Red Riots

April 19-22, 2010

Bang Phli, Thailand

The few days after our multi-country excursion were spent relaxing, washing and trying to place some structure back into our lives. Josie took Mark to the airport on the 19th after we had a sendoff feast at our favorite Thai buffet near our village. Josie and Emily were busy getting ready for their next journey together and I was trying to get everything organized and planned for my Mom and one of her best friend Sue's (I call her Soup--as I dubbed her when I was a little tyke) visit.

I spent my mornings at school helping with summer school--my responsibilities basically included doing reading exercises with the younger kids and leading some conversation classes for the older ones. It was definitely fun to be back in the swing of things and see the students and teachers again. I could tell that a second semester was going to be much easier to adjust to and would definitely be a great experience.

Despite the normalcy in my life back in the village, Bangkok was in shambles. It was around this time that the red shirt riots, which had begun when my dad visited in March, started taking a turn for the extreme and became a bit violent. I'm not really in a position to dictate exactly what the protests were about, but basically there is a political rift in Thailand between the rural citizens (the red shirts) and the wealthier Thais (the yellow shirts.) In 2006, the yellow shirts were unhappy with the prime minister (who worked closely with the rural population) and staged a military coup which enstated the current prime minister (who is more heavily supported by the Yellows) and exiled the former.

There are many theories as to why the protests started, but basically the red shirts were unhappy with the government's direction and were worried about their potential situation as the much revered/beloved King (who had always been a spokesperson for both the rural and wealthy) was experiencing health issues. The yellows are said to have the support of the queen and with the King's condition, people seemed worried that they wouldn't be represented. So, what had started as a peaceful protest turned into a months-long event that began to reach a desperate violence as the current government began to grow weary of the red shirt presence. The night of the 22nd (about an hour before my mom was due to land) some bombs were set off along the BTS skytrain line and things were said to be a bit chaotic. I have to give credit to the police though for keeping the riots well contained to designated areas of the city and thankfully my mom's hotel was set in a different section of the city. Still, it's a bit eerie to have to consciously steer clear of certain locales in efforts to avoid bombings and shootings. In the end millions of dollars of damage was done to the central shopping district and nearly 100 people were killed as the Thai army finally had to take action and drove tanks through the barricades of the red shirts in an effort to clear them away and force some forward movement to resolve the situation. I am so happy and thankful that it wasn't worse and that myself and those I knew in Bangkok remained safe from the conflict.

(picture 1 is courtesy of The Bangkok Post--bangkokpost.com//picture 2 is courtesy of The Daily Telegraph--telegraph.co.uk)

Totally TUBE-ular

Alright, so I've finished blogging about Borneo and, while I still have a lot to catch you all up on in my recent goings on in BKK I've decided it is time to make a huge push in my March-May travels in lieu of the nearing 1 year anniversary of some of the trekking (and because my mom really wants to relive some of the hilarity that occurred when she came to visit.) So here I go picking up from my last entry from the saga (as a recap: Mark, Josie, Emily and I had just celebrated a wet and wild Buddhist New Year in Luang Prabang Laos...

April 16-18 2010: Luang Prabang, Laos-->Vang Vieng, Laos-->Bangkok

We ate breakfast on the sun-warmed patio at our guesthouse and grabbed our bags to get on the mini-van to Vang Vieng after our amazing experience in Luang Prabang. Our van was packed to the brim as is the typical nature in Asia, so we relished in the bit of extra space as away we went through the Laos countryside. This trip turned out to be a bit more bearable than rides past as the road between the two cities was actually paved! We were enjoying the endless stretches of tree-covered mountains and vibrant green rice paddies until we felt a huge THUMP and CRASH on our way up a mountain switchback. What could that possibly have been we were all wondering as we pulled over to the side of the road and were asked to get out of the car. It turned out that the spare tire holder had broken off and was dragging under the van with the spare tire in tow. I mean it really wouldn't be an Asian road trip without something like this happening.

Seeing as there was nothing we could do until the driver reattached everything, there we stood amidst the Laotian mountains on the side of the road. Pretty soon there was a small gathering of locals who stood staring shyly at this troupe of foreigners looking helpless next to our modern transportation. It was quite the juxtaposition as East met West in the most unlikely of circumstances; it's definitely humbling being the outsider in a situation like this and makes you really appreciate the necessity of being respectful of and not judging those you meet on your journeys.

We finally pulled into the Vang Vieng 'bus station' where we gathered our gear and threw it into a tuk tuk bound for the center of the action. As it was still the New Year celebration, we were sitting ducks along the main street as locals and tourists alike chucked water balloons and doused us with buckets as we tried hastily to roll down the plastic curtains on the otherwise open cab. A bit wet and weary from our day, we found a place to stay and quickly made our way to the nearest sandwich stall as we hadn't had a real baguette sandwich in eons. These stalls are everywhere and are a remnant of the French colonialism as local Lao chefs fry up whatever you want and slap it on a warm loaf of heaven. We ate as we walked and took in the 'sites' of the town which basically was comprised of tons of shops, pubs and restaurants with a largely backpacker/laidback/hippie vibe. It was definitely a place to kick back, put up your feet, digest your travels and eat, eat eat. That night we made our way to a local pub for some food and free buckets before hitting the sack in anticipation of the main attraction of Vang Vieng: innertubing down the river!

The day I had been waiting for (probably for months since reading/researching VV) had finally arrived. We woke up, scarfed down another baguette and made our way to the tube rental guys who drove us to the starting point of the famed Vang Vieng tubing circuit. This completely unique and unhibited stretch of river is renowned for its carefree attitude; it is literally like a playground for adults. The sides of the river and lined with restaurants and pubs one after another, each with its own special activity. Some of the highlights included tasting snake wine (literally a bottle of rice wine with a real snake inside), high-platform jumping into the water, zip lining and trapeze swinging all to the soundtrack of the latest jams, laughing people and splashing water. It is truly bizarre to see this sort of haven in the midst of the untouched, rural Laos, but it was one of the best days I've experienced.

We floated down the river with our new friends Sevastian, Carolina and Aya and made our way to the highlight of the day: the massive waterslide. It was pretty hysterical bouncing back and forth across the river as workers on the docks would throw out a rope with some floatable object tied to the end and pull you in. 3 out of the 4 of us absolutely loved the waterslide--Josie was pretty reluctant to go on it as we'd heard that there is usually one death a year as a result of improper sliding technique, but we somehow convinced her to get up there. As is want to happen, Josie took some advice from a 'seasoned rider' who told her to sit up straight and slow herself on the way down. Emily and I waited patiently for her to scoot her way down the track, filming her entrance into the water; we waited and waited and then slowly but surely we saw her feet, then her legs and, due to lack of momentum, she just kind of tipped off the edge in sort of a fetal position fall to the river below. Copious amounts of laughter ensued until she emerged sore and shaken from the drop at which point we felt pretty terrible and a bit guilty for making her go down--at the time it wasn't funny, but the 'epic fall' has sort of a cult following nowadays (kidding Josie!) Needless to say, Emily and I took our turn down the chute and, doing the exact opposite as Jos, got rocket-launched joyously into the middle of the river.

Of course, all of our lollygagging saw us floating and paddling as the sun was starting to gain speed towards the west and dark was starting to settle in; the basic rule of the river was to be off by dark. Us, being the savvyest of innertubers thought we could make it to the ending point; boy were we wrong. Pretty soon we were getting a bit panicked until lo and behold a flurry of milk cartons sniped there way within our grasp and we were pulled to shore by a local who was clearly an expert in the art of tourist tuber-fishing. He conveniently had a tuk tuk waiting and began to tie our tubes to the roof. Aware of our own stupidity, we were still wary of the situation and tried to reason with the driver that we would pay him the agreed upon (and inflated) fare once he brought us safely to the tube rental station. Granted we were in no real position to barter, we were also in the middle of an abandoned field in an increasingly blackening dusk and we didn't want to end up like one of those movies that seem to have a strikingly similar setting as the one we had found ourselves in.

The driver would not drive us unless we paid him up front (even after we showed him we had the money and offered for one of us to ride in the front with him until we got there) and we refused to pay him until we go there. Reaching a complete stalemate we untied our tubes from the top of the truck and stubbornly stomped away up the only road in sight--each of us crossing our fingers that it was leading us in the right direction. He has to come get us right guys? There's no way he would pass up the money, right? He'll totally cave... At least we hoped our rationalizations would come true as the 4 of us caveman-rolled our tubes over a seemingly deserted stretch of road. We finally spotted some semblance of life and were able to begin initial talks with a new driver when, as if by magic, our original river-marauder pulled up beside us and happily accepted our offer to pay him upon our arrival; funny how things somehow work out (if you want to call what happened working out!)

After getting our tube deposit back we went to meet our friends, but after a bit of waiting decided it was a much better sounding idea to get some street sammies and head to bed. It's tough work paddling all day! There was an enormous thunderstorm that night which work us up as thunder provided a booming bass to the lightning-strobe light night club our room had become. When the power finally came back and the fan was able to start blowing again, we were able to salvage a few more hours of sleep before check out and the long long bus journey back to BKK.

The storm made way for an extremely beautiful and clear morning with some fog around the mountains which was a perfect picture to store as a rememberance for the strange and exciting oasis that is Vang Vieng. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful with a long bus ride to the Lao border, a skip, hop and a jump acros the border into Thailand and an overnight journey back to home. We all looked at eachother when we got off the bus and, without speaking, knew we were all thinking the same thing: what did we just do for the last 2 weeks? how did we survive? and how incredible was the whole entire thing? Sleep came naturally as visions of everything from the Vietnam war, to overnight buses, to bordertowns, to border crossings, to water fights, to adventures and endless amounts of dust floated in and out of our dreams.

Flags and Bees and Pesos, Oh My!

Oct 7-9, 2010
Kota Kinabalu, Borneo

Morning was upon us faster than I think we'd anticipated, but being the good Guests of Honor that we are, we made our sleepy way to the flag pole for the much-anticipated raising ceremony. It turned out to be quite the spectacle as the entire resort staff came marching in traditional formation and Josie was given the responsibility of raising the flag in pace with the playing of the National Anthem. Emily and I tried hard to contain our laughter as Josie was told to slow down and then speed up (having no idea how long the anthem was.) After some publicity photos and the presentation of a Mulu Resort certificate we made our way to another gourmet buffet meal. As we knocked back some omelettes, cheese and bread bread bread we wondered why we hadn't thought to splurge and stay at the resort for our jungle stay--but then again, what's the point of living in the jungle if you eat better food than you get in your own home?!

It was quite sunny and our plane was right on schedule. We went from Mulu to Miri and Miri to Kota Kinabalu, probably the biggest city on the island. It was kind of rainy the day we got there, so we settled into our hostel (we were able to take over the 6 bed female dorm with the 3 of us) and updated everyone back home on our travels. We headed out to some of the nearby malls for some shopping and food court action--hotpot fried rice is the thing to be had, so we indulged whilst overlooking the blue waters of the South China Sea. We then decided to watch one of the movies in the limited hostel selection and were uncomfortably surprised by the extreme inappropriateness of Everybody Loves Mandy Lane (or something to that affect) as we sat in nervous tension with our gracious Muslim hostesses...we shut off the movie and quickly made our way to the famed night market in the rain. The market did not live up to it's Lonely Planet description, so we found ourselves eating some cold street food, getting some snacks and watching a show called The Inbetweeners (hilarious) with some of the Brits back at the hostel.

The next day we woke up refreshed and ready for a day of island hopping. We made our way to the pier and decided on a 2 island trip featuring the best recommendations for snorkelling and beach time. We rocketed through the waves as the wind blew our boat about--people were getting soaked as the maniacal boat driver laughed his way from the port to the islands. The first island had some really nice snorkelling with some very colorful fish, many urchins and sea cucumbers and even some bright coral. On our way to the second island, we were cruising along and up ahead I remember seeing what appeared to be a cloud of insects and all of a sudden our driver took us straight through the eye of what turned out to be a sea-bee storm. No joke people were literally being pelted by stinging bees who, for some reason, thought it would be a great a idea to hover in the middle of the ocean. Thankfully I came through unscathed, but I definitely empathized with my fellow boaters who were busy checking for any stragglers under their life vests.

I guess we should have seen the swarm as an omen, because shortly after our black and yellow adventure the weather took a turn for the worse. In the middle of our snorkelling and white sand beach relaxation the sky turned grey, the wind picked up and the rain started to fall. We weren't supposed to leave the island for another hour, but we stuck very close to a boat handler and somehow swindled our way onto an earlier shuttle boat--I did feel a little guilty sitting there as some of our fellow islanders were left to weather the storm until the next boat arrived. After we arrived back and dried off we made our way to dinner and Happy Hour at a local pub where we ended staying for the night--complete with hookah and free internet on the computers provided at the tables we sat at. I'm still amazed that the 3 of us still had things to talk about after how much time we spent together, but somehow hours passed and it was time for bed again...unfortunately this was my last true day of travelling with the trio as I was going to have to part ways the next day to get back and start work.

Oct. 9 (Happy Birthday Booty) found us at the airport yet again and on a flight to the Clark airport in the Philippines. After we arrived and got sorted, Josie and Emily hopped on a bus to Manila and I spent about 4 hours hanging out at the small, small, small airport. After some convenience store food and some reading I was ready to board...that's when all the fun happened.

I went to go through customs only to realize that I needed to pay an airport departure fee; why wouldn't that be the case when I had spent some of my pesos already and didn't have enough money to exchange (oh, and did I mention that both ATMs at the airport wouldn't accept the mastercard debit card I had brought along for withdrawing $$ at all the other stops we'd made on the trip. The security guards were very helpful in telling me to keep trying over and over again to use the ATM, the suggesting a I take a cab to the nearest ATM (about 20 min away) that may or may not accept my card--meaning I would then owe the taxi driver pesos I didn't have if it didn't work. So, I humbly approached the first person that crossed my path and awkwardly asked him if I could borrow the amount of the departure fee I still needed. Yes, embarassing is the word to describe this situation.

Thankfully I met Chuck, who turned out to be one of the nicest guys I've met. I swore to him over and over that I would pay him back as soon as we got to BKK (as I crossed my fingers that my ATM card wasn't frozen from my multiple attempts to withdraw $$ unsuccessfully) It turns out that he is a professional basketball player in the Philippines and was on his way to visit his girlfriend who was teaching in Thailand. It was his first time leaving his home country and he was as excited about meeting someone who could help him navigate the BKK airport/Thai customs as I was about him lending me some pesos! The flight was uneventful aside from the group trivia games put on by the flight crew throughout the trip (I didn't win) and we landed safe and sound. I paid Chuck what he lent me and then some and helped find his girlfriend before making my way back to my apartment after my final excursion with the original Thailand crew. What an incredible incredible adventure we all got to share!