Richard's Travel Blog

Until today we were staying in Yangsan, a suburb of Busan (Pusan), with these friends of Myung’s. I know it’s all pixelated, but it came from another camera. The woman, Kwong Ja, is her friend from all the way back in elementary school. The man, Il Hwan, is that woman’s husband. We decided to stay here for a while, and today we moved to an apartment. Those friends gave us some stuff to get started with. Other than that, moving was no harder than packing our packs up and going over there. Here is Il Hwan in his studio. His work is applying images to surfaces of window curtains, tiles, or any other surface. His stuff makes one want a place where you could put it up.

In a way, Myung and I have taken a step closer together. In another way, we are taking a break from travelling. Myung is from this area and knows people. It makes sense, and I’m looking forward to hanging out with Myung and getting to know the place I’m in better than I usually do. I’m going to try to pick up some Korean and see if I can become halfway functional here. Should be interesting all the way around.
Myung’s friends are all very nice. One of them has a restaurant. Here is Myung with assorted friends.

Becoming Korean takes a little rewiring of my circuitry. For example, many people just love kareoke. Doing this requires taking a deep breath and doing as the Romans do.

There are popular songs in English too. I sang “Hotel California” by request. Everyone clapped along and played tamborines.
“On a dark desert highway/Cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitis/Rising up through the air…”
In another way, I’m still travelling alone.

“We haven’t had that kind of spirit here since 1969”.

The couple we were staying with, Il Hwan and Kyung Ja (Don’t ask me if I’ve transliterated that correctly) have a 14 year old son, Dong Ei. He’s the number two student at his middle school.

A few days have passed since I wrote what you’ve read so far and added the photos. Since moving to our new place, I haven’t had much access to a computer. Finally today, we went to Il Hwan’s office (the man we were staying with) and I have a little time to send something. He has to go in about a half hour, so I think I’ll make this entry shorter than I originally intended.
Our studio apartment is perfectly suitable for us, especially since we don’t have stuff to fill a big place. It has a nice view out the window. The tomb os some ancient king is out there. Ther second picture is just panning to the right.

Yangsan is situated along what you might call the Busan-Ulsan strand in southeast S. Korea. This strand goes between two low mountain ranges, if you can call 500 meter hills mountains. So, either way you go to the side is almost completely uninhabilted greenery. Some roads and paths go in there., and there are a few popular places and temples. It’s like East Bay Regional Parks behind the urban East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. The main difference is that S. Korea is 70% like this, so it goes on and on. Here are some pictures of one of the ways into the hills by Yangsan and a temple there.

Il Hwan needs to go in about 10 minutes, so this is it for blogging for now. My sincere apologies to those of you who haven’t gotten responses to emails for a while. I had hoped to be able to use Myung’s notebook, but it turns out no carrier wants to ship a notebook for fear of damaging it. We tentatively plan to to pick it up and do some other things in Seoul on July 5, so we can get it then. Meanwhile, I should be able to use a computer between now and then.
So, until between now and then, be well all of you.

I haven’t had much access to a computer for most of the time I’ve been in Korea. After a few days in Seoul, Myung and I went to a nice place in the mountains then another place without easy access. Then we went to Jeju Island and stayed well out of Jeju City. There, one day I imposed on the guesthouse owners to use their personal computer, but only once in the 11 days we were there. It’s hard to believe we’ve been here three weeks already. Finally, we are staying with friends of Myung’s in Yangsan, a suburb of Pusan, also spelled Busan.
I guess I’ll go chronologically and begin with Seoul, which is where I landed on my flight from Hanoi. That first picture is of a river through downtown Seoul that was reclaimed after being buried under city for a long time. From the beginning, this going around in Korea has been very different from almost any other travelling I’ve done. Obviously that’s because I’m with a Korean. She’s basically taking me around to all these nice places. I don’t have difficulties due to the language barrier. Taking buses other public transportation is a snap. Having an authentic experience is easy, as we can relate to the people ever so much easier, not to mention sometimes we are visiting or staying with friends or family.
It occurs to me I should be taking pictures of her friends and family. She has some pics on her camera. Maybe next entry I’ll get hers uploaded onto here. In Seoul she has a couple of sisters. We visited with them, but stayed in a couple of hotels, one very nice one the first night we got back together after I was exiled to Vietnam and one cheay backpacker place.
Seoul isn’t very photogenic, but my impressions are that it’s really pretty nice for a megalopolis of 15 million people. It has clean air and streets, doesn’t sprawl all over northern South Korea because most people live in highrises, doesn’t have a lot of oppressive traffic as most people use public transportation, and the people are nice. It reminds me of Singapore, though it’s not as affluent as that.

I only took a few pictures there, and that one of the little kids was one of them. There are a couple of a changing of the guard ceremony at the palace.

One of the cool things we did there was watch this traditional music and dance program. It’s too bad photography wasn’t allowed, but at least the performers went out front to mingle with the audience after the program.

After that we did some temple visiting and scenic walking. I’m tempted to just insert a blizzard of all my temple pictures now instead of naming the places and all that. Hmm, I think I will do the ones before Jeju, that is, Hwaomsa and Haenam. They do show what a pretty, green country Korea is. Often routine buildings are set nicely in the surroundings. Korea is almost all hilly, and because they build up, the hill and mountaintops aren’t covered with development like in the US.

Originally we thought we might do “templestays” but have so far just gotten rooms in guesthouses or hotels. Those are interesting here. Koreans do a lot of things on the floor, like eat off one foot high tables and sleep on mats which are rolled up and put away during the day. I’m sitting on the floor now, typing on a laptop on a footstool. Traditional guesthouses are just rooms with mats. I’m kind of partial to chairs, but it’s okay. Jeju Island is off the south coast of mainland Korea. There we got a studio with a kitchenette, a regular bed and a dining table with chairs. The cooktop was on the floor, but that was okay too. Few kitchens have ovens. Here is the place.

And here is one of Myung and three members of the nice family who run it. They were having a barbeque and invited us. It was about a 10 minute walk to the seashore.
To get to the seashore you walk on one of several roads like this. This shoreline is about a ten minute walk from our guesthouse and is typical of the 200 km shoreline all the way around Jeju.

Myung and I have been on the road for quite a while, so we have no problem just hanging out. That’s what we mostly did on Jeju. Sometimes we just stayed in our room and watched TV, only going out for little walks or something. There are some touristy sights, like an interesting rock sculpture garden, a botanical garden, traditional village exhibits and various commercial points of interest. Mostly, Jeju is about the scenery. It’s a volcanic island, so everywhere are laterite stones used for fencing and decoration. There is, as I said, 200 km of shoreline. The center is mountainous, the centerpiece being Mt. Halla, a 1900-something meter volcano which hasn’t erupted in 9000 years. It is the highest peak in South Korea. Here are some pictures of scenery.

That last one is on Mt. Halla. As you can see, the wildflowers are wonderful and the 360 secondary volcanic cones on the island are interesting. That reminds me, my leg is getting better. It’s about a 10 km schlep there and back, and I tolerated it fine.

I have three pictures from a traditional wedding a couple was having in one of the mock traditional villages. They had this dancing, and here is the bride.

Again and again, you see the beautiful curving contours of traditional buildings against a background of soft green mountains. Anywhere these buildings are, you can look at the shapes from many, many angles and it almost looks like you are looking at a different place. I wish I could capture it in photos, but I think most of you know what I mean. Well, it’s even better in person.

Those were all taken in Haeinsa, another beautiful temple area. To be sure, some of the most stunning places are theswe temple areas, but that style of building is contemporary also.

From there we went to stay with her friend from elementary school days and her husband in Yangsan. Between this friend and her other two friends from elementary school days who live nearby, we’ve had this nice combination of being made to feel at home and given options of many things to do. I don’t know how long we will stay. Myung basically shrugged when I asked her. Sometime soon I’ll blog again. Meanwhile, as always, be well all of you.

This is my last day in Vietnam before leaving for Seoul, Korea at 11:30 PM tonight. This morning about 6:30 AM I went out in the cool early morning for a little victory lap around the scenic Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Returning Sword) in Hanoi’s old quarter. There on the west side was a line of a couple thousand obviously Buddhists walking slowly. I asked one westerner who was in robes, but taking pictures so I figured I could interrupt his silence, what was going on. The Buddha’s birthday was a couple days ago, so I didn’t think that was it. He said the revered Zen monk, author and world peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh, was leading walking meditation. He told me “Thi” was allowed to return from exile in 2005, which I didn’t know. I walked up to the front of the snaking crowd, took a couple pictures and joined them for a while.

That’s him, second Zen master from the left, still not looking his 80-something years of age.

I have only spent about 2 1/2 weeks in Vietnam. Myung went from Pakse, Laos to Bangkok and on to Seoul. I went from Pakse by minibus to Pleiku, Vietnam and on to Nha Trang. There I was able to scuba dive for a couple of days. I was fairly pleased with the dives. The coral is beginning to turn white, like coral around the world, but it’ll be okay for a few more years. The places were fished out, with only the small clowns and like that remaining. There were many eels and scorpion fish. Visiblity was about 15 meters. All in all, I’d say they were typical South China Sea dives.
We had a little motorbike mishap back in Vientianne which I though was nothing. Myung got exactly one scrape. I got a few and big hematoma on the inside of my left knee. All the moving parts were totally fine so I just figured the hematoma would resolve. After about three weeks it was still puffing up after the slightest exercise, so I had it drained of 150 cc of fluid in Nha Trang, and chilled out there doing nothing for a few days in order to rest it. I have no pictures from Nha Trang. It’s not that photogenic.
When I determined I was good to go, I went to the next big tourist town up the coast, Hoi An. There is still much remailing of the old city of a hundred or more years ago, and the old quarter is a World Heritage site.

I’ve been staying in nicer, usually air conditioned digs ever since hooking up with Myung. This is my hotel in Hoi An. It’s typical of what I’d call upscale backpacker class.

Near Hoi An are the Champa ruins of My Son. The Cham were contemporaries of the the builders of Angkor Wat and obviously much influenced by them. You’ve seen so many ruins pictures, I’ll just post one.

Next I went to Hue, the capital for a thousand years before the French shifted administation to Hanoi and left the impotent king to preside over a useless court there. Then of course came the Americans, and that was that for the monarchy when we taught them truth, justice and The American Way. When I came to Hue in 1999, a couple of days after a big typhoon, the place was a disaster area. Thousands had perished and there was terrible destruction. Buildings were flattened and trees uprooted, like you’ve been seeing on the news about Myanmar. I plodded throught he mud wondering how they were ever going to put Hue back together, how they were going to repair the damaged historical architecture. They, of course, were looking for their loved ones and crowding around army trucks getting rice and water. Well, it rose from the dead quite nicely. There are thousands of nine year old trees. The river and other channel embankments are better by far. There are paved roads all over the place. Bamboo buildings have been replaced with wood and brick. And the sites are restored. It looks so different, as you can imagine. Doesn’t the Perfume River look nice when it isn’t devastated?

This last one is a reminder of the Tet offensive.
Water puppetry is a uniquely Vietnamese art for. With poles and wires they run puppets around in a body of water, usually telling traditional stories to music. They have such a program in Hue. It was amazingly hard to get good pictures. Sorry.

There is a bigger puppet show in Hanoi, with live music. At least nine years ago it was live. I was going to go the night before last, but it was a Saturday evening and the shows were all sold out. So I’m glad I went in Hue.
My last stop was here in Hanoi. I really didn’t feel like doing much, so I didn’t. It was only three days and two nights anyway. My all night bus ride from Hue left me without much energy the first day. Yesterday I went on a day tour of Halong Bay. Many if not most of you have seen pictures of this area. Here are a few.

On one of the islands is this big cave. They have it all lit up and purty.

So then came this morning. My ticket is confirmed. I’ve figured out the cheap ride to the airport, had what may be my last western breakfast for a while, and watched CNN for about an hour and a half before coming here to blog. I am so ready to see Myung again. I should be interesting, meeting her family and friends. We are tentatively going to visit in Seoul for a little bit, do some temple stays as we go south, visit in Ulsan, then chill on Jeju Island, off the south coast.
As always, be well, all of you. And Happy Mother’s Day to you mommies.

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a month since Myung and I got to Laos. We’ve actually taken our time about seeing some of the stuff here. After several days in Luang Prabang, we went to Vang Vieng, Vientianne, Savannakhet, Pakse and Si Pan Don, which translates as 4000 Islands, in the far south on the Cambodian border. It’s been great and mellow at the same time. Mellow is a good way to travel in these parts during this hot part of the year. In the heat, one’s desire to do much outdoors is somewhat limited. Myung wilted, so we got air conditioned rooms for the rest of the time. Ah, luxury is nice.
Laos has changed dramatically since I was here nine years ago. There are paved roads tomany places where there were none before. There is reliable electricity and other conveniences, not the least of which are internet access and cell phones. Except for those things, I think Laos is much like Thailand was about 20 years ago. The villages are very villagey. Even the tourist places are so much less jaded than in Thailand. The down side is that the prices are up. It’s about as expensive here as in Thailand. It’s still cheap, though. Guesthouse rooms run from $5 to about $12, if you get air con, attached bathroom and a TV. There are still remarkably few cars, vans and even trucks on the road, but at least there are roads. China is obviously very invested here. Many of the businesses and investments are Chinese. The flood of capital is changing Laos quickly. My advice is to come here as soon as possible while it’s still what you’d imagine Laos to be.
Vang Vieng is as diferent as it gets from before. Nine years ago there were about three guesthouses, very little tourist scene and it was bout 1/4 as big. The things to do haven’t changed. The main things are still to gawk at the sceneryn go to caves and trekking, and to tube down the Nam song River. Drugs may be illegal, but you’d hardly know it. Joints and “happy” food and drinks, and opium and mushroom tea are on the menus in some of the restaurants. It still feels mostly like regular Laos, butnot for long, I’d wager.

We chiiled out there, if chilling is possible in the hot season, and headed for Vientianne. Need I say things are changing there too? There are paved roads in most of the city, sidewalks, and a generally western feel. It’s still boring, though. the best thing we did was go up to Buddha Park during the first part of the lunar new year festivities. This is the biggest holiday in Laos. It’s atime for renewal. The most obvious celebrating is in the form of throwing water on everybody, like Songcrans in Thailand. We drove a motorbike up to Buddha Park, getting soaked along the way, to see the religious stuary there. This place was a single man’s creation. He was trying to meld the worlds religious symbols into one,and was clearly unique in his view.

That’s Myung in the pink, taking a picture. And what’s up with the guy pulling the leg of the grasshopper? I think he was pulling our legs. They had a Miss Laos-like contest too.

From there we went to Savannakhet. That’s about nine hours by bus from Vientianne and we stopped over there on the way to Pakse. Lunar new year festivities were still going on, so we basically tried to stay dry. Here is the view from the balcony of our guesthouse.

From there it’s only about a three hour ride to Pakse. It used to be you had to take a boat down the Mekhong River, but hardly anybody does that anymore. Pakse is not much, but it is a main transit point between Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, as well as the gateway to Si Pan Don. Si Pan Don is very tranquil, though becoming a tourist center, especially in Don Det, right on the Cambodian border. We stayed on Don Khong (“Don” means “island”.) which is more “authentic”.
We stayed in Don Khong for three days and took a daylong boat tour down to Don Khong. On Don Khong we lazed around mostly, watching the colors change during the day on the Mekhong. As usual, we rented a motorbike one day and drove aound. By the way, Beerlao is as good as I remember, better than any of the Thai or Indian beers or any of the mainstream American beers.

It was a Sunday, and here was a group of people having food and fun in one of the villages.

Si Pan Don is an area where the river is dotted by many, many islands and bushes growing out of the water. These pictures are mostly taken during our boat tour.

Don Det really is a lovely place. It’s no wonder it’s attracting tourists in droves, as droves go in Laos.

There are numerous waterfalls along the Mekhong down there. The largest is Khone Phapheng. It’s the largest, by volume, in southeast Asia and looks like a little Niagara Falls, about a third as big, I’d say. I couldn’t get it all in one picture. The normally placid Mekhong falls off here and forms a natural boundry with Cambodia.

One of the big attractions there are the Irrawaddy dolphins. I presume they are the same as the Irrawaddy dolphins which live in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River, and slightly different than the highly endangered Gangetic dolphin in India. They are endangered but there is a place in the Mekhong where it forms the border with Cambodia where there is a thriving community. Now, anybody who has tried to photograph dophins can tell you, it’s hard to get a good picture of them, even the nonthreatened oceanic types. We saw many, and here’s something like a picture.

I’m never going to get a job as a National Geographic photographer. Plus, my little camera isn’t going to take good pictures of moving animals at 50 meters. WE finished dolphin watching at sunset. Here’s the stretch of river where we were taken to see them.

Between Pakse and Si Pan Don are the Angkor period ruins of Champansak. It’s no Angkor Wat, but not as crowded with people as I’ve heard Angkor Wat/Siem Reap is now.

I’m writing this from Pakse. Myung took a morning bus to Udon Ratchanburi in Thailand and I’m going east to Attapeu this afternoon. From there, I’ll go to Pleiku, Vietnam, tomorrow. Myung is going from Bangkok the day after tomorrow to Seoul where she is going to patch her bones after 8 months on the road herself and figure out what she wants to do next. She may decide to stay there a while or go to China or Nepal. Maybe we’ll travel some more, maybe in China, or maybe she’s go to Kathmandu to send handicrafts back to Korea. It’s likely at this point that she’ll stay in Korea of a while. She’ll let me know in a couple of weeks where to meet her. Any place is fine with me, though the way she tells it, Korea may be a little expensive for me. Whatever. I look forward to being with her again. For my part, I’ll go to Pleilu and decide what to do next. I may go straight on to Nha Trang where there is good diving. I wanted to dive there nine years ago, but a typhoon trashed the coast of Vietnam just while I was there and, needless to say, diving was not an option.
So, that’s it from me for now. Be well, all of you.

Myung and I have been in Luang Prabang, Laos for six days, just hanging our, trying to get around to doing something every day. It’s generally pretty hot, so it’s easy to do nothing. Luckily the two rooms we’ve taken are cool even in the middle of the day. Luang Prabang has a lot of history and the whole town is a world heritage site. That said, there isn’t all THAT much to see here. There are 31 temples, some of which go back several hundred years, but there isn’t much else left from it’s ancient days of glory. And the temples could be better cared for. There is a lot more money around here than there was nine years ago when I was here last. It has changed tremendously. It was a neglected city where some but not many tourists went. The temples were in even worse shape. And it was quite poor. Now it’s a bustling tourist center with all the things you would expect at such a place. There are dozens of guest houses and restaurants catering to foreigners, bars though not much of a nightlife, and such things as mostly reliable electricity in many places, internet and bank ATM’s. You can tell by the tourists here that Luang Prabang’s biggest problem may be in absorbing a really boisterous, western party crowd. They look so out of place here, but times change and so will Luang Prabang.
I have many pictures. I’ll just start putting them in. I think I’ll go chronologically. We crossed over into Laos at Huay Xai, spent a night there and took a minibus through the mountains of northern Laos for 13 hours to Luang Prabang. Many people take the popular two day boat down the Mekong River, but we heard and subsequently confirmed it is uncomfortable. Along the way, you could see things had changed, and not changed. There are more people dressed in pants and t-shirts and less in traditional style, but they are still doing what they have always done. What you see on a bus ride is people along the road, often selling stuff. This is like Thailand was a long time ago. I assume before long Laos will be as “boring” as Thailand has become. Anyway, here are pictures I took of some people along the road who were mostly selling and bartering, but socializing a lot.

Most of the old wats and what is the world heritage site called “Old Luang Prabang” is on a thumb where the Mekong meets another smaller river. The center is dominated by a hill called Phou Si. Here are shots of the surroundings from up there.

If the communist government here ever discouraged Buddhism, you would never know it. There are shrines and devotional activity everywhere, about the same as in Thailand, which makes sense since Laos was in Thailand before the French took it away during their Indochina colonial phase. Every morning at about 6 o’clock the monks file by with their begging bowls in groups from the different wats. Mostly people give each monk a small handful of sticky rice, but there are other things in the bowls except rice, like money. It’s a good thing they get something other than rice from some people, as mostly people give them more than enough rice to starve on. I haven’t seen a fat monk here yet.

As you can see, we did get a little unseasonal rain, but not much. After watching the monks, Myung and I usually walk up past the main tourist street to the market where they have the cheapest baguette sandwiches and Lao filter coffee, with sweetened condensed milk like I like. This is our western food fix of the day, usually. You can get it with Lao fillings of tofu or chopped boiled eggs, plus lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onions, or you can have canned tuna, American cheese singles, Oscar Meyer type sandwich ham or BBQ chicken. You can even get Best Foods mayonnaise or French’s mustard. Like I said, times have changed.

Here are many pictures of the market area. It’s like markets just about anywhere in the developing world.

Here is how a lot of people dine out.

One evening we went to the Royal Ballet which usually is about episodes of the Ramayana. There is no photography allowed during the show, but here are a couple of the performers who posed afterwards.

You’ve already seen many wat photos, but here’s just one more, of the wat on the grounds of the theater and the palace which is now a museum.

There are a couple of nearby places many tourists go. One is a waterfall I think we’ll skip. The other is called the Pak Ou caves. There are two caves, each other many mostly small Buddha statues, some hundreds of years old. It’s an interesting place, about an hour and a quarter’s ride back up the Mekong. We went on a boat like the one below. That is what most of the people transporting boats look like here. The one picture doesn’t do justice to the emerald green hills that surround this whole area.

As in Thailand, little birds are sold to people be set free. It’s all about giving sets one free. This cute kid was selling them on the steps up to one of the caves. By the way, they are trained to return to their “owners”.

It looks like we’ll head down to Veng Viang tomorrow. It’s famous for beautiful limestone cliffs behind a backdrop of the Mekong. I’ll blog from somewhere in south Laos, or maybe Veng Viang. Be well, all of you.

Sometimes Myung and I don’t visit the main border crossings. This one is north of Mae Hong Son. As usual, we rented a motorbike and drove to the places we wanted to go. This really is better than paying for this and that ride. Plus, you get the freedom to detour.

As I said before, things have changed a lot in Thailand (and in Laos, where I am writing this). You really notice how the roads have improved, and the rest of the infrastructure, like electricity, is improved and working better. The building boom is in full stride, the food isn’t so parochial all the time, and so on. One of the most stunning differences for the tourist is that the tourist scene which was a very big deal before is even more so. Central Chiang Mai is almost taken over by tourists. another place a few hours form Chiang Mai, Pai, used to be a stopover for people headed for Mae Hon Son. There was a trekking scene, but it wasn’t much of anything. Now it’s a full blown tourist ghetto. If you get out of those places, though, things are mostly as they were. Here is tofu being made the old way.

And elephants are still used as work animals.

Along the borders with Myanmar and Laos, there are many tribal people. Hmong, called Meo here, are numerous.

“THE thing” to do when you go to Mae Hong Son is to go see the Long-Neck Karen. No self respecting blogger could post neews of his visit to Mae Hong Son without post pictures of them. For those of you who don’t know, these women’s necks aren’t stretched; their shoulders are pushed down over time. There are a lot more of them in Mae Hong Son province than last time I was here. They are evidently getting mainstreamed into Thai society, whereas before, they were refugees limited to strips of land between the Myanmar border and the border checkposts. The first picture is of one just shopping normally at the big market in Mae Hong Son.

The rest of these were taken at one of their villages near Mae Hong Son. Here are pictures of them and their village.

These next pictures are of Mae Hon Son’s showpiece lake in the center of town. Like many nice tourist areas, it’s nice in the daytime and at night. Most of the guesthouses surround it, so the thing to do is stroll around and maybe eat or have a drink at oneof the places around the edge.

Myung is into hot springs, so we have been going to some of the many. It would be nice if there were nice ones like this in the US with a one dollar entry fee.

I just had to take a picture of this sign showing where the handicapped bathroom was at another hot spring. For starters, I don’t think they would have had a handicapped bathroom nine years ago, but what I really like is the politically incorrectness of it. All that kind of stuff is so relative. One of the things you learn when you travel a lot is how relative almost everything is. There are lessons to be learned.

What we did in Northern Thailand was follow the tourist route for the most part. Chiang Mai, Pai and Mae Hong Son are definitely part of that. We then headed up to Mai Sai, a main Myanmar border crossing, via Tha Ton. There are lots of nice pictures. Here are just a couple. The first is of the hillside in Tha Ton. The second is of the river forming the Thailand-Myanmar border taken from our guesthouse in Mai Sai.

From there we headed for Laos. We’re in Luang Prabang now. The sawngthow rides to Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong were uneventful, unless you are into ancient ruins of the long gone Chiang Saen empire from the 11th century. Crumbling ruins are all over the place there. I figure you’ve seen enough crumbling ruin pictures. We crossed over to Huay Xai on the Lao side, hung out for a day, then took a minibus to Luang Prabang. I’ll blog about Laos sometime soon. All I need to say here is that Laos is sure different than nine years ago. If I hadn’t seen the changes in Thailand, I’d say you wouldn’t believe it. Internet access here may speak for itself. Electricity all over the city may speak for itself, for that matter. And, there are loads of tourists. Will wonders never cease?
It looks like we’ll just hang out in Luang Prabang for a while. Maybe I’ll even blog from here. Meanwhile, as always, be well, all of you.

It’s been nine years since I did that two month stint at the Shan health clinic in Maung Na, on the border with Myanmar almost directly north of Chiang Mai. Fror those of you who didn’t know me then or have forgotten the story, I came to Thailand with the intention of “doing something good”, and hooked up with a little NGO called the Burma Relief Center. Pippa Curwen, the woman running that operation but I couldn’t find this time, sent me up to this village to work with Shan people who had come across the border about a kilometer away. Many people came across from Myanmar to escape the persecution, flee the army if they were thought to be involved with the resistence, were actually part of the resistence, or were driven across with amphetamines and expected to turn that over to Thais on the other side whereupon they would probably be transported to Bangkok or some other city to be put into brothels. Obviously, many therefore got trapped between the border and the border patrols and forbidden to go further. Hence, it was basically a refugee village.
To make a long story short, that clinic was also a Shan resistance medic training center. I trained medics and ran the clinic for the Shan who did not qualify to get help at the Thai government clinic in town after the real doctor disapeared shortly after I got there. He got a kidney stone, took off and was never seen around there again. I did that for about two months before it got hot politically. The Shan resistance leadership thought I might be unreliable, tore down the clinic, took the supplies and meds, and headed into the forest. Even though the experience lasted only two months, it was one of the the most interesting experiences I’ve ever had.
At the time, Maung Na was hardly developed. There was a gravity water system to a few places which didn’t work during the monsoon or after the dry period was well in progress. There was little electricity. By far, most of the buildings were bamboo and thatch. There was pavement on the main road through town, but not before or after you got there. There was one phone that wasn’t at the police station. It was surrounded by forest. The clinic was rudimentary, and with me in charge you can imagine the lack of quality care those people had. Malaria was a big killer. Dengue was common, and I had no good way to tell the difference. Plus, they had everything else anybody anywhere might have.
Myung and I rented a jeep and took a one day trip up there. It was unbelieveably different. One thing that wasn’t different was that finding someone who spoke English was nearly impossible. We found a school teacher who spoke a little. She directed us to a house where a young man spoke a little better. That man told us there was a new clinic between the Shan village and the nearby Lahu village, and that that was now the one clinic for all. We didn’t pick his brains totally, but it does seem that the Shan are now getting care at an official clinic. There is an eversomuch higher standard of living there now. It doesn’t seem like a refugee village at all. There are many sound buildings and the people just don’t look like refugees any more.
There are eateries, after a fashion, a couple of decent shops and a market. The road is paved all the way to town and for a few kilometers beyond. There is electricity all over the place. People have cars and motorbikes. The forest has been largely cut down or burned, presumably for agriculture. The dirt lanes are gone and I had a terrible time finding my way around on the roads and through the modern development.
I’m sure there is a long story. Some day I may try to go back and find it all out. This time it was all we could do to find one person to help us as much as he did. For sure, the people of Maung Na are in a lot better shape than they used to be. I may not have learned a lot, but it’s good to know that much has definitely happened.

It occurred to me today that that I may be living in the best of two worlds. Though Myung and I sometimes take forever to communicate a thought, we are getting better at it. This means there is some content to our conversation. It adds value to our relationship and fulfills the need in us to release our pent up desires to be understood and to understand. At the same time, we don’t just babble away like most native speakers. Yes, there is chit chat, but when you have to actually put some effort into talking this way, it loses the point of making just any kind of contact or satisfying a tiny need. The little efforts to reach out are then more satisfying. So, too, are the frequent silent periods. During these times we can both retreat into our reveries, compose out thoughts, mull over the issues that we have in our minds. I’m finding I like it in there. She says she does too. It’s easy to read or space out around each other, so we’ve come to be fine just sitting together and sharing the experience of knowing we’re in our own places with our playmate outside when we want to come out. It’s too early to know if we are compatible, but there is an ease to this which instinct tells me is a good sign. It’s hard to believe I’ve only been back with her for 11 days.
For that matter, it’s hard to believe I’ve only been back on the road for 11 days. It’s almost like I never left. I guess not remarkably, it feels like I’m not so much in Thailand instead of India now, but “on the road”, whatever that state of mind is made of. It just goes to show what feeling at home really is, definitely not being at a physical place for everybody, not me. At home for me seems to be about moving on. I’m moving on to the next stop, the next mood, the next experience of whatever. This time it’s not so much about the next place as the next step with Myung. Obviously this is a time of relationship development for both of us. We’ve gotten past asking if this will amount to anything. It has amounted to something and we’re trying to make more happen. Do I care if I’m in Thailand? Well, yes, it’s interesting and all, but I can’t honestly say it is in the forefront for me. It gives us something to chit chat about.
We do a lot of comparing and contrasting with our previous experiences here. I was here nine years ago and she was here four years ago. As you can imagine, a lot has changed and a lot has remained the same. Some things will never change much. The Royal Palace and wats (temples) around Bangkok are just as they were, picture postcard perfect images of Thai tradition.

Of course, there is the present. Here is a “water bus”, a comon mode of public transportation along many of Bangkok’s canals.

We hung out in Bangkok for a few days, refamiliarizing ourselves with each other and going on some of the basic excursions to a few of the popular places. She had been there for a while before I returned, and I didn’t feel the need to hang around much, so we went up to Ayutthaya, the site of the capital of Thailand before it was moved to Bangkok in, what, 1763 or around then. There are a number of often heavily restored temples, stupas (called chedi here), palaces, etc.. I’ll just put in pictures of one place, one taken during the day and one at night.

Here is a famous Buddha statue. All that shows of this stone image is the face peering out through the tentacles of a banyan tree.

Something has to point us in a direction, so so far it’s been the tourist trail northward. The next stop was Sukothai, the 13th-15th century Thai capital before Ayutthaya. It was the first capital of a united Thai people not ruled by Burmese, Khmer or earlier nearby civilizations. We’re here now. Today we’re just hanging out. Yesterday we went to the Historical Park. What a lovely ride around on a motorbike that was! I had forgotten what a pleasant place it is.

I remember this elegant, androgenous Buddha from when I was here before. This replica of statuary of this type during the Sukothai period was new and still shiny black when I was here before. It’s the rust brown of the brick ruins now, fitting in well. I still think it’s beautiful.

Tomorrow we’re going to step off the tourist trail a bit and head over to Mae Sot, on the Myanmar border not far to the west of here. I was there before. It, and all along the border, is an interesting mix of Thais and minorities from Thailand and Myanmar. As I recall, the streets are full of people of many different look, dress, color aesthetics and behaviors. I think it will be interesting. Interesting also should be trying to see through the surface. These border areas are a a haven and a hell for many. Trafficking of all sorts, illicit and otherwise goes on here. Most of it is below the radar of the average tourist. It will be interesting to see what I may still have the ability to discern regarding that. Of course, it will be even more interesting to see the village where I spent a couple months working with refugees for a couple of months back in 1999. That is a couple of weeks off, though. For now it’s to Mae Sot and up to Mae Hong San in the far northwest.
I’ll write again before too long. It shouldn’t be as difficult as in 1999. At that time there was exactly on computer in Mae Hong San where the public could access the net, and it was long distance dial-up at a prohibitively dear cost. Be well, all of you.

Postscript first: I wrote this a couple of days ago while I was still in the States, but didn’t get around to including the pictures. I’ve been in Bangkok for a couple of days now and everything is great. More on my so-called adventures later.
Hi everyone. It’s been about 7 weeks since I returned to California from India. Again, it’s been interesting. In some ways it’s like returning home, and in some ways it’s like my life is on the road and this has been a “vacation”. It’s been a time of touching base with my friends and loved ones, and a time of loss as at least one has drifted away. In any case, certainly peripheral friends could be possibly disappearing for good unless I spend a significant time here. Part of me is still a Californian and an American. Part of me is no longer those.
In general, I’ve had a good time here. I got done almost all the things I needed to. Some business and personal matters will always be around, needing attention from time to time. And like I said, I touched bases as well as I could, though I’m leaving for Thailand now with wishes I could have done more. At the same time, I am really excited about hitting the road again and meeting up with Myung in Bangkok. There are always some feelings of ambivalence. It goes with the territory. You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.
I have few specific plans for the foreseeable future. The only thing I really want to do is go the the village on the border with Myanmar north of Chang Mai where I once acted as a health professional for mostly Shan refugees. It must have changed a lot since I was there in 1999. Myung and i have talked about going to Myanmar and Laos. I will of course let you know what is going on.
While I was here, I spent most of the time hanging out with my friend, Barbara, who lives near Sacramento. One of the reasons i came back this time was to replace my expired passport. I gave myself plenty of time for that to be returned from Homeland Surveillance, so we took a two week road trip over the Sierras , back down the east side of those mountains to Death Valley, to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Sedona, Arizona. I’d have forgone Las Vegas, but Barbara hadn’t been there before. Here are some pictures in and from the Sierras.

We had the good fortune to be going over after the roads had been closed for several days due to snowfall.
Death Valley wasn’t quite at it’s “peak” when the most flowers are blooming in the winter ravines and dry out around March. It’s still beautiful.

This last place is the lowest point in North America, 282 ft below sea level, or about 70-something meters.
Just east of Death Valley is a ghost town from a hundred years ago called Rhyolite. They found a little gold there and it boomed for about 20 years. Well, it boomed for about 10 and took 10 more to die.

Most of you have seen pictures of the Grand Canyon, but here are a couple more. It was really pretty in the winter, and not too cold. I’ve been there in the winter when the wind comes across that wide open “sky” above the canyon and chills you to the bone immediately.

And here’s Barbara. She has been such a good friend. I feel lucky to know her.

I will be blogging again as I travel, obviously. I urge you to click on maps to follow the route. If you go to Google Maps, there are all kinds of fun links and other things to click on. I will catch up on drawing my lines ASAPTo those of you who have stayed in contact, thanks. I appreciate your efforts to connect. Be well, all of you.

We went to Hampi and Badami, then to Bijapur for a couple of days. Now we’re in Hyderabad. There are pictures of Badami and Hampi in earlier blogs, or you can search those words. Bijapur has a couple of sites from the time of Persian rule before the Moghuls. Its been hard to find an internet place that functions, and even here in Hyderabad where you’d think there would be amazing connection, there isn’t in the part of town we are in. They won’t let me tie up the line with uploading pictures, so there isn’t anything at this time from Bijapur. When I was in Hampi, I did upload a picture of the ferry across the river there and me maneuvering our bike in that…thing… that passes for a boat. They call it a coracle. They half built a bridge over the river five years ago, but cionstuction was stopped because UNESCO had reservations about whether it was a good idea to develop the area which is so rich in archeological treasures. I don’t know why they were making a special case out of this place, but the UN finally approved it. This all had something to do with assistence India was getting to build the bridge. That part I didn’t get an explanation for. Why did they need assistance with funding just this particular bridge? Oh well.

We spent Christmas Eve in Badami and Christmas Day and the day after in Bijapur. These are decidedly not Christian places, so our holiday was decidedly low key. There was a Christian church on the street where our hotel was in Bijapur, and they had lights up and music blaring. Other than that, it passed unnoticed except for some occasional reminder. I heard a cell phone ring tone with “Joy To The World”. Also, sometimes trucks and busses have backing up music instead of just beep-beep-beep. One small bus had “Silent Night”. That was about it for my Christmas.

That’s not to say I didn’t have a good time. We’re having fun, though it’s kind of weird again, doing things on something like a schedule because of my returning to the US and Myung’s going on to Nepal. We’re passing though Hyderabad now. There are thousands of people here now taking the exam for jobs with the railway, so we had to take a pretty grotty room. It’s so bad we’re just moving on tonight to Aurangabad. From there we’ll visit Ellora and Ajanta. There are a few things someone going to India should NOT miss, and these are a couple of them. Let’s see, my blogs about those places should be in last February’s list, if you want to go back and look at pics or whatever was on my alleged mind then.

Be well, all of you, and I hope you’re holiday season is wonderful.