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Impressions: Thailand

Thailand is so different from one end to the other. The south is littered with super touristy beaches, while the north has such beautiful and serene countrysides and mountains. Bangkok is such a vibrant and incredible city to spend time in full of creativity and spunk. But I do think Thailand is super touristy and so it feels somewhat less authentic. Perhaps that's why I loved Bangkok - because in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a city with people going about their daily lives, you don't feel like people are constantly trying to cater to you. It is a super safe country and aside from the stray dogs that sometimes chase you out of a dark alley at night and women of the night entertaining men at various bars, it doesn't feel dodgy or scary to travel as a single woman. I loved the super cheap massages (without a happy ending!) but aside from Bangkok, one of my highlights was the two day, one night hike near Chiang Mai. I also found the ladyboys in Thailand really interesting. In a country where you can be sentenced 30 years in prison for having marijuana on you, it's fascinating that they are so open with this aspect and incredible that they are so progressive in that respect. Besides Bangkok though, I'm unsure if Thailand is a place I'd want to revisit just because of the hoards of tourists.

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Views from the top of the Marriot.

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Wandering through Bangkok at the Wat Pho temple, down random side streets, and at Into the Woods, a magical cafe.

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Thailand's Recently Deceased King

I have never seen a country hold royalty in higher esteem than in Thailand. Their King passed away in October which thus marks the beginning of one year of national mourning. One year! Every exhibit, museum, cinema, plane ride, etc. is filled with a commemoration of sorts to the King and people are dressed in black. I once walked through a night market in Chiang Mai and at a certain time, the entire market stopped and all the lights went out to commemorate the King. Literally just mentioning the King can bring about fits of tears! Visiting the Grand Palace two months after the passing of the King was a surreal experience. There were hoards of mourners, sometimes crowds so thick that it was difficult to squeeze past. They were all organised so that bus loads would arrive and drop them off and they'd all be wearing name tags. Free food and water was distributed. I've never seen such organised mourning or such love for a public figure. Granted, he did do a lot of good as I read and heard about time and again and did bring about a lot of positive change to Thailand so it is understandable why he is well loved and missed. But this kind of collective mourning I've never experienced before.

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Bangkok's cat cafe: Caturday! There is no greater satisfaction than annoying the crap out of obnoxious cats that hate being petted by grabbing them and petting them like crazy!

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A collection of delicious food in Bangkok. From green tea and charcoal vanilla ice-cream, to a World Cup brownie to humongous prawns at T&K Seafood in Chinatown.

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Impressions: Bangkok

Before visiting Bangkok, so many travelers whose paths I had crossed told me I was going to hate it. They claimed it was crowded and noisy and dirty with horrible traffic. After having visited it's clear that none of these folks have been to India! I absolutely fell in love with Bangkok. I did a lot in three days - from going to the Grand Palace which is absolutely spectacular especially the Temple of the Emerald Buddha right before, to visiting cat cafes (there is no greater satisfaction in life than annoying the hell out of a cat), to going to see lots of movies in comfortable cinemas, to meeting up with middle school friends (who I hadn't seen since middle school!), to wandering through the night markets, to going to Chinatown, to seeing pagodas, to catching beautiful sunsets from the rooftop of a hotel, to visiting the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (which I highly highly recommend), etc. And honestly I was sold on Bangkok from my first four hours while trying delicious food from food carts and checking into amazing hostels with so much privacy. It's so much easier being alone in a place like Bangkok where there is so much going on all the time that it's easy to constantly be distracted. I love Bangkok: it's vibrant, clean, super creative, and it's so easy to blend into the crowd. Don't listen to those who dissuade you from visiting!

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An Ode to Dadaji: One Year On

December marked one year since my grandfather passed away. I wrote an ode to my dadaji. Visits to Tanga were a step back in time, not only because of the lethargy of the small town, but also because he was a collector of antiquities. Not in the traditional sense, but from a practical perspective: why replace / upgrade something that was working perfectly fine? His house was littered with artifacts from another time: it was there I learned how to use a kerosene stove for the first time and grew accustomed to rotary telephones; he could be seen driving that Mitsubishi Suzuki long after they had faded from the streets of Tanzania; and the sofa we spent many hours laughing together on was 40-odd something years old. Tanga was a happy place, usually where family reunions were held. On these occasions we would chat late into the night, retelling stories from the past and he would sit and listen and laugh along, deriving pleasure from the joys of being surrounded by family. We passed our time in the small things: daily visits to the beach where he used to swim and fish (yes, using those old but unfailing fishing lines with the still-writhing worm as bait on the end); trips to the fish market to haggle for fish; walks around town or drives along the beach in the old Mitsubishi; watching Indian serials or a cricket match on TV; reading together - he was an avid consumer of newspapers; praying namaaz at exactly the right time; or just sitting in silence. He loved to cook and I would be amazed at how homemade butter and yoghurt were constants on the dinner table. One of my fondest memories is of laboriously making samosas together - from scratch - on the old kerosene stove. His visits to Dar-es-Salaam restricted him. He was too used to being independent, going where he wanted, when he wanted or being able to fix things around the house / add extensions. Those hands toiled constantly: he did all the work himself, never hiring a fundi. So in Dar, he would often sit in the garden and smoke cigarettes, the ones that he had cut in half and would have filterless, stored in a little metal container. I was as mesmerised by his hands as I was by his eyes, never realising that that deep blue was a sign of cataracts. He believed the more one ate, the better. At mealtimes, if sat next to him, your plate would soon be piled high, and you learned to eat food slowly lest it diminished too quickly from your plate and more was piled on. He liked talking about cooking, long discussions on how to concoct a new dish. It was harder to reach him when you were away: he didn't enjoy phone conversations much but relished hearing from his grandchildren. If he caught a hint of illness in your voice, then five minutes could turn to forty as he would explain tirelessly the best home remedy for everything ranging from the common cold to something much more severe. Of course, all remedies involved Vick's in some form (once, he even told me to put Vick's in my throat!), another item he refused to buy and would spend hours at home making his own. Like every human, he had his faults too. He was stubborn, sometimes at risk to his own health when he would refuse to take medication or use a walking stick. But sometimes, gentle prodding from a grandchild would melt his resistance. He had trouble expressing himself in words. But he never showed a truer sign of his love than when his life partner passed. From there his health, while less than stellar, declined rapidly, exacerbated by his depression. None of us could have expected that someone so stoic, who bottled it all up, could sit for hours on a balcony with tears streaming down his face. None of his children, who he raised with absolute discipline but who each grew up strong and accomplished in their own right, could have been preared for him losing his will to live. He died from heartbreak, but it gives each of us comfort that he is now reunited with his life partner. I call him my Dadaji. One year on, and I grieve for the stories I never got to hear, for not asking enough, and for a language barrier that prevented me from being able to understand. One year on, and he makes me want to give it up and focus on what's important: recording the oral histories and reaching back across the generations to tell the tales and document the wisdom of my forefathers. In his lifetime I only scratched the surface, but perhaps it's not too late. Perhaps my tribute to him is to ensure that his legacy lives on through the written word.

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Impressions: Laos

It feels a bit dishonest to write this post on my overall impressions of Laos, mostly because I only visited two cities (due to food poisoning): Luang Prabang and Vientiane. But I will say that there are few places where people are so poor and yet so honest, that has suffered such a tragic history and yet remain so warm. And it's hard to reconcile the beauty of Luang Prabang with the tragic UXOs that continue to kill or maim one person daily. Vientiane is also one of the least interesting capital cities I have visited with the exception of the COPE Museum. This is somewhat strange for Southeast Asia where capitals are usually thriving with life. But I wish I had had more time to explore more of this country!

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Impressions: Vientiane

Vientiane is sort of a dead city and I was shocked by how empty the streets were on a Sunday not just in terms of cars but also people traffic. There are a couple of viewpoints and pagodas to visit but all in all I'd say it's a 'skippable' city. The only reason I was there in the first place was because of the COPE Museum, which I was intent on visiting - this is the museum about the impact of UXOs. But I did walk away with a good group of friends!

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A lovely group of world travelers in Vientiane

I took a cramped night bus from Luang Prabang to Vientiane (I skipped Vang Vieng completely because of food poisoning). Although there were 'beds', they were built for Laotian bodies which means not super long or wide and two people had to fit in what was a single bed! With the height being an exact fit for my height, it was a rather squashed ride. So when I got to the hostel in Vientiane, I was rather tired and groggy. But I couldn't check in just yet and I only had the day to explore Vientiane so I started with a hearty breakfast. While eating, others from the guesthouse were also there and some of us got chatting rather quickly. So five of us decided to go explore together. As usual we were a rather eclectic group: one super bubbly and organised girl from Montreal but who was studying abroad in Singapore, one Australian guy working in engineering who was so open and curious about everything*, a girl from Hong Kong who was soon going to travel for a year across Central Asia, a Korean guy who didn't speak too much English, and myself. We literally spent the next 12 hours or so together walking and exploring Vientiane from temples to museums to eating at local markets. And we really got to know one another. We had conversations ranging from how insignificant we are in the infinity of the universe to recounting our parents' love stories to religion and our beliefs in humanity to harassment that many women face to someone even telling us a deeply personal story about her parents' relationship. I loved how easy it was for us all to be vulnerable with one another, how open people were to understanding different perspectives (especially at one point when the Australian guy was trying to understand how women get harassed and had such an open mind about it - exactly the way you would want someone to question). It was incredible how that very morning, these people were complete strangers and 12 hours later deep bonds had been formed... ...and then strangers again because the very next day I flew out to Bangkok and who knows when paths would cross again! *This guy is a Dive Master and had a crazy story for us: He went diving in Australia and they suddenly saw this big shadow passing overhead. They look up and it's a great white shark!!!! And it's circling them!!! So they hang on to the reef and make themselves really small. After about 10 minutes of the shark circling overhead, they realise it's just curious and not hungry and so - crazily! - they get out their cameras and start clicking pictures!! Eventually the shark goes away at which point they realise they are very low on air and make an emergency ascent (and thankfully don't get decompression illness).

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Unexploded Ordinances (UXOs) in Laos

Laos has one of the most tragic histories of any country I know. During the Vietnam War, the US dropped over two million tonnes of ordinances - more than all of World War II combined - giving it the unwanted distinction of being the most bombed country in the world. There were more than 580,000 bombing missions on Laos from 1964 to 1973. That's equivalent to one bombing mission every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years. And they weren't even directly involved in the war! The US were trying to cut off supplies to the Viet Cong. Of course, the US then denied this for a number of years. 30 percent (80 million tonnes) of explosives failed to detonate so, to this day, there are millions of UXOs that kill or maim at least one person daily. Approximately 25 percent of the villages are contaminated and 40 percent of casualties over the last decade were children. Children see a shiny object thinking it's a toy until it blows up and they lose their arm. What has this world come to that seven-year-old children are taught about UXOs in schools? That a child is taught to not run around or dig deep in case they are maimed? These scraps of metal also make money when sold on the market and in a country this poor, some purposefully dig up the UXOs, risking their lives for just $2. And yet, US citizens get a visa on arrival at the border and one has to really look to find the museums that document these atrocities. I asked the guide at the COPE Museum here why it's so easy for US citizens to get a visa on arrival and why we are so welcomed here. His answer: Buddhism teaches us to leave the past in the past and move on with the present.

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Traveling solo is sometimes lonely...

...and I don't think I've ever felt it more than during this last month. Don't get me wrong - you're never quite alone especially when you stay in hostels as there are endless people to meet. And you meet such varied people along the way with different interests, career paths, etc. It's incredible learning from such varied experiences. But then, just when you get to know people quite well, you all end up going on your way to another destination. And sometimes you just really crave the company of a good friend who knows you from a different space to be able to talk to. For me, being an introvert, I have the added difficulty of hating small talk and becoming overstimulated when new people are around. And especially when you're sick and have food poisoning, you really miss someone who can take care of you. So I think this means I'm opening up my travels for people to meet me at different destinations along the way if they are so inclined - something I was dissuading people from doing previously.

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From Luang Prabang, with love.

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Impressions: Luang Prabang

I'm in love with Luang Prabang. I didn't actually do much while there - I visited the waterfalls and bear sanctuary, climbed to a sunset viewpoint, went to the night market several times, walked the length of the city, went to an Unexploded Ordinances (UXO) museum, went for long walks, and got food poisoning while there...but what a great city to get sick in! It's quaint, and such a lovely city to walk around in. The entire place is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it has something to do for all ages. My favourite place was called Books and Tea which was basically everything I love rolled into one - a bookstore, a tea house, daily screenings of films, and an art gallery! And to watch a movie is so homey - you lie down on cushions on the floor and watch on a big TV screen. There's also a place called Utopia which has a similar set up overlooking the Mekong. You can literally spend all day walking around or relaxing and reading a book. And what a night market! Fantastic food heaped high buffet style all for less than $2. I do think I'll be back at the bear sanctuary soon so maybe I haven't seen the last of this city just yet!

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I need to build in rest days!

On short vacations, I’m the type of traveler with the go-go-go attitude who has serious FOMO and packs in a lot in one day. And while I’ve been trying to control my FOMO and do a better job of listening to my own needs, I didn’t realise that when you travel for longer, you need to build in rest days otherwise you just end up wearing yourself out.

Until I went to see the sunset view from a temple in Luang Prabang - a popular viewpoint - and was exhausted after climbing just 300 steps! Because I had a certain date to reach India, I hadn’t been able to properly listen to my body and rest. But the very next day I got food poisoning, something I’m rarely afflicted by, and as much as it may have been the food, I think it was also my body telling me that it was too exhausted to defend itself. And although I had booked transport and accommodation to Vang Vieng, food poisoning forced me to give up my FOMO as I had to skip the destination entirely.

I ended up spending five days in Luang Prabang, much longer than I intended, but left feeling much more refreshed. And now I know when I return to traveling in January, to build in more rest days!

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Traveler doing a World Tour in Luang Prabang

While checking into my (upgraded!) hotel in Luang Prabang, I saw another traveler asking questions to the receptionist and started chatting to him, backpack on and all. It turns out that he was also a solo traveler but traveling for 1.5 years all over the world! Literally from various parts of Southern and East Africa to Latin America to SE Asia to Australasia! He’s a teacher in the UK, of Pakistani origin, and he’s saved up for 12 years to be able to take a trip like this - a trip that was denied several years earlier when he couldn’t join his friend on a long distance motorbike trip.

We ended up spending the next few hours walking through the night market and grabbing amazing dinner (all you can eat buffets for less than $2!) at the market while chatting the entire way. We also wanted to go to the waterfalls the next day together (as he was going to rent a motorbike) but he changed his plans.

Never met someone traveling for so long before!