Whirlwind of Rhythm

Happy New Year!

A few updates just before the power goes out again:

- New Years Eve was a hoot: we helped demonstrate FoST briquettes and stoves at a table in the middle of Thamel until dusk, and then had a delicious traditional Newari dinner with solar-distilled whiskey at Sanu's house. Too tired to party, we Skyped our parents and passed out just after our clock struck 12.

- Load shedding (code for brown-out periods) increased to 12 hours per day throughout Nepal. Most days (but not all) we have power from 8am-2pm, and 8pm-2am.

- Skylark English School, attended by most of the kids from Papa's House, had a 'Sports Day' on Saturday to launch a 2-week winter vacation. Held at the National Police Academy, around 350 kids ranging from 4-17 years old displayed insanely disciplined choreographed drills and marches, and duked it out in 40 separate events, including 'Eat the Banana', 'Put the Shoe', 'Dress the Princess', and classics such as 'Wheelbarrow Race', '400m Relay', and '100m Dash'. Despite the fact that the event took ALLL day long, it was great fun to see so many active kids and their supportive parents.

- Although Ashley wasn't able to take the 2-week course at the Ayurvedic clinic (they couldn't start until the beginning of Feb), she found a doctor at the Ayurvedic hospital downtown who invited her to shadow him for the next month. Today was day #1, and she had a great time.

- Austin bought his plane tix to Nepal, and will be here March 6 - 25 .. longer and earlier than we were expecting! Since he'll be here almost twenty days, we'll most likely try to put together a self-support climbing trip in either Langtang (north of Kathmandu) or out of the Annapurna Base Camp.. I'm looking forward to attempting a peak (even a relatively small one) while we're in the Himalayas.

- Both of these factors affect our intended schedule; we're now planning to spend most of February installing energy-efficient infrastructure and helping out at the home for rescued girls in Narti (near Lamahi, in the Dang District, S-SW Nepal). I'll also go for there for a few days in the next week or two to do some preliminary research. April will be primarily spent in and around Trisuli Bazaar, although that could definitely change.

- Otherwise I've been spending my days developing concepts at FoST and working on a few other projects. We're definitely getting into a comfortable pattern, and developing some great friendships here.

Vacation Squared

A frustrating series of logistical miracles led us from a relaxing oil massage in Ton Sai to a missed shuttle connection in Ao Nang to an overcrowded taxi-pickup to the Krabi Bus Terminal (home to lots of buses) to a last-second taxi ride to the Krabi Port (unlikely home to only one bus -- ours) to a nearly missed VIP bus towards Bangkok to a 2:30 am transfer to a local government bus in Pran Buri to a much needed and fantastically comfortable bed at our friend Rob's house in Hua Hin.

Our time in Hua Hin proved to be an unexpectedly luxurious vacation from our vacation. Our hosts Rob (fishes with Ashley's father in Alaska), his girlfriend Jai, and their golden retriever Tuk-Tuk, took on the role of tour guides as they showed us around town, introduced us to their favorite haunts and restaurants, watched hours of movies with us in their beautiful house, and woke at an ungodly hour to drive us to Bangkok for our flight to Nepal.

Hua Hin itself is a popular but quiet weekend beach getaway for Bangkok's middle and upper classes, and is home to the vacation palace of the Royal Family. It also hosts quite a few European and American retirees, who can be found wandering the streets at all hours in their Hawaiian shirts, khaki cargo shorts, and faded loafers. Lots of small shops and restaurants line the streets, and a few small malls and markets host hundreds of merchants hawking the same merchandise that can be found all over town.

We found an exceptionally large ratio of ice cream shops per capita .. no matter where we were, a Swensons (really good sundaes), Haagen-Daaz, Baskin Robbins, or Dairy Queen was never far. Of course, a two-scoop cone at Haagen Daaz cost about twice as much as one night of lodging in Ton Sai (but it was sooo worth it)!

Thailand's road systems are all influenced by silly British ideas, and getting around town was a really weird experience. While everyone drives on the 'wrong' side of the road (I can handle this), and traffic rules are rarely heeded (I can also handle this), there are only rarely places to turn right across any main highway, and streets off the highway are rarely interconnected. Thus, u-turns were a mandatory and very frequent maneuver wherever we were going. I see the advantages to this system........ but it was just so weird.

On our second day in Hua Hin, Rob and Jai took us an hour south to Prachuap Khiri Khan, home to the 'Monkey Temple.' A hill sits between a monastary and the sea. Sitting at the top of 396 stairs sits a small temple/shrine complex with a beautiful view of the surrounding area. Living on the hill are roughly 4,000 monkeys, many in dubious health, and ALL of them very interested in tourists and their food (imagine being inside the monkey-house at an old school zoo...). A six or seven year old Thai boy, Pun, adopted us as soon as we got out of Rob's truck and served as our 'tour-guide' as we hoofed our way up the stairs to the temple. This kid was practically a monkey himself, and dealt with the more aggressive monkeys with far more panache than any of us could have mustered. Although a large male approached Ashley on our journey to the top and forcefully stole a bottle of juice from her, most of the monkey's were a bit more passive-aggressive. It was all great fun, but the unpredictability of the monkeys left us all a bit on edge.

That night we were all tuckered out, and after a few rounds of Johnny Walker, we wound up getting sucked into 'The Holiday' and 'Bank Job' from the comfort of Rob's huge and awesome bed/couch. We were so lethargic that we decided to call up a local Italian restaurant for delivery, and gorged on hot linguine, calzones, and gnocchi. For all we knew that evening, we had been magically whisked back to the US.

Food with Rob and Jai was actually pretty funny... for breakfasts and lunches we went to places with traditional Thai dishes, while for dinners we wound up eating Mexican, Italian, and Indian cuisines (as I write this entry from Kathmandu, I am VERY happy we took this world food tour while we had the chance)!

Our inital plan had been to spend a day or two in Bangkok with Rob before flying out. However, we were all having such a good and relaxing time in Hua Hin that we bagged that idea, and drove up the morning of our flight. After getting stuck in a massive traffic jam, retrieving our big bags from the hotel we stayed at our first night in Thailand, battling countless other traffic jams, and driving 180kph at every chance, we made it to the airport with only minutes to spare. Rob -- you rock!

Krabi Town

Since the whole 'fly-to-Krabi' idea only entered our minds a few days before we started our trip, we never had the chance to do much preparatory research on the area. As such, we were geographically blind once we landed, crediting what little we knew to a few paragraphs in a Lonely Planet that had been loaned to us. We'd kind of gathered that we wanted to make it to Ao Ton Sai, one of the least-developed beaches in the area. However, after jumping on a bus (chosen primarily because the ticket-girl for the bus yelled at us a bit less than everyone else) and learning that Ton Sai was a one-hour bus ride plus a 15-minute longtail boat ride away, our waning energy levels and disorientation demanded we get off as soon as possible.

So we found ourselves in Krabi Town, the semi-run-down commercial hub for the surrounding beach-centric tourism industry. In our tired haze we begrudgingly agreed to take the first room that was hawked at us from a few guys sitting in an open-air hotel lobby. At first glance, the place was a total dive. At second and third glance, it was still a total dive. But its saving grace was its distinct lack of bugs, which meant that after a quick internet session and dinner at the night market down the street, we slept like rocks.

The next morning we woke up with the sun to a chorus of our squeaky oscillating ceiling fan and a neighbor's crowing rooster. As necessary as showers were at that point for both of us, the state of the bathroom left us both waiting for a better option. We made a trek around downtown Krabi to find an ATM and check out the scene. The town was just waking up, merchants were slowly opening up their shops, and commuters were buzzing about on scooters, a few tuk tuks, and pickups galore. All the infrastructure was pretty run down, but for the most part, the city was fairly clean.

We stopped at an internet cafe near our hotel that advertised American, English, and Continental breakfasts. When I asked our young waiter what his favorite breakfast was, he reported that he was fond of dim-sum pork and honey, and that no, they didn't serve that (or ANY Thai food) at this restaurant. Promising ourselves a more authentic breakfast soon, we enjoyed a 60 Baht (a bit less than $2) American breakfast instead, complete with eggs, toast, bacon, and instant coffee.

Soon after we rode a bus (really a pickup truck with seats in the back) out of town towards Ao Nang on our way to the promised land: Ao Ton Sai.

More to come...