Cambodia, The Breeze, Patpong

(Monday-Wednesday, June 11-13)

June 11: At work today, I discovered that our IP partner is going to Cambodia for a film project and wants an intern to accompany him! As the other interns already have plans for the weekend, and I’ve been trying to decide whether I wanted to go to Cambodia or Laos this weekend, I quickly jumped at the opportunity, and asked if I could go. And he said yes!!! So I’m going to Cambodia this weekend!!! To celebrate, I went to see “Oceans 13” after work. It started a bit slowly, then got exciting. George Clooney still has it!

June 12: Very tired after work, so stayed home after work today.

June 13: I went to the US embassy this morning to get extra pages put in my passport (I don’t quite need them yet, but I will soon). Instead of putting the pages at the end, they stuck them in the very center, so one set of stamps for Israel is at the beginning of my passport, and the other is at the end. Oh well, so much for chronological order.

After work, our IP partner took us out for a fancy dinner at “The Breeze,” a restaurant on top of a hotel down by the river. The restaurant was beautiful, the view was beautiful, there were fireworks over the river, the food was tasty, and the wine flowed freely. We all told our life stories, so I feel I know the other interns a little better now. After dessert, we grabbed a couple taxis and went to the famous Patpong red-light district. First stop: the market. Nothing special here, I didn’t buy anything. Second stop: my first strip club! Hard to know where to look in a place like this, especially since we were seated about 3 feet from the pole-dancers... A little known fact about this club: all or nearly all of the dancers were once men. Hmm, it’s amazing what surgery can do these days.

Third and final stop: the bar our IP partner owns shares in. No pole-dancing here, just a TV, booze, and chatting. As we were all falling over by this point, we abandoned the nightlife scene early (it was about 1 am) and took taxis home for the evening.

Doi Suthep and Shopping

(Written Sunday, June 10)

I woke up around 5 this morning in an attempt to get to Doi Suthep Temple (in the hills above Chiang Mai) by 6, when the monks gather with their alm bowls to collect offerings. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized a side effect of traveling during the low season is that there are very few other tourists to travel with. This makes transportation much more expensive. I waited for almost an hour at the truck taxi for at least one other person to join us before I gave up, and paid an exorbitant price to travel up to the temple by myself. While I was waiting at the taxi, I did see some monks with their alms bowls. But by the time I reached the temple, they had already gone. Oh well.

Doi Suthep is very grand. There are 300+ steps leading up to it that I was determined to climb, although there is a kind of lift that people can take if they can’t stomach the ascent. Two curvy green dragon-snake creatures line the top of the staircase, and there were girls dressed in traditional village garb sitting on the stairs looking mournful in the hopes of receiving some handouts.

I made it to the top, then explored the temple. Very pretty, but my favorite part was seeing Chiang Mai from above. It was just a little foggy, but I could still see the city, and the view was beautiful. After admiring the view and temple, I headed back down the stairs, had some pad thai for an early lunch, then got a ride back home (it’s always cheaper to go downhill!).

I briefly went to my hotel, then headed out to visit more temples. A tuk-tuk driver suggested that I let him drive me around to a few temples, then take me to a few good souvenir stores he knew. I would have refused this offer since it sounded sketchy, but I had run into two of the other interns last night who had paid for this exact trip, and said it was well worth it, so I agreed. After the temples, my driver first took me to a silk store. I got to see the silk being turned into thread and cloth in the back (very cool) before being led to the store. Beautiful, but expensive! Next up was a lacquerware store. It was interesting to see the lacquerware being painted, but I don’t find lacquerware particularly attractive, so I didn’t buy anything. Lastly was a jewelry store specializing in jade. The store itself was more impressive than the jewelry—there were fish tanks through the main room filled with sharks! Very swanky.

The last thing on my list for the day was to take a look at the Sunday market, which I found a little more interesting than the night market, especially in terms of the foods offered. I ate coconut rice with mango (YUM) and a chicken kabob, and admired the tiny soup-filling leaf boats and other delicious delicacies. I didn’t buy any souvenirs there, but did find a few gifts in antique shops nearby.

This weekend was fun, but I’m ready to do some relaxing back at work now!

Chiang Mai Temples and Night Market

(Friday and Saturday, June 8-9)

After work today, I went home to pack for Chiang Mai, then took the subway to the train station. The same guard was there, and he took me to my train, found my car, and made sure I was in my seat before he left. Great service!

The train was actually pretty comfortable. In each car, there’s a long middle walkway with seats on both sides. The seats are arranged in pairs facing each other. Each set of two seats turns into one bed, while a second bed is located above these seats, and is tucked away into the ceiling until needed. The train was smooth enough that I was able to read without getting motion sick, for which I was very grateful.

Of course, just as I was hoping no one would sit across from me so I could put my feet up, a guy sits there. And he was bizarre… maybe crazy. He was a Thai teenager, who kept giggling incessantly as he listened to his iPod, which was turned up loud enough that I could clearly the words of each awful pop song. He had longish hair that just touched his soldiers, and he kept twirling the same piece of hair over and over and over again. Periodically, he would stop to (grossness ahead) wipe his hands on the curtain hanging over the window (which was far from clean) then smell his hands and laugh some more. VERY strange. He also appeared to be with two old white guys who were sitting opposite us. He kept yelling, “OKAY, JIM?!” to one of them and “Jim” would answer, “Ha ha, okay.” Then the kid would ask for money to go buy water, food, etc. VERY, VERY weird.

Needless to say, I asked for my seat to be turned into a bed at the earliest possible time. So around 8 pm, a man comes and rearranges the seats, covers them with a thin mattress, covers the mattress with a sheet, gives me a pillow and blanket, and arranges a second curtain between the bed and the middle walkway to give me some privacy. I found this arrangement very cozy, although a bit warm, since the AC was located outside my little den. With the small light inside, I read for a while, then went to sleep. Although I had some trouble falling asleep due to the train stopping at stations and occasionally lurching unexpectedly, when I did fall asleep, I slept for a good 8-9 hours.

Breakfast was a vastly overpriced very plain sandwich and coffee, after which I read some more. At one station we stopped at, I was surprised to feel the train backing up a few yards. Then we started up again and I thought nothing of it. However, when our time of arrival in Chiang Mai came and went, I asked the men sitting next to me if they knew why we were late and what time we should get to the city. They informed me that our engine had broken down, and we had backed up to put a new one on the front. So the delay had cost us 2 hours! I was very frustrated, since I knew I had a limited time in Chiang Mai anyway. So I sat there and sulked a bit, which was quite fun.

Finally, around 11:30 am (we should have arrived at 9:30), we were in Chiang Mai. At the door to the train station I was bombarded by at least 30 people asking “Tuk-tuk? Songtaew? [truck taxi] Where you go? Where you go, lady?” I actually closed my eyes to wade through them.

Once in the parking lot, I followed a calmer person to his truck taxi. After collecting a few more passengers, we set off toward the main city. 20 minutes later, I was dropped off a few meters from my hotel, located in the northeast corner of the city, very close to the moat.

The owner was sitting in the lobby of the hotel when I walked in and exclaimed over how late I was. I laughed, and told him about the train. He showed me to my room, which was plain but very nice. Comfortable beds, a refrigerator, great AC, hot water, clean, with no bugs: these are my only requirements for lodging in Thailand!

I was restless after my long trip and had already lost valuable sight-seeing time, so I dropped my stuff in my room, and left right away to check out Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is a little like Bangkok, only a little quieter and conveniently surrounded by a moat, so it’s difficult to become lost. Chiang Mai also has more temples than Bangkok, and I was very eager to see as many of them as I could.

Chiang Mai temples have many things in common: ornate statues and gold things and glittery things and carvings and paintings and Buddhas and bells and hundreds of colors! But despite these similarities, each temple manages to be unique in some way, which is the reason I saw nearly 10 of them today, and took a shockingly large number of photos of each.

After walking around for hours, I was exhausted, and returned to my hotel for a shower and nap. A peek in the mirror showed that I was already a little sunburned on my neck and shoulders. The humidity and heat don’t feel as bad here as they do in Bangkok, but the intensity of the sun is fiercer. Unfortunately, sunscreen doesn’t stand a chance against how much I sweat in Thailand, so I’ll have to live with whatever odd tan I get as a result of this weekend’s excursions.

Once evening rolled around, I went to check out the night market. It wasn’t anything special—just a night version of Bangkok’s Chatuchak. The only thing I got was a t-shirt and a bowl of “Kao Soi,” Chiang Mai’s famous noodle dish, which is a coconut beef curry with crunchy noodles sprinkled on top. It was delicious!

Evenings in Bangkok

(Written Thursday, June 7)

Here’s a run-down of the happenings after hours (e.g. after work) this week.

June 5 (Tuesday): Go to club. Club was dark, loud (hip-hop music blaring accompanied by music videos), and selling expensive booze. Pushy guy kept asking me to kiss him—ugh, hate that! Verdict: I think I will be avoiding the club/bar scene here from now on. I’m more of a homebody anyway, and can play loud hip-hop if I really want to in the comfort of my own apartment.

June 6 (Wednesday): Head straight to free margaritas. They really are free! Many margaritas, lots of salt, and nachos (my first really non-Thai food since I got here). Yummy, and I plan to go back again next Wednesday.

June 7 (Thursday): Went to the train station to get my ticket to Chiang Mai for tomorrow evening. A guard there chatted with me and suggested we hang out sometime. He was sweet, but I said I was too busy with work. Second man-encounter this week!

Beach Lounging, Mopeds, and Karaoke!

(Written Saturday, June 2)

Ugh. I think I have a case of mild food poisoning. Both I and another intern have not felt well all day. I probably was careless and drank tap water or ate shrimp—two things people tell you not to do on the streets in Thailand. Anyway, it’s not terrible and I’ll survive, I just won’t get to enjoy the tasty Thai food for a day or two.

I am very happy that I feel bad on a day with no plans rather than an activity-filled day like yesterday. Most of the day I spent just lounging. I read magazines for a few hours this morning in our room, then ordered some fresh fruit juice at our resort’s slightly overpriced beachside restaurant, then read for a few more hours on the sand. I’m starting to get an odd tan that ends in an abrupt line at the top of my shoulders, since I’ve been wearing a short sleeve shirt with the sleeves tucked under to keep cool.

Around mid-afternoon, one of the interns came back to the resort with the moped she had rented for the day in tow. And yes, she let me take a ride with her! I was a bit wobbly at first, but got the hang of it when I realized how similar it was to riding a bike, albeit a heavy bike that has the capacity to go FAST. We decided to head up the street to find dinner (I was in search of some plain rice or soup), but we wanted to get the most use out of the moped that we could before having to return it, so I rode the bike up (just me), and it is so much fun! Everyone on the island rides them: tourists, locals, and even little kids. There don’t seem to be any laws regarding their use here.

The restaurant where we ended up eating was beautiful. The main eating room was a sort of large covered patio, and several tables and chairs were also located outside on the sand. Our table was about 15 feet from the ocean, and lit only by candles. I had yummy soup, and we listened with much amusement to the girls singing karaoke in the room behind us.

Later that evening, we returned to the restaurant to see some sort of fire show, but found out it had been held early, and we arrived five minutes after it ended. Disappointed, we ordered a drink from the bar, then did some karaoke of our own! This was my first real karaoke experience, and it was hilarious. We sang a song from “Grease,” then a requisite Britney Spears song. The Grease song was by far the bigger success—I’m not a fan of Britney and didn’t know the song that well, so it was a bit of a flop. But we didn’t really care. The Thai people there still cheered for us.

After drinks and karaoke, all three of us rode the moped together back to the resort without anyone falling off once! Even Thai people will be impressed when we tell them that.

Monks

I haven't posted a photo in a bit, so while everyone waits breathlessly for the rest of my beach entries, here is the monk I made friends with last week (same day I saw the rainbow).

Notice how the first thing you see is a baby monk, but if you look closely, there's an even tinier monk trying to hide in front of him. He is displaying typical chameleon-monk training. Monk Code of Conduct Rule 492: if you're not wearing your orange robes, try to wear something that is at least mostly orange.

Since I knew his secret, this little guy couldn't hide from me long, and I hope to bring him back to the US in my suitcase for someone's 18th birthday present.

Koh Chang Arrival

(Written Thursday, May 31)

I’m at the beach!

Our bus left Bangkok around 8 am this morning. We took a 1^st class bus (there are VIP, 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd class buses), so it was new and clean with AC. However, once again I noticed that things are built for shorter people in Asia: my knees hit the back of the seat in front of me. The ride took about 5 hours, and we only stopped once at an outdoor restaurant/convenience store about an hour and a half into our trip. I was very glad I bought an iPod before coming to Thailand, as I listened to it almost non-stop while I attempted (but mostly failed) to doze.

We arrived at the ferry dock around 1 pm. Koh Chang was clearly visible from the mainland, but it took the ferry about 30-45 minutes to cross. My ability to judge distances over water is nonexistent—I had guessed it would take about 10 minutes. This is what comes of growing up in a land-locked state!

After arriving on the island (where I did a little arrival dance), a bunch of people from the ferry and the five of us interns hailed a truck taxi to drive us to our hotel. We had no idea where or how far the place was, but we gave the driver the hotel name and he nodded and took off. These taxis have 2 long parallel boards for seats (no seat belts) in the back and a metal roof to toss luggage onto. The truck is open on the sides and on the back. After squeezing 12 people onto the seats, there was still one passenger who needed a ride: he ended up standing on the back of the truck holding onto the roof! This was slightly terrifying because the truck went fast, the ride was long (~20-30 minutes), and the roads were steep and windy. The only thing keeping me from feeling sick from all the switchbacks (taken at high speeds that threatened to tip the entire truckload of people over) was the excitement of being on an island! in Thailand! surrounded by ocean!

After a harrowing ride, the truck dropped us off near our hotel. “Near” wasn’t quite near enough for me—we ended up having to walk for 10 or 15 minutes with our luggage and despite being on an island, the weather is still rather beastly. But when we arrived at our resort, we were thrilled to discover that it is beautiful! The buildings are all located in the center of a lagoon. Palm trees surround the water, with dramatic mountainous peaks in the background, and glimpses of the ocean that lies directly next to the resort between the trees and buildings.

Unfortunately, our experience getting settled in a hotel room didn’t quite compare to the beauty outside. First, the staff tried to put 3 of us in a 2-person room (with only 2 twin beds!). It took a lot of exclaiming and gesturing before they agreed to show us a different room. This room was better: a double and a twin. We moved our stuff in, but hours later when we were on the verge of going to sleep, the air conditioner started leaking water all over my bed (the twin)! We called the front desk and a workman came and made the mess even worse in his attempt to fix whatever was broken, so they moved us to a third room. This was the mirror image of the second, but with an AC that didn’t drip water. At least, it hasn’t yet.

But before going to bed, and experiencing room change number 2, we went and walked on the beach! To get to the beach from our room, we cross a short bridge across the lagoon, walk past the reception desk, and we’re on the sand. The ocean here is perfect. The sand is white and powdery, the water is blue-green and warm, there are pretty shells dotting the beach, palm trees divide the sand from the grass, and there are no condos or tall buildings to obscure the view (the resort buildings are all small and placed slightly back from the sand, often behind a row of palm trees). Our stretch of beach is in the center of a U-shaped piece of coast. The view to the left: the mountainous peaks we saw when we first arrived. The view straight ahead: the big, wide ocean, with 3 or 4 tiny islands on the horizon. The view to the right: a long expanse of beach ending in a rocky point at the top of the U.

On the street right outside our resort are a few shops: a place to rent motorcycles, two open-air restaurants, a place for laundry, and a massage store. There are little clusters of shops located all along this main road, but they are separated by expanses of wilderness. It’s a short walk to the cluster of stores down the road from us, but the others are far enough away that we would have to flag down transportation to get there. We ate dinner at one of the restaurants by the resort, and it was cheap and tasty. We then put on swimming suits and took a dip in the ocean…the temperature is perfect! Cooler than the air, which is still hot and sticky here, but warm enough to stay in the ocean for any length of time without feeling chilly. There are waves, but they are mostly swells, with a few baby waves that crash just enough to make them fun to jump through.

P.S. There are geckos on the ceiling of our room. I think their little sticky-toed feet are creepy.

Thailand Beach

I just got back from the beach! I'm exhausted, so will post all about it later. Meanwhile, here's a picture of the beautiful place we stayed on the island of Koh Chang!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.