Highlights of Thailand (Some)

Highlights of Thailand

There are a few memories that stick out above the rest, trekking rare trails in the northern Thailand, Khao Sok National Park, Marshall Law in Bangkok, and diving off Koh Tao. These are four of plenty more but they are the first four to come to mind.

Trekking with a young lady from France through burning mountain underbrush was definitely something I won’t forget anytime soon. It was in the searing heat of the hot season and we left Mae Hong Son on the Burma border high in the mountains for a 5 day trek to Pai through valley rivers and crossed mountain ridges. We ate off the land and made our utensils out of bamboo. Every river supplied us with swimming holes to jump in and cool off.

We past though valleys with Karen tribes that still rarely see outsiders and their hospitality unsurpassed. They were as curious about us as we were interested in them and their way of life. Our guide knew almost everyone we met, whether they were hunters, farmers, fishermen, or village folk, they all thought we were nuts to be out in the jungle in this heat jumping through underbrush fires and flowering bamboo. It was a desolate walk and difficult ups and downs.

Some of the mountains were so steep we literally skidded on our washed out shoes and clung to branches and trees to get down while closely watching for the next foot purchase on the way up. When we stopped for breaks the views were breath taking and remote.

The nights were chilled even though we spent them near an open fire in a hammock away from the red ants.

Many of the bushes are poisonous or have saw sharp thorns up their stalks that bleed me on numerous occasions. When the locals saw my shins they would giggle and laugh as if I was an infant. Humility is an easy lesson to learn in the northern Thai jungle.

Khao Sok National Park is always a treat. I have been there numerous times now and still enjoy everyday I walk the seven kilometers up to the last swimming hole and waterfall where fish tickle your feet and tiger prints are still fresh at the edge of the water.

I didn’t stay in the valley this time but at a nearby bungalow set up in the shadow of the limestone mountains surrounding the area. It is quiet and the shower/bathroom are open to the stars. www.khaosok-greenmountainview.com.

An over night on a floating bungalow, a night boat ride looking for eyes in the canopy, river caving, communist history of the area. Monolith limestone columns erupt out of the lake with their own ecosystems on the very top.

A sunrise long boat tour through some narrow waterways with Orangutans, monkeys and Hornbills over head, fish jumping in front of the boat and Kingfishers flying into our wake for food was a dream with the warmth of a new day upon us.

Marshal Law in Bangkok; I was there while the people were protesting to oust the Prime Minister who turned out to be the sister of the last Prime Minister who self exiled himself, who in turn is the brother of the Prime Minister that the people felt was too corrupt to run the country.

It turned out that the whole family was corrupt and the people would rather have the military run the country. The military are corrupt as well but they seem equally corrupt among all and more satisfactory until new elections can take place.

I walked safely through the protest camps as the Thai Royals and police stood aside watching and waiting. There were assassinations, grenades, road blockades for months, trucks tearing down walls of the Prime Ministers’ residence and anytime anything really bad happened she was conveniently in Chiang Mai.

Marshal Law hit the country and a curfew set at 10 pm in Bangkok and 11pm on the islands that were mostly populated by tourists and no real political threat. Everything eased into daily life after a few months and no one could tell the difference except that no one was taking advantage of the rice farmers to the south or anybody else.

Diving was truly a pleasure I hadn’t had before. I grew up in the water, played water polo and swam at university but diving had eluded me until now. I met some fabulous people at Asia Divers on Koh Tao and wanted to dive.

Once I had my Open Water certification, there was no stopping me and I went straight into Advanced Open Water and that takes you down 30 meters. 

There are some assigned courses you have to take with it but there are also some elective type courses as well and I chose buoyancy, underwater photography, and a night dive.

All are worthy. Koh Tao is one place to dive but there are many and with these certifications in hand I chose not to go to Nepal at the moment but to go east to Borneo and Sulawesi where I fell in love with diving and still dream underwater. 

I’ll write about diving there when I get to those countries. Next is Laos, the most bombed country on the planet and never actually in the war with Vietnam except from Richard Nixon’s point of view.

Of Course, there’s always a good time had by all at the Banyan on Koh Tao. There are also incredible beaches everywhere you look. Just look.

 

 

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Highlights of South Korea

Over the last decade I’ve been going to South Korea almost as often as I go to Thailand. When I told my father I was going to teach English in South Korea my father sat me down and showed me a stack of black and white pictures of Seoul in rubble during the Korean War. When I arrived at Kimpo Airport the rubble had been wiped clear and Seoul had been resurrected into a metropolitan capitol. From a war torn wasteland South Korea morphed into hungry economic bull posturing the country with its eyes, mind and horns focused on the future. I ended up teaching conversational English and editing corporate correspondence in Seoul for three years in the mid nineties to vice presidents of Samsung and Hyundai. I started out teaching at different universities where I was learning as much about the history of both North and South Korea as I was teaching English.

I have returned to Seoul a few times using Incheon as a stop over for a few weeks on my way to China or Thailand and even to the Mentawai Islands off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. South Korea is full of interesting history and culture that the Koreans have been able to maintain even through the harshest of human conditions.

I can still remember the first night I ever spent in Seoul. Teargas filled the air with smoke and thousands of people marched in the streets lighting fires and pulling up stones and bricks from the sidewalks and hurling them at riot police. As I walked down an alley I noticed two types of riot police, those wearing black that stood closely together in the street with their shields touching like dragon scales and those riot police in the alleys wearing light gray and set to catch escaping demonstrators. Busloads of riot police sat on neighboring streets waiting for the worst.

Today the riots have stopped and the country is at relative peace, besides their northern neighbor’s threats and test missile launches. Over time Seoul city has grown up around historic statues, monuments, parks, and palace walls. The Koreans seem to have a fascination with neon lights and the nights and streets are aglow.

In the evenings, people bring out their carts of food, trinkets, and art to sell to passers by. The sidewalks become packed after work with commuters. Ten million people live in Seoul and ten million people commute in every week. Weekends and holidays seem to be the quietest.

Granite peaks like Bugaksan in Samcheong Park to the north and Namsan Mountain to the south, are well within the ancient city walls and the new city has grown well beyond the fortress gates. Hikers and rock climbers have easy access to nature without venturing out of the city.

Other areas of interest and historic value are spread out all over South Korea. Incheon is the new international airport with a nearby Best Western Hotel, the KGB bar and the airport has an easy bus system at ground level. Pusan is to the south and known for its shipbuilding and also its casinos. The express train can take you from Seoul to Pusan in a matter of hours. Jejudo Island to the south is loaded with beaches surrounding a mountain for everything from swimming and playing on the beach to hiking the trails to the peak.

Korean food is wonderfully different. Of course many of their delicacies are out of war torn history but not all of them. Pulgolgi (barbequed beef) wrapped in a lettuce leaf with side garnishes of onion, garlic, chili paste, mushrooms, cucumber and more. Many restaurants bring the barbeque to the table and you do it yourself. In Korea, Kimchi is a staple, fermented cabbage with chili paste. There are hundreds of varieties of Kimchi and is served with almost every meal. Kimchi is made by putting cabbage, water, chili paste and spices in a ceramic vase and often buried in the ground for months to ferment. There are some places that serve dog and it’s a particular type of dog and it is good. I’m not in the habit of eating dog but it’s served in Indonesia, Vietnam and Korea, among others. Not all Koreans eat dog nor care to.

I’ll be heading back to South Korea in the near future for a business venture if I pull the ripcord on an Amsterdam project. I can’t make that decision until I head south to San Luis Obispo, California. Right now it’s one day at a time and beautiful in Alaska. The Amsterdam Project is going to be awesome if it comes to fruition. The idea is basically a filmed documentary about an art barge/boat with rotating artists on board and travel on the Seine, Rhine, Rhone, and Danube Rivers stopping in towns and selling the art created on board or written by me in the form of books. Hopefully I have my third ready for the trip.

www.davidcdagley.com

Highlights of a Travel Year

Highlights of a Travel Year

It was a year to the day that I took off for South East Asia to do some research on another manuscript that is almost complete. This year I went through South Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Now I find myself back in the U.S. in San Francisco and back to Alaska. I see before me that the travels are not over - this is just a stop and go in America. I sit at my desk and my mind flies over all the beautiful things I’ve seen in the past year and have loosely organized a country-by-country collection of photos with brief histories or memories depending.

My first stop was South Korea around mid-night where I got a chance to go back to the KGB Bar and see the ladies that look Korean but speak with a Russian accent. It is situated next door to the Best Western Hotel in Incheon where I stay before stepping into Seoul and it’s ancient granite mountains and sky reaching buildings. I taught English in Seoul for a few years way back when and I based two books partially in Korea. The second book, The Woman of Cho, still to come, is based in Seoul for the most part but a lot of the history in the book comes from China and Mongolia.

 I’ll get to Korea in the next high light. Right now I’m really interested in my time in Mongolia and the Gobi Desert. It was the highlight of all my travels on this trip. Nothing compares - it is number one. I could do this in reverse order but I’m not that guy trying to stagger you with BS. My time in South Korea is extensive and most likely takes a little wind out of its sails instead of a perfectly new country that has a lot to offer if the big companies don’t destroy it before we can get back there. Mongolia is the most diverse country I’ve been in a long time.

I flew from South Korea to Ulaanbaatar. It was not a cheap place but once you are out of the capitol, things economically lighten up considerably. I hired a car and driver and a guide and we left the power reactors and pollution of Ulaanbaatar and headed south east into the vast desert called the Gobi.

One of the highlights is that there is no real solid information source for Mongolia usually just fishing guided tours and not a lot else. So flying by the seat of my pants became the norm. After some time the road just evaporates into the sand with old tires as markers for when to turn east or west. The original horse.

Of course our path is known to the driver who had been driving this area for a decade but that doesn’t stop him from getting lost from time to time, wrong barren ridge, wrong drainage, possibly even wrong ger (yurt) camp.

We spent our days driving 200 kilometers plus or minus and our evenings were relaxing watching the moon or hearing stories of the ancestors in the area. Some nights we would stay with herdsman and their families and drink fermented mare’s milk and listen to the wind. Obviously it’s a place of free range everything, goats, camels, domesticated horses, cattle, yak, and we drove free range following winter mud tracks overgrown with grasses and herbs. The scent of wild onions was thick for the first few days.

Watering holes for the herdsmen are hard to find and the water is usually too salty for human consumption but the animals can drink it. And when we got to the sand dunes my whole image of the Gobi desert changed and is imprinted on my memory forever.

Mongolians don’t eat a lot of fish they are more bent on beef and camel. Both are good but the fishing was excellent. I’m not sure if my choice of Mongolia being my highlight or maybe I’ve just spent a lot more time in the other places I visited, but none the less I’m going back to explore the fishing and the western side of Mongolia in further detail. There are influences from all sides of Mongolia, Chinese, Russian, Kazakhstan,  and many others.

As history recalls the Russians tore down the religious element from Mongolia for communism, the Chinese took away the Mongolian’s arrows so they would no longer be a threat and now Mongolia is free to fend for itself. But beware of the major mining corporations; for they have paid off those in power to the point that no complaints reach the surface, even though the Mongolian government is aware of it, other countries largest companies are taking advantage of Mongolia’s governing adolescence and not many people are there to help or make them aware. They are mining for Uranium and gold primarily and there are few environmentalists around and if they are they get arrested and sometimes deported.

These are not in any particular order just highlights; Korea is next.

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