Beachtime Before School

Trip Start Oct 24, 2005
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Trip End Ongoing


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Wednesday, November 16, 2005

After our long voyage here, we spent a few days wandering around Bangkok: visiting the Royal Palace & different wats (temples), taking advantage of the fantastic transit system, and exploring neighborhoods other than our own. The wats here are incredible -- every square inch of them is covered in jewels (imagine the work that went into that!). The first major wat we visited is part of the royal palace. It's named Wat Phra Kaew, and it houses the "Emerald Buddha," which is quite important to the Thais. It was initially covered in cement (or some material like it) to hide its worth. Many centuries ago, it was dropped, and its encasement broke away to reveal its "real self": probably jadeite. The statue was stolen by Laotian invaders, and later recovered by the Thais. B/c this Buddha is so sacred to the Thais, we were unable to take photos of it. The palace itself was under construction (how many times can this happen to me? First Space Mountain, then the Taj Mahal...), so unfortunately, we didn't get to see the inside at all. After that, we cruised over to another wat: Wat Pho. This wat houses the world's largest reclining Buddha, which, as you can imagine, was huge. The visits to the temples were quite interesting, as we were able to see the Thai religious customs. One thing we were forewarned about (by our handy dandy travel guide) is to never let your feet face the Buddha (most people sit in the temples and face the Buddha), as it is considered disrespectful. Also, the Thais are more or less expected to contribute to the wat every week (could be in the form of food given to the monks, or money). Arlo's Twin
Arlo's Twin
 Thai boys are expected to enter into the monastery at least once in their lives -- in the past they were expected to commit to three months' service, but it has been relaxed a bit, and currently, most of them serve only a week.

I suppose that's enough about religion, eh? As I mentioned, the transit system here is fabulous. There are buses, of course, but they also have a skytrain and a brand new metro. As of yet, I haven't been on a Bangkok bus or the metro yet, b/c the skytrain is so great. It's an elevator train, so you are able to see all the skyscrapers and the Bangkok landscape as you ride, which is a great way to see the city. It's terribly cheap, clean, and ultra-efficient. And best of all, we are just down the street from one of the stops, so it's incredibly convenient. One other mode of transit we've used is the river taxis. Bangkok is divided by a river, so they have river taxis (boats) which ferry people both downstream, as well as across the river. Again, very cheap, and (at least for me!) a completely new way to get from here to there.

Aside from exploring the city, we took a few days off to relax before school started and headed to the beach. After much deliberation, we chose Ko Samet (an island off the southeastern coast of Thailand), largely b/c it isn't too far from the city (about 3 hours, plus or minus). We got off to a decent start, hitting all our connections at just the right times, but once we got to the dock to head over to the island, we got a bit held up -- we ended up waiting about an hour for the boat we were on to leave the mainland. Ko Samet
Ko Samet
 Upon arrival, we decided to hoof it to our chosen accommodations, but of course, we didn't realize how far that would actually be. Sweaty, tired, and defeated, we eventually gave up b/c we didn't have much daylight left. We turned around and decided on a beach we had already passed. We (again) settled for a place we didn't much care for, and then hit the (nice and warm!) water. We found some great lodgings the next morning, and made our way to the beach, where we each splurged for an hour-long massage (200B = $5). We spent the rest of our days on the beach, reading the course materials, and cruising the island on rented motorcycles. It was fun and relaxing, and hard to head back, but we had to....

On the boat back to the mainland, we met an English "bloke" named Phillip, who accompanied us all the way back to Bangkok. Phillip is an Indian who now lives (almost) in London, working for a global non-profit. He's a rather fantastic "chap," and we had a lovely 11 hours with him.... Not really all by choice, as we had a bit of a fiasco on the way back: ended up on the slowest possible bus that made every stop it could. In other words, a journey that should have taken about four hours (max) took us nine! However, we were in good company, and not in a hurry, so it worked out fine.

Curiously enough, this Indian, transplanted to London, knows people in Madison, and is going to be there in February! Part of his non-profit is based in Madison, and so he works w/people we may very well know all the time (and will be in town for work). Ah, Madison -- everyone knows everyone (apparently, in the world!) somehow!

This email is already way too long, so I think I'll pause here and let y'all digest for a bit. I'll try to write sooner from now on (I have a little time tonight, so I thought I'd squeeze it in).

Hope all is well (and not too snowy!). Cheers!
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