Beloved fans,
Nico and I have been terrible over the last two weeks. I know. I am sorry. Sort of. I mean, how can you honestly expect us to update you over and over when I know that you're just going to arrive at our doorsteps when we return, begging us to recount one story after another. Pathetic. At least this way we only have to go through that in oral form.
But as all good things coming to an end require proper closings, I will give you a summary of what's been going on. Ten or so days ago, Nico and I started out on a Dirt bike tour of Cambodia. (This was recommended by Alan Thomson). Unfortunately, Nico and I cheaped out and went with a tour company that was about half as expensive than the one we originally heard about - and paid the price by receiving the tour guide from hell. After 4 days of being forced on ridiculously difficult and uncomfortable rides, being yelled at, and abandoned, we returned to Phnom Penh. We bitched to Nico's parents, yelled at the owner of the company, (NOTE: NEVER USE RED RAID CAMBODIA), and generally unwound. Afterwards, we realized we captured some amazing pictures that you'll all be able to see in a couple of days when Nico and I begin binge facebook posting.
After that incident, we decided that our 6 day visit to Phnom Penh was going to be something out of the ordinary for our trip. Plain old relaxing. We hit the market a few times, had some delicious Khmer food, and read a lot - also, we watched all of Californication Season 1 and half of Season 2. It was a nice change of pace from a summer of going non-stop. I had the pleasure of getting to know Nico's parents, who I haven't seen since I was 12 which was awesome. (For those of you reading at Stanford Med that are kind of on the fence about Nico, Nico's parents make the whole close friendship thing totally worthwhile!?! :) - just messing with you Nico, you know you're my boy blue). But, back on track, hanging out in Phnom Penh with the Grundmann / Krasovec clan was awesome, only made more amazing by a beautiful drive down to the south of Cambodia, a weekend relaxing in bungalows on a river front, and a surreal kayaking adventure through a thick grove of palm / mango trees.
Now, Nico and I are back in Bangkok finishing out our task of picking up gifts for people - Johnny, they have handcrafted swords here - and just waiting to catch flights home on Thursday. Can't wait to see you all and recount the trip verbally, the only way to attempt to do it justice.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
I'm Tired and I want to go to bed
Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I guess, given the proximity to the return home (just two weeks!) , we've been a bit lazy about the blog. However, 'that hasnt stopped us from continuing our awesome adventure!
Summary of the past four days. Depart Vang Vieng in the morning, Arrive in the capital of Laos, Vientiene. Realize that there is nothing in Vientiene except NGO workers and an airport. Depart Vientiene the next morning for Phnom Penh (unfortunately, given bad habits picked up at BCG, we waited to book plane tickets to Siem Riep far too long and found ourselves having to fly into Phnom Penh and take a bus north). Arrive in Phnom Penh, immediately realize that Phnom Penh is the coolest city we've visited, and enjoy lunch with 'Mr. Grundman, a trip to the Russian Market, a walk along the river, and an incredible dinner of South Indian food. Delicious.
The next morning we hopped on a train to SR, and have spent the day today wandering around what can only be described as the area of the world with the most unreal concentration of novel inspiring, adventurer creating, haven of ancient temples. But more will come later with a post and pics of Ankor Wat.
I know this is a copout. But really, I've been pretty good about this, and I am tired and want to go to bed. And it's only 7PM.
Summary of the past four days. Depart Vang Vieng in the morning, Arrive in the capital of Laos, Vientiene. Realize that there is nothing in Vientiene except NGO workers and an airport. Depart Vientiene the next morning for Phnom Penh (unfortunately, given bad habits picked up at BCG, we waited to book plane tickets to Siem Riep far too long and found ourselves having to fly into Phnom Penh and take a bus north). Arrive in Phnom Penh, immediately realize that Phnom Penh is the coolest city we've visited, and enjoy lunch with 'Mr. Grundman, a trip to the Russian Market, a walk along the river, and an incredible dinner of South Indian food. Delicious.
The next morning we hopped on a train to SR, and have spent the day today wandering around what can only be described as the area of the world with the most unreal concentration of novel inspiring, adventurer creating, haven of ancient temples. But more will come later with a post and pics of Ankor Wat.
I know this is a copout. But really, I've been pretty good about this, and I am tired and want to go to bed. And it's only 7PM.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Max and Nico Are Dumb
Despite the fact that I am about to start at Harvard Business School, and that Nico is already attending Stanford Medical School... We are dumb.
After departing Luong Prabong on the day long bus ride to Vang Vieng, Nico, Amanda, and I started to get psyched. Despite the fact that timing the Gibbon Experience on my birthday didn't work out, we were going to be tubing. For those of you without University bound friends, tubing in Vang Vieng is famous. Though the entire trip is only ~25 minutes, if you float down the river without stopping (in your patched up old truck tire), the river outside of Vang Vieng is lined with bars all offering free drinks, games, and a good time. And that was going to be my birthday. Awesome.
Even with all our mental preparation, nothing could have prepared us for the reality that was Tubing. I woke up at 8AM on my birthday to go for a run and get a solid workout in before destroying my body. Afterwards I took a quick shower and woke Nico up to try and grab a quick brunch at a place recomended to us. Well, the morning lazed away and at 12:30 we managed to find Luther and head to the tubing office (yes, there is a centralized tube rental location in Laos). After 15 minutes of waiting in line and another 15 minutes in the truck on the way to the first bar, we were there and ready to go.
Immediately, we noticed that people were flying off of a giant rope swing (ending about 15-20 feet in the air) and into the river. Well, Nico and I put in our drink orders then scampered up the ladder to embrace the one life that we have by endangering it. After screems of "Geronimo" and "F. my Life!" we hit the water and washed ashore to wash down our first drinks. 4 or 5 drinks later we hopped in tubes to continue this practice for 6 hours. It was a glorious drunken spectacle of celebration. We floated, we swam, we lost our money and found our money, we lost our money and never found our money, we were rained on, and we were sunburnt. It was a day to remember, if only we could.
After returning (@6PM) Nico passed out in the room and Luther and I grabbed dinner and watched TV.
When we woke up today, everyone was hungover. Bad. Naturally, my solution to this problem was to get up early and go for a morning run / workout session. Nico opted to do the same and after returning we found Luther remarkably healthy. Instead of tubing two days in a row, the three of us decided to rent mopeds and see what was around Vang Vieng.
We drove around seeing nothing spectacular for the beginning of the afternoon. After realizing that we were probably going to have to do the touristy things (i.e., pay to get in) to see amazing sights, we moped-ed over to the 1st of three major caves in the area. Surrounded by the Vang Vieng resort Villas, the first set of caves in which we spelunked, was amazing. It was a lot like a mini-Lurray. Until we found ourselves in a cave with no lights and a seemingly endless path into nothingness. I busted out the mini flashlight I carry around and convinced everyone to go just a bit further into the cave to see what was there. Well, this was all well until I stop and Nico asks if I've seen what was down there. I paused and responded, "Yes. The only thing down there is fear." I backed away slowly saying something was living in the hole, then started to scurry. Nico refused to show his back to the emptiness and swears he saw eyes. I think we found Chupacabre. First dumb instance of Max and Nico.
Luther decided to call it quits after that. I can't blame her... because within an hour Nico and I had managed to find ourselves stranded in an endless field of rice paddies. Yes, we thought we could hike random paths and back country Laotian roads to get to a cliffside where we might be able to explore new caves. We should have just payed to enter the main entrance of the caves that we were headed towards, because after about 45 minutes of jumping fences and irrigation canals, we ended up on the same path that we had tried to avoid in order to save some dinero.
Whatevs. We took off up the rest of the path, stopping only to pay for our "tickets" and rent a flashlight from a little girl. We climbed up slippery slopes and jagged rock stairs to get to a system of caves immensely more terrifying than the first. They were pitch black, home to bamboo bridges over seemingly endless pits, and clearly not a common attraction. After about 30 minutes of chanting, "We're dumb," we left.
Yeah. It was an experience that I will never forget... but tomorrow, I think we'll just go tubing again. We're not that dumb.
After departing Luong Prabong on the day long bus ride to Vang Vieng, Nico, Amanda, and I started to get psyched. Despite the fact that timing the Gibbon Experience on my birthday didn't work out, we were going to be tubing. For those of you without University bound friends, tubing in Vang Vieng is famous. Though the entire trip is only ~25 minutes, if you float down the river without stopping (in your patched up old truck tire), the river outside of Vang Vieng is lined with bars all offering free drinks, games, and a good time. And that was going to be my birthday. Awesome.
Even with all our mental preparation, nothing could have prepared us for the reality that was Tubing. I woke up at 8AM on my birthday to go for a run and get a solid workout in before destroying my body. Afterwards I took a quick shower and woke Nico up to try and grab a quick brunch at a place recomended to us. Well, the morning lazed away and at 12:30 we managed to find Luther and head to the tubing office (yes, there is a centralized tube rental location in Laos). After 15 minutes of waiting in line and another 15 minutes in the truck on the way to the first bar, we were there and ready to go.
Immediately, we noticed that people were flying off of a giant rope swing (ending about 15-20 feet in the air) and into the river. Well, Nico and I put in our drink orders then scampered up the ladder to embrace the one life that we have by endangering it. After screems of "Geronimo" and "F. my Life!" we hit the water and washed ashore to wash down our first drinks. 4 or 5 drinks later we hopped in tubes to continue this practice for 6 hours. It was a glorious drunken spectacle of celebration. We floated, we swam, we lost our money and found our money, we lost our money and never found our money, we were rained on, and we were sunburnt. It was a day to remember, if only we could.
After returning (@6PM) Nico passed out in the room and Luther and I grabbed dinner and watched TV.
When we woke up today, everyone was hungover. Bad. Naturally, my solution to this problem was to get up early and go for a morning run / workout session. Nico opted to do the same and after returning we found Luther remarkably healthy. Instead of tubing two days in a row, the three of us decided to rent mopeds and see what was around Vang Vieng.
We drove around seeing nothing spectacular for the beginning of the afternoon. After realizing that we were probably going to have to do the touristy things (i.e., pay to get in) to see amazing sights, we moped-ed over to the 1st of three major caves in the area. Surrounded by the Vang Vieng resort Villas, the first set of caves in which we spelunked, was amazing. It was a lot like a mini-Lurray. Until we found ourselves in a cave with no lights and a seemingly endless path into nothingness. I busted out the mini flashlight I carry around and convinced everyone to go just a bit further into the cave to see what was there. Well, this was all well until I stop and Nico asks if I've seen what was down there. I paused and responded, "Yes. The only thing down there is fear." I backed away slowly saying something was living in the hole, then started to scurry. Nico refused to show his back to the emptiness and swears he saw eyes. I think we found Chupacabre. First dumb instance of Max and Nico.
Luther decided to call it quits after that. I can't blame her... because within an hour Nico and I had managed to find ourselves stranded in an endless field of rice paddies. Yes, we thought we could hike random paths and back country Laotian roads to get to a cliffside where we might be able to explore new caves. We should have just payed to enter the main entrance of the caves that we were headed towards, because after about 45 minutes of jumping fences and irrigation canals, we ended up on the same path that we had tried to avoid in order to save some dinero.
Whatevs. We took off up the rest of the path, stopping only to pay for our "tickets" and rent a flashlight from a little girl. We climbed up slippery slopes and jagged rock stairs to get to a system of caves immensely more terrifying than the first. They were pitch black, home to bamboo bridges over seemingly endless pits, and clearly not a common attraction. After about 30 minutes of chanting, "We're dumb," we left.
Yeah. It was an experience that I will never forget... but tomorrow, I think we'll just go tubing again. We're not that dumb.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Laos is sparce...
For the past few days, I've been trying to upload pictures and video of our adventure so far in Laos... unfortunately, that has proved to be a difficult task in a country plagued by rolling black outs, lack of power or internet lines outside of the biggest cities, etc. So needless to say, we're going to keep trying, but don't expect much until we hit Cambodia at the very end of July.
Note: Nico has currently scampered off to find a higher speed connection, so there is a small chance that is all entirely wrong.
Moving on. Laos is sleepy. The pace of life on our trip has been nice, but upon reaching Laos (properly, post our wild Gibbon Experience adventure) our trip got even more relaxing. After getting back to Huay Xai, we booked tickets for the slow boat adventure down the Mae Khong, only to find out that it was actually just that. A very lazy 6-9 hour trip depending on how often the driver wanted to stop and say "hi" to people along the way.
Don't get me wrong, the views were spectacular. Imagine pristine jungle layered over rolling hills, with the occasional mountain thrown in there. Imagine sunny blue skies contrasted with lush greens. Imagine low hanging nebulous clouds splitting as they slowly collided with cliff sides. And imagine that no view was muddied with human construction, trash, or light pollution. That is what we saw... it was unbelievable. Unfortunately, we saw it for 300 miles and 15 hours straight. And even worse, because we were constantly surrounded we didn't take a ton of pictures. Shame, but not that bad because we wouldn't be able to show you anyways.
Then we arrived in Luong Probang. LP is a World History Preservation site. I've never heard the term before, but I imagine it means, beautiful town that should be visited and untouched - providing a boost in tourism that hardly makes up for years of French colonialism. All that in mind, we were ecstatic to arrive in LP and be able to check into a comfortable 3 dollar a day hotel. We relaxed and made our way over to a restaurant called L'elephant, written up for being the best French place in the country. On our travellers budget it would have been hard, but lucky for us our 4 star meal was covered by dear old dad, who foolishly thought that I couldn't hunt down a great meal when given the opportunity. (Thanks Dad! It was the most delicious thing Nico and I have eaten since departing the states!). We sat, talked about how life was short, that we were making the most of it, and how we had to make sure never to forget that.
Yesterday morning, Amanda Luther (BCG Dallas Badass Extraordinaire) flew in from Bangkok to hang out for the week and since then, we've mosied around LP, covered 15 kilometers kayaking, hung out under and jumped off of the most beautiful waterfalls imaginable (sad, but because we were kayaking we have no pictures), and took a 30 minute elephant ride around and then up those very same waterfalls. Life continues to be good. Days continue to be great.
Note: Nico has currently scampered off to find a higher speed connection, so there is a small chance that is all entirely wrong.
Moving on. Laos is sleepy. The pace of life on our trip has been nice, but upon reaching Laos (properly, post our wild Gibbon Experience adventure) our trip got even more relaxing. After getting back to Huay Xai, we booked tickets for the slow boat adventure down the Mae Khong, only to find out that it was actually just that. A very lazy 6-9 hour trip depending on how often the driver wanted to stop and say "hi" to people along the way.
Don't get me wrong, the views were spectacular. Imagine pristine jungle layered over rolling hills, with the occasional mountain thrown in there. Imagine sunny blue skies contrasted with lush greens. Imagine low hanging nebulous clouds splitting as they slowly collided with cliff sides. And imagine that no view was muddied with human construction, trash, or light pollution. That is what we saw... it was unbelievable. Unfortunately, we saw it for 300 miles and 15 hours straight. And even worse, because we were constantly surrounded we didn't take a ton of pictures. Shame, but not that bad because we wouldn't be able to show you anyways.
Then we arrived in Luong Probang. LP is a World History Preservation site. I've never heard the term before, but I imagine it means, beautiful town that should be visited and untouched - providing a boost in tourism that hardly makes up for years of French colonialism. All that in mind, we were ecstatic to arrive in LP and be able to check into a comfortable 3 dollar a day hotel. We relaxed and made our way over to a restaurant called L'elephant, written up for being the best French place in the country. On our travellers budget it would have been hard, but lucky for us our 4 star meal was covered by dear old dad, who foolishly thought that I couldn't hunt down a great meal when given the opportunity. (Thanks Dad! It was the most delicious thing Nico and I have eaten since departing the states!). We sat, talked about how life was short, that we were making the most of it, and how we had to make sure never to forget that.
Yesterday morning, Amanda Luther (BCG Dallas Badass Extraordinaire) flew in from Bangkok to hang out for the week and since then, we've mosied around LP, covered 15 kilometers kayaking, hung out under and jumped off of the most beautiful waterfalls imaginable (sad, but because we were kayaking we have no pictures), and took a 30 minute elephant ride around and then up those very same waterfalls. Life continues to be good. Days continue to be great.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Nico and Max sitting in a tree... Z. I. P. P. I. N. G.
Four days ago (now 8 days ago given lack of connectivity), Nico and I arrived in the sleepy Laotian town of Huang Xai. One of two river border crossings from Thailand that provides travel visas, Huang Xai is home to a transient population of young cash strapped travellers hoping to catch the 2-day slow boat down to Luang Probang. However, 4-8 people per day arrive to use the town as a launching platform for "The Gibbon Experience," a 3 day adventure into the Bokeo reserve. Or, a 3 day adventure into an untouched Laotian Jungle. The travellers pay 200 dollars for the trip, too high for those who don't appreciate the adventure, but far lower than Nico and I would have payed to recieve what we did.
On the morning of the 14th, Nico and I met our fellow trekkers - Ninca, Simona, Will, Rob, Dan, and Tess - at the small office in Huang Xai. We quickly got aquainted and hopped on the back of a pickup to drive two hours into what we thought was the middle of no-where. The driver stopped by a river and told us to hop on the small boat by the shore, we did, were dumped on the other side and then set off on a 2 hour walk. In the middle of this muddy uphill battle it started pouring. Damn. Luckily we knew we were meeting a Range Rover.
We were incorrect. After we arrived at the 1980s Toyota Land Cruiser in the middle of the untouched Laotian countryside (6 foot long grass, rolling hills, and the one dirt road we were on), we realized it was empty and the driver was about an hour behind us. We hung around, got soaked, but enjoyed the adventure. After hopping in the car we were relieved. Little did we know that over the course of the next hour we would get out of the car 4 times to push the damn thing up hill, while it splashed mud all over us, screaming and spitting diesel exhaust for all to feel. We finally arrived at a small town, to take a break, before embarking on a two hour trek into the jungle and uphill. Yes, this was hour 5 of the journey.
When we finished walking up makeshift jungle stairs - scooped out dirt near tree roots - we had arrived at "The Kitchen," a base camp for the treehouse system within the Bokeo reserve. You see, every day 4-8 tourists meet in Huang Xai with the goal of spending 3 days living in tree houses up to 200 meters (~650 feet) above the ground. To travel between the treehouses there have been a series of ziplines suspended between jungle peaks, up to half a kilometer in length, leaving the travelers feet dangling hundreds of meters in the air. This was what Nico and I came for. Dripping with sweat, hurting to the bone but too proud to admit it, we were re-invigorated and set off down with our group on the trail into the trees.
We trekked for a total of two hours to get to our treehouse, Treehouse Number 5 or "Kisi," and along the way experienced these ziplines over the canopy firsthand. It was outrageous. We could see everything for miles 20 seconds at a time. And everything was untouched, beautiful, and perfect. It took my breath away. One zip would have made the entire trip worthwhile. There truly is no better way to describe it than that - though we'll attempt to with photographs.
After arriving at the Treehouse on the afternoon of day 1 we were all exhausted. We showered, ate dinner (at 5PM!) and played cards, turning down another opportunity to hike. By the time we were ready to go to bed, we realized something very interesting. No, not that in the middle of the jungle at night, there are NO outside sources of light. And no, not that jungle sounds in the middle of the night are loud and somewhat ridiculous. What we realized is that the thatch roof of the treehouse was home to approximately a half dozen 7 inch long spiders. Despite the fact that there were girls around, I remained openly freaked out... luckily it was overshadowed by two of our fellow travellers terror (jumping about, screaming profanity, etc.) After an hour of getting used to the idea of the massive arachnids, Nico and I dropped the mosquito net (which was really just thick canvas and went to sleep).
On the morning of the 14th, Nico and I met our fellow trekkers - Ninca, Simona, Will, Rob, Dan, and Tess - at the small office in Huang Xai. We quickly got aquainted and hopped on the back of a pickup to drive two hours into what we thought was the middle of no-where. The driver stopped by a river and told us to hop on the small boat by the shore, we did, were dumped on the other side and then set off on a 2 hour walk. In the middle of this muddy uphill battle it started pouring. Damn. Luckily we knew we were meeting a Range Rover.
We were incorrect. After we arrived at the 1980s Toyota Land Cruiser in the middle of the untouched Laotian countryside (6 foot long grass, rolling hills, and the one dirt road we were on), we realized it was empty and the driver was about an hour behind us. We hung around, got soaked, but enjoyed the adventure. After hopping in the car we were relieved. Little did we know that over the course of the next hour we would get out of the car 4 times to push the damn thing up hill, while it splashed mud all over us, screaming and spitting diesel exhaust for all to feel. We finally arrived at a small town, to take a break, before embarking on a two hour trek into the jungle and uphill. Yes, this was hour 5 of the journey.
When we finished walking up makeshift jungle stairs - scooped out dirt near tree roots - we had arrived at "The Kitchen," a base camp for the treehouse system within the Bokeo reserve. You see, every day 4-8 tourists meet in Huang Xai with the goal of spending 3 days living in tree houses up to 200 meters (~650 feet) above the ground. To travel between the treehouses there have been a series of ziplines suspended between jungle peaks, up to half a kilometer in length, leaving the travelers feet dangling hundreds of meters in the air. This was what Nico and I came for. Dripping with sweat, hurting to the bone but too proud to admit it, we were re-invigorated and set off down with our group on the trail into the trees.
We trekked for a total of two hours to get to our treehouse, Treehouse Number 5 or "Kisi," and along the way experienced these ziplines over the canopy firsthand. It was outrageous. We could see everything for miles 20 seconds at a time. And everything was untouched, beautiful, and perfect. It took my breath away. One zip would have made the entire trip worthwhile. There truly is no better way to describe it than that - though we'll attempt to with photographs.
After arriving at the Treehouse on the afternoon of day 1 we were all exhausted. We showered, ate dinner (at 5PM!) and played cards, turning down another opportunity to hike. By the time we were ready to go to bed, we realized something very interesting. No, not that in the middle of the jungle at night, there are NO outside sources of light. And no, not that jungle sounds in the middle of the night are loud and somewhat ridiculous. What we realized is that the thatch roof of the treehouse was home to approximately a half dozen 7 inch long spiders. Despite the fact that there were girls around, I remained openly freaked out... luckily it was overshadowed by two of our fellow travellers terror (jumping about, screaming profanity, etc.) After an hour of getting used to the idea of the massive arachnids, Nico and I dropped the mosquito net (which was really just thick canvas and went to sleep).
At 5 in the morning we were awoken by a THUNK THUNK THUNK ZIIIIIIIIIIIIP THUNK. After pulling up the net, we realized that our guides had already whipped into the house and were rousing everyone. It was time to go on a morning wild-life trek. Well, I was shit tired, had slept poorly, but realized you're only deep in the jungle a few times in your life, so I threw on my gear and got ready to roll. The trek was muddy, difficult, and yielded little wildlife display - but that said, it was incredible to head off into parts of the jungle distant from even a trail. Wow. Unfortunately, no Gibbons were seen, but we headed back to the treehouse for breakfast anyways.After a two hour break we hit the ziplines again, this time for a trek to a treehouse with a spectacular canopy view.
We ended up hiking and zipping for most of the day, and Nico and I also decided it was worth dangling in the middle of the 300-400 foot high zipline entrance to our treehouse for some photo-ops. Let me tell you something, zipping is amazing. The wind rushes through your hair, you feel like youre flying, etc., hanging is terrifying. I got out into the middle of the line, took some unreal photographs, but all the while kept thinking to myself, "Shit, I am 300 feet off the ground. Shit. If I fall, thats it. Shit. Shit. SHIT!" It was worth it though.On day three, we had breakfast in the morning and embarked on the 2 hour journey to base-camp. It was sad to be departing the jungle, but we were equally as motivated to take advantage of our last opportunity to hang above the jungle canopy. We managed to make it to base camp and trek down the mountain to the jeep, beating the rain. After lunch and a drive home, we took naps and the 8 of us met up for a final drunken dinner spectacle farewell.This time, I expect Nico and I might keep in touch with these friends. Hopefully, I mean, I did promise Rob to meet him in Vegas for his 21st on February 8th 2011.
Note: Let me say this, if any of you are considering a trip to Southeast Asia and are adventurous/outdoors-y, passing on this 3-day opportunity cannot happen. Passing on this would have been my biggest travel regret from a lifetime of trans-continental travel.
Note: Let me say this, if any of you are considering a trip to Southeast Asia and are adventurous/outdoors-y, passing on this 3-day opportunity cannot happen. Passing on this would have been my biggest travel regret from a lifetime of trans-continental travel.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Note to Family and Friends
Nico and I are about to arrive at the Laotian border. Laos has been described as Thailand of the 1940s.
I would not be surprised if we lack communications for at least the week following our entry into the Gibbon Experience treehouse, but we will attempt to post as soon as possible. Please do not worry.
I would not be surprised if we lack communications for at least the week following our entry into the Gibbon Experience treehouse, but we will attempt to post as soon as possible. Please do not worry.
3 Days to Laos: Part 2 - Chang Rai and the Hill Tribe Village
Firstly, you'll have to forgive our lack of photos in these posts (Since updated!). Nico and I have been taking a ton, but for some reason, the internet cafe's in Chang Rai are not as accomadating as I would have hoped. We will attempt to fix this soon.
As for Chang Rai. Well... We landed in Chang Rai yesterday around mid-day. Nico and I got off the plane, having seen how small the city was from the air (literally, walkable from top to bottom within 20 minutes) and debated just heading to the border of Laos immediately. We lacked a hotel reservation, plans, or any really idea of what we might do in Chang Rai. Instead, we lucked out, opting to stay at one of the hotels mentioned in the half page entry on Chang Rai in Lonely planet.
When we finally hopped out of our "cab" we thought it was just 1 o clock. Enough time to go for a motorcycle ride around the country side. The elderly couple that owns our hotel seemed to scoff at that idea and mentioned a Saturday night market worth going to in town. Well, we opted out of the motorcycle ride, dropped off our bags, and realized that our luck continued. The clock in the cab had been 4 hours off, and our sense of time after being in planes all day was shot to sh!t. It was already 5PM and within 10 minutes of starting our walk around the neighborhood, we could tell that the city was closing down the main drag for the Night Bazaar.
As for Chang Rai. Well... We landed in Chang Rai yesterday around mid-day. Nico and I got off the plane, having seen how small the city was from the air (literally, walkable from top to bottom within 20 minutes) and debated just heading to the border of Laos immediately. We lacked a hotel reservation, plans, or any really idea of what we might do in Chang Rai. Instead, we lucked out, opting to stay at one of the hotels mentioned in the half page entry on Chang Rai in Lonely planet.
When we finally hopped out of our "cab" we thought it was just 1 o clock. Enough time to go for a motorcycle ride around the country side. The elderly couple that owns our hotel seemed to scoff at that idea and mentioned a Saturday night market worth going to in town. Well, we opted out of the motorcycle ride, dropped off our bags, and realized that our luck continued. The clock in the cab had been 4 hours off, and our sense of time after being in planes all day was shot to sh!t. It was already 5PM and within 10 minutes of starting our walk around the neighborhood, we could tell that the city was closing down the main drag for the Night Bazaar.
Our trek around town revealed Chang Rai to be exactly the type of city Nico and I have a taste for. It's a quaint, authentic feeling, town. Unlike many of the other cities we've been in thus far, it doesn't have the same hoards of Farang we've seen. Instead, you find large gatherings of tourists making their way to Burma or Laos only in internet cafes and at travel agencies. It was a nice change of pace from Koh Phagnan and Koh Samui. We walked the whole city and by the time we came back, 45 minutes later, the Bazaar was going in full force. For about a solid mile, the street was lined with 4 rows of merchants, street chefs, and performers. It was unreal, especially given how tiny of a town Chang Rai is.
Nico and I stopped by every booth at least once, walking from 5 to 9:30. Two hours into our walk, in the middle of the street bazaar, we saw what may have been the most beautiful sunset to date, stopping in a park in the middle of the city. We then paced the food section of the street, opting out of more of the Northern Thai delecacy of beetles, crickets, and cockroach. I lost my appetite, remembering that regardless of how much whiskey I have, that is something I will never do again. In our four hours of looking we demonstrated wild self control, buying only a chess set and dinner (noodle soup!).
We had mentioned potentially visiting a hilltribe, and when we got back to our hotel at 9:30, a tourguide was waiting for us. Got to love the old couple focusing on customer service... despite the fact that the older gentlemen wears and army helmet around and refers to his wife as "The Enemy!" Regardless, we discussed the possibility of heading to the hills even though Nico and I had only recently realized we've been a bit over budget so far this trip. But how many times do you spend the summer in Asia? I mean, really.
The trip sounded great, and better yet the cost was about a third of what we'd heard from the travel agencies we stopped by. So we hit the hay immediately, planning to get up early, withdraw enough cash for the tour, and buy all the treking essentials. Unneccessary. The next morning our guide was an hour late to pick us up. He only informed us after waiting for 45 minutes, that his car had broken down and he had to rent another. We kindly waited and hit the road a bit delayed.
Hill country in Thailand is much different than hill country in Texas. In Texas we swoon over rolling hills and lakes, despite the somewhat gloomy, barren, countryside. In Thailand, the hills are overgrown with lush, green, vegitation. The forests are more than a little jungle, and there are steps of rice paddies everywhere. We drove for about 30 minutes through the country / hillside, before getting out to trek up to a village of people escaping the Burmese government.
While somewhat transient, the hilltribes (mostly composed of refugees and people associating with no particular nationality), life in the hilltribe seemed tranquil. As we were told while waiting for our lunch, all buildings were shared, responsibilities were shared, and the hilltribes simply farmed and built enough for themselves, requiring little from the outside world. It was peaceful. At least, it was peaceful until Nico was making meow sounds at a cat and a tribe member walked over, picked up the cat, and tossed it 25 feet into a garbage pile. Our Burmese tour guide explained that this tribe didn't particularly like animals. Who would have guessed?
After a delicious lunch and an extended photo period, we took off on a 10 Kilometer walk. We treked around rice paddies, corn fields, and into the jungle. We walked for about 4 Km next to a stream, where I managed to brush against a sort of poison leaf that affects immediately and feels like fire. Within minutes it stung to move my left arm (which is currently completely red) and for the first time, I was thankful that poison ivy is the brunt of what we have to deal with in the states.
Our guide spent the entirety of our trip telling us about life in the jungle. What snails, insects, and plants we could eat; how to catch a fish with your bare hands; and what not to touch (yes, he chose to do that only after I suffered my fate). Nico simultaneously learned his jungle skills and dealt with my incessent moaning for the next few hours and we eventually made it out of the jungle, where the guide looked at my arm, giggled, and told me I'd be fine. It would only sting for about a week or two. Damnit.
He pulled out a vine, mashed up the leaves and applied the mush as a compress on my arm. I felt much better for about 2 hours, though now, as I write this for you, our adoring followers, my arm kills again. We drove home from the hillside, stopped by a pharmacy, and headed to dinner. After my painful, but totally worthwhile experience, I managed to convince Nico to take a break from spicy and hit up a pizza place. It was delicious and quite a positive note to end an amazing 2 day trip to Chang Rai.
Now, off to Laos.
3 Days to Laos: Part 1 - Goodbye Haad Gruad
In the past 3 days Nico and I have been busy leaving our island paradise and making our way to the Laos border. In truth, we both felt so at home in Haad Gruad, the small private beachfront that our hotel was on, that leaving felt like sacrificing a summer of relaxing bliss for one of uncertain adventure. However, given both of our lust for new and different things, Nico and I overcame our trepedation and said goodbye to many of the lost travelers that had found themselves staying indefinitely in that little cove.
After saying our goodbyes, and tipping our Burmese friend Min more hansomely than most (he did sneak us into the front of the line for drinks and food), we took off headed for the high speed ferry. We had opted for plane tickets from Koh Samui to Chang Rai in order to both stay an extra day on Island and miss two nights of consecutive night trains - as we were less than impressed with our first.
Late in the afternoon, we hopped off the boat in Koh Samui and I was able to experience what Nico had described first hand. Koh Samui, even more so than Koh Phagnan, is a British resort island. Everyone on the island seemed to speak English, the beaches were lined with netted swimming areas, cabannas and uniformed servers, and views of million dollar yachts lining the water. I exhaled deeply and was thankful that I agreed to skip spending a significant amount of time on that island... that is a date place, and Nico would make a pretty hairy, broad shouldered, date. We walked about half a mile from the hotel we stumbled upon (complete with BBC and Fox News - why Fox News, don't ask me, Thai people must think Americans are mentally deficient), and found the one restaurant that looked like it would blow over in a minor breeze and dined like kings. I.e., we had (great) spicy Thai food again!
At 7:30 in the morning, we took off for the airport. While Nico rightly complained that this was too early for our 9:30 flight, I maintained that we could get held up if any of our information didn't match our passports, etc. He just accepted my craziness and went with it. Luckily, the Koh Samui airport is unlike the IAD and IAH's of the World. Koh Samui International, is a 6 gate, open air, haven of travel necessity. We were provided with free coffee, breakfast snacks, and designer shopping locations. Have I mentioned that English tourists know how to live? Believe me, this airport made Aspen Airport look like the Greyhound Bus Stop at Ski Liberty... and I am talking about the Aspen Private Jet Airport.
It was a fitting way to see ourselves off the islands and begin our trek north.
After saying our goodbyes, and tipping our Burmese friend Min more hansomely than most (he did sneak us into the front of the line for drinks and food), we took off headed for the high speed ferry. We had opted for plane tickets from Koh Samui to Chang Rai in order to both stay an extra day on Island and miss two nights of consecutive night trains - as we were less than impressed with our first.
Late in the afternoon, we hopped off the boat in Koh Samui and I was able to experience what Nico had described first hand. Koh Samui, even more so than Koh Phagnan, is a British resort island. Everyone on the island seemed to speak English, the beaches were lined with netted swimming areas, cabannas and uniformed servers, and views of million dollar yachts lining the water. I exhaled deeply and was thankful that I agreed to skip spending a significant amount of time on that island... that is a date place, and Nico would make a pretty hairy, broad shouldered, date. We walked about half a mile from the hotel we stumbled upon (complete with BBC and Fox News - why Fox News, don't ask me, Thai people must think Americans are mentally deficient), and found the one restaurant that looked like it would blow over in a minor breeze and dined like kings. I.e., we had (great) spicy Thai food again!
At 7:30 in the morning, we took off for the airport. While Nico rightly complained that this was too early for our 9:30 flight, I maintained that we could get held up if any of our information didn't match our passports, etc. He just accepted my craziness and went with it. Luckily, the Koh Samui airport is unlike the IAD and IAH's of the World. Koh Samui International, is a 6 gate, open air, haven of travel necessity. We were provided with free coffee, breakfast snacks, and designer shopping locations. Have I mentioned that English tourists know how to live? Believe me, this airport made Aspen Airport look like the Greyhound Bus Stop at Ski Liberty... and I am talking about the Aspen Private Jet Airport.
It was a fitting way to see ourselves off the islands and begin our trek north.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Drinking in the Full Moon... metaphorically and literally.
For those of you wondering why we have been on "post silence" for the past few days, it's due to preparations for the full moon party that Nico just wrote about. You see, after months of hassling me, my wonderful sister convinced me that despite its tourist-y nature, Nico and I had to go to the full moon party.
Over the course of the past two days, Nico and I decided to take it easy... you know, because you have to go into any 20 thousand person party with the assumption that you are going to be kind of hurting afterwards. With that in mind, our daily events went something like this - Moped around, eat delicious Thai food, get hour long Thai massages for 7 dollars, make new friends at the beach and at the pool, and repeat. I mean, we needed to be relaxed, right?
When we departed for Haadrin, we had no idea what to expect. When we arrived with Luc (not Lucky - Nico officially cant remember the name of a person who does not have nice legs) and the other travelers from our hotel, we weren't shocked, but certainly pleasantly surprised to see what ensued. While I wish we had a camera, I am glad we opted to play it safe on this one and leave the camera at home. But let me do my best to describe the scene.
As we drove up, people, taxis, and make-shift bars lined the road. No fewer than 500 people could be seen walking the two block area outside of the beach. Alright, there were a lot of people, so we were prepared for a good time. Yeah, we had no clue. Upon actually entering the beach, we realized that the entire beach was filled with Farang (mostly European students on gap years before university). There were around 20 thousand people surrounding every bar, covered in blacklight paint, drinking out of buckets. Trashy European house music was blasting from almost every speaker and throughout the crowd, there was the occasional temporary stage set up to allow less than reputable girls to make poor decisions. Yeah, it was essentially a scene from a movie. It was surreal.
We drank in the sights, we drank in the music, and we drank ALL THE DRINKS. Actually, Nico and I stayed somewhat sober, but we did take it all in. After about 5 hours of walking around, buying buckets, eating terrible bar/street food, we decided that we'd had enough flirting with girls and meeting ridiculously drunk 19 year old dudes. Note: That could easily have gone the other way, as I am sure you could guess, if we met more interesting women. We called it a night and hopped in a cab home.
The cab ride was an ordeal. Not only did we spend upwards of 30 minutes arguing with cab drivers as to how many stops we were going to make along the way, we managed to end up in the worst possible situation at the end of it all. We ended up in a cab going halfway to our hotel, and were on our own to find a second to take us the rest of the way. That's alright, it wasn't too crowded, and it seemed like there were some nice Americans in the cab.
Wrong. In an attempt to be friendly on the half hour cab ride, Nico told the girl next to him it was good to hear another American accent. I guess that is not an appropriate comment because within seconds, there was a FURIOUS Canadian yelling at Nico and ranting about how Americans were assholes. Well, at this point I thought she was joking around, because, really, I mean... everyone wants to be an American! Unfortunately for me, I guess she wasn't, because when I waved off her comment smiling and told her that she was just unhappy her home country of America Jr. wasn't as well respected as ours, she went from furious to ravenous lunatic. Canadians are surprisingly angry people. We got yelled at most of the way home, before arriving at 5:15
This morning we discovered that we had the earliest evening of anyone staying at our hotel. More proof of the continuing lesson that we, the old guys here, can't party like all the new high school graduates coming over from Europe. Terrible but true.
This morning we all shared stories and complained about our hangovers (which Nico and I embellished for sympathy's sake). It was a good time.
Over the course of the past two days, Nico and I decided to take it easy... you know, because you have to go into any 20 thousand person party with the assumption that you are going to be kind of hurting afterwards. With that in mind, our daily events went something like this - Moped around, eat delicious Thai food, get hour long Thai massages for 7 dollars, make new friends at the beach and at the pool, and repeat. I mean, we needed to be relaxed, right?
When we departed for Haadrin, we had no idea what to expect. When we arrived with Luc (not Lucky - Nico officially cant remember the name of a person who does not have nice legs) and the other travelers from our hotel, we weren't shocked, but certainly pleasantly surprised to see what ensued. While I wish we had a camera, I am glad we opted to play it safe on this one and leave the camera at home. But let me do my best to describe the scene.
As we drove up, people, taxis, and make-shift bars lined the road. No fewer than 500 people could be seen walking the two block area outside of the beach. Alright, there were a lot of people, so we were prepared for a good time. Yeah, we had no clue. Upon actually entering the beach, we realized that the entire beach was filled with Farang (mostly European students on gap years before university). There were around 20 thousand people surrounding every bar, covered in blacklight paint, drinking out of buckets. Trashy European house music was blasting from almost every speaker and throughout the crowd, there was the occasional temporary stage set up to allow less than reputable girls to make poor decisions. Yeah, it was essentially a scene from a movie. It was surreal.
We drank in the sights, we drank in the music, and we drank ALL THE DRINKS. Actually, Nico and I stayed somewhat sober, but we did take it all in. After about 5 hours of walking around, buying buckets, eating terrible bar/street food, we decided that we'd had enough flirting with girls and meeting ridiculously drunk 19 year old dudes. Note: That could easily have gone the other way, as I am sure you could guess, if we met more interesting women. We called it a night and hopped in a cab home.
The cab ride was an ordeal. Not only did we spend upwards of 30 minutes arguing with cab drivers as to how many stops we were going to make along the way, we managed to end up in the worst possible situation at the end of it all. We ended up in a cab going halfway to our hotel, and were on our own to find a second to take us the rest of the way. That's alright, it wasn't too crowded, and it seemed like there were some nice Americans in the cab.
Wrong. In an attempt to be friendly on the half hour cab ride, Nico told the girl next to him it was good to hear another American accent. I guess that is not an appropriate comment because within seconds, there was a FURIOUS Canadian yelling at Nico and ranting about how Americans were assholes. Well, at this point I thought she was joking around, because, really, I mean... everyone wants to be an American! Unfortunately for me, I guess she wasn't, because when I waved off her comment smiling and told her that she was just unhappy her home country of America Jr. wasn't as well respected as ours, she went from furious to ravenous lunatic. Canadians are surprisingly angry people. We got yelled at most of the way home, before arriving at 5:15
This morning we discovered that we had the earliest evening of anyone staying at our hotel. More proof of the continuing lesson that we, the old guys here, can't party like all the new high school graduates coming over from Europe. Terrible but true.
This morning we all shared stories and complained about our hangovers (which Nico and I embellished for sympathy's sake). It was a good time.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Island hopping...
I've never climbed to the top of the Washington Monument. I know I've been, but I can't remember being on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Despite Paul's seriously amazing description, I've never been to the Houston Ship Channel (I know - shocking). That being sad, today Nico and I did something truly touristy... and it might have been the best Thai adventure we've had to date.
At around 7PM last night, in the midst of an entirely pointless argument Nico and I were having on the point of life, or the definition of arbitrary, or something like that, we walked over to the "concierge" desk at our resort and randomly booked a tour of a marine wildlife park for the day. Note: For those of you reading and contemplating Thai travel, I use the term concierge VERY LOOSELY.
While we'd both been interested in some sort of snorkeling adventure, the 50 dollar price-tag seemed somewhat outrageous. When you've been paying 2 dollars a meal, and 7 dollars a night for a hotel, 50 dollars seems like it should buy you a cheap foreign car. But we went ahead and did it anyways... perhaps just to stop arguing about the word arbitrary.
Well, when we woke up it was raining. Our conversation went something like this...
"Damn."
"Crap."
"I want to go back to sleep."
"I think the ticket is non-refundable."
...After which we both begrudgingly got out of bed and took our showers. A truck showed up to take us to the port we were departing from and we got on it. Without breakfast for me, and I hate skipping meals as most of you can attest to. After 30 minutes of waiting around at the pier, a boat showed up. Not just any boat, but a boat designed for a man who... well... needed an extension of sorts. This 27 foot guy had three 200 hundred hours power engines on the back.
We rocketed off, and after about 30 minutes on the water we realized that the extra horses were more than helpful. We covered about 25 miles in all and ended up in a remote set of islands. None too large, all about a mile or two away from the closest. For those of you obsessed with Leo DiCaprio, this marine park was what The Beach was inspired by.
By the time we stopped the sky was clearing up. Lucky. We quickly got shoved out of the boat for an hour long snorkeling adventure. Despite the morning rain, the water was pretty clear and we were sitting atop a live reef. For those of you who are used to diving or snorkeling in the Atlantic - this was nothing like that. There was life everywhere. It was a testament to what things were like before (my beloved) industry touched the world.
After finishing up with the snorkeling, we were shuttled over to another island. Everyone was told to follow our tour guide on a hike. Let me tell you, this "hike" wasn't much of a hike. We traversed an incredibly arduous path, made easy by steps at almost 90 degree inclines, until we arrived at a lagoon that was perfect emerald green. Nico and I treked to the vantage point for a photo-op and were taken aback by the scene's beauty.
Despite being somewhat disappointed by our lack of physical exertion for the day, we were happy to have seen something like that. So when we took off for lunch on a random beach, we felt pretty content. As far as we knew, it was lunch, another beach for more relaxation, then home. When we got to the "relaxation beach" we realized the real hike was supposed to be there. Unfortunately, our guide said because it had been raining it was too dangerous to go up the trail. Damn. Wait. When have we ever been responsible?
As I'm sure you'd all guess, Nico and I snuck off and raced up the 700 meter elevation mountain. The hike was supposed to take at minimum an hour... but because we knew our guide would be setting sail with the recreational adventurers, we ran. Nico finished his trek in 25 minutes, a full 15 ahead of my 40 - I passed 4-5 groups on my way up and my way down... so Nico's 25 minute time should be considered insane. Well, low and behold, when we got to the top we saw possibly the most incredible view in Thailand. It was worth it. We had the entire island chain in sight and our opportunity to scream, take photos, and feel like we had done something special.
When we showed up at the base of the mountain panting and covered in sweat, we were euphoric. It had truly been another great day, and it was only 4 o'clock.
At around 7PM last night, in the midst of an entirely pointless argument Nico and I were having on the point of life, or the definition of arbitrary, or something like that, we walked over to the "concierge" desk at our resort and randomly booked a tour of a marine wildlife park for the day. Note: For those of you reading and contemplating Thai travel, I use the term concierge VERY LOOSELY.
While we'd both been interested in some sort of snorkeling adventure, the 50 dollar price-tag seemed somewhat outrageous. When you've been paying 2 dollars a meal, and 7 dollars a night for a hotel, 50 dollars seems like it should buy you a cheap foreign car. But we went ahead and did it anyways... perhaps just to stop arguing about the word arbitrary.
Well, when we woke up it was raining. Our conversation went something like this...
"Damn."
"Crap."
"I want to go back to sleep."
"I think the ticket is non-refundable."
...After which we both begrudgingly got out of bed and took our showers. A truck showed up to take us to the port we were departing from and we got on it. Without breakfast for me, and I hate skipping meals as most of you can attest to. After 30 minutes of waiting around at the pier, a boat showed up. Not just any boat, but a boat designed for a man who... well... needed an extension of sorts. This 27 foot guy had three 200 hundred hours power engines on the back.
We rocketed off, and after about 30 minutes on the water we realized that the extra horses were more than helpful. We covered about 25 miles in all and ended up in a remote set of islands. None too large, all about a mile or two away from the closest. For those of you obsessed with Leo DiCaprio, this marine park was what The Beach was inspired by.
By the time we stopped the sky was clearing up. Lucky. We quickly got shoved out of the boat for an hour long snorkeling adventure. Despite the morning rain, the water was pretty clear and we were sitting atop a live reef. For those of you who are used to diving or snorkeling in the Atlantic - this was nothing like that. There was life everywhere. It was a testament to what things were like before (my beloved) industry touched the world.
After finishing up with the snorkeling, we were shuttled over to another island. Everyone was told to follow our tour guide on a hike. Let me tell you, this "hike" wasn't much of a hike. We traversed an incredibly arduous path, made easy by steps at almost 90 degree inclines, until we arrived at a lagoon that was perfect emerald green. Nico and I treked to the vantage point for a photo-op and were taken aback by the scene's beauty.
Despite being somewhat disappointed by our lack of physical exertion for the day, we were happy to have seen something like that. So when we took off for lunch on a random beach, we felt pretty content. As far as we knew, it was lunch, another beach for more relaxation, then home. When we got to the "relaxation beach" we realized the real hike was supposed to be there. Unfortunately, our guide said because it had been raining it was too dangerous to go up the trail. Damn. Wait. When have we ever been responsible?
As I'm sure you'd all guess, Nico and I snuck off and raced up the 700 meter elevation mountain. The hike was supposed to take at minimum an hour... but because we knew our guide would be setting sail with the recreational adventurers, we ran. Nico finished his trek in 25 minutes, a full 15 ahead of my 40 - I passed 4-5 groups on my way up and my way down... so Nico's 25 minute time should be considered insane. Well, low and behold, when we got to the top we saw possibly the most incredible view in Thailand. It was worth it. We had the entire island chain in sight and our opportunity to scream, take photos, and feel like we had done something special.
When we showed up at the base of the mountain panting and covered in sweat, we were euphoric. It had truly been another great day, and it was only 4 o'clock.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
A Good Day.
All-
Since we last updated you with any information on our travels, we've moved from the grimy but lovable city of Bangkok, to the beautiful Gulf of Thailand. We opted out of flying to get here, and instead decided to take the night train. So, on the afternoon of the 3rd, we headed over to the Bangkok train station and got on what we expected to be a 12 hour ride to Sura Tani.
Within an hour of getting on the train, we noticed something strange. We werent moving. At all. Our 12 hour trip turned into a 14 hour trip right off the bat. Bad news, right? Well, it turned out that wasn't the only problem. As we tried to go to bed in our pull out beds we each realized something distinct. For Nico it was that his bed didn't have blinds to properly shield the light - and they never turned the lights out like in a night flight. For me, it was that my mattress, made out of folded down vinyl seats, was not at all breathable (who would have guessed). Needless to say, we were ecstatic to hop off at 8 in the morning... even though we were just about to get on the 1 hour charter bus and 3 and a half hour boat ride to Koh Phangan.
Getting here was clearly worth the wait. Koh Phangan is beautiful. While it is clearly a tourist draw, we somehow managed to book one of the only places on the island that is not filled with drunk people all the time. Instead, our 50 room bungalow resort is sitting on a private beach, with bungalows built into the surrounding hills, costing each of us a whopping 8 dollars a day. Awesome. Needless to say, after arriving yesterday afternoon all we wanted to do was zone out. So at around 4 o clock, we started the stream of mixed drinks at the pool bar (infinity pool looking out at the beach) and just relaxed.
While it wasn't too early, we woke up around 9 this morning and decided to explore. What Nico does best. What Max attempts to do awkwardly. "You mean, you can't just pay for that?" Despite my ridiculousness, we opted to explore using the best method of transportation on the island has to offer, moped. Note: This past line will infuriate my father, despite the fact that he knows I ride dirtbikes and was planning on doing this regardless... so Dad, I love you anyways, but let me just say Moped Moped Moped.
That being said, we took off to look at the beach home to the infamous full moon party. You see, once a month people flock to Koh Phangan to throw a rave / techno / bash, filled with acts illegal in most countries and more booze than can be imagined. As Nico and I will be partaking in this party when we return from a small excursion to Koh Tao, we wanted to check the area out. Tourist central. We ate lunch and took off as quickly as we could back down the windy road that took us from our secluded half of the island to a veritable metropolis of Aussie and European vagrant students.
Lucky for us we took a wrong turn and ended up going north directly at the southern tip of the island. For those of you familiar with volcanic islands, this is much the same. Despite not being large, the island has 3 huge moutains in it's center. The road we wound up on twisted its way through the valleys in between and dropped us off in a remote northern part of the island after getting a full hour of spectacular views and rolling hills. Though I was not at all impressed with the island after departing from party central, my faith was restored after seeing miles of untouched jungle, winding up at a Wat (hundreds of years old) tended by a single monk, taking a 2km long dirt road through shacks to a damn in the middle of nowhere, etc.
We slowly found our way back home, and are taking the rest of the night off. All I can say, is that it was a good day.
Since we last updated you with any information on our travels, we've moved from the grimy but lovable city of Bangkok, to the beautiful Gulf of Thailand. We opted out of flying to get here, and instead decided to take the night train. So, on the afternoon of the 3rd, we headed over to the Bangkok train station and got on what we expected to be a 12 hour ride to Sura Tani.
Within an hour of getting on the train, we noticed something strange. We werent moving. At all. Our 12 hour trip turned into a 14 hour trip right off the bat. Bad news, right? Well, it turned out that wasn't the only problem. As we tried to go to bed in our pull out beds we each realized something distinct. For Nico it was that his bed didn't have blinds to properly shield the light - and they never turned the lights out like in a night flight. For me, it was that my mattress, made out of folded down vinyl seats, was not at all breathable (who would have guessed). Needless to say, we were ecstatic to hop off at 8 in the morning... even though we were just about to get on the 1 hour charter bus and 3 and a half hour boat ride to Koh Phangan.Getting here was clearly worth the wait. Koh Phangan is beautiful. While it is clearly a tourist draw, we somehow managed to book one of the only places on the island that is not filled with drunk people all the time. Instead, our 50 room bungalow resort is sitting on a private beach, with bungalows built into the surrounding hills, costing each of us a whopping 8 dollars a day. Awesome. Needless to say, after arriving yesterday afternoon all we wanted to do was zone out. So at around 4 o clock, we started the stream of mixed drinks at the pool bar (infinity pool looking out at the beach) and just relaxed.
While it wasn't too early, we woke up around 9 this morning and decided to explore. What Nico does best. What Max attempts to do awkwardly. "You mean, you can't just pay for that?" Despite my ridiculousness, we opted to explore using the best method of transportation on the island has to offer, moped. Note: This past line will infuriate my father, despite the fact that he knows I ride dirtbikes and was planning on doing this regardless... so Dad, I love you anyways, but let me just say Moped Moped Moped.
That being said, we took off to look at the beach home to the infamous full moon party. You see, once a month people flock to Koh Phangan to throw a rave / techno / bash, filled with acts illegal in most countries and more booze than can be imagined. As Nico and I will be partaking in this party when we return from a small excursion to Koh Tao, we wanted to check the area out. Tourist central. We ate lunch and took off as quickly as we could back down the windy road that took us from our secluded half of the island to a veritable metropolis of Aussie and European vagrant students.
Lucky for us we took a wrong turn and ended up going north directly at the southern tip of the island. For those of you familiar with volcanic islands, this is much the same. Despite not being large, the island has 3 huge moutains in it's center. The road we wound up on twisted its way through the valleys in between and dropped us off in a remote northern part of the island after getting a full hour of spectacular views and rolling hills. Though I was not at all impressed with the island after departing from party central, my faith was restored after seeing miles of untouched jungle, winding up at a Wat (hundreds of years old) tended by a single monk, taking a 2km long dirt road through shacks to a damn in the middle of nowhere, etc.
We slowly found our way back home, and are taking the rest of the night off. All I can say, is that it was a good day.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
In Koh Phangan...
We're about to hit the trail for a day mopeding around Koh Phangan... It's beautiful here. Not at all developed - Unfortunately, every tourist in the world knows this, so we're surrounded by white people.
That said, I'll show you what it looks like later today. Hope all is well on the homefront. Happy belated 4th of July.
That said, I'll show you what it looks like later today. Hope all is well on the homefront. Happy belated 4th of July.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Last 2 days around Bangkok
Alright,
Over the last two days Nico and I have accomplished a lot. With our hearts set on seeing the Royal palace we walked over on wednesday to the grounds, only to find the place closed to the public. Apparently this whole week is a large buddhist holiday and theyre not looking to have any dirty backpackers wandering around. Sad.
Luckily, we decided to drown our sorrows in papaya salad from some street vendors and another patron told us to go to the National museum (just around the corner), to that instead. As with American museums, any disheveled student can go!
The museum housed an inordinate number of relics. Unlike museums that we're used to, there appeared to be so many distinct pieces that in many places the curators simply neglected to classify or categorize them. Yes, think about that. A country with so much history still in existence that people stopped caring. Very different than what we're used to. After walking through the museum for a few hours, we headed off in search of a boat ride - Nonna told me that she would disown me if I missed what could very well be the best experience in bangkok.
Prynn directed us to a very classy boat riding operation, and we quickly boarded a 30 foot long 3 foot wide vessel. We were taken throughout the back canals of bangkok and were able to see a bit into how many residents live.
Nico and I had very different takes on this experience. Nico felt that it would be amazing to have grown up on one of the Bangkok canals. Beautiful, full of adventure, etc. I was shocked at how what would be prime waterfront property was home to dilapidated houses on the brink of falling down. We saw Thai residents lounging around, seemingly malnourished, at almost every house. Life here is very different than life in a developed country's capital city. Very different.
We grabbed thai massages, then dinner on the river and called it a night.
The next day we woke up to a surprise, Nico was slightly sick and I was feeling very ill. Unfortunately, and fortunately, we didnt want that to stop us from seeing the ruins at Ayutthara. We hopped on the early express train and arrived only to find out that pobrecito Max was very sick. Food poisoning of some sort.
While we got to make our way in and out of incredible temples all day. It was apparent that I was not able to keep any liquids down. Bad news. I kept trying to drink, and kept not being able to do so. Eventually we decided to call it quits early, after seeing only about half the ruins in town (luckily we got a tour guide, so that is still more than most) and head back to Bangkok. I moaned and slept all the way back to Bangkok and proceeded to drink, take cipro, and eat yogurt all night.
We went to sleep at 8 and woke up at 9. I am feeling a bit better now, but not wonderful. Taking it easy today in hopes of getting ready for the trip down to Koh Phangan tonight.
Alright, that's the update, hope all is well...
Over the last two days Nico and I have accomplished a lot. With our hearts set on seeing the Royal palace we walked over on wednesday to the grounds, only to find the place closed to the public. Apparently this whole week is a large buddhist holiday and theyre not looking to have any dirty backpackers wandering around. Sad.
Luckily, we decided to drown our sorrows in papaya salad from some street vendors and another patron told us to go to the National museum (just around the corner), to that instead. As with American museums, any disheveled student can go!
The museum housed an inordinate number of relics. Unlike museums that we're used to, there appeared to be so many distinct pieces that in many places the curators simply neglected to classify or categorize them. Yes, think about that. A country with so much history still in existence that people stopped caring. Very different than what we're used to. After walking through the museum for a few hours, we headed off in search of a boat ride - Nonna told me that she would disown me if I missed what could very well be the best experience in bangkok.
Prynn directed us to a very classy boat riding operation, and we quickly boarded a 30 foot long 3 foot wide vessel. We were taken throughout the back canals of bangkok and were able to see a bit into how many residents live.
Nico and I had very different takes on this experience. Nico felt that it would be amazing to have grown up on one of the Bangkok canals. Beautiful, full of adventure, etc. I was shocked at how what would be prime waterfront property was home to dilapidated houses on the brink of falling down. We saw Thai residents lounging around, seemingly malnourished, at almost every house. Life here is very different than life in a developed country's capital city. Very different.
We grabbed thai massages, then dinner on the river and called it a night.
The next day we woke up to a surprise, Nico was slightly sick and I was feeling very ill. Unfortunately, and fortunately, we didnt want that to stop us from seeing the ruins at Ayutthara. We hopped on the early express train and arrived only to find out that pobrecito Max was very sick. Food poisoning of some sort.
While we got to make our way in and out of incredible temples all day. It was apparent that I was not able to keep any liquids down. Bad news. I kept trying to drink, and kept not being able to do so. Eventually we decided to call it quits early, after seeing only about half the ruins in town (luckily we got a tour guide, so that is still more than most) and head back to Bangkok. I moaned and slept all the way back to Bangkok and proceeded to drink, take cipro, and eat yogurt all night.
We went to sleep at 8 and woke up at 9. I am feeling a bit better now, but not wonderful. Taking it easy today in hopes of getting ready for the trip down to Koh Phangan tonight.
Alright, that's the update, hope all is well...
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
New Itinerary
For those of you who are interested -
June 29th - July 3rd: Bangkok
July 4th - July 9th: Koh Samui / Full moon party (Lauren convinced us)
July 10th: All day travel to Chiang Mai
July 11th - July 13th: Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai
July 14th - July 16th: Gibbon experience.
July 17th on... meander through Laos, Cambodia, and head back to bangkok to head out.
June 29th - July 3rd: Bangkok
July 4th - July 9th: Koh Samui / Full moon party (Lauren convinced us)
July 10th: All day travel to Chiang Mai
July 11th - July 13th: Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai
July 14th - July 16th: Gibbon experience.
July 17th on... meander through Laos, Cambodia, and head back to bangkok to head out.
Hello Bangkok, Goodbye Airports!
All,
I hit the ground in Thailand two nights ago. Sorry for the delayed posting to this point, but things have been pretty much non-stop since then. Let me describe...
After getting off the plane I slipped right through customs. Apparently, my rush to get a Thai Visa at the consolate in DC was unnecessary because white kids with backpacks must look very trustworthy. As I walked through security without so much as having to put my backpack through the x-ray machine, I saw Nico waiting for me immediately outside of the international arrivals area. As most of you know, I don't plan very well. David and Austin can attest that I often ended up on the worst possible flight because of neglecting to book until the very last minute. That said, somehow Nico and I managed to hook up with about 2 emails as to when we each arrive and where we'd meet.
We took out cash and bought SIM cards and quickly hopped in a cab to downtown. It took us about ten minutes to get in, drop our bags off, and take off running to meet up with Nico's buddy Prynn for Beers. Let me tell you, even with a tolerance that would rival most Russian soldiers, 2 beers after sleeping 5 hours in a 72 hour period did me in. We grabbed pad Thai (the street food here is DELICIOUS) on the street and went to sleep.
Our first full day in Bangkok was spent being touristy. We got the whole experience. We saw the old city, we went temple hopping, we rode in tuk tuks (the little motorcycle taxis), and we got scammed. As Thai people say, it was the Farang tax (Farang = Gringo). I'll Expand. After deciding to go Temple hopping, we found a tuk tuk driver to take us around and after seeing 2 or three unbelievable Wats - traditional Thai Buddhist temples - complete with incredible statues of Buddha standing up to 30 meters in the air, our driver convinced us to drop by a tailor shop that was "only open one week a year" so we could decide if we wanted to buy suits. We opted in, because Nico is in desperate need of new work clothes in the states, and found the operation to be pretty classy. I mean, seriously nice tailors. That being said, Nico bought and was fitted for suits that looked great, but we found out afterwards that the shop we went to pays drivers tanks of gas to bus in Americans. Damn. We probably ended up paying an extra couple hundred bucks but, that taught us to be a bit more weary in the future.
We later met up with Prynn again in Downtown Bangkok, which makes downtown DC or
Houston look like Bethesda, and grabbed dinner, foot massages, and got ready to go drinking. Much of the night was spent in a haze after heading to Prynn's favorite bar. For 25 bucks we got Whiskey bottle service, so hell, even though we were already drunk we opted for another. I mean, who wouldn't go ahead and get another 8 shots for 8 bucks.
As per the norm, I made friends with some interesting new people... lady people... and got them to come join us at our all Thai bar. (The one thing this placed lack was a single other person that spoke English). I arrived with the gir
ls to our table to introduce them to Nico, only to find no Nico's to be found. When he re-appeared 20 minutes later he was showing his intoxication. A lot. It took all of 15 minutes for the girls to get scared off. It was HI-larious. Did I mention that Nico can be pretty awkward when housed? (not that I am a ton different, just Nico went out big last night).
We left the bar and grabbed some street food. Nico and Prynn were interested in Pad Thai, but I wasn't that hungry, so I decided to go ahead and get some crickets, some grubworm, and a cockroach. Yeah, I was drunk and y'all know I will eat about anything. Expect pictures. Oh, and yeah... I am not eating cockroach again. Tastes like squishy dirt wrapped in 5 burnt cornhusks. The crickets and grubworms werent so bad.
Prynn and I took Nico home and then headed out again. Much more insanity continued.
Note: I won't often write about women, this was just to call Nico out. Those Nico followers reading this, you've all seen me at my worst and it's bad.
_____________________________________________
Today we hit a boat tour and the national museum. I'll update about this soon, but as my hands are starting to cramp and I'm sure you're board, I'll let you stop here.
Miss you all, but not enough to come home. Hah. Later.
I hit the ground in Thailand two nights ago. Sorry for the delayed posting to this point, but things have been pretty much non-stop since then. Let me describe...
After getting off the plane I slipped right through customs. Apparently, my rush to get a Thai Visa at the consolate in DC was unnecessary because white kids with backpacks must look very trustworthy. As I walked through security without so much as having to put my backpack through the x-ray machine, I saw Nico waiting for me immediately outside of the international arrivals area. As most of you know, I don't plan very well. David and Austin can attest that I often ended up on the worst possible flight because of neglecting to book until the very last minute. That said, somehow Nico and I managed to hook up with about 2 emails as to when we each arrive and where we'd meet.
We took out cash and bought SIM cards and quickly hopped in a cab to downtown. It took us about ten minutes to get in, drop our bags off, and take off running to meet up with Nico's buddy Prynn for Beers. Let me tell you, even with a tolerance that would rival most Russian soldiers, 2 beers after sleeping 5 hours in a 72 hour period did me in. We grabbed pad Thai (the street food here is DELICIOUS) on the street and went to sleep.
Our first full day in Bangkok was spent being touristy. We got the whole experience. We saw the old city, we went temple hopping, we rode in tuk tuks (the little motorcycle taxis), and we got scammed. As Thai people say, it was the Farang tax (Farang = Gringo). I'll Expand. After deciding to go Temple hopping, we found a tuk tuk driver to take us around and after seeing 2 or three unbelievable Wats - traditional Thai Buddhist temples - complete with incredible statues of Buddha standing up to 30 meters in the air, our driver convinced us to drop by a tailor shop that was "only open one week a year" so we could decide if we wanted to buy suits. We opted in, because Nico is in desperate need of new work clothes in the states, and found the operation to be pretty classy. I mean, seriously nice tailors. That being said, Nico bought and was fitted for suits that looked great, but we found out afterwards that the shop we went to pays drivers tanks of gas to bus in Americans. Damn. We probably ended up paying an extra couple hundred bucks but, that taught us to be a bit more weary in the future.
We later met up with Prynn again in Downtown Bangkok, which makes downtown DC or
Houston look like Bethesda, and grabbed dinner, foot massages, and got ready to go drinking. Much of the night was spent in a haze after heading to Prynn's favorite bar. For 25 bucks we got Whiskey bottle service, so hell, even though we were already drunk we opted for another. I mean, who wouldn't go ahead and get another 8 shots for 8 bucks.As per the norm, I made friends with some interesting new people... lady people... and got them to come join us at our all Thai bar. (The one thing this placed lack was a single other person that spoke English). I arrived with the gir
ls to our table to introduce them to Nico, only to find no Nico's to be found. When he re-appeared 20 minutes later he was showing his intoxication. A lot. It took all of 15 minutes for the girls to get scared off. It was HI-larious. Did I mention that Nico can be pretty awkward when housed? (not that I am a ton different, just Nico went out big last night).We left the bar and grabbed some street food. Nico and Prynn were interested in Pad Thai, but I wasn't that hungry, so I decided to go ahead and get some crickets, some grubworm, and a cockroach. Yeah, I was drunk and y'all know I will eat about anything. Expect pictures. Oh, and yeah... I am not eating cockroach again. Tastes like squishy dirt wrapped in 5 burnt cornhusks. The crickets and grubworms werent so bad.
Prynn and I took Nico home and then headed out again. Much more insanity continued.
Note: I won't often write about women, this was just to call Nico out. Those Nico followers reading this, you've all seen me at my worst and it's bad.
_____________________________________________
Today we hit a boat tour and the national museum. I'll update about this soon, but as my hands are starting to cramp and I'm sure you're board, I'll let you stop here.
Miss you all, but not enough to come home. Hah. Later.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tokyo!
True believers,
After 17 hours of plane flight (DC to Houston, Houston to Tokyo), I have arrived into Tokyo. As I can't email all the people I'd like to let y'all know that I wasn't detained for being too tall, too goofy, or too underprepared, I thought I would blast it out this way.
Thanks again to all of you that made the last couple of weeks so amazing. Being in Houston made me homesick for a place I won't be for 2 years, being in Chi... well nothing is like summertime Chi with the boys, and being in DC was, as always, a blast. I hope you all continue to have an amazing summer! I expect many BBQs in Houston next weekend, many brats and baseball games in Chicago next weekend, and CRABS in Annapolis for those of you Washingtonians who will be participating in the traditional DC fourth of july celebration.
Just know, I will be spending my 4th pretending to be canadian, eh. Just kidding, I would never do that. Shil, why do you hate america?
-M
After 17 hours of plane flight (DC to Houston, Houston to Tokyo), I have arrived into Tokyo. As I can't email all the people I'd like to let y'all know that I wasn't detained for being too tall, too goofy, or too underprepared, I thought I would blast it out this way.
Thanks again to all of you that made the last couple of weeks so amazing. Being in Houston made me homesick for a place I won't be for 2 years, being in Chi... well nothing is like summertime Chi with the boys, and being in DC was, as always, a blast. I hope you all continue to have an amazing summer! I expect many BBQs in Houston next weekend, many brats and baseball games in Chicago next weekend, and CRABS in Annapolis for those of you Washingtonians who will be participating in the traditional DC fourth of july celebration.
Just know, I will be spending my 4th pretending to be canadian, eh. Just kidding, I would never do that. Shil, why do you hate america?
-M
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Nicolas checking in...
His name is in the blog title.
***********************************************
So it's my last night in Cote D'Ivoire, figured it's about time to get back in touch with the real world. FYI, for the future, I'll be posting to my friend Max's blog http://7weekswithnico.
No, I didn't come up with the name or concept, but as with the rest of my life, I'm rolling with it
Speaking of which, what would you lovely friends of mine predict the first first few days of my vacation to start like? Simple, well organized, and hassle free? Smooth, well tempered and official? Of course not!
First off, my traveling consisted of a record breaking 43 hours of plane flights and airport layovers (SFO-->Tokyo-->Bangkok--->
I met my parents in the Bangkok airport and we took the last two legs to Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire together. The real fun starts when we land in Abidjan. As we exit the airplane, we are immediately met by a local who has been sent to pick us up and guide us through customs (We are in the country for a family friend's wedding, the groom[Anthony] and my father used to work together). Our guide is soon joined by a beefy looking Gendarme, who is childhood friends with Anthony, and is immensely pleased to meet us. This is a little intimidating as this guy is packing some major weaponry on his military uniform, and turns out to be the head of airport security, a position you do not mess with in a country still recovering from a trully horrific civil war. Mr Gendarme guy soon becomes our best friend. Since he has some swing at the airport, he asks for our passports and visa so that he can rush us through customs. This stuns my parents and I. Visas? What does he mean Visas, you don't need a Visa to get into Cote D'Ivoire. My dad's been traveling back and forth to this country for 7 years and has never gotten one.... Turns out, in all of the wedding plannings, people everyone forgot to mention to us that as of 2 months ago, American citizens need a Visa to enter Cote D'Ivoire. Doh.
If you havn't traveled out of the US much, let me clarify the dear, unfortunate, implications of whole lack of Visa thing. Normally you get a Visa before ever getting on the plane. This can range anywhere from a 1 day process to a 2 month ordeal depending on the country(ies) your are visiting. This is a worthwhile haste because if you somehow arrive in a country without a visa, standard practice is to spin you around, march you right back onto the plane you just disembarked from, and send you right back home. Some countries will spare you this haste, and allow you to buy a visa at the airport itself for the unfortunate passenger in our situation. Cote D'Ivoire is NOT one of those counties.....
All of this flashed through my family's thoughts, and is mirrored in the thoughts of Mr. Gendarme in about 0.5 seconds. This is when things get cool. On come everyone's serious, game face. We are quickly ushered under a series of ropes and through the gates around the sides of the customs officials. One of the customs guys yells at us as we are doing this, and Mr Gendarme brushes him off with a quick "we'll be right back with their bags". Then we get led outside, handed back out passports and bags, and told to have a nice trip. Yep, a military escort through the airport, into a country, without visa, all of which took about 15min from us stepping off the plane to us getting into the car for the actual start of our vacation. Man I love my life sometimes.
So i'm tired of typing. The rest of the week in nonsensical train of thought typing:
Getting stopped by a random Gendarme, getting shit for 30 min for no reason, finally told he'd leave us alone if we gave him some coffee money (Bribe total = $5USD).
Blue Zebra Stripe policeman. This guy ran on the side of our wedding motorcade, and would jump and sit on the window of a random car between intersections. Every light he'd hold out a finger and all traffic would stop. As in, smoke coming out off the wheels of the taxis as they STOP. Almost comical, couldn't figure it out, guy looked like a rent a cop with the weirdest outfit. Turns out, he was a member of the BAE ("Brigarde Ante Emeut", AKA, the riot police). This country's version of a SWAT member, the scariest police type of a country of scary military people.
Dancing. Lots of it, specially at the weeding. Old Cote D'Ivoiring man dancing the moonwalk and then giving my brother and I his condolences for the recent death of Michael Jackson.
Only white people at the 600 person all day African wedding. Awesome.
Off to Bangkok tomorrow. Will start posting to that blog.
Cheers folks,
-Nico
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Packed
Just tying up odds and ends now (trying to finish the second HBS mandatory tutorial). Pretty much everything is in order...
Thought y'all might want to see what I'm taking. This is it - Including a neck pillow and fleece blanket I will discard after arriving in Bangkok to make space for anything I buy along the way.
In order to illustrate scale, I've included a picture of my normal carrying for a week of work at BCG. Mind you, that green bag is about 3/4 full when you take out the travel blanket / pillow. Makes me wonder what I was lugging around all that time on the job.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
T-Minus 5 days
Many of you made me promise to start a new travel blog. Because I hate to disappoint, I have created, ASIA! the blog...
------------------------------------------------
Welcome back adventurers. In 5 days I depart for the opposite side of the world. With only a single backpack containing three sets of clothing, I will venture off to an area of the world largely unexplored by humans. Well... maybe that's not entirely true. But, I will be off to a part of the world largely unexplored by me.
I am all set to go, and just in the midst of packing. For 7 weeks I will be traveling through Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia with Nico Grundmann - a good friend from childhood currently studying Medicine at Stanford Medical School. Despite his pedigree and seemingly noble intentions, those of you who don't know Nico should learn that Nico is normally referred to as "Evil Max." Hopefully, after 7 weeks of our style of debauchery there will still be a Southeast Asia for the rest of you to visit at some point... if not, you always can look back at this blog, right?
With all that said, I want to prepare you. This is not Germany. Unlike my time in Europe, I am traveling without a computer, to places without electricity, and trying to spend a ridiculously small amount of money (for you BCGers, I will not be staying at Starwood properties... I know, whoa). I do not expect to update this blog more than a couple times a week. But hopefully, when I do update it, I can post some pictures and let you know of past events.
I hope all of your summers are beginning well and that you enjoy the warm weather and a couple of beers for me while I am gone. God knows I will do the same for you, and more, in ASIA!
-Maxwell, Max, Maxyboy, Wallstreet, Gumby, or whatever you call me.
------------------------------------------------
Welcome back adventurers. In 5 days I depart for the opposite side of the world. With only a single backpack containing three sets of clothing, I will venture off to an area of the world largely unexplored by humans. Well... maybe that's not entirely true. But, I will be off to a part of the world largely unexplored by me.
I am all set to go, and just in the midst of packing. For 7 weeks I will be traveling through Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia with Nico Grundmann - a good friend from childhood currently studying Medicine at Stanford Medical School. Despite his pedigree and seemingly noble intentions, those of you who don't know Nico should learn that Nico is normally referred to as "Evil Max." Hopefully, after 7 weeks of our style of debauchery there will still be a Southeast Asia for the rest of you to visit at some point... if not, you always can look back at this blog, right?
With all that said, I want to prepare you. This is not Germany. Unlike my time in Europe, I am traveling without a computer, to places without electricity, and trying to spend a ridiculously small amount of money (for you BCGers, I will not be staying at Starwood properties... I know, whoa). I do not expect to update this blog more than a couple times a week. But hopefully, when I do update it, I can post some pictures and let you know of past events.
I hope all of your summers are beginning well and that you enjoy the warm weather and a couple of beers for me while I am gone. God knows I will do the same for you, and more, in ASIA!
-Maxwell, Max, Maxyboy, Wallstreet, Gumby, or whatever you call me.
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