Laxotravel

China and Beyond

Once again sorry for the delay in postings.  I really don’t know where the time goes.  I can’t say that I’ve been doing anything terribly exciting but I have been in the midst of planning a trip which I’m about to start next week.  I paid the outrageous fee and now I have a double entry visa for China.  For thirty days I’ll be traveling around the Yunnan and Guangxi provinces of southern China.  No real plans yet but I wanted to take my time so those are the places I’m most likely sticking to.  I chose them because they’re not as expensive as other places, there’s supposed to be beautiful natural scenery in the areas, there’s supposed to be hints of old China and minority villages, and it’s close to the Vietnam border where I’ll go to next.  I would’ve loved to go to Tibet but the government lockdown on the region doesn’t make it worth it.  

So after my visa runs out for China I’ll scoot down to Vietnam where I’ve been before but have been aching to get back to.  The plan is to buy a motorbike in Hanoi and travel around through the northern villages.  Beautiful Sapa is the main draw card for most tourists but there’s apparently an even more remote place that’s supposed to be like Sapa was before it became inundated with tourist agencies and souvenir shops.  More details to follow…  

Originally I wanted to take the motorbike through Laos and back to Chiang Mai but it seems that this isn’t possible mainly because I’d have to agree to Thai officials to bring the bike out of Thailand which I don’t really have the time or energy to do.  So I think I’ll probably sell it before I leave Hanoi.  I’m still debating on how to get back after my Vietnam visa runs out but I want to be back before the lantern festival, Loi Krathong.  

Apparently China censors a lot of social networking sites and I don’t know if Tumblr is one of them.  Irregardless I might be too busy traveling to be able to update frequently so Ciao for now.  

Time Spent

I have to admit the last couple of weeks I haven’t been very productive.  I stay up to three in the morning at times watching the Olympic games.  Technology and Youtube provide excellent live streaming coverage so I find myself caught up in the emotion and glory of the athletes at the Olympics.  This has me sleeping in late and then afternoons are watching events I shouldn’t really care about - some I never even knew existed.  On the bright side I did make this picture the other day.

Vientiane and Back

So lately my life has revolved around running to the border to get extensions in my passport.  After my bike trip to Mae Salong I did another trip to the Burmese border at Mae Sai with a travel agency.  This consists of vans that go around collecting falangs for the sole purpose of being allowed to stay in the country for two more weeks.  And business is good.  The trip costs almost $20 plus the $10 you need to get into Burma but the worst part is that it chews up an entire day.  I did however pick up a DVDs this time while I was in Burma to help justify the trip.  Also the Spanish couple that accused the old drunk guy in the back about rifling through their luggage was somewhat entertaining.  To be fair, the only reason I had been doing these short visa extensions was because I had been thinking of doing a bit of traveling outside the country so it wouldn’t have made any sense getting another tourist visa and then voiding it when I left the country.  Welllll, I changed my mind and won’t be traveling out…yet.  Although Chiang Mai seems unseasonably dry this time of year, the places I want to visit are supposedly in the middle of their monsoon season so I’m going to wait another couple months when the rains are supposed to taper off before going.

Thus, I decided to make a trip to the Thai Consulate in Vientiane to get another tourist visa which will give me 60 days with the option to extend it an additional 30 days after it expires.  This consists of a 12 hour overnight bus to and from Udon Thani, countless vehicle changes from there to get to the border, questionable fees and surcharges from Laos immigration, at least one night in Vientiane, and waiting through the throngs of people trying to do similar things at the consulate.  

I didn’t get much sleep through the two overnight buses, getting up early the first day to get in line at the consulate, and another early start the second day to photograph the early morning bustle at the market.  I was here as a backpacker four years ago using the city mainly just as a transport hub where we stayed one night and went bowling, out of all things, before heading out the next day.  Since then the place has seen a lot of change, most notably the drab riverfront is now a big manicured promenade where tourists and locals alike flock to exercise, eat, and socialize.  Well, they used to do all those things before but just in a more ‘rustic’ atmosphere.  You can see road and building projects throughout the city - I assume from all the flags I see largely funded by the Vietnamese and Japanese.   

I arrived in the morning and checked into a quaint little guesthouse and then headed to the market to grab some food.  One of the few good results of the French occupation here has to be the bread.  I had a tasty Vietnamese style sandwich from the market and then headed off to COPE - an amazing organization that helps to provide care for the disabled (many of which are victims from the hundreds of millions of cluster bombs dropped in Laos during the American-Vietnam War).  They provide prosthetics, rehabilitation, education, support, fundraising, and other services to those who need it. Much publicity was received just a few days earlier when Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, stopped by for a visit.  

The next day I went and applied for my visa and then spent the rest of the day trying to hide from the sun.  It’s much hotter here than Chiang Mai.  I most of the day visiting the market before getting a massage.  The local market here is beautiful.  While tourists spend most of their days temple hoping, travelers opt for glimpses into the local life such as the market (I do the tourist thing as well sometimes).  The massage was something I was really looking forward to as I remember it being so nice my first visit.  On two separate occasions, I had two hour massages for about $6 each and they were so relaxing I fell asleep both times.  Unfortunately this time around I paid around $6 for one hour and it was less than appealing.  To top it off the masseuse had taken several phone calls on his mobile during the session, finished after about 35 minutes, and seemed a bit shocked when I didn’t tip for that - reminds me a bit of what massages have turned into in Thailand.  I’m hoping the place I went to was an exception and not the norm.  I ended the evening with hanging out and strolling through the riverfront.

The last day I went to pick up my visa before heading back to Udon Thani to catch the night bus back.  The trip was a hassle, I didn’t get much sleep, and there isn’t a whole lot to do in Vientiane but the trip to the market and the people made it worthwhile (as well as getting the visa).  Even in the capital city, Laotians have to be among the most laid back people on earth.  No hassles, no worries, so friendly.  I hope all the new construction doesn’t bring a new lifestyle with it.

Photoshoot

Well I did a sort of fashion/editorial photo shoot the other day using my a couple of friends, my apartment, and the limited gear I could bring here.  It was a good afternoon trying different things and just having a fun time in general.  A bit of change from what I usually shoot so kind of a learning experiment and hoping to do more in the future.

Mae Salong pt 2

Hmm, Where did I leave off?  Ok, so we slowly made our way to Mae Salong.  On a few occasions my friend had to get off a couple of times and walk, that’s how steep some of the hills were and how dilapidated my bike is.  She doesn’t know how to drive a bike or else I would’ve walked some of the hills.  Despite our transportation woes the scenery was stunning, the cool weather was a relief and we arrived in good spirits.  

We spent a couple nights in Mae Salong.  A lot of the guidebooks will taut the place as a picture book Southern China with the people, tea, Yunnan noodles, etc.  China it is not.  There certainly are a lot of Chinese descendants who fled communist China and settled in these mountains but they’ve blended to the Thai lifestyle.  You can still order good, if not overpriced, Yunnanese food and a lot of the signs are in Chinese but other than that the town seemed like any other mountain village.  

I woke up early in the mornings to check out the local market near our guesthouse and spent the afternoons trekking through the hilltribe villages consisting of Akha, Lisu, and Lahu.  Although the people weren’t walking around in their traditional dress and the villages weren’t anything out of the ordinary (comparatively speaking for Thailand) it was interesting to see the basic villages and beautiful landscape.  This one guy invited me to have some tea in his work shop where him and his family made concrete mouldings.  That was another one of those times where I wish I spoke better Thai or had a translator.  

The time in Mae Salong was really laid back and chilled out.  Not a whole lot to do but relax and soak in the crisp mountain air.  And drink lots and lots of tea.  We eventually started making our way back south and this is actually when I took most of my pictures on the trip.  More beautiful landscape everywhere and interesting rice cultivation techniques.  

We planned on spending the night in Chiang Dao where apparently the best restaurant in all of Thailand is but it had been raining heavily towards the end of the trip and besides the Chiang Dao Caves we weren’t too sure what else we’d want to see there.  Secretly, I just wanted a warm shower and the comfort of my own bed.  Besides, it’s always good to leave something to make you revisit places again.  

Oh and the mountain north of Chiang Dao is an excellent bike ride.

Passport woes

So I looked at my passport the other day and I’m about to run out of pages…again.  In 2008 I was able to get additional pages added to my passport for free in Malawi but I’ve read that free pages are no longer possible.  In fact it will cost $82 to get pages put in.  The cost of a new passport is $110.  So with three years still left before my passport expires I’m thinking of just getting a new one in which you can ask for 52 pages instead of the standard 28 (for free).  I hate the whole situation but I think it’s a wiser option considering even if I add more pages it’s only good for a couple more years.  Non-US citizens remark that we should be grateful that we can even get additional pages whereas they have to get entirely new passports.  I tell them to bugger off.

What’s with still stamping passports anyways?  Hasn’t the digital world come far enough so we can get rid of this archaic nonsense?  There are microchips in these things now for goodness sakes.  I then look back and see all these visas that take up the entire page.  Yes I blame you (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, India, Mozambique…).  Bolivia has visa stickers a quarter of the size - they’re saving trees, go green!  And then there are the immigration officers who recklessly stamp wherever they please.  Come on people, if my passport were stamped more efficiently I could have three empty pages.  I say this all in good humor as I hand over my credit card to the consulate…

Mae Salong pt 1

While I was in Mae Sot trying to get a glimpse of Aung San Suu Kyi, I took a trip over to Burma or Myanmar because my Thai visa had just expired.  Unfortunately for me Thailand has tightened down on their rules on foreign visas and exemptions.  I can understand why they did it but for me, it just makes it harder to live here - or more inconvenient I should say.  So every time you cross into Thailand overland they give you a 14 day exemption where you do not need a visa but it also means running to a border every two weeks and paying for a visa to Laos, Cambodia, or Burma - Malaysia is free but a loooong way from Chiang Mai.  If you fly in you get a 30 day exemption.  Long story short - my 14 days were up and I had to make a decision.  A friend and I talked it over and decided to make a road trip out of my border run.

The plan was to take two people, one backpack, and one motorbike to Mae Sai where I could cross into Burma and come back to get another 14 days (it sounds tedious with all these border runs but there were reasons why I didn’t yet apply for another visa which I won’t get into).  From Mae Sai we’d head to the picturesque mountain village of Mae Salong where we were told would be rolling hills of tea plantations, Yunnan Chinese settlers, and hilltribe villages.  

We set off early the first day and made it to Chiang Rai where we decided to rest for the night.  Taking in the slow life we rode around the city and visited the night market.  The market was a lot less touristy than the street markets in Chiang Mai and the food was a bit cheaper, which I didn’t think was actually possible.  

Another early start had us settled into Mae Sae before lunch.  The town wasn’t as ‘Burmese’ as Mae Sot.  We were disappointed we couldn’t find any real Burmese restaurants.  But the many guesthouses along the river and the views of the limestone mountains in the background were pleasing enough.  While my friend took a nap I did my border run.  In Burma I went to the thriving market where Thais and falangs alike go to buy cheap dvds, cigarettes, electronics, clothes and countless other knockoffs from China.  Everywhere you turn there are guys trying to sell you cigarettes, viagra, and porn. Not kidding.  I browsed through, took some pictures, and grabbed a bunch of delicious fried snacks on the way out.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering about the countryside trying to find this fish cave and pushing the limits of my motorbike amongst the steepest of hills.  The fish cave turned out to be this monastery where with a cave you can climb up to, a big koi pond, and monkeys which the monks feed.  Oddly enough there was a crocodile enclosure as well.  We walked around a bit and found this beautiful lake that probably isn’t in too many tour guides.  There’s a bamboo bridge you can cross making for a tranquil paradise.  Unfortunately everything closes really early in Mae Sai so we were forced into an early night.  

Once again we got up early and it was a good thing.  Although Mae Salong wasn’t that far away it’s up a lot of hills which we found out my bike isn’t the best for - particularly with two people.  On top of that we experienced the first good rain we had to drive through.  Needless to say it took a lot longer than we expected.  The road was even washed out so we had to take a detour where I laid the bike down for the first time.  I pretty much was going up a vertical wall so fortunately my friend had to get off the bike.  I was trying to downshift to first  and it wasn’t going in while I was rapidly losing speed and power.  When it finally went into gear I had the throttle back enough so that the bike jerked really hard and came out from under me.  Luckily there wasn’t any damage to me or the bike and we kept on our ways.  

Visakha Bucha

I rushed back to Chiang Mai because i wanted to participate in Visakha Bucha Day.  It’s a religious holiday celebrating the birth, enlightenment, and death of Guatama Buddha.  In Chiang Mai worshippers make a pilgrimage from the city up to the top of Doi Suthep on the eve of the holiday.  Despite being on a bus all day I was ready to make the long, steep hike but unfortunately it started raining quite a bit.  The more devoted either walked in the rain or waited for it to stop but I wasn’t able to muster the energy.

The next day I figured most of the temples in town would be pretty busy so being that I live so close to Wat Ched Yod, one of the oldest in the city, I dropped by to see what was going on.  There were tents, tables, and a bunch of other things being set up.  I also saw some people preparing lanterns under an awning so I went back to grab my camera and tripod to play around.  

After the sun set more and more people began streaming in.  They lit candles and incense and walked three times around the temple to pay their respect.  I had fun playing with long exposures and trying to create lighting effects with just the candles or few spotlights.  Braving the humidity and mosquitos was well worth it.  At the end of the ceremony I got to release a lantern which has always been a dream of mine.

See more photos here.

Aung San Suu Kyi

When I heard that Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was going to visit Mae Sot I began to pack my bags.  She had been in Thailand for the past few days on her first trip outside of Burma (Myanmar) in twenty-four years to speak at the World Economic Forum in Bangkok but decided to make a side trip to visit one of the refugee camps near the Thai border town of Mae Sot. 

Through some contacts and a little bit of luck we were able to get into the Mae Sot airport early in the morning to welcome her on arrival.  A handful of photographers, videographers, and journalists stood outside the exit doors waiting for her plane to land.  Eventually she appeared at the door and headed straight for an awaiting caravan.  In the three seconds it took for her to get from the exit to her SUV I was able to fire off about take about five shots (pictures, not bullets).   Only one or two of which were salvageable. 

We took off on foot to the airport gate trying to stay ahead of the motorcade.  About halfway through my run I had to stop.  There was a crowd outside the gate shouting – “Aung San Suu Kyi, Aung San Suu Kyi”.  It’s a bit hard to describe but chills ran through my body as I could literally feel the anticipation and excitement of the crowd.  I was told that around 80 percent of the population in Mae Sot are Burmese so a big turnout was to be expected.

Aung San Suu Kyi continued on towards the Mae La refugee camp and we headed to the Mae Tao Clinic where she was scheduled to visit on her way out.  The public isn’t allowed into the camp even when they don’t have special visitors so getting in today would have been a tricky task.  This is where things started to go awry.  I was later informed that although the Thai authorities allowed Aung San Suu Kyi to visit Mae La, it was an unofficial visit and they wanted to draw as little attention as possible (a difficult task with such a high profile politician) to her visit. 

Authorities at the camp told photographers and journalists that they were going to be taken to a press conference only to be led outside the camp and locked out.  Many were able to sneak back into the camp.  A meeting she was supposed to have with ethnic leaders was later cancelled.  When speaking to the crowd of refugees she was not given a microphone or even a platform to stand on.  Someone eventually passed her a plastic chair so more people could hear.

Meanwhile we arrived at the clinic to an upbeat, enthusiastic crowd.  They proudly showed off their Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD (National League for Democracy) posters, shirts, bandanas, and other memorabilia.  They sang and danced to revolutionary songs to pass the time.  But as the hours came and went so did the mood.  On several occasions the crowds rushed into the courtyard only to be disappointed by false rumors.  Eventually it became evident that she wasn’t coming.  She went from camp straight back to the airport where there was a press conference (it was noted that although her scheduled appointments were cancelled she was never scheduled to have a conference at the airport).  A friend of mine was fortunate enough to get into the airport and record the entire thing.  Here is a link to the video.

Just got back from Mae Sot and getting the chance to see Aung San Suu Kyi.  Will post detailed blog about it soon.  Pictures too!

This pretty sums up the difficulty I’m having learning Thai: The word for pork is moo - Go figure!

Ant Snacks

One of my favorite new snacks here are these fried broad beans.  They’re probably super bad for you but that’s beside the point.  I found a place that sells a whole bunch for around $1.50 US so I usually buy in bulk and store them in a couple of airtight containers.  These plastic pieces are crucial in keeping your place ant free.  In actuality, the only way to keep your place ant free is to use a bunch of chemical sprays that I won’t resort to…yet.  Anyways food attracts ants – ants ruin food – ants overtake your place – yada yada yada – I always try to store everything in plastic containers. 

Well this time my Tupperware had a bunch of cut pineapple in it so I had to put half the beans into a container and then try to re-seal the broad bean bag with a rubber band.  If you’ve ever been to Thailand you’ll notice that all of the food vendors are amazingly good at air-sealing plastic bags with just a single rubber band.  In fact it’s commonplace for you to receive take away soups, drinks, and other liquids in plastic bags tied shut with rubber bands.  Sounds simple enough.  Wellllll, my tying skills aren’t at that level yet.

One evening I finally finished the first container of beans and went to refill it in some dim lighting.  I threw away the bag and felt all these little things crawling on my arm.  I then proceeded to kill all the ants on me and clean the shelf where the bag was sitting. 

The next time I opened the Tupperware container, I saw a bunch of dead ants on the top.  There were still some, but not many, survivors crawling through.  I’m guessing they ran out of air???  Anyways, I was going to throw them out but then at the last minute decided against it.  I’ve eaten fried ants before and there are so many different bugs and insects you can eat in Thailand so I figured I would try it out.  I ate a few and tasted absolutely no difference so I snapped a few pictures of the survivors and then banished them to their graves in an air tight containers. 

My main fears are 1) if they somehow laid eggs in the beans and then I swallowed the eggs and then they hatched inside me 2) if I ate a live one and it got stuck in my throat and started biting me from the inside.  My limited biological expertise dismisses this as nonsense – although my throat does seem a bit scratchy.

Riding out the Recession

I’ve met a wide swath of people from throwing the Hippie Disc.  The expat community here is pretty small and you end up meeting the same people over and over again but this may largely depend on the people you hang out with.  I’ve found the vast majority of foreigners here who aren’t just traveling are either English teachers or NGO workers. 

There are also people who come to love it here and really want to find a job so they work in call centers.  These guys act as secretaries or customer service representatives for western businesses such as credit cards or something like that.  They answer your calls but they live in places like Thailand and get paid slightly higher than Thai wages.  They are fluent in whatever native language they are hired for and thus giving you the impression that you’re getting local service even though the person you are talking to live on the other side of the world.  I think it’s a win-win situation for everyone.  The companies save on labor costs, the worker lives where they want, and the customer gets help from people who can relate better than – oh let’s say an outsourced Indian operator who might not really understand why your two thousand dollar cappuccino machine leaves a slightly bitter taste after using Ethiopian beans (I know, that example is stereotypical and doesn’t make any sense but hopefully you understand what I mean).

And then there are the photographers.  There are a good number of camera aficionados here doing a variety of different things.  Well, there’s a lot of stuff to photograph here. 

Lastly there are foreigners who come here or have moved here to be with Thai women.  I haven’t really met any of them and don’t know much about them because I think they congregate in different circles.   I don’t want to judge because I know there are some, in fact many, people who have really found love and never had any mal intent.  But there definitely is a prostitution industry here and it’s concentrated on this one road near the night market.  I never go that way so I don’t see it (except for this picture taken during Songkran, hehe).  

Ultimate

One of the only ways I used to get a good cardio work out was playing ultimate frisbee – or as I like to call it ‘the Hippie Disc’.  It’s actually really fun and an excellent workout.  Well it was pretty easy finding a group here in Chiang Mai and once again it’s my main source of cardiovascular activity.  Can’t believe I spelt that right on my first try.  Anyways, the group here is pretty good and consists of a good bit of Thais and foreigners.  Luckily most of the Thais speak English pretty well and that is what is used during the games. 

Ugh, that reminds me that my Thai is still so bad.  I had to relearn the little that I did know after I got back from Cambodia and but it’s still so bad.  Tonal languages are tough.  My mind is getting old and slow like my body.  I bought an app for my ipod to help me order food.  Still doesn’t help.  I can get by without knowing much Thai but I want to learn the language but it’s proven to be more difficult than I thought.  More on all of this later.