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Monday, July 6, 2009

The Ruins of Ta Prohm (Cambodia)

We woke up in Bangkok and were immediately on our way to the airport, in a taxi, with spinners. The taxis in Bangkok are pretty tricked out, many our pink, some red, some have huge spoilers, and apparently, some even have spinners. A 45 minute ride to the airport costs about 6 dollars, a small price to pay for racer boy thrills. At the airport we shared some croissants and a chicken baguette with mango juice that was so delicious it made us smile. The food kind of blindsides you over here with its quality. You will be eating at an amazing restaurant and the food will be pretty good, and then in a totally different context, at the airport or on a plane, you will have a sliver of pineapple or a glass of mango juice that simply makes your heart soar. It is so unexpected and random, though always exceptional.

A brief aside. At this point, we have forgotten what day it is. I am blogging about yesterday, which is your today, we have changed time zones 4 times in the last week, and we have had it up to here with the cheap thrills that our malaria medication provides in the form of the unexpected dizzy spell.

We boarded our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia on Bangkok Airways. The flight was an hour long and we were served a sandwich, thai wrap, fruit bowl, juice, water, and dessert. Kristin's family recently flew from Dallas to Hawaii and did not even receive a snack. It is crazy how much better the airlines provide for you over here in Asia relative to the U.S. We took off with Fernando by Abba blaring through the sound system, which, on a flight from Thailand to Cambodia, is about as out of place as Joel Osteen in the octagon. For the record, we landed to Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." The Siem Reap airport is small and very interesting looking. On the way from our airport to our hotel, we were treated to the sights of Cambodia. Motorcycles, free range cows, and a whole lot of smiles was the general fare enroute from the airport. Our hotel, The Le Meridien Angkor, looks like a bad guy's lair from a 70's James Bond movie. It is a cool building, but internet costs $60 for 3 days, and that really pisses me off.

Cambodians suffered a great deal under the regime of the Khmer Rogue led by Pol Pot, and have just began to recover from the genocide of millions of Cambodians. The Kingdom of Cambodia has had time to recover and build up anew and this is evident in the spirit of the people. Cambodia has an extremely interesting history, at one point ruling most of southeast Asia from Burma to Vietnam. During this period, the Khmer (Cambodian) people built some of the most amazing temple complexes in the world, and their capital, Angkor, spread out over an area the size of modern day New York. It was the largest city in the pre-industrial wolrd. This kingdom lasted from the 9th to 15th century. They left the world some beautiful sights, and that is what brings us to the jungles of Cambodia. We visited our first temple Ta Prohm, which has a sort of Indiana Jones feel. It appears as if the jungle has started to take back the the temple gounds, with gnarled arthritic looking roots gripping the fallen kingdom's temple. We had arrived right before closing time so we had the temple to ourselves, and since it had just rained, we had to navigate through puddles and streams to get around the temple grounds. It honestly felt like a video game. We had to assess the risk involved with taking route A versus route B, and then climb, hop, and shimmy our way through Ta Prohm. Our driver had dropped us off and just kind of told us that he would pick us up on the other side, whatever that meant. We struggled to find him, before reaching his Toyota Camry "on the other side," which was more like through 2 jungles, an amazing temple, a village filled with beggar children, and down a long road.

Our next stop was the Angkor night market. We left with bags full of stuff, and it only set us back about $40. We had a spa treatment in the middle of the market with "Doctor Fish." We dipped our feet into a pool of water and hundreds of fish swam about and ate the dead skin off of our feet. It felt strange at first but after a few minutes, it became exceedingly enjoyable. After sharing an Angkor beer and talking with some locals, we called it a night. Our 4:30am wake up call loomed like an albatross, but to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat would be a thing of pure beauty.

A turbo prop in Bangkok - Air Bangkok

Some random goober in front of Siem Reap Airport, note Tweet in

side bag

The drive from the airport

A repair shop?

Our hotel - bad guy compound

Rear of our hotel, they always have people picking grass to insure

that only the best grass is growing

Pool Area

Self timer in the lobby

Our room

Entrance to temple

Walk to Ta Prohm

Luckily our driver provided umbs

Ruins

Temple and jungle

Temple Navigation like Tomb Raider

Entrance

A dark hallway

The Roots

A bas relief

Large Tree

Ta Prohm Temple

The travelers at Ta Prohm

Without us

Kristin the temple crasher

More Bas reliefs

Temple grounds

Overgrown entryway

Looks like hands grasping the past

This place is seriously so cool

Navigation

Road to village

A grass clearing

Angkor Night Market

Doctor Fish

It was really relaxing

Kristin's feet, eaten alive

Hit this with underwater camera

Kristin at night market

Cambodian Street at night

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Bangkok Commandos

Bangkok does not try to be anything that it is not. This city is brutally honest. It is a megalopolis teeming with the lives of around 10 million people, and each of them carries with them a wry smile and bag full of charms. Most of them are selling something, and if you are a tourist, then you are their mark(et). You can feel the population swirl around you as the roads pulse with speeding taxis, trucks, and tuk tuks. It is a tough place to cross the street, and a tougher place not to love for its down to earth gritty charm. This is Thailand and proud of it.

We really lucked out with our hotel booking. Our room is probably around 1000 square feet, and we have a kitchen, washer, dryer, and an enormous bath. The washer and dryer are what I want to talk about. We put a load in early in the morning and went back to bed. Some backstory: when we checked in the evening prior, we were informed of some "light" construction work being done on the floor directly beneath us. About an hour after falling back to sleep, the sounds of saws came to life. We were kind of complaining to eachother, and when Kristin went to check on our laundry she realized that it was not saws at all; it was our washing machine. Truth be told, the sound emanating from this machine sounded more like jet turbines spooling than a saw. It was endlessly hilarious, and since it was our noise, it immediately became less annoying and we were able to fall back asleep. After our first load was done, we put our clothes in the dryer. The dryer must take about 3 hours to dry a load. We did not know this. Since we only brought 2 pairs of super high-tech Exoficio underwear each, and both were in the dryer and still extremely damp, we had to leave for our exploring missing a customary wardrobe staple.

We initially walked a few blocks to get a feel for our neighborhood, and then hailed a taxi for a trip to Wat Pho. Wat Pho houses a huge reclining Buddha statue and is known as the birthplace of the traditional Thai massage. We were going to check out the grounds and then go for a massage. Our taxi driver told us that he was Michael Schumacher from Formula 1, and proceeded to carve a butt-clenching path through the mayhem of the streets. He also chanted Obama for about 3 minutes. As a matter of fact, every single person that asked us where we were from today, shook our hand after we said USA, and proceeded to talk about Obama and how great he is. It is a world of difference compared to the last few years, when I would say that I am from Texas, foreigners would kind of grimace and ask about George Bush. When we arrived at the temple, we were having a great deal of trouble attempting to cross the street. A young Thai fellow told us to follow him, and we did. After that he started to ask us questions. Sometimes when you are traveling, you have to go with the flow. So when a mustachioed Thai man asks you, "How long have you been in my country?" You answer the question and apparently let him become your impromptu travel agent. In a moment, he was hailing us a Tuk Tuk (motorized rickshaw), and after inspecting the drivers license and insuring that he was a legitimate government approved Tuk Tuk driver, we were off. He negotiated our travel trajectory and terms. Wat Pho would be our final stop because the royal family was there and it would be shut down for several hours. This driver would take us around all afternoon for 40 baht, or about $1.17. Now, we realized that this low cost arrangement is similar to hulu or other "free" internet based entertainment that makes one sit through advertisements. In this case, the advertisments were shops, and our driver was very forthcoming about this arrangement. He told us, "Go in that store for 10 minutes and I will get free gas and a coupon. It is good for you and good for me." So we endured the occasional shop for essentially free transportation all afternoon. He had marked up our map with a progression of stops. Temples and markets were the general fare. Our first stop was a temple called Sitaram (we think). And after walking in, and in the wrong direction, we were corralled in by another Thai gentleman, Vince. He told us that we were going the wrong way. At temples, Thais go counterclockwise about the temple and visitors go clockwise. He then told us about that each day of the week has a separate Buddha, and the reclining Buddha was the Tuesday Buddha. He then invited us into the temple to pray with him. He really showed us the ropes and made us feel at home. We prayed at the alter of a solid gold Buddha surrounded by a number of other various Buddhas. It was a very peaceful prayer and lasted about 3 minutes, the wind sort of brought some fragrant warm air in the open windows, and you could hear children playing quietly outside. After prayer, we sat on the prayer mats and talked about life, work, cultural differences, religious differences (he said when he goes to Christian churches he sees Jesus crucified and it makes him sad and scared), and of course, Obama. He told us that the temple houses one of the premier meditation schools in the world, and he had taken the extremely difficult course. It was a very rewarding experience, and we are glad that we met Vince. After that temple, we had some Sing-ha and Thai stir fry, followed by some shops and more temples, and then the sky opened up and started to dump the Andaman sea directly on to Bangkok. We never made it back to Wat Pho, riding in a Tuk Tuk during a monsoon in unbelievably hectic traffic is damn near as exhilarating as it gets We threw in the towel after about 5 very frightening and wet minutes. We paid our driver and boarded a taxi home. After waiting out the storm in our room, we had dinner at Vertigo on top of the Banyan Tree Hotel , 61st floor patio. There is not a better view from a dinner table anywhere. Up in the clouds, we shared lobster spring rolls, fois gras, seared scallops, and tuna tartar with caviar. We sipped champagne and acted like the young aristocracy that we most definitely are not. We are both suckers for a great view though, so I suppose we could endure this level of opulence for one of the best that man has built.

Now I am about to go to bed once Krisin is finished getting her massage in our bedroom. She arranged a two hour massage for about 20 bucks. It is very quiet and looks kind of weird in there. Tomorrow, we leave for Cambodia.