From Bangkok to Yangon

Posted on April 19, 2012 by alexb

Last day in Bangkok

The bus drops Nina and I at Khao San Rd in Bangkok, the good ol’ backpacker central that starts to feel like home. We

Some of the strange Bagkok corner food market.

head to the guest house where my Yellowknife friend Christa, which I’m really excited to hook up with, has made reservations for us. I talk to the clerk and ask for the room. He tells me that there is no reservation at my name. I insist that my friend has booked something for us earlier in the day. He says: “no, she didn’t.” So I look down on his sheet and I say: “Yes she did and there’s my name on your sheet with a line across it!” And the clerk replies: “Yes we cancelled it because we didn’t know at what time you arrive and we can’t hold rooms.” And me to reply: “Well what’s the point of booking in this case?”. Nina and I take our packs and go to the next guest house across the street where we find decent accommodation. After freshening up, we go meet Christa. Ohhh Christa!! Like a breath of fresh air, Christa is amazed by everything she sees and touch! It’s her first few days in Asia and everything is a fascination for her!

Mini monks that you can buy at the market

Roh Bun Quality Garanteed

So the 3 of us spend the next couple of days exploring the ol’ Bangkok, checking markets and vegetarian restaurants, going out on ferry rides on the dirty river and risking our lives crossing eight lane boulevards. We explore a street market that specializes in lucky charms. Small statues of divine buddhist masters. But there is tables after tables, over maybe 2 kilometers people

Some of the great vegetarian food Thailand is knowed for

were selling these mini buddhas made of clay, bronze, iron, stone and what not. I buy a pair or Roh Bon

sunglasses for maybe $0.50 (my last 2 pairs of fake Ray Ban had shattered on the curb) and I acquire an ancient swiss clock built in a glass sphere (I love clocks). Bangkok is so big, that I can’t imagine building inspectors (if there are any) catching up with all the strange buildings. We walk in some kind of indoor market with extremely narrow lanes with rough planks over mud to walk on. The merchants are selling fancier lucky charms, kept under glass. As we get deeper in this maze, the floor gets really degraded to the point where it looks like plane filth and junk but as we progress, we find some actually

The Gypsie Lips bar is in the back of on old Toyota Pick Up truck

quite nice restaurants right on the side of the river and also an ice-cream bar… I am now expecting a big pile of junk or a dead end, but no, it keeps on going and loops back to a nice food market also selling clothes. We have a nice time back at Kao San Road as we try to find a travelers hat for Nina and we head for drinks at the Gypsie Lips Bar.

Nina Alex and Christa wear Bongkok hats

It’s really nice to catch up with my friend Christa, but the next morning, we say good bye and she gets on a bus to go to Chiang Mai, further north in Thailand, to take some thai massage training and do some yoga. Nina is also getting on a bus, she is headed to the Cambodia border. She will cross Cambodia to go to Viet Nam and maybe go to Laos. I’m sad to see her go as we shared a lot in the last two weeks. As for me well, I’m taking a train to Bangkok International Airport. I have a flight to Yangon (Rangoon), the old capital of Myanmar.

Myanmar Ladies are quite beautiful with their umbrellas

Yangoon

There ‘s quite a bit to say about Myanmar (Burma) and one needs to be informed about its political history to understand it, but let’s start by saying that it’s a pretty mysterious country and that things are changing very rapidly over here, communication with the exterior world is under strict censorship so it’s quite hard to know what to expect when arriving in this country. But I have a lonely planet guide (a 2011 edition photocopy book I bought in Bangkok). I read a bit through it and I’m vaguely planning to go from Yangon to Baghan, from Bagan to Inle Lake, and on the way figure out where else to go as I meet travelers.

Mes nouveaux compagnons de voyage: à gauche avec le chandail rouge, Vincent dit Soussoune, à l'avant avec le chandail blanc, voici la charmante Manoue; à l'arrière avec le chandail kaki, c'est Manu; juste à droite c'est la femme de Manu, sont nom est Maeva; et puis complètement à droite, c'est Marie, la partenaire de Vincent.

So I land in Yangon. I’m getting approached by cab drivers who want to take me to the heart of the city. I look for other travelers, Its always cheaper to share rides. So I hear a group of backpackers speaking french. They are haggling to get cheaper rates on a taxi ride to the Sule Pagoda, the corner stone of the old city. I introduce myself and ask if I could share the ride. They look at the cab driver and say : We are 6 now, so it should be cheaper for each person!” We end up paying about 15$ to get to town. In the minivan, I get introduced to the group. They are from France. There is Manu, married to Maeva traveling for three months, there is Vincent “dit Soussoune” et sa compagne Marie, traveling around the world for 1 year there is Manoue.

The Sule pagoda is in the middle of the round-about in the center of Yangoon

After a good half hour ride, we get all right to Sule Pagoda, and the cabbie drops us off to the Mahabandoula Guest House. The review in the Lonely Planet says that it’s cheap, nothing more… Well it’s cheap all right, $12 dollars for a double room. It looks like shit, but it’s a bed. It’s past eight at night, we take 3 rooms. Next we’re in the street, hunting for a meal. First thing I notice is that men are wearing surangs. In fact they are not surangs but longyi. The surang is one long piece of fabric wrapped around the waist but the longyi, called paso for men, is like a tubular piece of fabric tightened by a knot on the belly. Every man here wears one. I must confess it’s the first time I find myself in a place where everyone wears traditional clothes. There are many man in the shadowy streets, but I only see a few women. Next I realize that it’s dark in Yangon. There’s not much street lighting, there’s no neon signs flashing in front of every bar. In fact I don’t see any bars at all. There is no Seven Eleven either. The streets

The first view I get when I step out of the guest house

are filthy, some of the concrete slabs of the sidewalks are broken, exposing the sewers underneeth. At the corner of every street I find little tea shop set on the street with miniature plastic tables lit by candlelight and loads of Yangon people sitting on small plastic stools (kindergarden style) having tea and chatting. I’m walking with the guitalele strapped around my neck and it doesn’t take long to realize that it will be the best thing to carry around Myanmar. I’m following my new friends, I struming the strings, and I start to collect many smiles of burmese enjoying the small guitar.

Some old british colonial buildings scattered through town. The edge of the Sule Pagoda appears on the far right of the shot.

We walk into an indian restaurant and all the sudden start feeling like we are the tourist attraction in this place. People look at us with interest. A few elder folks at another table are looking at me and mimicking playing guitar. I remember what the Lonely Planet Guide said, “go talk to people, that’s the kind of tourist Myanmar needs”. Even though I only have a couple Myanmar words to say, the men seem quite please to interact with me and request a few notes on the guitalele which I gladly offer them. Looks like it will be easy to make friends in this country!

Fabric stands at the Yangon Market

The kind of cash tourists have in their backpacks

The next morning, we do what all tourists do on their first day in Myanmar, we look for money changers. Myanmar has been under sanctions from the United States since 2002 and indeed, there is absolutely no ATM machine in the country and it is impossible to use any credit card anywhere in the country. Tourists must bring all the money they need for their whole trip in American dollars. Pristine spanking new bills. We head for the market where, among many other things, we should find money changers. The market is packet with fabrics, lackerware, jewelry, clothes, food and so on. I notice for once how beautiful Myanmar women are with their happy smile and this Thanaka yellow powder that they put on their cheeks to protect their skin from the burning sun. We find several money changers offering us a rate of 810 kyats (per dollar) for $100 bills, 800 kyats for $50 bills, and 790 kyats for any other smaller bills. One of my $100 was rejected because it had a crease in the middle and therefore got me only 800 kyats. This was much less than the 1200 kyats per dollars that the lonely planet was talking about. I still end up with a big pile of money that I stash in my bag.

Myanmar has quite a lot of jade

Young girl wearing tanaka powder on her cheeks

I’m still following the french crew (why not?) and they offer me to tag alone with them to go to Kalaw and do a trek to Inle Lake. Trekking sounds good to me and I do want to see Inle Lake so I agree to go with them. All right, looks like I have new travel partners! We look for bus tickets to go to Kalaw and can’t find any. Since the french troop don’t want to stick too long in Yangon, there’s a change of plan

Silhouette of the Great Shwedagon Pagoda

to go to Bagan, followed by Mandalay and then Kalaw. I too want to get out of Yangon sooner than later so I get a ticket to be on the same bus as them. We’re schedule to leave the next day so we head to the Shwedagon Pagoda which seems to be the number one attraction in Myanmar.

The Shwedagon Pagoda

The road leading the Shwedagon Pagoda was sooo crowded

A pagoda is the english name for a Stupa, which is usually built upon sacred relics. The Shwedagon Pagoda is said the be keeping some hair from the last Buddha. This epic monument is actually covered with real gold! As it turned out, my friends and I went to the Pagoda on the full moon night of it’s 2600th anniversary (altough archeologists say it was built between 6th and 10th century), lets just say it was Buddha’s birthday. This might be the busiest day in the whole existence of this pagoda (or maybe not)! But it’s the most sacred place I’ve ever been to. I walk around and I see golden Buddhas every where with people making offerings and praying, and groups of monks wandering, and schools singing prayer, endless celebration of the Dharma on this holy day! I am flabbergasted! So many people came from all over the country to be here at this moment and I just happen to be here without any planning for it. Well I could go on and on about it but I’ll trust a few pictures here.

One of the entrances to the Shwedagon Pagoda

So many Myanmar peope at the Pagoda for the full moon

These are all stupas

The night falling on the Pagoda revealing the full moon (out of frame)

Les mystérieuses citées d'or

Gold glorifies!

Some young monks at the Pagoda

After several hours at the Pagoda, the night was well settled so my new friends and I head back to the streets to get some food, and make our way to the Guest House. But on the way, I cross a stand selling t-shirts of Aung Ann Suu Kuy and the General Aung Ann. It is a National League For Democracy (NLD) stand. I am a bit surprise to see this as I thought it was illegal to openly display partisannery for the Lady and the NLD. So I walk in the stand and ask some questions to figure out that things have changed a lot in Myanmar, that there is by-election coming up, and that the NLD intends to win it with Aung Ann Suu Kuy as it’s leader. Wow!! I was really outdated in my Myanmar actuality but this political face off triggers much fascination in my mind and I can’t wait to learn more about it.

Well that’s it for my first few days in Myanmar. Yangon is now far behind and I’m ridding a bus direction Bagan.

All the best,

Alex

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Discovering the Underwater World

Yet another beautiful moment captured in Koh Tao

Posted on April 11, 2012 by alexb

I know, I know, many of you want to hear about Myanmar, and it was truly amazing, but I can’t skip Koh

An ant exploring a pistil

Tao in my story as it was truly outsanding for me. So I’m just going step by step here.

Well after overnighting in Surat Thani, Nina and I catch our ride to the pier to catch our boat. This time the boat is a real ferry, with cars on it. The boat ride to Koh Phangan takes about 2 1/2 hours. I’ll have to catch another boat to get to Koh Taoh. Well here I am back on Koh Phangan. The last time I was here was just about 10 days ago, and I left a bit disgusted by the full moon party and my shitty accommodation. I’m thinking I could give it another go, maybe for a couple days. So I decide to stay a bit more on Koh Phangan. Nina’s friends come off the next ferry and we negotiate a pick up ride to the east side of the Island, an area I hadn’t visited yet. Cool, a new beach to explore!

Here's Nina ripping the guitalele!

Hanging out with Nina's friends on German Beach!

Now I’m hanging out with a German party. That’s a first for me. Usually, when I’m around germans they are speaking english or french. But this time, I’m the minority in the group, so the only way I can follow what’s being said is when they slide a few english words in their discussions. Also, I know a few of Nina’s latests stories so I get a sense of what she’s talking about. But the amazing thing about this beach, is that everywhere we find germans. On the street, in the bars, on the beach, everywhere. There’s even a german flag on the beach. I call it German beach. We joke a bit and start referring to germans as “the Germs”. The days are simple. Get up, have breakfast, spend some time on the beach, go for a massage. Lunch. Go and explore around, go back to the beach. Dinner. And now well, lets go for drinks! I practice my juggling on the beach and of course, I play some guitalele. I look at my emails and discover that Mr. Yukon Film Legend Rob Toohey is in Thailand, headed to Koh Tao! Rob and I have worked on the same Gold Rush Tv Production last year in the Klondike. He is also a diving instructor and will be diving on Koh Tao on the same dates I’ll be taking my diving training. Brilliant!

Another typical beach bar in Thailand!

Beach time is fun, but I need to get moving. I have some diving to do! I pack my stuff, say good bye to the “Germs” and head for Koh Tao. The fast boat drops me at the pier of this paradise looking Island. I love the looks of it, it’s covered with giant boulders with polished edges, little diving boats floating around it. Just on the pier, I see more fish than I’ve ever seen! I find my ride that takes me on the south side of the Island, a SCUBA diving school named Carabao where I’v already booked my PADI certification. At the reception, the french speaking clerk strongly recommends I take the SSI certification instead of the PADI one. He says it’s newer program and I will save the cost of the PADI book.

All right, I can even take

This is where I'm studying the text book for the diving class

the course in french. He gives me a 2 1/2 hour long video to watch, a used book with 3 chapters to read tonight and a questionnaire to go with it. Tomorrow, class is at 8:30am. I go for a shower and put the video on that talks about, well scuba diving. I start reading the manual that essentially goes through the same material as the video, but a bit more in details. It’s ten o’clock at night, time for a refreshment. I go on the beach bar and realize that everyone there speaks french! I went from German beach to french beach! Too funny!

My diving instructor, the lovely Carisse!

I finish the third chapter while having breakfast the next day while eating some mexican burritos (quite expensive). Now I go to the class and meet my instructor Cariss and my diving buddy Hélène. We go try out some wetsuits and masks and pick fins and buoyancy control device (BCD). We go through some theory and correct our questionnaire, practice the procedure of setting up the air bottles and the diving equipment and than break for lunch. This afternoon, we are going diving! A long tail boat packed with gear and people brings us to the diving boat. On board, we set up our gear and head for the sun roof to get details about the dive. I’m a little worried because I have this cold I caught on the train and I keep coughing and blowing my nose, which is definitely not ideal for diving. Cariss says that as long as I can equalize my ear drums under water (trying to blow air thought your nose while pinching your nasals will

Typical diving boat that float all around Koh Tao

equalize the water pressure in you ear drums) I should be all right. Before gearing up, we do a little swim test, a couple of lapse around the boat and a ten minutes of floating around. I’ve been trying to float like a star ever since I’m a kid, but I never could do it so I have to use my feet and arms to stay afloat. We get back on the boat and put our wetsuits on. We get all geared up with buoyancy control device (BCD), air and masks and we jump in the water. We go to a shallow 4 meter sandy spot and start breathing under water for the first time. I’ve never even snorkeled, except for in the pool when I was a kid.

Some amazing resorts on the cliff of Koh Tao

We get our knees to the ground at 4 meters deep, so we can practice some skills. I’m having difficulty breathing, breathing too fast, I feel like I can’t fill up my lungs, I’m starting to panic, thinking I should ascend to the surface, I need air to live! I remember the text book: focus on your breathing (like in meditation) slow down your breathing, so I start to take long deep inhalation. I’m still not comfortable, but I got air in my lungs, still breathing too fast. All of this happens without anyone in the class knowing, but I’m slowly getting used to breathing underwater, much like the other students I suppose. I calm down.

We practice skills such as removing our air controller andputting it back in our mouth, emptying our mask by blowing air in the mask through our nose (guess what happens if you got a cold!). Communicating emergency situations with our buddy and a few safety procedures. When we mastered all the skills, we go for a little dive around. When diving, we wear weight belts so we don’t float and by adding some air in the in inflatable jacket, we should be able to attain neutral buoyancy, so we don’t float or sink. But for first time divers, the amount of weight needs to be adjusted a few times before this is possible, so our little party keeps going up and down as we swim, but we are not deep enough for that to be a real issue.

Diving boats mourned around a coral reaf

A giant grasshopper was climbing on my window frame

For some inexplicable reason, or maybe just lack of thinking, I always thought that scuba diving was a sport, that involved a lot of energy kind of like swimming at the pool, I guess it could if you are in out of control situations, but to my great astonishment, I realize that recreational diving is plainly an underwater ballad in a gorgeous aquatic world. I just wanted to be under water and swim, I didn’t expect to see so much beauty and so many fish! While living in Yellowknife, I got pretty used to being on the water, having to paddle daily to my houseboat. This big water world seemed like a big open flat surface with occasional times when it gets choppy and hard to paddle. But now I’m discovering a whole new realm, a world of underwater life, full of colors and shapes I’ve never seen. We swim around corals and I can contemplate all sorts of fish i’ve never seen and they just float by in front of me just like if I was another fish. Amazing!

The Pier at Koh Tao

We ascend and get back to the boat. I am awed for what I’ve seen. That was just a test dive, not even registered in my dive log book. On the boat, I change my air tank and jump on the fresh pineapple, cookies and tea. I can’t wait to get back down there. In our second dive, we didn’t practice any skills, we just went swimming with the fish! It is another world down there! Swimming effortlessly two feet above some corals and seeing all the variety of the underworld feels overwhelming. I see angelfish, trigger fish, long fin fish and barracudas. There is a fish that is always on its own, traveling the bottom like he’s got some business to do, but the colors of his scales keep changing all the time, like these jackets that came out in the nineties that changed color. It’s like all the color spectrum in one fish, changing all the time! And than there is the corals!! Big lumps of calcaire that houses thousands of strange creatures cohabiting in this luxurious resort. When you get close to corals, that’s where the fish is! And we just float around in silence, with for only sound the air circulating in the regulator and signaling to each other that everything is fine and how much air we got left.

La plongée sous-marine est une révélation de beauté et de splendeur incroyable et je suis vraiment heureux d’avoir décidé d’explorer cette activité puisqu’il me semble tout à fait sensible d’investir dans la contemplation de la beauté naturelle marine comme divertissement. C’est franchement mieux que d’aller voir un match des canadiens au centre bell.

An exemple of the intersting english spoken in asia

Rob and Lona

I go meet Rob Toohey and his better half Lona at the Coral Grand resort. We celebrate the opportunity we have to meet on the same island at the other end of the world and we walk on the beach to find some huge prawns for dinner. We talk a lot about the Discovery Channel Gold Rush Production Season 3 which we will all be part of again this spring in the Yukon’s Klondike. It’s really a “business meeting”. Rob and I plan to go diving s soon as I’m certified open water diver.

The next is the final day of my certification. I finished the written test with a 98% mark and we’re off diving again. This time we go to a bottom of 18 meters. The coral reefs are massive and the schools of fish are huge. It’s really amazing how close you can get from the fish and they all move simultaneously in the same direction like one giant body of fish. I see so many barracudas which are about two feet long, but I’m also mighty impressed by the much smaller fish

The Coral Grand Resort where Rob Toohey stays

swimming 2 cm away from my mask. The is a videographer filming us, he is swimming around very fast, he is above us,

A nice view of Koh Tao that cost me $50 for returning the motor bike with a bumb underneath!

and then underneath, he is ahead and behind and he is chasing fish and morels at they same time. It looks like a fun job, but he has to edit the video before the end of the day, quite the quick turnaround! We go for another dive in a different site and than that’s it, I’m certified for recreational open water dives, I can go down to 18 meters anywhere in the world! Awesome!

The Island has several bouldery cliffs

The videographer that filmed my underwater adventure!

Back on Koh Tao, I get on my rented motor bike and start exploring the Island for a nice spot where I could live for a couple of days before I head for Bangkok. I visit quite a few spots, some really amazing ones, but I’m looking for beautiful AND cheap. I line up a nice room on a gorgeous private beach right in between the two main beaches. Isolated with proximity, that’s just the way I like it! Next morning, go meet Rob Toohey at his resort. Him and Lona are just getting on the beach after the early morning dive. We go have a bite to eat and Rob and I get back on the boat to go diving. Rob is a diving instructor with over 500 dives on his computer, I’m excited to go diving with him! The first site we get dropped off to has quite poor visibility. The second site was like a dive playground, or training waters for future instructors! It’s got 3 groups of coral reafs and a site with hoops to swim through and a giant steel spider. We swim until we get low on air and get back to the boat, our eyes and minds full of the beauty we saw down there. Well that was my last dive, I’m really glad I went underwater with Rob!

Nina standing on the private beach where we stayed

I get Facebook message from Nina, she is coming to Koh Tao, the plan is to head towards Bangkok together and from there leave Thailand. Both our visas are expiring at the same time. So I go pick her up at the pier and take her to explore the Island on the motor bike. We go meet Rob and Lona for a nice dinner on the beach, they are taking the night ferry to Surat Thani. We say farewell. Nina and I take the ferry on the next morning, and than the bus, direction Bangkok!

In my next post, I’ll be telling you about Myanmar, such an interesting place!

Until then, take care,

Alex

PS: Don’t miss the video at the bottom of the page!

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Good bye Kuala Lumpur, Welcome back to Thailand

Posted on April 5, 2012 by alexb

Well folks, I’m back online! I’m in Bali right now, and I well intend to tell you about the past few weeks of my travels as it was quite life changing. I was not able to update this blog during the month of March, but I think I you’ll soon understand why. So this is the first post of a quick series that will let you catch up with my story. So lets go back a little bit to where I left the story in february. Taking the train from Kuala Lumpur, remember?

The train ride from Kuala Lumpur to the border of Thailand took takes about 12 hours. I have a little bunk bed with curtains and I sleep hugging my backpack. I have a headlamp on forehead, so I can read when I wake up every now and then, when the train performs some wagon rearrangement that shake my whole world. When I wake up at six, half the passengers in the wagon are gone, I go between the wagons to get some fresh air and read some more until the trains halts at the Thailand border station. There I take my backpack and get off board. I walk along the train platform wondering where the immigration office is. It’s now 6 in the morning.

Nina spontaneously becomes my travel buddy

I see another backpacker who seems to be looking around for the same thing. No signs I can read anywhere. The blond backpacker lady is ready to climb some stairs to go to the second floor and look for the immigration office. I ask a man at a little booth where we should go. He smiles and seems happy to answer me. He says I should go back all the way at the end of the platform. So we go down there and find a group of people waiting for the immigration office to open. The sliding doors open and we proceed to check out of Malaysia. We walk a little further and line up to the Thailand border agent. I chat a little bit with the backpacking lady, that’s pretty common when you travel. Usual questions: what’s your name? Where are you from? where have you been? how long are you traveling for? where are you going? Her name is Nina, she is from Germany, she is coming from Bali, going to meet some friends in Koh Phangan (a little Island in the Thailand Gulf, you can see some of my previous post) and she is traveling for six months around the world. Wow! Pretty brave girl, traveling alone for so long! Without any question, the Thai immigration officer gives us our 15 days visa (that’s what you get when crossing to Thailand on land), and we go back on the platform to look for our train that disappeared. We sit down and wait, and I do what I usually do when I have some time to kill, I pull out the guitalele and start strumming. Nina is surprised that I carry a little guitar on my travels. I explain to her that so far, it’s been the best way for me to meet people. I just sit and play, and music loving people come to me.

Elvis Khlong entertaining me with the guitalele at the Malaysia Thailand border railway station

Just when I say this, a nice vigorous Thai man passes by with his lady. As he sees the small guitar, he exclaims: “oh! it’s beautiful!” with such passion that he is definitely itching to scratch the strings. I hand him the guitalele and he starts picking some old Rock n Roll songs. And he keeps playing and playing, for nearly 30 minute, Elvis Khlong (that’s how they call him) serenades us until the train shows up in a rumble. He walks away with his lady, singing and dancing. The train is now shorter, it lost the bunk beds wagons. Nina and I are on the same wagon so we sit and chat again. We are both headed to Surat Thani to catch a ferry boat to go to the Islands. Nina is going to Koh Phangan to meet with some friends, and I’m going to Koh Tao to do my open water diving course. We probably could take the same ferry. We naturally conclude that we will travel this next bit together.

It's not as hard being homeless in a tropical country as in the far north.

This train is going to Hat Yay. I spent a night in Hat Yay on my way to Kuala Lumpur. I quite like that city because itdoesn’t feel touristic at all. When the train pulls in at the station, a Thai man jumps on the train and asks everyone if they know where they go. I tell him we need a ride to Surat Thani so we can get to the ferry boat. He says ” OK Follow me!” and he rapidly walks away on the platform. Nina and I follow him with our backpacks as he leads us to a small office outside the train station. In there, a man tells us that a ride to Surat Thani is leaving in five minutes. It’s now 11h25, Nina and I are longing for breakfast and coffee but we need to get to Surat Thani… The man now says that the ride is at 12h30, Thai time. Well that gives us time for food. There on that stretch of street, all the merchants are selling gold. I’ve never seen so much gold, even in the Klondike.

Not many shots of Hat Yay, but here's a random one

We find a little restaurant on the street where we can sit and eat some fish ball soup and then find a little coffee place. Well we get our caffeine fix and head back to the office. There, half a dozen thais are watching this Thai boxing fight on tv. The reception is quite bad, kinda like the old CBC with a fork in the antenna input. But the audience is hot, shouting, kicking, laughing, ooooing and aaawing, the bets are on, and the money is on the line!! We wait and wait and wait, until the minivan shows up at 1:30 pm. That’s what he meant by Thai time. The minibus is already full with 2 places left. We cram in there with our big backpack and start guessing at how long it will take to get there. On the map, it looked like about 200 km. Well it took about 6 hours, leaving us no chance to catch a ferry for that night.

Beer Time in Surat Thani with Nina

In Surat Thani, we hire a tuk tuk, a small 3 wheel motorized vehicle, to get us to a guest house where we find accommodation and we book our way for the ferry on the next day. With this planned out and a good shower, we walk to the busy night market and get some noodle soup and some thai sweets, some kind of fruit jelly that tasted quite good. By the harbor, vendors are selling toys and crafts, books and shades, clothes and shoes. I buy a wallet. It’s handcrafted leather, quite nice for about $10. We find a table by the river and order some beer, people watch, play music, drink and eventually stumble home. It’s kind of funny how all the sudden, I have traveling partner… Didn’t ask, didn’t try, it just happened.

Categories: Malaysia, Thailand | Tags: hat yay, Malaysia, thailand, train, travel | Leave a comment

A week in Malaysia

Posted on March 2, 2012 by alexb

Alex at the Merdeka Square in Kuala Lumpur

As I walk through the international airport of Kuala Lumpur, the modern capital of Malaysia, after a 1hour flight from Hat Yay in Thailand, I’m thinking “Here I am, in a city I know nothing about in a country I didn’t even plan on visiting”. So I sit down at a restaurant and start reading about where I could go. China Town seems to be quite happening, and there is the Golden Triangle that seems to be a pretty good area. I look at the exchange rate for Canadian Dollars to Malay Ringets. Its about $ 1 for Rm 3.

Kuala Lumpur City Center

I try t get a taxi to bring me downtown, the cabby refuses and points to a bus that says Free Shuttle. So I get on the free shuttle, that costs me RM15, with no idea where it’s going. I ride standing with my luggage in the side access stairs of the bus because some of the other travelers use all the seats for their suitcases. The airport was quite a ways out of town and the bus goes on the highway for a while, and stops at a bus station. Everybody gets out. Now I’m wondering whether I should be taking a train from there or a taxi. I end up taking another bus that brings me to Kuala Central. At this point I need to put my trust in a cab driver to bring me somewhere I can find a decent guesthouse. Of course he overcharges me. We get around this massive traffic jam by zigzagging some back alleys and the cabby drops me off in a trendy area of town with clubs and guesthouses. It’s the Golden Triangle. I find a guesthouse that is cool looking and feels homey. Getting a room costs me Rm70 (ringets), so about 22$ a night. I have 2 beds, WiFi, air con, and really clean shared bathrooms. Its The Tropical Guesthouse. The operator is a Chinese lady who use to live in Vancouver. Jennifer. Every day, Jennifer cleans the lobby floor with a water hose, and then she waters the sidewalk in front of the lobby, and also her white BMW in front of the sidewalk. Later, she will burn (what is it that she burns?) some smudging leaves and the whole building will fill up with smoke as I’m sitting in the lobby, drinking a beer and writing this blog.

The plate of squids

I go to the Indian food restaurant across the street. I have dinner there every night now. It’s open 24h and the food is quite something. Different from Thailand anyway. In Thailand, you’re never quite sure that the waiter understood your order, but somehow, you always get what you want. Once your done eating, you can wait and hangout at your table for ever and ever, and the server never comes with the bill. In Thailand, most of the times, you actually have to go to the waiter and tell him what you had so he can add up your bill. But this Malaysia, in this Muslim food restaurant, it is a buffet style display of food. Every plate starts with

Some things you just gotta try!

a big serving of rice. I top up my rice plate with vegetables, lamb, squids, hot curry sauce and all sorts of nice Indian food. Last time I ate here, it cost me RM7. I think I’m getting a great deal on the food, but the waiter keeps track of every piece of meat I put in my plate, and as I’m eating, he comes with a bill and sticks it under my plate. Today, it’s Rm16. Hmm. I shouldn’t have taken two pieces of squid, I don’t actually like squid. It’s chewy and crunchy at the same time. But the sauce is so good.

Combination of modern and colonial architecture in KL

Malaysia used to be a British Colony. Kuala Lumpur is a young city. It started a 150 years ago as a tin mining camp. It’s now the fastest growing economy in Malaysia. It displays an interesting combination of colonial architecture punctuated with beautiful Mosques and an ultra-modern skyline. Malaysia became independent in 1957, the Queen Elizabeth 2 was there for the party at Merdeka Square. It is now a metropolis of 1.5 million. 4 million if you include the annexed cities.

I’m surprise how easily I can adapt from being in a real jungle on an island to being in a concrete jungle in a city. I walk everywhere. My sixth sense makes me take shortcuts. I look at the map and instinctively know the best way to go and explore the city. I walk and walk and walk. The buildings are beautiful. The streets are wide, the sidewalks are clean. Everywhere I go, I find myself in a giant mall. No way out! Huge malls. And nothing is cheap here. I walk across the mall, take a bridge over the busy street and find myself into another mall! More stores. In this mall, it’s all cameras, lenses, tripods, computers, it’s endless, I’ve never seen so many cameras!!! I take refuge in a Starbuck, ouf! air con, coffee and WiFi!

Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur

Next, I go to China Town to find the expected: lots of Chinese restaurants and walking streets covered with retails stands selling T-shirts, wallets, belts, shoes, sunglasses, manicure kits, trinket of all sorts. I cross a canal and I go the botanical garden. I walk around carrying my guitalele, stopping once in a while to strum a few chords while looking at the time go by. It starts to rain. An intense shower. A river starts flowing under the table I’m sitting on. Fortunately there is a roof over my head. There is a lady at the next table, also waiting for the rain to slow down. A loving couple comes running under the roof and sits at the third table. They snuggle and look at their smart phones. I keep playing guitar. I’m working on this song I’m having a hard time with the timing.

A dragonfly

Je retourne au quartier chinois, à la recherche d’une grosse bière froide pour me refroidir les pieds. Je tombe sur 2 Belges en cavales qui en sont à leur 4e grosse Chang et se disent qu’ils se doivent de m’accompagner pour une autre petite (grosse) bière. On parle un peu des différences culturelles de nos nations, puis je les interroge sur les circonstances qui ont fait que la Belgique à opéré près d’un an et demi sans gouvernement, battant ainsi le record de l’Irak. ” Eh bien tout ça à commencé avec Jules César” qu’il me dit ” alors qu’il a poussé les frontières latine jusqu’à l’emplacement actuelle de Bruxelles” poursuit-il… et voilà, le sujet de conversation est lancé. On enfile quelques bières, on va se balader, on se marre, on va bouffer dans un resto juste quand la pluie démarre, puis on se fait jeter, on se serre les pattes on se dit à la prochaine et on pars chacun pour sois.

KL Subway

Smart phones everywhere!

The following day, I head out to explore the transit system. I have a mission, get to the Myanmar embassy to get a visa. So I take a sky train, and a subway. It’s clean in there. No food, no old gum on the seats, no stains of spilled and never washed coca on the floor. This city is clean. I notice the wagons aren’t very long, and you can walk from one to another, like a long rolling tunnel. I follow the directions to the Myanmar Embassy I found on a lonely planet blog. It’s handy to have an ipod where you can store information. At the embassy, a large melée of burmese people are all packed in front of the steel sliding doors. I have to push my way close to the gate and mention I need a visa so the eighteen years old looking guard lets me in right away. It costs me Rm 85 to get my application in and I have to wait 3 days before knowing if its accepted.

The Pentrona Twin Towers!

From there, I walk to Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC). I love to walk in this city, I think it’s pretty. I suppose that when a city doesn’t have to cope with major seasonal weather transition, it can invest in prettier infrastructures instead of paying the heating and snow removal bills. So Kuala Lumpur is pretty. The people I meet here nice enough. They seem to live a sophisticated asian-american way. But that’s obviously just the surface. I met two young women with a similar background. Both their mother were abandoned by their father when they were infants. Men here can marry several times, and they will always win in a case of divorce, leaving the woman floor. A baby born from an unmarried couple is not granted citizenship. That’s a shocker. Apparently a lot of them end up drowned… Meanwhile the clubs are playing all the british american classic hits, the ferrari is roaring up the hill, the Malaysian Kings are living in their new castle and everywhere I hear Whitney Houston singing “I will always love you”. RIP Whitney.

Feels like being in the Matrix!

Well inside the spiritual temples of the Batu Caves

drinking straight from the coconut!

I head to the Batu Caves. I read online there is roc climbing over there. I take all my gear with me and go on the transit again. I make it to the crag. Beautiful limestone, nice variety of climbs. Not a soul to climb with. So I do about an hour of bouldering and pack my gear and head for the caves. The Batu Caves are a spiritual pilgrimage destination. I won’t elaborate about the rituals because I didn’t see them. They happen in the morning and I was there the afternoon. I walk around and look at the sculptures all around, it’s quite cool and impressive cave. But I’m carrying this 20 kg bag of climbing gear and the 400 stairs are pretty steep. Time for a drink!

Night view of the Time Square

When the tree days are gone, I head straight to the Myanmar embassy to get my passport back with the tourist visa in it. Good. I’m going to Myanmar. I stop at the train terminal so I can book a train back to Thailand for the next day. The teller tells me the train is fully booked. So I ask about today. She says it’s full again, the overnight sleeper wagon are booked. So I’m asking here what my options are and she says that, actually, if I don’t mind changing wagon when the train gets to the border, she can get me a sleeper wagon for tonights train. Oh well! Looks like I’m leaving tonight! So I go back to my guesthouse and pack up my stuff, check out, go back to the sky train and to KLSentral, hop on a train, and I’m on my way to Thailand again!!! The plan is to go to Koh Tao, do this open water scuba diving course I prepaid, than go to Bangkok to catch a flight to Yangoon, old capital of Myanmar.

So that’s it for for the Malaysian urban experience, next I’ll tell you about SCUBA Diving in Koh Tao.

Best wishes,

Alex

Some centennial trees make a beautiful fractal skyview

Categories: Malaysia | Tags: asia, kuala lumpur, Malaysia, travel | Leave a comment

Discovery Renews ‘Gold Rush’ for Third Season (Exclusive) – Hollywood Reporter

Posted on February 16, 2012 by alexb

On a different note, it looks like I might soon be headed back to the Klondike to work on another season of Gold Rush! Good News!

Discovery Renews ‘Gold Rush’ for Third Season (Exclusive) – Hollywood Reporter.

Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Full Moon in Koh Phangan

Posted on February 16, 2012 by alexb

The first day I got in Bangkok, I had no real plan about when and where to stay. I was just another stranger lost in a huge city with a backpack on my shoulders. A nice enough man noticed my aimless wandering and suggested I go to a tourist Information center. So I did.

A buddhist Temple on Koe Phangan

At the Tourist Information center, a nice lady assured me that this was government office and that she was there to help me book my trip. She said that with the chinese new year, it was high season and crucial to book in advance. So she help me just do that. For over 3 weeks, I now had a plan. 4 days in Bangkok, 10 days in Tonsai for some rock climbing, 5 days in Koh Phagan for a half moon party and than 5 days in Koh Tao for a Open water diving PADI certification.

It felt pretty good to have a plan. But than I met some Bangkokers (foreigners dwelling in Bangkok) who seemed quite suspicious about this “tourist information”, and disapointed for me that I had put all this money forward in a plan that locked me in. As it turned out, this was no Tourist Information Government Agency but a Government Certified Travel Agency! Oh well, I might have spent twice what I should have, but that’s just me being a novice traveller in a foreign country, I’ll learn as I keep travelling, no big deal.

A chinese Temple hidden in the branches on Koe Phangan

So, according to the plan, I was to spend 10 days in Tonsai before going to a Half Moon Party in Koh Phangan. But listening to the good advice of my friend Élie who has travelled plenty, she told me that if I find somewhere I like, I should just stay there longer. I really liked Tonsai so I decided to stay one more week. I called the Travel Agency and arranged for a change of dates for the Koh Phangan so I would be there for the Full Moon instead of the Half Moon party. As it turns out, the Island gets a massive influx of tourists on the Full Moon and all the accommodations get rented out at higher costs. The Bungalow at the resort I was suppose to stay was not available, they would not reimbourse me, but they could put me in a room with shared bathrooms for the same cost. “Oh well, since I paid already, I guess I should go with that…”

This is the Krabi bus station

So my time in Tonsai eventually ran out, I took the longboat ride to Aonang, then a taxi to the bus station. I hopped on a Bus that took me to the Thailand Golf in about 4 hours, then I squeezed on the bow of the ferry boat with a bunch of Swedes all gong hoe about the Full Moon Party. The boat ride was about 2 hours, 2 hours of playing guitar in the sun with occasional splashes of waves and eventually a sunset. After that, it got kind of cold, but the swedes kept the spirit up as they where sinking the beers down.

Chinese Buddhist Temple on Koe Panghan

So I finally get to Koh Phangan Island at about 7pm and I get to my resort just to be welcomed by my long time no see little cousin Bertrand, with who I spend numerous summer holidays as a kid but have only visited once in the the last 15 years, and that was about 3 years ago. So there he

Mon cousin Bertrand et sa copine Mélanie, à bout de sueur au milieu d'une randonnée imprévue vers un point d'observation toujours plus loin et plus loin.

is with his lovely girlfriend Melanie and I’m thinking how amazing it is to be able to hook up with friends at the other end of the world, thanks to the good ol’ internet!

I get showed my room, it’s got no window, it smells like mold and the shared showers, well, I don’t think I’ll shower there… Hen! What odds, f**k it! would say a newfoundlander, let’s go for a beer! So we head for the beach and find a nice little place to eat chill and catch up.

I spent the next day exploring the Island with Bertrand and Melanie on rented motorcycles “un scooter comme on dit au Québec” We go see elephants and waterfalls, a Chinese Bouddhist Temple and we go for Italian food on the side of the road.

An elephant, photographed with a built in fisheye effect in my camera

Il faut que j’avoue que je me sens toujours un peu déplacé quand je vais visiter des lieux de culte comme touriste avec ma caméra. C’est comme de voir un moine dans une discothèque, il me semble que ça fit pas.

Stone stairway in the forest

Koe Phangan is a really nice Island to visit, the Thai people are as lovely and smiling as ever and in the markets, I don’t get harassed by vendors, I finally get to just walk around and look .

We went to see a Thai Boxing match, that seemed to be quite the local event, they had a speaker truck spitting out advertisement all day in the streets. It cost 600baht (40$) to get in. There is a traditional music during the fights and the boxers follow a bowing ritual before the match. I would say the main difference with regular boxing would be the use of kicks and knees. It was nice to see the Thais fighting each other, the battle seemed even and they seemed to be enjoying it as a sport. But when the foreigners got on the ring the battle took a different look. First of all, Thais aren’t very big and well the strangers we’re a lot taller. The Canadian fighter was at least a foot and a half taller than the Thai and he put him down in the first round. The final Battle last about 10 seconds. The Thai got destroyed by this gigantic black Swede. I really didn’t enjoy seeing that. It just felt like the Thais were being absolutely dominated by the rest of the world at their own sport… in their own land!

This was quite an exciting night at the Boxing Stadium

Quelle mouche m'à piqué?

Next morning I woke up with my face all swollen. I guess it was from an insect or some allergies, this room was really bad…

This eventually came back to normal and I went to the Full Moon Party. I had to take a shuttle in the back of a pick up truck to get to the south of the Island. I get droped off in the middle of this super amped little tourist town where they sell fluorescent clothes everywhere. In the first five minutes I was there, I saw at least 5 guys in underwaer wearing whigs and painted on clothes, an overdrunk girl being carried with her dress pulled up and NO underwear AND a guy in a speedo wearing a tiger head on his head and a tail sticking from his bum! MADNESS!!!

People painting themselves with fluorescent paint

I went to meet up with Bert and Melanie at the Coral Resort where every one was methodically getting wasted before the party and painting themselves with fluorescent paint. I figured I’d wait to see the blacklights on the beach before I cover myself with art! Good thing I did, because after we managed to pull through the massive jam at the entrance of the beach, I realize that all this painting wasn’t glowing at all since there was no blacklights on the beach. After helping out a few passed out people to get up on their feet, I went to dance to what seemed like the Psy-Trance Scene. This was a great opportunity for me to practice my warrior dance moves

Un petit gecko qui voulait faire partie de la fête!

as every now and then some drunken body would fall off a platform and bump into me, after about an hour off ninja dancing, I had enough, the energy wasn’t good for me, or maybe I wasn’t drunk enough… Just not my scene, so I went to explore the rest of the beach.

This beach was a pretty hot place to be!

So in Thailand, people don’t tip when going in restaurant or buying alcohol. So the more you drink, the more the bartender has to work, and he doesn’t get the tips coming with it! So figured a way around that and the most popular drinks over there is served in buckets! The bucket consist of ice, a can of coke, a bottle of redbull and your choice between a mickey of vodka, Sam Sung (cheap local rhum) or Whisky (Jack Daniels). It comes with several straws so you can drink it with your friends! Well they must have sold thousands of that shit on the beach because I’ve never seen so many wasted people on one beach. It was amusing to watch all this crazyness, but I wouldn’t go back.

Some local artists had body painting stands and were displaying some of their artwork

The next day, I woke up with some itchy rashes on my arms. Awesome. Then I sat down to look at my next move which was to go to Koh Tao to do my Open Water diving certification. I looked at the dates, than I looked at my Thailand Visa, and that’s when I realized that I would never book so long in advance in my futur travels. My visa was gonna run out before I would be done my course! well I was up for a quick change of plan. I meditated on my options for a while and decided that I would go for a little trip in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia!

At low tide, it's common to see fisherman looking for see treasures

Well hey! I’m in Malaysia now and soon moving forward, I’ll keep you posted if I can, meanwhile, here’s a little video about this little trip on Koh Phangan.

À bientôt mes amis,

Alex

Categories: Thailand | Tags: full moon party, koh phangan, thailand | 2 Comments

Tonsai, Climbing Paradise!

Posted on February 6, 2012 by alexb

A view of Railey from a cave at a Thai Wand Climbing wall

One of the reason I came to Thailand was that I heard there was good Roc Climbing. Tonsai is a small village in a bay near Krabi accessible by boat only. It is right next to Railey, which is an overgrown village that became a tourist heaven with lots of good shops and nice restaurant with an awesome beach. there are climbing areas all over the Island, all at walking distance but some with a bit of a harder access, sometimes you have to climb ladders, walk in the ocean at low tide or even cross caves.

Tonsai Road

There are no cars in Tosai or Railey, walking streets only! There are a few utility vehicles but mainly for supplying food and ice to restaurants. The main road in Tonsai, actually the only road, is not even paved. Everyone wear flipflops, carry a little foldable mat for the beach or their climbing rope. I buy big 5 liter jugs of water that I keep in my bungalow and keep filling up my water bottle. There are cats everywhere, it’s common to sit at a coffee place and have a little dirty kitten jump on your laps for a pet. I’m discoveing that buildings don’t need walls when you don’t need to heat it. There’s food vendors setting up anywhere making awesome pancakes and selling chicken curry, fried rice and indian food. Fruit shakes are part of a daily diet here. Also little climbing shops everywhere, sellin and renting climbing gear and guide books.

A wooden hut that can be rented for 15$ day

There are lots of accommodations and little bungalows to rent.

The price goes up in the current high seasons to about 20$ a night.

The restaurants and bars look like they were built from drift wood and coconut tree leaves.

I met soo many travellers from all around the world here, and most of them are here for the roc climbing!

A little friend hanging over my head in the jungle treck to go to Railey. She was bigger than my hand!

La plage est bondée d’as de la grimpes plus musclés les un que les autres!

Il y a des Canadiens, des Australiens, Philipinos, Chinois, Suédois, Anglais, Français, Américains, Israeliens, Argentiniens, Allemands, des gens de partout quoi! Ici, pas besoins de venter les mérites du voyage, tous le monde est international! Beaucoup de gens ont voyager partout sur le globe l’ont incorporé dans leur mode de vie depuis des années. J’entend des histoires de l’Inde, du Népal, de l’Indonésie et il me tarde de pouvoir partager des histoire similaires, quoique je ne manque pas d’attiré l’intérêt avec mes histoires du grand nord canadien, le seul endroit ou presque personne n’est jamais allé! Quoique j’ai grimpé avec un gars de Skagway et pris une bière avec un pêcheur de l’Alaska!

The rythme of life here is eat some mixed fruit with muesli and yogurt in the morning, find a spot in the shades to climb until noon, go for a fruit shake and mango sticky rice for lunch, climb hard in the afternoon, jump in the ocean at six, go for a shower and fresh clothes before a nice curry dinner with people from all over the world, and then go for beers at one of the bars on the beach to enjoy the live music and start again the next day, or take a rest day!

This is what after climbing beer looks like at the Sunset bar!

Now I discovered that Boudhism and Islam are not the only religion in Thailand, I believe there is an underground cult here and the worshipped god is Bob Marley!

The reggae mantra

I sometimes felt like I was in in Jamaica since in most of the bars I would either see this giant image of Bob and the rastaman behind the bar would be smoking big riffers, or there would be live music and every single band I saw would sing some Bob Marley music!

The live music scene really got me hooked and I was pleased to be able to jam with many talented musicians, sometimes, I would just hope on a drum kit to play with the DJ, and other musicians would join in until the DJ would turn the music off and the jam would be on it’s way! Than another drummer would show up and I would hop on a bass or a guitar sometimes till the wee hours of the morning! Bars don’t close here!

I used to be fit for roc Climbing, but that was 10 years ago and even then, I was just starting. Roc Climbing requires a special set of muscles and not necessarily big ones, but strong ones. There is a lot of technique involved to be able to hang for vertical on overhanging walls for enough time to set your gear and keep climbing. My first climbing days were pretty bad: sore hands, no endurance on the wall, hard time to find climbing partners that would climb easy routes with me. But I set the goal to climb every day, and soon enough, I was back at climbing 6a and 6b.

Here's my friend Sarah from Melbourn Australia, she is absolutely passionnate about climbing, so for more than a week, we went climbing almost every day. Thanks Sarah!

Climbing is to be done with climbing partners, unless your bouldering, which means your climbing without a rope, not far off the ground. There is a lot of safety involed, safety about setting up the equipment, about belaying your partner, about climbing, about the environment. Without proper safety accidents can happen. It takes a long time to be a good climber and also not a reckless one. Trusting the gear is one thing, setting it well is another one. But mainly, knowing what the risks are and reducing them to the minimum is the key to be a safe climber. I did a few mistakes and I was glad to be climbing with people who could point them out to me, that’s just gonna make me a better climber in the long run.

After some goog climbing, I hicked through a cave to get to the beach.

I climbed all I could, but not all I wanted, so I’ll plan some more for my travels. It’s just such a great activity that makes you push yourself and such a satisfying way of spending my time. Plus I got all this gear I’m carrying around, so might as well use it some more!

This my guitare hand metamorphosing into a climber hand

Sunset at low tide. Does it get any nicer?

I now left Tonsai, but I’ll be back, this place has a nice community of climbers that keep coming back and beautiful Thai people that I would like to get to know. I really would have stayed here for a few more weeks, but there is so much to see! I am now on Koh Phangan for a Full Moon party gathering some 40 000 people on a beach for some intense partying. More on that later

Hope your all doing well,

Alex

And for your ears and eyes, here’s the little video I made for you:

Categories: Thailand | Tags: krabi, railey, roc climbing, thailand, tonsai | 2 Comments

Getting to Ton Sai

Posted on January 29, 2012 by alexb

Ha! I made it out of Bangkok! Pretty diificult ride on this over packed 2 storey bus, but I made it in the southern peninsula of Thailand. I stopped in Krabi, and than I took a shuttle to Ao Nang Beach! Ah la plage!!! Last time I was on a beach it was Tuktuyaktuk and I managed to dip a foot for about 33 seconds!

This one of the thousand boats circulating in the bays, delivering supplies or moving peoples.

So there’s these long boats with a car engine mounted on a swivel, they’re like taxis. 100B (3$) to get to Ton Sai where I’m going! The ride is about 15 minutes

This is called Ton Sai Tower, one day I should climb it! One day...

And this is me arriving to Ton Sai, I still have no idea of what's waiting for me there!

Yes indeed, oui monsieur, many adventures await for me on Ton Sai.

Ton Sai is on the same island a Rayley. Rayley is like a resort town for tourists. Lots of fancy accomodations, everything looks newer bigger, organized. In Tonsai, it’s quite the opposite. Everything looks like it was built from recycled material, things are cheaper, and its 90% roc climbers that hang out there. And hang out is the word. If your not climbing, your chilling, that’s the rule.

3 Canadians I met on TonSai

Now I came to Railey with the intention of Rock Climbing obviously. But It’s been over 10 years since I’ve seriously climbed… so my body is really out of climbing shape. And I had to make friends to get some climbing partners. Luckily, Ton Sai is packed with backpackers from all over the world all looking for climbing partners so it wasn’t to hard to get on the rock. what was hard at first, was to stay on it!

With my body adapting to the climbing sport and to the new diet and lifestyle, I realised that it would take me more than just a few climbs to really get into the climbing life.

J’ai eu des journée de grimpe courtes, longues, des journées de congé, de maladie (diurétiques) , heureusement qu’on peut avoir un massage pour 6$ ici, il y a pas de raisons de se priver!

I’ll let you know more about climbing Ton Sai on the next post!

Hope all of you are well,

Alex

Categories: Thailand | 2 Comments

The Bangkok Nightlife Video (fixed)

Posted on January 29, 2012 by alexb

Yep, the last video I sent was corrupted a bit, so here it is now on vimeo:

Note: Yeah I need to keep working on aspect ratios and formating….

Categories: Thailand | Leave a comment

More on Bangkok

Posted on January 25, 2012 by alexb

Bangkok made me rethink the way I see organized systems. It looks like sometimes, the society system might just work better if you let it to itself. Here there are endless creativity on how to set up businesses and make a little money to make a living. The streets are covered with markets and stands and vendors selling food and clothes and trinkets.

Tous le monde dans la rue veut me vendre quelque chose, si je m’arrête deux secondes pour regarder quelque chose qui attire mon attention, zoust, instantanément un vendeur apparait à côté de moi pour m’inciter à acheter. Même en marchant dans la rue, les chauffeurs de taxi s’arrêtent pour m’inciter à les engagés pour une visite de la ville d’une journée, cheap cheap qu’ils disent.

Taking a run around the streets I saw some meatball stands in just about any obscure corner, under overpass, bridges, in stairs, all of them seemed pretty busy cooking for someone. I experienced more smells in a day than in my entire life, but more on the stinky side. I saw A woman sewing on the street with her old foot powered singer, I saw a woman getting paid to pluck out grey hairs with tweezers next to a man selling miniature tuktuk (motorized vehicle) out of coca-cola tin cans.

I was looking for guitar strings and I was oriented to a computer mall? It took me for ever to find the miniature shop in the far top rear corner of the building, but I had never seen so many electronics in one room!

But I went back to Kao San road the Backpacker central, to hang out with some travelers, get drunk in the streets and sing some songs along the bar roads.

See by yourself by checking this video link: Bangkok2

Fantastic Simona from Italie but lives as an artist in Montpelier

This is the little clan that walked around singing in the streets: “How much the coke at the Sawtdee Bar? twenty fiiiiiiiiiive!!!”

Nice lady from Myanmar, watch for this guitalele, I have a feeling it'll show up again!: And that’s us singing a song to the police!

My buddy Farhad is always after the phone number of a pretty lady!

THis is it for Now! I am now in roc Climbing Paradise, I’ll work on some visual and show you all about Ton Sai!

Categories: Thailand | Leave a comment