KANCHANABURI FLURRY

DECLARE INDEPENDENCE

I was excited because two weekends go Alice and I had made plans to go to Kanchanaburi, which is about 3 hours north of Bangkok. I had wanted to go ever since my roomies told me about the waterfalls you hike to and go swimming in, and my co-worker related stories to me about how she pet tigers at the tiger temple. So cool! I have decided that traveling is the way I relax, and I needed some of that…

But then Alice couldn’t go because she had a hard week and just wanted to chill in Bangkok. It was understandable, but I was disappointed because I had been looking forward to the trip so much and talking about it all week.

Then one of my friends was like, Sherri, don’t let people stop you from your adventures. Just go on your own! So I was like, yeah, why don’t I!

So even though some people thought I was baa (crazy in Thai), after work on Sunday I packed my small backpack and side bag and then stood on the street to get a taxi to take me and myself to the Southern bus terminal.

After a long, traffic-ful ride, we arrived and I was shoved onto a bus headed for Kanchanaburi. I was the only farang on the bus the entire three-hour trip, which meant I received the usual stares and assumptions that I’m just another tourist. Oh well…

Once we got to Kanchanaburi, the terminal was rather empty, except for this one annoying man who kept telling me that he could take me where I needed to go. I tried to ignore him, and found a taxi man who said he would charge me 80 baht to go to the guesthouse.

The annoying man had tagged along, and said he could do the trip for 40 baht in his bicycle taxi. I got him down to 30 baht, and went with him. He wasn’t so annoying after all..

We rode along through the quiet streets to Apple’s Guesthouse, the one that my Lonely Planet guidebook had raved about. But when we pulled up to the friendly premises, they were dark. The bike-man told me they were full because there were soooo many tourists around, and said he could take me to somewhere else. I didn’t really believe him, but the other place he gave me the flier (he so conveniently had in his back pocket) was a guesthouse I had also read about, Blue Star, and the price for one room was cheaper.

Once we arrived, the owner was so genuine and kind, I thought, why not stay here, plus the room he showed me was so cool… on the outside..

JANE BUT NO TARZAN

It was like a tree-house in a jungle. The bottom floor had the small sketchy bathroom with geckos running amok on the non-flushable toilet. The bedroom was reached by climbing steep steps. It had a nice little porch with a wooden cozy bench and leg rest. So welcoming.

The inside was more like a room a 12 years old stays in when roughing it at summer camp. All it had was a double bed, with no sheets, just a threadbare blanket folded at the end. Then next to the bed was a stool with a small mirror over it. That was it. The screened windows had curtains that looked like they had shrunk over the years and barely covered the windows.

One of the most intriguing parts of the room was the lock on the door, it was just one of those you slide over to keep the door in place, like you find on a bathroom door. Wow, and my number one concern had been finding a room where I felt safe…and the adventure begins.

I DIDN’T KNOW THIS WAS A DATE

I chatted with the nice owner and once I said one thing in Thai he got so excited. I didn’t really chat of course, just said a few words which showed him I was trying to learn his tricky language. One thing I said was that I was hungry. The vocab I know the most has to do with food because it is the most important part of life in Thailand.

The owner said since I was hungry, that his friend who had been staring at me during our convo, could show me to town where I could eat, since he was on his way home. I thought oh, he will walk me to the road and be on his way. That’s cool.

But of course that didn’t really happen. It turns out he was going to take me on his motorbike. He took me to what he called an original Thai place, pretty much a normal food stall on by the road. He ordered minced herb pork with just enough spiciness and an egg over rice. As usual, the food was delicious, which was pretty much our main topic of convo, since I have perfected the world delicious in Thai.

The whole time I would try to say something in English, and he would say, speak Thai. So we had this constant banter of confusion of Thaiglish the whole night. Wow, I was working my lacking Thai skills like mad.

I had mentioned earlier how I wanted to go to the night market. Yet again, I assumed he would drop me at the curb of the market and be on his way. Not so much.

He wandered around with me and seemed to know everyone who worked there. They all pointed at us, and he would say girlfriend. I would sort of chuckle and try to ignore the comment and wanted to escape everyone looking at us. So I browsed everything as quickly as possible while trying to look interested.

After a nice round of girlfriend comments, he asked me how old I was. I said 22. He said he was 33. So then he switched and started to say, “Sister!” This I nodded to and said, “Brother!” in Thai.

Ahh, much better. But still every once in awhile he would say “Girlfriend”? And I would say quickly “”Sister!”

So we left the shopping for another stop at a place where we listened to a live band for a little while. The band was delighted that I was taking pictures of them, and kept telling me each pic was 20 baht. Then the owner got them to play for me the only Thai song I know. Everyone was so nice! Ahh, but finally after many pleadings of “Nuay mak” (very tired) to my tour guide, I got to go back to my lovely tree-house.

Finally, the friendly Thai man left me once I started talking with my neighbors in the next tree house over from Germany. I think they were a couple, and the woman seemed tickled by my enthusiasm and would giggle at how I said things.

It turns out they were in the police force together, which they said is a lot less exciting than the police life in the States, from what they see on TV. Heehee..They were happy when I told them I had German ancestors and told me I needed to learn German. I told them the only word I know is my last name which means Angel. Oh well, that’s something!

Then I had a sleepless night in my camp room, and woke up feeling amazed I was safe and sound. But I thought about how even though I had a fairly non-existent lock on my door, at least I had German police next door to protect me. Who needs secure locks when you have them?

FALLING DOWN

Banana, pineapple and honey pancake. Wow. I was in such heavenly bliss during every bite-ful of my breakfast that morning at Blue Star’s restaurant. The warm slices of banana melted in my mouth with the tang of pineapple to give every bit some zing. The pancake was so thick because of the bananas and pineapples that some of the inside didn’t cook all the way through. Usually I wouldn’t like that, but this even added to the perfection because the gooey sections tasted like cake batter freshly licked from the bowl. Wow. I definitely told the owner, that breakfast was alroy mak (very delicious).

Then after my delightful morning of eating bliss, I made my way to the waterfall. I stood on the road at the designated spot to wait for the bus to come. Right when I was starting to lose hope that I was in the right place a man came to ask me what I was waiting for. He told me the bus was coming down the road and flagged it down for me. I love when you travel alone and little angels pop up to help you at just the right time..

After an hour and a half of bumpy bus ridin, we made it to the Erawan National Park. I started wandering on the muddy trail that would lead me to the first of the seven levels of waterfalls. The park was cooler because of all the trees and there was a constant soundtrack of water gurgling. I was the only one on the path for awhile. I felt like I was one of the fellowship from Lord of the Rings, making my way to Rivendell.

Eventually I came upon four Thai girls taking pictures in front of the first fall I came to. I asked them if they wanted me to take their picture and they merrily accepted my offer.

Then it was as if that one small favor had turned me into their best friend forever. They all wanted pictures with me. One of them took my camera and took pictures of me with them. Then they grabbed my hand and brought me along the trail with them. They were smiling and holding me and excitedly talking to me in English, asking me where I was from and what I do.

I felt so loved, it was so sweet! They were from Krabi, a town in the south of Thailand and were on holiday from their work as nurses. They were all wearing cute shirts, flip-flops and bright make-up. Their attire didn’t really fit the hiking environment, and made me giggle.

After a few levels I said farewell to them because they weren’t going to the top. We hugged and I was on my way.

It really felt like I was in a fantasy land. The water was green blue and see- through. The falls were so gentle, not roaring massive ones, but instead calming for the soul.

Once I made it to the top I went swimming! The pool was not cool and felt so nice on my muddy legs. It was like a magical cleansing pool. What a perfect reward for my efforts…

Once the rain that had been dripping through the leafy top began to drop harder, I remorsefully decided I should head back. So I made my way down the slick trail to where the bus had dropped me off.


TIGER TEMPLE

Thankfully there was a food area there because I was famished. I tried to order from the random man who I thought was the server because he was giving the cooks a lot of orders. He looked at me strangely, but then after I spoke in Thai and he gave the cook my order.

“You speak Thai!” He said excitedly. We spoke some more together and then he invited me to sit with him and his friend. Oops, so he wasn’t the waiter..

It turns out he was the leader of a tour group. They had just seen the waterfalls and were on their way to the Tiger Temple. He asked me if I was going to see the temple the next day. I told him I was leaving that afternoon, so I couldn’t go and was sad.

He was like, no, you have to go! He thought about it for a bit and told me that I could go with his tour group to the temple and then they were going back to Bangkok that night, so they could take me with them if I wanted. The price was about the same or a little cheaper than if I made my way back on my own, and it was much easier, so I was like sweet and agreed.

The driver and the tour guide were so excited I was joining them, and kept trying to talk in Thai to me the whole time. There was about 7 other tourists in the spacious, quiet van. It was delightful, a much more relaxed riding environment than the bouncy, noisy bus.

Wow, the tiger temple was crazy! This monk who wanted to start a wildlife sanctuary opened the tiger temple. The tigers are so calm that you can just walk around them and get your picture taken right next to them. They are so chill because they have been hand-raised by humans so they don’t fear people.

I had heard rumors that really the tigers are drugged, and until I went there I believed everyone. But I really don’t think that is the case. The reason is that a lot of the volunteers who work there are from North America and very much the hippie activist type. I highly doubt that type of people would work at a place that drugged tigers, so I’m pretty certain the cats are just relaxed.

Then I even got to see tiger cubs! They were so cute and a little more active and jumpy than the big cats. The handlers know them so well and would tell us to back off when we needed to. I even got to kiss one, as you can see…

It was such an awesome weekend.

Traveling isn’t about the places you go, but the people you meet.

Yay.

VIETNAM VENTURES

FIRST IMPRESSIONS WITH AN ELF MAN

One of our first discoveries in Vietnam was that traffic is louder and crazier than that of Bangkok. Yes, it is possible. By our last day we yearned for the miles of cars, which sit silently on the streets, waiting to for their turn to go at the hour-long red lights.

In Hanoi, no one waits, and everyone honks. Honks. Honks. And honks. I felt like the city was made up of a million broken horns that would randomly go off for no reason. Then there were swarms of motorbikes everywhere. It felt like they were killer bees, waiting to attack innocent tourists on the streets if they step the wrong way.

After a honk-full, almost crashing into a million motorbikes drive in the taxi to the center of Hanoi, we soon discovered our driver didn’t really know where our hotel was. Hmm..neither did we.

Our problem was solved when a man who reminded me of a Vietnamese looking Christmas elf came up to our window. He told us to get out. I was freaked out at first. I thought this little man who was a few inches shorter than 5'3 me would take us to a sketchy place in Hanoi and do something evil to us. I wasn’t going to budge.

It turns out he was just the owner of Ocean Star II (the hostel where we had booked our stay) who had used his magical powers to find the taxi. And I really do think he has special powers.

Right away, our elf friend, who turned out to be a boisterous, lovable ball of energy, was eager to help us book a tour for Halong Bay the next day. The problem was he didn’t speak English well. For some reason the way he said sacts, instead of taxes was pretty much the funniest thing in the world to me at the time and I couldn’t stop laughing. This was probably due to lack of food and sleep. Thankfully, he seemed oblivious to my snickers or just thought I was a freak American with laughing issues.



To make matters worse, Vietnamese dong boggled our famished minds to no end. After what seemed like 30 minutes of explanation in broken English we understood that 16,000 dong equaled one American dollar. But trying to add up these huge sums of money that really equal hardly anything is rather exhausting for the brain. It led to even more laughter from me when he was trying to type everything in the calculator, and we kept looking at him with puzzled stares after his lengthy explanations.

Yet the next few days after rest and food, I became saner and the elf man took a liking to me for some reason. He started to call me his girlfriend. I wanted to say you are too short to be my boyfriend, but didn’t want to hurt him too bad. So he had fun telling people I was his girlfriend, giving me hugs, dancing with me, and kissing me on the cheek.

Now I can say I had a Vietnamese Christmas elf guy for a boyfriend. How delightful! He really made our stay a silly, fun time. So much so that the annoyance soon vanished away that our water didn’t work much, a cockroach ran over Ja one morning and our room was made for a one and a half person and not three.

BAY BABES



The next day we rode in a van for about 3-hours outside of Hanoi to Halong Bay. We passed by farming towns, and stared at men and women working in the rice paddies with the famous straw cone hats. At first I thought these hats were worn for the tourists’ sake, but they actually do wear them for a purpose.. to keep the sun off and to stay cool.

Our van was full of characters. Our tour guide, yet again was lacking in English skills, even though his occupation is an English tour guide for Halong Bay. We had four guys from Switzerland who right away I knew were going to make things fun.

I guessed they were in a hardcore band when I first saw them because of their skating shoes, tattoos, and punk hats. I had never heard punk people speak elegant French before, so that was a cool combo. They are on a tour of the world for 20 months, if their money lasts that is..I was so inspired by them and wish that one day I can take a few months off of life and do the same. Wow, we shall see…Anyone want to join?

When we got on our boat at the bay, it felt like we were on an ancient Asian vessel, prowling the waters. First we went to a fishing village. I was so in awe because people actually live on houseboats, in the village. They don’t live on the land at all. They go to school in a building in the middle of the water. So crazy! We were discussing how boring it would be to live there if you weren’t used to it. The most exciting thing would be to swim over to your neighbor and talk about the catch of the day. Whoa, thankfully I wasn’t born into the life of Halong Bay fishing village…more power to the people who were..

Then we went into some caves, which were part of the UNESCO world heritage site. They were full of stalagmites lit up by different colored lights, like fluorescent green, purple and blue. It felt like we were in a club turned into a cave.

Our tour guide kept pointing at different stalagmites saying, “This is a dragon, do you see the dragon?” And all ten of us would look at each other, trying to decipher what he said and would be like. “No….” And then the Swiss guys would start yelling “Dragon, dragon!” And we would all laugh and stare and still not see it.

Once he told us one of the funky rocky things was Romeo and Juliet in the duck. What? We all looked at each other. What is he saying? Duck? Duck? Hmmm dark? But still it didn’t make sense. At one point he said, “Am I confusing?” I thought of saying yes, but didn’t think it would help much, so I just smiled and said “No! You are fine.” Yet another delightful character to add to our mix.

BIG TV



We were going to spend the next day going around Hanoi and looking at the sites of the city. First of all we shopped and bought cutesy Vietnamese hat decorations. Then we went to some cool gardens and the first Vietnamese library, where the books are huge stone tablets that have Chinese characters engraved in them. Eventually we went to the Ho Chi Min museum. That was interesting because none of us were quite sure who he was, and the whole modernistic, funky museum was very supportive of him.

But eventually we were so exhausted after walking around the whole city for hours that we needed to relax. We decided to try to see a Vietnamese movie at the theater. We found the nice little man who had been taking us around the city in his little bicycle chariot where he drives in the back and we ride in the front.

It is perfect because you have an unblemished view of the city streets---the huge tall trees lining the roads amidst the tall, slender, elegant French-style architecture, the women carrying poles on their backs laden with fruit baskets at each end, and the Vietnamese on lunch breaks chowing down at street stalls.

So we told him, “We want to see a movie.”
“Oh! You want to go shopping?”
“No, we want to see a film.” (We begin pantomiming watching a film.)
“Oh! You want to get food?”
“No, we want to go to the theater.” (Pantomiming even more exuberantly now.)
“Oh! You want to go to hotel?”
“No, we want to go to the cinema.” (Giving up pantomiming)

This banter continued for a while, much to everyone’s frustration. Finally I said, “We want to see big TV!”
“Big TV! Oh yes! Big TV! I know! I take you!” He pantomimes a big TV.

We all giggled at the fact that it took him so long and were ecstatic to finally have broken the language barrier.

We got in two different bicycle chariots and after about 20 minutes we realized after passing the same spot we had been picked up, that our faithful driver didn’t know where he was going. Yet, after awhile, he finally stopped and said, “Big TV!”

Ahh, we looked over and saw a TV store selling Panasonic TVs, not just any TVs though, big ones.

NO, no! We tried to tell him that it wasn’t what we wanted. “But big TV!” he pointed. A man on the street tried to help us too, but he had never heard of the word movie theater either. Eventually we gave up on the movie option and decided to try to have him take us to somewhere close by on the map, we pointed at a theater where they put on plays and asked him to take us there.

He seemed to know where that was so we drove along for another 20 minutes until he pulled up to a bookstore. NO! A bookstore?! We started to tell him it was wrong, but finally decided to just get out.

We gave him 30,000 dong, the first agreed on price, but he was annoyed as well. “No! More money! I drove around and around!”
“But you didn’t take us where we wanted to go!” So we made a dash inside the bookstore, to hide-out from the disgruntled driver.

We never found our movie theater, but a sweet lady in the book store immediately knew what we were talking about when we asked. It was too faraway to go to, but oh well. We learned overall in Vietnam that even if people appear to speak English, looks can be quite deceiving.




SAIGON YUM

I know you must be astonished that I haven’t spoken about food yet. But I saved it for now because I wanted this blog entry to have a nice ending.

The night we arrived, my first sight of food stalls added to my laughing problem. Many people in Hanoi sit on little tiny chairs at the street vendor stalls. It looks like the adults have pulled up to the kid’s table at Thanksgiving. It was so cute to see the stools, and we couldn’t get over them. Look for pics online…

The first night we walked to the first food stall we saw and sat down on the wee chairs. For about a dollar each, we feasted on Vietnamese style BBQ. Each table had its’ own grill with a Bunsen burner like thing under it, where we put beef and cooked it ourselves. They also gave us green onions and tomatoes to add to the beef. With our chopsticks we pushed it around on the grill until it was just the right shade of well-done but not too burnt. Then we dipped it with a tomato in a rather Thai tasting spicy, flavorful sauce, and it was perfect! Or maybe it was also that we were starved, either way it was fun.

We also saw the French influence because they served us baguettes with the meal, so different from Thailand where bread is scarce at most food stalls. Then for breakfast at Ocean Star II we also had baguettes with eggs, as well as Vietnamese pho.

Alice was super excited about foo, a noodle soup with chicken and herbs, because she had it all the time at home in Calli. But she was disappointed because she said it tastes better in Callifornia. Heehee..I didn’t think it was too bad, but I enjoy Thai soups better cuz I think they have more flavor. Maybe I will just have to eat pho in California though before I decide Thai noodle soup is better..

Oh man! And the coffee! So good! I was eager to try Vietnamese-style coffee that I had heard about in the States. One morning after eating some dough bread for breakfast we went to a café, which even had the mini-chairs. The coffee was brought in a small clear glass with a spoon in it. I mixed the coffee with the sweetened condensed milk that was at the bottom of the glass. It had such a rich, strong taste. It was like eating a brownie minus the chocolate.



Later on we indulged at a fancy café where I got my own mini-press pot of coffee on top of my cup. Then I after letting the coffee seep for about 5 minutes I mixed it with the milk. Yet again it was amazing. Of course since caffeine and me are mortal enemies, I was up all night after my two coffees in one day. But hey, I’m only in Vietnam once, so I don’t regret it too much..

Our last food delight was when we treated ourselves to a nicer restaurant. We got a dish where they give you circular sheets of rice paper, which looks just like wax paper, and we put sticky green, and white noodles, basil, cucumbers, pork ribs, and a spicy sauce and rolled it up like a wrap. Wow, so cool! Ahh, as one of my co-workers says, the joys of being mortal, being able to indulge in delicious food.

NEXT STEP

I hope I survive another week of intense work. If I keep thinking about elfs and big TVs and laughing..I think I can make it through.

Woohoo!