Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/jkdkb885pmvp74Ay5
After Japan, I had enough time for a quick 10 day trip before going to India briefly (like 4/5 days) before making my way to Madagascar. I considered South Korea but decided to go with Thailand and Malaysia, just to see more of those two countries since I have only been to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur so far. My first stop was Chiang Mai in Thailand for a few days.
Chiang Mai is located way in northern Thailand up in the hills, so it’s a bit cooler than Bangkok (to the south and in the plains) and also much less humid, so you don’t sweat as much even when walking 10-15+ miles a day. The pleasant weather and quiet layout of the town – there are tons and tons of gringo tourists but they’re all concentrated in a few areas – made it a pretty peaceful trip, a big contrast to Bangkok. It’s a quaint little temple town. You can wander around all day and stumble into random Buddhist temples, most of which are at least a few hundred years old if not older (a good chunk date from around the 1200s to 1500s). Despite all the tourists, there are so many temples that pretty much all of them are empty, so it was a really good sightseeing atmosphere. Very similar to the temples in Bangkok except waaaay less crowded, so I definitely enjoyed Chiang Mai more than Bangkok. The vibe here was like a way more laid back Bali…tons of hip cafes serving foreign food that I never went to because they are way more expensive than local street food, enough backpackers where you could just chill for a week-plus and have fun while doing nothing on a shoestring budget, and that classic SE Asia architecture and greenery feel. As a sign of old age, I actively avoided staying in a party hostel while here and splashed some cash (9 USD a night! Which is a ton for SE Asia) to stay in this really swanky, quiet hostel that had an excellent breakfast.
I will say that as nice as it was to walk around Chiang Mai, the city did reinforce my opinion that SE Asian Buddhist temples are probably among my “least favorite” of all the religious places to visit…obviously still enjoyable but doesn’t hold a candle to the Japanese Buddhist temples, or Tibetan Buddhist temples, or Hindu temples or the cathedrals of Europe or grand mosques. Like the ornate carvings in Thailand are impressive, and you can clearly see the influence of China with the roofs (but like in Japan, there is a clear distinction between Chinese, Japanese, and Thai…I will say that for me, Thai/Cambodian/Mynamar are all more similar for modern Buddhist architecture). And they do have the funky demons decorating the temples here as well like in Japan and in the Tibetan temples. But I don’t know, maybe it’s just too gaudy for me? Like the color overload and the glitz blitz is just too much. Even all of these old temples just look a bit tacky. Like the color isn’t tasteful for me in the way colorful churches/cathedrals or colorful mosques or colorful Hindu temples are. I honestly don’t know if I can quite put my finger on what makes Thai architecture just “eh” for me.
The highlight of Chiang Mai was a quick little hike I did to see some temples. Called the Monk’s Trail, it was a quick and easy 20 minute hike up to the temple of Wat Pha Lat. About 200m in elevation gain, and the travel blogs I read said that it would take 45 minutes…I think that is yet more proof that influencers are not good at hiking. The temple itself was eh (like all Thai temples for me) but the setting was very cool, with the jungle sort of growing around the temple (the temple itself was well maintained and there was no sense of abandonment). Serene nature will always boost architecture. From here, it was another ~45 minutes uphill, and apparently like over 400 meters in elevation gain, to the temple of Doi Suthep. This was yet another garish Thai Buddhist temple, and the view and the temple itself did not justify the hike up. I found it easy but I’m not the best person to judge hiking difficulty. I was sweating buckets though because of the heat. But it was fun to get some exercise in and get a good hike. Like I said, easy hike but at least tough enough to get a sense of accomplishment after finishing. I went down the full 600+ meters in about 45 minutes. I stupidly budgeted a whole day for this hike since a few blogs said it was a full day trip, but I left my hostel at 9:30am with a Grab bike (Grab is SE Asia’s Uber) and returned by 1pm, so with driving time, photo stops, etc. it was less than 4 hours. My longest stop was actually at the Doi Suthep temple just to cool off and dry my sweat.
In my final day in Chiang Mai, I actually took a day trip up north near the border with Laos and Myanmar (the “Golden Triangle”) to see a few modern temples in Chiang Rai. I didn’t actually go to this border area, but did a temple tour and saw a few modern temples (all built this century) in the area, which was probably my favorite thing in Thailand (granted, the sample size is small with just Bangkok, Chiang Mai and now Chiang Rai, but to be blunt I don’t really have much interest in seeing more of the country). The highlights were what are known as the Blue Temple and the White Temple. Both, but especially the White Temple, are like a mix of modern art and religion in the best way possible. The Blue Temple is just a striking blue (really the only comp I have for this is the blue monuments of Uzbekistan, which of course are 500+ years old) building with really funky design work. I know I have repeatedly said that I am not the biggest fan of Thai and SE Asian aesthetic (not that I dislike it, just that it is eh), but the more over-the-top artistic liberties here – it almost looks cartoonish! – really made the temple stick out. And the statue and figure design was top-notch…tons of cool striking blue traditional Buddhist temple figures, from demons and dragons to garudas. Just a really cool art exhibition that happened to double as a contemporary Buddhist temple. The White Temple was even more stunning. Just outrageously intricate swirling designs on the entire exterior, from building itself to the bridge -where you walk from the Buddhist equivalent of Hell to the Buddhist equivalent of heaven, so you see all these bodies being tortured and skulls and hands rising from the flames desperate to be saved while entering. Almost Dr. Seussian with the design, but the biggest similarity for me was honestly Burning Man…I could easily see a facade like this being a huge hit on the Playa. Again, like the Blue Temple, just a super cool way of fusing modern art designs with traditional Buddhist aesthetic. And inside the White Temple was a series of murals that featured pop culture galore…from Pokemon like Pikachu and Mewtwo to George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden to Freddy Kreuger to Michael Jackson to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Just a random hodgepodge, but sadly no photos were allowed. And there was a really cool art museum in this temple complex which featured paintings by the architect, Chalermchai Kositpipat. Again, no photos allowed in the museum, but there were some absolutely beautiful pieces of modern art (super colorful, elegant floral designs) that incorporated traditional Buddhist motifs and design. My favorites were the ones that had to do with their version of heaven…honestly got stroooong Rivendell vibes from it. It kind of reminded me of some of the art galleries I went to in Latin America (especially one in La Paz in Bolivia!) where the artists mix modern art with traditional motifs.
But yea, Chiang Rai was a great day trip. One thing that I found interesting was that in the temples here as well as in Chiang Mai, there were shrines dedicated to Ganesha, who is a Hindu god and the son of Shiva. He’s become a minor Buddhist deity as well, but it’s so interesting to me to see all these Hindu gods/goddesses in the Buddhist pantheon…Brahma, Ganesha, Indra, Kali, and Garuda being some of the more prominent ones.
Food-wise, I have always maintained that Thai food is decent but wildly overhyped. I think a big part of it is that Thailand is often the first big “foreign” trip for a lot of white people (ie not western Europe or Mexican resorts), so they are wow’d by the spicy and exotic food. For me it is distinctly good but forgettable – sort of on par with the food in Bali and Komodo on Indonesia, or in Cambodia. I am a big fan of the peanut sauces that they use here, but overall it’s decently good food and nothing more for me. It’s kind of funny but the best food I had here was some of the local Chinese food, especially the Chicken Fried Rice (which is technically a Singaporean/Malaysian dish created by the Chinese diaspora there, not an actual Chinese dish). Though I will say that the food here was crazy cheap, on par with Yogyakarta where I could get a filling meal for <2 USD. Especially if you avoid the gringo hotspots and walk for a bit to find street stalls where the signs are not in English (just point and hope for the best) and there are only a few other intrepid tourists there amongst a sea of locals. And not to rag on Thailand too much, but one other negative…the Thai accent for English is, by some considerable distance, my least favorite English accent of all-time. Probably tied with Cambodian (but this was easier to overlook since I *adore* Cambodia), but it is just so grating for me to hear, I don’t know.
The main reason tourists visit Chiang Mai is actually to see all the Elephant sanctuaries nearby. I swear there was a time circa 2017 or so where seemingly every single girl on Bumble in Chicago had a photo with the elephants of Chiang Mai. But yea, I honestly had zero interest in seeing this so I skipped it…for one, I am a wildlife elitist and really only want to see wildlife in a setting where it is not guaranteed, and there is no human intervention to generate sightings. For another, I honestly wasn’t sure about the ethics of these places, as Thailand is not known to have a sterling human rights record. And besides, these trips would have cost like well over 50 USD for the day, which is outrageous for this part of the world.
After Chiang Mai, I flew over to Penang, in northern Malaysia. It is known as the street food capital of SE Asia – or at least, it’s up there with Singapore, reputation-wise. And demographics wise it is also similar to Singapore and even Kuala Lumpur…predominantly Chinese (though KL is not *that* heavily ethnic Chinese), with smaller Malay and Indian (mostly Tamil) populations. Historically, like Singapore, Penang was a British settlement for trade, hence the similar demographics. And the main Chinese language here, like in Singapore, is Hokkien, which is a language from southeastern China. I do have to say, the food here absolutely lived up to the hype and then some. Malaysian food is in itself very, very good, and when you toss in good south Indian food and excellent Chinese food, it’s an unbeatable combo. Just as good as Singapore’s street food and just as cheap. Singapore + Malaysia is absolutely some of the best food I have ever had, period, in the past few years. I am terrible with dish names, but some of the food highlights include fish head curry, this absolutely jawdroppingly good pork and fish spicy curry that I had, pad thai-esque noodles that are cooked with an ultra-fatty duck egg, and of course, good South Indian dosa. And obviously all the great fresh fruit juices that you get here in southeast Asia. But yea, Georgetown and Penang as a whole really is something else for food. One other random food highlight that I found by pure chance was this outstanding artisinal ice cream shop called Hema Hema…I was walking around at 9pm randomly, saw an outrageously long line, waited in line, and found out halfway through the line that it was for ice cream. I was literally in awe while eating it…the cones are freshly made every day so it’s this delicious spiced waffle flavor, and the ice cream flavors are all funky…I had “Lotus Bischoff” which was deliciously nutty, and the scoops themselves were like picture-perfect spheres.
Georgetown (which is the capital of Penang province) might be the best colonial architecture that I have ever seen…Galle in Sri Lanka was probably more pristine but I just enjoyed the vibe here more. I think it was cooler than the (impressive) colonial architecture in Indian cities like Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai, or Chennai, and also cooler than places like Cairo or Yogyakarta as well. In general, Asian colonial architecture for me is far more interesting than the Spanish stuff you see in Latin America. Beyond the gorgeous colonial architecture, there is a bustling downtown area with skyscrapers…basically like a poor man’s Singapore. I am genuinely curious as to historically, why Singapore was independent of Malaysia but not Penang, given their similar demographics and historic ties as a part of the British Straits Settlements colony. And Georgetown is also famous for its’ super cool street art scene – there are a good number of murals that incorporate physical items, like two kids riding a bicycle or on a swing…so the kids are obviously drawn on the walls, and then there is like a bike or a swing etc. literally nailed in place to create the art. Very unique I thought.
Georgetown was also one of the best social places I have been in during my retirement. My first night, I got some street stall food for dinner and the only open seat was at a table with three other Irish girls…started talking and wound up staying out until 6am (!!!) with them and others we met along the night, including a professional soccer player for Penang FC and his supermodel girlfriend who was a Miss Philippines winner (she was obviously drop-dead gorgeous and able to get us multiple drink discounts throughout the night by sweetly asking the bartenders for a lower price). Met this same larger group the next night as well, where we had a dangerous Long Island tower and somehow made it to 6am again…at one point we were all wearing traffic cones and roadblock signs on our heads and being general menaces. The night after that was probably one of my more memorable nights out ever…was out with a totally new group of people from my hostel in a street called Love Lane which is where all the gringos hang out to drink at one of the ~10 or so bars that line the street. At some point, not sure how it started, all the bars emptied out and there was a *MASSIVE* dance party on the street from like 10pm to midnight while one bar was blasting music for all of us to dance to. There was a ton of traffic so we were all holding up the cars, but sometimes the drivers would come out and start dancing with us as well. Just a totally insane few hours, like 100s of tourists having dance offs and group dances and conga lines and mass macarenas (which I started!!!) and all of that while holding up traffic, it was hilarious. Like legit it felt straight out of a music video or a movie or something, like it was all just so surreal.
Also, one thing that I now have a newfound appreciation for in southeast Asia is that the vast majority of backpackers are in their early 20s and taking their first ever big, extended trip. I almost felt like a wisened old man giving tips and recs for travel when hanging out with people here since they were all genuinely curious about what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. But yea, kind of cool to be in like a “mentorship” role, if that makes sense. And it was also cool because, as dumb as it sounds, there is an element of me being jaded while traveling (in the sense that it takes A LOT to wow me now), so it was very cool to see all these bright-eyed and eager tourists…was a healthy reminder for me I feel since I do somewhat take what I am doing for granted (as does everyone in life…I firmly believe that if you actually believe you are impressive or extraordinary, you are probably annoyingly narcissistic). I also met a British girl here from the small, 1000-person town of Totnes…this was the same town I went to to meet my friend Toby who I met in Egypt when I did my Cotswolds roadtrip last January. Small world that I would meet two people who grew up in the same middle-of-nowhere town in England.
From Georgetown, I took an ~8 hour bus ride to Melaka, another colonial town that is in southern Malaysia. Melaka, historically known as Malacca, is yet another port city that was a part of the Straits Settlements, though the historic quarters here felt waaaaay more Chinese than in Penang or Singapore, and the Tamil presence seemed much, much smaller than those two as well. This is purely from an architectural standpoint…there were tons and tons of cool buildings that were like a funky fusion of Chinese and colonial. But demographics wise, it is predominantly Malay (and therefore Muslim) here, so more in-line with the rest of Malaysia compared to Penang. The food was also excellent here, but I think I definitely enjoyed the food in both Penang and KL more, as well as Singapore (which is close enough to Malaysia culturally that I am basically lumping them together in my head). One interesting food thing was that there were a lot of bakeries that were selling small pastries and cookies and such…honestly fairly mediocre stuff, but have not really seen this anywhere else in Malaysia or Singapore (minus the obnoxious amount of Japanese bakeries in Singapore). Saw a bunch of cool Tao/Confucian/Buddhist temples here (they were all combos of all 3, much like how in Japan Buddhism and Shintosim are intertwined), and I think especially so soon after Japan it is clear to see the difference between Chinese and Japanese architecture. Japanese is clearly influenced by Chinese but is much more austere, while Chinese has a lot more bells and whistles in their temples. In fact, it was actually cool to see the ways in which these Chinese temples were actually quite similar to Tibetan Buddhism with the constant theme of demon-like figures and such…can see how Tibetan Buddhism is a good mix of the obvious Chinese influence plus Indian Hindu influences. The colonial architecture here was definitely more run-down than in Penang or Singapore, but it gave it a nice charm. Overall, Melaka is definitely a nice pitstop for a day or two if you are already in Malaysia, but I don’t think it’s quite the must-see in this area that Penang, KL, and Singapore are. Definitely glad I visited though.
While in Melaka, I was texting a travel friend, Carrick – we have actually only hung out for like 3 days in total, 2 in Utila, Honduras and 1 in Northampton where we caught a Cobblers League 2 match, but he’s definitely one of those guys who I vibed with instantly and became good friends with. But anyways, he sent me this offhand text that sort of resonated with me, while we were talking about our mutual friend James – he’s the Brit who was in my El Mirador trek group in Guatemala, who found the monkey skull in the jungle that we took shots out of in Utila, and who I had planned on summiting Chimborazo with in Ecuador before all those protests blocked the roads and had me get helicopter evac’d (for free! ty travel insurance of the American dude I met while out for drinks at a random night out who then invited me onto his free rescue chopper the next day). Anyways, that was a long aside, but all 3 of us are looooong term travellers, like traveling for years on our savings. And Carrick was saying how, even though the 3 of us have barely hung out together in person (despite texting all the time from different corners of the planet), it is weird that James and I will be winding down our travels this summer since us traveling was always the “status quo”. I just thought it was cool that we were like subconcious benchmarks for each other while backpacking…not in a competitive way at all, but more like “oh he’s also doing exactly what I’m doing but in his own way so I totally get him”.
After this quick Melaka stop, I headed over to KL for like 1.5 days to stay with my uncle before flying back to Chennai. Was good to catch up and we of course had more absolutely excellent food. The highlight here was this amazing steamed fish dish that we had at some Chinese streetfood restaurant – streetfood as in you sit on plastic stools outside. Seriously, the Chinese curries you get in Malaysia are out of this world. I genuinely think that after Lyon, Delhi, Amritsar, Tamil Nadu, and eastern China, Malaysia/Singapore is the best food I have had while traveling. We also went to this really neat cyberpunk-esque bar…dark and dingy room, a giant selection of alcohol displayed behind the bar with a neon sign in Mandarin letters…didn’t necessarily feel cyberpunk because it was all fancy cocktails, but the aesthetic was top notch. Overall, Malaysia is absolutely one of the more underrated tourist spots…it gets way fewer backpackers than Thailand for example but I think deserves a lot more.
Off to Chennai for a few days where my mom is actually there again as well for a few weeks, before meeting my friends Arjun and Nirali in Madagascar for a week. After they fly back to NYC my sister is coming in to meet me for two weeks, then Israel for a couple of weeks (thank you 32k United miles for a free flight), then another quick pitstop in Chennai, and then the Upper Mustang trek in Nepal which is basically the Nepalese section of the Tibetan Plateau. I am actually hoping to go to Tibet proper afterwards…have been in contact with a couple of tour companies (because the Chinese government mandates that you go with one for Tibet), so my hopeful plan for all of June is basically Tibet (including Everest Base Camp from the Chinese side, and a 3-day trek around the holiest mountain in Hinduism and Buddhism, Mount Kailash) and then maybe Beijing and the surrounding area (few ~2000 year old Buddhist cave temples like Ajanta in India, and some medieval walled towns as well). They seem pretty optimistic that Tibet will be opened up by then, so fingers crossed on that. But regardless, I do plan on going to China now that it is open. And this way I can remain sharp with my newfound chopstick skills…I am absolutely better now than I ever have been before.