The Beach

After leaving Angkor Wat, we returned to Thailand and headed out to an island in the Gulf of Thailand called Koh Chang (“koh” just means island, and “chang” means elephant). The island is so named because it is the second biggest island in Thailand. The island is also almost 80% national park, something that really attracted us to it.

We spent the first two nights on a pretty busy beach called White Sands. We stayed at a nice hotel that had an included breakfast at the beachfront restaurant, a pool, and lounge chairs and umbrellas all around the pool. While no one goes to the beach with the goal of hanging out near the pool, we were grateful for the set-up since, because of the way the tides were working, there was almost no beach in the morning (but a HUGE beach in the afternoon). So we were able to nab lounge chairs on the edge of the pool terrace that faced the beach – just like being at the beach… The only trick was that the hotel, like most of the hotels on White Sands beach, was filled with vacationing Germans and Scandinavians (we hardly saw any Americans or Canadians at all). And they got up early. And saved the lounge chairs by putting their things on them. But we were always able to find something.

Anyway, the beach was beautiful and amazing. Very peaceful and relaxing, and the water was a lovely temperature.

We walked the length of the beach several times, and while we didn’t stay in this place, I thought it looked pretty cool.Also, making use of the big beach that appeared in the afternoon and lasted through the late night, all of the restaurants would serve dinner at tables on the sand. The whole time we were on the island, I don’t think we had a single meal that we didn’t eat while seeing and hearing the ocean just a few feet away from us. And seafood was definitely the cuisine of choice.After a few days, we moved to different and quieter beach, Klong Prao. Here, we didn’t stay in a hotel on the beach, but in a renovated stilt house built out over the mangrove estuary. The beach was just a five minute walk away, and there were canoes and kayaks that we could use to explore the estuary.Our place also had a dog that liked to fetch coconuts in the estuary.Klong Prao beach was bigger than White Sands, but we walked the length of it several times, too. Because it was less crowded, the beachcombing was better and I picked up some amazing shells. Also, we didn’t stay at this place, although we did eat at their restaurant once, but again I thought it was worth a picture.

Mostly, though, we ate at this place:

And the food was AMAZING. I mean, the best massaman curry I have ever tasted. Ever. The potatoes were perfectly done, the spicy-ness was warm, but not unbearable. In fact, I think I had massaman curry four times over four days.

We also rode elephants on Koh Chang with a group that was partnered with The Friends of the Asian Elephant. We actually paid extra to get to bathe elephants, although only Mike ended up doing it (someone has to take the pictures, right?). You’ve heard of swimming with dolphins, well this is like swimming with elephants. I desperately wanted the elephant to shoot water out of its trunk, but it never did that, sadly.And then, when the bathing was over, Mike got to ride the elephant alone for a little bit.

Following the bathing, we set off on the real tour. We went through the jungle. And let me tell you something: those elephants, they are destructive creatures! That trunk is a serious tool! It’s amazing there’s any jungle left at all. Seriously. We’d be walking along and the elephant would see something it wanted, and it would just use its trunk to grab it – tree branches, bushes, clumps of grass, you name it – the elephants didn’t really strike me as picky. When our ride was over, we got to feed the elephants some bananas, and they were not at all shy about using their trunks to snatch the bananas right out of our hands!And with that, I conclude the narrative of our Thailand trip. I think Mike has a post to make about the innkeeper in the second place we stayed, but I’ll let him do that.

Rock Stars

Well, for art on Monday we did a cave painting project.

First, we talked about what you'd do if you saw something really exciting and you wanted to tell someone who wasn't there about what you saw. First suggestion was to take a picture. But what if you didn't have a camera? Second suggestion was to write it down. But what if you couldn't write with words? Eventually, we got to the fact that maybe you'd have to draw a picture. But what if you didn't have any paper? You could draw on the walls of your house (not so hard to get elementary school students to give you this answer!), but what if you didn't live in a house with white plaster walls? Could you draw on the walls of your cave house?

Then we talked about how many different peoples all over the world who never knew each other or never met had engaged in this sort of art. I then showed pictures of rock/cave paintings from Africa, Canada, France, Scandinavia, etc.

We talked about what we saw in the pictures. Short version: plants and animals, yes; robots and airplanes, no.

Then I had them cut a piece of paper bag out and crumple it up a few times (to get the rock texture) and then make their own cave/rock art using either colored pencils or crayons.

The drawings turned out really, really well. Of course, I forgot to take a picture, but at least with this narrative, you get the sense . . .

Angkor Wat

(or, and you thought there were a lot of pictures of the temples in Bangkok)

We left Bangkok on Tuesday morning, flying to Siem Riep to begin our visit to Angkor Wat. First, a little clarification: “wat” just means temple, but when people talk about seeing Angkor Wat, they usually mean both the big temple (Angkor Wat itself) and the rest of the surrounding temples which are often referenced by the same name, though they have their own names. There isn’t just one temple – in fact, there are far too many to see in one short visit. We saw nine temples total (Royal Palace, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King, Bayon, Angkor Wat, Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Banteay Srei, and Banteay Samre), and we didn’t even scratch the surface.

The temples are built and carved out of stone (stone that was quarried about 80km away from where the temples were built - just think of the social organization required to make that happen and to sustain it over a period of several hundred years). The most striking thing about the temples is the ornate carvings that adorn all of them. Some of these carvings tell stories from various Indian and Southeast Asian epics and some are just pure decoration. But they are all beautiful and captivating. The temples were mostly carved by Hindu kings from the mid-900s to the mid-1200s, until Buddhist rulers took over and started to carve some of their own temples (see if you can guess which are which in our pictures below). One of the most interesting things about the temples is that in trying to outdo earlier rules, sometimes kings built new temples and sometimes kings just added onto or changed the design of existing temples, such that some temples were constantly under construction.

Now, however, there’s nothing going on there, except a lot of tourists (the country that sends the most visitors is South Korea). In fact, because Cambodia is so poor, the only real economy is the tourist economy, so visiting Cambodia is more expensive than visiting Thailand. On a related note, the most useful currency in Cambodia is the dollar, with the Thai baht running a very, very distant second. However, because there are no U.S. coins in circulation, the Cambodian riel fills that role – so you’d pay for 75 cent bottle of water with a dollar and get, like, 2000 riels back in bills. Mike and I both agreed that Cambodia was both the poorest place and the weakest state we’d ever visited.

Well, have I talked enough? Are you ready for the pictures?

First, detail shots of the carvings. Someday, I want to enlarge these and maybe frame them up as a series on a wall in my house.

And, now the temples themselves.well, that one was just on the road to the temples, but you get the idea ...All of the ones above are of the surrounding temples. Here are our Angkor Wat pictures.

At Angkor, we actually climbed to the very top of the temple. This was no easy task, as the stairs are really (truly!) frightfully steep. And you only got to use the railing on the descent.

The view from the top of the jungle was amazing and made it all worth it.Because we couldn't get enough of Angkor on high, we went up in a tethered hot air balloon to see it from above.Sunset, on our last day

And now for the practicalities. We stayed at a great guesthouse in Siem Riep, and our package there included our room, breakfast, lunch (which they packed in cooler and we enjoyed in the shadows of whatever temple we were visiting that day), and a tuk-tuk and driver. For the uninitiated, a tuk-tuk is like a rickshaw cart attached to a motorcycle. It is as popular as cars in Siem Riep. Our driver was named Mr. Hav, and he was very funny and nice.

Finally, in parting, a shot of the fruit market in Siem Riep.