powhog's Xanga

11 DAYS IN A NUTSHELL

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:36:23 GMT

Damnnnnn... It's been a while since I blogged. Sorry, folks. I know you all have been waking up everyday at 6am to run to your computers to breathlessly check if I'd blogged, saying a short prayer beforehand, then moaning in dismay when you discover there is no entry. How many keyboards have you mutilated, loyal readers of mine? No matter, here goes.

Gee whiz, 11 days is alot to catch up on. The last time I blogged, I was supposed to go to the Chi Cui Tunnels but alas, I woke up the next day with stinky liquids spewing from both of my respective orfices and ended up in bed all day doubled up in a fetal position while Day and Bren went cavorting in the Chi Cui Tunnels. Damnation! They said it was quite interesting. In any case, Phnom Penh was our next stop. The second we stepped out of the bus (6hrs), we were overrun by taxi drivers - most of whom were working in conjunction with guesthouses for comission - literally screaming and hollering for our fares. They surrounded us at all sides and shoved pictures of their guesthouses in our faces. We fnally selected one Tuk Tuk and off we went to the "backpacker road," that is so common in every city we've been in. The highlights of the Phnom Penh visit, although 'highlight,' seems almost insulting and paradoxical, were the Killing Fields of Choe ung Ek and the S-21 prision. For those of you not familiar with Cambodian (Kampuchean) history, in 1975 (I think), the Khmer Rouge won the civil war against the [aaiiee... forgot the name.. Thon something) army who had itself recently overthrown the Prince, saying his government was corrupt and catered to the rich. In any case, in 1975 the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot (Cambodia's version of Hitler, I guess), sought to implement a communist and classless society which, in contradiction, actually had classes with the Khmer who were darker skinned and with thicker lips enjoying the advantages and with the military assuming almost total power. To do this, the K.R. forced everyone to evacuate every city - Phnom Penh was almost empty for 3 years. This was to bring more hands to the farmfields to grow more rice for this supposedly utopian classless agarian society. They also proceeded to close every school and university, then began killing people. Anyone who wasn't full Khmer, educated, doctors, lawyers - anyone who had the slightest possibility of being a threat. Even people who wore glasses, because this was a sign of intellect. The Killing Fields was one of these mass excution sites. People were bludgeoned to death to save bullets and put into mass grave pits and sprinkled with the pesticide DDT to stave off the smell in addition to ensuring that those who were still alive died from the chemicals. Here, the Khmer Rouge killed 17,000 of the 850,000 to 3 million (numbers aren't definite) Cambodians. There is a monument of skulls dug up by historians after the fact, the pits where the open graves were and a tree where children were stripped nude and beaten to death not to mention a tree where a loudspeaker blared music to mask the sound of the death moans of the dying so the neighbors would remain unawares. It is a truly chilling place. The Japanese bought the place and is now managing it as a tourist attraction and this upsets many Cambodians, although citizens of the country get free admission.

This picture needs no words.

The S-21 prision was a large converted high school that housed at times thousands of prisoners who were chained to metal rods, starved, tortured, made to eat their own shit and all kinds of deplorable things were done to them. It was just so wretched. At the end of the day, we were so depressed and melancholy.

Oh also, we went to the shooting range and I squeezed off 15 rounds from an AK-47. WOW. Goddamn loud, man. It only made me respect the true power and fury of guns, designed specifically to end the life of other human beings.

Phnom Penh

Have more stories to tell about Phnom Penh, but ask me in person. :) After 2 or 3 days in Phnom Penh, we headed north to Siem Reap. The city's name actually means, "Siam Defeated," pretty insulting to the Thai only a few hours away! Seems alot of the guesthoues are owned by european - the ower of ours was Austrian and we ran to him after an even more aggressive horde of taxi drivers assaulted us upon disembarking from the bus. In any case, the purpose of our visit was to see Angkor Wat (wikipedia has this to say: "Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat) is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. The largest and best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre — first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist — since its foundation. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat) I'm telling you, we were BLOWN away. The man-made moat is the largest in the world and is as wide as the freaking Potomac River in Washington DC! The Temples cover an area of 25 miles and it is stupendous. EVERY inch of the walls, ceilings is covered with relief carvings chiseled into the stone. Huge Buddha heads everywhere. I cannot describe it. It is a MUST see. I'm glad we decided to go to Cambodia for this one reason. Cambodia, however, probably contributed to the week-long bout with diahhrea that ensued afterwards. Pure liquid streaming from between my cheeks almost every hour - it was horrible. At least I wasn't really sick in the sense of the word, I just got tired of sitting on the toilet.

Angkor WatOther temple, overrun by jungle.

Angkor Wat - check out the size of the moat! These palm trees in front are TALL, fyi, to give you an idea of the sheer size of the structure.

Then it was off to Bangkok. Day elected to fly straight to Bangkok and then Ko Samui. Bren and I took a bus to Bnagkok were we met up with Jay Bunnag and stayed with him for 3 days. We joined him to a deaf gathering and met some Deaf Thais as well as Noah Beckman who is in Thailand working at a deaf school for 2 months. The next day we paid a depressing visit to an orphanage for 'disabled,' people with some deaf children there. It was pretty decent in the sense of accomodations but oh boy, the staff just sits there and does nothing. It was just sad. Noah Beckman was shocked to see that the teachers at his school don't assign homework, there are no organized after-school activities nor sports teams. After dinner the girls stay in the dorm while the boys mill around outside and play. The girls clean everything in the school. I repeat, no homework. No tests. Aiieee. We'll visit the school on our way back, and I'll report more then. It was great seeing Jay and his girlfriend, they are doing great. I did get sick one whole day when the diahhrea took a turn for the worse and my stomach started cramping and missed a visit to Jay's wealthy aunt. Not again *groans* heh.

Then we headed south, a overnight bus ride then a boat ride to meet Day at Ko Phangan. This is were we have been for the last few days. It is a small beach with a dive center right next door. We went for a warm-up beach entry dive three days ago which was alot of fun... Simple dive. Yesterday, however, was amazng. We took a 1 hour boat ride boat to a dive site called Sail Rock. Pictures below. I am hooked to scuba diving, so I am gonna see if I can dive more before going back to Bangkok. It was simply amazing. I sumberged and was met with an explosion of brillant blue water with a reef that grew on a rock thats about 20m wide.. Fish everywhere in every imaginable color. Clownfish, Angelfish, Triggerfish, etc etc etc. Impossibly multicolored shrimp and lobsters. First dive was 38 mins. second, 34 mins. 15 meters depth ( 45 feet). It was such a rush. If I did this everyday Id never be in a bad mood. On the boat, the divemaster joked, spreading his hands expansively indicating his environs, "How do you like my office aquarium?" The divemaster said I should get training to become a divemaster and come work for him next summer. It might be a fun thing after I graduate in May.

Sail Rock

Sunset I'm about to see. Haad Yao

I think that's enough for now, folks. Sunset now and I m gonna drink a beer and watch the sunset.

ILY

JCT

David Day said: "No place like Saigon."

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:02:36 GMT

for his blog, go to xanga.com/misterdayjr

From Hoi An to Saigon... Cambodia next

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 08:53:09 GMT

Looks like our trip just got more educational. Unable to find a cheap air fare to Thailand from here (apparently it is expensive to fly out of Vietnam for reasons that are probably corrupt or at the very least, machiavellian), we are going the overland route through Cambodia, or "Cam pu chia," as it says on the map on the wall in front of me.

So it is off to Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning, a 7 hour jaunt on the bus. There, we'll see the famous killing fields and the war museum as well as the fascinating mix of past and present in this cultural center of Cam pu chia. Then after a day or two, it is north to Siem Reap, a town of 10,000 but with nearly 10% of the population being of foreign origin. Expatriates? The exiled? Just people escaping the western world? Perhaps we'll find out. There, we will see Angkor Wat. Then it is a 12 hour bus trip to Bangkok, and a short flight or a long train ride (with sleeper berths) to Southern Thailand. The road between Siem Reap and Bangkok is supposed to be incredibly bumpy. This is because, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, airlines rain bribes on officials to delay upgrading the roads so that people will opt to fly from Siem Reap to Bangkok.

Tomorrow, we see the Chi Cui Tunnels that the Viet Cong used during the war. We will actually crawl inside them. Should be interesting.

Since leaving Hoi An, we went to this sleepy beach called Mui Ne. It was nice, a string of resorts, but not crowded. Our guest house was right at the beach. There was a sandy courtyard in the middle of all the doors leading to our rooms, and there hung hammocks hooked up to thick, coconut bearing palm trees. You'd order a coconut juice, and the guy would climb up a bamboo ladder, use a bamboo stick-device to remove a coconut, and come back with a straw protruding from it. Slurp. We booked a 2-hour tour where we sat on the back of motorbikes and they took us to a fishing village, some red sand canyons caused by rainwater and then to some huge yellow sand dunes.

It was low tide at the village and Bren and I were roped into playing some barefoot soccer with the locals. Fun. The sand dunes had sand sledding where you board a thin plastic sheet and sled down the dunes. However, dozens of kids would swarm around you pestering you to rent their sleds. I ended up paying four kids 5,000 dong each - because they all played a part. One packed sand on my sled, two pushed me down and so on. We played around with the cheeky bastards (I guess kids in America sell lemonade and the kids in Mui Ne pester tourists to rent their sleds. I know it's not that simple because they're certainly not renting them from a stand on lush grassy green front lawns, but still, they seemed to be having fun) for a while and returned to our guest house literally encrusted with sand. After two days, it was off to Saigon, aka Ho Chi Minh City.

Saigon has a palatable energy. The roads are busy with motorbikes, it is about 70% motorbikes on the roads here. We have been partying a lot the last two nights, meeting other backpackers and so on. yesterday we went to one of the most depressing places on earth, the "American War Remnants Museum," formerly called the, "American War Crimes Museum." Here are a few excerpts that Bren sent to his family and I couldn't say it better:

"The museum wasn't necessarily well-organized but it succeeded in the same way the US tried to win the war: overkill without concern to human dignity. disturbing pictures were everywhere, from deformed children with three fingers for an arm because they were exposed to agent orange to mutilated children/senior citizens from a village murdered by former senator Kerrey (a navy SEAL during the war; he finally acknowledged the atrocities but several years ago) to confused civilians running around with tragic burns from napalm. I am somewhat glad the museum changed its name because 'American War Crimes Museum,' would have implied that war is not a crime in itself, which would be terribly misleading."

More in my next deafdc blog on this, but it was an incredibly depressing experience. They had on display the dazzling array of weaponry we used to inflict damage on the Vietnamese during the war and it just makes me sad; What kind of race are we in which we continually pour so much energy and money into devising new ways to kill, blow up and maim each other? Take the average US soldier in Iraq today - I read somewhere that each soldier walks around carrying$200,000 (or something) worth of equipment. Sigh.

Soon, we book our bus tickets to Cambodia, the half day tour to tomorrow's Cui Cui Tunnels and then grab some dinner. Tomorrow I will definitely ride a cyclo (kind of like bicycle powered rickshaws - will explain more about the interesting history behind the drivers of these cyclos in my deadfc blog) which is an unique way to experience Saigon. Off I go, fellas.

Peace upon you,

Jesse

Below is a picture - similiar to what I see out of my hotel window of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Motorbikes everywhere! The guy with the blue shirt in the forefront on the right is pedaling a cyclo.

Laos/Vietnam

Tue, 29 May 2007 03:54:18 GMT

Hello folks,

After Luang Prabang, we took an overnight bus to Vienevane, the biggest city in Laos. At first, we didn't like it because it was under heavy construction, there was a lot of dust and grime, plus the heat had started to become really heavy. I think I mentioned this in my last blog so forgive me for being repetitive. In any case, like I said, we met a deaf Japanese traveler and some deaf women, which made our trip to this particular town really fun.

The next morning after we met them by chance, they showed up at our hotel - three smiling Laotian deaf women aged 22, 31 and 32 - astride scooters. We got on behind them and off we went zooming around the city of Vienevane. They took us to the Buddha Park, an about 40 minute ride, and it was well worth it. It was nice to have them around because they explained to us things we wouldn't have otherwise known. For instance, the statues at Buddha Park are donated statues from, and representing their distinctive styles, various southeastern Asian countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Mynamar and Thailand. The one with the gaping mouth and a crown of skulls was from Cambodia and so on. There are pictures on David's gallery for those of you who subscribe to that.

They then took us to a deaf school. It was a little sad. Poor conditions. Indifferent hearing teachers. After we visited with about 10 schoolchildren, took pictures and met again with the girls ( the girls wouldn't enter but elected to wait at a nearby cafe. From what I could gather, they either didn't want any part of the deaf school, or it wasn't allowed or perhaps both. ) There, we asked about the indifferent hearing teacher who simply assigned a student to show us around and disappeared back into her office again. The girls rolled their eyes and one of them made a dismissive wave of her hand. After some questioning, it seems the school does have two deaf teachers and not surprisingly these two are the best ones and were their favorites. So, in summary, Laos' deaf schools seems to have the same problems as American ones do, only amplified by poverty.

That night we went out for drinks. I think we were very exciting for them, as they were to us. The girl who motorbiked me around's name was Andoulay, and she forced me to promise I wouldn't forget her. She seemed to wish they could join us in our travels - she'd never been out of Vienevane and her middle class family prohibited her to work since she was so useful being the family nanny - doting after her various nieces, nephews and cousins. "I can't work," she said, betraying her obvious intelligence and wit. "You DO work," I coaxed her, "Taking care of babies IS work." She smiled and nodded her assent. Sigh.

The next day, we boarded a bus for a 24 hour ride from Vienevane to Da Nang, Vietnam. Only the two-thirds of the bus in the front consisted of seats. The back was boxes and boxes of fruit and God knows what else - burlap sacks of concrete mix, rice and everything under the sun. it was a crazy ride - the bus was basically a cargo bus that happened to carry people. rice bags under our feet, boxed fruit in the back, etc. people were sitting on the aisiles, on top of each other, reclining between each other's legs. We didn't see another foreigner for the whole two days. We arrived at the Vietnam border at 3am and the border opens at 7am! It was in the middle of nowhere in the mountains and everyone spilled out of the bus and slept wherever they could for a while. Then it took us three hours just to enter Vietnam. The Vietnamese military searched the holds and I saw all kinds of things - spark plugs, fuses, ignitions, car tires, barrels, plastic tubs, lumber, you name it. That bus carried everything you could possibly imagine - and humans as well. through the whole thing these incredibly poor hardworking Vietnamese were so amazing - they slept leaning on each other, cradling each other between their legs and on top of each other in impossible piles on the aisles and on top of the cargo in the back. At one point I woke up and realized I had my head rested against someone's ankle - I looked back (I was on the last row) and saw a guy sprawled on top of some burlap sacks and his ankle had spilled over the top of my seat and he had not objected when my head ended up on his ankle. Thankfully, his bare feet didn't seem too filthy. They offered us food and cigarettes and even their toothbrushes. It was quite an cultural experience, let me tell you. David has a nice short description on his latest blog, xanga.com/misterdayjr

After one night at sleepy China Beach, the site where American soldiers would take their R & R and have American style picnics on the beach before heading back inland for more combat, we headed for Hoi An.
It is a gorgeous town and you would absolutely love it. The food is amazing, the town is quaint - French, Chinese and Japanese influence - and the artwork and crafts for sale is all original and beautiful. Yesterday we were mulling over whether to eat at a sidewalk cafe and the woman convinced David by simply using her chopsticks to take a piece of pork off someone's plate and shoving it in David's mouth! The Vietnamese people are something else, I tell ya.

Thats enough for now, I think. This afternoon, we head for Mui Ne, a beach with giant sand dunes, then it is to Saigon. Then we will sadly skip Cambodia and fly straight to Southern Thailand from Saigon to spend quality time there and to slow down since we have been rushing along a little too much. I am looking forward to some serious scuba diving.

Love you all,

Jesse

Thailand and into Laos...

Wed, 23 May 2007 03:00:03 GMT

Well, gee, it's been a while since I've blogged. Sorry to keep y'all waiting. It's been an interesting week. After Pai, we took a third class bus to Chiang Rei, then changed buses to go to the border town of Chiang Khong. These 3rd class buses had hard seats, open windows and swivel fans attached to the ceilings. The ceilings, by the way, were made of reflective aluminum plates. The exterior of these rundown buses are painted in brightly colored stripes, usually green, yellow or red. Our first bus was blue then the second, green I think. The scenery was stunning and in Chiang Rei when we changed buses I was fascinated by the bustling beehive of activity amongst the brightly colored buses and street vendors. I had delicious broad noodles with egg and noodles for like $1.25 USD.

In Chiang Khong, we crossed the border in a small thin boat that we sat on in a single file. Then the whole visa thing took a hour and $30 USD. Then we purchased the slowboat tickets and boarded a relaxed "party boat" downriver.

Laos is an interesting country. Laos is the most bombed country in the history of the world - more to come in my next blog. Laos is one of the least populated countries in the world - 5.9 million (less than Bangkok alone) people in a country the size of great Britan.

Anyway, we spent 2 days on a slowboat down the mekong river with 30 other backpackers from all over the world. Its been interesting. Gorgeous vistas. Laos is definitely more rocky, with rock formations and cliff sides jutting out from the hillsides and mountains. Also there are huge boulders creeping out of the water towards the sky. The rocks are sort of brown, sandstone I think. We'd see these long, flat and thin boats with Laotians setting or drawing these fishing nets. Hillsides with the lone Laotian here and there doing work in the fields. Sometimes you'd see charred hillsides and smell smoke from slash and burn farming. They say in July the boat ride is unbearable - your eyes tear up from all the smoke. After one day on the slowboat we stayed at tiny Pak Beng, Laos and get this - they turned off the whole town's electricity at 10:30pm. They do this every night. I was taking a crap when it happen - I had to wipe my ass in the pitch dark! Being the only one with a flashlight, it was a hilarious scene. Bren and david trying to find me in the dark, me rooting around the floors and my backpack for the flashlight. SO dark, my god. I mean pitch black.

The second day of the boat ride brought us to Luang Prabang, a really nice quaint city in southern Laos. We stayed there for 3 days. Luang Prabang was a really nice town. We climbed several hundred stairs to a wat (buddhist temple) on the top of a mountain in the center of town, and the view was gorgeous. I could see the two rivers that intersected into a V within which the town lies. There were large golden statues of a buddha for each day - "Sunday Buddha," "Monday Buddha," and so on. Interesting. Also, we happened to stumble into a Laotian wedding, which are more rowdier and open affairs. Our beer glasses kept getting refilled and the tables groaned with the weight of food - there must have been 100 people there. They swept us onto the dance floor where they showed us how to dance Laotian - you sway and dance gently to the happy music while twirling your hands in a supine, smooth way. It was truly a blast.

We are in Vienevane on the Lao-Thai border after a 10 hour bus ride on impossibly winding roads throughout the night. They dropped us off at an empty bus station at 4:40 in the morning, just us 3, a Frenchman and two Italian girls. I think we all immediately recognized that we'd be safer sticking together so we found a guesthouse together. It's ok ok but at 5am we didn't have much of an option. At least it has air conditioning, and we bargained so that they didn't charge us for checking in before noon. Seemingly all of this town is under road construction so it is a lot of dirt and dust in oppressive heat, but we've only seen two blocks of the capital of Laos so let's see what happens. Needless to say, it is our home for the next two days while we await and get our Vietnam visa. Yesterday afternoon during the afternoon heat, we found a nice open hair balcony at a bar with a TV and a dvd machine. We watched Platoon and it was so sad to watch a war about the Vietnam war here, in the same region with flies and mosquitos buzzing around, the overhead fan blowing the warm air around us. That was one fucked-up war, man.

Last night we went to this cool lounge filled with Laotians. They were dancing at medium speed to the typical happy music which appears to me, as far as I can tell, to be a happy, light rock heavy on the guitar and bass instruments. This deaf Japanese guy who's traveling the world saw us signing and followed us in. Before we knew it, he had introduced us to 3 deaf Laotians - aged 19, 22 and 31 - who at first declined to join us for drinks citing money but we offered to pay for them. It was so easy to understand - Laos Sign is very similar to ASL. Today we meet them at noon and get on their scooters to go sightseeing as well as visit the deaf school. I'm looking forward to it!

One interesting thing I've seen and expect to see more of in Vietnam is the french influence. The baguettes here are delicious and there are places with delicious crepes sold on the street from carts and such.

Then tomorrow at 7pm, it is off to Vinh (18 hour bus ride), where the former DMZ is. Then its a series of beaches and scuba diving down the Vietnamese coast for a week and after that we head for Cambodia for a few days to see the famous 800 year old wat called Angkor Wat. Then we are hoping to fly from Phnom Pheh, Cambodia straight to Phuket or Krabi, in the southern part of the Thailand isthmus and work our way up to Bangkok.

By the way here's some info I found out from a Canadian named Alia who volunteered at Elephant Nature Park, where rescued elephants live: All baby elephants in the area used for treks take part in a ceremony when they are babies. This is called pajaan. They are locked into tiny cages, poked with sticks and shot with rocks on slingshots. This is used to break their spirit and to drill their names in their heads so they will always obey. the trekking industry brings in so much money that the govt turns its head and even justifies it by calling it a spiritual thing. There is a place called elephant nature park where a woman named Lek rescues these elephants (72 in total now) and tourists come in and volunteer and when they trek, they walk besides the elephants not on them. You can bathe with them and feed them. Next time I am in the area I will do this. I will also write about it in my next deafdc.com blog to encourage people not to ride these elephants who are generally treated not too badly treated but the pajaan is terrible. So, if you want to do an elephant trek, find one where you trek besides the elephants, not on them.

Well, that's it for now. A bit all over the place, perhaps. I got a little confused when I tried to change things around by copy and pasting but I think I got it straight.

PICTURES!!

Thu, 17 May 2007 02:15:42 GMT

David has posted pictures of our trip to date on a gallery online. To view them, go to xanga.com/misterdayjr and make a comment under the posting entitled, "PICTURES!" and simply enter your e-mail address (not pager), and David will send you an invite to his Kodak Gallery.

We go to Laos now. Land of unpaved roads, fried rats, edible dogs and hash houses.

Jesse

My Growing Goatee

Tue, 15 May 2007 05:46:56 GMT

I am 31 years old and this is the longest my goatee has been. It hangs a half inch from my chin now. I feel like its symbolic of my travels - every millimeter grown is an experience gained.

We are in a town named Pai in northern Thailand - north enough that there is a place that sells minivan rides to Nepal and China. The drive here was something else. I've been thinking of a way to describe the hairpin turns because the word doesn't do it justice. If it was physically possible, I'd call them pretzel turns. To compound things, we'd often come up behind covered pick-up trucks literally crammed with people (not an uncommon sight - for instance I just saw driving by what seemed like an entire family on a tiny 50cc scooter with the dad driving, small daughter in front of him, his wife behind him and taking up the rear a grandmother) so the truck would slow down and the driver would accelerate right past it. Often a motorcycle, scooter or even a car would be coming from the other way. It was hair raising at times with three vehicles sharing a space of road designed, barely, for two. On these curves and steep grades, to boot.

Remember these patches of mist off in the distance I spoke of in my blog about the trek? We were driving though them now. Every turn produced a breathtaking vista of undulating hills and mountains with extremely thick and deep green foliage. Layers of fog accentuated these varying levels of hilly terrain like misty wet blankets among the trees.

This was for the first hour. Then we hit some kind of checkpoint with military in uniform at guard. After that it really got crazy. The roads became dirt as we descended towards the valley where Pai is. At one point about ten Toyota Tacoma 4x4s roared past us. They had stickers plastered all over them - some kind of gumball race? I wonder. Long story short, we arrived in Pai, and for 300 baht a night we EACH got our own personal bungalow with a porch, bathroom, shower and a queen size bed with a mosquito net hanging above it evoking images of Cleopatra's bed. That, by the way, is about $9 a night. The town is a sleepy place that attracts a more cooler breed of tourists not the whore chasers or tour groups. Surrounding us are these aforementioned mountains. It's a one stop light town, a grid of maybe 8 or 9 lazy streets with amazing handmade crafts in shops. The food is extremely cheap and delicious. The Thais here don't push their wares at you and interact more freely with tourists.

Last night after dinner at a pizza joint (yes, pizza. the owner is a cool bald hashish smoking Italian from Geneva and the pizza is amazingly close to the ones I ate in Rome) I partied alone with two women from Canada, a dude from Australia and a chap from England. Great times. We hung out at this cool reggae bar where you sit on the ground with triangular pillows and smoke fruit flavored tobacco cakes from a hookah. Finally I retired to my kingly accomodations and had a indescribably blissful sleep.

Soon we rent a bicycle and go to the waterfall. It's 80 baht for a 24 hour scooter rental which is ridiculously cheap but a bicycle seems safer and more leisurely. I'll be meeting up with the people I met last night - soon I head to the tattoo parlor where the girls are getting bamboo tattoos today. It's a 700-year old method where they use a needle attached to a bamboo stick and draw it on by tapping it on you.

I feel like I could live here in Pai forever, seriously. Anyone want to join me?

Jesse

North and Back...

Sun, 13 May 2007 14:34:28 GMT

We just got back from a two day trek. It was really alot of fun. First, we got into this pick up truck with benches on either side of the bed and our stuff in between us. We stopped by this national park with an amazing waterfall. Our guides were really cool. We splashed around for a while then went to a small town with a really cool authenic market. I ate some weird food like fried pork fat and stuff. I ate a cricket later that night, as well. It didnt taste too bad, but I couldnt get the tiny little bug parts out of my mouth for a while. We then hit the trail and it rained most of the way but after 3 days of heavy humid heat, it was a welcome sight. We 3 put all our stuff in my backpack thinking that guides'd carry it for us, but they aren't sherpas so... I carried the 30 pound pack most of the way. I miss backpack hiking wow. Here's some exercepts from my moleskin jornal at the moment yesterday and this morning:

May 12, 5:32pm...

Hill Tribe north of Chiang Mai. Huts scattered over a hillside above a river, a rushing river below me, and also below me a young teen girl wearing a sleeveless Chanel shirt doing some craftwork on some kind of loom. I seriously doubt it's real Chanel. There's a hairy pig tied to a tree with its head buried in a wooden bucket of some kind of grey-brown slop. A wizened old man just walked by with some kind of cone-shaped off-white colored seeemingly hard cigaret of some type. I'm sitting at the edge of a roofed patio with flattened bamboo floor, most of the hut we're in is made of bamboo, actually. The hut has three rooms, a communal bedrooms with futon type mattresses on the floor - mosquito nets are suspended above them. Across the gorge from me is a hillside with dense jungle foilage with mist settling in among the unindentifiable trees. I also just took a stroll through the village and saw two giant bovines of some kind with curved horns tethered to a post and munching ponderously.

STOP

Ok, I admit I had intended to transcribe everything I wrote, but I realized it'd take me a hour. So, long story short, we had an incredible meal and had alot of fun playing around with a little boy, and chatting with out guide, Phoi. His brother was killed when he slept outside and a wild boar attacked him. Charsten, Anik and I discussed about the West's resistance to Eastern medicine and Bren made the most salient point when he joined in our convo later: "The West is obsessed with quantifying things and Eastern medicine is inherently hard to quantify."

This morning, we trekked through heavy rains - refreshing - up a steep hill for a hour, then downhill for about 20 minutes till we reached the river. We then boarded a bamboo raft about 4-5 feet wide and say 20 feet long. The guide used long bamboo sticks to push left and right on rocks or the bottom of the river. We landed ashore and boarded elephants. What a trip. The elephant lowered her head and we climbed onto a wooden seat - 2-3 people per elephant - using her head. I know she was a she cuz she had a baby following her - apparently they cannot be sepearated. We even stopped for a few minutes so the baby could breast feed. We'd walk on the bank for a while, cross river for a while then bank again, so on and so forth. It was so fascinating to touch the elephant - she was so warm and the skin is impossible to explain. I couldn't take my eyes off the baby. Every time we went into the water the baby would splash around happily and completely sumberge itself and thrash around on her side. Sometimes you'd see nothing but the top of her trunk, breathing air. It was so cool and adorable.

After 45 minutes of this, we got back on the raft again and cruised downriver a gorge for abour 2 hours. Gorgeous views, drizzling rain, mist among the trees. By then we'd been completely soaked since about 9am, several hours. But it was a good kind of wet.

Finally, we arrived to a small village where we had pad thai for a meal, changed into dry clothes (in the bathroom), and got back into the truck for a 2 hour ride through a winding dirt, bumpy and muddy road though rustic countreyside back to Chiang Mai. Exhausted, we've been drinking beer, eating and doing errands (dropping off laundry, drying stuff - no dryer just hanging - and etc) in our guesthouse since then. We all have a contented look on our faces. We decided to go to Chiang Pai tomorrow - Carsten's friend from Ireland sent him a long email with some serious information not in the tourist books that we'll use. Apparently Pai is a really relaxed down to earth town that attracts artists and writers from around the world and has some amazing canyons nearby. We'll stay there 2-3 days then head for primitive Laos, land of one (yes, only one in the whole country) ATM and fried rats.

Jesse Thomas - 31 years old from PA

David Day - 34 years old from Miami, Florida

Bren Stern - 24 years old from Santa Fe, NM

Plus 4 travelers we met on the train to Chiang Mai:

Carsten from Germany, 36 years old

Coco from Switzerland, 38 years old

Her son, Greg, 12 years old, from Switzerland

His tutor, Anik, Switzerland, 35 years old

We must've killed 3 redwood trees with our written conversations about everything from western medidicne vs eastern medidcine to politics to life.

An unlikely group but we've really hit it off and have had some amazing conversations plus Coco is thrilled Greg has three guys to fool around with and wrestle with and do guy stuff with. Coco, by the way, founded and runs a surf, skateboard and snowboard magazine (for 15 years) out of Geneva with 35,000 subscribers.

So, to all of you, hi from Thailand. May buddha be with you,

Jesse

PS Rachel, Day says you want us to post more. Why haven't I seen a comment from you, then?? Tab, thanks for your comments. Everyone else, feel free to post comments, they're fun to read. Love you all.

PPS

If there's anything to be learned from Thai people, it's smiling makes you feel good. So, people, try to smile and laugh as much as you can. In the last few days I've seen more smiles and laughter than seemingly my entire life combined. So SMILE SMILE SMILE!

Onward we go...

Sat, 12 May 2007 00:33:01 GMT

If I thought Bangkok was spiritual, yesterday took the cake. Lets back up a bit - Bren arrived in Bangkok two days ago and we took in the madhouse Khao San Road. Enough is enough. I got so sick of seeing western men with thai prostitutes on their arms - they hire prostitutes for a day or two to be their personal escorts and to cater to their every wish. These men aren't lecherous old men - they're young men in their 20's and 30's.

Anyway, we boarded the train to Chiang Mai up north. It had narrow asiles with seats that folded into beds. The food is fresh and cooked to order and they deliver it to your seat. Its a pretty rustic train, though. Bren slept early and David n I went to the dining car and shared a table with two cool young men from Thailand. I was able to ask them about the new government. It seems the people are not too happy; "Nothing, too slow," he said. Oh, before that we met a mother, her 11 year old son and his tutor (Coco, Greg and Anik) from Geneva Switzerland. They're traveling the world for 6 months - just having arrived from India, going to Laos then Australia then Brazil then Chile. Lucky kid. Anyway, back to the dining car, people were drinking, music blaring, christmas lights set up. Windows wide open breeze in our faces, haze of cigarette smoke. We met this dude, Carsten from Germany, traveling alone. He will join us to Laos and who knows - he has an open ended ticket home.

All 7 of us went to the same hostel and will go trekking together. Coco is thrilled that Greg has some guys to horse around with after 1 month with two women. Anik is really cool and smart. They're all wonderful people and we've bonded so quickly it's amazing.

Back to spiritual. We went to this 600 year old wat with a huge buddha statue yesterday and it was just amazing. There was a 'monk chat,' where u can chat with monks. We chatted for about 30 minutes with a really cool monk who's been a monk for 18 years. I couldnt help but feel that he had something I, or we, lacked. Serenity. Sense of peace. An uncluttered mind. His protege, a 22 year old young monk, was reading a book entitled, "9/11 and America." The monks explained the basic tenets of Buddhism, how it is a way of life and different stages of meditation. It's hard to explain, but I was floored and so were David and Bren. Bren's not easily floored but it impacted him alot. I still can't stop thinking about it. Like, I envy them for their inner peace, but what is less a Buddhist ideal than the sensation of envy itself? I shouldn't envy anyone, you know? I should be at peace with myself, my mind uncluttered and in full control of my life. It makes one think, really.

Today, we go trekking to see hill tribes, elephant riding and bamboo rafting. Homemade moonshine and star studded skies. Im looking forward to it. Then we go to Laos with Carsten; his friend gave him a list of recommendations off the beaten path, of which there isn't much in Laos anyway. For instance we can eat with a family by buying the ingredients and they'll cook for us. Will I eat fried rats, though? I'm not sure. I'd rather eat snake.

So, I sit here at 7:28 in the morning in the lobby of our guesthouse writing this blog. I hope this blog finds you well, and I am as good as I can be considering the sweat and mosquito bites. They say when in Rome, do as the Romans, so I'm trying not to stratch nor sweat. Wish me luck.

May peace be with you, and check out David's blog as well - xanga.com/misterdayjr

Jesse the World Traveler with a headband...

BANGKOK!

Wed, 09 May 2007 06:12:51 GMT

Hello from Bangkok!

I just had an absoulutely sprirtual experience. We went to this wat with a 100 foot statue of buddha and bought incense and a flower, took off our shoes, the incense had a piece of paper folded with a small gold chip in it... we placed the gold on the buddha's feet and offered the flower, burned the incense and knelt for like 10 minutes meditating. Hands in prayer pose and all. Its hard to explain. I'm a Buddhist now, man. Its not a religion, it's a way of life.

The food here is incredible. Street food. You walk by and buy, for like 75 cents, a bowl of noodles with egg and hot sauce. better than anything in any thai restaurant in america. The fruit is like wow, too.

Last night we arrived late and ended up at this badass bar partying with other backpackers till like 4am. Our hostel is in this tiny little alley way off the Khao San Road. For more, see DeafDC.Com. Time permitting, I will be sending the first blog to deafdc tonight or tomorrow.

Love you all and may peace be upon you,

Jesse