Beijing Days One and Two

Hello from China! After spending Thursday night in Bangkok and heading early to the airport, I took a 4.5 hour flight to Beijing. Flying in to the airport, you start to get a feel for just how polluted the air is here. Thai Airways has a screen that displays the plane's elevation, and I could not see anything on the ground until about 1500 ft--and then just barely. Before we could get off the plane, some people in masks came onto the plane and took every person's temperature, one by one, to screen for swine flu. They then took my temperature no fewer than two more times before I could get out of the airport.

I am staying in a hostel located in a hutong, a traditional Chinese dwelling consisting of a walled courtyard abutting a narrow street. My housing is probably more important to me her than any other place I'm traveling to, because I will be largely on my own in Beijing, and I'll need to met people. Fortunately, it's worked out very well so far. After I checked in yesterday, the hostel hosted a free dumpling party for all of the guests, and I met some people I liked over the food and some (very cheap, but good) beer. Also, Internet is free--a big plus for me.

On the topic of Internet access, I was curious to see just what was and was not permitted by the Chinese government, which has an army of 30,000 people censoring anything it doesn't like, particularly anything related to Tiananmen Square "events" or Taiwanese independence. This includes blocking access to Facebook from time to time--I was able to access last night but not this morning--and cleverly eliminating large portions of Wikipedia articles so that you would never know they were there. For instance, there is a Wikipedia entry on Tiananmen Square, but there is no mention of what happened in 1989.

Today, I rented a bike and headed out to see the Olympic sights with Diego, an Argentinian man who I met last night at dinner. He is studying Mandarin here for a month and a half, so he was able to ask directions from people on the street. After a long ride (maybe an hour?) we got to go inside both the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. Almost all of the people there-and there were a lot--were Chinese tourists. Apparently, we are as much of a tourist attraction as the buildings. I was ask to pose with Chinese people for about five pictures while we were there.

I'm now back at our hostel, resting after the long ride. It's difficult to do anything physical here for very long, because the air really is terrible. I may try to go to dinner with some of the other people at the hostel later...I'll keep my camera with me!

Ko Phangan, Ko Tao

After spending one night on Ko Samui, the four of us headed to Ko Phangan, a nearby island, site of the Full Moon Party. On the way, Knut got into a fight with a taxi driver who tried to rip us off, and then initimidated other taxi drivers who wanted to take off. The taxi driver ended up pulling out a dagger from his taxi, and Knut had to be restrained by Jean Philippe. We were glad to get off the island.

On Ko Phangan, we checked in to an overpriced hotel near the water, then headed down to Haad Rin, the downtown area, for dinner and drinks and a look at the beach. The night life here is very good, particularly because Full Moon Party, a world-famous monthly all-night party with between 8 and 30k people, is taking place on the 9th (when I leave for Bangkok and on to Beijing). However, it is quite expensive and, like Ko Samui, very developed.

Today, we decided to have a more authentic beach experience by taking a ferry to Ko Tao, the smallest and northernmost island in this area. Once we reached the island, we hired a taxi driver to take us to a snorkeling/diving beach that Jean Philippe had read about in Lonely Planet. This particular taxi ride involved sitting in the bed of the driver's pickup truck--something that we've gotten accustomed to here--but this ride was particularly unusual because it involved a lot of tight turns on steep slopes of unpaved roads. Still, the views from the peaks were spectacular, and I managed to get one good shot on the way back.

The beach itself was not much to speak of given the standard for this area, but the snorkeling was fantastic. There was an enormous coral reef with colorful fish and crabs, and a small rock island that we could jump off of into the warm water. Ivo and Jean Philippe went diving again, and we all got our fill of lying on the sand and relaxing.

Tomorrow, I will leave early in the afternoon to take a ferry to Ko Samui, where I have an evening flight headed for Bangkok. On Friday, I have a morning flight to Beijing. I'll write more once I have some good stories and pictures to share from China.

Cambodia Part Two, Ko Samui

After our first day exploring the temples of Angkor, our group of five went to downtown Siem Reap for a very memorable night which included:

-Drinking Pastis in honor of the 4th of July with Jean Philippe, and toasting to Lafayette
-Lots of shots of Cambodian Whiskey, thanks to Knut
-Arm wrestling at the bar with the Cambodians. It turns out the Jean Philippe is very, very good at arm wrestling
-Knut disappearing at 3am

After sleeping in, Nisha and I headed back to the temples on the 5th to see Angkor Thom, a huge walled city full of temples. It used to also have regular buildings in it, but stone and brick were thought to only be appropriate for the gods, so all other buildings were made of wood and rotted away long ago. The highlight for me was a large complex known as "Tomb Raider" (presumably because the movie was shot there). There were huge tropical trees growing all around the stones of the temple, giving it a very unique look and making for some good photo opportunities.

After spending yesterday in transit all day, we made it to Ko Samui last night. This island is on the opposite side of the penninsula from where we were before. It is a much larger island than Ko Phi Phi Don, and also quite expensive. This afternoon, we will be taking a ferry to Ko Phangan, a nearby island that hosts the world-famous Full Moon Party later this week, which some of the people in our group will be at (I'll be in Beijing by then). The plan is to go snorkeling and diving and spend more time at the beach. No complaints here.

Cambodia Part One

I tried to post this yesterday, but it wouldn't go through, so it's going up now. I'll update later on what we did today.

Yesterday morning, Nisha, Ivo, Jean Phillipe, Knut, and I began our trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. Partly to save money (flights between Siem Reap Airport and Bangkok are expensive), and partly for the experience, we decided to take the trip there via land. This meant a 4.5 hour bus ride to near the border, a tuk tuk ride to an outsourcing place where we bought our visas, walking through Thai and Cambodian security, a government bus to the taxi terminal, and a 3 hour taxi to Siem Reap, all of which cost me about 20 bucks.

On that note, one of the strange things I've noticed about Cambodia is that they rely primarily on U.S. currency, though they have their own (4000 Cambodian Riel per 1 US Dollar), and they also widely accept Thai Baht. My guess is that their own currency became unstable sometime in their brutal and unstable history, so they just decided to screw it and use ours.

Driving through the countryside, the rampant poverty here is obvious. We saw lots of cows that are used to manually till rice fields, and people seem to live in shacks made of rotten wood and sheet metal. There is still a big problem here with unexploded land mines, and we've seen quite a few amputees here. But aside from that, our time here has been comfortable. We are staying in a very nice hostel run by Westerners that has its own restaurant and bar, and everything is dirt cheap.

This morning, we caught a tuk tuk at 5am to take us to Angkor Wat (about 15 mins north of here), where we celebrated Independence Day by watching the sunrise. Angkor Wat is the largest and most spectacular, but far from the only temple in the area. There are many, many temples constructed of stone over a 300+ year period around 1000 years ago. Angkor at its peak was a city of 1 million people and the capital of the Khmer Empire, which stretched from Vietnam to Myanmar. Each king, it seems, would try to outdo his predecessor by having a larger and more fantastic temple built. They are dedicated to a combination of Hindu gods, Buddha, and the kings themselves. After seeing Angkor Wat, our group split up, and Nisha and I explore some of the more far-flung temples. Tomorrow we'll go back to see more of the central main attractions that we skipped today.

I have cheap Internet access here, but it is very slow, so pictures will need to wait until I have a better opportunity to upload them.