Kazuzhoubo-la!

Now you know how to say hello in Dzongkha, the language of Bhutan.

I woke up early this morning and left Justin behind - asleep - at the guest house in Bangkok. I had a plane to catch to Bhutan. Justin opted out of this part of the trip ... it's rather expensive to be in Bhutan and you have to have a guide and a driver for the entire experience. This has been a long time dream of mine, so off I went. Besides, I was in the neighborhood.

On the way into Paro we could see one of the high peaks of the Himalayas - Jhomolhari. Then the plane dived into the clouds and the next thing I new I was looking in people's houses. Literally eye level. And I could see details. This is a country of narrow valleys. We banked sharply right and landed fast using most of the runway. Paro is the only place with a flat enough space to build a runway capable of handling a passenger plane.



We walked down the steps from the plane and everyone started to take pictures. I've never seen anything like it. When I left the airport I met Ghempo (my guide), Singye (my driver), and the Hyundai Tucson that would drive us around the country.

Night Train to Bangkok

Justin and I were in Khao Sok. We needed to get to Bangkok. And this simple trip ended up as an adventure.

So we thought we could just catch a flight from Surat Thani (the nearest big town) to Bangkok. That is how we got to Southern Thailand to begin with. We got a ride from the guest house owner to the main road where we were going to catch a bus to take us to Surat Thani where we'd get a taxi to the airport to catch a plane.

Ended up we didn't take the local bus. A minibus drove by, stopped, and said he'd take us to the airport for 200 baht. Okay. The air conditioning sounded nice. Local buses aren't air conditioned. And skipping the taxi part of the trip seemed nice too. Except he didn't take us to the airport. He took us to Surat Thani where we had to get a taxi anyways.

The airport in Surat Thani is a long way from the town. In the middle of nowhere. The taxi dropped us off there and we went to go see about a plane. But the plane was completely booked. And it was going to be the next day before there was another plane. So we walked up to the 1-2-3 Go Airline counter to ask about a plane and ended up asking about a train. This lovely woman named Da called the train station and made a reservation for us. Then she talked her friend into driving us to the train (there were no taxis at the airport). And then she came into the train station with us to make sure we got our tickets.

I'm sure Da thought we were completely clueless - and rightly so - but she was one of the nicest people I've met so far in Thailand. She went out of her way to help us. Sometimes when you're traveling things can get really frustrating - like this trip to Bangkok - but for some reason that's when really nice things like meeting Da happen.


I got the top bunk on the train to Bangkok. It was my first long train ride and certainly my first overnight train ride. It was a lot of fun. Sleeping on a train is like sleeping on a boat - you get rocked to sleep. Nawn lap fan dee!

It took us 12 hours of traveling and a minibus, taxi, private car, train, metro, and sky rail train to get to Bangkok. We really just needed to add a bike and plane to make it complete!

Jungle of Blood Sucking Leaches

Khao Sok is a beautiful National Park. There are monkeys, orchids, flocks of butterflies in every color scheme imaginable. And there are BLOOD SUCKING LEACHES. But that is the end of our story, not the beginning.

Justin and I decided to go hiking in the rain forest. It was very green, hot and humid. We ambled up a trail to a waterfall most of the day taking pictures of orchids and butterflies and frogs. Playing monkey on the liana. Looking at cool trees. The plan was to make a loop hike. Hike up to this waterfall, then over some hills where there were the giant rafflesia flowers, then to the main road and back to town. But that's not how it worked.



We didn't know this until later, but the particular trail we decided to take wasn't really well used. There really wasn't a trail, it hiking up a little stream, scrambling around small waterfalls, and hoping from rock to rock. Pretty fun. Part way up the stream we ran into some guided groups. They had done the loop, but in the opposite direction. They told us the flowers were still a ways off but the waterfall wasn't to far. It was 3 pm at this point. So we went up to the waterfall ... which is where we actually saw the first leach.

We had already had one encounter with a leach - but we didn't know it was a leach. At the beginning of the hike Justin noticed I had blood all over the calf of my pants. Hmmm. Where was this coming from? Well, there was a little tiny hole in my calf that was bleeding. And wouldn't stop bleeding. So I wrapped my towel around it and we kept walking but didn't really question the origin of the bite.

In our next leach encounter Justin actually felt it in his shoe. He pulled his shoe off and there was a very full leach and a bleeding hole on his toe. So we wrapped it up in a tissue and rubber band and decided to turn around and head back the way we came. It was getting late.

Then it started raining. Not drizzling. Rain forest raining, Khao Sok soaking rain. It was a warm rain - good in the way a dry heat is good in Tucson - but it made the rocks slippery. And it brought out more leaches. They would "stand up" from the ground, hook their mouths onto your shoe, and then work their way to skin. And they were stubborn. Justin had the quote of the day - "It was like trying to flick a booger with brains" to get rid of them.

Well, to make a long story short, we made it through the jungle with only a few leach bites each. My leach bites look more like leach hickees - it's apparently very hard to suck my blood. Justin's just look like little holes.

The Many Uses of Motorcycles

Scooters are the foundation for food stalls, taxis, and transportation for families up to 5 or so. As a food stall they are fitted with a table that extends out from the left side 3 feet. This table includes a propane burner that is curved (usually) to hold a wok. Sometimes there is a display case on the table. There is always an awning. The food vendor works on the right side of the bike, over the seat, cooking on the burner. The seat becomes a table too. They go down the road kind of slowly ... as you can imagine.



The motorcycles turned into taxis have 3 wheels - one on the side car that hangs off the left of the bike. The side car has an awning and benches. It's comfortable for two (even with Justin in the picture) and could seat 3 or maybe 4.

Usually the dad is driving the family transport vehicle. An older kid sits in front of Dad. The younger ones sit between Mom and Dad - Mom's always the caboose on the back.

These aren't big scooters - but they are everywhere here. Kids use them to get to school (the girls usually ride side saddle on the back), men use them to get to the mosque for prayers, and women use them for shopping. And people transport crazy things on them - I saw a guy carrying a large aluminum ladder on his shoulder while driving a scooter the other day. I guess that's just the way it's done.

One-Two-Three Climb!

I have to do a little dance. Are you ready? Everybody get up, twirl around, and sing with me. I went rock climbing in Thailand! Wow. I've been wanting to do that for years ... and the euphoria of finally having done it is still making me twirl.

After meeting up with my friend Justin in Bangkok we caught a flight on Nok Air (the Ted of Thai Airways) for Krabi. We found a very Sandie-esque place to stay in Ao Nang (more on that in another blog) and then we went to Railay to go climbing. Neither of us had any gear, so after finding a place to rent gear we headed for the easy wall a short walk on the beach away. One-two-three wall. I led (yes - for you doubters reading I actually led) three 5's. Don't scoff - they use the French rating system here. So it was more like 5.8 and 5.9.

Then we ran into this Aussie bloke. He wanted to climb a 30 m 6a route that went into the cave. How could I say no? Well I didn't and up we went. So the little person climbing in the picture is me almost 30 meters up.

It was Justin's first time climbing in 7 months. He's a little sore - but did great. Neither of us is as good as the monkeys (ling in Thai) that I found climbing around a cave on the other side of the beach. Oh well ...

Tour de Wat

My first sensory overload day in Bangkok was spent walking around. After sitting for more than 24 hours, I wanted to be moving and I wanted to try and stay awake. To get used to the time difference.



So we went and toured some Wats. This is probably not the best technical definition - but a Wat is a Buddhist temple. Complete with orange robed monks (senior monks have both shoulders covered) and gold Buddhas. The Buddhas in Bangkok are belly-less. So the Buddha Belly reference is pretty much lost. Wat Pho has the largest reclining Buddha. Ever feel like someone has an eye on you?



The Wats are covered in ornate pottery - sometimes it looks like real dishes that you would use on your dinner table - that creates these intricate designs.

Filters

I think that when we are little we develop filters in our brains that help us process information quickly. Think about how much you see but don't register. Our brains have complex recognition algorithms that sort through what we see and only show us the things we need to pay attention to.

My American filters aren't really working in Thailand. Yes, the flight was long - so long the flight attendants actually changed outfits in the middle of the flight - and the time difference of 14 hours to Denver is shocking, but the worst is the brain overload. I don't know what to ignore. I see everything. And there is a lot to see!

It's kind of cool in a way. I don't remember seeing before filters. It must have been something like this. No wonder little babies just sit around and stare.