Plan on making friends that will stick. Living together in a strange place together binds you. The only problem with the friends you make is that they, like you, have caught a full dose of the itinerant lifestyle, and it won’t be long before they’re off to somewhere else.

So, so true. But then again, thanks to the transient lifestyle of myself and others, I always have a place to stay and always have friends visiting. My life is vastly improved from knowing people from all over the world.

Two things that stuck out to me:

2. Traveling helps you encounter compassion

Traveling will change you like little else can. It will put you in places that will force you to care for issues that are bigger than you.

If you go to southeast Asia, you may encounter the slave trade. If eastern Europe, you may see the effects of genocide and religious persecution. If Haiti, you’ll witness the the ugly side Western paternalism.

Your heart will break.

One of my first experiences abroad was when I visited the Philippines for the first time on a medical mission. Prior to that, I had never been to the developing world, despite studying it extensively in college. Well, you know what they say about real world experience versus book experience. The visit shook me to my core and truly made me learn to appreciate the things I had in my life. I consider it one of the monumental moments where I can pinpoint my life turning from the path it was on.

Another great part:

When you look back on your life, you will have moments of which you are proud and maybe a few you regret. It’s likely that the following won’t be on the latter list:

• Bicycled across the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Appeared on Italian TV.
• Hiked a Mayan ruin.
• Learned Spanish in three months.
• Toured Europe by train.

They’re not on mine (fun fact: I’ve done all of the above).

That made me smile. What should be on my list?

• Became the English voice on an audio tour at a Japanese museum
• Took a boat up the Mekong and learned what $5 buys on the Laos side and what it buys on the Thai side
• Fled from a monkey trying to steal my candy
• Drank a mysterious concoction poured from an old salad dressing bottle into a half-coconut by a toothless man
• Tasted moonshine distilled in an old oil barrel
• Went scuba diving and caught my own uni

1. Look for tickets early on Tuesday

2. Fly very early, or alternately, very late. Yes, everyone else in the world wants that awesome 10am flight that arrives exactly at check-in time.

3. Don’t be too picky. If you want beach, it doesn’t have to be Waikiki or the Bahamas, does it?

4. Be patient.

5. Don’t rule out Europe.

I’m crossing out their #5 since it’s too specific to a location and time and adding my own #5 and #6.

5. Factor more than just the plane fare.

People always say to me, “I wish I could go to Thailand, but it’s so expensive!” Well, yes, the flight is expensive. But Thailand is not. Bangkok has a glut of business-oriented hotels and you can get a room for $100 a night with a buffet breakfast. Or you can eat some of the world’s best street food (safer than hotel food, trust me) for $1. You cannot do that at in Hawaii. Chances are, once you’ve factored in hotel and food, a stay in many parts of South East Asia will be cheaper, more luxurious, and more of an adventure.

6. Sign up for Fare Alerts.

It doesn’t really matter where, but I like kayak.com’s.

What are your tips?

Buoyancy isn't something we'd worked on yet...

Something I’ve always wanted to do is learn how to scuba dive. Imagine my delight when I found out that not only does my cousin dive, but she was willing to take us out somewhere to go on an intro dive.

We drove out to Anilao in Batangas to a small resort. When I arrived, I looked out to the grey ocean and felt a bit anxious. It was a gloomy day and the water looked choppy and cold. Did I mention I am actually afraid of the ocean, and more importantly, putting my head under the water? It all stems from when I almost drowned trying to surf in Hawaii….but I digress… =P

I was a bit nervous during the briefing, I knew it was just an introductory course and that everything would be okay…but you know, the fear was there. So we get geared up, we get on the boat, and I’m told I need to fall backwards into the water (oh good lord, I thought!) Managing all the courage I could muster, I let the weight of the air tanks pull me backwards and…

Well, I entered a whole new world. If the sea looked grey and bleak from the surface, it was completely different below. I saw so many fish, and bright coral, and weird looking plants. You know when you go to an aquarium and you see all the neon colored anemone, and coral that look like brains, and weird stripey fish? Yeah, somehow I just thought all that stuff was fake and created for aquariums. But then I got to see it for real, and it was just amazing. All my fear washed away.

Hugh eating fresh uni out of the sea

After our intro dive, we went to shore with a bag of uni (sea urchin) which we had plucked from the rocks near the shore (apparently it is not illegal to get them in the Philippines.) I’m not a fan of uni personally, and I think I’m even less of a fan after watching the resort chef hack them open. It’s amazing how little meat is actually inside of those suckers! Anyways, Hugh and my cousin were both extremely pleased by the quality of the uni which they ate with calamansi juice.

We had so much fun we promptly decided to sign up for our certification. It took a week and with it came a whole new set of stress and tears (on my part) but when I actually accomplished the task I couldn’t do for days (clearing a mask underwater) I felt a very happy sense of accomplishment. Oh, and I also got stung by a firecoral down there so I guess now I have battle scars =P

It’s wonderful to have conquered a fear AND crossed something off my Life To-Do List!

Few people know that the Philippines has more English speakers than the United Kingdom. Many people know that Filipinos speak English, many people know that they speak Filipino/Tagalog as well in the Philippines–but what a lot of people don’t know is the extent that English is spoken. In Japan, as well as many other countries in Asia, English is used to puncuate or emphasize something like… “Aki no Trendy Style!” (Trendy styles for Fall) In the Philippines, they’d just flat out say “Trendy styles for the fall,”. I remember Japanese people being amazed when I told them that Filipino TV was 90% in English. To the Japanese, English is a language for Caucasian Westerners–nevermind the fact Singaporeans, Hong Kongers, Indians and Filipinos all speak English.

I remember on a trip to the Philippines one of my friends was stunned that street children could speak better English than the high school students she taught in Japan. How does that happen, we wondered? Well, it’s easy. They just use it. TV shows are often in English, not subtitled or dubbed. If they’re not fully in English, a good part of it will be. Especially if the show is about something technical like medicine or law. Hugh often understood the gist of what was going on around him simply due to liberal use of English.

Other examples? During a Filipino wedding, all the prayers and songs were in English, the priest’s sermon was also in English. During the reception, all speeches were in English despite the fact that out of the 500 guests only 5 people in the room didn’t understand Tagalog.  You would never see this stuff in Japan–not that this is the way it should be. Language is important for cultural identity, and the loss of language is something which I consider very sad. I found out that several of my cousins CANNOT speak Tagalog despite being born and raised in the Philippines. I find that very odd.

Yet, the question of how should Japanese people learn English continues to bother me. The only real way to make sure people learn it is to make it a requirement, more so than just something kids have to do to pass a test to graduate high school.

Chick on a stick...not actually very tasty.

While in the Philippines, my cousins and uncles have been trying endlessly to gross out Hugh with “exotic” Filipino food. I think this is a pretty common practice around the world, where rather than be embarassed about some local delicacies, most people consider Americans (and its usually Americans who are so grossed out by foreign delicacies) to just have boring diets. And honestly–with our health, who are we to be grossed out by what people eat? I’ve come to consider the giant bowls of fat they serve at restaurants back home to be pretty foul.

However, Hugh’s a pretty adventurous eater so he always ends up grossing people out in their attempts. In Japan we/he sampled such delicacies as: bees, sake with a dead snake coiled in it, raw horse meat, not to mention many of the more normal things like seaweeds and shellfish that some people would find repulsive. In Laos, we tried silkworms and water buffalo. I’ve had turtle-shell jelly in China and Taco Bell in America. It isn’t about trying to gross each other out, or be adventurous or anything. There are certain things we won’t do–I won’t eat anything killed before my eyes (like the snakes and their beating hearts in Vietnam) which are often done just to be grotesque for tourists and not because the majority of the population eats it. But we figure that if people in a culture eat this sort of food, then it’s certainly worth trying. At worst, just don’t eat it again. It PROBABLY won’t kill you. We rolled our eyes at tourists in Laos who would go on and on about how horrible it was that Laotians ate certain things (civet cats, random wildlife, birds), never realizing that certainly certain groups of people think the Western diet of beef is possibly horrible, or that Laotians are poor and hunting game in the forest isn’t about sport, but about survival.

Food is all very cultural anyways. I never grew up on fancy cheese (many Asians don’t) and as a result, I often find the cheeses that my European friends love smell and taste like vomit, or worse. I mean really, do you know WHY blue cheese has blue flecks in it? My point is–blood pudding or dog meat or whatever. Food is food.

Saddam Hussein pizza?!

In the Philippines there are delicacies such as dinaguan, a stew made of pigs’ blood, which isn’t really that strange to some cultures who eat blood puddings or marrow, but most infamous with non-Filipinos is balut, which is chicken embryo.

Somehow though, Hugh managed to finally put my family’s taunts to rest when he ate a day-old chick which are served whole on a stick and meant to be eaten as such–bones, innards, head, feet and all. My uncle who will eat balut seemed positively disgusted by the fact we ate it, though you could joke and call it overripe balut. My cousin Jean made him do it and he heroically did so, announcing “tastes yolky!” as he did so.

Bad photo, but you can see Hugh jumping, someone running for their life, a car being showered by sparks, and just how close we were to third degree burns ;p

After the wedding, we went with my cousins to Baguio, a mountain-top city which serves as a summer retreat for Manilans. I was told that it was very rural and provincial, but I guess after backpacking through rural Laos I had a completely different idea of what that would be. While it was certainly quite pretty in some parts, I was a bit disappointed to see how developed and urban it was. Most of the hills were covered with houses, developments, and/or shacks and a lot of the tourist areas had tribal people standing out in front of them trying to get tourists to dress up in traditional clothing for 30 cents. After seeing how tourism and hilltribes can successfully work hand-in-hand, it was a bit disappointing to see the more exploitative and sad side of it close up and more personal.

New Years was a mix of both kind of dull and fun, but the countdown was fun. We went outside and from the hill we were on we could see fireworks exploding all around us. Actually, all week we heard fireworks randomly exploding which was really pretty jarring since no one really likes hearing explosions in the middle of the night. The highlight of New Years was definitely seeing my life move in slow motion as fireworks exploded a couple of yards away from us. =P Good old Filipino safety standards

Ceremony in a lovely old church

We officially arrived in the Philippines on the 26th, worn-out and suffering from food poisoning (well, me at least.) However, after a few days of rest we were able to attend my cousin’s wedding. Although I’m ethnically Filipino, I was born and raised in the United States and had only attended one Filipino wedding prior to this one (and that one was sort of a blend of traditions since it was of a Filipina-American friend.)

The church ceremony was Catholic, but with so much pomp and circumstance that I’m surprised more people in America haven’t taken some of the traditions. First there were the dozen sponsors for the bridal party, then there were all the offerings. It wasn’t just wedding rings being brought up by a young boy, but also a bible. I had to fill in for a sick cousin, my role? I was to place a cord/giant rosary over the couple to symbolize them being joined together, but that was already after a veil was placed over them. Despite the ceremony, the church was surprisingly loud and chipper–some weddings I’ve attended have almost felt like funerals since they were so quiet, solemn, and often filled with crying people. Instead there were children running around, people gossiping to themselves, the doors and windows thrown wide open to keep the church from being stifling.

Men dressed in barong tagalog--a traditional formal dress shirt made of pineapple fiber

After the church ceremony, the reception was held at the Peninsula Hotel Manila where there was live music, professional dancers to keep the party moving, and a very international buffet with prime rib and other things like that. What was most amazing was the cost: a wedding in an centuries old church, a reception in a 5 star hotel, live band, custom made dress, 5 tier cake, and 500 guests cost approximately 1/10th of what it would cost in America. My family joked, “have the wedding here, just fly everyone over and you’ve still saved money!” What’s sad about that is that it’s completely true. :/

For Christmas Eve, I met up with a Thai friend of mine who I met in Japan. She took us down to a local street food market full of delicious food that of course, isn’t listed in any guidebooks. We sat on the street and they ordered a massive feast of food, that of course is actually authentically flavored since its made for Thais. I think pretty much every meal in a foreign country is vastly improved by having a local do the ordering.

As strange as some people may find it, we were excited to be in Bangkok and to be wandering the streets and shopping and just enjoying city life. Our next stop is the Philippines for a month, but seeing as we will be with family I think this may be the end of our “backpacking” trip. In fact, Hugh and I splurged on a suitcase and are far too excited to be filling it with stuff. Amazingly, after 5 months we bought very, very few things on the road so its kind of hard to break that habit. Not that I want to. A little less materialism never hurt anyone.

Anyways, the dinner was pretty untraditional as far as Christmas Eve goes, but I was still really happy to be in a big bright city with good food and good company.

The last place we stayed in Phuket was Patong Beach, pretty much the tourist epicenter of Phuket and dear lord does it show. While there’s lots more shops and restaurants to choose from, there’s very little charm. The beach was incredibly crowded and the water quality was pretty poor (compared to the beaches just a few kilometeres away).

The main tourist entertainment strip is along Bangla Rd., which is often compared to Patpong in Bangkok–girlie shows, bars, prostitutes. I suppose some people would find it to be a den of sin and disgusting (read reviews on tripadvisor and you’ll see plenty of people bothered by it), but I thought it was pretty tame and silly. Then again, I’ve never really been bothered by girlie shows or transvestites.

Without a doubt, if you like the party scene then Patong is a pretty good place to stay… but personally, if we ever go back, I’d stay at a nearby beach and just rent a car (screw tuk-tuks!) up to Patong.

Tuk-tuks are the predominant form of tourist transportation in Thailand. They vary in form depending on the country, but here they’re more or less golf-carts on steroids. You tell your driver your destination, he gives you a price, you offer a counter-price, and then settle wherever it makes you happy. You accept that you’ll probably never get the Thai-price, but you are satisfied with something 10%-50% higher (NOT 2x-5x higher).

Except of course here in Phuket. A 2 mile journey costs more than a New York City cab ride, and hey–at least in a cab you get to be fully enclosed and have a pretty decent chance of survival in the unfortunate case of an accident. I am simply baffled at the $25 charge for a 5-mile journey up the island. This would be crazy in America, but this is absolutely ridiculous in Thailand where you can take a bus 300 miles to Chiang Mai for the same price. BTW, I’m not advocating being a jerk and haggling over everything. But there’s a difference between being overcharged 10cents or even a dollar, than being overcharged $15.

The problem is multi-fold and obviously the local government has a lot to answer for, but since I can do pretty much nothing about that, I’ll blame the people I have a smidgen of a chance of influencing. That would be us, the tourists and travelers. Now, I understand how it is–you walk out of your resort, a tuk-tuk driver tells you it costs $10 to go up the beach. You figure that’s not so bad, and besides–you don’t like haggling and you don’t really want to bother. But here’s the rub: everyone I’ve met in Thailand complains about scams and crazy prices–but it didn’t get this way because Thai people are thieving jerks, it got this way because someone just throws money around and doesn’t care if he’s getting scammed (or he does but just whines about it later.) So don’t be the cause of it! If someone’s quoting you a price more than London or New York, you laugh and walk away. 9 out of 10 the driver will chase you and discount his price. You don’t even have to walk away, just standing there often brings you a discount or the very tricky, “What price do YOU want?” This is Thailand, there isn’t even a meter!

You never to tell a tuk-tuk (or anything without a meter) that you are going to an expensive hotel, even if you are. Tell them you’re going to a nearby cheap hostel and your price suddenly drops. Once we got pretty mad at a shared-truck driver for charging us 5x the local price to our destination, he got pretty embarassed and then admitted to us he only did it because we told him we were going somewhere expensive, therefore, would pay it. On many other occasions, after asking the driver for his price, he went, “uhhh….” and looked us up and down before pulling a number out of the air. We’ve caught people changing their prices mid-haggle because they deemed us dumber/smarter than they originally thought.

Furthermore, we were told by a local that this group of drivers has not only fixed prices to an insane level, but they’ve also set up these signs to make themselves look official. The prices, for what it’s worth, is not based on distance–it’s based on a mix of where you want to go, where you are leaving from, and how much competition there is. We found that the most expensive place to get a tuk-tuk was, surprise surprise, around the resort hotels. One driver had the nerve to ask for about $45 for a 20 minute trip–more than the cost of the airport which was 60 minutes away.  But this is where I blame tourists…where on earth did that number come from? There must have been someone out there who thought that price was reasonable. =P

But hell, if some sucker/lazy holidaymaker is willing to pay 10x the local price for something, why not?  But let’s remember, just because you don’t want to deal with haggling on your once-a-year vacation doesn’t mean life ends here once you’ve left. You accept a stupidly inflated price and all that does is make it worse and worse for everyone other tourist, and yourself when you come back. This has come to a head in Vientiane (Laos) and here in Phuket where the prices are more expensive than anywhere else in Thailand. When you try and tell a driver that his price is 10x the Bangkok price, they say, “But this is Phuket!” Dude, it’s still Thailand.

I’d personally like to know how much money they need to pay the mafia or whatever, because the way the prices are–if they just took 2 or 3 fares then they’d be making more money than I did in Japan. And no matter what the drivers say, it’s STILL Thailand.

Sunset over Kata Beach

For our next beach, we decided to head down south from Karon to Kata beach. The difference between the two is pretty stark, despite being only a few minute drive from the other. Kata felt much more developed, but at the same time not in an ugly necessarily. Club Med takes up a huge chunk of the land, but is hidden behind a wall and a line of pine-trees. From the beach, the development is hidden behind the trees which makes it feel more “remote”–but of course it’s not as the endless line of beach chairs indicates.

Being near a Club Med, there were many, many, many more families and children there. As we’re not huge lovers of children, this was kind of a downpoint for us. However, I’m sure this is not a bad thing to most people out there. Despite the children, it was relatively quiet. There was the occasional jet-ski motor sounds, but other than that, not much to report. Sand and water wise, the sand is white, extremely fine, and powdery. The water is quite clear and pretty as well, though the waves were a touch bigger in Kata than they were in nearby Karon. Supposedly there’s quite good surfing there, but we weren’t there during the right season.

Kata also has some decent food options, but they were all quite pricey (remember: we are on a string tight budget so pricey to us is actually quite reasonable.)

In the end, out of the four beaches we ended up going to during our 10 days in Phuket, we thought Kata was the best overall choice if you want a mix of entertainment, food, a beautiful beach, but smaller crowds (but it’s still pretty crowded.)

Here’s a tip we learned after the first two days in Phuket: the crowds absolutely disappear after 2-3pm. So if you have no absolute necessity to sunbake, then going mid-afternoon is a pretty surefire way to have the beach nearly to yourself (all things considering, this is still the premier island to visit in Thailand.) Despite the beautiful daily sunsets, the beach is pretty devoid of people except joggers, romantics, and local Thais swimming fully clothed or playing beach soccer, definitely not a bad way to go.

I’ve been to one in Pattaya before with my mother (very funny story for many different reasons), but this one was much more grand. It had incredible costumes and set design. One of the sets was a jungle complete with waterfall, another was a giant sphinx with King Tut’s head. The “girls” themselves varied in believability, but for the most part it was pretty good. They sang and danced to songs in multiple languages, but for some reason the vast majority of the songs were Chinese. There was only one song in Thai and it was more of a comedy routine with a very heavyset kathooey and a lanky kathooey who were both pretty obviously men doing embarassing things to the men in the audience.

At one point, Hugh and I both noticed a girl who was just so… Japanese. We couldn’t put our finger on it at first, but there was something about her actions that made her seem just like the idol/models on Japanese variety shows. She was very pretty and had this doe-eyed look on her face. Even the way she clapped her hands freaked us out. We could have brought her to Japan and everyone would have just assumed she was some sort of magazine model.

After the show I realized what it was, it wasn’t her looks necessarily since other girls were just as pretty and “Japanese-looking” (it’s a pretty trendy way of dressing/styling oneself here), but it was the excessive expression of “femininity.” Kathooey (the good ones) are believable not just because of their looks, but because they have mastered the “act” of being a woman. On Japanese TV you see an endless parade of models doing “acts” of what is considered feminine in Japan: a mix of being helpless, childlike, demure, and often dumb (or at least extremely naive), but always beautiful. They don’t just say things that convey these ideas, but it’s in the smallest detail of how you sit, how you clap your hands, etc. After three years living in Japan, I found myself picking up some of these Japanese femininity cues.

It made me realize how absolutely important certain actions and gestures are to seeming masculine or feminine and makes me wonder how much of what we consider beautiful is based on these things as well. We saw plenty of kathooey on the streets who were physically pretty, but somehow didn’t cut it as beautiful. It’s interesting how the extra gestures can increase a woman’s beauty.

There’s no pictures in this entry because I wasn’t willing to pay a $6 tip per girl for a photo. =P And trust me, the minute you try and take a photo that’s when 10 of them jump in with you. I saw a poor guy shell out about $60 just because he wanted a keepsake, when he tried to protest they got pretty aggressive. Not super lady-like, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do…

As we sat watching the sunset, a woman asked if we wanted to buy a balloon for good luck...

I had seen these balloons up north before and jumped at the chance. Besides, we could all use some good luck.

As the balloon floated by, tourists stopped drinking and playing soccer to watch it rise into the clouds...

A little kid even started clapping...

We watched it float into a tiny black dot in the sky...

Best 100baht I've ever spent =)

We first saw these balloons last year during our visit in Chiang Mai. If you’re interested, this blog had photos with literally thousands of hot air balloons being sent off during a festival. The photos are night photos–the balloon is fun during the sunset, but it’s absolutely magical at night.

Karon Beach. Busy yet pretty quiet

Our first destination on Phuket is Karon beach, located midway down the island on the west-coast. While it’s not as built-up as other places in Phuket, it certainly doesn’t feel desolate. Instead, I think it lacks a lot of charm. See, when you go to a place like Patong, when you know it’s going to be all nightclubs and bars and tourist crap, well you expect it to lack charm. However, it usually makes up for that in excitement, nightlife, and pleothera of activities. Waikiki is still nice despite being a commercial hellhole, and so is Cancun. Karon, unfortunately, touristy without much to do (besides girlie bars). However, the beach is very pretty with squeaky golden sand and clear water. During low tide, the water gets too shallow to really swim, but it’s nice to just sit in and enjoy the sunset. Despite the fact the beach is quite crowded, it’s full of middle-aged Europeans who are generally quieter than your typical spring break/gap year crowd so it can be pretty relaxing. There’s also not that many touts on the beach and they generally leave you alone if you want to be left alone, though we find it pretty comical that none of the food stalls have prices on the menus. Judging from overhearing what they charge you, the bigger a dumb tourist you seem (or the richer), the more they try and charge you. Lesson learned: look like a poor backpacker.

One of three Asians seen on Karon beach today =P

Something that was a bit weird was seeing all the topless middle-aged (obese) women. Now, I have nothing against topless sunbathing–I’m no prudish American, and I’ve done it before and thought it was liberating (nevermind the fact I lived in Japan where naked bathing with your friends (female) is matter-of-course.) However, countless literature, travel guides, pleas from everywhere urge people to respect Thailand’s culture and NOT do it here. Yet seeing people flagerantly ignore is kind of sad. We are very, “in Rome, do as the Romans do.” But I guess there’s always people who will do whatever the hell they want no matter where they go.

One last thing–this place is absolutely devoid of Thai tourists, hell, it’s devoid of any non-Caucasian European tourists. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, but I have always loved and sought out diversity. Also, I personally think it a bit odd to be in a foreign country, yet the only locals are people you see are the ones serving you pineapple or trying to sell you sunglasses. Yes, I know most tourist beaches around the world work this way–lucky for me, I know a few beaches where locals and foreigners mix pretty evenly. =P This is not one of them, but it’s still beautiful and a nice place worth visiting.

We then moved on to Chiang Mai where we are staying at a guest house which I can best describe as “serves the purpose.” We pondered going to Myanmar/Burma, but with the ethical and moral concerns (look it up on wikipedia if you don’t know about the tourism boycott) we decided that if we were going to go, then we needed more time to research to ensure that as little of our money is going to the ruling junta as possible. So instead, we’ve decided to fly down to Thailand’s renowned islands. I’ve never been, so I’m pretty excited. We have tickets to Phuket, but we may island hop elsewhere. We also figured, if we are gunna lie around all day, we might as well do it on a beach. Am I right, or am I right?

One of the most important things is to choose a tour group that is reputable and ethical. Any sort of contact with tourists changes a village, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Tribes are allowed to develop and change, just like our societies do. This also means some people may have romantic notions of people living in huts and wearing traditional outfits all the time, the reality is, like the many other groups of people, jeans and t-shirts are more comfortable, and easier to acquire.

There’s good development and bad development. Some tour groups basically just dump a busload of tourists into a village. The village gets no money from these tours, so they basically have to beg or sell junk to the tourists who come. You know you’re on a tour like this if you come in on a bus and then have a thousand people try and sell you trinkets. There are a few companies, especially in Laos, where the actual tribes either run the village visits or get money or community development assistance. These are probably the most “authentic” experiences you can have, though no experience is really going to be authentic on a tour group. That’s just how it is, but not everything can be “authentic” anyways. What does that word even mean?

Tourism dollars can be a great help to tribes, but can also be exploitative. Take for example, the case of the Long-Necked Karen women in northern Thailand. Historically speaking, these tribes did not exist in Thailand. They’re actually refugees from Burma who basically live in a village built solely for tourism purposes. They are not considered Thai citizens and have few real options to leave. If they don’t wear the neck rings, they don’t get money. Their village is basically a human zoo for people who’re curious about them. There’s nothing wrong with this curiousity, but people should know the situation. If you really want to see them, go to Myanmar. More details about this group can be read about it here and all over the internet.

Before you trek or board a tour bus, try and make an effort to learn a bit about the culture you want to visit. There’s excellent museums in Chiang Rai, Thailand and in Luang Prabang, Laos. At least that way, authentic or not, you did more than just snap a photo at someone.

Here’s a smattering of our memories of Laos now that I finally have the internet to upload the backlog of photos:

Crossing rickety bridges is fun. Lying in a hut and watching other people do it is more fun.

Spending 6 hours in a hut relaxing

Delicious food stalls with friendly vendors everywhere you go

Roads in Laos mean a 15 mile journey can take 2 hours...

Many people are able to do back-breaking labor while joking with each other and smiling at passersby

Local buses. Just as slow as a VIP bus, but more fun. "Natural AC" is awesome too!

Beautiful scenery and little villages everywhere you go

Main worry of the day: fruit falling on your head

Buying from friendly people who don't do hard-selling (this photo was not staged--the vendor actually smiled!)

The many creative uses for the thousands of spent missiles and the like

Luang Prabang, the second largest city in Laos, would be a blip on most other countries' maps

Young boys who would normally be out making mayhem are instead living monastic lives.

You meet children with very few toys or playthings--but they don't seem to care that much. Wheelbarrow with your dad beats mostly battery-operated junk anyways.

The town supermarket

If you want to see more, there’s probably several hundred photos you can look at here: http://www.flickr.com/himene/

The shrimp burns! AHH!

As soon as we crossed the Thai border it was so strange, it was…so obviously Thailand. All of a sudden, the roads were nicer, everyone owned a new car (actually, the fact we even saw cars was unusual), there were powerlines in the sky, advertisements, billboards, internet on every corner. It’s so odd that crossing a river can seem like entering another world.

The travel group we created all headed to the bus station: we all had different destinations in mind, half were off to Chiang Mai and the other to Chiang Rai. Yet at the last minute, all 6 of us ended up going to Chiang Rai. But not before a couple of people (Hugh included) raced out to the 7-11 to buy giant Coca-Cola slurpees. Mock us if you must, tell us we’re not hardcore travelers–we don’t care, it was delicious. =P

The sky smiles down on us. People all over where pointing and laughing at the unusual sight on Dec 1

As luck would have it, the guesthouse we had previously chosen had enough room for the 4 of us who remained in Chiang Rai (me, Hugh, Midori, and Jaja.) Later we had dinner at the Chiang Rai nightmarket–we all each bought a dish to share and in the end it added up to about $2 each. And we ate very well. It just seemed like we were being rewarded for our travels that we did without whining or getting mad at each other. Even the sky seemed to be laughing with us.

Our plans now are in flux as we didn’t really intend on having to be in Thailand for so long, but more and more a small trip to Myanmar is sounding very intriguing….