A serious of snakes

Greetings from Chiang Mai! I've seen a half a dozen temples; spent two evenings at the Night Bazaar, which I would describe as basically the size of Hoboken; and took an excellent all-day Thai cooking class today. I tried to upload the movie of everybody's woks flaming out, but it timed out. I'll have to show y'all when I get back. I'm leaving for Indonesia the day after tomorrow. Thailand has been great. I would recommend it based on the food alone. These people are seriously obsessed with cooking. I would also recommend the beaches and temples as well. Just two things to remember when you come here: everyone has got something to sell, but that doesn't mean you have to buy it; and Thai people understand how a group thinks better than what an individual would think. See you in Bali!

A word is worth 1,000 pictures

Sorry, no pictures today because I did not take many on the beach at Hua Hin. However, while I was there I read an abridged version of the Ramayana, a classic Hindu epic about the hero Rama who goes through many trials and battles to win back his love Sita, who was stolen by an evil giant. In the end Sita is tricked into drawing a picture of the giant, which inflames Rama's jealousy, and he banishes her. Only Shiva's intervention reconciles them. Now I ask you, what kind of moral is that? Anyway, after finishing the Ramayana, I wrote this story on the train back to Bangkok. See y'all in legendary Chiang Mai tomorrow!

Away from the big city

So I've been out in provinces for several days now visiting Ayutthaya, the former royal capitol of Siam, sacked by the Burmese in the 1760's and left in ruins for the relative safety of Bangkok; Lopburi, a town with even older ruins and a troop of rather profane sacred monkeys; and now Hua Hin, a beach resort where the beach only exists at low tide, so it's probably more of a seafood eating resort. Back in Bangkok tomorrow evening for a couple of days, then I'm off to Chiang Mai.

Please keep the economy together until I get back

OK, so the political situation in Thailand has just turned violent, (read more about it above) and Indonesia's stock market just tanked so badly today that they had to suspend trading. I'm feeling increasingly like the world is going to hell, making it more in more difficult for me to explore why I'm on this trip in the first place. Can y'all hold it together until I get back? I'm leaving Bangkok tomorrow, off to far flung provinces in Thailand. I'll be back in the big, polluted, sleazy, chaotic city of Bangkok in about a week. before I head on to Bali. Bangkok is a mess, but as the pictures above hopefully show, it can also be quite beautiful.

one night in bangkok...

Actually, several nights in Bangkok. I got in on Saturday, but haven't had the money to publish this post until today, Tuesday. My bank, if you could it call it that, has decided to freeze my ATM card because of some pretty suspicious activity, namely, me using it in Thailand, clearly a very suspicious country. So 44 year old me had to run to my mommie to save my sorry ass by wiring some money Western Union. You can actually live pretty cheaply in Thailand, but the 150USD I changed at the airport isn't going to make it two weeks. More about Bangkok in my next post, hopefully in a day or two, but let me take a moment to gush about Cambodia.

The ruins at Angkor are endless, immense, and elaborately detailed. A three day pass with a private driver barely scratches the surface. I managed to see 20 temples in various states of preservation and ruin, within a 40 km radius of Siem Reap over three full days. For me, the highlights included that iconic image of Angkor Wat's towers; the enigmatically smiling 15 foot tall faces at Bayon; and the trees growing from the roof of Tha Prohm.

Just south of Angkor sits the ever expanding tourist city of Siem Reap, once pretty much nothing, now over 200,000 people. I stayed at a guesthouse above an Irish Bar, Molly Malone's, just so I could be sure there'd be English speaking people around. I needn't have worried, everyone there speaks English. The town is growing by leaps and bounds, and you had better hurry over there before it starts swallowing up the temple ruins.

The people of Cambodia amaze me. After 20 years of civil war, they are curious, quick to smile, and like a good laugh. My driver, Tong, lost his father in the early 70's for the subversive activity of teaching math at university. The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities of Cambodia, and forced everyone to farm. By the time they were forced to flee the country, over 2 million people, 1/4 of the population, had died. The country was left one of the poorest places on earth. But Tong was too young to remember this, and is doing well by his pretty wife and new son. These people have been to hell and back and still manage to thrive, even prosper.

Wow.

Panic in Needle Park

OK, so it's Monday. I'm leaving for Angkor Wat, Cambodia tomorrow.

As I learned at the Hong Kong Museum of History yesterday, the British started Hong Kong as a depot to push opium on the Chinese. See the British loved Chinese tea, but the Chinese could think of nothing they wanted in trade. Cash would be fine, but the British weren't really interested in a trade balance deficit, so they created a demand in China that hadn't existed before: opium. Once the Chinese were addicted, British commercial interests were assured.

Is any of this sounding vaguely familiar?

So Hong Kong is based on the ugliest kind of capitalism, and that's probably still true today. It's still all about the shopping, cheap labor, crappy exports, one of the world's busiest ports, etc. There's no fresh water (it's imported from China). There's almost no place to grow anything. The water's so polluted that almost all of the fishing villages are gone. The air pollution is frequently, like yesterday, almost unbreathable.

Why did the Chinese government want it back? 150 years ago there was nothing here. But 10 years after the handover, it's still booming. It's such an anachronism. Everywhere you go there are still little Britishisms, like the cute British-accented voice on the subway warning you to "Mind the gap." And I suspect that's what the government in Beijing is after: British and Hong Kong capital.

So, I'm leaving tomorrow. I've loved Hong Kong: the grit, the neon, the food, the shopping. It's like New York, but with better scenery. Still, my mind is already firmly fixed on Cambodia.

For schedule and fare information, press 1 now

T minus three days and counting. So nervous and excited, I can barely sleep. For those of you who don't already know, here's the first half of the schedule, or at least the part that's already figured out:
2008.09.23 Leave New York
2008.09.24 Hong Kong
2008.09.30 Siem Reap, Cambodia (Angkor Wat)
2008.10.04 Bangkok, Thailand
(Ayuthaya, Lopburi, Phetchaburi, and Hua Hin possible side trips)
2008.10.16 Chiang Mai, Thailand
(Hill Tribes trek as a possible side trip)
2008.10.21 Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
2008.10.26 Jogjakarta, Java, Indonesia
(Borobadur and Prambanan as possible side trips)
2008.11.05 Sydney, Australia
(Blue Mountains as a possible side trip)
2008.11.10 back in New York
2008.11.15 San Jose/Monteverde, Costa Rica
2008.11.22 Lima, Peru
2008.11.24 Cuzco, Peru
(rather obvious but not yet planned side trip to Macchu Picchu)
2008.12.02 Quito, Ecuador
2008.12.04 Intrepid Travel cruise of the Galapagos
2008.12.12 back in New York for Xmas/New Years
I'll be in NYC for about a month, but I'll be pretty bust planning the secon half, doing jury duty, and visiting everyonjhe over the holidays. I'm leaving again 2009.01.13 for Morocco, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, India, Japan, and Vancouver, and I'll be back in NYC the beginning of Aprilo. I have all of the plane tickets for this, but haven't arranged anything else.

If anyone has any advice about these places, please let me know. If you need to reach me, try my e-mail: bobfyke@gmail.com or (less frequently used) bobfyke@ekit.com. I will also be using an international phone card, so if you want to leave me a voice-mail, let me know.