Thailand Pt2-Bangkok

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Thailand Pt. 2-Bangkok
We arrived in Bangkok at night and then took a cab to our hostel, which took forever to find because not a single cab driver had ever heard of the hostel. After driving by it two or three times we finally managed to spot it. It was a very cheap hostel with 10 bunk bed style dorms and ceiling fans, so we had some hot nights there.

Day 1
The first day’s goal was to cover the sites in Bangkok. Before we even did that though, I went off on my own to fulfill one of my goals in Bangkok. I woke up early in the morning to go suit hunting. I found this little spot of the main road very close to where we were staying, and I went in and spent about 30 minutes deciding my material and style. My tailor then proceeded to measure me up and down for about 15 min, and then I left with a receipt. I had selected a two piece black pinstripe cashmere wool suit, with an Armani Giorgio cut, one custom shirt, and 4 ties, all for around $180 USD; not bad if you ask me. After I had that squared away I went to wake up my co-travelers and start the day exploring Bangkok.
We took a cab up to Koh San Rd. the “backpackers’ haven.” The entire street is one big tourist trap, there are a few hotels on and around the street where most tourists stay. There were loads of shops and vendors along the street as well, all looking to rip off a tourist by selling cheap items for outrageous prices. We cruised through there and started to make our way to the grand palace when we were waylaid by a very friendly travel shop. I didn’t mind taking advice on where we should go in the city. This is where, as my roommate Scott likes to call it, we get scammed. He showed us spots of the city that usually cost a lot of money, but they were cheaper because of the holidays, and then another place that was usually closed to tourists. This was probably a pack of lies, but either way, we were offered a ride around in a tuc tuc for 500 baht (which is a little over 1 dollar) to three various locations and then back to the beginning so that we could visit the Grand Palace. The first place they took us to was a Buddhist temple that was supposed to be special, but the monks were praying and we weren’t allowed to see the temple. So we cut our losses and prepared for our next location, which was a jewelry expo. We did not by any means wish to visit a jewelry store, and we explained that to the driver and asked to skip that location. However he refused, saying that if we went and walked around he would get a discount on gas from the government. So we agreed we would go there for 5 min., under the pretense that we weren’t going to buy anything whatsoever. We went, we walked around, we left. Next location had a standing Buddha, I can’t remember exactly how tall it was, but it was impressive. The entire statue was plated with small tiles, and each of them was painted with gold. There was also a smaller Buddha there that I read later, was painted with gold that was donated by the King of Thailand. Now here is where the scamming occurred.

We went back to our driver and asked to be taken back to the beginning, but apparently that was not what he had in mind. He wanted to take us to another jewelry store to get another govt. issued discount on gas. We told him that this was not part of the original agreement but he would not budge saying “you not help me, then I not help you.” Now in hindsight, it wouldn’t have been a big deal to go and walk one more jewelry story, the only thing it would have done was to waste our time. However everyone was in such a state from my roommate’s cry of “SCAM” that we decided not to give him what we wanted. So we got out and found a cab that took us back to the beginning. So yes, technically you could say that we got scammed, however it didn’t cost us anything (as we did not pay him because he wouldn’t bring us back to the beginning) and we got to see a very impressive Buddha that I originally had NO intention of seeing. When we got to the beginning, the Grand Palace was not open, which is ok because we ended up hearing later that it wasn’t worth the money anyways. So we walked back up to Koh San Rd. to check a few things out, and then decided to walk towards the “muddy ole river” and to get dinner along the way. We made did this and then caught a river taxi for ¼ the price it would have cost to catch a regular taxi.

That night I went to get fitted again for my suit; they had the jacket without sleeves, the pants were almost totally done, and the shirt was flawless. I was very surprised by the amazing progress; so they pieced the jacket on me and took a few more measurements and made some marks, and that was just about it for the first night. That night we went to sleep early in preparation for a day long tour that was to start at 6 am the next day.

Day 2
This was the most eventful and productive day. We got picked up in a minibus from our hostel and we were off. First place they took us to was the Kanchanaburi WWII Memorial Cemetery. This first visit baffled me; it was a prelude to the huge lesson I was about to learn about WWII in South East Asia from someone’s point of view BESIDES the U.S. I had never heard ANYTHING about Japan occupying mainland Asia, I was under the impression they just hung around the islands in the Pacific. The cemetery was split into different sections based on the countries they represented. There were POW’s laid to rest there from Britain, Holland, Scandinavia, Australia, and a couple hundred Americans (just above 700 I believe). It seemed very small for the number of soldiers it represented; every nation besides the U.S. was in the 1,000’s. However there are two others like it in SE Asia, and there were also a few memorials for groups of men that were never found, and for others that simply could not be identified. It was a lovely graveyard, which doesn’t seem appropriate to say, but the grass was weed wacked and spotless, while we were there people were raking leaves and they had all the flower beds beautifully edged and trimmed. It was a huge tribute to the people of Thailand considering not a single Thai person was buried there.

From there we headed to the Jeath Museum (Death Museum), which was built right next to the Bridge over the River Kwai. This is where my mind was officially blown. I have never heard of Japanese occupation in South East Asia, but the Jeath Museum filled me in on everything I was missing out. Just in case you are also not familiar (way to go US education), during WWII Japan had their own little versions of concentration camps. Granted, their intent was not genocide, however their methods and practices were almost exactly like. They marched their way through SE Asia and forced locals to do the dirty work (like German work camps) involved in running a war. In this specific case they made a railroad starting in Burma and going all the way to the ocean that would transport war supplies. They also were kind enough to offer POW’s the opportunity to work. Thousands of British, Dutch, Scandinavian, Australian, and a few hundred Americans were imprisoned along this railway all through Asia, and half starved and beaten they were forced to work on the Burma/Death Railway. If you do not know much about it, please look up information on it as it was truly enlightening. I can’t imagine how I missed this in history. I know we covered all the major points in WWII, or at least what I had assumed were all the major points….I simply must have dozed off for this part of the class (but that’s not very likely). I was amazed by everything I learned that day, and I just can’t come close to comprehending why it wasn’t taught in history. Anyways, enough slamming my education (a brief side note: if you DID learn about this in HS please let me know, I’m curious to see if they teach this anywhere in the country), the bridge was wonderful. We were able to walk, no…navigate, across the whole thing to the other side. I say navigate because to walk across there was a metal center track with enough room for two people to squeeze by, and then off to either side were a few old and rotting pieces of wood, held in loosely by a few bolts; it was quite exhilarating each time to step on a beam of wood and hear it crack or feel it wobble underneath your feet. I went across and back and then had to run to the bus as we had a schedule to keep, and I had spent too much time in the Museum, so they were going to leave without me.
We drove away from our history lesson for about 20 min. to the next event…ELEPHANT RIDING. We got to the location, which was a field at the base of a mountain, and spotted several large elephants with benches strapped to their backs. To get one we had to walk up onto a raised platform and then climb onto the bench. We had a driver and he proceeded to walk us around for a nice 30-40 min. ride. There were 6 of us together at that point in the group, so we split into three groups of two and just moseyed along on the back of these elephants. I took off my flip flops so that I could feel the elephant’s skin. It was very tough and rough. I have no problem remembering how they felt, however I’m having a difficult time describing it…it was rough. The best I can describe it would be to say it felt like rough, aged leather. Now typically older leather gets softer as it gets “worked in,” but I’m talking like old old leather that was soft at one point but has not been used in a long time and has hardened to the point of never being soft again. I’m thinking specifically when I moved into my house in Blackstone and in our barn there were a few extremely old leather saddles, and they were scraped up and rough so they weren’t smooth and hard, they had a definite texture. That might help a few of you; to others…I’m sorry it’s the best I could do. After our entertaining ride we went back to the River Kwai, not at the bridge, and went for a bamboo raft ride. This was the most relaxing part of the day. Our party of 6 got onto the raft, which was made from lashing bamboo shoots together, and drifted for about 15-20 min. down the river. It was exceptionally nice because it was a warm day and water came up in between the lashing all along the raft, up to 4 inches in some places, and cooled our feet down, or our whole bodies if sat down in it. After this we had lunch by the river which wasn’t anything special, just some rice, chicken, pork and veggies. Then we drove to a waterfall and then proceeded onto the Tiger temple.

The waterfall was nice. Of course my camera was dying so I only took 3 pictures there, but there was a small vertical fall and then the water pooled up in various spots where people were swimming. An interesting story here was I was yelled at for being dangerous. There was a steep fall next to the main one and I decided in my infinite wisdom it would be challenging (STUPID) to climb it. I was about 1/3 of the way up when I heard a siren going off. I stopped, turned didn’t see a fire or anything alarming, so I continued to climb until I faintly heard my name being called. I looked back and there was a man in uniform with a loudspeaker (source of the siren) standing next to my roommate yelling at me to come down…oops. It wasn’t a big deal, if they really didn’t want people to climb up there, they should put a sign up. Either way, we stayed there for about 15 min. and then made our way to the main attraction, the Tiger Temple.

This was the coolest thing I have gotten to do in SE Asia, hands down. The temple grounds were very extensive to provide for the various animals running around. Along with the temple being a home for tigers, they also provided a safe place for deer, horses, cows, boars, ducks, buffalo, wild goats, peacocks, and other fowl. The story behind the beginnings of the tiger temple is as follows: “Since it’s opening Wat Pa Luangta Bua gained a reputation as a wildlife sanctuary. It started with an injured jungle fowl given to the monk by the villagers. Then peacocks came attracted by the calls of by then rather large colony of jungle fowl. An injured wild boar stumbled in to the monastery and the monks cared for him until he could be released back into the forest. The next day he came back followed by his family group of about 10 animals....villagers also started to bring in unwanted pets…The first tiger cub arrived in the monastery in February 1999. It was a female cub of Indochinese tiger subspecies and her condition was very poor. When she was only a few months old her mother was killed by poachers near the Thai-Burma border. The cub was sold toa wealthy Bangkok resident who ordered her stuffed. A local was hired to do the job which fortunately he did not finish. And though he injected her in the neck with preservative formalin the cub survived. When she arrived at the monastery she was frail and terrified of the slightest sound. Under the loving care of the monks the cub recovered but in July 1999 she fell seriously ill and died. People who knew about the incident did not want to see another cub mistreated again....A Thai poacher can get up to US $5,800 for killing a tiger, several years’ salary for a farmer…And when the mother tiger is killed the cubs are taken as bonus or left to fend for themselves in the jungle. Just a few weeks after the first cub has died two healthy male cubs intercepted form the poachers were brought to the monastery…And soon after the border police patrol intercepted cubs held by poachers and contributed four female cubs, achieving tiger harmony.” Since then tigers injured or orphaned have been more than welcome in the monastery, and they are currently in the process of making a larger facility for the tigers. Now there is also another viewpoint of this story. It may have started out innocently, but it is suspected by many that after the monks realized the value of giving people an up-close encounter with a tiger, they started keeping the tigers permanently and using strong sedatives to keep the tigers calm and therefore making a substantial profit by offering tours. I do not know if this is true at all. However I do know that they warn us either way that even though the tigers are raised by humans and therefore don’t fear people or if they are drugged, that they are still animals and we need to give them lots of respect and exercise extreme caution.

The tigers were available to be pat in the bottom of this canyon, and they were chained to the ground, just in case. We got in a line and once it is your turn, you hand you’re camera to one volunteer and you give your hand to another volunteer to lead you around and see all the tigers. To walk around and see/pat a few of them took just under 2 minutes, which seems very short, but I was so awestruck it didn’t matter how long they led me around it still would have seemed like 3 seconds. They were huge, and majestic, and had very rough hair. It was very similar to the hair of a horse’s mane or tail. When they’re stomachs were exposed we were told to scratch/pet them solidly, if we did it lightly it could possibly tickle them, and that would be bad news. So we each went through and pat the tigers. We then left the canyon area and went to see a younger tiger and take a few pictures with him, at least I think it was a him but I don’t know. Then we hung out a little just watching the animals, and while we did that at one point we were charged by some wild horses and some LARGE horned bulls, that was exciting. After that we left and started the 2 hr bus ride home, back to the hostel.

That night, my roommate and another gentleman that joined us in Bangkok, walked around and found ourselves a good old red light district. To my surprise, it was fairly tame compared to the notorious Bang La Rd in Phuket. Granted it wasn’t the primary red light district in Bangkok (Patpong), but I felt it still should have been substantially worse than Phuket. That is all I say about that for the sake of my audience, if you’re curious, feel free to email me or I’ll see you this winter.

That was the end of day 2 in Bangkok. I am posting this before I am able to finish the remainder of that trip, I simply don’t have the time to update this. I mean, this entry itself is at least 4 weeks later than it should be. I have been traveling and was unable to write, furthermore, I have my finals coming up so I’m not sure how frequently I will find time to write. So I will probably be entering things in piecemeal; sorry for the inconvenience, but it’s the best I can do. I’m hoping to have Thailand wrapped up by this week and then maybe I’ll be able to do Bali and Penang by the end of next week. I hope all is well with everyone that’s reading.

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