I watched a movie once that was all about the true story of a climbing crew who through a series of terrible circumstances becomes separated. one of the men falls 80 or so feet, lands down an ice cave and has to pull himself up and out, then find his way back to camp which of corse is very far away through quite formitable terrain for a guy witha broken leg. As he drags himself through a field of rocks, when he is halucinating due to the pain and lack of food and water, he hears some terrible song that he never liked, repeating in his head over and over.
I'm over here, having the time of my life, and micheal bolton's "how am I supposed to live with out you?" or rod stewart's cover of "down town train" just keep coming back as loud as the sun is hot.
Luckily I've got emily's easy laugh to break up the terrible din. I also have been enjoying all the songs that sound like crappy american pop 93.3 etc, but with words that I will never discern, which is nice, so I don't have to understand the sappy sentiment.
tonight after our glorious escape from bangkok, and our 9 hour bus ride, we made it to mae sot. I almost got left by the driver at a rest stop, but em intervened as he pulled away. I guess they don't believe in giving you time to wash after you use the public rest room. ten minutes out of mae sot, atop a high mountain pass where the bus driver had been passing gasoline tankers going up hill, in the middle of lush, huge banana leaf trees, we stop. A few people get off and then an official man in an olive drab uniform wearing a dust mask over his face, boards the bus. I look out side in time to see a former passenger lose her lunch, then pan back to see the gruff officer walk back towards us. my malaria pill or the constant reading over a winding mountain pass or both combined with the sun and not enough water for fear of being left behind again has left me feeling a similar way. but there are things to pay attention to here, get your head in the game before this guy cracks your skull. He is an imigration officer. He wants passports. the guys behind us get the hassel first then he walks back up toward us, I panic and start digging for my passport, but before i can open a zipper, he just passes his hand over emily and i. Oh yeah, we are near the thai/burma border. our (still pale but not for long) skin tone is a dead give away. Honkys one, imigration zero!
yeah yeah, no photosagain but this computer is less than optimal and our time is about up. lets hope i remember to charge my camera before we go trekking.
I just tried to comment on carlee and jake's blog and realized that it is no easy feat without an account. so sorry for the crass-ness but c'mon, aren't we worth the 45 seconds?
Carlee and jake: you should write books and warn people not to drink anything while reading due to the high probability of liquid jetting out the nose. enjoy the long train ride in the cold middle of nowhere while emily and I try to say hello and thank you in this tonal language.
hugs and kisses in big fluffy pink bows,
Gavin
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
weekly wrap up
okay, here's what we got:
we tried to take the train to Kanchanaburi, but missed our river ferry, or more like, our river ferry just never came, so we took a taxi that was supposed to take us to the bus station, instead, he took us to his friend's bus station. It's not like we were trying to buy diamonds and got burned alive, but we were a bit 'miffed' if you will. so we took the slow bus to Kanchanaburi-the normal bus takes 1.5 hours, this one took 3.5. but we made it there. Kanchanaburi is where allied forces were forced, as POW's, to build a bridge over the river kwai to allow japanesee to have a rail system that reached Burma and then India. We'll be renting "the bridge over the river kwai" when we get back, don't go and spoil the end if you've seen it.
Em and I enjoyed a bike ride around town and out into the country where we saw an allied cemetary, and further in, we saw our first karaoke barge. here's how it goes: there's a 15 foot long wooden boat sruggling to tug 2 barges. The first is the karaoke part and the second is the double decker chilling spot. Add some drunk japanese on vacation or some thai's celebrating the full moon, and you have yourself one noise making machine. we took our bikes(6 speeds) up to a wat (word for temple) and also went into some caves that were used as a hospital during WWII. now buddah hangs out in there. it was neat, but some of the spaces were a bit tight for you know who. this was not a perfect place for the average overweight american to go. Nine chambers of the sacred buddah later we emerged, sweatier than before, but pleased. We watched the town celebrate the full moon, which only happens once a year over here I guess, whch was cool.. they fold banana leaves and flowers and banana trunks all together and float them down the river to apease the river god for polluting it and to thank it for all that it gives. inscence and candles adorn the tops of these little floating islands of joy and from the bridge above the river we had an excellent vantage point. we actually got to see this super-cute teenage couple pull up on the brige(on a scooter of course), put together a dry-cleaning bag and a candle, and make and successfully launch one of the many lanterns floating in the breeze.
the next day we ran into some great folks from jolly old england in the back of a truck on our way to Erawan falls. there are 7 tiers to the falls and they are the most famously picturesque in thailand. at the top though we came upon a scene like we had never encountered: eastern europeans having a serious photo shoot at the falls. Everywhere you looked some flat top having , banana hammock wearing dude was flexing and spreading his legs whilst leaning into a waterfall. SNL writers dream of this but the only punchline was that it was all serious.
did I mention that Em booked us a floating room? yeah bamboo room floating on the river. beat that disneyland.
we took the train back to bangkok today, which accomodated us much better than the bus. at almost every stop a person would walk by with refreshments, rice and meat, or just plain old fried chicken. yee-haw! the train rulzz.
So, tomorrow we are planning on taking a trip up to mae sot, which is a 8 hour bus ride north of bangkok. From there it's a 2 or 4 hour ride to umphong where we will go a hiking, so we won't be able to write for a bit. getting nervous is not allowed parents!
much love goes out to those special folks who visit our page and write to us, or in this case, to emily hen to me. Yo fam and folks! where you at? holla! anyway I honestly love writing from afar. it's like I'm a freelance writer whose stories never get bought.
hugs and kisses wrapped in pink lacey bows,
Gavin
P.S. sorry about the lack of photos this time and the misspellings thoughout. Maybe I'll post some more with emily's help.
we tried to take the train to Kanchanaburi, but missed our river ferry, or more like, our river ferry just never came, so we took a taxi that was supposed to take us to the bus station, instead, he took us to his friend's bus station. It's not like we were trying to buy diamonds and got burned alive, but we were a bit 'miffed' if you will. so we took the slow bus to Kanchanaburi-the normal bus takes 1.5 hours, this one took 3.5. but we made it there. Kanchanaburi is where allied forces were forced, as POW's, to build a bridge over the river kwai to allow japanesee to have a rail system that reached Burma and then India. We'll be renting "the bridge over the river kwai" when we get back, don't go and spoil the end if you've seen it.
Em and I enjoyed a bike ride around town and out into the country where we saw an allied cemetary, and further in, we saw our first karaoke barge. here's how it goes: there's a 15 foot long wooden boat sruggling to tug 2 barges. The first is the karaoke part and the second is the double decker chilling spot. Add some drunk japanese on vacation or some thai's celebrating the full moon, and you have yourself one noise making machine. we took our bikes(6 speeds) up to a wat (word for temple) and also went into some caves that were used as a hospital during WWII. now buddah hangs out in there. it was neat, but some of the spaces were a bit tight for you know who. this was not a perfect place for the average overweight american to go. Nine chambers of the sacred buddah later we emerged, sweatier than before, but pleased. We watched the town celebrate the full moon, which only happens once a year over here I guess, whch was cool.. they fold banana leaves and flowers and banana trunks all together and float them down the river to apease the river god for polluting it and to thank it for all that it gives. inscence and candles adorn the tops of these little floating islands of joy and from the bridge above the river we had an excellent vantage point. we actually got to see this super-cute teenage couple pull up on the brige(on a scooter of course), put together a dry-cleaning bag and a candle, and make and successfully launch one of the many lanterns floating in the breeze.
the next day we ran into some great folks from jolly old england in the back of a truck on our way to Erawan falls. there are 7 tiers to the falls and they are the most famously picturesque in thailand. at the top though we came upon a scene like we had never encountered: eastern europeans having a serious photo shoot at the falls. Everywhere you looked some flat top having , banana hammock wearing dude was flexing and spreading his legs whilst leaning into a waterfall. SNL writers dream of this but the only punchline was that it was all serious.
did I mention that Em booked us a floating room? yeah bamboo room floating on the river. beat that disneyland.
we took the train back to bangkok today, which accomodated us much better than the bus. at almost every stop a person would walk by with refreshments, rice and meat, or just plain old fried chicken. yee-haw! the train rulzz.
So, tomorrow we are planning on taking a trip up to mae sot, which is a 8 hour bus ride north of bangkok. From there it's a 2 or 4 hour ride to umphong where we will go a hiking, so we won't be able to write for a bit. getting nervous is not allowed parents!
much love goes out to those special folks who visit our page and write to us, or in this case, to emily hen to me. Yo fam and folks! where you at? holla! anyway I honestly love writing from afar. it's like I'm a freelance writer whose stories never get bought.
hugs and kisses wrapped in pink lacey bows,
Gavin
P.S. sorry about the lack of photos this time and the misspellings thoughout. Maybe I'll post some more with emily's help.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
bangkok
don't worry, em and I aren't always atop this camode.
okay, here's em and I standing on a bridge about1 km south of our guesthouse. It's hot but nice. 'how is your trip so far?' you say, and I say back, like a dream, almost real, but not.
We slept on the plane, me with my head against the window and emily sleeping a bit more solidly, on my sholder. The food was funny and I got to see some throw away films that I decided were produced to be resold to airlines so they could have images that weren't any spicier than the food. The highlight was watching transformers, not only for the childhood nastalgia, but in retrospect, it helped prepare me mentally for what was to come.
It's tough to describe this place. many things here transform. the mid 80's scooter that you might see in the paper for $350 is turned into a taxi, or a 100 cc motorcycle turns into a truck, carying three large propane tanks on the back. the flagship of the streets out here, in my humble opinion is the tuk-tuk. imagine a motorized garden cart- a 3 wheeler, and add some rails, a vinyl top and a tired looking, fear-inducing-machine-of-a-man who floats effortlessly between a bus and an oncoming taxi, and there you have a tuk-tuk. 6 million people and there ain't much traffic, maybe due to fear of getting hit or maybe everyone rides the bus.
our hotel has made a great comand post and the ladies at the front desk are encyclopedic with knowledge of trains, busses, and english. the food is fantasyic, although only one dish so far has lived up to my expectations of spiciness. you can walk down the sidewalk, which every thai vendor has a right to use, and they use it, smell the most amazing dish, and in the middle of your inhale, get a big whomping by the rotting green canal.
we leave tomorrow for kanchanaburi which is west of bagkok, and will take about 2 hours. It's a smaller town with a 7 tiered waterfall which is about 1 hour from kanchanaburi and then few km hike will take us to the top to go swimming. we will return to bangkok on monday and get our visas for viet nam. then we will be heading north to mae sot and a little town south of there known for it's excellent hiking.
let it be known that there are a few things here that differ from the U.S. the best example of this is in this picture that I will spend the rest of my time on this computer loading. Yes, this is a toilet. the wider spots are for your feet. the hose and spray nozzle that you might use to cleen off dishes cleans off your undercarrage. Point of irony: this product is made by none other than AMERICAN STANDARD toilet company.
special props go out to jeremy foust for hookin up the travel boxers, and I wish I brought the visine you sent-the exaust is thick.
word to the bird
gavin
Sunday, November 18, 2007
welcome friends and family
ahem,
thank you all for helping us on our way. So right now we haven't left yet but we are about to embark. The 20 hour flight sounds like so much fun! pictures will come soon, we first have to take them. and we can't take any pictures if I'm blogging instead of getting on the plane, so thanks and come back soon.
hugs and kisses wrapped in pretty bows and ribbons,
Gavin
thank you all for helping us on our way. So right now we haven't left yet but we are about to embark. The 20 hour flight sounds like so much fun! pictures will come soon, we first have to take them. and we can't take any pictures if I'm blogging instead of getting on the plane, so thanks and come back soon.
hugs and kisses wrapped in pretty bows and ribbons,
Gavin
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