Thailand and Cambodia

Well, we've fallen way behind on updating this blog. After a fun but brief stay in Bangkok, we immediately booked it for Cambodia to see the ruins of Angkor Wat. Flying into Siem Reap, the closest town, was out of our budget range, so we decided to get there by land. There were all kind of horror stories about this border crossing in the travel books, so we had our suspicions a little raised going into things. The bus from Bangkok to the border was no big deal, although a long 4 hour ride. Once there we got a tuk-tuk ride (the local equivalent of a cab) to what the driver claimed was the border. We figured something was up when the price of a visa was twice what it should have been, and it didn't seem right that the wall proclaimed "Welcome to Cambodia" before we had even crossed the border. It seemed like the whole thing was a scam, but what options did we have if this was were the driver took us. After some back and forth with the guys there we just walked out and started down the road. We were a little anxious about how things would turn out, but eventually we managed the walk the entire sweaty 3-4 km to the real border. Along the way we were only accosted twice more by hopeful fake visa scammers. We eventually cleared immigration, paying only the official visa price plus an extra $3/person, which apparently you have to pay unless you want to stand around forever until you cave in and change your mind. We got through shortly before the border offices closed for the day, and were then given a "free" shuttle to a transport depot where you have the choice between an overpriced bus or an overpriced taxi. After getting a spot in a van with a bunch of guys commuting home to Siem Reap we were taken to their affiliated guesthouse that they got a commission for, but that turned out to be a fine deal by us, $6/night with a bathroom.
Once we were there, we spent a much more relaxing five days biking around, exploring all the temples at our own leisurely pace. Most tourists hire a driver and a tour guide to show them everything, but I think a little pedal power (bikes for $1/day) and an awesome $5 guide book about all the temples was much better. As for as the temples go, I was expecting to be amazed, but they were absolutely incredible. Emily is putting up some pictures, but anyone which is remotely interested should look at some professional photography of the place. Pictures just can't capture it, especially ones from my crappy point-and-shoot. There was quite a range of conditions, from temples which were totally falling apart and crumbly, to ones that archaeologists had painstakingly restored to quite refurbished levels. Lots of the stairs to climb to the top of the bigger temples were very narrow and steep, making the views from the top that much more satisfying. There were quite a lot of tourists around, but we did our best to avoid the big tour groups, and there were so many temples that most of the less-known ones were quite empty. We put a lot of kilometers on our trusty bikes, and Emily (hater of all things bicycle-related) even admitted that she enjoyed biking around.
The return trip back to Bangkok was pleasantly uneventful in the way of chicanery. We decided to immediately transfer to an overnight bus and then a ferry to a small island off the coast called Koh Tao. So after about 24 hours of travelling, including 4 buses, one pick-up cab, and a boat ferry, we'd gone from jungly temples to dazzling tropical beaches. Most of the islands off of Thailand are touristy and this one was no exception, but we found a modest room in a hotel away from the beach that agreed with our wallets more than the exorbitant beach bungalows. This location was also better because each day we'd walk to a different part the island to explore, and go snorkelling and hang out on the beach. We covered most of the island over the five days we spent there, and there quite a bit of stellar snorkel action. One day we kayaked to a spot called Japanese Gardens because of all the cool coral formations on the nearby reef.
We got an incredibly crowded overnight ferry back to the mainland and then grabbed a bus to a small, unassuming, non-touristy Thai town called Nakhon Si Thammarat. Koh Tao was great to enjoy the cool island vibe, but we were jonesing for some more authentic Thai time away from crowds of Europeans. Funny enough, we haven't run into hardly any Americans so far on our trips, almost all of the other tourists have been from Europe. Nakhon was exactly what we wanted. We walked around a bunch and checked out all the incredible markets that sold anything you could possibly imagine. We tried a snaple Thai dish of mango and sticky rice for the first time, it was delicious. There was a really cool Buddhist temple in town because Nakhon was an important cultural center of southern Thailand. Another interesting thing that was tucked way in a small sidestreet was a shadow puppet theatre. In Thailand there is a long tradition of shadow puppetry as a way of telling long epic tales, most famously the Ramayana (probably the most famous Hindu epic). At this theatre was were the most famous maker of shadow puppets happened to live, and we got to check out a bunch of his creations, witness a few scenes enacted, and see how the puppets are made. We had seen a shadow puppet performance in India as well, and it was really interesting to see the cultural ties between the two places.
As our time wound down in Thailand, we then bussed to a really cool national park called Khao Sok, with is in the mountainous interior of the southern peninsula. The geology in the region produced these amazing jutting pillars of limestone everywhere with jungle greenery dripping all over them. The mist in the mornings hung in the valleys between the limestone "karsts" and looked quite dreamy. I was also really excited to come to Khao Sok because while there was an entrance fee, guides weren't mandatory and the trails were signed well enough for us to find our own way. The first two days we hiked pretty much their entire trail system, going up and down slippery hillsides, seeing countless waterfalls, and having a ball playing in the jungle. Our third and final day we had a very serious task to attempt. Within the limits of the park grows one variety of the Rafflesia flower, which had the largest inflorescences ("petals") of any kind of flower in the world. Named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles who first "discovered" it in 1818, it is a parasite on lianas (tropical vines) and only blooms for a couple months out of the year, in which it opens up and produces a putred scent that attracts flies, its pollinator. Though the variety in Khao Sok was Rafflesia kerrii, not the biggest arnoldii, which in found in Sumatra, we were really stoked to try and find this flower. Just about every Thai establishment around offered tours to see the flower, but why pay for something you can do for free? We sleuthed a bit and figured out where the trail started, and then plunged forth. Eventually we found a few flowers, but they weren't yet in bloom, just football-sized puffballs on the ground. We kept following trails, and eventually came upon another which seemed to be the main one because we saw several groups of people with guides. The trail climbed and climbed for what seemed like at least several hundred meters of elevation gain in the steamy jungle. Eventually, dripping with sweat, we came across a section of barbed wire to keep people away and knew that we were close. When we spotted the flower, it was really exciting. There was one specimen perfectly in full bloom. We hung out with our new smelly friend, eating lunch and oogling its awesomeness and then made our way back down the long trail, sweaty and tired but incredibly satisfied with our find.
We left Khao Sok this morning. We're in a placed called Phuket, where we fly to Indonesia tomorrow night/morning. We still haven't figured out what we want to do in Indonesia, partly because most of the country is still in a rainy season, which makes volcanoes too slippery to climb, and the seas rough for ferries to negotiate. I'm sure we'll figure something out that shouldn't be too horrible. Lots of hellos to all the people we miss. Feel free to write and tell us how you're doing. Bye!