*Chiang Mai 1*
*Chiang Mai Trek*
Friday, October 3, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Final Leg of the Journey
Well, here I am, alive and well, in my bedroom in St. Andrews, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. I have been here for just over a week. Colleen is currently jaunting through the Irish country side with her mom.
I figured I'd write this final note, for those interested, about how our South East Asian trip concluded. Some e-closure.
It's a bit late, but would you expect anything else from me?
Well, in our last installment, we were about to embark on the "Shit road from hell" between Siem Reap, Cambodia, to the Thai border at Poipet. Let me elaborate. The distance itself is not so bad, but rumour has it that the corrupt Cambodian government is accepting cash from the local airlines to not only fail to maintain the road, but sabatoge the hell out of it by dumping large piles of gravel in the middle of the road and creating winding, torturous detours. It can take up to 6 hours on a big, bulky bus. We opted for a share taxi -- we threw our names in at a travel agency in Siem Reap and hoped they'd find some other people to join us. We ended up departing in the wee hours with a girl from New York, who had been volunteering for a month in the country (with an orphanage sponsored by World Vision -- our money does go somewhere afterall). The road was indeed in disrepair, but not as bad as the horror stories. Our nimble Toyota Camry weaved around some of the crappier bits that would have made life miserable on a bus, and we made it in no time.
The contrast between Thailand and Cambodia, once we hit the border, was mind-boggling. Thailand is by no means an economic world power, but when contrasted with the poverty and corruption of Cambodia, it felt like we had just arrived at a pier in New York City. Air-conditioning, paved roads, and recognizable food.
We made our way back to headquarters at Pla's apartment in Bangkok, swapped the smelly clothes in our backpacks with beachwear in our luggage, and were quickly off to the Bangkok airport to head down to Koh Phi Phi, via Phuket. After landing in Phuket airport (after our amazingly cheap $25 flight, taxes in), we made some small talk with some fellow Canadians, and found ourselves with some travel companions for our island paradise adventure. Having arrived late, we stayed in a very strange ancient hotel in Phuket town (think of the big scary place in The Shining), and hopped a boat the next morning to Koh Phi Phi.
Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee... I know...) was absolutely stunning. Turquoise water, giant limestone cliffs, and gleaming white sand. A smaller satellite island, Koh Phi Phi Don, served as the beautiful set of the shitty DiCaprio movie "The Beach" back in the day. During our week stay, we enjoyed buckets of Thai whiskey, island hopping excursions, Muay Thai boxing, scuba diving (in 29 degree water!), and great food. We did have to deal with some rain, but it was to be expected during 'rainy season.'
We returned to Bangkok, sunburned and full of sand, and did a one-day shopping blitz, loading up on souvenirs and fake designer clothing. We were then off to London, via a one hour stop-over in Abu Dhabi (in 45 degree desert heat).
London was fabulous. Such a historical city. We stayed with our good friends Kate and Andy (Kate of St. FX and "Silent Letter" fame). We arrived in the evening, and shared a giant bottle of duty-free middle eastern vodka with our gracious hosts. The next day we walked about London, snapping pictures of all the standards -- Big Ben, Parliament, Thames, Buckingham, etc. One amazing and historical landmark after another. The city was expensive as hell, so we mainly just took pictures outside these things rather than pay the highly unreasonable admission fees. We did make a pilgrimage to Abbey Road studios, and took the obligatory photo at the famous crosswalk. Though, it is actually a normal and busy street, so the photo-op turned out to be quite stressful. I'm sure the locals love it.
Soon thereafter, I parted ways with the gang, as Colleen's mom arrived at the airport hours before I took off.
Landing in Halifax was such an amazing feeling. Over the past year, I had been through many a customs, stamping my passport and learning how to say "beer please" in the local language. Well let me tell you, I was never so happy to see the sign, "Welcome to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada," adorned in the red and white. Tear-evoking stuff. My family were there, and we hit the road to Antigonish.
I've been spending my time catching up with old friends and family, taking it more than easy. Colleen returns to Canada on the 8th, and she'll be doing the same. Then, it'll be off to Halifax, were I'll be taking a journalism degree at King's, and Colleen will be getting her Master of Marine Management at Dal.
What a year!
PS- All of my photos were mysteriously deleted from the memory card in my camera... so you'll have to wait for Colleen to return to home soil and upload all of her photos (which were all better than mine anyway).
I figured I'd write this final note, for those interested, about how our South East Asian trip concluded. Some e-closure.
It's a bit late, but would you expect anything else from me?
Well, in our last installment, we were about to embark on the "Shit road from hell" between Siem Reap, Cambodia, to the Thai border at Poipet. Let me elaborate. The distance itself is not so bad, but rumour has it that the corrupt Cambodian government is accepting cash from the local airlines to not only fail to maintain the road, but sabatoge the hell out of it by dumping large piles of gravel in the middle of the road and creating winding, torturous detours. It can take up to 6 hours on a big, bulky bus. We opted for a share taxi -- we threw our names in at a travel agency in Siem Reap and hoped they'd find some other people to join us. We ended up departing in the wee hours with a girl from New York, who had been volunteering for a month in the country (with an orphanage sponsored by World Vision -- our money does go somewhere afterall). The road was indeed in disrepair, but not as bad as the horror stories. Our nimble Toyota Camry weaved around some of the crappier bits that would have made life miserable on a bus, and we made it in no time.
The contrast between Thailand and Cambodia, once we hit the border, was mind-boggling. Thailand is by no means an economic world power, but when contrasted with the poverty and corruption of Cambodia, it felt like we had just arrived at a pier in New York City. Air-conditioning, paved roads, and recognizable food.
We made our way back to headquarters at Pla's apartment in Bangkok, swapped the smelly clothes in our backpacks with beachwear in our luggage, and were quickly off to the Bangkok airport to head down to Koh Phi Phi, via Phuket. After landing in Phuket airport (after our amazingly cheap $25 flight, taxes in), we made some small talk with some fellow Canadians, and found ourselves with some travel companions for our island paradise adventure. Having arrived late, we stayed in a very strange ancient hotel in Phuket town (think of the big scary place in The Shining), and hopped a boat the next morning to Koh Phi Phi.
Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee... I know...) was absolutely stunning. Turquoise water, giant limestone cliffs, and gleaming white sand. A smaller satellite island, Koh Phi Phi Don, served as the beautiful set of the shitty DiCaprio movie "The Beach" back in the day. During our week stay, we enjoyed buckets of Thai whiskey, island hopping excursions, Muay Thai boxing, scuba diving (in 29 degree water!), and great food. We did have to deal with some rain, but it was to be expected during 'rainy season.'
We returned to Bangkok, sunburned and full of sand, and did a one-day shopping blitz, loading up on souvenirs and fake designer clothing. We were then off to London, via a one hour stop-over in Abu Dhabi (in 45 degree desert heat).
London was fabulous. Such a historical city. We stayed with our good friends Kate and Andy (Kate of St. FX and "Silent Letter" fame). We arrived in the evening, and shared a giant bottle of duty-free middle eastern vodka with our gracious hosts. The next day we walked about London, snapping pictures of all the standards -- Big Ben, Parliament, Thames, Buckingham, etc. One amazing and historical landmark after another. The city was expensive as hell, so we mainly just took pictures outside these things rather than pay the highly unreasonable admission fees. We did make a pilgrimage to Abbey Road studios, and took the obligatory photo at the famous crosswalk. Though, it is actually a normal and busy street, so the photo-op turned out to be quite stressful. I'm sure the locals love it.
Soon thereafter, I parted ways with the gang, as Colleen's mom arrived at the airport hours before I took off.
Landing in Halifax was such an amazing feeling. Over the past year, I had been through many a customs, stamping my passport and learning how to say "beer please" in the local language. Well let me tell you, I was never so happy to see the sign, "Welcome to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada," adorned in the red and white. Tear-evoking stuff. My family were there, and we hit the road to Antigonish.
I've been spending my time catching up with old friends and family, taking it more than easy. Colleen returns to Canada on the 8th, and she'll be doing the same. Then, it'll be off to Halifax, were I'll be taking a journalism degree at King's, and Colleen will be getting her Master of Marine Management at Dal.
What a year!
PS- All of my photos were mysteriously deleted from the memory card in my camera... so you'll have to wait for Colleen to return to home soil and upload all of her photos (which were all better than mine anyway).
Friday, July 18, 2008
The Long Way Home: Cambodia
Ladies and gents, hope all is well!
Colleen and I are doing great, feeling good, healthy, all that stuff (except for maybe Sunday morning, after indulging on $0.75 mugs of Angkor Beer). The past week has been a lot of fun.
After our stint in Northern Thailand, we made it to the Bangkok airport, and flew into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The flight itself was fine, and a steal at $60, taxes in... we were so zonked from the overnight bus ('recliner seats'.. hmm.. I think VIP bus in Thailand stands for "Value Is Poopy"), that we slept for pretty much the whole thing, including the normally loud and turbulent take-off. Getting into Phnom Penh was wild. Cambodia is still a very poor country, only emerging from hellish civil war and genocide recently. It's one of the few capitols out there without tall buildings. The people live on very little money, and competition for everything -- taxis, guesthouses, etc -- is very fierce. When you arrive at an airport or bus station, it's like a scene out of "Night of the Living Dead," with a dozen people or so surrounding you and soliciting business. When we finally made it to our guesthouse, the friendly owner offered us some services... "you want tuk-tuk (motorcycle taxi) tour, shoot an AK-47, weed, anything?" To re-use a line I've spouted all year, we weren't in Kansas anymore.The next day, we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around the city. He didn't cost us much at all, made us feel like big wheels... which I spose we are, in Cambodia.
Our first stop was The Killing Fields (see the movie of same name), which was the primary site of Cambodia's mass genocide back in the 70's under the Khmer Rouge. We then went to "S-21," a former highschool turned prison/torture chamber under the Rouge, and now a museum. This stuff was staggering, to say the least. Seeing skulls, mass graves, tiny horrible prison cells evoked a real gutteral sickening feeling. This rivals the holocaust as one of humanities worst moments, and it happened while many of our parents were disco dancing back in North America. Absolutely chilling, heavy stuff. Made us feel a lot of sympathy for today's Cambodians, and we turned off the heavy bargainers inside us for the rest of our stay, leaving big tips and donating lots.
The next day we caught a bus into Siem Reap, which is the home of Cambodia's pride and joy, the magnificent temples of Angkor Wat. We arrived, experienced the same zombie onslaught of tuk tuk drivers, and finally settled in to a very posh hotel at the ripe price of $15/night. Big fuckin' wheels, we are. We rented some bikes and cycled out to Angkor to catch the sunset before they closed. The next day we hired a tuk-tuk to take us around the temples, which is a vast complex of stone and jungle. You can google it, or stay tuned for our pictures, because it really is something else. Some may know it from Tomb Raider, all the ancient temples with crazy jungle trees growing through and around them. The driver was a great guy, so we bought him noodles and beer at lunch... one or two can't hurt, right?
That night we indulged at Siem Reap's "Bar Street" (official name), and actually ran into a couple of StFXers, and Colleen met one of her old friends, apparently a girl who she consistantly runs into in weird places (i.e. lifeguarding courses, Ireland and now in Cambodia, no less!) Later we came across a bunch of Koreans at a bar, and freaked them out when we started speaking Korean to them. We later convinced them to hit the dance floor... hence the slow morning after cheap Cambodian beer.
The next day we headed back to Bangkok, by land, along Cambodia's infamous "shit road from hell" (unofficial name). We shared a taxi, becasue the buses are worse than horrible, so we hear. We got into Pla's, did some laundry and exchanged our long sleeved shirts for some bathing suits and flip flops from our suitcases currently parked in her apartment.
We then flew down to Phuket Airport, in Thailand's south, (a steal at $50 return trip each!) from which we took a boat out to magical Koh Phi Phi Island ("The Beach").
We're on the island and have fallen in love with everything about it except for the rain! It's been raining everyday here since our 1st day, but we've still managed to do lots. Tune in next time for our full Ko Phi Phi adventures!
All our love,
Jake and Colleen
Colleen and I are doing great, feeling good, healthy, all that stuff (except for maybe Sunday morning, after indulging on $0.75 mugs of Angkor Beer). The past week has been a lot of fun.
After our stint in Northern Thailand, we made it to the Bangkok airport, and flew into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The flight itself was fine, and a steal at $60, taxes in... we were so zonked from the overnight bus ('recliner seats'.. hmm.. I think VIP bus in Thailand stands for "Value Is Poopy"), that we slept for pretty much the whole thing, including the normally loud and turbulent take-off. Getting into Phnom Penh was wild. Cambodia is still a very poor country, only emerging from hellish civil war and genocide recently. It's one of the few capitols out there without tall buildings. The people live on very little money, and competition for everything -- taxis, guesthouses, etc -- is very fierce. When you arrive at an airport or bus station, it's like a scene out of "Night of the Living Dead," with a dozen people or so surrounding you and soliciting business. When we finally made it to our guesthouse, the friendly owner offered us some services... "you want tuk-tuk (motorcycle taxi) tour, shoot an AK-47, weed, anything?" To re-use a line I've spouted all year, we weren't in Kansas anymore.The next day, we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around the city. He didn't cost us much at all, made us feel like big wheels... which I spose we are, in Cambodia.
Our first stop was The Killing Fields (see the movie of same name), which was the primary site of Cambodia's mass genocide back in the 70's under the Khmer Rouge. We then went to "S-21," a former highschool turned prison/torture chamber under the Rouge, and now a museum. This stuff was staggering, to say the least. Seeing skulls, mass graves, tiny horrible prison cells evoked a real gutteral sickening feeling. This rivals the holocaust as one of humanities worst moments, and it happened while many of our parents were disco dancing back in North America. Absolutely chilling, heavy stuff. Made us feel a lot of sympathy for today's Cambodians, and we turned off the heavy bargainers inside us for the rest of our stay, leaving big tips and donating lots.
The next day we caught a bus into Siem Reap, which is the home of Cambodia's pride and joy, the magnificent temples of Angkor Wat. We arrived, experienced the same zombie onslaught of tuk tuk drivers, and finally settled in to a very posh hotel at the ripe price of $15/night. Big fuckin' wheels, we are. We rented some bikes and cycled out to Angkor to catch the sunset before they closed. The next day we hired a tuk-tuk to take us around the temples, which is a vast complex of stone and jungle. You can google it, or stay tuned for our pictures, because it really is something else. Some may know it from Tomb Raider, all the ancient temples with crazy jungle trees growing through and around them. The driver was a great guy, so we bought him noodles and beer at lunch... one or two can't hurt, right?
That night we indulged at Siem Reap's "Bar Street" (official name), and actually ran into a couple of StFXers, and Colleen met one of her old friends, apparently a girl who she consistantly runs into in weird places (i.e. lifeguarding courses, Ireland and now in Cambodia, no less!) Later we came across a bunch of Koreans at a bar, and freaked them out when we started speaking Korean to them. We later convinced them to hit the dance floor... hence the slow morning after cheap Cambodian beer.
The next day we headed back to Bangkok, by land, along Cambodia's infamous "shit road from hell" (unofficial name). We shared a taxi, becasue the buses are worse than horrible, so we hear. We got into Pla's, did some laundry and exchanged our long sleeved shirts for some bathing suits and flip flops from our suitcases currently parked in her apartment.
We then flew down to Phuket Airport, in Thailand's south, (a steal at $50 return trip each!) from which we took a boat out to magical Koh Phi Phi Island ("The Beach").
We're on the island and have fallen in love with everything about it except for the rain! It's been raining everyday here since our 1st day, but we've still managed to do lots. Tune in next time for our full Ko Phi Phi adventures!
All our love,
Jake and Colleen
Saturday, July 12, 2008
South East Asia to Date
Hello friends and associates. Hope all is well! Colleen and I, in a whirlwind, have finished our contracts in Korea, said many good-byes, and packed our lives into bags and boxes (sort of deja vu from last year, when I left Canada...).Rather than heading straight home, I will reluctantly miss the Highland Games and tour through South East Asia.
The first stop was Hong Kong for 3 days, which is sort of between Thailand and Korea. The city was amazing.., east meets west, in a big way. It was a British colony up until 1997, so it truly has an English feel to it (complete with double decker buses!). Bangers and Mash meets millions of Cantonese Neon Signs along the most beautiful skyline in the world. Unfortunately, I came down with some sort of 24 hour food poisoning (I'm blaming an Irish Pub's chicken sandwich... damn the Irish), so the whole experience was quite the blur.
Next, we were off to the madness that is Bangkok. We stayed on Khao San Road, which is a famous carnival of a tourist street, made famous in the beginning scenes of the Leonardo DeCrapio film "The Beach." It was complete chaos. You could buy everything from fake Harvard diplomas to tailored suites. We later met up with my former co-worker's fiancee, Pla, who lives in Thailand. She showed us some sites, then took all of our messy baggage to her house, so now we only have to carry around a back-pack. Bless her Thai heart.
The next day, I went in for some dental work. Yeah, thai dentistry. The price was right, I'll put it that way. The dentist was a complete pro, but I could see where the cost was being cut. Par example, she began drilling away at my cavity, and when she saw me squirming in pain, she said "you now what? I recommend you have an injection to numb your mouth... 100 baht ($3.00)". To which I replied, in a painful soft voice "fuck yes."Anyway, all's well that ends well. I went back to my hotel and swam in the rooftop pool. $20/night got us a pretty decent hotel with a rooftop pool and bar. This resulted in my first Thailand sunburn.
That night we met up again with Pla, and she took us to a Thai restaurant on the river. The food was awesome, I can see why it has become so fashionable back home. Later she took us out drinking in the Pat Pong district, where I saw a Thai Elvis impersonator (who claimed I looked like Buddy Holly), along with some other crazy shit that I can't even describe with words. We finished the night off drinking "laow cow" (local discount whiskey -- "horrible stuff," according to Simon Stewart, www.silkwheels.com) with some guy on the side of the road.
The next day we were off to the old capital, Chiang Mai, on an overnight bus. The bus was shit, but cost $12 for a 12 hour ride, and because it was overnight, it doubled as a nights expense in a hotel. We arrived at 6am and staggered into a great, clean hotel, (also with a pool) for $10/night. We went to explore for a bit to see some of the markets and temples. We agreed to be touted around town on a bicycle rickshaw with an anciently kind driver. He doubled as a tour guide, and seemed to be a bored, retired man that wanted to show off his city because he was genuine and very helpful. He offered his services for approx $3 for the whole day. He took pictures of us in the temples and told us a ton of stories. It was a nice relaxing way to get aquainted with the city.
The next day we went on a trek. It was a pretty tame 'trek,' but loads of fun nonetheless. The first part of the adventure was a trip to an elephant camp 45 mins out of town. They plunked Colleen and I on an elephant and we were off on a 30 min tour through jungle, mud, slopes, and elephant poop. It was a crazy thing... when do you normally do something like this? We did feel some guilt though, I can imagine the elephants don't have a very good life there... so I bought a bunch of bananas and kept our playful paciderm well fed. Ours may've been the loon of the group though, he sure went to the beat of his own drum. Made for some funny detours. After that, we hiked through the jungle to a waterfall, took a bamboo raft down the river, and visted a hill tribe. Jake of the Jungle.We got back from the trek, showered, and hopped the overnight bus back to Bangkok, to meet up with Pla, sort out some laundry, and catch a flight to Cambodia. Pla was her usual courtious self, and made our few hours in Bangkok very comfortable.We made it to the airport, and flew into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
We are in Siem Reap now, and have one more day to go here before we go to Koh Phi Phi ("the beach" from "The Beach"). After that, a stop in London to meet up with my former Xaverian Weekly co-hort Kate. Colleen goes on to Ireland, after meeting up with her mom, and Jake'll wind up in Antigonish on July 26th, at around 3-4pm. Just in time to shower and get ready for the Big Top.
I'll see you then!
Jake (and Colleen)
The first stop was Hong Kong for 3 days, which is sort of between Thailand and Korea. The city was amazing.., east meets west, in a big way. It was a British colony up until 1997, so it truly has an English feel to it (complete with double decker buses!). Bangers and Mash meets millions of Cantonese Neon Signs along the most beautiful skyline in the world. Unfortunately, I came down with some sort of 24 hour food poisoning (I'm blaming an Irish Pub's chicken sandwich... damn the Irish), so the whole experience was quite the blur.
Next, we were off to the madness that is Bangkok. We stayed on Khao San Road, which is a famous carnival of a tourist street, made famous in the beginning scenes of the Leonardo DeCrapio film "The Beach." It was complete chaos. You could buy everything from fake Harvard diplomas to tailored suites. We later met up with my former co-worker's fiancee, Pla, who lives in Thailand. She showed us some sites, then took all of our messy baggage to her house, so now we only have to carry around a back-pack. Bless her Thai heart.
The next day, I went in for some dental work. Yeah, thai dentistry. The price was right, I'll put it that way. The dentist was a complete pro, but I could see where the cost was being cut. Par example, she began drilling away at my cavity, and when she saw me squirming in pain, she said "you now what? I recommend you have an injection to numb your mouth... 100 baht ($3.00)". To which I replied, in a painful soft voice "fuck yes."Anyway, all's well that ends well. I went back to my hotel and swam in the rooftop pool. $20/night got us a pretty decent hotel with a rooftop pool and bar. This resulted in my first Thailand sunburn.
That night we met up again with Pla, and she took us to a Thai restaurant on the river. The food was awesome, I can see why it has become so fashionable back home. Later she took us out drinking in the Pat Pong district, where I saw a Thai Elvis impersonator (who claimed I looked like Buddy Holly), along with some other crazy shit that I can't even describe with words. We finished the night off drinking "laow cow" (local discount whiskey -- "horrible stuff," according to Simon Stewart, www.silkwheels.com) with some guy on the side of the road.
The next day we were off to the old capital, Chiang Mai, on an overnight bus. The bus was shit, but cost $12 for a 12 hour ride, and because it was overnight, it doubled as a nights expense in a hotel. We arrived at 6am and staggered into a great, clean hotel, (also with a pool) for $10/night. We went to explore for a bit to see some of the markets and temples. We agreed to be touted around town on a bicycle rickshaw with an anciently kind driver. He doubled as a tour guide, and seemed to be a bored, retired man that wanted to show off his city because he was genuine and very helpful. He offered his services for approx $3 for the whole day. He took pictures of us in the temples and told us a ton of stories. It was a nice relaxing way to get aquainted with the city.
The next day we went on a trek. It was a pretty tame 'trek,' but loads of fun nonetheless. The first part of the adventure was a trip to an elephant camp 45 mins out of town. They plunked Colleen and I on an elephant and we were off on a 30 min tour through jungle, mud, slopes, and elephant poop. It was a crazy thing... when do you normally do something like this? We did feel some guilt though, I can imagine the elephants don't have a very good life there... so I bought a bunch of bananas and kept our playful paciderm well fed. Ours may've been the loon of the group though, he sure went to the beat of his own drum. Made for some funny detours. After that, we hiked through the jungle to a waterfall, took a bamboo raft down the river, and visted a hill tribe. Jake of the Jungle.We got back from the trek, showered, and hopped the overnight bus back to Bangkok, to meet up with Pla, sort out some laundry, and catch a flight to Cambodia. Pla was her usual courtious self, and made our few hours in Bangkok very comfortable.We made it to the airport, and flew into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
We are in Siem Reap now, and have one more day to go here before we go to Koh Phi Phi ("the beach" from "The Beach"). After that, a stop in London to meet up with my former Xaverian Weekly co-hort Kate. Colleen goes on to Ireland, after meeting up with her mom, and Jake'll wind up in Antigonish on July 26th, at around 3-4pm. Just in time to shower and get ready for the Big Top.
I'll see you then!
Jake (and Colleen)
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Hong Kong
So, we've arrived in Hong Kong, and all is well and nice! We are experiencing a bit of the reverse culture shock that we were expecting to get back in Canada because this place has so many of the comforts of home. The food, people, architecture, shopping and of course... the English fluency is fabulous. It's a lot more like home than the pretty homogenous Korea.
We can't write much now, we're on a public computer, but we'll get around to writing more soon-ish.
Xox from The Peak's coffee shop,
Colleen (and Jake)
We can't write much now, we're on a public computer, but we'll get around to writing more soon-ish.
Xox from The Peak's coffee shop,
Colleen (and Jake)
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