Pork sausage recovery tour (Bangkok and Koh Tao)

Laura's pork sausage from Kanchanaburi's night market has finally made it through her system. She wasn't able to keep anything down during the first 24 hours, many of which she slept. The next 24 hours she had to be mobile because we had to get to Bangkok for our second JEV shot. She consumed some fruit in the morning and sucked it up for the two hour bus ride back.

We arrived at Bumrungrad hospital around 2 pm, check in for our shot, and then the confusion began. Turns out during the week between our first and second shot, the hospital changed to a "new" vaccine vendor. This vendor sold a vaccine that required only two shots, one at day 0 and another at day 90 for 100% immunity to Japanese Encephalitus. What about our 30 day schedule? They didn't have that vaccine anymore. We weren't interested in hanging around Bangkok for ninety more days so we stated the issue that we were only planning on being in the area for 30 days. The nuyrse consulted with the doctor who then consulted with the pharmacist and eventually, the result was that with just one shot, we would be 80% immune to JE. Ahh, a magical shot! We accepted it and decided we were free from Bangkok.

Laura was nearly fully recovered the following day and exhibited so by downing some bread with jelly for breakfast. It was time to visit a couple more sights in Bangkok and then plan our trip south. We began at the Vimanmek mansion, the largest teak house in the world, build by King Rama V for his home.

The mansion is now a museum in a beautiful government garden. We toured half of the mansion, admiring relics from Europe, Africa, and Asia that the king collected.

Wat Arun, the temple of dawn, was our next stop. The temple was on the opposite side of the river from Bangkok's center requiring us to take a water taxi to it. The wat sits on the riverside just across from the grand palace.

A number of monks in saffron robes walked the wat grounds.

A steep stairway allowed visitors to climb halfway up the central stupa for a stunning view of Bangkok and the river taxi chaos. These stairs weren't for those with a fear of heights.

The central figure of the center stupa was Buddha riding on an elephant, a magical scene.

After the wat, we traveled to Lumphini park, Bangkok's largest recreation park. The park is well-known for having free aerobics classes every afternoon and they draw quite a crown of participants and on-lookers. Laura and I did some of both!

As night approached, many people were purchasing lotus-shaped flowers made from banana leaf centered by a candle. The flowers were placed into the lakes or rivers in the park. It was quite funny to see the lake fish get annoyed by the floating flowers and attack them mercilessly. As we tried to head back to our guest house for the night, we realized the traffic and number of people had doubled from an average night. Turns out there was a full moon signifying the main night for Bangkok's Loi Krathong festival. It tok forever to return home but we enjoyed participating in a city gone mad!

We traveled to Koh Tao island the following day and night. Koh Tao is well known for its coral reefs and cheap PADI diving certification. We were there to enjoy the beach and snorkel in the coral reefs. Now, keep in mind that neither Laura nor myself are very much beach people. Our sunscreen lathered pale white skin is noticeably out of place. This was perfectly exhibited by myself during our snorkel tour. We joined an entire day snorkel tour that circled the island. At our first stop, Shark bay, a number of small sharks frequent the bay. I watched the first two guys off the boat toss their snorkel mask and fins from the boat, jump in the water to retrieve them, and snap everything on. Overwhelmed by excitement, I tossed my mask, fins and then myself into the water. I struggled to stay afloat as I help my mask and attempted to get the flippers on. Finally, one flipper was on. As I watched on snorkeler after another head to the bay, I continued to struggle with my second flipper. I determined it was my other hand; I needed both hands free to get the flipper on. I released the snorkel and mask expecting them to float and continued struggling with my second flipper. Finally, snap, it was on! Now, where was my mask and snorkel. Turns out, they were already at the bottom of the Bay of Thailand. After a bunch of worthless haggling with the tour operator, they cost me 1,000 baht, a little over 30 dollars. Guess now I can add something new to the "Things I've lost" list.

The highlight of the snorkel trip were the islands just next to Koh Tao. It was really cool walking across a sandbar joining the three islands.

The islands provide some of the best snorkeling on Koh Tao. To all our Montana, Colorado, and Vermont friends, how's the weather?

We are on to Khao Sok National Park in the coming days.

Kanchanaburi, Thailand

We visited the Kanchanaburi province, two hours northwest of Bangkok. First, we went to the city of Kanchanaburi, best known for containing The Bridge on the River Kwai.




Some of the elder readers may have seen the movie. The bridge was built during WW2 by Allied Forces POWs and Asian laborers by the order of the Japanese army. Japan's goal was to create a trade route between Myanmar and Thailand. Over 100,000 civilians and 15,000 POWs died during the building of the railway; the labor camp conditions resembled those of Dachau concentration camp from earlier in our trip. Many died from jungle diseases, poor camp sanitation, or torture. Now, Thais have created an Allied Forces cemetary to comemorate the lives lost during the building of the Death Railway.

The cemetary holds 6,982 soldiers, primarily American, British, Dutch, New Zealand, and Autralian. It looks quite different from the Thai/Chinese cemetary next to it.

We spent the day learning from a bamboo museum imitating a POW camp and visiting the WW2 history of Kanchanaburi.

After a long day of walking, we returned to our riverside bungalo. I spent a few minutes reading before turning out the lights for the night. As I adjusted myself into my sarong (light blanket), a sharp pain hit my right butt cheek. I swiped my hand at the pain and it went away. Later that night, I changed my sleeping position and felt the same pain on my elbow. After swiping again, I knew something was amiss. All the lights came on and I started the bed bug search. The result was seven red ants crawling on the bed!!! Those small buggers have a powerful bite. I'm glad there were only seven and they avoided my nether-regions. I slept lightly but bite-free for the rest of the night; Laura slept through the whole thing.

The province of Kanchanaburi is full of thick jungle hills with water streaming from all directions, making an abundance of waterfalls. We traveled to Erawan National Park to visit Erawan Falls. The falls are 1500 meters (that's right, METERS) long. The turquoise water is mezmerisingas it flows over limestone rocks. The park service has divided the falls into seven tiers, each tier being a major fall.



Amazingly, the limestone was not slippery, making it easy to walk right in the falls. This became a typical rest stop.



The best part was that the falls have created innumerable pools that visitors are allowed to swim in. Many visitors avoided dipping into the pools because of the Erawan Falls locals; the Erawan fish loved sucking on human skin anytime one was still. It was quite an awkward feeling. It was, however, great fun watching the virgin swimmer first get nipped! Guess I can check off the "swimming in turquiose water under a waterfall" on my life "to-do" list.


Laura, due to Erawan's over-friendly fishies, won't be able to yet.

Today, we were headed to the Damnoen Saduak floating market but Laura picked the wrong pork sausage at the outdoor food market and is quite sick in our bungalo. Hopefully, she'll be ok for our trip back to Bangkok for the next shot.

The Grand Palace of Bangkok

Laura and I arrived safely in Bangkok (with all our luggage!). Our flight was delayed about 4 hours in Abu Dhabi so we arrived at our guest house at half past midnight. The only issue was that the guest house had given our room away so we had to find a new place to stay. We found a place just down the road and crashed after a 36 hour trip.

Since then, we've been exploring the city. We successfully utilized the hospital for our first Japanese encephalitis shot; hospitals around the world are the same. Doctor saw us for 2 minutes, spent most of the time in the waiting room, cost too much for services provided..!

Our second day, we visited Chatuchak market.

The market was HUGE!!! There were rows and rows of stalls, probably over 1,000 vendors. There was everything from animals to toys and electronics. We picked up a few small things for our trip but made sure to keep the backpacks light. Here's a sampling of the food we tried at the market and near our guest house. It has been a lot of noodles and rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Luckily, all of the sauces are unique making each meal different.

We recently visited the Grand Palace of Bangkok, the former residence of the king. The palace grounds are more than impressive. There is the temple of the emerald buddha, a library, a number of spires which contain religious items, and of course, the palace.

The temple of the emerald buddha contains a buddha made completely of jade. Originally, the buddha was covered in plaster. The plaster on the nose was chipped exposing what was thought to be emerald. It turned out to be jade. Now, the plaster is completely removed but unfortunately, pictures are not allowed. Numerous fantastical characters could be found throughout the palace grounds. These were some monkeys and demons that defended the base of one of the spires.

We visited nearby Wat Pho (wat means temple). This temple had the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. The Buddha was 46 meters long and 15 meters tall.

The wat allowed us to take pictures within the temple so we got our first picture within a Buddhist temple.

The wat grounds were at least a city block with amazing architecture. Each doorway throughout the grounds were protected by either a warrior or a fantastic beast/demon.

That day, we decided to enjoy a movie at a nearby cineplex. Prior to the movie playing, we had to stand to salute the king of Thailand. We had read about this but finally got to experience it. The revery for the king of Thailand is strong with the Thai people. When we exited the movies, a large crowd had gathered next to the mall elevator. Soldiers, police, and rope were keeping the crowd at bay. Laura and I decided to stick around to see what the commotion was... could Britney Spears be in Thailand? It turned out the royal family was at the mall. They were unveiling one of the princess's art collections at a gallery she owns in the mall. We saw the king of Thailand personally!

Today, we visited the former home of Jim Thompson.

He founded the Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company, a successful company that introduced Thai silk to the western countries. The store is a massive success story in Thailand. Jim, who first came to Thailand during WW2 and later moved there, died a mysterious death in the 1960s and is now an American legend in Thailand. His home was filled with various Buddhist relics from Southeast Asia and the home architecture and decoration was from different locations in SE Asia.

Twenty-five years in the making

November 10, 2007 was opening day for hunting deer with a rifle in Vermont. As is customary with all other years, my father gets up bright and early for deer season's best hunting day. This Saturday, he'd have to work at noon so that meant an even earlier morning and a hunt closer to home. Despite his hunting partner, Greg, attempting to convince Dad to join him on a hunt on his Derby Line land, Dad decided to stick with his intuition and hunt in Irasburg, a neighboring town to Orleans.

Mom, Laura, and myself weren't chipper enough to set an early alarm to join him so he went off just himself and his 30-06. The Orleans phone rang around 9:30 AM with Dad on the phone. HE GOT ONE!!! He asked us to meet him in Irasburg to help drag the deer out of the woods. We blasted around the house to suit up for the cold and called up our truck-owning neighbor, Dick, for some help.

Dick drove his truck out an old logging road to get as close to the deer as possible. Then, our search began for the downed deer. My mother, knowing my father's sense of direction, was the only one not willing to listen to Dad's directions and of course, she was the one to stumble across the carcass. It had been 25 years since Dad had gotten his last deer. Finally, we can replace the old picture with a new one.

Dad, Mom, and I dragged the deer out with Dick clearing a path and Laura photographing the story.

We arrived to Dick's truck and loaded the deer.

From there, we headed to Bob's Quick Stop for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife weigh-in. The deer was a 133 pound 4-pointer, probably a two year old. Dad had been on his third waiting point when he saw a doe go walking through the woods about fifty yards away. He waited hoping for a buck to be following and just a few minutes later, he appeared. He identified the antlers immediately and then waited for a good shot. He ended up stopping next to a tree with his neck and head exposed. Dad took his shot and got him in the neck. The deer died immediately.

A historic event in the Pallotta family!

Southeast Asia Itinerary

First off, most of the information in this blog was researched from Lonely Planet's Southeast Asia on a shoestring. This book is referenced on the left of this blog in the "Our guide books" link list. Here's a map to better understand the locations as they are discussed. This map is referenced on the left of this blog in the "Related Maps" link list.

Laura and I are traveling one-way to Bangkok, Thailand on November 14, 2007. Our itinerary has us going from Burlington, VT to New York, NY (1.35 hours), then New York, NY to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (12.35 hours), then Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. to Bangkok, Thailand (5.5 hours). We'll leave Vermont at 6:10 AM (Eastern time) on November 14 and we'll arrive in Bangkok at 6:45 PM (Bangkok time) on November 15. We are staying our first 7 nights at the Lamphu House in Bangkok.

In Bangkok, we have decided to get the Japanese encephalitis vaccine. The vaccine is no longer in production in the United States. Since we plan to be in a number of national parks, we thought it prudent to get this vaccine. The vaccination comes in 3 doses. The first dose is given on Day 0, the second on day 7, and the third on day 30. This forces us to stay in the Bangkok area for 30 days to obtain the vaccine.

During the first seven days, we will visit Bangkok. As with most cities, lots of action will be at the markets. We plan to visit Chatuchak market, the mother of all markets, with everything from chickens and snakes to handicrafts and antiques. I'm sure we'll find great food during our market visits. We will visit the Damnoen Saduak floating market, where goods are sold from wooden canoes by Thai women. Both Laura and I plan to take classes in Bangkok or Chang Mai. Laura wants to take Thai cooking courses, something I will benefit from greatly. I plan to take Thai boxing courses, hoping that my nose is straight by the time I am done. Finally, we'll visit the various temples and hoods of Bangkok.

Once we've received our second shot, we'll head south to the beaches. Ko Tao, a mountainous island surrounded by coral reefs, will provide us with excellent snorkeling and the potential to get a diving license. Khao Sok National Park is a rain forest with swimming holes surrounded by limestone cliffs. Ko Phi Phi, although loaded with tourists, has jaw-dropping limestone cliffs and translucent water. Finally, Ko Tarutao National Marine Park is a gorgeous island park far from the tourist crowds. We'll see as much of it as we can and probably enjoy side trips along the way.

We'll return to Bangkok for our final shot and then begin our journey to the mountainous north of Thailand. We'll begin with Khao Yai National Park, with over 50 km of trails, most formed by wildlife. We'll continue to Chiang Mai, Thailand, a square-shaped city surrounded by medieval-style walls and moats. The city is a tourist center, providing a night bazaar, trekking to Thai hill tribes, classes on meditation, massage, cooking, boxing, etc. We plan to visit at least one hill tribe during our journey. It could be in Chiang Mai, Laos or Vietnam. We'll visit Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, one of northern Thailand's most sacred temples.

From Chiang Mai, we'll head towards Loei, a base for visiting more remote areas of Thailand. Highlighting the area is Phu Kradueng National Park containing a large mountain with unhindered views. We'll cross the northeastern Thai border to Vientiane, Laos. Here's a Thailand map summary of the trip.

Vientiane, Laos is along the Mekong river. It is home to a number of interesting Buddhist temples, museums, an Arc de Triomphe replica, and Buddha park, a park full of Buddhist and Hindu sculptures. In Laos, I'll have to be especially careful to avoid “beer shops”, where a pint of draft is often followed by an appointment with a friendly lady.

From Vientiane, we'll travel north to Luang Prabang, a city of French colonial architecture, Buddhist wats, and green mountains. Photography, shopping, and great food will be the focus of our visit. Around Luang Prabang, we'll visit Tat Kuang Si, a multi-tiered waterfall containing a swimming hole. Muang Ngoi Neua, a nearby town, offers fishing and trekking trips in Northern Laos; a good opportunity to see the hill tribes of Laos.

We'll leave northern Laos to the southern Four thousand islands, where the Mekong fans out and numerous sand bars have formed. Fishermen and water wildlife are abound and Don Khong is a great place to see wild Irrawaddy dolphins, fresh-water dolphins. Here's a Laos map summary of the trip.

We'll cross into northeastern Cambodia and head to the capital of the Ratanakiri province, Ban Lung. Taking a dip in Boeng Yeak Laom, a volcanic crater lake, and visiting waterfalls Chaa Ong and Ka Tieng (Ka Tieng has Tarzan vines to swing on!) are a must. Hiking is a popular option in Ban Lung. From Ban Lung, we will head south to Sen Monorom, the capital of the Mondulkiri province. This is an excellent place to rent a motorbike and explore nearby waterfalls like Bou Sraa Falls, one of the largest in Cambodia.

From Sen Monoram, we'll head west to Kratie. If we missed the Irrawaddy dolphins in Laos, this is another opportunity to view them. We'll continue to Kampong Cham and from there, go west to Siem Reap, the gateway city to the temples of Angkor, one of the main reasons for doing this trip. Highlighting all of the magnificent temples is Angkor Wat, a spectacular temple. We'll spend a week in Angkor exploring all of the temples.

From Siem Reap, we may take a boat to Battambang, Cambodia's second largest city . Battambang is a riverside city surrounded by rural temples with the best-preserved French architecture. Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, is our next stop. We'll get educated at the phenomenal Tuol Sleng Museum, once a school that was turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge rule. Most all at the prison were taken to the Choeung Ek killing fields, which we intend to visit. From Phnom Penh, we will visit Bokor National Park, home to cool climate, tigers, elephants, mountains, and an abandoned French Hill station. Here's a Cambodia map summary of the trip.

Phnom Penh will be our final stop in Cambodia. We will head east to Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon) in southern Vietnam. Unfortunately, as of this posting, I'm behind on my Vietnam research so not much to say. We'll head north to eventually arrive in Hanoi and possibly Sa Pa. Here's a Vietnam map summary of the trip.

From there, finances and energy will determine whether it is time to return to the USA or time to visit China or India!