Brian thinks better of Bangkok

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So I am back in Bangkok, after many crazy adventures with the group of 14 (the crew that I went trekking with). Before I move on to Bangkok, let me recap some of the highlights of Chaing Mai:

Gong Si Fah Cai!

(I hope I spelled that right)

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!

We ended up in China town for the big celebration. It was quite spectacular, actually. We saw a pagent of some sort in which a bunch of little boys and a bunch of little girls got dressed up in qhat looked like traditional costumes. Not understanding a bit of the language, it was tough to tell what the critera was for judging, but it was clear who the final four, and eventually who the winners were. It seemed like the kids were less concerned about the contest itself, and more concerned with playing amongst themselves, and waving to their friends/relatives in the crowd. I guess it sort of reaffirmed that kids are kids all around the world... I always love meeting and seeing kids from strange places just for this reason.

We also saw an amazingly impressive accrobat and fireworks display. I had seen similar things before in the parades for Chinese New Year in San Francisco. But in Chaing Mai, the action was concentrated in one place. The acrobats didn't move in a parade, which meant that I could clearly see what they were doing. It was quite simply - amazing.

I also made the plunge and purchased the first painting(s) of my life. I spent a fair bit of cash on them, but it was still cheap when compared to Western standards. It turns out that the gal who actually painted the paintings was the one who sold them to me in the gallery. She must have had several hundred paintings in there. All were very impressive! Now I just need to cross my fingers and hope that the "economy airmail" option that I chose will see the paintings home safely...

Bangkok or bust

The bus ride to Bangkok was, well long. It started with an unexpected surprise. The Thai guy sitting everyone down started randomly screaming at people to sit down and take their seats. Thais are normally the friendliest people that I have ever seen - always with the warm smiles, and radiating - niceness. This guy was almost purple in the face, over what seemed to me nothing. I guess he had seen on foreigner too many or something.

The bus ride suddenly was looking a LOT better when a very attractive gal took the seat next to me. Her name was Maya, and she was a Swiss-French-Cuban-Chilean gal with a load of interesting things to say. She especially despised the philosophies and politics of America. I felt obligated to defend the homeland. At least the idea that in America, it's all about the individual to be responsible for their future, and not the governments job to provide one. It was all good-natured debate. The best part was that she shared one of her headphones with me, and I got to listen to some really cool music for the whole trip. This made me want my own CD player, which I bought last night.

We rolled into Bangkok at 5:00 AM, and were subjected to another, even more intense screaming session by the same crazed Thai guy. After which, the four of us (me, Maya, Martin, and Stuart) stumbled to guest house after guest house, seeking accomodations. We must have hit up about 20 or so before we finally scored.

Maya agreed to share a room with me to save cost - a point that I didn't argue in the slightest. I had already developed quite the infatuation with her. (Nothing happened at all, for those of you with minds in the gutter). We spent all of the next day hanging out, then she went her way (back to her boyfriend in Switzerland), and I went mine. I actually think that part of the attraction was the fact the she was so unattainable - I knew that she was leaving the next day, and that she had a long-term boy friend. Ahh, why do we always want what we can't have?

Light's Camera, Action

After parting with Maya, I grabbed Martin for "one more beer". Stuart was down for the count with a sore throat (a fact that he would later regret).

Our first destination was a place called "Gulliver's Travellers' Tavern". Having just read Gulliver's Travels, I thought it seemed like a decent place to start. It turns out that this place seemed to be all about middle-aged whities looking to hook up with an over abundance of young Thai hotties. It was actually quite sad in my opinion.

In fact, I recently read (after having been to Guliver's myself) a short book by a local aspiring author about life in Bangkok. This book specifically called out Gulliver's as THE place to go if you are a whittie, and you don't want to go home alone.

The scene wasn't really for me. Or for Martin. We ended up on a side-walk cafe, and chatting with some Thai girls who had just come to see the carnival that is Khao Shan road. They wanted us to go to some club with them, but we wanted to just sit for a while. We agreed to meet up later in the evening.

After sitting for a bit and watching the endless stream of craziness that was spread before us, we started wandering towards the club that the girls had mentioned.

We were intercepted by a youngish-unshaven English chap who claimed that he needed us to help him out by being extras in a Thai movie. Martin and I quikly decided that it could be a laugh, and we agreed. We would have to work until 6:00 AM, and would get paid 1200 Baht. That was about 6 hours of work for about $30. Though I wasn't in it for the money. How often do you get to be a film star?

We were taken to wardrobe, where they quickly realized that I have no fashion sense. It seems that no tourist in their right mind would dare walking about in the rags that I was wearing, so I got all new stuff to wear. Old Navy shirt even...

The idea was that we were to be "human background" for the yet unamed movie (in fact, I never did find out the name of the movie). For our part, Martin and I needed to drink beer, and walk about for a bit.

Well the drinking beer was actually adlibbed by Martin and myself. In fact, apparently the movie was sponsered by beer brand X, when we were drinking beer brand Y. We had to pour the contents of our bottles into an empty X before we could have any on the set.

We had two main scenes:

1. Whenever they said "Action", we would count to 7, then walk 30 yards down the street. We had to talk, but it didn't matter about what. We were quite drunk by this point, so naturally we talked about the nature of god (or lack thereof) and the universe.

2. We sat at the bar next to some cute English girls. No one told us what we were supposed to do. I assumed that if we were sitting at a bar, then we should be picking up on the girls. That's what tourists do, right?

I told the English girls about my thoughts, and they seemd to agree. We did have to do the take several times, so at the end I was simply wooing my acting partner by saying:

"Right now, I am saying something very interesting." She had to do a double take to confirm that I actually said that. She didn't seem like she was buying it. I told her so.

"You don't look very interested."

Fortunately for her, very soon after the action began, her role was to suddenly get up and leave the bar. No one ever really told us why, so I assumed that my pick-up attempts must have failed.

Unfortunately for her, we had to do this scene like 15 times in a row.

We never did find out who the stars were, or what the movie was about. No one seemed to know. It did look very official, in that they had people shouting "Action", or "cut" (except for the time when the drunken Englishman from the street jumped into the scene and yelled "cut". The agent/director/man in charge guy didn't seem to like this, and the drunkard was quickly muscled off.

It was also official in the sense that we offically got paid, which was nice.

Toursity Bangkok

The temples and palace in Bangkok are simply awe-inspiring. The Grand Palace is simply amazing. I don't think a few words will do it justice, so I'll have to try and find some good postcards to show you all. I will say that the three of us (me, Martin, Stu) went in for a tour guide, who told us all kinds of great things about the history of Thailand and of the temple. We also saw an amazing scale model of Angkor Wat, which really makes me want to go there.

We also saw the temple of the reclining Budah, and the temple of the dawn. Both are very impressive.

We met a lot of cool people along the way. I am still convinced that Thais are in general the nicest group I have met so far.

Local's Bangkok

We ended up meeting up with the gals that we saw before we became film stars. The gals thought it was really funny, and teased us about our upcoming star-dom.

The gals were really cool people. They took us around to all kinds of restaurants and markets that we wouldn't have seen on our own.

I was surprised when one of the gals said that she really wanted to see a "show". A "show" is what the Tuk-Tuk drivers tried to entice tourist males with and usually entaled women doing very strange and unusal things. Ping Pong balls, cigerattes, and darts were usually mentioned. I have to admit, I was curious, though I hadn't seriously considered attending a show until one of the gals mentioned that she wanted to go.

After some discussion, the 5 of us decided to go. I won't dwell on the details. I'll just say that the women all had an amazing amount of control over their bodies. The highlight was when Stuart was on stage holding a ballon at arms length. The woman's job was apparently to fire a dart from a blow gun, inserted where blow guns are not normally inserted, at the ballon. Amazingly, she actually fired the dart. But it hit Stuart in the leg, instead of his balloon.

I wish I could have a picture of the look of "What am I doing up here" that Stuart had on his face when he showed us the dart hanging from his pant leg. Fortunately, he had baggy pants on, and the dart didn't even touch his skin. Also, the woman on stage quickly corrected her aim, and Stuart was soon done.

We ended our time with the gals with the most amazing dinner I have yet had here in Thailand. We ate at a restaraunt that sat practically on the river, with an amazing view of a really cool bridge. In fact, the bridge really reminded me of the new "Big-Dig" bridge in Boston. In any case, I never got the sense that the gals wanted anything from us. They both have educations, and good jobs. For our part, we never really made any moves. We were just a group of people having a good time.

I am supposed to meet up with the gals again this weekend. They are going to have a bit of a holiday, and meet me somewhere in Southern Thailand.

Martin and Stuart moved on today, so they should be in Hong Kong by now. I was sad to see them go - I had been traveling with them for about 10 days or so. They were really cool guys.

I suppose that if you have gotten this far in the post, you are about ready to keel over with boredom. Sorry for the length.

I'm just killing a few hours. I have a very long night ahead of me. 9 hour bus ride, followed by a 3.5 hour wait (at 4:00 AM!) for a ferry, followed by a 3 hour ferry ride. All of this will put me on an island that is really famous for SCUBA diving. We'll see...

At least I have a new CD player to keep me company.

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Photos

Grand Palace
The grand palace (with my thumb included for good measure)

Bostonian-like bridge
We ate an amazing dinner at the foot of this bridge. It looks exactly like a bridge in Boston. I wonder who copied who...

Mini-Angkor Wat
This is a scale model of Angkor Wat (in Camboida). It really makes me want to go there. It isn't going to happen on this trip, which means that there will have to be a next time...

Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn)
It's way more impressive than the picture shows.

The Temple of the reclining Budah
This thing is MASSIVE. Each foot is like 25 feet tall or so. Do the math on the rest of the body. It is very near the Grand Palace

Los tres amigos
The three boys, at Wat Arun. A kindly chap from Springfield, MA took the picture for us. Right to left: Me, Stewart, Martin. The stairs leading to the top are STEEP. The temple is symetric on all four sides.

Pigeons in the park
This is in one of the larger parks (Lumphini) in Bangkok. I really hate pigeons, actually. They freak me out.

Comments

[anonymous]

Tiger Show
At last, you have witness the Tiger Show (aka ping-pong show). Congratulations. ;-) - Cybersam

[anonymous]

Nothing Lost in Translation
Bri, you're friggin' hilarious, dude. I'm sitting here in Monterey, muchin' down on a well-deserved lunch during a well-deserved lunch break, just ROLLIN'. Not sure how much news you get about the U.S. in Hong Kong.... Some company, Choicepoint, got low-tech hacked and like hundreds of thousands of folks' personal info was compromised (Choicepoint claims only 145,000; free credit reports for all of them). Barry Bonds finally fired back saying that steroids doesn't help you hit a ball. Curious George has been on a roadtrip himself kissing european ass, trying to look like he's not. Oh and did you know that if a Flash client is running on Windoze that it can leverage IE's "Network Connections" component? Careful if you do SSL, if your cert isn't trusted, it just rejects the connection outright, no warning or nothin'. Great to "hear" from ya...keep the journal entries comin'! Gong Si Fah Cai! - JTigger

[anonymous]

Lost in Transition
bed, bathroom, living room, bedroom, comp chair, living room, coridor, lift, taxi, off lift, lift, off, comp chair, pantry, comp chair, loo, lift, road, market, road, off lift, off, comp chair, pantry, loo, comp chair, off lift, road, mrt, lift, coridor, living room, bedroom, bathroom, living room, bedroom, comp chair, bed. it all sounded common, but everyday there's always something new to encounter. (like i meet different drowsy lazy cat every single night) Some interesting and some not, but then to each its own experiences and personal walk. That's what make life so differently interesting. anyway, so how's your transition been, my usa friend? - amy aka bettyboo