Month: January 2005

Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

My first big mountain biking experience

Joel

My big mountain biking experience seemed to go pretty well. I’ve done a lot of road biking, but mountain biking seemed to be a whole different experience.

I had a variety of routes to choose from, and the easiest would have been to be dropped on on top of a 5200 foot mountain (where all the routes started) so I could just glide to the bottom. Instead, I took a route that included some rollercoaster climbs uphill as well. The problem is, riding uphill on a mountain bike is much tougher than riding up hill on a paved road. First, we had to dress up like gladiators to ensure our safety. The bikes themselves contained massive shock absorbers. The paths we took were very rough with large rocks and deep ruts, and although the bikes were design to handle these huge obstacles, they were prone to wheelie when riding over any sizable debris uphill. I’m sure if I have the experience I could have handled it better. That being said, I survived just fine.

We rode the bikes about 3000+ feet down very steep hills in beautiful terrain through farms and coffee plantations. One of which we stopped by for some fresh home grown coffee.

The tour company was actually run by a couple of expat Americans, who seemed to be on to a good thing with lots of solid business.

Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

Up on the elephants back…

Joel

Well, it turned out to be ten people instead of six — but we all had a great time on our trek. In all, we hiked about 35kms over three days up and down beautiful mountains running along the Myanmar (Burma) border. We camped in isolated huts on top of some of the mountains with no power or plumbing and saw nobody but hill tribe people the entire time. We never saw or even heard a car or any roads until the end of our third day. Although it was technically a jungle, it was quite dry this time of year. It was nothing like the jungles I hiked through when I was in Fiji or Hawaii (which required a machete).

The elephant ride we took for part of the journey on our second day was very interesting, historically speaking. Thailand has a long tradition of using elephants for hauling heavy goods around and for fighting in wars (where they have been used to ram down the doors of forts, among other things). Although the ride was a bit rough in the seats provided on the elephants back, the ride was much more comfortable when you sat on the elephants neck. Occasionally they would stop at streams to fill up their trunks and shower themselves down in the heat. Of course, this is a whole different experience when you are sitting on top of them.

The traditional Thai food was fabulous throughout the trip and the local guide and the people who came along, from Germany, Canada, and the U.K., were enthusiastic and fun to spend time with. The Canadians (from the Yukon) brought along a pet squirrel they picked up in a local market which proved to be fascinating to the village kids.

For the last leg of our journey, where we cruised down a river on bamboo rafts, we had a lot of fun trying to sabotage each other’s boats — causing most of the rafts to fall apart on the way down stream. As it turned out, they dismantle them to ship them back upstream where they rebuild them, anyway, so we didn’t have to feel guilty on the ride back home to Chiang Mai.

I decided to extend my stay here a few days so I can go on a mountain biking trip over more mountains tomorrow.

Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

Meanwhile, back in the jungle…

Joel

I’ve been hanging out in the northern city of Chiang Mai over the past few days. It’s the second largest city in Thailand, but it’s still got a very small town feel to it. Chiang Mai seems most noted for its large number of Buddhist temples and Buddhist monks running around. It’s also considered a good base for exploring the northern reaches of Thailand, near the Myanmar (Burma) and Laos borders.

Tomorrow I’m setting off on a three day jungle adventure with a half dozen other people from my guesthouse. It will include a bit of hiking, a bit of swimming, some bamboo rafting, and, of course, elephant riding (as one does in Thailand). We’ll be sleeping in traditional huts in hill tribe villages (with those people with the elongated necks from wearing too many necklaces) up in the mountains.

Bangkok, Thailand

A Culinary Paradise

Joel

I’ve been spending a few days wandering the back streets and neighborhoods of Bangkok. There are lots of Buddhist temples and some monks about. They also have a Chinatown and Little India, like many southeastern Asian cities. The people are very nice and hardly anybody hassles you about anything.

One of the nicest features of this place is the fabulous food. There seem to be endless places to eat with all kinds of food from around the world, but mostly Thai (of course). I love Thai food and have been having a wonderful time sampling many of the streetside stalls. As per the advice I’ve received, I make sure the food is kept cold and then cooked up fresh in front of my eyes. They seem to know exactly what ingredients to add to make everything taste special. The streetside cooks usually don’t know too much English, so you just have to point at what you want. I usually point at just about everything and shrug my shoulders. They’ll through in all kinds of exotic spices and fresh herbs and come up with something great. Even when I ordered popcorn from a streetside vendor it was flavored with a sweet coconut milk concoction. You can often get very cheap fabulously tasting meals for around A$1 (US$0.75). And to think most Thais don’t seem to have an ounce of fat on them! I guess it just must be healthy eating.

I found a great guesthouse on a back street in a nice quiet area in the center of town, but next to some of the big shopping areas. Bangkok seems a bit more modern than I expected. Probably a mix of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, the public transportation system is a bit of a mess. They have a nice skytrain (monorail) that doesn’t seem to go enough places, a brand new subway that has just been shut down due to an accident, boats that cruise up and down the main river, and lots of heavy traffic everywhere else.

I’ve booked a trip on the overnight train to Chiang Mai tomorrow night to see some of the sights in the northern part of the country. From there I will probably slowly work my way back down to Bangkok, and possibly into southern Thailand (if the post tsunami problems improve) or east into Cambodia and/or Vietnam. I will have to see. I’ll be here for close to four weeks.

China, Hong Kong

A billion here, a billion there

Joel

From one future world power to the next, I find myself chillin’ out in Hong Kong for a few days. What a relief it is to be here! What a contrast Hong Kong is to Delhi and Cairo.

It’s nice to go from watching where to step constantly (continually avoiding hocked phlem and pools of urine on the pavement) to surfing the spotless state-of-the-art subways and treking the spectacularly steep hills of relatively clean Hong Kong. This is certainly one of the world’s great cities.

Hong Kong probably has the nicest airport I’ve ever come across. It’s huge, and we landed at one of its most distant gates, but I was able to get from the plane into my hostel room (over 25km away) in less than an hour. I don’t think I waited more than two minutes for anything, hopping on moving sidewalks, airport shuttles, escalators, getting my temperature taken to make sure I didn’t have SARS, on through customs, through the baggage claim, onto a high speed train (that is so fast and smooth it feels like it’s levitating) into the city, onto a free hotel shuttle bus, and a then quick 1/2 block jaunt down to my cheap accommodation. The temperature taking, incidentally, consists of walking briskly past a heat sensitive camera with everone else. On large flat panel screens you see an alien view of everyone, color coded to reflect each body temperature. If someone had a fever, I suppose they would appear a different color and get yanked by security to the side. To get back to the airport, you actually check in with your bags in the city at a sleek train station and they take care of the rest. It is probably the most distant check-in from your plane you’ll ever find.

Hong Kong is very high tech in many ways. The whole city is wired for broadband. There is free Internet access in many subway stations and at the airport. I’m writing this blog at the central library, which has 500 such free terminals available on its many different floors. There are also mysterious containers whizzing over my head on the ceiling and into walls at either end of the building. I can only assume they’re full of books being sorted.

The public transportation system here is fabulous with probably the best subway system I’ve ever been on. There are illuminated maps on the walls of each rail car with flashing lights that show you exactly what station you’re at, which direction you’re going, which door you’ll need to exit from, and what connections you can make from the next station. In each of the underground stations there are very clear maps showing all the subway exits and where they surface so you can plot the best one for where your headed. They’re all assigned letters and have signs everywhere pointing the way.

Much of Hong Kong runs on smart cards these days. These are credit card sized cards that contain a computer chip you can store information on. You can use them here to purchase all kinds of things, from subway trips to bus trips to parking meters to restaurants to stores, etc. You just juice them up with cash at an automated terminal from time to time. The best thing about them is that you don’t even need to remove them from your wallet to use them. You just wave your wallet within close proximity of a smart card reader and it automatically registers where you’re coming from or going to or deducts whatever payment you’re trying to make. You never have to wory about fumbling for change.

Hong Kong is also very safe, and you can wander pretty much wherever you want, day or night. The neighborhood I’m in seems to be busy with shoppers every day up until midnight. Nobody seems to notice a Westerner like myself wandering around. This is especially nice after visiting India and Egypt, where touts were continually trying to herd you into their stores (honestly or deceitfully), never taking “no” for an answer.

Probably the worst thing about Hong Kong is the cost of living here. I’ve been here on business a few times before, and most of the people I met had to commute an hour to find reasonably priced real estate. And that’s before and after working 12 hour days and on Saturday mornings (which seem to be the standard office hours here). The cost of food and accommodation is quite pricey too — which is part of the reason I’m only stopping here for a few days.

Agra, Delhi, India

Where’s the Beef?

Joel

Just thought you might be interested in knowing (or being reminded) that you can’t buy beef in this country, seeing as the cows are sacredly roaming the highways. Even McDonalds has a mostly vegetarian menu (with a bit of fish and chicken thrown in for the visitors). Western restaurants post big signs on their walls stating they sell no beef products, supposably to quell any concerns from the locals.

I have been trying to eat mostly local cuisine, but I can’t say that I had really great Indian food. The best Indian meals I’ve had, oddly enough, have been on the flight coming in (Gulf Air) and the flight going out (Cathay Pacific). Maybe my lack of luck in Delhi restaurants has something to do with my eating budget!

I have been trying to be very careful about food poisoning — seeing as I’ve gotten very sick on a few occasions over the past year. So far, no problems in Eqypt or India. My water purifer is working a charm! Doesn’t sound like my neighbors can claim the same. I heard some horrible wretching through a wall in my guesthouse a few days ago.

Tomorrow I head for Hong Kong, where I will be doing a bit of cheap shopping until flying to Thailand on Friday.

Delhi, India

The Hassle of the Hustle

Joel

Cairo may have been Hustle City, but Delhi must be the Hustle Capital of the world. I sort of knew this would be the case, judging from my experience with Indian merchants in other parts of the world. About the only people who will hustle you in Singapore, for example, are Indian tailors. They always start out casually chatting with you as you walk down the street. They like to act like they’re just sociable people who are interested in visitors. You learn to never answer questions like “is this your first visit?” in the affirmative because you quickly realize that it will only encourage them. The next thing you’ll know, they’ll be taking advantage of your naiveness while they herd you into their cousin’s shop.

So sure enough, in the lions den of hustle (so to speak), I found Delhi to have the most persistent hustlers I’ve ever come across. Now I had long heard that India was notorious for its hassles in getting from place to place and dealing with the crowds, but I found the hassle nothing compared to the hustle. In fact, the biggest hassle was from hustlers trying to “save” you from the alleged hassle of travelling through India.

At times it would get so bad walking around Connaught Place that I would have to retreat to my room back in the guest house. Not only did people constantly try to steer me into some travel agent or “emporium” of Indian relics, they would do so in such a persistent manner that I couldn’t help but become extremely protective of myself. I would initially try to respond politely, but when that only seemed to encourage them, I would end up snapping. I later found myself snapping at people on the street the second they opened their mouths with lines like “You look like a movie star!”

This was interspersed with beggars walking along side me and pleading for my money as well. Even some of the begging appeared to be hustling. I spotted families of beggars walking down the street before they saw me and they seemed to be healthy, happy people. Their kids were smiling and running around playing with each other. As soon as I came into view of them, however, that would all immediately change and they would start their groaning and begging act. It was quite disturbing.

The saddest incident happened when a group of kids tried to persuade me to visit a travel agent. I kept telling them I wasn’t interested, but they kept persisting with their sales pitch. I finally whipped around, glared, and snapped “I don’t care!”, only to find a frightened and confused look in their eyes — as though they honestly felt they were trying to do me a favor. Poor kids. I actually felt sorry for them. It was as if someone told them that they were doing an honorable service by helping tourists find places to spend all the money they were just dying to get rid of. As though I had been out on the street yelling that I had all this money and desperately needed somewhere to spend it all.

After a typical bout with the hustling, I would find myself back to the seclusion of my room at the guest house to watch my multitude of Indian cable-tv channels and nurse my post-traumatic hustle stress disorder.

Delhi, India

The Poverty

Joel

There were headlines in the India Times yesterday about a CIA study that concluded it would be inevitable that China and India would become the world’s next superpowers over the next twenty years. I didn’t get a chance to read the article, but it seems hard to imagine with all the problems India is currently facing — namely its poverty.

It almost seems as though a huge percentage of the population here is living on the streets. I had to venture out at 6AM for a trip to Agra the other day and I must have walked passed well over 100 people sleeping on the streets in a three block jaunt I had to make to hook up with my tour company. And those were just the ones I noticed who weren’t sleeping in total darkness. There were a number of fires burning along the way to keep several of them warm.

Along the train lines and along the highways outside of Delhi are tent villages with scores of people living outside. At most intersections and in shopping areas you will come across beggars, staring in the windows of your taxi or reaching in for money. If you happen to be in an autorickshaw, which is a noisy tricycle-type motorcycle with a roof but no doors, they’ll just climb in with you. Some are disabled, many are small children who spend their time otherwise playing with each other in the gutter or median strip, waiting for the next traffic light to stop traffic they can approach. No one seems to hand over any money to these people. Lonely Planet advises giving a donation to a charity that will look after them instead. It’s all quite disconcerting.

On the other end of the scale are the very wealthy, living in individual compounds that initally looked like embassys to me — each with big gates, guards, and servants. There seem to be door men for every store you go in and security guards lurking around inside, presumably to keep the homeless out. My guesthouse locks down tight from about 11PM until 9AM and has a guard sleep nearby the front door on the couch. Occasionally you’ll hear banging on the front door in the middle of the night, which is a bit creepy.

Agra, India

Sharing Highways with the Other Billion

Joel

I headed off on a long all-day tour down to the city of Agra and back yesterday, primarily to see the Taj Mahal, but also to see some of the other historic sites around the area.

The whole experience of getting there and back is something I don’t think I will ever forget. The drive took about four hours each way, and was about as treacherous as anything I’ve ever experienced. It doesn’t seem as though India has any safety regulations on its roads. Even when we were traveling down a paid turnpike, the road was full of roaming cows (I was wondering where all these sacred cows were since I hadn’t seen any in Delhi), camels and horses pulling carts, bicycles, motorcycles, motorized tricycles, pedestrians, buses, and trucks. And never a police officer in sight.

People generally drive down the middle of the road here, straight over the white lines — presumably to avoid hitting pedestrians and other dark, shadowy, slow moving traffic. This means everyone who comes up behind must lean on their horns to get drivers to pull over. Many trucks even have big signs painted on their backs asking you to honk. All you hear the whole way is horns honking continuously. Everytime you hit a traffic jam, the road appears about as organized as a clogged bumper car ride — with vehicles pointed in just about every direction.

One of the more unsettling experiences came when our van got a flat tire in the middle of the trip. The driver merely pulled half way out of the lane onto the shoulder on an outer curve of the highway. We weren’t ever asked to get off the vehicle. Instead we just sat there while he repaired the flat. While we sat there, large overloaded trucks continually came barrelling around the curve up from behind us and quickly had to swerve out of our lane to get into the clear lane. It was unbelievable!

At night there were many vehicles on the road with no reflective material of any kind — including some oversized trucks that would be barred from most Western roads without a lead and follow-up vehicle and lots of flashing lights. The air at night was full of smoke, burning from fires lit by all the homeless people living in tents along the road trying to keep warm, or big onerous factories belching black fumes from their smokestacks. Our van would typically come barreling down the highway to stumble across giant dark mysterious shape that would turn out to be a slow moving cart or truck pulling a massively over-packed loads. There was no break in speeding traffic. The whole experience was quite scary, but I never actually saw any accidents.

Agra, India

The Taj Mahal

Joel

What can I say? It’s an amazing building. The second you lay eyes on it, you’re mesmerized. It just commands your attention. You have to hand it to the Muslims: they certainly seem to have a keen sense for design. The Taj Mahal was designed by an Iranian architect, based on Islamic themes you find in many mosques throughout the Muslim world. Everything about the Taj is purely symmetrical.

The Taj Mahal is also full of optical illusions that give it a real presence on the landscape. Things like vertical lines that diverge as they run up the building were made to look parallel while you view them from the ground. When you enter the courtyard (the place where you see the most famous view of the Taj Mahal with the fountains in front), you can start stepping backwards and it will actually appear to get bigger the further back you walk. The surrounding towers lean slightly outward to protect the main building from earthquakes. Some circular columns that run up the building appear to be angular columns when viewed from more than 10 feet away. It’s an amazing place.

The building itself is pure white marble with designs raised or cut out and filled in with black marble and semi-precious stones. You can shine flashlights through the marble and illuminate different colors behind the stones. It’s supposed to be amazing to see late in the day when it illuminates in a range of colors as the sun sets, but it was a bit too hazy and the sunlight too defused for me to see the effect when I was there.