Bangkok first impressions

Bangkok is so incredibly different from all of India it's not even funny. It's so, so clean, and not just in comparison to India; it's cleaner than most US cities I've been to also. It's very metropolitan and you can tell by the way people dress and act. Fashionistas abound, even at 7:30 in the morning. Shopping could pretty much take up all of your time in Bangkok if that was your thing. (I wish it was my thing, but since I'm living out of a backpack right now, space is of the essence. Shopping will have to wait til next time.) Traffic - vehicle traffic, people traffic, train traffic - is what you'd expect in a city of almost eight million, but it somehow seems more organized than I've ever witnessed before.

Having said all that, Bangkok is still a historical city. So while one minute you might be looking at this:

The next minute you're looking at this:

It's a crazy juxtaposition and it really does have me pinching myself (as ToadMama suggested), asking if I'm really in Bangkok.

Today I got up and out of the house early and, after taking care of a couple of errands/Skype calls, I headed to Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace (pictured above). That ate up a good chunk of time and I wasn't quite sure what I felt like doing after that, so I headed north towards the neighborhood of Banglamphu, specifically the backpackers' mecca - Khao San Road. Here you can find more food, drink, internet cafes, and stuff for sale (including naughty t-shirts) than you can shake a stick at. And remember when just a moment ago I said that space is of an essence and I can't buy stuff blah blah blah? Yeah, well, I bought myself a a roomy, $3 shoulder bag to use as a day pack. The one I've been using is a great size and perfect in every way. . .except on those days when I want to carry a travel guide with me, then it's just too packed and weighed down.

Anyhoo, after a couple hours of wandering Khao San and people watching, I headed back to the house. Tonight Sam and I will go out for dinner (traditional Thai food which is good since I had a burger for lunch today - what can I say, I've missed eating beef!) and then to a place called Moon Bar which is supposed to have fabulous night time views of Bangkok.

Btw, today's jaunts involved two train rides, two boat rides, and LOTS of walking. Guess who didn't get lost? Me! (At one point I didn't really know where I was, but then again, I didn't know where I wanted to head either, so that doesn't count.) Huh, I guess maybe after 15 weeks of being on the road I'm finally learning something. :-)

Easing out of India

Officially, I haven't been in India for two days now. Unofficially, my head is still there a little bit. I've been taking it easy in Bangkok and not really doing a whole lot. I arrived at my host Sam's house yesterday around 9:30am or so. We chatted for a bit and I checked email while he went to the gym. When he got back, we went out for lunch and then he dropped me off at a spa for a foot massage and pedicure so he could get a few hours of work in.

After an hour of some much needed foot pampering, I went back to the house for a nap (also much needed since I'd only gotten about two hours of sleep the night before on the plane). A friend of Sam's and a fellow CSer, Ganesh, and his girlfriend Kate invited us over for a traditional Thai dinner. When Sam and I arrived, it smelled delicious and the food was set out and ready to be eaten. Although I didn't think I was hungry, the smells got my appetite going pretty quickly. :-) There was rice, mushroom soup, fish balls, a spicy chicken dish, vegetables in a brown sauce, dried shrimp, and my first truly weird food in a long time - gaeng tai pla. Gaeng tai pla is a kind of paste made from the innards of a fish mixed with salt and other spices and fermented. As far as I could tell, it's just served alongside other foods and isn't a main dish. Kate, who is Thai, hates the stuff and would violently turn her head away when Ganesh jokingly thrust the stuff in front of her face, so I was a bit nervous about trying it. The verdict? Not bad, actually. Oddly enough, it didn't taste particularly fishy and the weirdest thing about it was the texture more than anything else.

A few hours of eating and merry-making later, I was exhausted, so Sam and I headed back to his house and I promptly fell asleep. I didn't really have a plan for today, so I just started wandering, still trying to get used to the idea that I'M IN BANGKOK! Tomorrow I think I'll get up early, head to a market, and then check out Old Bangkok and maybe a temple or two.

By the way, my Thai visa is good until 8 Feb, so I'll be here until then. From there I'll move on to Laos, Vietnam, China (did I mention yet that that was added to my itinerary?), and Cambodia before coming back to Thailand for a couple of weeks of beach time.

Sri Lanka!

Hey, so the airport in Sri Lanka has free internet access. I figured since I had a three hour layover, I'd pop into your lives and let you know that I'm here. In Sri Lanka! I have nothing more to add, really, except that Sri Lankan Airlines is pretty nice. They handed out a snack that consisted of a hummus sandwich, some sort of onion pastry thing, a piece of cake, apple juice, and coffee or tea - for a flight that was only an hour and a half. Also, each seat has it's own tv so that's nice, too. That's it! I'll be back later from Thailand.

Final days in India

Yesterday, Friday, I left Kanyakumari at 5:15pm for a 13 hour train ride to Chennai. I was slightly worried because even though I booked the ticket in advance, I wasn't able to get an AC ticket and I thought it might be a hot and uncomfortable overnight trip. As it turns out, the temperature of the car was just fine (maybe even a little chilly with the fans on and the windows open); it was the bugs that had me skeeved out a bit. I've seen mice on trains before and that was no big deal. I've seen bugs, too, actually, but there seemed to be a lot more roaches than normal. Ok, but, whatever. I'm not going to focus on it because I slept fine and even if bugs were crawling all over me in the night, I'm not aware of it. :-) There was a family sitting across from me and they were all very sweet. The 11 year old boy was translating because the rest of his family didn't speak a lot of English. He also taught me how to play a game that I'm not sure the point of, but somehow we were all playing it. Mom offered me food that they'd brought from home. The two year old girl could NOT stop playing peek-a-boo wherein she would seriously shriek with laughter every time. And Dad didn't say much, but he was keeping an eye on things and he smiled a lot and was friendly enough. They got off a few stops before I did and they all stood outside the train, waving and saying goodbye. Like I said, sweet family.

I'm in Chennai now, but it's just a stopover on my way to Bangkok. The 13 hour train ended up taking 14 1/2 hours (so, pretty on time, actually!) and I headed to the airport with Amiri. His flight back home to Dubai was leaving at 12:45pm and mine doesn't leave until 9:15pm. So why was I at the airport so early? Well, I'd made plans to meet up with a CSer for a bit today since I had lots of hours to spare. She'd told me that there wasn't a whole lot to see or do, but we decided we'd at least have lunch together. So, I had plans in Chennai, but I didn't want to be bogged down with my pack so I checked it at left luggage and I'll pick it up right before I have to check in at the airport.

CSer Lata told me which subway stop to get off at from the airport and she picked me up from there. We went to a big temple, one of the only "sights" to see, and then went to her favorite restaurant for lunch. She even drove me to a couple of bookstores because I was looking for a Thailand guidebook. And now, I'm at an internet cafe, whiling away time until I have to head back to the airport. I have a three hour layover in Sri Lanka (Dad, looks like I'm going there anyway!) and I'll arrive in BKK at 6:40am. In case you're keeping track, Thailand is one and a half hours ahead of India which will put me 12 hours ahead of US Eastern Standard Time.

Btw, check back later and this post will have pictures to go along with it. And one of them will be of me wearing my salwar-kameez! (I've worn it before today, just didn't have the chance to photograph it til now.) **Now updated with pics!**

Zoo and beach

Yesterday I went to the Trivandrum Zoological Gardens. It was a pretty nice zoo - there were wide, meandering paths and the animals were (mostly) in large, natural habitat types of enclosures. The weather was cooler than the day before, so walking through the zoo and gardens was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

The plan afterwards had been to go to the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple (yeah, say that ten times fast!), but I discovered that it is closed to non-Hindus and I'd really only be able to see the entrance tower. Since what I really wanted to see - the 10,000+ sacred stones that were transported from Nepal by elephant - was in the inner sanctum, I decided against going. The rest of the day was spent playing cards, reading, listening to music, general lazing about.

This morning after a big, hearty breakfast of chicken sausages, herbed potatoes, steamed bananas, a chocolate muffin, and coffee, it was time for a mini road trip. We headed about a half hour away to Kovalam for some beach time. I'd read about a particular beach in Kovalam called Lighthouse Beach, but for some reason I wasn't expecting to actually see a lighthouse.

It was a great day at the beach. I got a little too much sun the other day, so today I insisted on an umbrella - much better AND cooler! The water was warmer than it had been in Varkala and it seemed that there were fewer tourists on the beach. After awhile, we left the towels and umbrella on the beach and headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch and then walked the boardwalk so Amiri could do some shopping.

Then, on to the lighthouse! I've never been in a lighthouse before and I've certainly never walked the stairs to the top of one before, so I was excited to find that I could do just that. It took 260 steps to get to the top, but the breeze and the view were amazing.

Tonight we'll be going out for traditional Keralan food as it's our last night in Trivandrum. Tomorrow there's a two hour bus ride to Kanyakumari where there's not much at all to see (or do), but it's the convergence of three waters (the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Mannar, and Indian Ocean) and it's the tippy bottom of India.

* * * * *

It took more than a month of traveling through India, but I've finally found an illustration of how to use a squat toilet. Well, ok, I hadn't actually been looking for it, but I did find it:

Varkala, oh how I miss you

Varkala. Yeah, did you know I was there? And, uh, left there already? I left Cochin on 2 Jan via a 4 1/2 hour train ride that could have been absolute hell (very crowded and no seats), but which turned out to be pretty fun. After the first stop, two guys who had been standing in the doorway of the train got off, so Amiri and I secured their spots. Maybe it doesn't sound ideal to you, but trust me - these are the best seats in the house. It's not crowded so you have a little bit of space, plus you get the breeze of the moving train, always a plus on hot days. Funniest moment of the train ride was when someone was kind of leaning on me - okay, they were full out leaning on me, no "kind of" about it - and I pushed my elbow out to try to get him to back off. Amiri saw what was happening and started to tell off the guy in Arabic. The combination of the two had the guy moving and I commented to Amiri about not speaking English. He said speaking Arabic makes him sound more aggressive. Eh, whatever, it worked. :-)

I was aiming for beach and yoga time in Varkala. Any guesses as to how that turned out? Varkala is a laid-back, low-key, cliff-side beach town. It's cute and quaint and I dug it immediately. After the long train ride and what seemed like a long walk to the restaurant (I was starving - a 2 minute walk would have felt like forever!), we found a restaurant that had multiple levels so pretty much every table had views of the sea. The food was crap and the service was worse, but the view and the ambiance made me very happy indeed. I can't really explain what it was that I liked so much about Varkala. But let me try. :-) The shops were interesting and had items that I hadn't seen anywhere else before. There were no touts or beggars. It was perfectly cool if you brought cards or a game to the restaurant of your choice and ended up spending hours there, chilling out, after you'd already finished your meal. The one negative is that rickshaw drivers would quote outrageous prices and then just drive off if you didn't agree to it, no negotiating at all. But it wasn't a big deal because another, more reasonable, driver would come along soon enough.

The second day consisted of temples in the morning and a backwater canoe cruise in the afternoon. The temples were kind of interesting, but didn't take that long to see. The cruise was pretty neat, even if we did have a lame-o guide (he wasn't really as "knowledgeable" as described and

for some reason in the middle of the trip he started talking about suicide statistics in India. WTF??). In the canoe was me, Amiri, a British guy, and two German girls, plus the boatman and the guide. We saw how coconuts are harvested and the fibers are used to make coir; different plants and spices were pointed out to us; we were told how and how long it takes to construct a canoe; and we found out about the population of Munroe Island (the area where we were) and what they do for work. We also saw ducks, cormorants, birds that looked like bald eagles, snakes, fish, a rabbit, cows, dogs, and the most elusive of all (for me) - when it came to picture taking time - was the kingfisher bird. Every time I went to snap the shot, the dang thing flew away. Amiri has much better timing (and a much better camera, too!), though, and got a couple of shots, so I may just steal his as my own! As always, see here for the latest picture upload.

Today was our last day in Varkala and we spent it on the beach and checking out the cliff-side shops. If I was currently traveling by myself, I'd have stayed for a week, at least. Because guess what I didn't do while I was there? If you guessed yoga. . .ding ding ding! Gold star for you! I don't know what the deal is, exactly, but Varkala may have been my last chance for yoga in India.

Happy New Year!

My New Year's Eve turned out to be not like any other I've ever celebrated. Not that NYE is usually a wild and crazy party or anything. Normally I hang out with a few close friends, make dinner or order pizza, drink a few bottles of champagne, watch a movie, and turn the channel just in time to see the ball drop. It may not be exciting for some people, but for me it's perfect.

I spent yesterday exploring Fort Cochin and Mattancherry. The hotel is in Ernakulam and you have to take a ferry to get to these areas (the whole area of which makes of Cochin). The ferry process is a bit wonky, so we ended up waiting a lot more than I'd have liked. One ferry goes to Fort Cochin and another goes to Mattancherry. Ideally, you'd queue up (there's a ladies line which is always shorter than the gents line), buy your ticket and get on the appropriate ferry. In reality, tickets are only sold for 10 minutes prior to the ferry departure and only until they're sold out. This means that you might spend a half hour standing in line only to get to the front and find out that no more tickets are available and you have to wait until they go on sale again. Eventually we did make it there and it's very cute.

(A lazy day in Fort Cochin)

Perhaps the biggest draw at Fort Cochin are the Chinese fishing nets.

It's a very old way of fishing and it takes four men to operate the nets. Along the waterside there are an assortment of vendors selling all kinds of things - clothing, jewelry, bags, coconut monkeys, musical instruments, magic tricks, peanuts, fish, ice cream, you name it. I wasn't so interested, but it was Amiri's first time in India and first chance to do any shopping, so he stopped at quite a few stalls. We wandered around for awhile before deciding to rent a scooter and check out the rest of the island. Amiri wanted to go to the spice market in Mattancherry, but "spice market" turned out to be a lot of stores calling themselves spice market and selling spices, rather than an actual spice market like the one I saw in Istanbul.

After wandering around for quite a few hours, we caught the ferry back. The plan had been to take showers and naps to rest up for a bit, and then we were gonna go out to celebrate the New Year. What ended up happening was that my body decided a nap was way more important than partying. I woke up briefly at 11:46pm and promptly went right back to sleep. Amiri said there were fireworks and people shouting down the New Year countdown, but I was completely oblivious to all of it. Sometime around 2am (I think), I woke up long enough to order room service and then it was back to sleep for me. It makes sense, really. I'd only had about seven hours of sleep total in the two previous nights. But it ended up meaning that it was the first time that I can remember not making it to midnight on NYE.

Today the plan is to go to the beach, but my stomach is feeling a little iffy, so I'm sticking around the hotel for a bit longer to see if it works itself out. Fingers crossed that it does!