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Published: March 18th 2009
This entry is going on a month overdue. I've been occupied in the exotic land of New York for a few weeks and haven't gotten this up. But since I am going back to Japan tomorrow, I figured I get this long, colorful entry done when there really isn't much else to do. Once I get back to Japan I know there will be plenty of things to do and people to catch up with, not to mention re-immerse myself in the language. I don't know how a 4 week removal from Japan will be, but I may be a step or two behind for a few days.
The trip to Thailand came into being when a few friends decided, "hey, we are in Asia, lets go to Thailand over spring break." It sounded good to me, Thailand has been a place I've been wanting to go, actually the place I most wanted to visit from Japan. Friends wanted to go for about a week, at the end of Feb, into March. One problem with that was I had a plane ticket from Tokyo to America on March 2nd, and everyone wanted to stay for longer than that. So I
Guava with sugar mix
Common way of eating fruit: sour and underripe, with a salt, sugar, and hot pepper mix to dunk in.was to be going home solo, which worked out because I had a Saturday free in Bangkok and got to check out the Chaktuk weekend market.
We flew into Bangkok after making a stop in Taiwan - airport full of tasty samples in the duty free stores. Asians love duty free stores. All Asian airports have been packed to the gills with these things, and advertise who's got the biggest shopping malls. So many duty free that its actually hard to find a practice convenience store or travel mart. Taiwan welcomed us with a sign on how to be punished by death. After a quick layover, we went into Bangkok and stayed two nights, then 2 nights at an island about 3 hours away called Ko Samet, then I went back to Bangkok for a day.
Overall, I was a big fan of Bangkok, less so of the island. Ko Samet was beautiful, and fun. But I've never been a beach vacation guy. Once you hit a beach, just seems like the pace of things slows down and by the time you get to the beach, its noon. My ideal vacations really don't come relaxing.
Bangkok, part
1, I was with my friends Dave, Lauren, Alia, and Lina. We stayed at a great little place called Wendy House run by 2 of the 3 friendly and helpful people in all of Thailand. Bangkok is not a clean city, plenty of poverty, and there was unbelieveable culture shock coming from Tokyo which has found a way to virtually eliminate waste, garbage, inefficiency, and common poverty. Although to Bangkok's credit, the sky train transport system is amazing...but that is part 2...and in spite of all of that, I had a great time there. Loved the feel of the city. There were little movable carts selling mostly food, fruit, you name it, everywhere. If it wasnt a cart, it was just a simple basket sling with goodies like grilled banana confections or spicy papaya salad. And since they are movable, the selection changes every so often. No street corner looks the same twice. There were night markets, day markets of permanent stalls and stands in designated places. I probably stopped 5 times or more a day to grab something interesting from these stands, whether it was soup, fruit, salad, eggs, or bugs. Bangkok was a street foodie paradise. And EVERYTHING
was cheap, even at the jacked up prices for tourists. While in the city, I just wanted to wander and see these carts, shops, and stalls, markets, but that would just be too much.
We spent one of our days in the old part of Bangkok, separated by a small river. Now we could have taken a bridge or a normal boat over, but because we are tourists, we got swindled into a canal ride. It made sense afterwards, but the "friendly" thai man who directed us to this racketeering operation out of the goodness of his heart was obviously sharing the extorted money with the tuk-tuk driver who drove us there for less than a dollar per person, the boat operator who we had to pay again in order to disembark, and the random snake farm/zoo they stopped at, and made us pay the entrance fee to. It was a hustle that cost us much more than we wanted. In general, this was the attitude of Thai people in Bangkok and Ko Samet, hit the tourists for all they are worth. They were unhelpful and untrustworthy. Best advice is to stick with the hotel workers, because they were
Lauren and Lena
Coke zero in Thailand is really good great, and metered taxis. Don't negotiate anything and don't trust anyone's word, especially in transport because a few times we payed too much to go someplace we didn't want.
After the boat ride, we got off at the old part of the city. The grand palace and many huge buddhist temples were here, as well as a major food area and a market called Kao San Rd. Because of the buddhist restrictions, no shorts or T shirts allowed, so we went in our western jeans in the 90 degree weather. Big mistake so soon Dave and I bought a few sets of light cotton and linen clothes for pretty cheap and wore them the rest of hte trip. Stopped in Wat Pho to see the reclining Buddha. This was like the Sistine chapel of the Eastern world, a magnificently decorated building holding a Buddha the size of a football field plated in gold. As we made our way out of the Wat and north toward Kao San Rd. we stopped for lunch at one of the many street-side food vendors than soon opened up into a square filled with tables and more vendors. Picked up some awesome fruit here.
No refrigeration of course. All cooked items were just held hot or warm by the weather and the burners. Fruit typically was on ice, eggs were not. On this trip, miraculously, no food poisoning. Maybe because everything was so mightily seasoned and spicy. Thai cooking incorporates sweet, spicy, sour, bitter, and salty in everything. And they do it well.
Kao San Rd. was packed with people, and was the big hippie area of westerners who found buddhism and now are in nirvana...or something like that. Lots of old burned out western hippies. Also plenty of hostels here, movable cards of pad thai, mango with sticky rice, and tailors. One of the big things to do in Thailand is get a designer suit custom tailored for cheap by a Pakistani. Dave did that and got an amazing deal. I wasn't in the market for one, but I was in the market for what was probably my 4th or 5th meal, the Pad Thai. Actually my first pad thai and i got it with on the side of the street, extra peppers, shrimp, and a ton of cashews. Tasty, but not nearly as good as the fresh mango over salted sticky
rice with coconut milk. Hands down the best thing I ate in Thailand. We finished the night at a night bazaar and beer garden, and got ready to move to Ko Samet the next day.
Ko Samet was a 3 hour bus ride and 30 minute boat ride away. We mistakenly booked at the peer, not the island or bungalow so payed too much for a crappy bungalow because the woman at the peer was like most people we delt with. No flushing toilets, less beds than we wanted, bathroom door that locked behind you and we had to bust it in. The workers at the bungalow seemed to hate all of us too. So bad that hte people who were staying longer (I had to go back to Bangkok) moved after two days down the beach. The whole island is covered in beach and bungalow operators lined up next to each other. They found a much nicer one about 100 yards away on the same beach. In front of each bungalow operator there is a big out door BBQ/Thai restaurant. Some tables inside but most set up as cushions and low tables on the beach. Really beautiful places
to eat for about 6 dollars a head when you did the math. (Thailand is cheap) We ate there both nights, big dinners of thai curry and some of the best grilled chicken, fish, and pork. First night we found the cheap thai rum and brought two bottles to the restaurant with us, ordered a bucket of ice and cups of juice and had a wonderful time. We got in some beach time with very little sunburn and snorkeling as well. 3 hours of snorkeling in 3 different spots on the island over coral reefs. It was my first time doing that and loved it. I wish I had an underwater camera to show it off. On the boat we met some Japanese women living in Bangkok, and the 5 of us students and the two women met up for dinner that night and got to get in some language practice. Really the last chance I had to speak Japanese. It proved that I'm conversational and the look on their faces when Dave and I started speaking to them on the Boat was priceless.
I headed back after two days at the island. Friends were staying there for another
3. I had booked a hotel near the airport, another good one in bangkok with the 3rd of 3 friendly Thai people. I checked in, cleaned up a bit, then asked for the best way to the weekend market. She called a taxi, made sure I did not get extorted, and gave me the advice to take it to the closest metro station rather than directly to the market. The market is on the opposite end of the line and the distance plus traffic would make the taxi really expensive. Instead the taxi was around 7 dollars and the metro ticket across bangkok was 1, leaving plenty for the market. This place was enormous. I don't really know how big because in 4 hours I couldnt cover it all. THere were fairly large streets, walking only, running east to west, connected by strips of narrow corridors just wide enough for two people to slide past, packed with little stalls selling everything. Western and Eastern, souveniers and practical home goods, living (pets!) and nonliving objects. And food. While I was there I ate 2 coconuts, a bag of grasshoppers, a quail egg salad, papaya salad, tom yum soup, coconut ice cream
Street bridge...no crosswalks
2 hours before there was no one, at night all these vendors popped up topped with pumpkin and fried bananas and a spicy fish ball soup with rice noodles. The market also overlooked a big park which turned into a night market, when the weekend market closed, so I took a detour just to look because I was stuffed and carrying lots of bags at that point. But thats what I loved about Bangkok, its an area of moving, possibly illegal cash commerce. Went back to the hotel late, around 10, was welcomed by the nice people again who allowed me to use the internet for free to get a message out to my parents and friends, and went to bed for my marathon of travel that was 5 airports in 2 days, plus a night stay at Narita and a mad dash in Beijing . Finally, in a snowstorm, I landed at JFK. Thailand to New York was quite a week.
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