Northern Thailand Recommendations

After fleeing Vietnam, Thailand welcomed us back with open arms and delicious curries.  Having spent some time in the south of the country in November, we went north from Bangkok on this visit.  Totally different, but still fantastic.  We can't really recommend Thailand highly enough.  There is so much to do here, and you can have so many different experiences here.  From laid back to very active, you can likely find it here and all with fairly good infrastructure and nice people.

Below is a short list of recommendations...

Chiang Mai:

Vanilla Place Boutique Guesthouse - Near the old city, but not too near.  This was the perfect spot to stay for New Year's.  It's an easy walk to the action, the rooms are nice and the folks who run the hotel couldn't be sweeter or more on it.


Chiang Mai River House - A solid ten minute tuk tuk ride from the old city.  This place is a guesthouse in the truest sense.  The proprietor is lovely and cooks amazing breakfast.  Staying here is like staying in her house, her super beautiful house on the bank of the Ping River.  Not as convenient as Vanilla Place, but a great place to stay.

Kruabanok Restaurant - This incredible restaurant  was recommended by the proprietor of the Chiang Mai River House.  Rodney and I went twice.  The English name above is a rough translation of the Thai (and there is no English signage).  The place is not that easy to get to from the old city, but is totally worth it.  It is located north of the super highway bridge on the road on the west side of the Ping River.  If you're walking north on that road the restaurant is about five minutes north of the bridge and has a yellow sign in Thai and a roof with three peaks.  We would highly recommend the deep fried pork shank (there's a picture of this dish on every table).  It was amazing.

Bhubing (Bhuping) Palace - The seasonal residence of the royal family of Thailand.  It is located on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai.  The grounds are beautiful with many impressive gardens.

The Duke's - When you're craving Western food this is an excellent spot.  Good chili, decent pizza.  It was perfect on New Year's Day.

Elephant Nature Park - There's a lot of opportunities to see elephants in Northern Thailand.  Many of them involve riding elephants and watching elephant shows.  You can't do either of these things at the Elephant Nature Park, and, once you've been there, you likely won't want to ever again.  This place is largely the effort of one woman who has dedicated her life to rescuing elephants that would otherwise be put to work in the Thai tourist industry and broken using harsh physically abusive techniques.  Elephants are really cool and we were lucky to spend the day with them.

Chiang Dao:

Chiang Dao Nest - We didn't stay here, but we wish we had.  We stayed next store which was fine but nothing special.  We did however eat at the restaurant at Chiang Dao Nest.  WOW.  Some of the best high(er) end Western food we've had.  Period.  It is expensive by Thai standards but well worth it.  The grounds are beautiful as well.  We'd definitely try to stay there next time we are in Chiang Dao.

Wat Tham Pha Plong - Nestled into the side of jungle covered mountain, this wat is definitely worth the trip if you find yourself in Chiang Dao.

Pai:

Bueng Pai Farm - If you love to relax, stay here.  It's not in town, there's no hippies or late night activities.  You can just lie in a hammock and listen to the fountains and watch the fish pond and chill out.

Vietnam

I've rarely been as happy to get to the airport as I was in Ho Chi Minh City.  It was an instant return to order and quiet.  Vietnam is one of very few places we've been on this trip that I was truly happy to leave.  I'm glad we saw what we saw – only a small sample but it felt like more than enough.

This is not an easy place to travel.  It is an assault on the senses and on personal space.  As a tourist one often feels like a collection of dollars.  All eyes are on you and everyone has something to offer. The offers are not inherently unpleasant, but they are constant. The repeated calls of “hello” and “Sir, Madam” follow you down the street.

Motorbike drivers come up on the sidewalk, driving directly at you looking to solicit your fare. People you walked by not five minutes before will again solicit you as if you had not just been there. The people do not really see you, and their constant hawking had the effect of making them equally invisible. This may sound harsh, but without this I think that we would have had an even harder time dealing with the constant chatter.

There was a lot of good (and even more interesting) to balance out the negative aspects.  Ho Chi Minh City is changing with alarming speed, and, while we kind of hated it, we were lucky to see it before it is a mass of Skyscrappers and the government has completed their quest to expunge all trace of the locals.  Molly and Andrew hooked us up with their friend Gabriel in HCMC. He is a fantastic human being and showed some of the best HCMC has to offer.

Mui Ne was a great place to spend a week at the beach. Our small hotel was a great deal, and we ate some of the best seafood we've ever had.

I don't think we'll return to Vietnam anytime soon, and we felt very comfortable axing more than half of our original planned itinerary. Our advice, if you go, go with a tour. Our friends Matt and Jill did (what sounded like) an amazing 10 or 12 days with a tour company, and I think they had a better and more rewarding experience because of it.  Barring that, use a tour company once you arrive. Having someone that can grease the wheels makes all the difference.

We did a three day cycling tour of the Mekong that stands as a highlight of our entire trip. (You should be a much, much better bike rider than I am to do this. I only biked the first of the three days, but still really enjoyed the tour.) We went with the excellent Sinhbalo Adventures and would recommend them highly (for tours throughout the south of Vietnam – they use a partner company in the north that gets very mixed reviews).

Book and Podcast Recommendations

I'm stealing a page from Rodney on this one.  We have done quite a bit of reading during our time away.  I'm listing my favorites below divided between fiction and nonfiction with links to Amazon.

Nonfiction:
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook by Ben Mezrich
Seaworthy by Linda Greenlaw
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Wave by Susan Casey
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein

Fiction:
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
 A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

You know the other things that's awesome: podcasts.  We spend a lot of time on buses, planes and trains, and podcasts really help to pass the time.  Rodney and I have been This American Life addicts for a long time, but this trip has really broadened our podcast horizons.  I'm not sure that I have Rodney sold on all of the below yet, but, in addition to This American Life, I am currently loving the following...

WTF with Marc Maron
The Nerdist
The Moth Podcast

I'll also give special mention to NPR: The Planet Money Podcast.  It's an excellent bi-weekly look at the economy but not as entertaining as the other three mentioned above.  (All are available in the iTunes Store.)

Thailand Recommendations

We had an absolute blast in Thailand.  Can't recommend it enough.  I only wish that we'd had more time there.  We stayed some really great place, ate some really great food, saw some really great things.

Here's some of our greatest hits should you be heading to Bangkok and/or Koh Lanta...

The Atlanta Hotel


Siam Paragon Mall - Both the food court and the movie theater are worth a visit.

Wat Pho - A beautiful temple complex containing a 46 meter reclining Buddha.  One of the most impressive things we've seen.

By Kalpapruek Restaurant

Placement on map is approximate

87/2 ตึกออลซีซั่นเพลส อาคารซีอาร์ซี ยูนิต 101,130 ชั้น 1 ถ.วิทยุ แขวงปทุมวัน

Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

Get Directions

02-6853860

Banana Garden Home, Klong Dao Beach, Koh Lanta - This place is great and the proprietor Annie couldn't be nicer.  Annie is a bit scattered though, and we would recommend emailing far in advance to secure a room.  Also, follow-up with her as Annie rarely writes things down.  That said, this place is a magical paradise, and we could have stayed there indefinitely.

Some (Possibly Not Very Interesting) Observations on Money

Traveling, you need to relearn how the money works in each place that you go.  Part of this is just making sure that you can pay for stuff and that you're not walking around with gobs and gobs of local currency, and the other part is trying to do the calculation to dollars to see how much this is actually costing you.


In the US, paper money is king; change has value, but in most ways it's best collected and changed to paper money. If you have a lot of change in your pocket, it's likely that at most you're going to have several dollars. In Japan, Hong Kong and Korea on the other hand, bills start at the (equivalent) 10 dollar denomination with 5 and 1 dollar equivalents being minted as coins. (In Hong Kong there is also a ten dollar coin, but money in Hong Kong seems designed from the ground up to confuse you – more on that in a minute.) You can have quite a bit of money in your pocket in just change.


The real weirdness about money in Hong Kong is that it is issued by at least three separate banks – none being an official government entity – and each bank has a different design for the notes. So a ten HK dollar note can look three totally different ways (same for the other larger notes).

Tokyo: We Were Sad to Say Good-bye

Tokyo is a food lovers town, and I can't recommend it highly enough on that basis alone. Variety is something that Tokyo has in excess and it doesn't stop with the food. Tokyo as place has variety baked in. On two consecutive days during our last week we went to Odaiba followed the next day with a visit to Mt. Takao. The contrast between these places could not have been more striking and each is just a train ride away.

I thought Tokyo was like visiting the future during our 2006 trip, and on this trip Odiaba gave me a similar feeling. Odaiba is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay with a mix of shopping malls, offices and residential buildings. The architecture though is pure sci-fi. To get there you take a train that leaves from the fourth story of the Shimbashi train station. The train takes you over Tokyo and then over the water with spectacular views the whole way. Once you arrive, you are greeted by broad walkways that would be at home in any Star Wars movie. Walkways connect a number of huge structures that continue the sci-fi vibe. The whole thing appealed to the 8 year old boy in me. We both also really enjoyed the massive outlet mall, the interior of which was stolen lock, stock and barrel from the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Complete with a faux Italian fountain and Church facade.

The next day we set out for Mount Takao. We had a great day of hiking the highlights of which were several different opportunities to view Mount Fuji. It was a real thrill to see such an icon in the flesh. We ended our day at Mt. Takao with a trip to Yaku-ou-in Temple complex. The temple is a series of beautiful traditional buildings built at various levels on Mt. Takao.

Seeing these two on consecutive days felt like seeing past and future.  Despite it's constant drive for renewal and reinvention, Tokyo always nods to it's history and tradition.

These last few post are just a taste of our time in Tokyo, and I can't believe how quickly the five weeks went by.  We just got to Tokyo!  But no, month four of our travels came and went in an awesome dream.  We must say a special thank you to Molly and Andrew who truly shepherded this part of our journey to make it so much greater.  Not a bad suggestion left their lips, and we are totally appreciative for all their help and guidance. We also just loved hanging out! Thanks guys!

Month five here we come...

Tokyo: We Came, We Saw, We Ate.

The food is Tokyo is bonkers, amazing, crazy bananas. We love Japanese food, and we were lucky that in the East Village we had one of the best selections of Japanese eateries in NYC. It does not compare in any way to what is available in Tokyo. We put so many things in our mouths that just stopped us cold, it's going to be hard to relate the best of the bunch, but I'm going to give it a shot though...

5. There was a piece of sea urchin negiri sushi that I ate at Sushiko Tsukiji that I'm still thinking about. It was a perfect bite of food. Clean and creamy and briny.

4. One afternoon we walked to Futako-Tamagawa from Sangenjaya. We stopped in at a ramen shop along the way. We probably ate ramen 10 times this trip and this one was the best. Perfectly balanced. Good bite to the noodles. Rich flavorful broth without being greasy.

3. The grilled scallop at the Bettar Ichi Festival in Ningyocho. Totally simple. A grilled scallop with a bit of mirin added during cooking. It was perfectly cooked. Sweet and tender.

2. Rodney and Molly found a great restaurant for dinner the last night my folks were in town. We had a tatami room and the six of us enjoyed a truly memorable meal. The highlight for me was a grilled pork skewer cooked next to a pile of charcoal in the pit grill in our table. The pork was fatty in the best possible way and so porky with a little bit of smoke from the grilling.

1. It's a tie here. Both things were eaten in the same meal at an extraordinary restaurant in Sangenjaya and I won't choose between them. Molly and Andrew call the restaurant “The Horomon Place” as they specialize in horomon. As best as any of us can figure horomon is cow uterus. We ate a lot of it in Tokyo, but at The Horomon Place the proprietor makes a soup of horomon that's meaty and rich and yet delicate and nuanced. In the soup sit pieces of horomon and the whole thing is a heady combination. I hope that I have the chance to enjoy it again someday. If that soup wasn't enough, the chef made us a piece of grilled beef that was top three pieces of beef I've ever had the pleasure of eating. It was perfectly grilled and sliced into 6 thin slices accompanied by a small bowl of salt for dipping. As complex as the horomon soup was, the beef was just as good in it's simple beefiness.

Tokyo: Easy Days

Even without insider status, Tokyo has many layers to reveal. A lot of what effected my feelings about Tokyo was getting comfortable with the geography of the city. We walked a lot, and we walked a lot between neighborhoods. Getting your bearings anywhere is an essential part of the experience, but really becoming familiar with the layout of a large city frees you to explore. One of the best things about Tokyo is that it's so safe. You can go anywhere. You can walk there. You can ride there (on a most excellent public transportation system). You never need to contemplate the safety of a neighborhood or if someone is going to rip you off trying to get there. This aspect of the city cannot be taken for granted. It let's you relax in a way that Beijing and Shanghai don't. It let's you explore all of the little cities that make up the Tokyo metropolis. (As I write this we are on the plane to Bangkok and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit apprehensive about what awaits us.)

There are two other major things that make Tokyo a great and easy place to visit. The first is that there is a baseline quality to everything that frees you from having to search for good stuff. The people who live there care deeply about the city and the place is spotless. Shop owners have well designed and well curated stores. This baseline quality becomes the most obvious in the restaurants. It's hard to find a bad meal in Tokyo. You don't need to search at all, you don't need recommendations or a guidebook. The food starts at good and just goes up from there. It takes a lot of pressure off of meals. Often when we got hungry, we would walk into the next restaurant we saw and without exception we had a good meal.

The other thing that constantly blew us away in Tokyo was attention to detail. Everything is just so. Nothing is askew or out of place. It's just perfect. The milk for the coffee comes in a tiny perfect pitcher that has a most gratifying heaviness. The sphere of ice in your drink has been checked to make sure that there are no errant icicles that might water down your beverage. Each compartment of your gleaming black lacquer bento looks like a food stylist was called in to arrange it.

Back to the Future

Tokyo was a whirlwind.  We were so happy to get to spend time with so many friends and family.  After a lot of chatting and planning my folks made it to Tokyo for ten great days.  It was a weird and wonderful experience to see them in Tokyo, and we hope they had a great trip they'll remember for a long time to come.

Tokyo was a very different part of our trip.  It was the only place in Asia that I had been prior to our travels, and coming back to a place changes everything.  The first time I was there was with Rodney in 2006, and I was like a kid who had landed in 2055.  It literally felt like visiting the future.

This time around Tokyo felt like an alternate reality more than traveling forward in time. Rodney has visited Tokyo a bunch of times, and her experiences coupled with those related by Molly and Andrew and our new friend Hannah provided a small window into a place which I will never truly understand. Molly also recommended the excellent book "Tokyo Vice" which further shed some light. Our time in Tokyo and all of the collected anecdotes we heard and read allowed me to see Tokyo as real. On my first visit, I was so enamored of my surroundings that it was hard to see anything but a futuristic fairyland.

There's a lot about Japanese society that seems ridiculous and arbitrary and surprisingly inefficient. (See Rodney's post about trying to free ourselves from the shackles of picnic trash for a tiny microcosm.) Much seems like it will need to change as Japan feels cut off from the rest of the world in a way that is no longer sustainable in an increasingly global world.

None of that had any real bearing on our time there except perhaps the realization that Tokyo is an insider town in truest sense. If you live in New York for years (not even a lot of years), you're a New Yorker and you will almost certainly be an insider in whatever social or cultural sphere you choose to roam in. Tokyo doesn't feel that way. I believe that, as a Westerner – as any non-Japanese person, for that matter – you could live in Tokyo for years, decades and you'd still never really be an insider. There will always be a separation as long as a you are not Japanese.

The Cab Driver and Kung-Fu

The morning we left Shenyang it was rainy and it was 6:45am.  We were staying in a hotel under construction on a street that was also under construction, and we hadn't thought to have the hotel right down "airport" in Chinese for us (do this anytime you take a cab in China).

The street was under construction so cars could drive part way down and then make a u-turn.  We should have walked down to the intersection to get a cab, but we waited in the rain for 10 minutes on the partially closed street and an empty cab turned down the road.  From the moment the guy pulled over, things did not go well.  We opened the back door and said airport and I think Rodney showed him airport in Chinese in the phrase book we have.  He started yelling at us loudly in Chinese.  We looked at each other and slammed the back door and started walking down to the main intersection to get a different cab.  Being yelled at before you get in is a bad sign.  Then the guy was out of his cab, continuing to yell at us, but now the trunk was open and he was grabbing one of our bags and gesturing wildly at the back seat.  We took the cab ride, we knew better, it sucked.  I hate that cab driver.  He drove incredibly slow the whole way because his cab was so janky (this also ran up the fare).  He smoked even though we made it clear we prefer he didn't.  He was an asshole of the first order, and we knew it from the moment we hailed the cab.

Earlier today, after a relaxing morning, Rodney and I went out for a bite to eat.  We thought we'd try some Chinese fast food (there is a huge variety near our hotel).  We landed on Kung-Fu, a chain with a Bruce Lee-like man (it might be Bruce Lee) on their sign.  At the counter we were presented with a menu with English descriptions.  We were debating our order when a small cockroach crawled into the center of the menu.  Rodney and I were visibly unnerved.  The girl behind the counter killed the roach and muttered an apology.  We should have left.  No doubt about it. Instead, we overplayed the cultural sensitivity card.  Things in our travels thus far are different from home, significantly different.  Standards are not the same.  We have stayed places that we likely would not have stayed in.  We have eaten meats that were not refrigerated cooked in place that do not conform to health department standards.  We have used bathrooms that I would not like to describe, and you would not like to imagine.

So, we ordered.  Rodney got tiny pork ribs with garlic, and I got chicken with mushrooms.  We got our food (which included two bowls of congealed soup).  Not too much of surprise, it was awful.  God awful.  The worst thing we've eaten since Mongolia.  This is saying a lot as almost everything we've eaten in China from street food to the nicest restaurants has been very good to spectacular.  We took not a lot of bites and walked out.

This may seem obvious from the two stories relayed here, but instincts are not lost in translation.  Trust them.

China Recommendations

If you're in China and looking for an inexpensive place to stay, we would like submit for your review...

Motel 168

The Orange Hotel (Their website is a pain, but you can reserve through many of the hotel booking sites.)

Both are clean and cheap and have many locations throughout China.

If you're looking for an ATM in China that will accept your card without issue, look for an Agricultural Bank of China (ABC).  We've had some difficulty in this regard, but ABC has always come through.

Unexpected Soundtrack

It quickly became apparent in Korea that natural sound isn't desirable.  We hiked up a mountain with beautiful carved Buddhas and came to rest at an ancient temple.  The sound of the wind in the trees and birds chirping and perhaps some monks chanting (live) would have been a quiet moment of serenity.  Someone had other ideas.  Hidden speakers piped in music.  The music (in this case) wasn't bad or too loud, but it was definitely out of place.

This has not been an isolated incident and has not been limited to quiet moments.  At the beach in Sokcho, South Korea. there were many opportunities to ride in inflated tubes and rafts while being pulled behind speed boats.  People LOVED it.  Having experienced this type of activity before, I fully expected to here the delighted screams of gleefully terrified young people.  Not the case.  The speed boats were equipped with large speaker blaring pop music.  I guess this was meant to enhance the whole experience, but, in order for the raft/tube-riders to here it, the music was played at such a loud volume that it muddy and distorted.

The piped in soundtrack is not only present in Korea, we have been to several sites in China where the natural sound is apparently not enough.  The tourist sites we visit are plenty authentic (though I do wish that there wasn't quite so much modern signage), but the piped in music seems to angle at increasing the degree of authenticity.  Maybe I'm curmudgeon and think everyone should turn their music down (this is often true), but I just find it makes these places a bit less interesting.

Do You Speak English?

In South Korea that answer was often a resounding "yes".  That's not
totally true actually, the answer was often "no", but then people
would go on to have lengthy conversations with us in English.  We
learned fairly quickly that starting a conversation in English was
more effective than asking first.

What struck us as most interesting about many of these conversations
in English was what it seemed to reveal about Korean as a language.
Americans often hedge when you ask them about something.  You could
this or you could do that.  You can take the interstate, but there's
also a back road or a parkway if highway driving doesn't suit you.

I am not a linguist, but spending a month speaking English with many
South Koreans from different parts of the country revealed a much more
emphatic way of speaking.  They don't hedge.  When we asked what to do
or where to go in a certain town, we were given a precise list, an
order in which that list should be completed and how to most
efficiently complete that list.  "Let me make you a plan..." was a
phase often uttered.  The first few times we had these interactions, I
would remark to Rodney that people were helpful, but that they seemed
a bit instructive, bordering on rude.

We came to believe that this is not the case at all.  It is our
totally unscientific guess that Korean is a declarative language
without the cornucopia of modifiers and softeners that Americans so
often employ.  It was kind of refreshing.  We asked and we always got
a direct answer.

The thing that sealed the deal for us on this theory was our trip to
the Leeum Samsung Museum of Contemporary Art.  Leeum is a great museum
in an beautiful area of Seoul. It is also unlike almost any other
museum experience I have had. The museum is divided in 3 buildings,
and you present your ticket at each to enter. As your ticket is
scanned the staff person tells you where to begin your tour of museum.
This did not seem so strange, but then you arrive at the prescribed
floor and are met by a second staff person who beckons at the first of
many arrows that indicated the path by which you are to view the works
of art. The whole of your journey through the museum is directed by a
series of these arrows and often accompanied with gentle gestures by
the staff if you seem unsure of where to go next. Again, no hedging.
A path laid out to follow.

Side Note:  We have returned to China.  This is land of spotty and
slow Internet.  A sad state of affairs after coming from South Korea,
the most wired place ever.  Tons of pictures of Shanghai have been
taken.  Uploading to resume as soon as possible.

Like Clockwork

We have been traveling in South Korea for close to a month and can report that both the train and bus systems here are nearly flawless.  Both run frequently, are consistently on time and cars/cabins are clean and well appointed.  Bus travel here resembles something much closer to overland business-class travel than what you might think of Greyhound.

Prices are reasonable for both buses and trains (we never paid more than US$20) for trips ranging from 1-3 hours, and even the KTX high speed rail (Busan to Seoul in 3 hours) was a good deal at around US$45/person.

Should you ever be planning intra-South Korea transport the below two websites came in very handy for us...

Korail Korea Railroad Online Booking

Official Korea Tourism Organization - Express Bus Page

Buy Korean

There is much we could learn from the people of South Korea, but one of the things that has repeatedly struck us is how much stuff that it manufactured here is consumed here.  Coming from America, particularly in the Northeast, seeing foreign cars and electronics is common.  It is almost more surprising when someone has chosen to buy Kodak or RCA rather than Sony or Panasonic.

Not in South Korea.  Kia, Hyundai, LG and Samsung are everywhere.  Rodney and I are owners of a Hyundai car and two Samsung TVs and can attest to the quality of these products, but it's truly amazing to see how successful they are in their home market.