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My First iPhone App Skin

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +0000

When I went on my Thai vacation, I didn't expect to voluntarily re-skin an iPhone Othello game. But then again, I hadn't expected to play Othello either.

When the iTunes App Store went live, I scoured it for all the decent free games I could find. One of which was Thomas Aylesworth's awesome free iPhone app Morocco. Functionally, everything was perfect with the first version: you could play versus player or AI, the AI was smart, the app loaded fast and played fast. I re-skinned the app and sent the results to the devloper. He got very excited, making me excited. The re-skinned Morocco now has visuals equal in polish to the code. Improvements were made to turn indication, capture animation, and recent move hi-lighting. Improvements were not made in me winning, however.

It is very exciting to see my handiwork on a gadget. Two hobbyists can get together across continents and work on a game, just for fun.

Download Morocco Othello free from iTunes

Dordles 201-208

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:55:00 +0000

Here are a few more Dordles from my lazy days in Thailand. Click for bigger:

Find the rest of my Dordles at http://www.dordles.com

Thai Cooking Class: 1 Day, 6 Dishes

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:20:00 +0000

Yesterday J. and I took a Thai cooking class at Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. According to the promotional literature, it's the first cookery school to open here. Does being first make it best? Read on to find out.

Actually don't. I've only taken one other cooking class here before, so I can't judge. But the class was a worthwhile value at 990bht($33) each. We signed up for Menu 4 that comprised of 6 dishes: Phad Siewe (fried big noodles), Plaah Goong (northeastern style prawn salad), Gai Phad Med Mamuang (chicken with cashew nuts), Hor Neung Plaa (fish curry steamed in banana leaves), Gang Garee Gai (yellow curry chicken), and Kluay Buad Chee (bananas in coconut milk) for dessert.

The class was taught in a spacious carport-like area behind The Wok Restaurant. Everyone arrived by 10AM. The twenty people came from all over the world, but most from France and Taiwan. We talked a lot with an older loopy woman from New Caledonia who wore a permanent joker smile. There was a couple currently living in Oxford who we befriended easily too. While we waited to start, I had a cup of black tea. It made me nauseated.

Greenery at the market.

First was a taxi truck ride to the market to talk about and shop for produce. Then a spunky girl demonstrated how to prepare the first dish. Despite language issues, she tried hard to crack various jokes. Out of context, some of them would have been pretty weird, actually. You could tell she had done these demos many times. She didn't seem jaded, but it was definitely a well-worn routine. After the demo, we'd go to the kitchen and do it ourselves. There would be breaks to eat our dish before getting the next demo.

I tell joke now?

It was fun to watch the different levels of kitchen competence. Some people would take forever just to cut an onion. Others seemed scared of the flame. You felt pressure to be swift though. We had to get through a lot of dishes, and people were wandering around directing you, clearing containers, and setting out new ingredients.

The cooking area.

My cooking station.

Phad Siewe.

Ingredients ready to go.

J. wrapping the fish curry in a banana leaf.

Gai Phad Med Mamuang.

Gang Garee Gai.

Plaah Goong and the banana desert.

Ooops, forgot how to eat. Curry burns!

After sampling all of our dishes everyone was visibly stuffed.

Making thai food is pretty easy. It's all in one hot pan. It's even easier when ingredients are provided and dishes cleaned for you.

After the class, J. and I drove to take a walk at the reservoir at CMU. It was starting to drizzle, so we didn't walk for long. And I felt a little too bloated to be walking much anyway. No dinner for us.

Looking west to the reservoir and mountains.

What appears to be Michael Jackson dance instruction.

A mysterious blue water tower nearly hidden in the forest.

Time to digest.

Walking Inside the Moat

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:55:00 +0000

Friday and Saturday (today), J. and I spent some time wandering around central Chiang Mai. This area covers about 1.5 square kilometers and is surrounded by the remains of an old brick wall and a now decorative moat.

Central Chiang Mai from above.

Most of the central streets are old and narrow, keeping the bulk of the traffic to the one-way streets along the moat. All streets on the outer side of the moat go one way clockwise. Those on the interior edge go one way counterclockwise. There are a few connecting roads on each edge. Generally, the roads keep traffic moving smoothly. But there's always constant activity as vehicles try to get across lanes to cross the moat, or blast through dedicated turning lanes to create a makeshift fast lane. Often the left side of the road has parked or idling vehicles, reducing the drivable area to an obstacle course about the width of 1.5 lanes. Soot spewing taxi trucks are always swerving to the curb to pick up passengers. People on motorbikes are trying to dark across all lanes to one of the moat entrances. As a driver, I feel a bit like I'm swimming among a school of fish.

Saturday, we parked the bike and got some lunch at an open air khao sawy restaurant. It was raining while we ate. After soup, I popped my umbrella and we started walking from wat to wat. Our first stop was an unassuming temple called Chang Taem. It was getting repaired.

The first stop and I already needed a rest. Giants get tired easily.

Further down the road was Ched Lin. The buildings in front were nothing special, but there was a weird looking pathway in the back that beckoned us. We approached and saw a covered bamboo walkway across an old, plant-choked lake. On the other side were monks' quarters, an open air room with desks and chairs, and a very friendly calico cat. I had forgotten my sack of cat food, but it loved being petted.

I felt like I was in Myst. I wasn't expecting this in the middle of town.

The lake and neighboring buildings. Many of the surrounding buildings were on stilts over the lake. To the left are more monk's quarters built into the lake on a pier.

Enormous lilly pads. The one in front was almost a yard across.

Ched Lin's lake made for a peaceful atmosphere. I could have spent all day there, but it was raining and a monk had come over looking for conversation.

Onward to more temples!

Headless Buddhas resting on the base of the chedi at Muen Toom.

A small, restored Japanese truck. I think J.K. would go nuts over some of the small trucks sputtering around this town.

Wat Chedi Luang, likely the biggest chedi in town. Though it's old and only partly restored, it must have been pretty spectacular in its day. Lots of Koreans were wandering around this area. I think they came by bus.

Dragons and elephants adorn Chedi Luang.

These roofers must dream in orange.

I think this would be a good name for a Thai gangsta rap group.

There was a school next to the wat. Some students were getting ping pong lessons.

Here little Auto Boy takes a nap in his taxi.

Something a little sinister about this soggy stuffed rabbit.

A squirrel eating young palm fronds.

By mid-afternoon, we had been drizzled on for most of our walk and were feeling beat. As we headed back to the scooter, the neighborhood was more active than before. Schools were letting out: kids in uniforms poured into the streets, snack vendors sprung up along the exits to school, cars and taxi trucks jammed the streets waiting for their little passengers. It made for some lively people watching.

A lonely kid waiting with a plastic sack full of sausages.

Crosswalk.

Another crosswalk.

The street outside the school where we parked.

Today, J. and I woke around 10, made some coffee and yogurt/fruit/muesli, and drove back to center. This time we stayed more on the northern side of the inner moat, avoiding the tourist ghettos to the east. It was drizzling again.

Firework shaped fountains in the moat.

The wonderful, sagging brick wall on the northeastern edge of the moat. This is called Sri Phum Corner. I don't know why. The bricks look like sedimentary rock layers.

Wat Pa Pao, near Sri Phum Corner.

Sometimes in life, a person has such an exceptionally delicious lunch that even putting adjective in italics doesn't do justice to how profoundly insanely amazing it was. Today was such a time in life. J. and I went to a restaurant on Inthawarorot Road that specialized in boiled chicken served over rice. The place was doing brisk business, always a good sign. The chicken and rice served on their own are quite bland. But this is Thailand, so that won't do. Alongside is a sauce of unknown but sorcery-grade ingredients. These mystery flavors pump insane amounts of intense deliciousness into any chicken they touch. The sauce explodes with tastes of soy and sugar, smoke and salt, citrus. It feels like you are eating the essence of every Thai meal ever prepared since time began. Only he with an open palate can accept this flavor, can become one with it.

The meal.

A weak soup came with our dishes. J. and I ordered two sets of chicken satay with peanut sauce and two Thai iced teas. She had the milky version (the female version), I had the lemon version. The satay came with a plate of sliced onions, peppers, and cucumber in a sweet vinegar sauce.

It was a great lunch for 100bht ($3.12), or any price. Refueled, we re-walked.

Public napping.

J. looking at the women's prison.

The basketball court in the prison.

Wandering down one of the few unpaved alleys in the area, we came upon this small old lady walking home with her cane.

Deteriorated fence.

Abandoned apartment/shopping complex. In the back is a man sleeping in a hammock with laundry drying around him. Either he's squatting or the unfortunate owner of the failed property.

J. and I in the mirrored wall of Wat Muang Khom Thong.

After lunch, it started raining again. We ducked into Wat Muang Kohm Thong and waited for a bit while watching some puppies suckling. It was time to head home.

Dog Cart Lady, Visas, Monks

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:21:00 +0000

Every morning between 9 and 10, there is an incredible ruckus of dog barks on the street. The sound starts quietly from the right and slowly pans past our bedroom window until fading again some distance down the street. Recently, we discovered the cause. A local lady walks to work around the same time with a push cart that's empty except for her three small white dogs. These dogs are the main barkers. From the safety of the cart they are emboldened to bark at all of the street dogs along the route. This causes a volley of response barks and cart following. By the time the lady reaches our apartment, her cart has accreted a mass of orbiting dogs.

This lady's commute is scored by constant barking, but she seems to ignore it. Her walk is slow, steady, and dignified. For her, this chaos is just part of the day. She must walk back along a different route, because the streets are silent at night.

The Dog Cart Lady. I still haven't gotten a picture of her with all the surrounding dogs.

Yesterday, J. and I went to the immigration office near the airport to extend our first visas by 30 days. We had gone a week earlier under the assumption that it would be free, but it was actually a pretty steep $60 each. It went smoothly this time. Our first visas now expire on the 21st of September. This is when we plan to be en-route to India.

After the gouging and stamping, we got some noodle soup and then went to a coffee shop to read and look at maps. We were waiting in the Suthep Rd. area until 5PM to go to "Monk Chat" at Wat Suan Dok. I was getting antsy being inside, so we moved our reading into the temple grounds. I procured two steamed black bean buns and a bag of fresh pineapple slices.

While we were sitting at the benches near the golden chedi, two novice monks came and talked to us. Both where from Laos and taking classes in Thailand at Buddhist university. The first one was a little weird and wandered off. The second stood and talked to us for half an hour about Laos, Buddhism, America, his classes, life in general. His english was fairly good. During the whole conversation, I though of the delicious bean buns resting next to me and getting cold. Buddhists are sort of like Gremlins, they're not supposed to eat after a certain time. It would have been wrong for me to eat in front of him. So very wrong.

When we finally did eat the snacks, they were very good. The bean buns have become a favorite snack of mine, and I get them either pre-packaged and cold at 7-Eleven or served fresh from vendor carts. The filling is a sweet, black paste of beans and sugar. This paste is encased in a moist, airy, and brilliant white dough. The dough nor the bun has much flavor. It's more of an adventure in textures, kind of like eating a detached breast. The fresh pineapple chunks have been consistently fresh, juicy, and delicious. In fact, it's been the best pineapple I've ever had. You basically get half a small pineapple cut up and served with a skewer and some chili salt. If you go light on the salt, it enhances the flavor.

J. and I walked over to a nearby building for some monk chatting. We left our shoes among many others at the doorstep and walked into a room full of orange robbed men sitting at card tables and conversing with a few miscellaneous foreigners. We were led into another room of novices. Most of them were from Cambodia, and those we talked to were taking classes in Thailand because the education was better. We stayed for about an hour. Luckily I had been to Cambodia before, so I had a little common ground to grease the conversation. One of the older novices was very fluent in english. When he was around others were shy. The conversation went along a similar arc to those outside: Cambodia, Buddhism, Thailand, America, classes, goals, life in general. You realize how hard it must be as a Cambodian. All of the horrible incidents that have stunted that country's growth and damaged its soul are bad enough. But its population can look to some of its neighbors, especially Thailand, and see what could have been. There's sadness in the eyes of a Cambodian, a frustration caused by lack of opportunity and collective loss.

I had asked both the Cambodians if they were treated differently inside the school because of all the political issues regarding the border temple. They said not really. It turns out that most of the Buddhist students aren't Thai in the program anyway.

Many of them that evening had come from other Wats to participate. They paid tuition. They were uncertain of their future. Kind of sounds like every college student.

Rain nearly fell as the sun set. The air was thick with humidity. That night there was no fraternity party. Bluto decided to stay home and begin the 8 steps to makes things right.

Getting Some Produce at Warorot Market

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:21:00 +0000

Yesterday, J. and I went to Warorot Market to buy some produce and odds and ends. A fun time was had getting lost in the dense chaotic clusterfudge that is an old-school Thai market. We ate lunch in rundown restaurant that had a crying baby, a toddler walking on a table top, and a cook that was all smiles and wok.

A lot of the merchandise is duplicated and plentiful. It's hard to understand how all the vendors can make a living if they all sell the same stuff. It's especially confusing in the dry goods area, where the displays are nearly kaleidoscope symmetrical. There are also some hilarious knock-off brands. In the jeans area, you can find such famous pants as Levise, Wrengler, Cockers, Chups, Dolf Larem, and many more. In the shampoo isle, it just gets weird with bottles of Pantone, Shine, Baby Puff, and Nature's Milk.

We found what we were looking for and more that day. I looked especially cool walking out into the sun with my new pair of Roy Buns.

The bustling main street between the two main market buildings.

Escalators that haven't work in decades.

Personal care products of mysterious Chinese origins.

Happy children in jams.

At least you can tell what type of meat it is.

Produce for sale by a friendly lady.

Garlic, onions, and peppers.

Here are a few shots of what we bought (not pictured are peeled persimmons):

Custard apples. 25bht/kg

Normal size banananananananas. Most have been the small kind. 20bht

Longan. So good for snacking. Since yesterday, we've eaten a kilo. 20bht/kg

Bael slices. 50bht

Long bean. 10bht/bunch

Carrots. 5bht each

Tomatoes. 10bht/bag

Green peppercorns. Meaning FRESH OFF THE %#@#*NG BUSH GREEN! 10bht/bag

Garlic. 10bht/bag

Chinese broccoli. 10bht/bunch

Green onion. 5bht/bunch

For lunch today, I made carrots with garlic and peppercorn sauce. It was served with sliced tomatoes and fried chinese broccoli with long beans and red curry paste. Not very filling, but more vegetables than we normally have for a meal. I am overjoyed to be able to pop fresh peppercorns into my mouth. It's like pepper, but pepperer.

Of course, vegetables beget crap. For dinner we got expensive and decent cheeseburgers from a place called Mikes. It's weird how here a fast burger and fries costs more than delicious Thai food. Supply and demand at work, I guess. Our burger, fries, and drink combos cost 129bht($4) each.

Everything was normal enough except some weird looking tomatoes.

Tomorrow we extend our visas and talk to some monks. And eat our veggies.

Turn That Smile Upside Down

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:23:00 +0000

Yesterday, I made a horrible song and music video. It has smoove dance grooves and a downlifting message. The beats are pumpin', dropped and dumpin':

The lyrics, if you want to follow along:

Turn that smile upside down.
Turn that smile upside down.
Turn that smile upside down.

Epic Trip to Pai

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:00:00 +0000

It's the journey, not the destination, stupid.

J. and I just got back from an epic motorbike journey to Pai. This small town is about 134km northwest of Chiang Mai, situated in a verdant valley of farms and hut bungalows. In normal conditions, we could have made it there in under 4 hours.

The route. We took the southwestern roads there, and came back on the roads to the north. The brown line indicates dirt road.

But Wednesday didn't go according to plan. We were gassed and on the road around 10:30 in the morning. Our intended route was to head north on Highway 107 and turn left on a shortcut to Highway 1095. But we turned west too early and ended up driving along another valley past Mae Sa Elephant Camp and Doi Suthep Pui National Park. This wasn't a problem, as the scenery was very pretty and there was a junction to a road heading back to 1095. But for some reason, we missed this junction and kept driving west into smaller and smaller towns. We stopped and ate lunch at a restaurant that was deserted. The two female staff seemed confused to be seeing westerners.

Truck loaded with rice sacks.

Valley with bell pepper farms.

Amazing views on our right for one section of road.

Farms were perched on hillsides.

More farmland.

Cabbage truck getting loaded? Photo courtesy of J.'s travel blog.

Driving after lunch, we came to a junction that we thought was the correct one, and we turned right. The road meandered uphill, turning into paving stones, and then just dirt. We assumed that the dirt road was just getting prepared for repaving, so we keep heading along. The conditions were pretty hilarious: muddy ruts and bumpy stone stretches. Going through mud ruts on a two-up motorbike is no walk in the park on level ground, but I had to do this going both up and down hills. The rear wheel of the bike would slip and slide, fishtailing and thrashing. Somehow (Cough. Amazing Skillz.) I manage to make it through. Only twice did my foot have to go down, and only once did the front tire get bogged down, sending J. smashing into me. But we kept on keeping on.

The junction where we became lost.

The start of the paving stone road.

A neat shelter hidden above a bend in the road. We ate a snack here and enjoyed the cool breezes and good view.

We took a detour down a small road just to see where it went. Answer: into the woods.

The muddy road.

Look, more mud.

And more, this time with pooled water.

It was starting to drizzle when we reached a government building in the middle of nowhere. Three guards were smiling at us from their shelter by the gate. I walked over and we tried to figure out where we were. Each town that was supposed to be on the road we were following kept getting pointed to in the valley to our right. Eventually, we mentioned Wat Chan, and they pointed ahead. According to the map, we were on what was and has always been a dirt road between Pang Ma-o and Wat Chan. We didn't know it at the time, but it was a nice 60km of muddy mountain road.

We had already gone too far to turn back, and we figured we could get to the main road again by late afternoon. More slipping and sliding. For hours, I had the bike inching clumsily along at 10km an hour. There was never a moment of easy terrain, and a few sections got so ridiculously bad that J. would have to walk it to make balancing easier. I'd never felt to focused in my driving before, or as tuned to the road. It felt like my bike was a stylus playing a record. To make things more interesting, it was also raining off and on and getting darker.

This mountain road passed through cabbage country.

Cabbage farm shelter.

We stopped to pee near the farmer's shelter pictured above when it started pouring rain. We pulled the bike off the road, and clambered over the fence to go inside. The fence had very large ants on it. We were about to eat some chips when a small old man dressed in colorful farmer's clothes came running up to seek shelter also. He seemed confused but also joyful to find two weirdly dressed foreigners sharing shelter in the middle of nowhere. He tried talking to me in Thai, but I told him I didn't know much. When he asked "bai nai?" or "where are you going?", I had trouble answering because Pai is pronounced "bai" meaning my answer would be "rao bai bai" which makes no sense if the tones were wrong (which when I talk, they are). Instead, I told him we were going to Pai River. After a pause to listen to the rain, I pointed to the valley and said that "here is beautiful." He nodded in agreement.

When the rain died down, he mumbled something and disappeared over the fence. Goodbye little man.

The isolated town of Ban Maew Dong Sam Mun.

J. and I got back on the bike and continued, mostly downhill, as the sun lowered in the sky. We were running low on gas when we reached a beautiful town called Ban Maew Dong Sam Mun. We rolled into town like in the wild west. Everyone was looking at us with the expression of "WTF?" on their faces. There didn't seem to be electricity as far as I could tell, and it seemed like all of the residents were either farmers or in possession of a few wandering cows. We found an unmarked gas station that was basically a shed with manual pumps and a tube. I gave the man in the shed a thumbs up when the tank was full and he cut the pressure.

I felt weird taking a photo of the man and the pumps, but it basically looked like this. Photo courtesy of Flickr.

The gas pumper told us it was only 10km to Wat Chan, another hour in the slop. We reached the Wat town around 7:30. It was dark, but now the roads were paved. The next 50km were just us alone on winding mountain roads. There were no lights, no civilization, only a steady stream of bugs smashing to my visor and chest. J. was on duty as a cow spotter, as cows lingered in herds on the road and came up suddenly in the darkness. Each mountain bend was at risk of revealing surprise cows, which if not seen could make for a pretty bad and memorable accident. This last part of the drive was haunting, like I was motoring through a tear in space.

It was 10PM when we rolled into Pai, almost 12 hours after we started the journey. Our detour had taken us 8 extra hours, 6 of which were on the dirt road. I had trouble falling asleep that night because my mind kept driving in the mud.

The bike after the drive.

Pai is a beautiful town, but new construction is going up everywhere. Some people say that the town is already ruined, but I regard it at the threshold. There is plenty of charm left, and as long as all the beautiful farms don't get converted to bungalows everything will be okay. Hopefully, the residents have sense enough to realize that the farms are what make the valley beautiful. And though a guesthouse may be more profitable than a rice field, you need the rice to draw people there.

Our first day there, J. and I went wandering around the valley on foot.

Pai mainstreet.

The river.

Road into the farmland.

Workers in the grass.

Man with a motorized rice paddy tiller.

Snake that was mere inches from J.'s face when she was reading a sign.

Path along the river.

Papayas everywhere.

View of the valley.

Rice to meet you.

A panorama of Pai valley from Wat Phra That Mae Yen. Click for fullsize.

Thursday night we ate dinner by the river and hung out at a coffee shop playing cards. I lost horribly. We went back to the guesthouse to eat mangos and play cards. I lost horribly again. That night the power went out and the room became very stuffy.

On Friday, we departed for Chiang Mai in the morning drizzle. Most of the route through the mountains was punctuated by power line construction crews, passing vehicles, and downpours. There were regular wooden huts along the road for shelter and we stopped during the heavier rain. Luckily, I brought a plastic sack to put over my camera bag, and putting the package between me and J. provided extra protection.

The journey home took 5 hours, 3 hours of which was in the rain. We were soaked. It was a very unmemorable journey that hasn't made me sarcastic.

Sunny and Rainy and Zoo Days

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:13:00 +0000

Sunday was sunny. But like any sunny day here, it's also a rainy day. J. and I are getting better at predicting the downpours, but that still means getting stranded under some form of shelter after leaving the house. Most of Sunday was spent lazing about the pad, but we ventured out to Wat Suan Dok for lunch. Great food, as before. During our meal, we watched enormous ants wandering around in the planter near our table. These ants were so big we could see their eyes.

After lunch, we wandered around the wat. Dark clouds rolled in.

This puppy was watching a small parade.

Part of the small parade.

Monks watched from above, as monks do.

The parade was stopped by a thick rain. The men in the paper dog suits got mushy and scampered for cover. The downpour lasted half an hour. Afterward, we went to a nearby market to buy some fruit.

Lady and fruit.

Meats! This butcher area was inside a caged room.

I'm not sure who buys batter fried chicken heads. Not me.

Part of our fruit purchase.

Dragonfruit: a more awesome looking version of kiwi that doesn't taste as good. It's fun to eat with a spoon and a little lemon juice.

On Monday, I scouted the neighborhood on foot for a new place to eat lunch. Found nearby was a beautiful garden restaurant with a huge menu, friendly staff, and great prices. We've gone there for three meals so far.

I got fried chicken and curry with fried egg and rice. About a dollar.

The restaurant housed a very large baby.

After lunch, we went back to Wat U Mong to see the bats. They were gone. Rain came and we sought shelter in a gazebo like structure built for the monks.

Chedi.

Old offerings at the chedi's base.

Nearby the temple is a massage parlor E. recommended. J. and I got hour long full body massages for 100bht($3.15) each. I was worried about my damaged toenail, and pointed it out to the masseuse. He looked at it, slightly grossed out, before becoming even more grossed out by how dirty my feet were. I guess I should have washed them off out of courtesy. The massage was good, but this vacation has relaxed me enough already. Surprisingly, my legs were sore.

In the evening, we went to the Sunday walking market. Had some delicious, cheap grub and watched people. It was crowded at that late hour.

Provocative child singer/dancer at the night market. We stayed for three songs, all of which sounded identical.

Tuesday was zoo day. Chiang Mai Zoo day, that is. Animals in cages, yo. While there were a few sad displays with lonely animals, the whole place feels pretty humane. The zoo sits on hilly jungle terrain of the west side of town on the way to Doi Suthep. Long looping and interconnected roads lead to all of the exhibits, and unclear maps guarantee getting turned around. Being Thailand, the layout and organization of the zoo is almost as wild as the animals within. During our visit, there was a lot of construction going on, including the addition of a huge lake side aquarium that looked like the visitors center in Jurassic Park. Since I was there last, a green-tracked monorail had been built. And with it came many new animal areas.

J. at the elephant gates.

Flamingos.

Emu's evil eye.

Colorful, ostrich-sized bird with horned mohawk and rooster-style chin waddle.

While we were looking at cockatoos, they started shrieking. A couple across the road looked at us to see if we were torturing the birds. We weren't, thought we were planning to. The birds announced the rain, and rain it was. Sheets of water cascaded down like rain from clouds, forcing us to run for cover. Like the day before, it only lasted half an hour.

Lunch garbage. I'd say most of the garbage in Thailand is generic food packaging.

Hippo. I'd taken some hot hippo butt shots, with hoohoo, but I though better of posting them.

Capybara. I wish all rats were dog size.

My favorite area was a vast walk through aviary along a river. They basically built a huge tent in a valley and filled it with exotic birds and foraging animals. The pathways were arduous at spots, and because it had rained earlier it was a steam bath. At one point, we came across a dog sized, horned animal on the path. It was eating an ear of corn. It looked at us like it was about to charge, but then wandered into the shadows.

Aviary vines.

Large walkway over a hillside infested with deer-looking animals.

Koala.

Croc.

The zebra and the donkey were having a fight.

Hey Hey, we're the sad monkeys. People say we're moping around.

White lions chillin' out, maxing.

Very noble looking beasts, these lions are.

After the zoo I was very tired. But we got some dinner from the garden restaurant and went to meet our French neighbors for some 9PM "jazz" at a bar near the North Gate. I qualify jazz, because it wasn't very good. For one, it was more rock instruments than jazz instruments. And although each of the players was pretty good, there were just too many to make the jams feel at all organized. It was more like every musician in Chiang Mai came together, forming changing jazz sextets and octets, all trying to improvise for the whole song. Sometimes it was sublime, but most of the time it was cacophony.

J. and I each had a whisky and coke for 60bht($1.75) each. Our neighbors had mojitos for 100bht each.

Today, Wednesday, J. and I are driving to a small valley town called Pai. It's 134km away through mountainous terrain. It should be a tiring but beautiful drive.

Day Tripping, Toe Jams, Confused Pizza Boy

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:06:00 +0000

On Thursday, J. and I ate breakfast, talked to family on Skype, geared up and went for a drive. Our destination: uncertain. Our return date: uncertain. Originally, we planned on heading north and exploring some interconnected national parks. We weren't sure if we could find a place to sleep up there, but we packed a change of clothes just in case.

The 200km(124mi) route.

The first leg of the drive took us up the superhighway near our apartment and then up highway 107 for about half an our before heading east on highway 1260. After another half hour, we turned north onto highway 1001. By then, the highway was really just a two lane road with a shoulder lane on each side for motorbikes, bicycles, dogs, parking, cows, peeing. Highway 1001 is where the drive became quiet and pretty. The towns became sparse, the country side became expansive, and valleys turned into winding foothill roads. The days wasn't hot, though it look like rain would drench us at any moment.

Needless to say, the scenery was amazing. Green nature, the grounding of rustic agriculture. Every gap in the trees was to endless jungle or expansive farmland. There were little towns and dilapidated structures. Birds, bugs, and livestock wandered in and out of view. The smells were of crisp air, plants, burning wood, dung, and water. Despite being in charge of motordeathbike, avoiding potholes, switching gears, not hitting chickens, and avoiding gravel, it was a very relaxing and soul affirming ride.

View of Highway 1260 looking east.

Rice fields looking west from Highway 1001. Endless rice growing, all in various stages of planting.

Low-lying grass huts.

On the hills grew other crops such as corn and fruit.

I took an ear of corn, hoping to try it at its freshest. Unfortunately, it wasn't ripe yet.

One of the top heavy trucks we shared the road with.

We drove down a dirt road to a stream so that I could use the restroom. I'm not sure how anyone could continue with the river that high.

Further down the way was this endless road cut into the yam colored soil. We almost went down it.

We got to the fairly large town of Phrao around lunch. On the map, this town appears to be dead center in the park grounds, but there was no indicator of being in a park for any of the drive. It seemed more like a map technicality than anything of practical concern. I suspect the park was defined long after all the towns were there. There was no apparent place to stay in Phrao, and considering it was the largest town on our route, we figured it was best to head home and sleep in our own beds. Not a lot of foreigners must pass through town because J. and I commanded curious looks. I walked through the small market area and felt like a celebrity. When we sat at the park, people would drive by and look backwards at us with the expression of "What the hell did they come to Phrao for?" We waved back.

A lamp at the park in Phrao. We watched boys swimming in a brown stream as a bucktoothed farmer picked longan from an orchard.

Longan berries.

Rain was imminent for evening. By afternoon, some dark heavy clouds had formed along the western hills. It was time to rush home.

On the way out of town, we did have to stop at a police checkpoint. It mostly seemed like a bunch of uniformed men with nothing to do. Most were sitting around and chatting. We were asked to pull over and a man with bloodshot eyes and crooked yellow teeth took enjoyment in asking us where we were headed to. I said Chiang Mai. He cracked a joke and asked if we planned on going all the way to Bangkok. I laughed and shook my helmet no. I was sure this was all leading to some kind of bribe, but he waved us through with no money exchanging hands.

Workers planting rice.

Just planted rice.

Even more rice.

J. watching me jump across a drainage ditch after taking pictures of rice.

This cow was challenging any passerby to a mean game of one on one. I lost.

The road up the mountains.

Banana blooming.

Back on Highway 107 and heading home.

They look like huts, but are solid straw. This field had a swarm of dragonflies.

Workers harvesting tea in a valley by a stream.

The golden gates leading back into Chiang Mai.

The last 45 minutes of the drive weren't very scenic, and due to more traffic were mentally fatiguing. We reached our neighborhood, went to some food carts and ordered right as it began to pour.

Now what should be order for dinner? Some &*@**&#@&#@ or maybe a nice plate of %&^*(@#?

This short day trip has given us a benchmark for more shorter trips by motorbike. Our next destination will be overnight, and likely to a town a few hours away called Pai.
-

Today was an interesting day, but for different reasons. We woke up fairly early and spent the better part of the morning working on web projects. Hunger rolled in around two and we drove into town to get some food at a vegeterian restaurant I went to 3 years ago on Ninmanhemin Road. We parked, but the bike was sort of blocking some lady's coffee stand. She looked at me with a look of order anticipation. I decided to move my bike, grabbed the handlebars lazily, and started rolling the contraption backwards. Crunch. There was a pain in my big toe. I looked down and saw a split nail and gushing blood. The metal kickstand had cut into my toenail.

It didn't hurt much, but the nail was gnarly looking. I walked the bike to the better spot and sat down on the curb next to 7-Eleven while J. went looking for hydrogen peroxide. She found a bottle and I dumped a liberal amount on my toe. It foamed and began to throb with pain.

Sometimes the sight of my own blood makes me a little woozy. As I sat on the curb, the world began to get darker and quieter. I think I asked J. to hold my hand because I felt like I was going to–

I woke up slouched over with my head resting on a metal barricade. J's voice had woken me up from what I thought was the evening sleep. But nope, I was lying on a Chiang Mai sidewalk in the middle of the afternoon. I sat there in a daze until the colors of the street became normal again. We got up and walked into 7-Eleven to get a cold water. But I started blacking out again, barely able to see the snack aisle as my vision faded. I was able to get out of the store and sit against the wall. I was okay.

We got a delicious lunch and waited around to make sure I was fine before driving home.

The nail, healing.

For dinner, J. and I were feeling lazy. We decided to have pizza delivered, one of the few delivery options available here. We chose a Thai company called The Pizza Company. Their website has a convenient ordering mechanism that make it easy to pick pizzas by picture and customize orders. No-goes were any of the seafood based pies. Other rejected combos included corn, thousand island dressing, and sausage stuffed crusts. We settled on a fairly generic large meat and veggie option with a 1.25l Pepsi. The total cost was 425bht($13). This is a pretty high price for a meal here, at least the ones we're used to. But after not eating cheese and bread for a month, sometimes cravings need to be filled. But J. misremembered the price and said that it would be 495bht. We had planned to tip anyway, so I got out 540bht. When the driver arrived, he told me all sorts of things in quick, incomprehensible Thai. I was handed the pizza and soda and then asked him how much, in Thai. He responded with some incomprehensible number. I handed him the 540bht and smiled. He looked at me dumbfounded, then joyous, then a little confused again. I walked to the elevator with the pizzas as he and the security guard greeted each other. I turned and smiled at him again as the elevator doors closed. He smiled back, still confused.

It wasn't until I got upstairs and looked at the receipt that his expression made sense. The receipt he handed me said the total was only 250bht, the cost of our pizza at medium size without a soda. But he delivered a large(I think) and a soda, so the receipt was wrong. But he didn't know this and must of thought I tipped him the extravagant amount of 290bht($9) when in our minds we only tipped him 45bht($1.4) due to remembering the wrong total, but in REALITY we actually tipped him 115bht($3.6).

I find this all very hilarious, in part because in American dollars these amounts are trivial. But $9 is a ridiculous tip for a pizza boy here. And for the total cost of the pizza meal, J. and I could have eaten 9 modest Thai dishes a piece. But hey, I lost a lot of blood today and I needed the food. Plus, I'm still not thinking straight.

Water, Two Wats, Critters

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:27:00 +0000

Yesterday started like any day: breakfast at home, then a trip to a cemetery. But in this graveyard the plots weren't for Thais. The Chiang Mai Foreign Cemetery is southeast of town, on a road that parallels the Ping River. Most patrons were dead missionaries, but many had no claim to fame other than dying in a foreign land. A few of the graves were from last year, with the oldest being over a hundred years old.

Grave.

Dappled light on a small stream behind the cemetery.

The day was bright and sunny thanks to harsh storms that passed through the night before. J. and I decided to hang out by the river near the cemetery. We situated ourselves at some benches. Some of the sloped dirt bank had been repaired, but it all looked on the verge of slipping into the river's bend. It was a heavy flow day because of the rain. Lots of floating debris headed downstream, including floating plants. Some of them had bunched up along the bank and were swarming with dragonflies. I went to get a closer look.

The river.

Floating flowering plant.

Dragonfly courtesy of zoom lens.

Somehow I was able to photograph this red dragonfly in midair, as it hovered over the water.

As I was walking back along the bank, I noticed two baby turtles. One leapt into the water; the other didn't give a damn. I think these will grow up to be big snapping turtles, but they are currently cookie size.

Rivers make a couple thirsty. We hopped back on the motordeathbike and weaved our way through narrow city alleys until my memory got us to an Indian restaurant. Spicy, cheap, served with hairy arms.

After lunch, we swapped out motordeathbike for another motordeathbike that had a newer front tire. This, our third bike, should be the charm. With new wheels, we sped with sunny vigor along the canal road towards the outskirts of the southern edge of town. This flat, half developed area is bordered by the foothills to the west. It's a wild, weird place. The jungle is getting turned into the Thai version of suburban track homes. But not all of the developments have succeeded and it's common to see huge abandoned buildings getting swallowed by jungle. There are roads to nowhere, cows wandering around, chickens getting chased by street dogs, luxurious houses along cracked and vine overgrown roads. And the new development continues. There are vast shanty towns built in vacant lots to house the migratory construction workers, skeletons of new buildings block old resident's views of the mountains. Every new building seems so questionable, both in construction and its future. I wonder if a new condo is reminded of condo mortality when it sees the skeletons of failed optimism lurking around it.

The open country road. To the left are houses and cows. To the right are rice paddies.

Cattle grazing outside a temple.

More rice being planted.

The ghost condo. Somewhere in those plants is what's left of a paved road.

Town houses getting swallowed by country.

On the way home, storm clouds started moving in. We had enough time to stop at a reservoir near the hills and look out over the city.

J. looking at the reservoir.

Me looking at the reservoir with Chiang Mai behind me.

We stopped to eat dinner right as it started pouring rain. It let up a little by the time we finished eating, so we tried to ride with J. holding an umbrella. I was still getting soaked, so we sought shelter under a bus stop until the rain became a drizzle. By the time we got home, it had stopped completely.

Today, we woke up and didn't go to a cemetery. But we did make coffee using the traditional "sock" method. Directions: Boil water, pour water into sock that's filled with coffee grounds, brew into metal bowl, pour hot coffee into mugs, spilling much of it.

The "sock" method in action.

Most of the morning I spent rescuing two years of guestbook messages I accidentally deleted off my server. Thankfully, MSN had cached a copy of all of the posts. It took three hours to strip and reformat the pages into a tab-separated text file for the PHP script to parse. The guestbook is still down, however.

For lunch, we met my old friend E. at a vegetarian restaurant called Pun Pun inside Wat Suan Dok. Pun Pun is also the name of the farm a few hours outside Chiang Mai that some of the ingredients come from. The rest are purchased through an organic cartel. E. frequents the place and was on friendly terms with the animated waitress. The food was great, and very healthy feeling.

Wat Suan Dok has a large golden chedi surrounded by white reliquaries for the body parts of Chiang Mai royalty.

Most of the structures are about 10-20 feet hight.

Green curry fried rice with veggies and egg.

Colorful salad with veggies and fried flowers.

After lunch it was coffee, it was coffee time. Coffee from a van time. We had honey lattes for 40bht($1.25), from a van.

Coffee van.

E. at the van.

The girls hot hearts on top of their van coffee from a van. I got a leaf, what gives?

After van coffee, J. and I had a confusing visit to Thai immigration. We're still a little unsure of how our visa extension works and why it seems to cost $60. Coming soon will be lots of calendar planning for a visas and other trips. It won't be easy.

To balance the confusion of bureaucracy, we headed into the hills to the jungle temples of Wat U Mong. The complex is quiet and beautiful, all under the canopy of trees. It was built in 1296. The highlights for me are a large pond where people release fish and the crazy brick tunnels under the chedi. The pond is stocked with a bajillion catfish, goldfish, turtles, eels, and other things that were hidden but still making bubbles. There were at least two enormous snapping turtles that would pop their heads out. These turtles were frightening, as they were about three feet long and donning snorting snouts and intense crocodile eyes. They also had the tendency to surface right under you and stare until you looked at them. When spotted, they'd go under. I think they were plotting to pull me in.

The island in the middle of the pond.

You can only reach it via this narrow concrete bridge. When we arrived, people were feeding bread to catfish from it.

The big snapping turtle. I call him "Big Billy".

His brother was nearby and reaching its yam-sized head out of the water to grab a piece of bread.

Cool flowers.

Old stairs up to the chedi.

The walls of the platform are brick and covered with plants. This base has three tunnel entrances that lead to shrine alcoves.

Inside one of the tunnels.

To add to tunnel quality of it, there were bats flying around. Here's a picture I took of one before it flew away. It's a little unnerving having bats flying around you in a dark, cramped tunnel. But it's also very cool. I will go back to U Mong solely for more bat encounters.

The colossus says goodbye.

Any day where I see animals is a good day. Any day where I see bats is a great day. Now it's time to fix my guestbook.

Our Thai Apartment Near Wat Jet Yot

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:42:00 +0000

Last Thursday, J. and I moved into our own Thai apartment. We'll be living there for the next two/three months while we explore Chiang Mai and the surrounding area. By Thai standards, or at least my Thai standards, it's a pretty swank place: clean, austere, with decent furnishings, good views, free "broadband" internet, and air-conditioning. The building is less than a year old and situated in a quiet neighborhood on the west side of town. It's near the old mall, some small restaurants, the university, and the mountains. The neighborhood is called Wat Jet Yot because of a temple of the same name.

Our rent is 8000bht($250) per month. This is high by Thai standards, as the average college grad makes about that much at their job. But looked at through my American eyes, this is a rent bargain. My monthly share for a new one bedroom apartment is $125. Impossibly ridiculous.

Our front door, right against the outer wall.

Bed and balcony. Note the calming hospital green wall.

J. sitting in the dining area.

Cutting mango for breakfast.

The breakfast of choice: mango, banana, yogurt, muesli, and a sock-brewed cup of real coffee. I'll post photos of the coffee sock soon. It's nice to be able to make our own breakfasts now. It makes for a much more relaxing day.

Our view out the dining area window: vacant lots, weird buildings, and a mountain shrouded in clouds.

The main street two blocks from our apartment. There are a few small restaurants, but it's a Thai-only atmosphere. This means all the menus are cryptic and ordering is done only in Thai.

Huge, weather beaten apartments are on a street nearby. A new building is going up next to them. There's a lot of new construction in the area.

I think this kid is living in a temporary shanty town that was built for the construction workers to live in. There are a few of them around, and they all seem too dense and sad to be permanent dwellings.

The new construction is sad, because maybe all of these cool vacant, overgrown lots will be lost.

I'm not sure why this fence was built. It doesn't appear to be guarding anything, and a person could just climb through it anyway.

There are a few fruit trees around the neighborhood, including bananas. One day, I'll poach a few.

Wall with rusted door.

Yesterday, J. and I explored the neighborhood on foot. Our destination was Wat Jet Yot, an aging temple complex built in the mid 1500s. The grounds were very tranquil despite being next to a busy road called The Superhighway.

Two restored small frame vespas parked near the monk quarters.

The main chedi seen through banana leaves.

The buildings were wonderfully aged. Most were constructed of brick and plastered over, with the majority of the plaster missing. I suspect the buildings look a lot cooler in their ruined state than when they were new.

Sculptures on the walls of the main chedi.

Incense, flowers, and candles left in prayer.

Mossy stone walkway.

Some gorgeous cocks guarding a flock of chicks.

Outside of the temple area was playground straight from a safety inspector's nightmares. It was full of rusted metal, sharp edges, and plenty of arm breaking opportunities. Here's a slide made from a barrel.

Figurines in a garbage pile next to a wall.

After the temple, we got lunch in a small restaurant. With the help of a kind old man it was determined that their specialties were khao sawy, noodle soup, or various sliced pork over rice. The man and I tried to make small talk in half Thai/half English. It went pretty well. For some of the conversation he was using a toothpick and shielding us from the procedure with his free hand.

We got BBQ pork over rice. It was fatty, but the sauce was good.

To kill some time in the afternoon, we drove over to the CMU art gallery. The show was crappy ceramics and mostly crappy flat art. But the gallery space is nice, and the grounds are weird enough to see on their own right. Something about the slab concrete buildings feels Communist.

The roof was open. It said they were going to screen movies up there that evening, but it was abandoned when we went. Instead, they were showing them downstairs a floor in a small, heavily air-conditioned room.

Bird head and enormous, bird head eating ants.

Gallery.

Yellow art car, perforated with holes.

The gallery kittens. The orange one was very scrawny from lack of food. And both they and their mother were infested with fleas. As it was still hours from the movie screening, we walked a few blocks to 7-Eleven so I could buy some cat food to feed them. They ate it. Plus, I have extra to carry around to feed other strays.

J. practicing the scooter in the parking area.

Although today when she went out to practice around the neighborhood, she took a spill making a U-turn and got this nice scratch on her arm. Needless to say, this hasn't made me less nervous about her driving in the crazy Thai traffic.

For dinner, we went early to the Saturday walking street market on the south side of the moat. When we got there the street still wasn't closed. But as soon as it did, the vendors scrambled like ants to set everything up. In less than half an hour it was in full swing.

The market.

Soda delivery girl.

Random old chedi crammed between new buildings on the south moat road.

Family of three riding a scooter.

Father driving while mother and baby ride sidecar. I saw two families of four riding single scooters, but couldn't get my camera ready in time.

Pedicab driver reading the paper before the evening rush.

After eating, we headed back to CMU to watch some of the experimental films. Suck.

The all-seeing Chiang Mai eye.

It was another good day. In the evening, I finished Dordle 200 and the drawings for Dordle 201. I get much joy drawing, surfing the net, becoming tired and falling asleep in a foreign land.

Dordle 200!

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:12:00 +0000

Well, I finally unboxed my ink in Thailand so I could draw Dordle 200. I have a few more in the pipeline to keep the momentum going, though I'm finding it hard to Dordle without the angst.

Find the rest of my Dordles at http://www.dordles.com

Doi Suthep and Malls

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:05:00 +0000

Yesterday, J. and I drove up the nearby foothill to see the famous temple of Doi Suthep. The little bike struggled under the weight of two corn fed foreigners, forcing me into lowest gear on a few of the switch backs. The bike seemed to need a gear between 2 and three for optimum RPMs. Gear 2.5 would be called Doi Gear™.

The temple complex was a weird mix of sacred and shops. It wasn't a tranquil mountain top temple complex, at least in the main areas. Tour guides, vendors, chatty people, and plumbing construction added to the noise. Some of the more hidden areas were more relaxing, but as a non Buddhist, the main attraction is the view. And thanks to the fog, that wasn't in top form either.

Dragon stairs leading to the temple.

Detail.

Gold Buddha.

Oil and alters.

The shoe watcher digs for gold. Also, there's some Picasso perspective issues going on in this photo.

Hazy CM.

Here lies some French bigot.

Some orchids growing on a tree.

A few of the many semi wild chickens running around.

Butterflies seemed to enjoy these purple flowers.

Before heading down the mountain, we continued along the road past Phu Phing Palace (Hilariously enough, this royal winter palace is pronounced "Poo Ping".) and up some seriously narrow and potholed roads. A nearly one lane road led to some tribal village. We stopped at a lookout. The air was breezy and cool up there. But rain looked eminent, so we decided to head back. On the narrow road, I put the bike in neutral and killed the engine so all we could hear was bird calls through the rustling trees.

Quiet roads.

Epic view.

Awesome dude.

Shanty town in the middle of nowhere.

Lunch was good.

An electrician on a flexing bamboo ladder near the restaurant.

Tom Ka Gai, a lot of it.

After lunch I bought a cheap guitar so I wouldn't go crazy. It was 880bht($27). It's smaller than normal, but the sound isn't half bad. I call it "Blackjack".

Me and Blackjack.

Dinner was good: fried rice with egg and red curry.

For desert we had a waffle-cone tasting folded desert stuffed with chocolate, banana, sweetened condensed milk. The person after us ordered one with sausage and chicken powder with mayo. No thanks.

The batter was spread in clockwise motion using this special dessert hoe.

Today, we ate breakfast and caught up on news/correspondence via the internet. Afterward we went to Airport Mall to look at books, clothes, and eat some lunch.

Scooter parking at the mall.

Crazy drug trip kid land, abandoned.

Khao sawy kai, a flavorful curried chicken and wheat noodle dish. It's served with onions, pickled cabbage, and lime.

Ours came from the cheap and delicious food court in the bottom of the mall. You get to sit on these little stools around a table with the cooks serving from the middle.

This evening I tried to diagnose guesthouse computer problems. I took a break for dinner, and afterward we roamed the neighborhood and got an iced coffee and fruit for desert. There are a lot of weird abandoned buildings around here. At night, you are often the only person on foot and people look at you with curiosity. There is a property near the guesthouse that has both bananas and mangoes growing on it. When ripeness comes, I'll swoop in during the night and harvest some.

On Thursday, we should be moving into our new apartment. Until then.

Malls, Parks, Tires, Tickets, Markets, Oh My!

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:30:00 +0000

You know you are low on annoyances when the hardest part of the day is figuring out what to do for breakfast. Fresh brewed coffee is pretty common in Thailand, but not nearly as easy to find as it would be in America. Granted, a lot of that stateside convenience is Starbucks. Dollar for dollar, there isn't any place here that will serve you a tall paper cup full of hot coffee. And if you can find a place that sells brewed coffee, it is never paired with a selection of pastries. I don't think scones exist here. This is all too bad, because my greatest joy is a big cup of coffee, a scone (or cimanin roll!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and the internet in the morning. The second breakfast of champions is coffee and a bowl of muesli with yogurt and fruit. There is one place in particular called Cafe Mong Pearl that makes a mean version of this. Unfortunately, they require a morning drive to get to. Until J. and I move into our apartment and can prepare it ourselves, breakfast will be a thorn in our stomachs.

Yesterday morning, I looked out the balcony window and thought long and hard about where to get our damn breakfast. Across the tiled rooftops, my eyes fixated on the huge, ugly brick monstrosity of an old mall called Central Kad Suan Kaew. Would this mall have pastries? Yes. Would it have brewed coffee? Yes. Would we go there by motorbike to get both of those items? Uh, yes. Lady and I geared up and sped there with a swiftness that defies 125cc. We got there around 9:45, a good fifteen minutes before the mall officially opened. Again, J. and I were at a mall before it opened. It's a weird feeling of hilariousness and pathos.

We wandered around the quiet halls as employees began to set up their stores for the day. The pastries were still getting put out, tray by tray in the supermarket. Over the course of an hour, only half of the baked goods had been put out. I think the clerks must have though us insane, but where I'm from the bakeries normally have all their stuff ready before 11AM. During our wait, we picked up two good cups of coffee from a chain and walked back downstairs to find that little carts had now opened selling hot coffee for less. Dammit. But by then more pastries were out, so we bought four and plunked ourselves down in grocery store to eat our belated breakfast.

J. sitting in the yellow lit grocery store.

J. bought a local paper and we drove to a park to hang out a bit.

The lakes in the park are full of fish.

Afterward, we drove down to the large Warorot Market. It is spread between multiple, decrepit buildings near the Ping river and is home to all sorts of food, flowers, clothes, and housewares. With a little digging, I think you could find anything here.

View from an elevated crosswalk connecting the two main buildings.

All sorts of dry goods for sale, from spices to pickled things, herbs to teas.

Each main building has huge open spaces to look down into the food areas below. The upper galleries house mostly clothes and other non-food items.

From the high perch, you often get to see weird view of the action on the ground. This view is looking down in a Blade Runner style cosmetics alley. The booths have wood and cardboard roofs.

Besides bael fruit being in abundance (I bought a bag for 50bht($1.50)), there were huge bags of saffron for sale for ludicrously low prices. The bag in lower left of this photo was around $3.

Toy shop.

Wigs.

Live eels.

Rice.

Meat.

Ping River looking north.

When we finished browsing the market, we walked back to the motorbike to find that it and all the other bikes next to it had been ticketed and chained together. There was a no parking sign that we'd missed. We waited around for a cop to come back and he explained that we needed to walk to the police station and pay a fine. He would unlock it when we came back. So we walked for about 10 minutes to the station and payed the 200bht($6) fine. The two people at the desk seemed to be giggling about issuing receipts. They logged all payments in two separate books and tried (as a joke, I think) to overcharge me. The station felt both bureaucratic and informal. The room we were in was just a bunch of chairs, the people at a desk, a fish tank, a jar of free Mentos, and another man behind a window. I didn't see a computer anywhere. The whole place didn't inspired fear or confidence in the police force of this town.

After getting the bike unchained, J. and I drove around to pass the time until the Sunday Street Market started. Then our tire went flat. This wouldn't have been as annoying if it hadn't happened YESTERDAY too. Luckily, in both cases we were in short pushing distance from repair shops. For another 100bht($3), we had the inner tube replaced, again, and were on our way. This time, we drove back to the rental shop and swapped out the bike. It seems like our old rear tire had been so worn that it was heating up and putting extra stress on the inner tubes. Something to check for next time.

The bike missing it's rear wheel.

High tech repair shop, complete with child labor.

It was dusk. It was market time. We wandered around the crowds of people and vendors. There were many people and vendors. We wandered around them. The people would look at the vendors' wares and then wander. We looked at the vendors' wares and the people wandering.

People and vendors.

These blind men had a pretty awesome band going. One guy played a bucket as a drum, while the drummer in front used his foot and hands for playing the high hat that rested on the ground.

For dinner, J. and I started with omelets cooked in banana leaves. I had mine made with gross white ant eggs. It didn't really taste different, but was a little repulsive to look at.

This kid seemed to be lecturing his father.

The second course was fried noodles.

The market was a total sausagefest.

My idea of fun at markets is eating. In one hour, I had eaten an omelet, pad thai, sweet potatoes, banana shake, coconut juice, and bael fruit juice. I wanted to eat some grass jelly desert, but I was too full. Maybe next week.

Today will be a lazy, but tonight we'll do the same thing we do every night. Try to take over the world.

2 Nights Krabi, 2 Nights Train, 2 Nights Chiang Mai (updated)

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:27:00 +0000

After coming back from Phi Phi, J. and I took two days in Krabi to figure out what was next. Due to laziness, rainstorms, and finding a free wifi cafe, we decided to just sit back and relax. Most of our time was spent getting free one hour wifi tickets in The 89 Cafe next to our hotel. I felt a little guilty staying there for so long, but they needed customers. By the end of our two days, we had amassed quite a few of these slips. For dinners, we walked down to the night food carts near the river again. It was good to get back to eating cheaply.

The bustling food carts of Krabi.

My meal of prawns and ginger sauce.

J.'s meal of chicken and oyster sauce.

My second night's meal with a weird "salad" called yam. Mine was a warm mixture of glass noodles, prawns, squid, onions, tomatoes, spices, and coriander. I'm not sure if I would oder this again, but it tasted fresh.

J. had the always safe and delicious pad thai with chicken.

Our northward travel was arranged by a friendly travel agent nearby. We booked a combo bus/train ticket from Krabi to Surathani to Bangkok. On Tuesday afternoon, were shuttled via haggard minivan to an even sadder private bus station. We waited about an hour before boarding the warm, musky bus from hell.

The sketchiest bus station ever. One bus, a shed, smelly urinals, and all sorts of people lounging about.

The bus looked new from the outside, but inside was a different matter entirely. Various pieces of the ceiling were missing, the air-conditioner vents leaked water. The seats were grubby, the engine lurched and brakes squealed, and the whole bus bounced and tipped around uncontrollably. At least the driver wasn't aggressive; he seemed to know the limits of the machine.

The three hour ride passed through alternating rubber and coconut plantations. Occasionally, there would be cleared patches of the richest red dirt I've ever seen. At one house, a yam colored pig was wondering by the road. He had been wallowing in the red mud.

There were also a lot of palm plantations. Various ramshackle loading chutes were being used to dump thorny, reddish palm tree parts into trucks. I think they must be used for making palm oil.

For no logical reason, our bus dropped us off in the road next to a lone building. It wasn't really a bus station, more of a restaurant. They said we were going to transfer buses before heading to the train station. Our one hour wait was spent with passengers looking skeptically at the hosts and the hosts looking slyly at the passengers. It had a weird, untrustworthy vibe. I think the stop was solely to generate more money for the company, assuming people would get something to eat while waiting. I abstained from chow. I went to the bathroom and while peeing got to watch a gecko eating flies by my head.

The transfer bus arrived as promised, and it was a garish beast. Taller than any bus I'd seen before, this vibrantly painting machine rumbled to a stop. Everyone went up to the second floor because the first was block off. This must have been a party bus, as there were disco lights, a mirrored ball, and a smoke machine mounted to the ceiling. Thankfully they didn't turn them on. They did, however, start the movie "Hitman" for our 30 minute ride. The audio was movie theater loud, with the bass rumbling like engine idle. It was the weirdest 30 minutes on a bus I've ever had.

Update: It took us time to verify, but it appears that someone on the Andaman Wave Master bus rooted through bags in the cargo area while the bus was in motion. J. had nothing taken, but I had about $10-15 worth of Euro/Thai coins taken from a film canister I was storing in the top pocket of my bag. It was the same pocket I keep my passport, and it was unzipped when I checked after getting off the bus. I always have this pocket zipped, so I know they must have rummaged through on the ride. Weirdly enough, I also seem to be missing my favorite pair of jeans. They might have been lost at the laundry in Phi Phi, but I swear they were in a plastic bag with other clean clothes on top of everything else in the main compartment of my backpack. This remains a mystery. Regardless, the lesson is to NOT TRUST PRIVATE BUS COMPANIES THAT CATER SOLELY TO TOURISTS.

Surathani's train station is actually in smaller town to the east. There wasn't much going on at that late hour, especially in the way of food. J. and I passed the three hour wait by watching the numerous tightly uniformed policemen, eating a pad thai dinner from the only stall nearby, and reading. Early in the evening, the station would come to life when a train passed through. Vendors lugging trays of food and drink would walk along the open windows of the third class trains hawking. Policemen would jump of the train and replace those that hopped on the train. All sorts of bells and whistles and announcements would be made. Then after the train rumbled off: silence again.

The train station near Surathani. Our train was supposed to leave at 11:18PM, but it ended up being an hour late. We waited at the end of the platform, talking to a Dutch couple. I was sitting next to a drainage ditch that ran under the tracks and was being used by numerous rats.

The hallway in the sleeper car.

We were traveling first class in a private cabin with AC. Our tickets cost about 1500bht($47) each. The cabin was nice, with clean glasses and linens. I didn't sleep as well as I expected because the air was so cold. It was a 12 hour ride.

Our breakfast the following morning was a pathetic looking plate of toast with jam, an orange (they are green on the outside here), some Tang-like juice, and an instant coffee. Not the breakfast of champions. But it was nice to have toast again.

Me, looking out the window. (Though I'm secretly looking at my reflection and noticing how tan and handsome and modest I is.)

Our train got into Bangkok's Hualamphong Station around noon the following day. We purchased our set of tickets to Chiang Mai and bunkered down in waiting area until our 7:30PM train out. Time passed fairly quickly thanks to snacks, cards, and people watching. A lot of other people were sitting with us on the floor. We had planned on visiting A. at the U.S. Embassy, but bag storage at the station was unsecured and pricey and our bags wouldn't have been easily allowed into paranoid country HQ. I hear they have a decent Thai/American cafeteria though. Instead we ate at the train station cafeteria and assorted snack shops. I got my first paper cup of real coffee too from the Thai equivalent of Starbucks called Black Canyon Coffee. It was beyond piping hot.

The area we waited in Hualaphong.

Waiting for our train to come at platform 10.

Unfortunately, our train was only three cars long and was sold out of sleepers. Instead, we got economy tickets in a bus-like cabin. As you can imagine, this wasn't nearly as glamorous as our other ride. But weirdly enough, there was an attendant that served not only dinner (a weird tray of spicy mystery and rice), but drinks and a breakfast snack (all free). Plus, our car had an option of squat or regular style toilets, a step up from the terrifying stainless steel hole in the last train. We slept horribly. I proped my legs up on a tray, along the window, against my chest. I put my head on the tray, my feet on the ground. I tried turning sideways. There was just no comfortable way to sleep while in a chair. The Thai people seemed to have an easier time with it. I looked at them enviously on my trips to the bathroom. It was a 12 hour ride.

J. sleeping, or trying to.

We arrived in Chiang Mai around 8AM on Thursday. Promptly, we shuttled via taxi-truck to the guesthouse, chatted with my friend who owns the place, met her 2 year old son, showered, and then got down to business...if you know what I mean. And what I mean is, we walked to get a motorbike and helmets. Everyone calls them motorbikes, but to me that means motorcycle, like a Harley or crotch rocket. But in Thailand, it's far more likely to be an imported auto/semi-auto scooter. All vehicles over 125cc have import restrictions, so that's about as fast as you can get economically. The scooter is a 125cc Honda Dream, color blue (photos soon). Our helmets are of the trustworthy "Space Crown" brand. It's what the Thai astronauts wear!

J. riding in the songtaew from the train station.

Black Jack is back and ready to talk some smack, smoke crack and whack a tack into the backs of some chaps!

Once we had wheels, possibilities opened up to us, like a road opens up to a vehicle that will travel on it. First we drove around my old neighborhood to get some food at a hole in the wall I went to a lot. Then we meandered around the neighborhoods, heading back to take a nap. For dinner, we drove around the university campus and settled on a bustling road on its backside. The road was lined with cheap carts, throngs of students, and tons of motorbike traffic. We picked up some items and drove back into campus to eat on the basketball court bleachers.

Omelets for dinner?! ONLY IN THAILAND!!!

Good old, ass kicking hot papaya salad in numerous plastic sacks.

This batch was served northern style, complete with three pickled crabs. I didn't eat them, as they work as laxatives.

During dinner we watched university students playing basketball.

Rambutan fruit, one of two 1/2 kilos of fruit we got to snack on. I'll be doing a post specifically about fruit soon.

Our second day in Chiang Mai was spent searching for an apartment. In the morning we browsed internet listing and sending emails. In the afternoon, we went to a real estate office nearby that was staffed with friendly, and slightly confused femaninas. We arranged to meet them at a unit on Saturday. For lunch, we went to a nice sit down restaurant near where I used to live. It's called The Boat, and it has a full menu of thai/american/dessert.

Huay Kaew Rd. outside The Boat looking towards the mountain.

The road leading to where I used to live. Three years ago, there weren't any buildings at this intersection. Now it is full of well-worn generic Thai architecture. It's weird how even new Thai buildings look old.

Thai style power lines near the restaurant. And these are new wiring maintained by the government. You can only imagine how crazy the wiring gets when it goes into private hands.

My lunch at The Boat restaurant. I used to get this dish a lot, for beef reasons. It's basically green curry paste fried with beef and veggies. So good and under a dollar.

After lunch, we rendezvoused with a plump, bucktoothed Thai lady. From our meeting point at a bank, we walked to look at three lackluster rooms in a large condo building. Great views, no internet, decent prices. She had another unit available a little further away, so we followed her by motorbike. Chasing her through traffic and down narrow winding streets made us feel a bit like being secret agents. She only looked back once.

The apartment she showed us was a fair price, great location, and quite awesome. I don't want to jinx getting it though. She said it would likely be taken soon, but I suspect it's just realtor talk. I think Thailand is rolling in vacant apartments, judging by how many condo towers there are.

Regardless, we should be finding a place soon.

For dinner we had a meager soup, but for dessert...MILK ZONE!!! Whoop!

Milkzone be the dope! All milky and zoney and shit. Many a nightz, I be hanging there years back with my Huay Kaew homies.

Check it, J. Dawg supped on Coconut icecreamz with clear jelly

Then I be munchin' da same icecreamz on a thick, rich slab of Chinese grass jelly straight from da can.

Then we got our crunch on, toast style with deez Thai custard and peanut butta topped biaches. Dats breads, for desert, in yo mouth, suckas.

It feels good to be in Chiang Mai, but also confusing. I've fallen back into a special dreamworld from my past. It doesn't seem quite real yet. My goals are unclear, my lodgings unclear. Everything is very uncertain but very casual. For real doh.

In be doing business with people today, I be reminded of how laid back everyone is. You wander into someone's work and they treat you like a friend or show you all over the place. Nobody seems to care much about anything too much, except being happy. This smooth atmosphere is easy to get sucked into, and is itself a vacation from the hectic, pointless stress of the other world back home. You know it!

Koh Phi Phi Don

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:34:00 +0000

J. and arrived on the island of Phi Phi Don three days ago with high hopes. That morning, we were able to get a crowded boat from Rai Leh East for 390bht($12) a person. As the waters were shallow at the beach, two longtail boats full of people had to rendezvous with the larger ship at deeper water. The trip was two hours over grey, but smooth water. It drizzled and remained overcast. We chatted for most of the ride with an American from Sonoma, California. She was on her way to Indonesia after the island.

Around noon, the boat pulled around the edge of the island and into the crowded harbor. While construction of a new pier is almost complete, all boats still unload at a temporary pier. That area is a mess of activity. As everything has to be brought to the island, all kinds of food, construction supplies, and furnishing get unloaded into a constant stream of shellshocked tourists that spill off boats. The pier's surface is made of boards, many of which have broken and then patched. There are still plenty of gaping holes that an inattentive tourist could lose their leg to. Beneath all the commotion is the emerald clear water lapping at the boats. All manner of tropical fish mingle with bilge water and small iridescent oil slicks.

Lifesaver and grey ocean.

One of many fishing boats.

A group of Thai fisherman heading out to sea.

Three kids playing in a dingy. The kid in front was somehow able to eat a bag of chips and a box of pokky sticks without getting them soaked.

The hustle and bustle on the temporary pier.

Ships docking for the night. I like how they line up from big to small.

It's not a well made pier.

Fish eating algae off a boat's anchor rope.

Our first concern was finding a place to stay and drop of our bags. We cut our load in half by storing non essentials in Krabi, but were still burdened by packs and duffels. For about an hour, we walked around and compared guesthouses. All of the prices seemed high, and the better values had sold out. We settled, begrudgingly on a 400bht room next to an internet cafe. The room was charmless, but the proprietor was friendly. The bed sounded like a sack of river rocks, but there was a hot shower.

After some arguments and sour moods that morning, we showered, got some lunch, and sat down to figure out what to do.

I visited Phi Phi Don three years ago with C. and his sister. From what I remember, C. was recovering from being sick, so I'm not sure what we did on that visit. But I had vivid memories of arriving and walking through the haunting, empty part of the sandbar that hadn't yet been rebuilt after the tsunami. By that time, the debris had been cleared, but at least half of the development was washed away. Not so on this visit. While there was still a flurry of construction, that area had been largely rebuilt and more shops had sprung up everywhere.

While Phi Phi is a great story of recovery, it also felt kind of sad to be there. There is nothing to the island besides it's scenery and tourism. The endless rows of restaurants and beach shops are as cultureless as anywhere. Throngs of youthful tourists (many from Australia) yell, eat pizza, spill out of bars. For them, the trip is more about partying than being in a foreign land. And on most of the developed part of the island, it doesn't feel like Thailand.

Prices have also gone up. Foremost, fuel has doubled here in three years and is now about 42bht/liter ($6 a gallon). In relation to other prices, the cost of gas comes at a greater burden to anyone using it. This means the boat fares have gone up, as have the costs of delivery goods to the islands. Additionally Phi Phi is rebuilding, and rebuilding costs money. Lastly, tourists are willing to bear higher prices. The most reasonable meal price was about double that on the mainland. Still cheap by any standards but Thailand.

In the afternoon's low tide, we explored the tide pools on the north beach.
It was still drizzling. After an uncomfortable dinner surrounded by Aussies, J. and I were feeling frustrated. We decided to cut bait and leave the island the next morning.

Me at low tide.

Friday, we got up early and hiked a bunch of mosquito infested steps to a view point overlooking the sandbar and western peaks of the island. This view, which I had only seen in photos, was the reason I wanted to come back to the island. It was pretty amazing. Afterward, we showered, got our boat tickets for 400bht each, checked out, and went to the pier area to watch boats until our 2PM departure.

Termites (I think) eating the wood on a bench on the way to the viewpoint.

Boats floating in the water off Ao Lo Dalam. That's some clear water.

A panorama from the viewpoint. Click for larger size.

Tree growing from coconut.

My improvised sweaty shirt drying method.

The restaurant we had lunch the first day was doing brisk business selling soup to the locals. For our second lunch, I ordered a bowl. Delicious, rich brown broth with garlic onions, chicken, ground peanuts, sprouts, and fish balls. It was very good. Very good. 50bht($1.50)

But the weather had gotten clear, sunny and wonderful again. As we sat on the shore, staring at the clear water, it was decided that it would be stupid to come all the way to a tropical island and not make the most of it. We consulted the guidebook and hired a longtail boat to take us around the edge of the island to a more secluded area called Hat Yao ("Long Beach"). We found a mid-range bungalow with a view of the water for 750bht($23) a night. We decided to stay for two nights and get our swimming on. So that's what we did: two days of swimming, sitting in the sun, reading, playing cards. There was a nice, though "expensive" restaurant near the bungalow that had great tables along the sand. It was a quiet, relaxing beach compared to the ones near the tourist village. It was like a whole new island.

Our boat captain, driving with both feet and hands.

Our Hat Yao bungalow.

The view from our bungalow's porch.

J. sitting in the sun.

Koh Phi Phi Don's little sister island, Koh Phi Phi Leh as seen from the beach.

Our dinner/breakfast table. Our first night at dinner, we stayed late and watched the sun set while playing cards. Phi Phi Leh is on the left.

Green curry and rice (80bht/$2.40). Expensive, but you pay for the view.

Sunset.

Sunday, we head back to Krabi.

Rai Leh Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:54:00 +0000

On Tuesday, J. and I left Krabi for the nearby beach area called Rai Leh (also spelled "Railay"). Set on a gorgeous peninsula surround by limestone cliffs, it's only accessible by boat. This means that all food and supplies have to get delivered daily. This pain in the ass keeps development modest and food prices high. For all practical purposes this is an island.

J. and I had to charter our own longtail boat from Krabi (1000bht/$30) because there weren't any other riders that morning. It was a gorgeous 45 minute ride that hugged the edge of the Krabi coast.

Heading up the river and out to sea.

Along the river were all manner of sunken ships and dilapidated piers.

Out in the ocean, our boat passed by the new pier at the edge of town. The mountains we saw from the hilltop a few days earlier are in the distance.

Our longtail boat.

The boat dropped us off on Rai Leh East, the ugliest of the four beaches. Instead of white sand, it's grittier. Mangroves and debris line the shore. All of the budget guesthouses and restaurants are on this side. Our first night was spent in a musky room at Rapala Bungalows. Lonely Planet rated it well, but it was a very basic experience at best. The rates were reasonable though (350bht), and the owner was very friendly, almost like a mother. The attached restaurant made pricey but good Indian food.

Rapala Bungalows were at the top of this hill. The facility had a hilarious mine cart and rails attached to a winch that they used to haul up supplies. The cable was a serious tripping hazard where it passed through the new concrete staircase.

Mangroves and garbage near the guesthouse.

Luckily, Rai Leh West was a short walk away. And this beach was, how do you say, TOTALLY AWESOME. Flanked by tall limestone cliffs, it boasts clear water, powder-soft white sand and views out to the surrounding islands. One island in the distance had a glistening white sandbar and appeared to be the destination for many of the longtail boats chartered from the beach.

J. and I spent the whole day at the beach and in the water. The tide rolled out in the early evening, revealing a pathway through boulders that would eventually lead to another beach called Hat Ton Sai.

Rai Leh West.

J. about to walk into the water. It's hard to tell the scale of the cliff to the right, but it's very tall.

Various sizes of pale crabs scuttled along the beach. The smaller crabs traveled in a line, rolling sand into a ball on their faces. Once it reached a certain size, it would be discarded. This process created some intricate designs, almost like crop circles. I think the scientific name for these crabs is Crustaceous Purposeless.

Low tide reveals a huge bed of rocks and coral. It's a tidepooling paradise, and also a shortcut between beaches.

As the sun set, it seemed every Thai youth from the island congregated on the beach to either play soccer or volleyball.

The game we were closest to had about 20 people on each team, shirts versus skins. No foreigners for most of it.

Sunset.

Rai Leh is a rock climbing mecca for its cliffs. They are numerous, huge, and gorgeous. Apparently, there are runs for all skill levels, but if I can barely go anywhere in a climbing gym, I bet my odds are worse on a hot cliff in the heat. Sitting on the beach, I wondered how much my rock climbing friend would be salivating.

Our second day began by checking into a new room in a bungalow up the hill from our old one. It was a step up in shanty quality and the same price. The path to the guesthouse went alongside a towering cliff complete with caves and bats. The bats seemed to enjoy flying right at my face. After dropping off our bags, we went farther on the trail and into the steamy jungle. It really felt like being in the island from LOST. Jungle everywhere, strange noises, a high pitched hum from power lines, weird trails to nowhere, random sheds and overgrown buildings. The night before, we had been walking up the trail in the dark when a weird military-looking grey vehicle came barreling down the hill towards us. A little further up the path was a series of low buildings and at least 5 weathered satellite dishes. I kept expecting to run from the Others.

This abandoned hut in a valley of banana trees feels like a place where you'd go to meet Jacob and hear his confusing vision for the island.

Unripe, just formed bananas on the tree.

Spider.

The view from Hat Ton Sai. The boat to the left was unloading supplies for the business on this beach.

One such business was making friend bananas and sweet potatoes when we walked by. We were drenched with sweat from the long steamy hike, but couldn't pass up fresh fried fruit. The lady was generous too: we got the equivalent of 8 bananas for 20bht(60ข). The batter contained shredded coconut and sesame seeds that made them especially tasty.

We sat around the beach and let our sweat dry before hiking back around to Rai Leh West to spent the rest of the day in the sun and surf. For dinner we had sea food noodle soup(50bht/$1.5): squid, fish balls, fish rolls, shrimp. It was good but a little creepy feeling to eat it. But I can add ground peanuts to any broth and be happy. So that's what I did.

The path to our new bungalow.

After dinner we came back to the bungalow and played some cards and ate some cookies while reading some books written by some authors and about some subjects.

The view from the restaurant we ate breakfast at for the last two mornings in Rai Leh. It was called The Rock, and while it's wide variety of food was overpriced, the muesli+yogurt+fresh fruit combo was pretty reasonable(60bht/$1.80). The instant coffee was unusually smooth too. The balcony faces the east, and is a valley surrounded by jungle and tall cliffs. The cliff on the right had the first batch of breakfast climbers (not pictured).

If all goes according to plan, tomorrow morning we'll be on a boat to Koh Phi Phi. This time, it's a real island.

Last Day in Bangkok, Best Day in Krabi

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:54:00 +0000

Our last day in Bangkok was spent at the sprawling Chatuchak Weekend Market. The grounds are vast, basically the size of a small town. And even then, the market overflows it's space into the surrounding sidewalks and neighborhoods. If it's a Thai good, it will be there. The covered stalls and outdoors tents are loosely categorized from clothes to animals, art to toilet brushes, and everything in between. I had no intent to buy anything other than food, so I trailed J. while eating various snacks: banana shakes, papaya salad, fried banana, fruit, and plenty of water.

Parking for the market.

Outside of the stalls.

In the paperbacks area.

Sundries.

Prawns for sale.

The scope of the place is overwhelming. And it was hot. Pushing your way through crowds and merchandize while dripping in sweat and smelling all sorts of weird things works up an appetite too. Around noon, we took a lunch break.

Papaya salad.

Minced pork salad.

Dying rat near the restrooms. No one seemed to notice it.

By 2PM, we were exhausted. We decided to find the large nearby park and sit for a while. Problem was, we weren't sure what side of the huge market it was on. While trying to find it, we stumbled into the "pets" section. I qualify pets because it didn't seem like all of them should be pets. Sure there were the standard animals like cats, rabbits, dogs, and fish. But then it started getting weirder: thumb-sized marsupials, huge lizards, pythons, tropical birds, porcupines. It was like a Noah's ark of every animal you though was forbidden to be a pet. I wouldn't have been surprised if there were tiger cubs somewhere in there. Unfortunately, some of the animal sellers were a little camera shy. I was stopped from taking photos of some of the weirder animals, even a large bin of writhing meal worms. Considering the weird jungle snakes the lady had in her store, she seemed awfully freaked out by me shooting her worms.

One of many tanks of goldfish.

Lizards.

Big papa lizard was about the size of dog and didn't look too pleased about being photographed.

Puppies everywhere!

Baby birds are freaky. This bird's feathers are growing out of its skin like a Bjork video.

Sonics for sale.

We eventually found Chatuchak Park and sat for a while. It looked like rain was coming, so we didn't stay for long.

Huge photo murals of the King on a skyscraper. There are more photos of him around the country than I remembered from before. Considering how much honoring he gets now, it seems like Thailand is setting itself up for some massive mourning when he dies.

Paddle boats in the park.

A spooky, unfinished high-rise near the river. While not uncommon to see smaller unfinished buildings, this is the largest I've seen. None of the exterior walls had been put in place when the finances ran dry. It's seems dangerous to just leave something so big to rot in the rain.

After the park, we took the Sky Train to its southern most stop at the river. From the central pier, we caught our last river taxi back to the hotel for a nap until about 8:30PM. Another day spent napping through dinner.

The next morning, we woke early, packed, showered, walked out and got some rice porridge, and caught a terrifying cab ride to the southern bus terminal. We got there around 7AM to find out they were sold out of the 7:30 VIP bus tickets to
Krabi. Fortunately, they had 2nd class tickets. We bought two for about 500bht($16) each, and boarded the bus for our 12 hour ride south to Krabi. The bus was air conditioned and comfortable. The driver wasn't a maniac, and he stopped for bathroom and food breaks along the way. I basically zoned out for the whole ride, despite them playing Thai dubbed American action movies at full volume. At least they were better than the repetitive Thai love ballad videos that began the journey. J. and I played travel Scrabble. I won't say who won. By the time night rolled in, we were rolling through some beautiful scenery. The sun was setting vibrantly on our right as we wove through dense green jungle and sheer limestone cliffs. The landscape seem to alternate between crops of coconuts and rubber trees.

The Krabi bus stop was 8km outside of town. We got a chartered truck to take us in for 150bht($5). Checked into spacious budget hotel. Slept like gin-soaked logs.

Once awake, we walked to get some pad thai and fried rice for breakfast. Afterward, we rented a 100cc ECO-POWER! scooter to go for some driving. It was 150bht($5) a day, plus gas (42bht/liter). It took me just a minute to get used to the step gears and driving on the left side of the road. It took me a little longer to remember how to go with the flow on Thai roads. There's a lot more to pay attention to, as everyone is basically doing everything and anything they want when they want. Unload a truck while blocking the road? Check. Driving against traffic on the shoulder? Check. Passing on the left and the right? Check. Pedestrians? Check. Street dogs? Check. But then you realize that all of the chaos makes everyone more aware too. People flow around each other, yielding and passing, avoiding obstacles deftly and casually. It's great to be a part of it when you're not dying.

Our first destination was Wat Tham Seua, a complex of temples, monkeys, and stray cats and dogs. The highlight though is a climb of 1200 steep steps to the top of a 600m karst limestone peak.

The road to the temple. You can see the tower on the hill at top. We climbed stairs all the way to from the ground to the top.

And these aren't normal steps. Some of them are a foot heigh and only a few inches deep. At some points, it feels like you're climbing a ladder. We had to stop multiple time because the heat and exertion was getting to us. Half way up, my shirt was fully drenched with sweat. It felt like I had fallen in a swimming pool with my clothes on.

Luckily, the view going up was beautiful. Greenery to the horizon. And at the top, they had a drinking water dispenser.

The first view from the top is of Krabi Town and the Andaman Sea. The island to the left, I think, is Koh Phi Phi. We're doing there soon.

But the real jaw dropper is the view in the other direction.

Below, they are constructing a huge chedi. The construction crane is skyscraper size.

Buddha watches over the Krabi Province,

Golden chedi and ocean view.

Detail of the limestone cliffs surrounding the peak.

J. on the descent.

At the base, we watched monkeys. There were at least 30.

Climbing down a phone line.

Monkey and cage used to keep monkey from breaking the lamp.

A friendly calico.

Afterwards, J. and I went on an aimless drive through the jungle. Oh man, it's close to topping my list of favorite experiences. I felt like I was on the grandest adventure of my life. As we were in motion, it was hard to take photos of the ride, but here are a few:

You're guess is as good as mine. We had to navigate by landmarks.

Some stretches of road had no one but us.

Rubber trees.

Tonight, we came back and heading to the night market by the river for dinner.

View of the buildings behind the hotel.

J.

Night market. Lots of good food. Easy to order.

Our dinner came from this cart.

Red curry chicken.

Pad see yu.

Night falls on beautiful Krabi town.

Time to sleep. Tomorrow we leave by longtail boat to Hat Rai Leh.

In Bangkok

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:29:00 +0000

After 24 hours in transit, J. and I arrived in Thailand. The flight left from Dallas at 9:30 in the morning, with a stopover in LA before the 13.5 hour flight to Hong Kong. From there, it was a quick 2.5 hours into Bangkok. We arrived around 11:30PM. The long leg of the flight felt pretty fast and was greased with three full in-flight meals. The quality wasn't as good as I remember on China Airlines, but it's okay since Cathay Pacific isn't crashing all over the place. Each seat had a screen with a selection of movies, tv, and games. The progress map wasn't working, instead just creepy flickering black and white bands. After clearing customs, we hailed a cab. We pulled up to the guesthouse around 1:30AM, and I said to the cabbie, "Yo holmes, smell you later." We looked at our kingdom; we were finally there. To sit on our thrones as the fresh prince and princess of Bangkok.

As we didn't sleep on the plane, we sleep soundly until the morning. Our guesthouse is the Shanti Lodge in the Tewet neighborhood. It's fairly quiet, fairly cheap and in the older section of town along the river. While hard to get to the Skytrain, it's easy to get to the taxi boats. Our first two nights were in a deluxe room with toilet and hot shower for 650bht/night (currently about $20). Nice, but a little pricey for two jobless brunettes. Since then, we have moved into a smaller room with shared toilets and showers downstairs. It's a more reasonable 400bht($12).

Note: For all of my posts from Thailand, I'm going to note prices both for my own reference and curiosity sake. I didn't do any accounting last time was here, and I've always been curious what I spent on things. It's apparent already that things aren't as cheap as they were three years ago. Not only is the exchange rate worse 33 compared to 43bht/dollar, but prices have inflated as well. A bowl of soup on the street that would have cost 50¢ now costs 75¢. It's still cheap, but all of those extra cents add up over time, especially when you're paying for larger items. A 400baht/night guesthouse room would have been less than $10 and is now about $12.

Johk

Our first morning awake, we wandered through the smelly heat and humidity to find breakfast. We ended up at a food cart near a canal and had what I think is called "johk", a thick rice soup. Delicious. Ours had a little lemon grass, pepper, mystery meat (liver?), and an egg or two. 25bht(75¢). From there we caught the express boat down to Chinatown and got lost trying to find the main area. Instead, we ended up at Golden Mount, a memorial built upon the remains of a collapsed stupa. The view from the top is 360 degree Bangkok. I felt very happy up there with my little plastic sack of iced coffee. Lunch was fairly bland rice noodle soup with fish balls and sprouts for 25bht(75¢).

A filthy canal flanked by markets near the guesthouse.

Poop flecked eggs getting unloaded in the market.

Live frogs for sale. In addition to frogs were live fish, two sizes of eel, and baby turtles. Plus, all the normal meats.

An orgy of catfish near the river taxi pier.

Wat Arun, seen from the river.

J. and I sweating in the shade.

View of Bangkok from Gold Mount.

Another view of some cool water towers.

Beverage delivery.

Walking around in the heat really wears me out. As soon as I step outside of the guesthouse, I'm literally dripping with sweat until I get back. At breakfast, I think I grossed out the man eating at our table because sweat kept dripping off my chin into my soup. Perspiration is considered gross here, which is weird because it seems unavoidable. But most Thai's don't seem to sweat very much. But they also seem smart enough to not walk around everywhere in the heat. After about one activity in the heat, it's nap time. Our first day, we took a nap from 3PM to 8PM and then walked around the neighborhood in search of dinner. We settled on a indoor, aircon restaurant near Santichaiprakan park. I had a modest portion of delicious cashew chicken, J. had Tom Kai Gai soup. With two drinks and a side of rice, our bill came to 270bht($8). Expensive by Thai standards, but cheaper than one Thai dish in America. After dinner, we sat in the park by the river and watched a team of workers set up tents and a stage for an upcoming festival. Thai couples were kissing. There was a lonely looking foreign man. That man used to be me.

As all the long flights, naps, and time change have messed up my sense of time, I had another iced coffee at 10:30 at night. Needless to say, this kept me up into the morning thinking about the uncertain future ahead of me. I can't recall if these thoughts ran through my head last time: What am I going to do with my life? What is the meaning of life? Will my family be okay while I'm gone? What is the purpose of this trip? Is it the right thing to do right now? What are we going to do for all this time off? Why am I worried about money when I have so much sacked away? Etc.

It was a lot of nervous energy for someone who's supposed to be on a grand international journey. I think my brain finally caught up with my heart. But while many of those questions don't have answers, the ones that do will be answered in due time. The main lesson is from Gremlin's teachings: no coffee after 10PM.

The morning after my existential dilemma, J. and I took a boat down to tour Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. Before going in, we searched for breakfast before settling on a small shop nearby. They didn't speak English and I didn't speak Thai, so I stood there looking at the wok of simmering noodles and trying to ask the boy, in Thai, what they were called. He didn't understand me, and with a bashful look yelled across the street to a man who knew enough English to help us. We ended up getting some ridiculously good pad thai. I promise I'll start taking photos of the food. It's just a little embarrassing to whip out a jumbo camera in a restaurant.

Large chedi at Wat Phra Kaew

The chedi is coated with gold leafed glass tiles. Market value: 1 jillion baht.

Old man waiting for his equally old wife to take a picture with an old camera.

Some stud.

Sculptures lining the outer temple walls.

Bees had infested all the flowers in the wat. It must have been slim pickings.

After the tour, we were walking to the pier when it started pouring. We ducked into a noodle shop and had two bowls of garlicky broth with broad rice noodles, green onion, and minced pork. I tried asking for ground peanuts but got a tray of condiments instead. Again, the meal was 25bht(75¢) each, a common price for street food.

Back at the guesthouse we took another epic nap from about 3PM to midnight. And that's where I am now. As I'm not tired, I find myself up at 4 in the morning writing this blog post. I'm not planning on going to sleep again, as my 9 hour nap woke me up. Instead, we'll head out around 6 and check out the early Chinatown markets before heading into the thick of Siam Square to find a SIM card for my phone. No naps for me tomorrow. It's time to tell my body who's boss.

Update:
On Friday, J. and I made to Chinatown and wandered around the narrow, food and merchandise packed markets.

Crazy facade on a Chinatown building.

One of the main streets in Chinatown in the early morning.

Outdoor street market.

Cat sleeping on bags of roots.

Human size sacks of fried pork skins are everywhere.

Densely packed store. All of the food packages were meticulously flush with the shelves.

A few workers and their truck of nuts.

Durian being stored in a small room near the river.

Unloading the bed of a pickup that's full of live fish.

Old meets new. Chinatown is full of amazing, falling apart and complicated old buildings.

I was a little camera shy, as we were the only foreigners there and the shop keepers were eyeing us with a look of confusion as to why we were there so early. It certainly didn't look like we intended to buy huge sacks of bael fruit, fried pork skins, cheap shoes, and fish heads. I had thought we'd eat lunch down there somewhere, but we were done wandering around 8:30AM. We caught a cab and pushed through the morning traffic to the malls of the Siam Square area.

One of the older malls, but also more crazy inside: MBK.

Morning traffic under the Sky Train tracks.

One of the highlights of our day at the mall was watching people from all over the world compete in a non licensed version of Scrabble called "Crosswords". It was mostly Thais, Australians, and Malaysians, though one American did get on the leader board. Go American!

We made it to the malls about two hours before they opened, so we sat around and waited in the shade and inside a small bookstore nearby. Once the malls opened, we were in for good. We literally spent the whole day wandering/people watching in the vast, shiny air conditioned spaces. I bought a SIM card for 150bht($4.50). I had unlocked two old Nokia phones before leaving Portland, and I though for sure they would work. But they didn't. I guess there is some special hardware lock or network difference. Luckily, I brought the old monochrome Thai Nokia phone as backup.

At 5PM, we got on the Sky Train and took it a few stops down to meet a friend of a friend named A. The station was packed, and had a lot of potential meeting places that matched his description. I was nervous because I didn't know what he looked like, but J. assured me that he would look like a man who was looking for us. Turns out, she was right. He took us to a restaurant named Cabbages and Condoms, an upscale Thai non profit where all money goes to HIV/AIDS prevention. Instead of mints, you get after dinner condoms.

Construction seen from the Sky Train platform where we met A. It will likely be another high-rise.

A sign leading the way to the evening meal.

A. had been in Bangkok since September, less than a year in to a two year stint as a security consultant at the embassy in Bangkok. Seeing as I had only met him before playing Team Fortress 2, we had a lot to talk about. It was great for J. and I to meet another person in this city. It made us feel a little less like lonely tourists, and more like just visitors. Big pasty, sweaty, mosquitto bitten, dirty clothed, foot blistered, hungry, visitors.

Today we go to Chatuchak Weekend Market, a vast town sized market north of town. Sunday we are planning to leave early on a 12 hour VIP bus to Krabi.

Until then.

Dallas (updated, again)

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:37:00 +0000

Dallas is making me very lazy. It's hot and humid. Since it's too hot for socks, I've been going barefoot. My feet are dirty, bloody from the uncertainties of the front yard. Pollen and mold and cat dander are making me sneeze, but I'm contented. Time passes slowly before my imminent Thai departure.

Dallas is a good adjustment place between Portland and Bangkok. The heat and humidity is currently at Thai levels. The air smells like steaming plants and water. Mosquitos buzz and feast. My parents' house has become dilapidated to developing nation quality. The foundation is moving downhill and is about to take the exteriors walls with it. Enormous jungle vines choke out the light from the surrounding trees. Under their twisting weight, the mighty trees of my youth have died and gone haunted. Mice, birds, squirrels, cockroaches, cats, and malnourished street dogs patter around the scorched grass. Inside, every available surface is covered with earthy smelling junk and clutter. The casual upkeep of the place feels very Thai: it's okay if the ceiling is going to cave in, just make sure you take off your shoes.

I love being home.

In the last few days, I've set my parents up with my old PC since their last one (another old PC of mine) got fried in an electrical storm. I've also helped my mom construct a rustic wooden rail for the front stairs and done some needed vine pruning along the power/phone lines outside. During the rest of my free time, I've been playing the guitar at full volume, trying out a set of bongo drums, kicking a soccer ball around, watching TV, surfing the Net, playing Team Fortress 2's Goldrush map, eating delicious, home-cooked meals, hanging out with my parents, and petting cats. I've attended two thai qi classes with my parents at the museum, seen and old friend, and ridden the light rail into town.

Yesterday, I open-tuned one of the guitars for some slide guitar. I forgot my slide, so I scrounged up a glass bottle to put on my finger. It was working pretty well until I noticed something moving in it: a big cockroach and a few babies. I yanked that bottle off my finger with the swiftness of a man who deeply fears cockroaches.

A few roach-free moments:

The old basketball hoop at my house that's getting swallowed by grapevine. Sadly, I took shears to the vine in hopes of playing basketball there again.

The vines at my parents' house are going wild and crazy. To the side is the grapevine and it's expansion onto the roof, side yard, and surrounding trees. To the front of the house, is a huge, gnarly wisteria that's tearing into the roof, killing the trees in it's path, and forming a dark canopy over the walkway and top of the driveway. Its heavy branches were weighing down the power/phone lines to the house. A lot of the undergrowth was dead. Preemptively stopping them from tearing the lines out, I spent two days cutting most of them away with shears and a saw. Some of the vines were as thick as a soda can's diameter. I'm not sure if I could have gotten electrocuted or not, but I guess I didn't.

I did however get a lot of dust in my eyes. Once piece is still stuck in there and driving me bonkers. I couldn't flush it out with eye solution, nor can I see anything on my eye. So it is either hidden on the underside of a lid or just an irritation. Next time I'll wear eye protection.

A neighbor's puppy wandered over and played around my feet when I was outside. I think it was looking for food too. When its lactating mother wandered into view, she looked emaciated. I don't think they are feeding her.

My feet stigmata from playing soccer in an old pair of Birkenstocks from the high school era.

Bela, our 14 year old cat sits on my mother's lap. Our pride has dwindled from a high count of 13 down to just two cats. And they are getting old. Bela has started having frequent seizures, losing her balance, falling off chairs, and splaying out on the floor shaking. It's very sad to look at, but she doesn't seem to be in pain. I fear this may be the last visit I'll see her. But she is way friendlier than she used to be. She sits in laps now and likes getting petted. The Bela I used to know would scratch your eyes out if you tried to touch her. Bela's daughter, Milo is also old. But despite a bladder operation seems to be in youthful spirits.

One of three troughs of goldfish in the front of the house.

A bluejay seen out the front window. He's waiting for his turn at the bird feeder.

A squirrel waiting for the feeder by the door. He's eyeing Bela, trying to make sure she's harmless.

Another squirrel has shimmied, Mission Impossible style, down the wire to another hanging feeder. In this photo, he's about to climb back up.

One evening while looking through my closet, I found a small cache of Legos. I had made this ship out of pieces from an old monorail set. A little rover car was still together too. I dumped out the rest of the blocks and spent a fun evening crafting three more companion ships.

This one is a stubbier warship with three core thrusters and two secondary thrusters. It has radicool saber lasers, and an awesome set of bottom mounted cannons.

Over the course of a day or two, my mom and I built a rustic rail for the front steps. It was constructed of old fence posts and topped with a cedar branch we pruned. The structure isn't pro, but it's fairly sturdy. The posts are in cement bases and the rail is fastened with nails and decorative copper.

I'm in good spirits when I'm Dallas, but there's a little sadness too. My childhood home, pets, and the mental states of those I know seem to be deteriorating rather than improving. It's like they all started shiny and new, but since I've been away have gone to seed and are now dying. It's not entirely that way, but it seems so. Issues back then are still issues. Hand goes to mouth, month goes to month. Rather than progress, it's stasis here. And time marches on, overgrowing the past and swallowing the present in vines.

Update:
On Saturday, I spent the morning juggling the soccer ball. Inside, a stray kick sent the ball into the ceiling fan which whacked it across the room into a stack of CDs. I moved the game outside and became thoroughly drenched in sweat.

For lunch, my father and I got sub sandwiches and drove to an abandoned spring near our house. The property will eventually be turned into an artists' compound called La Reunion. Currently, it's just a boarded up house, a creek, plenty of trees, poison ivy, and a stagnant lake.

My father leading the way into the abandoned garage.

An old railroad trestle to nowhere.

The guardian of the property: a big momma tarantula and her egg sack.

A pitch black hole at the base of the tree near our sandwich eating spot. I wonder what it leads to.

My Texas nemesis: poison ivy. These leaves of three are in every shady area, waiting to get their toxic oil on soccer balls, cats, me.

Today, Sunday, we picked J. up at the airport and went to lunch at the recently repaired Cosmic Cafe on Oak Lawn. It had been damaged by fire. I had falafel, some had portabella sandwiches, we all split a vegan chocolate cake. The hot chai is bottomless there. It's watery but spicy. Afterward, we drove to Parkland Hospital to look at the nesting grounds of a shitload of egrets and other birds. They have taken to the treetops near the memorial for organ donors (including my grandfather and great grandfather).

The are is swarming with birds, but it was hard to photograph them in mass because they are hidden in the canopy and underbrush. Here are two egrets in the trees.

Another two in the tree tops. It's weird to see such large birds in trees, but there are hundreds of nests and young birds all over the place.

A smaller bird walking along the ground. The bushes in the background are stained white from all the bird shit.

Egret jerky.

J. and mom looking at a king fisher in the tree.

The king fisher looking back at them.

An egret flying away.

We'll be flying away tomorrow morning on our 24 hour transit time to Bangkok.

I wanted to make more songs while I was in Dallas, but I only got around to recording two:

Heart - My poly heart isn't for you. Features a horrible harmonica jam.
Overseas - A song about going overseas.

See you in Thailand, bitches.

Montana

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:12:00 +0000

Last Thursday, my sister and I woke early and began our long drive to Bozeman, Montana.

Many moons ago, I used to go on long family road trips from Texas to visit my father's relatives in big sky country. While I've seen a few faces since then, it's been at least 14 years since I've seen many of them on their home turf.

Numerous factors brought this trip about: my uncle from California was heading to Helena for an annual marathon; my other uncle wasn't in jail, my father was able to get off work to meet them, I needed a place to live between Portland and Thailand, and my sister had room at her apartment, my sister also had a car just itching to be broken in, and my grandmother had a place for all of us to stay.

Opportunities like that happen only once.

The sister's Hyundai was gassed up, stocked with jerky and water, and on the road by 6:30AM. Most of the morning drive was during desert rainstorms. By 1PM, we had made it to the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, to pick up my father who had flown in to avoid the first part of the drive. The first few hours until my father's pickup went quickly, but once entering Wyoming the journey became eternal. The state is beautiful, but there is nothing but repeating scenery along the highway. By the time we rolled into Billings, it was nightfall. I was getting sleepy, but safely got us across the pass and into Bozeman. By 11:45PM, we pulled up the driveway to my grandmother's house. For all 17 hours I was the driver. It was a crazy decision on my part, but I get nervous as a passenger on the highway. It's not a high nervousness, but it means having a hard time relaxing for the journey. Instead, I chose to be exhausted by driving. But 17 hours is a pretty long time, both in distance and in stamina. I don't know how my parents could make such long drives every year, especially with two small-bladdered kids in the back seat. Maybe they feed of our energy as shadow soul stealers.

The route (red is the return route):

Here are some photos of the trip:

The endless, green hills and open road of Wyoming.

A strange cloud formation in Wyoming. I expect God to hammer a square cloud into it any day now, if he's capable.

Sunset on the dirt road my grandmother lives along.

The mountains as seen from her front yard. It's a pretty ridiculous view at this time of day.

One morning, I walked along the trees planted as snow breaks at the edge of her property. Apparently, a deer had babies somewhere in there and I intended to find them. I did not.

But the mother eventually showed herself at the bird feeders in the backyard. She was systematically testing the rope for weaknesses. She remembers.

On Friday, we went to a construction site to pick up my uncle.

My father and uncle hauling supplies and watching their footing in the mud. My uncle hadn't changed in the ten years I hadn't seen him. Despite his incarcerations and hard living, he's just as funny, friendly, and smart as I remember.

While my uncle got cleaned up for dinner, I sat outside his apartment and tried to get as close as possible to the Magpies.

That afternoon at my grandmother's house, we had an early feast of homemade lasagna, salad and other vegetables. It was washed down with tea, pies, and coffee. Afterward we packed up the cars and drove and hour and a half to Helena to register for the race.

On the way through a neighborhood in Helena, we passed a family of deer eating a row of bushes. The people from Montana were quick to mention that the capital is infested with deer.

The starting line of the 5k race. My uncle was the only family member to tackle the full marathon. He started at 6 in the morning. Throughout the day, various races started. All finished at the same line, around the same time. My uncle brought an entourage with him from California. Combined with the rest of the family, we made a large racing group.

Aunt, sister, grandmother, and uncle.

Discarded water cups.

One of the judges staring out his apartment window.

My uncle, heading toward the finish line. He made it in 5 hours.

Someone who didn't quite make it.

Three brothers and a mother: the core of Team Dauminator 75.

Orange slices at the finish line.

Back at the hotel, we had a surprise visit from my grandfather. I hadn't seen him since I was a boy, and it was a little awkward at first. He's a little bit like a living John Wayne: a tough, solitary man more comfortable around oil and cows than people. My sister, uncle and father ate dinner with him at a nearby restaurant. It felt a bit like a Chris Ware comic.

On the way out of Helena, we passed the bulk plant where my grandfather drove every day for 41 years to fill his fuel truck. I have vague memories of riding with him to this plant. Back then, we stopped to fill up the tanker and I ate some Pop Rocks.

A rollerskating pig eating a hot dog on a gas station sign.

That night, we got back to Bozeman. My uncle reserved a table at a lodge on the outside of town. The lodge overlooked snow-capped mountains and a small pond that stocked trout for the restaurant. Everyone's meal was delicious, but heavy on the meat. I had a strip steak with vegetables and a salad. Others had duck, fish, and pork. But not rollerskating pork.

Sunday was a lazy day at my grandmother's house. It started with a big breakfast and ended with a big dinner. Again, more meat around every bend. I ran around outside a little, kicking and punching a tennis ball. Early the next morning, we began our journey home.

Instead of heading back the same way, we decided to take a route that led through Yellowstone National Park. We entered through the North Entrance and left through the gates at the south end into Grand Teton National Park.
Cuss words cannot describe how beautiful the park is. But holy @*&#!

Mineral deposits and mountains.

A pack of bison wandering through the woods.

A herd of elk.

The closest we came to a bear. It's in the center of the image.

One of the numerous shallow rivers flowing through beautiful valleys.

Chipmunk looking at me.

A large roaring waterfall.

More bison roaming in front of the smoking earth.

Scalding blue water of one of the Fountain Paint Pots.

A bubbling soup of minerals nearby.

Eagle sized black birds eating trash out of someone's truck.

After my sister went to the bathroom and missed Old Faithful geyser, we headed south. When we reach the continental divide, the scenery became snowy. It was a whole other landscape.

A view of Yellowstone Lake, the largest mountain lake in North America.

My father and sister.

The foggy tops of the Grand Tetons loom ahead, as my father disobeys a warning sign and goes looking for bears.

As we got higher into the Grand Teton National Park, it started snowing. One section of mountain had collapsed onto the road and was being repaired.

A partially frozen stream.

A picture of the scenery as we waited for passage.

Within an hour of leaving the park, the landscape changed first into moist green woods, and then into weird ruddy badlands.

Rounding the bend.

It took forever to get to the interstate. The sun fading behind us. For hours, there was nothing but a view: no people, few cars, just us chasing the curve of earth as nothing more than a speck in its vastness.

I kept on driving.

Night fell and we rolled through Denver. We were all very sleepy. I was driving in a dream. We stopped at a motel to begin the journey again this morning. Now we're back in Santa Fe.

Onward to Dallas and then Thailand and beyond!!!

Santa Fe Days

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:01:00 +0000

Since Saturday, I've been visiting my sister in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The plane's final approach was choppy and the landing rough. Midway through the flight, my lips became chapped. I licked them repeatedly like a brain damaged dog with peanut butter on his lips. It offered fleeting relief and only made the problem worse. After greeting my sister and finding out she only had lipstick, I purchased a stick of medicated balm and slathered away. The combination of my red, irritated skin and the glossy petroleum made my lips luscious. But I'm worth it.™

For those who haven't been to Santa Fe, check it: Da Fe be awesome! They don't call it "Da Fe" here, but I does.

Santa Fe is a small city, and it feels that way. But more importantly, it's almost like being in another country. Due to tradition and building codes, most of the buildings are in the adobe pueblo style. Even gas stations and fast food restaurants have inherited the "faux-dobe" look. When done cheaply, it comes off like a southwestern theme park. But in most cases, new buildings rest comfortably next to those over 400 years old. Some streets look like they have been there since the beginning of time. The large hispanic and native-descended population add to the uniqueness of the high, dry town in the desert hills.

The combination of direct sun, warm weather and high elevation have made me very relaxed and sleepy. I've taken some good naps inside and out.

On my first full day in town, my sister and I went for a drive up the foothills on the northern edge of town.

Here's a view looking down at Santa Fe and the surrounding desert. The mountains are surprising green at this time of year, full of grass, flowers, pine, and aspens. A lot of the streams have water from the snowcaps melting.

Branches growing from the aspen like antlers.

Vibrant green tree tops on the hillside.

My sister looking at the view.

The road leading up the hill passes through the Santa Fe version of a housing development. Unlike almost any other suburbs, these houses don't make me vomit. In part, because they try their best to blend into the environment rather than conquer it. They are built in the same colors as the earth, and almost look made of it. Most lie low to the ground and have dry landscaping.

When driving by, you barely even notice them.

Before heading home, we walked along the creek that runs along the edge of the city center. Lots of kids were fishing, but didn't seem to be catching anything.

There are a lot of repeating elements you see in fake pueblo architecture, but I think the coolest is all manner of crazy wooden gates and fences.

A new building in my sister's neighborhood.

My sister in front of a wooden fence.

It looks like Pee Wee Herman lives at this house.

An abandoned(?) stone shop at sunset.

The truck parked outside my sister's house. Maybe not all terrain, these tires.

My sister's crazy backyard: half desert garden, half junkyard.

The inside of her apartment is cool, other than in temperature. Numerous skylights, a huge kitchen and a lot of weird decor. The highlight for me is her extensive collection of tit mugs lining the bathroom windowsill.

Here are a few wig holders along the kitchen window. The one on the right reminds me of the new Indiana Jones movie.

The second day I was in town, we went driving to find prairie dogs. Near an arts and crafts market along a main road, we found a small colony. This guy is eating some seeds.

This guy was either shy or taking a break from the sun.

Another seed eater, this one half in his burrow.

Nearby, there were some pigeons hanging out by a pot with water in it. The grey one pictured is the largest pigeon I've ever seen. Los Alamos?

Across the road from the prairie dogs was a lot with two mules in it. This one didn't look very happy.

The other enjoyed licking something off the hot metal fence.

An sculpture of a fruit stand and virginal flower bearers for sale.

Yesterday, I went for a hike in a nature preserve at the base of the hills. I found the trail by memory after having been there once two years ago. The trail started at a dirt parking lot and passed by an old reservoir, now lake, before zigzagging up the hills. The weather was perfect. Sunny and breezy, clean air. Immediately, the walk put me into a peaceful, contemplative mood.

I sat for a while at the lake's edge and watched the red breasted blackbirds.

The trail that ran along the creek was pretty lush by Santa Fe standards. The breeze rustled the grasses along the path. The grass was also being rustled by birds, lizards, and snakes.

Here's a close up I took of a snake that slithered away from me on the trail. He was sunning himself with two friends. This section of trail was infested with snakes. Every few feet, another would slink away. Despite keeping my eye out for them, their coloring was so similar to the ground that I could only see them when I moved.

One of his friends was trying to hide a little farther away. I wanted to get a photo of him with his tongue out, but he didn't oblige. I felt like a nature photographer, kneeling in close and steading my breath as to not scare the animal away. It is a zen experience. A sign indicated that there were bobcats around, but I never saw any.

The branches of a dead tree.

The sunny hillside of the trail on the way back. The landscape was dryer and more barren only feet away from the edge of the creek.

Large red ants repairing their mound that someone stepped on. For some reason, I wanted to eat one of them.

I was able to hold my appetite steady until dinner which involved pastor tacos of the quantity four.

A man and his car, waiting for an oil change near the taco stand.

When outside in Santa Fe, a weird feeling comes over me. Without sounding like a crystal-stroking hippy, there is a certain spirituality to this place. When alone in hills, it feels like I have intruded into a place far older and more pure than I could ever hope to be. Despite the amount of dust everywhere, it feels clean. Despite the heat, it feels cool. Part of me wants to keep walking to see what's at the next crest, the other keeps pulling me to the ground. I could die right there and it would be okay. The land would take care of me.

Early tomorrow morning, we begin the long drive to Montana.

Goodbye Portland

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 02:54:00 +0000

One thought that comes to mind continuously when you are moving your own possessions into storage is “why do I have all this crap?”

In the scheme of things, I don’t own much. J. and I were able to pack all of our worldly possessions into a 5x10' storage space. Each of us used about half the space, meaning I would need just a 7x7 plot of earth to hold my junk. Or just the space of one box, if I was an expert stacker and gravity/wind didn’t exist.

The storage facility was just a few minutes away in a nearby industrial area along the river. It was managed by a friendly man who seemed just a few clicks away from being a serial killer (Who would no doubt store bodies there with his employee discount). The space was vast, and felt a little like walking through a secret facility. The single floor warehouse was subdivided into hundreds of repeating spaces, connected by a few block-long hallways that transfered even the smallest sound along their length. In the hallway next to our space, was a electric organ that seemed unclaimed.

Moving happened over the course of Thursday and Friday, with most on Friday. J. borrowed her uncle's pickup and it took about ten trips. The storage facility's moving carts allowed us to unload the whole truck in a single pass. Friday was a long day as it involved moving all of J.'s stuff and the rest of mine, plus runs to leave things at Goodwill, selling a couch, dropping off some things at a friend's house, and finding out that a few of our bigger items wouldn't fit. The overburdens were my futon frame, a bookshelf, and two coffee tables J. had made in college. Reluctantly, we had to part ways with this stuff. It was too late in the night to sell them, so we drove them back to J.'s apartment and left them on the sidewalk. Despite how busy yesterday was, there was still time to enjoy the great weather by driving across town to get Vietnamese sandwiches for lunch. Dinner was a little trashier, and involved eating in a truck and french fries. By around 9:30, the final pieces of the move were ready. I slipped by Vespa into the perfectly measured space, rolled in J.'s bike, and locked the door. Of course, I had forgotten to take my keys from the scooter, so we had to go back for them. And once we got back from that, I realized I'd forgotten to bring my banjo and electric guitar. I had to move those this morning. Passing by J.'s place, I noticed that everything by the futon frame had been taken.

Last night, J. and I stayed in my empty apartment. It was our last night in Portland together, and we slept like logs on a soiled futon with coverless pillows that rested on the dusty floor. This morning she headed to Nashville on an early flight, while I packed my things and caught a cab for my flight to New Mexico. I didn't even know there was an “Old” Mexico, go figure. I bet that's also what the first conquistadors said when they discovered the lands the Navajo called “New York.” Did you know that the Navajo used to grow apples there and ship them all over the world on horse-powered cargo canoes?

Honest Injin.

As I'm approaching 30, there will likely be few times left for me to pack up all my stuff and head out in search of great adventure. I expect once more. Afterward, I'll have to do as both older birds and trees do: build a nest and put down roots, respectively. Pretty soon, baby Niks will be popping out of my love partner's baby hole. And baby Niks wouldn't be the best travel partner, at least until they are old enough to carry guns. I don't know where or when all this settling will come, but it will come. It will come if I don't get in a plane crash or struck by a meteor.

To maintain my freedom, I strive for fewer things and no debt. Luckily wanting less and having less debt works together. Since paying off my student loan at the beginning of last year, I've been indebted to no one. And it feels good. With the move over the past few days, I superficially sorted out the obvious items I was hoarding but didn't take the time to determine what I really need. A lot of my possessions are paper based: old artwork, old prints of writing and layouts and miscellaneous things. Books take up the rest, along with art supplies and a few minimal pieces of furniture. Most of my stuff has been in boxes since I moved to Portland over two years ago. And a lot of it had been in boxes prior to that. If I had the guts, I could probably weed my possessions down by half and double my weed possessions. Luckily, in the past two years, I've reduced the amount of things I own. In this move alone, I cleared out at least eight boxes or more of various items. When I get back to the States, I will reduce this even more.

I am not sad to leave Portland, nor was I excited to leave it either. My mood was indicative of my time there: easy going and pleasant. Portland didn't wow me, but it had no faults either. I could image coming back to live with the baby Niks and love partner someday.

Things about Portland I will miss:

Weather in the summer

Farmer's market

Walking Everywhere

No sales tax

The scenery outside of town

Picking berries

Cheap rent

The easy ride to the airport

Things I won't miss:

Weather in the winter

The lack of ocean or great in town scenery

The god-awful new construction all over

The lack of multiple good places to work at

The lack of scooter parking

I imagine coming when back to the States I'll be living in a much bigger city. I think that's what I want right now. I can see the people that have made them most of Portland, and they are not me.

Today I arrive in Albuquerque, New Mexico to visit my sister for a few days in Santa Fe. On Wednesday, we will be driving up to Montana. We pick my father up from the Denver airport along the way and head north to visit my grandmother and uncles. My non-incarcerated uncle is running a marathon. The rest of us will be walking the 5K portion of it. After celebrating the race, we drive back on Monday and I take a flight out to Dallas. J. meets me two weeks later, and day after we fly off to Bangkok via Los Angeles and Hong Kong.

This is the start of another great adventure. And while I'm nervous about funding it all through savings, I have to remind myself that it's what I was saving for.

Friends Visit Portland, Time Running Out

noreply@blogger.com (Nik) — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:07:00 +0000

This weekend J.K. and M. visited us in Portland. I was excited about playing ball games (including xTreme™ Sokker and Power b'Ballz) outside, but the weather got wet again on the evening of their arrival day. Without balls, the visit was relaxing and mellow.

On Saturday, we went to a friend's house to watch the first game of the Stanley Cup and see his three day old baby. The baby was small and well mannered. When our plan to order 24 tacos fell through, we got pizza for dinner.

On Sunday, we made blueberry pancakes with rhubarb topping for breakfast and prepared for a long going-away party J. hosted at her apartment. After the guests cleared, we broke out Catan for a 3 hour game of Cities and Knights. Playing on an expanded board with 5 people was dramatically more fun and unpredictable than when just J. and I play.

The following day was spent raping my childhood memories of Indiana Jones while watching its new sequel. I wasn't expecting much, and the first half was corny but okay, but the end just swirled into a vortex of eye candy, unnecessary revelations, and sappy dialogue. Oh well, better luck next time Lucasfilm.

Today everyone met for breakfast at the Tin Shed on Alberta. The meal was large and sconey. Afterward, there was time for a little walk before the others took off to visit some work friends and head home.

After both C. and J.K. and M. left Portland for LA, I was left with one consistent friend. With J. around, the absence of a well-wishers group is less noticed. But like genital warts and boomerangs, it's only once they come back that you realize how much you miss them. It was a good visit.

I didn't take many photos, but here are a few:

This is what happens when you knock over a french press.

The visitors outside the Tin Shed.

Walking down a grassy alley after breakfast.

We disobeyed.

Ladybug on flower.

Gas meters.

Two birds eating chicken on the street.

J. and I leave Portland in about three days. I'm getting excited and nervous. This afternoon, we secured a nearby storage space for seven months. Tomorrow and Thursday will be spent packing, and on Friday all of our belongings will be crammed into a 5'x10' room. Now that the day is upon me, it feels like it came out of nowhere.