The Golden Horse Monastery - Finding a Piece of Thai Legend

Chiang Rai Province, Thailand

You're a traveler, not a tourist, gosh darnit, and you want to do something unique.  Tripadvisor?  Pfft...that's for beginners.  Lonely Planet?  Gimme a backpacking break.  I wouldn't be caught dead
with one of those books!

I'm not actually above any of that, but I was in Chiang Rai, Thailand with very few recommended sights to see!  Chiang Rai is known for its White Temple, which is impressive, and will be saved for another post, but other than that?  Not much going on in these parts.  I would find something awesome and off the beaten trail to do.

Where is it?

Chiang Rai is the northernmost "large" city in Thailand.  I mostly stopped here due to a recommended ceramic site, and its proximity to Laos - I would be traveling there the following day.  As is my favored custom, I rented a motorbike in town and researched my options for the next day.  I don't even know how I stumbled upon what I ended up doing.

The Golden Horse Monastery 

There is legend.  There are documentaries.  There are no reviews and hopefully there never will be any.  You won't find this place on Tripadvisor or Lonely Planet and you will get lost getting there (or at least I did.  Severely).

Kuang Si Waterfall and Bear Rescue Center - Luang Prabang, Laos

Sometimes there are several options for eco-tourism in one city, and other times, there is THEE thing to do in a city.  For Luang Prabang, THEE thing to do is the Kuang Si Waterfall and adjacent Bear Rescue Center, housing several Asiatic bears.

Free The Bears fund has rescued almost 1000 bears from poachers and other threats preying on them in Southeast Asia.  Laos' center is within the grounds of the beautiful Kuang Si waterfalls area.  When I heard that this was the thing to do in Luang Prabang, I was a little disappointed.  I hadn't heard much about the bears, but having seen some of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world (and admittedly not the biggest waterfall fanatic anyway), I was hesitant to shell out the kip for the tuk tuk ride out there.  Meeting two other solo travelers wanting to see the falls, I decided it was worth it to split the cost of the hour-long ride out and back.  I'm so glad I did!

So strange and awesome

Tat Kuang Si Bear Rescue Centre was established by Free The Bears Fund Inc. in 2003 after local authorities confiscated three bear cubs and asked for assistance to help look after them.  The rescue centre has continued to provide care for these bears and also accepted further bears that have been confiscated by the Lao authorities.  Most of the bears at the centre are Asiatic Black Bears (Moon Bears) that were illegally captured from the wild as young cubs – it is likely that they were destined for use in the traditional medicine trade.  -Freethebears.org

Last summer I took a trip with my mom down to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in TN/NC, America and I got to see a black bear up close.  He was nothing like these bears, which were also black but sported a clear boomerang of white hair near their neck.  There are other differences between these bears and American black bears as you can see in the photos!  Yes that bear is standing on his two hind legs.  Like a human.  You aren't seeing things.

80 Amused Passengers and One Baby Monkey. Mekong Slow Boat Day 2

Pakbeng, Laos

Remember when I almost didn't get a seat yesterday?  That wasn't happening today.  Bleach blond girl was still in bed when I cinched and clicked my pack tight and headed out for an early morning at the dock.  I stopped by a bakery on the one main road through Pakbeng and made it down to the boats at
7:30am.  We were scheduled to leave at 9:30am.  You can't be too prepared for these things... today was going to be a potentially grueling 8 1/2 more hours of slow boat on the way to Luang Prabang.  So for about 30 minutes, it was me and ten other overly prepared locals, hangin' out on the boat.  The rest of the passengers slowly started rolling down the hill to claim their seats.  As some of the travelers were settling around me, someone mentioned "yeah...she's bringing it on the boat!"

I look up and a girl about my age is stepping into the boat and what is riding tightly on the back of her neck?  A baby monkey.  The girl-half of me was melting in sheer cuteness and the other logical-half was thinking... I've seen "Outbreak," I know how these things end...

The Jungle Cruise...Fo Real. Mekong Slow Boat Day 1

In Khmer language "Mae" meaning "Big, Mother, Boss or Large" and "Kong" is a short word of "Kongkea" and it means "Water". In the Lao-Khmer-Thai toponymy, all great rivers are considered "mother rivers" signalled by the prefix "mae", meaning "mother", and "nam" for water. (Wikipedia)

Of course I'm behind on some Thailand posts but I figured, since I'm ON the Mekong right now, I might as well post about it.

I don't know why, but I'm always a little nervous about border crossings.  There's just something about official men in official uniforms giving you that official look as they scrutinize your passport.  Their eyes tell you that you've done fifty illegal things in the previous country.  Gives me the heebie jeebies.

So, I was prodding my wonderful guesthouse owner for advice and logistics of everything that was to happen today.  I loved the guesthouse I stayed at in Chiang Khong.  It's the border town on the Thai side of the Mekong and a popular one-nighter for people crossing into Laos.  My private room with fan was 150 baht ($4.80) and her cooking was to die for.  Not to mention she fed me sticky rice with mango which is like Thai crack.  So, I was going to listen to everything she told me.

She saw my nerves and said that I could just book the slow boat tix through her (like another guest was doing) and I wouldn't have to worry about the ferry, tuk tuk and ticket office.  This man who would take care of all of that was her long-time friend and I could trust him.  The offer sounded pretty attractive and I would have a buddy doing the same thing, so I agreed, against all the advice I read online to just do the routine on your own.

Oh, Chiang Mai!

One particular stop in Thailand was sure to be a hit – Chiang Mai.  I knew I was going to like this Northern town because all of the specs were similar to my former home in Vietnam, DaNang.  Medium sized, cooler and less traffic-jammed than the big urban cities, and great eco-tourism to get you out and about.  The only major difference is that Chiang Mai is a well-known city in the backpacking circuit, and for good reason.  A friend of mine who I met on the bus ride over from Cambodia flew into Chiang Mai on the same day as me, so we decided to do a day of awesome together, and awesome it was.  We booked a tour with Untouched Thailand and two very fluent English speaking guides picked us up at 6:30am to head north.  These guys (named Pon and Tom) were great conversationalists, and had a unique back story – they grew up together and spent 18 years as monks!  This came in handy while we were visiting temples, as they knew so much about monastery life. 

Our first stop was at the Elephant Training Center.  There were many options for elephant interaction in Chiang Mai, some charging 58000 Baht ($187) for one day.  We didn’t know much about this place as we booked a tour and everything was prearranged, but we might have done this portion differently in hindsight.  Riding an elephant through the forest is an amazing experience, but something about it just didn’t feel right.  Riding a horse seems fine, but riding an elephant - an animal three or four times the size of a horse – brought on some guilt.  Afterward, it was very cool to feel the elephant’s skin (so rough!) and feed him a whole bunch of bananas.  It was warming to hear about the relationship the elephants have with the mahouts.  Our guide told us the mahouts rarely take any holidays, because having an elephant is a full-life job.  One mahout and one elephant are together until one of them dies.  After speaking with my host about our unease in the situation, he explained that they could be logging, which isn’t allowed anymore, so this life is much better and easier than the abuse loggers once put them through.  After we saw the mahouts give the elephants a bath, we jumped onto a bamboo raft and floated down the river.  It was a wonderful and peaceful ride. 

After leaving the elephant camp, we headed over to a cave, which was nice, but nothing compared to what I’ve seen in the last year.  I’m pretty sure Vietnam takes the cake for caves.  Sorry, Thailand.  Can't win 'em all.

All Templed Out? A Walk on the Crawly Side

Since I was enjoying myself so much, I allotted an additional day in Siem Reap to splurge one last time on what ended up being the most fun day of my trip.  After temple trekking, there aren’t too many activities advertised to do, especially in town, so I started exploring other eco-tourism outings.  Through a random tripadvisor link, I happened upon a beautiful picture of a caterpillar.  So entranced, I read through the description and reviews

Dani Jump in his playground

(all of which were five stars).  It described a nature tour, led by Dani Jump of Bees Unlimited to explore the creatures and forest life of the Angkor Archaeological Park.  Through very prompt email correspondence, Dani and I arranged a tour that would depart from my hotel at 7am and return some time mid-afternoon.  At this point I was feeling pretty strapped for cash, but it was a private tour with a Cambodia nature expert so how could I resist?

The tour was $35 itself and $10 for the tuk tuk driver, which would have been waived if I had found another participant. 

Morning Wholesale Market

We started out in the wholesale market, bustling with the sale of morning produce, meat and seafood.  Large silver bowls with all kinds of wild market food lined narrow, muddy pathways.  It was difficult to squeeze past hagglers and peek into every stall while averting the dreaded sandal slop of mud, but interesting to experience busy morning life.  

We enjoyed noodles with a deep fried something or other for breakfast and then taste tested a few other goods as we walked.  Finally, we came upon an insect merchant and Dani urged me to try the big red ants that had been biting me just the day before.  Payback time.  As he is vegetarian, Dani didn’t partake, but he assured me they were sour.  Why? Red ants eat mango leaves so their bodies taste like a squirt of lime.  Delicious!  ...Really!

Finding Zen in Đà Lạt

During travel, what you see and do can leave a lasting impression of your trip, but often not as permanent as who you meet.  During my recent trip to Đà Lạt, I was able to spend some time with some folks you often don't see due to their lifestyle - monks and nuns.  

Đà Lạt is rich in abundance of pagodas and the landscape provides a sort of fairytale land backdrop for their archways, buildings, and statues to be nestled into.  The first one I stumbled upon, I was with Dyanne.  It was high up on a hill off of a main road outside of town.  After a few exchanged "hello"s and "we're from America"s, we started looking around at their own small plot of coffee plants, a building for community activity and one for worship, I heard someone say "Canada! Canada!" and we looked over as a beautiful girl with freckles all over her face and a shaved head approached.  With almost no Vietnamese accent, she greeted us in English and continued to explain that she had studied in Canada for a few years and that this pagoda was strictly for nuns.  We were visiting during a time of confinement - they would not leave the pagoda for three months.  Whew! That's a lot of time together.  

Extreme Team Building

(Not my pic) Here's what happens on the ramp

My HR person at my work (who is like my Vietnamese mom here) organized a team-building outing to..er...well... the motivations weren't clear but the flyer said rafting so I said YES!  As you no doubt have noticed in previous posts, things are done a little differently in Vietnam than in most western countries.  Planning is usually amiss, sanitation is not always a top-three consideration, and common sense safety is just about out the window for most activities.  These three conditions in particular should have tipped me off to the inherent risks a new rafting outfit may present, but as a full time employee, my company was willing to pay for the whole day and vouch for my general well being during the trip.  Let's go!

Fully Mended

Clichéd sayings don’t really feel validated until you experience them.  You know that popular one about valuing your health (especially when you don’t have it?)  I've never been so happy to feel healthy again.  After two bouts with flu-like fevers, food poisoning, infections, allergic reactions, and strep throat, my list of fun added another teacher favorite – pink eye.  Recognizing this really sexy infection the moment I woke up, I knew that I wasn’t going to spend the $60 to see a Western doctor.  I knew it was pink eye.  That left one other option: the Vietnamese hospital.  I figured I’d do it at some point, why not now? 

My very lovely Vietnamese teacher assistant went with me to the hospital that day. 

Big, white, and bustling with people even during nap time, the hospital visit felt like a field trip.  I was experiencing health care like VN residents.  I waited at the receptionist counter while several women in white processed paperwork and took my insurance card.  Then, I turned around and had my blood pressure and heart rate checked by machines right in the lobby.  After paying a small fee, we got into the elevator, but not without two technicians and a young girl, maybe 17, laying on a stretcher with an IV drip.  In the eternity it took to ascend four floors, I listened to this girl with her eyes closed and a barely-there labored breath, wondering what her condition was at such a young age.  My laundry list of recent illnesses suddenly seemed so trivial.

Rise of the Spiders

It has been quite the eventful week of seeings and doings so I figured I'd jot a few of them down.  Our weather has been impeccable, and my dad and I jumped through a few hoops getting my slackline shipped out to Da Nang (long story about never sending anything with text or maps through the mail

), so I took to the beach in search of the perfect place to set up and have some chill time with the line.
This proved to be slightly more difficult than I had anticipated.  I needed the right distance between palms, a soft landing level ground, and preferably out of constant sight.  As a westerner, I get enough stares as it is, I didn't want to attract even more attention, especially since I hadn't slacklined since July.

Lately...

I have been meaning to sit down and blog for the last couple of weeks.  Sometimes it seems that I just can't find the words for things that happen, so here are several snippets of happenings:

Thanksgiving:  Many countries have celebrations of their own for thankfulness, especially when connected with the annual harvest, so celebrating Thanksgiving in Vietnam wasn't so far of a stretch.  We also have a handful of American and other western expats living in Da Nang, so many of us came together for a traditional plate of delicious food at Bread of Life.  I had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans and even pumpkin pie!  The one BIG difference between T-Day in America and T-Day here is that I had to go to work two hours later, feeling the full force of turkey pulling down my eyelids.  

Floating

I always look forward to Mondays and Tuesdays.  The weekend shifts at school are early and high-energy, so Monday brings much needed relief and relaxation.  This Monday morning, I was enjoying the soothing sound of pelting rain as I surfed the net and watched a movie, but then I heard a different kind of *drip..drip…splat.*  With a large fish tank gurgling in the room and the downpour outside, I chose to believe this new dripping sound was part of one of those...until I heard it again…and turned my head to the left.  A small trickling turned into a steady stream of water pouring from the second floor through the middle of the staircase onto the tiled first floor. 

Oh… crap

My, my our time flies. 100 DAYS!

 Gettin my hurr did...

The last two weeks have been full of guests and warmth here in Nhà KelseyStacey.  For the first time since moving, I was able to play host and tour guide for DaNang and her surrounding cities.  It has been fun showing friends my favorite restaurants, going to the beach, hanging out in local bars and sharing our home.  Some of the smaller highlights of living here almost go unnoticed now that I am so familiar with them, such as ushering a frog off of the coffee table before we eat, or complimentary lounge chairs on the beach.  Guests help me re-appreciate these wonders as they experience them for the first time.  As much fun as I’ve had with the visitors, today I said goodbye to my dear couchsurfing friends, and realized how tired I was!  Time for a little much-needed pampering. 

It has been four months since anyone has touched my hair, and boy did it need some attention.  I was really worried about finding a salon because, without a language barrier, getting across what you want someone to do with a pair of scissors is scary enough.  I would have to surrender all control over what I think my hair should look like.

Vietnam Autumn

This past weekend was the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival for China and Vietnam.  Some regions practice different cultural traditions but there are a few constants that you can always count on: Mooncakes, lanterns, and lion dances. 

I am disappointed in my lack of Mooncake tasting variety.  There are many different flavors from sweet to salty to savory but there was really only one mooncake for me: Sua Dua (pronounced soo-ah yeu-ah).  It’s a heavy round cake about four inches in diameter packed with coconut, magic, and in the middle?   Surprise!  A salted egg yolk.  Oooh man, I’m sad those are gone.

Ouchie Everything

As it turns out, being sick while living abroad can be a bit distressing.  As a teacher of four years in the States, I have had my fair share of illnesses and built up quite an immunity, but there’s always room for more!

Waking up in a sweat with body aches, sore throat and a headache, my mind immediately raced back to recent water cooler chats about mosquito adventures in SE Asia.

“Holy crap I have Dengue Fever!”

Melodrama aside, Dengue is a very real possibility here and no, there are no vaccinations currently available.  The only proactive measure that can be taken is mosquito avoidance.

No Huế!

I believe it is safe to say we have officially entered the rainy season here in Da Nang.  Yesterday we woke up late because for the first time, the sun wasn't penetrating through every window.  Until now, we have had scattered showers in the evening and at night, but yesterday, it rained all.  Day.  Today the clouds look pretty doom-ish as well.  Nothing stops in Vietnam during the rainy season.  We are armed with ponchos, umbrellas and raincoats and they are used in that order.  If anything, the rain calms the traffic slightly and cools the air, so our season to come is bitter sweet.  I have to say I’m looking forward to feeling 65 degrees (F) at some point.

All I wanna do is Zoom A Zoom Zoom Zoom

Many personal triumphs were had this week. 

As we have begun to familiarize ourselves with the new living quarters, house guests who hadn’t previously introduced themselves have become quite comfortable doing so.  Our bathrooms (especially mine) have lately been a haven for the world’s most resilient super pest: cockroaches.  You would think that living in Chicago, I would've had my fair share of them, but I wasn't ever properly trained for roach combat.  The only pest that Chicago prepared me for were rats.  Although I don’t prefer to see rats running around everywhere, they don’t really bother me.

In Transit

Let me first start off by saying that I have never had a more pleasant flight and airport experience.  Even with three security check points, a building change between flights and two attempts at putting my backpack in checked luggage (it was over 10 kilograms), I navigated through the international terminals of Ohare, LAX, Seoul’s Incheon and Hanoi’s Noi Bai airports with relative ease. 

Bi-Bim-Bab!

Also to note – up until this trip, Southwest Airlines had taken the cake in airline love, but my heart now belongs to another – swoon – Asiana Airlines was like royal treatment compared to any American flight experience I’ve ever had.  With a fleet of graceful attendants dressed in silk aprons and identical tight buns in their hair, my flying companions and I were treated to pillows and super soft blankets, individually screened blockbuster movies and games, two delicious full course meals, complimentary wine, coffee and tea, and numerous rounds of orange juice and water.  If you ever have the chance to choose this airline, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment.

Nerves, Acceptance, and Goodbyes: the ChronicWHATcles of Vietnam

I have been seriously planning this move for nine months, and it's amazing what hasn't hit me until a week before departure.  I am moving to Vietnam.
The words sound much different than they feel.

So what's this blog all about, and who am I?  Thinking someone will read it...
Since blogging hit norm status, I haven't quite been in the loop on their purpose, but I've come to realize that a blog can comunicate a number of ideas, and relate differently to every reader.  over the past few months, I have definitely enjoyed reading a number of travel bloggers' posts which have given valuable advice and comical anecdotes of fortunes and missteps.  If, at the end, my mom is the only one reading my entries, I'll be ok with it.