October 22-24: Vientiane, Lao (By Jeff)

It was a mere 1 hour flight from Hanoi and we arrived in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. Unfortunately we had heard from several people that there was not much to do in the city other than fly in and out of it. However, this was not the case for the 1 weekend of the year that we happened to be visiting. Each year there is a festival to celebrate the end of Buddhist lent that lasts a few days where they expect over 500,000 people to show up from all over the country. Being completely oblivious to the fact this was going on, we were caught off guard when we first approached the main street where everything was happening our first night. We walked around for some time on the street market and were overwhelmed by the sea of people going in every direction. I tried one of the sucker carnival games where I had to throw a dart at a balloon and pop it to win a prize. Sounds easy enough right? After making an ass of myself and missing everything my first 2 throws I went for a power third throw where I extended my arm too far and caught my hand on a bowl of candies in my follow through and raked them all on to the ground at my feet. It was really embarrassing, but Liz at least got a good laugh out of it as well as other locals. To top it off, I still missed the balloons after my big windup throw. We continued walking until we decided we wanted to stop and sample a bit of local cuisine from a makeshift restaurant made of plastic tables and chairs on the street. No one at the restaurant spoke a word of English and our Lao was rusty so we pointed to a bucket of what we thought were hard boiled eggs and 2 beers to make it simple enough. Once the eggs were brought over we cracked them and instantly realized we made a mistake. Liz had read that they serve embryo eggs out here as a delicacy rather than just a regular hard-boiled egg, and that was the case here. It was a disgusting site seeing a chicken embryo in the food we were expected to eat so we quickly lost our appetite. We did our best to conceal the fact that we did not eat a single nibble out of it, but I’m sure it looked pretty obvious. The table beside us ordered a bucket of the eggs and were chowing down on them like there was no tomorrow to add insult to injury. We found dinner some time after at a French restaurant to revert back to something we were sure we would like, and avoid any further adventurous behavior for the night.


Embryo eggs...

The following day we started the morning off at a Scandinavian bakery which was delicious. They had bagels and cream cheese which Liz had been especially craving for months now amongst other things like sandwiches, muffins, and desserts so we were content. Upon finishing up the breakfast a pair familiar faces passed our table: it was one of the couples from Sacramento that we met on Phu Quoc Island. We were very surprised since it had been a couple weeks when we had seen them in a different country, adding to our list of small world occurrences. We chatted with them for a bit and recalled their saying that the husband, Tui, had family still living in Laos and they were there for a visit. They also mentioned that the next day there was the huge boat races throughout the day which is the main event that everyone from all over comes to see. At that point our bus was leaving in a few hours, but we hurried back to switch it to the next day so we could catch a glimpse of one of the biggest days of the year in Laos. We managed to change the tickets and then went out walking around the city for a while trying to find a travel agent to book our next flight (travel agents get much better deals than buying it yourself online) and stop off at a Wat along the way. That evening we headed out to the festival again where that night was supposed to be a river ceremony. Thousands of people buy handmade banana leaf boats made with various flowers and candles, light them, and place them in the river to float down. They had a very similar ceremony when we were in Udaipur, India but there were thousands more people out to take part in this celebration. We learned that by placing one of these boats in the river that one was washing away their fears and bad karma while giving oneself good luck. In addition, people light candles beneath large white paper bags and after a certain level of heat is contained they will take off floating like a hot air balloon. It was an amazing site to see hundreds of these lantern balloons flying as well as the endless flow of banana leaf boats floating down the river simultaneously. That evening we had some traditional Lao food at a restaurant overlooking the whole street market and river while enjoying some quality Beer Lao (creative name). On our walk home we ran into our friends, Patty and Tui, again and said our goodbyes because we knew that it was going to be our last unplanned encounter.


Our offering that we put into the river



The next morning we were off on our brief 3 hour bus ride in the “VIP” bus to Vang Vieng. Just to be clear, there was absolutely nothing about this bus that was VIP, but rather it was a disgustingly dirty, no AC, shocks and windows broken, and all around disaster of a bus. Nonetheless, it took us to take Vang Vieng.

October 9-22: Saigon, Hoi An, Hanoi, Sapa, and Halong Bay, Vietnam (By Maryann Nichols)

Gary and I arrived in HCMC after about an 18 hour journey that wasn’t too horrible thanks to business class and ambien! We all met up at the Sheraton and it was great to see Jeff and Liz with their giant packs!! They are both healthy and happy after 5 months on the road at $35 a day. The Sheraton was a nice oasis after their budget travel (air conditioning! fitness center! little shampoos!!) in the middle of what can only be described as a teeming soup of motorbikes, crazy taxis and blaring horns. Also it’s hot, humid and pours rain in buckets with little to no warning. Your basic third world, no zoning, overcrowded big city. But we got out and saw the famous market (full of every brand knockoff) , crossed a few very busy streets….step out and keep moving slowly and let the hundreds of motorcycles go around you like a school of fish. Scary but it actually works. We went to the War Remnants Museum which is the Vietnam review of the “American” war. It’s a daunting and depressing few floors and a very different perspective that we have. Just learning about the amount of Agent Orange we dropped on this country is unbelievable. The destruction through this and bombing was staggering, and we still lost. Around the museum there is a Chinook helicopter (huge!!) and a bunch of tanks and planes. Guess we just left them all there and now we pay to see them. We also went to the Rex hotel for a beer, famous for the 5 o’clock follies during the war which was the daily press briefing and body count.


Ho Chi Minh City


Tank at War Remnants Museum

The next day it was off to Hoi An, which was a huge improvement over Saigon. Lots of history, very beautiful and a cool old town lit up by lanterns in the evenings. Hoi An is famous for its affordable and fast tailors. We all trooped around the first night trying to figure out the process. It’s confusing as it’s a constant sales pitch from every doorway. I’m not sure how we ended up where we did but we picked one and started with a pin stripe suit for Jeff and a linen suit for Gary and ended up with 3 suits, a blazer for Liz and assorted other items. This involves a very sweaty measuring session, the humidity was at the apex that night, and then return visits for trying on wool clothes in the sticky heat. There is really no acclimating to this weather. But it was a win-win for all. The suits were amazing for about $100 each and they are literally done in 24 hours, so someone is sewing all night. We had to buy another suitcase just to get it home. I was lured into buying lots of other trinkets at the market of course but it was a fun experience. We stayed in a beautiful resort in town and ended each day with a much needed dip in the pool. One day we rode bikes out to Hoi An beach, which was about 4km away. Traffic comes at you from all directions so you have to stay sharp but we made it in one piece. We hung out at a great resort for the day and really beat the heat. The last night we decided to go to “happy hour” at the hotel. Buy 2 drinks and get 1 free. Their flaw in this program is that they staff it with a bartender and cocktail waitress who have never had a drink in their lives and got confused at Jack and Coke. We all kept switching drinks trying to figure out how to actually get some alcohol (vodka tonic: ½ oz vodka, giant can of tonic….) Liz had the nerve to order pineapple juice which completely threw the waitress who couldn’t figure out what to charge us. Costly experience.


Hoi An


Traditional fishermen

Then it was off to Hanoi for the next phase of the trip, the trekking. We had to taxi into the city to pick up the train tickets for Sapa which is the mountain region where 5 different hill tribes live. Made it on time, then went to our Hanoi hotel to drop off extra bags so at least we weren’t lugging the wool suits. Then finally to the train station for the night train to Sapa. Long day. And may I say that the “soft sleeper” cars were slightly misleading, but we all managed to catch a few hours before arriving at 5 am. The train pulls in and we are in the driving rain but the guides were there and drove us about an hour to the town. After breakfast and poncho buying we decided to do a modified hike to the first village. The hill tribes are around Sapa and we were greeted by the first, the Black Hmong women. They are tiny but determined. The first step is the establishment of rapport. Where you from? How old are you? How many children? Then they go in for the sale. There is always a large basket full of textile products that then appears along with about 5 of their friends with the same crap. Needless to say it’s going to be a very special Christmas at the Nichols. They will hike with you for miles in the hopes of a sale. But as we slogged along, the sky cleared and we had a great day. Trekking here means walking to different ethnic villages, we saw their homes (dark, smoky and sparsely furnished) a native dance show (cool) and jumped over streams and slid down muddy paths past pigs, dogs, water buffalo and chickens. But it’s surprisingly fun and the vistas are amazing of terraced rice paddies and towering mountains. We stayed in an Eco Lodge literally in the middle of nowhere but we had great views and it was a good set up for the next day walk to another village of the Red Zao (big red headresses, shaved heads and very aggressive peddlers) When you leave the hotel area it’s a swarm of women trying to sell, they leave this out of the guidebooks. Jeff and Liz always had the plan on how to move through them quickly, even assigning places for us to stand. This never worked, by the way. In the end, in some unseen agreement, the group of 20 falls back except for 3 who have pulled the next tourists and can’t be deterred. The establishment of rapport begins and pretty soon I’ve got one on each side as personal porters. They actually led me down the incredibly muddy hill and across a pretty raging stream and through their village. It’s all friendly and beautiful until it’s payback time and the baskets of stuff come out, then it’s a steely eyed hard bargain that my group determines afterward that I capitulated too quickly over the $2 but whatever. It’s also interesting to note that the women are all in their traditional dress reflective of their tribe but the men all look like they shop at Ross.

Tribe ladies who followed us our entire trek until my mom bought their crap




Sapa, Vietnam

On day three of our mountain adventure, they picked us up at 7:30 for the 3 hour drive through the mountains to Bac Ha, the scene of the multi tribal market. It was a great market and they sell everything from souvenirs to water buffalo and weird food. Our guide then took us to the worst lunch we ever had (included in the tour) then next we were off to the short “trek” and the river trip. I pointed out that it had started raining pretty steadily but he assured us that it wasn’t raining where we were going 30 minutes down the mountain. This was a lie. In that we didn’t have to be back at the train station until the evening to go back to Hanoi, there was an itinerary and he was sticking to it. So we slopped through the mud for at least a mile on this trail with water buffalo and bored looking villagers staring at us. Our guide was in dress pants and loafers and because he weighed 80 pounds didn’t look half as bad as we all did. He probably does this crummy tour daily. The boat trip was freezing as the rain was coming in at a 45 degree angle by now. The river was low which only highlighted how much Vietnam needs to work on its national litter policy. There are plastic bags and water bottles everywhere, it’s quite scenic. OK, so that was the most lame day of the trip. We were all happy to see our “soft sleeper” cars again. The train left at 8:30 and arrived in Hanoi at 4:30 am where we had absolutely nothing to do. Luckily the hotel picked us up and let us stay in their lounge and Jeff got the Giants game going on his computer.

So we had a day in Hanoi which is actually a much cooler city than Saigon. The old quarter is well preserved, they had just had their 1000 year celebration so lots of decorations were still up. They have a nice lake in the middle of town that has tons of neon at night. We went to the temple of literature which was their 1000 year old college. It was pretty but we were all tired so whatever. The Vietnamese like to eat on the street and there are tons of pho noodle shops where everyone sits at tables and chairs that would be small for preschoolers. Americans are huge for this country and usually sweating, especially me. Jeff and Liz have turned into the adventurous eaters as well, we had water buffalo satay but I drew the line at the cricket spring rolls. Meanwhile the wonderful hotel, who took care of everything was worried about the offshore typhoon that had hit the Philippines coming toward us which could wreck our boat trip the next day so we were sort of in limbo as to Plan B as we didn’t have one.

But luckily the Typhoon veered toward Hong Kong so off we went to Halong Bay for our 2 night cruise on the Chinese junk. This was definitely a highlight of the trip, the weather was great, warm and sunny. The boat was luxurious and comfortable and the food was excellent. We went swimming, kayaking through caves where we saw bats and monkeys and just cruised around and relaxed. They took us to some caves which they lit up with different colored lights, kind of cheesy but pretty. It showed effort. Gary celebrated his birthday on the boat and they carved a watermelon into some elaborate flower and we all had shots of B44’s which are some potent concoction. Great night. On the third day we headed back to Hanoi for our last night and made the most of it. Gary and I ran over to the Hon La prison (Hanoi Hilton) which is where the US pilots, including John McCain were “housed” for up to 7 years. This prison was really old and has been used by the French to lock up communists, communists to lock up protesters, then US soldiers then each other. It’s a museum now but it was easy to see how horrible this must have been. There are a lot of pictures, many propaganda, of the prisoners enjoying Christmas and playing basketball. They also had a lot of pictures of the US war protests in different cities. They had a lot of captured pilots from the December 1972 carpet bombing that we did to Hanoi and the destruction to their city was stunning so they weren’t very nice to their captives. But at least they got out in 73 unlike McCain who was there for 7 years. Overall the war seems long ago but these reminders really illustrate the brutality on both sides and you can’t help but reflect back as you travel through the country which is really quite small. The people are really friendly and gracious for the most part and you can’t fault them for always trying to make a sale.

So the next day, Gary and I were off to San Francisco and Jeff and Liz took off for Laos. We had a great time and only wish our pictures had turned out better! XO to all.


Halong Bay




Dad's birthday


Jumping off the boat




Hanoi


Weird ghost lady in corner of an otherwise cool picture

October 4-9: Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

We arranged for our hotel, Thanh Kieu Resort, to pick us up at Phu Quoc’s small airport, and they showed up on time, with our name on a sign. The driver dropped us at the hotel reception, but it was deserted; no one was working the desk. We waited a while, and finally asked the driver where everyone was. I suppose he didn’t speak any English because he just motioned us back towards the front desk. We waited a bit more and at last someone arrived to check us in. We had reserved a beach front bungalow (sounds really fancy, but it was like $2 more per night than the other rooms), and we were shown our room. It was hardly beachfront. We were on the frontline of bungalows, but we could not see the ocean because we were far away, there were many palm trees, and there was CONSTRUCTION going on just in front of the bungalow. The receptionist lady asked, “Is no problem for you,” and it sounded more like a command. It was also very warm and buggy, with no air conditioning in the room. We asked if there was anything else, and she said no. Well, it would have been nice to know when we called ahead to book the room that there was construction! I guess she saw our discontentment, and magically another room, slightly farther from the construction, became available. Although it still was not exactly as we had envisioned, we took it.

After travelling all morning, we were a bit hungry, so we went out to find the hotel’s restaurant. Non-operational. We decided to walk down the beach to find another place to eat at, and saw that our hotel had the WORST loungers. They were hard, with no pads, and were sticky from being freshly painted. There were also no umbrellas. Jeff and I don’t have high standards, but when a place markets itself at a beach resort, one expects certain amenities. We continued on down the beach, asking at every hotel how much their rooms were. We found one place, Lien Hiep Thanh, on the same beach with cheaper rooms which were much more beach front. And they had air conditioning! And an awesome-looking restaurant! With loungers with pads and umbrellas! Lovely. We reserved a room for the following night. We trudged back to our place and tried to lay on the uncomfortable loungers for a while, but it began to rain anyway, so we ran back to our bungalow to mope.

It rained the majority of the time for a couple days, which was a huge bummer since we only had four days on the island. But once it lifted, Jeff and I had a fabulous time relaxing on the beach. There is a breed of wild dog on the island who have little Mohawks along their backs. They were very cute and sweet, and a few played on our hotel’s beach every day.

We decided to try night squid fishing because it sounded pretty fun and unique. We went through a tour company who was renowned for their spectacular English. But can you believe it, our guide didn’t get on the boat with us because he said he had a bad hangover, and the two guys on the boat couldn’t speak any English. Everything was fine for a while, as Jeff and I enjoyed the lovely sunset, but once it came time to fish for the squid, we had no idea what to do, and the crew were not able to explain it to us. We tried to imitate them, but we could not catch one single squid between the two of us. The crew caught a few, and one of them even shot its ink all over the deck! It also didn’t help that I was feeling very seasick. They fixed us up a seafood dinner, but I wasn’t able to eat mine until once we were back in the harbor. Overall, we had much higher expectations than what actually happened.

The next day, we joined a snorkeling tour with an Australian couple. The tour stopped by a pearl farm, and then took us out on the boat to a couple of Phu Quoc’s best snorkeling spots. There were definitely lots of fish and coral, but not the brightly colored kind one sees in Hawaii. It was still a very fun time, though; much more of a success than the night squid fishing! That night we headed down the night market for dinner. There were countless restaurant stalls preparing all kinds of fresh seafood: red snapper, clams, so many kinds of sea snails, crabs, sea urchins, scallops… We ate at a place whose owner learned English in Australia, so it was very interesting to listen to his accent. Everything was soooo delicious! We got a sampler of everything he had and it only cost us like six dollars each.

The next night we ate at our hotel (a similar kind of seafood selection) and met two couples from Sacramento. They were super nice and invited us over to their table. They had met a British couple earlier that day, and they met up with us too. We talked and had drinks until pretty late, and made plans to meet up again the following day. The Sacramento couples decided to rent motorbikes/Vespa type scooters to cruise around the island, but I was a little too scared to join them, because of horror stories I had heard of motorbike accidents. Instead, Jeff and I lazed around the beach, relaxing and reading. We ran into them later that afternoon, and one of the women had gotten into an accident on her bike! Although it was nothing too serious, she still messed up her ankle and I was happy I had decided not to go. Jeff and I, the two Sacramento couples, and the British couple, went back to the night market for dinner that night and had a lovely time. We even ran into the Australian couple from our snorkeling trip! Jeff and I had to leave the next morning to go meet his parents in Saigon, so we said our goodbyes to everyone, and headed back to the hotel to pack up our things so we’d be ready to leave bright and early the following day.


Huge catch


Squid fishing...we had no luck but our guide did

September 29-October 3: Siem Reap, Cambodia

We arrived at the airport of Siem Reap and were quite surprised to find it new-looking and very pretty; very vacationy feeling. Our hotel had a free airport pick-up service, so they were waiting for us outside with Jeff’s name spelled very interestingly on a placard. They also had a free tuk tuk (rickshaw) to take us to the town center, so after getting settled into our room, we utilized that and went into town to see the night market. Downtown Siem Reap is nothing like we expected; we had heard that the poverty in Cambodia is just awful. Instead of the rundown, dirty town we expected, we found majorly posh streets, filled with beautiful architecture, clothing boutiques, candlelit restaurants and fun bars. It seemed kind of like downtown Palo Alto! We walked through the night market, which is just a tourist market, and found a tiki-looking bar where we got 50 cent pints. We explored a bit more and decided to get a “Dr. Fish Massage” for which there are signs everywhere. For two dollars, they offer you a beer and an hour long fish massage…where you put your feet into a big pool filled with goldfish-sized fish and they nibble on and eat all of your dead skin. And WHOA is it ticklish!!! It took us about 5 minutes just to get used to feeling and quit taking our feet out of the water or shaking the fish off. They also had a smaller tank with much larger fish, which kind of felt like someone was scratching at you with their fingernails. It was loads of fun and very different. That night we got a delicious steak dinner at a posh restaurant for about six dollars each. Hard to beat.

The next day we got on a tour to see the temples of Angkor Wat. It is an enormous complex with hundreds of beautiful stone temples ranging from the 1200’s to about the 1500’s. They were “lost” for a while and completely overgrown until French explorers looked for and found them in the 1700’s. We only had time (and energy) to see four temples, but they were all very different. My and Jeff’s favorite is still very much overgrown and has many trees growing out of the stones, wrapping themselves around the walls and stairs. It is very Indiana Jones-esque, and was even used in one of the Tomb Raider movies. All of the temples in the complex are just so amazing, and contain so much history. Sadly, the faces and heads of most of the buddhas are scratched off or completely missing because of the religiously (and otherwise) intolerant Khmer Rouge in the 70’s. There are also many bullet holes in the walls because the temples were used as hiding places. There is no way to adequately describe the temples, so just check out the pictures!


Angkor Wat












Monkey pigging out



We decided to take the next day off and just lounge, plan the next portions of our trip, and get massages. The massages were definitely not the best, but for three dollars it’s difficult to complain! As we were eating dinner, a tuk tuk driver (Mr. Happy) approached us asking if we wanted to go on a tour the following day. We did in fact want to go see several other sights, and he spoke great English, so we organized an intinerary, and he picked us up the next morning.

We first saw another temple which is much less visited than the main temples of Angkor Wat. It was small, but the detail was amazing and very well preserved. It was a very beautiful and elegant temple set in lovely Southeast Asian jungle. We next took a hike up to a waterfall, Preah Vihear, which, although touristy, had lovely images carved into the stone of the riverbed. The images have somehow not eroded, and some of them were carved into areas which seemed impossible to get to! It was a super cool place. Then we drove through tons of insanely beautiful, serene, and rural countryside. We saw many people working in rice paddies, grazing water buffalo, kids playing and bathing in small streams, and jungle-coated mountains. It was definitely some of the prettiest scenery I’ve ever seen. We finally arrived at a place called the “flooded forest,” which had sounded pretty cool. It’s a fishing village whose homes are built on stilts in the middle of the water. And, as the name suggests, there is also a forest with normal, large trees, but it is “flooded” up to the middle of the tree trunks. When we arrived we found out that we had to buy a ticket for a large boat to take us out to the village. We assumed it was going to be about $5 each. Nope. $20!! We were absolutely appalled. And we really couldn’t afford it anyway because we had already had to pay $20 for the entrance ticket for the Angkor Wat land and $15 for our guide. And considering we allotted $25 per day in Cambodia, we were a little over budget to say the least. The ticket man said you’re on the boat for about three hours, and we figured since we were already there, we might as well just bite the bullet and buy the stupid ticket. The village was definitely very cool. Families lived in large, one-room houses built on stilts, and each house has a little dock where they keep their canoe. They use the water for everything: fishing, washing, toilet, and drinking… The village was much, much larger than Jeff and I had expected. There were maybe 200 houses! We cruised through part of the village and were told we had to pay to get onto a small boat, so we could go through the flooded forest. Our guide said it would be two dollars each, but the small boat captain wanted four each! So lame. We refused to pay more than two each, and he caved. But we still had to paddle ourselves! What exactly were we paying for? Anyway, the flooded forest was extraordinary and very peaceful. We got back on the big boat, had a quick stop at an enormous lake, and saw fisherman with their catch for about two minutes…much different from the gross misrepresentation we were given about the flooded village. On our way back, the boat broke down and we had to walk the last part. Oh, and another boat had splashed me and I got that nasty fishing/washing/toilet water in my mouth. Jeff laughed at me. Our whole trip was about an hour and half…definitely not the three hours promised. We were pretty cranky about the whole situation and gave the ticket man a piece of our mind and demanded some money back. The moron said he couldn’t do it and just stared at us. Such a loser! We were furious but enjoyed the lovely scenery on the drive home.


The hike to Preah Vihear


The hike to Preah Vihear


Preah Vihear. Surprising how they have not been ruined over hundreds of years.






Floating forest village


Beautiful scenery

The next day we left Siem Reap and endured a fourteen and a half hour bus ride to Saigon. It was super tedious, but not as terrible as we were expecting (except for when a girl used the toilet and couldn’t get it to flush and let the aroma waft all throughout the bus). Our hotel was conveniently located a block away from where the bus let off, and we caught some quick z’s before leaving the following morning for Phu Quoc Island.

September 25-29: Bangkok, Thailand

We reached Bangkok in the early evening after our final flight on awful Air India. After 3 weeks in India we were ready for a change of scenery and Thailand was certainly a change. Our cab ride to our hotel was very refreshing in a nice cab with leather and AC in addition to not having to deal with cows laying in the road or people driving on the wrong side of the road. We stayed in the big tourist area of Bangkok known as Kao San Road where the entire street is lined with bars, restaurants, various street shops, and countless street food vendors. Our guesthouse was just off the main road and the first night we strolled around the road stopping at a couple street bars where people lay out plastic chairs, meant for 5 year olds, and serve cheap drinks out of makeshift mobile bars. We also went classy for dinner and ordered pad thai from one of the countless vendors and received heaping portions with choice of meat or egg for $1. It was unbelievable value for the quality and quantity we got. We went to bed excited about reaching Southeast Asia because it so far lived up to the hype.

The next day we had to deal with some torrential rainfall on and off throughout the day, but eventually found time to go check out some of the local wats (temples). The grounds of these wats are beautiful with traditional Asian architecture and hand carved Buddha statues scattered around. The main temple tends to have the largest Buddha statue painted gold and the carpet in front of it where people come to pray and offer any donations. We spent some time walking around the grounds of Wat Pho, checking out the various smaller temples within it and ended up at the biggest temple where they have the “reclining Buddha”. This statue is about 250 feet long and 50 feet tall of a huge golden Buddha laying down on his side. The problem we noticed was that there was nowhere to view the whole Buddha in its entirety. The small walkway surrounding the Buddha had columns everywhere and there was no place to stand far enough back to fully appreciate it. Nonetheless it was one of the prized sights of Bangkok.


Huge reclining Buddha


Traditional Thai temple

After the Wat Pho we hopped on a bus going to Chatuchak Market where we heard you can find just about anything you’re looking for. We had no idea just how huge it was until we really found ourselves lost in the sea of tiny shops somewhere in the middle. It was only when we really went deep into the market where we saw some unusual things. First we passed the clothing section, then home improvement areas, electronics, and food vendors. As we went deeper we ran into pet stores selling puppies by the dozen, kittens, lizards, and other normal pets. Not too long after, we hit an area where they were doing live cock fighting so we stopped for a bit to see what it was like, but decided it was a bit cruel and odd being the only non-thai people watching and left. Then the pet shops selling squirrels, giant beetles, owls, and mudskippers started coming up. Then the saddest moment came where we saw a fully grown golden retriever in a cage just big enough to fit him a bit further back out of the main display, and realized that he was probably not for sale as a pet. At that point we turned back and figured we had seen enough for the day. We took a water taxi on the Chao Praya river back towards our hotel, which was a great means of public transportation. We found some great Thai food that night right before the rains came and stranded us for some time until a taxi agreed to take us without screwing us over (rare).


Live Cockfighting in Chatu Chak market


Countless puppies and kittens in the market

The following day was what turned our whole perspective of Bangkok upside down. We met some rickshaw driver while getting our daily portion of street vendor pad thai who said he would take us around the local sights (the ones we still wanted to see) for 20 Baht which is like 65 cents. We were very hesitant wondering why he would do that and he explained that they were all very near and if we wanted to tip at the end we could if we felt we were given a good deal. We agreed on the whole “no stops” clause because we had heard that rickshaw drivers will try to scam you by taking you to suit shops and tailors to get commission, so we decided to go for it with the driver. He instead gave us his friend who was with him and seemed nice and understood the deal. He took us to the first sight where it is just another 100 foot Buddha standing and we hung out there for a bit. Then some guy came up to us claiming to work for the government and talked to us about the importance of going to these TAT shops (Tourist Authority of Thailand) where we can book our upcoming flights, hotels, trains, etc. because then the money does not get outsourced to agencies outside of Thailand and therefore everyone wins. It sounded like it made sense and the guy said he studied at UCLA and spoke great English which made us less hesitant. After this first stop, the rickshaw driver took us to a TAT where we talked with a guy and figured it all out and planned to come back the next day to make our bookings on the islands. Everything seemed ok to this point until our driver decided to stop at a suit shop saying he needed to use the bathroom and to go take a look while we waited for him. Thinking he was full of crap we went in anyways as they watched us from the window and the entire time they tried to push crap on us we did not want until we booked it out of there. Our driver said he was feeling sick and apologized for making us wait, but it was at least understandable to this point. Then immediately after he went to another TAT shop saying that it was good for us to get information and ask questions. We looked at him like, what is he doing?? We were just at a TAT shop like 20 minutes before and he insisted we go up anyways. Very unsure what was going on we walked up and told the people inside we were not sure why we were there, our driver stopped and told us to go inside but we had nothing to ask them. They seemed puzzled and we went outside and drove off. Around the corner he stopped and said we were not in there long enough for him. Then we figured out he was stopping at all these places so he could collect gas cards and had no intention of taking us to our tourist stops before he got what he wanted. He then threatened us by saying, “You better not tell anyone about this,” and it started to get serious. He said he needed 1 more and he stopped at a final suit shop where they tried to sell us the entire time and we had to pretend to be in there long enough for that asshole driver outside to make sure we could get home safe at this point. We got the card and he asked if everything was alright. I was livid at this point and was considering strangling him right there but we chose not to respond anything more than just take us to the hotel. Suddenly we sensed his discomfort with the situation as he knew we were steaming with anger and every couple minutes he asked if we were ok. The whole day was wasted because of this guy driving us around stopping to collect gas cards and we were the guinea pigs. Then he stopped outside of some guy’s apartment and took some cash for him and explained, “it was my friend,” but we didn’t care to believe him any longer. He got us back and stupidly I gave him half of what we agreed on (10 Baht) instead of just spitting in his face. He looked at us upset and started to complain that we agreed on 20 Baht. It was really a shame it was a very busy section of Kao San Road that he dropped us at because I would have loved to handle the situation differently. We told him that he was a thief and a piece of garbage and he ruined our entire day because of his selfish crap. That same evening we stopped at a travel agency to ask them if they sold Muay Thai Boxing tickets and he said they don’t, and do not buy them at a TAT either. He told us that at the window you can buy ringside tickets for 900 Baht where as everywhere else they charge 2000 Baht. He explained that those stores are nothing more than giant scams, and that actual TAT’s are not allowed to sell anything because they are merely information centers. We could not believe our ears because the entire day just became a giant scam for us and the fact that Bangkok has huge tourist stores that are giant scams was unreal. He told us that they charge like 100% markup on anything you buy from them and stole the name of the government recognized TAT’s located in public facilities like train stations. Furthermore he said that rickshaws in general are nothing more than scam artists and to not take them to go anywhere in Bangkok. We went for a couple drinks that night to try and drown the absurdity of everything that went on that day.


Crazy Muay Thai Boxing winner

The next day we were a bit lazy and had a lot of work to do planning wise for the next several days. That evening we planned to go see Muay Thai boxing at the famous Lumphini Stadium of Bangkok which was a highly recommended experience. We were excited we were only going to have to pay half what we planned to if we bought at the window and avoid getting scammed yet again. We took the water taxi down and connected to the metro station to avoid any kind of rickshaw or taxi interference, and upon reaching our stop the rain had started coming. By the time we made it to the stadium we were beyond soaked and disappointed about our discomfort for the next few hours during the boxing. The salt in the wound was when the ticket lady told us that ringside tickets were in fact 2000 Baht and we were very confused. We decided to go through with it and sit ringside rather than in the upper sections because there are no seats and it is just a smoky gambling mess of Thai people that I am not sure we were ready for. To this day we still think we were scammed there because there was no way that every person in the upper section paid the 1000 Baht to stand there. The fights were pretty unbelievable though and from the 1st row we had a great view. These fighters were very young though as some of them looked like they were probably 14. As the night progressed so did the quality of the fights and the age groups. The main fight was great until it ended because of a foul after 1 fighter kicked his opponent in the face as he was falling to the ground, knocking him out completely. Just listening to the crowd screaming behind us as the rounds got nearer to the end was an experience in itself. I stopped to look back in between rounds to see the countless people trying to bet with the bookie man and as I watched, the bookie spotted me and held up a few fingers waiting for my response. I made sure not to gesture back so that I would not get hounded later for a few thousand Baht I never meant to wager. The best part of the night came when the traditional fighters came on to spar and with no referee or boxing gloves they went at it. They each landed some crushing blows to the opponent and it felt like we were watching a video game. Had one of their kicks or punches hit me I would have surely been knocked out, but they would get right back up and keep attacking. The final knockout move was unbelievable; make sure to watch the youtube video we uploaded at the bottom. After the fight we made our way back to the hotel to get packed and ready to take off for Cambodia the next morning.

Here's the video of the Muay Thai:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4PelzvE2Pw