Hot hot heat.
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Bangkok,
Thailand
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
came back to the internet cafe tonight to post up some of my photos and thought i might as well make a new entry too. i've also posted some older ones from the last day in tokyo.
i find it sort of difficult writing entries directly at the internet cafe because you're always on the lookout about how much time you're spending, etc.. so i always forget to mention a bunch of things. here are a few i forgot yesterday:
-after saying goodbye to our new friend gabriel, he headed down to the south of thailand on behalf of his NGO to help with some of the tsunami relief work. we will probably see him again when we return at the end of our trip in april.
-while waiting for him at his office, i was looking through a local english language newspaper and a headline said that 50,000 people were likely to lose their jobs in the affected areas due to a huge drop in tourism since then. because of this, jess and i are thinking we might head down there as originally planned at the end of march after all.. we'll see. i used to wonder if it was inappropriate to be there right now, but when 50,000 people might be laid off because of lack of tourists, it makes me rethink that.
-when jess and i arrived at gabriel's uncle's house, we were fed some beer and then shipped off to a nearby thai massage place where we were treated for 2 hours to the most heavenly massage ever - a nice way to end a day of air travel! thai massage is about pressure points and deep stretching (which felt good like doing yoga but with someone strecthing your body for you).
-i was wrong, or rather, incomplete about the spirit houses (mentioned last entry). this is what the lonely planet guidebook says: they are built to "encourage spirits to live independently from the family, but to remain comfortable so as to bring good fortune to the site. the spirit houses are typically ornate wat-like structures set on a pedestal in a prominent section of the yard. food, drink and furniture are all offered to the spirits to ease daily life." even our guesthouse has a spirit house in the courtyard.
-here in thailand, religion is very much tied to everything. buddhism is the most popular religion (except in the southernmost areas near malaysia) and you will see signs of it everywhere.. for example, many cabs will have buddhist symbols and statues inside. it seems that many people still regard the monarchy as divine (which of course i think is bs) and you will see evidence of their love for the king here too - his picture graces many a business or store wall, appear inside cabs, etc., etc. say anything bad about the king and you're in big trouble.
-i am very mosquito-bitten. already.
-bangkok is very, very polluted and congested. smog and noise pollution galore, and crazy traffic. despite this, there is a certain magic to the chaos of the city.
today, jess and i did a lot of wandering around - walked for a long time and passed through chinatown, various little alleys where farangs (what the thai call foreigners) rarely go, through many interesting little and not-so-little markets everywhere, and then took the ferry (used like a bus) up the river to the very last stop for the ride, even though we had no idea where we were. we got out and randomly discovered a bustling market in front of us where everything from food to clothes to household odds and ends were sold. i bought a shirt for about $2.75 (CAD) and earrings for 75 cents while jessica walked away with a seemingly good quality fake gucci watch for about $11.00 and some earrings.. and we both got delicious pad thai to take away for dinner for about 75 cents each. we then attempted to board the ferry again and discovered we missed the last one by about an hour, so we tried to figure out another way to get back from this very non-touristy area where almost nothing was written in english.. got some help from a woman who told us which bus to take to get back, so for 8 baht (20 cents), we took an almost 45 minute bus ride back to the centre of town - that's how far out we had ventured.
food! did i mention yet that the food here is excellent? i love thai food and we've been engorging ourselves with lots of it. we've mostly been eating at street stalls where i point at the food (or don't point) and say "mangsawilat?" (vegetarian?).
tomorrow, we are going to check out some of the wats (wats are like temples where monks live, study and worship) and then head on a long 12-hour train ride in the evening to chiang mai in the north of thailand (for only about $16 each, 2nd class!), followed immediately by a 3-4 hour bus ride to chiang rai (even farther north), then staying the night.. then hopping on another bus to the border and cross into laos the next day. till laos, sawadee kha!
