What to say?
I didn't like Bangkok.
During my time in Bangkok I kept trying to figure out how I would describe Bangkok.
My first attempt is that Bangkok made me feel like an ATM; having my buttons pushed by so many hands trying to find the right combination that would have me spit out money.
My second attempt is that Bangkok is like a filthy dollar store seeded liberally with hookers and massage parlors.
In all honesty by the time I got to Bangkok I was rather tired of it all.
I found cities are like coins; dual sides. The first side is the city itself. The second side are the attractions the cities offers. Cities are something that I use, rather than something I appreciate. When I went to Hanoi it was for Ha Long Bay, and the Hanoi Hilton. Phnom Penh was for Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields. The cities themselves held no interest for me.
I found Bangkok had little of interest. The markets were filled with cheap knockoff crap. Seeing an eight or nine year old girl hanging out in front of a whore house with some of the workers was depressing. The Lamborghini and Maserati I got to see there were kind of cool.
The best part of the week was my final day in Bangkok when I hung out at the Siam mall and got to see Avatar in Imax 3D.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Part 5: Chiang Mai
I wasn't quite sure to expect from Thailand, or at the very least, Chiang Mai. Everybody I talked to about Thailand before I left had mostly focused on the beaches, a few ventured as far north as Bangkok, but finding people who had been to the north of the country was few and far between. I did have a few friends who had been to Chiang Mai the previous year and they loved it, but I was still at a bit of a loss as to what I should or could expect. How much like the other places in Thailand that I had heard about would Chiang Mai be?
I found by the time that I got to Chiang Mai that the travel was tiring me out. I found myself feeling listless and bored by everything. Luckily I had booked an overnight stay at the Elephant Nature Park while I was in Chiang Mai, so I had something to look forward to.
My first full day in Chiang Mai I spent wandering the old city and taking in the different temples and places of interest. I found it all rather uninteresting. After all the wats in Cambodia and then even more wats in Laos, the prospect of looking at still more wats was less than appealing. Don't get me wrong, they are beautiful to look at, but they hold no significance for me other than as decoration. Not being Buddhist or having any interest in Buddhism really made the numerous wats in Chiang Mai seem more like an obligation than sites of interest.
The next two days were spent at the Elephant Nature Park, which was an amazing place. To learn about how the elephants are treated in modern Thai culture was a real eye opener. It was also very sad. The opportunity to not only see elephants up close but to feed them by hand, to get in a river with them and wash them, to stand at their shoulder and rub behind their ears was something that one can't truly express in words; it has to be experienced.
The elephant has a complicated place in Thai culture. On one hand it is a sacred animal, much like a cow in India. You find representations of elephants at all the wats that you go to. On the other hand they were traditionally beasts of burden for the people. For much of the previous century (if not much much longer) elephants were used in logging. That all ended in 1989 when the government decided that too much of Thailand's forests had been cleared and a ban on logging was issued. This left the people who owned logging elephants in a quandary; what to do with these expensive animals?
Some were used in illegal logging operations. Some were sold off to legal logging operations in Burma. Some were made into tourist vehicles so that visitors to Thailand could go on elephant treks. Some were trained to perform in shows for tourists. Still others were trained to go begging in the city streets with their mahouts.
The problem with this, and one question that I've never heard a westerner who was interested in visiting elephants in Thailand was, how do you get an elephant to do these things? The unfortunate reality is that they are tortured into submission. Once their will had been broken through day after day of torture at hands of a mahout, they would then be trained for their new jobs. Sure some elephants are born in captivity, so to speak, born to a domesticated elephant, but many are found in the wild and broken.
There was one elephant at the ENP that had been used in an illegal logging operation. She got pregnant and when it came time to give birth her masters would not let her. Instead she was forced to continue working and while dragging a log up a hill she gave birth. Her calf rolled down the hill and died. The mother was heart broken and refused to work. Her mahout shot rocks into her eyes with a sling shot to get her moving again. After a week or two she again refused to work and started lashing out at the humans around her. Her mahout shot out her other eye with an arrow, figuring that a blind elephant would be easier to handle. This is just one story of the dozens of elephants at the ENP. Thankfully there is a wonderful woman named Lek who has made it her life to save these elephants and give them a life.
I don't blame tourists for being interested in elephants or wanting to see elephants while in Thailand. Far from it. I completely understand the attraction, but knowing what I know now, I would strongly encourage anyone who is thinking of seeing these wonderful creatures while in Thailand to do so in a way that doesn't harm them, that doesn't require their torture or continued agony.
For my last full day in Chiang Mai, I went white water rafting. I'd never been and figured that it would be a lot of fun. It was and I'd love to go again. The river I was on was said to be a level 2, so nothing too daunting but there were some fun parts. I even fell out of the boat in the rapids and got a few scrapes for souvenirs. It was a great time.
Having been to a number of cities both during and prior to my travels, I can honestly say that they hold little interest for me. Chiang Mai, for me, will be elephants and little else.
Next: part 6 - Bangkok
I found by the time that I got to Chiang Mai that the travel was tiring me out. I found myself feeling listless and bored by everything. Luckily I had booked an overnight stay at the Elephant Nature Park while I was in Chiang Mai, so I had something to look forward to.
My first full day in Chiang Mai I spent wandering the old city and taking in the different temples and places of interest. I found it all rather uninteresting. After all the wats in Cambodia and then even more wats in Laos, the prospect of looking at still more wats was less than appealing. Don't get me wrong, they are beautiful to look at, but they hold no significance for me other than as decoration. Not being Buddhist or having any interest in Buddhism really made the numerous wats in Chiang Mai seem more like an obligation than sites of interest.
The next two days were spent at the Elephant Nature Park, which was an amazing place. To learn about how the elephants are treated in modern Thai culture was a real eye opener. It was also very sad. The opportunity to not only see elephants up close but to feed them by hand, to get in a river with them and wash them, to stand at their shoulder and rub behind their ears was something that one can't truly express in words; it has to be experienced.
The elephant has a complicated place in Thai culture. On one hand it is a sacred animal, much like a cow in India. You find representations of elephants at all the wats that you go to. On the other hand they were traditionally beasts of burden for the people. For much of the previous century (if not much much longer) elephants were used in logging. That all ended in 1989 when the government decided that too much of Thailand's forests had been cleared and a ban on logging was issued. This left the people who owned logging elephants in a quandary; what to do with these expensive animals?
Some were used in illegal logging operations. Some were sold off to legal logging operations in Burma. Some were made into tourist vehicles so that visitors to Thailand could go on elephant treks. Some were trained to perform in shows for tourists. Still others were trained to go begging in the city streets with their mahouts.
The problem with this, and one question that I've never heard a westerner who was interested in visiting elephants in Thailand was, how do you get an elephant to do these things? The unfortunate reality is that they are tortured into submission. Once their will had been broken through day after day of torture at hands of a mahout, they would then be trained for their new jobs. Sure some elephants are born in captivity, so to speak, born to a domesticated elephant, but many are found in the wild and broken.
There was one elephant at the ENP that had been used in an illegal logging operation. She got pregnant and when it came time to give birth her masters would not let her. Instead she was forced to continue working and while dragging a log up a hill she gave birth. Her calf rolled down the hill and died. The mother was heart broken and refused to work. Her mahout shot rocks into her eyes with a sling shot to get her moving again. After a week or two she again refused to work and started lashing out at the humans around her. Her mahout shot out her other eye with an arrow, figuring that a blind elephant would be easier to handle. This is just one story of the dozens of elephants at the ENP. Thankfully there is a wonderful woman named Lek who has made it her life to save these elephants and give them a life.
I don't blame tourists for being interested in elephants or wanting to see elephants while in Thailand. Far from it. I completely understand the attraction, but knowing what I know now, I would strongly encourage anyone who is thinking of seeing these wonderful creatures while in Thailand to do so in a way that doesn't harm them, that doesn't require their torture or continued agony.
For my last full day in Chiang Mai, I went white water rafting. I'd never been and figured that it would be a lot of fun. It was and I'd love to go again. The river I was on was said to be a level 2, so nothing too daunting but there were some fun parts. I even fell out of the boat in the rapids and got a few scrapes for souvenirs. It was a great time.
Having been to a number of cities both during and prior to my travels, I can honestly say that they hold little interest for me. Chiang Mai, for me, will be elephants and little else.
Next: part 6 - Bangkok
Monday, February 08, 2010
Part 4: Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang was a weird place for me.
I was very conscious of the need to try and conserve money after having to purchase a new one while I was in Vietnam. It was also a place where I had nothing planned.
Luang Prabang is a fairly small place. I went everywhere on foot and got to see a good portion of the town/city. It was a bit more touristy than I had anticipated. I had read that as you go further north in Laos you'll encounter less of a tourist footprint. This was not the case in Luang Prabang.
Don't get me wrong, it is far far better than a tourist trap like Siem Reap. I didn't have children chasing after me begging for money or for me to buy something. I wasn't pestered every five feet by a tuk-tuk driver. I wasn't offered a prostitute everytime I stepped outside at night. Actaully on my final night in Luang Prabang I was walking back to my guesthouse and a guy asked me if I wanted a woman. It was the only time in happened in Luang Prabang and it helped to add a little shadow to what had been a rather quaint picture of the town and people.
Luang Prabang is located at the junction of two rivers; the main river being the Mekong. If you use the Mekong as a reference point as it runs north south, the first street along the river is full of guest houses and restaurants over looking the river. Go over one block and you get a street filled with tour companies, guest houses and restaurants. This is also the street where the night market is held. Given the size of the town, I was surprised by the number of restaurants and guesthouses. Tourism had made its impact known in Luang Prabang.
There really isn't that much to see in Luang Prabang. There are a number of small Wat's, including the one in the centre of town. There is a museum detailing how the Laotian royalty lived. There is a lively night market on what I call Restaurant Row that begins nightly at 5pm. Stall after stall of silk and silver, t-shirts and trinkets. A shoppers delight. But mostly Luang Prabang is a jumping off point to locales further afield. You can make day trips to a water falls, or some caves. Go and visit some nearby villages or go jungle trekking for a couple days.
One place that I enjoyed was a small cafe called L'eterier run by a couple of Canadian expats. They had a good selection of books for sale or loan, a nice menu and each night they showed movies in their loft. Given the lack of festivities in Luang Prabang, I took in two movies with about ten other travelers.
As for the people, they were quite friendly and nice. They weren't pushy or intrusive. There was definitely a slower pace of life here and it can either drive you crazy or give you that pause in rush that you need.
All in all, for me it was a nice relaxing time where I got to wander the town and just rest after more than a week of daily running around. If I were to go back though I'd definitely like to take better advantage of what Luang Prabang has to offer in terms of experiencing northern Laos.
Next: Part 5 - Chiang Mai
I was very conscious of the need to try and conserve money after having to purchase a new one while I was in Vietnam. It was also a place where I had nothing planned.
Luang Prabang is a fairly small place. I went everywhere on foot and got to see a good portion of the town/city. It was a bit more touristy than I had anticipated. I had read that as you go further north in Laos you'll encounter less of a tourist footprint. This was not the case in Luang Prabang.
Don't get me wrong, it is far far better than a tourist trap like Siem Reap. I didn't have children chasing after me begging for money or for me to buy something. I wasn't pestered every five feet by a tuk-tuk driver. I wasn't offered a prostitute everytime I stepped outside at night. Actaully on my final night in Luang Prabang I was walking back to my guesthouse and a guy asked me if I wanted a woman. It was the only time in happened in Luang Prabang and it helped to add a little shadow to what had been a rather quaint picture of the town and people.
Luang Prabang is located at the junction of two rivers; the main river being the Mekong. If you use the Mekong as a reference point as it runs north south, the first street along the river is full of guest houses and restaurants over looking the river. Go over one block and you get a street filled with tour companies, guest houses and restaurants. This is also the street where the night market is held. Given the size of the town, I was surprised by the number of restaurants and guesthouses. Tourism had made its impact known in Luang Prabang.
There really isn't that much to see in Luang Prabang. There are a number of small Wat's, including the one in the centre of town. There is a museum detailing how the Laotian royalty lived. There is a lively night market on what I call Restaurant Row that begins nightly at 5pm. Stall after stall of silk and silver, t-shirts and trinkets. A shoppers delight. But mostly Luang Prabang is a jumping off point to locales further afield. You can make day trips to a water falls, or some caves. Go and visit some nearby villages or go jungle trekking for a couple days.
One place that I enjoyed was a small cafe called L'eterier run by a couple of Canadian expats. They had a good selection of books for sale or loan, a nice menu and each night they showed movies in their loft. Given the lack of festivities in Luang Prabang, I took in two movies with about ten other travelers.
As for the people, they were quite friendly and nice. They weren't pushy or intrusive. There was definitely a slower pace of life here and it can either drive you crazy or give you that pause in rush that you need.
All in all, for me it was a nice relaxing time where I got to wander the town and just rest after more than a week of daily running around. If I were to go back though I'd definitely like to take better advantage of what Luang Prabang has to offer in terms of experiencing northern Laos.
Next: Part 5 - Chiang Mai
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Part 3: Siem Reap
The third stop on my tour of southeast Asia was Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Siem Reap was different from Phnom Penh in a number of ways.
First it was much smaller. It was also much more tourist oriented, which is to be expected when your the main gateway to the Angkor Archeological Park. Hundreds if not thousands of tourists must descend on Siem Reap each week in order to catch a glimpse of these nearly 1000 year old marvels.
My first day in Siem Reap began by taking the boat from Phnom Penh. It took about 5 hours and was comfortable enough but after two days of intense heat and little sleap I wasn't feeling the best. So I checked in, took a shower and had a nap before heading out for a little stroll in the evening.
My second day took me out to the Angkor Archeological Park. The first stop and perhaps the most impressive was Angkor Wat. Simply amazing. Blazing heat and 5 temples took their toll. My third day was spent in bed ill. Thankfully I had an AC room by that point. What a difference that makes.
The third day was spent taking in another 5 temple complexes. All were much smaller than the Angkor Wat complex and so it made for a nice day.
The evenings in Siem Reap seem to revolve around Pub Street. Two blocks of restaurants which are all generally packed with tourists. There are massage shops everywhere and a couple of nice markets selling everything from silver to silk.
There were three things that made my stay in Siem Reap better than Phnom Penh. First was the guesthouse where I stayed. Nice, clean rooms with hot water and AC are a God send especially after a long day in the heat. The owner was a nice guy willing to help with anything. Second were the attractions. Exploring the Angkor complexes was harder physically given the number and heat, but they were much less draining than the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Prison. Third was a nice tuk-tuk driver that was knowledgeable and very helpful. He made exploring the park quite easy.
Never having made a trip like this before I'm learning a bit about myself as a traveler. One of the main things I've learned is that I a clean private room with AC, a TV and hot water. There are cheaper options about (one person told me about a place for $1 a night) but the extra cost is worth it for me. Not that $10 to $15 a night is expensive.
Cambodia as a whole was interesting. Meeting people who seemingly didn't know what the Killing Fields were blew my mind. I would have thought that the people there would be resentful of the west for part we played in helping to subject them to genocide. Perhaps there is some of that lingering in the background; somewhere. But in general the people seem to be too busy living their lives to get caught up in the recriminations of the past.
Next: part 4 - Luang Prabang
Siem Reap was different from Phnom Penh in a number of ways.
First it was much smaller. It was also much more tourist oriented, which is to be expected when your the main gateway to the Angkor Archeological Park. Hundreds if not thousands of tourists must descend on Siem Reap each week in order to catch a glimpse of these nearly 1000 year old marvels.
My first day in Siem Reap began by taking the boat from Phnom Penh. It took about 5 hours and was comfortable enough but after two days of intense heat and little sleap I wasn't feeling the best. So I checked in, took a shower and had a nap before heading out for a little stroll in the evening.
My second day took me out to the Angkor Archeological Park. The first stop and perhaps the most impressive was Angkor Wat. Simply amazing. Blazing heat and 5 temples took their toll. My third day was spent in bed ill. Thankfully I had an AC room by that point. What a difference that makes.
The third day was spent taking in another 5 temple complexes. All were much smaller than the Angkor Wat complex and so it made for a nice day.
The evenings in Siem Reap seem to revolve around Pub Street. Two blocks of restaurants which are all generally packed with tourists. There are massage shops everywhere and a couple of nice markets selling everything from silver to silk.
There were three things that made my stay in Siem Reap better than Phnom Penh. First was the guesthouse where I stayed. Nice, clean rooms with hot water and AC are a God send especially after a long day in the heat. The owner was a nice guy willing to help with anything. Second were the attractions. Exploring the Angkor complexes was harder physically given the number and heat, but they were much less draining than the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Prison. Third was a nice tuk-tuk driver that was knowledgeable and very helpful. He made exploring the park quite easy.
Never having made a trip like this before I'm learning a bit about myself as a traveler. One of the main things I've learned is that I a clean private room with AC, a TV and hot water. There are cheaper options about (one person told me about a place for $1 a night) but the extra cost is worth it for me. Not that $10 to $15 a night is expensive.
Cambodia as a whole was interesting. Meeting people who seemingly didn't know what the Killing Fields were blew my mind. I would have thought that the people there would be resentful of the west for part we played in helping to subject them to genocide. Perhaps there is some of that lingering in the background; somewhere. But in general the people seem to be too busy living their lives to get caught up in the recriminations of the past.
Next: part 4 - Luang Prabang
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)