WAT a week

This past week or so has been a challenge. We saw some incredible things, but travel fatigue began to set in. In Chiang Mai (northern Thailand) I got flattened by allergies, which were exacerbated by the fact that it is burning season at the moment. As slash and burn farming is still quite common in Thailand, the air is full of smoky particles that were wreaking havoc on my eyes and nose. Still, that did not deter us from enjoying Chaing Mai. By total coincidence, we ended up staying in the same guest house as one of our friends from high school, Will, who showed us around some of the many beautiful temples (wats) in the area.

For me, one highlight of Chiang Mai was a Thai cooking class. We visited a market and learned to make coconut milk soup, yellow curry, and pad Thai. Quite delicious and very fancy-looking.

Another highlight of Chiang Mai was the abundance of used book stores. We saw at least three, which was both amazing and dangerous. I (somewhat unwisely) bought a stack of books from two of them, and would no doubt have purchased more books from the third shop had Byron not forcibly restrained me. I regret nothing.

After a few days in Chiang Mai we took a twelve hour train to Bangkok. Though the train itself was quite luxurious by our standards (by luxurious I mean that we were given tea and snacks and the bathrooms were pretty clean), twelve hours is still a long time to be on a train, and we were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived in Bangkok.

We had only planned to spend a day in Bangkok. To make the most of that time, as well as recover from our travels, we spent several hours in the National Museum of Bangkok appreciating the many, many Buddha statues and other ornate decorations kept there.

In another ‘what a small world’-style coincidence, one of Byron’s dad’s childhood neighbors had been living in Bangkok for years, and offered to take us out for dinner when we were in town. We gladly accepted, and had a lovely evening meeting Neal and discussing everything from travel to family to politics. It was also the first time in weeks that Byron and I had eaten in a restaurant with tablecloths; we felt very spoiled.

After our whirlwind visit to Bangkok we hopped on an 8.5 hour bus ride to Siem Reap in Cambodia, where we intended to spend a few days visiting Angkor Wat. The most eventful part of this bus ride was crossing the border from Thailand into Cambodia. Borders are strange and stressful places at the best of times. This border was not the best of times.

The trouble began at Thailand’s exit customs, where you hand over your passport and departure form and wait to be allowed to exit the country. I waited in front of the border guard for a heart-stopping fifteen minutes after I’d handed over my documents. Everyone else had gone through immediately, but I had been delayed. I tried to stay calm while my mind raced with possibilities. Had they seen me sneeze from allergies and planned to detain me for possible coronavirus exposure? Did my fingerprints match those of a Thai serial killer and were they about to throw me in prison? No, as it turned out the delay was caused by the fact that half of one of the numbers on the bottom of my passport had rubbed off. Eventually, the guard consented to let me leave the country.

Now, normally once you get through one country’s exit immigration you almost immediately go through the next country’s entry immigration. At the Thailand-Cambodia border that is not the case. Instead you enter a strange no-man’s land filled with dirt roads, casinos, beggars, and racing motorbikes. Thankfully our guide from the bus led us through this maze to an unmarked building that served as the Cambodian check-in point. Thankfully, we were let into Cambodia with no issues.

By the time we arrived at our hotel in Cambodia I was exhausted. I was both mentally and physically worn down from our fast pace over the last couple weeks, and had reached breaking point. That I burst into tears when the shower head wouldn’t stay in the wall mount properly was a good indication that we needed to slow it down.

So, slow it down we did. We took our time in Cambodia, taking a rest day to enjoy the hotel and surrounding area before exploring Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is an enormous Buddhist temple complex, possibly the largest religious monument in the world. We spent two days exploring the different temples, and saw less than half of the entire complex. On the second day we rose at 4:30am to take a stunning sunrise tour where we watched the starry sky become saturated with red light, to be finally overtaken by blue sky as the sun rose from behind the flagship temple and outlined it in gold.

Beside the sheer number, size, and beauty of the temples, Angkor Wat is also surrounded by a relatively untouched forest. In fact, the forest is trying to reclaim the complex, with trees growing in and around ancient walls.

It was an awe-inspiring, surprisingly peaceful place to visit. To be fair, the peace was at least in part due to the coronavirus suppressing tourism in the area, but even still, I’d say Angkor Wat is well worth a visit if you are ever able to come to the area.

Four days after arriving in Cambodia, feeling a bit more rested than before, we again boarded the bus that would take us back to Bangkok, where we are right now. We decided to extend our stay here for a few days to make sure we aren’t over-stretching ourselves. So far we’ve seen another temple, eaten a lot more Thai food, gotten Thai massages, and just this morning I finally filed my taxes (shout out to my mom for going on a video-chat-led scavenger hunt through my stuff back home to find forms and passwords).

It’s been an okay week for creative pursuits – I’m still struggling to make time for drawing and painting, but I’ve found the break between ordering and receiving food at restaurants is often just enough time for a quick sketch of something.

Sadly, I get pretty motion-sick on buses, so simple knitting was all I could handle, but I did manage to finish a pair of fingerless gloves (I just made up the pattern) and most of one sock. If we ever manage to find cold weather, I will be prepared.