night walking

i think the picture below pretty much sums up my experience in kuala lumpur. veni, vidi, vici. maybe, maybe not.

while traveling there is an activity i especially enjoy which i call night walking. it consists of, predictably, walking at night. but not only are you walking, you are walking quickly and absorbing all the input that is coming at you: the sights, the smells, the sounds. it works best in a big city, and by yourself, when you can just walk without direction or destination in mind. walk here, cross that street, look at that bum, smell that sewage, smell that dried fish, look at that strange grey snake like sausage thing, ask what that is, "fish" the old man says. ok, keep moving

acting like i'm climbing in a cave.

every so often when i forget i am traveling i like to go for a little night walk. ten minutes in kuala lumpur and i can get good and lost and flood my senses so it feels like the city is breathing into me, reminding me that i'm a foreigner, that i'm in a far off land that was created long ago and has existed for years and years without me, reminding me how big the world is and how insignificant i am in it.

chinatown, kuala lumpur

i guess that's the best way i can describe what traveling does for me: it puts me in my place, figuratively of course.

bird park, kuala lumpur

my first real travel experience was going to costa rica in college. i went for a month, took spanish classes and lived with a host family. my first big revelation came one day when i was at a bank, stannding in line waiting to exchange the big bills i had gotten from the atm into smaller ones, so i'd be able to buy things since nobody, and i mean nobody ever has change. so i was waiting in line, rehearsing the spanish in my head of what i had to say to the bank teller, looking at all the costa ricans going about their daily lives, and that feeling passed over me a like a wave. i felt tiny and insignificant and it felt great. i knew then i needed to travel more, to see more, do more.

i get that feeling from time to time,  mostly while i'm traveling. it's a pretty good feeling, yeah it feels pretty good.

georgetown

a giant rat scurrying across the gutter, a bicycle rickshaw driver blaring bollywood music, a guy on a motorcycle getting tagged by a car, a german woman wearing a tasmanian devil t-shirt--oh the sights of penang.

of all the things i could talk about, i think i'll focus on the german lady staying at the guesthouse, who wore a tasmanian devil shirt. 

she had tatoos covering most of her arms, and walked in the strong, brash manner one would expect of someone who wears a t-shirt which on the front displays the front view of the tasmanian devil donning the garb of a ninety's rapper, with baggy clothing and earings, arms across its torso, the way an old white guy would have done in order to be ironic in acting like a ninety's rapper. the back of the t-shirt had, predictably, the back of said tasmanian devil on it.

this tasmanian devil shirt clad, tatooed german woman would have remained just a passing comment of "that woman is awesome" had she not appeared while ang and i were eating chinese food on a stick in the streets of penang.

great street food--this cart, attached to a bicycle of course, contained two pots of boiling water and no less than twenty different food on stick options. the ends of the sticks were color coated by price. reds were 40 ringut cents, silvers were 80. there were also several bowls of delicious sauces to dip your stick foods in. a young man and an old woman worked diligently, slicing food and sticking it on sticks, changing the boiling water and counting sticks, taking cash and giving change.

at first unsure of the proper procedure or ettiquette for consuming these treats, we watched the locals. some of them didn't dip their treats--hardboiled eggs and squid, spring rolls and crab dumplings--while others dropped there sticked food completely in the rolling, bubbling pot, letting it dance around freely, without even monitoring it. some of them dipped their food completely into the bowls of sauces, others had plates. it was a sticked-food-boiling water-delcious sauce free for all. the perfect environment for a brash, tasmanian devil shirt clad german woman with tatooed arms.

her motto was to dip whatever you wanted to dip, in the sauce or in the boiling water. she didn't know what many of the unknown treats were that i sampled freely, only slightly worried of the possible sharp stabbing pains in the stomach they may create. but she was certain that one of them was tongue, and that was one she really enjoyed. left with only a styrofoam plate of sauce, hot red sauce mixed witt dark maroon sweet and some brownish peanut type  sauce, she licked the plate clean, savagely licking it the way a tasmanian devil would. "i love it" she said.

she then spun around furiously in a circle, and bounced off, leaving only spinning dust and empty styrofoam plates behind her.

malaysia

great stoplight in krabi

we made it into malaysia today, georgetown (penang) from krabi. we changed minibuses a few times, crossed a border, took a ferry--it all took about ten hours, but was relatively painless. the town seems pretty cool so far, very backpacker-ish, but that's not always a bad thing. 

traveling, though completely a joy, is not without its moments of stress. sometimes it takes a bit of research, a bit of planning, and sometimes there just aren't any easy answers of where to go next, or how to get there.  sometimes the prospect of a profuse bus ride is too much to fathom.  

in krabi town the other day, i was a bit stressed, i haven't yet fallen into that traveling groove that will most assuredly come; it will be a deep groove, one difficult to crawl out of. but sometimes the antidote lies simply in walking around in a foreign town, in a foreign country. 

in krabi we just bummed around the town, looked at some shops, looked at the people. we sat down and i ate bowl of thai noodles for 25 baht (less than a dollar). while eating these noodles, sitting on the plastic chair, the dull warm breeze barely cooling me, i watched the locals, just sitting and eating and drinking sodas. there was nothing profound about it, but it all made me content. figuring out what was next no longer mattered.

i paid in exact change, which made the lady happy, smiled and said "korp koon khrap" in my best thai. "thank you" was pretty much the only thing i learned to say in thai, and it will probably be the only thing i learn to say now that i'm in malaysia.

sister blog

angela is also keeping a blog, which i feel i should mention. she is good at talking about what we actually are doing on these trips, while i tend to over-elaborate on any number of minute details. anyhow, to avoid redundancy and to alleviate my own guilt about about not writing about the facts, check out http://whereintheworldisang.blogspot.com/ .

pet mark

thus far the food in thailand has been good. nothing mind blowingly delicious, but also nothing stomach blowingly awful. i have eaten a lot of rice with a bunch of things mixed together, and a lot of noodles with a bunch of things mixed together. a lot vegetables, a little bit of meat, sometimes a bit of spice. when i can't eat any more rice i go for a sandwich, which is always on the menu along with thai food. 

most of the time i have no idea what i'm eating. 

on the way to krabi from ranong the bus stopped for lunch at a cafeteria of sorts, where all number of local dishes are served. none of the signs were in english i walked around and looked for something appetizing. behind the glass at one stall were three different trays of food to go with rice. the first one was green curry, i'd already had it a few times. the middle one was kind of reddish brown, with some vegetables and what not in it.  the one on the far right was kind of orangish i think, and looked like the other one. i went for the one in the middle.

the nice lady gave me a scoop of rice and a nice little ladle of the reddish brown stuff. i paid her, said "korp koon khrap" and headed to sit down. before i left though, they handed me a plate of raw vegetables-cucumber, green beans, and cabbage. i didn't particularly want to eat them but they insisted so i took the small plate. 

i dove in, it tasted good. i took a sip of pepsi frome the returnable glass bottle. life was good. then it occured to my pallette that this dish of rice and reddish brown sauce with vegetables and little fishes, (yeah there were little fishes with skeletons in it) was incredibly spicy. i sipped more of the pepsi, but looking down at the dish and feeling the rapidity of which the heat was invading my soul, knew the soda wouldn't last out. i kept eating, and it seemed to get hotter. at first it was just on the tongue, but then it moved into my whole body. i was soon sweating profusely (profusely because there is no better way to describe sweating in large amounts) with my nose acting accordingly but with snot. in the dish's defense, it was about 90 degrees out which may have contributed to my james brown on stage sweatiness.

i don't know if it was the hottest dish i've ever had, but it was pretty spicy. i realized towards the end of the meal that the raw vegetables may have been meant to offset the spiciness. 

back on the bus i looked up spicy in thai, (pet) and very spicy (pet mark) and my insides burned for the next 4 hours of bus travel.

i had ang document my sweaty, spicy adventure.

non-americans

many people travel to thailand--it is quite the tourist destination. we have encountered travelers from around the world, though very few from the u.s. without talking to everyone it can be difficult to tell who is in fact from the states and who is not. below are some tell-tale signs that someone is not from the u.s.

1. they are speaking in german.

2. they are wearing a fannypak.

3. they are wearing a speedo.

4. they are wearing shorts that land just a bit too high above the knee.

5. they are eating a hamburger with a knife and fork.

i'll post more as i discover them.

koh chang

from bangkok we took a night bus to ranong, an overnight, ten hour affair on an air-conditioned bus. hardly an ordeal, but i did wake up a number of times during the night with an extraordinarily greasy face and forehead. luckily, two times throughout the trip a woman handed out moist towelettes, presumably for the greasiness. the following day i found my feet to be aching, and quite bulbous. they looked like inflated latex gloves. at first i thought i may have been bitten by something, but then realized they were probably the result of having had them dangle for ten hours on a greasy aired bus ride. they would continue to ache and be bulbous for the whole day, forcing me to sit with them elevated while i stared at the sea, occasionally suffering the twenty feet to go into the ocean to ease my pain with the tepid saltwater. only by my iron will did i survive.

we got to ranong at six in the morning before the day began to break. by the time we made it to the pier we still had a few hours to kill. i read the lonely planet, watched one male dog try hump another for a while, drank some instant coffee, watched three little puppies eat another dead puppy etc. 

after an hour and a half boat ride to the island, we arrived at our bungalow. the island is remote, and save for a number of  basic accommodations, has nothing on it save for the beach, and some rubber and cashew trees. electricity comes from generator power and all supplies, even ice are delivered from the mainland.  for the next four days i proceeded to sit around, swim in the ocean, eat, walk on the beach, and read. at first i was concerned i would get bored, but i found myself to be surprisingly adept at living a lazy, if not slovenly island existence.

bangkok 2

leaving bangkok tonight with unfinished business. going to do some islanding.

today we spent some time at perhaps the most profuse market i've ever seen. just stall after stall after stall of anything and everything you can imagine. so many people, so many smells-sewage and fried who knows what, so much heat. a few hours there and i was dead on my feet. ang and i shared a can of sprite, drinking it as fast as possible before it got warm; i was refreshed.

the other day we looked around at some of the indoor giant shopping centers. impressive to be sure, but really just big malls. we went to a park and saw a big lizard eat a fish.

still more to see here, but we'll return on the way back to fly out. we'll probably stay closer to the kao san road area next time, where everyone is skinny and wearing a backpack, where the boys all have scraggly beards and the girls have dreadlocks and tattoos. we had lunch here the other day and without long hair and a beard i felt i lacked credibility as a traveller. but maybe i'm not that kind of traveller any more. 

bangkok pics

bangkok

view from the hostel

"sir, yes, excuse me please" says the korean stewardess in a shrill, alarming tone. the phrase runs together and sounds like a singular potent blast from a foghorn.  i'm jarred awake, fearful something disastrous is happening. but nothing is. i'm just very tired and too out of it to be consoled by the fact i am embarking on a three month journey to southeast asia. the stewardess motions for me to return my seat to its full upright position. she twists her hands to help describe my meal choices, "we have chicken and rice" she says, pausing, interrogatively. but no more choices come. i eat the chicken and rice, my third airplane meal of the day. i'm going to bangkok, it takes twenty hours to get there.

we arrive, go through customs, find an atm and get some "baht," get in a cab, get to the hostel. my hair is greased and matted to my skull. my hair actually hurts, as if it is growing backwards into my scalp. i want to take a shower but i lay down and against my better judgement fall asleep. i had wanted to start the trip by punching jet lag in the face but it didn't happen. we wake up at four in the morning and wait for the sun to rise.

it only takes a few moments of looking off our balcony for a smile to come to my face. outside birds are chirping, it's hot and humid and in the distance are concrete tenements only half painted pink. i'm in a new land and it makes me happy.

we go and walk around bangkok. we buy a bottle of water from 7-11 for six baht. the streets are chaotic--cars and trucks, motorccyles and pedestrians. we hop and run across the streets to avoid getting smashed. the smells of a tropical, crammed, congested city are there: exhaust, garbage, sewage, fried  food, fish, gasoline, oil, metal. they all float in and out intermittently. sometimes merging, making new, more pungent aromas. 

we walked around, rode on the skytrain and the water taxi. we looked at some temples and a giant reclining buddah. the sun and heat kicked my ass and we walked around more. i haven't seen the entire city, but i'd have to estimate there are no less than 250 billion people living here with at least 50 percent of them selling food or clothing on the streets.

i enjoy eating street food. not only is it tasty and cheap, but it also gives you the thrill of potentially becoming violently ill. today i ate some "meat ball pork." which consisted of four meatball porks grilled on a skewer and drizzeled with some hot pepper sauce. they were mildly delcious and haven't yet given me any profuse sstomach pains. there are many more strange looking foods that i intend to try that i will not be able to name or aptly describe.