And like that, I'm on a plane to Borneo

Sometimes dates can just sneak up on you and pull the carpet from beneath your feet. What months ago seemed like would never arrive finally has: I leave for Borneo tomrrow. I remember years ago sitting watching some animal show on the Discovery Channel thinking, "Wow, that place looks awesome. I want to go to Borneo someday." I don't recall if at the time I thought there was a chance of me ever actually going or not, but I'm sure I couldn't have found it on a map and sure as hell wouldn't have dreamed my life would, today, have me sitting in this Bangkok hotel room, packing my bags, getting ready to catch my flight out to Kota Kinabalu the next morning.

And so, tomorrow begins a three week journey for me through the northern province of Sabah, mountain climbing, rain forest trekking and scuba diving, literally living out a childhood dream.

Leaving the comforts of Thailand to travel alone through a country (it's actually part of Malaysia) I've never been to is exciting and scary all at once. I've tried to find a happy balance between planning ahead, making reservations and leaving room for the unexpected to happen. Serendipity is a cheesy word that perhaps should be left for fairy tales and the likes but I honestly believe it's what makes my travels great. The fear then is that planning for exactly what is impossible to plan for can often leave you wishing you had made some reservations with a guided tour, but I think I'll take my chances.

All this being said, the blog here will most likely take a short break as I doubt there will be many cyber cafes atop Mt. Kinabalu or at the bottom of the Sulu Sea. But, I'll be back here in Thailand on the 10th of May and will have a week catch up before I head over to China and walk down the great wall.

I'm not sure who it was, but thanks to however organized the fireworks show right outside my 15th floor balcony on my last night in Thailand

The Last Night, A tuk-tuk ride to Khao San Road

The final night for my parents in Thailand was spent how I normally spent my time in Bangkok, sipping on beers and enjoying some of the best people watching the world has to offer on Khao San Road. Having yet to ride in a tuk-tuk, we got ripped off negotiating a price there (is there any other way to take a tuk-tuk?) then flew up through China town to perhaps the most famous (that's a tough call with Siam Square and the notorious red light district of Pat Pong) street in Thailand.

If you know nothing of Khao San, it's the street where nearly all backpackers go. Of course, there's the faction of backpackers who adamently call themselves "travelers", above the "touristy" spots like Khao San. These people have a point. The road can be a rip off and a haven for the shadiest of shady, the dirtiest of dirty, the craziest of the crazy. But if that doesn't sound like good people watching, than I don't know what is. Those who believe themselves to be above Khao San Road are missing all the fun of watching the melting pot world travelers simmer and boil over on a street where literally anything can happen.

I remember, two years ago, the first time I ever stepped foot onto the road, walking right down the middle of the chaos was an old (we're talking 60's here) Thai woman, walking stark naked down the street. She wasn't casually strolling down the street but slowly taking steps forward with the glazed over look of someone high out of the gourd on drugs. The next night I saw the same woman, this time dressed in one of the common t-shirts sold at every stall in the Khao San market, walking along more alert. She spotted an older falang woman of the same age and attacked her. She went up and started yelling at the woman, not letting her by. She shoved the woman and, in what surprised me even more, the falang lady struck back. Soon the husband was breaking it up, pulling his wife's hair out of the Thai lady's hand and seperating the two. The police showed up and arrested the Thai woman and the falang lady walked away, shaking.

Sure, to some that might not sound like a good time, but to me, that's some great people watching. It's not a dangerous place but it is a place where strange things happen. Preachers stand and proclaim Jesus' love and the devil's sin in a fire and brimstone language I had trouble following, all the while people came up and taunted the guy nearly to tears. I suspect it only made his faith stronger. Anyways, if there was a place to sit and watch hippies, dreadlocks, dirty old men, slutty young girls, hip surfers, and anyone one else who for whatever reason decided one day to purchase a ticket to travel to Bangkok, this is it.

Before there was the City of Angels, there was Ayuthaya

Ancient Thailand, or Siam, spent its years at war with the Burmese. I know very little about the details of the wars, but the remains of the history are in the ancient Thai capitols of Suhkothai and here, in Ayuthaya. Oversimplified, the history between Burma and Thailand is one country would invade the other, sack the capitol, take all the riches, burn it to the ground and go home victorious. The loser would then rebuild a new capitol, this time meant to be indestructible, and then would go back and sack the other's capitol. Eventually the tables would turn again however, and then once again a capitol would be sacked, looted and burned, giving victory to the other side. In Thailand's case this meant that both old capitols are today left in ruins, only small reminders of what used to be.

Still, Ayuthaya is an amazing place. Old temples stand tall around the entire city and small bits of brick ruins stand in the oddest of places like down small alleys and between common houses. The city must have been amazing when it was at its peak. This main wat salvaged from the ruins of centuries ago still exhibits the impressive architecture of Siam. Today the foundations are sagging from the earth's shifting but many large chedis still stand.

As obvious from the pictures, this wat displays a large number of Buddhas. Lining the inner walls, standing atop a main building, praying inside other buildings, the Buddhas are everywhere. Most are clothed in gold silk, offered up from local Buddhists making merit. What's not obvious is the incredible heat a visitor must endure walking around the wat. This dog had the right idea, finding some shade and staying in it. I, on the other hand, was walking around, up and down stairs, sweating my falang ass off.



Ayuthaya is one of those places you visit and wish you could have seen back in its prime. The entire city must have been spectacular, given the number of ruins sitting across the modern city. Still, what would have really been impressive to see is the famous battle in which Siam reclaimed the city from the Burmese in which an epic battle between Kings was fought on elephants' backs.

We only had half a day for our tour of Ayuthaya and could only see a fraction of the sights but here were some of the highlights. Taking a boat tour down the rivers that combine to create a moat around the entire city, I shot some pictures of other ruins that we only saw from the water.

Apart from the ruins, the boat ride was more interesting because of its view of how Thai people live. Most of the houses were modest, but usually decorated by hanging orchids and potted plants. Clothes are hanging out to dry where ever there was space and every home on the river had a stairway or some form of access to the water. The brown, dark water seemed to dirty for any healthy use but we saw people cleaning their clothes, fishing, and swimming in the river.

After we went out to the grandest of ruins, something we Americans are only use to seeing (or imagining) in Central and South America, built by the Incas, Aztecs, and Mayans. Foundations, pillars, and even large chedis still stand at this wat in central Ayuthaya. Again, the heat here was stifling. Shade was nearly non-existant. This made the walk around the grounds more brief than it should have been, but these pictures are still show the remainder of a great dynasty.

Here, people have found loose bricks on the ground and stacked them on top of each other, a superstitious Thai tradition. It's meant to give one a long, healthy life. I'm not sure if I believe that, but admittedly I found some bricks and made a stack of my own. Hey, it couldn't hurt.

Today the capitol of Thailand is Bangkok, or, as the Thais call it "Grung Tahyp". Bangkok is the falang name given to the city years ago, while France was colonizing French Indochina and the British had taken over Burmese thus putting an end to any major conflict with the Thais. The name "Grung Tahyp" means "city of angels" but that's not it. Bangkok's real name is actually the longest of any city in the entire world. The full name of the capitol city translated means, "The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayuthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn". How's that for a mouthful? Even most of my students couldn't say the entire name from memory. Suddenly, Ayuthaya doesn't seem so hard to pronounce.

the days we live for

There's no argument: Ko Phi Phi is among the most beautiful islands in the world. Devastated by the tsunami a couple years ago, it's still in some disarray amidst trying to rebuild itself, but its natural beauty of huge cliffs make it easy to sit on the beach all day, taking in the scenery. Fogged over from taking the camera from the air conditioning of the room out into the morning heat, this is the view from my parent's balcony over-looking one of the two main bays.

Phi Phi is not the only island in the area. A short boat ride away are Mosquito Island, Bamboo Island, and the popular Maya Beach where the movie The Beach was filmed (minus the fields of pot.) We hired a longtail boat for the day and spent the afternoon cruising around to the different beaches and islands, stopping to jump in and snorkel at several different reefs.

A mellow, dark-skinned Thai guy drove us around from place to place without ever saying much. He drove the boat, took us where ever we wanted to go and slept in a hammock he hung in his boat while waiting. You gotta dig his steering wheel.



On one beach we were greeted by monkeys. These little buggers look at you expecting something. They're all fat little guys that hang out on the beach scrapping for bananas that tourists throw out to them. A couple of them even snagged bottles of pepsi and chugged them down. Every once in a while the monkeys would get aggressive and scare the shit out of some people. Other times they would start fighting with each other scrapping around making a racket while swinging at each other.



Days spent like this are the life. Relax a little, swim a little. See some monkeys, swim a little more. Relax on the boat and watch the limestone cliffs go by. Snorkel a little, then walk on the beach. Take a nap, have some lunch, swim a little more and then get back on the boat to head to another islands.

For the most part the beaches were uncrowded and the snorkeling spots were frequented by diverse schools of fish. The water was crystal clear. Shade was at a premium and sun screen was not optional. Those who refused to put any on burned horribly. Constantly putting sun screen on was annoying but hardly worth complaining about island hopping in paradise.

Drink the whiskey, throw the water

New Years Eve in New York City is one hell of a party but it's got nothing on Thai's new year celebration of Songkran. Celebrated anywhere from 3 to 7 days depending on the city, Songkran is an all out, country-wide water fight. Along with the squirt guns and buckets of water, people also smear white powder on each other's faces and, of course, drink copius amounts of alcohol. The celebration is truly of epic proportions. A sobering account of how crazy people get is this year's toll of over 300 deaths from alcohol-water related accidents.

For those who live in Thailand, or for those traveling without having to worry about time, the several day celebration is a relentless party. For my parents on a short visit however, we spent the water fights on the island where, if anything, the water was refreshing.

Stepping onto the boat in Phuket we were greeted by a band and several kids giving us flower necklaces, wiping our faces with wet, white powder and shooting us with squirt guns. The band jammed for the entire hour and a half boat ride to Ko Phi Phi.

Arriving at the island we were greeted by a guy from our hotel, already soaking wet and covered in powder. He grabbed our bags, put them on a cart, then continued to wait for other people, all while drinking his can of Beer Chang. Nobody escaped the getting wet or being wiped white with powder. Eventually we headed back through town, the guy pushing our luggage on a cart, and us walking behind, easy targets for the small parties that stood along the sidewalks ready to drench us. At the end of the gauntlet, we each were drenched.

The party on Ko Phi Phi didn't last as long as the festivals in other cities. The next day there were only minor water fights and we missed them all, spending the day snorkeling and island hopping. But, when traveling with your parents -even if your mother is a water war veteran from Texas- it's better to keep the water skirmishes to a couple isolated incidents and enjoy the rest of the time only as wet as you want to be.

The unexpected sightings of animals that make the trip

Sure, it isn't wild, but driving down the road and then seeing a elephant walking down the road makes you pay attention. I'd guess this elephant spends its days letting tourists ride its back through the woods but still, its owner here is only leading it along the road with a stick. If that elephant wanted to, it could trample the guy and go on a good tear through the local villages before anyone could do anything about it. I doubt it would happen but I gave the big guy lots of space as I drove around him through the rain.

And then at Khao Sok National Park, my dear mother refused to go hiking because of the leeches that smelled for blood along the trails waiting to suck on some unknowing host. We got her out of the car though, but only to walk around the main entrance of the park and up to see one of the many tree houses visitors can stay in. It wasn't until we arrived back to our resort that my day looked on his leg to find a strange wound leaking blood. It was the unmistakable mark left from a leech, the anti-coagulent from them keeping the small, bleeding spot from healing. They're sneeky little bastards, sucking on you without you feeling a thing.

Khao Lak's Police Boat

Mentioning the town of Khao Lak in any conversation immediately brings up the tsunami of 2004. Khao Lak was hit the hardest of any place in Thailand, killing more than 5,000, injuring a countless number of people and completely devastating the town in the process. Videos are sold of the natural massacre but I've never watched it, heeding the advice of those who have. The explicit video is a compilation of home videos showing the wave steamrolling through the town burying everything in its path. Today most of the town is rebuilt but standing as a permanent reminder of the sheer power and magnitude of the tsunami, nearly 2 kilometers from shore sits this large police boat.

It has now become a tourist attraction, one that demands attention. It's truly unbelievable that the wave had the strength to carry such a huge boat that far inland. Unable to fathom of such a wave, the boat shows the travelers who go to Khao Lak today that the tsunami brought destruction beyond most imaginations.

A Family Day, Then Remembering Dave's Great Fall

Living in Khao Lak nearly two years ago, I loved the place because there was never a lack of things to do. A motorbike can get you to one of five national parks, four waterfalls, or an innumerable number of beaches. Even more exciting can be a ride down some unknown roads enjoying a scenic drive and looking for something or nothing at all. With my parents in town with such a short period of time, I drove them to the highlights of these places, another grand tour of Thailand's Andaman coast.

On the way to the grandest of waterfalls in the south, I made a quick stop to this waterfall, reduced to cascading trickles during the hot season. Still, when you're from Michigan, any waterfall is beautiful and it was worth the short detour through the countryside.

The roadtrip to Nam Tang waterfall goes north along the coast to the small town of Takuapa before turning east and winding through the mountains thickly covered in forest. Along the way you'll always see some rainfall and you'll never know if it's raining at the waterfall until you get there. The rain on the way was barely enough to necessitate using the windshield wipers and when we arrived we could have used some clouds in the sky to help reduce the sun's mid-day heat.

The falls are in a national park and it's a small hike to get back to the cliff. Along the way is this bridge, a rebuilt, safer version of what spanned the gap in the rocks a year or so earlier (see: pic with me standing above the bridge). I mention this because on a fateful day when the bridge was no so safe, I walked the trail with two friends on a violently rainy day. The winds and the sharp rain made the waterfall powerfully beautiful but unbearable, with no place to hide from the elements. We watched the water gush down from the cliff and shoot down from the sky for a mere 5 minutes before leaving.

Then, walking back through the rain my friend Dave in mid-conversation slipped on the slippery wood surface of the bridge, grabbed at a weak railing, and pulled it down with him as he careened off a large rock and fell to the stoney creek at least 4 meters below. The fall was no joke. I remember being petrified, having no idea what to do. Dave had landed below into rocks sitting in very little water. In a fall like his, he could have -or should have- broken several bones and in all truth, given a horrible landing, could have died. His landing was, given the circumstances, almost ideal. A painful, whimpered, "I'm alright" came from underneath the bridge. Niether I nor my friend could actually see Dave below. After lying in pain for several minutes, he managed to climb through the brush back up to the trail in extreme pain. He luckily only suffered a broken rib and countless cuts and bruises.

These days the bridge is much safer and has a railing that appears strong enough to prevent someone from falling below. During Dave's fall he lost a watch and I actually descended down to the creek below looking for the long-shot chance that it could still be down there waiting to be found but I had no such luck.

The trip with my parents was much safer and went on without incident. The waterfall had less water than before but the weather was perfect. These pictures hardly capture its height or natural beauty. I've been to these many times now and the story of Flume's fall is one that never goes untold. Standing on top of the bridge the new visitors always grimace looking down, contemplating the prospect of slipping and falling below. A great fall, but an even better story.

YouTube Banned in Thailand: (Old news, but I never claimed this to be a news website)

As reported on my favorite news website, Flumesday.com, the Thai government has blocked the website, www.youtube.com, for a video on the site making fun of the King of Thailand, Adulyadej Bhumibol. In the video (or so I've read as I'm unable to view it) the King is shown as a clown, then drinking beer, and worst of all, is shown with a pair of women's feet above his head. This is hardly a big deal to any westerners who in all likelihood enjoy seeing our world leaders as the butt of jokes, but this does not fly in Thailand.

The censorship comes from the interim government that took over in a coup last September but I'm sure that the entire country would have taken offense had they seen it. The reason why has to do with history and the pride Thai people have in their country.

As of late, since the video was first posted, Youtube has decided to take the video off the website but the Thai government has still refused to unblock the site, citing that the leading pic of the video clip remains.

So why is all of this a big deal to Thais? First it has to do with their past.

Despite Europeans traveling to Thailand as early as the 16th century, the country remains the sole South East Asian country not to be colonized. As each of the bordering countries (Laos, Burma, and Cambodia) struggled through European rule, According to Thais, their country remained independent predominantly because of the strong and clever rule by their great Kings, keeping them between (and not under) the British and the French. Still, without being occupied, Thailand was influenced by the western world, challenging many of their customs and ideas.

The 'westernization' began with simple things such as bicycles, western clothing, and other trade goods (perhaps moustaches?). Traditional Thai dress drifted out of style, as well as chewing betel nut (white teeth became beautiful, instead of the red stained teeth from chewing betel nut.) Thais began to travel to Europe to work and to study (each of the last 5 Kings have traveled abroad and the current King was actually born in Cambridge, Massachusettes.) In the early 20th century, studying abroad meant the introduction of politics, namely democracy, to Thais. The ideas of voting and poltical parties were, by some, seen as a way of equalizing Thailand with the powerful west. Eventually a group overtook the King in a bloodless coup, ending the absolute monarchy and beginning what Thais call "democracy."

Since the end of the instituion of Thai government, politics have been less than smooth, enduring nearly 20 coups and 17 constitutions (the newest version is currently being written.) This break from the past and move towards a mess of "western" politics has left Thais less than interested in the government. Their interest is instead more focused on the current Royal Family and their social developmental projects. Though highly propagated (the King's picture is in every home, at every intersection, and everyone owns and often wears official yellow shirts in his honor) the King appears to deserve the praise he gets (I must say appears because it's impossible to find a dissenting opinion out here. Though a recently published book, "The King Never Smiles" has been banned in Thailand because of its critical look at the King.)

Despite its rocky past, Thailand stands politically proud amongst its neighbors. Burma has been under the suffocating grip of an isolationist military dictatorship, Cambodia's government is paralyzed by corruption in its slow recovery from the horrific rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and The People's Democratic Republic of Laos (actually a socialist republic) was the victim of the "secret" half of the Vietnam war and remains much poorer than Thailand. Looking around at its neighbors, Thailand feels strong as a nation and they attribute it to the good of the people and the work of the King.

The current King and his grandfather, King Rama V, are the symbols of the Thailand's pride in it's culture, its people, its history. Even the red, white and blue stripes on their flag stand for Nation, Buddhism and the King. King Rama V is seen as the last great King before the introduction of western ideas and the slow decline in Thai culture and traditions. Today's King (Rama V's grandson) is highly revered as one who has committed his life to preserving this way of life and through his leadership and development programs.

Okay, so the King's a good guy and doesn't deserve to be made fun of, but so what, right? It's just a joke, and as I hear, a weak one at that. But we in the west still have something to learn about offending more sensitive religions or cultures. Sure, we have a bumbling leader who people roast on a daily basis, but not long ago chaos ensued after Danish cartoonists drew political cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. I didn't even understand most of the cartoons but they struck a chord in some of the world's Muslims and there were riots. Of course, no matter how offensive the cartoons, riots and deaths are an unaccepable reaction but it is still indicative of the ignorance between cultures.

This ignorance can at times easily offend without intending (or, in this case, fully intending but only as a joke) to do so. In my school in the north of Thailand, I had students that would say, "fuck you" to me, having no idea what it meant. They played it off as cool, just using some awesome slang they had picked up from a movie. When they said it they had no idea what kind of meanings were attached to the word. They didn't understand how harsh and rude it was, especially being said from a student at a teacher. At the same time I can utter horribly offensive Thai words without feeling a tiny bit of anything attached to them while the people around me gasp in horror of hearing the word.

In the end those of us in America and other parts of the world are just less sensitive about these matters. We can brush off a bad joke, an offensive t-shirt or a video without too much thought (or at least we retain our right to free speech and can offend whoever we like.) But over here jokes about the King aren't funny, or taken lightly. You can be arrested for even saying anything bad about him or the Royal Family. To them, it is like making fun of Buddha or Mohammed or Christ. In that sense, the equivalent of women's feet over the King's head is like defecating on Jesus Christ an image that, if made onto a video, would surely spawn a free speech argument in America (see: Current Supreme Court case on "Bong Hits for Jesus." Check out the Flumesday.com article here.)

Still, don't expect any big uproar from Thailand. There won't be any response out here because no one out here looks at youtube.com other than teeny-bopper girls trying to catch music videos of the hot new Korean boy bands and a small handful of Flumesday readers.