Final Trip Counts

Days: 24

Hotels: 14

Flights: 12

Countries: 4

Cities: 11

Pad Thai Dinners: 5

Beaches: 7

Boats: 6

Tuk-tuk rides: 6

Blood draws: 2

Piercings: 1

Tattoos: 0 

Massages: 4

Nights spent camping: 1

Bungalows: 3

Markets: 10

Motorbike rides: 5

Kayaking trips: 2

Rocks climbed: 5

Books read: 6

Loads of laundry: 6

Items lost: 3

Baggage weight gain: 5 kg

Personal weight gain: 3 lbs

Runs: 1

Fresh coconuts: 6

Mosquito bites: 8

Mosquito nets: 4

Fruit shakes: 3

Thai beers drank: 6

Temples visited: 4

Great Wall...culture shock

I only have a few more hours here in Beijing so I'm going to have to finish this later...BUT, the long and short of it was...we basically spent 12 hours aboard a tour bus full of Chinese people. No one spoke English, save for the 11 year old girl and 12 year old boy we met. We spent the day having NO IDEA where we were going, when we had to be back on the bus, etc. We went to the wall first, which was AMAZING. This was also where I got to experience my first real Beijing bathroom (which I'll elaborate on later for those who can handle it). Back on the bus to Chinese jade factory and lunch which consisted of masses of people scarfing down huge amounts of food in record time. Back on the bus to other sites that we honestly don't know what they were. We visited a Hindu/Buddhist temple of sorts...where I was hit on the head and blessed by a monk. We fought against the masses to try to get sodas at the meat-on-a-stick concession line outside the temple doors. And again, a jade factory where we got shooed out of room after room of jade. It was like we were on display the entire day. The workers seemed mesmerized by our presence. They attempted to talk to us in English and we attempted to communicate w/them with our phrase book, but in the end we never got our messages across. We waited and waited and waited. Eventually getting back on the freezing cold bus. While we waited some more to leave...we decided to sing "99 bottles of beer on the wall"...with that everyone went quite and just stared at us. We did end up teaching the little 11 y/o girl the lyrics to "wheels on the bus". When someone lit up a cigarette, Hadas tried her hand at Chinese characters and re-created the "smokeless market" sign we had taken a picture of at the jade factory on the steamed up bus window. We wanted to go to this middle-eastern restaurant which was like finding a needle in a haystack. The tour guide (who was probably just thankful to get rid of us) made us deboard the bus w/a Chinese couple who said they knew where it was. Instead, they took us to the subway. We blindly got on one of the metro lines and ended up meeting a really nice Enligsh speaking guy from ...Lithuania. He helped us the rest of the way and we eventually made it there, 2 hours later. The food was worth it though, as were the Asian and Arabian belly dancers.

All in all, a great 24 hours in Beijing, but now it's time to say goodbye to Asia all together...Have just a few more hours before my flight home! Going to soak up what I can of this city and am really looking forward to coming home! It's been a long, crazy ride, this trip...and I want to thank you all for sharing it with me by reading my blogs. The blogs aren't ending though. This has been a whirlwind of a trip and it's going to take me a few weeks to fully digest everything I've experienced so stay tuned. Also, have a full memory card of photos to share soon! Miss you all, can't wait to get back to the city of brotherly love...Philadelphia! :)

Olympic Territory

After some last minute haggling on Khao San Road, I boarded a bus that they jam packed w/people for the airport. Checked in, went through customs and got a taste of what to expect in China (I thought the Chinese woman behind me was going to climb into my suitcase! She was so close I had to separate us with my carryon bag!)...I enjoyed a *real* cup of coffee, changed over my remaining Thai Baht to Chinese Yuan and headed for security...

Personal space issues were quickly becoming apparent as all the Chinese people rushed in a mad herd for the door the moment they opened the gate. I thought...'can't we all just settle down? The plane isn't going anywhere without us...'

On my Egypt Air flight, I sat next to a 22 y/o Thai kid who spoke minimal English. I silently laughed at him playing with a Rubix cube...'good luck, kid', I thought. I was in and out of sleep, reading my book, had a delicious vegetarian Egyptian meal and when we just about ready to land after 5 hours of flying I noticed the kid had completed the Rubix cube!!! I was enormously impressed...I shared w/him that my attempt at completing one of those was to switch the stickers around as a kid. Don't know if he fully understood my stupidity or if he was just smiling and nodding at the American's babbling...

Landed in Beijing airport and it was pretty quiet. We arrived to the huge terminal which felt more like a planetarium with enormous arched ceilings w/scattered white lights. Went through customs quickly and waited for what seemed like forever for my bag...all the while dealing w/people pushing and shoving to get to the baggage carriage. What is with them??

Wasn't sure how I was going to make it to my hotel since no one seemed to speak English. Fortunately I found a woman in line for the taxi stand that did. She called my hotel for me to ask for their "Chinese name" and she wrote down the 3 line-long name on my confirmation paper. Thank God! I had no problems getting a taxi after this! We drove the 20+ kilometers to the Courtyard Marriot (after my last experience I was definitely not messing around w/any Chinese so-called "perfect" hotels). It's Chinese New Year so everyone was setting off fireworks all throughout the city. Red lanterns decorated the streets and windows of people's apartments. There were lots of highrise buildings...even more so than Bangkok.

I arrived at the Marriot and Hadas was of course, in the business center checking her email. It was so nice to meet up again after being apart for a week. We decided to go to K-TV Party World...a place down the street, karaoke and dinner buffet. We got our own private room and dinner buffet...was very similar to Yakatori Boy in Philadelphia but w/more music selection! The buffet was not good. I don't know what the food even was. I picked at the rice, and tried some vegetable dish but everything else just looked a little too scary...too many bones, covered in an unidentifiable gelatinous substance, are those tenacles??

Karaoke was awesome as usual...but even more so b/c it was Beijing! We paid for one hour but of course that wasn't long enough. The classics...beatles, madonna, beyonce. It was just the 2 of us but we had a great time!

Afterwards we stopped at 711 b/c I was starving! By the way, did I mention that 711's have replaced the Starbucks of the states? Instead of a Starbucks on every corner, there is a 711 on every corner here. Starbucks are every Other corner. Anyway, 711 was bare. For a moment, I wondered if there was a report of an upcoming natural disaster or storm? There was literally nothing on an entire wall of shelves. Alongside mixed nuts and raisens were dried meats and fish. All were expired. They had rows of authentic ramen noodles...and in the end I opted for a box of chips ahoy cookies. They taste different in China, but still a nice filler ;)

Then we moved on "XX". At first I was like, 'Hadas, where are you taking me??', but turns out in Chinese, XX means internet, not porn. We took the elevator up to the 3rd floor, cheap, non-smoking, internet cafe. Except everyone was smoking. The girl who helped us is studying Business English in Beijing and said that it's no use to even ask them to stop smoking b/c no one listens. I couldn't stand it (which is why I'm late on blogging...). I almost used the bathroom there until I noticed a sickening stench of urine about 20 feet away from it. Decided to wait till we got back to the safety of our Westernized marriot bathroom...

It was sooo nice to go back to our carpeted, luxurious room! My bed had a thick, white fluffy duvet and 2 REAL pillows! On trip advisor someone had complained about the beds being hard here...obviously they haven't traveled throughout the rest of Southeast Asia! The beds were wonderful...I slept like a baby, for all 4 hours. In the morning, I enjoyed the best shower of the trip...burning hot water, water pressure that could power wash your driveway. And a hairdryer!!

The girls had booked a trip to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs through the hotel that was going to cost 470 CNY (or more than $70 USD). In my Lonely Planet book, it said that hotels charge an infuriating price of up to 300 CNY. With this, we decided to cancel the trip and go at it on our own...

Ready to go

After leaving the internet cafe last night, I had to walk through the streets one last time to get back to the D&D Inn. There was a man leading a baby elephant through the road...everyone was going crazy taking pictures with him, etc. Then out of nowhere, it was like a mass exodus. All of the people with their food carts, vendors, etc started pushing their carts down the block and through an alleyway...as if they were running from something? I didn't know what was going on...just knew to get out of their way before I was run over! Turns out the police were driving down the block, apparently the carts and vendors are supposed to close up shop at midnight. I guess that was their warning...but everyone basically hid out in the alleyways for about 10 mins and by the time I made it back to my place, they were all trickling back onto Khao San Road.

Took me a while to get to sleep last night with all the noise...exhaustion got the best of me eventually though. I think sometime around 4am is when it finally started quieting down. The quiet was almost disturbing this morning when I woke up...I jumped up to look out my window and make sure everything was ok...It was like a scene from night of the living dead. Just as many people as last night except quieter...newcomers just arriving w/their backpacks, a few straglers leftover from last night squinting in the sunlight...

After showering I had breakfast at the restaurant behind my hotel. There's a small bridge filled w/huge white and yellow fish and it's set back off the main road so you're not constantly being harrassed by the vendors (which is a major plus). Then I waved down a taxi and asked to go to the Siam Paragon...the biggest mall Ever. I really didn't want to go there, but it was a good landmark b/c I remembered there was a smaller, more authentic Thai market nearby and figured if I walked around I would be able to find it...

2 hours later and no such luck!

I did however, stumble upon another market...more like a grocery store but with bras and underwear and a jewelry section, right next to cases of fanta and coke. I also happened to walk past some workers just opening their shops and cleaning out front...I wasn't sure what they were doing, seemed to be on their hands and knees scrubbing at the sidewalk with metal scrapers and oils...? Turns out they were trying to get the blackened, flattened, chewed up wads of gum off of their sidewalk. Now that's some serious stuff.

I gave up on finding my market and defeated, I hopped back in a cab and headed back to my ghetto where I ended up doing some last minute shopping...I am so tired of bargaining. Please just tell me how much it is, this game is getting a little ridiculous!

I hung out at the pool for a little bit...it's a small rectangle up on the roof with a view of Bangkok under a heavy grey sky. I thought maybe it was going to storm, but then realized it was just a thick layer of smog settled above the city...pleasant huh? The pool was packed with people, there were no free chairs. I laid out my sarong on the wooden boards by the rim of the pool and finished "Lovely Bones". The book honestly just annoyed me (sorry Hadas). About a young girl who dies and it's from her perspective in "her heaven". They never found her body, except for an elbow. The entire time I just kept thinking...an elbow is not a bone in and of itself, it is a joint...a "Joining" of 2 bones. It just didn't make sense and every time they mentioned the elbow I was irritated. What do editors get paid to do?

Oh, then I tried to sell 4 books to these used book stores which are everywhere. All 4 books cost me around...$66 USD or 2254 B and these vendors tried to give me 350B for all 4! I laughed in their faces and smuggly took my books back. It's a Catch 22 though b/c I want to get rid of them b/c I have no room in my luggage (and will probably have to pay even more money to Continental on my way home if my bag exceeds their weight limit) but I'd rather give them away free than sell them for pennies just so these vendors can turn around and rip off another unsuspecting traveler...

I eventually gave up on that idea and found a cute vegetarian restaurant to have dinner...away from the torturous frog sellers. I had massaman curry with chicken and vegetables. The curry is a little spicy but also flavored with peanuts which gives it a sweet flavor too. It was so good. I am really going to miss this food!

I decided I really needed a coat. It's below 0 in China right now and after wearing tank tops and flip flops for the past 3 weeks it's going to be a rough transition. Especially without a coat! Thailand, as it turns out, is a difficult place to buy a coat. It makes sense...I mean the country only has 2 seasons really...summer and rainy. I guess now would be their "winter" but it's still 30-35 degrees celcius! Not much of a winter! Hadas said there was a market in China where she bought a coat, but in a later email she told me how much she spent and it was a fortune! I decided to go back to Siam Paragon to look around...

The Siam Paragon is an enormous complex that is quite honestly the biggest mall I've ever seen. Imagine the ritzy side of King of Prussia, elevate the ceilings about 20 feet, add lots more light and shiny glass, triple it's size, divide it into 3 sections, add an outdoor area between each and you'll come close to envisioning what the Siam Center is like. It's 500,000 sqm, has 350 stores, also is home to an aquarium with 20,000 marine life species, and a cinema with 16 screens. It's ridiculous. And everything is super expensive. For Thailand. For the US. I went into Northface and the cheapest thing was a vest which was priced at 6500B, or $191 USD! Forget it!

I made my way across the street to MKB, the "Thai" version of the Paragon. I walked into the department store on the end, picked up the first coat I saw and at 3000B it seemed like a sweet deal. Without a second thought I just got it. I didn't feel like wasting my entire night in this place! Anyone who knows me knows I'm not much of a shopper anyway...I'm the type of person to scan the store and can size up their inventory in a matter of seconds to determine if it's really worth my time and/or effort...if the place has anything remotely like what I'm looking for...but it was pretty overwhelming to be in a mall with 3 different sections, 3-6 levels each with huge outdoor verandas in between and about a thousand teenagers running around.

Afterwards, of course, I had to avoid being scammed by tuk-tuk drivers and taxis...all trying to charge me 200B when the real price is around 70B. I wasn't getting anywhere though. There was a formal taxi stand but even still, the drivers were refusing to use their meters b/c of "traffic". I left the taxi stand line and asked around...the best I got was 150B from a tuk-tuk driver, but I was determined. Eventually a woman on a motorbike offered to take me for 100B. I had bags, wasn't sure how I was going to do it on a motorbike, but she just grabbed them and said 'no problem'...then I said, 'well I don't have a helmet', and she magically produced one for me. Well, with that, how could I say no? I strapped on the helmet and hopped on the back...and squeezed my legs into her and closed my eyes as we zipped in between buses and taxis and motorbikes alike. I tried not to think about the statistic I read earlier which was that ---don't read this mom--- there are 38 motorbike related deaths every day in Bangkok alone. Now that's a scary thought. Fortunately, I made it back to Khoa San intact.

A trip to southeast Asia just isn't complete if you don't ride on a motorbike at least once. It's just surreal. There are so many of them, they drive on the left side of the road (which I still can't wrap my head around), they zip through traffic and through spaces you would never imagine fitting through...it's just, it's just...you just will have to try it for yourself if you are ever here.

Anyway. I'm about to negotiate my way through the madness that is Khoa San Road one last time...in search of ear plugs. Tomorrow morning I'll be boarding a bus to the airport (to avoid the expense, but moreso the hassel of dealing w/taxi drivers) and will be off to China with my new Thai coat :) I can't believe it's already the last leg of this trip...time really flies!

The Backpacker's Ghetto

Dubbed the "Backpacker's Ghetto" by Rough Guides, today, I cannot think of a better description for Khao San Road. It is really living up to its reputation. I'm kinda wishing I spent the extra 200B so I could get a good night's sleep...oh well, too late for that now. Guess I'll have to go with Plan B and buy a pair of ear plugs!

It's the kind of place you have to be in the mood for...I'm just not into it tonight. Very similar to Phuket, the street is just crammed w/people and vendors and bars and clubs (except here you can also ride your motorbike, taxi, or tuk-tuk down it as well). Fruit vendors, Pad Thai vendors, Mango/sticky rice vendors, deep fried bug vendors...all with carts on wheels. Some parked on the sides of the street, some mobile and trying to negotiate the road which is next to impossible. Promotors for various clubs stand along the sidelines forcing you to take their slips of paper for the specials tonight, even though you have no intention of going there. Music is blaring from every vendor/shop/bar/club and all bleeding into each other in a haphazard collision of sound in the middle of the street. The heat, exhaust, smoke, trash, tiger balm, insence hits your nose like a mack truck. Everyone seems to be drunk (or otherwise impaired), and everyone is smoking cigarettes and carelessly waving them around in one hand, while the other works to balance their drinks (or buckets of alcohol) filled to the brim. You're getting banged into left and right and someone is always stepping on your toes or in my case, the back of my flip flops...you can't look at anything without someone being right on top of you..."what you like lady? I make good price for you"...when you ask, "how much", their response is always, "how much you pay"...if you happen to get close to the end of the street you're attacked by the taxi/tuk-tuk army...these guys slip in unnoticed just yards away from their vehicles whispering before their competition can hear them...'taxi? tuk-tuk? where you go lady?' ARGH. If I had to sum up Khoa San Road in one word, today it would be: overwhelming.

And I swear, if one more hilltribe lady shoves the wooden frog in my face again I am seriously going to FLIP out! You'd really have to be here to fully understand, but there are these stupid wooden frogs that come with a stick, crafted by the hilltribes of Northern Thailand. When you rub the stick over the back of the frog it makes a noise that sounds like a frog. Genius, right? Wrong. BY FAR, the most annoying toy Ever. Ok, ok, so in and of itself, it's not a terrible toy I suppose. However, say you have about 30-40 women dressed in traditional hilltribe gear walking up and down the same street (approximately 3 city blocks distance) rubbing the frogs constantly and pushing them in your face every 2 feet or so, well that's when it gets annoying. In fact, I joked with one guy about getting a group together and just buying them out...just buy up their entire supply...and then ceremoniously burn them in a bonfire in the center...sweet sweet revenge. Even if it was a few hundred dollars...it would be worth it to never see one of those things again!

I apologize for my negative tone...I'm just a little overstimulated tonight. I guess going from Ko Lanta to Phuket helped ease the transition back to Bangkok...but still. I'm missing the quiet, peaceful beaches of Ko Lanta...dreaming of being back in my hammock...

Coming full circle

I started my trip to Thailand right here in Bangkok a few weeks ago and am concluding it here as well...right on Khoa San Road. My flight, only an hour in duration, felt like forever with this annoying Egyptian child behind me on her father's lap kicking my seat constantly. The plane was scheduled to take off at 1300, but we sat and waited for the late Egyptian family to board...thought that was extra nice of Thai airways! The 6 of them were sitting directly behind me and this little kid had her own seat behind her mother but insisted on sitting on her father's lap. I thought..."I'll just endure it, it's really not that long", but 40 minutes into the flight I just could not stand it anymore and had to say something to the father. I just don't get it. How do you think it's ok to let your child sit in your lap and kick the seat the ENTIRE flight?!

They served this really weird "snack" which was basically a triangular shaped thing made of seaweed with rice inside and strips of shrimp. I passed...enjoyed my nescafe instead.

Grabbed my backpack and hopped in a cab which seemed to take longer to navigate through Bangkok than the flight to get here. The driver tried to charge me 300B for a ride that was 225B. I felt like screaming, "this is my 3rd time in Bangkok, I'm not as gullible as you think I am!!!". I paid him exactly what I owed, and not a baht more. Besides, I think he took the "long route" anyway...it definitely was a different than the last time...

I walked over to D&D Inn, ideally located right smack in the middle of all the action of Khoa San Road...and which the guidebooks say is a great place to meet people with rooftop pool. They emailed to say that they could not hold a room for me but I might get lucky and arrive before they're all gone. The woman (I think?) at the lobby said that the cheapest room they had available was 750B. I said I wanted their single room for 550, but she kept saying the more expensive one was their "last room available". Suddenly when I was about to leave, they miraraculously "found" a cheaper room...550B just as it quoted in the guidebook. Wow, here less than an hour and they're at it already!

So I'm all checked in and the room is not bad, except it faces the street and I have already been warned that it will be loud, but I'm only here for 2 nights, surely it can't be that bad...

Anyway...excited to be back in the city of cheap eats! Heading out to grab some streetside Pad Thai for dinner and see where the night takes me...

Hedonistic Phuket

Phuket has several beachs but as I was only here for one night I decided to stay put...walked around downtown Patong which in addition to being the most frequently visited beach, I've been told is also the homosexual hot spot in Phuket.

Past tons of sidewalk cafes and bars, eventually I came upon a hedonistic strip not unlike Vegas...an entire street completely blocked off to traffic filled with bars and clubs and tattoo parlours and lady boys dressed to the nine that you could get your picture taken with for a mere 50 B. I considered it but in the end spent my money on more worthwhile things, such as a spur of the moment nose piercing ;)

The air was so heavy last night...the heat combined with exhaust fumes from the millions of motorbikes, cars, tuk-tuks, etc...not to mention the fish being grilled on the sides of the road, the smells of raw sewage wafting up from the (thankfully covered) sewage grates...it was almost too much to bear.

After walking around for a while I decided to have dinner at an Indian restaurant...the food was excellent, if only I hadn't burned the roof of my mouth on the first bite! I didn't realize till after I was already waiting for my food that it was also a hooka (sp?) bar also so as you can imagine, I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible...

I kept walking past tattoo places and body piercing stalls and eventually stopped at a place on the sidewalk a bit down the road...I had always wanted my nose pierced, why not? When I inquired about the price and found out it was only $6, how could I say no? I carefully inspected the equipment for sterility and before I knew it was being seated in a blue plastic lawn chair just behind the table of body jewelry...a few steps away from the street...and a few Westerners lingering around to watch...I chose a tiny blue stud and watched as the guy cut the ring's post and shaved it down into a point...the anxiety was welling up inside me! The worst part was having my nose clamped with a ring forceps, ouch! But 1, 2, 3 and it was done...just a little red, slightly sore...but most importantly, reversible. Unlike the enormous tiger beer logo tattoo I watched a drunken Irish guy get...I thought, 'couldn't his friends just convince him to get the Tshirt instead?'

Anyway...I was mostly an observer last night...although I did stop in a few book stores since I've already finished my 6th book! However, I cannot bring myself to purchase used books in Thailand for more money than they are brand new at Borders! I guess the laws of economics are at work here when it comes to books...there aren't that many bookstores, and people do want to read on the beach...the Thai people are not stupid and take full advantage of that. Most shops boast that they "trade" books, but in the end they survey your book and decide it's only worth abuot 150 B when the book you want costs 500 B. Argh. But they do have books in multiple languages...

I purchased a pair of imitation Puma shorts last night for 100B and woke up early this morning to go for a run...the beach here is perfect for it...the sand is really soft but packed down by the water...and there weren't too many shells which is good because since I lost my hiking shoes somewhere along the line, my only choice was to go running barefoot. I asked a nice woman at a fruit stand to mind my flip flops and ran the length of the beach and back...it was nice in the morning when it wasn't so crowded. There were a few other people down there power walking or running as well while the workers cleaned off the beach chairs and began setting up the umbrellas for "another day in paradise"...

It felt good to get some official exercise for the first time this month ;) I found my flip flops and took one last look at Patong...it seems utterly unbelieveable that just a few years ago a wave of pure destruction destroyed this exact beach...sweeping everything away with it along with thousands of lives. I cannot begin to imagine the terror those people felt that day...it gave me the chills. And yet, everything seems to be completely back to normal...I'm sure if I asked around more, it would be a different story entirely.

Anyway...Bangkok bound. Stay tuned.