Same Great Blog…

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…new great theme.

In the interest of better readability, an easier-on-the-eyes colour scheme and general better looking-ness, I present the new theme for Markaeology. I’ve also rejigged the categories so they make more sense and are easier to use, and I’ve gone through every post in the blog to ensure their categorisation is relevant.

This also kind of ties in with a slightly new direction for the blog, which you may have noticed as of late. I won’t be blogging about writing and how to write half as much (and probably less than that), but will continue with general thoughts and opinions about stuff that I find interesting which, hopefully, you do too.

I’m also working on the first Mark D. Evans Newsletter (ooh), so be sure to head over to markdevans.com to sign up!

Happy 2013!

Asia Travel Diary – Thailand (Part One: The North)

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Donations being madeTwenty years ago Thailand may have been a good choice of destination for adventure and the unknown, but nowadays it’s not much more than a holiday destination and/or haven for sex tourists. If you want to avoid seeing fat old western men with young Thai girls then good luck, though it is far more prevalent in the south than in the north (but then it’s in the south where all the tourist hotspots are).

For some nationalities you can enter without a VISA, however most countries aren’t in the gang so check to see if you need to arrange a VISA beforehand. For UK, Australian and the US you get 30 days to spend in Thailand. Be wary, though, as this is only if you enter by air. If you enter by land, crossing the border, even though you’re entitled to 30 days you’ll only get 15 days. It’s then a 500BAHT per day fine for the days you overspend.

Unfortunately out of all the Asian countries visited on this trip, Thailand is probably the most expensive. This is to be expected though thanks to its ever-growing popularity as a holiday hotspot. Accommodation is relatively cheap, but don’t expect to save too much on food and drink. You can eat street food (which in Bangkok, for the most part, is relatively safe) for about 50 baht for a small plate of food such as pork and rice. But that’s £1.

As for the exchange rate it’s a doddle to work out (into sterling at least). Simply treat a baht as a penny and times it by two. So 100 baht is 200 pennies which is £2. Simple.

Bangkok

We flew into Bangkok from Mumbai, India, and the first thing that hits you is just how modern and, frankly, awesome the airport is. I have no intention of writing a book about the world’s airports, but if I did Bangkok International would be right up there.

Getting from the “New Airport” (aka Suvarnabhumi (code BKK), the other smaller and older one is called Don Mueang (code DMK)) into the city couldn’t be easier. Just like Heathrow Airport in London is serviced by the underground so Suvarnabhumi is serviced by its own modern raised-rail line taking you into the heart of the city. Prices are cheap and logically charged (you pay for the distance travelled regardless of popularity – take note London TfL), and you have a choice of a further two services over three lines to get to every corner of the city, these being the underground MRT and the sky-high BTS Skytrain (it’s not really sky-high, but it is up there).

Local travel is serviced for the most part by this excellent public transport system, but there are plenty of taxis around to get to the places in between if it’s too far to walk.

If you’re expecting to land in Bangkok though and step into an old-fashioned, cramped, bustling asian city then think again. It used to be like that, but not anymore. It’s now a very modern city with shopping malls that put anything Britain has to offer to shame (check out “Terminal 21″, not to shop but to marvel at the layout).

To get out (of the city, not the shopping mall), it’s a short ride on the metro to Hua Lamphong train station from where you can get almost anywhere. You don’t need to book weeks in advance, but if you want a sleeper train and you’re strapped for time it would be worth getting the tickets a few days before travel. We left it to chance and bought our tickets either the day before or the same day and out of the three trains we took in Thailand, one was a fan-cooled seat, one an air-con seat and one an air-con sleeper. As a side note, I rate the Thailand sleeper trains among the best.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai from a viewpointMy favourite mainland destination, Chiang Mai is a city within a city. The old city was built shaped like a square with a moat going around it and then it expanded outside of that moat, but the best place to be is still in or very close to that old city. I like it because the mood here is most certainly chilled. It’s nowhere near as built up as Bangkok and the vibe is very different. You’ll get a lot more of that traditional feel here, too.

If you want the bars and the nightlife then you need stay, or at least head to, the north-east corner of the old city. It’s also the closest corner to the river where there’s more nightlife and nice restaurants. For a more traditional feel with plenty of street food and less sex-tourists head to the south of the city.

In Chiang Mai the tuk-tuk is king of the road and there’s no point in taking anything else, however if you’re just going within the old city it’s better to walk. If you do get a tuk-tuk into or out of the old city be mindful of the moat. It’s also a gigantic round-a-bout of sorts and you can save a lot of time and even a bit of money by figuring out which direction you need to go in, then get on the right side of the water. If you don’t and the driver needs to turn around you could be going back on yourselves for a while just to cross the moat.

From Chiang Mai there are a whole host of options regarding what to do and activities, and you can do trips of 1-to-many days doing things like elephant rides, treks through jungles and some adrenaline junkie stuff like high wires.

Onward Travel

From Chiang Mai we wanted to cross the border to Laos. Here you have a few options and if you have the money flying is a good one. But if you’re backpacking you probably won’t have moolah to throw around, so a bus is the option you’ll be taking. There are no shortage of travel agents who will sell you tickets to one of the main locations in Laos (of which there aren’t many), but you still have to be careful.

You need to decide whether you want a minibus or a coach. If you’re doing an overnighter I would definitely go for the coach option. We didn’t. We got a minibus through the hostel we stayed at and while it was cheap, we were cramped in a small van for eight hours with about nine other people, sleeping very close quarters. And one of them stank.

Music Review: Muse – The 2nd Law (4/5 stars)

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There are those albums in the world that you instantly love. Others are shit, you know they’re shit and no matter how many times you listen to it, it will always be shit.

But occasionally there comes an album that exists somewhere between these two extremes.

I’m not talking here about the albums that you shrug your shoulders at, able to take it or leave it. I’m talking about those that when you first hear them you hang your head in shame, wondering how such a great band could sink to such depths, but then find yourself humming one of the tracks. You listen to the album again and end up humming a different song afterward. On a third listen you realise that the album’s not actually that bad and eventually you appreciate the new direction and the new sounds.

The album is a “grower”.

It was always going to be hard for the boys to follow up “The Resistance“, 2009′s album of their vision of a dystopian and totalitarian future loosely based on (one could say adapted from) George Orwell’s masterpiece “1984“. It was a tour de force and showcased their talent at not only songwriting and composition, but production. The album was, simply put, very well put together.

Fast forward to 2012 and the new album seems to have divided critics. I, myself a long term Muse fan (they’re the only band I’ve seen live more than once), was not impressed upon first listening to it, managing to find in my heart the sympathy to give them 10 out of 10 only for effort.

“Survivor” was the first single from this, their sixth studio album “The 2nd Law“. It was the official song of the 2012 Olympic Games and yet I didn’t hear it once during that time. The lyrics were simplistic and missed the ultimate point of the games, and I dare say the guitars were a bit too much for a largely Coldplay-friendly audience.

Then came “Madness”, which seemed a little too tame and, well, mad for the boys. Finally the album came out and we could listen to these songs as part of the larger picture, but that picture ended up being rather muddled. It was like having Monet paint a bit, then Dali continue where he left off before asking Hurst to put the finishing touches to it. It just didn’t gel.

Thrown into the mix were two songs written and sung by bassist Christopher Wolstenholme about his fight with alcoholism. They actually sound more like Muse than the rest of the album, but that’s the problem because the rest of the album doesn’t sound like Muse.

But then, as I alluded to above, I started to hum “Madness” to myself. I realised that actually it wasn’t such a bad song after all. One by one I found myself replaying various songs in my head, and I realised that when listened to individually, each song was actually quite good.

When you get around to listening to the album again as a whole, it’s then easier to accept the jumps from genre to genre. Not only that, but you begin to understand what the underlying theme of the album is.

The title refers to the second law of thermodynamics which states that in an isolated system (where nothing can get in or out), the temperature within that system will eventually reach an equilibrium. Ice will melt in a glass of water until there is none left, but it does so because there are two different temperatures within that glass and they must equal out.

My explanation here is very simplistic, but what the boys do with the album is apply that law to our society and the human race in general. From the lyrics it’s easy to see that the aspect of humanity being primarily addressed is economics, pointing out that prices get higher and higher and this can’t go on forever, because if it does an equilibrium will never be achieved. One day it will all collapse because “a species based on endless growth is unsustainable” (as quoted from the track “Unsustainable” ).

How can you apply the second law of thermodynamics to the human race? Simple, because the world on and in which we live is an isolated system. Anyone who’s read “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson will know that there are no more atoms in the world today than there were when the universe was first created. It’s an isolated system. We live, die, and our atoms go back into the ground to be used up in different ways, in other processes.

So, I think the question the album asks is what happens to us when we just keep on going, past the point of equilibrium? We should have reached an equilibrium, but we haven’t and won’t, so what happens then?

As we all know the population of the world keeps increasing and there will come a day, no questions asked, that the human race will simply be too large and the natural resources required to sustain us will be depleted. I see this as being the message broadcast by “Explorers” and “Big Freeze” on the album.

The last two tracks, the two-part title track, although lyricless (by Matthew Bellamy at least) somehow manages to scream this same message. The first part screams about how loud and consuming we are, while the second part feels to me like an ode to a dying world, where the last of us on a depleted and exhausted earth can do nothing but regret our species existence.

When looked at this way you can start to see how other tracks which are seemingly not part of this underlying message can be allusions, much like those on “The Resistance”. “Follow Me” is written for Matt’s newborn son, but you can imagine it being sung in a post-apocalyptic future (where dubstep will obviously be the dominant music genre). “Supremacy” can easily be a call to arms against those who control our economies and even Chris’s two songs somehow manage to have ties to the overall message.

The earth is an isolated system with many different cultures that will nevertheless one day die out. “The 2nd Law” is an isolated album with many different influences and genres that nevertheless don’t work together quite as well as earth’s cultures. It’s an ambitious work of art which, although may not be their best work purely due to the disjointed, mix ‘n’ match feel of the album, could be their most attention demanding.

But it is purely because of the stuttered flow of the album that I award it four and not five stars.

Asia Travel Diary – India

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To sum up India in one word is hard, but if I had to do it the word would be “crazy”.

It was the first stop for me and my better half on our little Asian trip, and with our onward plane ticket already booked we realised before we got there that we hadn’t left ourselves much time. We still took a lot away from our all-too brief experience, but timing is a good place to start for this informative travel blog entry.

Length of Stay

Gauging the right amount of time to spend in India can be difficult. You could easily potter around the country for months, and there’s certainly plenty to see, but for some it could be a bit too much and you may find yourself wanting to get out of there after a week. Everything is pretty hectic there and if you’re not prepared for the hoards of touts, beggars and scammers, you’ll find yourself wanting to move on before your time is up. I wouldn’t choose India as the very first place to travel to if you’ve not done any before. Ease yourself in with a visit to Thailand or similar.

Be assured, however, that if you can smile past the touts, ignore–with sympathy–the beggars and be smart with the scammers, you’ll have an experience like no other and no regrets.

Getting There

We flew into Mumbai (otherwise known as Bombay, officially renamed in 1995 by the government to reflect the indigenous people’s culture), but you can also fly into Delhi. The latter is the closest international airport to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, which is in the north of the country, while Mumbai lies in the south.

Jet Airways is the official airline of India, but it’s always worth going through Expedia to get the cheapest deals, especially if it’s a multiple destination trip. Be warned though, it can be hell to change flights. We did so on a couple of occasions throughout our trip, and one of them didn’t even go through. Expedia didn’t inform us, so if it wasn’t for the fact that we wanted to change again we would’ve turned up to the airport with no seats on the plane.

Getting Around Nationally

For national travel between the major cities there really is no better way than to use the overnight trains. Fly, by all means, but you’ll be spending a lot more money and missing out on some great experiences.

India has a very comprehensive rail network which is surprisingly good quality. The trains that serve the major routes have many, many carriages and range in price and quality all the way from the cheapest seat (which may have you sitting on the floor) to first class sleeper cabins. The best value tickets are the air-conditioned 2-tier bunk carriages.

Tickets can be snapped up quickly, so book as far ahead as you can. There are several online options but to save repetition I won’t go into them here. Instead head over to Seat61 for a very comprehensive guide. Sufficed to say that the online sites only have access to non-tourist tickets and by the time we got round to booking our trains all these tickets were gone.

There’s hope, though. If you’re in the UK you should try SD Enterprises in London. They have access to the tourist quota and even though we left it until a week before we went, they were able to get us on the trains we needed to see the things we wanted to see. In the first instance just send them an email telling them what you want to do.

If you have all the time in the world by all means wait until you get there and buy the tickets as you go, but if you’re under any kind of restriction with time booking ahead is essential.

And a quick note if you’re planning to take the overnight from Agra to Mumbai, the train you’ll likely be getting leaves from a station outside of Agra. Your hostel will be able to call you a reliable taxi, but it will take an hour if not more to get there. Arrange everything the day before you leave so you know how much time you have. This is undoubtedly the case with other routes, too. As always, be prepared.

Getting Around Locally

In places like Delhi there is a very good metro system. It’s a bit surreal because you walk to a station through typical overcrowded streets and then get on a comparatively luxurious, air-conditioned metro train. And like everything in India it is cheap. Also, if you’re a Londoner, expect to disembark cursing how TfL charges; the Indian way is so much better.

If there’s no metro, or no metro station close to where you need to go, the next best thing is a tuk-tuk. Always be wary, though. If you can, ask at your hostel how much a ride should be if you know where you’re going. Then you need to haggle, but definitely agree the price before you get in. When you agree on the price and there’s more than one of you, ensure the price is for all, not individually. It will be for all, but if you don’t state it they might try and con you into paying individually once you arrive at your destination.

There is of course the local bus and train. We didn’t get to experience a local bus, but we did a train. It was one hell of an experience with me literally hanging off the side of the train at one point, backpack an’ all. If you take the train be aware of the different carriages. They have specific ones for women, and then others for disabled. These will have space and you’ll be tempted to get on, but unless you fall under the appropriate category you’re gonna have to squash yourself in with all the others.

Food and Drink

The Indians love their spices, so be prepared to eat spicy food throughout. Due to tourism there will be plenty of other options like Pizza in the bigger towns. If you’re taking the overnight trains then you get meal options and also tea and coffee. You have to pay for it unless you’re on the Rajdhani Express from and to Mumbai. It’s a quality train with everything included.

Needless to say bottled water is a must, and drink plenty.

Where to Stay

You should be okay to just get a bed without booking, but for those who want to play it safe use Hostelworld to book a bed or a room. Join up for a small fee and forget about paying the booking fee for a year. It really is simple and it’s the best hostel-finding site in my opinion. If a place is worth staying at, it’ll be on Hostelworld.

Just a quick tip for Mumbai, if you fly into this city the airport is way, way out of the city, like 20km from the city centre.

Taj Mahal

The most popular tourist attraction in India is arguably the Taj Mahal. This is a palace built by an emperor for no other reason than to mourn the passing of his beloved third wife. It stands now as a nation-wide symbol of love and it’s certainly good to know it is worth something to the people of India, so many of whom will undoubtedly have died building it.

It has four gates and the one you need to go to is the West gate. This is the entrance for everyone. Get up early, like mega-early, go to the West gate, buy your ticket from the booth (cheap for locals, expensive for foreigners) and line up in your designated line. There is a separate line for local men, local women, foreign men and foreign women. Leave anything bigger than a smartphone at home; try and get in with your laptop and you may be turned away.

And be prepared. It is magnificent, but the pictures you’ve seen of it will have been taken on a remarkably clear day. Especially early in the morning (to beat the rush) expect to have a bit of smog between you and the palace.

Tours and Scams

In order to enjoy India you have to be prepared for the insistent tours and scams. Take a tuk-tuk and your driver will likely try and rope you into taking a personal tour. We were strong for the most part and said no, but once we said yes. To be honest it wasn’t that bad. We got taken around to the next biggest things in Agra for a set price, which we worked out to be cheaper than individual tuk-tuk rides. However, once you’ve done the big sights he’ll start taking you around to his mates shops. Here you can see how carpet is made or how ornaments are created, but then you’ll be hounded to buy something.

If your strong and don’t give in, I think you can get something out of these tours. Just politely demand to go to the places you want to see and when that’s done and he starts taking you to shops, if you don’t want to do it just say no thanks. Be polite, always smile, but be firm.

As for other scams, you just need to have your wits about you. Some of the biggest ones happen outside train stations and popular attractions. We went back to the ATM in the train station because no others were working and at the entrance we got stopped by a man claiming to be an official employee. He demanded that we had to have to tickets to enter, while all around us everyone else was simply just walking in. He tried to point us in the direction of the “ticket booth”, which was his mate with a box OUTSIDE the station. When we tried to shake him off he was adamant that he was trying to help us and he even got angry that we thought ill of him.

This, however, is exactly the kind of thing you’ll have to learn to avoid. No matter how sincere they seem, if things just don’t add up (like a ticket booth outside of a station not inside), simply walk away. If they’re really persistent and won’t let you be, go find a policeman who should be happy to fine him, or at least threaten you’ll go to the police.

Conclusion

I would love to go back to India one day. We didn’t give it enough time and ended up doing a whistle-stop tour. The people on the whole are friendly, and with scams and stuff you just have to accept that they are a poor people and so they’re going to do everything they can to get money.

But in a way it’s this that actually adds to your experience of India. Like all places it’s not just the scenery or the attractions. It’s the atmosphere, the people, the culture, the attitudes… everything. That’s what makes an experience worthwhile and that’s what makes India a must-visit location.

Asia Travel Diary – Intro

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For those that don’t know, I’m a bit of a traveller. I love me a bit of backpacking. I haven’t done as much as many I’m sure, but I’ve done more than a lot I’m certain. As with all who have been bitten by the bug, I’m off doing it again (and this time I’m dragging my better half with me).

So the next few posts will be about the places we visit, how we did it and any tips we have that came from the experience. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a series of status updates saying how much fun we’re having. I’ve always wanted this blog to be informative more than anything else, so these posts will continue in this vein.

The Plan

It’s always good to have a vague idea of where you want to go, because first things first you’ve got to get the plane ticket anyway. With a bit of a time limit due to varying commitments, we decided to restrict this bit of travel to a popular backpacker location; Asia.

Our roughly conceived route then became as follows; fly to India and make our way round, fly to Thailand, somehow make our way up into Laos, get into Vietnam, make our way down and across into Cambodia before finishing up with some R&R time in the islands of Thailand.

VISAs

Planning at least which countries you want to visit is pretty important before leaving, as it will make getting VISAs a lot easier. This in turn makes the amount of time you spend in an airport upon arrival no more than necessary, and will ensure you don’t get turned back at immigration.

Due to relationships between countries and that kind of thing, the need for VISAs changes depending on what passport you’re travelling on. For us, a British citizen and an Australian citizen, there were two countries in our itinerary for which we required a VISA to be bought before arriving to that country. Not only that, but the price we paid differed, too. It’s bureaucratic nonsense but you’ve got to put up with it if you want to travel.

For us, India and Vietnam were the ones we needed to get a VISA for before arrival. You can get this at your local embassy for the respective country, and there are also plenty of online services that you can use (handy if you don’t live anywhere near an embassy). Just beware that when using an online service you’ll need to send off your passport, and whether using a service or going directly to an embassy it will take at least a few days, so plan well ahead and leave plenty of time.

Out of the other countries, Thailand we could get in for free on a visitor’s VISA upon arrival. For Laos and Cambodia, VISAs can be obtained at ports of entry and at the border, but for a fee. For us it was in the region of $30-40 each, and again it depends on where you are from as to how much you pay.

No matter where you go, you should always check VISA requirements. Taking the example of Thailand, UK and Australian citizens get in for free, but there are plenty of nationalities that can’t.

The Backpack

As the method of travelling implies, backpacking requires a backpack. If you have one of those suitcases on wheels you’re gonna find it pretty hard getting from place to place on even the most popular of backpacker trails.

And when it comes to the backpack, I learnt the hard way that the less you take the better. Some people take 60 litre backpacks with them, and this is simply too much. The clothes that you pack first will likely remain at the bottom of your pack until you get back home. A 40 litre pack should be sufficient, and if you can’t get everything you need into it, you’re taking stuff you don’t need.

I personally am cursed with the need for spectacles, so this means I have to take glasses, sunglasses and heaps of 1-day contact lenses. Then there’s the malaria tablets, the usual toiletries (travel bottles are best), chargers for your camera and even then I can get my clothes in with space to spare in a 40 litre pack. Take only what you know you will definitely need and cannot purchase anywhere else. The rest you can buy as and when you need it.

Mozzie Nets

You only really need mosquito nets if you’re going to be, or there’s a chance you’re going to be hiking around in jungles and staying in huts or home stays. If, however, you’re just going to stick to the usual towns and cities and staying in hostels, you can probably do without. Malaria is only prevalent in Laos and Cambodia (of our planned countries), and I bought nets just in case (I’ve been to Thailand before and needed them, but I was in jungles near the Burmese border for part of it).

[As I write this halfway through our trip, the nets still haven't been used.]

Malaria tablets are, however, highly recommended whenever you go to, or even through, any malarial areas.

Money and Insurance

There are plenty of people who still swear by traveller’s cheques. Personally I find them the greatest hassle you could give yourself on a journey. The vast majority of places nowadays have ATMs, and that’s how I travel with money; with my bank card.

There are disadvantages, of course. The first is that your bank will charge a fee for using your card abroad (yes, even HSBC, “the world’s bank” ), and you’ll also find that the ATMs will charge a fee, too.

A great tip if you’re just going to use your bank card is to inform your bank that you’re going away and where you’re going. Many banks will block your card if it suddenly gets used on the other side of the world. It’s good in terms of security, but a show stopper when you turn up to a hostel and can’t pay.

The Post Office offers a travel card, but I haven’t looked into it sufficiently to offer any opinion.

As for insurance, I recommend you at least get medical. It’s usually not that much and you obviously don’t want to have to use it, but if it’s needed it’ll be the best decision you’ve ever made. Having said that, there are countries that may have a special relationship with your own, so it’s worth checking if you can get free medical if you’re only going to one country (for example if your British you can simply walk into a hospital in Australia and get free medical attention).

Take Off

With our rough plan in our heads, our backpacks packed, malaria tablets bought and immunisations jabbed, it was finally ready to head off. The last tip then is for the airport. Don’t forget about the rules for liquids in carry-on luggage, so it’s best to bung everything in your checked-in backpack. You can even put your trusty penknife in there and it will make it through.

Some Helpful Resources

Seat61 is a great repository of information about getting round countries: The Man in Seat Sixty-One

Wikitravel is getting quite popular as a means to get to the kind of info you find in Lonely Planet, for free: Wikitravel

Find out what immunisations you need: NHS Travel Vaccinations

Money Supermarket is great for a deal on travel insurance (and I personally go with Insure and Go): Moneysupermarket

The Diary Entries

Part 1: India

Part 2: Thailand (The North)

Part 3: Laos

Part 4: Vietnam

Part 5: Cambodia

Part 6: Thailand (The South)