Ko Phangan was okay, did not reach spiritual nirvana, nor engage in any alcohol fueled hijinx. And aside from an Israeli theater dance major - I didn't really talk to anyone. It was beautiful and relaxing, pictures will follow someday. The bus/ferry combo was killer though. Tooo much traveling, not enough sleeping, toilets too disgusting to describe.*
I got to Bangkok yesterday at 5am, ate a little breakfast, then checked into a hotel room. Showered and smelling, if not feeling, fresher I went to Chatuchak market again for a little more shopping. I can't seem to stop myself from buying silk scarves. Got back, tried to nap, failed, then went for a late lunch/ early dinner. I was thinking about taking the morning bus, today, to Chiang Mai, so I texted the Brit to see if he was still living there.
It turned out he was in Bangkok for one day - he'd just spent 3 months in the UK (his mum is ill), and was heading down to Ko Phangan (where I'd just been) the next day. He's now working at a meditation retreat as a counselor. So we met up for a beer. It was nice to see him again, and really nice to have someone to talk to for a bit. He is the closest thing I have to a friend in this entire country. Saying good bye was weird. We're not likely to keep in touch, but he was like "see you around" and maybe we will see each other again, maybe not. Life is just too strange sometimes.
TAG: Code Coconuts
*although my tolerance for nasty toilets has gone up since I started carrying around my own roll of toilet paper.
Showing posts with label Bangkok. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bangkok. Show all posts
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
A Moderately Magical Meal
Ok... vacation has more officially begun. I'm in Bangkok and staying in backpacker-land, just off Khao San Road (the ultimate backpacker land). It's so weird, when I entered the street it felt a bit like Disney Land - everything was trying just a little too hard to be 'authentic'. OH! And my very first impression was "Where'd all these white people come from?" I mean, I see foreigners in the malls sometimes, but this was like more white people than I'd seen in one place in I don't know how long. And seeing white men with similarly aged white women - that always gives me a double take at first.
I got checked into my guesthouse, it's cheap and clean enough. The bathroom is minuscule, but the upside of living in Rayong for so long is that the absence of birds, geckos and/or cockroaches can be considered an upgrade. I wandered around and peeked in a few of the shops. I'm not letting myself buy anything yet though - saving up for Chiang Mai & Hoi An, Vietnam.
There are a plethora of travel agencies around here - every hotel and every other shop seems to have one. I very quickly and easily arranged for my trip to Ayuthaya (ancient Thai city, temple ruins etc.) for tomorrow, and a trip to Ko Phangan (tropical island in the south) starting the next day. Could I have done it cheaper on my own - who knows? There can be a lot of pressure to travel 'off the beaten path' and to discover the 'hidden gems' of a country. But honestly - if living in Rayong wasn't 'off the beaten path' enough I don't know what is. And I've experienced the hidden gems of going to the best noodle cart in the city with a student, and cooking Thai food with a Thai family in their home. I've decided to go with quick & easy now. And I'm willing to pay a bit more for the convenience and have no qualms with following the well tread 'banana pancake trail'.*
After arranging my tours I freshened up and decided to get some dinner. I found an Indian food place around the corner and perused the menu outside. As I was looking, another woman - a bit older than I - came up and started looking too. We exchanged a few words and I decided not to eat alone. "Do you have a friend with you?" I asked her - gah! I've become Thai! But she was alone, so I asked if she wanted to join me.
Oh it was awesome. First off - Indian food is sharing food - so two dishes are always better than one. But also - she was incredible. She teaches elementary school in the south of Thailand and told me all about the violence and how the Chinese mafia (who'd a thunk it?) had stepped in to quell the violence at one point, so her city was marginally safer now. She's a weaver and a quilter so we chatted about textiles. And she's lived in Laos and Vietnam as well. She gave me a list of places to see when I go to Laos. It was so nice to have company for dinner, and someone so like-minded. I swear my soul is a 60 year old retiree.
I still have a cold but I'm feeling better now. I have the next stage of my Moderately Magical Mystery Tour planned. Yay for me!
TAG: Code Mango
*Hmmm.... feeling defensive Rebel? What's that about? I don't know. Reading too many travel guides I think. ;)
Oh, and because I know you were all very concerned about my leg-hair situation... when I was in Rayong dropping off my computer I went to my normal waxing gal. Fortunately I don't know enough Thai to know if she was saying 'serves you right for going to someone else!' - but she got me well sorted, and my legs are now beach-worthy. Yay!
I got checked into my guesthouse, it's cheap and clean enough. The bathroom is minuscule, but the upside of living in Rayong for so long is that the absence of birds, geckos and/or cockroaches can be considered an upgrade. I wandered around and peeked in a few of the shops. I'm not letting myself buy anything yet though - saving up for Chiang Mai & Hoi An, Vietnam.
There are a plethora of travel agencies around here - every hotel and every other shop seems to have one. I very quickly and easily arranged for my trip to Ayuthaya (ancient Thai city, temple ruins etc.) for tomorrow, and a trip to Ko Phangan (tropical island in the south) starting the next day. Could I have done it cheaper on my own - who knows? There can be a lot of pressure to travel 'off the beaten path' and to discover the 'hidden gems' of a country. But honestly - if living in Rayong wasn't 'off the beaten path' enough I don't know what is. And I've experienced the hidden gems of going to the best noodle cart in the city with a student, and cooking Thai food with a Thai family in their home. I've decided to go with quick & easy now. And I'm willing to pay a bit more for the convenience and have no qualms with following the well tread 'banana pancake trail'.*
After arranging my tours I freshened up and decided to get some dinner. I found an Indian food place around the corner and perused the menu outside. As I was looking, another woman - a bit older than I - came up and started looking too. We exchanged a few words and I decided not to eat alone. "Do you have a friend with you?" I asked her - gah! I've become Thai! But she was alone, so I asked if she wanted to join me.
Oh it was awesome. First off - Indian food is sharing food - so two dishes are always better than one. But also - she was incredible. She teaches elementary school in the south of Thailand and told me all about the violence and how the Chinese mafia (who'd a thunk it?) had stepped in to quell the violence at one point, so her city was marginally safer now. She's a weaver and a quilter so we chatted about textiles. And she's lived in Laos and Vietnam as well. She gave me a list of places to see when I go to Laos. It was so nice to have company for dinner, and someone so like-minded. I swear my soul is a 60 year old retiree.
I still have a cold but I'm feeling better now. I have the next stage of my Moderately Magical Mystery Tour planned. Yay for me!
TAG: Code Mango
*Hmmm.... feeling defensive Rebel? What's that about? I don't know. Reading too many travel guides I think. ;)
Oh, and because I know you were all very concerned about my leg-hair situation... when I was in Rayong dropping off my computer I went to my normal waxing gal. Fortunately I don't know enough Thai to know if she was saying 'serves you right for going to someone else!' - but she got me well sorted, and my legs are now beach-worthy. Yay!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Back in Bangkok
On Saturday Marie asked me what I'd be doing on Sunday and I told her I was going to Bangkok to visit the National Museum and to see the movie UP. She asked what time I was leaving and the next thing I new I had company for the trip. It's weird, I'm so in the habit of being alone that I don't even think about inviting other people to do things with me. I was at first a little defensive / resentful - "she just invited herself along!". I am a planner after all and this was not part of the plan. But then I thought it might actually be fun to have someone to hang out with all day. So we met up at the minivan stop first thing in the morning and were on our way.
Museums are, unfortunately, not especially interesting to blog about since they don't allow photographs, but I won't let that stop me ;) . By the way can anyone answer these two questions for me: 1. Why don't they allow photographs in museums? (I know some do, or in some places, but for the ones that don't - why not???) and 2. Why is it that despite the number of "No Photography" signs there are, in multiple languages and unmistakable pictures, some people will take pictures anyway?
Photographs or no, I adore museums. I love natural history museums, art museums, science museums...all of them! I just love walking around and looking at cool stuff and reading little signs that tell me what they are and why they're cool. I had hoped to take an actual tour at this museum, but we missed it by about half an hour. Oh well. Marie is less interested in museums (I told her she could hang out in the cafe if she got 'museum fatigue'), but she was a champ and stuck with it for the couple of hours we were there.
The first room was mostly dioramas about the different periods of ancient Thai history. I have to admit a certain fondness for dioramas, and these were really cool - little people in period appropriate costumes engaging in battles - model elephants charging the enemies, really quite cool. Each of the dioramas was explained on the wall beside it in both Thai and English. Unfortunately the English translations were a bit tough to follow. All the words were right, but some of the more complicated sentences were constructed poorly. I briefly considered doing some volunteer work re-translating everything, then you know, came to my senses. =P
After the dioramas there were a few more rooms of Thai history, artifacts and pictures bringing us into the modern age. Some highlights for me - a gift of a rifle from the President of the US to the King of Thailand (it didn't say which president, that King's reign was circa 1880 - 1906 - let's call it McKinley, sounds like something he'd do). Another corner discussed the arrival of Portuguese explorers/immigrants who brought Christianity and some weapons technology. In the little box there were several small crosses and a broken porcelain cup "used in religious ceremonies." It's endlessly interesting to me to see my culture reflected back to me from someone else's eyes. I mean, it was clearly a communion cup but the concept of 'taking communion' would be at best confusing and more than likely deeply disturbing to a Buddhist audience. "The wine turns to what now? And you *drink* this?"
The history portion of the museum finished up with the current King, Rama 9. I learned a few interesting things, he was born in the US and went to University in Switzerland - which now explains why when I ask my students where in the world they would like to travel a surprising number pick "Switzerland" as their dream destination. The King himself is an artist and there were some pictures of his work - a photograph he took of his children's hands and two paintings he did of his beloved Queen. I admit I got a little choked up, they were really beautiful pictures and the whole thing was quite romantic.
Beyond that there were several more rooms, one devoted to furniture and household objects inlaid with mother of pearl (absolutely gorgeous, fine detailed work). Gold, gold and more gold...mostly Buddha figures and offerings for temples. A room of weapons, one of musical instruments, another of puppets & dolls, costumes and textiles (yes, I spent quite a bit of time in this room). I have to say I was a little shocked / disappointed in the condition of a lot of the displays. Only the first building was air conditioned and some of the others didn't even have fans, so it was quite hot and a bit stuffy in some of the rooms. There was mold on a pillow holding something, and the windows were open near some very old wooden cabinets, dust collecting on objects that were out in the open. I mean, most things were under glass and pretty much everything was in good condition. It's just not really what I was expecting. By comparison, American museums are downright antiseptic. Different standards I guess.
There was a whole separate building devoted to funeral chariots. The chariots are huge multi-layered gold vehicles (not unlike parade floats) to carry the remains of the royal family members in the funeral procession. One particularly stunning chariot was originally built in something like 1778. It didn't look old at all, and the plaque stated that it had been continuously used and restored over it's lifetime. Can you imagine? Seriously, is there anything in the States that's been in continuous use since George Washington's time?
After touring the main buildings Marie was fading and I was pretty hungry myself, so we skipped a couple of the side galleries (coins & statuary... not really my thing anyway) and after a stop in the blessedly air-conditioned and mold-free gift shop to add to my collection of postcards, we headed to lunch.
My explorations of Bangkok have been embarrassingly modest. I generally base myself at Siam Square - an area comprised of four major malls and a little shopping complex, and just take a taxi or the BTS from there to my destination. Bangkok's heat and humidity discourages street-by-street meandering. So we ended up in the basement of Siam Paragon for lunch. Paragon is by far the swankiest mall I have ever been to. Between the Hermes, Gucci, Cartier and Coach stores, I'm more than a little intimidated. The only shop I've actually entered was Asia books (which ironically is a chain of English Language bookstores), and we spent a good long time in there before heading down to the food court.
The food court is pretty awesome. There is a large cafeteria type area where you can get standard, if upscale, Thai foods, but there are also a ton of restaurants... McDonalds of course, but also Burger King (which is a bit rarer over here), A fish & chips restaurant, a couple steak houses, a Tony Romas (!!!), at least three Japanese places, a tea house, a French bakery (I tried it once - hardly French but not bad at all), an Au Bon Pain, Aunt Annie's Pretzels, an Indian restaurant, several dessert shops, and a coffee shop or two. Basically, for me it's food nirvana and my favorite place to eat. We decided to try Mos Burgers - a Japanese hamburger joint that reminded me strongly of In & Out in California. I had a pretty tasty, if small, terriyaki chicken burger, and Marie had the Mos Burger. Both were good and came with actual, honest to goodness mayonnaise. I was pretty happy. I'm not sure what the Thais have been using on my burgers, but it's not mayonnaise and it is not good!
Well fed and and feeling culturally enriched, we went to see UP. It was offered in 3-D a couple of places but it was double the price of watching it in 2D. We went for cheap & flat. It's always interesting to watch a movie in a foreign country but I think this one was a particularly good one for me to watch in Thailand. I heart Pixar so much, I just have to say. They fully understand the value of showing over telling. The first movie short "Partly Cloudy" was completely free of dialogue. It was fun to be sitting there with an audience (80% Thai I'd guess) and know that even if we can't really communicate with each other, we were all sharing the same experience, ooohing, ahhing, laughing and tearing up at the same parts. The same can be said for the first - what? 10, 20 minutes of the movie. No dialogue, no subtitles were needed to tell us exactly what was going on (the value of music cannot be understated though). Not going to say a word about the plot, but I just loved it. I'm very glad I'm already on my adventure, and am glad that I have not been so focused on the destination as to have lost sight of the journey.
The movie was followed by a trip back to the Paragon food court for dinner. We shared a plate of fish & chips, a Caesar salad, garlic bread and cream of broccoli soup. Delicious! God I love Western food! =) Sated and exhausted we headed back to Victory Monument and got the last two seats on the last minivan home. Nothing like cutting it close. ;) Then home again, home again the very same day.
TAG: Code Mango
Museums are, unfortunately, not especially interesting to blog about since they don't allow photographs, but I won't let that stop me ;) . By the way can anyone answer these two questions for me: 1. Why don't they allow photographs in museums? (I know some do, or in some places, but for the ones that don't - why not???) and 2. Why is it that despite the number of "No Photography" signs there are, in multiple languages and unmistakable pictures, some people will take pictures anyway?
Photographs or no, I adore museums. I love natural history museums, art museums, science museums...all of them! I just love walking around and looking at cool stuff and reading little signs that tell me what they are and why they're cool. I had hoped to take an actual tour at this museum, but we missed it by about half an hour. Oh well. Marie is less interested in museums (I told her she could hang out in the cafe if she got 'museum fatigue'), but she was a champ and stuck with it for the couple of hours we were there.
The first room was mostly dioramas about the different periods of ancient Thai history. I have to admit a certain fondness for dioramas, and these were really cool - little people in period appropriate costumes engaging in battles - model elephants charging the enemies, really quite cool. Each of the dioramas was explained on the wall beside it in both Thai and English. Unfortunately the English translations were a bit tough to follow. All the words were right, but some of the more complicated sentences were constructed poorly. I briefly considered doing some volunteer work re-translating everything, then you know, came to my senses. =P
After the dioramas there were a few more rooms of Thai history, artifacts and pictures bringing us into the modern age. Some highlights for me - a gift of a rifle from the President of the US to the King of Thailand (it didn't say which president, that King's reign was circa 1880 - 1906 - let's call it McKinley, sounds like something he'd do). Another corner discussed the arrival of Portuguese explorers/immigrants who brought Christianity and some weapons technology. In the little box there were several small crosses and a broken porcelain cup "used in religious ceremonies." It's endlessly interesting to me to see my culture reflected back to me from someone else's eyes. I mean, it was clearly a communion cup but the concept of 'taking communion' would be at best confusing and more than likely deeply disturbing to a Buddhist audience. "The wine turns to what now? And you *drink* this?"
The history portion of the museum finished up with the current King, Rama 9. I learned a few interesting things, he was born in the US and went to University in Switzerland - which now explains why when I ask my students where in the world they would like to travel a surprising number pick "Switzerland" as their dream destination. The King himself is an artist and there were some pictures of his work - a photograph he took of his children's hands and two paintings he did of his beloved Queen. I admit I got a little choked up, they were really beautiful pictures and the whole thing was quite romantic.
Beyond that there were several more rooms, one devoted to furniture and household objects inlaid with mother of pearl (absolutely gorgeous, fine detailed work). Gold, gold and more gold...mostly Buddha figures and offerings for temples. A room of weapons, one of musical instruments, another of puppets & dolls, costumes and textiles (yes, I spent quite a bit of time in this room). I have to say I was a little shocked / disappointed in the condition of a lot of the displays. Only the first building was air conditioned and some of the others didn't even have fans, so it was quite hot and a bit stuffy in some of the rooms. There was mold on a pillow holding something, and the windows were open near some very old wooden cabinets, dust collecting on objects that were out in the open. I mean, most things were under glass and pretty much everything was in good condition. It's just not really what I was expecting. By comparison, American museums are downright antiseptic. Different standards I guess.
There was a whole separate building devoted to funeral chariots. The chariots are huge multi-layered gold vehicles (not unlike parade floats) to carry the remains of the royal family members in the funeral procession. One particularly stunning chariot was originally built in something like 1778. It didn't look old at all, and the plaque stated that it had been continuously used and restored over it's lifetime. Can you imagine? Seriously, is there anything in the States that's been in continuous use since George Washington's time?
After touring the main buildings Marie was fading and I was pretty hungry myself, so we skipped a couple of the side galleries (coins & statuary... not really my thing anyway) and after a stop in the blessedly air-conditioned and mold-free gift shop to add to my collection of postcards, we headed to lunch.
My explorations of Bangkok have been embarrassingly modest. I generally base myself at Siam Square - an area comprised of four major malls and a little shopping complex, and just take a taxi or the BTS from there to my destination. Bangkok's heat and humidity discourages street-by-street meandering. So we ended up in the basement of Siam Paragon for lunch. Paragon is by far the swankiest mall I have ever been to. Between the Hermes, Gucci, Cartier and Coach stores, I'm more than a little intimidated. The only shop I've actually entered was Asia books (which ironically is a chain of English Language bookstores), and we spent a good long time in there before heading down to the food court.
The food court is pretty awesome. There is a large cafeteria type area where you can get standard, if upscale, Thai foods, but there are also a ton of restaurants... McDonalds of course, but also Burger King (which is a bit rarer over here), A fish & chips restaurant, a couple steak houses, a Tony Romas (!!!), at least three Japanese places, a tea house, a French bakery (I tried it once - hardly French but not bad at all), an Au Bon Pain, Aunt Annie's Pretzels, an Indian restaurant, several dessert shops, and a coffee shop or two. Basically, for me it's food nirvana and my favorite place to eat. We decided to try Mos Burgers - a Japanese hamburger joint that reminded me strongly of In & Out in California. I had a pretty tasty, if small, terriyaki chicken burger, and Marie had the Mos Burger. Both were good and came with actual, honest to goodness mayonnaise. I was pretty happy. I'm not sure what the Thais have been using on my burgers, but it's not mayonnaise and it is not good!
Well fed and and feeling culturally enriched, we went to see UP. It was offered in 3-D a couple of places but it was double the price of watching it in 2D. We went for cheap & flat. It's always interesting to watch a movie in a foreign country but I think this one was a particularly good one for me to watch in Thailand. I heart Pixar so much, I just have to say. They fully understand the value of showing over telling. The first movie short "Partly Cloudy" was completely free of dialogue. It was fun to be sitting there with an audience (80% Thai I'd guess) and know that even if we can't really communicate with each other, we were all sharing the same experience, ooohing, ahhing, laughing and tearing up at the same parts. The same can be said for the first - what? 10, 20 minutes of the movie. No dialogue, no subtitles were needed to tell us exactly what was going on (the value of music cannot be understated though). Not going to say a word about the plot, but I just loved it. I'm very glad I'm already on my adventure, and am glad that I have not been so focused on the destination as to have lost sight of the journey.
The movie was followed by a trip back to the Paragon food court for dinner. We shared a plate of fish & chips, a Caesar salad, garlic bread and cream of broccoli soup. Delicious! God I love Western food! =) Sated and exhausted we headed back to Victory Monument and got the last two seats on the last minivan home. Nothing like cutting it close. ;) Then home again, home again the very same day.
TAG: Code Mango
Sunday, June 7, 2009
The Grand Palace (take three)
On my very first trip to Bangkok I made an impromptu attempt to visit the Grand Palace. This plan went somewhat awry when I got waylaid by a smooth talkin' tuk tuk scammer. Live and learn. The next time I went I planned things out every so slightly better but still ended up getting to the Palace after they'd stopped selling entry tickets for the day. So last weekend when I decided to go to Bangkok I put visiting the Grand Palace at the top of my list of things to do.
The temple of the Emerald Buddha is on the same grounds as the Palace, and we visited that first. It's quite a spectacular building actually, painted in gold and covered in mosaics. Compared to Thai temples, churches in America are seriously lacking in bling.
Pictures were not permitted inside... and I can't properly describe it. There was gold.... lots and lots of gold. There's huge gold pedestal for the emerald buddha (which is not especially tall... but you know, it's *emerald*!), it's surrounded by golden buddha statues and gold gold gold gold everything. Really quite overwhelming.
Twelve giants guard the temple (I only spotted four). I had a bit of a mind flip when I realized that they aren't just really big statues of characters from Thai mythology... they're a life sized portrayals. When that sunk in it made me really excited to learn more about them. Unfortunately my google fu is failing me tonight and I can get no more than "generally benevolent guardians of natural treasures" and that doesn't seem quite right.
More gold... this is a Chedi, but I'm not 100% sure what it is, I think it houses a buddhist relic. Neither the weather nor my camera were in the mood to give me especially good pictures but BIG and GOLD is what I was trying to capture with this shot.
And now the elusive Grand Palace. We couldn't go inside, but I thought it was rather a stately looking palace! We walked around, went into a little garden for a bit and just enjoyed being out and about on a not stiflingly hot morning.
The temple of the Emerald Buddha is on the same grounds as the Palace, and we visited that first. It's quite a spectacular building actually, painted in gold and covered in mosaics. Compared to Thai temples, churches in America are seriously lacking in bling.
Pictures were not permitted inside... and I can't properly describe it. There was gold.... lots and lots of gold. There's huge gold pedestal for the emerald buddha (which is not especially tall... but you know, it's *emerald*!), it's surrounded by golden buddha statues and gold gold gold gold everything. Really quite overwhelming.Here is Marie admiring one of the gold Gaurdas (bird-type-guard-thing) and Nagas (snakes) that surround the building.
Twelve giants guard the temple (I only spotted four). I had a bit of a mind flip when I realized that they aren't just really big statues of characters from Thai mythology... they're a life sized portrayals. When that sunk in it made me really excited to learn more about them. Unfortunately my google fu is failing me tonight and I can get no more than "generally benevolent guardians of natural treasures" and that doesn't seem quite right.
More gold... this is a Chedi, but I'm not 100% sure what it is, I think it houses a buddhist relic. Neither the weather nor my camera were in the mood to give me especially good pictures but BIG and GOLD is what I was trying to capture with this shot.
And now the elusive Grand Palace. We couldn't go inside, but I thought it was rather a stately looking palace! We walked around, went into a little garden for a bit and just enjoyed being out and about on a not stiflingly hot morning.Of course once I got back to Rayong and told my students about our trip I learned that my ticket included admission to about five different museums on the grounds and I'd completely missed seeing any of them. D'oh! So I can not yet claim "mission accomplished" on the Grand Palace, but what I saw I enjoyed, and that's good enough for me.
TAG: Code Watermelon
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