Tigers, Massages, and Boat Rides... Oh my!

Traveling can be exhausting. There's so much to see and do that it can be difficult to find the time to do it all. Luckily for us, we're pretty poor and don't seem to have this problem. We can't afford to be busy all day long running from activity to activity, so we tend to take a much easier traveling pace. Nevertheless the past week and a half has been quite eventful, making every penny

We last left you having arrived in Chiang Mai, one of the biggest cities in the north and the main base for exploring the upper reaches of Thailand. Although Chiang Mai is a very old city, it has blended modernization into its archaic exterior while still keeping its peaceful vibe. There is SO much to do in and around the city: more than any other city we've been to so far. Ziplining, trekking, elephant riding, obstacle courses, massage courses, cookery courses, and much, much more.

We started out our time there with a visit to Tiger Kingdom, a small sanctuary dedicated completely to tigers. In this cool little place, people are actually allowed to climb in the cages with the tigers and take pictures! It was a terrifying yet exhilarating experience, and one of the coolest things we've done yet (check out the pictures on Facebook). The next day we decided to pamper ourselves, and spent a leisurely afternoon getting massages and pedicures after meeting up with a friend we'd met previously in Bangkok. After realizing we hadn't really done anything to earn that pampering session, we spent the next afternoon taking a three hour Muay Thai kickboxing course. We were pretty beat up after that, but everyone except me got up the next morning anyway for a beginner's Thai cooking class. The food was delicious and the perfect way to welcome the lovely Katheryn Hoerster, who we picked up that afternoon. She will be travelling with us for the next month and we are super excited to have her!

The next day was Inge and I's 30th day in Thailand, so we decided to head off to Laos since our visa was expired. We ended up taking a slowboat down the Mekong River, a two day adventure that was both relaxing and entertaining. Our first day was filled with other travellers, and we ended up celebrating the amazing boat ride with them. The second day was a bit more relaxing, and we had a wonderful time just sitting there and taking in the view. The traditional Lao boat (now fitted with an engine) took us past beautiful forests, pristine waterfalls, and soft sandy shores until we reached the town of Luang Prabang.

Our first stop in Laos, Luang Prabang is another city full of history and beauty. Reminiscent of its time under French control, this quiet riverside city has character and charm. It has lovely architecture and beautiful temples, but its main attractions lie outside the city limits. During our two day stay here, we visited the beautiful Kuay Si waterfall where we hiked up to an amazing view and swam in the freezing water and rode and bathed with elephants. Both of these activities were extremely fun, and have left us with a favorable impression of this lovely little town. On to our next stop: Phonsavan and the mysterious Plain of Jars.

Sorry, but you just had to be there for this one

Our time here over the past two weeks since we left Bangkok has been spent almost entirely on the beach. This was fine with us, since it's the reason we came to Southern Thailand in the first place, and yet I'm still in awe of how quickly it's passed.

After leaving Bangkok we took an overnight sleeper train to Trang, where we hopped on a bus and a ferry that took us to the island of Koh Lanta. Koh Lanta was the relaxing half of our beach vacation: we literally did nothing for an entire week. It was a beautiful island, one with more tourists on it than locals. There were lots of families, friendly people, and good food, but overall it was extremely quiet and relaxed. Some days we went to the beach. Other days we just stayed inside and read. We spent very little money, which was perfect since we spent way too much in Bangkok. It was a time to recover and renew in preparation for our next stop: Koh Phangan.


How can I describe our time in Koh Pangan? Well, I'd like to say that we saw a lot of cool things. That we had inspired discussions about life with very smart people. That we got great tans and spent lots of time working out and eating healthy... But the fact is we did very little of any of that. We came to Koh Pangan to party, and that my friends is exactly what we did.

The 5 days we spent on Koh Pangan were the most fun five days Inge and I have had in a long time. We stayed at the coolest hostel ever, where everyone was awesome and ready to make new friends. We went out every single night, and every single night brought in more ridiculous stories than the night before. We don't remember all of what happened, but we've got the pictures, scars, bruises, bandaids, and headaches to prove they happened. It all culminated into the well known Full Moon Party, which is one of the biggest parties in the world. Every full moon over 30,000 people (and twenty times that amount of alcohol) gather on a beach and leave when the moon does. All I can say is that you just had to be there to really understand it.

The next few weeks will definitely be just as exciting! We're currently exploring Chiang Mai our last stop in Thailand, but in just a few short days Katheryn Hoerster will be joining us and we will be heading to our next stop: Laos!

An Open Mind Today Keeps the Stereotypes Away

Stereotypes can be dreadful things. Although harmless in theory, they often become a crude, hurtful way of simplifying a group of people into something others can more readily understand. By assuming that every Asian you meet is going to carry a "Hello, Kitty" purse, work hard and drive terribly, you are at best trying to use your "prior" knowledge to relate Asian people you meet to something you already know. But in doing so, you are often robbing that person of their unique individuality. In addition, we often tend to focus on the negative stereotypes much longer than those few positive stereotypes we manage to come up with.

Having said all that, we are still going to talk about stereotypes today. It's absolutely astonishing that we've manged to classify an entire continent's worth of countries into one "Asian stereotype", but this broad category is what we'll be operating under (even if this area of the world lies slightly on the outer edges of this range). This blog post is going to focus on the less hurtful stereotypes and we hope that everyone reading this sees it as the light-hearted attempt to discuss a difficult topic that it is. We mean no harm, and all claims made are are from our personal experiences and thoughts so far.

All Asians look the same.

Of all the stereotypes out there, this one is by far the most ridiculously untrue. Anyone who has spent any kind of time in any country in Asia can tell you this. We've been taken aback by how diverse looks are here. Not only between different countries either. Yes, Malays look different from Thais and it has definitely been possible to distinguish Thai from Chinese, but even in each group you can get very different results. Malays especially showed an incredible diverse array of skin color, some looking like very dark Indians while others almost as fair skinned as the Chinese. Among Chinese populations here we've seen how different Chinese people often look and confirmed that all the different shapes and sizes found elsewhere can be found here too. With over half of the people of the entire world living on the Asian continent (and mostly along the eastern coast), it is extremely difficult to understand how this stereotype ever came to be).

Asians are terrible drivers

This is another stereotype we think false. And a bit insulting. As of our month and a half here we have only seen one accident, and that was actually the fault of a tourist driving and not the fault of any locals. Clearly there aren't a lot of bad drivers. Quite on the contrary, people here might even be better drivers than in America. You see, people don't have to just deal with cars here: there are also a significant number of bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles that weave crazily between traffic everywhere you go. Traffic is often very heavy, and we've been on many a road that weaves so much we thought we were going to be sick. Drivers here handle all of these obstacles fairly well, and we're convinced that roads here are filled with just as many competent and incompetent drivers as most roads of the world are. Parking on the other hand could still use some work...

 Asians love old people.

While worded rather terribly, this is one stereotype that is based in fact. Many of the cultures in Asia have vehement respect for the elderly, and generally tend to show deference to anyone older than they are. While the lengths cultures here will go to do so vary in degree from country to country, it seems to be a common trait. The elderly are given the best seats on the public buses and trains, are assisted whenever they need help, and are otherwise treated with absolute respect. It is something we've only been able to catch glimpses of here and there, but it is something that has definitely warmed my heart whenever it happens.


Asians love the peace sign.

At this point, we've decided to tactfully say the evidence is "inconclusive". We decline to deny or agree with this one. While we have indeed noticed a large number of Chinese tourists taking pictures this way (evidence on the right), it would be preposterous to claim that that every single tourist does so. I think this is one where further statistical analysis will need to be done by someone who cares a lot about such a trivial thing. Do we have any volunteers? We certainly don't have the time. We spend too much of our days lounging on beaches like the one below to really care.

The Sins of History and the City of Sins

Happy New Year's everyone! Sorry for the length of time since our last post. It's a little harder to find internet cafes here, but honestly we've just haven't made the time to blog recently.

Our time in Thailand has been amazing so far. Our first stop was the city of Kanchanaburi. The surrounding scenery was beautiful, and we visited an amazing series of seven waterfalls that lasted over 2 kilometers. Kanchanaburi itself was a normal enough town when looked at from the outside. It reminded me a bit of a small town in the US, actually. It gave off an aura of extreme importance although you couldn't tell what made it special. Unlike most small towns though, this place had a significant importance to history. It was the site of the infamous Death Railway, a supply railway the Japanese built during the second World War. The building of the railway was a thing of nightmares, where malnutrition, disease, animals, and abuse took the lives of over 90,000 Asian and 12,300 Allied POWs. We visited the Bridge on the River Kwai (basis of the famous movie in 1957), sections of the original railway, museums that told the violent history of the area, and cemeteries that housed the remains of some of the POWs that died there. It was a humbling experience, one that reminded us how important it is to never forget the past. No one wants to repeat something like that again.

After the quiet of Kanchanaburi, we returned to Bangkok to herald in the new year. Bangkok is an... interesting city. It's impossible to describe, other than to say it's everything you've heard and haven't heard about it. The city is extremely large. You can travel for an hour in either direction from the center and not leave the city. Traffic is always terrible, and the high number of cars going nowhere creates a low hanging haze that makes it seem dark early and doesn't allow for good sunsets. People are everywhere and it's kind of dirty in some parts. But despite all that Bangkok is absolutely amazing. It is more unique than any city I've ever been in. Every building looks different than the next, every street unlike the one before it. People from all over the world come here, but the Thai signature is evident from the sizzling street food to the Thai script glaring from every flashing billboard. Bangkok isn't covered in too many giant skyscrapers, but it is still building up. Highways, the sky train, and sky walkways have all been built off the ground, making it feel as if Bangkok has a canopy. It's really cool, and makes it feel both more crowded and less so at the same time.

We had a really fun time in the city, even though we didn't do too many touristy things. We saw a lot of temples, visited all the main squares, made a trip to the nearby historical capitol Ayuthaya, and shopped on the street and in the gorgeous malls. Mostly we hung out with backpackers, celebrated the New Year, and explored the nooks and crannies. Bangkok is known for it's seedy side, and rightly so. What surprised Inge and I, though, is how normal Bangkok actually comes off. Most of the city is just like any other. But what it does have is right out in the open, not hidden away on dark, dank allies. During the day you can walk right by a place and not really know what it is. But walk again by it at night and you see Bangkok's underbelly.

Thailand is much different than either one of us were expecting so far, and is another world when compared to Malaysia and Singapore. The people, the infrastructure, the feel of the place... it's completely unique. Bangkok has easily topped one of my favorite cities in the world, and is strongly recommended for anyone wanting to walk a little more on the wild side. For now, we are going to go to the beach to take a break. Stay tuned for more!