Jan 25-Feb 14
Jan 7 - 19, then a few days Jan 20-23 in Cambodia (Ankor Wat)The following is a overview day-by-day calendar (click)
to jump to Vietnam (click)
Jan 9 ... arrived BKK on time Jan 8 10PM, ....very much surprised by the polar route to Hong Kong, ... had expected to head for US west coast Hawaii etc,..... instead headed for northern Quebec, Baffin Island, Greenland, Siberia, Ulan Bator, Mongolia, 16 hours ,... route blows my mind, ... still amazes me. DIH was delayed with AC 777 landing gear problems for 4+ hours, ... stranded in Tokyo, (...I believe)...arriving 25 hours late... must be pissed off.
Hotel is 4 star, best breakfasts ever in my life ... outstanding. On my own, took Skytrain then pubic shuttle boat to royal palace to see the classic Bangkok, very congested, hot 30C, and muggy. Met Frank and Jeb (Thai) at National Museum, saw a few temples, then rather interesting Thai museum. Had drinks with Frank and Jeb on riverside bar... quite pleasant.
Jan 10.... went on a one day ABC city bike tour, using Mary Poppins style bikes, along concrete pathways on 6' stilts, ... considerable danger of toppling over into water ....for about 4 hours, with a group of 10.... then Frank/Jeb had us to dinner at their house roughly out near airport, ... spectacular house near 10th tee of golf course.
Jan 11 ... first full day with Smiling Albino, (supplied everyone with a cell phone) ..... a walking, then skytrain, longboat tour with 4 participants, and 3 guides (Thai guides are really hard to understand (accent)....saw many many temples, .... glad that there are at least a few other participants Tara a Canadian nurse who recent ly married a newly graduated anesthesiologist, Brian in the US Navy posted in Okinawa Japan.. After a couple days, think Ive seen enough Buddhas and temples to last for a while. .... kind of wondering why? Im going to Ankor Wat, Cambodia, .... because its claim to fame is TEMPLES.
Jan 12 took van, then boat to Ayntuya (100Km), the ancient capital, where we used Mary Poppins bikes, lunch .... very protein oriented, then left our BKK guides and took I hour evening flight to Chaing Rai where we're staying at The Legend, a rather swanky country resort by the river... had seen a lot of temples again during the day
JAN 13 met Miss Nee, our guide for the next 7 days, a very "tough-sporty" Thai lady. Im the AM, were out fitted with our mountain bikes (4 of us) from a local shop, pretty high quality mountain bikes. The truck follows us with water and snacks. Went about 25Km to Elephant ride place (ride about 30 min) ride, a highlight.... was pretty much as I expected, the elephants are enticed by a lunch at the furthest point, and once having eaten then they head back...... the elephants seemed to be in good shape, .. but what do I know? BTW....: as I was walking looking for the bathroom, I got a surprise nudge from an elephant trunk, a gentle-ish nudge (from behind), but from an elephant, ... it was sort of a "what about me?" ... like saying "when are you going to give me one of those bananas your carrying?" ... an elephant's range with his trunk is longer than I realized. Then we cycled back, I'm slower than the other 3... bought another pair of cycling gloves since they seem to get so dirty-sweaty, and take a long time to dry when washed.
Jan14 2nd cycling day proved rather arduous 102km, and I had stints in the truck, as did Brian and Tara although (to be fair) we asked for a full day of cycling, but we are Northern Thailand where its very!!! hilly. The resort was pretty basic and Brian and Tara complained about 4AM partying in the room above, and the wait staff was borderline surly, stone cold fried eggs in the AM, waited 10 minutes standing in the kitchen waiting for instant coffee..... saying they would carry luggage and never did ... maybe I'm to picky, but I would rank it with say the least favorite in Cuba.
Jan15 was a cycle to lunch,... over a very steep start (.. had to walk my bike .... too steep), say 5- 7 km up on dry mud, dusty road, slippery, equivalent down .... then fairly flat for 30km. Lunch by the river, then 3 hours kayak (... fun) to a fairly nice Taiwan-run river resort. Brian (Mr Navy)provided excitement, by capsizing, ...and for a few minutes seemed to be quite anxious, not exactly US-navy typical (... I assume). Dinner was better than average with a group of eight 14 year old girls in traditional costume holding candles singing at table side.... quite cute.
Jan 16 was a short long-tail boat ride to a van, then a 30 van minutes to a mountain "tea area" where we went on a 3 hour trek, saw a 83 year old grandmother smoking a pipe, the went into a typical "hill-people" grass roof house, .... tidy, clean. The older locals don't speak Thai, only the local hill-people language, so all the conversation with the guide is gibberish. I was surprised ...overall the roadside litter level is pretty bad (like Mexico) and for most of the trek path litter was bad. Lunch in Muslim restaurant, curry beef, curry chicken was the best lunch yet. Miss Nee, the guide, showed us (using a published map) our overall route for the seven days, but generally we don't know where we are....same complaint Marg Terrett had in Nov2008. I did notice a house-building crew (replacing roof) that were all smiles (Thailand= 'land of smiles') and seemed very happy, ... and joking banter with the guide. The Mountain resort is pretty posh. Large rustic rooms and very impressive views. It was the eve of Brain/Tara's anniversary (paper), and Doug bought a bottle of champagne. Dinner on the patio restaurant was Thai of course, and Miss Lee didn't eat the eyes out of the fish (... couldn't have been too hungry),
Jan 17, a van ride out of the mountain resort, to a start point that cut down on the climbing, and a very steep 20Km downhill to the Burma border (Myanmar) where we could shoot photos of the Burma soldiers. Lunch in a town that splits Burma/Thailand, in a riverside restaurant, then 20 minutes looking through the market. Then a fairly flat ride to our hotel (new, modern, nice) and then to a riverside restaurant. Miss Lee arranged for a "kum" for Brian&Tara's anniversary, where a tissue paper cube, (the size of a refrigerator) with a burnable wax ring at the base, is lit, and starts to rise, ... a bit like a hot air balloon, well pretty much exactly a hot air balloon, but using very light weight paper frame. It's sort of a Northern Thailand New Year "thing".
Jan 18, our last day cycling with Brain and Tara,. Route was pretty much flat and along the Mekong river, from where Laos Thai and Burma join (Golden Triangle) to Chaing Kong 82 Km. Lunch was too early at 11 AM, and had congealed chicken blood as one of the options, .... not for me. Brian Tara and Ms Lee, the guide) left at 3:30PM to go back to Bangkok and 4 days in Pukhet, and Miss Lee has another guiding job starting tomorrow. So left with Mr Bird who had dinner with us at a Mexican restaurant, supposedly the best Mexican restaurant in Chaing Kong, ... I guess that wouldn't be hard, since I imagine its the only Mexican restaurant
Jan19 went to the Opium Museum (modern impressive complex) for about two hours ... really quite interesting, and there's a lot of things about opium that I didn't realize (is the source for both morphine and heroin. Also I didn't realize that it was the Brits who were the "bad guys" in that they effectively traded the opium form India to the Chinese, and it wasn't really to bring back home (which is what I thought) .... ie the Brits were effectively the "drug-dealers". We've just completed a 130Km ride back to the airport at Ching Rai for the flight to Bangkok and onto Siem Reap in Cambodia. I'm told that Cambodia is a very! poor country compared to Thailand. Also Laos is about the same as Thailand economically, but more like Thailand about 30 years ago. The transfer in Bangkok and onto Bangkok Airways, to Cambodia, was smooth. The Siem Reap hotel, Pavillion Indochine is simple but fine (...so far).
Pros ( things on the positive side)
- a couple of the hotels were exceptionally nice
- weather was good (...hot) and the road traffic was light, no safety issues
- the riding difficulty level was reasonably balanced, and varied
- the smiling albino guide and driver were above average
- the food was a interesting and varied "intro" to Thai food
Cons (things on the negative side)
- Overall, the 10 day trip pricing is very "high markup", considering the low cost of hotels, and inexpensive meals ,.... compared to the 5 other companies (62 trips) I know.
- the hotel on the second night was too basic (noisy at 4AM, surly staff)
- the distance on Jan 14, at 102 km was excessive, .... but to be fair, some of our group asked for a long day.
- overall the tipping situation was annoying,... but maybe it's just me. I'm used to trips with essentially no tipping. Tipping should be for the truly exceptional, not a "expected" mechanical calculation, ... then it's more like an irritating surcharge.
- there were too many visits to temples on the first 2 days.
IMF 2008 GDP per person
.....Thailand 8239 USD,
.....Cambodia 2039 USD
.....Vietnam 2794 (USD)
.....Cuba, around 4800 ... for comparison
Jan21 Barang our guide was sick so he introduced us to his replacement, Virtek, who is a bit more intense. Cycled 37 km to a temple (what else?), the " womens temple", pink sandstone, although it was raining and we went in the van a bit , then to the land mine museum, then to lunch in Siem Reap ( very good), then 16 Km along a very muddy road to three small temples, whe we had champagne ... but no sunset. Going to "Khamer Kitchen" for dinner, turned out a great modest local restaurant with main courses (eg fried pork with cashews, curried chicken at $3 ea). The whole Pub street area is really jumping, (not sleazy like area near Bangkok hotel) ...lots of tourists,...but not many north Americans. .....One of the more interesting segments was the ride down the muddy road for 37km to an obscure temple (where tourists don't go) and you see more of the true local life ... very poor even compared to Cuba. Every house seems to be running a shop of some kind, ... even if selling gasoline in 2L pop bottles, ... just like northern China.
Jan 22 went on a boat trip after a 24 Km cycle. The lake is the largest lake in SE Asia ...huge. I was amazed at the many hundreds of families that live in the sort of canal leading to the lake, just shacks on stilts (floating schools, floating market), where the main business is fish, but with so many people fishing I would think the fish population is going to deplete. Then onto an artisan centre with students working and lots of impressive artifacts, often in the $55-$160 range. Then onto lunch at fancy restaurant, and then National museum for an hour or so (... impressive building, many Budda images, but a bit boring).
Overall impressions (of Cambodia). I was not expecting much from Cambodia relative to Thailand or Vietnam, but am pleasantly surprised.... even though it was cloudy and rainy a couple days. It's not just temples, and admittedly a very poor country, half the GDP/pp of Cuba, and a tragic history (Khmer Rouge, killing fields) ... but rates high on the scale of "depaisement" (feeling of being away from home). Overall impressed, and the boutique hotel "Pavillon Indochine" $55/night was great.
Jan 23 a transfer day from Cambodia to Bangkok at 1:25, so it was kind of waiting around most of the early part day. On a short 35 minute flight Bangkok airways served a decent boxed lunch. In BKK, Frank and Jeb met us and took us to their golf-course house then since Jeb was ill we went off a two hour boat trip/dinner (we treated them) on the local major river that runs through Bangkok. Frank and Jeb have a maid, for house work and a driver who uses their car to drive where ever, and wait for you till you've finished, ... which is real handy in a place like super-conjested Bangkok. Seeing the temples all lit up at night is impressive, all the impressive stuff is highlighted, and the shabby stuff cant be seen. Staying at a hostel, www.banndinso.com, in crowded downtown Bangkok, .... but pretty impressive, $50USD for a twin room, breakfast +$6. ... kind of a private home all fixed up to be a guest house, ultra clean ... eg even an internet room with three stations, ... and this place just won the 2009 Best Hostel award from Hostelling International. Im going to look up the organization for future reference.
Jan 24 an "explore" day in Bangkok. Frank and Jeb met as 9 30 and took us to the weekend market, ... a huge affair and we saw maybe 25% of it in 2 hours. All new products (not a flea market) and some real bargains. All I bought was a pair of of black Sierra brand Capri pants (....do they have to call them Capri pants?), with the idea I could wear them over the rest of the trip. Then off to Jim Thompson Museum, where a quite restful lunch in an upscale restaurant, and bought a Jim Thompson 4'x4' wall hanging (without the strecher). Then the Skytrain + riverBus to Chinatown, ... huge display of food and articles,...... but 75 minutes of that is pretty tiring.... then a "tuk tuk" back to the BaanDinso boutique hotel. Tomorrow were off to Hanoi to begin Pedaltours, 17 days.
......Click for the next post for Vietnam (Jan 25- Feb 14/ 2010 ......
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