Burmese Days

Myanmar isn’t too bad as a tourist. It’s quite safe. I hear criminals get sent to do hard labor for pretty much anything done against a foreigner. That sure would keep me on the straight and narrow.

I won’t be too critical of what I see at the moment since the internet is heavily guarded here. Though we use proxies and the likes, I still like to be cautious.

The plan at the moment is to visit the main tourist spots. I’d also like to visit along the border with Thailand and to areas along the border with China in the northeastern Shan State and to the Irrawaddy Delta area. Those seem like really nice regions.

Things here aren’t all Rambo (the latest one set here), life is relaxed and things are simple. If people at home are worried for my safety, don’t be! I’m hanging out around Inlay Lake relaxing and enjoying the nature. It’s nice here. It’s in the highlands, so it’s cooler (and I don’t hear Elise complain about the heat all the time)(though to be fair, I hate the heat as much as her but I’m quieter about it) and the pollution isn’t as noticeable. The lake itself is nice. There are floating gardens, houses on stilts and water gypsies. It really makes you realize that you’re in a totally difference place.

I’m really disappointed that I can’t describe it as well as I’d like. It’s more of a feeling that the sights. Even just riding around on a single gear bike on dirt and crushed stone paths was amazing. People unsure whether to fear me to greet me (I’ve got a month long beard-ish thing going on, so I took “peculiar”). I followed a monk on a dirt path through the forest to find a little monastery. I took another path and ended up in front of what I’d describe as the cutest mountain I’ve ever seen. I’m still having a grand old time.

Oh, and those two regions I mentioned up there… A little joke. They’re the regions listed by the Canadian government as “avoid” regions. Don’t worry. I have no intention to go there.

Got my visa this time …

As the plane landed in Yangon, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t get to research this place much and most of what I knew from it I read on the flight over. The first thing that hit me about this place was the poverty. I thought Thailand was poor. This is worse. At least cabs in Thailand have air con. Here, they have open windows. Gas is apparently rationed, so as our cab drove us to the guest house, we stopped by a street stall to get gas funneled in the cab. At our guest house, it was a different story. Fairy luxurious, the May Fair Inn stood out from the surrounding delapitated apartment buildings and warehouses. After checking in, we met a man who has been coming to the same guest house over the past 12 years (and now stays for about 5 months). He told us a bit about how he feels here. Though it was nice to hear from a seasoned vet, I couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t getting a real feel for the place. Like he was more a colonist than a citizen. Regardless, we got great tips from him. Elise was feeling sick, so I wandered the streets of Yangon alone for the first night. On my first time out, I crossed three kids playing a game (think curling with smaller rocks on dirt). I got to join them and before I knew it, I had bet that if they could beat me, I’d buy them food (they wanted money, I figured this was a bit better). Despite my best efforts, they won (I think 7 out of 8 games, but I was starting to turn it around!). One of the recommendations we got from the man in the guest house is not to take the bus North. The journey to our next destination (Inlay Lake) is said to take about 12 hours, but in reality, that tends to be ore like 18 to 19 hours. The roads are bumpy and the seats are small. Heeding that advice, we decided to take a flight up. It’s a bit pricey, but well worth it. I can’t wait to be out of the city (too hot and busy here) and be in the highlands. This place is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Welcome to Myanmar.

Old Ruins and New Plans

Sukhothai is a great place. Though there are way too many bugs at night (they sweep them off the group in the morning), the days there are really relaxing. The ruins are wonderful and inspiring. Over all, a great break from the big city.
For whatever reason, everywhere I’ve been with my new travel buddy (Elise), we’ve been laughed at minimum once a day. For example, to visit the ruins, we rented a scooter for the day (cheaper than two return bus tickets). On our way back to the hostel, we stopped at a small shop for some food. The woman was in an extraordinarily bad mood. She wouldn’t try understanding my broken Thai and hand signals at all. Not once did she smile. When we left, I was turning the scooter around and I almost went in the ditch. She found that hysterical. Go figure.
In other news, my trip is about to take a different spin. An opportunity to travel somewhere I didn’t really expect came up and I decided to take it. Stay tuned folks!


Making Friends

Imagine a single bed. Now imagine wall about 2 feet from the left side of the bed and another 4 feet from the foot of the bed. Imagine a door on that wall and a fan on the ceiling. Imagine the bed has only one sheet on the mattress and a plain white pillow. Lastly, imagine two windows leading to alleys.
What you’re seeing in your mind is my new room in Bangkok. For these luxury accommodations, I’m paying 180baht, or about 7$. Bangkok haven’t grown on me much since last time. I still hate all the scamming that goes on. It seems that the only people who speak English are the ones who are out to get your money. It gets tiring.
On the positive side, I met someone today and we’re going to travel together to a city in the North called Sukhothai. Today we went to giant weekend market and got caught in the rain. We ended up having some drinks with these 4 Thai people for a few hours while people were tearing down their shops. One of them (a man) wrote something in Thai in my book. I showed it to a hotel staff and they laughed at me. Apparently he wrote me a love letter…I can’t wait to leave Bangkok for a few days and see something else in Thailand, plus there are old temple ruins up in Sukhothai (who doesn’t like those?). Hopefully people won’t be too cunning there.
Also, I have my visa for Vietnam all set up. So that’s great. Things are starting to look up for your old pal Simon…

Bangkok Dangerous

I arrived to Bangkok with a bag smelling of fish. I was really hoping the plane was carrying perfume and a box would have slipt on my bag. It didn’t happen.
Because this was my first time in Bangkok, I really didn’t know what to expect. I had heard along the road that it is a dirty city and so many people try (and often succeed at) scamming foreigners. By chance, I met a Canadian on the bus to my hotel, and we banded together for our first walk around the area. By the looks of it, our area (near Nana station, if that tells you anything) is for people who aren’t coming to Thailand for the ruins (as Lonely Planet puts it). We walked around a bit at night, and then some more in the morning. Oh, by the way, I stayed at a place called Suk 11. It’s probably the coolest hostel you’ll ever find. It’s like if a hotel and a tree house had a baby. SO cool. For a night (double bed, private bathroom and breakfast) it cost me about 20$. That’s a great price for the quality of the place. The next night, I ended up in a Hostel Internation place (because I had to stay in the area until my laundry was done) and while it was a bit cheaper, by like 8$, it wasn’t as nice. 12$ got me a bunk in a white room with 0 personality. Bummer. Anyway, so you’ve got two Canadian walking around, looking lost, exploring our area of Bangkok. We ended up in a tuk-tuk and the guy wanted to bring us to some sight as well as some shopping places. If they bring customers in, the drivers get free gas cards. Because it was raining, we figured we might as well help this guy. We went in to the first place, and because I hate getting a hard sell, we were out in 2 minutes. Apprently we needed to stay for 5 minutes to get that free gas card. The next place we went, we made a up about us being in Bangkok on a sales trip and me needing custom shoes (the one thing I knew they didn’t have in store for me). It worked pretty well and soon enough we were at the next place, getting another free gas card. Justpart of the adventure, I guess…
My friend is only in town for a few days, I’m here for a while (I guess). I need to make new friends so I’m going to the backpacker area. Rooms there are much cheaper too (some as low ars 5$). AND I’ve got clean smelling clothes now! So Bangkok… I think it’s a bit dirty and noisy. People don’t stop harassing you for money and I always have my guards up (something that gets quite tiring). Oh, and it’s crazy hot. Despite it, I think it’s a pretty cool place with loads of personality. Probably cooler to live there than to visit.

Diving Days

I got my diver’s certification for two reason. First, I figured it was a good thing to do while in South-East Asia since it opens up many travel opportunities and I was going to be in an area where it’s quite cheap to do it. Second, I was 9 hours by bus from Sipadan, one of the best corals in the world (probably the best for the price I paid).

I’m quite happy I got certified and went diving on the East coast. The way Sipadan works is you stay on an island  about 40 minutes from the mainland for the night (Mabul island, home to some great small marine life) and the day you’re boated out to the coral for 3 dives. It’s only about 30 minutes away, so it’s a quick trip. I organized my trip with Billabong Scuba based on a recommendation from a Dutch couple I ment in Kota Kinabalu. I’m happy I did. I stayed on a barebones guest house on stilts on the sea with crystal clear waters. After a day of diving, everyone hung out on the patio facing the sunset eating, drinking and talking. Great relaxed times.

What can I say about Sipadan? Since it was only my 7th to 9th dive, I don’t have much to compare it to, but I’ll say that it was definitely one of my top 10 dives ever. Seeing your dive buddy dwarfed by a coral wall going down 700m (I think that’s how deep it goes) while massive schools of fish swim above you is a magnificent sight. I’ll also admit that swimming next to large turtles and small sharks is pretty cool too.

Even without the diving, going over to Mabul island was great. It was such a relaxing time. Divers tend to make for pretty laid-back people too. A good group to hang out with.

After my second day of diving, (first day was around Mabul island, second was Sipadan) I went back to the mainland with a fellow diver to catch an overnight bus to Kota Kinabalu so I could catch my flight to Bangkok in the morning. I didn’t sleep to well, but that was to be expected. I’m not very “compact”. But bad night’s sleep was the least of my worries. As we got off the bus, I discovered that my bag was wet. Wet with what you ask? If I had to guess, I’d say the person with the boxes next to my bag was transporting som fish and they didn’t quite seal the box as well as they should have. So here I am. 4am, tired, sore and stuck with a 15kg bag that reeks of fish.

Terrific.

Mt Kinabalu

I did it. I climbed Mt Kinabalu. It was much rougher than I expected but, I did it. Turns out, the entire hike it basically steps spaced about 30cm apart. And this goes on for about 6 km. Then, after that, we got to a hostel for the night. The idea was to get there, relax, eat, go to bed and wake up at 2am to catch the sunrise on the peak. That was the plan until it started raining.

I went to bed at 7pm and get up at 2am ready(ish) to get to the top. Since it was still raining heavily, my climbing partner and I decided to wait until 5am to leave so we could wait for the worst to be over and that way we wouldn’t be climbing up in pitch dark the whole way. SO that’s what we did. It took us 2 hours to climb that remaining 2.6km and it wasn’t easy. Since it’s mostly rock face, you need to use ropes most of the way. Ropes, high winds and rain don’t make for fun. Oh, and I don’t have pants with me. We finally made it at 7am, but we couldn’t see anything. This one guy, poor him, went up at 2:30, did it in 1:30, waited at the peak for another hour and 30 minutes only to see the light through heavy fog. How terrible is that…

On my way down, I fell a few times (wood get really slippery). I actually cut my fingers a bit, bruised my elbow and sprained my ankles, but I’m fine now. Nothing to worry about (I also had climbing insurance).

Time’s about to run out on the computer so that’s all I’ve got for now! I’m still happy and healty!

Goodbye Kota Kinabalu

After a week of chilling in Kota Kinabalu, I’m finally leaving. I really liked my time here, mostly because of the people I spent it with. There isn’t too much to do here except some shopping and beaches, but that was fine by me. I feel recharged and I’m ready to go for a little while.

In about one hour, I’ll take a 2 hour bus to the Kinabalu national park where I’ll get a good night’s sleep before a two day hike up and down the (little over) 4000m peak of Mt. Kinabalu. On our second day of the hike, we’re supposed to wake up at 3am, go up the remaining 1000m (or so) granite peak in time to catch the sunrise. Apparently totally worth it.  I’m excited to see it with my own eyes.

After hiking that mountain, I’ll take a night bus to Semporna. This area apparently has some of the best diving in the world. On October 20th, I’ll dive Sipadan. From what I’ve read and heard, this place is one of, if not the, best diving spots in the world. Oh, I got my diver’s certification yesterday! Diving’s cool. I’m not sure I have the amount of excitement other diver have for it. Personally, I’d rather be on land than under tons of water, but it’s still a very interesting world down there.

After doing those things, I’ll head over to Thailand. I’m not really sure what I’ll do there. I know I want to climb the highest mountain and probably take a cooking class. I got the name of a hostel from a couple I met here and this place is super nice and has cooking classes. So I’ll give that a shot. Beyond that, not sure at all… I still need to buy my plane ticket to leave Malaysia!

Taxi Driver

On my way from the airport in Kota Kinabalu to my hotel, I had one of the most interesting brief chats of my trip. It was with a 30 year  Malay taxi driver.

Here’s what I learned from this man in our short trip from the airport.

- He learned English by himself using only a Malay/English dictionary, the radio and his clients in about a year and a half. I find this amazing. Goes to show that if you want to learn English, with a bit of effort, it’s possible.

- He loves badminton, as it’s a very popular sport in Malaysia.

- He is married to a woman his age and they have two boys. The youngest is turning 1 soon. They will have a big party for his first anniversary.

- He has a 20 year old girlfriend. In order to manage that, he has a phone for work and his wife and a phone for his girlfriend. She is not invited to his son’s first birthday party.

I hope to meet more interesting people like my friend the taxi driver on my trip. They are the ones that make traveling worthwhile.

Singapore (and more)

This is starting to be a trend for me. I’m writing this from the Singapore Airport, my flight about to take off to Kota Kinabalu  (Eastern Malaysia) in about an hour.

Singapore was nice, but I wouldn’t come back. While I haven’t seen many Asian countries, I’d say it’s by far the most Western city I’ve been in this past year. If you want to say you’ve been to Asia, but don’t want to get dirty, come here. It’s crazy clean and super western. They’ve got a nice Little India with great cheap food (where I stayed), a Chinatown and a few typical Asian buildings. Everyone speaks English here too, so it’s not too big of a shock. I actually was shocked at how many Westerners (or foreigners, as we call them in Korea) I saw. You hardly every see “white” families in Korea and it’s quite rare in Taiwan, but here, it’s a common sight. One of the theories I’ve heard is that many flights from Australia to Europe have stop-overs here, so people come to stretch their legs. It’s possible. I don’t know.

Anyway, I’m excited to check out Kota Kinabalu (KK). I’ve been recommended a driving instructor there at a CouchSurfing meeting in KL. Apparently this guy won awards for safety in teaching and it’s quite cheap. I also hear that part of Malaysia has some of the most beautiful diving spots in the world. Whether I’ll make the trek to check them out or not is still in the air, but it’s something to consider. I also decided I’m going to climb the highest Malaysian mountain. I think that’s going to be my “thing” in my travels. This one’s about 4000m and I’ve heard stories of it being climbed in one day (round trip). I’ll give it my best, but I’m a bit anxious to have my first bout of altitude sickness. I’ve only been as high as 3000m (in Taiwan) and I was already feeling a bit weak. It should be an interesting test.

I still haven’t figured out where I’m going after this. I’m thinking of going to Thailand and doing “that” area of south-east Asia. My original plan was to check out the Buton island in Indonesia because they use the Korean alphabet, but I’m starting to think it’s a bit of a trek just to see something I’d go “oh, that’s neat”. I really need to sit down with my travel guide and flight schedules and figure this out. I think I’ll end up staying in KK for a little while to relax and figure out my game plan.