Race to Cambodia, Part 1

I have a tendency to change plans on a whim, usually because I'm not good at making plans to begin with. I originally only planned on staying in SE Asia for a week, but according to every single backpacker I met, that was ridiculously short. Since my ticket home was flexible, I decided to push my flight back a few days.

Ken and Dan were going to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, so I decided to tag along (to be honest the opportunity to see the ancient city was why I stayed longer in the first place). The catch was that while they had already gotten their visas, I had not. You could get one at the border, but you had to pay a whole 5 DOLLARS more (with the possibility of extra fees depending on the mood of the border guards)! Absolute extortion. The other problem was that the border closed at 8:30 P.M. and if we didn't get there soon enough we would be stuck for the night in a Thai border town. There were some complications, but we thought we had plenty of time.

We departed beautiful Koh Chang Island (translation: Koh Island Island), early morning Friday at about 8:3o. I was in a low mood since the rain had ruined my plans to enjoy the great beach one last time, but I did get to see some monks begging for alms at each storefront. An employee from each place came out with a ready-made container of food, which was presented and accepted in a very ritualized manner. We loaded up on the taxi-truck and rode up the hills to the ferry. The road was wet and our driver busy texting his buddies. We managed not to run over the Scooterist who laid-down his bike in front of us on a tight turn.

We took the Ferry to the mainland at around 9:30. No one died.

At the other shore we had to take yet another taxi to the nearest bus station in Trat. There we had to wait until nearly noon for the bus to Chantaburi, which according to Ken was the town we needed to go to next. Ken was our leader because he had a guidebook. While we waited I had a Slushee and incredibly spicy Tom Yum soup.

There were very few people on the bus to Chantaburi. On the way I watched what at first appeared to be a pleasant movie about friends white-water rafting in a mountainous place that reminded me of home. Then someone was shot in the eye with an arrow. Everyone else soon decapitated or gutted as well. It was the beginning of a movie called Wrong Turn III. I resolved never to watch the first two. The bus route to Koh Chang Island had had better taste and showed District 13 Ultimatum. I never knew the French could make great action films.

We arrived in Chantaburi a little after 1, ready to catch the bus for the next stage of our journey. But we were informed that the next bus didn't leave until 3. The journey to the next city, which we calculated was over an hour away from the border, took about 4 hours. The border closed at 8:30. Uh Oh.

To be continued.....

Wat to do...wat to do...

After the frigid close of the semester, I traveled to sunny Thailand with some of the other teachers. That's not entirely true; while our stays did overlap for about a week, we came and went on our own. I have never been that great at coordinating these kinds of trips, so this was perfect for me, since we could plan on the fly and people good go and do their own thing if they wanted.

I spent my first night getting to know Bangkok. When I say "getting to know Bangkok," I mean going to the IMAX theatre and watching Avatar (reeeaaaally big in China btw--might warrant its own blog post). I count that as a "cultural experience" since everybody had to stand up and sing the national anthem to the Thai King.

The next day I went up to the ancient city of Ayutthaya, which happened to be the capital of one of the empires that ruled Thailand at some point. I could reference Wikipedia now, but I am too lazy. Look it up yourself. Anyway, Ayutthaya has a plethora of these things called "Wats." "Wat" is basically Thai for "temple," but the actual temples never seemed to survive being sacked by the Burmese (the cause of all Thai problems). All that remains are these great stone pillars and towers that are called stupas, prangs, or chedis--take your pick, I couldn't tell the difference. You can't go into to most stupas, though some have steep stairs leading to small shrines with little Buddha-images where locals pray and, given all the trash, apparently where Thai delinquents break their curfew.

There were some newer, active "Wats" in Ayutthaya where I encountered something I had not encountered very often in China--observant religion. I think the first thing that clued me in was the fact that everyone had to take their shoes off before going in. I soon found out that this was a general Thai custom that applied most everywhere (with some leniency), so it actually wasn't the great leap of piety that I thought it was. However soon I encountered other "rules" that proved I was right, such as being required to wear pants in temples, frequent monk-sightings, and actual rituals (more on that later). The most telling difference was that Wats weren't just treated like tourist attractions (though the price of admission was steep for foreigners), but real houses of worship.

Going from "godless" China to Thailand, where Theravada Buddhism is the state religion, was a shock. I didn't know what to do with so many temples to choose from. It seemed like home, except instead of Baptist churches on every corner there were Wats. The difference between Thailand and China is that while the various invaders in Thailand destroyed temples, they built new ones (which is why so much of the architecture isn't actually Thai). Even though religion frequently changed based on the ruler, it was still permitted. When the Red Guards destroyed a temple, they put a factory in its place.

Leb Wohl