No Sleep on the Full Moon

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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A great day watching the dolphins as the only tenants of a great little resort hanging on a cliff over the easternmost point of Bali in Amed ended in a very uneasy dinner surrounded by aggressive Czech “mafia” and then a sleepless night from the full moon techno boom-boom from the resort next door…

Getting here–the drive in our rented jeep has been a mini adventure in itself. In the first day the dash warning light came on for the electrical system–to ignore or not ignore–we chose the former–a predictable mistake as the battery failed while we were lost and a long distance from our lodging. Most Balinese are astounded to hear that we are driving ourselves and with the narrow potholed roads, squirming motorbikes merging from every direction and overloaded speeding trucks we are appreciating their insight. With any accident we, as foreigners, would be responsible and liable–just the way it is.

Not The Ubud We Pictured

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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Ubud was nothing like I had pictured. Even though it’s community members still adhere to traditional customs and the arts, crafts, music and dances support religious rituals and ceremonies, the village is not the traditional Balinese rural village that I had imagined.

The two main streets are full of traffic…the rice fields forming a bankable backdrop to the restaurants, travel agents, trendy boutiques and internet cafes. In spite of this, my mouth watered at the thoughts of decorating a house with Balinese art, baskets and furniture! We especially enjoyed the warung, or small cafes that sell homemade Balinese food and drink…”good morning”…and “where are you from” coming from smiling Balinese vendors. The best food, of course, was in the food stalls at the night market frequented by the locals; the upscale restaurants seem to have double the price but half the flavor.

Sights And Ceremonies

Posted on by Laughingnomad

The Balinese are Hindu…but a Hinduism that is overlaid by ancient animist beliefs…a world away from the Hinduism as practised in India. To the Balinese, spirits are everywhere and offerings are put out in shrines in every field and on the street in front of every home and shop to pay homage to the good spirits and to placate the bad ones. A few sticks of incense are stuck in among some fancy food and various flowers that are carefully laid in little hand-made reed trays. Once the gods have eaten the essence of the food it is left discarded.

One afternoon on the beach, amid a crowd of chanting and drumming Balinese, we saw two men with 12-foot long propane torches burning something through the open ends of a colorfully decorated large bamboo “box.” After a few questions from some on-lookers we were amazed to discover that a cremation was taking place. DSC00367.JPG
The body of a 12 year old girl had been carried on the shoulders of several men to the cremation ground in a high, multitiered tower made of things like bamboo, paper, string, tinsel, silk, mirrors and flowers. Along the way celebrants, followed by a noisy gamelan sprinting along behind, shook the tower, run it around in circles, spinned it around, threw water at it and generally created anything but a stately funereal crawl…all precautions taken to confuse the deceased spirit and ensure that it would not find it’s way back home. Male relatives did their duty by poking around in the ashes to make sure that no bits of body were left unburnt…which actually took quite a long time. And where did the spirit go? Why to a heaven that is just like Bali!

Kuta Cowboys

Posted on by Laughingnomad

DSC00025.JPGOn the beaches and streets of Kuta Bob noticed a large number of lone foreign women (as in white Western). Upon checking Lonely Planet we find that many visiting women are looking for charming young supercool guys with long hair, lean bodies, tight jeans and lots of tatoos commonly called Kuta Cowboys, beach boys, bad boys, guides or gigolos. They are good on the dance floor and play a mean guitar. While they don’t usually work a straight sex-for-money deal, according to Lonely Planet, the visiting woman pays for the meals, drinks and accommodation and commonly buys the guy presents. “It’s not uncommon for them to form long-term relationships, according to LP, “with the guy hopeful of finding a new and better life with his partner in Europe, Japan, Australia or the USA.

One female reader wrote to LP that the main young male occupation in Lovina is finding and living off foreign girlfriends. LP cautions that while most of the guys around Bali are genuinely friendly, some are predatory con-artists who practice elaborate deceits, or downright theft, to get a woman’s money. Many are now from outside Bali, LP says, and have a long succession of foreign lovers and women should be sceptical about what they say, particularly if it comes down to them needing money….and to always use condoms.

Before leaving the Kuta area we saw ground 0 of the night club that was bombed by terrorists 3 years ago. A white canvas cloth on which is written some touching poetry by New Zealanders is hanging on the fence around the empty grassy lot. Directly across the street is quite a large memorial…with all the names of the almost 300 deceased carved into a huge slab of marble…giving me goosebumps.

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After the first week in a Balinese style villa on the southwest coast of Bali…a couple miles north of… but not out of reach of Kuta, the surfing area frequented by dread-locked backpackers and pesky beach vendors, we moved to the quieter side of the island. We decided to forego the “bemo,” the local transport system…small open-doored vans that connect one village to another…and instead drove our rented jeep to Sanur on the southeast coast. Our villa of four units, owned by an American architect from Portland Oregon, was managed by a Dutch-Indonesian couple…some of the many people from the Netherlands on the island…a reminder of the Dutch colonization until post WW II.

Bali Indonesia

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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Godday!!! (with an Aussie accent we picked up here!)

We are currently in Bali Indonesia. It was a spur of the moment decision to head down here. Tomorrow we plan on renting a car & will tour/explore the island for another 2-3 weeks. The past 5 days have been Hindu holidays/holydays and everything has been shut down. On Friday the evil spirits visited so the Balinese do not let anyone (other than delivering mothers) out of their houses for 24 hrs–in the hope that the spirits will interpret that the island is uninhabited and leave well enuf alone for another year. So we bought provisions, TP, and movies and hibernated for a day.

Before renting a jeep I need a Balanese driver’s license but with the holidays all goverment facilities have been closed. So tomorrow we take off. Have been on the tourist side of the island (mostly Aussies–not too far from Austrailia) so am anxious to escape and find some neighborhoods a little less hyper. The local vendors have a penchant for calling me “Boss!” which at first rubbed me the wrong way until we found out that Aussies call each other “Boss” and the locals have just picked up the label!

We are about 10 degrees south of the equator and it is hot and humid–probably the most humid place I have experienced. Adaptation to the conditions is minimal. Tiz rainy season–we had not seen rain for 3 months–so it was fun– have gone out for runs in the rain the past couple of days–like a warm shower.
RLG

Vibrant Bangkok

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Bangkok Air From Koh Samui to Bangkok again. Not a pretty city but it’s vibrant. The populace, as with much of Asia, lives outdoors-almost all 10 million of them. It is increasingly cosmopolitan and this year seems to have more farangs (Westerners) than I can recall in my several former visits here.

It is a paradox of a city. Some big money and big establishments with big prices but the vast majority is poor and the cost of living (by most western standards) is inexpensive. Traffic predictably chaotic with frequent gridlock. Travel by sky train and new subway system redeeming (and air-conditioned).

Walking is an adventure with uneven and poorly constructed sidewalks, often with holes, open pits, and unstable underfoot tiles– exposed haphazard electrical wiring and the mangiest dogs anywhere –all of them breeding exponentially. Hard to tell if they have any owners. Half of the dogs have orthopedic disability either from vehicle vs dog and/or intracanine squabbles. They sleep on the sidewalks during the day and roam at night occasionally in packs that cause a pause and change of direction for us pedestrians.

Shops, vendors, food stalls on wheels, open front restaurants, open sewers, tuk-tuks; all contribute to a cacophany of sound and smell that paradoxically continue to be both enticing and repelling. Bangkok is not renowned for it’s aesthetics. It is visited for it’s populace…the Thai people.

Smiles and accomodation prevail—but who knows what is lurking beneath…best to accept the presentation at face value and not analyze. The attitude, dictums of the Budda prevail. Mei pen rai (“whatever”).  As a passenger on a motorcycle taxi the driver, without looking, pulls out and speeds into the flow of traffic. “Slowly, slowly”, says I. “Mai pen rai, Budda will take care of us,” is the nonchalant response. The concept of liability has not reached these shores. Persons or events are either lucky or not lucky. Inevitable comparison of societies is fraught with subjectivity and tilted by one’s biases. Perhaps it is best (and more just) to live and let live. Enough. RLG

Stamp-Out to Burma

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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“Stamping out” consists of leaving Krabi Thailand at a border crossing…in the case of Ranong the border is with Burma…and then “stamping” back into Thailand. To do this they went to the Thai immigration office at the port in Ranong to officially exit the country called “stamping out.” Then they hired a boat ($12) for a 40 minutes ride across the estuary to Burma. They paid $5 US (had to be a US bill) at the Burmese immigration office for a stamp in their passports to enter Burma. They walked around the little dumpy Burmese border town trying to avoid the sellers (the big sales item was Viagra…probably from India) for 30 minutes and then took the boat back across to Thailand where they returned to the Thai immigration office to get stamped back into the country for another 30 days.

In my case I had purchased a 60 day Thai tourist visa in Kunming China so I had another couple weeks in my passport. While Bob and Doug were monkeying around with this, Luk and I found a nice air-con hotel that would accept their little Shimizu “Ting Tong” (the name means “crazy”) for the night…having take-out dinner purchased from the local night market and eating it in our room … one of the best meals we had in Thailand…all of us feasting for about $3.

The next day we drove east to Surat Thani on the east coast of the Thai peninsula …visiting a famous Buddhist meditation teaching center (in English) on the way. Had strong thoughts of being dropped off here for a month but there was no air-con or even fans in the rooms and that even I was not ready for. I just settled for my good old TM mantra in my comfortable air-con room in Krabi.

Tsunami In Khao Lak

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Before we left Krabi, Bob and Doug both had to “stamp out” of the country at Ranong (on border of Burma) so they could get another 30 days in Thailand. We rented an SUV and drove over to Patong Beach on the west side of the island of Phuket where so many people lost their lives in the tsunami. You would never know anything horrible happened here…businesses up and running and tourists lying on the beach although in minimal numbers compared to before the disaster…but a lot of bare areas where store-houses once stood facing the beach.
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Driving up the coast north to Ranong we passed through Khao Lak…a 50 mile stretch of beach that took the worst beating in Thailand. For miles there was nothing but bare bulldozed land…bulldozed in order to remove bodies that were trapped among the roots of Mangrove trees and under rubble. Much of the land here is flat from the beaches to the foothills inland so in places the devestation extended across the road and into the countryside for more than two kilometers. Halfway up a hillside we saw a wrecked coast guard ship sitting at a crazy angle that we understand will be preserved as part of a memorial to all who died here.

We passed a volunteer center that is accepting volunteers for a month at a time and for as long as a year…many of them young people who scrambled down from the backpacker streets in Bangkok…others flying in from the U.S. and Europe…many of them professionals in their fields. At the web site at http://www.tsunamivolunteer.net you can read heart-rending and life-changing message boards…many in English.

Luk’s Family In Trang

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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We rented an SUV and drove to Trang, about 150 kilometers south of Krabi, to meet Luk’s immediate and extended family. We were greeted with the traditional Thai wai greeting with head bowed and hands folded…a greeting that feels so incredibly respectful. Grandfather is 81 and lives at home with Luk’s graceful grandmother who is 72.

Before a visit to the market with Luk’s mother we stopped by a fish farm to buy fresh fish for dinner. Luk’s mother, a professional cook, prepared a half a dozen dishes for us and for various cousins and uncles who appeared on the scene throughout the evening.

Luk’s mom lives out in the countryside with a woman friend. Luk’s brother is 19 and works in a grocery store. One of Luk’s cousins has been a surgical nurse for four years in the Trang Hospital…her boyfriend works for the police department. Another cousin is in the army and works as a dive master on the side. We struggled to communicate…but we all laughed together at Luk’s mom’s tiny Laborador puppy who was terrorizing Luk’s 8 month old Shimazu! On the way to the car after dinner Luk’s mother and I walk hand in hand. We are family now.

Ao Nang Beach Krabi Thailand

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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Bob and I have been here in Krabi Province of Thailand with Doug and Luk for three weeks now…a welcome respite after a month in smoggy noisy Bangkok where I had some dental work done and a 6 month routine check-up at Bumrungrad Hospital.

Bob left a couple days ago to do some hiking in Khao Sok National Park up north. I stayed here in my little 2nd story bungalow on lazy Ao Nang Beach watching the dark wiry young boat guys guide their long tailed boats to various karst islands and isolated beaches out in the deceivingly placid blue and green ocean and return again. Bob and I will either meet up in Bangkok or he will return here first…who knows what he will do. The breeze cools down at night until about noon…then air conditioning goes back on again.

Doug and Luk come over every morning (my place is 10 minutes up the road from their house) and we breakfast together. Then we all pile on the motorbike for a ride through the karsts and banana tree forests looking for a little fantasy house for me to rent…can get a house with tile floors, bathroom, hot water, kitchen facilities and bedroom and main room for about $200 a month if you are not on the water. A bottom floor bungalow on the water like Doug had before the tsunami is about $450 a month.

Weird to see inaugural celebrations on Fox News and then to drive by the Krabi Wat with hundreds of pictures of victims and piles of burial boxes.

An internet friend of mine who just married a Thai girl is staying on Patang Beach on Phuket Island where most of the damage was done. He said the beaches have been cleaned up…chairs and umbrellas are back up and the local businesses are begging for tourists. Reconstruction has already begun on some of the lost and damaged hotels. The second worst place in Thailand to get hit was Khoa Lak…just up north from here. They are still finding bodies in the Mangrove Forests and the village water well ended up with a car and 92 bodies in it. Several thousand bodies have not been found yet, many of them illegal immigrants from Burma. We hear they will not even try to rebuild at Khao Lak.