Our Walkabout

The Wave is something that will ring a bell for anyone who has ever driven in the Australian countryside.  If you find yourself driving in Australia a few kilometers outside any country town or 50-100 kilometers from one of the capital cities, you’ll see oncoming drivers (and sometimes passengers) signal some kind of greeting as vehicles pass.  Traveling through the southern Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia we’ve endured almost 2000 kilometers of open expanse with little more than Spinifex, ferrous red dirt, the occasional boulder and a lot of blue sky so to keep ourselves occupied we thought we catalogue all the different types of The Wave one can expect to see (and we’ve seen) traveling this wonderful land Down Under.

All of the following examples of The Wave can be practiced with either hand by the driver or passenger (or both) with the exception of The Late-Comer which is a driver-only gesture that must be performed with the right hand (remember the steering wheel is on the right of the car in Australia…).

The Single The Single is the easiest and hence most common example of The Wave.  It is performed by simply lifting the index finger from the steering wheel to salute an oncoming vehicle.	The Gun A far less common version of The Wave but one guaranteed to excite the vehicular environment is The Gun.  Executed by removing either hand from the wheel and forming a gun-like shape with the index finger extended, gesturing as if cocking a pistol when the oncoming vehicle is at close range.
The Double A logical progression from The Single, The Double is performed by lifting both index and middle fingers from the steering wheel.	The Double Barrel As with The Double and The Single, The Double Barrel is the logical progression from The Gun.  Mirror the action of The Gun and simply add the middle finger to the gun-like shape formed with the hand.
The Quad Getting interesting now…  The Quad takes The Double a couple of steps further to extend all four fingers of the hand in the most visible version of The Wave possible without removing a hand from the steering wheel.	The Double Gun The Double Gun is one of the most complex versions of The Wave that should only be attempted by experienced Wavers.  The Double Gun should only be performed on straight roads with large shoulders and never in the presence of traffic.  The Double Gun involves removing both hands from the steering wheel simultaneously and executing The Gun at the same time with both hands.  (We have only ever seen The Double Gun once, and what a fantastic demonstration it was: a couple of bushies in the northern Pilbara caught us off guard when both driver and passenger blew us away with synchronized Double Guns.)
The Universal Recognized the world over as a conventional manner in which to say hello, The Universal involves removing a hand from the steering wheel and simply waving.	The Queen Another advanced version of The Wave, The Queen involves removing the left hand from the steering wheel and, with all digits pointing upwards, slowly moving the hand across the windscreen in a circular, counter-clockwise direction (for the right hand use a circular, clockwise motion).  Imagine yourself as Queen Elizabeth waving to the crowds at Buckingham Palace and you’ll have it perfected quickly.  (The Queen is also a gesture we’ve only been fortunate enough to witness once: an excellent demonstration by an elderly woman in the passenger seat of a brand new LandCruiser traversing the central Stuart Highway.)
The Thumb While The Thumb could be interpreted as an offensive gesture in some of the countries we’ve visited on this trip, in the Australian Outback The Thumb is a quick and easy way to signal hello and that everything is AOK.  The Thumb is performed by removing a hand from the steering wheel and extending the thumb upwards while keeping a clenched fist.	The Salute As the name suggests, The Salute is performed by saluting an oncoming vehicle as if standing in a lineup at Duntroon.  The Salute is the most formal example of The Wave and, to prevent detracting from the light-hearted nature of The Wave in general, should be reserved for ex-military and current servicemen only.
The Late-Comer A personal favorite of ours and the only hand-specific example of The Wave, The Late-Comer can only be performed by the driver.  Upon realizing that as the driver you have not returned The Wave from an oncoming vehicle, The Late-Comer is a hasty right-handed gesture toward the rear of the driver’s side window executed with the hope that either the passing car will witness your reciprocal Wave at the last minute or that your late Wave will be seen in the initiator’s side mirror.  The Late-Comer should be reserved for only those occasions in which The Wave of an oncoming vehicle has not been reciprocated.

Planet View: S22°27.994′ E118°33.428′

Street View: S22°27.994′ E118°33.428′

Maximum Temperature: 42°C (108°F)

One of Western Australia’s most famous National Parks, we were both looking forward to exploring the gorges and swimming holes of Karijini.  Karijini’s located almost 300 kilometers inland from Port Hedland, it’s extremely arid country in the central Pilbara without a hint of water or vegetation other than desert grasses.  Karijini’s gorges are fed by permanent springs, making for beautiful waterfalls and turquoise swimming holes in the middle of the desert, as well as some strenuous hiking and clambering through the narrow canyons created by water trickling over millions of years.  In all there are seven gorges in Karijini one can explore without needing any kind of rock-climbing certification.  All of the hikes are graded by the Department of Environment and Conservation, difficulties ranging between class two and six.  A class six requires abseiling and rock-climbing and cannot be attempted without some form of nationally recognized accreditation to abseil and climb on natural surfaces (not us!).  A number of the gorges become progressively harder to navigate, eventually turning into class six treks, these we walked (or clambered!) as far as we could and then turned back.  We explored six of Karijini’s gorges during our time in the area, stopping for a swim in all but Joffre and Kalamina gorges (the water there was a little stagnant).  On the day we explored five of the gorges we had hiked almost 10 kilometers by the end of it all; not too far given some of our other adventures but considering that we had to walk down and up the face of each gorge, each of which was between 200 and 300 feet deep, our thighs were pretty shot by the end of the day.  We’re glad we had the opportunity to explore the spectacular gorges as both of us agreed that in 20 or 30 years we doubt we’d be able to clamber through a lot of the tighter sections of Karijini’s canyons…

• Laos

Indonesia

Shots from our quick trip to Jakarta to visit Sam's cousin Sophie and her boyfriend Richie during October, 2009.

38 Photos

Planet View: S06°17.027′ E106°47.461′

Street View: S06°17.027′ E106°47.461′

Our last stop on our tour of Southeast Asia was Jakarta.  My cousin Sophie and her boyfriend Richie live in South Jakarta, she works as an English teacher for the Wall Street Institute and he as an administrator for an offshore oil drilling rig.  After braving the chaotic Jakartan traffic with Richie’s driver at the wheel we were welcomed to Sophie and Richie’s apartment at Hotel Kristal with the smell of a slow-cooked Aussie lamb roast for dinner.  The food in Southeast Asia was one of the highlights for me, but a lamb roast to welcome us to Jakarta sure hit the spot!  After backpacking through the rest of Southeast Asia on a pretty conservative budget it was a bit of a change to experience a few days of the expat lifestyle in Jakarta.  With the severe lack of public transport and city planning  in Jakarta I’d hate to think how one would get around without a dedicated vehicle.  Traffic in Jakarta gives a whole new meaning to the world, with 15 million people, little city planning, cheap fuel and low taxes on vehicles the cluster of chaotic traffic was like nothing we’d ever seen.  It took us two-and-a-half hours to traverse the city for our flight out on Tuesday, we seriously thought we were going to miss our plane when at one point we’d moved about three kilometers in the space of an hour!

Sophie put a lot of work into planning out our few days in Jakarta, after recovering from overconsumption of lamb the night before we traversed the city from South Jakarta past the National Monument and visited Grand Indonesia, Jakarta’s largest shopping mall.  Not quite as opulent as Orchard Road in Singapore but still brimming with designer labels and a theme park-like top two floors with a Vegas-style water show every hour on the hour.  Sophie also took the four of us up to Old Batavia (or Kota as it’s now officially called) for a taste of old Dutch Jakarta, once considered the center of commerce for the whole country when under Dutch rule.  We were the only westerners in the square of Old Batavia and upon arrival were instantly swarmed by throngs of teenagers wanting to take photos with us and a few even interviewed Lisa for their school projects.  Rock stars for a few moments…  Lunch at Cafe Batavia was a journey back in time, the restaurant is located in one of Old Batavia’s historic buildings and is set in early nineteenth century style.  The Churchill Bar upstairs was quite impressive, the whole place was very well done.  We spent the afternoon cooling off at Indonesia’s largest water park, Waterbom, a collection of eight huge waterslides a short drive from Old Batavia.  We all enjoyed the group slide the most, requiring us to squeeze into a large inner-tube-like flotation device and haul down an oversized slippery dip into the pool below.  As Indonesia is a Muslim country Sophie and Lisa tried to be respectful by wearing shorts and t-shirts over their bikinis but for some reason the Waterbom attendants kept making them take off their t-shirts before each slide, to the obvious surprise of some of the other local female sliders!

We spent our other full day on Java with a trip to the south of Jakarta to the mountain town of Bogor.  Bogor’s main attraction is its extensive botanic gardens, home to one of the world’s largest flowers Amorphophallus Titanum.  The plant (the unexceptional looking green leafy specimen pictured here) flowers only once every two to three years.  The flower itself can reach 3.5 meters in height, weigh up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds) and smells like rotting flesh to attract pollinating flies!  Unfortunately no flowers during our visit… 

From Jakarta its back to Australia to pick up The Tank and then continue our journey down the coast of Western Australia.  I think we’re both going to sorely miss the exotic foods of Southeast Asia, the cheaper-than-cheap street stalls provided us with an amazing range of tasty cuisine to sample.  My favorite places in Southeast Asia would probably have to be Ko Tao and its amazing diving as well as the tranquil surrounds of Laos’ Luang Prabang, Lisa’s with me on Luang Prabang and also really enjoyed the cultural experience of Sapa.  Thank you Sophie and Richie for such a fantastic conclusion to our nearly two months in Southeast Asia!  Next time we’ll have to drop in on Bali and maybe Borneo as well.

• Vietnam

Singapore

A collection of photos from our time in Singapore during October, 2009.

87 Photos

Planet View: N01°18.276′ E103°51.205′

Street View: N01°18.276′ E103°51.205′

Only an hour plane ride from Phuket and what a different world.  Singapore exudes prosperity, order and cleanliness, a stark contrast to almost all of the other places we’ve visited in Southeast Asia.  The place runs like clockwork, the public transport system made getting around the island so straightforward and being able to drink the tap water for the first time in six weeks was definitely a welcome change.  But all the niceties of the western world come with a price, a rude shock upon arriving was realizing we were going to have to fork out about 8X what we’d become used to paying for a hotel room elsewhere in Asia!  We stopped in Singapore for a few days to catch up with some of the guys I used to work with when I’d manage to score the Asian shift back in San Francisco, as well as re-connecting with friends from Berkeley who have found themselves working here in the centre of the Asian capital markets.  It seems no expense is spared in Singapore: the three towers to the right of the photo here are the new MGM Grand Singapore casino and hotel complex, the land on which it is being built was purchased from neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia, shipped in and then anchored to the sea floor to form the base for the new mega-complex!  It’s a little hard to see in this photo, taken from the top of one of the skyscrapers at Raffles Quay, but there were hundreds of cargo ships lined up in the ocean to the right, all vying for a berth at the world’s busiest port.  Like something out of a movie…

The city centre is like a who’s who of Wall Street, investment banks line the streets and everything from Maseratis to Aston Martins roared out of the parking lots of the large skyscrapers at the end of each business day.  It’s possible to walk almost the entire area of the city centre underground, the subways and buildings are connected by a mind-boggling maze of swish underground passageways lined with stores ranging from 7-Eleven to local bakeries.  You don’t want to put a foot wrong in Singapore, heavy fines are dealt out by mostly plainclothes policeman for breaking the law.  J-walking, spitting gum and smoking on the subway are just a few of the infractions that result in a ticket.  You can buy anything you want in Singapore…and I really  mean anything.  Fast food, local cuisine, any brand you can think of will have an outlet in Singapore.  The main shopping area lines the sides of Orchard Road, a short train ride from the city centre.  The malls on Orchard Road are like nothing we’d ever seen before: luxurious, perfume-scented mazes of any and all upscale brands one can imagine.  New York, Paris, San Francisco fuggedaboutit, this place is a whole new kind of shopping experience.  We’d almost swear that some of the malls are designed like Vegas casinos: easy to get lost with no exit signs!  All the brands seem to have their own stores rather than being commingled together in department stores: Bally, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Omega, Prada, Burberry, you name it…  I can think of a few of Lisa’s friends who would do some serious damage to their bank accounts with a trip to Orchard Road (Annie, Connie and Cheryl that means you!).  Even though our backpacks didn’t really have room for any more merchandise after all our purchases in the rest of Southeast Asia a trip down Orchard Road was worth the experience of just seeing everything on offer.  An amazing place…

Almost everyone who has visited or lived in Singapore recommended us visit the Singapore Zoo.  Given its location in the tropics the zoo is able to show an amazing number of exotic animals in their natural habitat.  Some of the specimens were housed in walk-through exhibits: large open-air cages through which we were able to walk and interact with the animals.  Our favorite was probably the rainforest exhibit where we got very up close and personal with lemurs and tree kangaroos (pictured here to the right).  The zoo’s designed with an open-air concept, most of the animals are housed very humanely in large enclosures and the zoo has a surprising number of successful breeding programs in place (including the world’s first polar bear born in captivity).  The chimp pictured here had our attention for quite some time, a very playful little fellow who was fond of displaying his personal grooming to the crowd!

Little India, where we stayed, was a bustling, culture-rich borough of Singapore full of authentic Indian restaurants and storefronts selling everything from second-hand hard drives to fresh samosas.  The smell of Indian food just walking through the streets made us hungry every time we took a stroll.  One area of Little India that was particularly eye-opening was the Mustafa Centre: an Indian-style department store covering two city blocks with six floors filled with anything one could think of buying.  Fresh fruit and vegetables, a hardware store, cosmetics, electronics, gold jewelry…  We got a little claustrophobic after about 20 minutes!  Mustafa supposedly flies in jumbo jets full of fresh products from India every three days to supply the store and whose personal wealth is so great that he runs a currency exchange boasting tighter spreads than most of the major banks in Asia.

The best Indian food we sampled in Singapore (and probably the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten) was not in Little India but at a curry house on Dempsey Hill called Samy’s Curry.  An ex-colleague of mine met us at the adjacent Red Dot Brewhouse for a few beers before taking us to dinner at Samy’s, the food was served in traditional Indian style on a piece of banana leaf.  An amazing meal, I will forever compare Indian food to my dinner at Samy’s.  Thanks Mike!  After Samy’s we made it back to the city centre for the monthly meeting of the Berkeley Club where I met up with a mate from Cal and shared a few beers at Loof’s picturesque rooftop bar.  The next night we met up with a group of alumni from various classes of the Berkeley MFE, after which Vivek took us to Singapore’s premier night location at Clarke Quay.  Clarke Quay reminded us both of Vegas, an undercover menagerie of themed bars and eateries absolutely packed to the brim with people from all over the world.  One bar that stood out (and made my eyebrow raise a little at its theme) was a bar called The Clinic: patrons are seated in wheelchairs and have their drinks served in bags hanging on a pole to resemble an intravenous drip (picture to the left)!  The only place I know of where you can order a Sex-On-A-Drip as your cocktail…

• Western Australia: The Kimberley

Thailand

A gallery of the photos we took whilst traveling through Thailand during September and October, 2009. The gallery includes photos from Bangkok, Ko Tao and Phuket.

124 Photos

Planet View: N7°53.436′ E98°18.230′

Street View: N7°53.436′ E98°18.230′

A marathon 14 hour trek from Ko Tao took us via Ko Phangan, Ko Samui and Suratthani to the Adaman Coast and Thailand’s largest island of Phuket (I want to remember the modes of transport we used so I’m going to jot them down here: tuk-tuk, high-speed catamaran, mini-bus, car ferry, bus, car, mini-bus, taxi [in that order]).  Phuket is separated from the mainland by a thin stretch of water and linked by a permanent bridge.  The island is quite large, at 533 square kilometers (206 square miles) Phuket covers about the same area as Singapore.  The island’s main beaches are all located on the west coast, a collection of white sandy retreats next to the turquoise waters of the Adaman Sea backed by mountainous tropical jungle.  Thoughtless overdevelopment of many of the island’s beaches have rendered them nothing more than expensive package holiday destinations that retain little, if any, of their traditional Thai culture.  That said, there were plenty of out-of-the way beaches we found while touring the island on our little moped and a plethora of local eateries that continued to wow our taste buds.

We spent all but two of our nights in Phuket at a fantastic little hotel in Ao Patong called the Siam Hotel.  With the largest and one of the cleanest rooms we’ve had throughout Southeast Asia as well as an AC and TV, at 500 Baht (around $USD15) a night we couldn’t have asked for more.  Centrally located in the tourist mecca of Ao Patong (Patong Beach) we were a short moped ride from Phuket Town as well as some of the nicer west coast beaches.  Ao Patong could have been one of the seedier Bangkok nightlife areas transplanted to the west coast of Phuket: the endless go-go girl bars and steamy drinking holes offering discount beers wasn’t really our scene but the place was definitely popular with a lot of the western tourists visiting the island.  The bars off the main strip closer to our hotel were more up our alley, we thought of how much all of Lisa’s college friends (especially you Andi Biaggi!) would enjoy them as they all provide patrons with free games ranging from cards through eight ball, dice and even Jenga.

October is still the monsoon season on Thailand’s west coast, almost every day at around noon we were forced to find shelter to avoid the torrential downpours typical of the season in Phuket.  Even though this did hamper our exploration of the island a little it was a good excuse to stop at the nearest local eatery to wait out the showers, which usually didn’t last for more than an hour.  The photo below left was taken on our way to Bang Pae Waterfall and the adjacent Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre, we just escaped the downpour and ended up waiting out the storm at a local eatery that served the best BBQ chicken Lisa had tasted anywhere in Southeast Asia.  We did get caught out by the rain one day: we were exploring the northern end of the island when, 27 kilometers from our hotel, we were caught in the heaviest rain either of has ever experienced.  By the time we made it back to our hotel almost an hour later there wasn’t a single piece of clothing on either of us that wasn’t wet.  Luckily we were in our swimming gear after a morning at Ao Surin (Surin Beach), a relatively undeveloped and secluded spot on the northwest coast with enough of a swell for some fun bodysurfing.  One of our favorite swimming spots on the island was a small, secluded beach at the very southern tip of the island below Laem Promthep (beach pictured here).  The day we were there only a few other people shared the spot with us and we found some fantastic reefs to explore with our snorkels a short swim off the beach.  We had originally planned to only spend a few days in Phuket and then move on to Ko Phi Phi (one of Thailand’s most famous island destinations and also the filming location of the movie The Beach) but with the wet weather and the wealth of different locations to explore on Phuket we instead decided to stay for almost a week.

We’d had a pretty good run with food in Southeast Asia, Lisa’s sensitive stomach had been handling all the new flavors and spices well even though the majority of our food has come from street carts.  We had our first bit of culinary bad luck in Phuket though, Lisa was stricken with a sleepless night and quite a bit of gastrointestinal pain due to some undercooked chicken off a food stall at Surin Beach (we think that’s what it was because it was the only piece of food I didn’t eat that day).  We made a trip to Patong Hospital on Sunday morning to get it sorted out and indeed the doctor diagnosed her with gastroenteritis, prescribing a batch of medicine to help her through it and advising to stay away from spicy food for a few days.  We were a little worried that her symptoms were similar to those stemming from a malarial infection so were glad to be able to see a doctor quickly…  It took her a couple of days to get over the bug, luckily we had a nice hotel room in which she could wait out the ailment.  I left Lisa watching movies in our room for a few hours at time while exploring some sections of the island closer to Ao Patong.  Phuket Town was a quick 10 kilometer ride over the mountains from our hotel, its distance from the beaches means that it’s almost completely devoid of tourists and a good way to experience some of the local culture.  The markets were more targeted toward Thai people coming in to do their day-to-day shopping rather than the tourist markets we’ve seen elsewhere in Thailand.  The food stalls were great, so much on offer, most of which I’d never seen before and had no idea of its composition!

Phuket spells the end of our journey through Thailand and the bulk of our travels through Southeast Asia.  I think we’ll both definitely be yearning for more of the fantastic food we’ve had in the four countries we visited (although Lisa maybe a little less so after her gastroenteritis in Phuket!), and I’ll definitely miss the morning iced coffees I’ve become used to.  Next: Singapore.

Planet View: N10°06.196′ E99°49.678′

Street View: N10°06.196′ E99°49.678′

Temperature: 27-33°C (81-91°F)

Water Temperature: 29°C (85°F)

Departing the bustling big city of Bangkok we were excited to finally be on our way to a tropical island with some turquoise water and white sandy beaches.  We left Bangkok around 9:00PM on an overnight bus to the town of Chumpon, where we arrived at 5:00AM and had to wait two hours before departing on a one-and-a-half hour catamaran to the island of Ko Tao.  Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep over the course of this long slog but made it and were thrilled to go for a swim and snorkel as soon as we dropped our bags in our room.  The first full day we had on the island we hired a scooter (with knobby tires) and went exploring.  Let’s just say I was very relieved that Sam is good on a mountain bike because navigating up and down some of the dirt roads was quite technical.  We ventured to the very south end of the island to take in the views over Freedom Beach and then made our way out to Cape Jeda Gang, a recommended snorkeling spot.  It was a bit of an adventure getting there with the roads having been washed from the recent rains as well as a few wrong turns we made along the way.  At one point it started raining so hard we stopped and took shelter under a little shed housing building materials!  The snorkeling spot was worth the effort though, a huge open bay that was full of beautiful coral and plenty of fish.  The sky stayed clear while we snorkeled but on the way back the weather made a quick change and decided to pour.  Zooming through the wet streets we were soaked by the time we returned to our room but thrilled with our adventurous day.

Sam loves diving but has never ‘officially’ been certified to SCUBA dive.  He signed up for a four day intensive PADI course which included four dives at various locations around Ko Tao.  Being that I’m a big chicken and afraid to be trapped underwater I opted to stick with snorkeling, maybe some day I’ll overcome my fear.  On the first day of his course Sam was paired up with Andrew from Montana, of all places.  Andrew was in Ko Tao with his  girlfriend MeiLi, originally from Hawaii but now living in Beijing.  While the guys were in their course MeiLi and I road her scooter to explore more of the island.  We hiked up a very steep hill while sweat streamed down our faces to a beautiful lookout called Two View.  The name says it all, you could see both sides of the island during the course of the hike.  At the top of the mountain we stopped off for a refreshing cup of mint tea at a little hut where the proprietor, Sak, and his wife live.  Sak is a very mellow Thai that over the last 30 years has hosted many westerners seeking a calm, quiet place to practice yoga and meditation.  That evening we went out for some beers and dinner with a group from Sam’s dive class: a couple on their honeymoon from Toronto, Nada and Greg, as well as MeiLi and Andrew.  We had a great time exchanging travel stories and sharing some flavorful Thai dishes.     

On Sam’s first day out on the dive boat I was able to tag along and go snorkeling at their two dive spots.  It was also a great opportunity to be able to see Sam in action and take some photos.  The first stop was at Hin Wong Bay and the second spot was called Mango Bay.  Sam and the divers were working on many scenarios underwater but were still able to see some amazing fish and coral.  Mango Bay was a much larger site than Hin Wong with a wider variety of fish swimming around, I enjoyed exploring the large cove.  The following morning Sam awoke early and was on the dive boat at 6:00AM, they motored about 45 minutes to the northwest of the island to a spot called Chumpon Pinnacle.  He was most impressed with this location, his group had more free time on this dive and was able to really enjoy the amazing coral, sea grasses and marine life surrounding the pinnacle.  This was the deepest dive of the course, going down to 17 meters (56 feet), Sam said the clarity was very impressive throughout the dive.  The last spot Sam dove was called Japanese Garden which is located between Nang Yuan Island and Ko Tao, it was full of any and all types and colors of Southeast Asian coral.  Sam enjoyed all the dives immensely and continued to recount things that he saw throughout the remainder of the day, he was especially impressed with the competence of his Welsh instructor, Mike.  We spent our last afternoon lazing on the beach and enjoyed our final dinner at our favorite family Thai restaurant in Sairee.

It’s interesting the first things we noticed driving the 40 kilometers from Bangkok’s international airport into the city center after a few weeks in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam: street gutters, orderly traffic flow, scooters and bicycles displaced by trucks and sedans, rubbish bins (US: trash cans), well-organized (and clean!) public transport, paved roads minus the potholes…  Bangkok has an electric atmosphere about it, something’s always happening whether it be the bustling shopping around Siam Center or the nightlife of Khaosan Road.  One afternoon we escaped the heat in the luxurious movie theaters in Siam Center, an interesting experience having to select our movie seats before paying for our tickets.  We stayed at a new hotel called Dang Derm along Khaosan Road, the main tourist precinct of the city.  Khaosan was an eye-opening place: the street is only a few hundred meters long but during the late afternoon hundreds of  street vendors pop up selling everything from t-shirts to fake watches (supposedly the world’s best fakes are found in Bangkok) and almost every brick-and-mortar establishment along the stretch transforms into either a restaurant or bar.  The way beer is served in Bangkok took a little getting used to, each bar has a specific ‘beer girl’ for each brand of beer and each girl is clad in the skimpiest of dresses embroidered with her particular label.  If, for example, Lisa wanted a Singha and I a Tiger we’d have to call over the girl for each brand and order from each brand girl.  We spent our first night at one of the drinking holes on Khaosan, one of the best places either of has ever found to just watch the world go by: men, women and plenty of ‘in-between’ of all nationalities made a showing.

An outing we were both looking forward to in Bangkok was a visit to one of the nightly Muay Thai boxing bouts.  The main Muay Thai bouts rotate between two stadiums in Bangkok, on the night we attended it was held at Lumphini Stadium a short skyway ride from Siam Center.  It was quite expensive, given what we’ve become used to paying for things in Southeast Asia, but the roughly $USD60.00 per ticket we paid for ringside seats was well worth it.  Each Muay Thai fight consists of five rounds of three minutes each, before the bout begins the fighters make their way into the ring and perform a ceremonial dance which could almost be likened to an extravagant prayer ceremony.  The fighters wear traditional garb for the ceremonial dance, which can last as long as 10 minutes.  Once each fighter readies themselves the traditional clothing is removed and the crowd treated to five rounds of often exceedingly violent fighting in which anything is permitted with the exception of head- butting and elbows above the neck.  If a knockout occurs it’s usually via a kick to the head, we saw this happen once to decide the Lightweight Title of Thailand.  The main event was between two fighters each weighing only 130 pounds (59 kilograms) but, as with all of the night’s athletes, they were in amazing condition and wouldn’t have had more than a few ounces of fat on them.  The atmosphere in the stadium was electric, there’s a great deal of money riding on each fight and thus the crowd really got involved as the fights ensued.  Each blow was met by cheers from the crowd, the noise bouncing back and forth between the red and blue sides of the stadium, with all noise from the crowd and the traditional live music played with each bout we couldn’t help but get right into it with the rest of the onlookers.  A very entertaining evening…

We spent one of our days in Bangkok walking the streets to explore some of the historical and architectural wonders of the capital.  We started out by walking a few kilometers from our hotel on Khaosan Road past Wat Rajnadda and, according to our taxi driver on the way home from the Muay Thai boxing, to the hole in the wall that is known by locals as the best pad thai restaurant in Bangkok.  It’s reputation is well deserved: our meals came wrapped in a blanket of egg and included prawns the size of a child’s fist, definitely the best pad thai I’ve ever eaten.  We walked past the Royal Palace and the immense Wat Phra Kaeo, the holiest site in all of Thailand adjoining the Royal Palace (unfortunately the Royal Palace was closed to foreigners on the day we visited).  A number of times walking around the city we were confronted by seemingly too friendly Thai men offering us directions, suggestions and locals’ insights on touring Bangkok.  We were a little skeptical at first but as we encountered more and more friendly locals we became aware that the Thai people understand just how much of a boon tourism is to the economy and want to make sure that tourists enjoy their time in the country.  The suggestions we were given never came with any kind of request for money or slight of hand, just genuinely nice people offering us their inside knowledge (such as to only catch tuk-tuks with white and black license plates because they’re government regulated, tuk-tuks with other colors are private tuk-tuks and will try to charge up to 10X the price).  All of the friendly locals would try to draw a route on a map for us in case their English wasn’t good enough for us to understand!