Call to Prayer

4:30 pm, the mosque next door broadcasts the call to prayer.  Doves cooing outside the wall to our room.  The afternoon traffic rumbles underneath it all.  I lie back on the bed in the damp air conditioned room, trying to concentrate on "Cloud Atlas".

The Sule Paya on the left
The mosque on the right

Tell me my fortune

In Burmese

Or in English

The fortune teller in his shop below the
Sule Paya

The Daw Saw Yee
29th Street Yangon

Yangon

We made it to Yangon.  A month hotter than last year and still as crazy as it was the first time.  It was nice to be remembered by the management at the May Shan, and the building is a little taller...they added a floor of rooms. This year there is a bright shiny "Visa" sticker in the window.  No credit cards at all last year anywhere in the country.  They also accept Mastercard, the owner hastily added.  Tourism is down but prices are still high although the dollar is stronger this year.  The traffic is crazy crazy crazy, as it was in Bangkok.  I am over it and am looking forward to getting out of the cities for a while.

Dinner at Jok Pochana in Bangkok was the very best on Monday night.  It wasn't as crowded as it is on the weekend and the crispy basil duck was extra succulent.  As a speical we had tod mun pla, fish cakes, served with a side of special sweet sauce. I guess we'll have to order it again so I can figure out the ingredients.  We washed it all down with litres of cold Leo beer and finished by splitting a Singha.  Then we wobbled back down Pra Atit to our room.  I am looking forward to the Daw Saw Yee tonight in Yangon, and my tea boys tomorrow morning.

Phra Atit, Bangkok

Jok Pochana - Lek

Daw Saw Yee, Yangon

999 Shan Noodles for lunch

It seems to be a trip of revisiting, and remembering.  It's different this time, familiar and yet foreign.  We are older, a little less tolerant of roughing it, although not stupid about wasting money on things we don't need.  We are looking at Southeast Asia with a different eye this time.  How would it be to live here part of the year?  Can we see ourselves fitting into this culture, as ex-pats?

So...we have a room at the May Shan on the third floor in the back, with two small windows and the sound of cooing doves.  The aircon works, thank god, and so does the wifi, for free.  The Sule Paya gleams in the center of the city, right outside our door, and the mosque issues it's call to prayer.  What adventures await this time?

It's Only Bangkok

We made it!  2014, Thailand and Myanmar, Korean Air to Seoul and from Seoul to Bangkok, about 19 hours that somewhere in there you completely lose track of and are just in limbo, hoping the flight will magically pass and the family with the two crying babies won't be on your final flight.  But they are, in almost the exact same proximity, only now there are 2 more tiny ones added into the equation and all of them are about as tired and unhappy as you are.  The only difference is that they can just cry and cry and you have to suck it up and try to find a position in which to sleep, pretty much sitting up.  And of course, just as you do settle in and doze, they come around to serve yet another dinner or lunch or whatever.  I gave up at meal three and just drank juice.

I know, poor us.

So, Bangkok at 11:30pm, hotter than it is in January, well, maybe not hotter, but stickier and damper, and quiet until the cab driver turns up Phra Atit.  And it is familiar, finally, after all these trips.  Phra Atit is alive with Friday night jazz, food carts, strings of pennants across the street, young Thais enjoying themselves, farangs meandering in inappropriate clothing, the spill over from Kaosan Road, lurking just behind the trendy edge of Banglamphu, the ubiquitous hang out for back packers, now a place to visit for cheap clothing and avoid the rest of the time.  And we drag our weary asses out of the cab, check in, head to the 5th floor of the New Siam II, turn on the air con and the fan, turn around in circles trying to figure out what we are supposed to do now, take showers, decant our luggage and are convinced we will never sleep.  After a cockroach siting, a first for me at the New Siam...I know they lurk, the devils, but we manage to avoid one another and even this one is as startled by me as I am by him...he scurries away while I have visions of  him looking for my chocolate stash in my suitcase.  I know he doesn't want to be seen, so I hope the nervous truce we share will last until I leave.   We do sleep, hard, gratefully, and morning comes.

And of course we are too early for Ricky's, which has the same staff, sort of, but maybe a new manager/owner?  When we finally do sit down to eat, the food is as nice as I remember, not remarkable, but just what we wanted and the girl who brings our coffee smiles as she remembers that this is the woman who wants sweetened condensed milk.  We decide to make a foray to Chatchuk.  The traffic is horrendous and it takes nearly an hour to get there.  We shop, the rhythm catching up with us easily.  We sit and sip Thai iced coffee in the little bar in the market, and we catch an icy cab back to the New Siam.  After a light lunch of khao mun gai, chicken and rice, we head down Phra Atit to see the Starbung's guy.  Unfortunately Starbuck's has caught up with him.  His new name is Bungstar and the logo of the skinny yogi with a cup of coffee in one of his many hands is now the same yogi rubbing his eyes while tears stream out either side.  Our  Starbung entrepreneur takes it philosophically and his business is as brisk as ever.  God I love Thailand!  We finish the afternoon with massages and as I lay there, cooling off while my masseuse finds every knot and arthritic pain, I wonder why I don't do this every day...oh, wait a minute, I remember now...this massage will cost me about one sixth of the cost at home.  And after all, I am on vacation.

Ricky's

Also "Bungstar"

Burma Bound

As I nervously watch the news from Bangkok, knowing full well that we will be fine, we will be fine, my one overwhelming concern is that I won't be able to get to Chatuchak for the weekend market. Is that real crass selfishness? Yes, because the government in Thailand is really messed up, kind of like ours. However, the passports came back yesterday complete with Myanmar visas, and we actually have reservations in Sittwe and Mrauk U! We didn't get to go last year because of fighting in the area. This year we're goin' for it. A day to get to Sittwe, an overnight, a boat early the next morning for a 6 hour journey to Mrauk U, the site of a 15th century capitol littered with temple ruins, up the Kaladan river on the alluvial plain that empties into the Bay of Bengal. We have 3 days in Mrauk U that will include another boat ride to visit a Chin village. Then we reverse this, a day to get back to Sittwe, over night, and the plane back to Yangon. A big part of the adventure for me is seeing if all of this works as planned, how it works, and several days of wonder that it does! It looks so chaotic to me, an organized American who speaks no Burmese. I am addicted to the thrill of not knowing.
Our short stays in Bangkok will include a visit to Sampeng Lane, the Mecca of seamstresses and fabric junkies world wide. This year I finally figured out how to get there. Before this it has kind of been hit and miss. I intend to put a dent in the endless supplies of embroidery thread, pre-constructed frog closures, exotic buttons and Thai manufactured cottons. I have my sources, my secret places. And, of course, a trip to the classiest contemporary shop in Chatuchak, which happens to be just down the aisle from my favorite antique silver stall.

Ahhhhhh....tickets to Bangkok, Feb 6th, 2014. The May Shan, Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 11th, 2014.

Bangkok Farewell

We leave tonight for the journey home. The last week on the island, despite the mishaps, was excellent. Muzzy snorkeled an old wreck off Sairee Beach and while he didn't get to go more than one day, he did get to see the fishes. I bobbed around in the blue waters and a good time was had by all. We think we will come back to Koh Tao. The Seaview Resort is low key, very quiet with stunning tree top views, a great cook named O and a crew of delightful Burmese ladies who called us "Ma and Pa". It is not on the beach, but close enough with a motorbike. We even got to see the crazy bird whose call I was sure was a monkey. He is a big sucker with a long black tail, head like a raven and beautiful brown wings. The resort kitties gave us endless petting opportunites, and our hut perched on the side of the hill looked all the way down to Ao Leuk beach...beautiful.
The train back to BKK was slightly delayed. The engine for the local had broken down and it sat on the main track for about 45 minutes. The "farang" train stopped one track over and I thought we would have to crawl through the local and across the tracks, but the local pulled out and the station guys hustled all of us burned out beachies with our stupid rolly bags and giant back packs onto the sleeping cars of the Express for the 9 hour trip to Bangkok. What a relief. I had a moment of panic earlier in the day when the ferry on the 3 hour trip from Koh Tao to Chumphon slipped out of gear and came to a stop in the middle of the water. After a little clanking and clunking, we were on our way...a much mellower ride than the one out. I had forgotten how rough the water can be in January. Like clockwork, when the calendar changed to February, the water glassed over, the sea became clear blue green, and things settled down...just as we left. No matter. We will go later next year.
Our last two days in Bangkok involved two mornings at Chatuchak. It's nice that we finally figured out how to use the debit card over here...I guess...maybe not, considering we have two more bags returning with us than we had when we left, and sent a box with two big gold and black electric fans off on a boat with DHL. Chatuchak is less of a mystery and I don't think that is a good thing for us...I found an amazing store with antique textiles and silver Chinese jewelry, as well as a beautiful silver and agate Tibetan cup, some great tunics, fabulous rayon fabric from China, more beads than I care to think about, millions of magnets, and presents for everyone. We even found Willy's Bar, which we completely missed last trip! We sat there drinking an iced mocha looking at the corner where Sarah, Kristen, Tu, Sean and Amy and I sat in 2008! I'm so glad its still there! And though our favorite coffee people have returned to Chiang Mai, a new little place has opened offering great coffee and fresh juice.
So now I have to pack...I will post photos soon. Muzzy took lots of video this time...of pak boon fai dang at Jok Pochana, of the horse cart rides in Bagan, on the lake at Inle, of the trains, and our last night at the park on Phra Atit...the Thai Low Riders bike exhibit and the gangsta dancers and the aerobics class...Damn, I love Thailand!

Island Time

The last week. It's island time. Our first visit to Koh Tao. I could wax nostalgic about the good old days on Koh Phangan, Bottle Beach, Pi Mi and the special mushroom omelets, but lets face it, there are more people everywhere now and the islands in the Gulf of Thailand are no exception. Everyone dreams of a hut on the beach with the white sands stretching into the distance, alone, warm breezes wafting...it ain't that way anymore. Still, I have to say the Seaview Resort on the east side of Koh Tao is a little piece of paradise, even if the beach is a glimmer in the valley between two rising hills. It's walkable, but at this time of year, a little too blown out for swimming and snorkeling. Nevermind. The next good place is a motorbike ride away. We are already talking about coming back next February...a better month in the gulf. O, the Burmese cook at the Seaview, has enough skills for several and the food alone is enough to make a return journey desirable. Seaview is a little more upscale than we usually do, but our hut perches on the hill behind the restaurant and reception area, quiet, secluded, with its own hammock (I don't get in and out of those things like I used to!), great bathroom and stunning view. The whole resort comes with a set of charming Burmese workers, Neil, who interprets our needs in Thai with a Scottish accent, several fat resident cats and 3 colorful large geckos...tu-kay. One of them even stays out during the daytime, perhaps a pariah because of his missing tail. There isn't much to do...nothing to draw me away. There is a motorbike for Muz to make the 10 minute jaunt to town and return with treats, or to look for good snorkeling spots. I am busy reading...finishing up the depressing biography of Kurt Vonnegut, an Indian murder mystery by Paul Theroux, and looking forward to The Cider House Rules by John Irving...you never know about the books you bring on vacation. I did get all the way through The Passage by Justin Cronin, but ohhhhhh, the nightmares! I don't think I'll go there again. We return to Bangkok on Friday...night train with lower berths this time, thank god! If we can get checked in to the New Siam and breakfast at Ricky's, we may have two more days at the weekend market...just enough time to buy that fan we wanted and several more things we don't need.