Last day in Singapore...

After Gino's two presentations at the Science Center in Singapore on Tuesday, we met with a friend of his for a late dinner. Like Gino, Lin is also a person with a fascinating combination of right-brain/left-brain energy. Currently, she works independently as a graphic digital artist, musician and published poet as well as being thoroughly familiar with the techie-language that Gino is able to bandy about with cavalier ease. Since we were all high-energy people, the three of us created a great evening together.
The weather in Singapore has been fair and clear. Being only a few degrees north of the equator, it's normally pretty warm here...even late in the evening. The exchange rate is about one US dollar = 1.57 Singapore dollars. This is one city that works pretty well. They have their own currency and have created an infrastructure on this island nation that supports their sophisticated lifestyle.
Gino is flying back to Hong Kong tomorrow. Initially, I thought that I'd be going on to Bali but, after checking out the cost of the flight, I decided, instead, to spend a week in Manila before heading over to Hong Kong around the 8th to hook up with Gino again. This time, I'll be able to meet his wife and three kids. During that first week in June, Gino has to attend a conference in Bejing, and then, in mid-June, he's heading over to the States.
I had briefly considered going down to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to see if I could be of some assistance with their current challenges (earthquake & volcano). However, I eventually decided that there was really little help that I could offer them other than contributing to the relief effort in a financial way. I had spent several days in Yogyakarta back in 1988 and I remember it well. Quick Note: If you have some way to contribute $$$ to the many agencies working with the tens of thousands who have lost everything over there, I strongly encourage you to do. It wouldn't be out of pity. It's just the compassionate thing to do because true compassion can only occur between equals. More later...

Kuala Lumpur and Singapore...

I flew down to Kuala Lumpur and found my way over to the Marriott where I was to meet up with Gino Yu. (The Malaysian currency is the Ringgit and the rate of exchange is approximately 1 USD = 3.6 Ringgits). Gino had been attending a conference all day and so we didn't get a chance to hook up until later in the evening. When we did, however, we immediately discovered how well we connected with each other on both a mental and a spiritual level. Amazingly, it even turned out that Gino and I had been born in the very same hospital in Chicago! Unfortunately, though, I was still struggling with the bug that I had picked up in Cambodia and so, on Thursday, I had to get some medication from the hotel's in-house doctor. Cedrick, an employee of Gino's in Hong Kong, joined us on Friday, and the three of us took a cab into downtown Kuala Lumpur and checked into another very nice hotel. Cedrick used to work for George Lucas (Industrial Light & Magic) on such projects as Star Wars: The Attack of the Clones. On Saturday, we were driven around by Alwee, a new friend of Gino's, who is interested in facilitating academic projects that would assist in the growth of Malaysia in general and of KL in particular. Besides being driven around the city, we also had an opportunity to visit the extraordinary twin towers in KL that had been made famous by appearing in a recent thriller with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Since 9-11, however, they only allow about 1000 people a day to go up to the crosswalk that connects the towers at the 40th floor, but, since Alwee had some friends on the 62nd, level, we were able to go up to that level to check out the awesome view. When Alwee and I had accidentally gotten off the elevator at the 60th floor, we were immediately confronted by armed guards who were on duty at the Al-Jezeera TV studio. Very funny to see their reactions (it was a weekend and they weren't expecting anyone to show up at the studio) but they were both deadly serious and not smiling at all.
On Sunday, Cedrick flew back to Hong Kong, and Gino and I took a 5-hour bus trip from Kuala Lumpur down to Singapore. Gino had been hired to present several lectures on Tuesday (tomorrow) and his Hosts had paid for a hotel room for him until Thursday. Happily, he invited me to, once again, share his hotel room in order to continue our ongoing discussions about philosophy, psychology and our world-view. Very energizing and fascinating stuff, and we're reallly enjoying each other's company. In fact, Gino has invited me to spend a few days with him and his family in Hong Kong after he finishes up attending (and presenting) at yet another conference in Bejing at the beginning of June. I'll fly to either Bali or Manila on Thursday and then find my way over to HK around the 8th.
Singapore is quite a modern city...very clean and unpoluted. As they do in Malaysia, the drivers in Singapore also keep to the left side of the road. Only in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia do they continue to drive on the right...thanks to their historical connections with France.
I'm happy to report that my body is feeling much better these days. More later...

Phnom Penh...again

I left Siem Reap on Monday and took a bus down to Phnom Penh. I had decided against taking the boat down the Mekong because I felt that I'd see more of Cambodia from the window of the bus than I would from a boat in the middle of the lake. We drove for miles through dry, open fields that were criss-crossed with small birms waiting to catch the water from the monsoon rains at the end of the year. I was told that they get at least two full rice crops out of the fields every year. Along the way, we passed thousands of unpainted shacks that lined the road between small non-descript towns. Lots of people just hanging around the houses and, of course, lots of young kids playing games with whatever they could find.
In Phnom Penh, I checked into the same hotel that I was at seven weeks ago and took some time to walk for a while along the riverfront. There were several groups of about eight men who were playing an interesting variation of kickball. They were kicking around some kind of weighted ball that had been wrapped in a plastic sleeve about 10 inches long. The men would stand in a circle about thirty feet in diameter and kick the ball to the guy across the circle. They would use their elbows, knees and, most amazingly, would often bend one of their legs at the knee and, without looking behind them, kick the ball back across the circle. Very impressive and, quite understandably, these groups had a large audiences.
For the first time since I had left California, I had begun to feel a bit sick and figured that it must have been the strange soup that I had shared with that wedding party in Siem Reap on Sunday. After first trying (unsuccessfully) the Auruvedic medication that I had brought from India, I finally relented and took some Immodium. Unfortunately, however, that didn't work either. I knew that it could be a rough trip on the flight Wednesday down to Kuala Lumpur to meet Gino Yu, an academic involved in digital entertainment from Hong Kong. Gino is attending a conference in KL with a colleague, Cedrick Chan (who is also a blogger http://adventures-of-cedrick.blogspot.com/) and had generously invited me to share his hotel room while I was in town. He had come across a copy of "Enlightenment for Beginners" in Ojai while recently attending a Krishnamurti conference and and sent me an email about a month ago. When we discovered that we would be, more or less, in the same neighborhood about the same time, he made the kind offer to get together in Kuala Lumpur. More later...

Last day in Siem Reap...

Very early this morning, I rented a bike (US$1.50 for all day) and decided that I wanted to pedal through a lot of the side streets and quieter markets around town. As I was going along, I heard a lot of music and discovered that several hundred people were gathered on a patio for some kind of major celebration. Everyone was dressed up in their best clothes and they told me that they were there to help a young couple celebrate their marriage. Because of the soaring temperatures that occur later in the day, all of this party activity was taking place at 7 A.M.! I was cordialliy invited to sit at one of the tables and was quickly offered many kinds of food and drink. Although I had just eaten breakfast an hour earlier, I felt obliged to share at least some of what they were so graciously offering to me. After hanging around for about 30 minutes or so, I took my leave and they gave me a bag of sugar cookies to take with me. Within a few blocks, I saw four young girls and their mother sitting by their wooden shack and delighted them all by handing them the bag of goodies. When I got to the main park in town, I saw that it was crowded with hundreds of young students ...ages 7-14...who were at a rally to stop child hunger in Cambodia. It was sponsored by the UN and was being facilitated be a number of local volunteers and folks from Oz and the UK. Seeing that I was a westerner, a few of them came over to me to tell me what was going on. After several speeches, the kids formed a long line and set off to march three kilometers around town to draw attention to their cause. They were all dressed up in similar uniforms and wore special hats. Since I had to stick with the rented bike, I made a donation to help them out. While I was there, I asked one of the Brits about those strange birds that I had seen several nights ago and which were, in fact, beginning to swarm above the trees as we were speaking. She said that they were, indeed, very large bats and that they make their homes in the trees above the park. When I was on Tonga in 1988, I remembered also seeing huge black bats hanging upside down from trees during the day and looking a lot like gothic Christmas tree ornaments. Very cool and, like bats everywhere, they eat a lot of insects so their presence is most welcomed by the locals.
When I was walking around Angkor Thom yesterday afternoon, I thought that these temples would never be able to be opened to the public in the U.S. without undergoing major alterations. There are just too many ways to get hurt as you're climbing around these structures. For example, there are no guard rails anywhere, the stone-block floors are uneven (and sometimes slippery), and, in the dark tunnels, it would be very easy to twist your ankle or worse. I'm sure that many people get hurt out there everyday because of a single moment of carelessness. In the U.S. (the litigation capitol of the world) people would be constantly suing the operators. Wisely, the Cambodians insist that everyone knows the risks of walking around these buldings, and that they should be responsible for their own safety. (Wow! What an original idea!) I'm taking an early bus down to Phnom Penh tomorrow morning, but who know what further adventures await for me today? After all, it's not even 10 A.M. More later...

Around Siem Reap...

Today I decided to take a look at the so-called "floating village" that makes its home in the large lake just south of the city. The 2500 people who live on the water earn their living as fishermen much like they do in the floating villages that I saw on the Mekong River coming into Chou Doc, Vietnam, as well as those around Ha Long Bay near Hanoi. The big difference, however, is in the sheer number of folks who live their entire lives out here on this lake. The homes are made out of anything that floats: e.g. a delapidated boat, or, perhaps, they've erected a shed or some kind of wooden structure on a small rectangular barge. Several of them may be tied together but, more often than not, each one is floating independently of the others. The kids living here have little chance to improve their lives. Since the government in Cambodia doesn't provide public education, their options are definitely limited. The long and bumpy road to the shore of the lake is lined on both sides with run-down wooden sheds...some as small as 12 x 12...and each one crammed with still more families...all with lots of kids. The poverty along here is staggering, and, according to my driver, the average family in this area earns less than US$250 a year.
After spending several hours around the floating village, I got back to town around noon and hired a tuk-tuk to take me out to see Angkor Thom again. My first day at the temples last Thursday was mostly taken up with learning the history of the buildings from a profesional guide and walking through the main areas. However, I wanted to have another look at the larger temples but to do it at a slower pace. Yesterday, I had re-visited Angkor Wat and so today, I wanted to poke around Angkor Thom for a few more hours. There are many large stone carvings (perhaps 40 feet high) on the outside walls of Angkor Thom that depict Buddha with his enigmatic smile. There are so many passageways, stone pillars, and tunnels and you can easily get disoriented. If you've ever stood in line to visit the Indiana Jones "Temple of Doom" ride at Disneyland, you have some small idea of the hallways and corridors of Angkor Thom. I'm quite sure that, whoever designed the Disney ride was familiar with the temples here at Angkor. As I had mentioned yesterday in my blog, the east entrance to this particular temple was highlighted in the Angelie Jolie Tomb Raider movie. Last night, I met a young fellow from Vancouver named Ian who was traveling for a while before he returned to Canada. We both agreed that traveling to other countries was enormously rewarding at many levels. When I was his age (18), you were expected to work during the summer and to prepare yourself to go immediately to the university the first September after graduating from high school. Nobody...and I mean nobody...ever seriously considered taking a year or two off to see the world before continuing their journey into adulthood. Back then, it just wasn't done. Times have definitely changed. On this trip alone, I've met hundreds of fellow travelers in the early 20's who are taking a "time out" before pursuing any higher education. More later...

The Temples of Angkor...

Last night, I strolled through the downtown area of Siem Reap. In the last few years, hundreds of new businesses have opened here...mostly catering to the influx of tourists who have come to marvel at the nearby temples. There are even several 3,4, and 5 star resorts that have opened their doors, too. Many ordinary expats have also set up restaurants and bars downtown and every nationality of food is offered at very reasonable prices. For example, you can get a beer for about US$0.75 and "Happy Hour" usually goes from 2 P.M. to closing. A full meal will set you back about US$3.00. The US dollar is king here, and our currency is easily intermixed with the Cambodian Riel which has a steady 4000:1 exchange rate. Some observations: 1) Although they drive on the right side of the road here like they do in Vietnam and Laos (thanks to their earlier association with the French), the cars still have their steering wheels mounted on the right side of the car instead of on the left. 2) The main canal in town has the same kind of white Christmas tree lights dangling down near the water that I had first seen at the lake near the Old Quarter in Hanoi. Very pretty at night. 3) Cambodia is a poorer country than Thailand and there are a lot more beggars and street children hawking the usual stuff: (e.g. knock-off versions of the Lonely Planet travel books, pirated DVDs and audio CDs, etc.) Obviously, the western Farangs (foreigners) totally stand out and, consequently, are immediately targeted. The kids are notoriously persistent in looking for your business and, as they did when I was in Shianouckville and Phnom Penh in the south, they quickly resort to guilt-tripping you if you don't buy from them. And, if they discover that you've bought something from one of their friends, then the gloves really come off. However, I've found that if you make it a kind of game and do a lot of smiling, you can usually get them to move on pretty quickly. 3) Around 4-5 P.M. every afternoon, there are tens of thousands of birds that rise up and flock above the city. It looked like a scene out of "The Birds." From the ground, they actually look like large bats, but I'm quite sure that they're not. Unfortunately, none of the locals that I asked on the street could tell me what they are. Quite an amazing sight.
This morning, I set my alarm for 4:30 A.M. I had arranged to have a tuk-tuk driver pick me up at the hotel at 5 A.M. to drive me out to the temples to see the sunrise behind Angkor Wat. It was truly breathtaking and everyone was moved by the experience. I had a quick breakfast at one of the many little open-air restaurants that have grown up around all of the temples to provide food and drink and souveniers to the busloads of tourists. There are many different temples that comprise Angkor and they're spread out over a lot of area. The temples are all linked by a recently-paved road that has been cut through the Cambodian jungle. It's impossible to imagine putting together such magnificent structures a thousand years ago without the use of modern machinery. The stone blocks are immense and were all fitted together with great precision. The bas-relief carvings on the walls are the work of master artisans. The most famous of the temples are, of course, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom...the latter of which served as a backdrop for Angelie Jolie's "Tomb Raider." One of the expat Brits that I had met shared some stories of the production company when they had stayed at his hotel during the filming. More later...

Leaving Thailand...

On my last morning in Pattaya, I was approached by several street vendors who were selling boot-legged DVD copies of Mission Impossible III for two bucks. Amazingly, they also had preview copies of the Da Vinci Code available for the same price. Incredibly, that movie hasn't even opened yet, and it's already been ripped off! Hollywood has a right to be complaining.
A quick observation at the Bangkok airport: You could easily walk for five hundred feet or more without seeing any place to toss your trash. Very strange in such a modern airport.
In Cambodia: Getting through immigration at the airport in Siem Reap was faster than it had been when I first entered the country down in Phnom Penh about seven weeks ago. I checked into a hotel that had been recommended by Grant and Cathy, the honeymooning couple that I had hung out with in Hanoi. Last night, I saw an hour-long shadow puppet show put on by some local performers and shared dinner with three folks from Melbourne who were attending a conference in Phnom Penh. Today, I went over to finally check out the magnificent Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. The former is the largest religious buildling in the world. I was surprised to discover that the buildings at Angkor actually blended Hinduism and Buddhism. There were many impressive sculptures and wall murals of both Buddha and the Hindu gods. All this time, I had thought that the entire focus of the place was strictly Buddhist. I'm sure that there will be other surprises.
When I first visited the Taj Mahal in 1988, I became acutely aware that pictures can never fully capture the immense beauty of that structure. I had that same reminder today when I visited Angkor Wat. It's so overwhelming that it truly takes your breath away. I plan to get up very early tomorrow so that I can experience the sun rising behind the temples. From what others have been telling me, it's supposed to be unforgettable. More later...

Playing in Pattaya...

While I was still in Bangkok on Saturday, I re-visited the major attractions that I had first seen back in 1988: the Grand Palace, Wat Phra (home to the Emerald Buddha) and Wat Pho which houses the world's largest reclining Buddha...about 150 feet in length with ornate designs of inlaid mother-of-pearl on the soles of his feet. Truly extraordinary and every visitor to Bangkok ought to put these attractions high on their list of places to visit. Bangkok is a city of opposites. For example,islands of brazen sexuality co-exist next door to Buddhist wats (temples). But the Thais have a great sense of humor, too. For example, two of the restaurants in Bangkok are "Eat Me" and "Cabbages and Condoms." Yes, after you eat at the latter place, they actually give you a free condom!
On Sunday, I checked out of my hotel and caught a van down to Pattaya...the infamous playground for adults about two hours south of Bangkok. Pattaya has been developing as a tourist area for more than 40 years. Now, it's become a haven for expats from the UK, Oz, NZ and the US who have taken up with Thai wives. They operate the myriad of go-go bars and restaurants that innundate this beach resort in order to cater to the hoards of westerners who are willing to pump millions of Baht into the local economy. As you might suspect, Pattaya is the home to, quite literally, many thousands of "working girls" who are available to service the male tourists...short term, for a night/week/month or however long you want. Everything is negotiable here. At night after 9 P.M., the hundreds of open bars are filled with noisy customers and hustling girls. Naturally, there's a lot of drinking, red lights, drinking, loud music, drinking, eating, drinking, etc. etc.. Amid all of the activity and chaos, however, there's also a lot of negotiating going on, too. With all of the people walking down the the well-known "Walking Street" (an area of about a half a mile that's shut off to vehicular traffic every night after 8 P.M.), it becomes a celebration of barely-contained craziness. Inside the go-go bars, several dozen girls (18-25) dance for hours around poles to pulse-pounding music (lots of rap) and in various stages of undress. Often they're completely nude. Sometimes they eagerly simulate sexual intercourse with each other or even oral sex using bananas, etc. Last night, (Sunday) I went bar-hopping with two guys from India and Belgium that I had met in the van coming down from Bangkok. They had both been to Pattaya before and were happy to introduce me to their favorite places of iniquity. For example, the Thai humor about sexuality includes the opportunity to sit at a mirrored bar table a foot away from a young dancer (in go-go boots with 3-inch soles) who is dressed only in a tiny wrap-around waitband and with no panties. Since she's dancing on a mirror, the view looking down is as interesting as is the view looking up. It's all done with great fun and laughter and everyone seems to be having a great time reveling in this blatant and in-your-face kind of sexuality. Paradoxically, outside some of these establishments are the usual "spirit houses" with burning incense, candles etc. In Thailand, sexuality and spirituality are not at all incompatible. I'll be in Pattaya until Wednesday when I take a van back to the airport in Bangkok for the flight to Cambodia to finally see Angkor Wat. After Pattaya, it'll be going from one extreme to the other. More later...

Down to Bangkok...

After spending a delightful last evening in Chiang Mai with Tom and Barbara, I flew down to Bangkok on Wednesday morning. Although I had spent five days here back in 1988, I could immediately notice the increase in traffic, air pollution and the numerous cranes sprouting all over the city that were putting up more high-rise buildings. Unlike how it was in 1988, Bangkok now has tollways, elevated trains and even subways. However, with the increase of vehicular traffic, the streets during rush hour are still often paralyzed in gridlock. It's often faster to walk which is what I mostly did. Things are surprisingly more expensive here than they were in Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai. For example, a foot massage in Bangkok will cost you about 250 Baht (about twice what I paid up north). As expected, there are a lot of "working girls" in Bangkok....especially in the tourist places like down in the infamous Patpong Road area. Now, however, Patpong is a lot more commercialized than it was back in 1988. They've erected many shops down the center of the street that sell the usual "touristy" stuff: lots of sexually suggestive T-shirts, sandals, shirts, pirated DVDs and CDs, and, of course, foods and drink of every description. Ironically, right next to the major sex-bars in Patpong, there are many shops here that sell statues of Buddha and other eastern deities. As the tourists walk along through the area, the touts in front of the bars present them with a written "menu" of what they will see inside the bar. As you might expect, the descriptions on these "menus" of what takes place during the shows inside are both graphic and definitely XXX-rated. Beer on Patpong is also about twice as expensive as it is up north. Most of the "working girls" (about 18-28 years old ) have come from small towns and villages around Thailand and they're expected to send a good portion of their money back to their families to support them. Some other observations around Bangkok: 1) When you purchase a ticket to see a movie, you actually have to reserve a particular seat in the theatre. Even though there may be only a few people at the showing, you are still expected to sit in your assigned seat. 2) Although they show the latest American movies for about US$2.50 (I just saw MI-3 with Thai subtitles), they still make you pay 2 Baht for toilet paper in the bathroom. 3) Speaking of bathrooms, most of the places that I've been staying at do not have a specific shower area. Instead, there's nozzle that's attached to the wall that you use to hose yourself down. The water empties through a drain in the floor and, naturally, the bathroom has a 2-3 inch lip that keeps the water inside that area. Although they have western-style toilets, there is always a small hose and nozzle that's next to the toilet itself that you can use to wash those nether regions with water. I went down to check out the new Siam Center and the well-known MBK Building. Lots of high-end stuff for sale, and I decided to upgrade my digital camera before beginning my day-long tour of the main Bangkok attractions tomorrow. On Sunday, I'm heading down to Pattaya for further adventures. More later...

Last day in Chiang Mai...

On Sunday, I got together with Tom and Barbara, the European friends that I traveled with up the Mekong from Luang Prabang, Laos, into Thailand. For the last few months, they've been renting an absolutely charming place not too far from the Chiang Mai Market. After having a drink in their front yard, we walked over to the well-known Sunday Market that materializes every late Sunday afternoon. Although the tourist map indicates that it's only held on one street, the market actually spills on over into many side streets and alleys. Included in the myriad of items that are offered for sale are a wide variety of foods and drinks which are frequently prepared on the spot to suit your taste. (Naturally, edible worms and larvae are also on display.) This street market also boasts numerous local musicians singing and playing guitars, harmonicas, violins and, of course, some of the more traditional Thai instruments. I even saw someone playing something that looked like a hammer dulcimer that could have been bought in our own West Virginia. This Sunday street fair is very popular with locals and tourists alike, and I saw many new items and foods that I hadn't seen at some of the other fairs that I've wandered through. After sharing a few beers and watching the hoards of people stream on by the street in front of us, Tom and Barbara took me over to the popular Riverside Restaurant. As the name implies, this very cool place is located on the riverfront and the building is, I'm guessing, about 200' x 100'. Most of the walls have been removed so there is a feeling of openness and spaciousness to the whole place. People sit at large picnic-like tables and could choose from an extensive menu that even includes fresh sushi. They had an excellent 10-piece band that played and sang both western and Thai music. The ambiance was excellent and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for several hours. After that, we took the same tuk-tuk back to my place and dropped me off. We planned on getting together at 6 P.M. on Monday for dinner at their place. When I awoke on Monday, I had to find a local bank, print out some things from the Internet and buy a new book. I just finished "The Lovely Bones" and was lucky to find an old copy of Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress." The weather began to cloud over by 4 P.M., and I found myself hoping that my dinner with Tom and Barbara wouldn't be rained out. I started walking in the general direction of their house and hoped that I could find it before the sky opened up. Unfortunately, I only got to the Chaing Mai Market and all hell broke loose. Lots of thunder and lightning and torrential rain. I had brought along my cell phone and called Tom to re-assess the situation. Since we were planning on a garden dinner, we decided to postpone our get-together until Tuesday night. I'm scheduled to take a 10:40 A.M. flight down to Bangkok tomorrow morning. New Plans: After hanging arond Bangkok and Pataya, I'll fly back to Cambodia to see Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) and then, 4-5 days later, take a slow boat down the Mekong to Phnom Penh. Sometime around the 25th, I'm planning to fly south to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, and maybe down to Singapore. After that, quien sabe? More later...

In Chiang Mai...

The excellent road from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai zig-zags through the jungle-covered mountains separating the two cities. To make it as comfortable as possible, I decided to take a "VIP" bus. The seats are as wide and spacious as are the seats in first class on a plane. There were two TVs up front showing "Rush Hour" and the attendants handed out sandwiches and water to the passengers. Very pleasant and worth the extra Baht. Although I had stayed four days in Chiang Mai in 1988, I was not prepared for the tremendous growth that the city has gone through in the last 18 years. As expected, there are lots of western tourists here...particularly hanging around the well-known Night Bazaar. As before, Chiang Mai still has a few streets that are lined with bars (often bathed in red lights) that house an over-abundance of "bar girls" whose main purpose is to encourage the tourists to buy more drinks and/or to arrange for extracurricular activites later in the night. (As they say, everything here is negotiable.) I've had informative conversations with several ex-pats (mostly Brits and Aussies) who would eagerly introduce me to their much younger Thai wives...mostly half their age. (e.g. 71 vs. 33) It seems that, in order to own property in Thailand as a foreigner, you have to route it through a Thai national. Oftentimes, these guys would marry some young Thai girl, purchase a bar/restaurant and change their whole lifestyle. Yesterday, I took a tour out to one of the local hill tribes to check out their wares. It's too bad that I'm not into shopping because you could purchase some amazing stuff there for a lot less money than you'd spend at the Night Bazaar. After the village, we went up to the famous Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara. You had your choice of taking an incline elevator to the top of the hill or trudging up the 306 steps. The staircase to the top is flanked by two long Nagas (dragons) who undulate down both side railings from the top. With their mouths always open, they display powerful teeth and a blazing red tongue that sticks out. This Wat is certainly one of the most impressive that I've visited. With a commanding view of the city of Chiang Mai...some 4000 feet below...the Wat is a popular place with visitors and locals alike. The main Stupa Pagoda is inlaid with gold leaf, and the surrounding walkway boasts hundreds of golden statues of the Buddha in a variety of positions. (i.e. sitting, standing, reclining, etc.) Naturally, we all had to take off our shoes before entering the "sanctum-sanctorum." Since the Buddha evidently doesn't like to see kneecaps, any visitor wearing shorts had to also rent baggy pants to pull up over their spiritually-offensive cut-offs. Definitely not a photo opportunity: in pink baggy pants, I looked more like a demented MC Hammer. (Somewhere, I'm sure, the Buddha was laughing.)
Later that afternoon, after walking through the Saturday street market (which was much like the street markets in Luang Probang), I finally made contact with Tom and Barbara, my new friends that I had met on the boat going up the Mekong last weekend. T & B have been living in Chiang Mai for some time, and we plan to get together at 4 P.M. today (Sunday) The weather remains clear and warm. As it stands now, I'm planning to leave for Bangkok on Wednesday. More later...

Last day in Chiang Rai...

Some big changes: After discussing it with my publisher in India, Mohan Nair, we both came to the conclusion that we need to postpone the book tour around India until the cooler months. We had intended to begin the country-wide tour on June 1st but, as you might suspect, the temperatures in India in June are pretty brutal. (For example, New Delhi was 108 degrees about a week ago.) On top of that, Mohan's distributors want the books to be in the bookstores for a full three months prior to beginning any publicity tour. Since I was planning to return to California by late June, I wouldn't be able to give the tour the time that it certainly deserved. Consequently, Mohan and I are planning to meet at the massive Frankfurt Book Fair in early October, and then to fly together to New Delhi to finally begin the 2-month tour. By that time, the new editions will be fully distributed throughout India, South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Maldives, Nepal and other southeast Asia countries. These new editions will also be sold in Australia and New Zealand, and I hope to be able to promote the books throughout those two countries early next year. By October, of course, the weather in India will be much more pleasant.
I walked down to the Chiang Rai Night Market near the bus station last night. Unlike the street market in Luang Prabang where they, quite literally, spread their products out on the sidewalk, most of the sellers here have fixed stalls where they can display their wares. This market also has an open central square where you can order food and drink and be entertained by some local singers and dancers. If you're willing to spend the time, you can get some amazing bargains. We're about five miles due south of the exact center of the infamous "Golden Triangle"...the meeting point of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos which, historically, was at the very heart of the opium trade. I'm taking the early bus to Chiang Mai tomorrow morning. "Plan-A" is to hang around there for 3-4 days before eventually drifting south to Bangkok. Now that I don't have to return to India by June 1st, I'm considering other places to visit before returning to California. Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are three possibilities that I'm considering, but who knows how things will eventually play out? Stay tuned for further adventures! More later....

Around Chiang Rai...

I'm staying at a laid-back place in Chiang Rai called the Chat House. Lots of western travelers, good food and a very mellow ambiance. Yesterday, I took an all-day tour with some new friends, Paul and Pascale. They're from Montreal and are traveling on to the very places that I've just been visiting. The three of us were driven on an incredibly bumpy road up into the mountains surrounding the town. After bouncing around for an hour, we finally arrived at one of the local villages and shared some tea on an open bamboo patio with a commanding view of the area. The folks in this town (around 100) have a very relaxed lifestyle raising cattle and farming on the steep slopes. Interestingly, the government supplies solar panels to each household in order to supply them with electricity. The guide explained that this was being done to protect the trees from being over-harvested by the growing populations of the hill tribes. After tea, the four of us headed down the mountain on a very rough path that was, at times, extremely slippery and strewn with sharp rocks. Unfortunately, Paul and I had only brought our flip-flops because we were not expecting such a challenging trek. Consequently, it was a fairly dangerous 2.5 hour trek down the mountain, and I was lucky to have slipped only a few times. At the bottom, we had a fantastic lunch at a local house and were all happy to climb into the truck which, by that time, had been driven down the mountain by one of the villagers. Then we went to the elephant park and had a chance to ride on these magnificent beasts. Paul and Pascale shared one elephant while I had another all to myself. Since they gave us umbrellas to protect us from the blazing sun, I felt like I was in a scene out of "Passage to India." Naturally, of course, their trainer was also perched on the elephant's head and would often sing to the animal as we plodded along towards the nearby Wok River. Once at the water's edge, the elephants waded into the swift current out to a depth of over five feet. They walked along in the river for about 20 minutes before finally lumbering back towards the shore and to the place where we had started from. Very memorable. Once back in the truck, we headed off into the mountains again to check out one of the waterfalls. I had thought that, by that time, the walking part of the tour was over. However, we had to trek another 15 minutes up the mountain to view the waterfall. Happily, it was very worth the effort. Finally, we drove to a local outdoor spa that had a hot pool about three feet deep and approximately 75 feet x 30 feet. We all were delighted to soak our weary bodies for about 30 minutes before heading back to the Chat House. The weather remains clear and hot. I'll be staying here tonight and, perhaps,won't be heading down to Chiang Mai until Friday to hookup with Thomas and Barbara, the folks that I had met on the boat trip from Luang Prabang. More later...

In northern Thailand...

The 2-day boat trip up the Mekong River was stunningly beautiful. Although the boat as about 100 feet long, there were only five passengers: Phillip and Elizabeth (who live and work in Tokyo) and Tom and Barbara (who live full-time in Chiang Mai....a town in northern Thailand that I'll be visiting in a few days. The boat that I took upriver from Luang Prabang went through some fairly remote areas, and, at times, we only saw a few very small villages every hour or so. The rest of the time, the mountains and the unpenetrable Laotian jungle right came down to the river. During the monsoons, (which are coming fairly soon) the river is at least 25 feet higher than it is right now. Since most of the people who live along the river are fisherman, it's really impossible to overstate the importance of this river to the life of these villages. When the Mekong is low (as it is now) the locals are able to position nets on bamboo poles and fix them to the exposed craggy rocks. They're trying to catch these huge catfish that are swimming upstream to spawn in the north. Some of these fish are more than 12 feet in length and, because they're so highly valued, catching one can bring instant wealth to the successful fisherman. The crew of seven served us excellent food on the boat and were quite attentive. The five western passengers spent the hours chatting, reading or even perching ourselves on the bow of the boat and, seemingly, flying over the water like the "King of the World." Quite magical...especially with my iPod adding a new dimension to the experience. In the afternnoon, however, we encounted some rain showers that, I suspect, had been kicked up by Cyclone Mala...a Category-4 hurricane that was slowly moving up the Bay of Bengal towards Mynamar (Burma) to the west of us. When we reached the halfway point on Saturday night, we pulled in for the night and had dinner at an incredibly beautiful lodge perched high on the mountainside overlooking the Mekong. We each had private bungalows and were directed to be sure to sleep under the mosquito netting that was hanging above the bed. This area, the host explained, had many mosquitoes that carried the malaria virus. Indeed, the insect life that showed up after the night descended upon us was something out of a science-fiction movie. Lots of creepy-crawlies all over the place. After some enlightening conversations, all of us happily retreated behind our mosquito netting until the morning. Because the water in the river had dropped so much, however, we had to transfer our stuff to a smaller boat in the morning in order to continue to our final destination. The Mekong is filled with amazingly strange currents that appear to upwell from beneath the muddy surface and which create eddies and whirlpools. Every so often, the the captain had to maneuver the boat through narrow, white-water passages between jagged rocks which were not more than 10 feet from the sides of the boat. Very cool, indeed. In the last hour, the staff told us that Thailand was now on the left side of the river and Lao was on the right. When we finally arrived, we had to, naturally, pull into the Laotian side first to go through immigration. Happily, they didn't charge us an exit fee like they do in Cambodia and Vietnam. After we all got through, we jumped into a small boat to cross the Mekong for a last time to go through immigration in Thailand where we were all given 30-day visas. Tom and Barbara got a ride to their home in Chiang Mai while Philip, Elizabeth and I spent the night at the Bamboo Riverside Hotel....a very laid-back Guest house in Chiang Khong with a commanding view of the river and of the Laotian town on the opposite bank. After a great conversation about life and its meaning that evening, we called it a day. Monday, May 1st is a legal holiday here and so a lot of businesses are closed. However, the buses were running, and I caught one over to Chiang Rai (not to be confused with Chiang Mai). I plan to stay here for a few days and then to get a bus down to Chiang Mai to, possibly, hook up again with Tom and Barbara. Now that I'm in Thailand, I'll have to get used to traffic driving on the left again. (As you may remember, they drive on the right over in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.) Meanwhile, the exchange rate over here is one US dollar to about 38 Thai Baht. More later...