Bangkok --> Hanoi

Our flight to Hanoi early today was fine-- another Air Asia flight. The warm, humid weather here often causes steam to billow from the air-conditioning vents while the plane sits on the runway. The flight today was full of backpackers. It seems like many of them are taking gap years for some kind of self-discovery adventure, with more of an emphasis on meeting each other and partying, while Kipp and I are more interested in seeing this part of the world. We had ordered a visa-on-arrival for (Socialist) Vietnam and printed the necessary approval letter in advance. At Immigration, we had to pay a fee (for the first time this trip) for a visa and photos. From there, we took a taxi to the hostel in Hanoi. Surprisingly, Hanoi seems grittier than Bangkok-- more small motorcycles, equally chaotic traffic, more construction, and many people working in shops along the street.

I was especially surprised to see car- and motorcycle-repair shops operaing in one-room, open-front stores, with work being carried out on the floor or on a car parked half in the shop, half in the sidewalk. There are a few street vendors/hawkers here, but only a scattering, unlike in Thailand.We had Vietnamese food in a local restaurant.

Kipp and I walked around part of Hoan Kiem Lake and visited this temple-thing on an island in the middle, that according to legend was where a tortoise delivered a sword out of the lake to a king in the 15th century. Tomorrow we're going out on a Halong Bay overnight trip, organized through our hostel, that's supposed to be good. Hanoi this afternoon was the hottest and most humid place on the trip so far-- roughly 90F, 90% humidity. The hostel has excellent a/c, fortunately.

Singapore

(I wrote this while in Hanoi but waited to post due to lack of pictures, which I'm just uploading now, a week after returning to the US)

We flew into Singapore last Sunday morning and out again Monday morning.

During the flight in, I saw numerous islands as well as shipping traffic. The water around many islands was mud-colored due to rain and runoff, with deep blue water further our. At one point shortly before landing I saw roughly 25 cargo ships lined up along the shipping lanes into and out of Singapore.

We took a subway from the airport, and checked into a backpacker's hostel in the Chinatown area. We took out money in the airport (ATMs on this trip have worked fine for getting money in the local currency). Singapore dollar bills (like Vietnamese Dong) have a transparent part as a security feature.

Despite being located on the third floor of a dingy-looking building, the hostel was excellent and had won awards. It was good staying somewhere with drinkable water (though bottled water was consequently more expensive). This hostel was much like the others we stayed at: bunk beds with sheets in a large room, lockers for valuables, Internet access, laundry facilities, and mostly European backpackers.

It was a relief to walk around a city with sidewalks mostly free of hawkers, crowds, backpackers, and motorcycles. It also was less hot and humid than I expected-- the weather seemed a bit better than Bangkok's.

We saw the Chinese, Arab and Indian neighborhoods, and walked around Clarke Quay, Esplanade Mall and Fort Canning park (if you zoom in on "Singapore" on Google Maps, that's about where we were). We saw a bit of the National Museum of Singapore as well. I was surprised at the combination of extensive English use and very few white people. Signs were often in four languages, and the English was British-sounding and very polite-- an "under construction" sign would also say "we apologize for the inconvenience" or "thank you for your patience =)". The various neighborhoods were also surprisingly homogeneous. Much of the Indian neighborhood seemed to be entirely populated with Indian men (standing around talking in the evening-- it was crowded). The Buddhist temple we visited in Chinatown (housed in a fun pagoda structure, with 10,000 little Buddha statues throughout), food court in Chinatown, and Arab neighborhood were similarly non-diverse. Also, everywhere else we have gone so far (Bangkok, Ko Phi Phi, Phuket) there were many more white tourists. It was good to be away from the eagerness for my tourist dollars that I felt in Thailand.

The Buddhist temple. Large numbers of Buddha statues seems to be a theme for these.

The temple had a rooftop garden.

We ate in a food court in the Chinatown area. I had a beef broth dish with noodles that wasn't what I expected.

Kipp tried and didn't like sugarcane juice and an Asian-style snowcone with beans, corn, and jello. I also tried and liked an ice cream sandwich (a slice of ice cream wrapped in white bread) from a street vendor.

Singapore is larger and more spacious-feeling than I expected. It seemed comfortable to walk around and had plenty of open space. I had expected Bangkok crowds with New York buildings. Walking around an area with plenty of parks may have helped with this. One interesting building looked like a boat on top of several smaller buildings.

On a tip from the receptionist at the hostel, we went to a bar (Equinox) on the ~60th floor of a hotel (Swissotel The Stamford). The view was excellent-- higher than the Singapore Flyer (world's largest Ferris wheel, located on waterfront) as well as marginally cheaper (we tried Singapore Slings-- they're a decent mixed drink and cost a bit less than a Flyer ticket). I would have stayed longer if I had showered more recently or had more money to spend. The view from the bar (below):

We walked around the waterfront/river area and saw a performance (part of the River Festival) over the water, with puppetry, dancing, and fireworks. It was impressive, and the colored lights made everything look better than during the day. We also walked by the merlion statue (mermaid-lion, Singapore's mascot).

In the morning Monday we took a taxi to the airport and flew back to Bangkok (for another suit fitting and cheaper airfare to Hanoi).

I hear the US is out of the World Cup. Ah well.

Ko Phi Phi --> Phuket --> Singapore

Last Friday afternoon we took a ferry from Ko Phi Phi to Phuket, arriving in the evening. A TAT tourist info desk steered us toward a good hotel somewhat near the airport. The accommodations were such a relief after the more rustic hostels we had been staying in that we decided to not travel for a day and stay for a second night.

On Saturday, we explored the city a bit. We watched the new Karate Kid movie in a local mall. After the previews and right before the movie, the Thai national anthem was played along with a video honoring the King, and everyone stood respectfully. Later, I ate a tasty noodle dish in a somewhat fancy restaurant. There were more waiters than patrons, and our food was served in less than five minutes. So far, the service everywhere (restaurants, hotels, airlines) has been more helpful and polite than I would expect at similar accomodations in the US, aside from the expected and occasional language confusion. I'm still amazed I can get around with just English-- it seems this path has been thoroughly paved by multinational chains and British backpackers on yearlong walkabouts. I'm also still surprised at the contrasts in how much people have and earn.

On Sunday morning we flew from Phuket to Singapore. I had a moment of excitement before I found my departure card to clear immigration.

Ko Phi Phi island

Last Wednesday and Thursday (another backlog blog post from Hanoi):
On Wednesday, the ferry took us to Ko Phi Phi island, and from there a longtail boat (thai-style motorboat) took us around the island to our hotel.

The longtail boats were interesting-- they used outboard motors consisting of an exposed engine driving a propeller shaft extending directly from the engine at least 10ft behind the boat. It looks like the simplest possible design.

The hotel had ~20 fairly rustic bungalows, as well as a restuarant area and plenty of hammocks. The bungalows had mosquito nets over the beds and only cold water, but the excellent scenery, weather and good food made up for this. Since it was the low season, there were only a few other guests. The hotel was run by a middle-aged couple with another two people working for them. The food included excellent stir-fry, fruit pancakes and shakes, and fresh coconut, all very cheap.

Snorkeling from the beach was excellent-- coral with many fish from near the beach to the edge of the coral reef about 150m out. We rented masks and snorkels from the hotel. I did see a few clownfish (as in "Finding Nemo") hiding in anemones, as well as clownfish, barracuda, angelfish and other kinds. Some of the coral was dead (bleached white or brown rather than bright colors), and visibility was about 10m underwater, but the water was warm enough (pleasantly warm on the surface, pleasantly cool at ~10m depth) and the schools of fish sufficiently aquarium-like that it was exactly the snorkeling I was looking for anyway. I considered a boat trip to another coral reef, but got a mild sunburn after several hours of snorkeling on the first day, so I stayed in the shade in a hammock for most of the next day.

Another highlight was the view from the top of the island-- Ko Phi Phi is two mountains connected by a low hill/sandbar, forming two crescent-shaped bays. Kipp and I saw the view shortly before dusk and then hiked back to our hotel on a path through the jungle.

The coral sand beach in front of our hotel had many burrowing crabs. We saw crabs scurrying sideways between holes similar to gopher holes, and sometimes scooping up sand and tossing it out of a hole.

 I was surprised not to see any seagulls or similar birds. At one point we saw some monkeys eating coconuts out of the palm trees.

I'd recommend the place we stayed, but some people might want a nicer hotel (with a/c, hot water, and less wildlife). For a backpacker-style trip, I thought it was good.

Bangkok --> Krabi

I'm writing from a hostel in Hanoi that's full of European backpackers and on a street full of small motorcycles, repair shops and people trying to make it. Here's another backlog-reducing post.

Last tuesday:

We arrived from the overnight bus in Krabi, then took a van to Ao Nang, a beach town. The overnight bus ride was not worth the cost savings, but it was fun to see some of the countryside, especially in the morning when we got into the mountains near the coast. The flatter, valley areas were often farmland with distinctly tropical plants (rubber trees?). The mountains were stunning-- near-vertical, overgrown sides. The islands, when we saw them later, were even cooler-- the same mountains except surrounded by ocean.

 The Ao Nang beach didn't look good for swimming, so we joined a tour group for a jungle hike to a natural hot springs, a climb to see a mountaintop temple (buddha statue), and an elephant ride. The other people on the tour were from Holland. Visiting the temple required a climb of some 1000 steps. The view from the top was worth it, though it started raining (pleasantly warm but view-obstructing) shortly before we started back down. Kipp and I also met a backpacker from Germany who lamented how the best sites eventually ended up in guides such as Lonely Planet and were subsequently overrun with tourists.

After checking into our hotel (just adequate, but very cheap), we had dinner and walked around Ao Nang for a bit. It was the off-season for tourism, but the shops and vendors (as noisy as in Bangkok) were set up to accommodate more tourists. It's still surreal to see the mix of relatively poor locals and tourist gift shops and restaurants. The economics of things mean that restaurants have many more waiters/waitresses than a similar-size restaurant in the US. This applies to bars as well-- many bars (which were usually completely open to the street-- no front wall or doorway needed due to the climate) had enough waitresses for some to stand around beckoning passerby toward the bar. In the low tourist season, this seems strange: Kipp and I turned down one street, which had about eight bars but only a few tourists there, and saw at least thirty women beckoning at us toward the different bars. It was very unusual and somewhat disturbing. I would suggest flying directly from BKK to Phuket or Krabi and traveling on to your destination island the same day.


Also, the stories about the sketchier aspects of Thailand seem true. I have noticed the occasional older and creepy-looking tourist walking about with a much younger Thai woman, and have ignored calls from street hawkers in Bangkok for "ping-pong show". Maybe more rural areas are different. In Bangkok, Kipp and I stayed in a hostel near Khao San Road (popular with backpackers/tourists).

Last Monday's Post

Kipp and I are back in Bangkok for one night before going to Vietnam. Singapore was interesting-- polite British-sounding English but very few white people, non-diverse neighborhoods (arab-, india- and chinatown), impressive buildings, lots of ship traffic, and a river festival at night. Hanoi feels even grittier than Bangkok. But, my blog's out of date now. Here's what happened a week ago:

On Monday, we walked through Bangkok's Chinatown, had another suit fitting, ate some fairly good Thai food, and boarded an overnight bus to southern Thailand.

For lunch we tried a restaurant from our guidebook. We tried meekrab (fried noodles with meat lemon sauce) and a chicken dish. It was fairly good-- better than street vendor food. Kipp really liked meekrab, surprisingly.

I chose fabric for a suit (grey) and some shirts. I hope these come out well.

The chinatown seemed more crowded than Chinatowns I've seen in the US-- slightly more so than most Bangkok streets.

We booked an overnight bus through a travel agent. Thai travel agents are Government-run (the Tourist Authority of Thailand), so there's a standard for service and less scamming.

We waited at the nearby train station for a bit before boarding the bus. As in every other business here, there were large posters of the King. Also, there are 7-11s on nearly every street.

Many of the people on the bus were British, and some were Australian. Young backpackers don't get much of a sophistication boost from having a British accent.

On Phi Phi island

I'm on Ko Phi Phi, a quintessential tropical island south of Phuket. The Internet connection here is very slow, so this will be short. There's excellent snorkeling from the beach, good food and drinks at the hotel, and a reasonable (small) number of other tourists. We plan to stay for two nights, but may stay longer since it's so good.

2nd full day

Our plan for the day was to look at some temples and buildings, buy tickets for the next destinations, and get fitted for suits. We didn't do all of this. One distraction in the morning was a scam-- some "helpful" locals tried to steer us toward an overpriced tailor that gave them commissions. The way this worked was one friendly guy introduced himself to people on the street, and told everyone a story about a government holiday-- tuk-tuk tour of temples for 30baht (<$1), and suggested four temples to visit. A tuk-tuk is a 3-wheeled motorcycle with passenger seats, basically a motorized rickshaw. The tuk-tuk driver took us to two of the (relatively unimpressive) temples, where additional friendly locals told us about this suit tailor and how great a deal it was. Then the tuk-tuk driver said the other temples were "closed for lunch" and suggested we go to the tailor, which we did, mostly out of curiosity. The suits looked OK to my untrained eye, but the fabric quality wasn't good, so we left and got a taxi back to the places we actually wanted to see.

We saw the Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha. The Palace was huge-- lots of massive, ornately decorated buildings with murals depicting stories of Rama, shiny glass tiling, pearl inlays, and faux-gold paint.

It felt a bit like Disneyland, since it was maintained for tourists. There were still many Japanese tourists and local schoolkids. At least there was no American pop music. Groups of schoolkids kept approaching Kipp to ask him questions in English for school assignments. They never approached me for some reason.

The reclining Buddha was enormous. I remember seeing it in National Geographic, so it was cool to see in person.

From there, we took a tuk-tuk back to Khao San Road and our hostel. We bargained for a flat fee, so the tuk-tuk driver drove like a maniac-- as most motorcycles there do.

Cars here drive on the left. Also, there are lots of murals of the King everywhere.

We were feeling tired, so we got some touristy food (pizza), and then a relatively cheap Thai massage. It was ok but not as good as the one yesterday which cost several times as much. In this case at least you get what you pay for.


We then played foosball at a bar, then watched part of a World Cup game with a guy from Germany. I bought a laser pointer from a street vendor.

We're thinking we'll go to the beaches in Southeast Thailand, near Krabi, for the next few days.

One Day in Bangkok

Today's adventures included visiting the Chatuchak open-air market, the malls in downtown Bangkok, and an amazing rooftop bar, as well as getting a Thai massage.

The hostel was good-- clean sheets, adequate privacy, people from all over the world, and just enough noise in the morning to wake me up reasonably early. I'm here tonight as well. Before going to the market, we had breakfast and walked by a nearby temple:

The Chatuchak weekend market (link: wikipedia) is a maze of shops and food vendors:

 I look tense because I've seen these items at about 5 other shops, and because it's hot.

There were a few amazing items, such as this Predator statue built from scrap metal:

Among other things, I bought some cheap but shiny sunglasses:

 

We took an elevated train to downtown Bangkok. Most of the people in the malls there, like in the market, looked like Japanese or Korean tourists, or local youths hanging out on their weekend. Nevertheless, American pop music played loudly at most stores. 

Though many things (taxis, food, lodging, massage) are really cheap here, I did check that Armani suits cost just as much as at home. 

The mall did include a McDonald's serving a "Pork Samurai Burger" and a Ronald statue making a local greeting:

One store served about 10 flavors of gelato mochi. This was excellent.


For a Thai massage, Kipp and I went to the Thai Privilege Spa near the mall. I now understand why people like spas so much-- it made me feel really relaxed and happy, like running for a few hours but without the effort. Traditional Thai massage is like a normal massage plus a stretching routine. A 1.5 hour massage session cost about $25, which is amazing. My only complaint was that the masseuse was too polite to call me on any of my first-time-spa-user faux pas.


We had dinner in a Thai restaurant in the mall. The food was unlike Thai food in the USA. I suspect it may have been Japanese-style Thai food.





The rooftop bar we went to afterward (Vertigo) was about 60 stories high, with an amazing view of the city.

 

Tomorrow I plan to see some more sights, book travel for the rest of the trip, and get fitted for suits.

In Bangkok

Kipp and I checked into a nice hostel in Bangkok. It was hot and humid but not uncomfortable outside, and there were still plenty of street vendors, tourists and restaurants open even though it's about 1AM here. We'll go get dinner shortly. Tomorrow we plan to see the massive open-air market that happens every Saturday here, possibly get fitted for suits, and decide what else to do.

The flights were long but OK. I flew from PDX to San francisco to Tokyo (where I met up with Kipp) to Bangkok.

Some pictures of things:
Boarding the plane in Portland. Surprisingly, the weather in Tokyo was about the same.

Signage in the Tokyo airport. I felt like a clueless American, but navigation has been easy so far due to English signage and English-speaking staff and vendors.

A waiting area in the Tokyo airport. I thought the stools to sit on and decorations were tastefully done.

 

Starting Out

I'm on a shuttle bus to PDX, and expect to reach Bangkok in about 25 hours. My one bag is a backpack with my laptop and a few essentials. Already I feel like a tourist-- I am admiring the scenery (the farmland looks green and the distant hills vanish into the morning clouds), taking too many pictures and wondering when I can next buy a snack.

Kipp and I have a tentative itinerary (mostly Kipp's doing) that includes:
Thailand (Bangkok, possibly Trang islands)
Cambodia (Siem Reap, Angkor Wat)
Vietnam (Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Sapa, possibly Hoi An)
Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto)

We'll spend three weeks in Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam and one week in Japan. Exact dates aren't set yet and will depend on how things go. We plan to stay mostly in hostels.