Day 56: Ooty (short for Udhagamandalam)

20 years ago, Ooty resembled an Anglo-Aussie village, with stone cottages, fenced flower gardens and tall eucalyptus stands. South India's most famous hill station hasn't survived the press for development though and its draw no longer lies in proximity of the town center. Once the summer headquarters for the Chennai government, Ooty is now a weekend destination for couples from Bangalore who hole up in hillside hotels. International tourists have only started to come for what lies nearby - the romantic vistas of the mountain road through the tea, coffee, and spice plantations, the wildlife sanctuary, jungle trekking and visits to hill tribes.

If not the surroundings, there are other appreciables. Fresh-faced school girls in silky braids looped up onto themselves with ribbons giggle arm-in-arm, packs of women in what may be simple sarees look lovely toting their market items, the streets are swept and absent of trash piles where roving goats normally partake, you can smell the fresh fruit stand and the just cut squares of fudge in the candy shop, marigold and jasmine talismans drape across truck grills, chalk blessings are drawn in the dirt, Ganesh sits in repose on the dashboards of many a taxi, stands of steamed corn in the husk entice...It is not the scrabble thrash and stank of Chennai. But even in Chennai, it is India. And India defies easy dismissal for even in its rub against western sensibilities, there is always some delightful thing to note.

Day 56: Botanical gardens, Ooty

After tramping around Ooty town for a bit, we made our way east to the Botanical Gardens.

Like much of the rest of this hill station town, the gardens were built by the British in the mid 19th century. Although there are still traces of the original gardens, what remains is somewhat dilapidated and odd.

So for instance, the once beautiful Victorian greenhouse now houses a large collection of perfectly ordinary geraniums, begonias, and impatiens. A lot like the garden center at home depot...

But the gardens do retain a great collection of exotic trees from all over, and some of their original charm, as well as some colorful additions, distinctly Indian in character.

The park ıs well used by the locals, taking slow strolls, or playing what looked like free form cricket on the lawn.Thıs fellow stands on a hıll overlooking the sunken garden, which to the eye just looks like stagnant water ın recessed squares of concrete.

Day 55: into the Western Gats of India

The train ride during the night was pleasant, I admit it. Once we tucked in, it wasn't difficult to fall asleep to the gentle hypnotic chug of the train.

The next challenge before us was getting ourselves up the mountain in the morning.

There is a narrow gauge toy train with a rack and pinion drive (it only averages roughly six miles per hour!) onto which most travellers board for this stage. Uh, we were unable to get seats. So improvising, we hired a fast-talking driver to take us for a two hour slalom around all the slower vehicles on just about every blind curve there was on the road. We only came close to running headlong into a bus once. But really J and I have become used to this and we don't even break a sweat anymore during these maneuvers.

The drive wended through mountain slopes that seemed too steep to cultivate but there they were, tea plantations clinging to the 45 degree grade. As seen flyıng by... The air became crisp and sweetened up with the smell of eucalyptus and pine. You could peer down through the breaks of tree stands to see the evaporating blankets of air in the valleys steaming off as the sun rose higher in the sky. Our reverie was scarcely disturbed by the constant horn use, a key measure in notifying oncoming trucks that we're flying around the blind corner ahead.

Day 54: India -- Chennai to Ooty

Chennai is in your face. In your nose. In your personal space.

There hasn't been an occasion where we've ventured out and haven't seen someone urinating in the street. I suspect this is why the city smells like a cat box. Granted, we located ourselves not far from the train station since we knew we wouldn't be staying long. I'm sure there are better places to be but no matter. We're in a sleeper car on our way to Ooty in the mountains to get some distance between us and harsh Chennai.

The best part so far - I like our conductor and we have a really good lock on the train coach, which has dusty rose carpeting and a toilet vacancy indicator of our own.

J says he finds the car oddly charming but I'll only concede that we're having "an adventure." I will say that I've been having a good giggle over the peculiarities we keep encountering here, which is key to remaining chipper in the face of 18 mini bar checks in our hotel room (still haven't eaten the roasted peanuts, my man), running out of toilet paper twice because the rolls have maybe 18 sheets each, having the sheets changed because the bed came made with short curlys, and watching a man urinate on the rooftop of the neighboring building (you see what I mean about the peeing problem).

We're crossing our fingers for good cell reception in the mountains so we can keep current on our "adventure."

Day 52: Jim Thompson's House and Loy Krathong

Jim Thompson was a New York architect who served in the Office of Strategic Services (now the CIA) in Thailand during World War II. He settled in Bangkok after the war and is renowned for reviving Thailand's silk industry. He gained further acclaim for the construction of his home compound using the best of traditional Thai architecture. Not only is the house an inspired space but it showcases Thompson's impeccable taste and important pieces of Khmer sculpture, Chinese porcelain, Burmese carvings, and Thai scroll paintings. The house and its things are superb, simple beauty. (Photos are not allowed inside the museum so it's a small showing.)

In Thompson's study, there is a display of the astrological charts that were made for him. Such charts were used by Thompson, for example, to determine what day would be most auspicious to move into his home after construction was completed. It also shows that his 61st year was an unlucky year for him. Five days after his 61st birthday, Thompson disappeared while on vacation in Malaysia. To this day no one knows what happened to Thompson. One theory suggests that he was hit by a car but the accident and his body were kept secret to avoid repercussions.


Loy Krathong is a festival celebrated on the night of the full moon in November, which corresponded with our stay in Bangkok on November 24. Crowds float banana leaf boats bearing candles, incense, flowers, and coins as an offering and to carry away the previous year's sins and bad luck. J and I set our own boat afloat on a little stream not far from the Grand Palace. The water looks wonderful alight with candles.

Day 51: tiger temple & the bridge over the River Kwae

Established in 1994 by Abbot Phra Acharn Phusit Kanthitharo, the "tiger temple" is a forest monastery that focuses on practicing meditation. Since its opening, the monastery quickly gained a reputation as a wildlife sanctuary after a number of wounded animals were taken in and nursed back to health. Given its forest location, injured wild animals have happened upon the monastery where they also received rehabilitative care. An injured wild boar stumbled onto the monastery, was cared for, and released but the very next day it returned with its family group. There are now wild boars living at the sanctuary, along with peacocks, deer, buffalo, goats, and of course, the tigers.

The wat neighbors one of the biggest protected areas in Asia where it is thought the largest surviving tiger population in the region makes its home. Tiger poaching remains a big problem though, namely because the pay off is several years salary for a farmer.
The monastery took in its first tiger cub in 1999. The cub had been purchased by a wealthy Bangkok resident from a poacher who had killed the mother tiger. The cub was given to a taxidermist to be stuffed. The cub was even injected with chemicals in preparation for the procedure but it was spared and brought to the monastery. The cub survived and soon after, more cubs arrived.

The tigers are released from their cages after an afternoon feeding to walk with visitors and pose for photos. The tigers are nocturnal though, so they're generally asleep when the tourists visit. Plus, they have imprinted on humans since they all arrived as cubs so they are accustomed to human company and being touched. In fact, when walking with the tigers, you are instructed to keep a hand on its back so it knows where you are. Otherwise the tiger gets suspicious of your distance. Nobody wants a suspicious tiger.
One of the volunteers climbed into a small cage with a five-month-old cub. Here you can see that the cub was having great fun ripping a pillow to shreds, just like kittens do. Near the tiger refuge is the Thailand-Burma Railway or Death Railroad -- this is what they call the railroad constructed by the Japanese during World War II. This was a strategically important supply line for the Japanese. However, the railroad was ostensibly built by slave labor -- POWs and citizens of the occupied countries. The Malaysians and Burmese suffered greatly. Exact causalities of citizens may not even been known since record keeping was poor and the Japanese destroyed their records before surrender. The POWs, mostly from Britain, Australia, and Holland, were subjected to cruelty and abhorrent conditions. One testimony noted that a 21 year-old soldier succumbed to malnutrition, simply the lack of vitamins from the poor diet and hard labor. Disease, starvation, ulcers, beatings, heat, and a complete disregard for human suffering. The museum memorializes another chapter of the WWII eastern front.

The book and movie The Bridge over the River Kwai fictionalizes the destruction of the bridge to choke off Japanese resources. For whatever reason, the river came to be known as Kwai (which means water buffalo) instead of its true name Kwae (which means tributary). But the bridge is real and a tangible reminder of the thousands of prisoners who built the rail in the punishing jungle with little more than sledgehammers and chisels.

J making choo choo lips...

Day 50: Happy Thanksgiving!

The only other time I missed a Thanksgiving dinner was the year I was in Moscow. I had Pepsi and bread that night.

Though no turkey for us, we had ourselves a fine T-Day dinner: spicy pomelo salad with prawns, chili tamarind chicken herb salad, green curry and beef with tangerine rind over red and jasmine steamed rices, and sweet sticky rice, mango and coconut ice cream for dessert. We have a new leader in the category of recommended Thai restaurant in Thailand. Yeah, you heard me right.

J and I recommend only three Thai restaurants on Planet Earth. One is in San Francisco but it's more homestyle and MSG-y than our meal this evening. The other was Cabbages and Condoms, coming in third for its solid quality, good value and suggestive ambiance. And tonight's meal, which was elegant, flavorful, fresh, and made with obvious care. The service was exemplary. I was scratching my foot from a new mosquito bite when our waiter appeared magically and personally sprayed my feet with repellent. This is in a country where the feet are considered the dirtiest part of the body and one must never face the bottoms of the feet at Buddha when in a wat. It was beyond the call, I felt.

Day 50: Bangkok's Grand Palace and Wat Arun

We set out for the Grand Palace this morning on Bangkok's super speedy ultramodern SkyTrain. In spite of the fact that everything is mostly in Thai, we found the ticket machines far less confusing than Boston's cryptic new Charlie Ticket system. And the spanking clean trains all have TVs on them displaying the next stop.

The Grand Palace is truly grand. In addition to the royal palace it's also home to the spectacular Wat Phra Khao, which holds a stunning assortment of temples built over the years by various Thai dynasties. Foremost among these is the temple of the Emerald Buddha, which houses-you guessed it-the emerald Buddha. Carved out of a huge block of jade (not actually emerald) this is one of Thailand's holiest relics. The emerald Buddha was housed at Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai for a few years about 200 years ago, and they're still talking about it.

The whole place is lousy with gilding, carving, and inlay on an astonishing scale. But my favorite part was the huge running fresco that covers the interior of the palace outer wall. Immaculately kept, and beautifully rendered, it portrays a series of scenes from what I suppose must be Buddhist fables. Slumbering giants, floating palaces, and bows that shoot a hundred arrows...

After that, we crossed the river on a wonky little 10 cent water taxi to visit Wat Arun, or "Temple of the Dawn"-a Cambodian style wat most notable for its incredibly steep staircases.