Kia Ora!

Hello from New Zealand!!  And it’s true what the tourism posters say – it is better than old Zealand.  I arrived here in Wellington the day before yesterday, and immediately met up with my buddy Timmy.  We have since proceeded to sample many of the local beers (and the beer here is really really good), see a couple bands, do a little rambling about the bush where they shot some of the Fellowship Of The Ring, and seen a COLOSSAL SQUID (pictured).  When they named this thing the “colossal squid” they weren’t kidding around.  It weighs nearly 1,000 pounds, has eyes the size of soccer balls, and big nasty hooks and a beak.  It sits in a pool of preservatives at the one of the best museums around… really conjuring up bad images of Independance Day in the process.

Wellington is a very nice place, and NZ seems like a good place to be.  I’ll let you know more as time passes.  They have dark beer, steaks, and friendly English-speaking people.  It’s also chilly.  I wear a fleece all day.  Along with the ability to drink the tap water and to eat salad, this is a wonderful development in my trip.  Being the equivalent of kiwi November is a little less so, as the sun goes down at about 5:30.  You can’t have everything.

Timmy and I will be jumping in the car tomorrow and heading up to Napier.  In the meantime, we’re looking to check out a show by a band named “Family Cactus”, as well as sampling a bit more of the local brews…

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Thailand: It’s Pretty Awesome

“It’s too bad that a single guy can never go to Thailand.” – Chris Reid, cultural pundit.

I remember this conversation from a couple years ago.  Chris basically made the point that Thailand seems like a nice place to visit, but it has such a sleazy reputation that any guy travelling there on his own is immediately suspect of some seriously depraved acts.

And it really is a pity that this is the case.  I’ve been here 2 weeks, and have not contracted any services (or diseases) that I’d be embarassed to tell my mother about.  Sure, Bangkok is the capital of the sex tourist world — and apparently (according to the armies of touts that appraoch me on the street) there are shows here that somehow involve women and ping-pong balls — but there’s so much more!

I’ve been to a great ska show.  I’ve ridden an elephant.  I’ve stumbled across a “red-shirt” protest, which looked more like a county fair than a rally (protests here seem to be more of a “fun thing to do on the weekend”, with lots of stalls selling t-shirts, and, of course, food!).  I’ve drunk beer at a gas station and argued the problems of direct democracy with Swedes.  I saw some seriously brutal Thai Boxing matches — and their matching betting, which makes futures trading pits look tame!  I’ve swum in beautiful blue waters by white sand beaches.  I’m currently staying in a village of bungalows described as “a cross between a rainbow gathering and an Ewok village”.  Where else are you going to find that in a guidebook?

And the food!  The food is absolutely amazing.  The Thais are really serious about their eating, and always seem to be either cooking or eating.  And the best part is eating on the street.  This country has the best street-stall food I’ve ever seen.  Anywhere and everywhere, you can wander down any street at most any hour, and you’ll find people frying noodles or rice, grilling meat, heating curries, concocting soups, and more.  It’s all clean and safe to eat, and uses the freshest ingredients.  I even saw a bloke in Bangkok running a stall with the classic garbage-can fry-o-lator!  And everything is flavored with a wide range of ingredients — garlic, chilies, ginger, lime juice, cocunut milk, lemongrass, fish sauce, sugar, vinegar, onions, and so much more.  Now, I’ve had Thai food many a time back in the States, but eating it on the street here just doesn’t compare.

Oh, and did I mention it’s cheap?  A street meal will set you back about $1.  I’ve been getting my own hotel rooms for $6.

Despite all this, I’m off to New Zealand.  I should arrive late on Tuesday.  It should be blissfully cooler than here.  Also, I’ll be with Timmy, which is always a good time.  In the meantime, I’ll miss having the bespectacled King Bhumibol benignly staring at me from posters on every wall, and great newspaper headlines, like “Good Harvest Predicted”.

Apparently, on the day I arrived, the big event was the spring plowing ceremony, administered by the Crown Prince.  Despite being a very Buddhist country, Thailand (especially when the royal family is concerned) retains quite a bit of Brahmanism.  On ploughing day, 2 sacred oxen plough a field, and are then given a choice of seven foods to eat.  Whichever 2 foods they choose will determine what type of harvest Thailand gets.  This year, the oxen predict a rainy year with an abundant harvest.

Well, at least we can all see what the oxen eat.  That makes the whole process a lot more transparant than Punxsutawney Phil.

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Nepal and Tibet Photos!

I’ve posted all my Nepal, and some of my Tibet photos.  Check them out!

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Ska Is Emphatically NOT Dead

It just retired to Thailand.  Ska music has been in a sorry state in the USA for a spell now: Moon Ska went bankrupt, Tim Armstrong got a drum machine, Dickie Barrett tried (and failed) to take over David Lee Roth’s radio show, the guy from Sublime died.  Even Goldfinger ditched their horn section and Less Than Jake make more money producing Fall Out Boy and Paramour than they ever did on tour.  It’s sad, really.

But in Thailand, the spirit lives on!  I’d read that there was a bar that might play some ska near my hotel the other day.  I decided to stick in my head and take a look.  The place is called “Brick Bar”, on the Khao San Road, a stretch more famous as a backpackers’ hub than live music center.  I walk down a long, winding hallway, literally around a McDonald’s, and the guys at the door just open it right up for me.  Sweet, no cover!

The sight that greeted me was straight out of a Hollywood movie-musical.  Inside the pretty-good-sized space (I’d say somewhere between the main hall and downstairs at NYC’s Knitting Factory) were about 300 people, clustered around tables dancing away.  Predictably, the decor is brick themed.  Over half the audience is bopping around to the beat in any way they can imagine, having the time of their lives.  The rest are mixing their drinks at the tables — soon to be dancing.  I grab a beer and take it all in.

Then the band starts.  Yup, that’s right, they were all dancing to the intermission music.  Now things get really nuts.  Kids start jumping on the tables and dancing away.  The band beats out a top-notch set of 3rd-wave-level fast, though not punk-hard ska beats.  These include covers of Sublime’s “Wrong Way” and… uh… the theme to “Bonanza”.  It was fun.  Regrettably, due to the tables there was no room to really start a pit, and the most I could get in my impromptu circle pit was 2 dudes who then kept wanting to change direction.  No matter, everybody here is now an instant friend, and we’re all sweating like crazy.  After every song, the drummer yells “Thank you!” at the top of his lungs, and then everyone starts clapping.  So, maybe their sense of order it a little off.  This continued until 1:30 AM, when the packed place empties out.

And that was Monday night.  This place is like this 7 days a week.  I love this town.

Despite the awesomeness, I am heading out tomorrow.  My original plan was to head to Cambodia to see the famous Angkor Wat.  However, after much deliberation, Cambodia has been shelved.  To be fair, it’s not like Jello Biafra really did a particularly good job selling me on the idea of going to Cambodia: talking mostly about backbreaking labor, black wardrobes, and heads skewered on stakes.  It’s true that I’ve been to school and know that I’ve seen a lot, but, Mr. Biafra, I really don’t feel the need to “face what I must fear”, and would rather not spend a holiday “where I’ll do what I’m told”.  Also, I’ve run into a lot of travellers here who have recently been there.  They rave “oh!  you have to see Angkor Wat”, and then follow that with a half-hour listing of all the scams, hassles, and direct threats to physical safety that they encountered.  Maybe I’ll go some other time when I’m not by myself.

Instead, I’m going to head down to Ko Chang, one of the islands on the coast of Thailand.  It’s got clear blue waters, white sand beaches, and loads of fresh fruit juice.  What’s not to like?

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Hotter and Sweatier…

Thailand: it’s kind of like Japan, only hotter, sweatier, and with more hippies.

As in, it has any hippies.

It’s really quite surprising how much this place reminds me of Japan.  I’m really wondering if, during the “tiger” boom days of the 80’s and 90’s, some Thais went to Japan, took a bunch of photos, and then decided to copy them in Thailand.  The buildings here are completely the same: peaked wood frame houses, soulless concrete block apartments, tiny fenced gardens.  The kids wear anachronistic school uniforms.  There are even manga cafes – something I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else.  There are loads of Japanese-style convenience stores, open 24 hours and stocking everything from snacks to toothpaste to socks to entire meals.  There’s even Family Mart!

Yes, Family Mart.  For anyone who has not spent much time in Japan, you need to be made aware that Family Mart is your hero.  It is the absolute apogee of convenience-store technology.  It’s simple amazing.  It stocks everything.  It even carries a large variety of food that you would actually enjoy eating (yes, in a convenience store.  I am not kidding)!  It is so cool, it sells action figures of its clerks.  Even Darth Vader Likes it:

If it’s endorsed by the Sith, it’s gotta be good.

Anyway, on to what’s been going on.  I arrived in Bangkok yesterday morning by sleepless bus at the ripe early hour of 6AM. Within the hour, I wandered across some sort of community organization gathering in a park where monks were chanting.  I was promptly adopted by an English speaking elderly lady who proudly regaled me with the mission of the community group (a sort of neighborhood watch), gave me some free breakfast (score!), and set me up in the giving line to hand the Buddhist monks their lunch (good karma for me!).  It was quite nice.  If you wander around town at this early hour (when it’s only very hot, not yet steaming), you get to see a lot of Buddhist monks out on their morning begging rounds.  They carry a bowl and stop by shops, food stalls and houses, where people have the monks’ breakfast and/or lunch ready for them.  Begging helps destroy a monk’s ego.  Giving to a monk helps with the good karma.  The monks give any leftovers to others who need it.

Since then, I’ve napped and walked – a lot.  I covered about half of town in the rain yesterday, and it’s a pretty good-sized town.  Of course, a significant portion of my shoe leather was expended searching for an umbrella.  That’s another very Japanese-like thing about this place.  You don’t see anyone carrying an umbrella, but once it starts raining, they all have one!  What makes the Thai case curious, however, is that I can’t seem to determine where they buy them…  I searched the streets and no fewer than 3 five-floor shopping centers from top to bottom looking for a damn umbrella.  I looked for over 2 hours.  I finally spied a shop in Chinatown that was literally in the process of closing as I stumbled across it in an alley.  It’s like umbrellas are a controlled substance around here.

No, strike that.  I had somebody try to sell me hash on the street yesterday.  Umbrellas are harder to find than controlled substances, which I wasn’t even looking for!

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Why It’s Called “Rainy Season”

So, this may sound pretty weird to those of you from New Hampshire (my home state), but right now Thailand feels rather like the Squam Lake Science Center in Holderness, NH.

Huh?

Well, this goes back to those halcyon days of my youth, when Guns n’ Roses made albums that didn’t totally suck and you used computers by typing out cryptic instructions like “cd/windows” and “Run”.  Back then, I spent my summer days at a camp called Melody Pines (incidentally, the pine trees had a lot of sticky sap, and very little melody), where we’d waste our time building giant sand castles, shooting arrows from bows, and nearly freezing to death in early-morning swimming lessons.  It was wonderful.  Except when it rained.  Then we were gathered into a yellow school bus and trucked all the way up to F-ing Holderness to the Squam Lake Science Center, where we got to wander around the woods in the rain wearing ponchos looking for birds who were conspicously absent due to the aforementioned rain.  I recall seeing the famous bald eagle once out of the dozen times we went there.  I also remember doing a smell test of some sort and learning that ginger tastes like toilet-cleaner.  It was hot, wet, and humid, but it was something to do.

Anyway, Thailand.  I’m in the mountain town of Pai.  It’s pretty warm.  It’s raining.  I’m wearing a poncho.  I rolled in here after several hours in a bus while it was raining.  I’m smelling dishes to determine what spices are in them, and ginger figures prominently.  It’s a little bit of a strange deja vu

Oh, and I also got to RIDE AN ELEPHANT.  These things are awesome.  They’re huge, and friendly, and have ears like the Prince of Wales (but better teeth).  You give them a fruit, and the trunk grabs it and throws it into its mouth.  They squirt water with their trunks.  Sometimes on me.

Of course, riding one isn’t for the faint of heart.  In order to mount the thing, you have to walk up to it, and get it to lower its head and curl its trunk.  You plant a foot on the trunk, grab the top of his head, and pull.  Then you get to shimmy across the top of the elephant, and try to turn yourself around without falling off (it’s a long way down).  This is not easy, especially when you’re me, and don’t like heights.

And then you hit the river, where the mahout then encourages the elephant to throw me.  Repeatedly.  Let me tell you, trying to stay on top of an elephant trying to throw you like a mechanical bull is quite a workout.  It’s a lot of fun, though!  Despite getting cut up nicely in the river (and then watching buffalo poop in said river.  Time to use some antiseptic on those cuts!).

So, it basically rains here off and on all the time right now, varying from “hardly noticeable” to “downpour”.  It will likely continue doing this for months.  Yay.  I’m off to the slightly less-rainy metropolis of Bangkok tomorrow.  I guarantee that I will eat more things there.  Thailand is an amazingly tasty country:)

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Escape From The Subcontinent

The moment I stepped up to the urinal, I knew that I had left the subcontinent and arrived in East Asia.  You see, in East Asia, the toilets always flush twice.  Once before you do your business, and once after.  Despute spending 2 whole years living in Japan, I’ve never actually figured out WHY they flush before you utilize the facilities, but it does.  Also, having been in Japan 2 years, having the toilet pre-flush is vaguely reassuring.  It’s familiar ground.  So when I arrived at the Bangkok International Airport Men’s Room (of which there are many, and they’re sparkling clean), I knew I’d finally escaped the subcontinent.  It may have taken another 1AM flight full of hard-drinking Indian dudes (though these ones are on vacation, not working), sitting around in the Delhi airport for 14 hours, and getting my suntan lotion seized by security (I think anything over SPF 30 “interferes with the navigation systems” or something) but I successfully escaped.

In total, I spent nearly 3 months there, and I can quite proudly report that I did not get “Delhi Belly” once while there!!  I deserve a freakin’ metal.  That’s quite a feat!  Now that it’s May 12th, it is also 3 months since I left on my trip… and I’ve got 3 more scheduled to go.  So we’ve reached the halfway point, so to speak.  As you can see here, it’s been pretty great, and there’s a lot more greatness to go.  I miss home, family, friends, and being able to drink straight from the tap, but I’m still excited for the upcoming prospects.

I’m currently writing from Chiang Mai, the sort-of northern “cultural capital” of Thailand.  There are lots of Buddhas and monks here too, but unlike Tibetan monks, they wear saffron robes, not red – and unlike Tibetan Buddhas, the eyes are only partially open.  Tibetan Buddhas stare at you wide-eyed with a bit of eyeshadow.  It’s a little creepy.

Chiang Mai is also relatively peaceful, so I get to enjoy walking down a street without being nearly run over.  Of course, that may be because it’s a big tourist town, and all the tourists are afraid of politcal unrest, swine flu, the financial crisis and the hot season.  But I’m getting cheap accomdation prices and a choice of rooms!

Tomorrow I plan to spend the day learning to cook Thai food.  Tasty!  The day after that, I’m going to try heading up to the hills to find me some elephants.

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2 Tims, 2 Cars, 1 Island, 1 Continent: Down Under

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In some sort of bizarre reverse-Flight-Of-The-Conchords madness, Tim Favorite and Tim Shea will be taking our bespectacled, bearded, guitar-playing butts down to New Zealand. As a half-Olivers Power Duo, we plan to tour around the North Island for several weeks, and then take it to the Boomerang Coast of Australia for a few more. The antics start on May 25th, when I fly into Wellington.

You may recall that past trips overseas together have ended in bus crashes, private lawns, and an assault on the Emperor of Japan. Let’s hope this one turns out a little more sane.

Yup... I'm travelling with THIS guy...

And Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!

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Back in Kathmandu

After a couple wild, woolly, and yak-filled weeks in Tibet, I’m finally back in K-town!

Let me tell ya, traveling over the roof of the world ain’t easy.  The highway between Lhasa and K-town (called the Friendship Highway) is still pretty much in the process of being built.  This makes it really hard for your spacious tourist-class bus to travel on, since it has very little ground clearance.  Accommodations along the way can be a bit sparse.  We sometimes had to sleep in tents where the hot water for the shower was only available during the day!  There was even a day or two where we couldn’t get on the internet!

OK, so it wasn’t too rough.  Though it was exciting, and a bit scary at times.  The road was often made of dirt, with huge gaps and holes in it.  This necessitated a few episodes of shovel-swinging and off-roading in order to proceed past unfinished bridges and inopportune culverts.  We travelled as high as 5200 meters, where the thin air gives you a headache, and the nightime temps are below zero (C).  But, it was awesome.  The mountains along the Friendship Highway are some of the most striking in the world.

Of course, Chinese regulations had to screw things up somehow.  The other day we left Everest Base Camp (the Tibetan one).  We tried to leave at 10am, after having a FREEZING cold dawn-time walk to the camp.  But the bus wouldn’t run for more than 2 minutes.  Our driver, the jack-of-all trades that he is, plugged away trying to fix it.  Apparently the engine oil was frozen.  So there we were, blocking the only road in and out of base camp for 3 hours, with every other vehicle going off-road around us, trying not to high-bottom.  A crew of about 7 Tibetan dudes collects around the engine, pondering our dilemma and trying to help fix the motor.  Eventually a mechanic is found sleeping in camp.  He pushes and pumps away for a while, and we’re off!

We get out of the valley and stop for dinner at about 6pm.  We should be stopping for the night, but for some strange reason, they close the highway for about 100 km from 8 AM to 8 PM… so we have to now drive through the night.  Out poor driver has worked on his engine for 3 hours, driven for 5 hours, and now gets to drive for another 7 hours in the dark over an unfinished road.  Believe me, after about 1 AM, I sat their petrified that our driver would be so sleepy that he’d cut a switchback turn just a teeny little bit too wide, and we’d go plummetting off a 3,000 foot cliff into oblivion.  But our driver was a champ, soldiering through all the way to the border, leaving me alive and well (if sleepless) at the end.

As for Everest?  It’s big.  REALLY BIG.  I’m glad I went.

I’ll be here in K-town to get some things done (like laundry.  All of my clothes reek of yak butter from the monastery candles.  This is not a pleasant smell.), and then I’m off to Bangkok on Monday… after a 14 hour layover in Indira Gandhi International Airport… yay?

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A Birthday at 4000 Meters

This About Sums It Up

So, yesterday was my birthday…

But first: NEW PICTURES!!!

I’ve added the last of my North India pics.

and all my South India pics.

I hope to get Nepal and Tibet pics up soon, but it takes a while to upload…

Anyway, back to the highest-altitude-birthday thing.  Yesterday was a day to hit the road, and we did.  Leaving Lhasa behind, we crossed over a 5050 meter pass on our way Southwest.  This involved riding a yak for a sweet photo opportunity.  I’d never done that on a birthday before.  We then proceeded through some of the most beutiful country possible.  Giant mountains and glaciers surround us.  We pass by sacred lakes and herds of sheep.

The bus breaks down for a while.  The driver fixes it with a rock and some serious determination.  We roll onwards.  I put some Sigur Ros on the good ‘ol iPod, and it made the perfect soundtrack for winding through the peaks.  Sublime.

My tour group is a good jolly bunch.  We gathered for dinner, shared a few drinks.  I had yak steak with garlic.  Yummy.  I was then festooned with white scarves (Tibetans pass out white scarves almost nonstop to give honor to the recipients.  You wear them for a bit, the strands stick to your clothes, and then you throw them on Buddha statues to build your karma).  I also get to wear a Hello Kitty cardboard crown.  I love turning 5.

Of course, in this getup, we decide to go have one more beer.  The restauranteur cannot refuse me!  I’ve got a Hello Kitty crown!

So, of course, several Chinese guys keep trying to engage me in a drinking contest.  I decide that’s a bad idea.  We salute each other, and leave it at that.

Altogether, not too bad.  It would have been nice if the hotel had hot water this morning, though…

(posted with considerable technical issues from Shigatse, Tibet, China)

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