Red Shirts, or not.....

Hey all!
how's it going out there?
We have finally made it to Thailand! I am so happy, and feel like our trip is just getting started! We left Cambodia yesterday at noon, and arrived in Bangkok via Bus around 730pm. The trip was totally uneventful, and the border crossing was chill, besides the 350m i had to carry my super heavy bag filled with Angkor Tshirts through the sweltering sun from the Cambodia side to the Thai side. At the border we switched from a crowded Cambodian "VIP" bus, to a super nice extra large Mercedes Mini Van type thing.... a great way to travel!
The bus dropped us off in Th Khao San, the "backpacker ghetto" of Bangkok. Backpackers, definitely. Ghetto, not so much.
While there definitely isn't any Ritz Carltons in sight, this is a pretty chill neighborhood, and it isn't run down at all(in perspective.) the neighborhood is basically one street, that runs a few hundred meters, with a couple bustling streets around it. Th Khao San, the main street in the neighborhood, is filled with bars, clubs, tshirts, food stands, tour agencies, cafes, and anything else a young tourist might want.
We spent an hour or so wandering around last night looking for the best place to stay, and were a little torn between whether to choose a rather run down private room with a fan and bathroom, or a rather run down dormitory with 4 beds, AC, and no private bathroom for the same price, 300baht(around 9US.) We eventually opted for the AC dorm at the Rainbow Guest House, directly above the Rainbow Indian Restaurant. We have had private rooms since Hanoi, and thought it would be fun to be a bit more social, maybe meet some people, and enjoy the AC.... plus this place has awesome WiFi, so that was a big plus(and allowed us to quickly post all the pics seen below!)
After checking in, we didn't do too much, just wandered around, got some awesome Pad Thai w/ chicken for a dollar, and then some Thai Soup with onions, cabbage, tofu and pork that was kinda like the inside of the wantons in wanton soup. The soup was awesome, and was a great intro to Thai cuisine. The pad thai is basically the same as you would expect, hardly different from the US at all. I'm not sure whether i'm happy or sad about that, but it is definitely tasty. The street vendors have a big round flat griddle on their little cart, with 4 or 5 different kinds of noodles all set up in a row for you to see. You get to choose which kind of noodle you want, then you pick egg or no egg, shrimp, chicken, or vegetarian.
Today, we woke up and caught the river boat bus type thing down the river towards the main part of town. From there, we cought the Bangkok Sky Train(Basically an L) from the Saphan Taksin stop to the Siam stop at the heart of the shopping district. First, we went to the large Siam Shopping mall, which is similar to a fancy US shopping mall. We just walked around there for a few minutes, just long enough for me to check out the G shocks at the Casio store(and find out that they are basically the cheapest prices in the world!!!) From there we walked a few blocks towards the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center, which has been descriped as a rip off of the Guggenheim in NYC. The arts center had some really cool exhibits, was free, and was a fun place to walk around and cool off for a few minutes.
From there, we headed a few blocks NW to the house of Jim Thompson, a famous American-Australian Silk Trader who mysteriously disappearead in 1967. He is famous for bringing Thai style to western cultures, and made a fortune importing silk from Thailand to the west. He is beloved by the Thai people for embracing their culture and style, and glorifying their heritage to parts of the world that never knew about it previously. His home is absolutely amazing, and it is impeccably furnished and designed. It was built out of 6 older traditional Thai homes made of teak, combining all of them in to one cohesive building on the banks of the canal(Bangkok was described as the Venice of the east before modernizing recently.) His house is breathtaking, and the tour begins by entering and wandering through the large gardens, which are absolutely gorgeous. His house is built on stilts, to protect from flooding, which is traditional Thai style. The area under the main structure is a large open room with beautiful sculptures, amazing wood carvings, priceless large ceramics from around the world, and stunning garden views. There are several small houses around the property that were used for rice storage, the maids quarters, and the gardeners home, which have all been turned in to exhibition halls of his amazing ceramics and silk collections. The inside of his home(which we were not allowed to take pictures of), is styled with as much taste as any home in the world. While using simple architectural structures, 6 older rather modest homes combined, the whole unit is combined seamlessly. There is traditional Thai woodwork, collections of chinese and SE Asian pottery that are as good as any scene in museums, italian marble floors in just the right places, 300 year old silk tapestries, antiques he collected at markets from all over asia, chandeleirs from europe, and all kinds of awesome unique pieces that he created. His lights in the living room are antique drums turned upside down. in his bedroom he has what looks like a dollhouse with a glass front that is actually a maze for mice that rich children in China used as a toy a hundred years ago(Jin had never seen one, just heard of them.) He has astrological charts on the wall from specific days 60 years ago, antique oversized books, Thai day beds, all mixed together with thousand year old buddhist statues he collected, etc! It was truly awesome, and made me want to live in a house with just shutters, no AC, and a killer garden with Koi Pond! It is a fantastic example of how to tastefully combine different cultural relics, antiques, funky swap meet finds, and combine them all in to a museum quality home! I was totally impressed(in case you haven't figured that out by my writing!)
From there, we went to the MBK, the newest and largest shopping mall in Bangkok. All these malls and the house were very close to one another, within 6 blocks. We walked around the mall for a while, which is basically a huge indoor market full of fake western clothes, electronics real and fake, CD's, video games, and tons of different kinds of food. We walked around for a while looking at random stuff, then headed to a Sushi conveyer belt/hot pot all you can eat place. For 9 bucks, i ate for an hour straight! The conveyer belt had raw meat, fish, and vegetables that you could drop in your personal hot pot and cook to your liking, while there was a buffet with a few choice Nigiri selections and some tasty rolls. I know, i know, Sushi on our second day in Thailand? well, we've been craving it since China, and haven't seen a decent, affordable place in months! We both assumed it would be our last chance to eat cheap, good sushi before making it to Singapore, Jakarta, or wherever else has fancy sushi buffets(i'm assuming they aren't in Ko Pha Ngan.)
We then hopped the Sky Train back to a night market which takes place on a couple small alleys. The night market had tons of fake stuff(as always), a lot of crazy knives, tazers, and funny t shirts, as well as a healthy dose of strip club, and a morsel of the famous Thai lady boy scene, along with some awesome bars that we hung out at and watched the world cup. Amazingly, after the Uruguay Korea game ended, we were able to find an honest cab driver who drove us back to our backpacker ghetto neighborhood for just 2 bucks and change! The big thing in bangkok, is that all the cab drivers and tuk tuk drivers offer you really cheap rides, but want to take you to "just one stop" to some random store or tour agency where they will then harass you to buy something. It is really annoying, especially cause we have offered to pay normal rates for a normal ride, only to be told that we could pay 25 cents, but we just have to make one stop for 5 minutes. This is one of the oldest BS scams in Bangkok, and apparently leads to hours of being dragged around from stupid place to stupid place being annoyed in to buying something. Additionally, most cabs here try to just offer ignorant tourists a set price for a ride, which is usually double what the meter would charge.... Luckily, we got a normal cab to drive us straight back, which was a refreshing change from the theme of the past day or so.
Overall Bangkok is awesome. We havent seen any hint of the rally's or protests that were so often in the news a month or two ago. Besides a couple random police officers at checkpoints in the city looking in cars and metal detectors going in to the malls, there is basically nothing out of the ordinary. Apparently, things come and go quite fast in this city. The city is bustling, fun, and really modern, and there is tons to do, great food and nothing really to complain about. I think that this is probably a great time to see the city, as tourism is a bit quieter than normal, and people are eager to do business and be hospitable. The city is modern, but has some great colonial style buildings mixed among the urban scene, creating a really beautiful touch of old and new. There is easy places to get water, 7-11's everywhere, and tons of great western food, bakeries, coffee shops, all mixed in with tons of amazing thai restaurants. I know, it sounds bad to be happy about all the western stuff, but it is nice to be able to get a normal, fair price for a cold water without having to bargain just to get the local price for a liter of water.) The city is beautiful, and riding down the river on the bus boat was really a great way to see the beautiful temples, churches, and skyscrapers that dot the horizon. I never really realized how much was actually in Bangkok, but there definitely is a lot to do.... maybe not huge tourist sites that are world famous, but just wandering around and soaking up the culture is fun.

A couple of notes..... The city has some sort of connection to SF. I found a place called "Villains SF", a fancy shoe store just like the one on Haight st. I'm not sure if they ripped off the name, or if it is connected, but it certainly seemed so. There is tons of cool skate shops and modern clothes places. There is tons of hebrew in our neighborhood, as well as a Chabad, and many Israeli people. One of the first people we spoke with, Omri, who has been working at a tour agency here for 9 months, is from Israel. I asked him whats with all the Hebrew everywhere and he said that Thai people(especially girls,) love Israeli guys and culture, but couldn't really elaborate past that. I'm still not sure what is up with it, but there is hebrew everywhere here in Khao San.

Thailand Vs. Argentina. The first thing I noticed as we drove in to Thailand was that it totally resembles Argentina. Maybe not in an absolutely literal way, but overall the vibe is very similar. Both countries look similar to the other countries surrounding them, but are much more developed and modern. The roads here are great, and it was so nice to go a normal speed on the highway and not risk a head on collision every 20 seconds. There is beautiful fields, mountains and countryside, clean and not so run down. Even in the middle of nowhere, people live at a nice standard, and are not totally poor and pennyless. But yeah, overall the country(from the little I have seen so far) is basically like Argentina, very western at times, but also uniquely a part of it's region. It is nice to be able to experience the vibe of SE asia, while also having a small taste of the luxuries of the west, even if that is just a set price for water, or a quick drive down a well paved road(I know sounds bad.) All in all, Thailand is by far the most at home i've felt in a long time, although I still think Luang Prabang is amazing!

Battabang

Me and Jin loaded up on the "bamboo train," the main attraction of Battambang. This train rides on abandoned railroad tracks left over from when Cambodia had real trains. It only travels locally, 7km for tourists, and is mainly used for making money off tourists and transporting goods to more rural areas. It's a great way to see some of the countryside and farmland that roads don't show you.The bamboo train is basically a large wooden rectangle made of bamboo and two train wheels with axels. There is only one set of tracks, so when two trains meet going opposite directions, one has to be taken apart, and then put back together after the other one passes. The train with more people or goods on it, or a motorbike gets to go through without being taken apart. The whole process takes a minute or two at most.

This is the drying racks where the rice paper that wraps all those tasty spring rolls are cured.

Here are fish drying on the ground outside the fish paste factory, which was more like a huge barn/shed with tons of decomposing fish inside. These fish on the ground will be BBQ'd or cooked in soup, or other ways. The fish paste factory is crazy, and quite gruesome!

Fish Paste

All the rest

Kbal Spean

Ta Prohm

 

Bayon

Ben's favorate one!

Angkok Wat

Carving in Angkok Wat

Phnom Penh

The pictures above and below are of our awesomely ghetto guest house in Phnom Penh, Guest House #9. The top picture is looking out from the bar and TV area towards Boeng Kak Lake. The highlight of the guest house was the permanently parked, and totally falling apart 2 floor boat that was parked at the end of the normal seating area. You could walk on to the boat, and climb to the second loft like floor, where the wind blew and the sunset was offered up with the best view of any of the guest houses. The picture below is the scene looking at some of the other guest houses from the second floor of the boat. All of the hostels in that area are basically rickety plastic shacks built on super ghetto "piers." So the bar, and common area was actually built over the water. The lake is super polluted, and in the process of being filled in for development, but it is by far the coolest place that we saw in Phnom Penh to chill. The Guest Houses are basically as bare bones and rundown as any in the world, but they can't be beat for price, $3 a night, or for atmosphere. It was an awesome place to spend a couple days drinking 50 cent beers, reading, and watching the kick off of the world cup.

Sunset from the "boat."

A garden and monument inside the walls of the Royal Palace of the King of Cambodia

I snuck a picture of the King of Cambodias court, which was totally against the rules!

National Museum

Epic.

Who saw that tennis match? all i can say is that John Isner is the man. Nevermind that he just lost earlier today in straight sets. I got to watch the end of the marathon tennis match last night in our hotel room and I was shocked by their constant aces and their determination to keep playing. When I saw it starting at 59 to 59, i thought surely that someone would give in and faulter, or that the match would quickly end after the recess... but i was wrong. Watching for the final hour, seeing the game count reach 70(!!!) was just insane. I'm so happy that an American came through and beat the Frenchman. After watching nearly all of the French Open, I feel like I have already seen the best of Wimbledon, which is usually my favorite tournament. I'd just like to give some credit to John Isner. even though he looked like he was a zombie at the end, he still held on, came through and finished the match. Way to go!

Angkor Wat and the Neverending Temple Tour!

Wow! Angkor Wat is big! Sure, you could just go to Angkor Wat, isn't that what everyone goes to Cambodia for? but then you realize that it isn't just Angkor Wat. It's Angkor Thom, Bayon, East Mebon, Kbal Spean, Etc..... Tickets are sold in 1 day, 3 days continuous, 3 days during a week or 7 day passes, for 20, 40, and 60 US dollars. We chose the 3 day in a week option. It ended up being the perfect amount as we were both so sick of the scorching sun and extremely early mornings by day 3.

I guess I'll start with a day by day account of where we went.
Day 1a: 5pm: Lonely Planet states that if you buy your tickets to the Angkor Wat park after 500pm, you can get a "free sunset," as the pass doesn't start until the next day. We Rented bikes for 24hrs from the tour agency 2 business away from our hotel, Angkor Park Guest House(it seems every business in Cambodia is in some how named after Angkor Wat) We rent bikes at 450 and head to watch the sunset at Phnom Bakheng, the only hill near Angkor Wat. We do our best to figure out how to get to the ticket selling office, but our map is incomplete, and we take the wrong road, and end up at the ticket checkpoint naer Angkor Wat only to find out that the checkpoint is 4km behind us on a different road. The lady says we can go in anyways, so we head to the hill. We lock up the bikes and head up the hill. After 20m a guard tells us that the path to the top closes to people entering at 530, and it is 532. We end up walking around the outer wall and gateway to Angkor Wat, checking out the entranceway, moat,mini lake, and "libraries" plus sites outside the entrance of the actual building. We bike back to the hotel around 7pm, stopping for dollar tacos, and 50cent Angkor Draft at our new favorite restaurant, Viva Mexican Restaurant in Siam Reap, which is seriously better than most mexican restaurants in Philly.

Day 1: We wake up at 4am, leave at 430, grabbing our bikes from our hotel's garage, and then at the ticket building, where we get our pictures taken for our 3day pass to the park. We make it to Angkor Wat around 5ish, maybe 515(Jin is our official timekeeper, the plastic watches i've bought here suck.)We watch the sunrise over Angkor, although we got there about 15 minutes late and missed the beginning and middle. We spend from 515ish to maybe 10 at Angkor Wat. We then bike to the NE, up to the former temple at the center of the now dried up eastern rectangular reservoir, named East Mebon. We then head back SW towards the town of Siam Reap, stopping at a few other sites on the way home, including Pre Rup, Phum Srah Srang, Srah Srang(the third largest rectangular reservoir), and Banteay Kdei. We bike back to town around 5ish...exhausted.

Day 2: We meet our newly hired tuk tuk driver outside our hotel at 445am and make it to Angkor Wat around 505 to watch the best part of the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It was pretty cool, and definitely a memorable experience. After a couple of hours, and some awesome chicken curry and chicken Amok(we still havent figured out exactly what this is, but its supposed to be something steamed in giant leaves, but it looks more like yellow curry, we're confused) we head to some northern sites including Preah Khan and Ta Som at first. We then take an hour long ride in our Tuk Tuk to the site of Kbal Spean, where a 150meter section of a very small stream has carvings on many rocks, and whole 20 foot areas where the entirety of the large flat rocks at the base of the stream have been carved. It was really sweet, despite the fact that I had to hike 1500meters uphill in super hot weather to get there. We head back south towards town and stop at Banteay Srei, deciding much to our Tuk Tuk drivers chagrin to head back home and go to one of the coolest sites, Ta Prohm the next day.

Day 3: The same Tuk Tuk driver picks us up at 530am and we head to the sites 11km east of town, instead of the complex near Angkor Wat, which is 6km north of town. We tell our driver we want to go to Bakong, but end up at the tiny site of Lolei first. We check out Lolei and haed next to Bakong. Bakong is a cool site that is "temple Mountain" that is supposed to represent the mythical Mt Maru, and dedicated to Shiva. Afterwards, we head NW, and go to the site of Ta Prohm, which we had been trying to make it to the first 2days. Ta Prohm is the site that where they have left some of the enormous trees at the site, instead of removing them like at other sites. This is where the "tomb raider" tree is and where most or all of the overgrown forrest pictures you see from Angkor. It is awesome, and the massive trees are amazing, and somewhat scary, kinda like giant snakes or an octopus strangling a building. The site is less overgrown than you'd think, but still really amazing. We then head to the center of Angkor Thom, to go to Bayon, the temple with the faces on the four sides of the tower you always see. It is really cool, and definitely made me feel like Indiana Jones. We then walked north to the pyramid of Baphuon(after being rebuilt completely it looks more like a pedestal), and then the Royal complex, and elephant terrace. I spent an extra 2 bucks and had our driver take us a total of 15km out of our way to the edge of the the largest rectangular reservoir with water still in it, to check out West Mebon. Unfortunately because of the dry season, West Mebon is only half full, and you can walk the 3plus km to the mini temple at the center of the lake. We got back around 4pm and paid our tuk tuk driver 16bucks for the day.