"That belongs in a museum!"
- Indiana Jones
Happy Thai New Year ya’ll! Sorry this has been a little
delayed but I got wacked with food poisoning right after I got back. My
motivation for anything outside of Mad
Men re-runs hasn’t been high.
Last Friday night, Jon flew in from America. This was my
first visitor from the US, so I was pretty stoked to show him around
Thailand. That Saturday Songkran began,
the Thai New Year that lasts 4 days. Songkran is a Buddhist holiday. Thais will
go to the temple to sprinkle water on the Buddha for good luck and to pay
homage.
Airport welcome sign. Google won't let me rotate it
Flash forward to 2014. People are running down the street
shooting complete strangers with water guns. Pickup trucks have their beds full
of people dumping buckets of water on those walking by. Traffic is in a
complete gridlock as music blasts among this giant water fight. Motorbikes/cars
that are driving are no safer and are getting pelted as well. It was complete
madness. If you made eye contact with anyone, you could expect to be soaked
within seconds.
That being said, this only really happens in the downtown
area. We were able to see Songkran in a few different locations around Bangkok.
1.
My apartment: This was very mellow. Since I live
right off a highway, there wasn’t much activity going on. That being said, we
ended up walking by the woman who runs a nearby shoe stand. She saw us and
sprinkled some water from a bucket, saying, “Happy Songkran, happy happy water.”
We laughed and walked by her. She then paused to think for a second, grinned,
and then chased after us and poured the whole bucket on me. It’s the holidays.
2.
Khao San Road: The backpacker haven area was out
of control. There were so many people you could hardly walk. The music, water
guns, and hoses were all in full force. There was almost a foot of water in the street. We didn’t stay long.
3.
RCA: This is the young Thai nightlife area I had
never been to before. This was totally packed as well. We ended up finding this
one street that was completely blocked off, with a dance party filling the
road. It may as well been raining.
The next day we took an overnight bus up to Chiang Mai. This is where the "best" Songkran celebration was going to be. We
got in at about 9 AM and killed time until we picked up our other friend from
home, Sean. He's been doing relief work in the Philippines, so it was a few hours flight to get to Chiang Mai. Really blessed that two of my best friends were able to come visit.
Midday we went to the airport to pick up Sean. With
festivities already in full swing, getting his luggage to the hotel posed a
problem. After getting dropped off at our hostel, we had a Call of Duty like run to his hotel down the street. He covered his
important goods in a poncho and we acted as security detail to get him to the
extraction point (the hotel) safely (dry). We ended up making it but made the
wise decision to leave valuables at home or put our phones in ziploc bags.
This is the most disappointed I’ve been for not having my
camera with me in Thailand. But if I brought it out, it would be
destroyed immediately. This video is a very accurate representation of what those days were link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYo3T4jzZpA
Yeah. That awesome.
But by late afternoon, the sun starts to go down and the
water starts to seem a little colder. The water fight starts dwindling around
dinner time and by 8 PM the action has all but stopped. If you did get
hit by water after 8, the guy who hit you is just a terrible person.
It’s a lot of fun but living in constant fear of getting
drenched did seem to drag after a while. We spent the last day lounging by the
pool in the hotel. Oh yeah, the hotel.
We initially booked a hostel for Jon and I. Sean tried booking
a bed but it was already full, since his decision to come was last-minute. He
settled for a hotel down the road. This place was sick. Private pool, buffet
breakfast (first time I had toast with jelly in 6 months), sauna, jacuzzi, the
9’s. When checking in, they asked if he wanted a double or two twins. The
lightbulbs went off and Sean got the two twins. There's a bed for one of us.
The next day, the bathroom ceiling started leaking. They had
to move us to a new room. During this transfer, Sean’s classic good looks and
charm was able to get us a third bed for free. So by the end of our stay, our
bags were sleeping in the hostel, and us in the hotel. Yeah buddy!
Something crazy happened on our last day. We were walking to
get lunch and ran into one of our friends from high school, Meg. I saw her when
she first got Thailand to begin her Southeast Asia backpacking swing but had no idea
she was back. It was a wild coincidence and it was great for all of us to catch up.
And we had to make one quick stop by the tiger temple before
we left. They did do some more explanation for how they’re not drugged but I’m
still skeptical.
The final leg of the trip was to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Since Jon had limited time here, we decided to fly. Angkor Wat is a massive temple complex located in the city of Siem Reap. At the airport, I went to
purchase a re-entry permit. This lets me
leave Thailand without voiding my work visa. A sign at the counter says the whole
process should take 15 minutes. Something seemed to be wrong with my
passport because the attendant kept calling people over to look at it. When I
asked what the issue was they said, “Oh. No problem.”
After an hour and fifteen minutes of “no problem,” I got my
passport and re-entry permit. But hey, I didn't miss the flight. No problem.
Arriving at the Siem Reap airport was interesting. We got in
a long line to get our tourist visas, which cost $20 and a passport photo. One of my
friends realized that he forgot his photo at home. When he inquired at the desk
about what to do, the attendant said it would cost $1 since he didn't have it. He waited for them to
take his picture but they just stamped his passport and told him he was good. For
customs, there was a big bin to drop off your declaration form. I’m giving you
two big thumbs up Cambodia. This has got to be the quickest way to enter
a country.
I had to remind myself to stop comparing Cambodia to
Thailand, which I realized after leaving the country, now feels like home. Whoo hoo! Take that culture shock! Here are some observations about Siem Reap:
1.
Siem Reap is extremely touristy. You can’t walk
five minutes without being approached by a tuk-tuk driver (Tuk-tuks are like small taxis on three wheels). These conversations
tend to go like this:
“Hello Mister? Where are you going?
Tuk-Tuk?
“No thank you, I’m just walking.”
“You want a tuk-tuk?
“No thank you.”
“You want lady?”
“No.”
“You want lady? Boom-boom?”
“People actually say that? No.”
This happened constantly. I frankly got pretty irritated since I never needed of a cab ride or a prostitute. But again, this happens in Thailand too. I think I'm just used to it.
2.
I thought Thai traffic was crazy. This is
actually a free-for-all. I saw one traffic light the entire time I was there.
Stop signs? Not a chance. At one point, cars switched from driving on the right
side of the road to the left. It's one of those "Let go and let God" situations.
3.
Markets dominate the town. Knock-off backpacks, watches,
headphones; everything is everywhere. My bartering abilities still worked
though- I was able to knock at $37 watch down to $16. Still got it.
4.
Cambodia operates with three different types of
currency. The American dollar, the Thai Baht (about 32 baht to a dollar), and the Cambodian Riel (4,000 riel to a dollar). Naturally, this got fairly confusing
when my wallet looked like I had just won Monopoly.
We arranged for taxi driver to take us to Angkor Wat for the
sunrise at 5:00 AM. The temples look very beautiful as the sun comes up. I woke up in the middle of the night and freaked out thinking
I saw a ghost. It turns out it was just a hanging white towel. I rolled over to
check the time- 5:15! My alarm didn’t go off! We quickly mobilized and thankfully
the taxi driver was still waiting outside.
It was slightly after sunrise when we got there but it was
still incredible regardless. He also took us around to other temples in the
Angkor Wat complex as well.
This is where they filmed part of the first Tomb Raider movie
It was 2:00 PM when we got back and we were exhausted.
No one at our hotel decided to take advantage of the pool, so it was ours for
the day.
The last day we went to Siem Reap war museum. This museum
had remnants from the Cambodian Civil War. I had heard of the Killing Fields
but didn’t really know the whole story.
Wikipedia is a much better source (seriously) but here’s a very
brief recap of Cambodian history for the last 40 years. A civil war broke out
in 1970 between supporters of the Prime Minister and supporters of the King
(who would later be called the Khmer Rouge). The Khmer Rouge eventually gained
power and began a mass genocide. An estimated 1-3 million people were killed; a
majority of them political figures and those who were educated. The U.S. and Soviet
Union fueled the fight by providing military equipment to the opposing sides. The Khmer Rouge won
the war in 1975 but conflict continued up until the early 90’s. Peace finally
came in 1998 when both sides agreed that enough was enough.
Walking through the museum was incredibly informative and depressing. Seeing
photos of children roaming the streets with guns, soldiers losing limbs from
landmines, and the destruction of the country was very sobering. As sad as it
is, it put the country in perspective for me. It was only 15 years ago that the
country was really able to move on from this tragedy. It lost its best minds
and most of its industry. It unfortunately makes the aggressive tourist tactics and prostitution
viable options for its people.
Easter Sunday rolled around on our last day. I tried finding
a church but all the services were in Khmer. Makes sense, this is Cambodia. We were able to find a three course meal for $12- including
stuffing, chicken wrapped in bacon, and cheesecake. A great end to the trip.
Well, sort of. Our bus the next day left at 5:30 AM. While
draining, it was quite an adventure to get to the Thai- Cambodian border,
physically cross, go through immigration, and get back to Nakhon Pathom. It was
a 10-hour ordeal, but it only cost $10.
Thai-Cambodian border. Cool.
A week from now I’m off to the Philippines! I’ll get to see
Sean do his work documenting relief for Typhoon Yolanda and our family friends, the Chuas. And then school starts a few days after I get back. Fast times baby.
Mark
