Letting Go to Get There (Reaching Sri Lanka)

I have a love/hate relationship with travel days. I enjoy them because I can happily spend entire days looking out of windows, taking in the scenery and being left alone to my thoughts. However, some of the less-nice things about travel days help persuade me to spend more time in places. There is the mystical grime that somehow forms all over your skin and beneath your nails though all you have done is sit still on a wooden bench for 6 hours. Or there is the dehydration that sets in because you aren’t drinking enough water since you aren’t sure you’ll get a bathroom break during that 6 hours and even if you do, you don’t want to give up your seat or come back to find your bag stolen. However, travel days can also be an exercise in throwing one’s hands up in the air and leaving it all to chance that you will make it to your destination. I had to do precisely that on my way from Koh Tao to Kuala Lumpur for my flight to Colombo.

On Koh Tao I purchased a night boat + bus fare to KL. The night boat was a great experience. If I have the chance, I will absolutely do it again, except I will sleep out on the deck instead. On the boat there were a few levels with big rooms full of bunk beds that each had their own power supply. The one glitch was that people kept getting assigned to the same bunks. It was clear their database wasn’t updating quickly enough. Someone was assigned to my bed twice! 

Arriving in Suratthani around 4 or 5 am, I climbed down off the boat to be greeted by several people shouting at me, asking me which company I booked with, getting frustrated with my sleepy confusion, grabbing my ticket out of my hands, yelling in Thai at each other, and then giving my ticket back and shoving me in the direction of another group of confused white people. 

We were all shuttled to a small truck with bench seats along the side and a metal roof over it, which already looked packed with people and bags. The driver began yelling at us to get in, taking one person at a time and shoving them along with their bags onto people’s laps. It was a literal clown car situation. Anyways, I lucked out and got put in the cab of the truck with the driver since I was “a lady”. I’m not sure how I got singled out as a “lady”, since half of the others were female, but maybe because I was wearing a nicer looking dress. Or he is the one person in this world who can tell how old I really am. Who knows?

We arrived at a cafe where we would wait out our various buses for the next hour or so. They took my (one and only) ticket that said I had paid to go to Kuala Lumpur, frowned, and gave me a little sticker upon which was written “KL”. I had no proof of payment other than a simple sticker anyone could create in two seconds. The lady who took my ticket immediately got onto the phone and shooed me away. 

I was the only one going to KL. When I was pulled out of the cafe, I was placed in a little van alone with a man who didn’t know english other than telling me (I think) that we’d get to Hat Yai maybe 3 or 4. I had been told we would arrive at 11 and that my next bus would leave at 12! Additionally, I was supposed to be taking two big buses, not a van! I was starting to get worried that I wasn’t going the right place or I wasn’t going to make it in time.

For the next hour, he was driving around town picking up other Thais and moving me back each time until finally I was pushed into the very back bench seat (worst place in the van) in favor of the Thais. Instead of getting offended, I made lemonade. I found I was able to lay completely flat in the back and sleep for the next 3 or 4 hours until we got to Hat Yai . . . Where I was deposited once again in a random cafe where a woman asked me where I was going, got a concerned look on her face, and then got on a telephone, telling me to sit down and wait. 

I found an unlit squat toilet under some stairs in the back, and thanked myself once again for bringing TP and hand sanitizer with me, along with my over-the-door hook to hold my bag off the ground. I came back and waited another 15 or so minutes, trying to ignore the stares.

Then an old man on a motorbike pulled up in front of the storefront. He smiled and pointed to my bag. The lady stood and pointed to him. 

“Your bus on bike. Go.”

My eyes went wide. I looked at the man and back at the reception lady. They were perfectly serious. I just wanted to burst out laughing. Were they taking me to KL the rest of the way on a motorcycle?!! My brain was going to explode with ridiculousness. It was at this point I realized that I just had to trust and let go. If I don’t make it there in time, I don’t make it. What happens happens. This is crazy. Here I go.

In the 15 minutes of traffic weaving I was able to gather from my driver that he was just taking me across town so we could catch the bus in time. And indeed, we did! It was the fanciest bus I’ve ever been on in my life! The seats were like la-z-boys and they played movies.

The border crossing into Malaysia was quick and easy, other than discovering someone had stolen my travel towel from the only unlocked pocket of my bag (my guess was that it happened on the night boat), but the english guy next to me also discovered that someone had sliced his bag open and then closed it with safety pins and nothing was stolen . . . ? We were both confused. 

We arrived in KL on time (10:30pm) and I easily found my hostel. The next morning I took the various trains and buses required to get to the airport to check in, where I found out that KL is actually one hour different from Thailand and I had 30-40 minutes to get through immigration and security and most definitely couldn’t check my bag anymore so I had to dump out a bunch of liquids and repack my bag as fast as possible. Thank goodness I travel light! Amazingly, I made it to my flight, and the flight made it safely to Colombo.

I shared a taxi with an Irish couple into town and relaxed for the rest of the evening. In the morning, I ventured out to find the train station so I could get a ticket to Kandy for the next day. I hadn’t realized it was going to be a big holiday, and so trains were going to be packed! It was an interesting story I will share in the next post, but after I had my train ticket safely tucked away, I set out from the train station to wander a bit. It was 10 am and I was already plenty hot, constantly wiping sweat from my face with one of my travel staples, the sweat rag (a handkerchief or scarf). Later I learned that during New Years the whole country has a huge sale on everything and there is no sales tax, so all of the shops and malls are packed. 

Every street was lined with stalls, usually grouped by type of items being sold like shoes or bags or fish or fruit or electronics, etc. 

At almost every stall other than asking if I wanted what they were selling, I was greeted with big smiles, “Hello Madam”s, “Where From?” questions, and “You are so beautiful!” exclamations. Unlike several other foreign countries I’ve been to, if I said “No thank you” they remained ever-smiling and friendly.

Though as a solo female traveler you are warned against being too friendly for fear of appearing flirtatious or open to unwanted attention, I couldn’t help but start smiling back. In fact, by the time I had gone by 20 or so stalls, I found myself joyfully exclaiming “Good morning!” in the sweetest Laura voice I never knew existed as I quickly walked by, feeling more and more joyful. Occasionally I would tell someone I was American, which always impressed and excited him or her. Most responses I receive in Sri Lanka are: “Good from!” and “Good country! I like!” and of course, “Obama! He is Muslim?”

My favorite greeting was an enthusiastic young shoe salesman that literally jumped out into the street as I passed, nearly knocking over two sari-clad women who joined me in laughter after he exclaimed: “Welcome to Sri Lanka! I LOVE you!!”

It felt strange to be walking through a crowded and intimidating market maze in a foreign country brimming with confidence and comfort, but I was on a sort of high from all the smiling and warmth around me. I began finding crotchety old men’s frowning faces in a crowd pushing past me, and making them grin and bob their heads with my big, silly smile. It was a little ridiculous but it taught me a lot about the power of a smile. My mood was completely altered.

Even the old woman selling bananas who tried to rip me off didn’t make me upset. The girls standing next to me said that one kilo was 60 rupees ($0.46), so when the old woman told me three bananas would cost me 150 rupees ($1.15) I laughed and refused. The woman was not amused, snatched the bananas out of my hand, and turned her back to me. The girls were shocked. They kindly gave me a few of their own bananas as a gift and apologized. 

I then went and bought seven oranges for 70 rupees ($0.54) and a few of those delicious curry-filled pastries at a hotel (they call restaurants “hotels” here . . . No, not confusing at all!). The ingredients for my picnic lunch at the beach were now gathered!

Unfortunately, in trying to walk to the beach I ended up on the wrong side of town. The directions I had received from my hotel, CityRest, were illogical to me, which is probably why they didn’t help and I ended up instead at the Navy base having to negotiate with a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the right place for a reasonable rate.

The beach was picturesque in a more urban way. There’s a large park that separates the walkway from the road, and the “beach” section is a thin strip scarcely three people could lay across lined up head to toe.

I bought a cold soda and walked along the sand and spoke with a few local children who wanted me to dive into the water with them with all of my clothes on, but I wasn’t quite that crazy. There were also endless giggles coming from toddlers holding their mother’s hands and lines of girlfriends clinging to one another as each wave greeted them.

I also saw a few Sri Lankan couples nuzzling behind umbrellas to hide their tender kisses. I have since seen a lot of this. Their PDA is so sweet here; little hugs and kisses behind trees in a garden or beneath umbrellas by the sea.

On the walk back, I found myself agreeing to take a few photos with some teenage boys and then to a tuk-tuk tour of the city for 400 rupees ($3.06) with a charismatic muslim (and Charlie Sheen lookalike) named Faizel, who fed me all sorts of crazy lies (like, there are lions in Sri Lanka!) and pulled some of the normal tricks like showing me pictures of temples which I knew were hours away and telling me he would show them to me. Thankfully I wasn’t interested in temples, but he did take me to a gem shop even though I told him I wasn’t interested in buying anything. I really hate that; where they take you to a “tour” to see how people make things, when really it is a big uncomfortable hard sell at the end where they give you tea and have an argument for every reason why you don’t want to buy anything. It all turned out well, though, because while I had no interest in the fancy jewelry, I charmed the salesmen with my love of olympic weight lifting, impressing them with my deadlift and clean & jerk PRs. 

At that point I think Faizel started to like me as more than just a random tourist to get money from, so we started having more interesting conversations and ended up at a bar after the tour, where he taught me a bunch of Sinhala words and gave me all sorts of advice and warnings and in the end refused to let me pay for the tour at all. 

He did let me buy him his beer, though.

The next morning, I was off to take the famous train ride into the beautiful Sri Lankan hill country. I was very excited because I LOVE TRAINS!! I was also prepared with my oranges, which I hoped to share with some locals on the journey. 

This man and his daughters befriended me and we did indeed swap snacks and small conversations in sinhala and english.

Arriving in Kandy, I began to look for my travel companions who I had met the day before and arranged to travel with (a story I will tell in the next post). Tony was the first to find me, followed shortly by Joe and Jamison who offered me some curry pastries, relating a story about the first one they bought being filled with ants. I’m pretty sure Tony was a little sick to his stomach the rest of the day with that memory still fresh. 

Nirol, our smiling driver, corralled us into the van and we started our three or four hour journey to Sigiriya, the starting point of our week-long adventure together exploring Sri Lanka, where we would experience the most spectacular views, climb ancient ruins, feed elephants, take a safari, nurse sunburns, share an authentic Sri Lankan meal at Nirol’s house, win and lose at negotiations, get hit by monkeys, have Weezer sing-alongs, drink copious beers, laugh repeatedly at our truly ridiculous inside jokes, almost drown in the Indian ocean, share hours of excellent conversation, and build great friendships . . . all of which I will tell you about in my next post!

I am a Certified Mouth-Breather (Koh Tao, Thailand)

Copious diving schools, strawberry-banana fruit shakes, mangy dogs, beachside restaurants, alcoholic drinks that come in a bucket, tripping over scooters, daily scooter accidents, cheap bungalows by the beach, stolen flip-flops, hours spent sitting in the warm ocean, attractive young people galore, and a bar you can only reach by boat . . . 

Koh Tao is a small island off the east coast of Thailand. It is the first of three islands, the others being more famous: Koh Samui and Koh Phangan. Koh Tao is known for being one of the best (and cheapest!) places to learn to scuba dive. The waters are warm (about 86 degrees F) and calm (as opposed to Sri Lanka, but that’s a story for another post). 

I originally planned to come here to get my open water scuba diving certification (something on my bucket list), do some Crossfit (yes, there is a Crossfit box here!), and do some reading/relaxing.  

Koh Tao Crossfit, or KTC, ended up being my favorite Crossfit box I have been to thus far. The coaches Brad and Paul are engaged and passionate, and encouraged me with positive reinforcement which is the most effective style for me. They are really involved in the success of each person that they teach. I always came away from a session feeling a little bit better at something. I improved my clean, deadlift, knees-to-elbows, pushups, and even my running. I also really liked their programming, even if there was some kind of running every day! I really miss it.

It may sound ideal to own a gym in a paradise like Koh Tao, but it certainly has its challenges. For example, there is a water shortage on the island, so there is rationing. When the water runs out for the day, that’s it. 

One day I came in for the 5:15pm session to find all of the gym equipment strewn about the patio. Inside, everyone was hunched over or feverishly kicking the jigsaw floor tiles back together. Someone tried to take a shower the night before, and finding there was no water, didn’t turn the knob back to the “off” position. When the water turned back on in the middle of the night, the gym flooded. 

This is the third time that has happened. 

For my scuba certification, I went with SSI at a dive school called Roctopus, which is just down the street from KTC. They have maximum class size of only 4, which I thought was a big selling point.

My instructor, Natalie, was great. I feel really lucky to have gotten her and her assistant, Louisa, because learning to dive was not as easy or enjoyable for me as I anticipated.

I don’t really understand it, to be honest. I have always loved being in or on the water. I used to swim like a fish when I had the chance. I remember practically going blind once from pretending I was a mermaid all day long in my grandparents’ pool. Before this, if you had asked me what super power I would want, I always chose being able to breathe underwater. 

Silly me.

Breathing underwater put my survival instinct into overdrive. 

“This isn’t normal! What are you doing?! I hate this! I can’t breathe freely!” is what my brain was yelling at me as I was kneeling just below the surface, watching my instructor help my other two classmates go through their regulator skills. 

I was trying REALLY hard to calm down and keep my breathing normal. Breathing only through your mouth, it turns out, is pretty hard to adjust to when you’ve never even snorkeled in your life. 

Yeah . . . Probably shoulda tried that first.

There were a few minutes there I was pretty sure I would have to quit. My mind was freaking out. I was hiding it pretty well, but no matter how much logic I catapulted at the fear, I wanted more than anything to be up in the real world breathing through my nose like a sane person. 

Eventually I surfaced when I had a good excuse: water in my mask (they hadn’t taught us how to clear that yet). I talked with Natalie and Louisa briefly, and they helped me feel like it was a completely normal reaction, and no big deal. I remember saying “I just keep thinking there are a million people that do this no problem, so I can do it too”. Natalie nodded and said I could take my time, that I just needed a little more practice, and that it would start feeling normal. 

She was right. I took my time on the skills, and eventually breathing underwater did come normally. However, even after all of the practice and many dives, while underwater I still felt like it was a challenge I was facing and enduring, not really an enjoyment. I’m not sure if that will change with more experience and seeing more sea life, but I’m going to give it another try or two while traveling. After enjoying the snorkeling tour of the island a few days after getting my certification, I actually missed diving, so perhaps it really will just take me more time.

My classmates were Kurt from London and Fleur from the Netherlands; both fun people.

Other than Crossfit, diving, and snorkeling, I spent a lot of time on the beach, sitting in the bathtub-like, calm,  idyllic ocean getting random and absurdly shaped sunburns due to misapplication of sunscreen in various locations, or sitting in a beachside restaurant eating cheap and delicious Thai food, occasionally seeing the most gorgeous sunsets of my life. 

Napkins? Ha ha ha, you’re so funny. Try one sheet of single ply toilet paper . . .

Remove your shoes! But watch out for the famous flip flop thieves of Koh Tao!

Below are a few photos of my bungalow about 25-30 steps to the beach. This cost a little over 10 dollars a night. It was a fan-only room, which wasn’t a problem after a refreshing cold shower (also not a problem at all to my surprise, since the heat really does get into your bones), and a bucket-flush toilet system. 

Also, you are not allowed to flush toilet paper in the toilet. You use the bum-gun (kitchen sprayer next to the toilet; surprisingly effective) and if you must use TP (you better bring it with you), put it in the trashcan by the toilet. If you want to shower, you better remember to close the lid of your toilet, otherwise your seat will be covered in water the next time you go, because the shower head is right there. It also helps to remember to move your TP and trashcan out of the way too. 

All of the above is quite normal in SE Asia. I am just grateful when I see a western toilet, even if I appreciate the squat practice provided by the rest of the world’s brand of “toilet”.

Other than all that, I spent a lot of time reading. That is another one of my goals this year: 

Read at least 52 books, most of which being older classics I’ve always meant to read. 

Right now my total for 2014 is: 18

In the 3.5 weeks in Thailand I read the following:

The Importance of Being Ernest (Oscar Wilde) *****

The Idiot (Fyodor Dostoevsky) ****

Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky) ****

Born to Run (Christopher McDougall) ****

The Lonely Polygamist (Brady Udall) ****

The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath) ****

Persuasion (Jane Austen) ***

On the Road (Jack Kerouac) ***

On Writing (Stephen King) ***

Next up . . . Sri Lanka . . . Oh, Sri Lanka, how I love thee!

I Admit it: I'm Lame (Bangkok, Thailand)

My parents will be happy to know that while in Bangkok I was in bed before 10 pm every night. 

I admit it: I’m lame. I was in Bangkok for a week and I didn’t debautch or witness debautchery at Khao San Road, I didn’t venture out to see the floating markets, and I didn’t visit a single temple. What’s wrong with me?

Well, I’ve been thinking about it, and realized that most of what tourists and travelers flock to in foreign locales boils down to shopping (markets, malls, etc) & religion (temples, mosques, churches, ruins, ceremonies, & festivals); the two human preoccupations and influences of which I have purposefully tried to eliminate from my life as much as possible. (It’s no wonder I hated Rome!)
I’m always and ever-learning about myself of course, but the more I travel, the more I realize that I like to stay somewhere long enough to get into a rhythm where I know where I’m going, have my “places” and things I like to order, people recognize me, and I create a bit of routine. I tend to prefer strolling around, observing, and trying to experience what it is like to “live” in an area to get a feel for the place; things like grocery shopping, eating out, using public transportation, going to a movie, etc. 

I still struggle with moments of guilt that I am not seeing the things I am “supposed to” see, or go out and do what everyone else likes to do, but come on . . . everyone knows that Laura just has to be a contrarian! She has to do things differently! She can’t help it! It is a foundational element of her make-up! 

*Sigh*

Now don’t get me wrong, I do like to do some touristy things! I love the more natural “sites” that involve hiking and views, etc, and I love art, so museums draw me as well. I also love to see dance. But in general, I don’t really travel to see things. I think I travel to live in different contexts. I like to get a glimpse into someone else’s reality in the hopes that mine will not end up shallow, naive, and one-dimensional. 

Maybe that is why I am still going to bed early, waking up early, and pretty much still being normal me, working towards my 2014 goals. I’m still living a normal life. It’s just a bit more interesting (and cheap) for me to do so in new places while meeting people from all over the world and seeing what “normal” is for most of the rest of the population.  

 So instead of shopping and temples and golden buddhas and ladyboys and late-night partying, I walked around in one neighborhood where I was staying; the newer and “richer” Sukhumvit area. I ate at food stalls and in restaurants, rode public transport around, went to Crossfit most days, saw a movie, did lots of reading, and got to know a few people at the hostel. 

The Crossfit class was hosted on the roof of a fancy corporate gym (Aspire) at the Asoke Sky Train station where people could watch us working out from the train platform. Sometimes the whole platform was filled with people watching us! It was ridiculously hot for the 4:30 pm class, so after the second day when I almost had heat stroke I started going to the latest possible class for the rest of the week. It was a pretty amazing view to work out to, though. One of the best parts was the ice-cold scented towels they handed out at the end of class which would quickly become black from my skin being covered in residue from the weights and mats.

I happened to select a hostel (HI-Sukhumvit) which is on a road famous for some of the best street food in Bangkok, including Bangkok’s finest burger (it was ridiculously good). I had the BEST soup of my life for $1.50.

I chose this hostel because it had easy train access from the airport. In fact, I found the public transportation efficient and organized. I only needed the train system for what I did in Bangkok (which wasn’t much, I admit). Otherwise I walked. 

The hostel was really clean and all the bunk beds had curtains around them which was a nice plus. I stayed in a female 6 bed dorm room which was never entirely full. They provided sheets and a pillow as well as a personal lamp, outlet, and hooks for each bed. Everyone was respectful and I had no issue with noise. It cost about $10/night.

I befriended a small group of travelers, put together by the hand of a fellow American whom I may write about in the future, but let’s just say he was an “interesting” person who taught me how to say “hello” and “thank you” in Thai, which is pretty much the minimum amount of a local language you should know if you don’t want to be an a*&hole. In our group we had Dries from Belgium, (my age), Adrian from Switzerland (50s and retired), the American guy (40s), and Simon from New Zealand (50s). We shared some meals and walks together, and exchanged lots of stories and information about our own countries and cultures. This is one of my favorite parts of traveling; you get to meet so many people from different places! 

Preparing for my departure from Bangkok, I went to buy a train & ferry combo ticket to Koh Tao at the train station the day before I was planning on leaving, and was told all of the sleepers were sold out! I was disappointed since I was planning on it being my first experience sleeping on a train; something I had dreamed about as a kid. So I shrugged and agreed to instead purchase a ticket on the later train that was just a normal seat. However, seeing my sad face, the guy at the ticket counter told me if I showed up 1 hour before the sleeper train was leaving, I may find that there is a cancellation in the sleeper car that I could exchange my ticket for. I didn’t have a lot of hope, but decided to give it a shot. $31 for 9 hour overnight train ticket, bus to ferry, and ferry ride.

The day of departure, I had to fill the day without getting too sweaty and gross because I wouldn’t be able to take a shower for over 24 hours. The hostel let me keep my bag in a closet for the day, so I walked down to the local cinema to see a movie. They had fancy touchscreen purchasing stations where you could select your seat! There were preferred seats and ones that could recline, etc that cost more, but I just bought a normal ticket since I was able to select a great spot on the screen. (We so need that in the states!) Then you can even order your snacks on the machine as well and then take the ticket to the concession stand to collect them! They had 3 different kinds of popcorn but no diet soda. I chose “classic” popcorn and I admit it was different, but very tasty! The portion sizes were small (you can’t really get a huge bucket of popcorn). Overall, I’d say it was a great experience. The ticket cost $5.50, and popcorn and soda probably half of that. Oh yeah, the movie was “Divergent”, which wasn’t great. The most interesting part was before the movie when everyone stood for the national anthem, but I already wrote about that in the last post.

I arrived at the station with a little over an hour before the train was leaving and found there was indeed ONE 2^nd class sleeper available and I was rushed over to the proper window to purchase it while it was still available. I figured that if they all told people to show up one hour before that I had better show up a little earlier than that if I had any chance at all. However, I heard yesterday that travel agencies buy up all the tickets from the train station so they can charge travelers higher ticket prices and then an hour before the train leaves, they give them back to the train station, so there’s that. I was indeed able to buy the ticket for another 230 baht, or 7 dollars.

I loved-loved-loved-loved the train and can’t wait to take my next ones to Kuala Lumpur!! The Chinese man on the top bunk across from my side snored like crazy, but the constant clanging and banging of the train easily sent me into a deep slumber. 

The toilet situation isn’t the sweetest-smelling or most hygienic there is in this world (it's just a hole straight to the tracks below), but as long as I wear a skirt and learn how not to pee on my right foot, all should be fine. I am learning to love the “bum gun”, I carry spare TP, moist wipes & a over-the-door hook for my bag, and my squat is ever-improving thanks to Crossfit. 

I can squat for at least five minutes unassisted no problem. 

Same Same. No problem.