Koh Phangan (Full Moon Party)

Considering how much time and money it took me to get here, I was a little worried Full Moon was overhyped, but happily, it lived up to my expectations.

Here's a brief rundown of the events of the past few days:

- Arrive after a day and a half of traveling.
- Find a room on our first try - even though there was a giant hole in the floor, we couldn't complain at 300 Baht (10 USD)/night
- Pool party
- Pear loses the room key, and I spend at least a couple hours sleeping on the porch in a soaking wet dress before one of our neighbors finally takes me in
- Eat. Nap. Eat.
- Buckets and body paint at Clare's and Rose's
- Beach party, night one. Flaming jump rope. Death slide. Dancing to the same ten songs over and over again.
- Julia, discovering her roommate has the key to her bungalow, breaks into ours. I find her there when I return.
- Eat. Nap. Go for a run along the beach (the only good thing I did for myself this whole weekend
- Visit one of the dozens of clinics on the island (which I believe make up a substantial portion of the economy here) to remove a piece of glass embedded in my foot (extremely painful, by the way - and my nurse had the nerve to tell me to suck it up)
- Order nachos for dinner (I found this appropriate in keeping with the theme of doing nothing good for myself the whole weekend)
- Beach party, night two
- Watch the sun rise with hundreds of other Full Mooners
- Take a short scooter ride around town
- Come back to the bungalow at 8am, soaking wet from last's night's downpour
- Take the ferry to Koh Tao with hundreds of other hungover backpackers, most of whom still have their body paint on from last night

Though I am definitely ready for a little downtime (and scuba diving!) in Koh Tao, Full Moon was definitely worth it :)

Trip to Koh Phangan

Here's a taste of my last day and a half:

6:30am: Pack. Shower.
8:30am: 4-hour bus ride to Vientiane.
1:50pm: 2-hour plane ride to Bangkok.
4:00pm: 45-minute taxi ride to the bus station.
7:30pm: 9-hour bus ride to the ferry docks.
7:30am: 5-hour ferry ride to Koh Phangan.
12:30pm: 30-minute taxi ride to Haad Rin.
1:00pm: Check-in to our bungalow (finally!)

I am so looking forward to a night out tonight...

Laos

Slow boat down the Mekong. Breath-taking scenery. Overnight at a hillside village. Visiting a local hospital in Luang Prabang to get Catie's rash diagnosed. Beach volleyball at Utopia. Night markets. Indian food. Climbing the muddy steps to the top of a waterfall in the pouring rain. Driving six hours through undulating, mountainous roads to get to Vang Vieng. Backpacker town. Friends and Family Guy playing in every bar in town. Tubing tanks. Torrential downpours. Tubing. Shots. Buckets. Mud wrestling. Mud volleyball. Trapeze swings. Extremely strong currents. Evening hangovers. More buckets at Q Bar. 8am bus to Vientiane.

Not ready to leave.

Chiang Mai (Various Adventure)

More things to cross off the bucket list:
- Bungee jumping (my second time - but my first harnessed by my feet, so it still counts for something)
- Zorbing
- Ziplining through the jungle - and seeing gibbons in the wild!
- Playing an extra in a movie (random, and very fun... even if I don't make the final cut :))

I also got my hair straightened today, which took six hours, turned out perfectly, and only cost me 800 Baht (around $25). Any my ladyboy hairdresser Nan was a trip - I held onto his number if any of you are heading to Chang Mai in the future and are interested :)

Chiang Mai (Hillside Trek)

What an amazing birthday. I woke up this morning to roosters crowing and a gorgeous view of clouds nestled in the mountains. After breakfast, we bathed elephants that we then rode down the river, then picked up bamboo rafts (constructed the prior evening) upon which we continued our journey. After it was all finished, we took a covered pick-up truck the 100km back to Chiang Mai.

Some other highlights of the trek:
- The hilly 9km hike
- Stopping at local villages along the way
- Swimming in the hot springs and beneath the waterfall
- Getting bitten by a leech (albeit not a positive highlight)
- Sitting around the campfire
- Taking shots of "happy water" (rice wine)
- Listening to the rain on the tin roof of the hut where we slept

After returning to Chiang Mai, Abby and I took well-deserved naps, then she treated me to dinner, and we celebrated at a Thai reggae bar with everyone from the trek.

It's going to be hard to top this next year :)

Chiang Mai (Cooking Course)

What an amazing day! We arrived in Chiang Mai early this morning via overnight bus, which was admittedly one of the most miserable rides I've been on thus far (though I kept my mouth shut, as Abby - still recovering from jet lag - had it much worse). Unfortunately, we didn't have any downtime, as we were picked up for our cooking course just after we checked into our hostel. And though I wouldn't recommend battling sleep deprivation with the consumption of massive quantities of food, the class itself was great, and included a trip to a local market to shop for ingredients followed by the preparation - and consumption - of five courses (pad thai, green curry, prawn and coconut soup, fried fish and papaya salad, and mango and sticky rice) - all of which were amazing. Overall a wonderful day :)

Pictures are uploaded!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilydarnbrook/

Chiang Mai Part 1

I don't think life could get any better than this. Today went something like this:

7:00: Get into Chiang Mai after a 13-hour bus ride, completely sleep-deprived
8:00: Check into possibly the cutest hostel ever
9:30: Join a cooking course
10:00: Visit the market to pick up ingredients for the meals we picked out to cook
10:30 - 4:00: Prepare (and subsequently devour) five courses, including pad thai, green curry, papaya & fish salad, prawn & coconut soup, and mango & sticky rice
5:00: Pass out
6:00 - 11:00: Check email. Blog. Post pictures. Enjoy the rainstorm.

I absolutely love this city. Aside from there being an infinite number of things to entertain us here, the people here are also incredibly nice. I know I've said this about every country I've visited, but I really do think Thailand is my favorite.

Bangkok (Round 2)

Second time in this city, and it's almost starting to feel like home. This time is way better than the first, though, since Abby is here now (her blog is way more detailed than mine if you're interested in more than a bulleted listing of things we did in each city :))

Anyway, highlights from my second time here:
- Final night with the tour group
- Watching the World Cup finals (and the night that ensued)
- Our hostel (so much nicer than the one I stayed at the last time I was here!)
- Visiting the Grand Palace
- Seeing the reclining buddha at Wat Pho

Boring, I know, but it was kind of nice to have a little downtime... especially considering how busy Abby and I will be over the next couple weeks. Plus it gave me a little time to get some more shopping in... :)

Siem Reap

What a fun city. And Angkor Wat is absolutely magical.

Some highlights:
- Tasting crickets (a little bit like BBQ potato chips - and actually pretty good!)
- Watching bats
- Getting fish foot massages (apparently the fish are supposed to eat dead skin off your feet, but I wasn't able to tolerate it long enough for it to be effective)
- Getting $2 pedicures
- Watching an apsara (traditional Cambodian dance) show
- Trying honey and black sesame ice cream
- Browsing the night markets

Pictures to come!

Phnom Penh

What a sobering day. We spent the morning visiting the genocide museum (Security Prison 21) - a former high school whose classrooms were converted to torture chambers by Pol Pot's security forces in 1975. We then visited Choeung Ek, the infamous killing field where 17,000 detainees held at S-21 were executed.

A little info about the Cambodian genocide and the Khmer Rouge:
- Upon taking Phnom Penh in 1975 - two weeks before the fall of Saigon - the Khmer Rouge implemented an incredibly brutal period of restructuring. Led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge sought to transform Cambodia into a giant peasant-dominated agarian cooperative, which they attempted to do by wiping out all educated Cambodian citizens, as well as the families of those citizens. (Even children were executed - and often brutally.)
- While the Khmer Rouge's methods of torture were horrifying, perhaps the most disturbing part of this story is how people were actually executed: since bullets were prohibitively expensive, victims were often bludgeoned to death with shovels or beheaded with the sharp stems of palm tree leaves.
- The Vietnamese army finally liberated Phnom Penh 1979, though 3 million of the country's previous population of 7 million had already been executed. Only seven prisoners from S-21 survived, and we actually had the privilege of meeting one of them. Hearing his story of what he went through during that time was heartwrenching.
- Sadly, many Cambodian children are ignorant of the brutality that took place during this period, as this portion of Cambodia's history is not taught in Cambodian schools, and apparently parents do not typically talk to their children about their own experiences during this period.

Other random facts about Cambodia:
- Cambodia does not have child labor laws, and since secondary school is not compulsory, many children drop out to get factory jobs (which pay just $60/mo.)
- After a couple is married, it is common for them to live with the woman's family. It is also typical in Cambodia for the couple to support the woman's family once they marry - the reason girls are preferred to boys in this country
- Boys are typically more educated than girls in this country, as boys are expected to provide for their families; however, with the same level of education, girls actually get paid more than boys once they enter the workforce
- When expressing thanks, it is polite to bow your head here (this is also a common practice in other Asian countries)
- Diet Coke is more expensive than regular Coke in this country
- For some reason, locals here address Western women as 'lady'
- As far as I can tell, all bras sold here are the same size
- People here drive on the right-hand side of the road, though people drive both right- and left-sided cars
- Name brand clothing is really cheap here, as factories unload many their old and defective products to locals to sell
- The population of Cambodia is now around 15 million - 11 million greater than it was in 1980

Typical foods here include:
- Papaya salad with dried shrimp
- Tom yum soup
- Lok lak (beef and tomato salad)
- Spring rolls
- Fish amok
- Morning glory
- Curries and stir fries

Other highlights of this city:
- Driving through endless stretches of rice paddies on our way from Ho Chi Minh
- Our cyclo ride through town
- Seeing monkeys around Wat Phnom
- Drinking lychee cocktails
- My "takeaway" coffee, which was served in a rubberbanded plastic bag
- My first tuk tuk ride
- My $5 North Face bag
- $6, 60-min foot and shoulder massages
- Visiting the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, which is tiled in solid silver

Ho Chi Minh

I still can't believe I'm already on the Southeast Asian portion of my trip. This journey has been a phantasmagoria of cultures thus far, but the dichotomy between the Middle East and Southeast Asia is incredible, and has actually left me a little culture shocked.

Anyway, today marks the first day of the guided tour portion of my trip - and the end of the inherent penumbra of traveling alone. While I anticipated I would most enjoy this segment given that it should be the most structured and brainless of my trip, I actually have found the I feel the opposite, and crave the freedom to do what I want, when I want. There is also an inauthenticity in traveling strictly with a group of Westerners (not that I don't like them!) I don't necessarily have any complaints about this place otherwise, though.

A few highlights:

- Eating pho (the very best part about traveling to Vietnam!)
- Cruising the Mekong Delta, stopping along the way to see how rice cakes and coconut candy are made
- Our tour guide, who fought for the South during the Vietnam War and who told us an incredible story about a former relationship he had with a Viet Cong spy

Random facts about Vietnam & Ho Chi Minh:
- Ho Chi Minh was actually called Saigon until the end of the war
- The motorbike is by far the most common means of transport here
- Interestingly, all adults wear helmets on motorbikes but almost never put helmets on their kids
- There are approximately two million Vietnamese children suspected to have been conceived by American Gis. The Vietnamese claim these people can be identified by their being hairier than normal.
- In place of summer and winter, Vietnam has rainy and dry seasons
- Markets here sell four packs of live frogs, bound by their tiny little legs (simulataneously sad and hilarious)
- People in the Delta region of the city do not celebrate birthdays but rather celebrate the deaths of their ancestors
- There are no McDonald's in this city
- Fruit is extremely prevalent in this country. Common fruits include dragonfruit, lychee, mangosteen, jackfruit, mango, pineapple, pineapple, papaya, and coconut.

Bangkok

Ahh, Bangkok… the quintessential backpacker city. I got in around 11pm my first night, and despite my intentions of getting sleep after my overnight layover, I couldn't help myself, and ended up going out. Khao San, though flooded with tourists, is great, and has incredible shopping, bars, and street food, and access to more ATMs, currency exchanges, and pharmacies than one could possibly need. And after being in the Middle East for a month, being in a place where local women are free to drink and wear occidental clothing is refreshing. Some highlights:

- Hanging out with Pear and Nardsiri, who are two of the nicest, most amazing people I've ever met in my whole life
- Eating tons of sticky rice, which is especially good with mangoes and coconut milk
- Shopping at MBK, a huge indoor market with incredibly cheap clothing
- Eating authentic Thai food - which is much spicier than I expected!
- Drinking Thai tea (basically just tea sweetened with condensed milk)
- "Denmark"

Random facts about Thailand and Bangkok:
- Thai is a tonal language, and words like "na" have as many as five or six meanings depending on the tone in which they're spoken
- Drinks are typically available in buckets, which I wish the US would emulate
- Not surprisingly, Thailand is the world's leading producer of rice, but the US is actually the third leading producer
- Many shops sell faux brand name products, though this is technically illegal. To create the image that this is being controlled, police will do random checks, causing shopkeepers to close down stores for hours