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Published: January 20th 2009
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When I first arrived in Japan, I had made up my mind that I would make an honest effort to see as much of the country as I could. I would do so by taking frequent weekend trips to nearby locations, and save the more distant places for school vacations and long holidays. What I had done was prematurely and ignorantly denied myself the chance to get out of Japan and see more of Asia, where the culture would be different, the climate warmer, and the prices more affordable. And so, with some reservation, I did the research only to discover that Christmas break is the THE time to visit Thailand. The climate and the price were right, so I booked a flight to Bangkok, and over the next two months, got more and more excited about getting out of frigid (apologies to my New England peeps: frigid to me is anything below 35°F) Japan, and exploring this exotic, diverse, and infamous tourist hotspot for a solid three-week R&R.
Thank god our flight was actually allowed to land. As you know, all the airports (and the major government building) were blockaded by protestors, who were calling for the Thai Prime
Minister to step down and dissolve its puppet administration. The peaceful protests proved effective and our flight took off and landed as if nothing had happened. In fact, three weeks later, one would never have had any suspicion that the country was in complete civil unrest only weeks before. I feel sorry for anybody who cancelled or forwent a trip to Thailand solely due to the political “situation”.
So here we are, ready to tackle the great city of Bangkok. We arose to a beautiful 80°F dry sunny day and went to the number one tourist attraction in town. The Grand Palace and Monastery is a massive compound that houses one of the most prized Buddha icons in the country. The fact that the entire place is ostentatiously covered in gold-plates buildings to simply to house a mere 3ft green Buddha was one of the most amazing sights I’ve ever seen. Unlike Japanese Buddhism (which really intermingles with Shinto), which has humble, unadorned temples, the Thais devote themselves to showering their statues, icons, and temples with gold, jewels, and extravagance. They even decided it was necessary to build a 100 ft long “reclining” Buddha statue, covered in gold, depicting
Inside the Palace
That's me in the foreground his passing into Nirvana (does anybody else not have the ability to separate this word from the band?). If you come to Thailand for anything besides the sleaze (like me), visiting the various “Wats” will certainly leave you breathless.
We spent a solid four days in Bangkok doing everyday stuff like wager on Muay Thai boxing matches, taking riverboat taxis through the highways of brown-water canals, walking across the infamous “Bridge over River Kwai”, and petting tigers. The last two were in the Kanchanburi region outside of Bangkok. The Tiger Temple is a monastery that decided to rescue orphaned tiger cubs (the poaching industry still permeates the region) and domesticate them. What they ended up with was a beautiful symbiotic relationship: Like all Thais, they need tourism money; like all Westerners, we need to pet tigers. It was an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience! The Bridge over River Kwai was made most famous by the novel and movie telling the story of the building of the Death Railway from Thailand to Burma during WWII. Japan, having crusaded through Malaysia and Thailand, was set to advance into Burma, but needed a way to move supplies more efficiently. So they consigned Allied POWs
to build a massive railway through thick jungle and over wide rivers under concentration-camp-like conditions. Tens of thousands of POWs died of starvation and disease in the process. The Bridge itself is a replica of the one that was bombed by American planes toward the end of the war, but is a stirring reminder of the atrocities committed by the Japanese expansion campaign during that time. (Quick tangent: If you think I haven’t brought this up with my Japanese colleagues and friends…you’re right. Japanese people and those in power have had problems looking back on history in a self-critical way. The government still will not accurately acknowledge the magnitude of destruction they inflicted in Nan King, and the top officials still ceremoniously visit the graves of convicted war criminals of WWII. They also have taken a “non-aggressor” stance, even as they expanded into nearly India. As far as the bombing of Hiroshima is concerned, you would think after talking with a Japanese about it that we dropped a bomb on babies and puppies—not weapons armories and military bases. So, I’ll wait to bring up the Death Railway some other time.)
That’s it for the downer stuff, I promise! Our
next stop was Chiang Mai, the second largest and most down-to-earth city in Thailand. Located in northern Thailand, Chiang Mai is renowned by travelers for its local cuisine, budget accommodations, and relaxed way of life. Yes, it would have been far too easy to say, “screw it”, and live in Chiang Mai for the next few years. I mean, you could see hundreds of people who had done so. Chiang Mai has undeniable magnetic pull, but it’s difficult to put your finger on why. We didn’t do all that much while we were there, and the Lonely Planet only lists various Wats for sights to see, but still we felt its warm embrace, and like everybody else, sang its praises but for unknown reasons. I guess you’ll have to see for yourself.
Next, the real reason why we came to Thailand: R&R on the beautiful southern beaches. We arrived on the overdeveloped and up-market tourist island of Koh Samui. We had a pleasant New Year’s Eve on the beach, amongst thousands of inebriated Aussies and Brits and watched the plethora (word of the trip for some reason…see The Three Amigos…now!) of fireworks and hot air lanterns bursting in the
night sky. Certainly memorable, but not life changing. We got off Koh Samui as quickly as we could, and settled into a beach bungalow on the Full Moon Party island of Koh Phangan. We basically didn’t move for eight days.
It was brilliant. Imagine rolling out of bed, onto the beach and ordering your breakfast as emerald green water lapped back and forth within inches of your toes. You might spend the day reading, tanning, or if you’re feeling spry playing Frisbee for an hour. You break for lunch, again, eating on the beach, and go back to your book. After an $8/hr massage during sunset, you shower up and head back to the beach, where candlelit tables line the sand. The fresh seafood is on display and you choose your meal for the night. As the night carries on, you watch the moon slowly dip toward the horizon, eventually disappearing into the sea, leaving nothing but a sky full of stars to light your path back to the bungalow. Rinse and repeat. Eight times. That has to be the shortest eight days of my life.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. Like most long
Going for a walk
I did this too, but this one is Gregg vacations, there was a sense of longing for home toward the end. I now consider myself to have two homes: America and Japan. It was strange spending Christmas and New Year’s in neither one. Equally strange was returning from a three-week vacation in an exotic place and not going back to Boston. Also, I found myself missing Japan—its amazingly reliable, punctual, and clean transportation, its safe, helpful, and honest people—so I wasn’t too disappointed to come back to the coldness.
Alas, Thailand took as much from me as I did it. I came home to discover that my camera, loaded with close to 200 pictures, was missing from my bag. I hope the airport baggage handler who swiped it thinks long and hard about what a naughty boy he’s been, and puts himself on timeout. I guess it’s a sign that I have to come back again. The pictures posted here were taken from Gregg’s camera.
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elan
non-member comment
sweet
sorry to hear about your camera man but those tigers are freakin sweet!! glad to hear all is well, keep up tha good writing. cheers!!