Thailand

My first night in Thailand was spent at a sketchy hostel in Phuket Town, a historic stop on the 16th-century trade routes but today far from the beaches where most travelers spend their time.  I had a wonderful dinner (chicken with cashew nuts!) and enjoyed walking the abandoned streets of Old Town, but did not get any photos of the experience as my camera stopped working after my rainy rainforest adventure that afternoon (see Singapore post).  I caught a boat across the bay to Koh Lanta the next morning, where I loved sitting in the sun (but paid for it the rest of the week with an uneven but totally nasty sunburn) on the long journey.  In Koh Lanta I met up with Masha, an old friend from the Pomona College Women's Blue and White (my acapella singing group), who has been teaching English in Bangkok.  We signed up for a snorkeling trip and began to relax.

Here I am on the beach of Koh Rah, a popular snorkeling destination for tourists at Koh Lanta.  My camera came back to my life, but my sunburn was also emerging.  I spent most of my time in the shade...
...where you might run into giant monitor lizards, like this one.  But mostly they poked around the trash by the smelly toilet facilities, so they didn't bother me lying under a tree on the lovely beach.
Back on Koh Lanta, we stayed at "Relax Bay," an upscale-hippie resort run by a French family.  We did yoga while watching elephants bathe in the sea, then I cooled off with a banana smoothie, followed by sunset-viewing from a hammock.
This place was almost too much.  Totally blissful.  I had two Thai massages here overlooking the sea, totally indulgent treatment in the breeze.  Thai massage is like shiatsu and yoga put together.  Totally genius moves involving pushing and pulling your body in various stretches while kneading your sore muscles with feet and hands.  I totally want to learn how to do it.  (I just said "totally" four times, sorry.)
We left Koh Lanta for popular Railay Beach, a haven for honeymooners, hippies, and climbers.  We stayed on the cheap side, Railey East, where the "beach" is a tidal mangrove swamp.  
Railay East is home to some great climbing routes.  It was awesome!

In Portland I climbed indoors and this was only my second time really climbing outside.  The limestone karst cliffs were perfect!  
The walls got pretty crowded, but somehow nobody got hurt.

The view from the top was amazing!  Here I am back on the ground after some great climbing:
This is where we had the best lunch: pad thai and spicy fish curry!  
There are three awesome beaches on the Railay peninsula.  Here I am at Railay West:
Beyond Railay West is Tonsai beach.  We never went there but I hear it is VERY "laid-back." 

Hat Tham Phra Nang was the loveliest beach, with dripping limestone, a penis shrine, and an island you could walk to!

We had yummy banana roti on the beach and enjoyed our last sunset in Railay, before leaving Krabi province the next morning for Phang Nga Bay.  I had been looking forward to this but was bummed that it was full of totally cheesy touristy tours.  We didn't get to paddle ourselves through the mangroves, but our guide did make us get out of the boat to pose for this photo:
I guess it was beautiful and relaxing, but this was probably the most uncomfortable tourist day I had in Thailand.  The region is totally dependent on tourism and especially after the tsunami, which totally devastated the Andaman coast, they need foreigners to come spend money, which creates jobs.... but still, it felt icky.  


We briefly visited this Muslim "sea-gypsy" village in the bay, where hundreds of other tour groups stopped for lunch and shopping.  I felt bad for the women selling table after table of identical useless junk.  
Southern Thailand has a mix of Muslims, Buddhists, and hedonists tourists.

And monkeys.
My favorite night in Thailand was spent in Phang Nga town, which is not a tourist destination.  We found great food at the local night market and got to glimpse a bit of real life.



Mmmm, pad see ew!
Day 6 was spent in the jungle, trekking on elephants...


And canoes!

In the evening we fed the monkeys.  I felt bad about this but there was a guy selling bananas who depended on dopey tourists like me buying them to feed the monkeys.  So I did.  They were cheeky monkeys, obviously used to this evening ritual.  


This was my room at the Khao Sok River Lodge. Nice digs!
On my last day in Thailand I trekked through Khao Sok National Park, protecting the oldest rainforest in the world, according to the Lonely Planet.  We saw lots of bugs...

And spent our lunch hour straining our necks to watch langurs (small black monkeys) jump from treetop to treetop.

Our wonderful guide, Dit, made coffee mugs and brewed coffee by the river!
Here I sit on a giant banyan tree.  Banyans are parasitic and will slowly kill the host tree.  

Thailand was beautiful, full of gorgeous views, fantastic food, and friendly people.  I think I tried to cram too much into my week, but I did get to see a lot!  I'm never comfortable with the dichotomy between rich tourists and poor locals, and still don't know what is my role in that icky relationship.  But I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to visit a little piece of this interesting country.  

Singapore

I spent four days in Singapore to attend the International Baccalaureate Asia-Pacific Teacher Convention.  I am new to the IB program and was mildly interested in the topic: "Assessment for Meaningful Learning."  Mostly, though, I was interested in sampling the diverse cuisine of this equatorial city-state.  So my pictures are mostly of food...
In Little India I had the creamiest korma ever, enjoyed while watching Bollywood dance scenes on TV.
In the Arab Quarter I had some great laksa, a Malay dish with a rich and spicy coconut sauce.
On another night in Little India I had dota, which reminded me of Ethiopian injera bread.  
In the Colonial District I had the famous Singapore Sling cocktail at the Raffles Hotel.  (Very overpriced...)
One night I rode a bicycle rickshaw along the river for these views of the financial district.
The old Fullerton Hotel meets the new purple-lit bridge.
The best food in Singapore could be found at these "hawker centers," basically covered outdoor food courts.  What they lacked in decor they made up for in flavor.  

Delicious Hainanese-style Chicken Rice, a big favorite in Singapore.  
One sunny afternoon I took a nice walk through Chinatown.


The next day I worked up a sweat walking around Little India and the Arab Quarter.On my last afternoon in Singapore I went for a walk around MacRitchie Reservoir through some primary rainforest to the canopy walk pictured below.
On the walk out of the nature reserve I got caught in a nasty thunderstorm, with lightening striking all around me!  I'd made a friend, Ahbijit, originally from Assam, India, but currently living in Singapore, and somehow we escaped the park completely soaked, but alive.
I dripped in the taxi all the way to the airport, making two quick stops: first, to get my bag at my hotel, and second, for the taxi driver to buy as both some curry puffs for lunch.  Shivering and damp, I boarded a plane bound for Phuket, Thailand, ready for the next part of my spring break adventure.

Killing time in Taipei

So I'm at the Taipei airport on my way to Singapore, where I will spend the next three days eating, I mean, attending the International Baccalaureate Asia-Pacific Annual Teacher Convention. And eating. I am very excited about this. I've watched Anthony Bourdain and read the Lonely Planet and I am ready for chicken rice and chili crab and banana-leaf curry. I am not sure I can eat blood-red bone marrow soup, as Anthony Bourdain did, but everything else sounds good.

Speaking of strange foods, let me describe my dinner last night in Fukuoka. There is a very popular fish restaurant near my house that I'd been wanting to try but had been intimidated by the crowds until now. Lori and I managed to get a seat at the bar, and were immediately served little bowls of teeny, wiggly, live fish! I ordered a beer to give me courage, poured soy sauce on the little buggers, watched Lori eat them first, then gave mine a go. They were quite difficult to pick up with chopsticks, and continued squirming all the way to my mouth. Delish. I'm proud to say I ate them all (about 6). Next we ordered, among other things, lobster sashimi. We saw the live lobsters on display, and the only difference between the ones in the bin and the one on the plate was that the one being served had the back half of it's shell removed and its pearly fresh meat exposed. The tentacles were still moving, and continued moving as we ate the lobster out of its shell. Pretty wild. And delicious, of course. Seriously.

Some observations about air travel between Japan and Taiwan. As the plane pulled away from the gate in Fukuoka, I looked out to see the ground crew lined up and waving until we were out of sight. I wonder if anyone on the plane waved back, and if they do this for every flight. Hmm. I watched Slumdog Millionnaire on the plane and was loving it until the big climax scene, when we landed, and the screen switched over to a health announcement from the Taiwanese government, featuring a cartoon man singing karaoke and meeting other cartoon men with various ailments, including coughing, barfing (nice animation), and diarrhea (featuring man on toilet and a little talk bubble coming from the seat that said "poo"). I guess if I had any of these problems I should see a doctor at the airport. Hmm.

I will spend the next three nights at the "Hangout @ Mt. Emily" hostel, between Little India and Chinatown. My conference is at the Furama Hotel on the riverfront. Saturday night I will fly to Phuket, Thailand, where I will spend a week lounging on the beach, kayaking in the bay, climbing on the limestone, and trekking in the jungle. I'll be meeting my old friend Masha, from the Pomona College Women's Blue and White acappella singing group. She's teaching in Bangkok and needs a vacation, too.

Coming soon: photos and video of crazy live fish/lobster dinner, plus tales/photos/video of my adventures in Singapore and Thailand. Here is a map of my plans for Thailand:

檢視較大的地圖

Skiing in Hiroshima

I finally got some photos from the ski trip I took a month ago to Hiroshima with a group of people from a cafe I like to go to, so here they are!  It was a long, expensive day, but fun and lovely.  I hadn't been downhill skiing in ten years, and I would have snowboarded if I'd realized that's what everyone else was doing.  I was kinda out of the loop, not speaking Japanese and all...  Only a few people in the group spoke English, but they were still too shy to use it much.  Maru-san, who runs the cafe I mentioned, went out of his way to include me and I so appreciated it!  At the end of the day we got back on the bus he hired and went to an onsen (hot spring) down the mountain.  After soaking naked with the ladies, and especially after they had a few drinks on the bus, people really opened up to talking to me, but by then I was way pooped from the long day.  It was a five hour drive to the slopes, so I doubt if I'll be doing much skiing next year.  Still, it was quite fun and I'm grateful to Maru for inviting me and sharing his photos with me.  And for the excellent peanut sauce on my chicken at the cafe tonight!

Sake!

This weekend I was lucky to go sake tasting... twice!  Yesterday our friend Atsuko took Lori and I to a sake brewery in nearby Maebaru (followed by a lovely lunch at Futamigaura Beach).  Then today we were pleasantly surprised to find a tasting tent set up at the Dazaifu Tenjin Shrine.  At the brewery we tried sparkling sake, sweet plum sake, whiskey-strong sake, and a thick liquid that is left over at the end of the sake-making process. We had milky sake and clear sake. I bought a bottle of the new 2009 sweet sake, and finally learned the kanji character for sake, or nihonshu. I've been having trouble in stores distinguishing sake (rice wine) from the local specialty: shochu, which is distilled from sweet potatoes and is not my favorite.In Dazaifu we tried many strong sakes. I prefer sweet sake!
I tried a taste of this gold-flake sake...And bought a little bottle to take home!There's gold in that sake!

Plum Blossoms!

Spring is here! The first blossoms of spring have inspired many painters, like this one by 19th century Japanese woodblock print artist Ando Hiroshige:And this famous copy painted by Vincent Van Gogh:

Today Lori and I went to Dazaifu, which according to Japan.com has over 6000 plum trees and is the only spot highlighted for plum blossom viewing outside of Tokyo or Kyoto. Just half an hour on the train, and we were surrounded by hundreds of plum blossom seekers on their way to the shrine and the famous pink and white flowers.  Below are my favorite images of a beautiful day:

Long Winter...

It's been a long winter this year. I haven't had much to report because, well, I haven't been up to much. February is traditionally a low point in the school year, and this year it seemed especially so. But the plum blossoms are here, and if I can survive one more cold, wet month, I'm promised a glorious spring. I did go skiing about a month ago and am waiting for a friend to send me pictures of the day. Tomorrow I hope to go sake tasting, so stay tuned for a new cultural update. Until then, here are some random pictures from the past month. Enjoy.
A typical scene on the Fukuoka subway.
Mayonnaise. Food for ages 0-100. The Japanese love their mayonnaise, yes they do.
A beautiful snowy day, which I didn't really get to enjoy as I was home sick all day. Still, I went for a short walk, and snapped this shot on the bridge I cross to get to school everyday, looking back at my neighborhood.