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!