Goodbye, Asia

Last night I had dinner at my hostel. A bunch of people were hanging out in the common room and I ended up hanging out and talking with them for most of the night. It was fun.

Today I went to see the large bronze Buddha statue Kamakura is known for. If I recall correctly, it is the second largest Buddha statue in Japan. It was quite large. I went early so it wasn't too busy.

After that, I went to the beach and walked around for a while. Then I went back to the hostel and have been hanging out there since.

Tonight is my last night in Asia. Tomorrow morning I will make my way to Narita Airport and fly to SFO. I'll spend a night or two in San Francisco then probably try to find a rideshare on Craigslist back to Seattle.

How do I feel about this trip coming to a close? Alright. I had some great experiences on this trip but I'm excited to go home. I had planned on being on the road for longer but that's alright. I went into this expecting it to be the ultimate trip but I think I should have seen it more as a trial-run. That said, two months is a very long time to travel and I've seen and experienced a lot in that time. I've had good times and bad times but I am definitely glad that I did the the trip. I don't quite know what's next but I definitely want to travel more in the future.

Kamakura

I didn't know where I was going today until late last night. I read about a lot of places but couldn't decide on a place to go next. Oona suggested Kamakura and it seemed like a cool place. There was a hostel that had a room available and it was only an hour away from Tokyo. I checked out of my Tokyo hostel this morning then caught a couple trains to Kamakura.

Hold onto your hat.

I arrived and checked into my hostel. I decided to walk to the 7-11 to get some rice balls for lunch  (as I do most days). As I walked there, an old man on a bicycle screeched to a halt next to me. He asked if I spoke English and when I said yes, handed me a piece of paper with a long note collaged with pictures of food, raccoons, and cigarettes. The note reads as follows:

"If you should find this memo, please get in touch with me as soon as possible. I'd like to correspond with you or a good friend. It is my dream for a long time to receive an English letter from someone. I like playing tennis and gardening with my wife. Her name is Teruyo Kakiyama. We are both 71 years old and pensioners. We have two sons and four grandchildren. If you live in Japan, it is more convenient for me. Well, that's all for today. I am looking forward to your reply. Take care of yourself. Sincerely, Yojiro Kakiyama"

He explained that he had been studying English for five years and hoped that once I got home I would write him a letter. Lucky for him, I love sending and receiving mail so I definitely will send him some mail once I get home. I googled his name and found several other travel bloggers who had written about receiving a similar note so I guess he must carry around several notes and hand them to all the foreigners he encounters.

I've got two nights booked in my Kaumkura hostel. I think I'm going to take it easy for a while then go see some of the temples here.

Tokyo and How It Changed My Mind

I had originally intended to visit Tokyo for a week before heading home. Tokyo has changed my mind, however. I like Japan. I had some good times in Southeast Asia but was constantly bothered by the touristy atmosphere in many places and the fact that everyone was trying to rip you off all the time. I quickly got tired of interacting with all the party backpackers and having tuk-tuk drivers claim not to have the change they owed me. Tokyo doesn't seem to have these problems. The hostel I'm in is social but the backpackers here are actually trying to have real experiences rather than just trying to get wasted in a new country.

For these reasons, I've decided to keep traveling for a little while within Japan. I don't know where I'm going next but I've got my Tokyo hostel booked for another few nights so I have some time to find out.

Yesterday I met Oona and her friend Afnan in Akihabara. Akihabara is known for two things: electronics and maid cafes (cafes where women dress as maids and serve you). Maid cafes strike me as creepy and sexist so we just walked around for a while and I looked at the electronics. I had originally intended to purchase a ton of electronics parts for future projects but since I'm going to keep traveling I didn't buy anything. I will probably pass through Tokyo again before heading home so I can shop in Akihabara then.

After that, we took the train to Shibuya, the shopping district of Tokyo. We went to an big bookstore then an okonomiyaki restaurant where we cooked our own savory pancakes at the table. Then we parted ways and I went back to my hostel.

Making a friend in the train station.

I sat down in the common area of the hostel and started talking to some folks there. I met Larissa (from Switzerland) and Marius (from Germany) and they invited me to go to Akihabara with them. I had already been once that day but I had nothing better to do so I said sure. We walked from the hostel to Akihabara, which took about an hour. We explored the area a bit and went into an video game arcade. Arcades in Tokyo are a bit different than American arcades because every game has an ashtray next to it and almost all of the people there are adult men. We played some sort of shooting game which I proved to be very bad at. After a while, we walked back to the hostel.

I'm bad at video games.

Today was another slow day. Hostels in Southeast Asia never have kitchens because food is so cheap there but in Japan, backpackers often cook their own meals at the hostel. I bought a loaf of bread at 7-11 and had toast for breakfast. After that, I hopped on a train to meet a guy I had found on Craigslist selling a tent. I bought it so I can start camping which I've read is very doable in Japan. I still need to get a sleeping bag and some warmer layers though. After buying the tent, I went back to the hostel and walked to a laundromat to do laundry. Since then, I've just been resting in the hostel dorm room. I will probably go back to the common area soon to see if I can find some people to eat dinner with.

A Slow Day in Tokyo

Yesterday I met up with Oona between her classes. On the way to her school, we stopped at 7-11 to get onigiri (rice balls) for lunch. Then we went to her school and hung out in the art studio for a while. Oona had to go to class so I just loitered in the studio for an hour or so until she was done. After that, we went to a coffee shop for and hung out for a while. We parted ways and I took the train back to my hostel.

Oona is busy today so I'm on my own. It's rather cold and a bit rainy in Tokyo and those are two thing I've gone a month without encountering so today is turning into another slow day for me. I slept in this morning then went and bought a rice ball for breakfast. Then I went back to my hostel to eat it and try to figure out what to do for the day.

I wanted to get ramen for lunch so I asked the guy at the hostel desk for a recommendation. He gave me directions to a ramen shop near the hostel and I was able to find it easily. The shop had a machine where you order and pay for your food and it spits out a ticket to give to the chef but it was all in Japanese. Luckily, the chef was able to come over and help me operate the machine.

I handed the chef the ticket and a couple minutes later, he placed bowl of ramen in front of me. The noodles were chewy and the broth was so rich it was like eating melted butter. It was delicious.

After eating, I decided to try to find a warm hat. I had one but I think I lost it somewhere in Thailand. I went to 7-11 since you can buy pretty much anything there. They had prepackaged socks, dress shirts, and neckties for sale but it appeared they were out of hats. The search continues.

Forgot your shirt at home?

Right now I'm back at my hostel resting. I'm going to try to figure out something to do tonight. Tomorrow I will probably meet up with Oona again.

Konnichiwa, Tokyo

I made it to Tokyo last night. Yesterday I had to get up early and go to the Russian Market to pick up my vest. When I went there the night before to pick it up at the time I was told, I had to find an ATM first. By the time I got back, the tailor had left. So I went yesterday morning to pick it up. It looks quite nice.

Bad picture of a good vest.

Then I hired a tuk-tuk to take me to the airport. It was still several hours before my flight but I figured I might as well head there. It's a good thing I did because it took forever to get there. The traffic in Phnom Penh was the craziest I have ever seen. Thousands of cars and motorbikes were at a standstill in the road all trying to nudge a little bit ahead.

Chaos.

I finally made it to the airport only to find out my flight had been delayed by 40 minutes. I breezed through security and waited at my gate for a couple hours. The flight was to Taipei where I had another flight to Tokyo but when we arrived at Taipei, I was met by a guy with a sign marked "Tokyo" and rushed to the gate. I was the last one to board the plane. 

We arrived in Tokyo and I made my way to the train station. Using instructions I had copied down from the web and utilizing the English translations on the signs, I was able to take the two trains to my hostel pretty easily.

Sign in the train station

I haven't seen much of Tokyo yet but it's still pretty amazing. I'm experiencing a bit of culture shock 

at being back in a fully-developed country after over a month in Southeast Asia. Thailand and Cambodia put on a good show for tourists but the truth is that they are both still developing. Last night was the first time I've been able to brush my teeth with tap water (instead of bottled water) in a month.

I'm hanging out in my hostel right now but soon I will leave to meet my friend Oona. She's in school so I'll meet her in between her classes then again after she's done for the day.

Phrustrating Phnom Penh

Yesterday I caught a bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. It was six hours long but the bus had wifi and air-conditioning so it wasn't too bad. The roads are pretty bad at points so the ride was rather bumpy.

When I finally arrived, I took a tuk-tuk to the 11 Happy Hostel. Why that one? Because that's the hostel I found on Workaway (a site where backpackers find work in exchange for accommodation) looking for someone to paint a mural on one of their walls. Not only would I have a free place to stay but will also get to paint a mural. A win-win situation, or so it seemed.

When I arrived, the person I had emailed wasn't there so I was given a room and told she wouldn't be back till very late. My room was very small and the view from the balcony included a large clump of barbed wire. That said, it probably wasn't the worst room I've slept in on this trip. I went to their rooftop bar to get a bite to eat and it quickly became clear that 11 Happy is a total party hostel. Just the kind of place I've been trying to avoid.

The stunning view from my balcony.

This morning, I went to see if the person who I was supposed to talk to was in yet. She wasn't. I waited in my room for a while then went back downstairs. The woman I was supposed to meet finally showed up. We talked for a bit and she showed me the wall she wanted me to paint. It was huge. It would take me at least three days to finish. We talked for a while and I showed her a couple sketches of ideas I had. She clearly didn't like them but didn't say so. Then she got up and left. I waited at least thirty minutes for her to reappear. During that time, I made a new sketch. I showed it to her and she said she had to show it to her business partner before I started.

At that point, I gave up. I knew it would be more stress than it was worth. I told her I didn't want to paint the mural. I said I would pay for the night I spent there and leave. She said that wasn't possible because it was past checkout time so I have to spend another night here and check out tomorrow morning.

After that unpleasant interaction, I was stressed and needed to get away from the hostel. I hired a tuk-tuk to take me to the Russian Market. The Russian Market is a huge market selling all manner of goods but I wanted to talk to a tailor about getting a new vest made. Despite the multiple repairs I've made, the vest is still falling apart. I talked to a couple tailors before finally finding a guy who said he could copy my vest and have it done by tomorrow evening. He told me how much material he needed and I walked to the part of the market with fabric vendors. I found materials I liked and haggled for a price.

Tomorrow I'm going to check out of this terrible hostel. I wrote someone on Couchsurfing about crashing at his place but if I don't hear back I'll just find a quieter hostel. I'm tired of the challenges of traveling solo in Southeast Asia so on Thursday I'm flying to Tokyo to visit my friend Oona. I will stay a week or so there but I'm not sure where I'll head after that.

Turn Down for Wat?

Last night I booked a tuk-tuk driver for Angkor Wat through my hostel. I paid a bit extra to see it at sunrise which I had been told was an amazing sight. Unfortunately, this meant leaving the hostel at 4:45 AM.

I woke up early this morning and met my tuk-tuk driver outside the hostel. He drove me to the Angkor Wat site and I bought my ticket.

I didn't know they were going to take a photo. Didn't turn out well.

After that, the driver dropped me off at the main site, Angkor Wat. It still was an hour or so till sunrise so I waited around with the thousands of other tourists doing the same. Eventually, the sun came up, I explored for a bit, then hopped back into the tuk-tuk.

The tour I had booked was the "short circuit" and it covered about half a dozen different sites. Some people buy three day passes to explore more but one day was enough for me. The driver would drop me off, I would explore the site, then return to the tuk-tuk and move to the next site. 

Like the Grand Palace in Bangkok, it was a strange contrast between the ancient and the modern. The structures were all amazing but they were crowded with tourists and pushy vendors.  It was still really cool to see but I would have preferred not to be constantly bothered with endless chants of "Hello, sir! Fruit shake? Painting? Guide book?"

A few of the structures I visited were also under renovations. Signs announced what countries (China, India, etc.) were collaborating with Cambodia on the effort.

After a few hours at Angkor Wat, the tuk-tuk returned me to my hostel and I went back to sleep for a while. It's not even noon yet so I don't know what I'll do for the rest of the day. I'll figure something out.

Proof that I didn't just pull all these photos off Google.

Bangkok to Siem Reap

I left my hostel in Bangkok this morning a little after four AM. I arrived in Siem Reap at five PM. Between then, I was in a cab for half an hour, a train for six hours, a bus for three hours, and a tuk-tuk for fifteen minutes. I teamed up with a couple other travelers in order to make sense of the Cambodian border-crossing process (and we still were nearly taken in by a fake immigration office scam).

It was a long journey but I've arrived. I am very tired. I booked a hostel for the night and am resting now. I will go out later and see what the Siem Reap nightlife is like. Tomorrow or the day after I hope to make it to Angkor Wat.

The view from the train.

Backpacking Frustrations and New Plans

I've used this blog to catalogue a countless number of frustrations I've faced on this trip but I haven't really addressed my overall feelings about this trip. It's time to do that.

I'm a bit bummed, to be honest.

Travel is stressful. Moving around every few days is hard. I keep ending up in small towns (like Mae Hong Son) where there's very little to do so I end up doing nothing all day.

I think some of the frustration stems from a feeling of aimlessness. Working for DAA was hard but enjoyable because it made me feel like my travel had a purpose.

I've met some great people but the truth is that most of the backpackers I meet are people I wouldn't interact with were they not the only people around. Most backpackers in Thailand are party backpackers who just go from town to town and get wasted every night. They have no regard for the places they are or the people who live there. When I was in Pai a Canadian guy I met expressed shock that I would ever eat something at a street food stand. When I asked him what he would eat instead, he simply replied "Pad Thai." I have trouble understanding why someone would travel across the world and refuse to experience anything out of their comfort zone.

I'm not sure if it's Thailand or just travel in general but I'm burning out. I was planning on continuing on to Laos but I'm changing my plans. I've considered and researched a number of different options (visiting a friend in Japan, getting a work visa for Australia, trying my luck in Europe) but I've decided to head to Cambodia. I'm hoping that I can find something productive to do in Siem Reap or Phnom Penh.

To save myself the stress and discomfort of a 12-hour train ride, I bought a very cheap plane ticket from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. The plan is to hitch to Chiang Mai today, fly to Bangkok tomorrow, then take a train to the border the next day. Splitting it up into three days and spending a night in Chiang Mai and Bangkok seems like the best way to do it.

We'll see how it works out.

Hi, Chiang Rai

Yesterday I took a songthaew to a random point along the highway so I could hitch to Chiang Rai. I walked for about fifteen minutes before arriving at a gas station. I walked around the gas station asking if anyone was heading to Chiang Rai and found a ride with ease. They weren't going all the way to Chiang Rai but dropped me off about 10 miles out of Chiang Rai and gave me a bottle of water. I started trying to get another ride and someone stopped within minutes. The driver was a Thai woman but there was already a hitchhiker in the front seat so she cleared some boxes off the back seat and I got in. The other hitchhiker was a German guy named Sinan. Our driver dropped us off in Chiang Rai and we walked from guesthouse to guesthouse until we found a nice one and each got a room. We left our stuff in our rooms then got lunch.

After lunch, Sinan and I went to a motorbike rental place so he could rent a motorbike to go to the White Temple. The White Temple is a massive structure built in the tradition style of a Buddhist temple except it was built by an artist in the late 90s and it's covered in white glass and mirrors and surrounded by odd statues. The White Temple is something that I've been wanting to go to since I first read about it while planning this trip so I got on the back on Sinan's bike and we drove there. Unfortunately, we got the temple too late to go in so we were only able to see the outside from a distance but it was an amazing sight. I may go back today so I can go inside.

The most elaborate no smoking sign I've ever seen.

I was hoping to stay in Chiang Rai for a few days but it doesn't seem like there's much going on here so I may move on soon.

Repairs being made to the Chiang Rai clocktower.

This marching band walked through the street as I was writing this blog post.

Goodbye (Once Again), Chiang Mai

The birthday party on the permaculture farm was fun. It was a bit like Shambhala without all the pretentious hippie nonsense. The farm was beautiful and the music was great. It was a lot more fun than Shambhala because my friends from DAA were there with me. I tried setting up my hammock for the first time and a couple of the straps broke immediately but I haven't given up on it quite yet.

This band was called Segue Riot and they were excellent.

We returned to Chiang Mai this morning and I've just been hanging out at DAA since then. Tomorrow I think I'll make my way to Chiang Rai (A place one letter off and 100 miles away from Chiang Mai) then slowly make my way into Laos.

Obligatory sunset photo.

Back in Business

Before we begin, some FAQs:

Q: How are you feeling?
A: Much better. Thanks for asking.

Q: Did you lose a lot of photos with your camera?
A: I only lost a couple photos. Nothing too interesting.

Q: Are you going to replace your camera?
A: Read on, please.

After writing the last blog post, I walked to the hostel I had stayed in when I was in Pai before and booked a night there. I spent the night resting.

The next morning, I was going to go to the bus station and catch a bus to Chiang Mai. Just as I was leaving, the proprietors of the hostel were leaving for Chiang Mai to deliver a motorbike in the back of their pickup. I asked if I could come with and they said sure. I got in the backseat and we headed to Chiang Mai but the motorbike wasn't very steady in the back of the truck so we had to stop. They untied the series of elaborate knots keeping it upright and tried to figure out how how to redo it to make it more stable.

It was then that I remembered that I had some rope in my backpack that I had purchased when I bought my hammock. I bought the hammock a week or so ago thinking it would be a good thing to have at some point but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. I gave them the rope and they were able to tie the motorbike down in a way that would be considered Thailand-safe (which is admittedly much more lax than many other countries' definitions of safe). We made it to Chiang Mai without incident and I walked to DAA. There was a screening that night which I helped set up for then I stayed there for the night.

This morning, I went to buy a new camera. At a DAA teammate's advice, I went to the massive shopping mall in Chiang Mai.

Central Plaza. Chiang Mai

I went from up the escalators until I found the floor with stores that seemed to specialize in gadgetry. I looked in a few camera shops and within an hour, I had bought a new camera. My new camera looks almost exactly like my old one except that instead of a Nikon, it's a BenQ brand camera (whatever that means). I read some reviews before buying it and my tests indicate that it's good enough for my purposes.

After I bought my camera, I went and got a pretzel because that's just what you do when you visit a shopping mall.

I did not get the seaweed, ham, and chicken pretzel, though.

Tomorrow, I am going with the DAA folks to an event on an organic farm for the farm's 13th anniversary party. Everyone is going to the farm and going to camp out there for the night. After that, I will probably head to Chiang Rai then Laos. Part of why I think I keep having these stressful things happen to me is because I've been so rushed so I'm going to try to slow down and spend more time in each place I go.

Further Frustration

This trip just took another unfortunate turn.

My time in Mae Hong Son was less than awesome. On my second day when I was going to explore the town, I got sick from something I ate the day before. I suspect that the cucumber slices I was served with a dish may have been washed in the (unsafe) tap water but it could have been anything. I took the day to rest and recover and decided to return to Chiang Mai the next day on my way to Chiang Rai. I'm still not feeling 100%.

I considered taking buses but decided to see if I could at least hitch to Pai then catch a bus to Chiang Mai. I got a ride pretty quickly and had an uneventful ride in the passenger seat of a pickup.

When I got out in Pai, I saw something I wanted to take a photo of so I reached in my bag for my camera. It wasn't there. I took everything out of my bag and still couldn't find it. I don't think it was stolen in the truck because my bag was at my feet the entire ride and the driver didn't touch it. I waited around where I was dropped off for a while in case it fell out of my bag in the truck but the driver didn't return. I don't know if it fell out in Mae Hong Son or in the truck or transported itself to Antarctica but I suppose it doesn't matter.

I wrote my email on the memory card but that seems like a long shot. I'm going to look into buying a cheap camera here.

I'm in a coffee shop in Pai right now. I don't really want to spend three hours getting to Chiang Mai, even on a bus. I need a nap but don't want to spend another night in Pai. That might be what I end up doing, though. Stay tuned, folks.

True story.

Walking (Partway) to Mae Hong Son

I am now in Mae Hong Son, Thailand. I got up pretty early this morning and started walking along the highway to get a ride. I started by the highway marker saying my destination was 111 km away. By the time I arrived at the 106 km marker, I still hadn't gotten a ride.

Seen in font of a military base while walking along the highway.

I kept going and finally a motorbike stopped for me. It was none other than Brian, the Canadian guy I met at my hostel last night. He had rented a motorbike and was just riding around when we crossed paths. He told me he would take me a few kilometers ahead and I hopped on the back of the bike. Unfortunately, I was wearing my heavy backpack so it really hurt my back. After ten or so minutes, I had to get off the bike. I got off in front of a restaurant and there were two other backpackers standing on the side of the road. I walked up to them and learned that they were from Spain and were also trying to hitch to Mae Hong Son. We decided to join forces and in ten minutes, we found a ride in a four-seat pickup. We threw our stuff in the back of the truck and got in the seats. The ride was a couple hours long and we made some conversation with the driver, who spoke pretty good English.

He dropped us off by Mae Hong Son Lake, where there are a lot of guesthouses.  I walked around and asked for prices. I quickly learned that guesthouses here don't have dorms like in other places so you have to rent an entire room. I ended up getting a room in the cheapest place I found. It's a tiny room and while it's still pretty cheap, it's the most I've paid for accommodation since Bangkok. I got lunch at a nearby restaurant then took a nap because I was tired from all the walking I had done.

Panorama of my room.

I talked to the Spanish backpackers a bit during the ride to Mae Hong Son. I had planned on going from there to Burma but they informed me that I couldn't because I didn't get my visa in Bangkok. I'm going to do some of the touristy stuff in Mae Hong Son tomorrow then try to figure out where to go the next day. It seems like there aren't many options that don't involve backtracking. I may end up having to go all the way back to Chiang Mai to take a bus to Chiang Rai or somewhere else. Frustrating.

Pai: Not That Great

Upon hearing that I got sidetracked repeatedly while trying to get to Pai, a friend of mine joked that the universe didn't want me to go there. I don't know if that's true but I've discovered that Pai isn't really that great.

Last night I was supposed to go out with some people I met at my hostel but upon hanging out with them for a bit I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to spend more time with them so I went off on my own. I sat down at a restaurant with live music. The music was in Thai and I was the only farang (the Thai word for white people) there. I ended up sitting down with some Thai folks and hanging out with them for the night. They didn't speak much English but it was still fun. After the restaurant, we went to a dance club for a while then I walked back to my hostel.

Making new friends.

This morning, I decided to do some sightseeing. The tourist attractions in Pai (a waterfall, a hot springs, a famous bridge) are pretty far apart so most people rent motorbikes to get there. I've been a bit scared to try out driving a motorbike but everyone I talked to insisted it was easy to learn. I walked to the rental shop and told the guy there I didn't know how to drive a motorbike but wanted to learn. He offered to teach me (which I'm sure was as much for his benefit as it was mine). He showed me the controls and I tried driving up and down the alley. I ultimately decided that it would be a disservice to myself and others were I on the road so I decided to skip it.

I went and got lunch and did a bit of shopping. I went to a secondhand shop and bought a light jacket because I've been pretty cold at night. I paid about three dollars for it.

In a couple months this will probably be covered in patches.

I also bought a little souvenir. It's a little ceramic keychain of the highway markers in Thailand. Each side has the name of a city in Thailand and how far it is from Pai in kilometers. I was able to figure out what the Thai word for Pai looks like while I was hitchhiking and watching the markers go by.

Pai: 0 km

I'm leaving Pai tomorrow but still don't know where I'm going. Now that I know that hitchhiking is possible (and fun!) here, I'm hesitant to take a bus anywhere. I'll take a look at a map and see where I can get from Pai then head out tomorrow morning.

The Road Provides

A fellow traveler once told me that "The Road provides." What he meant by this is that when you're traveling (on the road), positive things happen when you least expect them to. I've found this to be true time and time again. It's especially apparent during low points in travel when things magically works out. The Road provides.

I have another saying that I've come to accept lately: The Road thinks your plans are stupid.

In the early days of my travel, I had a number of frustrating experiences that I attributed to a lack of planning. I vowed to start planning better and to a certain extent, I did. The problem is that none of the plans ever work out. I've found, however, that the best experiences I've had on this trip so far have all come out of plans that didn't work out.

There is no better example of this than my plans to visit Pai. I first planned to go to Pai nearly a week ago after my time in Chiang Mai. Then I heard about Shambhala and went to Chiang Dao. After Chiang Dao, I tried hitchhiking to Pai but ended up back in Chiang Mai. I spent a couple more nights in Chiang Mai then again tried to go to Pai. I decided to give hitchhiking another try. I took a songthaew to the highway and started walking and trying to get a ride. People stopped for me a couple times but they were never going the way I needed to go. I walked for at least an hour in the hot sun and was ready to give up when a pickup with half a dozen young Thai hippies in the back stopped for me. They were going to Shambhala (duh) but I asked if they would drop me off at the exit to Pai. They said yes but they drove right past the exit and dropped me off at the bus station. It was frustrating but it got me closer to where I needed to be and they arrived right as I was thinking about giving up. The Road provides.

I started walking toward the Pai exit but it was pretty far and I was getting quite tired. As I walked past three men building a deck by the side of the road, one of them called me over. He told me to sit down and poured me a glass of water. He admitted that he hadn't spoken English for years but I found that his English was nearly perfect. We talked for a while and he offered me more and more stuff (a pear, some chicken with rice, coffee) and eventually offered me a palace to stay for the night. He said there was no pressure but if I wanted to rest for a bit then I'd be welcome to stay for a day or two.

My host was named named Piak and he gave me the keys to his guesthouse. Not a mat on the floor or a couch or even a spare room (all of which are perfectly alright for a good night's sleep). A whole guesthouse to myself. It was the nicest place I've stayed on this trip so far. The shower even had hot water which is a luxury I haven't had for weeks.

Piak (left) and me (right).

Piak and I drove to the Friday night market and he bought food from several vendors and some rose plants that he to plant in his garden. We went back to his place and ate dinner with Pon, who had been helping build the deck. Piak mentioned at some point that he knew how to sew so I asked if he had a scrap of fabric I could use to patch my vest with. He found a very nice piece of blue fabric and I was able to patch up my vest once more. Another patch, another story.

The new patch.

In the morning, I was awoken by the sound of the roosters that Piak keeps. Piak drove me to the exit to Pai. I said goodbye and thanked him again and he drove off. I started walking but there weren't many cars passing by. After half an hour, someone in a pickup stopped and told me that I was on a smaller road to Pai and that he would take me to the main road. The ride in the back of the pickup was only about five minutes long but it would have been at least twenty on foot so it was good I got it.

I walked past this sign while trying to get a ride.

The main road wasn't much busier. I started walking and it was about an hour until two guys in a car stopped for me. They didn't speak much English but they made it clear that they weren't heading to Pai. I asked if they would take me further and they agreed. They drove me for about half an hour and dropped me off at a rest stop. 

This turned out to be a brilliant move because all I had to do was talk to drivers getting back into their cars. Within ten minutes, I was in the back of another pickup heading into Pai. I got dropped off at a gas station and walked until I saw a sign for a hostel. I booked one night and that's where I am now. I'm pretty tired so I think I'm going to take a nap then try to find something to do.

Shambhala In your Heart

I had intended to catch a bus to Pai on Monday but on Sunday night, I heard about something cool so I changed my plans. I ended up taking a bus to Chiang Dao to the Shambhala In your Heart Festival.

My bus ticket.

Shambhala is a a Japanese hippie festival that takes place every year in Chiang Dao on a plot of land called the Chiang Dao Youth Camp. People can camp in tents or stay in the teepees there but I ended up staying in the dorm (which was just a concrete platform with four walls and a roof). The weather was beautiful during the day but it got very cold at night and I was not properly equipped to deal with the temperature at night.

There aren't many planned activities at the festival until the music in the evening but people fill the day by playing music, dancing, doing yoga, and hanging out. I wandered upon jam sessions a number of times and joined in with the jaw-harp I sort of know how to play. I talked to a lot of people and made use of the few phrases I know in Japanese ("hello," "thank you," "good morning," "excuse me"), Thai ("hello," "thank you"), French ("hello," "thank you," "I speak a bit of French," "how are you?") and Hebrew ("Hello," "I do not speak Hebrew.")

Didgeridoo circles are commonplace at Shambhala. 

I was there or two days and had a great time. I spent a lot of time napping by the little river.

Most of the musicians who played are Japanese. I saw folk music, rock, and even a punk band that was pretty awesome.

Dancing hippies.

This morning I decided to go with the original plan of going to Pai. I didn't really want to take a bus back to Chiang Mai then take a bus to Pai so I decided to try hitchhiking again. I left the Chiang Dao Youth Camp and started walking down the road.

I met this guy while walking down the road.

After walking for about twenty minutes, a man on a motorbike stopped and gave me a ride into Chiang Dao. I walked down the main road in Chiang Dao for about an hour while trying to wave people down until I got to the highway intersection. I stood at the intersection alternating between the hitchhiking thumb sign and the Thai taxi-hailing motion (sort of a downward patting motion). After fifteen or so minutes, a pickup truck stopped for me. Two women were in the cab and one was in the back of the truck. They said they were going to Chiang Mai. I originally wanted to go to Pai but I was tired from all the walking so I accepted their offer and hopped in the back of the truck. Riding in the back of a truck may not be the most luxurious way to travel but the weather was nice and the passing scenery was beautiful.

After a couple hours in the pickup, we stopped in front of a temple I didn't recognize. I thought this was where they wanted to drop me off but they indicated for me to stay. Two of the women went into the the temple and one of them returned a couple minutes later and very generously gave me a bag of food. From there, we drove for a few more minutes until they pulled over and indicated that they were going the other way but that I could get to Chiang Mai from there. I thanked them and they drove away.

I started walking but quickly realized I was still miles away from my destination. I kept walking and tried to flag people down but nobody was slowing down. I was getting ready to give up and hire a tuk-tuk when a young Thai woman in a parked car yelled out her window. I went up to her and she asked where I was going. I told her my destination and she told me to get in. Her name was Friday and she said she picked me up because she liked helping foreigners and wanted to practice her English. She took me close to Tha Pae Gate, which is about ten minutes away from my final destination of Chiang Mai Gate. I slowly made my way there on foot even though I was exhausted. I finally made it to DAA where I've been hanging out since. I'm going to another DAA event tonight then staying in DAA before probably heading to Pai tomorrow.

Goodbye, Chiang Mai

I'll be leaving Chiang Mai tomorrow. I've been here for almost two weeks and it's time to hit the road again. Volunteering for DAA has been a great experience. I've had a great time here but it's also been a lot of work. I really like Chiang Mai and it's definitely a place I would consider staying in for an extended amount of time but I'm still in the early stages of my travel so I'm not ready to settle down yet.

I'll be taking a bus to Pai tomorrow and will hang out there for a few days. I say "a few days" but Chiang Mai has taught me that that can easily turn into two weeks.

By staying, I also got to see the Chiang Mai Flower Festival.

Stay tuned.

Visa Misadventures

If there is a hell, it begins with a visit to an immigration office. The following is an account I wrote while waiting to extend my Thai tourist visa:

8 AM
I arrived at 7 AM only to find that all the blue queue  cards had been given out to the people who had been there since five or even earlier. I was given a yellow number card. Nobody who works here seems to want to help anyone and when my number was called and I went up, the woman at the desk started yelling at me in Thai. There was an American guy standing nearby who seemed to know what was up so I asked him. He said there are four or five lines with different purposes that take different amounts of time. After all the blue cards are called, they call the yellow cards so you can get a blue card.

At least that's how I understood it. I guess that the office doesn't start actually doing anything till 8:30 so until then I'll just sit here with my yellow card.

8:20 AM
Someone is on the overhead speaker announcing how this is going to work. I don't think my yellow number is for a blue number-- I think it's my final number. That means I'm number eleven in my group. Hopefully my forms are all correct.

9:00 AM
Finally had my number called. I brought the forms and a copy of my passport to the desk only to be told I had to do it again. I had filled out my form with the red pen I had in my pocket and I guess red ink invalidates everything. I also didn't have the right pages of my passport copied. I had to fill out the form again in blue ink and go to the copy shop conveniently located behind the immigration office to get my passport copied. On my way out the door, a British woman yelled at me for being in her way. The immigration office brings out the worst in us all.

9:20 AM
Turned in my rewritten forms (in blue ink!) and the correct passport copies and paid the fee. Now I have to wait for them to finish up and give me my passport back.

10 AM
My name was called. I went up to the counter and they took a photo of me with a webcam then told me to sit down again. It never ends.

10:15 AM

My name was called again and I picked up my passport and receipt. It's over now and I'm good till mid-March. I need a nap.

This photo of a a caged chicken could act as a metaphor for my three hours in the immigration office.

Ice Cream Break

We haven’t finished mounting all the prints yet but we’re close. We needed to install one of the shows today so we had to put backing frames on all 45 of them. This seemed like it would take forever but someone precut the pieces yesterday and we came up with a pretty good system for building the frames so we got them together in a couple hours.

After that, we needed to move them to the gallery space. Nobody at DAA seems to have a vehicle larger than a motorbike so we ended up hiring a songthaew and loading all the prints into it. 

We made it to the gallery and unloaded the prints but there was no set order for them to go in so we had to decide it ourselves. It took us an hour to lay out all the prints in an order that we all agreed on (and even then there were some minor disagreements). Then we took an ice cream break. Yum.

After our break, we returned to the gallery to put up the photos. The prints are all pretty light so we used sticky-tac (adhesive putty) to put them up. It took three people to put up a photo: One to position it on the wall and two to look at it and say if it was aligned properly. It was a confusing mess of “Move it down. No, that’s too much. Now up on the right. No, your other right,” but we eventually got all 45 prints up.

There’s a screening tonight but I’m tired so I decided to skip in favor of a nap. I’m awake now and may leave shortly to go the after-party taking place in the same location the Couchsurfing meetup was at.

Festival Opening

The opening of the Festival on Sunday was awesome. After hours of mounting prints, I made my way to Three Kings Monument on the back of a DAA teammate’s motorbike. 

A lot of people showed up.

Champ from DAA was DJing but he took a break to let a bucket drummer to perform. I wandered around and helped with random stuff for a while.

Champ spinning some fresh beats.

Bucket drummer.

I was talking with a few DAA folks when someone came up and asked if any of us played the drums. I admitted that I sort of played the drums and I was invited to play with the bucket drummer, who was now playing the acoustic guitar. I made my way to the area he was playing at which was in front of a bunch of plastic chairs we had set up. The drummer was sitting on a chair next to the most elaborate makeshift drumset I have ever encountered. The hi-hat was made of layers of cut tin cans and there was a somewhat-functional kickdrum beater made of scrap wood, inner tubes, and bottle caps. I sat down at the drumset and he immediately launched into “Hotel California.” I spent the next hour or so playing along with him to such modern hits as “Achy Breaky Heart,” “Imagine,” and the song every Thai live musician I have seen has played: “Country Roads.” We had an audience of over a hundred people dancing and singing along. It was fun but I haven’t drummed for that amount of time for years so it was kind of exhausting.

There are a couple seconds of me drumming in this video by DAA team member Jayna Milan:

After the event ended, we loaded all the gear into a pickup truck and onto the backs of a number of people’s motorbikes and bicycles. I got a ride on someone’s motorbike to the North Gate Jazz Co-op. There was a band there playing pseudo-jazz covers of songs like “Royals” and “Let it Be.” It was fun. After a while, I got a ride back to DAA and walked the ten or so minutes to Non’s apartment.