Chinatown Bangkok and Rain

(Written Sunday May 27)

I had the best day today!

It all started with a Thai foot massage, which I got to prepare myself for the large amount of walking I intended to do today. This was my first massage of any kind ever, and I loved it! After changing into green-yellow spa pants, I lay back in a recliner, and had my feet and legs rubbed, kneaded, and prodded for an hour. And even after that hour, my masseuse kept going, and gave me a mini 15-minutes arm, shoulder, and neck massage. The 15-minute thing was nice, but the 60 minute foot massage was so, so, so nice! I almost fell asleep—the guy next to me was asleep! Even after a tip, the whole thing cost only 350 Baht, or about $10. A 2-hour full body massage is not much more expensive, and is on my list for my June massage…

My happy feet and I grabbed some soup for lunch, then took the Skytrain to the subway connection that leads to Chinatown. The subway here is extremely clean, shiny silver and very well-lit, with no food or souvenir stalls and no panhandlers allowed. The contrast between this and the Bangkok streets, which are cluttered with traffic, people, carts, dirt, and litter, is pretty extreme. Going underground felt more like entering a hospital room than a subway. There are even sliding glass doors separating the platform and the train; these don’t open until the train stops, which is a good way to prevent the falling on the tracks fiasco that occurred in NY this year.

Although my map is usually extremely helpful, I couldn’t figure out how to actually get to the center of Chinatown from the subway exit. So I took my first tuktuk! It turns out it’s rather hard to get into those things—the seat is high, and the roof is low, so passengers have to fold in half and kind of hop to squeeze through. Also, once you’re sitting down, you can’t see outside unless you duck down to look under the overhanging roof. Still, there is something reassuring about having 3 wheels underneath me instead of 2.

Although my driver was full of smiles and spoke quite good English, he tried some traditional Bangkok tricks on me. After I told him I wanted to go to Chinatown, he quite earnestly told me that Chinatown was closed for the day. I’d been warned about that one! Instead of arguing, I said I wanted to go anyway and just look around. He then told me he would take me to a nearby mall first that had excellent shopping where he got good discounts. I had been warned about that one too! I told him I was a student and too poor to buy anything (not sure if he bought that one since I was paying for the ride). I finally convinced him to take me to Chinatown, where I was quite happy to get out and walk.

Although Chinatown most certainly wasn’t closed, one of the famous main roads that features silver makers was deserted. Perhaps because it was Sunday? This confused me enough to get me a bit lost, despite the map I brought with me. I ended up down by the river, which helped me get my bearings.

Chinatown Bangkok is full of red, dragon-covered souvenirs, traditional medicines, and food everywhere! Cooked food, raw food, rotten food (ugh, the smell), every kind of food you can imagine. The fireworks and Chinese herbs didn’t really interest me, so I stuck to the alleys where people were selling things that I assumed were edible: brightly colored gelatinous masses, entire dried birds, meat hanging from the ceiling on huge hooks, piles of fruits?vegetables?sculpted desserts?, and many more unidentifiable items. In some of the smaller alleys, I was the only non-Asian person there, and received many surprised stares. I hate taking photos when people are gawking at me, so I didn’t get a good chance to document the bizarre foods.

The day was still young after I wandering the alleys, so I decided to check out a wat on my map. The description in my guidebook was short, only saying something about piles of offerings of vegetables. This didn’t sound like the most thrilling view of Buddhism, but I was frankly a bit bored with the rest of Chinatown. But despite my skepticism, it turned out to be the best temple visit yet (and there were no signs of the alleged piles of vegetables). Past the entrance gate to the wat is a large courtyard. On the right was a fancy building that looked off-limits to tourists (roped off doors and guards). At the end of the courtyard was the main building. And on the left was a building open to the courtyard on one side. And milling about the open building and back and forth between the other buildings were maybe fifty or more monks! That’s a lot of orange robes. And a bunch of them were what I fondly refer to as baby monks, ranging from maybe 8-16! Very cute. There must have been a special event going on, because there were bulletin boards on display with pictures of the monks, and there were a large number of non-monk people sitting in plastic chairs chatting with the monks. I thought perhaps this was a training school for young monks and the people there were their families, but I really have no idea.

The temple building was quite small, with open skylights on two sides, several small rooms in the back, and a primary worship area in the center. When I walked in, a group of monks were in the middle area chanting a beautiful song to the slow deep beat of a drum. Visitors were lighting candles, then lighting incense from those candles on one side of the temple, and the clouds of perfumed smoke drifted over the people kneeling in front of the monks. I stood there and watched and listened for a long time. Right as the monks were finishing, the sun disappeared, and rain poured down! My first Bangkok rain. Water began dripping in the open skylights and pooling on the lilypad-painted tiles. There was a general rush to rescue shoes left there and move the burning candles and incense to a covered area.

When the initial downpour died down a bit, I scampered from the temple to the open-sided building nearby. A roof stretches past the open wall, and monks and visitors were still sitting there chatting and watching the rain. At this point, the storm felt just like a KY summer thunderstorm: thunder, lighting, heavy rain, and humidity. But just as I had that thought, the sky really opened up, and water began cascading down. Not in drops or even in curtains, but just in piles, with every space of air filled up with water. I really don’t think someone out in the downpour could have been able to breath without an umbrella to provide a pocket of air! I guess this is what it means to live in the tropics. There was no way I was going to brave such a beating, so I stuck around and watched the monks, taking occasional pictures (their orange robes presented endless photo opportunities). One baby monk in particular was adorable and kept grinning at me. He was brave enough to say hello to me in English, so I gave him a US dollar, hoping he had never seen one before and would find it as cool as I find Thai Baht.

When the rain finally died down a bit, I brought out my umbrella and braved the streets once again. I thought perhaps I could find my way back to the subway myself, so I started walking. I walked through Chinatown, stopping for more soup for dinner. I got to the edge of Chinatown, and took a road that I thought led in the right direction. When I got confused enough to pull out my map, I realized I had walked in the exact opposite direction, so I turned around. Back at the edge of Chinatown, I was wet, tired, sweaty, and frustrated. Feeling annoyed, I glanced up and saw an enormous brilliantly colored rainbow directly in front of me. A real rainbow like kids draw: I could see each color clearly as well as both ends of the arc. Incredible! I took a bunch of pictures of the rainbow as well as the beautiful post-rain light on the buildings. These are my favorite photos so far—definitely something I will consider blowing up and framing when I get back home.

After the soothing influence of the rainbow (yes, I sound like I fit in well with the hippie California crowd), I felt more resigned to my lack of map skills, so I hailed another tuktuk and headed back to the subway and home.

Golden Buddha

It's very big.

Temples and Booze

(Written Saturday May 26)

Today I visited two temples, or wats, near the Grand Palace that I didn’t have time to see last weekend. Wat Pho is the wat with the giant reclining Buddha… and it really is giant! It’s housed in a huge building, but the spaces left between the statue and the walls and ceiling are quite small. The building itself is beautiful, but the statue is spectacular: gold, shiny, and appropriately peaceful-looking.

On the far side of the statue, a small donation may be given to get a tin cup full of tiny coin-like tokens. Down the wall are metal buckets, and people drop a few coins in each bucket as they walk out of the building. I’m not sure what the religious significance of this is, but the result is a light tinkling bell-like ringing that gently echoes throughout the hall, and sounds very mystical and other-worldly.

Although the statute is the main attraction here, the grounds of Wat Pho are very extensive, with lots of spiral structures (like the picture I posed last week), and many little temple buildings, some with small museum exhibits behind glass of coins or old Thai forms of dress. The famous Thai massage school is here as well. It would have been fun to get a massage, but I was way too hot and sweaty to get one without a shower first!

A 3 Baht ride across the river got me to the second wat, Wat Arun. This temple is directly on the river, and I took pictures of it last week from the boat on my way to the Grand Palace. This wat has a few smaller buildings set in a rough square. In the middle of the square are tall peak-like structures covered with millions of small pieces of glazed pottery. These pieces of pottery form flowers, symbols, animals, and random designs. From a distance, Wat Arun just looks like a shiny shimmer of color, but up close the detail is pretty incredible. It must have taken ages to place each piece.

After Wat Arun and a quick shower at home, I took a motorcycle taxi (my second trip!) to the nearby Skytrain station, which I then took to the other interns’ apartment for our night out on the town. Their apartment was easy to find because it’s baby powder pink, and right by the Skytrain station. Although their rooms are a bit more modern than mine and they have a rooftop pool (I’m a little jealous), I like the location of my place much better, especially since I can walk to work rather than commute.

The 5 of us took the Skytrain again to meet 2 of the firm’s employees for an introduction to Bangkok’s nightlife. First, we grabbed dinner. We all shared Thai beers and 5 or 6 dishes, and everything was pretty tasty, especially the peppered ostrich! We then hopped in taxis, which took us to a club with the unfortunate moniker of “Booze.” After showing ID and getting our hands stamped (mine still says “feel good feel booze”), we walked into a dimly lit space. The bar was against one wall, a stage with a live band against another, a DJ by the glass doors, and a staircase against the fourth wall leading to a small loft area. The floor was covered with round tables and chairs, and a few couches and a second smaller bar were located upstairs. The place was packed and loud: the music was typical Thai and American pop and rock, but the volume was turned up WAY too loud. We literally couldn’t hear each other—the only way to talk was to yell directly into one’s ear, so the few conversations we did pull off could only be one-on-one.

After taking over the leather couches in the loft, we ordered a bottle of booze for all to share. We hung out for a while, talking (sort of), listening to the music, people-watching. There was no dancing—apparently Thai people don’t really dance. The only discos in Bangkok exist for tourists. But when the band took breaks and put on the bass-heavy hip-hop, it was frustrating not to have a dance floor! One of the other interns and I have tentative plans to find a dance floor in the future, even if they are just for foreigners.

Motorcycle Taxis and Pirates

(Later on Friday, May 25)

Lunch today for the entire IP department was on the firm: a goodbye meal for the departing Thai interns. We ate at a Japanese place a block or two away from work. I had salmon with “Chinese sauce,” which was okay, but not great. Dessert was fruit and a chocolate fountain! Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to partake of the chocolate goodness because I had to leave lunch early to attend a meeting that my partner supervisor kindly invited me to.

As we walked out of our building, he asked me how I felt about taking a motorcycle taxi. I said something like, “uh, um, uh?” He took this to mean yes, so hailed 2 motorcycles for us. I was wearing a skirt, so had to ride sidesaddle, but Thai women do it all the time, so I told myself I probably wouldn’t die. Even though it’s not cool to hold onto the driver, I kept one of my hands on or near his shoulder just in case he accelerated fast enough to send me flying off the backless end of the bike. But we made it in one piece, and the ride was kind of exhilarating. The US needs motorcycle taxis!

Our meeting was in a conference room in the nearby Central World mall. Security was quite high in the conference room block—we had to leave IDs at a desk in order to get a card for the elevator. The elevators there have no buttons. Instead, the cards are preprogrammed to allow access to only one floor. The partner said the extra security was put in place in reaction to terrorist activity in a neighboring country (not sure where exactly) a few years ago.

Back at the firm, the interns finalized our beach plans for next weekend. I’m excited!

This evening, I met one of the other interns for dinner and a movie at the Siam paragon mall. My dinner was, bluntly, not good. I ordered coconut soup with noodles. This turned out to mean a bowl of pure coconut milk and a side of white noodles. That was it! Nasty. But I was hungry, so I ate some of it, and remarkably, suffered no ill effects.

Our movie tickets were 140 Baht each, which is about $4—not too bad. The theater there is brand-new, with comfortable reclining seats and excellent AC. I was actually a bit chilly. Maybe I can make use of the one long-sleeve shirt I brought next time I’m there. Speaking of the next time I’m there, I hope to see another movie soon to try out the fancy screen. This screen is a bit pricier because instead of seats, it has rows of recliners! I may end up saving that treat for Harry Potter in July.

Tonight, we saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean. I thought it was pretty good, although several plot points confused me, and I was unsure if the end was supposed to be a cliffhanger. Will there be a Pirates IV? I suppose more of Johnny Depp is never a bad thing. Even if the movie isn’t great, I can spend a long time looking at his prettiness.

The movie was longer than we expected (2 hours and 45 minutes or so), so the Skytrain was already closed when we left (it closes at midnight). We walked a bit before my fellow intern got tired, and caught a cab back to her place. I definitely considered it, but decided to save a few Baht and walk. I got home at 12:45 am, and am very glad tomorrow is Saturday so I can sleep in!

Lumpini Park and More Fruit

(Written Friday, May 25)

Oooh, I love Lumpini Park! It’s my new favorite place in Bangkok. I woke up at 6 am this morning (I’m so brave), put on my stretchy pants, hooked up my iPod, and went briskly striding off to exercise. The park is surrounded by a tall fence, but there are little gates set here and there, and one of them is just around the corner from my apartment. On the street outside, vendors were already beginning to sell breakfast (which is the same food sold for lunch and dinner… no cereal or toast in Thailand).

The park has a couple of lakes and ponds, some sculptures, a few shrines, and lots of paths and grassy areas. There were hundreds of people in the park, the majority of them exercising. The paths were covered with joggers and walkers, all heading in the same direction. Under a large gazebo-like structure, an old crackly radio was playing and several couples were waltzing. On the edge of the water, small groups of older Thais were practicing Tai Chi (or Tai Kik, as it seems to be called here). Several small exercise classes were going on here and there, with 10-30 students each, performing various stretches and calisthenics. Tucked away in a corner, there is also a small weight-lifting area, where the machines are painted grass-green and blend in perfectly with the park surroundings. I didn’t notice the camouflaged machines until I saw a woman who looked like she was floating in mid-air (she was on some kind of stationary skiing contraption). In all, there were just a few weight machines, a couple stationary bikes, and one or two other aerobic machines. There was a sleepy looking kid sitting at a booth nearby who looked like he might charge someone to use the equipment, so I decided to stick to the free activity of walking and people-watching.

By far the most fun looking activity to me in the park was an enormous aerobics class, with people lined up on the grass and paths following the lead of the instructor, who was doing some sort of kick-boxing on top of a huge wall so the crowds could all see him. The music was hip-hop with a crazy amount of bass (BOOMthudBOOMthudBOOMthud), which drowned out the mellow CD of Chinese music playing nearby as the group practiced a fan dance (complete with snapping wrist gestures with big red fans). If this group is here Monday, I may join in. I’ll also be sure to bring my camera along with me one of these mornings.

After the park and a shower, I went out early to grab breakfast. I usually eat something small in my room (yogurt, fruit, etc.), but wanted a Thai breakfast this morning. So I had rice with a fried egg and some cabbage and tofu vegetable mix. Yummy. I also picked up one of those unknown fruits I’ve been wanting to try. This one was purple and spiky. It will be my mid-morning snack—I’m very excited.

(Later)

So after a morning of paperwork, I had my mystery fruit. It is SO beautiful and purple inside! One of the Thai employees said its name in Thai translates to dragon fruit, but I’m not sure if this is the same as dragon fruit in the US. If it is US dragon fruit, I will definitely be buying it back home because it’s purple and delicious! The only downside—my fingers are stained bright purple. Good thing it’s my favorite color.

Sleepy

(Written Thursday, May 24)

For some reason, all three of us IP interns were incredibly tired at work today. As soon as 5 pm rolled around, I went straight home, had a snack, watched a little TV, and am now ready for bed. Tomorrow morning: a brisk stroll in Lumpini Park to get some exercise and hopefully store up some energy for the rest of the day.

Baiyoke Tower and Fruit Musings

(Written Wednesday, May 23)

This evening after work, I went to Baiyoke Tower, the tallest building in Bangkok, to admire the city from above. Instead of riding the Skytrain, I decided to get some exercise and check out the street markets by walking. In some ways this was a good idea: I got some good photos and saw some interesting things for sale. But by the time I got to the Tower, I was incredibly hot, and felt a bit faint from the heat radiating around my body. Since I still have blisters, I wore sandals instead of tennis shoes, but even my feet felt like they were burning. My hair was spiky from the damp heat, and little points of hair kept poking the back of my neck as if someone behind me was trying to get my attention. The people behind me must have wondered why I kept whirling around with an annoyed look on my face.

It costs 200 Baht to ride a small glass elevator up to the 77^th floor of the Tower. On this floor, there is a view of the city through a wall of windows, a restaurant, and a few souvenirs for sale. But I was determined to make it to the very top, so got on a second small elevator that took an alarmingly long time to climb just a few floors. During that time, I contemplated what it would be like to be stuck in an elevator that high up. I also contemplated what it would be like to plummet that far down. This helped pass the time until the elevator decided to let me go and opened its doors at the 83^rd floor—the last floor before the outside deck above.

The 200 Baht entry fee includes a free drink at the top floor, so I ordered something called a “Rooftop Cocktail.” The drink was neon green, a tad sour, and way too sweet. I gulped some in hopes of cooling off a bit, then walked up the final set of stairs to the rotating observation deck. Here, only a metal grate separates observers from Bangkok below. I stuck my camera through the squares of the fence and took a bunch of pictures. It would have been very cool to get a 360-degree panorama photograph, but I didn’t have the patience to take pictures at regular intervals for the entire time it takes the slow-moving deck to make a full rotation.

As I arrived at the top, the sun was just beginning to set, so I took a few shots of the sunset, then decided to wait and take a few pictures of the view at nighttime as well. So I leaned against the grate and watched the city circle by a couple of times as I enjoyed the cool breeze. Although my sunset photos turned out well, after it was officially dark, camera couldn’t quite capture the city lights. I’ll have to return someday with a fancier camera.

Despite the late hour and the unfamiliar part of town, I was able to retrace my steps and arrive back home safely. On the way, I bought meat-on-a-stick—probably the most common street food sold in Bangkok. It (whatever it was) was tasty, although a bit greasy.

After meat-on-a-stick, the second most common street food is probably fruit. Carts with sliced watermelon, mango, apple, and other fruits displayed on beds of crushed ice are everywhere at all hours of the day. And piles of whole fruits are being sold on nearly every block and in every store. My goal is to try at least one of every fruit I can’t recognize. So far I have had two unknown fruits that were both very tasty. The first was a little larger than an apple, with a consistency kind of like an unripe pear, and a flavor like a mix of pear and apple. It came pre-peeled (so I’m not sure what the skin or rind looks like) with notches in the top, so pieces could be broken off, and sprinkled with sugar and hot red pepper. Yummy. The second fruit is difficult to describe. It’s a smaller fruit than the first, around the size of a plum, but oblong. Each piece of fruit is made up of three flat pieces that grow together, but are easy to pull apart to eat separately. Each of the smaller pieces has a pit in the center. The fruit is incredibly sweet and delicious—my favorite edible discovery in Thailand so far.

Free Speech

I tried to get onto a certain website today--the website that allows people to post videos and is called "you" followed by the word "tube." But instead of videos, a page of rainbow colored text in Thai popped up (because rainbow colors make everything better). Scrolling down to the bottom of the page reveals a message in small black English text (no special colors for foreigners): "Sorry! the web site you are accessing has been blocked by ministry of information and communication technology."

I had heard about the Thai government restricting access to this webpage in response to a video criticizing the Thai king that someone posted. But it didn't really hit me until I tried to visit the website myself. My con law classes kicked in hard core in response to this . Freedom of speech! Government censorship! Due process! Amendments and articles and letting stupid people say whatever they want!

So now that I've talked about this online, I suppose the Thai ministry might try to censor my blog. But maybe my cleverness in never mentioning THAT WORD will help me elude their grasp.

To be fair, the Thai king wears huge glasses and is quite little and cute. I wouldn't like it if someone said something mean about him either.

Grand Palace

Beautiful, huh?

Thai Cuisine

Although the morning was a bit slow at work today, the afternoon brought a big assignment for all three of us, so the day sped by.

The most interesting part of my day was lunchtime. We met the fifth intern for the first time (she’s nice!), and went together to a place nearby that serves rice with different toppings. I chose two that looked interesting without having any idea what they were. When the woman gave me my plate, she pointed to her nose and said “Spicy!” I laughed, thinking she was exaggerating since Thai people typically think non-Thais can’t handle spicy foods. My first bites were quite tasty. One dish was fish in a coconut curry sauce and the other was roughly ground pork or beef. However, in a minute or two I realized the woman hadn’t been kidding about the spice—I don’t think I’ve ever had food that was spicier! My face turned red, I cried, I drank all the water in sight, and my tongue still burned. Even though I hadn’t had much breakfast and was hungry, I couldn’t finish my food. Instead, I got a scoop of mango sorbet next door to cool off my poor tongue.

After work, the other interns showed me the second firm building up the street, where the other two interns who aren’t in the IP department work. Then we parted ways for the evening. Hungry after my lack of lunch, I found dinner just a block away from my apartment. Although I had thought I was eating at a food stall, I was taken to a table behind the cooking area and given an extensive menu. I decided to go with the flow, even though sit-down restaurants are typically several times more expensive than food stalls. However, the menu was quite reasonable, with many items priced at only 30-50 Baht, about the same cost as a meal from a food stand. “Fancier” items did cost up to several hundred Baht, but I decided to stick with the dishes around 100 Baht or less. I ended up ordering a traditional favorite—tom yum soup. I was served a huge bowl of soup with a small bowl of steamed rice and a bottle of water. A guy there had another of those great Thai jobs: pouring water from my water bottle into my glass. If Thailand was a tipping country, I would have been tempted to give him a huge tip, just to see his reaction.

Dinner was 98 Baht, or around 2 or 3 dollars. My pocketbook loves Thailand!

Bangkok Streets

A typical Bangkok city street is certainly not as busy and glittery as a guidebook-recommended palace or temple, but it’s still rather fascinating to an outsider. To begin with, the majority of sidewalks are composed of cobblestones, but the city seems to have very little money dedicated to city upkeep, so there are loose cobblestones piled along the sidewalks every couple of feet. The many resulting dips and rises make it difficult to walk without watching your feet. However, when the traffic is particularly bad (which it often is), the motorbikes often jump up onto the sidewalk to ride around the cars. This makes the potholes even worse, and is scary for pedestrians! So while I watch the ground for missing cobblestones, I also have to keep an eye on the road in case the traffic decides to join me on the sidewalk. Somehow, Thais seem to have a sixth sense about this, and don’t watch either the ground or the traffic. They simply walk, and the holes and the motorbikes seem to part around them. I have not yet worked up the courage to attempt to walk like a Thai.

Another thing I have noticed on Bangkok’s streets is how haphazard everything is. Tiny food stalls are shoved anywhere they will fit. If you walk past a fallen down building or a few piles of garbage bags, you may come across a tiny restaurant terrace or a clothes market featuring knock-off Levis or more fallen down buildings and piles of garbage bags. Stray cats and dogs roam everywhere without collars, and like to emerge from the most unexpected of places, including from between moving moped wheels. Fences are thrown up here and there, often covered with barbed wire, but they don’t seem to mark territory and they don’t succeed in keeping much of anything in or out since most of them are full of holes. Wildlife seems to enjoy the food scraps tossed into most corners—in addition to dogs and cats, I have seen all kinds of birds, several lizards, and a huge rat. The rat, of course, was seen lurking outside my own apartment building. And it was huge. Really, really huge. Like a cat. Strangely, I have seen no squirrels and, luckily, no mosquitoes. I do, however, have a hot, red welt on my leg that appeared this morning, suggesting that Bangkok is home to spiders.

Another curious sight in Bangkok is the plethora of tuk-tuks and motorcycle taxis. Tuk-tuks are small three-wheeled vehicles with a roof and handrails and room for a few people to sit behind the driver. They remind me a little bit of golf carts. The typical motorcycle taxi features a driver, usually wearing a brightly covered vest advertising his profession, who hangs out with his motorcycle buddies on the sidewalks when not working, and who drives very, very fast to get through the obstacle course that is a Bangkok city street when he is working. Thais apparently trust these motorcycle drivers with their lives—they tend to ride along behind without helmets and without holding on to the driver. And women often ride sidesaddle! Since the Skytrain doesn’t reach everywhere in the city, I may need to ride one or the other of these contraptions at some point during my stay here. Someone would have to pay me a lot of Baht to convince me to ride the motorcycle instead of the tuk-tuk!

Day One

I am now officially an intellectual property intern!

Before I write further, I should mention that in this new world of blogging, I know many employers frown on employees keeping blogs about the workplace. Just in case anyone here ever stumbles across my blog (an unlikely possibility), I plan to keep any commentary regarding work short and anonymous. If I have serious problems with work or my fellow employees, I will simply have to send each person who reads my blog an individual e-mail full of complaints. Just kidding.

So, this morning was spent on orientation. I signed a few documents, read some rules, watched a short film about the firm, and chatted with my orientation person about how I liked Thailand. I then met the two other interns in my department, who have been here for a week already. We each have our own computer, but are working in the same room. Close quarters? A little bit. But I think we’ll often be working on projects together, so this will make it easier to brainstorm as a group.

For lunch, I followed the two interns, another intern from a different department, and a Thai girl to a noodle place nearby. We got to choose our ingredients, and I chose green noodles (why choose white noodles when you can choose green noodles?), dumpling-like things, and pieces of what I think were pork, along with the soup broth and a few greens. The soup was delicious—slightly sweet and very flavorful. After lunch, we explored the little outdoor market nearby, where I had another slushie, similar to the one I had near the Grand Palace, with more mystery jello and some bean-like thing that the Thai girl told me was a Chinese herb that was good for the brain. Magic beans!

Back at the office, I helped the other two interns edit a chapter on IP media law they have been working on for a textbook. Then, 5 o’clock rolled around, and I was out of there! After running back to my apartment to change, I hit the grocery store for some groceries and a salad for dinner, then headed home for the evening.

Chao Phraya River and Grand Palace

Oh man, my feet hurt. I walked another 7 hours today, and the last two days of walking have resulted in band-aids on 4 of my poor little toes. But I have 5 days of work ahead of me to spend sitting and healing, so I don’t mind too much.

Today, I took a tour boat down the Chao Phraya River and explored the Grand Palace.

A ticket for unlimited rides for a day on the river was only 100 baht—definitely a good deal. I spent a while just hanging out on the boat as it went up and down the river, taking pictures of the fishing and tour boats, wondering how people managed to live in the wooden houses leaning precariously over the water without falling in, and enjoying the cool breeze. My guidebook informed me that once I got off the boat, the palace would be just a few meters to the right. However, those few meters between the pier and the palace were completely crazy. The moment I got onto the street, there were thousands of people milling around thousands of street stalls covering the sidewalk. The traffic was terrible. Many people were holding handkerchiefs over their faces to block the smell of the exhaust, especially from the mopeds that tend to drive something like this as they weave between cars: gasbrakegasbrakegasbrakegasbrakegas. Traffic policeman in Bangkok always wear hospital-style masks under their helmets. Bangkok is not a clean city.

The majority of the street hawkers were selling religious goods and old Thai coins. The only thing I bought was a sort of slushie. Shaved ice, tiny squares of what looked like black jello, and a sprinkle of brown sugar. I found it very refreshing, despite the mysterious addition of the black jello.

At this point, I was already feeling rather overwhelmed by the heat and the crowds. Although there were fewer people once I got inside the palace, the heat was several times worse than outside due to the bright reflective surfaces everywhere. When I bought my ticket, I got a map of the palace, but didn’t look at it once because 1) the humidity started to tear the map the moment I tried to pull it out of my purse and 2) sweat kept running into my eyes, so I couldn’t see much of anything anyway.

The little I could see of the palace was gorgeous though! Everything is covered in gold and jewels, and the entire complex glitters and shimmers in the sun. When I couldn’t see because of the sweat in my eyes or the harsh reflection of the sun, I just squinted and took a photo of the vague outline so that I could look at the detail later. I love digital cameras.

After I left the palace, I’m ashamed to say a street hawker successfully ripped me off. I bought a souvenir from him for about 160 Baht. Then, as I walked up the street, I found the same thing for sale for 50 Baht. Not much of a difference when you convert it to dollars, but the principle of the thing hurt! Next time I will canvas the neighborhood before buying anything that doesn’t have a set price!

On my way back through the crowds, I somehow missed the entrance to the alley that lead back to the port. Luckily, I wound my way through the streets to another pier that only charged 3 Baht to take me by boat to the first pier. I collapsed on the boat and drank 2 bottles of water in about 2 minutes. Have I mentioned that Bangkok is hot? I actually saw someone at the Grand Palace almost faint. Of course, the guy was a pale tourist, but I also saw Thai people hiding out in the shade with fans and drinks. One or two of them were even sweating, although in general they seem to be immune to perspiring. I overheard someone say the temperature was hovering around 100 F today. Ouch.

Back at my Skytrain station, I took a quick detour to locate my firm’s building for tomorrow morning. It was easy to find and is a mere 4 or 5 blocks away, so I won’t have far to go tomorrow morning.

Shopping

Welcome to my first full day in Bangkok! Today started with my first ride on the Skytrain. Ohmygoodness, the air conditioning on the Skytrain is so, so, so nice! I seriously considered sitting there all day and admiring the city through the window. But instead, I decided to reward myself with a second trip on the train after checking out Chatuchak Market. Yes, it was 7:30 am and already hot. I was rather terrified to find out how hot it might get around noon.

95% of the market is actually “indoors.” Not inside a building, but squeezed into tiny long passageways lined by shops on either side and shaded by some sort of temporary roof. This part of the market was hot, stuffy, and claustrophobic. Despite the early hour, people were already crowding in, so every step I took, I brushed up against at least one or two people as we tried to squeeze by each other without knocking anything or anyone over. The atmosphere was a bit nightmarish, but looking at knick-knacks and people-watching kept me from worrying about what we would do in that maze if someone yelled fire.

I aimlessly wandered for a couple of hours, and bought no souvenirs. I did, however, buy 1) iced coffee (In a bag! I love coffee in a bag!), 2) frosty coffee (Like a coffee slushy, and sold to me by girls wearing Hello Kitty clothes and ears!), 3) freshly squeezed OJ, and 4) a banana, strawberry, and orange smoothie. Can you tell I was thirsty?

It was somewhere around 1 pm when I left the market and hurried back onto the air-conditioned train. I took several photos of the market, but none featuring me. Why? Because after the heat of the market, I looked like I had been hanging out fully-clothed in a sauna. I was flushed and sweaty, with wet hair, and a fine layer of Bangkok gray grime covering my skin. I probably also had a glazed, vacant look in my eyes from a combination of the heat and the chaos. It was nice to sit down on the Skytrain and take a clean, cool breath.

Although I was tired, it was still too early to call it a day. So I got off the train near a shopping mall, Siam Paragon, near my apartment that my guidebook told me was air-conditioned. And it was! Hurray! I now know where to go in a temperature emergency.

The mall was having a special “Royal Orchid Paradise” show, featuring a lobby filled with different styles of orchids. Very beautiful—I took a lot of photos. The mall is pretty huge, and very westernized with restaurants like McDonalds and Auntie Anne’s. The entire bottom floor of the mall is a huge food court and grocery store. Since it was lunchtime, there were tons of people milling about, so I will have to go back again at a different time of day to get a good look around.

On the top floor of the mall is a movie theater. Of course, Spiderman 3 is currently the main film showing. Tickets are more expensive on the weekend, so I’ll probably go back during the week and watch it. I was intrigued by the option to buy a “couch seat” in the theater… I may splurge on the ticket just to find out if this is as comfy as it sounds!

My next stop was neighboring Central World mall. This is advertised as the largest mall in Bangkok (or maybe Thailand… not sure). It was okay, but I liked Siam better. The only thing Central World had going for it was a Toys R Us (with adorable wooden sushi toys that I almost bought).

I stopped at the 7/11 branch near my apartment for a snack (yogurt with a mystery fruit), then went home, and collapsed.

My Apartment

(Written May 19, 7 am)

So I have a room! Not sure what the mix-up was, but it has been corrected, and I am no longer homeless. My room is a studio containing a queen or maybe king-sized bed, chairs, side tables, desk, sink, lots of storage, a TV (mostly just the Discovery Channel and CNN in English), a small fridge (which I am very thankful for), and a bathroom. Also, AC that works beautifully!

Of course, when I took a shower last night, the hot water didn’t work. So I ended up taking a freezing shower in the freezing room I had created. Maybe I’ll get lucky and not catch a terrible cold right before my internship starts on Monday.

After getting my room, but before taking the shower, I went for a walk around my neighborhood. Almost everyone spoke at least a few words of English (hello, thank you, etc.), which is good, since I have not yet taken the time to study my Thai phrasebook. After wandering the streets and peering at the mystery foods being prepared on the street carts, I found a grocery store! With real food. Like chocolate. I will definitely be exploring street food as much as possible, but it’s nice to have somewhere to go to get staples. I left with grapes, milk, toilet paper, and water. No chocolate—how strong am I?

Note to self in future: when there is a sale, but it requires buying 6 huge bottles of water, then carrying them home in 95 degree 95 percent humidity weather, don’t be so cheap. I was really exhausted by the time I got back to my apartment with that load. But people were right about the tap water here. I haven’t tasted it, but it definitely smells funny, so I’ll likely be paying for bottled water for the rest of the summer.

After my shower, I collapsed in bed, watched a little TV, then fall asleep around 6:30. A little earlier than my goal of 8, but the walk really was the final straw. This morning, I woke up at 6:30 and feel much better, although still a bit disoriented.

Now I’m off to check out Chatuchak Market—the all-weekend flea market at the last stop of this branch of the Skytrain line.

Hello Bangkok!

(Written at 12:30 pm)

My driver got lost. When he finally got unlost (thanks in part to the map I printed off—me—the non-Bangkok native!), I discovered that the apartment has no record of a room reservation for me. After 20 hours or more in transit, somehow I lost my ability to be surprised by this news. So I am not surprised, but I am hoping that this will be cleared up sooner rather than later.

But I’m in Bangkok! Which is very cool. Although it’s not, because it’s 93 degrees and steamy! But the steamy feels good right now on my dry airplane-circulated-air skin.

So I’m sitting here in the apartment lobby waiting for 23 minutes until the staff at my place of employment return from lunch, at which point the receptionist (whose name is Poi and is super nice and has visited Niagara Falls) can call and try to figure things out. To while away the time, here is the good side of my stay in Thailand so far.

Thailand has cool random decorations! There were murals all over the walls inside the airport. As I zoomed down the moving sidewalk, I even saw an employee with a tiny little brush standing on a stepstool brushing the mural. I really wanted to take a photo of this most important of airport occupations, but the sidewalk zipped me away before I could grab my camera.

There are also random statues and temple roof arch things sprinkled on walls and over streets. It makes everything seem a little more decorative. It’s also an interesting contrast to the skyscrapers that are empty and falling into rapid disrepair and the exit ramps that are either unfinished or abandoned stretching into nowhere. Both kinds of structures are interspersed with new, modern, beautiful metal and glass buildings, which all seem to be placed at the builder’s whim, with no thought to creating a skyline or zoning or blocking other buildings’ views.

Bangkok has tons of taxis, and one particular company has hot neon pink cabs! They almost make the less common royal purple taxis look washed out in comparison. I also saw several trucks with little shelves carrying rows and rows of pineapples. Maybe for fresh pineapple juice and smoothies in food stalls, preferably near me… yum. Oh, and people drive on the other side of the car and road here! I know that because I tried to get in the car on the driver’s side. My not very talkative driver probably thought this was funny, but didn’t say anything. But to make up for the lack of conversation, he played very bad American pop music on the radio for the entire hour it took us to get from the airport to the apartment.

My apartment (if in fact it is my apartment) looks nice! From my several trips around the neighborhood with my driver, the street looks just the right amount of busy. There are shops and food stalls, but no crazy throngs of pedestrians or terrible traffic jams. We passed the large park near me, which looks green and cool. And the street that runs parallel to mine is on a canal, which promises to be somewhat picturesque, and houses tons of embassies. Later today, I might stop by and say hi to someone from the Netherlands, or maybe Zimbabwe.

The apartment building is a little bit off the street, and the entrance is guarded by a tiny little man stationed in a guard booth whose job it is to push a heavy wooden sliding gate open when a car wants to drive through. He would probably have a lot to talk about with the mural brushing guy in the airport. Past the gate is a pond with big orange koi, a parking lot, and a little lobby on the ground floor with wood paneling, a flowery grandfather clock, and an annoying ticking, clucking cuckoo clock. I hate those things.


I also see an embroidered portrait of the King (I believe) and a gold fresco featuring elephants piled haphazardly on top of one another. I’m not sure yet what else is on this floor (it looks like there may be other rooms) or what the rooms upstairs look like. But I hear the receptionist in the background calling about me now, so hopefully everything will work out for the best! I’ll keep you (my breathless audience) posted.

Airports

(Written at 6:30 am)

After a frantic day packing following my last final (I will never forgive you for what you put me through, Remedies class), I am in Hong Kong!

The flight was a long thirteen hours. After hanging at the SF airport for a couple hours, I boarded my Cathay Pacific flight and was lucky enough to get a middle seat. Grrr. At least my seatmates weren’t too bad. The aisle seat was taken by a tiny gentleman who only spoke Chinese and slept through most of the trip. A teenage kid occupied the window seat. He was wearing a black and white striped baggy sweater, too much jewelry, and an iPod that may have been surgically attached to his head.

The teenager also slept most of the way. And not to be overly nosy, but that kid didn’t get up ONCE during the entire flight, and I found that quite weird. Have you ever gone thirteen hours without peeing? I didn’t think so.

So, the pros and cons of flying Cathay Pacific.

Pros: (1) A huge movie and television selection. I watched something on the Discovery channel, a few cartoons, the end of Aladdin, some news, a couple feel-good movies with famous people that I’ve forgotten the names of, and of course, Music & Lyrics, despite having seen it just a couple days ago. I now have the opening song (and dance) re-stuck in my head. (2) Excellent food. Dinner was rice and seafood in a mango cream sauce with raspberry cheesecake for dessert. Snacks available at any time from any flight attendant station included honey roasted peanuts (a necessary staple of any airline) and Tim Tams, which E got my hooked on. Several hours after dinner, we were also given the option of having “fancy” ramen. Not bad for instant noodles. Our second meal was breakfast, which wasn’t as fabulous as dinner, but was still tasty: scrambled eggs with basil, sausage, yogurt, and fruit. Yummy. (3) Cute free stuff. Socks and a toothbrush and tiny tube of toothpaste—whoo-hoo!

Cons: (1) Cathay Pacific planes are built for tiny Asian people. My knees were actually touching the seat in front of me, so every time the person in that seat shifted, my knees were poked. Ouch. I’m sore.

Hong Kong airport is very modern, with shiny silver angled ceilings and huge windows. My first glimpse of land as we touched down was a small green island, following by tiny rocks islands sprinkled around the edge of the big island that is the Hong Kong airport. Unfortunately, since I arrived here so early in the morning, all the shops in the airport are closed, so I won’t get a chance to check out the kitschy Chinese knick-knacks. Maybe on my way back in July.

I just discovered that the airport has free wireless—very civilized! My new Pakistani friend tells me that wireless access is free in airports all over the world except in the US. I can see the impact our country had on him in the five months he studied there. Now I have just a few minutes until my connecting flight boards and I get to go back to sleep!

Beaches

Yesterday, my boyfriend, dog, and I drove to Half Moon Bay to hang out at the beach for a while. The first few beaches we stopped at had large no-dogs-allowed signs, but we finally stumbled on a very secluded beach that had no signs and several other off-leash dogs. Although I was not impressed with the city of Half Moon Bay (if there even is a city... we never really found one) the beach was perfect. Soft white sand, wind, waves, boats, sun. And watching the puppy play with other dogs was extremely entertaining, as always.

I don't know what the beaches in Bangkok are like. Although the city borders the Gulf of Thailand, I think most people go further South (perhaps away from the city's pollution) to enjoy the sand and water. When I'm not at work or exploring the city, I hope to hang out at the beach as much as possible--I had forgotten until yesterday how much of a water baby I am!

Sublease

Yesterday, I received a check for nearly $1500 from the guy who's going to sublease my apartment over the summer.

Yesterday, I accidentally ripped said check in half.

Oy.

But it turns out my bank people are very friendly and allowed me to tape the check and deposit it.

However, I don't believe the same policy applies to cash. Thank goodness for rip-free credit cards!

Departure Imminent

10 days until I leave for Thailand!

I am super excited and can't wait to see Bangkok out the plane window.

Visa, Guidebook, Map

The lovely USPS and Thai Consulate in LA rushed my passport through, and I now have my visa for Thailand! It's gold and shiny and fills a whole page of my passport. If I end up visiting Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and who knows where else this summer, I may need extra pages in my passport to hold all the visas!

I also received a Thai guidebook and map of Bangkok, courtesy of my "in" at B&N (thanks Mom!). If I'm reading the map correctly, my apartment in Bangkok lies just north of a huge park, which will hopefully be a nice cool escape from the weather. Most of the buildings in my neighborhood are consulates. I'm not sure yet where the shopping, night life, and other mainstays of a typical city are located, since the map only lists major buildings and attractions.

I haven't yet cracked open the guidebook, as I'm afraid it will distract me from my studies. I don't mind, since this way I can spend a good part of my 16-hour flight studying up on the country. I also don't have plans for my first two days in Thailand, so I may spend it jetlagged, exhausted, and reading about places to go for the following 8 weekends.