Posted from: Ayuthaya, Thailand
The ruins at Ayuthaya were like nothing I’d ever seen. What Si Sanphet, the largest of the templates, boasting three towering stone chedis, was used by 14th-century kings. I’ve read that it “once contained a 16m-high standing Buddha covered with 250 kgs of gold which was melted down by Burmese conqueror.”
Posted from: Ayuthaya, Thailand
It only took 6 hours of travel time to reach Ayuthaya and settle in at my guesthouse, Baan Khun Phra, and the way up was more like a reality dating show than a solitary road trip. I dyed my hair several shades of blue the night before I left as a symbolic farewell ritual to Hua Hin, and while in the States that tends to send all sorts of alienating messages conducive to solitary travel, here it just seems to imply that you’re easy.
Posted from: Hua Hin, Thailand
Happy New Years. Dec. 31, 2003 found me on Hua Hin beach sharing a tatami with a group of Thais who I’d just met, and who didn’t speak more than a word or two of English. Perfect. Ideological Anonymity seems to be my prescription these days. Anyway, fire-crackers, distant yelling and those odd paraffin and plastic hot air balloons rang in the New Year, and I filed home alone.
Posted from: Khota Boru, Malaysia
We leave tomorrow, and Khota Boru has left a less-than-favorable impression on me. While food prices are slightly less than in Hua Hin, the city’s generally bland disposition and mediocre cuisine significantly detract from the novelty. Poverty abounds. Meat tends to be of questionable quality, lots of ill-prepared curry and badly steamed rice. Stands selling icy drinks sit on every roadside, but it seems the Malaysians can’t produce anything in liquid form without adding pounds and pounds of sugar – I believe the sweetness helps fend off the heat, but even my formidable sweet tooth can’t keep up. One sweet milky drink is afloat with soft green noodles and pink flecks of gelatin, and ordering tea will get you half a cup of tea atop half a cup of condensed milk.
