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Published: January 15th 2008
We have been in Bangkok for a week now, and I still can't figure out how this place doesn't implode on itself.... There are so many people, motorbikes, cars, tuk-tuks, buses, buildings, alleyways, shops and bars that it's hard to understand how people could tolerate living here. And it's hot...no, it's scorching, and I mean utterly debilitating, especially for Seattlites. Julija and I started out in the Banglamphu district, which is most famous for the tourist party strip of Kao San Rd., which is basically a long strip of a million street vendors during the day and a huge party at night with thousands of tourists and Thais alike walking around. We walked all over the district and saw the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha--Wat Prao Kao, which is truly amazing and makes one wonder how this culture conceived and built such works of art. The attention to detail and the gold and emeralds everywhere are like candy for the eyes. The Thais are an interesting people--they build immaculate temples and pieces of art all over the city, but walk one block away and you will find files of garbage and dilapidated shops and filthy gutters. It's hard to explain unless you see it, but there is no wasted space in the city...every street and alleyway is lined with shops or some kind of indistinguishable business. Sometimes I love it, and other times it drives me insane. Most Thai people are friendly and helpful, and a smile goes a long way here; but you have to watch out for the scammers...tuk tuk drivers and street husslers. I had one guy following me for a while after I told him no, so turned around right by a police officer and said, "why are you following me?" That was the end of that. Most police are on your side and so far, I've had no troubles, but "pharang"--white people, always have to be carefull of being overcharged or pickpocketed (already met a guy who was distracted and then picked). "Korp-kun-cap"=thank you, and "Sawadee-kap"=hello are important things to know and the Thai like to see your effort.
On Koa San, we started out at a wierd little place but moved to a nicer and cheaper (500B=$15) with a 5th floor balcony (awesome view), AC, TV, and private bathroom to splurge for a few nights. It had a great bar downstairs with cheap beers and great people-watching in the shade. Met a nice New Zealander named Karl on a tour to the ancient ruins of Ayuthaya (very cool) and partied late with him a couple nights. We've already met a ton of folks from all over--Aussies, South Africans, French, German, Irish, Czech, Brazilians, Japanese, Brits...almost all seem like good folks. It seems that most poeple who travel to Thailand are open-minded, fun loving people who are generally friendly and know how to laugh. We took a tour to the town of Kamchanaburi, where the River Kwai Bridge and the "Death Railway." We saw a pretty sweet waterfall and then went to a Bhuddist Temple converted into a tiger sanctuary and for $9 you could pet tigers and get your photo taken. It was amazing but there were too many tourists, of course, and I couldn't help but feel awfull for the "orphaned" tigers. We are now staying with a Thai family in Nomtuburi, a suburb of Bangkok. Julija barely knew a friend of this woman's at Harborview M.C. in Seattle, but she plugged us in with this really nice couple here and they came and met with us in Koa San and we are now staying for free in their spair bedroom. Noi is the sweetest little Thai woman in the world, and her husband, Ron, is an American ex-navy pilot who married her after Vietnam. It's funny...she loves Julija and Ron has become attatched to me. I think he's glad to have an American man to talk to about the querks of Thailand and he got a real kick out of it when we watched western movies the other night. He's an English comp. teacher now and has diabetes so he doesn't drink, but he likes me to have a beer and tell him about what I do in the states and how funny the Thai ways are.
We went to the "Buddhist Center for Wold Peace and Divine Leadership..." and took a tour of the largest place of worship for Buddhists in the world. Over 1 million Buddhists and monks from around the world kneel in this giant structure 3 times per year to worship the head monk (name?), which I can only describe as a giant gold flying saucer 100 yds across surrounded by a giant open airplane hangar roof with no walls in a giant square 1 km long on each side. One of the craziest buildings I've seen. We watched a video on Buddhism and then a monk gave us a tour and then sat with us and spoke some wise words for 1/2 hour while we knelt. (My knees were killing me...I don't think they understand that not everyone has been kneeling on their knees since they were 2 years old.) I laughed at Julija when she said she felt like the monk was "staring into her soul", but really, he made a lot of sense and his voice was very relaxing. I can understand the appeal of Buddhist meditation, but I don't think I could commit to being that uncomfortable for that long.
We ventured into downtown Bangkok yesterday and it was horribly hot and exhausting, but I remedied that by stopping into a few open-air bars. We walked for hours and took the skytrain over to Lumpindi Park, a beautiful and tropical park in the middle of the city where they have all kinds of ponds and obstacle courses and we even saw a bunch of wild kimodo dragons roaming around, one of which killed a turtle right in front of us and ripped off its head! Wicked! After that, we were exhausted and came home to Noi and Ron's to watch movies. We will be heading north to Chang Mai and Mae Hong Song on Friday, and we will keep everyone posted as to what adventures we will sign up for there. I plan on rafting and riding elephants in the jungle and we may go trekking through the mountains for a week or so. Thailand is amazing. Stay tuned...
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raminta
non-member comment
kimodo dragons!?
wow your trip sounds amazing so far, keep us posted!