Penang

I arrived on the Malaysian island of Penang on the 8th of December. Here I hooked up with Jasmine Sau, whom I first met on my Bus from Saigon, Vietnam to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, and with whom I spent five days thereafter. I crashed on her floor and spent what little free time she had with her, during which she took me to various local restaurants, whisked me around on her motorbike, and took me out with one of her friends to see temples, markets, and bar scenes.

Penang was my first look into the rich mix of cultures that is Malaysia. In addition to the native Muslim Malay population, there is also a strong mix of Hindu Indians and Buddhist Chinese. The population seems to get along remarkably well despite their very blatant seperations. With very few exceptions that I observed, they stay within their cultural bounds. That is to say that you will rarely see different ethnicities going out together. I don't believe I ever saw members of differing ethnicities that were intimately involved. The Chinese population will be seen together speaking Mandarin, or Hokkien, or Cantonese. The Malay will be seen speaking Malaysian. The Indians will be seen speaking Tamil. The foods have been kept equally well preserved, although there appears to be some mixing of tastes and dishes. Interestingly you will actually see a great diversity of peoples eating at most food establishments.

The first images here are of Kek Lok Si, the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia. The greenspace outside the temple contains statuary of the various animals in the Chinese zodiac, and you will observe me kissing the rabbit that represents my birthyear, 1987. The remaining photos include me contemplating my dark lust for Indian food, images from the ferry between Penang and the peninsular mainland, snake temple, Penang's national park (including Monkey Beach and Muka Head Lighthouse), and also places of worship for the Muslim, Hindu, Taoist, and Buddhist population.

Back in Bangkok or "Fun with Manikins"

Ayutthaya

After several days back at the On Nut Guesthouse in Bangkok, I decided to make a quick trip to Ayutthaya, 76 km to the North. This is the old capitol of Thailand. Taking advantage of the rivers that encircle this piece of land, essentially making it into an island, the old capitol was established. Its use, however, was discontinued when the Burmese finally penetrated its natural defenses, destroying much of the original city. I hit up the free food stalls that spanned a whole city block and consisted of perhaps more than three dozen "vendors." It was all part of the celebrations for the kings birthday the following day. On December 5th, the day of his birthday, I went back to the food area only to find all the freebies reserved for the local monks. Some of the elder monks even had helpers that carried a garbage bag for dumping the free food into when their pots got too full.

With tears in my eyes I decided to make way back to Bangkok, hoping I might find better festivities there. Ultimately I got drunk with good friends by my side and skipped the party and fireworks at Lumphini Park, but it was the right decision and I had a night that couldn't be beat.

Pattaya

I arrived in Pattaya on Saturday, November 28th. Pattaya is like no other place on earth; I am convinced. You have to go to understand, but I will try to do it what little justice I can. Here is a city where old men from all around the world (though predominantly German and Russian, it seemed) come to find long-term and short-term sugar mamas. Here, some of the most attractive girls and lady boys in Asia make their living from the massive sex tourism industry. I read somewhere that these commercial sex workers bring in twice as much money as the government there every year. I stayed for two nights and then left before I did anything stupid or came out of my drunkenness to find all my money spent.

Koh Chang (fishing village)

I arrived in Koh Chang on Wednesday, November 25. I did little exploring here. It is a gigantic island, and while I did hitch a ride to the mangrove forest, I mostly stuck around the fishing village where I did my first "homestay". I would have missed it if not for the Thai couple who gave me a ride 20 km from the ferry pier to the village and spotted the sign (written in Thai). None of the family spoke any English except for the son, Be, who spoke only a limited broken English. I helped in making support beams for a dock and driving them into the muck below the waters surface. Truthfully it may have been the beginnings of a dock or a hut; language barriers prevented any successful communication of exactly what was being constructed. I also went out in the bay, which measured around 1.5 km in radius, to the only structured on the water. It was a raft constructed by the Be and on it was a hut that he built as well. We smoked briefly in the hut, and proceeded to collect mussels attached to the raft and other ropes strung out through the bay.

This was all a wonderful experience, and very rewarding. Each meal consisted of around six courses, real Thai cuisine comprised mostly of seafood reaped from the ocean only earlier in the day or sometimes the day before; Crabs, prawn, mussels, fish, squid... pork stuffed squid... Mmm.. These were the tastiest three days of my travels to be sure.

Battambang

The pictures here show the road to the Killing Cave, a view from the cave, a shrine containing the remains of the victims, children flying a kite from a frighteningly high cliff-side (I made my way back from the edge as quickly as I could), this and that, and also a statue of the king with his staff who is said in legend to have thrown it to the horizon, where the ground upon which it landed became the city of Battambang, meaning lost staff.

This was a relatively boring visit. I spent 3 days, and it was probably 2 days too many. I was glad to have seen the "Killing Caves" where the Khmer Rouge slaughtered, beat, and hurled their victims into the chasm of the cave. I was glad to see the shrines and temples built upon these grounds. The ancient ruins were quite uninteresting though, having just come from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.