Cam bo D ah

After a relaxing stay in Phuket, we made our way to Cambodia, by plane, and bus, and another bus, and then by tuk-tuk finally into the Indiana Jones-y, Tomb Raider-y, Jungle Book dreamland called Siem Reap, which would come in at number one or two on my trip highlights. Bedazzled then at the collection of pictures which will appear in the coming days on my picasa albums for the Temple were a delight.
In preparation for the temples we hired a driver, Johnny, for $15 dollars for the whole day to show us the temples. Our only other preparations were a good night's sleep, and a book which we purchased on the grounds for our benefit so that we might learn about the amazing history we were seeing, walking on, and touching.
The first temple and maybe the most famous was Angkor Wat. And throughout the day I couldn't help but think of Legend of the Hidden Temple, or any adventure movie which takes place in a jungle. This place has inspired so much, its no wonder it was the special grounds for religious affairs. I felt amazed at the lengths they would go for reverence of these false gods. I also felt like a child who wanted to climb every part of it. A strange mix, for sure, but that's the truth.

Pa Tong Beach and James Bond Island

We'll having beaten all the forces stacked against us (traffic, bus confusion, delayed planes, bomb threats, overall costs), we finally arrived in Phuket. Our goals included eat seafood, go to the beach, and maybe do something else, but we didn't want to make the list too hard on ourselves. Phuket was all about relaxing and having absolutely no plan, as opposed to our vague plan. We slept in, went to the beach, and ate great Thai/seafood. But our experience wasn't without any highlights.  

Our hostel happened to be in Pa tong beach beach, which turned out to be a modern Corinth. This was the place people would go for all manner of bad. And the beach was packed to the full, but apparently most visitors like that. I thought for a moment I smelled bacon but alas, it was just the bodies of Europeans being fried. It was packed from one side to the other. I for one prefer the abandoned, secluded beach even if it means cutting back on optimal swimming areas. I really just want to splash around or talk. And so with a little help from our friend Ae, we got directions to a less crowded beach. Kata Noi. Beach Time, Check.

For lunch we usually dined at the same little shop just outside of our hostel. I made a point of eating seafood, and found it satisfying on all accounts. My seafood highlight had to have been our last dinner there. A large number of the restaurants in Pa tong were meager outdoor things with plastic chairs and tables underneath a large tarp, with the kitchen hastily set up right next to it, all of which is right by the road. The best and worst part is bargaining for your supper. The variety of seafood is sitting out on ice for the passers-by to see and become ensnared by the host who will draw you in with assurances of freshness, and a special price for you. The sad part is bargaining system is such that a fair deal never involves two happy parties. At least not on the surface. After one night of getting slightly ripped off, and finding our special price mentioned was not the final bill, we resorted to a little bit of dirty tactics. 

I started into negotiations with one man because he was the first one I saw with sting ray, something I had wanted to try ever since one of its larger cousins took out the crocodile hunter, Steve Irvin. Anything related to the thing that took don't that crazy guy must taste like courage and raw adrenaline. Anyways, I asked for a special price, and while he was conferring with his superior as to how special the price could get, I was offered a better deal by his rival restaurant host. I leveraged the deal and had him throw in some prawns for a discount, along with a special BBQ sauce he would make for me and I was sold and seated before the other guy knew what had happened. And I dined on sting ray which was delightful. Not fishy, but definitely muscular, not as soft as fish but in a good way. 

The last thing worth currently mentioning about Phuket was the James Bond Island tour. It was an all day tour of the small islands to the northeast of Phuket. It is so named because the movie The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed on one of the islands. We saw some monkeys, sea-kayaked into a cave, and saw the famous island, all in a day trip. And that was that. Not too much to tell, and the pictures certainly do more justice but, I did fail to take any good beach pictures to show you Pa Tong or Kata Noi. You'll just have to see it for yourself. 

Destination Thailand

After having finished all desirable business in Kunming, we got our undies in a figurative bundle trying to get to the airport.
We had allotted a good amount of time to get to the airport, the plan was to get a taxi, get in the airport and go. But we forgot one of the things that'll only come up and bite yah when you at the worst time. It was taxi driver switching period. The time of day where the taxi driver is almost done with his shift and does not want to take a trio of sweaty Americans to the airport. We tried, in vain, to get a taxi but the few that would stop were fought over by mobs of Chinese. Our best chances would have been to tackle a mother and pull her child from the seat of the taxi and peel away. But since we weren't those kind of people we resorted to plan B: the Bus. I got directions on the phone through my buddy Cale who was talking to the reception at our hotel. It was just a matter of 2 or 3 buses and you're there.

We made the first bus fine, and late as we were I tried not to look at the time too much, for it would hardly help matters, if we don't make it we don't make it. A tautology, yes, but it made sense; go to a beautiful country by plane or get trapped in an equally beautiful province which is an outdoorsman's dream, as I have previously mentioned, and not just in the Stone Forest. But I still really wanted to go. I like the passports stamps, sue me.

Well we got off and took what was to be our last bus, with no time to spare. Our eyes were peeled for telltale signs of the airport. We were to go three stops. And we did. Hopped off ready to dash and-we were at the same place we were 3 stops ago on the other side of the street. My mind was blown. It was as though all nature was working against us to make sure we don't go. Here might be a good time to mention the e-mail/warning my mother sent me about going to Thailand. It was for a good reason. But we had already had 3 tickets so missing this flight would set off a chain reaction of money loss, and loss of beach time. What would you have done? We went anyway.

Beach time = happiness

Anyways, upon arriving at the same stop on the wrong side of the road, we ran across the busy street, hopped the median, and began flagging down taxi's, and tried to get them to take us to the airport, they all declined, stating a perfectly valid reason in Chinese I'm sure, but to my English hungry ears they were bupkis. Think we were out of time or nearly so I told a man nearby my dilemma and he agreed, three stops away by bus. Thinking it for a fluke, we got back on and tried again. And this time something clicked. The first stop said "airport". The street was under construction and so the bus route had been changed. We had a passed it before. Andy said, "I thought this place looked familiar but I didn't want to say anything."

We high-tailed it into the airport and waited patiently at customs. I was the first to get past, and I went forward to try to stop the plane or at least try to run along and grab the wheel in a very Toy Story 2 like moment. But to my felicitous surprise, the flight was delayed. We would have made it all along. Delayed for a while in fact. So delayed we even got a meal, so delayed we were wondering if we would miss our next flight, but that's another story. This was just a real life lesson from the Father on Matthew 6.

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? I can't. But I have to relearn that lesson every now and then.

Stone Forest

Quite possibly one of the highlights of spring festival was the Stone Forest in Kunming, Yunnan Province. It was an outdoorsman's dream. Really. When outdoorsman dream they imagine this place with awesome paths to follow between and under massive rocks going straight up. It really is so amazing it looks fake.

I can't get over this place. At times it felt like the scene from the Lord of the Rings with the Dead mean from Dunharrow. That was a burst of nerd, but look for it next time you see the movie and you'll know what I mean. If we didn't have so much else to see on that exciting vacation I would have staying there for days. Camp, climb on rocks, pretend. Whatever. It was so cool.

And one of the best parts was that for whatever reason we didn't encounter to many people. For what ever reason most of the visitors didn't go beyond the beginning of the park. Perhaps they preferred to view it from the golf cart that circled the perimeter of the park. More park for us.

I did the math, calculating the amount of time we were in the park with the amount of pictures I took, and it came out to about one picture every 30 seconds. That right there is a testament to whether I like the park or not. And lastly, if I can get this excited about one place on earth then it makes me wonder what the new earth will be like when I go hiking with Chris.

The Kingdom of the Little People

Where to begin. Well we made it into Kunming and ate over/under/crossing the bridge noodles. Which is like make-your-own soup, for freshness' sake. Those were good and then we needed something to do with the rest of the day, we had just eaten lunch. I remembered a very strange place I read about on the internet that I was only half-hearting joking to go see. The kingdom of the little people. It was a supposed land of all little people who put on some sort of show and "live" in little mushroom houses.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it right there. Nope. No chance. It's wrong to exploit these people just because they are different. No way they'd do that. In America, sure, but here... first, understand this: China is a developing country, not a developed country. In a country where a job and not just the right job is hard to find, when an offer comes up for a guaranteed job with good pay, and accommodations suited to you, you take it. At least these people did. Now they put on a daily variety show which includes singing, dancing, and even a tight rope walker. The situation is played up, trying to show you a 'kingdom of little people' to the point that a king with a gold cape makes an appearance.



From the looks I saw on the performers faces, they were split, some looked bored of the same routine, some loved to be entertainers, some seemed lifeless, and some flat out didn't want to be there. Take it for what it was, some good some bad. But memorable for sure.

Chengdu part duex: The rest

 Welp. The rest of my pictures cannot fully do justice to the beautiful Chengdu. We saw many things with the rest of our time there. Sichuan Opera, a variety act going back hundreds of years including puppets, shadow puppetry, singing, music, many combinations of the two, as well as a comedy routine I couldn't understand.

We cruised the downtown looking at the recently made ancient style architecture (which is slightly oxymoronic, but it works). We ate hot pot again, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite meals, especially because I love spicy food. We even stumbled upon a Catholic church which featured elements of both European and Chinese architecture. That really means that it looked like a temple without the trimmings and had a chapel slapped on the side.

Maybe now is a good time to mention Andy. and his beard. Andy grew a beard ever since the beginning of No-shave November and by the time our trip started it was looking pretty medieval. He was called by many different people name different names such as: Jew, Swede, Russian, Galileo, Dmitri Mendeleev, and probably others we couldn't understand.

Lastly, I might add, one of the side effects of living in China is of the many things I saw, many would probably interest you but they have become so common place for me that I forget to include it. This isn't really a boast but a misfortune, so if you do see something in a picture, or have heard something comment or email me and I could very well post about it next for the benefit of the readers as far as my limited experience can go.

Black and white and cute all over

After our train ride recovery which included hot pot (spicy stew-your-own-food) and a massage, we made plans to see the famous pandas in Chengdu. The next day we were immersed into the world of pandas and I probably heard more "Aww, how cute" than you'd hear next to a group of high school girls looking at a smiling baby monkey next to a sleeping kitten. But they are strange animals to be sure and they really do just lounge around and eat. To the point that they almost looked set up in certain positions in the park. They will go where the bamboo is and they will just chow down. But they were just so cuuute. There was a moment when a baby panda was stuck trying to climb up, little back feet clawing the air for a foothold that just wasn't there, or when one looked over the edge too far and fell down three feet off its platform, only to be joined by his friend who didn't want to be alone up there. Way to go pandas.

I myself was satisfied with seeing them from a fairly close distance and getting some great pictures of them. But if you really wanted the full experience you could have dropped one thousand kuai (over $120) and gotten a picture while holding a baby panda. Worth it? To some. Not to me. After we seeing the adult pandas and the babies, we moved on to see the red panda, related in name only. It looked like a legitimate Pokemon. That's all  I can saw about it.

At the end of the trip was a museum of the history of the pandas in China, with a very horribly done taxidermied animals section, where eyes appeared to be rotting out of the head of the animals and a flying squirrel was placed on the ground with arms and legs splayed. Not realistic and not even necessary, but then again I couldn't read anything, so maybe there was some relevance to a stuffed ram and a stuffed flying squirrel in a panda museum. My guess is that it was just trying to balance out the cuteness factor of the real guys.