All posts by SamuelLMoney

The Banana Pancake Trail: January 17th – January 23rd

January 24, 2019 SamuelLMoney Leave a comment

After a few days of seeing all the same people and hearing about the same travel route frequently, we found out it was affectionately named “The Banana Pancake Trail”. Still haven’t found out why, but I have had a lot of really good banana pancakes for free in the hostels. The past week started our actual traveling and the more two to three day stops in cities and then departing that is more common with backpacking.

Chiang Mai’s More Authentic Sibling

We departed Chiang Mai for Chiang Rai. We only had one day there, so we had to make it count. We woke up to the best breakfast I’ve had so far…for free in our hostel. Banana chocolate chip pancakes, score. We utilized our new scooter skills to make it work. There was a much lower population of tourists around Chiang Rai, so scooter rentals were not as frequent as we had seen in Chiang Mai.

First stop was heading to Singha Park. Singha is a Thai beer with a cool lion logo. We head off for their park and saw their giant golden lion. We grabbed some matcha ice cream and decided to ride through the park. It was acres of perfectly manicured grounds. This also included a cool viewpoint of the grounds, ziplining and rock climbing.

A close up of some of the art surrounding the White Temple

Next up was the famous White Temple. This temple is the work of famous contemporary artist Chalermchai Kositpipat. The temple is surrounded by skulls hanging from trees and the initial bridge is surrounded by a lake of hands reaching up from the ground. The entire grounds was covered in some really well done dark art. Hidden throughout were some popculture references, like The Ninja Turtles and their master, Splinter. Arriving at the entrance, there is a bench with Iron Man armor made to look like a buddhist statue. A little further into the grounds is an entire building dedicated to my favorite god, Ganesha. Paintings, tapestries and jewelry adorned the inside of the picture-restricted building. Each year Chalermchai paints a new interpretation of Ganesha raising the Dharma. The room is filled with many coins and other artifacts decorated with the image of Ganesha. The golden building was topped with a giant Ganesha statue. On the way out, the gift shop was filled with more Kositpipat art filled with pop culture references, including George Bush and Saddam riding a rocket and Spiderman slinging near the World Trade Centers.

One of the buildings from the Black House

A quick shoot over to the Black House just before it closed to see some crazy architecture and art made out of dead animal parts. The architecture was Gothic style and was mostly made of bones. A lot of it had restricted access, but it could have been because we got there late.

After the long day of being a tourist, we shot over to the local hot spring and enjoyed some relaxation before we had to return the scooters. The ride back was through rural Chiang Mai which was a fun way to test out some finer scooter techniques. Unfortunately, we ended up driving back in the dark which proved more difficult than we expected with how aggressive Thai drivers are. Between us and the scooter rental place was a very crowded roundabout, which required more faith than driving skill but we made it.

Charlemchai Kositpipat also created a large golden clock tower in the center of Chiang Rai that has a pretty awesome light show at the top of the hour in the evening time. We returned the scooters at 7, so we hopped across the street to catch the show. Music started and the clock tower began changing colors and the Ganesha statue in the center began to raise as a lotus rose from beneath it. The lotus began rotating and then opened before the process reversed. Pretty cool for local art.

We have been jonesing for our own ginger tea since all of the hostels have free hot water but only offer Lipton tea bags and there happened to be a tea shop across from the clock tower so we decided to stop in. As we walked in, I noticed one of my best friend’s college roommate sitting at the table journeying. I haven’t seen her in 5 years and randomly run into her in a tea shop on the other side of the planet. Life is cool. We grabbed dinner and checked out the night market before heading home for some sleep before our big journey.

Slow Ride, Take It Easy

Somehow, I was never able to wake up on time for my 10am job, but I’ve been a very good alarm clock for Ryan throughout this trip. Up at 5am to start our journey, the owner of Grace Hostel was nice enough to also get up that early and make us breakfast and drive five of us to the bus station. A decently long bus ride to the Thai-Laos border and we checked out of our Thai visa and exchanged our Baht for US dollars. I had brought my own, so exchanged it for Laos Kip, but Ryan exchanged his for USD. A quick shuttle across a river and we had to fill out some forms for our Laos visas. They take our passports and I pay for mine. Ryan hands the visa officer the money he had just received from the Thai border exchange and they tell him no. Someone had written “Hawaii, USA” on one of the dollars and they refused to take it. I offered them some of mine, but there was an ink dot, no dice. We tried to exchange it at the exchange office there and same issue. I got out some emergency cash and we got his passport. Pay a big some for our ticket and we’re tossed into the back of a truck with a group and a dog and on our way to the slow boat.

I did an okay amount of research for this, but was mostly going with the flow. They take you to a store beforehand and we got some snacks. At some point, everyone headed to the boat without us so we were one of the last to go. The long tail boat contained three aisles of two car seats each all the way back, with some stair tiered areas. No seats available, we head to the back. A dark engine room filled with supplies and locals and the other tourists unfortunate enough not to get a seat. As soon as the boat started, the room got loud and hot and we were cramped. We paid for a boat trip to be stuck with no view and no breeze. I was raised better. We grab our stuff and head to the front. We post up on the stairs and set my tablet on a stack of backpacks and begin watching movies. Beautiful breeze, astonishing views and we can stand up and move while traveling? Easy choice. Six or so hours later and we hit the halfway point of Pak Beng, Laos.

Pak Beng is an interesting, little town. By all accounts, it seems its only purpose is to stand as the halfway point for the slow boat trip between Chiang Kong, Thailand and Luang Prubang, Laos. A number of guest houses, restaurants and convenient stores line the single street up the hill. Our guest house suggested us a local bar that would serve Laos and Indian food. I am always down for Indian food, but don’t like heading to places suggested by tours/guest houses as they tend to be tourist traps. We checked out all of the restaurants on the street and noticed it was all the same stuff at the same prices. Oh yeah, Laos is a communist country. We head to the bar to eat with people we had met on the boat. The Indian food at the bar was delivered by the Indian restaurant we had seen on the street. We order enough food that they assume it’s for the whole table. Nope, just two Americans.

Day two of the boat trip and we arrive early enough to snag some good seats. This boat had a cargo hold for the bags and two aisles of seats, one three or four seats and one two seat aisle. Bags under and we have another seven hours to check out the views and enjoy the breeze. Our boat arrives about ten kilometers outside of Luang Prabang and a young kid climbs into the cargo hold and starts pulling the bags out alone. All of the tourists are just watching him lift their heavy bags out of the boat. I step up and start helping him move the bags. Passengers are pushing through to stand in the way as they wait to see their bag. This is why people don’t like tourists. They get the last bag up and we hop in a tuk tuk to the city. A short ride with some drunk Englishmen yelling about Baker Mayfield and we arrive at our hostel.

France in Laos

Your favorite adventurers getting some relaxation time

The French colonized areas of Laos, so baguettes and crepes are in abundance in Luang Prabang. The city is pretty light on things to do but we were just passing through. Our hostel was a good place to relax. The popular bar was about a hundred meters from our hostel and the internet said there were sand courts there, but no one updates these things and it’s been gone for over a year. There were some cushion beds on a cliff overlooking the river, so we enjoyed that at least. The following day, we took a tour to the bear sanctuary and Kuang Si waterfalls. The entrance is lined with areas for the bears to hang out. After the bears, you get a view of some pretty majestic blue water. As we hiked up the trail that ran along the waterfalls, we got glimpses of the different tiers of waterfalls. A harder path takes you to the top of the fifty meters of waterfalls. Danger signs can be seen behind the spiked fences from when tourists were able to walk all the way to the edge, but now you can’t even get a view of the falls from the top. We hop in a pool at the top and then make our way down. A little more swimming and we head back.

The Canadians we met at the waterfalls wanted to check out a waterpark, so we went on a long walk to check it out. Again, things don’t get updated online, so the park was closed for improvements. Oh well, we had a freezing pool at our hostel. The only thing open in Luang Prabang after midnight is a bowling alley, so we decided to check that out. An interesting place to say the very least. There’s an archery range as you walk in and an assortment of alcohol is sold alongside laughing gas balloons. Two quick games (which I won and tied for first) and we headed back to the hostel.

The next day we decided to check out the Phou Si mountain in the center of town and the temple on top. We’re a bit burned out on temples, so a quick run through and a mountain sunset view and we were off to dinner. Everyone makes their way down to Vieng Vang after Luang Prabang and it was closer to our motorcycle lessons, so we booked a bus.

Party Town Revitalized

Our mini van took off at 7:30am, so we grabbed breakfast and got in. The driver was a bit of a mad man but that was nothing new for this trip. I managed to fall asleep for a minute before waking up to us heading towards a sharp turn on a gravel road on the side of a mountain while we were above the clouds. Needless to say, I didn’t get any more sleep on the trip. I was sitting far enough up to get a good view of the driver whizzing past trucks on sharp turns while answering his cell phone, no big deal. Three hours of horror and we arrived in Vieng Vang.

Vieng Vang used to be the place to party in Laos. Hundreds of people would drunkenly tube and cause general mayhem in the city. When death became pretty common due to the high consumption of alcohol and drugs, the local authorities shut down tubing altogether. In the past few years, it reopened with more regulation. The shutting down of tubing killed the tourism in Vieng Vang, and it has slightly recovered with higher quality tourist attractions. This seems pretty easy because the area is the most beautiful we’ve seen so far, so a bit confusing why that attribute seems to be annoyed.

We decided to check out the tubing. I have been tubing before in Texas down the San Marcos river and had a blast. It’s mostly just drinking while going down a river. That’s what I thought we signed up for. My stomach was upset from dinner the night before so I was just excitged to sit in a river. Most of this tubing was short stints in the river between long intervals of sitting at riverside bars. The tubing itself and the area were beautiful, but I didn’t come to Asia to be trapped in small areas with drunk white people. Lesson learned we made the most of it.

Patiently Waiting

That’s a week. It feels like months. Ryan and I are both getting antsy to play so will likely maneuver some things to head to the islands early. For now, we have a few more days until we head to Kasi to do our motorcycle lessons and do a short road trip.

Asia, Traveling

The Adventure Begins: January 11th-January 16th

January 16, 2019 SamuelLMoney Leave a comment

So we made it back from Pai, this time with seats that didn’t make any of us nauseous. This time a new hostel, with a pool and a volleyball net. The ball was the standard hard plastic ball you find in any recreational area. Upon arriving, the first thing we did was change and hop in the pool. Of course it had stone bezels on around the outside, the pool was narrow and the ground tiles were slick, so any movement was limited. People were sitting around the pool, so any time the ball hit the water, someone was mad at us. Oh well, I usually prioritize volleyball over stranger’s happiness. Enough of that and we set off to find some elephant tours. With three of us, we were able to haggle the price down 25% to go spend a few hours with elephants. Then we decided to get some sleep because we had to be up at 7am for elephants. Our 12 person dorm was directly over the bar, which usually isn’t an issue because hostel bars usually kick everyone out by 10 or 11pm. Apparently ours was only staffed by two twenty one year old travelers, so people were down there screaming until about 1am. Luckily, I sleep like a rock. Janey and Ryan aren’t so blessed.

Giant Puppies

Up at 7am, we hopped into a van to head to the Elephant Rescue Park. Thirty minutes later, we got to meet some puppies. Our host, Eak, gave us some more traditional Thai clothing to get muddy, a cotton shirt and the loose cotton tie off pants, a common outfit for Thai experiences. Always a good laugh as they hand Ryan and I extra large versions for our average American frames. A quick change and we throw all of our stuff in a locker besides phones and my waterproof camera. They introduced us to the four elephants, big brown creatures who you could tell saw us as play things and baskets of treats. We were given some treats and the elephants gracefully used their trunks to take them from us. Eak then showed us how to raise the treat so the elephant would open its mouth and you could put the treats directly in. I couldn’t help but feel like I was interacting with a creature from Star Wars, but accepted the otherworldly creature. Next, we were given a basket of sugarcane and a small cleaver. A few forceful taps against the table and the blunt cleaver slid straight through the cane. Ryan and I sped through our baskets and then split an extra basket sitting there, hoping to spoil our new giant friends. To feed the elephants, you had to hide the basket behind your back, take a handful of the split sugarcane and hold them out for the elephant. The elephants were so agile with their trunks that they could tell how many pieces you gave them and would hold out their trunk for more. If you staggered the pieces, they would turn the cane sideways and tap them on the ground to even out the bundle. Some fun pictures of us feeding them and then off to the mud.

Eak led us to a big mud pile and told us to take our shoes off. I stepped down into the pit of what looked like solid groud covered in mud. One step later and I’m up to my calves in mud. Thanks for the pants, Eak. Janey hops in and Eak summons two of the elephants. Us three are the only ones in the mud, everyone else in the tour group is just watching. We are standing downhill of the elephants stepping onto the slippery mud, so we’re ready to make moves if one of them loses their footing. Eak shows us how to rub the mud on the elephants and we start covering them. One of the elephants decides it needs to go to the bathroom and a flood ensues. Eak informs us that that is how Chang beer is made, and we’ve been told that before, so I’m not sure if it’s a joke. A quick detour and we’re uphill from the elephants, this time throwing the mud. The elephants start grabbing trunkfuls of mud and tossing it onto themselves. More mud and then off to the river.

It’s good to keep boundaries in a friendship

We grab some little buckets with handles and head into the river with the elephants. About ten minutes of chucking water and one of the elephants lays down so we can wash its back and head. All cleaned off, we head out of the water and are given some bananas. The elephants are eating one or two at a time like they are grains of rice. We say goodbye to our giant puppy friends and head to the showers. Back into our clothes, we sat down to eat some lunch with the puppies we met at the beginning. Back in the van and back to our hostel. Upon arriving, I realize I left my camera in the shower, my only evidence of my new alien friends. I head over to the where we booked the tour and ask them to contact the Elephant Rescue Park. No luck. I assumed they wouldn’t find the item that cost almost ten times what I paid for the tour, but I chalk it up to a donation to the park and one less expensive thing for me to worry about during the rest of the travels.

Fixed Fights

My love for combat sports goes back to as long as I can remember. When we get down to the islands, I plan to spend a week training in one of the many Muay Thai camps, but Ryan doesn’t share my appreciation for blood sports. Luckily with Janey wanting to experience the fights, Ryan agrees to go. I knew going in that Chiang Mai is touristy and the fights would likely be as well, but didn’t know exactly what to expect. We each paid a little over 10 American and headed into the stadium. We were sat in one of the seats in front of one of the many bars surrounding the ring. Fights didn’t start on time so Ryan and I played some billiards on the weirdest pool table I’ve ever seen. The fights begin and I explain a little about Muay Thai to Janey and Ryan. Some lackluster fights to start, then a match between a six foot something Australian and a very tiny Thai guy. With the Australian’s arms being longer than the Thai guy’s leg, it didn’t last long. Now we know the show is meant for farangs, or non Thais. The next fight was two Thai girls, much closer matchup and enjoyable to watch. Next was an Australian guy about my size against a chubbier Thai guy. We thought this was another fixed match until we saw the Thai guy stretching his leg up to his head.

Traditional Muay Thai fights are five rounds, the first round is usually slower and used to feel out the fighters. Rounds two through four are where most of the action happens. Round five is usually the fighters showing respect to each other, and if the other rounds are particularly one sided, they usually touch gloves and concede to much slower fighting. This fight followed that formula. The Thai guy was dodging all of the Australian’s attacks with seeming ease. By the end of round two, the Australian’s left thigh and shoulder werfe just blood red bruises. Rounds three and four were more of a beating, with round four containing some straight crosses that put the Australian on the ground. One even buckled him straight to the ground. After this one, the head strikes and kicks in general came less and less frequently from the Thai. Round five starts, the Australian rushes and throws a few punches that the Thai guy had dodged with ease earlier on and falls to the ground as if knocked out. A quick ten count and the fight is called. The Thai guy leaves the ring and is laughing and having a beer with a friend. Our initial guess of fixed fights was unfortunately correct. A final fight against two younger Thai guys and some joke rounds of blindfolded kickboxing and we were done.

A Shrine Fit For a King (And Queen)

The final thing we wanted to make sure we did before Janey left was check out Doi Inthanon National Park. We saw our hostel was going on Janey’s last day, but haggled around the city and found the same tour for 75% of the price again. Up again at 7am, we hop in a van to head to the park. First stop is a waterfall. A few good vantage points for pictures and a set of stairs that lead you onto the rocks to get closer to the water. A short drive and we are at the highest point in Thailand, 2,565 meters above sea level. Now the trek starts.

We signed up for the two hour trek through these mountains. Through the jungle we go, all the way up to some sub alpine meadows, a weird sight that high up. Some beautiful views and pictures and we walk along the ridge until we can see the Doi Inthanon Pagodas, two large shrines built for the a king and queen beloved by the Thai people. A little further trek and we’re back at the van to head to the pagodas.

Upon arriving, you head up some stairs and can go left to the king’s pagoda or right to the queen’s. We started with the king’s, a large brown and bronze structure. Pop off our shoes for the standard prayer practice and head inside. Outside of the standard Buddha statues, the inside of the king’s pagoda contains stone murals of the Four Holy Places of Buddha, accompanied by descriptions of each places descriptions. Outside of the pagoda is a garden, overlooking more mountain ranges. Next, we head to the queen’s pagoda, a similar structure to the king’s but this time in purple. Similar Buddha statue inside, but no more Buddhist murals, bummer. Outside, a much more intricate garden than outside of the king’s pagoda. There’s a small pound with a wooden bridge crossing it. From the side of the bridge opposite the pagoda, you have a perfect view of anyone on the bridge with both pagodas behind them. So the perfect photo spot for us. Hunger kicks in, off to lunch.

Running into picture position before other tourists

We head to a lunch spot and a big buffet is waiting for us. We make some French Canadian friends and fill our stomachs. Next stop is a street market. Much more expensive than the other markets we have been to in the city, but the tour brought us here, so we know this trick, we’ve been on tours before. Next stop is a hill tribe village. We were a bit worried because there’s a lot of tourist options for visiting the long neck tribes, and we tried to keep all of our activites as ethical as possible. This was a more standard tribe and we stopped to try coffee. The tribe used to be overrun with an opium problem before the king did research on the area and found that the soil is perfect to grow coffee. Now the tribe grows coffee that is sold around Thailand. They offer us some of their things, but like most of our Thai experience, are not pushy. We try some of their coffee, some coffee drinkers say it’s good, I fill mine with sugar like the six year old I am. Tour over, time to go home.

I Think That’s a Guy

Thailand is well known for its “ladyboys”, so much so that it is one of the preferred places to get a sex change operation, as they do it so frequently. We discuss with our new French Canadian friends about going to see a show and head off. Another Canadian from our room asks to join us as it is his last night to see a show, important note for later. Surrounded by a night market with cheap eats, we find the show. Free entry with two drink minimum, fair enough. The show was ladyboys lipsyncing and doing choreographed dances, changing their outfits to mimic the singer of the original song. I explain how people at these things like to single me out and mess with me and tuck myself in the corner. The roommate grabs a seat between me and the stage. We grab some drinks and watch the show.

About an hour in, there is a goofier part with one of the entertainers holding a balloon under her dress and singing a song. She approaches our table staring at me, I know how this ends. As she reaches the table, she realizes the Canadian is in the way and begins pointing at her stomach and then him and repeating “Papa”. He gets dragged on stage where she pops the balloon and holds a sock monkey. She dances with him and requests a kiss on the cheek. As he goes to fulfill the request, she turns so her lips are in line with his, classic joke. A few more songs and we consider leaving.

One of the ladyboys walks out to an Ariana Grande song. We looked over, spot on looks like Ariana. Same mannerisms, same jaw movements while singing. Next song is Nikki Minaj, same thing. Spot on look and mannerisms. The next song I didn’t know, so I assume it was a similar thing and the song included Ariana Grande and Nikki Minaj, so all three were on stage at once. The show came to an end after over two hours, experience checked off the list.

Finding a Grand Piano in the Hotel Lobby

When I was employed, a man much more versed in life experience was generous enough to impart some wisdom on me. One of the things we often referenced was learning things that don’t have immediate value so you have the skills when they are valuable later. Anyone who knows me knows that this is one of my favorite ways to spend my time. Presumably in jest, he suggested I learn find a native Thai person to teach me Thai massage to score some brownie points with a future spouse. Always one to take a joke too far, I began looking through the Thai massage schools in Chiang Mai. In a comedic bonus, as I was about to book thirty hours of Thai massage courses in a classroom, I was suggested a Thai Massage school that was one woman who only did up to two students at a time, as I was originally proposed to learn. Promising to be a more intensive course with much more individual focus, much more my learning style, we jumped at the chance.

We met Miss Wanna on the street outside of where she would be teaching us. We wash our feet, a standard pre-Thai massage practice and are led to three mattress pads with pillows and notebooks on top. The notebooks contain pictures and blank spaces. Miss Wanna went through each step, showing us hold it is done and how it should feel while we jotted down notes next to the pictures.

We somehow refrained from injuring each other during class

After we finished a section, we would practice on each other while Miss Wanna gave tips or corrected mistakes. The first day we covered the feet, legs, hands and arms. The second covered the backs of legs, the upper and lower back and the head. Eight hours in total and we know how to do an hour long Thai massage. You’re welcome, future wife.

Living a Normal Life Out of a Backpack

After the ladyboy show, we said goodbye to Janey. She had dealt with us long enough and had to head back to the States. Most of our days have been laid back, counter to my usual style of travel. With the length of travel, we have to space things out and try to live our lives. We switched to a more lowkey hostel and spent a little less time attached at the hip. Back to regular workouts at the park and trying all the food spots. Figuring out the most effective way to handle necessities like getting laundry done and planning for further travel. We checked out a Thai movie theater (I had to see Spidey in theaters) and even found sand volleyball, so life as usual for me. With Janey gone, our speed of travel will increase as we don’t have to be anywhere for a planned flight. Next, we will move on to Chiang Rai and make our way to Laos to take the two day slow boat to Luang Prabang before our motorcycle lessons.

Asia, Traveling

There is No Pie in Pai : January 4th-January 10th

January 9, 2019 SamuelLMoney Leave a comment

762. My new least favorite number. This is the number of curves on the road between Chiang Mai and Pai. Having a normally strong stomach, I didn’t think anything of the motion sickness warnings. Then being put all the way in the back of the van, where the AC couldn’t reach me, I realized my arrogance. All movie watching and music listening had to be stopped. All of my mental strength needed to be used to keep my head and stomach from exploding. Luckily, at the halfway point, Ryan and I switched seats. He went in the back to get sick and I got his shotgun spot. The downside being that I got to watch how recklessly the van driver flew around these curves, filled with other vans and defenseless scooters, void of guard rails. I guess I would choose that fate over the sickness though. Three hours later, we were temporary residents of the little, hippy, mountain town of Pai.

We made it to our hostel, Common Grounds. Immediately welcomed with hellos, we stepped into an open area. Pool table, bar, floor cushions, hammocks, and of course, hostel dogs. We ask if there is any pie in Pai and we’re show a hand tattoo of pie, but told otherwise there is no pie (this isn’t a lie, we checked everywhere). We were led to our room, nice AC and big beds, score. With the promise of a fire show, we head out with the group for a bar crawl. Two of the dogs led the way and we were told they always lead the bar crawl, assured to get their share of street snacks and head scratches. We make it to a bar street and realize there is no necessity to speak Thai here. Almost everything in English, the only Thai people being the actual shop and restaurant workers. We have a few drinks and chat with the others. We are ready for a fire show. When we ask when it is, we find out everyone decided to abandon it and didn’t tell us. The next one is Sunday…the day after we leave.

The second day was the day we decided to learn to scoot. Scooters are everywhere in Thailand and especially in Pai. Everyone also drives like they have a deathwish and a deadline, so our desire to ride was low. Scooting is pretty practical in Pai and once outside of the main town, it is open roads. We grab three scooters and after about thirty minutes of anxiety ridden swerving around, we all have it down. We take the scooters to the Big Buddha on the hill. A good number of stairs and we are treated to a giant Buddha you can see from everywhere in Pai and a beautiful view of the rest of Pai.

Next, we took the scooters to Pai Canyon. We hiked around from a few hours and scrambled up the harder paths. After a while, we found a nicer area, less populated with tourists and relaxed for the sunset.

Ryan walking a narrow path in Pai Canyon

We used the next day to relax and make some plans for the following day. We found out that the storm Pubak was supposed to come from the south and hit Chiang Mai and Pai. Not wanting to take that bus trip back and agreeing that we would rather sit around Pai than Chiang Mai if trapped in the rain, we booked two more nights. This also meant we could hit a fire show.

The following day, we took another swing at scooters. Quick stop at the ATM and realize my ATM card is gone. Awesome. Call Charles Schwab, realize I don’t know how addresses work in Thailand and scramble to figure out where we are staying next so I can send my card. Handled, scooter time.

First, we hit The Land Split. This is a farm that falls along some fault lines. Back in 2008, the farm was split at the line, destroying the farm and again in 2011. The farmer now uses it as an attraction and does a small amount of farming. He provides roselle juice (hibiscus), potatoes, banana chips, peanuts and papaya for free and just asks for donations. Luckily, this is right up Ryan’s alley, so he got a good amount of money from us. Delicious snacks down, we strolled around and saw the land split. Promising to stop by on the way back, we head off.

Next, we head off to Pombak waterfalls. Some more climbing and we are there. Icy water and all. Not much else to see. Grab a quick pic and off to the Bamboo Bridge. The bridge is located on a rice farm and there is over a mile of bridge. They add in some touristy picture spots when the rice isn’t growing, but we still thought it was nice. Nearing the end of the bridge, there is a large field filled with cows. At the end, there is a beautiful temple. Hunger strikes, time to head off. We head home and realize it is Sunday, fire show time.

Ryan and Janey walking along the Bamboo Bridge

The fire shows take place at the Pai Paradise bar which is connected to the Pai Backpackers Paradise Hostel. As you enter, it looks a bit like a dystopian rave. Crazy bright paints lit by blacklights surround the bar, with pool tables and pong tables. A big open area stands between the bar and the stage area with seating. The bar here offers its more adventurous patrons “Happy” shakes, filled with psilocybin. The open area is where the fire show took place. A hooded figure sprinted around the area, pouring something on the ground. A match is dropped and the area becomes a fiery peace symbol. Five or six people step into the now fireless area and begin spinning fire poi. After these people finish up, another five or six people step in with other fire toys. After these, a girl stands alone with a staff with three flames on each side and begins performing. Back to five or six people and then back to a solo girl using a fire hula hoop to the song “I Miss You” by Blink 182. The big group comes back. “Dang!” comes on, rest in peace, more fire. The original hooded figure does a solo routine using every type of fire toy we have seen so far. The whole group steps out and bows. We assume the show is over, but people continue to do fire tricks for another hour or so.

At the staging area, a couple begins a beat box show. The man is creating noises similar to an EDM show, with the bass to match, and the girl’s high pitched singing matched it perfectly. This continued for about an hour, as the songs got faster and more complex. A hearfelt goodbye and a request to spread love and they were gone. A long walk home and it was time to end this long day.

Another day of hanging out in Pai assuming there would be rain and there wasn’t. We booked two extra days to dodge rain that never came. We decided we were beat and decided to check out “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”. Ryan and I, both having years of being video game completionists, saw all of the endings in about two hours. Final day in Pai over.

On our very last day, it was finally raining. Funny joke, sky. We now get to do this curvy ride back to Chiang Mai in the rain. We trade hugs and instagram handles with hostel friends, pet the dogs goodbye and we’re off. Back to Chiang Mai

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Cooking and Temples: December 28-January 3

January 3, 2019 SamuelLMoney Leave a comment

Here we go, week one. I’ve already explained how we got there so we’ll hop right into what we’ve been doing. We started in Chiang Mai, which is beautiful. A little more touristy than what we expected, but still cool enough. The weather was in the 80s most of the week (in start contrast to Cleveland, which was in the 30s and 40s when we left). Some of the things we did in the Chiang Mai seem to be staples of Thailand, and Southeast Asia as a whole. With the prevalence of Buddhism throughout, temples are everywhere. The terrain lends itself to beautiful views and waterfalls, so there are lots of those as well. Anyon e who knows me knows how much I love food, so we had to start there.

Had to release some lanterns for the New Year!

Cooking Up Some Fun

We did a little research (Read as: grabbed a fistful of brochures and picked the one with the best pictures/competitive price) and chose one of the many cooking classes offered. We chose Pra Nang Cookery. This class consisted of 6 courses and you were given choices for each course. You learned all of the different options, but only physically made your choices. We were picked up from our hostel at 8am the next day and got away from the heavy city area of Chiang Mai and were taken to a market. The class was led by a Thai woman named Poi who took us through all of the ingredients we would be using, giving us good descriptions of what they are used for and what they might be called/where to get them in our home countries. After that, we roamed around the market while she gathered all of the ingredients and then we head off to a beautiful little building to do our cooking.

The first floor of the building had a row of burners for cooking and a table of cutting boards, mortars and pestles for ingredient work. The second floor was full of places to sit around tables. We started by separating out for each course choice made, so people could make their dishes together. First up was the curry paste, I had chosen the chicken with red curry because Ryan had convinced me red curry is the best one, even though he chose green. We started by crushing all of the ingredients into a curry paste and then set it aside for later. Next, we cut up all of the ingredients for our soup and main entrees. I had chosen Pad See Ew and Coconut Milk Chicken soup. Throughout the course, Poi was very good about making sure to adjust the recipes for Ryan being a vegetarian. We learned that pretty much every Thai dish is made with fish sauce and oyster sauce, so the request to ue soy and mushroom sauce instead will likely be made the whole time we are in Thailand. A little work at the burners and we sat down to eat. Already filled to the brim, we headed back down to make the curry dish and some spring rolls.

Our coconut milk soups, my Pad See Ew and Ryan’s Pad Thai

Some more prep work and time at the burners and then it was time to make dessert. Adding butterfly pea flowers to the cooking coconut milk gives the milk a light blue color. Thai cuisine doesn’t use food coloring, so all of their colors are made from adding in colored ingredients. Sticky rice is just a different type of rice that is prepped for 8 hours the night before, so we didn’t make that, but we added it to our now blue coconut rice. For the final dish, the people at the cookery cut the mango for us and we had mango with sticky rice, a common Thai dessert dish. Back upstairs to punish our stomachs with all of this delicious food and we were done. We were given a cookbook and driven back to our hostel.

Temples

Most of Asia contains temples for various religions. Chiang Mai is filled to the brim with temples. Some of them cater more to tourists than others. Having a decent interest in Buddhism and Hinduism, it was cool to see all of the ornate statues of different gods and learning about the relation of Thai gods to the different Buddhist/Hindu deities. One of the days Ryan wanted to take some time to do some computer work, so I took it as a time to roam the city and check out all of the temples.

The map I had picked up at the hostel had the more notable temples around town marked, so I just roamed and checked them out. In Buddhist culture, you are to dress respectfully when you will be within sight of a Buddha, so shoulders and knees covered for me, luckily it was a cooler day. A lot of the temples follow very similar designs and set ups. Statues of Thotsakan guard most of the entrances to the temples. He is the demon king and is almost the exact same character and story as Ravana from the Hindu pantheon. Ganesha, remover of obstacles and my favorite deity, adorns all of the temples we visited, usually painted in different colors. Each of the temples requires you to remove your shoes before entering the actual temple area and for the smaller temples, before entering the praying shrines.

The prayer involves dropping to your knees, usually with feet straight behind you. A meditation is usually done in front of the Buddha statue followed by leaving a candle or ringing a bell three times. The more you learn about different religions, the more you see how similar they are. Buddhism is much less of a worship culture than the Christianity we are used to in the States, but there are many similarities. We watched various monks, Thai locals and tourists partake in the prayers and did some ourselves.

We went to arguably the most notable temple in the Chiang Mai area, Doi Suthep. This temple is up in the mountains and is more grandiose than most of the temples. A little over 300 steps from where we are dropped off and we are at the temple, overlooking all of the surrounding Chiang Mai area. The statues here are bigger and more intricately painted than the others we have seen, but are all similar characters. The center of the temple is a large structure covered in gold, which shines as the sun rises. Doi Suthep is a big tourist attraction so it was filled to the brim with people. This felt like a bit of an exploit of the culture, but I’m sure it helps fund a lot. On our way down from the mountain, our driver brought us to a much smaller temple hidden in the trees. It was much more serene and we liked it much better. The statues were of many different animals and a small waterfall ran through the center. To each their own, but this was closer to my idea of a Buddshit temple.

Climbing Walls like Spidey

One of our day trips led us to haggle with a red cab driver to take us over an hour to Bua Tong falls. These waterfalls are covered in a special mineral that give them a grip similar to that of rock climbing holds. At first, our brains had a little trouble handling the concept of being able to walk up and down rocks covered in rushing water, but after a few minutes, we were running up and down them. This one of the few things not sold to us in the many tourist shops, but it was easily my favorite thing to do. Bonus, it was free as it is a national park.

The Day to Day

Most of our days have been spent roaming around the city and eating food. Thailand has a myriad of markets and I could wrote a whole post about that. We hit two different night markets in our first few days and have hit a few since. We tend to get a slightly higher price for being farangs (non locals) but you can haggle for anything. Even getting slightly ripped off is significantly cheaper than what things would cost in the states. Plenty of Thai food and trying out the Thai attempts at dishs of other cultures. Our hostel had a pool and bar a few doors down, so a lot of our down time was spent lounging around there. The pool had a volleyball, so we spent some time tossing that around as well. We hit up some waterfalls and different places to swim as well. At the end of the week, we were ready to get away from the busy city and headed up into a little hippy mountain town named Pai.

Asia, Transportation, Traveling

One Ticket to the Other Side of the World

December 29, 2018 SamuelLMoney Leave a comment

It seems like if I got all of you to read me ramble about this trip, I should at least have a post about the trip to get here. I believe in being transparent about the negative aspects of good things, but they are usually necessities. So here’s the trip: Cleveland to Dallas to Seoul to Chiang Mai. Thirty hours of my life sitting in a seat in the sky.

I left the day after Christmas, which means Christmas Eve and Christmas were spent doing the final cleaning out of my apartment and trying to see everyone humanly possible. Anyone who knows me knows I am an extremely gifted procrastinator, so I finished cleaning out my apartment and handed in my keys at 9p.m. on Christmas. My flight left Cleveland at 6:30a.m. on December 26th. I left my car at my Dad’s house and they didn’t print my Seoul or Chiang Mai tickets and said I had to get them from the airport, so I wanted to go early to ensure that I got them with no issues. This meant that I had to go to the airport around 4:30a.m., so my Dad and I stayed up until I had to go to the airport. Around 2a.m., I decided I needed at least an hour of sleep. So I told my Dad I would be up in an hour and crawled into bed. His dog, Jinx, was nice enough to come cuddle with me (Sorry Dad, I know he isn’t allowed on the bed) and I fell asleep pretty quick. I got to the airport and found out they meant I had to get them from the airport I was headed to Seoul from, so no luck until Dallas. Two hours of sitting around with Ryan later, and we both headed off. He went to JFK and I headed to Dallas.

An uneventful three hour flight with only one hour of sleep later and I was in Dallas. As soon as I arrived, I headed to my gate and told the KoreanAir desk clerk that I needed my further tickets. She said I would need proof of onward travel to get my tickets, so I called Ryan to make sure we did the same thing. He had his laptop so I had him look up cheap flights. There were plenty of tickets with 24 hour total refunds but if I needed to show proof when I landed, it would be outside of that 24 hour window. Those were a bit more expensive if we didn’t get to refund them, so we decided on the cheapest we could find. I bought the $48 ticket Ryan found me and got my next two tickets. In standard Ryan fashion, he called me ten minutes later to let me know that he had found tickets for 26 dollars and gotten them for himself. I walked around for about an hour and then sat around for the last hour before my life, making sure everything I owned was charged and my limbs had a good stretch. Dallas to Seoul, 14 hour flight, the longest of my life so far.

The inflight animation of the fourteen hour Dallas to Seoul flight.

The flight itself was daunting and a weird experience in and of itself. Each row was split into three sets of three seats. I got the middle seat in the middle set, standard luck. I slept for the first hour, watched a movie, wrote some letters, watched another movie, regretted not putting games on my phone and then got some more sleep. The screen in front of me had a counter as to how much longer of a flight we had, a cruel joke disguised as a helpful feature. After all of these things, I was certain that I was at least halfway through my flight. No dice, 8 hours remaining. Everyone knows I am a huge movie junkie, 14 hours of movies is nothing for me, but trapped in a single seat is a different story. Luckily, they just kept feeding me, so hunger wasn’t an issue. I made sure to keep adequately hydrated, but they were really pushing the beer and wine. As fun as being drunk sounded, being hungover while trapped in a single seat sounds like a special kind of hell. Another movie down, I was running out of the interesting ones provided on the plane. 4 hours left, and I was starting to wonder if they would just let me jump out and swim the rest of the way. Thanks to the beauty of Netflix, I had downloaded some crime thriller series and began watching the episodes. Four episodes later and I was down to an hour and each episode was 45 minutes. One more episode and I am home free. Finished the episode and find out that timer is to when the plane will start it’s descent. Plane finally lands with an hour until my next flight. Unfortunately, we don’t get off the plane until forty minutes until my next flight. Added bonus, the Seoul Korea airport is gigantic and I am about a fifteen minute walk from the customs area. I make it through security, ten minutes until flight. I get a little excited to grab some food that isn’t from a plane and maybe lay on the ground or something. Mistake, the gate is about a ten minute walk. Ryan is messaging to ask if I got lost.

I hop on the plane and grab my aisle seat next to Ryan. Feels like four hours, but it’s been twenty two hours since we parted ways in Cleveland. We trade stories of our flights and Ryan tells me how cool the Seoul airport was, even sadder now. This is only a six hour flight and then we will be landing at 10:30p.m. Chiang Mai time. We decided we should refrain from sleeping so that we can dodge jetlag. I take a quick count, I slept for one hour after doing things nonstop all day on Christmas and got a total of three hours of sleep on my other two flights. The odds are low, but my body has done better for worse reasons. We play some games, we chat, we eat. I attempt to watch the final episode of my show and I can feel my brain refusing any sort of comprehension. Ryan grabs the provided blanket and rolls over to sleep. I agree that I could be more comfortable and wake up two hours later. Thirty minutes and we are in Chiang Mai, perfect. We land and remember we don’t read or speak Thai.

The inflight animation of the six hour final flight.

Airports are usually pretty self explanatory no matter what country you are in. Lines in airports are usually not as self explanatory. We get to an area filled with people with a bunch of signs that all vaguely seem to say the same thing. We need our arrival visa, we find the “Visa on Arrival” line. Before we hop in, I see United States is not listed. I do a quick Google (Thanks Sprint for the 2G everywhere) and find out that Americans have a visa exemption for arrival. We hop in to the longest line that seems to be about half Americans. We wait around for about thirty minutes hoping we are in the correct line and luckily, we are. We get to the front, I had in my arrival form and the clerk tells me I have to get back into line. Doesn’t sound like my plan for the day, so I quickly jot down the address to our hostel and we get our visas. Nothing to declare so we are on our way out the door. We exchange some cash for surprisingly close to the market exchange rate and dodge the taxis offering rides. We make it outside and realize there are none outside harassing people for rides, not something I have seen in other countries. We end up flagging one down and showing him the address. He quotes us two hundred baht, about seven dollars, pretty much American pricing, but at this point, we are about to pass out in the street so we agree that splitting seven dollars won’t kill us. Hop in the taxi and get to experience some authentic Thai driving and we make it to the hostel.
We settle our room debt (Seventy dollars total for two of us for seven days, score) and head to our room. It’s now about midnight Chiang Mai time. We open the door and the couple in our room are listening to something at full volume. Both take some long needed showers and get some much needed sleep. Thirty hours total and it only feels like six. I respond to all the texts and snaps I missed and realize that it’s about noon back at home. Time travel at its finest.

Uncategorized

How the Whole Asia Thing Started

December 9, 2018 SamuelLMoney Leave a comment

I’ve been asked a number of times “Why Asia?”, “Why quit your job?”, “How did you do it?”, amongst other variations of the same line of questioning. So here it is.

I had made the decision to leave Rockwell Automation and Cleveland, Ohio in January of 2018, when I had reached three years of employment with Rockwell. The plan was to check out some cities in the summer time and decide where to go and apply for a new job in October and be moving by the end of January. I checked out a bunch of cities and had decided on Austin, Texas. The day I had decided to start applying to jobs in Austin, I ran into an old coworker who offered me a position on a new team that ran an agile environment. As if someone in the company had heard I was planning on leaving, a manager I had worked with in the past offered me a DevOps position.

I went to check out the Agile team and after meeting the team and hearing what they were working on, I was sold. It was a utility role writing code, tests and working on DevOps. A whole product being rolled out by three members. I met the team on a Tuesday and was accepting the position by Friday.

The team ended up being the dream job. Great coworkers, plenty of cool opportunities and a never ending list of different challenges to work on. The downside was it required me to stay in Cleveland and traveling was restricted to a few times a year. This brought back up the leaving Cleveland idea.

I started looking at Austin again but it seemed like I had skipped over Austin last time and maybe something bigger was in order. This is when I began to look at other countries. I have made plenty of friends in Australia and loved my time in Germany. Next, I started looking at Software Engineer positions in those places, but nothing was really peaking my interest job wise. Then it occurred to me that I had my ideal job in the Software industry, but maybe there was something else I want to do more.

I started by looking into other fields I am interested in: fitness or game development. Again, it just felt like I was finding another thing to drag myself to. So I began to look at master’s degrees. I had looked at business master’s because it is something I was unlikely to learn on my own time. A mentor had suggested a one year business master’s in another country so that I could learn another language as well as attain the master’s. He had also suggested aiming for the ones in the top twenty. I had decided to try for INSEAD, IE or Bocconi. After some dedicated research and starting to study for my GMAT, I realized that this was a heavy investment for yet another thing I might not end up liking. So what did I really want to do that I could afford to live doing and appeased interests I already knew I had?

Thailand and Vietnam have always been at the top of my travel list, but the flight time has always been the stopping factor with me doing short trips while having a full time job. I’ve always been interested in Buddhism and martial arts. Asian culture has always fallen in line with my interests. I knew that area of the world was much less expensive than America and had plenty of experience planning budget trips in other parts of the world.

The original plan was to spend a month in Southeast Asia and then decide what I wanted to do with my life. After looking at flights and hostel prices, I realized I could stay there for quite a while until I really figured out what I wanted to do. I realized that my lease and other obligations all came to an end in December and I could walk away with little fuss.

First, I had to tell my family. Most of my family lives in Cleveland and has lived there most of their life, so me leaving a good job to walk around Asia with a backpack probably seemed like I had lost it. Outside of the worries that something bad was going to happen or I would never find a good job again, I think they all sort of expected something like this at some point. Next was the job.

Being the neurotic planner I am, selecting a date to tell my team that I was leaving was a big deal to me. Part of me wanted to tell them that day, three months in advance. I had decided on two months in advance but some friends had suggested that although that was a good friendly move for the team members I am close with, the company had no reason to keep me for two months on a three person team. I decided on a specific date about a month before I was planning to leave.

To my surprise, the engineering lead of the team announced that he was leaving about nine weeks before I planned to leave. The team had decided that he would knowledge transfer most of his responsibilities to me. I immediately planned a meeting with my manager to inform him I was also leaving. After this meeting, I told my product owner and had a meeting planned for the following Monday to tell the rest of the team. Monday morning I got in early and had fully prepared what I was going to say. About fifteen minutes before the meeting, I got a message that it needed to be rescheduled to the next day. The following day, I sort of just blurted out to the team that I was leaving and taking a backpack to Asia. Most of my teammates have lived elsewhere so were very supportive of the move.

So that’s that. The telling people part is over and now I just need to get rid of all my stuff. There’s one answer to one of the questions I tend to get frequently regarding this trip.