To avoid another 10 hour bus ride between and Kalaw (where the treks to Inle Lake start), we decided to stop at Mektila for a night. After getting off the bus around lunch time and shopping around for a place to stay (tip: staying in a room with a shared bathroom cuts the prices in half) we walked around town aimlessly. During our day of wandering, we met some Israelis (the only other tourists we encountered), got lost, played a game similar to caroms or pool with some toothless (for lack of good dental health, not age) men, and otherwise just enjoyed the atmosphere of the town.
Closer to sunset, Roi was taking a nap while I headed to the Internet cafe to upload pictures and email people when I spotted some guys in their 20s playing Chen-Lo, a game like hacky-sack with a woven bamboo ball. After a moment of hesitation, I asked if I could join. The next 45 minutes or so were spend alternatively playing terribly or impressing them (and my self) with some acrobatic kicks.
That night we sat down for dinner at a tea house where an Indian man was frying malawach (by a different name of course). We ate 5, dipping pieces in lentils, chutney, or just sugar. But more interestingly, an 82 year old man joined us. He drank and ate with us, all the while having a mostly pantomimed conversation with us (while the rest of the staff stood around our table, watching and finding excuses to move dishes around the table, thereby justifying their staring at us). After dinner, he walked us back to our guesthouse and we said our goodbyes.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
1 Day in Bangkok
My hostel in Bangkok was way out of the city center - 20 minutes by taxi (which is thankfully still about 6 dollars) and very far from anybody who speaks English. This, combined with my jetlag from the full day of travelling led me to go to sleep at 8:00 my first night in Bangkok.
The next morning, I breakfasted with 4 Hungarian students and their professor going to study Sanksrit in Cambodia for a month, and then headed out to town. A pickup truck, 2 trains, and a boat ride later, I was finally at Wat Arun (The Temple of the Dawn), the first Buddhist temple I actually walked in and around.
I was immediately amazed by the number of golden Buddhas, the pagodas, the statues, etc. Maybe I'll make a post about my thoughts about temples in general later. This temple in particular features a huge prang up which you can climb about half-way. The steps are about 2 feet high and 6 inches deep, making the climb very precarious.
It's good that I started with Wat Arun, because Wat Pho was even more spectacular. Wat Pho features a 45m long reclining golden Buddha, one of the main attractions in Bangkok. This Buddha had black feet with mother of pearl inlays depicting some 108 attributes of the Buddha. As soon as I had left this main attraction though, I stumbled upon a school in the back of the temple. At one point I found myself sitting in single file like with 20 kids between 4 and 8 years old and clapping along as some kids performed some nursery rhyme and dance (before starting to dance Gangnam Style). I couldn't stop smiling. Wat Pho is also said to be the first university in Thailand, with medical, agricultural, spiritual knowledge engraved on stone tablets and inset into the walls. In particular, there were statues depicting ways to stretch and meditate, and (not-so-safe-for-work) pictures explaining the pressure points on the human body. Lastly, all of the gates at Wat Pho are flanked by statues of different sorts of characters; one of these is The Westerner, with a top hat, huge eyes, fat lips, and dressed like a dandy. It's pretty funny to see eastern caricatures of us for a change.
At this point, it's about 5:00pm and I have nowhere to go. I wander to the park, and spot a girl alone reading and English-language guide to Bangkok. I say hello, we hop on the back of a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle-drawn cart), and soon we're walking up the Golden Mountain. We get lost, eat quail eggs, I buy a shirt, and we finally find ourselves in the most touristy street in the world: every other building is a hostel or a bar, all of the signs are in English (or Hebrew - there's a Chabad there too), and everybody wants to sell you food, clothes, a massage, or a tuxedo. After a long day's walking, Sarah (it took us about this long to exchange names) and I decide to let fish eat the grime off our feet for 15 minutes - not something I'm eager to do again. When I get back from Myanmar, I think I'll get a proper Thai foot massage.
Tomorrow (yesterday as of this writing), I leave to Myanmar, a country with at least one ATM.
Webpages that may or may not be relevant:
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Lost in Bangkok
I took a taxi to my hostel in Bangkok and was ready to start exploring - so I began to walk. I had no clue where I was going or in which direction I was walking, but I decided I would try to head generally toward the tourist center (which is quite far). I did manage to find ice cream pretty quickly. After wandering for a while, I saw a couple locals waiting at the bus stop an decided to wait with them. When they hailed a covered pickup truck sherut sort of thing and got on, I joined them. We cruised around for 10 minutes or so and everybody gets off at a metro station, so I do too.
Now I'm totally lost, so I walk around for a bit and jump on a bus, which just takes me to the neat metro stop before they kick me off. I eat lunch, buy DEET, and keep wandering.
At this point, I see hundreds of kids in uniform leaving a school, and I walk towards it. Next to the school is a beautiful temple; though I was taken aback, this temple isn't even on the list on my map application, leaving me ever for the ones that are. Writing this on my phone doesn't allow me to caption or inline images - forgive me.
At some point I ended up in a very poor part of town, and decide it was time to hail a cab an head back.
Some things I noticed:
The food you can buy on the street looks as though it has been sitting out for days. Eating at the mall, my first meal in Thailand was Japanese. The city (not the nice part mind you) generally smells of waste and/or feces. Nobody speaks English, which, combined with the fact that it is still developing, makes me feel like a British imperialist. It is hot in this city.
Also - I washed some clothes and discovered that Bangkok has a nice planetarium.
Now I'm totally lost, so I walk around for a bit and jump on a bus, which just takes me to the neat metro stop before they kick me off. I eat lunch, buy DEET, and keep wandering.
At this point, I see hundreds of kids in uniform leaving a school, and I walk towards it. Next to the school is a beautiful temple; though I was taken aback, this temple isn't even on the list on my map application, leaving me ever for the ones that are. Writing this on my phone doesn't allow me to caption or inline images - forgive me.
At some point I ended up in a very poor part of town, and decide it was time to hail a cab an head back.
Some things I noticed:
The food you can buy on the street looks as though it has been sitting out for days. Eating at the mall, my first meal in Thailand was Japanese. The city (not the nice part mind you) generally smells of waste and/or feces. Nobody speaks English, which, combined with the fact that it is still developing, makes me feel like a British imperialist. It is hot in this city.
Also - I washed some clothes and discovered that Bangkok has a nice planetarium.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
A Bicikli
So, I'm done with the travel memoirs for now. On to the fantastic, adventurous day I had yesterday.
After a lazy morning, I decide it's high time to take a shower. My bathroom is quite spacious, and the shower is nice and roomy.
(Aside - Some interesting things about European bathrooms in general: The shower has a temperature knob with actual numbers (in Celsius of course), which is great, because I now know that I like 39 degrees. The toilets are very strangely built so that there is a small hole in near the front of the bowl, the rest being more of a shelf - perhaps to avoid unwanted splash landings - and have 2 flushers. Bathrooms often have towel warmers and washing machines (though dryers are completely unknown here).)
Anyway, the shower head is on a hose that you have to hold as it lacks a wall fixture, which gets annoying. Feeling innovative, I grabbed an Ethernet cable, tied some knots, and we now have a working shower head holder. This is my second successful shower head hanging in the past year, but I won't let it go to my head.
Shower completed, I get the sudden urge to go out and be active (weird, I know). We have had a bike sitting in the closet all semester, and I decide it's high time to go for a ride. Oh...flat tires.
Then I remember that Alex wanted to play some ping pong. So I go to Tesco, buy a paddle, some balls, and a bike pump, and head to the park.
Alex: [Pointing] I think those are the tables over there.
We approach the tables. They don't have nets.
Us: ....?
Me: If only we had some rocks and a long stick, we could set the rocks on either side of the table and lay the stick on top. Let's look around for some.
Alex: Like these? [Holds up 2 bricks and a very straight stick that are sitting under the table. Apparently I'm not the first person to have that idea.]
We play ping pong and philosophize for 2 hours.
Arriving home, it's bike time:
Webpages that may or may not be relevant:
After a lazy morning, I decide it's high time to take a shower. My bathroom is quite spacious, and the shower is nice and roomy.
(Aside - Some interesting things about European bathrooms in general: The shower has a temperature knob with actual numbers (in Celsius of course), which is great, because I now know that I like 39 degrees. The toilets are very strangely built so that there is a small hole in near the front of the bowl, the rest being more of a shelf - perhaps to avoid unwanted splash landings - and have 2 flushers. Bathrooms often have towel warmers and washing machines (though dryers are completely unknown here).)
Anyway, the shower head is on a hose that you have to hold as it lacks a wall fixture, which gets annoying. Feeling innovative, I grabbed an Ethernet cable, tied some knots, and we now have a working shower head holder. This is my second successful shower head hanging in the past year, but I won't let it go to my head.
Shower completed, I get the sudden urge to go out and be active (weird, I know). We have had a bike sitting in the closet all semester, and I decide it's high time to go for a ride. Oh...flat tires.
Then I remember that Alex wanted to play some ping pong. So I go to Tesco, buy a paddle, some balls, and a bike pump, and head to the park.
Alex: [Pointing] I think those are the tables over there.
We approach the tables. They don't have nets.
Us: ....?
Me: If only we had some rocks and a long stick, we could set the rocks on either side of the table and lay the stick on top. Let's look around for some.
Alex: Like these? [Holds up 2 bricks and a very straight stick that are sitting under the table. Apparently I'm not the first person to have that idea.]
We play ping pong and philosophize for 2 hours.
Arriving home, it's bike time:
- Pump tires:
- Figure out how the darned nozzle connection works (10 minutes)
- Pump (15 minutes)
- Fix broken saddle mount
- Locate effective building materials (ie: string, pliers, paper clips, zip ties etc.)
- Settle for cardboard and twist tie.
- Tinker (10 min)
- Mount panniers (20 minutes)
By the time I leave for a ride, it's about midnight. After about 3 minutes of trying to word a joke, I'll give up and just say that I went 3 km in the completely wrong direction, ending up surrounded by Chinese billboards and what looked like a cross between circus grounds and an internment camp (also in Chinese). After a lot of wrong turns, I make it home by following the signs to the Tesco Hipermarket (it's better than a supermarket).
At least I get to ride to school now, saving me some time in the morning. The downside is that I live on the 4th floor.
Webpages that may or may not be relevant:
Bratislava and Szeged
These trips were on different weekends, but both single day excursions. Hopefully I won't make this too long.
Bratislava:
We arrive, meet a hostel owner that rivals The Four Seasons in hospitality, and make our way out, intending to do the "3 Hour Tour of Bratislava" which can be found in the official tourism pamphlet. The weather was beautiful and we were in only our t-shirts (causing me to momentarily wonder where I had forgotten my jacket as we left a restaurant). Needless to say, the tour took us to all the most important sites in the capital of Slovakia, including:
and "the only statue in Europe coming out of a hole in the ground."
Conclusion: there's not much in Bratislava. Much more exciting were:
Oh, and also the most wonderful playground this side of Vienna:
Conclusion: Blogger's formatting tools are not up to scratch.
Webpages that may or may not be relevant:
Bratislava:
We arrive, meet a hostel owner that rivals The Four Seasons in hospitality, and make our way out, intending to do the "3 Hour Tour of Bratislava" which can be found in the official tourism pamphlet. The weather was beautiful and we were in only our t-shirts (causing me to momentarily wonder where I had forgotten my jacket as we left a restaurant). Needless to say, the tour took us to all the most important sites in the capital of Slovakia, including:
this statue of a photographer,
this statue of the town dandy,
and "the only statue in Europe coming out of a hole in the ground."
Conclusion: there's not much in Bratislava. Much more exciting were:
these 2 pigeons mating,
this fantastic graffiti,
and ordering the "Lunch of student who want to disport himself to his girl-friend."
Szeged:
There are exactly three highlights of this trip:
- The trip was organized by BSM (that's my program) and included a colloquium lecture on "Volume in Higher Dimensions." As I've never been to a colloquium, I didn't know what to expect, but was very pleased. Turns out that the volume of a "sphere" of radius 1 in n dimensions approaches zero as n approaches infinity. There were some other interesting results as well.
- We toured the big church in town (the name escapes me at the moment). What was nice about it is that, unlike most of the notable churches around here, it is only about 100 years old. Not only was the outside constructed from brick,
- but the interior had arches and geometric decorations very reminiscent of a mosque.
It was also decorated with murals of figures from the Old Testament, which made for some good guessing games.- Breakfast at the Cow Restaurant (actual name unknown) included half-liter mugs of chocolate milk. It was so good. Also, when 20+ people walked in at the same time, the person at the counter just laughed.
Oh, and also the most wonderful playground this side of Vienna:
Conclusion: Blogger's formatting tools are not up to scratch.
Webpages that may or may not be relevant:
Prague
In the past few weeks, I've traveled to Prague, Bratislava, and Szeged (a city in Hungary). I didn't bother writing about them as I've already done some travel summaries. I'll try to post some of the more amusing highlights from each of these.
Prague:
Our hostel in Prague was fantastically close to the Old Town Square, the center of tourism in the city. This afforded me a great opportunity to look at the local, 600+ year old astronomical clock:
Webpages that may or may not be relevant:
Prague:
Our hostel in Prague was fantastically close to the Old Town Square, the center of tourism in the city. This afforded me a great opportunity to look at the local, 600+ year old astronomical clock:
Legend has it that the maker was blinded for his efforts - but only to ensure that its equal could never be constructed in another city. The blind clockmaker (something Mother Nature can't even achieve) had his revenge; he removed a single, small gear from the inner workings, vexing everyone who tried to fix it for decades after.
Later, we saw an amazing Cathedral. The purple light that shined through the stained glass was beautiful:
Next, we made our way to the Lennon (not, as we had previously thought, the Lenin wall):
Incidentally, I'm currently wearing that exact outfit.
The next day was a pretty somber day. We toured the one-of-a-kind Museum of Torture. I was a lot more disturbed than I expected to be. It was very fascinating, but also very upsetting that these gruesome (you don't want to know) tortures were inflicted joyfully and by law on fellow human beings. This prompted much discussion about witchcraft, the Holocaust, and current affairs.
We made our way to the Jewish Quarter, where we walked through a number of synagogues, one of which (Pinchas Synagogue) is a Holocaust Memorial. Filling every available inch of wall space are the names of 78,000+ Czech Jews killed during the Holocaust. The number doesn't feel real until you are surrounded by rooms and rooms of the names, no more than half an inch tall, all around you.
A better part of the group I was travelling with were not only non-Jews, they had (a) zero Jewish friends at home and (b) never been in a synagogue. I spent the day as a cultural, historical, and religious tour guide, which was a lot of fun.
Well, it seems like I've rambled on much longer than I intended, so read the next post (which, annoyingly enough, appears above this one) for Bratislava and Szeged (much shorter, I promise).
Webpages that may or may not be relevant:
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