It's amazing that there continues to be conflict all over the world. It was like that when I was a little kid. It's like that now. Why should we believe that it's ever going to be any different? Why is there conflict at all? One answer is that we have free will. Another is that, for all our similarities, we want to feel unique, so we play up our differences: nationalities, political parties, religions, skin color, et cetera. By following our own human nature and playing up our differences, rivalries and tensions develop. An 'us-versus-them' mentality develops. So that's another answer to why there is perpetual conflict throughout the world. Another answer is man's tendency toward sin and temptation: especially in the form of power (pride); this stems from man's natural insecurity, both materially as an animal that strives to survive at all costs, and emotionally as beings that compensate for internal insecurity by manifesting external power.
Another issue is that no relationship, nor anything at all for that matter, is static. The universe is dynamic. Your body and every person's body is dynamic. People change and thus that makes the relationship between and among people dynamic. I can think of easy examples in my own life right off the top of my head. In fact, it's a theme that's been on my mind a lot lately. I perceive that my relationship with my cousin Carlos isn't what it used to be or what it could be. When I write a short note or message to him, his responses are either stock and pithy (the latest one was simply "gracias primo") or he simply uses an emoticon (usually a 'thumbs-up' icon) to acknowledge my note without having to engage in any substantive dialogue. Assuming my perception is really accurate, I have no idea what's going on. Is he jealous because I got married? and/or because I've become a father? Did I slight him in some way the last time I was in Costa Rica? I have no clue. I suppose I can ask him what's going on. That would be the mature, logical thing to do. I think I may be afraid of the answer. But then again, the cold hard truth should always be preferable to living under a hazy assumption, shouldn't it?
Next I think of my relationship with my friend Paul. I still consider him to be my friend, though we're not as close as we used to be. If you look back at previous posts here, around the 2008 time frame, Paul is a major player. We spent a lot of time together. We traveled together, to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, to his parents' home in Tampa, Florida, and even to Costa Rica back in the day. I had a close relationship in those days, the late 1990s through the entire decade of the 2000s. I kept my mouth shut on certain things that concerned me, because I enjoyed my time with him. We had fun together. In a very real way, at a time when we were young adults, flexing our wings (if that's even a proper saying) and coming into our own, we were each other's family -- at a time when we needed to prove our individuality separate and apart from our own respective families. But as time passed, and perhaps when I became more comfortable in my adulthood, or perhaps wasn't having as much fun spending time and traveling with him, or perhaps when I had met other friends and thus didn't feel like I needed or depended upon my friendship with him -- whatever the case was -- I felt that I needed to communicate with him my concerns about his beliefs as expressed in words: using the word "nigger" to pejoratively describe a dark-skinned American of African descent, then a couple years later using the word "dyke" to describe a female mayor of some northern New Jersey city, either Hoboken or Jersey City. After each separate incident, I wrote a letter by hand and sent it to him, expressing my disapproval. Was this the right approach? I thought so. I still think so. But maybe not. Should I have talked with him face-to-face? My main takeaway, as I write this now, is that I shouldn't invest too much time in a friend with such negative, prejudiced, and outdated beliefs. In short: surround yourself with good people. But then I ask myself, who am I to judge him? Be soft on the sinner, but not on the sin! Did I practically give up a friendship for the foolish objective of proving a principle?
This tug of war between philosophical poles happens quite frequently in my head. I think part of it is the guilt -- justified or not -- at having effectively ended a friendship. I think the other part is a realization that life is not guaranteed to remain static, things will change, and this logically leads to a realization, whether explicit or implicit, that life will eventually end: after all these changes and changes, death shall come.
I've written previously that a break-up from a girlfriend is very analogous to these existential realizations. The relationship died. It's as if the ex-girlfriend is dead, although we know damn well that she's alive somewhere, probably with some other guy already. A break-up is a foreboding of death. It's a terrible feeling...to be reminded of one's own mortality. And yet we're reminded of it all the time, whether looking outwardly at all the conflict in the world, the people, the children!, being killed in war, or whether looking inwardly to our own failed relationships. What's the answer? I can't say I know, other than to keep on living, find something to believe in, put one's gifts and talents to the best use possible to be productive and self-fulfilling, and be with (or be open to be with) someone you love and who loves you.
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Friday, August 1, 2014
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Mid-week Musings
Immediately upon getting home from work today, I changed into a t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers and walked over to the basketball court at the southwest corner of Marian Anderson Park, at 18th & Catharine Streets. As a sidenote, the t-shirt I wore was my black Singha Lager Beer t-shirt that I bought on a corner store in Bangkok on the last night of my TLC tour (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia) with Paul.
It felt good to be out. I was there for over an hour, the first 45 minutes by myself and last 15 minutes or more with Jeannie and Seva. I was shooting the ball pretty well tonight. I'll periodically shoot 10 free throws in a row. When I did so at one point tonight, I went 8 for 10, which is the best I've shot in the few times I've played recently. After Jeannie got there, we played a game of horse (as we did last time) and I won with only an "H" against me. I'll grant Jeannie that I was warmed up nicely by the time she got there. But the point still remains: I was shooting very well tonight. It felt good and made me miss playing basketball.
The day started out on a different note. I slept in until 11am. Today, of course, is Wednesday, thus mid-week and I just needed a break to catch up on rest. Seva has been an absolute blessing, but she has certainly altered our sleep schedule, which is to say that I haven't slept for eight hours straight since before she was born. Since I didn't have any morning appointments at the office, I figured I would just stay home and sleep in.
It may not have been the responsible thing to do, but I've always been one to follow my intuition. If my body is telling me to sleep in, then I'll very likely sleep in. My health is one of my most important priorities. I know others that pride themselves on being into the office every day by such and such time. I really don't care about that; I'm not trying to impress anybody. My goals are staying healthy and getting my work done, even if it's not within the cookie-cutter schedule that some others would prefer to squeeze me into.
A random note from yesterday. I went to lunch at Beck's Cajun Cafe at Reading Terminal Market. As you may remember from my post the other day, I've been loving the vibe I get at RTM these days. And as you can probably easily glean from my posts over the past year relating to work, I'm always happy to be anywhere but at the office. So my lunch hour yesterday was a win-win. I had the blackened chicken breast po' boy topped with a sprinkling of their devil dust ("everything seasoning & dry rub") every few bites. It was pretty good.
Another random note, this time relating to a current event. Yesterday a federal judge struck down Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage. And today, Governor Tom Corbett announced that his administration is not going to appeal the decision, meaning that marriage equality has now come to Pennsylvania, the last state in the Northeast to do so, if I'm not mistaken. I have no problem with this. In fact, I'm in support of marriage equality.
But all the buzz on social media in support of these current events has provoked a criticism on my part. I've seen so many friends post and re-post the same couple of articles over and over again on facebook. It's like they're all parroting each other. And on a very "safe" position for the year 2014. It ranks up there with anti-racism against blacks as one of the safest social positions in this day and age. And this is my criticism: nearly all liberals are too scared to stand up for anything but a non-controversial position.
Can I blame them? I guess not, most people by nature are going to maintain their self-preservation, most people by their nature want to be liked by the most people possible. But it's bullshit when everyone is too scared to stick out or do anything contrary to the masses. For example, it's easy for liberals to be angry at a guy like Donald Sterling, because he says something (wrong, yes) that fits squarely within the "racism against blacks" category, against which all liberals are champions and defenders. And now, it's easy for liberals to post and re-post articles reporting that Pennsylvania is a marriage equality state, since that fits squarely within the pro-gay marriage category.
If you hear me, then ask yourself: what are the edgy social issues of the future? what are the social issues that are not yet ripe according to the masses, but are still the right thing to stand for today? in what way(s) are the masses complacent to something unfair or biased or bullshit? Who's going to identify these issues and wake up the liberals who are too scared or blind to see the next step? As my friend Andrew would probably agree (based on a pendulum theory he shared with me), in what way(s) has the pendulum swung too far in another direction, creating an unfair or unjust imbalance?
Friday, November 28, 2008
One Night in Bangkok
Classic 80s song that I wanted to post onto my blog from Bangkok. Please enjoy responsibly:
Lyrics can be found HERE.
Lyrics can be found HERE.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Runnin' on empty
I got food poisoning yesterday. I'm recovering now, but I'm really angry that the trip has to end this way. I'm not sure who or what I'm angry at, but it fucking sucks that my trip is ending on such a terrible note.
It began with the taxi ride from Siem Reap to Poipet, two towns in Cambodia, the former is where we had stayed for the previous three nights, the latter is the town on the Cambodia-Thailand border. Poipet is the stereotypical border town: dirty, dusty, and just plain nasty. Paul and I were fortunate to get hooked up by our remork (the Cambodian word for tuk-tuk) driver, Mr. Prom Meta, with a personal taxi ride to the border; Meta called up a Thai friend of his who then drove us the three hours to Poipet. The ride was through the Cambodian countryside, which was characterized by flat marshlands. The first two hours, from Siem Reap to the town of Sisaphon, was on a bumpy, rocky, dirt road; this is when I first realized that I wasn't feeling normal, because I could hear a lot of liquid sloshing around in my stomach with every bump in the road, which was literally constant throughout the ride. The ride from Sisaphon to Poipet was not as bad, because it was a paved roadway, but by then I knew that I had to get to a toilet as soon as we'd arrive in Poipet. When we got there, I went inside a hotel within 50 meters of the border crossing to use their toilet. The bathroom was nasty and looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time. There was no toilet paper in the men's room, so I went into the women's bathroom where I found a half-full/half-empty bag of napkins, which I took back into the men's room. This time I emptied my insides in a way that felt different that other times on this trip; even though I had diarrhea for many days on this trip, I never felt so terribly unwell as I did this time. Previously it was just a matter of letting loose and then going on my way, feeling better for letting it out. This time I still felt like crap afterwards.
We walked across the border and the barrage of putrid smells -- from garbage to fish -- began to make me feel nauseous. But I kept going, knowing that I had to reach my ultimate goal of making it to Bangkok, where we had a nice hotel, with all the amenities, already booked. We walked through customs, and entered Thailand. Upon walking out into the streets, we got a tuk-tuk, which took us the few kilometers to the bus station of the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet. We were just in time; a 4:30pm bus bound for Bangkok was already loaded and about to depart. So we quickly bought our tickets and had our luggage put under the bus. Taking our seats on the bus, it seemed like the ride would be comfortable.
But for me, it wouldn't be. Not long into the ride, I realized that any smell would begin to make me feel nauseous. Paul had bought some potato chips, and I didn't say anything to him (he still doesn't know now), but the smell was making me feel sick. It wasn't more than a few minutes later, while looking out the window, that I felt the sudden impulse to run to the bathroom; I made it just in time to puke for a few minutes straight. The last meal that I had eaten, breakfast at Angelina's in Siem Reap that morning, came out. I continued vomiting until nothing was coming up, and still I kept gagging. I felt like shit, hunched over because the ceiling was too short for me to stand up, in a cramped bathroom at the back of a bus in Thailand. And right then, I knew it was going to be a long bus-ride back to Bangkok; it was four and a half hours long, and we hadn't been on the road for very long at that point.
There is no point belaboring how shitty I felt for the rest of the ride, or how various smells continued to nauseate me. By the end of the trip, after other passengers had gotten off at earlier stops, I was sitting in the very back of the bus, in an open area behind where the bathroom was, gagging and spitting up the last of the fluids from my insides into a plastic bag that someone had fortunately left behind. I had tried drinking some water when the bus stopped for its only pitstop, and while sitting in the seat next to Paul, and I had started puking that water into a long-sleeve dress shirt that I had in my hands. The entire experience was wretched.
Upon arriving to the Bangkok bus station at around 9:30pm, we hired a taxi to take us to our hotel, Suk 11. That ride was about 20 minutes long, and was uneventful. Paul checked us into the room, while a woman at the hotel took me directly to the room, where I immediately dressed down into more comfortable clothing and settled in for a few minutes. When Paul came up to the room, I told him that I was giving in, and he gave me an antibiotic, Levaquin, to begin killing the bacteria in my system. Then I got up to take a long, warm shower, and then got into bed. At that point it was probably 10:30 or 11pm. I stayed in bed for the most part until almost 12noon today. I only got up once in the middle of the night to puke out the one slice of white bread that I had eaten earlier in the night and the bottle of green gatorade that Paul had gotten for me.
Relative to that entire experience, I'm feeling better today. Thanks to God, I'm holding food and drink in my system today. I've drank some more gatorade and eaten some more white bread, and just before coming to this internet place, we went to a Starbucks, where I drank some hot English breakfast tea, and ate a cinnamon bun. I'm sure I've lost a couple more pounds in the past 24 hours. I'm happy to be ending this trip and returning home. A comment that I made to Paul earlier today is really unfortunate: I told him that I don't think I'll ever come back to this part of the world; out of 16 full days here, I had some degree of diarrhea for all but probably five days, that's not my idea of a good time. But I guess that's what I get for trying to eat the local food and for not being a tight-ass about washing my hands every two minutes. I don't mean to discourage anyone for coming to this part of the world. And maybe I won't feel so bitter once I'm home and I'm able to re-read this blog and look at all the photos from this trip. I guess you can just say that I'm ready to go the fuck home. I miss Rocky and the Baby. And I miss my regular and humble life at the double-deuce and Spruce. I guess I can really say, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."
Anyway, I may post once more later tonight; I leave to go to the airport at around 2 or 3 in the morning. My flight out of Bangkok departs at 6am, then I'll have a layover in Tokyo, and then it's on to Newark-Liberty International Airport, in beloved New Jersey. The flights will be about 6 and 14 hours respectively, so I'd appreciate your prayers that I maintain my constitution throughout the flights and continue to feel and get better quickly. Once again, thanks so much for keeping up with my travels. I look forward to seeing and talking with everyone once I'm back home.
Philly, here I come!!!!!
It began with the taxi ride from Siem Reap to Poipet, two towns in Cambodia, the former is where we had stayed for the previous three nights, the latter is the town on the Cambodia-Thailand border. Poipet is the stereotypical border town: dirty, dusty, and just plain nasty. Paul and I were fortunate to get hooked up by our remork (the Cambodian word for tuk-tuk) driver, Mr. Prom Meta, with a personal taxi ride to the border; Meta called up a Thai friend of his who then drove us the three hours to Poipet. The ride was through the Cambodian countryside, which was characterized by flat marshlands. The first two hours, from Siem Reap to the town of Sisaphon, was on a bumpy, rocky, dirt road; this is when I first realized that I wasn't feeling normal, because I could hear a lot of liquid sloshing around in my stomach with every bump in the road, which was literally constant throughout the ride. The ride from Sisaphon to Poipet was not as bad, because it was a paved roadway, but by then I knew that I had to get to a toilet as soon as we'd arrive in Poipet. When we got there, I went inside a hotel within 50 meters of the border crossing to use their toilet. The bathroom was nasty and looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time. There was no toilet paper in the men's room, so I went into the women's bathroom where I found a half-full/half-empty bag of napkins, which I took back into the men's room. This time I emptied my insides in a way that felt different that other times on this trip; even though I had diarrhea for many days on this trip, I never felt so terribly unwell as I did this time. Previously it was just a matter of letting loose and then going on my way, feeling better for letting it out. This time I still felt like crap afterwards.
We walked across the border and the barrage of putrid smells -- from garbage to fish -- began to make me feel nauseous. But I kept going, knowing that I had to reach my ultimate goal of making it to Bangkok, where we had a nice hotel, with all the amenities, already booked. We walked through customs, and entered Thailand. Upon walking out into the streets, we got a tuk-tuk, which took us the few kilometers to the bus station of the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet. We were just in time; a 4:30pm bus bound for Bangkok was already loaded and about to depart. So we quickly bought our tickets and had our luggage put under the bus. Taking our seats on the bus, it seemed like the ride would be comfortable.
But for me, it wouldn't be. Not long into the ride, I realized that any smell would begin to make me feel nauseous. Paul had bought some potato chips, and I didn't say anything to him (he still doesn't know now), but the smell was making me feel sick. It wasn't more than a few minutes later, while looking out the window, that I felt the sudden impulse to run to the bathroom; I made it just in time to puke for a few minutes straight. The last meal that I had eaten, breakfast at Angelina's in Siem Reap that morning, came out. I continued vomiting until nothing was coming up, and still I kept gagging. I felt like shit, hunched over because the ceiling was too short for me to stand up, in a cramped bathroom at the back of a bus in Thailand. And right then, I knew it was going to be a long bus-ride back to Bangkok; it was four and a half hours long, and we hadn't been on the road for very long at that point.
There is no point belaboring how shitty I felt for the rest of the ride, or how various smells continued to nauseate me. By the end of the trip, after other passengers had gotten off at earlier stops, I was sitting in the very back of the bus, in an open area behind where the bathroom was, gagging and spitting up the last of the fluids from my insides into a plastic bag that someone had fortunately left behind. I had tried drinking some water when the bus stopped for its only pitstop, and while sitting in the seat next to Paul, and I had started puking that water into a long-sleeve dress shirt that I had in my hands. The entire experience was wretched.
Upon arriving to the Bangkok bus station at around 9:30pm, we hired a taxi to take us to our hotel, Suk 11. That ride was about 20 minutes long, and was uneventful. Paul checked us into the room, while a woman at the hotel took me directly to the room, where I immediately dressed down into more comfortable clothing and settled in for a few minutes. When Paul came up to the room, I told him that I was giving in, and he gave me an antibiotic, Levaquin, to begin killing the bacteria in my system. Then I got up to take a long, warm shower, and then got into bed. At that point it was probably 10:30 or 11pm. I stayed in bed for the most part until almost 12noon today. I only got up once in the middle of the night to puke out the one slice of white bread that I had eaten earlier in the night and the bottle of green gatorade that Paul had gotten for me.
Relative to that entire experience, I'm feeling better today. Thanks to God, I'm holding food and drink in my system today. I've drank some more gatorade and eaten some more white bread, and just before coming to this internet place, we went to a Starbucks, where I drank some hot English breakfast tea, and ate a cinnamon bun. I'm sure I've lost a couple more pounds in the past 24 hours. I'm happy to be ending this trip and returning home. A comment that I made to Paul earlier today is really unfortunate: I told him that I don't think I'll ever come back to this part of the world; out of 16 full days here, I had some degree of diarrhea for all but probably five days, that's not my idea of a good time. But I guess that's what I get for trying to eat the local food and for not being a tight-ass about washing my hands every two minutes. I don't mean to discourage anyone for coming to this part of the world. And maybe I won't feel so bitter once I'm home and I'm able to re-read this blog and look at all the photos from this trip. I guess you can just say that I'm ready to go the fuck home. I miss Rocky and the Baby. And I miss my regular and humble life at the double-deuce and Spruce. I guess I can really say, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home."
Anyway, I may post once more later tonight; I leave to go to the airport at around 2 or 3 in the morning. My flight out of Bangkok departs at 6am, then I'll have a layover in Tokyo, and then it's on to Newark-Liberty International Airport, in beloved New Jersey. The flights will be about 6 and 14 hours respectively, so I'd appreciate your prayers that I maintain my constitution throughout the flights and continue to feel and get better quickly. Once again, thanks so much for keeping up with my travels. I look forward to seeing and talking with everyone once I'm back home.
Philly, here I come!!!!!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Up in the sky again
It's now 11:40am in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In just a little over an hour, we have to catch a songthaew (the Thai version of a taxi) to the Chiang Mai airport; our flight departs at 3:05pm and arrives in Luang Prabang, Laos exactly one hour later at 4:05pm.
Now, to continue where I left off on the last entry. Paul and I rented motorscooters for the past two days. The day before yesterday we picked up the bikes so we could ride from the center of town out along one of the main roads that then climbed up the mountain just west of town to the Doi Suthep shrine. This was my first time riding a motorscooter, so I was a bit excited and nervous at the same time. Don't worry, though, I wore a helmet that said, in large letters on the back: "BEER".
Surrounding the ancient city of Chiang Mai is a moat in the shape of a square. The rest of the city has continued to grow beyond the outside of the moat. Trees and sidewalks line the banks of the moat, and then immediately on both the inside and the outside of the moat are three-lane roads that run in opposite directions (one clockwise and the other counterclockwise) around the moat. So Paul and I rode our bikes from the center of town, near our hotel, to one of these main roads, riding alongside the moat, until we got to one of the corners of the square. From there, we had to turn onto the major road that ran diagonally out from the corner of the moat and out towards the mountain. We had stopped for a red light at this intersection and we were at the front of the traffic, since the motorbikes can manuever their way to the front of all the cars. When the light turned green, I took a wide left turn to go onto the right-hand side of the road, as is normal in the United States, when I quickly realized that I'm in Thailand, where vehicles drive on the left-hand side of the road. This meant that I was driving my motorbike directly into oncoming traffic! Fortunately for me, that traffic was stopped at a red light, and I reacted quickly enough to drive my motorbike up onto the sidewalk next to that traffic. From there, I slowly drove along the sidewalk until I got to a break in the traffic and I drove across the road to the other side, where Paul was pulled over waiting for me. After the initial scare, I started laughing my ass off, and thought to myself that I'm not gonna screw that up again.
Paul and I continued on the road out toward the mountain, and after just a couple kilometers the road started climbing up the mountain. The road reminded me a bit of the road that one takes through Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica when leaving San Jose for the Caribbean coast: two lanes in each direction, with many turns and bends in the road, with amazing vistas of the lush, green mountainside below and beyond.
As we were making our way up the mountain, we saw a big sign of a Thai word; Paul joked that it said "Hollywood." That sign was on our left, and just after that the road turned very sharply to the left, while also climbing very quickly, thereby putting the sign that we just saw below us and to our left-hand side. I made the turn first, and while making the sharp turn, I tried to look down at the sign from above. But by doing this, I started veering toward the left curb, and before I could right myself, I crashed up onto the curb. I let go of the bike and because of my momentum I had to run a few more feet. Luckily the curb was large enough to stop the bike at the side of the road. Please don't worry, dear reader, I was only slightly injured: I've been wearing cargo pants my whole time here, so the long pants protected my left leg when it was caught for a second between the bike and the curb as I lost control. Even now as I write this, I have just a slight surface bruise on the inside of my left calf. For the rest of the day after it happened, my muscle felt a little cramped, but I feel fine now.
After that minor mishap, we continued riding our bikes up the mountain, honking our little horns at other motorbikes that we passed and waving at people on the side of the road. We stopped at a couple of places to get photos of the fantastic view of the city below us. From this perspective, we could see that the city of Chiang Mai really did appear to look like a city, spreading out along much of the valley below us. I think it is only because there are no tall buildings that Chiang Mai does not seem so much like a city when we Americans are inside of it.
Finally we arrived at the entrance to Doi Suthep, near the very top of the mountain. We parked our motorscooters with the long line of other motorscooters and we walked up the stairs that led to the entrance. The final stairway leading to Doi Suthep is tall and beautiful. In place of handrails, there was a dragon-head at the foot of the stairs and the tail of the dragon went the entire length of the stairway, all the way to the top. On both sides there were many trees, providing shade, and giving it a uniquely Asian feel. We made the laborious climb to the top and entered the grounds of Doi Suthep. There were beautiful buildings gilded in gold. There were also many large bells along the outside of the buildings. One larger bell, not unlike Philly's very own Liberty Bell, was inside an open structure; we took a photo with that one. All around there were courtyards and open areas. The views of the city were spectacular; and the view down the forested mountainside was breathtaking and peaceful. Also there was the International Buddhist Center; we went into an adjoining bookshop and did some reading about the basics of Buddhism. The entire scene was very serene and, as with so many ancient sites, got one to wondering about how it was all built nearly 700 years ago, how the materials were transported there when cars did not exist at that time. We took some time after we had walked around to sit down for a few minutes. I took the opportunity to drink a cantaloupe milkshake, while writing in my handwritten journal (those entries will be uploaded to this blog once I get home).
We eventually left to head back down the mountain, realizing that the sun would be setting soon. About halfway down, we decided to stop off where there had been a sign for a waterfall. When we pulled off the mountain road, we noticed a sign that the site had already closed at 5pm; at that point it may have been about 5:30 or even a little bit later. Of course we decided to continue toward the waterfall anyway. So we drove the mile or so through a very thin, although paved, roadway back towards the waterfall, hoping to take some photos. By the time we got there, though, dusk was already setting in so much that we couldn't get any quality photos. We joked that we were gonna get stuck and lost in a dark park like we had in Costa Rica five years ago (the reader can find that post on this blog somewhere around March 2003). Wanting to avoid that type of harrowing experience again, we decided to get on our bikes and get the heck out of there as quickly as possible; which we did.
We got back to Eagle House No. 2, our hotel, just in time to meet up with Andrea, a 22 year old recent college graduate from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. We had met her soon after we had checked-in, as she was staying at Eagle House too. Since her friend had just left her to go somewhere else, and Andrea was by herself, we had invited her to come with us to the Chiang Mai Night Safari; she said yes. As we had discussed with her earlier, we met her at the hotel at 7pm, so we could hit the road to the Safari, which was located about 12km outside of town. We all sat at an outdoor table in the courtyard of the hotel, looking at maps to figure out how to drive to the safari. Then Paul gave her his helmet, and she got on the back of my bike, and we all rode out into the streets of Chiang Mai. Our next mini-road trip on the motorbikes was beginning, and I was hoping that this time it would be incident-free!
While leaving on a different road out from the city, Paul started zooming ahead on the bike. Because I had someone else on the back of my bike, though, and because I wanted to make sure that we were going in the right direction, I was more moderate in my speed. Well, we soon got to an intersection, where I knew we had to turn left onto Canal Road -- the two directions of the road are divided by a canal in the middle -- but Paul had already sped through the intersection. We had no choice but to pull over at the corner of the intersection and wait for Paul, and wait we did. Finally, about ten minutes later, I heard my name being shouted from somewhere, but I couldn't tell where. So I just started waving my hand in the air. Then I saw Paul stopped at the opposite intersection; I waved for him to turn right, so that he could get to where we were waiting and we could all start driving along Canal Road toward the Safari. The road seemed to go on for a long while, in part because I had noticed that my gas-tank indicator was on "E" and of course there were no gas stations anywhere in sight. Finally, after several miles of the wind blowing briskly in our faces on this fast highway-like road, we saw signs for the Chiang Mai Night Safari. We turned right off of Canal Road and drove a little farther until we reached the entrance.
Chiang Mai Night Safari was really fucking awesome. There's no other way to put it. It was a very modern place, with all the amenities, I felt that we could be at a theme park in the United States. And in fact when we paid for our entrance tickets and the attendant told us that we had just two minutes to make it to the tour, we hustled our way to the tram, that's when I commented that this was exactly like Jurassic Park. Seriously, watch the scene in the movie where they climb into the SUV and drive through the park, well this was the same exact thing, except we were in open-air trams or trolleys. There were two circuits/tours at the park and we did both. We saw, and amazingly close to the tram: lions, white Siberian tigers, orange and black Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, rhinos, hippos, emus, zebras, giraffes, leopards, cheetahs, and all sorts of deer and antelope and ibex. It was an awesome experience that really cannot be expressed in words. These animals were not behind cages like any zoo that I've ever been to; although I'm sure there were boundaries to their areas, these animals were out in the open. For the big cats, only a large moat separated them from the tram's roadway. For many of the other animals, they were right there, some (like the zebra) even within arm's length of the tram. It was really cool!
Besides the two tram tours, we also saw a laser light show, which was projected on to a natural screen of mist, along with an accompanying fountain show (like you would see at the Bellagio or Longwood Gardens). Before leaving, we also walked along Jaguar Trail, a trail along the outside of a lake, along which there were lots of other animals, like lemurs, flamingos, turtles, and tropical birds.
By this time we were all pretty exhausted, since all of us (including Andrea) had come into Chiang Mai earlier that day from overnight travel. We drove back to Chiang Mai, stopping off to finally get some gas, and went back to the hotel. Andrea went to her room for the night, and Paul and I, starving as we were, went out for some food. We went to a place across the street from the hotel, and not long after we had ordered our food, met a couple girls who have been living in Thailand for a while: one for months and the other for over a year. We invited them to sit down with us and we talked over dinner. A couple interesting points to our conversation. First, we talked about the king, and how there is a very real and omnipresent reverence for him throughout Thailand -- there are photos of him in practically every restaurant and establishment of any sort; his face is on all the money; and there are large posters and billboards of him alongside all the roads. The king is now 82 years old, I believe, and there is apparently a very real, though unspoken, concern about what will happen when he dies, since the people don't seem to like his son, the prince, a guy who has supposedly fathered hundreds of children with hundreds of women, and who lives a decadent lifestyle. The other interesting point of conversation was my question to the girl who has been living here for over a year: why do so many Thai men, and some women, constantly use Vapex: these nasal vapor bottles that they stick into their nostril and sniff? They use it incessantly, as if it had some kind of narcotic effect. The girl said that it is more prevalent in Bangkok, due to the smog, and that the Vapex really opens up the airways with its strong menthol odor. It is very commonly used among cab-drivers, since the Vapex is something of a stimulant, kinda like coffee. We went out with these two girls for just one round of beers at a local hang-out: the Rooftop Bar. I had a Tiger beer and Paul had a Leo beer. But by then we were really feeling beat. So we said good-bye to the girls, and Paul and I went to crash for the night.
Well, that was a long and detailed re-cap of the day before yesterday. Yesterday was pretty uneventful, but I'll catch that up later. Now we have to get ready to go to the Chiang Mai airport to catch our flight to Luang Prabang. Speaking of stimulants, I'll get a coffee now. Next time I write, it'll be from Laos. So until then, take care!
Now, to continue where I left off on the last entry. Paul and I rented motorscooters for the past two days. The day before yesterday we picked up the bikes so we could ride from the center of town out along one of the main roads that then climbed up the mountain just west of town to the Doi Suthep shrine. This was my first time riding a motorscooter, so I was a bit excited and nervous at the same time. Don't worry, though, I wore a helmet that said, in large letters on the back: "BEER".
Surrounding the ancient city of Chiang Mai is a moat in the shape of a square. The rest of the city has continued to grow beyond the outside of the moat. Trees and sidewalks line the banks of the moat, and then immediately on both the inside and the outside of the moat are three-lane roads that run in opposite directions (one clockwise and the other counterclockwise) around the moat. So Paul and I rode our bikes from the center of town, near our hotel, to one of these main roads, riding alongside the moat, until we got to one of the corners of the square. From there, we had to turn onto the major road that ran diagonally out from the corner of the moat and out towards the mountain. We had stopped for a red light at this intersection and we were at the front of the traffic, since the motorbikes can manuever their way to the front of all the cars. When the light turned green, I took a wide left turn to go onto the right-hand side of the road, as is normal in the United States, when I quickly realized that I'm in Thailand, where vehicles drive on the left-hand side of the road. This meant that I was driving my motorbike directly into oncoming traffic! Fortunately for me, that traffic was stopped at a red light, and I reacted quickly enough to drive my motorbike up onto the sidewalk next to that traffic. From there, I slowly drove along the sidewalk until I got to a break in the traffic and I drove across the road to the other side, where Paul was pulled over waiting for me. After the initial scare, I started laughing my ass off, and thought to myself that I'm not gonna screw that up again.
Paul and I continued on the road out toward the mountain, and after just a couple kilometers the road started climbing up the mountain. The road reminded me a bit of the road that one takes through Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica when leaving San Jose for the Caribbean coast: two lanes in each direction, with many turns and bends in the road, with amazing vistas of the lush, green mountainside below and beyond.
As we were making our way up the mountain, we saw a big sign of a Thai word; Paul joked that it said "Hollywood." That sign was on our left, and just after that the road turned very sharply to the left, while also climbing very quickly, thereby putting the sign that we just saw below us and to our left-hand side. I made the turn first, and while making the sharp turn, I tried to look down at the sign from above. But by doing this, I started veering toward the left curb, and before I could right myself, I crashed up onto the curb. I let go of the bike and because of my momentum I had to run a few more feet. Luckily the curb was large enough to stop the bike at the side of the road. Please don't worry, dear reader, I was only slightly injured: I've been wearing cargo pants my whole time here, so the long pants protected my left leg when it was caught for a second between the bike and the curb as I lost control. Even now as I write this, I have just a slight surface bruise on the inside of my left calf. For the rest of the day after it happened, my muscle felt a little cramped, but I feel fine now.
After that minor mishap, we continued riding our bikes up the mountain, honking our little horns at other motorbikes that we passed and waving at people on the side of the road. We stopped at a couple of places to get photos of the fantastic view of the city below us. From this perspective, we could see that the city of Chiang Mai really did appear to look like a city, spreading out along much of the valley below us. I think it is only because there are no tall buildings that Chiang Mai does not seem so much like a city when we Americans are inside of it.
Finally we arrived at the entrance to Doi Suthep, near the very top of the mountain. We parked our motorscooters with the long line of other motorscooters and we walked up the stairs that led to the entrance. The final stairway leading to Doi Suthep is tall and beautiful. In place of handrails, there was a dragon-head at the foot of the stairs and the tail of the dragon went the entire length of the stairway, all the way to the top. On both sides there were many trees, providing shade, and giving it a uniquely Asian feel. We made the laborious climb to the top and entered the grounds of Doi Suthep. There were beautiful buildings gilded in gold. There were also many large bells along the outside of the buildings. One larger bell, not unlike Philly's very own Liberty Bell, was inside an open structure; we took a photo with that one. All around there were courtyards and open areas. The views of the city were spectacular; and the view down the forested mountainside was breathtaking and peaceful. Also there was the International Buddhist Center; we went into an adjoining bookshop and did some reading about the basics of Buddhism. The entire scene was very serene and, as with so many ancient sites, got one to wondering about how it was all built nearly 700 years ago, how the materials were transported there when cars did not exist at that time. We took some time after we had walked around to sit down for a few minutes. I took the opportunity to drink a cantaloupe milkshake, while writing in my handwritten journal (those entries will be uploaded to this blog once I get home).
We eventually left to head back down the mountain, realizing that the sun would be setting soon. About halfway down, we decided to stop off where there had been a sign for a waterfall. When we pulled off the mountain road, we noticed a sign that the site had already closed at 5pm; at that point it may have been about 5:30 or even a little bit later. Of course we decided to continue toward the waterfall anyway. So we drove the mile or so through a very thin, although paved, roadway back towards the waterfall, hoping to take some photos. By the time we got there, though, dusk was already setting in so much that we couldn't get any quality photos. We joked that we were gonna get stuck and lost in a dark park like we had in Costa Rica five years ago (the reader can find that post on this blog somewhere around March 2003). Wanting to avoid that type of harrowing experience again, we decided to get on our bikes and get the heck out of there as quickly as possible; which we did.
We got back to Eagle House No. 2, our hotel, just in time to meet up with Andrea, a 22 year old recent college graduate from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. We had met her soon after we had checked-in, as she was staying at Eagle House too. Since her friend had just left her to go somewhere else, and Andrea was by herself, we had invited her to come with us to the Chiang Mai Night Safari; she said yes. As we had discussed with her earlier, we met her at the hotel at 7pm, so we could hit the road to the Safari, which was located about 12km outside of town. We all sat at an outdoor table in the courtyard of the hotel, looking at maps to figure out how to drive to the safari. Then Paul gave her his helmet, and she got on the back of my bike, and we all rode out into the streets of Chiang Mai. Our next mini-road trip on the motorbikes was beginning, and I was hoping that this time it would be incident-free!
While leaving on a different road out from the city, Paul started zooming ahead on the bike. Because I had someone else on the back of my bike, though, and because I wanted to make sure that we were going in the right direction, I was more moderate in my speed. Well, we soon got to an intersection, where I knew we had to turn left onto Canal Road -- the two directions of the road are divided by a canal in the middle -- but Paul had already sped through the intersection. We had no choice but to pull over at the corner of the intersection and wait for Paul, and wait we did. Finally, about ten minutes later, I heard my name being shouted from somewhere, but I couldn't tell where. So I just started waving my hand in the air. Then I saw Paul stopped at the opposite intersection; I waved for him to turn right, so that he could get to where we were waiting and we could all start driving along Canal Road toward the Safari. The road seemed to go on for a long while, in part because I had noticed that my gas-tank indicator was on "E" and of course there were no gas stations anywhere in sight. Finally, after several miles of the wind blowing briskly in our faces on this fast highway-like road, we saw signs for the Chiang Mai Night Safari. We turned right off of Canal Road and drove a little farther until we reached the entrance.
Chiang Mai Night Safari was really fucking awesome. There's no other way to put it. It was a very modern place, with all the amenities, I felt that we could be at a theme park in the United States. And in fact when we paid for our entrance tickets and the attendant told us that we had just two minutes to make it to the tour, we hustled our way to the tram, that's when I commented that this was exactly like Jurassic Park. Seriously, watch the scene in the movie where they climb into the SUV and drive through the park, well this was the same exact thing, except we were in open-air trams or trolleys. There were two circuits/tours at the park and we did both. We saw, and amazingly close to the tram: lions, white Siberian tigers, orange and black Bengal tigers, Asian elephants, rhinos, hippos, emus, zebras, giraffes, leopards, cheetahs, and all sorts of deer and antelope and ibex. It was an awesome experience that really cannot be expressed in words. These animals were not behind cages like any zoo that I've ever been to; although I'm sure there were boundaries to their areas, these animals were out in the open. For the big cats, only a large moat separated them from the tram's roadway. For many of the other animals, they were right there, some (like the zebra) even within arm's length of the tram. It was really cool!
Besides the two tram tours, we also saw a laser light show, which was projected on to a natural screen of mist, along with an accompanying fountain show (like you would see at the Bellagio or Longwood Gardens). Before leaving, we also walked along Jaguar Trail, a trail along the outside of a lake, along which there were lots of other animals, like lemurs, flamingos, turtles, and tropical birds.
By this time we were all pretty exhausted, since all of us (including Andrea) had come into Chiang Mai earlier that day from overnight travel. We drove back to Chiang Mai, stopping off to finally get some gas, and went back to the hotel. Andrea went to her room for the night, and Paul and I, starving as we were, went out for some food. We went to a place across the street from the hotel, and not long after we had ordered our food, met a couple girls who have been living in Thailand for a while: one for months and the other for over a year. We invited them to sit down with us and we talked over dinner. A couple interesting points to our conversation. First, we talked about the king, and how there is a very real and omnipresent reverence for him throughout Thailand -- there are photos of him in practically every restaurant and establishment of any sort; his face is on all the money; and there are large posters and billboards of him alongside all the roads. The king is now 82 years old, I believe, and there is apparently a very real, though unspoken, concern about what will happen when he dies, since the people don't seem to like his son, the prince, a guy who has supposedly fathered hundreds of children with hundreds of women, and who lives a decadent lifestyle. The other interesting point of conversation was my question to the girl who has been living here for over a year: why do so many Thai men, and some women, constantly use Vapex: these nasal vapor bottles that they stick into their nostril and sniff? They use it incessantly, as if it had some kind of narcotic effect. The girl said that it is more prevalent in Bangkok, due to the smog, and that the Vapex really opens up the airways with its strong menthol odor. It is very commonly used among cab-drivers, since the Vapex is something of a stimulant, kinda like coffee. We went out with these two girls for just one round of beers at a local hang-out: the Rooftop Bar. I had a Tiger beer and Paul had a Leo beer. But by then we were really feeling beat. So we said good-bye to the girls, and Paul and I went to crash for the night.
Well, that was a long and detailed re-cap of the day before yesterday. Yesterday was pretty uneventful, but I'll catch that up later. Now we have to get ready to go to the Chiang Mai airport to catch our flight to Luang Prabang. Speaking of stimulants, I'll get a coffee now. Next time I write, it'll be from Laos. So until then, take care!
Greetings from northern Thailand
I'm absolutely exhausted today, in spite of getting 7.5 hours of sleep last night. In this kind of a trip, there are inevitably days like this one. Thankfully the weather has been perfect today -- as it has since our arrival in Chiang Mai: highs in the mid to upper 80s, lows in perhaps the upper 50s -- warm sun and dry air in the day, cool and pleasant at night. So it's not the weather; it's just that over the course of a weekend back in Philly, I would normally lay out on the couch to watch some college football on Saturday and some pro ball on Sunday; none of that here, though, since we want to see as much as (reasonably) possible. So please bear with me on this post, mis estimados amigos.
Yesterday will quite likely go down as one of the best -- and most memorable -- days on the trip. The highlights can be broadly divided in 2. First, the Doi Suthep shrine, and second, the Chiang Mai Night Safari.
[Well, Paul just arrived from his late afternoon nap, and I desperately need to lay down and shut my eyes, if even for just an hour. So I will pick up this entry either later tonight or first thing tomorrow. But hey, you got your little tease for the day; you can look up the photos online. LOL!]
Yesterday will quite likely go down as one of the best -- and most memorable -- days on the trip. The highlights can be broadly divided in 2. First, the Doi Suthep shrine, and second, the Chiang Mai Night Safari.
[Well, Paul just arrived from his late afternoon nap, and I desperately need to lay down and shut my eyes, if even for just an hour. So I will pick up this entry either later tonight or first thing tomorrow. But hey, you got your little tease for the day; you can look up the photos online. LOL!]
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Chiang Mai, Thailand -- early evening
I'm sitting now at the top of the mountain ridge just west of the city of Chiang Mai. Doi Suthep is the holiest shrine of Buddhism in the north of Thailand. A steady, cool wind is blowing, making the windchimes chime, and rustling the leaves on the trees. The vista from here reminds me a bit of Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica, although perhaps not so tropical since we are in the north of Thailand. There is music playing from a nearby tourist shop: mostly the sound of lutes.
Paul and I rode motor scooters to arrive here at the top of the mountain, very much a la Motorcycle Diaries. At one point, while rounding a very tight curve, and uncautiously looking back over the ridge, I lost control of the bike and ran into the curb, which was thankfully there. I slightly bruised my left inner calf muscle; the bruise is not bad at all since I'm wearing cargo pants, but my muscle feels a bit tight or sore right now, nothing too serious though.
Also, since I'm talking about the motor scooter, I have to say that I'm having issues with the lane patterns here; more specifically cars drive on the left-hand side of the road. Not long after we drove out of the center of Chiang Mai, we stopped at a major intersection; when the light turned green, everyone made a hard left right there, but I went wide, aiming for the right-hand side of the road, right towards oncoming traffic that was fortunately stopped at a red light. To salvage a very bad decision, I drove the motor scooter up onto the sidewalk right next to the stopped traffic, then I slowly drove ahead along the sidewalk until I was able to cross to the opposite lanes, where I met up with Paul, who was pulled over on a median. I laughed my ass off. But I'm hoping not to make that mistake again.
Alright, time to drive back down the mountain into town. Final thought: from up here, Chiang Mai looks much bigger than it feels when you're walking around inside of it.
Paul and I rode motor scooters to arrive here at the top of the mountain, very much a la Motorcycle Diaries. At one point, while rounding a very tight curve, and uncautiously looking back over the ridge, I lost control of the bike and ran into the curb, which was thankfully there. I slightly bruised my left inner calf muscle; the bruise is not bad at all since I'm wearing cargo pants, but my muscle feels a bit tight or sore right now, nothing too serious though.
Also, since I'm talking about the motor scooter, I have to say that I'm having issues with the lane patterns here; more specifically cars drive on the left-hand side of the road. Not long after we drove out of the center of Chiang Mai, we stopped at a major intersection; when the light turned green, everyone made a hard left right there, but I went wide, aiming for the right-hand side of the road, right towards oncoming traffic that was fortunately stopped at a red light. To salvage a very bad decision, I drove the motor scooter up onto the sidewalk right next to the stopped traffic, then I slowly drove ahead along the sidewalk until I was able to cross to the opposite lanes, where I met up with Paul, who was pulled over on a median. I laughed my ass off. But I'm hoping not to make that mistake again.
Alright, time to drive back down the mountain into town. Final thought: from up here, Chiang Mai looks much bigger than it feels when you're walking around inside of it.
Chiang Mai, Thailand -- afternoon
Chiang Mai is a clean and beautiful large town. The ancient city is surrounded by a moat. Paul and I checked into our hotel after walking from the train station into the heart of the ancient city. We're staying at the Eagle House 2; hopefully that bodes well for the Eagles' game later tonight against the Giants.
I just took a shower after getting a haircut from a local Thai man for 70 baht, about 2 dollars. He did a very good job; I feel much cleaner now.
Not far in the distance a fairly large mountain ridge overlooks the small city. Its really quite a scenic place. I'm happy to have left the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, as much as I did like it, to come to another authentic side of Thailand.
I'm still amazed that I'm here, halfway around the globe. I truly thank God for the opportunity to travel and see other parts of the world. People here have been very nice and friendly. Of course some of the taxi drivers and tuk-tuk drivers and vendors can be a little bit pushy, but I don't fault them for trying to make a living. Besides them, everyone else has been very welcoming. I've already seen and done things here that have made this trip totally worth it, and yet there's so much more to see and do. Well, I've gotta get dressed now to get ready for some more experiences.
I just took a shower after getting a haircut from a local Thai man for 70 baht, about 2 dollars. He did a very good job; I feel much cleaner now.
Not far in the distance a fairly large mountain ridge overlooks the small city. Its really quite a scenic place. I'm happy to have left the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, as much as I did like it, to come to another authentic side of Thailand.
I'm still amazed that I'm here, halfway around the globe. I truly thank God for the opportunity to travel and see other parts of the world. People here have been very nice and friendly. Of course some of the taxi drivers and tuk-tuk drivers and vendors can be a little bit pushy, but I don't fault them for trying to make a living. Besides them, everyone else has been very welcoming. I've already seen and done things here that have made this trip totally worth it, and yet there's so much more to see and do. Well, I've gotta get dressed now to get ready for some more experiences.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
I sang "hi" in Chiang Mai.
We arrived at 7:30 this morning (today is Sunday) in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city, although as throughout much of the world that term "city" is used more loosely than in the United States. Chiang Mai, at least based on our first impression, is more like an overgrown village.
The overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was 12 hours long. We bought a second-class ticket for seats in an air-conditioned car; tickets for the sleeper car were already sold out. We had bought the tickets the day before yesterday, so we knew that we had to make it on time for our scheduled 7:20pm departure. Well, at least that was the plan...
As I said in yesterday's post, we got a late start. So our time was limited to just the afternoon. We decided to visit the Grand Palace, which we had missed the day before, and to get there, we decided to take the express boat along the Chao Phraya River, that is very efficient (I really wish Philly could develop this kind of transportation, and in general more development along the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers). Anyway, we took a boat down to the pier that put us near the Grand Palace. By the time we got there, we only had about half an hour until they closed. And that seemed to typify our luck for the rest of the day. The thing is, we were moving much slower than the first day due to going out late and having several beers the night before.
After the Grand Palace, a huge palatial estate within which were pagoda-like temples gilded with gold, we decided to find a place to find some cold drinks. So we walked to a small place across the street. The ambience of the place gave me the feeling of being in a small biermart in Germany: dark wooden panelling and dim lighting, all in a small area, with small round tables and chairs, the wall onto the sidewalk were sliding and folding wooden doors. Paul and I took our time, I had a pineapple fruit smoothie while he had two glasses of iced tea (hand-made, not commercially pre-made). We had a nice conversation, mostly talking about stuff from our past, but then also talking about our hopes for the future, especially what --and whom -- we look forward to seeing when we return. The whole time we were in the small shop, it was pouring rain outside. The weather in Bangkok has been typically humid during most of the day, the sweat sticking stubbornly to our body, as all the Thai people look as cool as cucumbers; we cannot escape our Americanness after all. Then, both afternoons in Bangkok, the clouds rumble in and the sky opens up to relieve the humidity. Yesterday's rain was more persistent than that of the day before. But Paul and I have already grown to love the rain. At least psychologically it makes us feel cooler, although the bottom of my pants invariably get soaked.
After spending a relaxing hour or so in the shop, we decided to move on. Based on a recommendation, I suggested that we try to go to Jim Thompson's house, the house of a former CIA undercover agent here years ago, and an architecture aficionado, who built his elaborate and unique house without any nails whatsoever. But according to our guide book, we had to get there before 5pm. Well, we walked back to the pier to get another express boat heading south on the river to the final stop, where we could catch the Bangkok Skytrain that would get us very close to JT's house. While we were on the train, of course, 5pm came and past; again our luck with timing didn't seem positive this day. But speaking of the train, it puts the Broad Street subway to shame; its air-conditioned, clean, modern, and even has flat-screen tv's on every car, very nice!
Since we were too late for JT's house, we decided to catch a train back one stop to Siam Square Mall. This mall puts the Gallery to shame (trust me, I still love the city of Philadelphia!), the best way to describe it is that it looks like the type of mall that you would expect to see all the rich, neo-punk/hip-hop kids in Tokyo to go to. The four-floored mall was clean and very modern; the prices reflected this, though, since they were on par with the KOP mall outside of Philly. Paul and I went to the food court on the top floor and each got a bowl of noodle soup with pork in a large, enclosed area called "Food for Fun." When we got to the check-in counter, I asked the kid if they had food there, he said yes, then I asked if it was fun, and he said yes again, that was very reassuring. Of course we had to eat there, sitting on plastic, orange-colored seats, with several groups of teenagers, mostly girls, either doing homework or gossiping as girls of that age tend to do. After that, we realized that our time was getting tight, because we still had to go back to our hotel on Khao San Road (all the way on the other side of this large city) to get our backpacks, and then still go from there to the Hualamphong train station to catch our 7:20 train for Chiang Mai. At that point, it was just past 6pm; uh oh!!!
For whatever reason, perhaps ignorance, perhaps a slight hangover, perhaps being brain-dead, Paul and I were as serene as the Buddha, despite all indications that we had screwed ourselves with our timing. We decided that we had no choice but to catch a taxi from Siam Square Mall back to the hotel, and we realized quickly that traffic was bumper to bumper, probably because it was a Saturday night in Bangkok. Our cab-driver was doing as much as he could to make it through intersections and weave through the traffic, but I realized later that it probably had more to do with his gas-tank being near "E" and less to do with us -- but who knows. He dropped us off at the end of the pedestrian-packed (think South Street on a weekend night in the summer) Khao San road, and we didn't waste a second running like Brian Westbrook, dodging and sprinting through the crowd to get back to the hotel, get our bags, then start running back out to the end of the road. We did all of this in about five minutes; when we got into our next cab, it was 7pm on the dot, we had only 20 minutes, we told our new cabbie our predicament and he told us that it would be 30 minutes to get to the train station. Again, we were resigned to our fate, whatever it would be. Well, the cab somehow pulled up to the train station at 7:22, two minutes late, but we ran directly to platform 10, hoping for the unlikely. There was a train there, we ran up to the train conductor and he said that it was our train, so we sprinted to the first car, jumped on and went to our seats, where we unloaded our bags and then looked at each other in amazement as the train began pulling out at that very instant. If we were even 30 seconds later, we would have been out of our tickets and stuck for who knows how long. We just started laughing and then slapped hands. Finally, our luck turned right when we needed. FAITH, baby, faith, that's what it's all about.
With that, I'll leave you all. Thanks again for checking in! We're now off to book a safari for tonight, to see some lions, tigers, and elephants. Don't worry, we'll take plenty of photos. Peace from the Southeast (of Asia)!!!!!
The overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was 12 hours long. We bought a second-class ticket for seats in an air-conditioned car; tickets for the sleeper car were already sold out. We had bought the tickets the day before yesterday, so we knew that we had to make it on time for our scheduled 7:20pm departure. Well, at least that was the plan...
As I said in yesterday's post, we got a late start. So our time was limited to just the afternoon. We decided to visit the Grand Palace, which we had missed the day before, and to get there, we decided to take the express boat along the Chao Phraya River, that is very efficient (I really wish Philly could develop this kind of transportation, and in general more development along the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers). Anyway, we took a boat down to the pier that put us near the Grand Palace. By the time we got there, we only had about half an hour until they closed. And that seemed to typify our luck for the rest of the day. The thing is, we were moving much slower than the first day due to going out late and having several beers the night before.
After the Grand Palace, a huge palatial estate within which were pagoda-like temples gilded with gold, we decided to find a place to find some cold drinks. So we walked to a small place across the street. The ambience of the place gave me the feeling of being in a small biermart in Germany: dark wooden panelling and dim lighting, all in a small area, with small round tables and chairs, the wall onto the sidewalk were sliding and folding wooden doors. Paul and I took our time, I had a pineapple fruit smoothie while he had two glasses of iced tea (hand-made, not commercially pre-made). We had a nice conversation, mostly talking about stuff from our past, but then also talking about our hopes for the future, especially what --and whom -- we look forward to seeing when we return. The whole time we were in the small shop, it was pouring rain outside. The weather in Bangkok has been typically humid during most of the day, the sweat sticking stubbornly to our body, as all the Thai people look as cool as cucumbers; we cannot escape our Americanness after all. Then, both afternoons in Bangkok, the clouds rumble in and the sky opens up to relieve the humidity. Yesterday's rain was more persistent than that of the day before. But Paul and I have already grown to love the rain. At least psychologically it makes us feel cooler, although the bottom of my pants invariably get soaked.
After spending a relaxing hour or so in the shop, we decided to move on. Based on a recommendation, I suggested that we try to go to Jim Thompson's house, the house of a former CIA undercover agent here years ago, and an architecture aficionado, who built his elaborate and unique house without any nails whatsoever. But according to our guide book, we had to get there before 5pm. Well, we walked back to the pier to get another express boat heading south on the river to the final stop, where we could catch the Bangkok Skytrain that would get us very close to JT's house. While we were on the train, of course, 5pm came and past; again our luck with timing didn't seem positive this day. But speaking of the train, it puts the Broad Street subway to shame; its air-conditioned, clean, modern, and even has flat-screen tv's on every car, very nice!
Since we were too late for JT's house, we decided to catch a train back one stop to Siam Square Mall. This mall puts the Gallery to shame (trust me, I still love the city of Philadelphia!), the best way to describe it is that it looks like the type of mall that you would expect to see all the rich, neo-punk/hip-hop kids in Tokyo to go to. The four-floored mall was clean and very modern; the prices reflected this, though, since they were on par with the KOP mall outside of Philly. Paul and I went to the food court on the top floor and each got a bowl of noodle soup with pork in a large, enclosed area called "Food for Fun." When we got to the check-in counter, I asked the kid if they had food there, he said yes, then I asked if it was fun, and he said yes again, that was very reassuring. Of course we had to eat there, sitting on plastic, orange-colored seats, with several groups of teenagers, mostly girls, either doing homework or gossiping as girls of that age tend to do. After that, we realized that our time was getting tight, because we still had to go back to our hotel on Khao San Road (all the way on the other side of this large city) to get our backpacks, and then still go from there to the Hualamphong train station to catch our 7:20 train for Chiang Mai. At that point, it was just past 6pm; uh oh!!!
For whatever reason, perhaps ignorance, perhaps a slight hangover, perhaps being brain-dead, Paul and I were as serene as the Buddha, despite all indications that we had screwed ourselves with our timing. We decided that we had no choice but to catch a taxi from Siam Square Mall back to the hotel, and we realized quickly that traffic was bumper to bumper, probably because it was a Saturday night in Bangkok. Our cab-driver was doing as much as he could to make it through intersections and weave through the traffic, but I realized later that it probably had more to do with his gas-tank being near "E" and less to do with us -- but who knows. He dropped us off at the end of the pedestrian-packed (think South Street on a weekend night in the summer) Khao San road, and we didn't waste a second running like Brian Westbrook, dodging and sprinting through the crowd to get back to the hotel, get our bags, then start running back out to the end of the road. We did all of this in about five minutes; when we got into our next cab, it was 7pm on the dot, we had only 20 minutes, we told our new cabbie our predicament and he told us that it would be 30 minutes to get to the train station. Again, we were resigned to our fate, whatever it would be. Well, the cab somehow pulled up to the train station at 7:22, two minutes late, but we ran directly to platform 10, hoping for the unlikely. There was a train there, we ran up to the train conductor and he said that it was our train, so we sprinted to the first car, jumped on and went to our seats, where we unloaded our bags and then looked at each other in amazement as the train began pulling out at that very instant. If we were even 30 seconds later, we would have been out of our tickets and stuck for who knows how long. We just started laughing and then slapped hands. Finally, our luck turned right when we needed. FAITH, baby, faith, that's what it's all about.
With that, I'll leave you all. Thanks again for checking in! We're now off to book a safari for tonight, to see some lions, tigers, and elephants. Don't worry, we'll take plenty of photos. Peace from the Southeast (of Asia)!!!!!
Another day in Bangkok
Another day in Bangkok begins now. We got a late start today due to our late night last night; we figured we couldn't pass up the opportunity to drink a bunch of Singha beer on a Friday night in Bangkok. When I get back to the States and have more time on the internet, I'll have to post the video for that song ("One Night in Bangkok" (?), an eighties song) on to this site.
Well, we're on Soi Rambuttri, a very beautiful tree-lined, red-brick road -- located near Khao San Road --that we'll walk to the end to get to the Chao Phraya River again. From there, we'll get on an express boat like yesterday and visit the Grand Palace, an enormous compound that looked absolutely amazing from the outside yesterday, and will almost certainly blow our minds away in just a short while.
The weather is a bit overcast today, but it's keeping the temperature slightly down. Nevertheless, I'm sure its still much warmer here than in Philly.
Finally, because we're gonna get going in a minute, I want to say that I loved the feeling I got from Bangkok as soon as I got here. As much as I thought language might be a problem, it hasn't been at all. Although I feel badly to appear to be a typical American tourist speaking English in a foreign country, it doesn't seem to be taken badly here, so I guess it's okay. But I always try to show my respect for their culture and language by using the Thai greeting and by saying thank you in Thai.
Well, folks, thanks again for checking in. I'll likely post again later this evening, before our 7:20pm overnight train to the northern city of Chiang Mai. Alright, bye bye from Bangkok for now!
Well, we're on Soi Rambuttri, a very beautiful tree-lined, red-brick road -- located near Khao San Road --that we'll walk to the end to get to the Chao Phraya River again. From there, we'll get on an express boat like yesterday and visit the Grand Palace, an enormous compound that looked absolutely amazing from the outside yesterday, and will almost certainly blow our minds away in just a short while.
The weather is a bit overcast today, but it's keeping the temperature slightly down. Nevertheless, I'm sure its still much warmer here than in Philly.
Finally, because we're gonna get going in a minute, I want to say that I loved the feeling I got from Bangkok as soon as I got here. As much as I thought language might be a problem, it hasn't been at all. Although I feel badly to appear to be a typical American tourist speaking English in a foreign country, it doesn't seem to be taken badly here, so I guess it's okay. But I always try to show my respect for their culture and language by using the Thai greeting and by saying thank you in Thai.
Well, folks, thanks again for checking in. I'll likely post again later this evening, before our 7:20pm overnight train to the northern city of Chiang Mai. Alright, bye bye from Bangkok for now!
Friday, November 7, 2008
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!
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!
Bangkok, Thailand -- early morning
I met up with Paul near the baggage claim upon arrival here at the Bangkok airport. Now we're at Queen's Garden Hotel near the airport. Paul just got out of shower; now its my turn. Be right back . . .
Wow, what a great feeling after a nice, warm shower and a thorough brushing of teeth. Well, it's now time for bed. Gotta rest up to begin the trip in earnest.
Wow, what a great feeling after a nice, warm shower and a thorough brushing of teeth. Well, it's now time for bed. Gotta rest up to begin the trip in earnest.
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