Chiang Mai

Still can't get any pics on the blog and at the moment I cannot even post pics on the picasa link.  Eventually will get it all updated.  

I have now been in Chiang Mai for almost a week.  It is the second biggest city in Thailand.  I completed lucked out on my choice of accommodation.  I am staying quite a ways out of the city in an area called Seraphi.  The lovely Dreamcatchers B&B.  This is an exceptional place.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and will come back for a couple days before joining up with my YTT group at Tao Garden.  This house is simply amazing and A is a great B&B host.  She is French Canadian but has lived abroad for 20 years, most of them in India.  

My time here has been most relaxing with a wonderful location for my morning practice by the infinity pool listening to the birds and chirping geckos.  Little known to me prior to my arrival, Chiang Mai is VERY HOT!!!  So much hotter than KL.  A few folks in KL told me, ah, you'll love Chiang Mai, nice and cool there.  They must have come in the winter.  Chiang Mai has seasons and it is currently summer.  It has only rained once since I've been here and the skies are mostly clear and sunny. In general, it is still quite humid, but slightly less so than KL.  

I spent one evening wandering around the night market.  I took a video and will post sometime when I get a connection that will allow uploading.  This is the great thing about being here during the low season, 50% discount on rooms and the markets are not crowded.  I was told that the night market is packed during high season and you can't even walk through all the people.  It was great when I was out the other night, lots of room to move.  

Chiang Mai is quite an eclectic city with lots of expats wandering around and what I understand to be a large retirement community from Europe.  There is also an AMAZING number of mature white men with young Thai women, many toting babies or multiple children.  Pretty interesting stuff.  Another difference about Thailand since leaving Bangkok, most of the locals don't speak English.  The Thai language has LOTS of tones and almost all phrases and sentences end with a masculine or feminine tone.  The written language is quite unique looking and it helped me to realize that Bahasa was much easier as it is written in roman letters instead of symbols.  I've been staring at the language for a week now and haven't learned a thing.  It is quite pretty to look at but difficult to decipher anything it says.  

A funny story in regards to language as I have had it pretty easy here thanks to the excellent assistance and guidance of my B&B host.  I decided to go to the movies to get a nice break from the heat in the big mall near the airport.  After the movie I decided to go to Tha Nam, a traditional Thai restaurant on the riverfront (Mae Ping river).  Seemed like a simple idea and I even had a map.  The taxis don't have meters and so prices have to be agreed in advance. Many of the taxis are small pickup trucks with 2 bench seats in the back.  Great if you have a big group and are headed out of the city for some sightseeing but not so good if you are on your own and really want the air con.  I finally found a taxi and happily showed him my map, which was in English.  I kept pointing to the location of the restaurant and he just stared at it.  He kept turning the map around and around and finally pointed to one of the temples on the map. I smiled and said "yes, temple" and proceeded to point to the location of the restaurant. Finally I said "Tha Nam" and he got a big smile on his face and responded with lots of tones and the words...Tha Nam...dinner.  I was thrilled and he knew exactly where it was located.  I realized the map doesn't do any good if you don't read or understand English words.  What an interesting concept and a good lesson to learn.  Trying to say the words even if you are not sure about the pronunciation could be all that's needed.  Getting back to the B&B later was not so easy.  

I am disappointed I didn't have my camera as this restaurant was very special.  A huge old teak house right on the Mae Ping river.  They had a group of local young men playing traditional Thai music.  It was really beautiful!  It was a foursome playing the La Sor, Saw Duang, Seung, and Ta Phon, or I think that is what there were.  Traditional Thai stringed instruments and one drum almost like a bongo drum.  What a lovely way to enjoy my delicious prawns, green curry, and sticky rice.  The prawn starter was almost like a ceviche and quite spicy with lots of lime juice and fried shallots.  The green curry was some of the best I've had with three kinds of aubergine in it and not too thick with coconut milk.  YUM!!!

Yesterday I rode a bike to Wiang Kum Kam, some ruins near Chiang Mai with buildings going back to 2527 B.C.  It is was a nice ride and the ruins are quite impressive.  Most of the site has not been dug up yet as it covers quite an area and much of it floods in the spring time. 

I figured out how to solve my Thai visa situation, by leaving the country and coming back via air travel I will get an automatic 30 days visa which will last me through my YTT.  

Later today I am off to Luang Prabang, Laos.  The ancient capital of Laos and on the mighty Mekong River.  

Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it's all written there.__excerpt from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Bangkok

I cannot seem to link any pics to the blog at the moment which is a bit of disappointment as I quite like the little pics in with the writing.  Alas, I don't want to get too far behind...so...

Thailand...no more morning call to prayer from the mahjid but now I here the morning gong from the Buddhist temples.  The sun rises much earlier here which I am loving...always have been been and always will be a morning person.   

My three days in Bangkok flew by although I did manage to get around and see quite a bit.  Bangkok feels hotter than KL which I imagine is due to all the people, cars, buses, tuk-tuks, and everything else.  Bangkok is currently estimated to be about 9 million people with up to 15 mil in greater Bangkok.  KL is only about 1.8 million (with 8 mil in Klang valley) so not surprising that it feels so different.  I stayed in the Sukumvit area which is a bit of everything including apartment buildings, office buildings, huge markets, and luckily for me, lots of public transport including the sky train and MRT.  

It definitely feels more third world than Malaysia...more dirt, more stinky smells, more slums, etc.  No one drinks the water unless they have to where in KL the tap water was fine.  

I decided to make my way to the Chao Phraya river on my first day after spending a lovely relaxing morning with a great breakfast including a large helping of delicious seaweed salad.  Breakfast here is a bit different with a Japanese influence and no nasi lemak in sight.   

Bangkok seemed just like I imagined it would, big and chaotic with a bit of dark feel to it.  I managed to find my way on the MRT to a section of town near the river and I had the ridiculous idea I would find my way to the river front and walk along some lovely path on the river.  Uh...not so much.  I ended wandering around in Chinatown for about 2 hours while I figured out that nearly every inch of river and canal front in Bangkok is used for anything and everything.  Everything from little wooden shacks nearly hanging in the river to elaborate riverfront condos with huge decks overlooking this majestic river. Tons and tons of private docks into the river moving around all kinds of goods.  I finally managed to get out of Chinatown and get to a public ferry at the riverfront.  I took the ferry up to area near the Temple of the Dawn.  After all my wandering, I realized I was too late to go to Wat Pho (the reclining Buddha) and decided to try to find a little hotel/restaurant I had read about called "the Deck" that is known for its fantastic view of the Temple of the Dawn.  It took awhile but I finally found it and was very happy to have my first sip of cold beer (big bottle for less than $2) and look out at this impressive Temple.  The temples here are HUGE and this is one of the biggest.  The river in the foreground is quite a site with its piles of seaweed everywhere and ferries and longboats zooming past.  My pics will not do the temple justice as it is so massive.  I did end up chatting with a lovely young Brit with his Thai wife and baby and he was taking pics with an awesome camera so have to follow up on that one as I have his email address.  

Watched the sunset and then had a delicious meal of papaya salad and Pad Thai, my favourite combo of Thai food.  This was a very unique and interesting presentation of phad thai with an omelette sort of wrapped around the noodles.  It was delicious.  

As there are no trains around the temple, I decided to take the tuk tuk back to the hotel.  What an interesting way to see the city.  The tuk tuks are all motorcycles now where they used to be bicycles.  The poor little driver had to stop and ask directions 3 times to get me back to the hotel.  I don't think tuk tuks are meant to go all the way across the city.  It was all very entertaining.  Some of the fancy Mercedes and BMWs whizzing past seemed to be as amused as I was at the farang in the big city.  

The next day I was off bright and early to Wat Pho hoping to beat the heat and the crowds and luckily it worked.  You can't really believe the size of the Reclining Buddha, it is gigantic!  The feet are really spectacular as they are inlaid with mother of pearl.  The temple grounds go on and on and eventually intersects with the Grand Palace.  

Once the heat really started descending on the temple, I headed back on the ferry and to the skytrain to another part of town where lots of the fancy hotels are and where lots of expats live.  I think I already mentioned this but I am still struck how many Caucasians I see in Thailand, that was simply not the case in Kuala Lumpur...or really anywhere in Malaysia.  

I ended having a 2 hour Thai massage and foot massage in the area.  I really like the Thai massage but it is not particularly relaxing but sure stretches things out nicely.  I had some delicious green curry at a little outdoor cafe and headed back to my hotel early.  Green curry, papaya salad, and Pad Thai...all my Thai favourites and now I've eaten them in Bangkok. I am flying to Chiang Mai as another 10 hours on a train did not sound that great when I could fly in an hour.  

Cheers!

Da Train...the very long train

I made it to Bangkok.  Nearly 30+ hours on two trains and it was fascinating and well worth the longer journey.  

I wasn't even sure I could do it properly as I have 3 suitcases.  I am so glad I kept my nice small rolling bag for all of my electronic equipment as I do have lots of it.  I also have the biggest rolling backpack made that I picked up in KC back in January.  I am able to wear the backpack and pull the other two.  I should have had a picture as I look pretty ridiculous when lugging it all around.  Thankfully the wonderful concierge at the KL Hilton helped me get to the KL Sentral station with all of it so that part was easy.  Getting on to the train, down the escalator and up the steps of the train was a bit more difficult.  

I had a wonderful sleeper berth from KL to Butterworth.  Butterworth is on the west coast of Malaysia directly across from the island of Penang.  I had a blog entry about Penang in the KL blog.  I spent the weekend there in Nov 08.  I had quite a long layover in Butterworth but with all my junk didn't have the energy to go to Penang.  As luck would have it, I met a lovely gentlemen at the KL Sentral station who lives in Butterworth.  I ended up running into him after I got off the train and we sat at a hawker stall having coffee at 4:30 a.m. while he got in touch with his wife to come and pick him up.  Mr Ho and his wife graciously offered to take me for breakfast in Butterworth at a Chinese hawker center that specializes in dim sum.  OMG!!!  Delicious beyond words.  Amazing homemade noodles with prawns and pork swimming in mild Malaysian soy sauce and sambal.  YUM!!! Killer pau stuffed with BBQ pork, steamed rice paper stuffed with all kinds of greens and garlic, fried radish paste, steamed mushrooms wrapped in rice paper, egg tarts, and many other yummy things.  Some of them do not have a English name.  I just asked Mr Ho and his wife to allow me to skip the ones made with offal (parts...so to speak) which they found quite amusing as they said the pig liver is particularly delicious.  I was absolutely stuffed and very thankful for the wonderful new friends I made in Butterworth.  

I boarded my next train at 2 p.m. for the 20+ hour ride to Bangkok.  Luckily, the second class only train was not too bad at all.  I was very smart to reserve both the upper and lower bunk so that I didn't have to have anyone crawling on top of me.  It also gave me some space to keep all my bags close at hand so I didn't have to worry about them.  Traveling in the Golden Triangle and crossing borders makes you want to keep a close eye on your luggage...a tip from my American buddy in KL...and he should know.  

The train ride was really great and went by quite quickly.  The train seems to stop every 10 minutes until the Malaysian border and was filled with Malays who use the train for school and work.  It was interesting to see that ALL the Malay women (wearing tudongs) got off before the Thai border.  The southern Thai region is having some issues with violence against Muslims.  I wasn't able to get a visa in advance as I went to the Thai embassy in KL and they would not process the visa the same day...as it said they would on their website.  Ugh...I knew my horoscope was a bit of an omen when it said "you will do lots of running around today for administrative reasons but will get nothing done." That is exactly what happened.  So now I have a Thai visa that is only good for 2 weeks.  Have to figure that out later.  

The landscape changed immediately when entering Thailand.  Fascinating...no more oil palm plantations, no more mahjids (mosques), and LOTS more padi fields (rice).  As we approached various villages, I could also see the huge and ornate Buddhist temples.  Lots of people getting on and off the train and we seemed to stop in each and every village again.  I had my first Thai beer on the train.  YEAH!!!!  Another thing to love about Thailand....cheap beer.  I fell asleep really early and amazingly slept until the sun was just rising.  I could tell we were getting closer to Bangkok as there were lots more towns and less padi fields.  The architecture of the villages in Thailand is quite different from Malaysia.  As we got close to Bangkok, I got a close up view of the slums and they go on for a very long time.  I know they say the slums in Mumbai are the worst, but these were pretty heavy duty.  I was reminded a bit of my first visit to Mexico City where we saw the slums when traveling into the city.  The rubbish everywhere is pretty scary and seeing people living right next to it.  We had a huge delay just over an hour from the station as something was wrong with the train.  I was lucky in that they finally got us going again and we did not have to change trains.  I did not want to have to mess with the luggage again.  

Finally in Bangkok where I was smart enough to reserve a room in advance.  A bit of negotiation with the taxi drivers and I was off to my hotel.  I think I am more or less in the financial district of Bangkok.  Last night I wandered around and had some delicious wok fried noodles with pork, veggies, and basil...and yes, of course, I had 2 big beers for less than $5.  I have to say, I haven't thought about this much in the past year, but it is really nice to feel like you kind of fit in to the masses and are not in such a minority as I was in KL.  It is rather comforting to feel like it is OK to walk around in tank tops and shorts.  I never minded covering up more in Malaysia and felt it was important to do so to be culturally appropriate, but it is nice not to stand out so much.  

OK, this blogging stuff is time consuming and I need to go out and do some site seeing in the city.  

Cheers!!!  

The Ultimate Malaysia Adventure

What a fabulous trip!!!  OK, we could have used two more days and it would have been great if the air con in the car didn't quit on the second day, but the sights we saw were just spectacular.  

We started out in KL and spent most of one day in the Lake Gardens, including the Islamic museum, the bird, butterfly, hibiscus, and orchid gardens.  We also went to the Saturday night market in my old hood, Little India. Of course, we ate all along the way and never went hungry for a moment.  In fact, I'm not sure we ever got hungry...the food in Malaysia is quite amazing.  I will miss that.   

On Monday we got the car and headed off to Ipoh.  I had my Garmin Nuvi GPS and it was really helpful although do NOT rely on it in KL as it doesn't understand the crazy traffic patterns in the city.  Of course, no one really understands the crazy traffic patterns in the city.  The drive to Ipoh was nice including passing through some of the most amazing limestone rock formations ever.  It looked like something out of an ancient Chinese painting (thx to J for the analogy).  We made it to Ipoh without a hitch and had a simple room above the old train station with a huge veranda looking out into the town.  I was did have a touch of the flu when J & R arrived but found that those bubbly vitamins pretty much kicked it over the next few days.  Feeling a bit under the weather, R got to have her first experience driving around Ipoh town.  We ended up at a Steamboat restaurant, where we ate, you guessed it, steamboat.  If you are not familiar, it is a bubbling vat of broth, usually two types, we had chicken and vegetable broth.  Then you order a whole bunch of stuff to drop into it.  It's fab!  We had the best noodles EVER, which is something Ipoh is known for...awesome noodles.  

Tuesday a.m. and off to the Rainforest in the northern part of the state of Perak.  This is untouched rainforest country up here and is probably the oldest rainforest on earth at 130 million years old.  Thankfully, the Sultan of Perak is known to be quite a naturalist and although we saw quite a bit of logging in the national forest, the state of Perak Royal Belum Rainforest does not allow anything to be disturbed.  I pray that it stays that way as this is some of the most beautiful and wild country in the world.  They say if the Malaysian rhino still exists, it is in this park.  There is also lots of Malaysian tigers but they are rarely seen.  The jungle is unbelievably dense.  It was quite a drive from Ipoh but the North-South freeway in Malaysia is an excellent road.  We did make the choice of trying to find some ruins on the coast and got a bit off track doing that.  Unfortunately, we never found the ruins although we did see some signs, we ended up driving around in circles and felt like we needed to get on the road to our hotel in the rainforest before it got dark.  

The hotel is on Palau Banding (palau is island in Bahasa) in the middle of the Temenggor Lake.  The lake was man made in the 1960's by a dam located at one of the rivers.  They created the dam to chase away communists...or so we were told.  The lake is HUGE and incredibly gorgeous surrounded by pristine rainforest.  This is an extremely remote area of Malaysia (and the world).  We were fascinated that we didn't see monkeys at the resort and our guide to see the rafflesia told us it is because all the animals in this forest are still afraid of humans.  They hide from us which is why it is difficult to see wild animals in the park.  We spent two nights in the rainforest resort and all agreed we could have spent a few more days, so peaceful and the sound of the forest at night is beautiful. The best part of all...hold on to your seat...WE SAW A WILD ELEPHANT!!!  Not in a zoo, not in a reserve, not trained and domesticated, but a real wild elephant.  We had given up on seeing one as we drove around the night before trying to see them and didn't.  So this was on our way to Kelantan (another state) from Perak.  I think I almost scared R to death as we were just driving along and I saw it and screamed and slammed on the brakes. Yes, of course, that is EXACTLY what you are not supposed to do.  Anyway, in the interest of breaking all the rules, we then stopped, turned around and drove right up to him. He was hanging out munching on the grass at the side of the road.  We all noticed when he looked right at us and we decided that was our clue to move on and leave him in peace.  I still keep repeating it...I saw a wild elephant in Malaysia.  I will NEVER forget that moment as long as I live.  

We continued along the way to Terangganu where we hung out for 2 nights before taking the ferry to the amazing island of Redang in the South China Sea.  This has to be some of the most amazing water in the world. So clear and a lovely moderate temperature, you could hang out in the water all day.  Yes, I took this picture from my room...it is not a postcard.  We did a great snorkel trip with 4 stops and saw tons of fish.  I had my first experience with my underwater camera.  I got some decent shots but had a hard time getting down far enough in the water.  

 Redang is all designated as a marine park, they take you snorkeling where the water is quite deep so you don't damage the coral.  This made getting good shots of the fish quite difficult.  I think my favourite is those amazing parrot fish with the aquamarine colours.  The colours are so inspiring.  I sitting here now wearing my Save the Oceans Hello Kitty t-shirt and I sure hope we continue to try and do that.  The coral reefs and all the life in them is very special.  

Headed out of Redang and drove all the way to Fraser's Hill.  This is where we REALLY needed another day but we did it.  The last 2 hours of getting to Fraser's Hill was almost all switchbacks climbing a huge mountain.  It was really our only experience driving late at night so interesting to be in the mountainous jungle in the dark.  There were some pretty amazing sounds coming out of the jungle.  We finally arrived at the Ye Olde Smokehouse Inn and spent a lovely night in the coolness of the mountain air.  This place is an old English tudor house built 85 years ago by some of the Brits when they were in KL as they needed a place to get away from the heat.  Fraser's Hill is only about 100km from KL.  We woke to the birdsong of thousands of birds all around.  It was a lovely clear day and I think we were all glad for the nice long sleep and fresh cool air.  A yummy full English breakfast and we were off again to our final stop in Melaka.  A bit of a delay on the travel as we were stopped on the road while they pulled a truck out of the jungle.  Very interesting indeed.  

I wanted to stuff one more place into our journey and Melaka seemed like the perfect place.  I've been there twice before and really enjoyed it.  I thought J & R would enjoy it too.  We had a lovely room at the Heeren House, right on the edge of the river.  It is owned by Jan and Bernard (she's a Brit and he's a Baaba) and in the Jonker Walk section of town which is the most interesting, in my opinion.  We the best Tandoori we had ever eaten anywhere, thanks to the recommendation of the owner of the hotel.  That is one of the really great things about Malaysia, the mix of Chinese, Indian, and Malay food.  We walked all over the Jonker area, drank some beer, and ate piles of delicious Indian food.  We were going to have some Nyonya food before we left but we all felt sick in the a.m. from stuffing ourselves at the Indian Tandoori place.  

I was very sad to see my playmates go back to the US.  We had a great time and did some amazing stuff and ate like pigs.  Oink oink!!!  J & R were very kind to put up with me and my idiosyncrasies.  Of course, that goes both ways and we are a great travel group.  

I have created a YouTube account, the name is HSGWorld.  Did I mention the awesome flip video my friends brought me from the US?  It has Hello Kitty on it...too cool!  Will have some videos out there soon.  

Here are some pics from the trip:  

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellokittyinlondon/UltimateMalaysianHoliday?feat=directlink

I am that I am.  Off to Bangkok next.  

Cheers!

Chapter 1 - Post 1

Nothing like a new page on the book of life.  

I know some of you have a few questions for me so let's see if this helps:    

I resigned effective 14MAY09 but am on vacation till then so 30APR09 was really my last day.  

I am checking out of the rat race and joining the human race.    

I am homeless, once again, it is really quite amusing not to have a response for..."permanent address".

No partner, no kids, no car, no mortgage, no job, no debt.  I AM FREE!!!  

Brief itinerary for the next 6-7 months is as follows:

My dear friends from Reno, NV arrive in Kuala Lumpur today (2MAY09) and we will be spending 12 days traveling together around peninsular Malaysia including sites of KL, Ipoh, Belum Rainforest, Terangganu, the east coast island of Redang, Frasier's Hill, and Melaka (Malacca).  It should be a fantastic and busy trip.  We will be driving and taking a ferry to the island.  

Happy Wesak Day (or Vesak) on 9May09 - the birth, enlightenment, and passing of the Buddha.  

Somewhere around 15MAY09 I will travel by train from KL to Chang Mai, Thailand and may stop for a few days in a couple spots along the way.  Beginning on 31MAY09, I will be living at the Tao Garden Health Resort in Chang Mai where I will attend a yoga teacher training certification course with a host of amazing teachers.  It is a residential program and includes meditation, pranayama, physiology, and teaching approaches in addition to learning more about the yoga asanas.  The primary teacher of the course is American and lived in Thailand for 9 years and follows an Anusara teaching style, my favourite style of yoga.  I will be at the YTT until the end of June and will leave with a IYT certification.  

Beginning in early July, I will be living at the British International School on the Thai island of Phuket attending the Cambridge English Language Teaching Accreditation course.  This accreditation will allow me to teach English to non-native English speakers most anywhere in the world.  Acceptance into this course was quite a process and included a very challenging grammar test as well as an interview process.  If I pass, I will have the CELTA certification from the University of Cambridge in the UK.  

When I leave Phuket, I will travel up through other SE Asia spots to hopefully include Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.  I need to be in Beijing, China on 22AUG09 when I will join up with an Exodus tour to include Beijing, the Great Wall, Xi'an (terracotta warriors), Chengdu (pandas), Leshan, Chongqing, Guilin, Yangshuo, and Shanghai.  This tour will include 2 full days on the Yangtze River.  I will spend a few extra days in Shanghai at the end. 

 

From the end of my China tour, I plan to work my way back down through the island archipelagos (Philippines, Indonesia) and finally end up in India in the beginning of October.  I plan to start out in Chennai (Madras) and will end in the north (probably on a short tour) to see some of the sites before heading off to London at the beginning of November.  I will take some time to visit my old stomping grounds and dear friends in London (and around the UK).  May the USD stay strong against the GBP.  

Somewhere between the US holiday of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I will make my way to Baltimore Maryland to invade my Dad's space and spend the holidays with my family scattered around the east coast of the USA.  

I do not have plans beyond that but know the next part of my path will be revealed in due time.

The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away, and the weather is clear again.  

If your heart is pure, then all things in your world are pure...

Then the moon and flowers will guide you along the Way. __Ryokan

I will be keeping this post updated with stories, pictures, and hopefully some video.  

I may even open a twitter account...

Om Shanti