bye bye Bali

Balinese Dress

I'm writing this blog from a coffee shop inside the Bali airport, ready for my return flight back to Thailand to pick up my bag I left at a friend's house and spend one last day in Bangkok. It feels weird saying this but TOMORROW I leave my home Thailand and return to my home in California. Has a whole year really gone by?? I really couldn't think of a better way to spend one year of my life and I know I learned more in this year than attending grad school or working in some job in the US. Anyways here is a re-cap of my latest adventures in Bali...

Upon landing in Bali I was picked up by a nice Balinese couple who I had previously arranged to stay in their house for the first 3 nights. They live in a small rice farming village about an hour and a half outside the city that reminded me of the Thai village I lived in. For the next 3 days I got home-cooked Balinese food, a tour of the surrounding village, sight-seeing all the major temples, and wonderful conversation about the culture, people of Bali, and the Hindu religion. It was a wonderful introduction to the island and I didn't have to swarm with the many ,often intoxicated, young Australians and other tourist and got to see the real Bali. What I was most surprised with is the rich culture that Bali still has despite it being a major tourist destination. Other than a few cities in Bali most of the island is inhibited by rice farmers and the people are just as generous and welcoming as Thai.

Rice Fields in Bali

At each section of field an offering is placed to ensure a good harvest

Temple

Sunset over Tanah Lot

Balinese people carry everything on their heads! pretty amazing

I had a lesson on making Balinese offerings

Wayan and Ngorma- the family I stayed with. They were so kind!

After those 3 days I wanted to see the much talked about Gili Islands which are an hour fast boat ride or 8 hour slow boat ride from Bali. Knowing that my stomach doesn't care much for the sea I decided to spend the extra money for the fast boat. The island I stayed on was very small and you could bike around the perimeter in 45 minutes. For the next 3 days I stayed glued to the beach enjoying the perfect beaches and crystal clear water. There were no cars allowed on the island and all transportation was by horse and carriage.

---pictures have not been loaded on my computer yet!

My final two days were spent in Ubud, the cultural center of Bali, and Kuta a city closest to the airport and is similar to the "Khao San Rd." of Thailand harboring all the backpackers and australian surfers. I did a little souvenir shopping and got a quick glance at the cities and am now on my way back to Thailand!

It's been a great month, that has felt much longer, of travel before I head back to California. Traveling alone in South East Asia would have never crossed mind before I spent this year here but I was continuously surprised by how generous and helpful people were to me as I travelled and I hope to come back to explore the countries I didn't get to this round!

I'm guessing my life back in the states is going to be much less interesting so I'm not sure of the future of this Blog. Thank you for all who have kept with me this year and provided me with encouraging comments and thoughts!I can't wait to see everybody! Who knows I might be back in SEA sooner than I think...

World Heritage

My journey to Malaysia started with a plane ride from Bangkok where I was seated next to a cute 15 year old Thai girl. After overhearing her conversation with a lady next to her I found out she was studying in Malaysia and living with her aunt to hopefully have a better chance at learning english. We were about to land and I asked her what was the best way to get to George Town, the center of Penang. Having her Thai generousity she offered me a ride with her aunt since they would be heading that way too. Her Aunt, Isha, is a large Muslim women dressed in a traditional burka who greeted me with a firm hand-shake and perfect english after passing through customs. After talking in the car I learned we shared many mutual thoughts about the importance of traveling, teaching, and the environment. Isha had studied in Egypt and Indonesia for 7 years becoming fluent in 4 languages, Malay, English, Arabic, and Thai. She is an environment and moral teacher at a government elementary school. After I revealed to her that I had no plans or hotel reservations for my stay in Penang she said, "I think you stay with me, yes." She lives with 3 other muslim women in a small traditional section of the city that usually doesn't allow anyone outside the muslim faith stay there. Knowing this would save me a lot of money and provide me with a unique experience of living in Malaysia in a muslim house, I graciously accepted. She says her house is 'heritage' and contains only the basic necessities.

Throughout the 6 days on Penang Island I toured many different temples and mosques, enjoyed a hike through the national park, walked through 'little india', went to prom, observed a local elementary school, and ate traditional food.

Snake Temple: where dozens of vipers live

Kek Lok Si temple

Chinese ribbon wishing tree

Kindergarden Room at the school

Mosque

Chinese Temple

How tourist travel...no Tuk Tuks here!

Hindu Temple

Penang is known to embrace modernity, with the chains such as Starbucks, KFC, Mcdonalds and skyscrapers scattered throughout the island, while keeping its 'old world charm' and is listed as a World Cultural Heritage Site. This is mainly because of the unique blend of people that live on the island. There are Indian, Chinese, Indonesian, British, Malay, and Thai and can be seen simply by walking down the street or at the vast array of places of worship on the island. Because Penang used to be a British colony, there is an old fortress still standing on the island, the educational system has implemented a british curriculum. This is why all the people could speak fluent english and why Lulu, the thai girl, was sent to Malaysia to study. Also while walking on the street the architecture of the buildings change from one street to the next. There will be a huge european white building and the lane next to it will be filled with chinese writing and orientatial styled shops. I spent a lot of my time simply walking around looking at all the buildings.

Living in the house of Muslim women I was at first very nervous and wanted to make sure that I was be curtious and not offending anyone. The women where surprising friendly and not shy with me. They treated me like a friend and not a foreigner as I somtimes felt like in Thailand. I was allowed to stay in the house because only women live there. With staying in the house though I had to follow their daily life, which meant waking up at 6 am to get ready for school which starts at 7:30. Everything was much more orderly than my life in Thailand, where school starts whenever the teachers get to school and teach when they feel like it. Throughout my stay in the house I learned alot about Muslim culture and religion. Got to witness the 5x daily prayers, learned about the Hijab (head scarf women must wear when outside the home), taught how to eat malaysia food, which is eating steamed rice with your hands. I thought I was dressing modestly in Thailand but these women are completely covered, wrists, neck, hair, down to the ankles. Lets just say I wore as many clothes as I could. My final event in Malaysia was helping Isha chaperone Lulu's prom night. I of course didn't bring anything suitable to wear for a formal event while traveling so Isha let me borrow one of her traditional dresses for the night!

Praying

# 24 By Air, Bus, or Motorcycle

If its by plane, bus, motorcycle, or cart, Thailand has a pretty good line of transportation set up, thats cheap too! One surprisingly cheap way is by air with the wonderful AirAsia! They do flights all over Asia with prices as low as $20 to fly to vietnam. I recently booked all my flights to Malaysia and Indonesia for my month of traveling before coming to the states and I'm happy I'll be able to come back home with a little money still left in my account. Thank you Airasia!

For my two months of traveling for summer break the most common way of travel was bus. Some of the schedules might be a little iffy but for the most part the bus system was an extremely easy and cheap way of travel. For my 11 hour bus ride to Bangkok we take the VIP bus (pictured above) which is equipped with big reclinable chairs, a bus stewerdess who serves you a dinner and breakfast, face wipes when you wake up in the morning, and an overall comfy ride, for about $20. Of course not all buses are as pimped out at the VIP and make numerous stops to let people on and off which makes a 3 hour ride turn into a 6 hour one. I was impressed by them though and immediately as I passed over the border into Lao the quality went down drastically. The buses allowed me a nice scenic view of the country as I toured almost all regions in thailand.

In the villages and cities the most common way of travel is motorcycle. I have never seen so many people fit on one motorcycle before usually with a baby in arm. It makes US safety laws look ridiculous over the exact way a baby needs to be strapped into a car seat and such. In Thailand 2-3 year olds cling on to whatever they can and babies clutch in an arm as they swerve through traffic. With that said, There is a high toll of deaths due to motorcycle accidents. During my months of from teaching one of my favorite activities was renting a motorcycle and riding around for the day. One of my favorite memories in Thailand was the day Pi Yok taught Amanda and I how to ride her motorcycle. Ending with one of us almost going straight into a ditch and have to have the motorcycle lifted off.

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***Photos taken from Peter Pfister

Here are some pictures taken of unique transportation in NKP. The one in the middle, of the rice farmer, is the most common that you'll hear rumbling out to the fields in the early morning and returning in the evening. The first is a cart full of Thai brooms which I love! They sweep amazingly well and I want to get one back to the states somehow.

The sleeper train to Chaing Mai from Bangkok is another great way to travel in thailand!

Traveling through Thailand: Part III

LAOS

I decided I needed a break from Thailand, if you can believe it. My friends from California, Lindsey and Lauren, who I met up with during Songkran had ventured over the border into Laos a few days earlier and I would make an attempted to catch up with them. With no Laos sim card its very hard to meet up with people without a phone only a string of e-mails would lead me eventually to find them. My first day in Laos was a long one ending with a 15 hour bus ride to Luang Prabang. I crossed the border by a very small long tail boat from Chang Kong through the Mekong river to a town in Laos where there was nothing. It was a spur of the moment decision to go to Laos so I had no plan and didn't really know where I was in correlation to where I wanted to be (probably not the smartest especially since I was by myself at this point). I knew I could figure it out though. After getting my Laos visa, all the exchange places were closed so I didn't have any money . I thought I'd be really screwed. I spotted two white people so I went over to talk to them and it turns out they were on there way to the same place I was, yah! I brought a bus ticket from a tour company, which I usually try to avoid due to scams and them charging more but I wasn't really in a position to be picky. They also except Thai Baht in Laos! This is also the point where I found out it was a 15 hour bus ride...oh well here we go. We waited about an hour longer since the bus didn't leave till 5 and it was the only bus running for the day, I was so happy to get a ticket. My new friends and I head to the bus station and that's when all the drama begins. The tour companies had over sold the amount of tickets. I quickly ran on the bus and staked out my seat along with my friends vowing not to move from our spots. The last and unluckiest people arrived to find no seats on the bus. You can imagine they were not happy! It wasn't the fault of the ladies running the bus but the tour companies. The bus attendant brought out child-sized plastic chairs and set them in the aisle of the bus. Everybody thought, You got to be crazy! There is no way I'm sitting in one of those for a 15 hour bus ride. With them running out of options and a lot of yelling going on, the rest of us clenching onto our seats. The 4 poor french people had to settle with laying on the top floor of the bus dashboard. THe bus finally departed around 6:30pm. The bus ride was a horrible 15 hour ride through the twisty mountains and bumpy poorly paved roads. Those were my first few hours in Laos that left me a little scared and unsure about leaving my save familiar haven of Thailand. By the end of my tour of Laos I was undoubtedly glad to had made the journey and turned out to be well worth it!

Luang Prabang

Since Laos was a former colony of France it has a very french atmosphere to it which caught me off guard being in southeast Asia. One of the most noticeable is the food. Western types of foods are easily found in Laos including the very popular French Baguette which is hard to find in Thailand. Getting into the town around 10am I was exhausted from the bus ride and decided to take a leisurely bike ride around the town to get myself acquainted visiting the famous temple and museum. A difference that I had to quickly get use to was the type of currency, Kip. About 8,500 kip is equal to $1 which turns out to be an annoying conversion and I got confused by all the zeros on the bills that look the same. This is the first time I felt like a tourist traveling. In Thailand I knew the language and mainly think in baht over dollars. Oh wellll. The next day I happened to run into 2 other worldteach volunteers, Sarah and Jay, what are the chances! Since my California friends did the waterfalls the day before Sarah, Jay and I went on a quick trip to see the famous falls. They are gorgeous, being the most vibrant color teal that a picture can hardly capture.

Vang Vieng

This town is famous for its Tubbing party scene down the river. It took a 6 hour windy bus ride to get there from Luang Prabang in a crammed pack mini-van that I can say I'm glad I will probably never have to do again. The town had a college frat boy feel to it with everybody walking around in their "Tubbing in the Vang Vieng" t-shirts, all the restaurant had friends or family guy playing outfitted with lounging couches to cure hangovers. In the pictures below you can see the river outfitted with bars that you stop off at to grab and drink then continue your way down. To help attract people to their bar they have zip-lines, jumping platforms, and slides that are all free. These were run by 10 year old boys and have absolutely no safety regulations. At least a few people die every year on this river due to drinking too much or hitting rocks on the way down. We witnessed almost 2 deaths in our 5 day stay in Vang Vieng.

The last place I went to was Vientiane the capital of Laos. It is just a small city similar to the Isan city I live near in Nakhon Phanom province. I only stayed a day there and got some souviner shopping done is there sprawling night market. After a nice 10 day stay in Laos, I hopped back over the border into Thailand and waited the next 5 days for my parents to fly into Bangkok. While I waited I stayed on the island of Koh Si Chang, a very small thai vacation spot only 2 1/2 hours away from Bangkok.

Traveling through Thailand: Part II

Kanchanburi

After escaping the flooded peninsula of Thailand I headed to a small town about 2 hours north of Bangkok in hopes of getting some sun and rest. The main attraction of the town is the Erawan Falls which is a 7 tiered waterfall that winds down a mountain about a mile long. The water is a light clear teal and contains small fish that give you a pedicure if you stick your feet in the water. It was a hot day so we stopped at each tier in the waterfall to cool off and enjoyed a rock slide at one of the pools. One of the perks of being a teacher in Thailand is for most tourist attractions upon showing our work permit we get the entrance fee of a Thai person rather than a tourist. For the Falls it cost a tourist about 200 baht to enter rather than just 40 for Thais. Too bad I forgot my permit this day!!

Songkran

Songkran might be Thailand's biggest holiday (besides the King's Birthday of course!) and many of the volunteers decided to meet up and celebrate it together in the most well known place for songkran, Chiang Mai. Songkran is the Thai new year that happens between April 13-15th (in places like chaing mai it stretches to more like 5 days) and consists of a city wide friendly water fight. This is a water fight on the scale of thousands of people. Traditionally though the throwing of water was a way to pay respect to people, by capturing the water after it had been poured over the Buddhas for cleansing and then using this "blessed" water to give good fortune to elders and family by gently pouring it on the shoulder. It also happens in Thailands hottest month, April, and can relive some of the heat. However, over the years it lost much of its or gins and has turned into a tourist party among the streets. Upon arriving we all got fully equipped with water guns for as soon as you step out of your room it would be fair game to become completely drenched in water. So for the next 4 days we walked the streets with our water guns engaging in a water fight with the young and old. Thais would drive around in their pickup trucks with garbage cans full of water drenching people and letting the foreigners on for a ride through the jam packed streets

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Chiang Rai & Mae Sai

For a night I stopped in Chiang Rai a northern city 3 hours north of Chiang Mai to see the famous white temple. The white temple is one of a kind in Thailand consisting of modern art. There are many images of modern day impurities such as alcohol and cigarettes in statues outside the temple and scary devil creatures. The temple is made all white and has shiny mirrors to represent the purity of Buddha.

After leaving Chaing Rai I took another 2 hour bus still north to Mae Sai, a small border town with Burma. After being in tourist destination for the last month traveling going to a place where few white people reach was refreshing to back in Thai/Burmese culture. I could also noticeably see more poverty in this area with many children begging for money. The majority of the people are Burmese and don't even speak Thai (which I quickly found out when I got confused faces). The town is officially the most northern part of Thailand and it was interesting to see the very secretive Burma where I learned you have to have a "guide" to follow you the entire 24 hours your allowed in the country. I decided not to go in but at least I got to see it from Thailand.

Tales of Traveling through Thailand: Part I.2

Departing the Islands we made our way first to Khao Sok National Park about a 5 hour bus ride away from where the ferry landed. However we accidently took the wrong bus and we were dropped off on the side of the highway with the semi understanding that another bus should picked us up. About 30 minutes later while we stood in the rain it did! We stayed on the edge of the national park with a very nice thai family who rented us cheap bungalows for only 100 baht (about$3!).They said usually their place is full this type of season but due to the heavy rains it was almost empty. In the jungle now we encountered various animals that made there way into our rooms including birds, bats, mouse, and giant centipedes. The following day it was still raining but we decided to rent tubes and look at the goregous vine covered cliffs and jungle as we floated down the river. After rafting we wanted to hike to the waterfalls for a little exercise after being coop up by the rain. With our ponchos on we headed out to the jungle. To make a long story short after 15 minutes into our hike we all realized we were being attacked by leeches!! I was wearing my meesh water/hiking shoes which made it easy for the leeches to crawl through and bite me. The hike turned into the ending of a scary movie with everybody running back on the trails while trying to pull leeches off of them. If we stood still we could see the leeches detect us and start inches their way towards us. I got attacked the most (no surprise there!). My foot was covered in blood dripping from the bites since leeches inject a blood thinner. Lucky the family we were staying with knew what to do and gave me a wad of tabacco to press against my bites to stop bleeding. After this episode I think we were all ready to get the heck out of the jungle.

The following day we took an elephant trek up a river, literally the elephants stomped there way through the river. With the rain still not stopping and hearing tid bits from the news that the south of Thailand was flooding with tourist already getting evacuated off some of the island we decided we should probably start heading up north. We gathered our backpacks and went to the side of the road to hopefully catch a bus to the city where they run buses to bangkok. After sitting along the road for 3 hours we came to the consenses that no bus would be coming due to the floods and were lucky that a thai man offered us a ride in a songtao the same price as the bus. About 2 minutes after being crammed in the back of a pickup truck we see the bus we'd been waiting for so long follow us, and even pass us!!

That was the least of our troubles for the day. Forty minutes into our ride we come to a halt, traffic has completely stopped and people are getting out of their cars. Our driver also gets out and reports to us "Mai di, mai di" (He can not go). The floods that we had been seeing the past few weeks where now in front of us with the road being completely washed out and under a few feet of water. Now we are in the middle of nowhere with no place to put are things or sleep. Someone jokingly spots a huge military truck and says, "Yea we just need one of those things!". Being a group of white people we are easily spotted by the police who come over inquiring what we are doing. Within the next few minutes the Thai miliary is waving us over in a hurry to jump in their Cargo vessel to go through the flood. Awesome! Inside the truck we are huddled together with other Thai people who were caught in a hard place. The military truck goes straight through the flood which looks exactly what we'd been seeing on the TVs.

We made it through and our minds quickly turn to our next problem. Are the buses running to bangkok? Are we going to be stuck in another city that has no hotels or guesthouses? In the truck with us was a Thai lady who spoke really good english and being how generous Thai people are she quickly offered all 6 of us (who she only a few minutes early met) to stay at her house if the buses weren't running. I wish I could say someone in the US would have done the same thing. We arrive at the bus station and run to the ticket office to see 1) if the buses are going to bangkok 2) if there are any tickets left due to all the tourist being evcuated off the islands. To our luck, we got tickets for a night bus departing at 8pm and arriving around 5 am. For the next few hours we camp out in the bus station with everybody else waiting to get out of the flood.