10 days on Koh Phangan

It feels that Phangan was ages ago especially since our perfect tans are almost gone. But let me catch up on our adventures.

We arrived to Phangan on 10/14 via a quick ferry ride from Samui. Since we didn't have a place booked, we took a local taxi to a Northern beach and checked out a few bungalows. We chose Fanta bungalows because they were in the end of a beautiful beach, were cheap, clean and had an amazing patio with free WiFi and food.
So we settled there along with our new friend, Johann (a great French guy who we met on the ride over).

Later on we found out that Fanta is a sort of haven for Russians with the highest concentration of them on New Years. And in general the Chaloklum village has a healthy Russian community some of which we got to meet on our very first day and whose company we enjoyed immensely.

Since I'm writing this post almost a month later, let me give you the highlights:

1. Originally we planned to spend 3-4 days on the island. And 9 days later we looked at the calendar to count how much time had passed. The island has some magical quality where the days flow smoothly, calmly and wonderfully. One day rolls into another. And it feels like you can be happy there forever. Maybe that's why there is a disproportionately high number of foreigners who have moved there or are staying there for an extended amount of time.

2. Speaking of foreigners, from them we learned a new word. 'Fa rang' - a foreigner of a European descent. That's how we are known in most of Asia.

3. The people: As I mentioned before, we met the local Russians. In the very first day we stumbled upon Zhaba Jazz Bar owned by Masha and Sasha. Two wonderfully hospitable people with whom we spent every evening. Shortly after we met Lesha, their classmate from Moscow and a regular at Zhaba. These people were invaluable in feeding us, and giving all the advice on transport, tours, where to get our laptop fixed, etc. And they introduced us to all the local Europeans. Masha and Lesha even came to Fanta on our last day there to say goodbye and to help carry our bags to the pick up spot. Thank you, guys! We miss you terribly.

4. Transportation: By day 2 we realized that taxi is too expensive and impractical and the only way to really get around the island is with a scooter. This is essentially a fully automatic glorified bicycle and the best $5 a day that we ever spent. It gave us the opportunity to explore the island at our own pace. We went to the waterfalls (that ended up having no water), to other beaches, to the big city of Thong Sala and everything in between. Here is a pic of Lesha leading Johann, Vadim and us on a ride to the other side of the island.

5. The food: We found a ton of great food on Phangan. For a taste of Russian, we ate at Zhaba. (On some days pelmeni, olev'e and blinchiki can not be substituted by anything else). Otherwise we tried a ton of places around the island and found that even plain rice tastes better on Phangan. And I continued to indulge in my mango addiction with a minimum of 2.5 mangos to pass the day.

Overall, a fantastic stay!
Special thanks to Masha, Sasha, Lesha and Johann :)

2011.10.14 Koh Phangan

In Luang Prabang

We've once again been slacking, and not catching up.  But there are mitigating factors - the biggest is the damn keyboard.  While it's very convenient to travel with the rubber keyboard, it's very inconvenient to type on it, and it's downright impossible if you are not sitting at the table.  So I can't write while we are on the move, and we've been moving a lot.  Second reason is the absence of WIFI in most of the places we've stayed at recently.

Anyway, really briefly: we are in Luang Prabang, in Laos.  Weather is very nice, the guesthouse is very clean, and has internet, and we're chilling. There are a few active things we can do here, but for now we're just walking around visiting AFWs (variation on "AFC", where "W" stands for "Wat", i.e. temple.) Hopefully we'll even write something meaningful here.

And of course congratulations from the family geek, Julie - Happy binary day.  Enjoy the last binary day you'll get to see to the fullest.  We are going to try.

11/11/11

 

We crossed the border!

5 am wake up time
5:40 am picked up at hostel by tuk-tuk
6 am loaded bus
8 am arrived at Chiang Kong
8:02 am took another tuk-tuk
8:14 am at the border crossing
8:45 am got an immigration stamp to leave Thailand
8:49 am made it across the river and we were in Laos!
Another half hour to get the entry visa (had to pay $3 extra for not having extra passport photos).

In other news, per strong recommendations from Kutman-Levy, we booked the Gibbon Experience! Which means we will be living in tree houses and zip-lining across the jungle for 3 days, starting tomorrow :)
Don't expect to see us online during those days.

http://www.gibbonexperience.org/

3 days on Koh Samui

After 2.5 months of intensive traveling, a beach was a welcome change.
Our actual rode to Koh Samui was an adventure all of its own, but more about that in a separate post.

It was everything that you would expect from a beach vacation; a tiny room right on a beach, a restaurant also on a beach, the aforementioned beach and the warmest sea that you may want to have.
The first two days we walked in a little triangle between the room, the restaurant and the beach. And on day 3 we took an excursion to Ang Thong Marine Park. (About this a little later).

The most eventful thing that is worth reporting is that we met a nice Russian family from Moscow. They swam up to us on the first day and striked up a conversation. This was their first trip overseas and they shared their fun stories about trying to communicate without any English and the tourist traps that they got into. Apparently, they spent 5 days in Bangkok. The first 4 they got within 100 meters of the Grand Palace only to be told by someone that the palace is closed either due to flooding, some fake Bhuddist holiday or ceremony that only happens once in 20 years. Poor guys were so disappointed. But they finally made it on the 5th day and never listened to advice from a "friendly" stranger on the street.
We enjoyed their stories that we decided to go out for dinner together the same night.
Over dinner they asked us a lot about life in U.S. They were interested in the smallest details and whether the stereotypes are true. However when they found out that we are Jewish and have been to Israel, the conversation turned political and they asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As people who have no real attachments to either side they became curios in forming their own opinions. Based on the media reports the common belief in Russia is that Israel is the "occupier". We talked at length about history, the formation of Israel, the conflict, etc. We closed down the restaurant. In the end of the discussion, I think they came out with conclusions that were much different than what the Russian media reports.

If we managed to convert two people, the visit to Koh Samui was totally worth it :)

As I mentioned before, we took an excursion to a Marine Park. It was as beautiful as a postcard! The day involved a boat ride, kayaking, a strenuous hike, swimming and the most amazing views. In this case a picture is worth a thousand words...

2011.10.12 Koh Samui

Bangkok and Culture

In previous posts we wrote a bit about the weather. Here is the recap of our "cultural" experiences.

1. In order to get to our hostel we took the AirLink (similar to BART) to the last station. After that we had to catch a cab to our hostel. I remember the confusion I felt in those first few moments on the streets of Bangkok. Crazy traffic moving in the "wrong" direction and us not knowing which way to go. Luckily we were approached by a passerby who seemed like he wanted to practice his English skills. He told us where to cross the street and hail a cab and how much this should cost. And warned us to ask the driver to use a meter. (its very common for cab drivers to name a random outrageous price and to refuse to use the meter). Also he told us about the fact that Khao San Road is completely under water. Even showed us pictures in the Thai newspaper. Khao San is the main tourist road in the center of the city. We had planned to go there first to find a travel agency that could help us book the rest of our trip in Thailand. Levka started to run through images in his head how we would rent a kayak and paddle up and down the street in search of this agency.... Turns out the street was never under water. We are still not sure what were this guy's reasons for this kind of "misinformation". But this was not the last time that we encountered this.

2. Our first outing to see the sights was quite a learning experience. We heard all the warnings from friends about the tourist traps, but we still managed to land in a minor one. We were on the way to the Grand Palace and we were stopped by some nice "passerby" who spoke English surprisingly well. He told us that Grand Palace is currently closed for lunch because of some ceremony that is going on. And that's when he recommended that we take a tuk-tuk to see some other temples before the Grand palace. Magically a tuk-tuk appeared. We did make the driver promise us that he won't take us to any stores (according to our friends this is a common scam) and we were on our way. The agreed upon price for the entire 2 hour trip was 80 Baht which is equivalent to $2.5. The driver took us to the three temples, however, in between he dropped us off at 2 different travel agencies. I guess this guy gets commission off whatever travel package we buy. You should have seen the disappointed look on the driver's face when we told him that we didn't purchase anything. He asked us again and again, "no buy anything?". And his face got sadder each time we repeated "no, it was too expensive". So with that he took us to the Grand Palace, which, by the way, was never closed. We didn't waste a lot if time, saw the temples that we wanted to see and made it to grand palace with plenty of time to see it, but we still felt duped and resolved to be more careful in the future.

3. Day 3 at Bangkok was a day of frustration. Our plan was simple. To take a ride on a boat through the canals and to stop and see a few temples on the way. First, we were getting mixed reports whether the tourist boats are running or not because the water in the river was too high. Until we physically reached a pier, we didn't know. Turned our that the were plenty of boats. At this point we needed to negotiate a price. We had an idea about the price from the guide books and from talking to the locals. The first place we went to quoted the price that was 4 times what we thought we should pay. So we started to walk from one pier to the next, moving away from the touristy area. The prices did start to come down but were still not where we thought they should be. We tried negotiating but nobody was willing to budge even a little bit. We were confused by the situation. Tons of boats, no work, a ridiculous price and people unwilling to take us for a lower price. Oh and let me mention that the price wasn't that much by American standards. But we were not in America and this was a matter of principal, especially after the tuk-tuk incident from the day before. So as a result, we changed our plans and didn't go on this boat ride.

4. A guy at our hostel recommended that we go to China Town to get some dinner and to walk around. On a map he drew the exact location of the bus station and the number bus that we needed to take. And we were off. We waited at the bus station where there is no schedule and watched as other buses arrived, barely stopping to let in passengers. So when our bus arrived, we jumped on it as fast as humanly possible and held on tight (the bus doors never close to assure a faster passenger turnover at the bus stops). We drove for only a couple minutes when I realized that we don't know which bus station to get off on. And even if we did know the name of the station it wouldn't help us because nothing is marked. So I turned to Levka and asked, "how will we know where to get off?" Without really thinking he said, "Its China Town. How hard can it be to spot it?" Turns out when you're in Asia, China town doesn't stand out as much :) Of course we missed it and like regular tourists took a taxi first to China Town and then back to the hostel. And we had a blast making fun of our own naivete the entire time :)

And with this variety of experiences we left for the islands to enjoy the slower and more relaxed way of life.

More on Thailand

The Thailand portion of the trip is coming to an end. We looked at how little we wrote and decided to add some notes before we leave the country tomorrow.
Per Khait's request I will try to keep these posts short.

This was our entire itinerary:
Bangkok - 3 days
Koh Samui - 3 days
Koh Phangan - 10 days
Bangkok - 2 days
Chiang Mai - 3 days
Pai - 3 days
Chiang Rai - 3 days

We talked about how quickly this month flew in comparison to the same amount of time in Europe. We are trying to understand what is it about this country that makes the time go by this quickly. The pace of life is slower than what we are used to, we took our time in many cities, so it seems like they days should have dragged on. Instead we look back and wonder where it all went. If you have solved this mystery let us know.

Tomorrow morning (at 5 am) heading to Laos through Chiang Kong.

Elephants

We couldn't visit Thailand and not visit their iconic animal. Elephants here are as common as lions are in Europe. You see them as statues, paintings, house decorations, tree shapes, etc.
OR I'm a big kid and wanted to play with a cute elephant :)
Either way, I made Levka go! And I have to point out that this was the most expensive thing that we did since the beginning of the trip.

Our program:

We drive for about an hour to an elephant reservation. Our tour guide takes some time to explain to us about how this place is run. Apparently its a sanctuary. All the elephants there were rescued from bad environments (logging industry, circus type shows, street walking, etc). At this place they live pretty happily and work with the tourists. We do ride them but very briefly and bare back so the weight is insignificant. As a thank you to the elephant we wash them and feed them.
So after this explanation, we finally got to meet the elephants.

To make sure that they like us we fed them bananas and sugar canes.

After, we got some kisses from this young guy. I'm pretty sure he liked us :)

Then we spent some time learning to ride them. Learning basic commands, how to get on and off the elephant, etc.

We learned very quickly that they don't listen to the tourists. Each elephant has a mahout - a keeper. The mahout stays with his elephant at all times and he is the only one that really has any authority :)

After all the practice we went on a ride through a forest. It's a fun experience but most of the time I felt sorry to make them work. Although the keepers were trying to explain that exercise is good for them.

Finally we were back at the camp and on to the best part - an elephant bath!
Elephants and mahouts get into water first, wait until they finish drinking and pooping. Clear the poop from the water with bare hands. And then allow the tourists to enter. We each get a bucket and a brush and all the fun to splash around. Our elephant was sleeping on her side as we were jumping around, splashing and scrubbing.

All in all, it was totally worth it!

2011.10.27 Baan Chang Elephants

More about the weather

We learned that the "controlled" flood will start at 4:40 pm today. Naturally we decided to leave the house around 4 pm and return late after all the water is gone. We left the house and realized that the flood came early.

Here is the view from our hotel:

We knew that the main street would be flooded so we took the back streets and avoided most of the water. We quickly arrived to our favorite restaurant just a few blocks away. At the time the water was barely reaching it:

We ordered a bunch of food and watched how the whole thing progressed. More water was coming in, and it was getting further and further and spilling to side streets.


The atmosphere was mostly cheery. Kids and dogs playing in the water. And adults are keeping busy keeping garbage away from the manholes (to make sure that the water drains as quickly as possible) and keeping an eye on their barriers.

There was constant traffic on the road. But eventually the water got too high and we saw a stalled motorcycle and tuk-tuk.


Eventually our favorite restaurant started to flood and kids of the owners worked hard to get rid of the water. While men ran back and forth between two entrances trying to seal them as much as possible. We tried to help but they wouldn't let us.

The restaurant was ok. Before we left they managed to drain most of the water.

Also we learned that the "controlled" flooding is not so controlled. It comes with the tide. And the next few days are expected to be worse. The store owners spend the day preparing and building higher barriers.

We looked at the sky that turned dark, and knew that its better to head home.

And we stopped by a hostel that we stayed at 2 weeks ago. We heard that it may be under water so we didn't stay there this time. The poor guys were flooded about waist deep.

We wished them good luck and ran home. Just in time for the rain. And by rain, I mean a typical tropical downpour.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Chiang Mai. We are told that the roads should be dry by then. Let's hope for the best...

 

2011.10.25 Bangkok flood

The computer

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A few days ago, our laptop started to give us trouble. By trouble I mean that it wouldn't boot. Levka quickly diagnosed the problem as the escape key being stuck. Anytime we would try to start it, it would "escape" out and would go into a continuous loop of starting and escaping.
We called tech support and they confirmed our suspicions but didn't offer any help. So the next day we went to the local tech support at Phangan. The guy once again confirmed what we already knew and made a few calls to find a replacement keyboard. Turns out that this laptop is too new and is not yet sold in Thailand. So we are out of luck until we return to US. However, he proposed a temporary solution of disconnecting the laptop keyboard, purchasing another portable one and using it instead.
After much driving from store to store, we found a rubber keyboard and now we are back in business!

Levka looks a little dorky but like a true programmer with this setup. Judge for yourself.

Oh we also found out the reason for the keyboard trouble. According to the manual, the laptop should be kept in 60% maximum humidity. We have spent 2 weeks in 90% plus. We are surprised that other gadgets still work.

About the weather

From our mothers, we hear that the news are reporting the most horrific floods in most of Thailand. This includes Bangkok. So let me address the weather first.

We arrived to Bangkok at 6 am today and were greeted by a pretty and warm sunrise. And we didn't see any water as the taxi took us to the hotel.
OK, we saw a little water. This is the view of the street in front of our hotel:


Mothers, don't worry! We live on the 4th floor.

As we walked out to the main street, there was no water. However, we saw that the shops were building walls to protect themselves against the flood.
We were kinda surprised by this as there was not a cloud in the sky.



Later we learned from a shop owner is that there is a "controlled" flood that happens between 5 and 7 pm. Which means that a certain amount of water is released from a levy. It runs through this main street and is expected to drain in 2 hours.
This is what the street looked like in the evening. Note that no more water got to our hotel.

Throughout the day we saw flooding in some neighborhoods. The amazing thing was to see how the people dealt with it. Shops didn't close as a result. It was business as usual.

Here are the highlights:

The most flooding was at a pier. But I had good transportation to make sure that my feet stayed dry. It only cost 10 Bat :)

And here are some flooded markets.

And only a block later it was dry again.

We know that the overall damage is great (especially on the North side of the city). But as tourists we are unaffected.