July 16- Penang Malaysia

We flew safely to Penang this morning, but we have a lot to catch you up on from the last few days! Being with the organized group, it has been a little more difficult to find internet cafes (since we are staying in real hotels and not backpacker guest houses) but we are doing our best.

Since so many of us just finished "When the Spirit Catches You, You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman, I feel obliged to tell you more about our experience visiting the Hmong people. (If you have not just finished reading it, I highly recommend it to everyone to read! It is about the Hmong people living in the United States and the cultural barriers they face, particularly in medicine. The book also teaches you a lot about traditional Hmong culture.)

Anyways, when we arrived at the Hmong Lodge, we stayed in traditional/tourist Hmong style homes. Traditionally, these are stilted thatched huts that are just a few rooms big. The ones we stayed in were quite nice, had electricity, hot water, windows, etc. but the homes in the village that we visited were not quite as posh. The Hmong traditionally have lived high in the hills of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, although most of the ones still remaining in Asia are in Thailand.


Noi, our guide, talked to us a little bit about Hmong culture, how they live with their families, how they are agricultural people, and how they are in conflict with the mainstream Thai society on a number of fronts. The biggest problem that Noi talked about was how the Hmong are "slash and burn" farmers and they have destroyed a lot of the hillside forests. Once the farmland was no good to them anymore, they would simply pick up and move to a new patch of forest and turn it into farmland.

The King (who is very highly revered for his humanitarian projects across the country) has implemented many measures to try and help the Hmong be more sustainable farmers and to send their children to Thai schools. One of the things that he has done is introduce livestock to the hilltribes, and he has given many of the tribes hundreds of chickens, so that they no longer have to hunt. The idea was to provide them with a steady source of protein, and to make it more difficult for them to move around all of the time. He also introduced fruit and vegetable farming to replace the opium that the Hmong had been growing for generations and generations. The opium was a major "medicine" of the Hmong, so the king has built medical clinics for the people. He has also insisted that the Hmong send their children to school, so he built 100 new schools across the country, near rural hilltribes. He also paved the road and brought some electricity into the village that we visited. All of these improvements really raise the standard of living for the hilltribes, but we are concerned because many of these 'advancements' seem to dilute the intrinsic nature of the culture.


Noi also introduced us to the national sport of Thailand (other than Thai boxing). This was a combination of soccer and volleyball, played with a ball woven out of bamboo or plastic. The rules were the same as volleyball, but you were not allowed to use your hands. We played for a little while, before walking back from the real Hmong village to the fake one we were staying in.

We had a nice Hmong family style dinner, complete with fettucine alfredo and french fries. After dinner, we were entertained by some local Hmong 'performers.' We saw several traditional dances, a reenactment of a wedding, a musician playing a traditional instrument, a shaman performing a healing ceremony, and we even dueled with their large wooden tops. Ari won his duel, but it took Jillian 3 tries to even get her top to spin. It didn't spin for very long after that.


The next morning, we left our village and headed to an elementary school, 1 km down the road. All students in Thailand are entitled to 6 years of education until age 11, and after that the parents must pay. We visited several classrooms and played with the students and helped them practice their English a little. The Australians even sang them the song about the kukaburrow. (The kids may know how to spell that now, but we don't).



That's all for now, but we will try to get some more photos up soon!
Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July something- Sukothai, Thailand

We have fixed the settings on the blog, so you should be able to leave comments again. We tried to filter out the spam, but it seems that we filtered everyone instead. Just ignore the spam because we love hearing from you! We promise not to post any "business" opportunities, so don't click if you see any.

We got into Sukothai yesterday, about an hour's flight from Chiang Mai. We will catch you up on our adventures in Chiang Mai before we tell you what we did here.

On Sunday, our first day in Chiang Mai, we took a van ride to a big temple just outside of town. It was a particularly cool time to visit the temple because the locals were preparing for a big Buddhist holiday. The day commemorates the first sermon that was given by THE Buddha. The temple was situated on top of a big hill (translates as lots of stairs to climb) and houses a relic of the Buddha. Long ago, when Chiang Mai was the capital of Thailand, the king placed a newly discovered relic on the back of a white elephant and he said he would build a temple for the relic wherever the elephant stopped. The elephant climbed to the top of the mountain and died, and we know how he felt. Luckily, in the last few years, a road was built for cars to drive most of the way up the mountain, so we only had to do the last bit on foot, but still...


We had a lot of fun ringing all of the bells there. They are all lined up in a row, just asking to be rang (rung? ringed?) which is exactly why they are there. Unlike Jews who try to keep the kids quiet in synagogue, the Buddhists (always the pragmatists) encourage the kids to play outside with the bells during services. Which sounds more fun to you?


Back in the town of Chiang Mai, we had the afternoon free to do whatever we wanted. We decided to explore the town a little, because we felt a little silly only shopping. As it turns out, we felt a little more silly when we found there was nothing but shopping to be done. When in Chiang Mai...

That evening, we loaded up into a tourist van and headed for a Thai luau. Well, it wasn't called a luau, but there were a couple hundred tourists packed into a kitschy pagoda for moderately authentic family style food and a dance performance. It was a little hokey, but we had a lot of fun anyways (just like a luau). It was striking how similar the costumes and dances were to the Cambodian dances we had seen just a few nights prior. It was no coincidence, though, as both cultures have heavily influenced one another over the years. (The Thai don't mind taking cultural pointers from the Khmer because they are comfortable in their political stability and don't fear invasion by the Khmer anymore).


As we were leaving the dance performance, there were people in the parking lot lighting traditional Thai hot air balloons. They were cylinders that were 1 meter in diameter and 1.5 meters tall made out of thin cloth/plastic (we aren't quite sure) with an open bottom. Affixed across the bottom was a bamboo stick, and in the middle was cloth soaked in gasoline. We held on to the edge of the balloon as the cloth was lit and waited for the balloon to fill up with hot air before releasing it. This dangerous (and completely environmentally unsound) contraption rose gracefully into the air and joined the dozens of others that were being released. It was quite beautiful, really.


Back in Chiang Mai, we headed to the night market for more shopping before retiring for the night. The night market proved to be a little more disappointing than the tour book had led us to believe, but still had fun.

The next day Ari decided to sleep in (due to an unhappy tummy, which has since gotten much better) but Jillian went on a bike ride with part of the group through area surrounding Chaing Mai. It was the first bike tour with real bikes! It had gears and brakes and we even got to wear helmets this time!

We rode through town and out into the suburbs with beautiful new homes sprinkled in between the huts with thatched rooves. Our first stop was at a temple, which was fairly non-descript from the outside, but was covered with exquisite murals on the inside, detailing a story about the Buddha. We met with a few monks who were busy cleaning up from the celebrations the night before, and then we were off again.

The next stop was at the leper's hospital. It was about 60 years old, and had an idyllic setting among the trees, with little cabins for each patient. Since leprosy has come under control in Thailand, the hospital is used more as a home for the disabled now. It was started by Aussie missionaries, and they have been running the hospital since its inception. While we were there, we visited a craft workshop where the residents paint, carve, lacquer, and stitch souvenirs for visitors (much like Yad Likasheesh in Israel, and many of the other places that we have seen on this trip). It was a little bizarre to see all of the Christian parephenalia in such a Buddhist country. We had a little snack here before setting out again.

Our next stop with our bikes was at a crematorium in a small village just outside of Chaing Mai. Our tour guide showed us the old one, that the villagers have been using for centuries, which was nothing more than a concrete slab with two small cinderblock walls parallel to one another on the slab. Somehow, they use rubber tires (I missed that part of the explanation) to fuel the fire. Our guide told us (and we could only imagine) that the smell of the burning tires is wretched! Next to this was a big brand new building, resembling the Buddhist temples that we have seen all over the place, but it was completely closed. Our guide told us that the government had built the new crematorium for the locals to use, because it was more environmentally sound, and didn't require tires for fuel. The locals really don't care for the new building, have "condemned" it, and continue to use the concrete slab crematorium instead.

Our last stop on the bike tour was a small village where the locals used natural dyes to dye bamboo to make purses and placemats for souvenir shops. They had huge boiling vats of dye and stirred the bamboo mats inside with long wooden sticks. We had thought it was hot just standing in the sun, but imagine how hot it was standing over boiling vats of water all day, in the sun. Whew.


That afternoon Ari rejoined the human race and we walked back into the center of Chaing Mai (we even crossed over a moat) to explore some more temples. We found a four sided temple that was perched roughly 30 meters high, with no climbable stairs (we were somewhat relieved.) At the top of the mountainous temple, on each side, were archways opening into a partially obscurred interior. Through two of these archways you could see very large imposing Buddha figures. Sitting at that hieght, these Buddha looked quite impressive. A pulley system was attached to the top and bottom of the temple which allowed people to fill a small jug with water, to raise it to the top, and then "wash" the Buddha. We learned about the water and the temple at "Monk Chat," a little area set up where you could ask a few Buddhist monks whatever you wanted. There was a caveat posted that you should make sure that the people you were talking to were "card carrying monks" and not imposters - to ensure the accuracy of their information (yes, the sign really read "card carrying monks.")

Because it had been such a strenuous bike ride, or using that as an excuse, Jillian opted for yet another Thai massage while Ari rested. Both feeling rejuvinated, we both headed back to the temple to take part in the evening celebrations. We first headed back to the temple we had visited that afternoon, bought a carefully prepared bouquet of a lotus flower, three sticks of incense, and a candle. The lotus flower is supposed to be a flower from your home and represents the human being. The three sticks of incense represent the Buddha, his teachings, and the Buddhist monks, respectively. The candle symbolizes knowledge. We're not sure why, but everyone was walking clockwise around the main temple, with their bouquets, so we joined in.


Jillian would not make a good Buddhist. Beyond the fact that she is not good at being quiet and contemplative, she almost lit herself on fire during our procession. We started walking around with everyone else (there were hundreds of people taking part) and we noticed that most people had lit their incense and candles, so we stopped at a large candle holder to light ours. As we were walking around, trying REALLY hard to be quiet and unobtrusive, Jillian's candle caught her incense on fire. She couldn't blow it out, so she waved it around until the incense sticks burned right in half and fell off the bouquet and onto the ground. Luckily, no one was hurt and Ari shared one of his incense sticks with Jillian. He took her candle away from her, though.

We tried to redeem ourselves as Buddhists (do Buddhists believe in redemption?) by heading to another temple to check out the celebrations there. This temple was the pried and joy of Chiang Mai, and it was easy to see why. The first had been incredible ruins, but the second was beautiful and pristine. Murals covered the walls on the insides of the buildings and the colors and details were breathtaking!


By this time of the night, bunches of people had been to the temples, and the candle holders were getting full. The flames burned brightly, and lit up the whole plaza in front of the temple. It even looked like a Buddhist worse than Jillian had been there, because piles of candles lay burning on the ground, ready to cause some kind of trouble.


The next morning we got up early, and took a bus ride one hour outside of the city to an Elephant Preservation Center. This place was dedicated to stopping the killing and population depletion of the Asian Elephants. We fed them bananas, carrots, and corn, and to show their appreciation, they covered Ari in snoodle. We played a little bit with the baby elephants and their mothers, with each pair sharing their own pen, and then it was off to ride the elephants through the park! There was a big director's chair set up on the back of each elephant, and we hopped on together for quite a ride. There were six elephants total for our tour group of 12, and Ari and Jillian led the pack on a trapse through the jungle (or really along the path that the elephants had created after plodding along the same route eight hundred times). Our elephant was quite a character, and was always stopping to munch on some leaves. (Jillian can relate to needing a snack before doing anything that involves any kind of exertion.) We went across a stream, up a little hill, down another little hill, and just as we were about to go up again, our elephant got hungry again. Apparently there were not enough good leaves along the path. As the old joke goes, where does an elephant eat when he gets hungry? Anywhere he wants to! So it was into the jungle for us. We watched back as the rest of the elephants carrying our friends rode by and we headed further and further off the path. Luckily, the man driving our elephant knew a "short cut" to get back on the path, and we caught up with everyone again. Afterwards, we bought a picture of us on the elephant that was framed in paper made of 100% elephant dung. (We can feel your jealousy all the way in Asia.)
And just in case you were wondering, big elephants make BIG doodies.


After the ride, we watched the elephant show. We watched them all bathe in the lake, shoot water out of their trunks, and play around with their trainers. Then we headed to the "theater" where we watched the elephants push and pull logs, bow, walk in line holding tails and trunks, play musical instruments, and paint pictures. It was a little sad because we couldn't quite tell if they were having fun or not. Hopefully they were.

Then we went to the Asian Elephant Hospital- the first one of its kind. Elephants are brought here from across Thailand if they are very sick or, as in the case of many of the elephants that we saw, if they step on a land mine. Motola was the first elephant to come to this hospital, after she stepped on a land mine 8 years ago along the Thai- Burmese border. It took 38 doctors (which made the Guiness Book of World Records) to perform the surgery that would save her life. She has been living at the hospital ever since. While we were visiting we saw a baby (less than a year old) that had stepped on a land mine waiting with her mother for the doctors to come see her. It was really sad because she was having so much trouble balancing her weight on her back legs. The hospital had rigged a bar for her to rest her trunk to help her balance without the use of one of her front legs, but there was not too much they could do until it healed more. She would never be able to live a happy elephant life, but the hospital was doing its best to take care of her.


Then it was back in the van for a long drive to the Hmong Lodge, up in the hills, where we got a tourist's glimpse into Hmong culture.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 10- Chiang Mai, Thailand

We are having such a great time that we haven't been posting as often as we should, but we will try to catch you up to speed on the last few days. We last talked about Wednesday, July 5. That night we met up with Julie Kurr, Jillian's old babysitter who has been living in Bangkok for 10 months. She took us to a trendy restaurant in the Sukhamvit neighborhood- one of the newest and nicest areas of the city. We had lots of really delicious food (this seems to be a trend throughout most of our trip) and then caught a cab back to the less posh neighborhood of Khao San Road where we were staying.


On Julie's recommendation, Thursday we got up and made our way to Wat Pho, one of the biggest temples (and tourist attractions) in the city. This temple contained the reclining Buddha, and while Julie had told us that it was the size of the room, we didn't realize just how big the room would be. The reclining Buddha was truly awe inspiring. It was on a platform that was about one meter high, and about 60 meters long! The Buddha was reclining over the entire platform, and was about 6 meters tall! It was covered entirely in gold leaf, except for the soles of its feet, which were black lacquer with inlaid mother of pearl. The other buildings and statues in the temple were also beautiful, covered in ceramic mosaics, much like Wat Arun that we saw the day before.


For lunch we tried heading back to Sara Jane's (the restaurant owned by Ari's friend Jared's aunt), but we hadn't accounted for the hurrendous traffic. We got to the restaurant just a few minutes after she had left for the afternoon. Not to worry, though- we spoke with her and were able to meet her at her other restaurant for dinner. That afternoon we walked around the Silom Road area, checked out some cute shops and hit up the Patpong Night Market as it was getting started.

A few words about the Patpong Night Market: Number one, the place is overrun with "lady boys" as the Thai call them. While they are socially accepted here, it is still a little akward to have them help you pick out a purse as they clomp around in high heels and makeup. In New York, we often see them going out on a Friday night to a club or something, but here they will be behind the counter in the drug store or 7-11 in all their splendor. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it is worth noting.

In addition, the Patpong Night Market is also the home of many a "ping-pong" show. If you are not sure what that is, you probably don't want to know. Let's just say it's for mature audiences only. These shows are quite creative, and not only do the performers use ping pongs, but they write letters, smoke cigarettes, smuggle razor blades, and somehow make flowers grow all from their nether regions. We didn't actually go into any of the shows to see if the claims were true, but as you walk down the sidewalk, touts and lady boys try to get you to come inside (both Ari and Jillian were approached numerous times) and show you a list of the girls' "talents." We will leave the rest to your imagination.

Back to dinner. We were finally able to meet up with Jane at her restaurant and we had an Esarn feast! (Esarn is the word used to describe the culture in northern Thailand.) She personally picked out all 15 of the dishes that we ate, and explained how they are cooked and how to eat them. We had a great time talking to her and rolled out the front door long after all of the other customers had left. It was funny to hear someone with such a thick Boston accent speak flawless Thai.

Since we had been so lucky the day before with Julie's sightseeing recommendation, on Friday we decided to follow Jane's advice and seek out the gold Buddha. It should be said that Thailand has a bazillion temples, each containing at least one image of the Buddha, if not several dozen, all covered in gold leaf.

About 40 years ago, an image of Buddha was discovered in some ruins, but this statue appeared to be made of concrete. Many temples in Bangkok were approached to see if they wanted this Buddha, but they all declined because he was so ugly. Poor Buddha. Finally, they asked a poor temple in Chinatown if they wanted the Buddha, and they happily accepted because any Buddha is a good Buddha. While the Buddha was being lifted by crane into the temple, the cement cracked and revealed a glimmer of gold. Once it was in the temple, the crack was widened to show even more gold. Soon all of the concrete was removed to reveal an image of Buddha that was three meters tall, made of solid gold. Big Pimpin. Historians surmise that the Buddha had been created in the 1300s and covered in concrete to protect it from the Burmese who often came over the border to pillage Thailand's riches. Buddha sat in concrete for about 700 years but he looks pretty good today.


After a long morning of walking around, it was time for another big meal. This time we decided since there was a Chabad House on Khao San Road, we had to eat there just once. We gorged ourselves on borekas, schnitzel, hummus, falafel, baba ghanoush, and challah. It was quite an experience. They even had a little commissary where you could purchase Bisli, Israeli pickles, and kosher meat. The place clearly catered to Israelis since there were no bagels on the menu, but we didn't let that stop us.

After lunch we lost our independence but gained a whole lot of comfort. It was time to leave the backpacker world for a while and join up with the rest of civilized tourist society. We took the ferry up the Chao Phraya River to meet up with our organized group, which we will be spending the next two and a half weeks with. We checked into the hotel, which had clean sheets and real pillows (quite a switch for us, but we quickly got used to it). We took a dip in the pool, and then it was off to meet the other group members for dinner. Everyone in the group is really nice, and it is a diverse group- 1 Canadian, 2 Dutchmen, and 7 Australians, plus our tour guide who is Thai.


Saturday we began with a tour of the grounds of the Grand Palace. Because she wears such short shorts all the time (not really, but you could see her ankles) she had to rent a sarong to go inside. The palace grounds were totally packed with tourists! The temples were beautiful and reserved for the king's private use. (And of course the three million tourists that come each weekend). It really was beautiful, though, and everything was in pristine condition in the temple compound.


Then we walked over to the Palace itself. It is closed on the weekends due to the high volume of tourists, but we were too hot to really care. Noi, our guide told us all about the royal family and the ten homes they have all over the country. We have told you a little bit about how highly the king is regarded here, and it is for good reason. He has several thousand projects going on around the country (all that he personally initiated) that directly benefit the people. He actually uses all 10 of his residences as he is on the road looking after these projects 300 days a year. (He works all the days that Bush takes off).

We had a quick lunch, highlighted by the airconditioning in the restaurant, and then we were off for a ride through the khlongs (canals) of Bangkok. We floated through kilometers of neighborhoods that were built along the intricate network of canals that make up a small area of the city. The clean drinking water is brought to these homes through pipes that run along the edge of the canals, one meter above the water. At each "driveway" the pipes are raised for the boats to pass beneath without too much difficulty. (Insert your own joke about Thai people being short here).

Saturday night we boarded an overnight train bound for Chiang Mai, the second largest city, found in the north of Thailand. You are just going to have to wait for our next post to hear all about our adventures in Chiang Mai because we need to get some beauty/handsome rest.

Lots of love,
Ari and Jillian

July 8- Bangkok

We had a great day on Wednesday! We began the morning with some fresh pad thai from a street vendor, and then we were off to the Chao Phraya River to take the boat for some sightseeing. After the traffic yesterday, we swore off travelling by roads for a little while. The river boat took us down stream a bit, where we visited Wat Arun, the huge temple right on the river that we posted a picture of when we were in Bangkok last time.


This temple was built Khmer style, with lots of steep steps going to the top. It had four symmetrical sides that were covered in mosaics made from Chinese porcelain. The mosaics covered figurines in the shapes of gods, demons, and animals. The clean whitewash and the colorful pottery gave it a distinctly Thai flavor, different from the carved sandstone of the Khmer temples. From the top (or at least as far as we were allowed to climb up) there were beautiful views of the river and the Bangkok skyline.


Several of the hallways were lined with golden figures of the Buddha.


Our next stop on the river boat was the flower market. We got a little skeeved out in the neighborhood before we actually found the market, but it turned out to be one of the gems of Bangkok. There were countless stalls selling bouquets of orchids and garlands of jasmine for mere pennies. Across the street was a fruit market, boasting some of the most beautiful colors we have ever seen.


From here we hopped back on the river boat and connected with the Skytrain and rode that back into the middle of the city. We did a little shmying and when started to rain, we returned to a tried and true way to pass the time... we got more Thai massages. These were by far the best that we have had, but we are not going to quit on our search to find the best Thai massage in Thailand. Let us make you even more jealous; we splurged on these because they were $5 each for an hour. We're really breaking the bank over here!

An hour was the perfect amount of time for the weather to clear up. Feeling refreshed, we took a stroll through Lumphini park. We stayed on the main path through the park, and there were many people out for their evening walk or jog. There was even music playing over the loudspeakers. Just then, it started to rain again, and we were not far from the night bazaar we had been to, so we decided to book it over there to get out of the rain. Just as we came around a bend in the path, we noticed everyone ahead of us stopped dead in their tracks. Coming from New York, we assumed it was a shooting, mugging, or ten midgets on a motorcycle (Wait- that would have been Vietnam!). We stopped running, but kept walking - it was raining and we didn't have umbrellas. Just then, a man standing next to us in the road motioned with his hand for us to stop moving and he pointed to the loudspeaker. Everyone picked up right where they left off as soon as the song ended. We realized that it had been the national anthem, and people here are patriotic enough to stand solemnly in the rain.

We have told you before that this summer there is a big celebration in all of Thailand because it is the 60th anniversary of the king's ascention to the throne, and everyone is joining in the celebration. There is an official emblem for the celebration, and it is plastered over the entire city of Bangkok. The offical color is bright yellow, and everything is clad in yellow, especially the people. There is a yellow polo shirt with the insignia on it for sale in every single shop (even the chic boutiques). The king has mandated (although there is no penalty for not following suit) that everyone in Thailand has to wear their yellow shirts on Mondays, and looking around, most people are. They even wear them on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays... This decree caused a little uproar in Parliament, because the Prime Minister told all of his cabinet members that they must wear their shirts to their weekly meetings, which falls on a Tuesday!

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 4th - Back in Bangkok

Yesterday we flew back to Bangkok from Siem Reap, Cambodia. As you probably know, we're a little behind on our posts, but we promise we will get back to talking about the temples of Angkor once we get to a internet cafe where we can post photos.

We landed in Bangkok and came back to the backpacker district of Khao San Road. We walked around for a bit and finally settled on a guesthouse that caters specifically to Israeli travelers. The menu in the restaurant and the signs in the lobby are in Hebrew, not English or Thai. We are thinking of having humus for breakfast tomorrow instead of pad thai.


After dumping our luggage in the guesthouse we hopped on a bus that took us to the edge of Chinatown to find the Phahurat Market. The guide books describe Phahurat as the Indian section of town so we went with images of colorful textiles and Indian curries dancing in our heads. We didn't find what we had expected, but we found a seemingly endless, buzzing market that went on for several blocks in all directions. We meandered through the rows of stalls and saw fabric shops stacked with beautiful silks, food stalls selling all manner of meat on a stick, and even a store specializing in Hello Kitty. Before leaving the market, we snaked on spongy green fried squares of goodness. We don't know what they are, but the woman who sold it to us swore up and down that they were vegetarian. We think they were eggplant but they may have been made of weasel.


We made our way from Chinatown to the Joe Louis Puppet Theater located in the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. The Joe Louis Theater, despite being inexplicably named for a deceased American boxer, shows performances of traditional Thai puppetry every night. The puppets are all beautifully crafted, delicately painted, and ornately decorated. Each puppet is controlled by three puppeteers and is remarkably expressive. The show we saw was a Hindu epic that used a battle between the gods and demons to give explanation for lunar eclipses and was very entertaining. After the completion of the narrative, the puppets wandered into the audience to harass young women and little children. One puppet even stole a woman's purse and only returned it after each puppeteer received a kiss.

We spent the rest of the night checking out the goods in the stalls of the night market. We found good quality stuff there, from hand made clothing to abstract paintings, to antique furniture. We were too tired to make any purchases, thankfully, but we have floated the possibility of returning to do some damage.

Today, to commemorate American Independence Day, we decided to continue doing what Americans do best: hang out in shopping malls. We headed down to Soi Thong Lo, a trendy street with trendy clothing boutiques, high end furniture shops, and an abundance of sushi restaurants. It was just like being in New York City! We spent some time browsing a shopping center called Playground! (the "!" is part of the name). Much to Jillian's delight, the second floor was littered with enormous bean bag chairs the size of VW Beetles. Jillian leaped into the center of one of the fluffier bean bags while Ari leafed through some magazines for any sign of the elusive Autistic Children. He stumbled upon a picture of one of them, in Play, a magazine dedicated to high end designer vinyl toys. The magazine had an interview with the creator of Tofu Oyaku and nestled between the images of this tofu man, who looks kind of "autistic" himself, was a picture of one of the Autistic Children, Flan Head Man, to be exact. The company is called Devilrobots. Check back here for more details...


We dined on dim sum for lunch, at a restaurant with placards claiming that it had been voted on of Bangkok's best eateries in 2005. Though we weren't sure what we had ordered until it had arrived, we have to say that the restaurant deserved accolades. The dishes were tasty and not too scary, which is all you can ask for sometimes.

With full bellies we explored a few more designer furniture shops, mostly because they had the best air conditioning. Satisfied that we had gotten all that we could out of Thong Lo, we hailed a cab to take us to the Thailand Creative and Design Center, housed on the top floor of the Emporium Shopping Center.

The Design Center was a cool space, though the permanent collection was a little bit of a bore. Unfortunately the museum was between exhibitions, but we perused the library and watched a video presentation on the fashion designer Vivian Westwood. The upcoming exhibit, which was being installed, was a retrospective on her influential work. We were amazed to learn that Vivian Westwood had single-handedly come up with the Punk Rock style - the tight bondage pants with all the zippers, the pornographic T-shirts, the ripped jeans, the spikes - while dating one of the Sex Pistols. If that's enough, she is also responsible for such fads as platform shoes and the return of the corset in the 1990's.

We then tried to take a bus back to Khao San Road, but had not fully accounted for the horrendous traffic that snarls around Bangkok at rush hour. Our bus moved only a few yards in 45 minutes, so we decided to jump off. We walked to the Skytrain station and took the elevated line as close to Khao San as we could get. Instead of trying to cram our way onto another bus, we opted to kill some time at yet another shopping center. Though it may seem like we were degenerating into junior high mall rats we should explain that the malls in Bangkok are cultural hubs with a social scene, and flea market style bargain shopping areas, gourmet supermarkets, and video game arcades. We had been to this particular shopping center on our first visit to Bangkok, but there was no way we could have seen it all in one visit.

After a little shmying, we hunted down what we hoped would be a good snack of fried noodles with vegetables. In the little food court that sold mostly street food, most of the booths had closed down for the night. They didn't have any English on their menus anyways, and we were too tired to eat weasel meat unknowingly. The guy from the only open booth promised that he could make us noodle dishes without meat, so we agreed to let him. It was a team effort with one man chopping the vegetables, another frying them, a third smiling and looking pretty, and the fourth was making the noodles for us. But actually making the noodles. We watched him stretch the raw dough by hand into three long noodles, before slapping them on the counter (we think to get a uniform thickness, but it just looked cool no matter what) and then they went into the boiling water. The last step was when the noodles went into our bellies, which was our favorite part.


We caught a bus back to Khao San Road, wandered through the street markets a bit, grabbed a beer, and went to sleep. All that shopping really wore us out.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 4 - Bangkok

We know we are really behind on our posts, but we promise that we haven't forgotten! We will be caught up in no time, pictures and all!

We have already described our first few days in Siem Reap, Cambodia so check the post below for June 28 and 29. We'll continue the post with our temple romps from June 30.

Our friends had left that morning so it was just us and Longdy. He picked us up and we rode the tuk tuk back to the temples.

We visited a site known as Neak Pean, a series of five pools that must have looked majectic when they were filled with water. There was one large central pool that fed the four smaller pools via ornatel spouts. Each pool had a different spout, the head of a man, the head of a horse, and two other heads we can't remember now (it's hard to remember every detail, there are so many temples).

Then we visited Bakong, one of the older temples (from the 9th century). It was the first application of what came to be the traditional Khmer style temple-mountain architecture. The size was impressive, with the central tower reaching 15 meters, but the facades of the towers themselves were pretty stark. We Americans might even call them boring.

After stopping for lunch, we went to Beng Melea, one of the most overgrown temples, still largely claimed by the jungle. It was very cool to see the trees growing right out of the corridors and the roots pushing the stone aside. We witnessed the true power of nature and stood in awe.

The last temple that Longdy brought us to that day was his personal favorite, the Terrace of Elephants. This was not in the same temple layout as most of the others that we saw. Instead, it was closer to a wall with a terrace above it. The entire wall stretched 100 meters in length and was about 4 meters high. Most of the entire facade of the wall was covered in apsaras, but there were some equisite life size elephants in relief. Longdy told us he thought the "maidens were beautiful." In all fairness to him, they had bigger boobs and smaller waists than any Cambodian women we saw.

The next day, Longdy took us for a ride through the country, about 1 hour in a tuk tuk outside of Siem Reap. He told us we were going to a good temple, but we had no idea what a treat we were in for. After riding through villages of thatched homes on stilts and rice paddies we finally arrived at Banteay Srey. While it was not the biggest temple we visited, it was definitely one of the most impressive. The entire structure was covered in intricate carvings that were the best preserved carvings we had seen our entire time visiting the temples of Angkor. There were lots of Apsaras, flowers, geometric designs, dragons and demons and the carving was so clear on all of them. Hopefully we will be able to get pictures up soon, because words really don't do the carvings justice.

After that, Longdy drove us back to the main part of the park, and we got to visit a temple that we had tried to on the first day, but the rain had driven us back to Siem Reap early. This temple was Preah Khan, and was a huge muddy mess. It had been used as a monastery in the 12th century and had some of the only round columns found in any of the temples. Archeologists hypothesize that this means they were added to the temple at a later date.

The next day, we hired another tuk tuk to take us to a floating village about a half hour away from Siem Reap. This was a real treat for us, but the poverty we encountered on the way in the surrounding villages was far worse than we had seen anywhere on the trip, thus far. It was also one of the more remote areas that we have visited, since we have sort of been hopping from city to city, tourist attraction to tourist attraction.


The road to the village was not paved, but neither were any of the roads in Siem Reap (except for those leading you from temple to temple in Angkor). We were not surprised that the road got worse the further from town we headed. The tuk tuk pulled over so we could buy tickets for the boat ride through the floating village, so we thought we were close. Boy were we wrong. The village was another fifteen or twenty minutes away, and with every passing inch, the road conditions worsened. It was the bumpiest ride of our lives, and let us remind you that we were in a cart beng pulled by a sub-par motorcycle, with hitch being held on by an oil can that had had its top cut off. Yes, there was half an oil can and a boat hitch holding us to the back of a motorcycle, going on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Luckily, we made it to the pier (well, sort of a pier) safely. When we got down to where all of the tourist boats convene, we were ushered through more mud, and over the few old planks serving as a dock. We had to scamper over several boats because there were many more boats than room for them to ground themselves in the mud.

As we rode out down a creek, we passed boat houses, floating shops, and every ammenity you would expect a town to have - only these ammenities all floated. The high school even had a full basketball court floating next to it. (At least the Cambodians take their sports more seriously than the Vietnamese who only seem to play badminton.) There was a library, a church for the Vietnamese Catholic floaters, fully stocked supermarkets, boat repair shops, and even pig pens bobbing up and down on the surface of the water. There were also lots of homes, of course.


The channel opened into a lake and we rode past river restaurants and more boat houses until we came to the restaurant/boat that was probably offering commission to our boat driver. Beneath the wooden boards we walked on was a slew of crocodiles in one cage and a fish farm teeming with catfish housed in another. They told us they were raising the crocodiles to use their skin to make bags and shoes. We didn't care too much what they did with them as long as they stayed in a cage while we were visiting.


Then it was back on the boat to head back to the mayhem of the "pier." At least we were a little bit better prepared for what the tuk tuk ride was going to be like on our way back to Siem Reap. We got back in the early afternoon, and we were starving. We found a wonderful little Indian restarant just outside the Old Market and gorged for lunch. The food was so good and we ate so much we had so take a nap and sleep off our food comas afterwards.

In the late afternoon we visited Artisans D'Angkor, a nonprofit organization that takes teenagers and trains them in traditional Cambodian handicrafts, which they can sell to tourists. We have seen some other places like this in our travels, but Artisans was by far the nicest and seemed to treat the students very well, and they were in turn producing the best stuff. It was funded largely in part by the European Union, with assistance from private donations. The students at Artisans learned wood carving techniques, silk painting, stone carving and etching, embroidery, and the gift shop had many hand woven scarves which were created at another Artisans location.

That night we headed back into town to soak up a little more of the Cambodian night life before it was time to fly back Bangkok in the morning.

Lots of love,
Ari and Jillian

July 1- Siem Reap

Well, we knew we would be travelling during monsoon season, but we hadn't really experienced it until we got to Cambodia. We have so much to catch up on! Our first full day here we spent exploring the town of Siem Reap and we have spent the last three days exploring the temples of Angkor, which were truly spectacular. We so badly want to post photos for you to see, but unfortunately the computers are too slow. We will definitely get them up once we get to Bangkok, so check back in a few days to actually see the Temples of Angkor.

On June 28 we slept in a little bit, and then went and checked out the town of Siem Reap. It is a cute little touristy town, with an odd juxtaposition of the poverty you would expet to see here and a slew of four star hotels and fine restaurants. We walked around a bit, checked out the markets and had dinner at a restaurant that was decorated with images of Statler and Waldorf (the two old critics from the opera seats in the Muppet Show). The markets were full of the same old things you would expect: silk scarves, tea sets, cow intestines, and t-shirts.

On June 29 we hired a tuk tuk to take us from Siem Reap to the temples of Angkor, about 15 kilometers outside of town. Longdy proved to be a trusty driver, and hauled us with our two new friends out of town towards the ruins. Much to Jillian's delight, Jamie had brought speakers for his iPod, which was loaded with nothing but country music! Needless to say, it was the most bompin' party tuk tuk in all of Cambodia.

Most of the temples of Angkor are enclosed in a park, with a 26 kilometer road running around the perimeter of the park. We stopped first at Angkor Wat, the largest and arguably most impressive of the ruins. It was built from 1100 to 1170 and it surrounded by a stone wall, enclosing an area of 2 square kilometers. The central tower stands 55 meters (3 stories) high and we climbed to the top for an amazing view of the surrounding towers and corridors. To this day it remains largest religious structure in the world and it is the best preserved of all of the temples of Angkor. It is really hard to describe how amazing it was. The temples are all made of stone (mostly sandstone, but each temple is unique in its composition) and the walls are covered with intricate carvings. Many of these carvings depict apsaras (heavenly nymphs), Hindu gods or serene Buddhas. Others are simlpy geometric or floral designs, but still amazing in their own right. Angkor Wat also had several pools in it, as many of the other temples had. In between the pools were long corridors leading to different shrines for various Hindu gods.

Climbing to the top of the towers was an adventure! The steps were seemingly made for monkeys, each step being only about 6 inches deep and about 8 to 12 inches high. There were no railings and looking down was not for the faint-hearted. There were only big stones and bigger stones below you. Going up wasn't so bad, but going down we were wishing they had installed the Angkor elevator.

After Angkor Wat we took the tuk tuk over to Bayon, another temple. This one was not very impressive from the outside, but once you climbed up to the third level, it was apparent why this was another favorite temple for tourists to visit. This temple boasted 54 towers with one face on each of the four sides of the tower. These faces were roughly 2 meters tall and all bore a striking resemblance to King Jayavarman VII, who commissioned the temple to be built. They were supposed to be the face of Avalokiteshvara, a Hindu god, but legend has it this was not the case. It was pretty cool walking around and seeing these towers with the faces all over them. And of course, this was another one that we had to climb up to see the goods.

All of the climbing tired us out, so we took a break for lunch. There were booths set up across the street from each temple with hokey souvenirs and cheap Khmer food. Each time we descended from the tuk tuk, we were surrounded by an army of children, each touting their bracelets, postcards, flutes, and guidebooks. They were able to count all of their postcards for us in more languages than we could recognize (German, French, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, English...) Ari tried to add Hebrew to their repetoire, but they quickly lost interest when it was apparent he did not want to buy the postcards he was counting.

When we sat down to eat, the children eagerly came over, selling their baskets of goodies, and tried to strike up a conversation by asking where we were from. Jamie told them he was from Vancouver, and in unison they proclaimed that Vancouver was in Canada and the capital of Canada is Ottowa. We told them were from New York, and they knew the capital of the US is Washington, and that the capital of New York is Albany. (Jillian's students in Harlem didn't even know the capital of New York or that New York was both a state and a city). When Jillian tried to tell the kids she was from North Dakota they were a little taken aback and could not correctly identify that capital. To be fair, Ari couldn't either. There must not be a lot of tourists from North Dakota coming to Cambodia - who would have thought?

Then it was back on the tuk tuk, a few more tunes from Brooks and Dunn, and it was off to Ta Prohm, our third temple of the day. For those of you who have seen Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie, it was filmed largely in Ta Prohm, so you know exactly the kind of temples we are describing. Ta Prohm was chosen as a picturesque spot to film because the surrounding jungle is still largely overgrown and there are a few large trees growing straight out of the ruins. It looked pretty badass.

While we were visiting Ta Prohm, we were reminded that it is monsoon season. Again, the heavens opened on cue as the sky darkened, temperature dropped, and winds picked up all in a matter of two minutes. We got soaked, but that didn't dampen our spirits. We hopped back in the tuk tuk, lowered the rain flaps, and left Longdy on his motorcycle to brave the storm alone as he gallantly pulled us back to Siem Reap.

That night, The Killing Fields was showing at the restaurant in our Hotel, and we began to watch it, but between the gruesome scenes and the crazy Mefloquine-induced dreams we have been having, we decided to skip out in the middle and call it a night.

Speaking of calling it a night, catch you later! We will tell you about the rest of our adventures here later on.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari