Far Flung Forays

Fjords, Fords, Frankfurters

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Todd

This blog actually has nothing to do with Fords or hotdogs for the record.

Like normal, my posts are a little screwed up and not proof read. This one is going to cover time before and after Svalbard, but not Svalbard.

I lucked out on my long flight from Denver to Heathrow because I had an entire row of seats to myself. While on the flight I realized that I haven’t traveled in awhile because I hadn’t seen most of the movies under new releases. I had an uneventful layover in Heathrow where I did meet someone from Denver at the pub.

Oslo harbor

Downtown Oslo

When I arrived in Oslo I checked into my hotel and then and went wandering around town and it started to get dark around 11pm. The next day I left the hotel and went and did some tourist sights around town until I met my parents at the train station. We then did some more around Oslo and then took the train back to the airport to Svalbard. During this time period is was hot, heat wave, walk around town without a shirt, close the castle early hot. It turns out that we ended up in Oslo during the warmest time of the year.

Sad bike 😦

You read about Oslo and Norway being expensive and they really are. A 500ml soda/bottle of water costs $3.50-$5, breakfast $15+, a beer $9-$25, a gyro $11, a 20 minute train ride to the airport $30, a 10 minute ferry ride $5, entrances to museums $10-$20, a yoghurt in the grocery store $3, a candy bar in the grocery store $3, a ferry in the fjord region $30-$40. It all is pretty crazy and if you dwell on the fact that each sip of your soda costs 24 cents it would drive you crazy. Norway passed a law years ago that allows people to hike, camp, fish, and pick berries and mushrooms anywhere in the country without paying a fee. That means you can’t really trespass and you can camp anywhere.

More sad bikes

We the got back from Svalbard and took the airport train, a 5 hour train with great fjord views, an hour train with great views to Flam. A village at the edge of a huge Fjord. We spent the night there and grabbed the 6am ferry to Balestrand. When we checked in we were told the ferry didn’t exist, but then someone said it did. It turns out we were the only passengers and normally there aren’t any passengers. It was a pretty sweet 2 hour ride. We then hopped on another ferry to Mundal.

1100 meters in Norway’s mountains

Flam harbor

The fjord near Flam

On the ferry, our private boat..

From the train

We then rented bikes, rode 8k to the trail head, and hiked 3k of vert to the top of a mountain over looking the largest glacier in mainland Europe and the fjord. My parents were pretty beat afterwards. Today I rode a bike around and had a laid back day. The weather has been pretty temperamental the past couple days, but it didn’t really rain for more than an hour or two at a time.

Hmmm

The glacier looks so small in he his picture

It even shifts!,,,

Mundal church

Cheapest thing in the grocery store, $3

Posted in EUROPE, Norway | 2 Comments

Svalbard, huh, where am I?

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Todd

Where am I, seriously where am I?

My passport was stamped out of Norway, I took a three hour flight north and was never stamped back into a country. Not only that, it was bright out at 1am when we landed, 3pm bright. After a couple discussions I discovered that I really was in Norway, but a segment of Norway that the international community allowed to recognize as being Norway if their citizens have equal rights as Norwegians. Forty countries have signed the treaty that controls Svalbard and don’t need a visa to live or work on the Island, but there are a couple catches. It is illegal to be born or die on Svalbard, there are not any taxes on goods, there is a flat 16% income tax, at the liquor store you can only buy 24 beers or 2 liters of spirits a month, and you fall under the control of the appointed governor of Svalbard.

Svalbard was discovered a couple few hundred years ago by a dude looking for the northeastern passage and starting in the late 1800s they began to mine coal from the island (visible seams). There are five year round settlements on the islands population 4 (caretakers of an old Russian settlement), 35, ~100(Polish), 400ish(Russian), 2,000 (main town, only 35 miners) makings them the farthest north active public settlements (I am sure this can be debated). Longyearbyen is the farthest north settlement with over 1000 people in the world. Being so far north it never gets dark in the summer. The low light is 3/4pm dark.

Fat bikes, $1300

Gluten free…

Seal hanging to dry

I didn’t have the best weather during couple days in Svalbard with it being cloudy and drizzling, but in the afternoon the sun would break through the clouds. If I didn’t have blackout curtains and Sonata, I don’t think that I would be able to sleep, but having standard meals helped.

The town of Longyearbyen is comparable to Boulder/Colorado mountain towns. There are 4 different groups of people that live in town: the miners, the locals (basically everyone else who works in the tourist industry, almost all between 20-40, 70% Norwegian, physically active, and like to play in the mountains), students (a branch on Tromso University/international researchers), and Thais (10%, the second largest group of people, they are signers of the treaty and many come to the island for cleaning/kitchen work). The Thai population means that there is a Thai food shop, Thai massage, and a Thai restaurant in town. Since there are more polar bears in Svalbard (mainly on the the ice) than people, you are legally required to carry a rifle if you leave town (read 4 streets without any signage). The people from main land Europe were amazed that the guides put bullets in their guns at the edge of town….

“Downtown”

On the glacier

Old Russian mining town

The first day in town I got a solid 5 hours of sleep, ate some smoked salmon, mustard fish, and herring for breakfast then headed out to the dog yard. The dog yard had ~150 dogs and we harnessed 25 of them up (Putin wasn’t being used because he was too aggressive and Bush was kept on the other side of yard as Putin) onto our wheeled sleds and went for a ride. We then grabbed lunch and went for a zodiac ride to see puffins and other assorted birds along with abandoned Russian mining towns. We then grabbed dinner which was great until the last course. It was seal, whale, and reindeer. The reindeer was great, but the seal and whale tasted like over cooked liver.

Our second day in Svalbard got off to a rocky start. Somehow our reservations for a 7 hour hike at 9am were changed to a short evening hike without anyone telling us. The women working at the front desk spent about an hour calling half the town and ended up finding us a guide to take us up the glacier around noon. The town our second day was overrun with ~5000 cruise ship tourists from 7 boats which combined with the snafu about what we were doing made us a little testy. The cruise ship tourists are not allowed to but alcohol at the liquor store since it is untaxed and they technically are still in there EU and Svalbard isn’t in the EU (plus they would wipe out the entire stock). At the store a liter of Hendricks was ~$30, small soy sauce $6, 18 eggs $7, soy whipped cream $6, 1lb salmon $18, and a can of coke $1.

Yummy

The farthest north you can buy Maui Jims

6 types of coconut milk including organic at the grocery store

No guns in the grocery store

Me with Luna (really the dogs name)

Overall Svalbard was one of the craziest/most awesome place that I have been. Most of the tourists tend to be older since it is more expensive, but it is a place I would go back to.

Posted in EUROPE, Norway, Svalbard | 1 Comment

Nothing Like a Sushi Stop in Tokyo

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Todd

Huh

My last day day in Thailand I started with no real plan. I wanted to do a late checkout, 330pm, but they wanted a full nights fee to checkout that late (600b, 33=$1, nice place) so I decided not to do it. I remembered seeing a pork satay and boiled chicken place that was packed with no westerners being open at 6am so I headed out at 7:30am for some satay and chicken for breakfast.

I then headed across the street to a museum that was very well done about the history of Chiang Mai. After wandering around the museum for an hour I decided it was time for a Thai massage (read half torture, half good feeling, 200b). I then lathered up in sunscreen (I successfully avoided getting burnt) and went wandering to the east of the city. I spent a good deal of time in the market. The market was cool, but it didn’t really have anything on the market in Amman or a couple others that I have been to (Quinca, Pisac, Latacunga). The market was right near Chinatown so it was combined into a giant party which was nice.

Avacados, $3

Chili

Special dirt for sale…

Yarn Store

Want some ripped of DVDs

After I had my fill of the market I headed to the last fitting and to try on my suit. Success, but I don’t think I should wear sneakers with it. The suit was not cheap, but I think it is of decent quality. I got the 40% cashmere suit, an extra pair of 40% cashmere pants, a cheap pair of cotton/wool blend pants, and the highest quality shirt for about $350. I could have gotten it for a lot cheaper, but I went with a higher quality tailor who does everything in house and cannot turn a suit around in 4 hours.

Neramit Tailor

The “office” in the tailor shop

Sweatshop?

I then had a choice, a beer or another massage. I figured I should pick a massage over a shitty beer. I picked an hour foot massage (180b). I had gotten a couple of half an hour foot massages before (100b) and they were great. Wellllll little did I know in the hour ones they pull out this little wooden rod that might have been imported from Gitmo and it was not pleasant. She ended up stopping after 50 minutes which was fine by me and I headed over to my hotel to repack my bag and change into traveling clothes.

Classy Pay Phones

I grabbed a shared pickup truck with no one in it to take me to the airport. He quoted me a price of 100b without picking anyone else up. This was the fairest price I have been quoted the entire trip and even cheaper than a taxi so I hopped in. The drive which took 10 minutes from the airport took over 30 minutes with really bad traffic. I gave him a tip and headed in. Luck was with me and Thai Airlines said they could merge my two separate bookings into one, check my bag the entire way to Denver, and process me through customs in Chiang Mai, score.

I was scheduled to have a 10:25 layover in Japan from 7:30am to 5:55pm so I decided the only logical thing to do would be to go and Tokyo (60min, $41 round trip) to eat sushi. I got to Tokyo Station then transferred trains to go to the National Museum, which was really cool and well laid out. Some of the metalwork and artwork from before my time was amazing. While I was walking I laughed out loud and had a giant smile on my face on the thought that I started the day in Chiang Mai getting massages, am now strolling down a park in Tokyo (the only westerner around) on my way to eat sushi, and am going to end the day in Boulder watching the Super Bowl. I really am blessed that I have good health, a great family/friends, and can randomly travel and experience great things.

There was a service cart that you order food, including sushi, from on the train

Tokyo Museum

I managed to find an amusement park…

Tokyo Station

Riding bikes around the Imperial Palace

Imperial Palace

I never learn my lesson, and slept on the plane with my head on the tray table and got an upset stomach (it always happens when I sleep that way), but it cleared up halfway through the museum. I had googled and found the best sushi near Tokyo station. Little did I know that I was going to be eating in the Mitsubishi Building. Lunch cost $50 and it was freaking amazing. They give you one item at a time from a mystery menu. I think that I ended up with between 17 and 24 courses including 4 types of tuna, abalone, multiple types of sea urchin, and sea cucumber. I was the only person in the 12 person joint when I went in, but it was full when I left, stuffed. It was probably the only time I ate sushi that was semi dreading if they were going to bring more because I didn’t know if I could eat it. Overall lunch took 1.5 hours with the sushi chef bringing stuff out at his pace.

Sushi Place

Holy Tandem Batman

Finally good beer

Notice how neat and orderly Japanese queue up the escalator so people can walk on the right

I was surprised at the age of the taxi fleet in Tokyo

Political rally in Japan, not like the Bangkok ones…

The obligatory vending machine picture

Overall it was a great trip and I will add a couple more posts about people and food.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Posted in ASIA, Japan, Thailand | Leave a comment

Todd+$9=Scooter and No Map

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Todd

There comes a time traveling when you think who is the bigger fool. They must have thought it was me since I needed instructions on how to turn on my scooter and I thought it was them since they rented a scooter to me for $9, including insurance. They were out of the smaller engine ones, so they gave me one with a larger engine. Seriously I had no idea what I was doing on the scooter.

I did not go on the Segway tour…

I have come across some interesting wifi passwords. Everyplace has free wifi which is really nice. This place copied the menu 100% of the restaurant across the street

I had a hard time finding a place to stay in Chiang Mai. No one was returning my emails and the places available online didn’t seem too great. I booked at Libra Guesthouse for one night with a plan to find someplace else the following morning. After being whisked from the airport in a 120b (32.85=1usd) tuk tuk, I checked into Libra where nothing was going on and a guy was waiting for me with a key and the internet code. Going into Libra I had low expectations because it appeared that they wrote all their own reviews on trip advisor since most of the reviews had only one post, but had a picture. My room (500b) had a nice hot shower but it was right next to someone’s house and their bathroom so I got to hear everyone in the family take their late night shower.

Famous Buddha

In the morning I started my rounds of trying to find a bet place to stay and ended up at Julie (220b) for two nights. The room wasn’t that great, but there was a really large communal area with a ton of travelers hanging out. I spent the rest of the day sorting out my week, going to temples, and having the first sitting for a suit. I went to Nemrit who is not in the downtown touristy area (which is a little bit of a pain since it involves 4 fittings over 5 days to get the suit made) and he only does westerners for about half of his business (a lot of the suit shops are aimed at just tourists). I also walked around and found a place to spend my last couple nights in town, Smile House (600b, a teak floored building with a balcony and a pool).

Nothing like parking your rusted truck behind the temple

You have to take your shoes off to enter the temples and you are not suppose to step on the thresholds. Someone with dirty feet did…

Tuesday was they day I rented the scooter. I promptly headed out of town into the mountains on a 100km loop. The nice thing is that on the main roads the shoulder is as wide as a normal lane and that is where most of the scooters rode. I also discovered that I am faster downhill on a bike than a scooter and it takes a little practice to feel comfortable driving in town between cars. Tuesday night I ended up going to a fake Muay Thai fight. One of the girls that works in the hostel came with us and if you didn’t know it was fake (looking to see that they kneed with the inside of knees and didn’t really hit to the face) it could have passed as being real. Going home we walked through the girly bar district which consisted of a lot of young Thai women hanging out with old expats.

Orchid garden on the motor bike ride

Please note I refer to the scooter ride as the motorbike rode since it sounds more badass.

Wednesday I decided to do an overnight “trek”. I didn’t really expect great things, but it was a lot of fun. Half the group was 25-30 and the other part was 19 yo Brits. It did involve the most talking of the trip since typically I talk to people at night and in the morning, but not a ton through the day. You could tell a lot of it was made for tourists, but I still had a good time.

When I got back into town on Thursday I had another suit fitting appointment at 6pm and got back at 550pm and had to get my bags from storage at my old place, check into my new place, take a shower, and go 2km. I ended up being 15 minutes late, oh well. It put me out right by Chinatown and I got to experience Chinese New Years which consisted of a ton of food stands and venders and a bunch of happy people. I ended up spending about 900b on street food which consisted of tasting just about everything and eating what I liked.

It has been a good couple of days without a lot of downtime so I really haven’t had a chance to write. I will have a post about the people I have met and the food later. Like always this isn’t edited.

Some Red Bull (10b) and what I thought was shitty beer (32b), turned out to be shitty sweet rice wine

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Posted in ASIA, Thailand | Tagged backpacking, chiang mai, Chinese New Years, Julia, libra, scooter, smile house, Thailand, trekking | 1 Comment

Thailand: The Land of Concrete Temples

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Todd

Boy have I been pooped that last two nights. I fell asleep before 9pm both nights and have been getting up around 6-7am since I got here. Across the river (300+ yards wide) in Laos there has been a concert or something with music so loud that even across the river it sounds like you were playing it in the next room. It has been going for the past two nights and makes me wonder if everyone in Laos has serious hearing problems.

Laos style wiring (worse than Jerusalem style)

Yesterday I decided to visit Vientiane, the capital of Laos. I rationalized it by saying that if it was in the same country and I was 20km away I would go see it so why let it being in a different country stop me. Vientiane is a pretty cool city for a day. It is a mix between old French colonial buildings, Soviet style, and your generic block concrete buildings. There are a bunch of French style cafés along the river and I chilled in one and had breakfast. I then rented a bike 10,000 kip (8000=1usd, I exchanged money for better than the official rate) and rode around town. I then came back to Thailand in time to see the sunset on the Mekong.

Laos

Large tuk tuk in Vientiane

Fruit stand in Vientiane

Mekong from Thailand.

Today I was going to rent a motorbike and go around, but the motor bike shops were closed on Sunday. I adapted and went to plan b (I had that capitalized and I realized that the only way it would be capitalized is if I was as talking about the birth control) which was renting a bike and having a vague idea where I was going (east). It was a good day of 25-30 miles which feels like more on a single speed cruiser. I ended the ride with an hour Thai massage (lots of elbows) for 150b (33=$1).

This cruiser had functioning brakes

I am going to keep this one short on my activities and add some random observations.

In Bangkok a lot of tuk tuk and motorcycle taxi drivers were full face masks, like they were going to rob a bank. There is something disconcerting about getting a with someone who you can’t see their face.

Beer is pretty expensive at 65-95b. The most expensive dish I ordered was 120b, least 20b.

In Laos people were talking in baht, kip, and dollars. It got a little tiring trying to interchange 8000, 30-33, and 1. Also buying something for 120,000 makes it seem like play money. The Lao economy has really improved, about 4 years ago 1usd= 11500 kip.

Nong Khai is an awesome town with a decent amount to do and I am glad so few backpackers visit because it would change the vibe.

It got down to almost 50F in Nong Khai.

I learned that if you are traveling down the shoulder of the road going the wrong way you get the outer part of the road.

Ford 12 passenger vans do not come with a fuse for trailer lights preinstalled

As I was bartering about a fare for a 20km tuk tuk ride I realized that I spent 5 minutes haggling over $0.85. I know the fare is a rip off, but does it make a difference. The issue is paying the inflated fare then the next person will be quoted and forced to pay the higher fare and it might make a difference to them. Plus no one wants to get ripped off even if it is by 33 cents

Every town has between one and a ton temples. Almost all are made of concrete in the last 60 years and follow one of 7 standard formats from the concrete temple design book.

Everyone on a motorbike wears a helmet because it is a 500 b fine and a law that is actually enforced.

Reentering Thailand my immigration agent told me that since I was an American male I get a special 30 day visa, yay.

I have met two Americans so far (4 Canadians, a billion Brits, 10+ Aussies)

I took a rest here on my bike. Ride. Turns out this was where I was suppose to turn, oops

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bicycle, bike, border, friendship bridge, laus, Mut Mee, Nong Khai, Thailand, Vientiane | Leave a comment

Wat Phu Tok=Wat With No Westerners

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Todd

Today has been another good day. I have gone from waking up at 6am to 6pm without seeing another westerner. I left for the bus station at 630am to attempt to catch a 7am bus to Bueng Kan (Bung Kan). Needles to say my pronunciation of the town name was pretty terrible (there was no what the fuck did Todd say dictionary to translate) and it wasn’t until I pulled out my Lonely Planet with some Thai script was I escorted to a mini desk that supported a mini bus. The mini bus was brand new and left 10 minutes after I got on, 1/4 full. It must have been an express because we made 200km in less than 2 hours and we only picked up one person on the way.

I got a jumbo (large tuk tuk) to take me to a temple on the side of a mountain that was as out of place as a random mesa surrounded by flat. I paid how much the lonely planet said it would cost, 800b (33=$1), which I thought was pretty steep. It was about a 1.5 hour ride in the tuk tuk and I figured I would wonder around for 2 hours.

Wat Phu Tok

The first thing I noticed was that there was not one sign in English and after a wrong guess I started to wander up. Since my Thai reading skills are as good as my Farsi and Arabic reading skills I had no idea what the signs were saying. My theory was to go up and to the right whenever possible (being a circle I figured that would get me to the right spot). Holy shit was it scary, walking on old wooden planks supported on the side of a pretty shear cliff. The boards that were not nailed down were the worse and the railing on the outside was designed for someone who is 5’3. The views were pretty awesome and the ending part was on top of higher “mountain” in junglish terrain. I eventually got to the temple and discovered that going down was not going to involve any 2-4 foot wide walkways on the side of the mountain. To set the record straight after I got to the top I took off my long sleeve shirt. It is suppose to be warmer in Thailand.

This is OSHA approved

Buddha and a safe, not really sure what is going on here

The tape measure that won’t die

I have no idea why this skeleton is in the middle of the temple on top of the mountain

Getting supplies up the hill

Everyone I met (4-5 parties) said hi and we spoke a couple sentences of English. They mainly wanted to know where I was from. They were brief encounters, but fun ones. I hoped back on my tuk tuk to Bueng Kan where I discovered the next bus to Nong Khai was in 1:50 (I probably missed it by 10 minutes). A gentleman rook my from the tuk tuk drivers and told me when the next bus was coming and the number of it. We chatted for a few and he then asked me if I hade eaten. I said no and he pointed out a restaurant and said the owner spoke bad English and I was 40 baht and you pointed to what you want and was good (and, and, and, if I didn’t throw enough in the last sentence). I ended up with a spicy curry with pork. You helped your self to veggies ( lettuce, cabbage, other smaller leaves) and ate it between bites of your main course to soak up some of the spice.

Really low Mekong in Bueng Kan

I started wandering around to kill some time and ended up in the middle of a Cub Scout pack (the kid I talked to the most was 13) and walked and talked with them for 5 blocks until I got to the Mekong. I got to observe the narrowest point in the Mekong in the dry season. I wandered back and when the Nong Khai bus came the tuk tuk drivers and ticket man for the bus told me to get on because it was the Nong Khai bus. The bus was 100b and is making a lot more stops, but my knees don’t touch the seat in front of me, it has AC, and a terrible Thai movie playing. I was hoping for a US movie dubbed in Thai like in Ecuador.

It was another good day and I didn’t see another westerner from the time I woke up until after 6pm. The temple I went to today would be overrun with backpackers if it wasn’t in the middle of nowhere.

A gentlemen leaving the bus with his Advair

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged backpacking, Bueng Kan, bung Kan, bus, jumbo, Nong Khai, Thailand, tuk tuk, wat Phu Tok | Leave a comment

No Brakes, No Problem, Bikes Stop Themselves

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Todd

Seriously, do I need to buy a jacket? I am in Thailand and I should not be wearing two long sleeve shirts, jeans, and sneakers and still be cold, was my thought when I exited the night train at 8:30am in Nong Khai. I got a solid five hours of sleep followed by four on and off hours because of how cold it was on the train.

Mekong River from Nong Khai

Nong Khai is a town situated on the Mekong River, across the river from Laos. There were a lot of backpackers on the train, but most were skipping the town and heading straight for the Friendship Bridge and Laos. My plan was to spend 4 days in an awesome place called Mut Mee which is situated right on the Mekong at the end of the 2+ mile long river walk.

Sala Kaew Ku

This reminded me of Paul Creme for some odd reason

Yesterday (Thursday), I had the best day by far of my trip (warning, probably a longer blog to reflect the good day). I started with breakfast at a Vietnamese restaurant on the river and got a pot of green to warm me up. I have realized that I really do miss tea and it isn’t related to caffeine. I then checked into Mut Mee and rented a bike for the day. The bike I ended up on was a stoutly geared single speed cruiser, which the left (front) brake had fallen off of. I started out on the river walk and rode my way to the most bizarre place I have visited. It was a sculpture garden made out of concrete by a Lao royalist that was displaced from Laos after the war. The sculptures ranged from 3 feet tall to at least 70 feet, most depicted stories and were spiritual in a nature. The founder said he couldn’t become a monk because he was half animal, half human.

River View While Exercising

In the templeish building a 78 year old man started talking to me. He was a palm reader, but I only found that out when I asked him why he was there and where he was from. I decided that I should get my palm read and gave him 20 baht (33=$1). This turned into a 20-30 minute conversation about the area and his life. His father was a rice farmer who died when he was 12 and he became an orphan. He worked for the US at Udorn and was never married. They let him sleep in the temple building and on a very good day he might give 2-3 palm readings. He started to learn English 10 years ago from tourists and wanted me to tell him how to say “making a big problem out of a small issue” the best way. He also told me the people in Isaan are friendly, not trying to rip me off like the people in more touristed areas (a fact they pride themselves on).

The trusty bike

Back to the bike I went and started pedaling in the opposite direction of my map. I shortly realized that it was hard to remember to ride on the left hand side of the road and no matter how many times I tried to pedal backwards, the coaster brake was nonexistent. After probably 10-15 miles I was hungry and pulled up to a house where a women was selling dom, an Isaan soup. There was one woman eating it and I plopped down at the table. Each serving was cooked individually and looked like it had a hunk of beef with bone, meat balls, and an unknown mystery thing (one of the women said moo something and moo is pork so I think it might have been gelatinized pig testicles). When my order was ready there were 4 women waiting and they showed what condiments to put in and it was really good. I got out my Thai/English dictionary and had a mini conversation in Thai. Near the end they called over a younger woman about my age and started to talk about me she started to blush. I think I had some grandmas in rural Thailand try to set me up. I paid my 20 baht and headed back out on my bike, passing an ice cream sandwich stand (read scoops of ice cream put on a slice of white bread with condensed milk added). Heading back into town I discovered that my only working brake had jiggled loose and I was sporting a brakeless bike, but the old shoe on the tire trick (a little tricky with fenders) saved the day.

Views of the country side. Most was brown because we are in the dry season right now

I then headed in the opposite direction for 10-15 miles which included a u-turn over 6 lanes of traffic. I got lost. I ended up on a paddy dike road then path that would have been great single track. Everyone waved and said hello. I missed an opportunity to talk with a farmer who asked where I came from because I was still in the Bangkok mode that people only talked to you when they wanted something from you. I stopped by a stand and bought a whole cut up pineapple, 20b, and had a very stilted conversation with an 11 year old who knew some of the things that you learn in the first month of language school (age, place, name). It was great.

I headed back and avoided having to cross 6 lanes of traffic (only 3). I then ate a fish stew with a ton of aromatics which had a really good flavor on a barge on the Mekong (dinner + beer, 175b, expensive). I talked at the communal table for a bit and headed to bed early around 9/9:30.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Posted in ASIA, Thailand | Tagged backpacking, bikes, friendship bridge, Nong Khai, Sala Kaew ku, Thailand, train | Leave a comment

Nong Khai 30 minutes, Nong Khai 30 minutes…

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Todd

It seemed like the conductor on the train had a broken watch because for an hour he came through the cabin shouting that our destination was in 30 minutes and about 5 minutes after his last 30 minute call, he changed it to 5 minutes. I have successfully completed my second overnight train journey. This one was a 12 hour affair from Bangkok to Nong Khai which I splurged and spent a few extra dollars for a first class sleeper cabin which I shared with Steve, a Scottish weaver.

Yesterday was another good day. It started with an early checkout from my hostel and a trip to the floating market. The floating market is a tourist trap with a couple (read 3) real vendors. It was still a blast and pretty cool to see. I got there around 9am and I am pretty sure the local market is done around 6am, but it is 120km from Bangkok and I wanted to grab some sleep.

Some grilled bananas, way too expensive but good

One of the real market venders

Traffic jam of tourists

I returned to Bangkok and didn’t really have a plan for the rest of the evening. I started by wandering north off Khao San road and stopped by a temple. It was more of an active temple than a temple that is touristed. They were running what I thought was a soup kitchen with a bunch of people in line to get a bowl of rice with some bright pink stuff on it. I then continued my wandering and started eating street food. It ranged between 10 baht (33b=$1) and 50b. My theory was that if it wasn’t really good I would only eat part of it and eat something else for the rest.

Khao San road in the day

I then returned to the hostel, socialized, and got ready for my train ride.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Posted in ASIA, Thailand | Leave a comment

Khao San Road: What I Dislike About Traveling

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Todd

I wrote an entire blog post on the bus this morning and it looks like I managed to delete it. I am not going to win any awards for my blog skills.

Canal boat in Siam

When I left you last I was heading out for the night on Khao San Road. Khao San Road is like a frat party with laughing gas balloons (50 baht, 33=1USD), the thrift store song playing every 23 minutes, lady boys, ping pong shows, the ability to buy fake ID cards, a lot of lacrosse jerseys, and drinking that never ends. It was actually more like every frat party tries to be (minus the lady boys). It was also how backpackers can destroy an area. The main objective of most people on Khao San is to be able to tell people how messed up they got the night before. I headed back pretty early, 2-3am. Needless to say I had a sluggish morning and rolled out of the hostel a little after 10am with a vague plan consisting of take a river boat to the sky train to Jim Thompson’s house.

Paul could get a job

I was disgorged from the sky train in the middle of another protest zone (my first of three that day). It was really more of a market with some people sleeping in tents under pavilions that had been erected. The area that the protest occupied was really large in space, but not people. It was also the first time I noticed police anywhere near the protests. If you are following the news you may have noticed that a state of emergency has been declared in Bangkok about the protests. In reality I would not notice the protests at all if they were not based out of the sky train stations.

Siam sky train protest

Protesters camping out

Empty protest

After wandering around the Siam district for a bit I decided to visit the sex district in the day to see what it is all about. The first thing I noticed was the prevalence of 50-70 year old white men by themselves and their beer guts. The second thing I noticed that instead of sunglasses the street venders were selling Viagra and Cialis. The third thing I noticed were women in varies states of dress in plastic patio chairs calling out to you as you walked by. I quickly got tired of the area and headed back to the river. I then wandered (read I had no idea where I was) to Chinatown, eating street food along my way.

Putting me out of business

Happy massage across the street from the Westin

The name of the sky train station near most of the sex tourism I saw

That at night I decided to play it low key and started talking to some Aussies that led to a few drinking games. Prior to the drinking games two of us were challenged to name the 9 countries that have 4 letters and the 4 that only have one vowel. It only took an hour. As it neared 1am I decided I should be responsible and pack my stuff since I needed to checkout and catch a bus at 7am. This led to my second non Ambien induced sleep night in a row.

A monk gazing at the sunset

Posted in ASIA, Thailand | Tagged backpacking, Bangkok, bangkok protest, beer, khao san, lady boys, NapPark, protests, sex tourism, Siam protest, Thailand | Leave a comment

Bangkok, Protests? Wats?

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Todd

My first day in Bangkok was a success, I don’t really know that means, but it was one. I did have a couple fails, but they were mainly self induced. I had a brilliant plan in my head of how I was going to hit up a ton of wats (temples) and then go to the train station and pick up a train ticket to head to Nonh Khai on Wednesday. Well I managed to not bring my ATM card with me and only 800 baht (33 baht=$1) with the main temple costing 500 baht to get in. I then went to the two main temples and it was pretty nice to get there before the crowds arrived. I then took a ferry, 3 baht, across the river/canal to another temple with a really high tower with super steep steps (almost ladder like). There I spotted a site that made me ashamed to be an American, a dude wearing a Go-Pro mounted to his head with an elastic strap. SERIOUSLY THERE IS NO NEED FOR A GO PRO TO WALK UP STEPS IN A TEMPLE, it makes gapers wearing Go Pros while shredding groomed blues at Keystone (with their buddy wearing a cowboy hat) seem hardcore.

A view back across from the river, standing next to the GoPro guy

Pooping Pose!!!!!

It doesn’t matter how attractive you are, this is not acceptable

Sweet Shirt

I then realized that I was getting hungry so I crossed back to the other side of the river and bought some mango to sustain me until I found a place for lunch. I then started randomly wandering around and realized that my sense of direction in Bangkok is really screwed up. Normally I have a good idea of where I am and how to get back to my hostel, but in this city I have been completely turned around at least 4 times. In addition to having a bad sense of direction I am also being lame when it comes to food. I skipped a ton of street food and ended up in a restaurant for lunch and chowed down on some fried olives and pork with a coke (100 baht).

Lunch

I eventually made it back to the hostel and grabbed my ATM card and some cash. I then took a 25 minute tuk tuk ride to the train station (I paid 100 baht which I know is over paying, but I didn’t care). One taxi refused to take me because of the time of day and protests.

I picked up a train ticket and then wandered around Chinatown for a while. I ended up in a market street that was pretty sweet. I then took another tuk tuk (60 baht) to another temple area, the Golden Mound. I decided to walk back to my hostel knowing that I have to walk through two protest areas to get there directly. The protest areas were deserted with some tents and some people hanging out, but nothing like the media proclaimed it to be.

Fried animal skin

Mushroom fried pastry thingy (30 baht)

Protest

Blocked off streets because of the protest

One of the main protest area, mainly just venders

I am bummed that my new iPad does not accept my memory card reader so pictures will be sporatic.

The most organized broom holder ever

Posted in ASIA, Thailand, Uncategorized | Tagged Bangkok, bangkok protest, khao san, protest, Thailand, wat | 1 Comment

Far Flung Forays

Fjords, Fords, Frankfurters

Svalbard, huh, where am I?

Nothing Like a Sushi Stop in Tokyo

Todd+$9=Scooter and No Map

Thailand: The Land of Concrete Temples

Wat Phu Tok=Wat With No Westerners

No Brakes, No Problem, Bikes Stop Themselves

Nong Khai 30 minutes, Nong Khai 30 minutes…

Khao San Road: What I Dislike About Traveling

Bangkok, Protests? Wats?

Recent Posts

Archives

Meta