Sawat dii!!!

"Hello" in Thai. So I'm finally here in southeast Asia, more specifically I'm writing from a small internet cafe in one of the tiny alleys behind Khao San Road, here in Bangkok, Tighe-land.

Despite getting a pretty solid 7 hours of sleep last night, I still feel a bit fatigued from a combination of the 3 hours of sleep I got on my last night in Philly before the trip, the 13.5 hour flight from Newark to Tokyo, followed by the 6 hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok, and also the fact that here in Bangkok we are exactly 12 hours ahead of the clock in Philly (meaning that I'm typing this at 9:20pm Friday night in Bangkok, while it's currently 9:20am Friday morning at the double-deuce and Spruce). But, in spite of any fatigue or jet lag, I'm loving the fact that I'm here. But bear with me if my prose in this entry is not quite up to par; I'm just gonna go in chronological order so I don't miss anything.

So last night (i.e., Thursday night), Paul and I met up near the baggage claim in the brand-new (and beautiful) Bangkok airport. Because our hotel for the first night was already booked, and it is located near the airport, we were hooked up with a pre-arranged van ride to the airport to the hotel. Once we got there, a hotel worker slid open the door to the van, bowed with his hands pressed together in a greeting of namaste, and said sawat dii khrap, thereby greeting us. We went up to the room, and after taking turns in the shower, hit the sack by 2am.

This morning we got things started at about 9:30am. We brought our backpacks down to the front desk, and then went for a walk to get some food. I had a bowl of egg noodles with roasted pork in brown broth, healthy and very tasty way to start the day. After that, we got a taxi to take us to our next hotel, located off of the famed Khao San Road, for better or for worse, main street for the backpacker crowd. The cab driver was a guy who asked us to call him Mr. Pao, and he was a really nice guy who spoke pretty good English. We took advantage of the half-hour car ride to ask him lots of questions. During the ride, Paul mentioned to me that there had been a bombing the other day here in Thailand. So I asked both Paul and the driver where the bombing had taken place; the cab driver said that it was in Bangkok and that it had to do with the ongoing demonstrations regarding the prime minister. The cabbie also warned us not to wear red or yellow, because those are the colors of the two respective political parties that are in disagreement. Fortunately neither one of us was wearing either color, and I'm pretty sure I didn't bring any shirts of those colors. The cab driver also pointed out a road where some demonstrators were camped out; of course by total accident Paul and I walked down that very same street later in the day, no bombings much to our relief.

The hotel that our cabbie delivered us to is called Sawasdee Banglumpoo Hotel, and it's located amidst a maze of back alleys, lined with vendors' stalls, selling everything from leather products to food to bracelets to cds to sandals. And as narrow as these alleys are, we learned when we got here that the Thais are skilled enough to drive motorbikes through these alleys, somehow managing to avoid the shoppers. The road itself that lends itself to the hotel's address -- Khao San Road -- is lined with all sorts of street-front restaurants and bars, with signs everywhere. Now that it's nighttime, it looks like a smaller, Thai version of the Vegas strip -- all the signs and lights and people just sitting at roadside tables and also walking by on the street.

After checking in to our room, we began our exploration of the city of Bangkok, and as any journey truly begins, we started one step at a time by setting off on foot. Navigating by the useful maps in our Rough Guides book, we slowly and not-always-certainly made our way to Chao Phraya River. From there we actually accomplished our plan of riding a boat down the river to get us closer to our first cultural destination: Wat Pho.

Wat Pho is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it surely deserves that recognition. It's centerpiece is a 45 meter long statue of the Reclining Buddha. The smile itself is 5 meters wide. The enormity of it can only be appreciated live, and its beauty was breathtaking. Because it is a holy Buddhist site, we had to take our shoes off before entering the building in which the Buddha reclines. The statue was the color gold and its feet were inlaid with iridescent mother of pearl. Also very interesting was seeing Buddhist monks walking through and taking photos of the Buddha with their digital cameras -- welcome to the 21st century.

But Wat Pho is really a large complex of temples, fountains, and courtyards, all within the confines of a white wall about 15 feet high. After leaving the Reclining Buddha, we started walking around the compound, and that's when I thought to break out my iPod to listen to the songs "Shambala" and "Boddhisatva Vow" from the Ill Communication album by the Beastie Boys; the first track is an acid jazz track that begins with the chanting of Buddhist monks and the second track is MCA's hip-hop track laid-over the subtle background of the chanting, dedicating himself to the Buddhist faith. Hearing those tracks in the heart of a holy Buddhist site was something very special. And I will always think of Wat Pho when I hear those songs.

Right before leaving, I pointed out a small temple that we had not yet entered. And boy was that a good decision. When we started to take off our shoes, a couple of guys said that we couldn't go in because there was a film being made inside the building. We looked in and saw a couple of beautiful young women who were getting make-up put on by others. After much cajoling and many attempts to get information, we eventually got the name of the film. But we did it by asking one of the guys to take our guide-book to one of the attractive actresses and have her autograph it for us. She did so, writing the name of the film as "In Search for Sunshine"; she signed her name as Miss Thailand Universe 2006. So we met a star!

Anyway, time is getting long here, and it's nighttime in Bangkok, so we oughtta live some life. Our afternoon and evening after the visit at Wat Pho consisted mainly of walking around, lost for much of the time, but not minding it since we were exploring the city. We ended up eating at a restaurant where we were the only "white" (European-descent) people. There we had our first taste of Chang beer. Then we got a taxi to Hualamphong train station to buy tickets for an overnight train to Chiang Mai, which we will take tomorrow evening at 7:20pm.

Alright, amigos, thanks for checking in. I will continue to post everyday if possible. With love from southeast Asia. Peace!