Thailand

 Thailand, world of wacky writing and anything you could ever want and a lot of stuff you don't. Mike and I entered Thailand through Poipet on the Cambodian border and arrived in Bangkok a swift four hours later. We settled down in the Khao San Road area, tourist mecca/slum/ghetto and spent some time getting acquainted with Bangkok. The King's birthday was the 5th of December and everything shut down while the Thai's threw an amazing celebration for their 83 year old monarch Rama IV.

Khao San Road



We left Bangkok in route to Koh Chang Island for some beach time. Koh Chang is a small island on the east side of the Gulf of Thailand and a beautiful place to relax, build castles and sun tan.

Arriving on the Ferry to Koh Chang

Our Beach Bungalow

Sunset, one of many.

Castles made of Sand

The harbor on White Sand Beach, Koh Chang

Mike and I on the beach

Sunset, again

I left Mike in Koh Chang, which was a challenge, in route to Vietnam, so I could at least say that I visited the country. We would meet up again in Saigon before we got on the plane back to the States.


Cambodia

Mike and I traveled through Phnom Penh on our way to Seim Reap a tourist town right outside of Angkor Wat the thousand year old temples of the ancient Khmer. Phnom Penh kind of sneaks up on you as you drive in. Scattered farms coalesce into closer buildings, built up corners and street vendors until dense, multi-story apartment buildings surround you on every side. Sidewalks, which are very prevalent, become scooter parking and outdoor patios. The streets are absolutely clogged with people, every vehicle under the sun, children (who are absolutely, amazingly everywhere; procreation is alive and well in Phnom Penh,) carts, dogs, cats and in the evening huge, ginormous piles of trash that has been collected/generated during the day. I think a person could describe Phnom Penh all day and still not really do it justice. In light of that I will stop trying. Sufficed to say if you have any adventure in your soul you should visit Phnom Penh and soon.

Cambodian countryside

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Trash can in Phnom Penh made of an old tire turned inside out.

We arrived in Siem Reap and were immediately attacked by the hordes of touts, local individuals who represent businesses, rental companies or whatever and get a kick back if they bring in a customer. As we had not arranged for lodging yet we had to quickly choose a random hotel in the middle of town and get a ride. We ended up at the Shadow of Angkor Guest House, a fine option if you find yourself in Siem Reap, close to downtown with excellent guest services.

Friendly Tuk-tuk

Siem Reap has changed considerably over the last 8 or so years since I was here. In 2002 only a couple of blocks had pavement which was poured and paid for by a Korean company to develop and maintain Angkor Wat. They laid pavement around the Grand Tour which is a loop that encompasses the largest temples and sights. Everything else was dirt. Now everything is paved except some of the more remote temples. The town itself has grown immeasurably. There are hundreds of bars, restaurants and hotels who compete fiercely with each other and keep the prices down. 0.50 cent beers are a great example.

We spent the next three days viewing Angkor Wat. Being the adventurous types we decided to rent bicycles to tour the ruins so for 2 dollars we rented a torture machine and headed out. Basically it’s a beach cruiser but it is made for the average Cambodian who is easily 6-12 inches shorter than Mike or I. It’s hard to say how far we went all told but judging from the muscle soreness I am experiencing I would say quite a few over the two days we rode bikes. It is a tribute to those bicycles that Mike and I decided to hire a Tuk-tuk for the last day. I am not sure if I could have faced another day on those machines.

It would be laborious to describe everything at Angkor. There are several excellent books available that describe the wonder of Khmer High Culture better than I ever could. Even the pictures don’t do it justice. Kind of like the Grand Canyon that way. You will just have to visit and see for yourself. Siem Reap is very friendly and safe and I saw many European or American families with children under one year old here as well as innumerable families and student groups from all over the world. If you don’t relish the idea of Phnom Penh madness you can easily fly into Bangkok and be in Siem Reap in about 10 hours by overnight bus or fly into the airport in style.

The site itself has been under reconstruction for about 100 years beginning in 1908. You can pick out the parts that have been recently reconstructed by the fresh looking cement they use. Seems like there is the building reconstruction to ensure that 10 tons of rock doesn’t bury any innocent tourists and then the casting of the statue heads and animals. It is conceivable that in the coming years it all could be restored to an original seeming condition. But part of the draw to Angkor is the age of the structures. You can’t help but wonder what it would have been like in its height. One temple in particular, part of the Angkor Thom Complex, required 80,000 people to keep up. That is not to mention all the individuals who supported the priest class as well as the outlying farmers and artisans. It must have been wall to wall people. Just keeping up on sewage especially in a place with no vertical topography and a water table a foot under the ground would have been an epic task.

Next Thailand and the beach.

Humble Pie

Artistic response to Trans-pacific flight

Well in short there is a lot of humble pie out here and I inadvertently ordered up a pretty big slice that has made me feel somewhat ill. But more on that in a minute.

It has been 8 years since I flew across the Pacific which is evidently long enough to push the horror of 14 hrs in a tube completely out of my mind. Sadly it all came rushing back in about 30 minutes. If you have flown across the Pacific before, or the Atlantic for that matter, I won't belabor the experience. If you haven't I am loath to color your future experience with my opinion so sufficed to say it was a long trip.

Life in the tube

Anyway all laborious/tedious stories aside we had a good flight. Saw some of Siberia and China from the plane and arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) around 10 pm a day later than when we departed Phoenix. It was at this moment that the servers came out with the humble pie.

Siberia from 30,000 ft

I sauntered up to immigration in Vietnam only to be greeted with an incredulous airport functionary asking where my visa paperwork was. Blithely I responded I was prepared to purchase a visa on the spot which increased the functionary's bewilderment. "Sir, you can't enter Vietnam without a visa," he informed me. "That's alright," I replied, "I'll just get one here. Where is the paperwork?" Enter Humble Pie stage right. "Sir, visa paperwork is to be completed before arrival," replied the immigration guard, "you will have to return to your port of origin and process it there. It should only take two days or so." Move heart to soles of sandals.

Arriving Ho Chi Minh City

As Mike and I were disinclined to get back on an airplane without handcuffs and a swat team we asked if here was another way. Like most things, even in Vietnam, time, distance, rules and what-not can be mitigated by cold hard cash so we were informed we could pay extra, stay in a state sponsored four star hotel for the evening and get our visas the next day. After a brief discussion, we looked into each other's hollow eyes and saw that there was no way in hell we were getting back on an airplane back to the states, we decided to pay the money, (ashes, it tastes like ashes) made the arrangements and got a free ride to a nice hotel, had some Tiger beer and drifted off to sleep.

In place at the State sponsored First Hotel


Tomorrow - cheaper accomodations, passport photos to enter Cambodia (no flies on us now), and some Saigon flavor.

abstract

Well friends here we are again . . .

On the road again. It has been a rewarding year so far and we can only hope it continues in the same vein. I spent the winter in Arkansas refreshing my love of the job and the people and moved back to Arizona for the summer season. 2010 fire season was pretty mild and the crew worked about the average amount. But now it is time for some time off.

Currently I am flying over the western States on my way to Saigon via San Francisco and Hong Kong for the month of December. Onboard with me is Mike of Baja Mexico fame. We were going to be joined by Bob, another travel faithful, but alas life imposed itself ungraciously on Bob’s health and he was held up from joining us. Bob I wish you the best of luck and look forward to seeing you on my return as well as planning next year’s trip.

Our tentative plan is to head west from Saigon through Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Baja Terminado

Welcome back friends. Apparently 2009 was not a great year for blogging. None-the-less there were some worthwhile events that have escaped notice. It also occurs to me that I left off with the Baja trip a little abruptly. So allow me to wrap up that story and then over the next few posts briefly highlight some worthwhile events over 2009.

Conception Bay

Taking a shift at the helm

Mike and the ship's dog

Motorsailing

We left San Fransicito after a restful night on board and sailed to Conception Bay. Conception Bay is a large bay with numerous fingers or coves off the main bay. It is an amazing and beautiful area with crystal clear water and sandy beaches.

Retrieving a flighty coffee carafe

You can watch a stone fall to the bottom through 30 feet of water. At night the phosphorescent plankton would glow around us as we swam and dove. After 4 days in Conception Bay, Mike and I had to leave to return to the U.S. where Mike was returning to school and I had a job in a ski shop.

Mike and I, sadly leaving the Queen for the real world

We left the Gypsy Queen in the tender hands of Lennis and Andrea and after hiking to the road we hitched a ride to Mulege and caught the bus back to San Diego.

Hitching to Mulege

squalor in Ensenada

San Diego


That pretty much finishes the Baja sailing trip. Good times, good friends. The Queen is still down there in the Sea of Cortez. All she needs is a crew . . .

Krassel Fire Station

So just in case you wanted to know what the middle of no-where looks like . . .



My first elk rack. taken from a lion kill on Secesh River.

Krassel (looking at the cabins)

Typical Krassel country-side. From Krassel Knob.

Some indigenous Krassel Elk.

Hot Springs next to the South Fork of the Salmon River.

Krassel (my cabin is the one partly hidden).

Krassel looking toward the Airstrip

Yet another cabin shot. mine is behind to the left

Spines And Skates

Woke up to beautiful skies and calm winds over Isla Ventana and we decided to take advantage of the snorkeling around Islas Pata and Bota about ½ mile from Ventana. While we were snorkeling I was able to talk to some Mexican shell fishermen and found out it would be clear for the rest of the day and the next, a prediction we would come to regard with some doubt. But regardless with the intelligence we had at the moment we decided to take advantage of calm seas and head farther south where the waters are warmer and, as it turns out, the phosphorescence surrounds your body like a ghost when you swim at night. But that is getting ahead of ourselves.

Moonrise over LA Bay

We waved goodbye to Ventana with a northwest breeze encouraging the baby swells behind us and struck out for Santa Rosalia about 80 miles down the coast. We cruised until about 12 am, mike and I being old hands at this point with the dark of night piloting a sailboat thing, and dropped anchor in the west bay of San Fransicito while a pod of about 20 porpoise frolicked in our bow wave. Amazingly cool.

Mike on the beach, San Fransicito

We woke up to a magnificent white sand beach and the wind shrieking through our rigging which combined to turn our adventurous feet and spirits to shore. Mike and I took little boat into the inner harbor where a gentleman named Alberto perpetrated some highway robbery on us by selling us gas at $5.00 a gallon. Thankfully it was only 5 gallons. It was at this point we also learned there were an airstrip and a restaurant/bar about a mile down the road and we resolved to explore the beach where we were anchored and then head into town for a drink as all of our back stock had been depleted.

The Gypsy Queen, lying at anchor, San Fransicito

Well things went off without a hitch and we explored the desert around the beach for several hours, took Little Boat into the harbor, about a 10 min ride through some respectable chop, and walked to the restaurant/bar and refreshed ourselves. As it was getting dark we returned to Little Boat and began the chain of events that would mark our time at San Fransicito as nothing less than an adventure.

Exploring the mainland, San Fransicito

Now to be descriptive Little Boat is an 8 foot Zodiac style inflatable with a 1980 Evenrude 9.9 horse outboard. Now let me ask you, “How long does it take a 1980 Evenrude 9.9 horse outboard to clear flooded sparkplugs?” Don’t know?

One of the numerous caves

Neither do I. What I can tell you is that you can pull on the pull cord for about 30 minutes and nothing encouraging will happen. So at this point Mike and I had a choice, continue pulling the cord and pray for exceptional night vision as we navigate through low tide back to the boat or walk back the, can’t be more than 2 miles right . . ., to the boat and pray for exceptional night vision & etc. I would like to think the increasing wind turning the inner harbor entrance to a maelstrom of 3-4 foot chop didn’t effect our decision at all. But either way we made the fatefull decision to walk and so after securing flashlights from the friendly Alberto, no charge, we set off.

Setting the anchor, somewhere off Baja Mexico Sur

Whenever you hear, “don’t worry there is a trail all the way to the beach," alarm bells should be ringing, and ringing. About 20 minutes into what would turn into a 2 hour hike while navigating a particularly cactus rich spot at the nub end of dusk mike took a wrong step and after impaling his foot on a vicious cactus fell spread-eagle into the worst cactus patch I have ever seen. Having no alternative but to roll his way out he impaled a large portion, over 60 percent, of his body on this cactus mattress. Of course this slowed us down as we had to stop and remove some of the more offensive spines from his feet, back and arms. We continued on eventually, with the flashlights on, and walked up on the beach side campfire that our friends had thoughtfully made and flopped on the ground not even considering how screwed we were for the ensuing night. Gradually it came to us, the boat is out there, a ways, and we are in here with no boat, the food is out there, the sleeping bags and extra gear is out there, everything is out there . . . Ever tried to find wood on a beach in Baja Mexico? It’s a full time job.

The variety of cactus that brought Mike low.

I haven’t spent a night out so unprepared since I started going out of doors. We were given about a pound and a half of meatloaf and gravy, yeah I know random, when we got the flashlights, which I had walked back and so we wolfed that down, buried some coals under about 12 inches of sand, watched a good sized snake, 3-4 feet, slither by, killed a scorpion and laid down as close to the fire as we dared and got what sleep we could. Needless to say I got a lot more than Mike as I wasn’t lying on my own private pin cushion. Mike got a bunch of wood throughout the night though . . .

Spine removal, note the proper tools, excellent hygiene and abundant help.

I would say we woke up the next day but more appropriatly the sun dawned on mike and I shivering on lukewarm sand and thoroughly smoked. We walked back to Little Boat, lost the path several times even during the day and she started on the third pull. ??! Of course. Answer: it takes all night for an Evenrude 9.9 horse outboard to clear flooded sparkplugs. Check.
And then insult to injury as Lennis was back at the beach with Little Boat a plate sized stingray got him right through the strap of his sandal and laid him out for the day. Mike and I spent the day on the boat, doing nothing.

Lennis's foot and the stingray aftermath.

Tomorrow we will set off for the south, really.