Monthly Archives: January 2015

The Ruins of a Buddhist Capital

by Rochelle Urban

We left the hustle and bustle of Bangkok hoping for an idyllic countryside of lush green rice fields and small towns and headed north to the first capital of Thailand – Sukhothai. On our train journey (2nd class, one working seat, one perma-reclined seat!), we were surprised that the scenery was not as verdant as we imagined – due to the fact that we are here in the middle of the dry season and the landscape is quite brown.

Lonely Planet had listed Historic Sukhothai as one of the top things to see in Thailand and enjoying history and ruins ourselves, we took the advice. The ruins didn’t disappoint. New Sukhothai, on the other hand – where the hotels and restaurants are – has a population of 37,000 and seems to be there mainly to support the tourists coming in to see the historic sites, with the dust and noise on its one main drag as its main streak of character.

We got to the ruins early in the morning, when it was cool, the light was good, and it wasn’t crawling with people. This UNESCO World Heritage site has an impressive number of stupas and stone Buddhas and is historically significant as the first capital of the Siamese kingdom 800 years ago. Everyone explores these ruins by bicycle, so we followed the crowd and rented a couple of cheap ($1 for the day!) bikes just outside the Historic Park. The grounds themselves are quite gorgeous (see Eugene’s fantastic photos) and it was especially peaceful as we made our way to the less visited ruins outside of the main city walls.

One big thing we discovered is how little either of us understands about the history and philosophy of Buddhism. I suspect we’ll begin to learn a bit more as we continue our time in Thailand.

: Sukhothai Historical Park

: The “Slow Your Roll” Buddha

: Overgrown ruins

Bangkok

by Eugene Feingold

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Neither of us knew what to expect from Bangkok (or Thailand, in general). I imagined a crazy Asian city with insane traffic and Eugene was expecting slums and dirt. What we found was surprisingly modern city with skyscrapers and subways, as well as beautiful old temples, food carts galore, and some not so nice parts of a developing, touristy city.

First to get the bad out of the way – when we arrived in Bangkok, we took the Air Link train into the main part of town (the airport is about 30 km from the city). From there we decided to take a taxi the rest of the way as our B&B was a bit south of the main part of town and it was getting late. I had already read about all the various scams that taxi and tuk-tuk drivers pull on tourists, so I thought we could avoid them. The advice we’d been given is to always ask the taxi to use their meter. Many of them refused, some offered to take us shopping (because that’s definitely what we want to do at 10pm with all of our stuff). Finally, one almost eagerly said yes he’d use a meter. That really should have been a give away. It turned out he had a rigged meter that not only started high, but went up way faster. Unfortunately we were tired and new, so we did not just get out and let him take us for the proverbial ride. Despite overpaying about 3 times the regular price, the whole ride was still about $10.

For the 4 nights we spent in Bangkok, we stayed at a lovely B&B (W Home). It was a bit further out than we would have liked to stay, but they served incredible Thai breakfasts (fried rice or noodle soup and sweets made from rice flower, coconut, and sugar) and it allowed us to see how average people in Bangkok live. There were also plenty of food carts right near us – a woman who made incredible pad thai (and only pad thai) for $1 was just a couple blocks away. Beyond our neighborhood, we ate much cheap and tasty street food.

We spent one day in Bangkok exploring the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. The Grand Palace was by far one of the most touristy places we’d been to in a while, rivaling Versailles in the number of tour groups shuffling through. But we still enjoyed taking in the ornate details of all the buildings. Eugene was even able to capture plenty of people-free photos with a whole lot of patience and creative angles. One of the best things we saw were the people actively upkeeping all the bling on the buildings. They still painstakingly add one small piece of mirror tile at a time. Wat Pho contains one ridiculously large reclining Buddha statue and many other smaller Buddhas around the grounds (according to Wikipedia there are over 1000 images there).

We spent another day at the giant Chatuchak Weekend Market. Eugene filmed a walk down one of the 40 or so aisles, just to share the magnitude of the thing. At this point we’re a little shopped out, so we didn’t buy much, and mainly enjoyed the atmosphere and the abundant cheap-and-tasty food carts.

While there’s much more in Bangkok to explore, things we only saw out of a corner of our eye or briefly wandered through – like the red light district (ping pong show, sir?), we tired of the big city pretty quickly and moved on to parts less travelled…

So far we have traveled*:
22 hours by plane
5 hours by airport bench
45 minutes by train
4 hours by bus
30 minutes by boat
20 minutes by tricycle
1 hour by subway
20 minutes by car

*We are counting our inter-city transit only.

: The peaceful sitting area at our B&B – no shoes zone. 🙂

: The local bus in our neighborhood, note the driver’s bag of pineapple for snacking.

: Surprisingly modern city buildings.

: Many of the spires of the Grand Palace buildings are covered in intricate floral ceramic tiles.

: Sunset at Wat Arun from a river boat

Singaporean Dystopia

by Eugene Feingold

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Singapore became our next stop, less because we were excited to explore the city-state, but more because of our hasty decision at SFO when we needed to have an exit plan out of the Philippines. Given the high hotel prices and my personal discomfort with their system of government, we decided to stay for only two nights.

We ended up in a tiny hotel in the Little India neighborhood and had mindblowingly delicious Indian food next door. But that wasn’t my first impression of things. The first impression was Changi Airport and the Singapore Metro system. Both were super-modern, sparkling clean, and massive. And almost entirely devoid of people – at 7pm on a weeknight. Everything was seemingly built to accommodate 10 times the number of people we saw, and the emptiness made the environment seem even more sterile and soul-less. I repeatedly remarked how Changi Airport felt like a movie about a dystopian future.

After dinner we walked around our Little India neighborhood and finally found some signs of life at the Mustafa Centre – a giant 4 story kilometer-long store that sells everything that can be sold 24 hours a day. From cameras to sarees, from perfume to fish, from plane tickets to bananas, you name it — it’s there — and in staggering assortment and variety.

The following day we walked a couple of miles to the old and famous Singapore Botanical Gardens, where we saw All of the Orchids. We walked mostly on Orchard Street – the famous Singaporean shopping street. It again felt like a space built for 10 times the number of people that actually occupied it — and what people we saw were mostly indoors. It makes sense there, it was very hot and humid outside, so people just go from air conditioned space to air conditioned space.

After the gardens we went to Chinatown, and only there did we see some signs of street life, but even that area was sterilized by the Singaporeans, who put a big glass roof over a colonial era shopping street.

So yeah, Singapore. Clean. Safe. Well organized. Efficient. And while I suppose that makes it have character of its own, it’s not the kind of character I find appealing.

: Colonial building turned furniture showroom

: The garden city – beautifully deserted

: Beautiful, tree-lined, empty streets

: One of the uncountable food courts

: A giant electronics-only mall

: Lantern merchant in Chinatown

: Chinatown stalls

: Roofed Colonial Chinatown

: Oldest Hindu temple in Singapore – early 19th century

: Singapore Botanical Garden symphony stage

: Equatorial sundials aren’t tilted

: One of the best insect pictures I’ve ever taken!

: Orchids and Dorks

: This bug was the size of a Volkswagen

: Orchid Gallery

: Strange-looking Singaporean hummingbird

: A synchronously monoecious plant – male and female flowers separate

: Singapore Botanical Gardens gazebo

: Lots of huge spiders at the Botanical Gardens

: Dildo pitcher plant!

Off the beaten path on Boracay

by Rochelle Urban

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Boracay was great for our beach-needs, but we needed to try to find non-tourist oriented places in between our many swims in the ocean. This was particularly a problem when it comes to food, which is how Eugene and I most like to experience other cultures, delicious cultures.

We took a couple of expeditions out of the most touristy areas (though it was hard to leave completely). One of our small adventures brought us to some of the places the locals live on to the windward side of the island. Because the island is quite narrow, we only had to walk about 15 minutes to get to the other side. The “streets” we walked along were tiny and even the “main highway” can barely fit anything more than the tricycles, though that doesn’t stop them from trying.

The windward coast is less visited as the weather, surf, and sewage outlet makes it less pleasant. But there are some mangroves and a beach where tourists come to kite and windsurf. This side of the island also seems to be were the trash ends up partly due to the currents, and probably also because they spend less efforts cleaning this side. (White Beach is incredibly clean).

Another outing took us to the very northern tip of the island — to Puka Beach. To get there we had to take a tricycle, which was an adventure unto itself. Somehow locals can fit 6 or more in one, but it seemed crowded enough with just Eug and I. Puka Beach, is not really developed, which made it way more pleasant. The water was quite rough, but Eugene braved the waves, and only got a bit scraped while playing in the surf. Without all the vendors (nobody offered us a selfie stick the whole time!) and way fewer tourists, we had a relaxing afternoon here. Definitely one of the highlights of the island.

Finally, our eating adventures were sadly missing from this part of our journey. The most interesting thing we did was to visit the fish market D’Talipapa where you buy seafood from the dozens of stalls selling everything from colorful reef fish to all types of shrimps, squids, prawns, and lobsters. You buy the fish fresh from these guys and then take it to one of the many restaurants surrounding the market and have them cook it for you. We ate there a couple of times, and I had the largest prawns I’d ever eaten.

All in all Boracay gave us just what we were looking for – beaches and relaxation. I don’t really feel like I’ve seen what the Philippines is all about yet, but perhaps later in our trip. For now, it’s on to a few days of Singapore on our way to Thailand.

: Walking through the non-touristy parts of the island is just as beautiful as the beaches.

: A typical “street” of Boracay. Except for a few main roads going up and down the length, this is about it.

: On the non-touristy side of the island. Mangroves and some kind of fisherman.

: Bulabog Beach, on the windward side of Boracay is full of kite and wind surfers

: Rochelle rides in the back of a tricycle – holding tight to not fall out

: Eugene can only fit in the front. We have seen up to 7 passengers in these, not 7 Americans though…

: Rough waters at Puka Beach, Ro tries her hand at artsy photos

: Puka Beach had some rougher waters, which Eugene enjoyed greatly

: Kids kick a ball made of sticks around.

: So much squid at D’Talipapa

: Colorful fish at D’Talipapa. So many to choose from, so little room in the stomach.

: This guy sold us our kilo of giant prawns.

: Rochelle relaxes while waiting for the feast to begin.

: You buy the freshly caught seafood at the fish market, then you bring it to a restaurant who cooks it for you.

: What Eugene looks like much of the time. So much camera!

: Look at the size of that prawn!

: We also bought some squid at the fish market. Rochelle enjoys some tentacles.

All of the Orchids

by Eugene Feingold

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Yesterday we went to The National Orchid Garden in Singapore. The variety of orchids was mindblowing. I took a few photos.

White Beach: Beauty and the Tourists

by Rochelle Urban

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Boracay, our first and possibly only stop in the Philippines, has delivered on the incredible beach part, but is not a great way to get to know the country as a whole. The island is full of an amazing diversity of tourists, Filipinos from all the other islands, Russians, Japanese, and all kinds of Europeans, (thankfully, not many Americans). The diversity of wildlife meanwhile is mostly limited to drunken tourists and underwater.

The main beach in Boracay is White Beach, stretching about 3km along the west side. Made of the softest sand, it is incredibly calm (at least this time of year). Even now during peak season, there is more than enough space for everyone to enjoy the beach. It would be an idyllic place if not for one main thing – vendors, so many vendors. They tout everything from selfie sticks to boat rides. They are ever present even when you are eating dinner at one of the countless beachfront restaurants.

We’ve been swimming and playing in the ocean everyday. Eugene bought me a waterproof camera for my birthday (well really he bought us a camera). It’s been a lot of fun to use (see the pictures below).

When we aren’t in the water, we are eating or drinking by it. The best beachside drinks were actually well above the beach, over looking the scenery, from atop the Nami Resort at the small beach just north of White Beach, Diniwid. Though the sunsets were quite nice from the beach right next to our own Hotel, Daves Straw Hat Inn.

While Boracay has fulfilled the beach vacation we were hoping for quite nicely, we cannot help but want to learn more about Filipino culture while we are here. More on our quests for a little adventure in the next post.

: A sandbar in the ocean, is a perfectly safe place to put the tripod, right?

: Chilling on the beach before sunset

: Diniwid Beach, which is really still part of White Beach

: Waterproof cameras make playing in the ocean at White Beach even more fun.

: Playing in the ocean, sporting our super practical goggles (Rochelle’s are prescription!)

: Underwater camera fun!

: The view from the restaurant where we have some awesome drinks.

: Volcanic Rocks at Diniwid Beach

: There are a few interesting living things in the tide pools in these volcanic rocks at the north end of White Beach.

: Rocky end of White Beach on a cloudy day

: Waiting for our mango shakes with rum at a restaurant high above the beaches of Boracay.

: Scenic sunset from White Beach with a traditional Paraw sailboat

: Psychedelic sunset at White Beach – those clouds turn incredible colors

: Sailboat takes a wedge out of the sun.

: White Beach sunset with paddleboarder

: We never realized how many colors could appear during a sunset.

: We have been drinking so many mango shakes, which are usually just fresh mango and ice blended. Sometimes they have rum too…

: Nothing like ending a day of doing nothing by doing more of nothing

: A resident puppy of one of the beachside bars we frequented.

Diving Boracay

by Eugene Feingold

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It has been 5 years since my last dives, and those were crappy short-and-deep dives in poor vis water and not much to see. So I probably wouldn’t have bothered if I didn’t get introduced to Sergey by a common friend. Sergey works at a local dive shop, and he took me through a refresher and then a colleague took me out on a dive — and it was fantastic!

This was my first time diving with a camera, Rochelle’s new waterproof Olympus. It’s obviously not professional equipment, and it was in the hands of a newbie, but I daresay it produced some decent shots. Looking forward to more dive trips in Thailand or Indonesia or who knows?!

: This little dude hung out in front of me for a minute and nipped at my arm as I swam by

The Road to Boracay

by Rochelle Urban

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When we began discussing where to go on our long adventure, I thought we might need an actual vacation first – something with sun and palm trees, maybe even huts on stilts. Tahiti or Fiji seemed like a great place to go, until we looked at the typical January weather, turns out it rains there. After a bit of research, Boracay – a tiny island in the Philippines – seemed a great place to start, as it is also remarkably cheap to get to from SF (a direct flight to Manila runs a few times a week).

To get to the island, we flew an hour south from Manila to Kalibo, spent 2 hours on a bus, and had a quick boat ride. The bus ride was our first (fairly tame) experience of being on Asian roads, complete with tricycles making all kinds of daring maneuvers and discovering why they don’t bother painting the center line in the road. We arrived at the hotel at last and immediately changed from the clothes we’d been in for the last 36 hours to beach appropriate attire.

Though the island itself is a bit more touristy than we usually like, once we had our first meal of grilled seafood and beer right next to the ocean, we were ready to embrace doing nothing by the beach for a little while. We are in Boracay for a week, so I suspect our itch for adventure will creep in soon and we’ll be ready to get to the meat of our trip.

So far we have traveled:
16 hours by plane
5 hours by airport bench
2 hours by bus
15 minutes by boat
10 minutes by tricycle

: Tricycle traffic on the roads of Kalibo.

: Rice field scenery on the bus ride from Kalibo to Boracay.

: Boats on our way to Boracay

: Our first meal and drinks in Boracay.

What have we done?!?

by Rochelle Urban

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When Eugene suggested over 2 years ago that we “sell everything and travel the world”, I had first assumed he was joking. Who does that kind of thing? But he started to tell me about a guy he had worked with long ago who had just come back from spending a year traveling and how much he admired him for it. It then took another year full of wedding stuff and a long European honeymoon, before we really talked seriously about it. This time, I was ready to do it. A year later, we left our jobs, put everything we own in storage, and began our journey.

The night we left, our friends gave us a wonderful sushi send-off (thanks Rose and Andreas!) and brought us to SFO for our last steps on US soil for 5 months. One of our goals is to travel without much of a plan, so we arrived at the airport with a one-way ticket to the Philippines and hotel reservation for the first week. This was immediately the source of our very first travel problem – you can’t check into a flight to the Philippines without having an exit ticket. Day 0, and we already had our first “technology and ubiquitous internet saved our ass” moment when we bought tickets to Singapore while sitting on the airport floor.

In the next 25 hours of travel, we had a lot of time to contemplate what the f we had just done. Eugene had a couple panic attacks and I still don’t really believe that we won’t be back in the US for so long. Can we really fly by the seat of our pants for the next 5 months? Will we get bored or just tired? What happens when a scientist and a crazy engineer explore the world? Stay tuned for updates along the way and our next post from the island of Boracay!