A Rainforest Christmas and an Urban New Year

A whole lot has happened between the last update and now, so this is the longest post yet. Let's start with our journey from the island of Ko Phangan to the national park in Malaysia:

We knew it would take a long time to get from the beaches of Ko Phangan to the middle of Malaysia, but we had no idea it would take three full days of traveling. After a two taxi rides, a ferry trip, and two bus rides, our first night ended in a city called Hat Yai in southern Thailand. The rat-tacular city was shockingly infested with enormous rodents, and our dreary hotel was exactly how I pictured the apartment building in the first half of George Orwell's 1984, complete with a wretched group of zombie travellers with glazed eyes staring at a big TV screen in the lobby.



The following morning, we parted ways with Big Brother and the rats and boarded the pre-dawn train headed for the border. As the train pushed southward, our constantly changing group of fellow passengers began to slowly transition from the free-spirited, half-clothed Thais to the more conservative and covered Muslim Malay people. One of the reasons I wanted to go to Malaysia was to see a modern Muslim country that was culturally disconnected from the Muslim strongholds we all see so often on the news from the Arab Middle East. Except for the majority of women wearing head coverings, the style of dress seemed very similar to the west — jeans and t-shirts, jewelry, and makeup were common among most of the women we saw from the train window.



After we crossed hassle-free from Thailand into Malaysia, we planned to take a train from the border straight to the national park, but the train lines were all shut down thanks to heavy monsoon rains that flooded the tracks in several places along the route. So, we were stuck for the night in Kota Bharu, a city which is around 99% Muslim, making it one of the most Islamic areas of Asia. Except for one uncomfortable conversation with a fundamentalist taxi driver who blasted readings from the Koran over the car stereo and passionately ranted about US foreign policy, most of the people in Kota Bharu seemed fairly modern despite their deeply-held religious traditions.

Early the next morning, we climbed aboard the "jungle railway" — the nickname for the train from Kota Bharu to the national park. We knew that it wasn't an express train and that it would stop in every town, but in Malaysia they apparently use the word "town" very liberally — in my opinion, one dude carrying a suitcase standing outside a shack most definitely does not qualify as a town. Despite the painful slowness and absurdly frequent stops, the scenes from the train were beautiful, and the people-watching opportunities out the window were great too.





Finally, our seemingly endless three days of travel were over and we made it to Teman Negara National Park. Our first morning in the park, we went on a really informative nature walk which ended with a trip across a series of rickety bridges teetering high up in the rain forest canopy. Tom got completely freaked out, but Gerni and I were lovin' it. Here I am high up in the trees:



Our afternoon was filled with a trip to check out a nearby cave, located just outside a village populated by dark-skinned tribal villagers with large afros and no shirts, even for women. Except for a boom box (because if you're going to have afros, you must have a boom box) and some tarps to cover their huts, the village seemed like it had been completely untouched by modern life. I've been to some very small towns on this trip that I'd definitely classify as a village, but I've never seen anything quite like this. It was like taking a walk through an issue of National Geographic. After we shuffled like a weird white parade past the curious stares of the villagers, we headed into the darkness of the cave. A word to the wise: if you have a phobia of bats, do not go to the cave in Teman Negara National Park. As we navigated the cave with the help of a guide, we were completely surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of bats clinging to every wall. They brushed up against us as they flew through the cave, and the floor was completely covered in slimy guano (cue the Ace Ventura references). It was a really amazing experience, but not one for the squeamish. Back out into the bat-free air, we passed by the village again, then caught a ride back to our hotel on a small river-rocket boat, which was a blast:



On Christmas Eve, Gerni and I sadly parted ways with Tom who was going back up for another couple of days on the beach in Thailand before heading back home to California. The two of us spent the day on an absurdly difficult six mile hike toward a big hut in the middle of the rainforest where visitors can stay overnight. I know six miles doesn't sound very difficult, but the entire stretch of trail was like an obstacle course full of tricky river crossings, crazy-steep hills only climbable by rope, swinging on vines, quicksand-like mud, and spiked branches eager to stab careless hikers.




After coming across fresh sets of wild elephant and tiger tracks, we were very relieved to finally arrive in the hut before nightfall. We each took off our shoes only to find our socks covered in blood, thanks to the nasty leeches that had infiltrated our shoes during the hike. We desperately peeled off the sticky little bastards, wiped off the blood, and finally were able to relax enough to enjoy the gorgeous sights and sounds from outside the window of our hut, safely perched on stilt legs about 30 feet above the ground.



We woke on Christmas morning in the eerie blue mist of dawn with backaches from the plank beds in the hut, and started hiking back the way we came, which was slightly easier the second time around. We left the park on an afternoon boat to the nearby town of Jerantut, where we enjoyed a nice Christmas dinner of kung pao chicken before hopping on an overnight train south to Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur.

Since we came to Malaysia on a whim, I didn't really know much about the country or Kuala Lumpur. All I really knew is what I saw in the Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones movie Entrapment which takes place in KL. (Although you might not have noticed the city at all, thanks to CZJ in that awesomely mind-erasing laser scene). I was surprised to see how ethnically diverse the city is compared to others in Asia. There is a solid mix of Indian, Malay, and Chinese people, along with a handful of other races blended in. Down the road from our funky hostel in the lively Chinatown area is a busy market with wall-to-wall knockoff vendors. Here's Gerni shopping for some pirated DVDs you can buy for a dollar each:



There's a great public transportation system here too. It's really easy to zip around town on the city's extensive and inexpensive light rail and monorail system. The system is so popular that the trains come every 2-3 minutes, and they're always packed to the brim:



We took the metro over to the KLCC shopping center, which sits under the awe inspiring Petronas Towers. When they were completed in 1998, the towers—the national symbol of progress and Kuala Lumpur's most notable tourist attraction—were the tallest buildings in the world. Although they've been overtaken in recent years by the crap-tastic Taipei 101 building, they are still huge. Huge isn't really the right word. ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS is more like it. They're really easy on the eyes too. Here's a video so you can get a feel for the absurd size of these things:



After a few days checking out KL, we decided randomly to hop on a night bus to Singapore. Embarrassingly enough, I wasn't even sure what Singapore was before I went there. A city? A country? As it turns out, it's both. We had heard from other travelers that the country was boringly sterile, but I thought it was amazing there. I'll admit, Singapore does have some policies that sound a little bit like an overzealous middle school teacher is running the country. Gum-chewing is banned, you pay a hefty penalty for graffiti (they beat you!), there are very few areas to smoke cigarettes in public, and drug trade of any kind results in the death penalty. As a result, Singapore is immaculately clean, safe, and pleasant. It seems leaps and bounds more modern and progressive than anywhere else in Asia, or the rest of the world for that matter. Public transportation is cheap and top-notch, the people are smart and friendly, and the place oozes with charm. The city actively preserves historic buildings, and the streets are sprinkled with a diverse group of old Chinese shophouses, British colonial structures, modern skyscrapers, and more. Outside of the city center, much of the small country's natural landscape is preserved in the form of national parks. They have the highest standard of living in Asia and it shows.

A few weeks ago, I got done reading Tom Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree which describes the process of globalization in terms of the balance and constant struggle between modern ways of living (represented by the Lexus car) and deeply-rooted traditions (represented by the olive tree). As a result, I've naturally been thinking about the places I visit in these terms. Singapore, more than anywhere I've ever been, seems to really have these two forces working together in perfect harmony. The city is quite diverse (for Asia at least), and it seemed like each culture's heritage and traditions were respected and encouraged, flourishing as a result. At the same time, they are investing tons of money into making their city a world-class cultural center and ultra-modern metropolis. To me, the country was living American ideals better than America does. I'm not trying to be overdramatic here, but Singapore stands as a model to the rest of the world. We were both seriously impressed.

I'm a big dork when it comes to museums, and I can tell you from personal experience that Asia's museums are generally pretty terrible compared to those in Europe or America. Singapore is noted for it's awesome museums, so Gerni and I went freakin' buckwild and visited six of them in 48 hours. Here's a rundown of the highlights from each, in the order that we visited them:

Singapore Art Museum   (visit website)
Home to a lot of really great modern and contemporary art, and almost all of it was from Southeast Asian artists from both Singapore and the rest of the area, which was neat to see. The highlight was a large exhibit about Chen Wen Hsi, one of Singapore's most influential and prolific contemporary artists, whose style over his long career dabbled in an awesome array of styles from traditional scroll-n-stamp Chinese-style murals to large abstract textural pieces to formal portraits in traditional European style. The museum made me want to go back to our hostel and draw, which is just about all you can ask out of a museum. Here's Gerni checking out Chen Wen Hsi's work:



Singapore City Gallery    (visit website)
The Urban Redevelopment Authority runs the great City Gallery, which documents and explains Singapore's urban past, present, and future development. Singapore is planning on expanding at a staggering rate, and they've already put a plan in place which would almost double (!) the size of their downtown. The museum was fascinating, and the exhibits really helped shed light on why the city outside the museum's walls was so amazing: because it was designed to be that way. Here I am checking out the large scale model of the city center:



Red Dot Design Museum   (visit website)
Each year, the international Red Dot Design Awards are given to the best product designs, and this museum houses and describes many of the recent winners. The winners were both individuals and students as well as large design groups from companies like Canon and LG. The product designs themselves were diverse too, ranging from household appliances to chairs to air conditioning units to vacuums, and a whole lot more. Our favorite was a student-designed one-piece backpacking stove complete with built-in windscreen and fuel tank.

Singapore Philatelic Museum   (visit website)
Normally, I wouldn't be terribly interested in a museum about stamps, but Singapore's museums had been great so far, so we decided to take the postal plunge and check it out. The museum was surprisingly great, and took an interesting look at both stamp history as well as history told through stamps. I especially enjoyed the oddities, rarities, and misprints section.

National Museum of Singapore   (visit website)
Our fifth museum stop was to visit the brand spankin' new National Museum, which is housed in and old building from Singapore's British colonial days, but has recently been updated with a contemporary addition. I've never studied architecture, but I thought the contrast between old and new buildings was absolutely gorgeous:




We wandered around the National Museum's incredibly interesting exhibits about the history of Singapore broken up into themes: photography, fashion, food, and film. The exhibit design was the best I've ever seen in my life, and it really brought the country's history alive, punctuated by a handful of stunningly-produced short documentaries scattered throughout the exhibits' numerous flatscreens.

We happened to visit the National Museum during its month-long grand opening festivities, and one of the month's many events took place while we were there: a performance by Project Bandaloop, a high-flying contemporary dance group from Oakland, California. So, I don't know if you've ever seen anyone do contemporary interpretive dance before, but... uhh... well, there's something sort of... awkwardly hilarious about it. It's really hard for me to keep a straight face while watching a guy wearing tights dance around a stage attempting to express the concept of suffering. It's just kind of weird. Like watching someone successfully try to cry on cue. Anyway, they eventually moved on to what the group is known for: mid-air acrobatic dance wearing harnesses, which I started to really enjoy the more the night went on. Here's a video so you can get a feel for it:



Mint: Museum of Toys   (visit website)
Our last of six museum visits, but definitely one of the best. Spread over a few floors were thousands of well-displayed and explained toys from all over the world, dating mostly from the 1940s through the late '80s. There were lots of early one-of-a-kind Mickey Mouse toys, memorabilia from Beatlemania, chinese ceramic dolls, and much more. For me, the highlight was definitely the Star Wars action figures, all in great condition in their original packaging, which I had never seen before in person. Although it doesn't help me win the hearts of beautiful ladies, I have a decent-sized collection of Star Wars memorabilia myself, and it was really cool to see some really top-notch pieces in the museum's collection. Another favorite from the museum was the 60s-era John F. Kennedy action figure complete with newspaper, rocking chair, and leg-crossing action. And as we all know, there's nothing that keeps the kids more entertained than watching JFK sit and read the paper. Look, he's even reading an article about himself:



We left Singapore on another overnight bus and arrived back here yesterday in Kuala Lumpur for New Years Eve. We went out for the celebration at the Petronas Towers where we caught a quick fireworks show and then went out to celebrate 2007 at the main bar street. Beer was too expensive and the bumpin' techno music was too terrible, so we drank until the early morning outside a gas station instead, which was much more our speed. Plus, we met a ton of great locals during our loitering spree. We're flying out of here on the 4th headed for Phnom Penh in Cambodia, so our next update will likely be from there.

Congrats, you made it to the bottom! I'm glad, because I've been working on this post for the majority of the year. Thanks for reading, and happy 2007!

Ryan

UPDATE! Every once in a great while, I check to see what keywords people are using to get to this site. Someone recently showed up thanks to Googling "how to make camel poop bread," which I'll definitely chalk up as one of the proudest moments of my life.

Lazy days in the hot winter sun

Just after I posted the last update from Bangkok, Gerni and I were treated to the late-night arrival of Tom Garrett, our friend from back in high school. Tom graduated from UCLA, and less than 24 hours later jumped on a flight to Thailand to meet us. On our first day together, the three of us hit the town for a little while, showing Tom our favorite stuff around the city. The best stop was at the Japanese store Muji, where you can shop for minimalist, logo-free clothing and home accessories. I hope the store spreads into the States soon. As we headed home for the night, we squeezed into the back of a tuk-tuk and sped at a breakneck pace through the streets of sticky, sweaty Bangkok. We were going so fast, all we could do was laugh:



Along the way, we passed by a big pro-democracy rally, where hundreds of people gathered to protest the military coup d'etat in Thailand which occurred this past September. The protest was the first indication any of us had seen that people in Thailand even noticed the coup even happened. Before that, it seemed like life went on pretty much as normal for most people. Thais are apparently so relaxed that not even a military junta can bring them down. The military took over the country? Relax, guy! Hang out a while! Have a beer, fella!

The next day, we got on a night bus headed for the island of Ko Phangan, in southern Thailand. It was my 20th overnight stay on public transportation in the last six months, so I was able to sleep like a baby, but the other guys struggled a little bit with their first overnight bus ride. We finally made it to the island after a long ferry ride, where Tom's ultra-charming demeanor landed us two delightful new friends Jemma from Birmingham (England, not Alabama) and Anthony from London. The five of us got a couple of ridiculously cheap bare bones bungalows—$2.50 per person—on the west side of the island overlooking the clear green seas of the Gulf of Thailand.





Ko Phangan is one of the Thailand's biggest party islands, made famous by the over-the-top rave called the Full Moon Party. The parties are such a tourist draw that the always-entrepreneurial Thais also throw half moon and black moon parties, which means that there is always some lunar-related excuse to get drunk. Our bungalow owners packed fourteen of us into the back of a pickup, and we headed over to the half moon party, which was basically a big outdoor club where DJs spun the typical array of monotonous electronica, which was slightly less awful after a few rounds of beer. We had a good time anyway, but other people must have liked it more: the three of us were the only ones who made it back to the truck for our 4 am curfew. The others trickled back to their bungalows throughout the following day.



There was plenty to pack our week on Ko Phangan, and each of us did our own thing from day to day. Since everyone is so busy partying, much of the island is left untouched by travelers, and we took advantage as much as we could.

Tom and I, along with our new Oxford-educated friend Anthony, went on an all day hike into the thick jungle in the center of the island. The island's jungle looks strikingly like the set of Lost, and had a similarly creepy vibe. We climbed around some small waterfalls, splashed around in the river, and tried hard to find our way on the poorly marked trail which seemed like it had been forgotten over the years.



Tom and I went on an even more difficult hike toward the top of the island through incredibly thick jungle and rainforest. As we got closer and closer to Ko Phangan's summit, the jungle got thicker and darker. The trail was extremely faint and often non-existent, and the trek was often frustrating and confusing. At one point, we both heard something rustling about fifty feet ahead of us in the jungle. Huge branches snapped under the weight of a large animal, and Tom and I instinctively sprinted in the opposite direction as fast as we could. I broke off a tree branch along the way, and mentally readied myself to fight off whatever animal was behind us. I caught one glimpse behind me and didn't see anything, but we kept running anyway out of sheer terror. We stopped running after fifteen minutes, and made it back to the safety of civilization a few hours later. After research, we found out that there are tigers, leopards, and jaguars on the island, so odds are decent it was one of those. For all we know, however, it could have just been a monkey or something. Either way, it was seriously frightening.

Another day, the four of us rented motorbikes and sped around almost the entire island. We rode for hours through the city streets of the port town Thong Sala, then up across unmaintained dirt roads through the jungle to the northwest tip of the island to Ao Thong Noi beach, where Tom showed us all how to properly bodysurf in the gnarly monsoon waves. After being tossed around a bit in the ocean, we hopped back on the bikes and rode back across muddy roads and steep hills to Hat Rin, the main party beach and traveler area. We grabbed dinner, then cracked on our headlights and rode through the night like a motorcycle gang across the island back to our bungalow for our nightly porch n' hammock hangout session.

Here's me and Anthony on the bikes in Thong Sala and the four of us at Ao Thong Noi beach:




Tom and I got up early the next morning in order to try to get some more bang for our buck on our motorbike rental. In typical Ko Phangan style, one of the roads was washed out and looked impassable, so we tried to ride around the water through a big patch of dirt, which didn't work out either. The water on the road only looked about four inches deep, so I decided to just try to ride into from the dirt patch. As I started to move forward, the water seemed more like six to eight inches deep. Hellbent on getting through, I kept pressing on, and suddenly — oh shit! — I was up to my knees in water, and my motorbike was half underwater and the submerged motor stopped sputtering. I realized that I probably just completely ruined a $3000 motorbike, and that I basically just cut my trip short by about three months as a result. I started to completely freak out and Tom did his best to both keep me calm and help pull the bike out of the stubborn mud. Once we got it out, we washed the smelly mud off ourselves in the ocean and then came the moment of truth. Much to my surprise, and with a dramatic spray of mud from the tailpipe, the motor started. Crisis averted. The trip goes on.

During the rest of our time on the island, we did our fair share of reading and hanging out. Gerni tore through more than three books, and went hammocking like he's never hammocked before. Tom went snorkeling, and we all had an amazing few hours riding the waves on sea kayaks. We stumbled upon an incredible restaurant called Big Mountain that we all loved, so we ate there for every meal. Each night, we were treated to spectacular sunsets from our bungalow, with the islands of Ang Thong National Marine Park out in the distance.



We left the island a few days ago headed for a national park in Malaysia. It's been no easy task — we've been on an absurd amount of transportation since we left, and we're still not there yet. We're currently in Kota Bharu just on the other side of the Thai-Malaysian border, which we crossed earlier today. We'll hopefully arrive in the national park tomorrow, followed by a visit to the capital city, Kuala Lampur. Check back later for more on our Malaysian adventures.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas!
Ryan (and Ryan and Tom)

Photos updated: No updates this time — sorry!

Futuristic malls & ancient temples

I picked up Gerni at Bangkok's spankin' new International airport and the two of us headed by bus to Khao San Road, the infamous three-block stretch of street that serves as Asia's largest traveler hub and biggest party center. The place is packed full of a diverse crowd — bearded hippies, sun scorched beach bums, chilled backpackers, Thai teens out on the town, frat house bros and sorority girls, young families, tattoo-clad shirtless meatheads, Thai working girls in ultra-short skirts, tuk-tuk drivers, elderly couples, Japanese hipsters, and a whole lot more. The wacky street is littered with shops selling Quiksilver and Puma knockoffs, cheap Internet, custom-tailored suits, fifty-cent pad thai, juice shops, bookstores, insect eateries (I tried a fried grasshopper), and about a thousand places to get a cold beer. It's not a good place to get a feel for Thailand, but it's a fun place to spend a couple of days, if only for the spectacle of it.

I hadn't seen Gerni (or any of my friends for that matter) in almost five months, so it was really great to finally see him. We spent a few hours catching up and he gave me some stuff from home. A new shirt to wear! A new pair of jeans! A pepper grinder! Candy! Money! A replacement watch! It's amazing what I get excited about after living out of a backpack for so long. My parents even sent a little travel-sized Christmas stocking along. Thanks guys!

Our first day together, we headed out to check out all Bangkok has to offer. We hopped aboard the Venice-like taxi boat for a trip a few miles down the river to catch the modern, elevated Sky Train. After a few hours outdoors we had enough of the absurd heat (95 degrees and 90% humidity) so we ducked into a mall on Siam Square in search of air conditioning. What we found—in addition to the delightfully cool AC—was the best mall ever built.

I don't really like shopping, and I generally find trips to the mall to be an irritating snooze-fest, but the Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok is a whole different story. Spread over eight stories, the mall is an overwhelming collection of multiplex movie theatres, ultra high-end boutiques, technology stores, the city aquarium, designer furniture outlets, a huge supermarket, plus shopping and restaurants galore. There's no way to really accurately describe how high-end this mall was, except to say that they had a Lamborghini store. With a Lamborghini parked inside for sale. Seriously. The place practically made Soho in New York look dumpy.

Here's a shot of one of many sets of escalators so you can get a feel for the massive scale of this place:



The food court alone was the size of a mall back home and had an endless sea of restaurants with every imaginable kind of food: Japanese sushi and dumplings, hot dogs and pretzels, exotic drinks, spicy Thai delicacies, coffee and espresso, American fast food, sandwiches and baguettes, Korean barbecue, Italian gelato, and more. We grabbed lunch from several restaurants, and then enjoyed a look around its luxury supermarket where Gerni got acquainted with new Asian brands:



In contrast to the mall, we also paid a visit to the Chattachuk Weekend Market, which is a sprawling, chaotic maze of tiny stores selling knick-knacks, paintings, antiques, food, souvenirs, puppies, books, and more. Each store is about the size of the car, and each one is packed full of as much stuff as humanly possible, which makes it virtually impossible to actually shop there. Regardless, we both thought it was really fun to get caught in the rivers of Thais and tourists flowing through the stalls.



Much of the rest of our time in Bangkok was spent eating the phenomenal food. My favorite food on earth—besides Taco Bell, of course—is probably Thai or Indian, so I've been in culinary heaven the last few months. The absurdly spicy Thai food incredible, and Gerni and I have been loving all of the strange and new flavors that I've eaten so far including fiery coconut curries, tropical sweet fruits, marinated grilled fish, and thick noodle dishes.

Since we'll use Bangkok as our base for exploring Thailand, we decided to get out of town for a few days and check out a few nearby areas a few hours north of town. Our first stop was Khao Yai National Park, just outside of the town of Pak Chong. Khao Yai is one of Thailand's largest national parks and its jungle setting is home to some stunning scenery and ferocious beasts. We joined up with a few other people for an all-day tour of the park, which was led by Steve Irwin-incarnate, a cheerful and crazy Thai guide named Mr. A.

We drove through the park on bench seats in the back of a pick up truck, and Mr. A would shout excitedly when his eagle eye landed upon wildlife. This guy could spot a tiny woodpecker from 100 meters away — it was incredible. After stopping to see toucans, hornbills, monkeys, bats, and giant squirrels, he shouted "python!!!" then jumped off the moving truck because he was so excited. Sure enough, there was a python slithering near the road, and Mr. A wasted no time to grab it by the tail.

"I'm like Steve Irwin!!!," he exclaimed.
"Steve Irwin died, man," we told him.
"I know!!! Ha ha!," he replied.
There was no keeping Mr. A down.



We got off the truck and went on a few hour walk through the thick jungle. Neither of us had ever really been in a jungle before, and I was loving every minute of it. Vines hung down all around us, tropical birds watched us from above, and the place was scattered with creepy spiders. This one is known as a horn spider — can you guess why?



Walking along the river, Mr. A spotted a crocodile about 15 feet away from us. The croc sat still with its mouth open waiting for lunch to walk into its mouth. It was pretty frightening to see a crocodile that close that wasn't behind a fence at the zoo. Luckily, Mr. A was smart enough not go to screw with the crocodile like Steve Irwin would have. We ended up at a couple of spectacular waterfalls, one of which was a filming location for the waterfall-makeout scene in the horrible movie (but great book) The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio. For scale, the blue spot at the top of this photo is a person:



Back in the truck just after the sun went down, we stopped for a minute on the side of the road and Mr. A spotted a wild elephant about 50 feet away. The elephant moved toward us, and the guides firmly told us to quickly and quietly get back in the truck. For a little while, the elephant ignored us, but quickly got irritated with our presence. It bellowed out a scream, aggressively raised its long trunk and ivory tusks, and started running directly toward the truck. We all shouted and the driver slammed on the gas and sped a few meters, and the elephant backed down. They eased the truck backwards so we could sit and watch the elephant again. Shortly afterward, the angry elephant charged again. A few more times, Mr. A tested the elephant's patience, and on the final time it charged us in a full-on sprint. We sped off, hearts racing, back to the safety of the visitor's center. I don't know if you've ever had a wild elephant repeatedly charge you before, but I can tell you from experience that it was scary as all hell. I damn near had to change my pants afterward.

We left Kao Yai on a train bound for nearby Ayutthaya, which is home to one of Thailand's best collections of ancient temples, spread across much of the old city. We rented bikes and did a self-guided tour to as many of the 12th century temples as we could. In one of the larger temple complexes, there is an amazing Buddha head which has been wrapped over the years by the growth of a fig tree.



Both of us really enjoyed wandering through the city's awesome temple collection, which is internationally recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was the capital of the country—then known as Siam—until 1767 when it was attacked and burned or destroyed by the Burmese. What remains today surely isn't up to its original splendor before the destruction, but are still spectacular to look at. Here's Gerni climbing up one of our favorite temples:



Our next stop was Lopburi, a few hours by train north of Ayutthaya. The town has a really pleasant and laid back small town feel, which we both really enjoyed. Our room had a TV—a first for Thailand—but it unfortunately only showed Fox News. I'm glad to know that Bill O'Reilly is still being a dick in my absence.

We hit up the city's excellent and thorough museum about the area's culture, art and architecture, which helped make some sense of the temples back in Ayutthaya and the additional ones in Lopburi, built around the same time. I was surprised to find out that the area has had a close relationship with many European countries since the mid-1600s, which is reflected the odd Thai-European architecture around town.



Lopburi's claim to fame in Thailand is that it is home to a few hundred monkeys, which mostly seem to gather around one of the city's wats (temples). Gerni was smart and kept his distance from the creepy little bastards, but I got up close hoping to get some good photos of them. As I shot the photo below, two monkeys went on the offensive by jumping on my back. I freaked out and managed to shake them off before they were able to scratch or bite me, which was for the best. I guess that's why you get rabies boosters before you travel, eh folks?



So far, the two of us are loving Thailand. The Thai people are unconditionally friendly, and seem to constantly have a smile on their faces. The happiness is incredibly contagious, so we keep finding ourselves wearing big smiles as we enjoy the relaxed Thai lifestyle.

We're back in Bangkok now, and we're off to the airport tonight to pick up our friend Tom Garrett, who will join the travel train for the next three weeks. I hope winter is going well for everyone — I'm going to head outside now into the 75 degree evening air for a beer. Cheers, and happy holidays to all of you.

Ryan!

Photos updated: Varanasi, Kolkatta, Bangkok, Kho Yai National Park, Ayutthaya, Lopburi