SiMonica’s Voyage

We left Bangkok and flew to the northern city of Chiang Mai, which although a much smaller city, it has almost as many temples.  When we arrived in Chiang Mai, we hopped in our air-conditioned van which took us up further north to the small town of Chiang Dao, where we stayed in these lovely little bungalows.  We had planned this trip outside of Bangkok to escape the pollution, but when we were flying in, the air looked even worse then the city air we’d left behind.  It turns out that for the 3 weeks prior to our arrival fires had been burning non-stop.  The whole region was considered a health hazard for anyone with respiratory problems.  From what we could gather, in anticipation of the rainy season and something to do with planting, farmers were burning their land.  On top of this, as we’re in the last month of the dry season, forest fires were also starting sporadically throughout the hills. 

Thus, we arrived at Chiang Dao smelling like a camp fire and barely able to see the reportedly stunny mountains.  Fortunately the royal rainmakers (this is really what they’re called) were effective the next day and it rained at nights, clearing the skies dramatically.  There are a lot of limestone caves in this region and we explored a vast network of one of them.  Monks have set up shrines with countless buddhas in the nooks and crannies of these caves.  Historically monks from Burma (Myanmar) would travel down to this region, so there were a lot of Burmese style pagodas inside the caves.  We also hiked up to a monastery nestled in the hillside and did some shopping at the local market.  The food served at our resort was phenomenal!  Some of highlights include slow cooked buffalo, pork with tamarind sauce, tofu in red curry, and even the standard breakfast of rice soup with vegetables was amazing. 

After a few days in the mountains, we journeyed by bus back to stay in Chiang Mai for two nights.  We checked out a fraction of the wats (temples) in the walled old city, and did some great shopping in the night market that is flooded with people every evening.  Simon, my mom, and I did a fantastic cooking course the next day.  It started with a trip to the market where our teacher told us about the different ingredients we’d be using that day.  It was great to find out the names for some of the very odd looking fruits.  We witnessed the killing of the serpent fish, that we would later eat with our red curry.  For whatever reason, instead of killing the fish with a knife, the vendor took the live fish out of the basin and put them on the ground.  He then proceeded to whack them with a wooden stick.  It was pretty intense.  The other dishes we learned how to make were: coconut soup with fish, stir fried vegetables, fried noodles with pork in gravy, papaya salad and steamed banana cake.  Everything was super tasty and it was set up so we would all cook our own individual portions after watching the demonstration.  We returned to the hotel, extremely full, and met up with my dad, who had spent the day exploring the daytime Wororot market and some other wats. 

Much later that night, we took a tuk-tuk (like a carriage attached to a motorcycle) to the night food market, where, after we convinced my father that eating street food would not lead to death, we had an excellent evening snack.  The gem of this was the mango served with coconut cream and sticky rice.  AMAZING.

We flew back to Bangkok and spent our last afternoon in Thailand.  We ate at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms, where they give you condoms instead of after dinner mints.  The restaurant is a part of an organization that is working on population control and safe sex.  In addition to feeling good about where our money was going, the food was also excellent.  My favorite was the deep fried soft shell crab with pepper and garlic.

We had to wake up at 4 am the next day to catch our flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  We were met at the airport by the sister of someone my father works with, and we’ve spent the last two days touring the city with her and sampling the wonders of Khmer cuisine – less spicy than Thai, but still with a lot of fish and coconut.  It’s been great to stay with a local family and learn about Cambodian culture firsthand.  To our surprise, most people speak at least some English here and everyone is quite friendly.  Driving in this city is like oozing through a pipe filled with motorcycles, but it flows and since everyone drives quite slow, it doesn’t matter that they drive against traffic at times.  It reminds me of the traffic in Rome, but without traffic signals and on valium. 

Tomorrow we’re taking a bus up to Siem Reap to explore Angkor Wat and some other temples up there for the next three days.  Then my parents fly home and we’re planning on heading to the beaches on the southern coast of Cambodia.  We’ll then head back up to Phnom Pen and are planning on travelling by boat down the Mekong to Vietnam.

Well, we made it safely to Bangkok on Friday evening and met up with Monica’s parents on Saturday.  That same night, we went to a restaurant in Little Arabia (next street over from where our hotel happens to be) and were greeted with photographs of Yassir Arafat and Hamas “freedom fighters.”  It was a little weird, but we were hungry and the food was quite good. 

Anyway, today we did our fair share of sightseeing, Monica and her parents got Thai massages and tomorrow we’re heading north to Chiang Mai.  We like Bangkok, but it is really hot in the day. 

It’s funny to see the large number of unattractive looking middle-aged white men with young Thai women at their sides. 

We celebrated St. Patrick’s day with a pint of Guiness at a bar where the Thai waitstaff was wearing large Guiness hats and were painted like leprechauns and other things Irish.

That’s all for now.  It feels good to be back in Asia.  Almost like second nature now.

For all those holding their breath, we would like to inform you that we have successfully received our visa to Russia.  Aside from filling out a very long application that is specifically designed for U.S. males, (in addition to the standard application that we had to fill out), and the steep cost, everything else went smoothly.

So, now that this is settled, we’re looking into return tickets home in the beginning of July.

Throughout our lengthy travels, we’ve been relying solely on the Lonely Planet travel guides.  The quality of the books has been pretty good.  Sometimes, however, the books have had numerous mistakes in them, that have led to some of our efforts being repeatedly thwarted.  Case in point is the current book that we’re using – a combined Australia and New Zealand guide.  While in Melbourne, we were lucky enough to have our friend Heath show us around, and their modern tourist information center was very helpful as well.  In New Zealand, we rarely relied on the book because every hostel was full of information and different brochures, and because we met so many other travelers there. However, once we returned to Australia and made it to Sydney, a few things came to light, and they all seemed to happen this past week.

First off, the guidebook advised that at the Gallery of New South Wales, there are free Aboriginal dance performances on certain days of the week.  So, a few days ago, we finally made it to this gallery, only to be told that the dance performances haven’t been happening for a few years.

Today, though, was the ultimate slap in the face.  Sydney has a large fish market.  Probably not as large and significant as the one in Tokyo, but still worth a visit.  I read about visiting the market and the description said that if I came early enough then I’d be able to see the fish auction in action.  The fish auction started at 5:30 in the morning, and ended until all stock was sold.  Well, that could be as early as 7 A.M. or 7:30.  So, after some internal deliberation and the apprehension of waking up before sunrise, I decided that it was worth the visit.  Much to my chagrin, though, when I arrived at the infamous fish market, it turned out that the auctions have been closed to the general public for a few years and the only way to see it would be by booking an official tour which only happens occasionally.  The gentle security guard who told me this was really sorry and hoped that they would re-open the public viewing platform at the auctions in the future.  I consoled myself by purchasing freshly baked olive and cheese focaccia bread and taking a ride on the rarely used Sydney tram.

You might be thinking that our book is outdated, but it’s only one and a half years old, and it seemed to me that the events have been canceled for longer periods of time.

Aside from these trials and tribulations, we are doing well.  We visited the Blue Mountains yesterday, which are supposedly where Sydneysiders go to get away from the city.  It’s a national park with a well developed tourist operation with different walks and lookout points.  However, though the weather in Sydney was good, a thick fog greeted us when we got of the train in the town of Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.  All the lookout points were useless, as the fog was impenetrable by even our keen eyesight.  We did go on some pleasant little hikes nonetheless.  As for the Blue Mountains and its “stunning” beauty and natural wonders, I’d say we’ve seen more astounding scenery.

We’ve been occupying our time by visiting the famous Sydney beaches and doing some snorkeling in one of the bays to the east of the city.  Sydney has been nice, but we liked Melbourne more.  We’re heading back to Asia on Friday and our next post will be from Thailand.

We arrived in Sydney on Thursday night and in less than 24 hours we were swing dancing on the carpeted floor to a 20 piece swing band. We’re staying in a University of Sydney student co-op with a friend of a friend – the building used to be a glass factory but architecture students converted it to housing some time ago. People here are very chill, and we showed our gratitude for the hospitality by making dinner for about 12 people last night (rice with fruits and nuts and a mango and melon salad with yogurt dressing… yummy). We’ll be making this our base for the next two weeks and we’re planning on taking trips out to the Royal National Park and the Blue Mountains.

Prior to our arrival in Sydney we were in North Queensland. We rented a car from Cairns and drove up along the coast to Port Douglas. We settled into a nice backpackers there filled with travellers who seem to have stayed for months. We went 0n a snorkeling trip on the Great Barrier Reef which was amazing. The trip itself was a bit painful as the seas were rough and I got a bit sick. I quickly got over it though once we got in the water and were surrounded by amazing types of fish and coral. I even saw a shark, which luckily kept a wide berth. Simon also did a 20 minute introductory SCUBA dive where he saw a clam that was about 1 foot across. We had both been planning on doing the dive but because I’ve experienced wheezing or asthmatic symptoms I was prevented from doing so. While I was at first quite bummed out about this, the snorkeling was just as good as the diving, at least according to Simon.

From Port Douglas we did a day trip drive up to Cape Tribulation and did some fantastic rainforest walks, went to an insect museum which had an amazing collection of butterflies and beetles, and topped off our day with ice cream made from tropical fruits (mango,wattleseed, black sabone (?), and something else that was very tasty). Because the climate in this area is very tropical and humid they can grow a lot of the fruits that are grown typically in southeast Asia. Excellent bananas as well. We weren’t able to actually make it to the village of Cape Tribulation as the waters in the creeks were running high and had come across the road to get there. We were not about to attempt to cross in our put-put rental car. I managed to get a ridiculous speeding ticket on the way back to our hostel which put a bit of a damper on the rest of the day.

With Simon at the wheel the next day we headed inland and south to Millaa Millaa and the waterfalls that are in this area. There are about 10 waterfalls that you can drive or take small treks out to. While we were driving around we managed to see a cassowary which is the largest bird in Australia.  They dwell in rainforest environments and are about 1-2 meters tall. We did some nice walks in this area and were able to swim in one of the falls. We next drove to a town called Yungaburra where we went swimming in what was a volcanic crater! Our hostel had a free platypus viewing walk which we went on at dusk. We walked to this creek where hides have been set up to look out for the platypus undetected. I had my mind blown when we were told that platypus are only about 10 inches long. For some reason, since I was a kid and first learned about these odd creatures, I had always thought that they were about 4 to 5 feet. We were able to see these little fellows as they came up to the surface for air.

The guy who managed the hostel had spent about 9 months in India last year so after reminiscing with him for a while we got back on the road and drove back to Cairns where we had an uneventful time. Well, I guess it wasn’t entirely uneventful as we finally checked our bank account for the first time in a while and are now rethinking the Japan part of our trip. No decisions are final yet, but it might have to stay on the list of places we’ll go to on our next trip. We also talked to a couple from Paris who had just arrived in Australia from China where they had been for a month. We got some great tips from them on both China and southeast Asia as they were there before. Meanwhile here in Sydney we’re hoping to take care of obtaining our visa for Russia which is a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare. I expect we’ll have an entertaining anecdote about our experience at the consulate for the next post.

It’s Mardi Gras here in Sydney tonight, which is their Gay Pride parade. We went to check out the floats and witness some debauchery. It was a bit like the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, but not quite as creative.  Apparently it used to be quite a politcal event but has now become just a big party.

Who else can’t believe it’s March already?

P.S. As we were riding bikes last night on the way to the swing dancing, two drunk guys passed by Simon, sweaty and in a bicycle helmet, looked at him intently, and said, “Yalla, Habibi, … hummus, hummus!”   So much for racial tolerance in  Australia.  Not that we haven’t heard this in New York, though it was directed at others, which was just as bad.

And lastly, some recent photos:

The cassowary

Dusky Dolphins doing a backward somersault in Kaikoura, New Zealand:

And clever stenciled graffiti in Dunedin, New Zealand (study closely):