's why I took so many pictures of just people in Cambodia.

Cambodia made me think about so many things, especially how extremely lucky and blessed I am. You know, a bad day for us is getting a speeding ticket or having a cold. A typical day for them is trying to walk around with one leg and/or one arm, bathing in a dirty river (which is also the city's sewage) and begging for their next meal. Once, a boy about seven years old hobbling with one leg came up to me and asked me for a dollar. I know that most believe that giving money to someone who's begging only makes the problem worse, but I thought, "what else is this boy gonna do?" Plus, it's not his fault that landmine was there... But, after I gave him money, many other kids saw me and they all started asking for money too. It was a bad situation and I just had to stop after that because it caused a big scene, definitely not what we wanted.

If you're like me and you didn't know about what happened in Cambodia in the late 70's, you must read about the Khmer Rouge, a radical political party who took control of Cambodia and massacred over 2 million of their own people in an attempt at genocide. If you spoke French, you were murdered. If you wore glasses, you were murdered. If you owned a business or lived in the city, you were murdered. They believed that Cambodia should be cleaned of any trace of anyone who could possibly oppose their communist ideals, so only countryside peasants were spared. It is gut-wrenching to even read about what happened to people. They took groups of innocent people out into the jungle and mass-murdered them by beating them to death and they had the "work camps" similar to those of Hitler's. It is pretty much a Cambodian holocaust. I just didn't realize all of this while I was there, and, I guess at the time it was better that I didn't.

The first night in Siem Reap, we went to a dinner theatre where they had a huge buffet and a traditional Cambodian dance show. It was incredible. The food was so wonderful, it was like very very good and high quality Chinese food, and it's not as ridiculously spciy as some Thai food is.

So, the second day, I went to Angkor Wat. It is truly spectacular. The day I was there it was quite cloudy and there were hardly any tourists, so I really felt completely consumed by it. There are so many narrow, shadowy corridors to walk through. You really feel like you have been transported to and ancient place in an ancient time. There were many monks walking around, so at some points, I could see only ancient ruins and monks praying or appearing to be comtemplating something deep. I actually had a nice conversation with one who had actually been to California. I was really shocked when he came up to me and asked me where I was from because I didn't think they were allowed to talk to women, but he said we couldn't hands and he couldn't look me in the eye, but, he was allowed to practice his English with foreigners. We talked for quite some time about Cambodia and what's it's like for him to live there. He said he loves Cambodia, but his heart is always sad there. I really just can't describe the feeling of walking around Angkor Wat, so I really hope my pictures can say a lot.

The last day in Cambodia, we went to the markets and got Cambodian massages. They were relaxing, but also a little violent! Barbara actually ended up with bruises! They do a lot of stretching as well as deep massaging, but I felt great afterwards. The markets have just as much of an aggressive vibe as those in Cambodia. People are always yelling at you to come look in their shop. They are very quick to haggle though. The only time I coudn't haggle though was in a store that was run by the most charming and adorable little girl, maybe about 8 years old, and I actually gave her more than what she asked for. I got a picture with her too as well as you can see toward the bottom.

That night, we went on a boat ride to "The Floating City" which leads out to a huge lake named Tonle. So many people were living on the river, mainly for fishing. It was, well, it was life-changing. I knew people in the world lived like this, but, to see it up-close in person is remarkable. Again, we had groups of children coming up to us begging for money. Families lived in very small, one-room huts made of straw and sometimes light wood and were taking baths in the very dirty river, which I just didn't understand. The communities were divided up between Cambodian, Vietnamese and Muslum and everyone stays on their side of the lake.

We rode out to the lake and our tour guide was telling us that many people die each year living around Tonle Lake because of sudden flood during the rainy season. I didn't feel to good at that moment needless to say. He said when he was young, his brother drowned in the lake when he went fishing. I asked why then did people still live here when they know it's dangerous, and he said that this place is all they know and they don't care because they can catch the most and best fish here. We stayed to watch the sunset and headed back to our hotel as quickly as possible after that.

Visiting Cambodia just completely changed my life and how I view everything and everyone around me.

I spent three weeks in Thailand and Cambodia over the break and I had the most scary, intense, wonderful, relaxing, interesting and overall incredible experiences! We went to so many different kinds of places and met so many interesting people - that's why I had to use such a variety of words to try to describe all of this.

We flew into Bangkok from Osaka on December 15th. We didn't arrive in Thailand until around midnight, so we just went straight to our hotel. I remembered reading in a great book Jack that got me for Christmas to NEVER hire an airport limousine, but, we thought at the time $9 to get to our hotel, which was about an hour away from the airport, was a great price so we took it.

Our first Bangkok hotel was alright, except for the cockroach that had been swimming laps in our water boiler (it makes hot water for tea)... But, we paid about $9 each per night so I figured I could put up with one more "guest" for such a cheap price. I actually had so much fun at our nice hotels for small, strange little reasons. For example, you know in the States or most other countries I would never ever use anything from the minibar, you know, usually they charge $4 for a small bottle of water and $13 for nuts or something else like that. But, in Thailand, a Pepsi is about 50 cents and Pringles are about 80 cents from the minibar, so I just got such a cheap thrill from eating or drinking things from the room! It really doesn't take much to impress and/or amuse me...

So anyway, the next day was so exciting! Me and my friend Barbara got up a little late and headed out for the day. We hadn't been out for more than ten minutes when two very friendly Thai girls came up to us and and asked us where we were from and what we were looking for. Being the naive tourist I was on the first day, I asked her what all we should do and where we should go. She explained quite a bit to us and then hailed down a tuk tuk driver. Tuk tuks are like motorcycle taxis and they zoom in and out of traffic. She talked to him for a bit, and of course we had no idea what they were saying at the time, and then he agreed to take us around Bangkok the whole day for 60 Baht, which is around $1.50. We just couldn't believe it!

Riding in a tuk tuk for the first time is soooo scary! The girls told us that he said he would take it easy because it was our first day in Bangkok and we would be really scared if he drove too fast. It was still really scary though. He first took us to a really neat wat, or Thai shrine and there was a huge Buddha there. It was really nice. Then, we asked him to take us to get some lunch, but he said, "First you must shopping!" We thought that sounded like a good idea so we agreed. Little did we know that this was the begining of the exploitation we would experience for the rest of the trip.

He took us to a tailor shop where the owners were so polite and spok excellent English. He gave us a drink and handed us several books to look through. He said he could custom make us anything, a Thai-style dress, a suit, a coat, anything. They gave us quite a show displaying all of their delicate fabrics and holding them up to us and telling me how beautiful my eyes and hair were with this color, etc. I really felt like a princes! I decided on a dress and a suit and Barbara decided on a dress. Then, the owner of course said he could give us a great discount. Hahahaha, sorry, just thinking about this makes me laugh histerically. He said, "We can make your dress and suit for $998." I almost fainted. We told them that we didn't have that kind of money. He then said, "okay, how about $800?" I just felt sick so I just politely said, "I'm very sorry, but we had no idea the prices were so high here or we wouldn't have come, our driver just took us here." Both of the men then had pretty angry expressions on their faces and we just basically ran out of there. I wondered why our driver took us to such an expensive place. The wheels started to turn... we were prey.

Then, we said we want to go somewhere for lunch now, but he said, oh, now you should look at jewelry now. We were a little suspicious at that point, so I asked why he wasn't taking us directly where we wanted to go. He finally confessed that he gets free gasoline if he takes us to jewelry stores and tailor shops. He begged us and said to plase let him take us to one more place and he would take us wherever we wanted to go. So, we went to one more shop and he did take us to get some lunch from a street vendor. He had promised to show us around all day, but after we got our food he said he had to go. It was only around 3pm. So, we just paid him without arguing because we really just wanted him to go away. After our first go with the tuk tuk driver, we knew to be careful from now on.

After lunch, which was a very very very good shrimp stirfry and only $1, we went to the Golden Mountain. The view was amazing from the top. After that, we just walked around looking at the old part of the city. I just wasn't impressed with it at all. It was very dirty and really smelly, the people were pushy and there were stray animals everywhere. It was really sad. We just felt like we were being preyed upon because we just couldn't walk a few feet without someone yelling at us to come into their store or a tuk tuk driver yelling, "Lady, lady, hey lady, tuk tuk lady, tuk tuk lady..." It was really annoying.

After walking around for a while we had to go back to the hotel and rest from all the drama. We then got diva'd up and went to famous Koh San Road where backpackers and travelers from all over the world go to meet. We did a little shopping there and went to a really nice pub for dinner. It was GREAT! Barbara was going nuts over the fish and chips and I was going nuts over ranch dressing. You just don't understand how badly I had been wanting ranch dressing for such a long time in Japan! We meet so many interesting people there from all over the worl and mainly hung out with two girls from Scotland and their two Thai friends. The Thai girls weren't from Bangkok, but they knew the city very well so we went with them to another place that had an incredible live band. It was so great because they were performing all the new songs from home that I've been missing out on!

The next day we took it easy, just doing a little sightseeing and eating very very very delicious Thai food. We took a boat trip around Bangkok and went to a few markets. That night we just went to bed early because we had a very early flight to Cambodia the next morning.

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Throughout the vacation we went through Bangkok several times in transit to somewhere else, so we really got to know the airport quite well, and the Burger King staff got to know us quite well!!! It's just amazing the things I miss about home that I never imagined I would. It's crazy. We must have had Burger King about 5 times during the whole vacation. Sad.

Anyway, the second round to Bangkok was a million times better. We stayed about four days before we went back to Japan and our hotel was in the new part of town this time. It was incredible!!! The shopping centers were massive and one that we visited had every designer name I've ever heard of like Versace, Fendi, Dolce, etc. In the Paragon Center, a gigantic mall, the bottom floor was an Ocean World, YES AN ENTIRE OCEAN WORLD, and the top floor was a state-of-the-art Imax theater.

One day, we spent all day getting completely pampered. I had never in my life ever gotten a massage, well, a professional one that I paid for, hee hee, so I made up for lost time. I got a heavenly hour and a half full body scrub and hot oil massage, manicure and pedicure, facial and a haircut at one of the trendiest places in Bangkok. And you just won't beleive how cheap it all was. Okay, here it is exactly:

Full body scrub and massage $30, Facial $7, manicure and pedicure $12, haircut $8. I had also gotten other massages and facials in the southern islands and Cambodia, too. I just knew there's no way I could afford to do any of these in Japan or the US, so I completely indulged in them whenever I wanted throughout my whole trip.

We also ate at pretty much every western restaurant we passed. I just really feel like I should justify myself again too because surely you're thinking, "Why in the world would this crazy girl travel in Thailand and Cambodia and eat at Pizza Hut, Subway, Burger King, Outback and A&W (which I was the most shocked to see by the way). You just have to understand that for about ten months now, I've been limited to seaweed, squid, octopus, ridiculous amounts of tofu, noodles and rice and a McDonald's here and there. Ten months. Ten months and I'm American!

The last day in Bangkok was by far the best. We went to the Grand Palace, the most impressive architecture I've ever seen. Absolutely phenomenal - the shapes and colors are just unlike anything I've ever seen. I really can't describe it so I'll just have to put up pictures. It was funny when we walked into the palace because a guard stands in front of the entrance and catches anyone wearing tank tops, shorts, skirts or anything revealing above elbows or ankles and makes you go into a building to rent shirts and pants. I was wearing a t-shirt and pants, but Barbara was wearing a tank top so she had to wear the most hilarious blue shirt!

My first impression of Bangkok was not good at all, but the second time around really changed my opinion. It all just depends on where you go and who you meet. It's sad, but in Bangkok, you've just really got to have the attitude that no one is helping you or being nice to you for nothing. Not everyone is out to screw you over, but, well, most are. No one ever tried to steal my money, just always tried to con me out of it. You've got to watch it in the markets because they hike the prices up way high and tuk tuk drivers and taxis are the same. All you have to do is bargain and be agressive about what you want and what you expect, which was a hard lesson for me because I really don't like to be aggressive and I always want to be agreeable. But, I'm glad I learned it. So overall, I guess Bangkok was the main excitement and lesson-learning part of the trip.

Okay, so I am FINALLY trying to update since October, and SOOOOOO much has happened since then! I went to an amazing Sumo tournament in late October and after that, stayed very busy at work and prepared for my trip to Thailand and Cambodia. So now, here are some pics of the Sumo tournament.

Going to the sumo tournament was definitely one of the highlights of my experience here. I saw THE BEST sumo wrestlers in Japan right now. My friend Akie knew the manager of the event, so we were so lucky to get some of the best seats in the house for half the price! We were very close to the front, and of course, everyone near the front was sitting on the floor. It was really cool because I didn't see any other foreigners and the crowd mainly consisted of groups of old, goofy-acting Japanese men laughing and drinking loads of sake!

This tournament wasn't a technical match, but actually sort of an exhibition, so I not only got to see wrestling but they were also joking around a little bit and having fun. One of my favorite things was a little comedy skit where two wrestlers were pretending to really get mad and they were throwing water and salt on eachother, giving eachother wedgies and talkin' trash. Akie was translating for me as quickly as she could, but of course I couldn't catch everything. One of them was calling the other a "lightweight sissy-boy" as we might say. Akie literally said, "that one say other one wrestle like woman," but I kept imagining one of the wrestlers saying in an Ahhnald voice, "you Guuhhhhlly mahhhn!" One of the wrestlers then went out into the crowd and started grabbing everyone's beers and colas, drinking them, and handing the empty can back to them. While he was drinking, the other started getting peoples' lunches. He first ate a plate of sushi, and once, he got a bag of chips and dumped the whole thing right into his mouth!

Akie and I got lunch their and we split a "Sumo Bento" which is a traditional, very typical lunch for a sumo wrestler. I guess I just imagined that they ate stuff like cheeseburgers and pizza all day, but they actually eat extremely healthy! In the bento was two different kinds of fish and rice, Japanese veggies and sushi. So it was all really healthy stuff, they just eat a truckload of it.

Sumo is just so ritualistic. Maybe you've seen it on tv, but, before they wrestle, they do a series of bows and throw salt on the ground as to purify/clean the ring. They also take a drink of some special kind of water and spit it back out to clean their mouths. This is apparently a very Japanese thing to do because when I visited Yuko's house for a tea ceremony, I had to clean my mouth and hands in a small spring in her garden before entering her tearoom. Anyway, I just think it's funny because, well, naturally, you'd think that a human that large that wrestles gets very hot and sweaty and probably doesn't smell all that nice, but, the wrestlers actually smell so good! I walked by several of them throughout the day and all of them literally smelled like flowers! I learned that before a match, they scrub their entire bodies and use a type of chamomile flower oil mixture to set their hair up to make a "mage" (pronounced like mah-gay), which is what they call the very fancy, tucked-in ponytail they all must wear. As part of the exhibition, they demonstrated how to make a mage in between matches. You wouldn't believe just how long, healthy and absolutely beautiful their hair is.

Another thing that surprised me was the fact that the wrestlers are just walking around the dome like they are part of the crowd. The big wrestlers like Asa Shoryu and Koto Oshu actually have a rock-star kind of status in Japan, yet they are just walking around freely. But, I guess it's not like they need bodyguards, eh? I just walked up to some of them and asked if I could have a picture and they were so kind and friendly! They are just soooo massive! But standing next to them, I didn't feel scared or intimidated like I thought I would. They really seem to be gentil giants because they have such a humble, respectful attitude. They are truly amazing!

My favorite student, Yuko, is a F A B U L O U S Japanese diva who is sort of my adopted Japanese grandmother now. She invited me to her house just before I left for Thailand for a tea ceremony with her two daughters. She also taught me a traditional drum dance that was started in this area hundreds of years ago!

Yuko has a very traditional Japanese home with sliding doors, a full-on tea room and phenomenal Japanese garden. Before we had tea, I of course, had already taken my shoes off at the door, but I then had to put on special white socks for the tea room and wash my hands and mouth in the spring in her garden. When you enter the tea room, you must sit Japanese style (sitting on your ankles), and do a series of bows to your hostess and various things in the room like a small shrine. The one in her room was in honor of her late husband I believe. She also has a gorgeous calligraphy painting of a Hyaku poem she wrote.

After bowing, her daughter Michiyo gave me a small Japanese sweet made of rice called mochi. I don't know all the details of the ceremony because it's just so complex, but you must eat the sweet before drinking the tea and say "itadakimasu," which literally means, "I receive." I'm not really sure about why you say that, I just know it's extremely rude if you don't say that before you eat or drink something any host or hostess gives you at their home.

The tea is heated from charcoal that is inside the floor, as you can see in one of the photos. The tea they use is a special powdered green tea called "matcha" and they stir the tea in a certain motion, a certain number of times using a small wooden whisk. It's so incredible because every single action, whether it's stiring, placing, mixing, presenting or serving, is planned and perfected. When the hostess gives you your tea, she presents it with the pattern on the cup facing you, then, you must turn the cup clockwise two or sometimes three times to turn the pattern back to the front. It's all about presentation. Then, you must drink the tea in three sips. It's soooo ritualistic and I only know the basics from what they told me.

Tea ceremonies are really such a classic example of Japanese culture and people. They strive for perfection, care so very much about detail and always show a high respect for any generosity. I am just so fascinated with Japan because they keep the past so alive, but are also so open to new ideas, people and especially technology. Only here can you see a woman text messaging in a kimono, or take a picture of boiling water from charcoal with a digital camera!