eatvancouver.net

Oh noes!

Update 5/14/08
Update 5/15/08
Update 5/16/08
Update 5/20/08
Update 5/23/08
Update 5/24/08 (photos)
Update 5/25/08
Update 5/26/08
Update 6/1/08

After finding an unusually low fare ($750 round-trip) a couple of days ago, I decided to take an impromptu trip to Thailand. Why Thailand? Well, besides the obvious economic reasons, it seems like a good place to experience a whole lot of different vacations, from bustling metropolises to sleepy beaches, and of course I have always been a sucker for Thai food.

Right now I am sitting in the Osaka International Airport on one of their free internet stations, which is a nice touch. This is my first time in Japan and although it is just the airport, I have to admit I kind of like it. Everything seems very clean, orderly and small – three attributes I do not altogether mind. Oh, and the reason I am not using contractions is the simple fact that I cannot figure out how to do it on this keyboard. I just had a nice meal of noodle bowl special 1, which was a large bowl of broth with nicely cooked udon noodles, sweet been curd, an egg, and a tempura shrimp. I did not really get the point of putting a crispy fried shrimp in a bowl of soup, but since it sat on top it kinda worked in that it was half soft and half crispy. I am not usually a fan of ramen, instead worshiping at the altar of pho, but the broth at this airport restaurant had a lot of flavor and it is something that I would order again. I also got a coke, which came in a retro glass bottle, but was much more expensive than the same sized on if I had not ordered from the restaurant. I enjoyed the glass bottle but I am not sure it was worth the extra 250 yen. By the way, a scoop of Haagendaz is 500 yen here, is that a good deal?

I was also amused by the currency exchange window, which although there were no customers, was manned/wommaned by four employees: one to tell me where to fill out the form, one to help me fill out the form, one to tell me where to line up, and a final one to exchange the currency. Seems like a lot for a $20 US transaction (2000 yen!!), an amount I will have to slowly milk since I have 5 more hours in this damn place.

The flight from Vancouver was one of the best I have had on Air Canada. I had the entire row to myself (a very special person once said this is better than first class) and the plane was fitted with personal viewscreens for watching TV and movies. The food was also better than expected, with a nice carrot cake included with one meal and some surpringly fresh pineapple with another. What is not to like? To quickly run down: Jumper with Hayden Christenson and Rachel Bilson is a thumbs down, The Kite Runner was a bit better and The Aviator with Leo DiCaprio was a winner.

I will try to add some photos when I can get to a computer that will allow it (check).

-update 5/14/08

So I’m sitting here in Bangkok in one of its many ultra modern shopping malls enjoying the air conditioning and superb food area. They have an entire floor of this complex dedicated to several upscale Japanese and Thai restaurants, many more somewhat upscale places, and more of a food court where you load a card up with money and then bring it to one of the windows serving what is essentially street food-like fare. Today I opted to try a Japanese burger chain called Mos Burger, which was strange to say the least. I was served by Thais wearing Japanese schoolboy/girl outfits and received a burger combo for about $3.50. The fries were fine if a little processed tasting and the burger was highlighted by some kind of tomato-onion mixture, and a lot of mayo. It wasn’t particularly good, but it was an experience.

Bangkok itself has been a blast. It’s basically the East Asian Las Vegas, with tons of shopping, hookers, and weather you don’t particularly enjoy going out for. Much like Vegas, I can’t leave my hotel without having some guy try to show me advertisements for his brothel. I love his pitch: it’s just 20 baht (70 cents) to come by, take a look, have a beer and see if there’s anything you like. No big deal, just take a look. Sounds harmless, no?

Anyhow, my time at this internet cafe is almost up, so I will post more later. Tomorrow it’s off to Chang Mai.

-update 5/16/08

After a 10-hour bus journey from Bangkok to Chang Mai, I’m sitting here in my guest house’s internet room, ready to reflect on my trip so far. The first thing that comes to mind is that it was a really good idea to book a nice hotel for the first bit of my stay in Thailand. After traveling for 20-some hours, they were nice enough to let me check in at 7am, thus allowing me some much needed downtime. I don’t know what I would have done if I had to wait until noon. That’s not to say the flight from Osaka wasn’t pleasant – it was. They take really good care of you on Thai Airlines. I had a really nice egg breakfast with fresh juice and the floral gown clad cabin crew were friendly and exceedingly helpful. The only thing is that after so many hours of traveling, anything is going to be a chore.

Getting out of the airport in Bangkok itself was one of these chores. The minute I stepped out of the airport, I was besieged by cab drivers offering to drive me anywhere. Luckily, I had read ahead of time to avoid these guys and go straight to the official cab line, where I could fine cabbies that would give me a fair shake (half what the others guys were demanding). As it was still very early, the cab ride was pretty quick and I was soon in the arms of my lovely room at the Amari Watergate Hotel. I slept until noon at which time the time difference forced me to wake up and I feasted on the lovely fruit plate that had been left for me in the room. Everything was fresh, but the most tasty was the tangy mangosteen. After this brief refresher, I decided to go for a walk around my new surroundings, Thailand’s main shopping district, Siam Square.

-update 5/20/08

The theme of this first day turned out to be dekes. I was barely a block from the hotel when some nice-seeming fellow offered me some advice on where to go in Thailand. A lot of it made sense and I trusted my deke detector enough to cut and run as soon as things got weird, and sure enough he offered to take me to a TAT (Tourism Authority Thailand) in order to book the rest of my trip. On the next block, I ran into a kindly older woman who asked me where I was from. We exchanged pleasantries and she told me she was on her way to lunch and could show me a sick noodle cart she goes to everyday. Sure enough, it was awesome, we both had fish balls in noodle soup with lots of chili and overall it was a good lunch. Unfortunately, it turned out she was executing what’s known as the long-con, subtly dropping the idea that I should go get information at the TAT office that locals use, but is now open to everyone, and that she didn’t remember exactly where it was but she could point me in the general direction. It all sounded reasonable enough, and eventually we made our way to the office after stopping to ask several people for directions (all part of the deke). I finally clued in to what was happening when she insisted on taking me inside the office and introducing me to the guy who runs it. It turns out this guy was her closer and I barely made it out of there, insisting that I had to ask my traveling companion before I made any decisions, which was a deke of my own design.

After recovering from these near-dekes I had to calm my nerves and feed my stomach, so I wandered over to the Platinum Center, a mall across the street from my hotel that sells cheaper stuff than most of the other nearby malls. The mall is 7 floors of tiny stalls selling all kinds of no-name but stylish clothes, as well as expansive food court on the top level. Like most of the food courts in Bangkok, patrons load up a card, which can be used to buy food and drink from the vendors. If you don’t use all the money on your card, don’t worry, it can be cashed in before you leave. I got a mango passion smoothie (mango, passion fruit, pineapple, yogurt) that cost about $2 US and red chicken curry and a chili-pork mixture over rice, which was also about $2. Overall it was a really nice meal in an air conditioned place and helped redeem a deke-filled first day. I went to bed at about 8PM that night.

On Tuesday I got up super-early, ate my morning fruit plate and a Cliff Bar I brought from home, and headed out to do some intense sight-seeing. Utilizing the thankfully bias-free advice from my hotel’s guest services department, I caught the sky train to the river and transferred to the Phraya express boat that took me to the historic part of Bangkok to see the old temples, home to the famous Emerald Buddha and the Reclining Buddha. Both were sights to behold, but I felt a more spiritually connected to the old Bird King, a statue a whole host of birds flock to in support of their ancient king. Half man, half bird, and all badass, he’s one diety I can get behind. As a sidenote, Bangkok’s skytrain is impressively clean, air-conditioned, and easy to navigate. I highly recommend it.

On my way back to the hotel I discovered the Paragon Center, the modern mall I mentioned above. I was famished from sightseeing and deke-avoiding, so I loaded up my card in the food court and got seafood green curry with rice and “fried chicken rice.” Fried chicken rice is something of a phenomenon in Bangkok and is basically fried chicken, chick broth cooked rice, and chicken broth, with an assortment of hot sauces. I wasn’t blown away by this meal, but it was only $4 for a lot of food, so that made me happy. The Paragon center also has an IMAX theater showing all kinds of new movies with Thai subtitles, a feature I vowed to check out when I had more time. Instead of indulging in that simple pleasure immediately, I walked back to the hotel to work out at their modern gym.

Later this night, I went to a Thai kickboxing match down at Lumpini Stadium. Honestly, not knowing how it was scored, who was ahead, or how to bet, I thought it was kind of boring. The main draw was that the stadium was exactly what I wanted it to be: seedy, poorly lit, and full of characters. It was right out of a bad Jean Claude Van Damme movie, and that was a good thing (surprisingly).

Outside of some interesting meals, day number three was basically a bust. I spent most of the day trying to find Mo Chit station to buy a bus ticket to Chang Mai for the next day. I would have bought this from a travel agent, but after hearing a lot of stories about how these tickets can often be fakes or preludes to theft, I decided to do it myself. Managing to catch a Bangkok city bus was a real chore, but I feel like I learned a lot about how to get around in the city. Luckily, this hunt was fueled by an awesome breakfast, which saw me head down to the street vendors below my hotel. I went to about four different stands getting some super-sweet fresh squeezed orange juice (they did it right in front of me) for $1, some steamed fish and pork dumplings for $1, fresh pineapple with chili-sugar for 30 cents, and the best of the lot some Vietnamese style pork salad rolls with an unbelievably good chili-garlic-cilantro sauce for just under $1. I brought this pull back to the hotel and feasted.

After my bus ticket quest, I went for the aforementioned Mos Burger, as well as to another chain restaurant in the Paragon Center that serves Mexican food. I opted for the design-your-own-burrito option ($5) choosing chicken, rice, black beans and hot sauce. Sadly, it was actually better than any burrito I’ve had in Vancouver, marred only by undercooked black beans. This also means that their beans weren’t from a can, which is more than I can say for the burritos I’ve had back in Vancouver. This was a good meal and a much welcomed respite from a barrage of Thai food, the Mos Burger withstanding, of course.

Sidenote (photos forthcoming – check) about two other chains that have oddly caught hold in Bangkok: Pizza Cone and Sizzler.

So that almost catches us up to Chang Mai, where I have so far enjoyed an all day cooking class and market tour, as well as a 3-day trek to see hill tribes/ride an elephant/white water raft. It’s been a blast but one that I will have to elaborate on at a future time.

-update 5/23/08

With only 2 full days left to go on this trip, it’s fun reflecting on times past here at a hi-tech internet cafe in Koh Samui. It’s easy to ignore some of the more dangerous near-dekes when your sitting in an air conditioned room with 20 new computers and leather recliners. But it’s also a bit sad because there’s never anybody in here and I had to install Firefox on the computer I’m on now because the computers only had an old version of IE on them. Such a strange business model. It’s also the cheapest place on the island for internet. Kind of like the opposite of Vera’s, if you think about it.

Anyway, I’ll just quickly recap Chang Mai and hopefully get to the first few days in Koh Samui tomorrow, as I have a beach BBQ to attend, which I do not want to be late for. Although I had some initial reservations about Chang Mai (as any fortunate individual who receives my status updates on facebook will attest to), I had a blast. Right off the bat I was a little worried about some cockroaches I saw near my hostel, and the generally run down nature of all of the building in that backpacker area I was staying in. Actually, it reminded a great deal of West St in Yangshuo, from my China trip, being just as frightening at first. There also weren’t a lot of people around and the whole reason I decided to stay in a hostel was to meet people. But as you may have guessed, it turns out the rooms were actually clean and roach free, and I did meet some people.

My first night in Chang Mai was a bit scary, as I missed the bus stop at the main bus station and got dropped off at some random location. Fortunately, I had some idea of where I was and was able to get a decent rate from a Tuk Tuk driver to my hostel.

On my first full day in Chang Mai I decided to take a cooking class with the Baan Thai company, a class operating out of an actual Thai home. It came highly recommended by Lonely Planet and my hostel and it’s easy to see why. The teachers were friendly and enthusiastic, it lasted all day including an early morning market tour, I got to make a ton of dishes and most importantly, I got to eat a ton of dishes. For only around $25 US, I think it was a really good deal. It was also a great opportunity to meet people who were not only fellow travelers but also people deeply interested in food, which is actually kind of rare among backpackers. As a group, I find they are not that concerned with what they eat. Anyhow, I met a great Swedish couple, Marie an aspiring chef from Australia who really knew her shit, and Anna Belle, a friendly Brit who introduced me to some others at my hostel later. We were able to choose what we wanted to make and ended up doing around six courses total. I did stuff like panang curry from scratch, stir fried prawns with basil, seafood soup, mango and sticky rice, and fish cakes. What was probably most valuable was learning the order of ingredients added to dishes and learning about some of the more obscure ingredients at market, although I’m a bit worried about finding much of this stuff in Vancouver. That night I went out to the night bazaar with some friends from the class as well as a few others, and a had generally good time.

The next three days were spend on a 3-day, 2-night trek to see some of the hill tribe people, who have not been worked into modern Thai culture. That whole bit of it was actually a bit of let down because they really more just seemed like rural farmers. The most intersting bits were the long hikes through the jungle, meeting some interesting new friends, riding an elephant and fording some white (and brown) water. Our guide also had a deft hand with curries and vegetables, preparing some pretty decent meals on the fly most nights. I remember a mild but soothing red curry with chicken, and an admirable green beans and egg dish (photos are on their way, I promise – check).

That out of the way, our trek group of 12 or so treated ourselves to a somewhat fancy dinner when we got back to civilization at a scenic restaurant on the river called, you guessed it, Riverside. Like most resturants in Chang Mai, it tried to cater to all tastes with a nearly 10 page menu full of all manner of Western and Thai dishes. I’d love to see what Gordon Ramsey or any of the restaurant makeover chefs would have done with this behemoth. Fortunately, the dishes I had were good, if not great. I most enjoyed a beef salad with greens, cilantro, chilies and citrus. It was extremely spicy, a plus, but the beef was much overcooked. I like the butter beef at Phnom Penh much better. My main was roasted duck in red curry, which was only so-so. The duck got lost in the curry and many duck pieced were largely gristle. Still, this dinner was only about $6 US and the view of the river was hard to beat. I didn’t love Riverside but I didn’t hate it.

I left Chang Mai the next day, on what turned out to be a 24-hour brutal bus ride and ferry trip to Koh Samui, one of Thailand’s islands specializing in resorts. Before I left, I had a pretty good sandwich at this place called Juicy 4 You, one of the few healthy options in Thaliand, as far as I can tell. The sandwich was the real deal: three layers, whole wheat bread, sprouts – basically the works. It felt good to eat something with nutritional value for a change. And the trip to Koh Samui? Well, that’s a story for another day. I’m wiped, sun burned and there’s a beach bbq to go to.

-Update 5/25/08

The voyage from Chang Mai to Koh Samui was one of the stupidest I’ve ever embarked on. Failing to heed the advice of Des during our China trip, instead of paying a little more for a plane ticket, I decided to do the trip by bus, a trip that wound up taking over 24 hours. It started with an overnight bus from Chang Mai to Bangkok, which wouldn’t have been that bad if not for the malfunctioning air conditioner and the mosquitoes. You see, when you are asleep on a bus, it’s almost impossible to protect one’s self from mosquitoes, and is never nice to wake up with bites all over one’s face, neck, arms and legs. Really, really unpleasant stuff. After awaking from the horrible tragedy that was this bus ride, my dreams certainly filled with large biting insects, I had to navigate through hoards of crooked cab drivers to eventually find a fair fare to another bus station. From there it was a day long ride to Surat Thani where i caught the ferry to Koh Saumi. The best thing that happened was a pit stop the bus made for food, both for the food and company.

You see, I’ve been developing a strong tolerance for spicy food for nearly my entire life, and it’s really paid off during this trip. It appears the Thai people have respect for people who can handle spicy food. As the passengers on my bus settled down for a communal meal at this rest stop, the meal being provided as part of fare, the amount of chili I was adding to my food attracted the attention of the group. A small conversation started among myself and a group of youngsters who spoke particularly good English. Fortuna, that sweet goddess, was smiling on me that day as they offered to drive me to a hotel upon embarking at Koh Samui. They also helped me avoid the bevy of unscrupulous drivers who pray on those recently dropped off at the Koh Samui port. Without the help of these kind people, I would have had no choice but fall prey to these drivers and pay their exorbiant rates. My hotel reservation was also not good until the next day, as I expected to spend the night in Surat Thani, so they also helped me find another reputable but affordable hotel. To Pei and his friends, I am in your debt forever. Oh, and there was a really nice lemony squid dish at this lunch.

As for the ferry ride to Koh Samui, I have nothing but nice things to say. The sky was pink, the ride was quick and efficient, and the company was excellent.

After arriving at my hotel around 9:30PM, I went down to the main stretch and found a roti stand, where I ordered a banana-pineapple roti and a ham and egg roti. They weren’t great, but after the ordeal I had been through, and while I watched The Ring 2 on cable, they were damn near perfect.

-Update 5/26/08

Well, after a restful sleep, I woke up refreshed and ready to find my way over to the Sand Sea Resort at Lamai beach. Lamai is the other main beach on Koh Samui, besides Chaweng, which is the main attraction. I chose Lamai because my guidebook said it is a little more laid back and cheaper. I was able to secure a beachside bungalow for less than $50 US per night, which seemed like a good deal at the time. After a nice brunch at a Russian Cafe (blintzes, potatoes, and fresh vegetables with sour cream), I hired a cab to the resort. As with most things of value in Thailand, I had to haggle a bit to get the price within reasonable range. I arrived to bad news: I hadn’t confirmed my reservation (I was on a bus for 24 hours!) and they had given my room to someone else. No worry, I got a gardenside bungalow for the first two nights and a beachside one for the second two. The bungalow turned out to be quite nice – clean, free filtered water, and a strong AC. It even came with a free gecko to make strange noises and scare me in the middle of the night. I was even more impressed with the beach right outside my doorway. It came with white sand, clear warm water and there was miles of it. I lied out for a while, took a swim and obtained an impressive few patches of sunburn on my back due to poorly applied sunblock.

-Update 6/1/08

The last few days of my trip were spent at Koh Samui where I fell into a nice routine: breakfast, beach, lunch, beach again (sometimes), work, internet, dinner. In retrospect, it sounds slightly dull, but around such beautiful sights it really was delightful.

After my first beach experience in Hat Lamai, I went for a walk around the main shopping road. It was filled mainly with tailors, beach supply shops, restaurants, go-go bars and massage parlors. The latter tow were the most annoying because the workers liked to call out to any single white guy walking down the street to come in for a drink or massage. I guess it’s nice to be wanted, but sometimes it’s nice to just have a quiet walk down the street. Thailand can really be a trying place for the single male traveler (assuming he’s not looking for that sort of thing).

Anyhow, I started talking with a young tailor named Kul, who really was a cool guy. As with most of the tailors, he tried to sell me a suit at first, but when I told him I wasn’t interested, he was happy to drop it and told me some interesting stories about his life in Koh Samui. His ability to predict sudden rainstorms really was uncanny. I remember one conversation, the hot sun shining down on us, when out of nowhere he told me I should stand under the awning. Sure enough, seconds later a dark cloud rolled in and it began to pour. We could use this guy in Vancouver.

After this experience in meteorological prescience, I went across the street for lunch, which was a nice piece of steamed fish – I couldn’t figure out the name but it was meaty and fresh – with a pepper sauce, fries and salad. Together with a banana shake, it was a tourist’s meal no doubt, but satisfying after a full day in the hot sun.

My stomach full and my curiosity about the neighborhood sated, I went for a rest back at the bungalow. With the air conditioning on high, Notting Hill on TV and a couple glasses of Thai whiskey, I was feeling a bit emotional so I soon left again for dinner and what I hoped would be a nice night out on the town. Indeed, seafood pad thai and a fruit shake from a couple of outdoor food stalls was nice, but I soon entered a twilight zone of an Irish bar called the Shamrock with a new found friend, Nick, who was also out looking for fun. The bar featured relatively overpriced drinks, a dick of an owner, and a band playing all of the classic American hits with thick Thai accents. It was a night best left unremembered.

Friday morning I hit the hotel’s breakfast buffet like a man that spent most of the night in an Irish-themed bar in a climate that can only be described as tropical. Needless to say, there wasn’t much of it left when I was done, which is unfortunate (for me) because it really wasn’t all that good. In short: eggs cooked long ago, insecty-fruit, and old croissants. I didn’t go to the beach this day because I didn’t want to exacerbate my sunburn, so I really just wrote most of the day off reading, watching a documentary about spelling bees, and doing work at the internet café mentioned above. The owner was a really good guy, and honestly I think I put his kids through college while I was there.

Later that night there was a beach barbeque at my hotel that sounded like a good deal at first. The sign made it seemed like it would be 60 baht for all you can eat barbeque, with fish costing extra. In fact, it was 60 baht per kebob, which still isn’t bad, but not what I expected. It was actually a really nice evening with live music, well-prepared pork and chicken kebobs, a really nice handmade noodle dish (all you can eat!) with a downright wicked chili-garlic-herb sauce, and a pina colada with one of the most attractive garnishes I’ve ever seen on a cocktail. After basking in the smorgasbord for a couple of hours, I went back to my room to watch the movie channel, which was featuring a Stephen Dorff and Mira Sorvina vehicle about a virus released upon America by terrorists. They only showed part one of this miniseries and this frustrated me mightily.

Saturday and Sunday were virtually identical, except Saturday I didn’t go to the hotel’s breakfast buffet and had a much better one at a restaurant nearby that actually specialized in breakfasts. They had an enormous variety, many served with huge sausages, and all with fresh baked bread. I chose the English breakfast, which besides eggs included beans and a sausage. For $3-4 including juice, this was one of the best finds of my trip and a real treat. Saturday, after the beach I had a decent meal of stir-fried basil with chicken at a nearby eatery. I noted that the owners were very proud of their daughter, having several pictures of her graduation on the walls. I though it gave the restaurant a nice homey feel. I returned here the next day for “shrimp fritters” and massaman curry. I didn’t really care for this second meal very much, mainly because the shrimp fritters were actually just battered and fried shrimp, much akin to anything you’d get at a fast-food seafood place back home.

Later Saturday night I had a chat with Kul, did some internet cafeing, had some kabobs from a street stall and chatted with a delightful French couple from the hotel. I later saw this same couple at the airport in Bangkok, which was pretty eerie, but not unwanted seeing as they are a nice couple. On both days the weather was very sunny and hot, allowing for several nice dips in the sea, which was almost too warm to be a respite from the weather.

Monday after breakfast I kind of just tooled around, having a bite to eat, picking up a tailored shirt from Kul, and browsing the internet. I only had until two before I needed to head to the airport. I went over to the breakfast place and had a club sandwich on fresh bread, as well as some yogurt. As with the sandwich place in Chang Mai, I appreciated the chance to have a familiar, healthy meal. The staff at this restaurant, which I’m pretty sure included at least one shemale, was really friendly and accommodating. It was a fine send off from Koh Samui, and the start of my long road home.

The first thing to note about the long road home has to be the airport at Koh Samui. That was how an airport should be. It was open air with views of the mountains and shuttles coming from the gate to ferry passengers to their planes. That was really pleasant, but what won me over was the free snack bar with fresh juice, iced tea, chicken pastries and banana leaf wrapped sticky rice desserts. Time flew by.

I only had a couple hours at the Bangkok airport, but I did manage to get a decent last meal in one of the many restaurants housed in that enormous modern complex. Since I hadn’t actually had Tom Yum soup in Thailand yet, I ordered that and it was indeed very good – full of fresh vegetables, roots and seafood. Overall however, I think the Thai restaurants I’ve tried in North America have done a pretty good job replicating this soup.

The flight from Bangkok to Osaka was uneventful, serving its primary purpose of depositing me off at my destination at eight in the morning. Instead of hanging out in the airport for nine hours, I braved the immigration line and ventured out into the city. The helpful lady at the tourism desk gave me some directions on finding the train to one of the main parts of downtown, and it really was about as easy as she made it seem. The only drawback was that I arrived in town around ten in the morning and none of the shops or restaurants was open yet. After walking around the empty shopping district as well as several residential areas I gave up and went back to the mall next to the train station where I happened to find a movie theater. Much to my delight, I was able to find a few movies on the roster in English with Japanese subtitles. And one of them was starting right away! This small, seemingly innocuous event marked the beginning of the end of my adventure in Japan, where I found myself killing three hours watching the second Chronicles of Narnia movie, which sadly wasn’t very good. I didn’t have much time to make it back to the airport after the movie ended, quickly grabbing a cream cheese and lox bagel at Bagel and Bagel, apparently some Japanese bagel chain, and some street side gyoza.

Compared to the rest of my trip, the flight home from Osaka was a cinch. Sure, the view screens in my row didn’t work, but Caitlin the flight attendant was wonderful, and meals (salmon with pasta, and a Japanese breakfast of salmon and rice) were filling and not altogether unappetizing.

And so my journey to Thailand ended just over two weeks from when it began. I’m not any closer to unlocking any of the mysteries of this improbable existence I occupy, but there are a handful of things I do have a better grasp on now. I know I am capable of dropping everything and traipsing off across the world by myself. I met some remarkable people and have experienced some incredible tastes and sights. I also saw several things that I know I do not want to become or ever be associated with. So if life is really just a long process of elimination, I guess I’ve accumulated a few more check marks.