woke up at 6:15am. got breakfast and lunch of 6 cheese sandwhiches, 2 orders of toast. take a taxi thing ("sawwww....thing") to bus station. take a bus to erawin national park. dropped off at front of park with no map. see seven waterfalls on 2k hike. see 10 Israeli people. see an older white man bathing with two much younger asian women. park rangers don't allow food beyond the second waterfall, which posed a problem for us as we need to eat every hour. hid the bag of peanuts in linda's bathing suit. saw all waterfalls. returned and picked up our food, ate lunch, swam in waterfall pools. saw a group of little kids from the bangkok international school. back to guesthouse at 4pm. lovely outdoorsey day planned entirely by us.
do some laundry in afternoon. disgusting to discover how much dirt accumulates in shorts worn every day for a week. dinner at own guesthouse.
quotes of the day: "what if I'm hypo-glycemic?" (adina, to the park ranger who wouldn't let us bring food past the first 500 meters on our 2k waterfall hike. #1: thai man probably had absolutely no idea what that meant. #2: I am not a hypo-glycemic. i just eat like one.
"oh, she knows where her pachotch is. I know, I saw." (rachelle)
"it's pretty self-explanatory, if you know what a pachotch is" (rachelle who gets all the pachotch quotes)
"...well, now that about a gallon of water just came out of my butt..." (anonymous case of travelers' diarrhea.)
Friday, February 15, 2002
kanchanburi
this town is so cute!! sort of like banglampoo area (backpackers village in bangkok) on a river bank, only smaller. lots of guesthouses and river rafts and small restaurants and bars and internet all on a small road next to the river. FINALLY got out of city life. Kanchan was exactly like i thought all of thailand would be. everyone agreed.
miriam slept in that morning, and linda, rachelle and i rented bikes. we biked up to the famed bridge over the river kwai. very unremarkable bridge physically, but the history behind it is cool. the scenery was amazing. reminded me of vietnam which is kinda funny since i have never been there. couldn't find the memorial that was built for the POWs and workers who died building the death railway. visited this WEIRD WWII and Jeath war museum. weird b/c in the museum there were war exhibits as well as buffalo skulls, proverb rock garden, coins, ceiling murals, evolution of man exhibits, pictures of the past 20 Miss Thailand women, naked paper mache men, precious gems display, construction, and someone's bedroom.
afternoon miriam joined us in a super long 6 hour bike ride down the river side. it was beautiful scenery and nice to get away from even the small city we were in. we rode through corn fields, past an elementary school, past little huts, next to food stands, stopped at a wooden gazebo-type thing on the water, ended up at a cave wat which was not so spectacular. actually, the wat WAS our final destination, but the bike ride itself was the cool part. had some bad pad thai for lunch on the way back (isn't that cool that we can tell when the thai food is bad?). at night we planned our next day big feild trip, which included buying 8 liters of water, 2 boxes of crackers, 3 packets of wafers, a box of cookies, and a bag of coconut coated peanuts. (this did not include the lunch we were going to purchase tomorrow.)
"whats in this?" (adina, inquiring about cheese sandwiches at every single guesthouse we go to.)
miriam slept in that morning, and linda, rachelle and i rented bikes. we biked up to the famed bridge over the river kwai. very unremarkable bridge physically, but the history behind it is cool. the scenery was amazing. reminded me of vietnam which is kinda funny since i have never been there. couldn't find the memorial that was built for the POWs and workers who died building the death railway. visited this WEIRD WWII and Jeath war museum. weird b/c in the museum there were war exhibits as well as buffalo skulls, proverb rock garden, coins, ceiling murals, evolution of man exhibits, pictures of the past 20 Miss Thailand women, naked paper mache men, precious gems display, construction, and someone's bedroom.
afternoon miriam joined us in a super long 6 hour bike ride down the river side. it was beautiful scenery and nice to get away from even the small city we were in. we rode through corn fields, past an elementary school, past little huts, next to food stands, stopped at a wooden gazebo-type thing on the water, ended up at a cave wat which was not so spectacular. actually, the wat WAS our final destination, but the bike ride itself was the cool part. had some bad pad thai for lunch on the way back (isn't that cool that we can tell when the thai food is bad?). at night we planned our next day big feild trip, which included buying 8 liters of water, 2 boxes of crackers, 3 packets of wafers, a box of cookies, and a bag of coconut coated peanuts. (this did not include the lunch we were going to purchase tomorrow.)
"whats in this?" (adina, inquiring about cheese sandwiches at every single guesthouse we go to.)
Friday, February 8, 2002
ayuthaya ruins
another great day. woke up super early to avoid the wretched heat and humidity. we were all super impressed that we were eating breakfast by 7am. rented bikes for the day-- so cheap!! (the low prices cease to amaze us.) then we biked over to the ruins and spent a couple of hours there. it was so peaceful-- not a white person in sight (barely any Thai people either, for that matter.) just us on our bikes on the tree lined streets, with grassy parks displaying the red brick remains of a once powerful empire. the walls and towers and statues and spires were amazing. though most were badly crumbled, they were still intact enough to induce wonder. so cool. we also saw packs of elephants march past the ruins.
such efficient tourists are we; we were done with the ruins by 11am and ate lunch in a little noodle shop with some locals. delicious. back at the guesthouse, bikes returned, and all packed up by noon. one more ice cream trip and we were on a train to bangkok. good bye ayuthaya.
ugh. reminded how much we hate bangkok jut by pulling into the train station. smelly, smoggy, loud, trafficy and unpleasant. managed somewhat miraculously to get a public bus to the southern bus station, then took another bus to kanchanburi. although the whole trip from ayuthaya to kanchanburi took 7 hours, it was much easier than we expected. in Kanchanburi, we found cute little bamboo bungalows with thatched roofs. very summer camp.
quote of the day: "what else was i going to do with it? obviously i stuck it in my mouth." (rachelle)
such efficient tourists are we; we were done with the ruins by 11am and ate lunch in a little noodle shop with some locals. delicious. back at the guesthouse, bikes returned, and all packed up by noon. one more ice cream trip and we were on a train to bangkok. good bye ayuthaya.
ugh. reminded how much we hate bangkok jut by pulling into the train station. smelly, smoggy, loud, trafficy and unpleasant. managed somewhat miraculously to get a public bus to the southern bus station, then took another bus to kanchanburi. although the whole trip from ayuthaya to kanchanburi took 7 hours, it was much easier than we expected. in Kanchanburi, we found cute little bamboo bungalows with thatched roofs. very summer camp.
quote of the day: "what else was i going to do with it? obviously i stuck it in my mouth." (rachelle)
ayuthaya
this day started off really crappy but turned out nice. stepped off the train into BOILING HUMID weather. felt like tel-aviv. it felt like walking into warm, wet, bedsheet. we found a guesthouse and immediately took cold showers and then lay around like lumps for about an hour. decided we shouldn't waste the ENTIRE day in our guest house so we went and ate fruit smoothies. they were not enough to cool our burning bodies so we went to KFC and got ice cream. (it was air conditioned, which was how we rationalized spending an hour inside playing cards.) decided to figure out why we came to this god-forsaken town in the first place, so left air con and went to go see the ruins.
these are amazing ruins which i don't feel like detailing right now, but they were just really really cool and brick and cement and huge and intricate and towers and walls. tomorrow we are going to explore more of the ruins on bicycles.
dinner was interesting. we wanted to go this floating restaurant that we found in lonely planet. problem was it was across the river. went on wild goose chase which had us crossing crazy bridge and then realizing couldn't cross bridge because bridge ended miles from the bank of the river, uncrossed bridge, got a tuk-tuk and found that the place was way too expensive and way too empty, so walked all the way home and ate at our own guesthouse. the entire trip took an hour. then we went and got more ice cream.
these are amazing ruins which i don't feel like detailing right now, but they were just really really cool and brick and cement and huge and intricate and towers and walls. tomorrow we are going to explore more of the ruins on bicycles.
dinner was interesting. we wanted to go this floating restaurant that we found in lonely planet. problem was it was across the river. went on wild goose chase which had us crossing crazy bridge and then realizing couldn't cross bridge because bridge ended miles from the bank of the river, uncrossed bridge, got a tuk-tuk and found that the place was way too expensive and way too empty, so walked all the way home and ate at our own guesthouse. the entire trip took an hour. then we went and got more ice cream.
Saturday, February 2, 2002
day ten
"That Day" made us rethink our plans to go on another trek, so we did the whole day by ourselves with our trusty lonely planet guidebook in hand. we first visited Doi Suthep, a giant temple atop a giant hill that had a giant set of stairs (300 of them) in front. it sort of looked like one of those big staircase temple from Nepal, which was the big thrill. otherwise, it wasnt that interesting. i mean, a temple is a temple. a wat is a wat is a wat.
then off to the umbrella village!!!! lucky us, today was one of two days A YEAR that this village holds an umbrella festival, with all the shops selling umbrellas and umbrella floats and umbrella making shops and other cool stuff. the highlight was when we got to call the tourist police because our driver lied to us and wanted us to pay a lot more than we agreed to. (remember that thais lie?) so the police showed up in their nice car with a siren but unfortunately the policeman sucked because he made us pay way more than we should have. but it was fun calling the police.
then we shopped and rachelle and linda got thai massages. night train down to ayuthaya. wait-- how is this night train different from all other night trains? on this night train we SAT. for TWELVE HOURS. (guess who didn't book their tickets early enough...)
then off to the umbrella village!!!! lucky us, today was one of two days A YEAR that this village holds an umbrella festival, with all the shops selling umbrellas and umbrella floats and umbrella making shops and other cool stuff. the highlight was when we got to call the tourist police because our driver lied to us and wanted us to pay a lot more than we agreed to. (remember that thais lie?) so the police showed up in their nice car with a siren but unfortunately the policeman sucked because he made us pay way more than we should have. but it was fun calling the police.
then we shopped and rachelle and linda got thai massages. night train down to ayuthaya. wait-- how is this night train different from all other night trains? on this night train we SAT. for TWELVE HOURS. (guess who didn't book their tickets early enough...)
long neck day from hell
we had great expectations for this day. (foreshadowing here.) you know those tribal women who live deep in the mountains and have these tall golden rings around their neck that you learn about in third grade from national geographic? the ones that put so many rings around their neck that they get really long necks? we went to go see them.
so the first spark of doubt should have lit up when we saw the 900 Bhat price tag for the day trip. NOTHING costs that much in this country. but we rationalized, saying that it was only $20. then we should have realized something was amiss when the big green volkswagon van with (!) curtains (!) came to pick us up. the "love shack," as we later called it, was a relic straight out of the 70s. it really should have stayed in that decade.
basically we drove all day long.
well, we got out of the van a couple times, i guess. once to see a really really cool cave that had giant buddhas and huge cauliflower like stalagmites and stalactites. it was really really awe-some. huge cavernous cave. (i know those are the same words) we also saw a random temple, a random village, and stopped at a random restaurant.
seeing the women was really weird b/c it was almost as if they were putting themselves on a museum display. they pretty much were, actually. but they were very happy about it, and were selling things, but it still gave us voyeristic creeps.
then we piled in the van and drove home. for 4 hours.
quotes of the day: "so, not the most exciting of our days." (miriam, stating the incredibly obvious)
"my spine hurts . . . but at least i have a short neck." (adina, after sitting in the van for a total of eight hours.
"something just dawned on me . . . well actually i thought of it 5 hours ago..." (linda, and we didn't know what was preventing her from telling us during those 5 hours we were cramped together in the van with nothing to do)
we call this day "That Day" because it was just so aweful we can't bear to relive the details.
so the first spark of doubt should have lit up when we saw the 900 Bhat price tag for the day trip. NOTHING costs that much in this country. but we rationalized, saying that it was only $20. then we should have realized something was amiss when the big green volkswagon van with (!) curtains (!) came to pick us up. the "love shack," as we later called it, was a relic straight out of the 70s. it really should have stayed in that decade.
basically we drove all day long.
well, we got out of the van a couple times, i guess. once to see a really really cool cave that had giant buddhas and huge cauliflower like stalagmites and stalactites. it was really really awe-some. huge cavernous cave. (i know those are the same words) we also saw a random temple, a random village, and stopped at a random restaurant.
seeing the women was really weird b/c it was almost as if they were putting themselves on a museum display. they pretty much were, actually. but they were very happy about it, and were selling things, but it still gave us voyeristic creeps.
then we piled in the van and drove home. for 4 hours.
quotes of the day: "so, not the most exciting of our days." (miriam, stating the incredibly obvious)
"my spine hurts . . . but at least i have a short neck." (adina, after sitting in the van for a total of eight hours.
"something just dawned on me . . . well actually i thought of it 5 hours ago..." (linda, and we didn't know what was preventing her from telling us during those 5 hours we were cramped together in the van with nothing to do)
we call this day "That Day" because it was just so aweful we can't bear to relive the details.
day eight
today was a fantastic day. we signed up for a thai cooking course!!! they took us on a tour of the market, showing us all the thai fruits and vegies and dried goods and sauces. then we cooked!!! i learned how to make soup!! i never knew how to make soup before!!! it is so easy!!! other highlights included banana spring rolls, spicy glass noodle salad, and this red curry/pumpkin/tofu thing. it was so nice to just relax and be in one building for a day, not to have to hike or take a tuk-tuk or go anywhere. and the food was divine. we got cookbooks so we can cook for everyone now.
then to the train station to book tickets down south. we found a fantastic little guest house in the heart of the old city of chang mai for our last two nights there. this place was so cute, very much like the cool hostels in europe where people actually hang out in them. they had board games, tv and movies, cool music, a pool table, good food, very nice owners. so what did we do? we left the hostel and went shopping at the night bazaar. i got a sarong.
then to the train station to book tickets down south. we found a fantastic little guest house in the heart of the old city of chang mai for our last two nights there. this place was so cute, very much like the cool hostels in europe where people actually hang out in them. they had board games, tv and movies, cool music, a pool table, good food, very nice owners. so what did we do? we left the hostel and went shopping at the night bazaar. i got a sarong.
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