Off the beaten path in Kanchanaburi

Just a short post to tell you about a neat experience we had while in Thailand (our final real post is in the works!). As it turns out, one of my friends from high school, Jaclyn Bergamino, has made Thailand her home. She and her boyfriend are currently English teachers at schools in a city a few hours outside of Bangkok called Kanchanaburi. Being this close to an old friend, we had to visit! So a few weekends ago we took the (very slow!) train from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi to visit Jaclyn and Sam. It was an absolutely awesome addition to our Thailand trip! In contrast to the touristy activities we'd been doing in northern and southern Thailand, visiting Jaclyn was anything but! Jaclyn and Sam live in a cute little apartment completely outside the tourist district of their town. They have nice neighbors, a friendly landlord, and great connections to the businesses, restaurants, and taxi drivers throughout their neighborhood. They have a simple life... working during the week and relaxing on the weekends. Sam makes time to do some extra, volunteer English tutoring on the side, and Jaclyn just got a side job as a travel writer. Their affairs are easy to manage, their local relationships aren't too complicated, and they love it. What a great life they've developed in Thailand! What's even more, Jaclyn and Sam gave us a more authentic look at the nature of Thai locals. Whereas in the tourist areas, there are always taxi drivers, travel agents, or hotel operators trying to rip you off, most Thai people Jaclyn and Sam interact with are extremely eager to help foreigners in any way possible. They give Jaclyn and Sam an incredible level of respect because they are teachers (a respect gravely missing from American culture!), and they regularly invite them to their homes to eat or just stop them for a friendly, albeit a bit broken, English/Thai conversation. While Amit and I had been on guard, constantly defensive when interacting with locals, Jaclyn and Sam are warmly-accepted members of their Thai community and have an easier time interacting with Thai people than even with some of the more aggressive tourists who visit their town. It was an educational, and incredibly unique, experience for us on our trip, and we came away from our relaxing visit with them with a completely different perspective on interactions with Thai people. This "education" was almost immediately applicable, as we were approached by 3 or 4 different people when we arrived at the Southern Bus Station in Bangkok. We had plans to buy tickets to head down south to Koh Phangan, and usually, when we're approached by locals acting like they want to help us, we quickly rebuff them in an attempt to avoid whatever scam they are pushing. After our weekend with Jaclyn, however, we decided to be a little more open to their help... and as it turned out, they were indeed just trying to help us get where we were going! Each person who discovered that we wanted to buy tickets to Koh Phangan would point us in the direction of the correct ticket counter until we finally got there and bought exactly what we were looking for... no tricks, scams, or other deception. So a big thanks to Jaclyn and Sam for a great weekend and a great perspective on the Thai people! While most of the rest of our visit in Thailand was within the tourist bubble, this unique departure from the beaten path was a real treat! Get ready for our final post... we're on our way home!!! Love, Dena & Amit

Sam, Jaclyn, and Dena at the river near their apartment The beautiful mountains across the river from Jaclyn and Sam's apartment Sam and Amit, relaxing on a bench at the river The sunset in Kanchanaburi

Adventures in northern Thailand

At long last, we finally made it to Thailand! We crossed over the boarder from Siem Reap on a tourist bus headed for Bangkok. The bus dropped us off at a famous backpacker area of Bangkok, Khao San Road, and from there, we had our pick of travel agencies from which to buy our ticket to Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. With only 30 minutes until our next bus, we grabbed some falafel and hummus (yes! Thailand has been colonized by Israelis... on Khao San Road, there is actually more Hebrew signage than Thai or even English, and there are tons of Israeli shops, restaurants, and hotels!), and around 8 AM, after a mildly uncomfortable night bus, we arrived at a hotel in Chiang Mai (a side note: all tourist buses in SE Asia are subsidized by hotels that serve as the drop off or pick up location and hope to thereby get the business of the bus riders). After settling in at the hotel, we walked around the city a bit, investigating all of the many activities options in the area. If you remember our post from Pucon in Chile, Chiang Mai was a lot like that... an outpost for adventure activities to do all over northern Thailand, and the real challenge is to try and figure out which ones you are going to turn down! From a selection of playing with tigers, riding a 2 km jungle zipline, bungee jumping, a four-day jungle jeep tour, a three-day whitewater rafting trip, visiting a snake farm, a three-day jungle trek, elephant training, and cooking classes, we decided on the latter three. Fortunately, our trekking package included a short bit of whitewater rafting, and on the way to the elephant training camp, we also got to visit an orchid farm, so we didn't have to give up on too many good activities (although Amit is still mourning missing out on playing with tigers and the 2 km zipline). This first exploratory day also happened to be Friday, and Chiang Mai is one of the four cities in Thailand that is home to a Chabad House. So at night, we joined the mass of Israelis, as well as a few other Jewish travelers, at Chabad for Shabbat services and Shabbat dinner. After having spent several days visiting Hindu and Buddhist temples at Angkor Wat and being surrounded by people of such different faith (almost all of Cambodia and Thailand is Buddhist), it was relaxing and comforting to have an evening of Jewish activities and Hebrew speaking (for Amit), and to be reminded of our own family traditions. To keep up this sense of relaxation, we decided not to book any activities until the next evening, when we took our Thai cooking class (our final and most anticipated cooking class!). We took the class at a school called "Smart Cook," which was the most professional of all the cooking schools we attended on our trip. The teacher was a very smart (no pun intended!) and experienced Thai woman who knew how to make all sorts of substitutions in traditional Thai dishes for both vegetarian needs and American-ingredient needs. Among other things, we learned how to make Pad Thai (hurray!), red and green curry (double hurray!), and a delicious dessert consisting of coconut sticky rice and sliced mango. After obtaining all of our new culinary skills (Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Thai!), we are greatly looking forward to have many dinner guests in our new apartment in Chicago! The next day was our mahout training day! Mahout is the Thai word for elephant trainer, and as elephants are a major tourist attraction in Thailand, there are many mahouts and many elephant "camps" throughout the country. The camp that hosted us was a very primitive (and therefore, not touristy!) center that housed only five or six elephants. One of their elephants was pregnant and two others were "out in the field" with tourists, but there were two elephants (a mother and her 14-year-old daughter) there for us to work with. To skip ahead to a summary of the experience, this day of one-on-one interaction with elephants was without a doubt one of the most special things we've done on our trip! Nowhere in the US would an average tourist have the opportunity to engage hands-on with elephants like we did. In this program, we worked with the elephants on their obedience to commands (right, left, forward, backward, stop, head down... all in Thai, of course!), and we learned to mount them from the side (using their ear as a handle!) and the front (they lower their head for us to climb on). Then we took them on a walk, took them into the river, gave them a bath (which they promptly undid with a wallow in a huge mud puddle!), and then we went on a hike to collect grass to feed them. The elephants were surely domesticated, but I would add this to our Antarctica trip as another personal interaction with animals that are not behind a fence or in a cage at a zoo or conservatory. They were hugely impressive creatures and it was humbling to be so close to them and engage with them in such a mundane way! Highly recommended for anyone traveling to Thailand (although we came away with nasty bug bites or some sort of rash, so cover your legs with leggings if you do it!). The next morning, we left for our three-day jungle trek. It was not raining when we first set out, but shortly after entering the jungle area, it started to rain, and it rained for the entire first day. We did a little elephant riding on the first morning, but we were riding on big bamboo seats on tops of the elephants, two people to a seat. There was no contact with the elephant directly, and it was a much less personal and fulfilling of an experience than our mahout day. From the elephant riding area, we started our trek into the jungle, which despite the rain, was very beautiful. For both of the nights of the trek, we stayed in little bamboo huts (the entire group of 8 trekkers stayed in one long hut, with little individual/double mosquito nets and mattresses) in the jungle. The first night, we stayed in a village at the top of a mountain, and our host family built a fire inside the communal hut where we hung out all night, got to know our fellow trekkers (from Belgium, New Zealand, France, and Thailand), and enjoyed an impromptu magic show by our new French friend (he had brought a few of his magic show implements with him). It was amazing to hear all of the trekkers' stories... the Frenchman was a former Navy seal who had been injured in a climbing accident and was now retired; the Thai trekker had met the Frenchman a few days before and decided to join him on her first trek ever; the New Zealander was a perpetual traveler who only worked when he needed money to travel; one of our Belgian friends was at a transition point in her life (personally and professionally) and she was trying out her new found freedom and searching for some answers and inspiration; and our two other Belgian friends were employed back in Belgium as a bus driver and a social worker and were on their annual vacation. A great group that made the trek very enjoyable! On the second day of the trek, we got slightly better weather (no rain), and we got to enjoy two great waterfalls/swimming holes on the trail, and on the third day, we did terrifically fun but short whitewater rafting ride! All in all, the trek was good fun with interesting people and a good way to end our trekking adventures before we heading to the beaches for our final weeks of relaxation! Only a little time left on our Great Adventure, so we'll try to post a few more updates and then we'll be seeing many of you in person! Hope the summer is going well, and for our working friends, we'll enjoy a banana smoothie on the beach for you! Cheers, Dena (& Amit)

Amit and our fellow cooking students making spring rolls Dena and her beloved Pad Thai Amit at a bar in Chiang Mai that turned out to be run by singing and dancing "lady boys" Amit and a Thai Boxer at a match we went to in Chiang Mai Amit, rewarding his elephant with a banana for good behavior Amit learning the over-the-front elephant mount Amit, teaching his elephant to go forward Taking our elephants on a VERY muddy walk A final pose with our mahout leader and one of our elephants Our trekking group One of our Belgian friends with some Thai village children Playing in one of the waterfalls on the trek

Angkor Wat, a true wonder of the world

Wow! Dena and I just spent three awe-inspiring days wandering around the ruins of the Angkor temple complex, the pride and joy of Cambodia. It was such an amazing place, we easily could have spent another few days exploring. The temple complex encompasses an area about 200 sq. km., and includes around 50 different temples. They were built by the emperors of the Khmer Empire between the 9th and 13th centuries (note: Khmer is the name used to describe the ethnicity of the Cambodian people, and is also the name of the language in Cambodia). At its height, the empire ruled over all of Cambodia, as well as parts of modern-day Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. The largest and most famous temple is called Angkor Wat, the image of which appears on the Cambodian flag, label of the national beer, and just about everything else. It was built during the period when the Khmer empire was transitioning from Hinduism to Buddhism, and so this temple has clear influences of both religions. Some sources claim that Angkor Wat is in fact the largest religious building in the world. Our guidebook devotes 20 pages to the architecture, symbolism, and art of the temple, but I won't bore you with all of that. Hopefully the pictures on the right can begin to impress on you the beauty and majesty of the temple. One of the aspects of the temple we enjoyed the most were the bas-reliefs (i.e., carvings on the wall) that surround the entire temple (more than 12,000 sq. feet of carvings) depicting many historical and mythological scenes, in particular battle scenes. As is typical of Hindu imagery, many of the characters have multiple heads and / or multiple arms, and many creatures are part-human, part-animal. Our favorite scene was "The Battle Between Gods and Demons." This scene included sculptures of 21 different Hindu gods, each one riding their "vehicle" of choice (e.g., an elephant, a goose, chariot, five-headed snake, etc.). It's amazing how different these legends are from our own biblical stories. Another highlight of our visit to Angkor was having our very own Tomb-Raider experience. Several of the temples in the complex have been completely infiltrated by the surrounding jungle. A description from our guidebook summarizes the effect perfectly: "Everywhere around you, you see nature in its dual role of destroyer and consoler; strangling on the one hand, and healing on the other; no sooner splitting the carved stones asunder than she dresses their wounds with cool, velvety mosses, and binds them with her most delicate tendrils; a conflict of moods so contradictory and feminine as to prove once more-if proof were needed- how well 'Dame' Nature merits her feminine title!" One of the temples we visited was in fact the setting for the shooting of one of the Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider movies. Supposedly, the most beautiful times to visit the temples are sunset and sunrise. We've had a couple of failed sunrise experiences already on this trip (i.e., Torres del Paine in Chile, and Huang Shan in China), so we were a little skeptical and decided to skip the sunrise, opting instead for the sunset. Unfortunately, our first two attempts were completely thwarted by rain and clouds. On our last day, we finally decided to suck it up, wake up at 4:30am, and hope for the best. Fortunately, this time we were rewarded! The sunrise over Angkor Wat was very pretty, and we then got to tour several more temples in the early morning, when the lighting is at its best... We took some great pictures that morning! And with that, we finished our quick trip through Cambodia. We would have loved to stay longer, but we only have a month left, and all of Thailand left to explore. Stay tuned for an update in a few days on our trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand (sneak peak: Thai cooking class, elephant training, trekking, more hill tribes, and white water rafting!). -Amit (& Dena)

Angkor Wat in all its glory Me, leaning on the "serpent" balustrade at the entrance gate to Angkor Wat Dena, posing in front of some of the many "Apsara" (heavenly dancer) sculptures that adorn the temples A small section of bas-reliefs at Angkor Wat A particularly well-preserved bas-relief at the "Terrace of the Leper King" Giant ficus tree supporting and destroying a section of the Ta Prohm temple Roots! One of over one hundred such face sculptures at the Bayon temple Banteay Srei, a smaller, but exceptionally decorated temple ~25km from Angkor Wat Wider view of Banteay Srei Sunrise at Angkor Wat A temple on earth and a temple in heaven In between visits to the temples, we found time to take a Khmer cooking class. YUM! It is definitely the wet season It seemed like 90% of the cars in Cambodia were Toyota or Lexus models; I'd never heard of the Toyota CORONA model before :)

Cambodia with a smile!

After more than three lovely weeks in Vietnam, it was finally time to move on to our second Southeast Asian country, Cambodia. So last Sunday, Amit and I boarded a rustic motorboat in Chau Doc (a city near the Vietnamese-Cambodian border) and set off for the border crossing on the Mekong River. After a few hours boating through the remainder of the Vietnamese Mekong, we arrived at a building on the river's edge that housed Customs and Passport Control... luckily, this time Amit only used one passport, so we didn't get hassled or have any trouble. Once on the Cambodian part of the Mekong, it was like the Communist cloud that had been hanging over us in China and Vietnam lifted, and all of a sudden, the people began to smile at us! The Cambodians we passed during the rest of our boat trip waved at us and jumped up and down on the river bank... actions I'd like to interpret as our informal welcome to Cambodia (although perhaps they were just excited to see weird-looking foreigners!). What a difference compared to the generally dour disposition of the people we met throughout China and Vietnam. One of the even more heartwarming aspects of this experience was the noticably greater poverty that we immediately saw in Cambodia. Many of the people outside the major cities live in shacks or huts made of palm fronds, corrugated metal, tarp, cloth, and whatever other materials they can find. There are no beds (the kind with mattresses that we're all familiar with); the people sleep on straw mats on the floor or hammocks in their home or shop. Many times, those with business related to the river (fisherman and transporters of goods/people) live in their boats (i.e. they don't have another home... the boat is their work and home). But despite the appearance of extreme poverty, the people smile much more than others we've met throughout Asia. It truly makes you feel welcomed as a visitor! When we finally got to Phnom Penh, we took a tuk-tuk (a covered cart pulled by a motor bike) from the bus drop-off point to our hotel, and we were disappointed to find the hotel was more expensive and less attractive/clean than we'd experienced in Vietnam. But we decided for convenience, we'd tough it out. On a related note, let me quickly tell you about our accommodations in SE Asia. As you probably remember from South America, we stayed almost exclusively in youth hostels, renting dorm beds in co-ed rooms of 6-9 people. In SE Asia, these are much less common. Instead, the cheap accommodations are "mini-hotels," which are somewhat akin to motels (although they usually have indoor hallways). The rooms are simple and stark, although usually clean and serviceable. The reception desk typically doubles as a travel desk, with information about local sight-seeing and transportation to other popular regional destinations. There is an over-abundance of these mini-hotels, so we've mostly had our pick of the litter, and because of this, throughout Vietnam and now in Cambodia, we've been arriving at our destination, scoping out the hotel options, and choosing our favorite (rather than booking in advance). Sometimes it doesn't exactly work out, like in Phnom Penh, where we were disappointed with our hotel. But we've been lucky overall, and have enjoyed our privacy, as opposed to the communal living forced upon us by our budget in South America. Much of our time in Phnom Penh (pronounced P'nom Pen in Khmer) was focused on touring the sites related to the Cambodian genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge. Our first stop in the city was the Tuol Sleng Prison museum, which contains educational exhibits on the history, politics, and tragically, the inhumane torture and execution of 1.7 million people by the Khmer Rouge, a revolutionary Communist group that violently took control of the country between 1975 and 1979. The prison, formerly known at S-21, was mentioned in an Associated Press article today about the recent trials of the war criminals from the Khmer Rouge... you should read it! Our second stop was the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, slightly outside the city, where the Khmer Rouge took the prisoners from S-21 for execution. This was a very moving experience, similar to visiting a concentration camp in Germany. The mass graves (i.e., pits) have grown over with grass, and a beautiful memorial (albeit a bit creepy, with hundreds of skulls on view through glass panels) has been erected, for the 17,000 people killed at this particular killing field. The serenity of the experience makes you realize how precious life is, and how devastating it is when millions of innocent people are killed in the name of a ridiculous and unattainable social ideology. Overall, while we didn't find Phnom Penh a particularly beautiful city, we had some very moving and interesting experiences, and we did see a few beautiful sites (see the picture of the National Museum and Palace to the right), ate at some great restaurants, and enjoyed a terrific introduction to the Cambodian people! A few side notes to add out of context: First, we have had the opportunity to eat a lot of strange fruits while we've been in Southeast Asia. I'm including several pictures in this post so you can get a sense. These unique fruits are available for sale everywhere, and the locals snack on them all the time (rather than our typical processes, packaged snacks). Second, Cambodian currency is a very strange phenomenon. They have their own unique currency, the riel, but for most things they actually use US dollars! Out of the ATM machines come US dollars, all of the prices in restaurants and shops are in US dollars, and when you receive change from a payment, you will usually get the large change in US dollars and the small change in riel (4000 riel = 1 dollar). Very odd to be all the way on the other side of the world, in a very foreign country, and have the most commonly used currency be our own! And third, I'm happy to report that we recently found out that we will not be assessed a Thai customs fee for the custom-made clothes we shipped to Thailand from Vietnam. The hotel in Thailand emailed us to tell us that the package arrived, fee-free, and they would hold it for us until we get there. Hurray!!! So that's all for now... look forward to a very exciting post soon to come about our visit to Angkor Wat, where we've spent the last few days. Love, Dena & Amit

Two boys on the Mekong River, waving to us from their boat Little boys smiling and sticking their tongues out at us A devastating display of children killed by the Khmer Rouge in Tuol Sleng Prison museum The tower of remembrance at the killing fields Amit, placing some incense and flowers at the memorial for those who died at the killing fields The killing fields at Choeung Ek, with several mass graves (pits) visible Amit with our tuk-tuk driver, Hung... check out the Cambodian smile! Me, in front of one of the buildings in the Royal Palace compound A few fruits stands near the market, displaying all of the crazy and delicious fruits we've been eating in SE Asia Amit eating a spiky fruit that is probably related to a lychee (we don't actually know the real name) Plates of the tiny tropical bananas, mango (2), and jackfruit

A whirlwind tour of Ho Chi Minh City (a.k.a. Saigon)

From Hoi An, we continued South to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon). Like no place else in Vietnam, our visit here, the capital of the short-lived Republic of Vietnam (a.k.a. South Vietnam) brought us face to face with the history of the "American War." Before I get to that though, a brief word about the transportation in Vietnam. In Hanoi, we booked an "open bus" ticket, which allowed us to freely get off / on the bus at a few key destinations along the Vietnam coast between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). We took the "sleeper" option, because the trip included two overnight legs. This bus was like no other I've ever seen. From the outside it looks like a normal coach bus, but once you step inside, it's like entering the dorm room from hell. There are three aisles of bunk beds, with two walkways in between. The beds are designed so that your feet are tucked into a cubby below the head of the person in front of you. The idea is great in concept, except for the following minor problems: The beds are designed for people of a typical Asian stature (i.e. 5'6" tall and 6" narrower in the shoulders than me), forcing Dena and me to contort ourselves into various uncomfortable pretzel-like positions The buses are equipped with a bathroom, but unfortunately it is padlocked with a sign that reads: "Please do not use toilet on your long bus ride to keep smelling away" Each bed has its own reading light, which the bus driver refused to enable, so starting at 7pm there is nothing to do but enjoy the melodic rhythm of pot holes and honking The last row on the bus has 5 beds across, separated by nothing, so it's basically like sharing a double bed with 5 people. We got stuck there for one long ride during the day, which was particularly bad because the A/C does not reach back there. Suffice it to say, it turned out to be the "no-sleeper" option, but at least there were no farm animals on board! Back to HCMC. The first stop on our American War history tour was the Reunification Palace. This compound, formerly known as Independence Palace, was home to three of South Vietnam presidents (the first one for ten years, the second for one week, and the third for two days). On April 30, 1975 North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the palace, signifying the official fall of the South Vietnamese government and the victory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (a.k.a. North Vietnam). The second stop was the War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the Museum of American War Crimes). Interestingly, of all the Museums we've been to in China and Vietnam, this one was the most visitor-friendly, with excellent English and French signage on all exhibits. The most powerful exhibit was a set of photographs showing victims of Napalm bombs (i.e., fire bombs) and Agent Orange (a chemical defoliant that was used to clear vast tracks of jungle in the fight against the Viet Cong guerrillas). It included the infamous photograph of Kim Phuc, 9 years old at the time, running naked, clearly in agony after being terribly burned by Napalm. For anyone interested, this photo is the subject of a worthwhile book titled "The Girl in the Picture," by Denise Chong. The Agent Orange photos showed dozens of horribly deformed children (including a couple of American children), allegedly as a result of their parents' exposure to Agent Orange. Overall, the museum left us with mixed emotions. Clearly, it tells a very one-sided story (the winners always get to write the history), with evident undertones and overtones of propaganda (nobody does propaganda better than Communists). However, putting that aside, the suffering and hardship caused by the U.S.'s actions in the war are unmistakable. The museum's portrayal of this suffering reminded us why many people outside the U.S., who seem to have longer memories than we do, do not always view the U.S. in the same positive light that we do. The third and final stop was the tunnel complex at Cu Chi, about two hours outside of Saigon. Like other tunnel complexes across southern Vietnam, this was used by guerrilla Viet Cong (VC) forces to harass and attack U.S. and South Vietnamese forces. The camouflage used to conceal the entrances to the tunnels was amazing. The guide pointed to a spot in the ground, and even knowing the entrance was there, we could not find it. He then lifted the tunnel cover, got in, and restored the cover, and still, knowing exactly where it was, you couldn't see it. We then got to see some very nasty-looking booby traps, typically involving a camouflaged trap-door and some combination of sharpened bamboo and spring-loaded 6" nails. Apparently, the traps caught very few soldiers, but were a useful psychological weapon. Finally, the time came for us to go through the tunnels ourselves. The original tunnels were too small for us Westerners, so they have doubled the size of a short 100 meter section. These enlarged tunnels were just large enough to "duck-walk" and crawl through. Nevertheless, the two minutes we spent in the tunnels were intense. It is hot and humid, the air is stale, and duck-walking for that long is pretty tiring on the quads. After several incidents with claustrophobic tourists, the park officials had to create six "emergency exits." Dena and I made it all the way, but several people in our group did not. The experience gave us a new-found respect for the tenacity, persistence, and patience of the VC guerrillas. From Saigon, Dena and I wound our way through the Mekong Delta to the island of Phu Quoc, off Vietnam's very southern tip. We went there to take a vacation from our vacation (life is rough) and to do absolutely nothing for a few days. Now we're in Cambodia, and we have only six weeks to go... -Amit (and Dena)

The "no-sleeper" bus Dena holding our "Golden Bible" (as our Lonely Planet guidebook is commonly referred to) in front of the Cathedral in Saigon Reunification Palace A model of the tank that first broke through the palace gates Pictures of Agent Orange victims at the War Remnants Museum Egg shell art at a workshop staffed only by Agent Orange victims Near the Cu Chi tunnels sits the Cao Dai temple, the holiest site of a religion combining Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism One of the four daily services inside the temple Guide entering a tunnel via the camouflaged entrance Can you spot the entrance now? Grass-covered trap door with razor sharp bamboo poles underneath American tank destroyed by Cu Chi guerillas "Duck-walking" through the tunnel Sunset on Phu Quoc island