Careening Through the Universe

Saturday, 6 December 2014

Nepal - Kathmandu

Nbgtr3 ß In case you were wondering, this is what happens when an avocado rolls across your keyboard. Luckily it wasn’t peeled.

Anyhoo, I arrived in Kathmandu two days before my trekking tour started and stayed for two days after it ended. Before my tour started, I didn’t really like Kathmandu all that much. I got scammed twice! The first time was at the airport by someone who carried my bags (which I had actually been warned about but somehow got done in anyway). I didn’t have any rupees at that point so gave the guy Thai Baht when he demanded money. The second time, I realized I was being scammed but played along because I got a walking tour of the city out of it. It was actually pretty informative and gave me a better idea of the layout of the city and I also thought it was amusing that the guy who was scamming me kept fending off other scammers who approached me. So that worked out sort of alright. I managed to purchase or rent all the warm clothes and trekking gear I needed and was happy to start my tour.

Wires!

Kathmandu traffic

Back alley

After my trekking was done, I hung out and did some sightseeing with some of my trekking-mates. We went to Boudhanath (big stuppa), Pashuptinath (where bodies are cremated… out in the open… it’s a bit odd for those who aren’t accustomed to the tradition), and Bhaktapur (ancient city, used to be the capital of Nepal. I really liked it here).

Boudhanath

Pashuptinath - those platforms are
where they burn the bodies

View from Pashuptinath

Bhaktapur - Pottery Square

Bhaktapur - Duttatraya

Bhaktapur - Durbar Square

Bhaktapur

Bhaktapur takeout place?

In the end, despite the rocky start, I was sad to leave Kathmandu. It’s in-your-face and chaotic but also pretty cool.

Friday, 14 November 2014

Wrapping up Thailand

I was in Thailand for about a month and did a variety of different things that I enjoyed and it felt a bit weird arriving at the airport to fly out to Nepal. It wasn't just that I was leaving Thailand but it was also leaving Southeast Asia. I remembered how I felt when I first arrived at the airport from Japan and I thought about how much I'd done and seen since then. I'm not going to say that I feel like a different person now (because I don't - I still feel like me) but I feel more experienced for sure.

Anyhoo, here are a couple of random items from my time in Thailand:

Wat Rong Khun
I saw Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai, on my second day in Thailand. You couldn't go in because it had been damaged in an earthquake but it looked spectacular on the outside.

Wat Rong Khun

Development
I realized almost instantly once crossing the border that Thailand is a much more developed country than Laos. For starters, the houses all have glass in the windows. Even the most run down looking shack had glass in the windows (definitely not the case in Laos). I'm sure this is not true for every building in Thailand, but it was true for the ones I could see from the road. Also the state of the roads was a big change. In Laos the roads aren't in the greatest of condition and require slow speeds but in Thailand, the main roads at least are in very good condition. After the slow going in Laos (due to road condition) and Vietnam (due to speed limits and traffic), I was a bit shocked by the speed at which we were travelling in Thailand (probably only about 80-100 km/h but it felt like we were flying!).

Elevator Music
It seemed like everywhere in Thailand would play easy listening / jazzy elevator music covers of random songs. I'd be sitting eating dinner and wondering why I had "YMCA" or "Bad Romance" or (and I kid you not... no pun intended) Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" in my head. It was amusing and slightly creepy.

Weird Signs
Thailand had its share of odd signs. Here are a couple:

I'm pretty sure this is a "do not squat on
the toilet seat" sign but it could also be
a "do not strain too hard while using
the toilet or else the toilet will break
and you will fall on the floor and get
your period" kind of warning.

Good to know...

And one last note: I'm headed out trekking (yay!) so won't have internet access for the next few
weeks. Please don't worry if you don't hear from me during this time. I think a few weeks with no internet will do me good.

Thailand - Floating Market and River Kwai

I took another day tour out of Bangkok to visit the Dumnoen Saduak floating market and the River Kwai.

The market was not what I was expecting - I was expecting a local market with fruits/vegetables/meats/goods/etc. but instead it was a tourist souvenir market. I took a boat ride (along with everyone else) where they paddled you to market stalls and people tried to sell you souvenirs.

Floating market

After the floating market, we went to Kanchanaburi to see the bridge over the River Kwai. I had heard the name before but hadn't read the book or watched the movie so I didn't know anything about the bridge. Turns out that the book and film aren't actually true (the part about the bridge and railway being built by Allied POW's during WWII is true, but the rest isn't really). The bridge wasn't/isn't even over the River Kwai... it's over a different river, a stretch of which the Thais renamed because tourists kept asking to see the bridge on the River Kwai.

The bridge

I went to a museum complex here, which had to be the weirdest museum I've ever seen. I'm not even sure how much of what was written is true and how much was for entertainment value. There were a lot of relics from WWII and then interspersed randomly were other unrelated exhibits (like samples of Thai money over the ages, or mounted water buffalo skulls, or a directory of past Miss Thailand winners).

Yeah... atomic bombs tend to destroy
cities "in a jiffy".

This in a room full of WWII photos

This seems a bit hypocritical...

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Thailand - Ayutthaya

I took a day tour to go see Ayutthaya while in Bangkok. Ayutthaya was an ancient capital of Siam that was destroyed by the Burmese in a war a long time ago. We visited a few ruins of wats on a very hot and sunny day.

Wat Yai Chaimongkhon

Wat Maha That

Reclining Buddha at Wat Lokayasutha

Wat Phu Khao Thong

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

Wat Phra Si Sanphet - I felt sort of like
this by this point in the day... all
crumpled up/collapsing from the heat

Wat Phra Si Sanphet -
12.45m tall Buddha statue

On the way back to Bangkok we stopped at the Bang Pa-In Palace, which is the royal summer palace. It was an extensive, well manicured, pretty property with internationally influenced buildings.

Bang Pa-In complex

The giraffe on the left has its foot
in an electrical socket

Bang Pa-in Complex

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Thailand - Bangkok Wats

There are a lot of wats in Bangkok. I went to some of them. Besides Wat Tai and Wat Mahabut (where I went for Loi Krathong), here are the wats I went to:

Wat Bowonniwet - it has some pretty roofs (which is apparently all I took pictures of here...)

Wat Bowonniwet

Wat Ratchanatda - I like this one because it was peaceful and I liked the Loha Prasat (one of the buildings - it was tiered like a cake and had an exhibit on Buddhism inside)

One of the buildings

Inside Loha Prasat

Loha Prasat

Wat Phra Kaew - this is inside the Royal Palace grounds and is crowded, sparkly and a bit ostentatious.

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Pho - has a huge reclining Buddha, some pretty roofs and some odd stone statues.

Reclining Buddha

Intricate roofs

Stone statue

Stone statues

Buddha

Wat Arun - dull and grey looking when seen from a distance but quite intricately decorated up close. You can climb up it and get a bit of a view of the city.