Day 4 Bangkok

In case you were wondering, I got cut off from the 30 minutes I paid for Internet access at our hotel. I knew I was running out of time, so I published what I had before I got cut off.

Anyway, salsa dancing was great. In response to your question Barbie, everyone was dancing on 1, except for one girl who had the "On 2" t-shirt on. A few of the guys I danced with asked me if I was going to be at Fogo Vivo (a Brazilian churrascaria restaurant below the Hotel Intercontinental) tomorrow night, but I said I wasn't sure. It's not like I came to Bangkok to go salsa dancing... okay, who am I kidding. How many people can say they salsa danced in Bangkok!?

I got home late but was determined to get a jump on my Friday. Nanda and I had the lousy but free breakfast buffet at our hotel and headed out on the commuter bus on the river. The River Express is SO MUCH BETTER than transport on land! It's only 18B (about $0.50) and it gives you a totally different view of the city. In the past, the river was the main mode of transport, so much that Bangkok was called "Venice of the East." It's no Venice, but the river smells alot like the canals of Venice (or the Chicago River, actually!). Still, the boat is a lovely, breezy and economical way of getting around.

Nanda wanted to go get a massage at Wat Pho again (she's had about 2 massages a day so far), but I wanted to check out more. Though we get along great, I was starting to want some alone time, so it was perfect. I decided to head far south and go have afternoon tea at the famous Mandarin Oriental, the most decorated luxury hotel in Asia. The Oriental has its own ferry stop, and has had an illustrious past with many famous writers who have stayed there since it was established in the 30s. The Author's Wing is the oldest part of this building, and is now where their afternoon tea is served. The hotel is magnificent -- gorgeous tropical/Asian decor, beautiful silk embroidered uniforms on the beautiful staff (all young, I must say). I took lots of pictures. It reminded me of visiting the lovely hotels in Kauai when I was there with Yuka and Andy for their wedding research! When I walked into the Author's Wing, all I saw were Japanese girls chatting away with each other, eating scones and sipping English tea. Of course, I was adding to the demographic. I chose a seat right outside the library/study, and ordered the Oriental Tea Set complete with the Oriental tea specially selected for this hotel. For 880B (just $22, but this could pay for an entire day for a backpacker), I was able to enjoy a beautiful and delicious Asian-European fusion lunch.

I have been eating nonstop since I got here, but this was the first time I felt really full. I headed over to the Grand Palace and Emeral Buddha complex to walk off my Buddha belly. As always, I hire a guide to explain all the important sites to me. I ask so many questions that the guides usually never get rid of me after one hour, but I think they like that I am really paying attention to what they are saying (and that I actually understand them). I have to say that despite their efforts, I bet most English speakers don't understand more than 30% of what their guides say because their accents are so strong. My Thai guide at Wat Pho was pretty good but Mr. Yat at the Grand Palace has only been a guide for 1 year and his English was really hard to understand. The complex is HUGE and it was a relief that we got some cloud cover when my tour started (I thanked Mr. Yat for ordering the clouds but I'm not sure he understood my joke -- or he didn't think it was funny). Mr. Yat was a silly guy -- he made me pose in front of many statues like the statues themselves. There is one of me praying next to a mythical creature, and another one of me holding up the stupa (those spires where the ashes are stored) like the monkeys and demons behind me. Mr. Yat's job as tour guide seems to be about 50% taking photos of tourists in front of the sites. I kept telling him that I already know what I look like (plus I am not feeling too glamorous covered in DEET and SPF45, no makeup and hair in pigtails with a floppy hat) so I made him pose in some pictures with me. My overall impression of Thai Buddhism -- it is hard to separate their veneration of the Buddha and their king -- the king's throne and the Buddha's throne look pretty identical, and the king's image appears on almost every calendar I have seen in the shops and restaurants in town. It's really disturbing, actually.

After 2 hours on my 1 hour tour with Mr. Yat, I hurried back on the ferry to meet up with Nanda back at the hotel. Instead of taking on my nemisis, the tuk-tuk drivers, I walked with my Lonely Planet guidebook in hand and managed to find the hotel myself. This is much harder than you think, because there are almost no crosswalks here (you just cross when you feel like it, and when you think you are least likely to get run over) and the street signs are not always in the Roman alphabet. Nanda had left a message for me at the front desk, and said she was at the Patpong Night Market (this is the red light district). We decided to meet there for dinner, as my Friday night salsa place was halfway there.

I took a taxi to Patpong, and when I got there, it was a zoo. As soon as I got off, I heard Japanese everywhere. Yes, the sex tours from Japan are still going strong. The vendors cover almost every available square meter on the streets, selling everything from Gucci and Louis Vuitton flip flops to baby rabbits. There are tons of Ronald McBoyfriends around (older white guys with their Thai girlfriends). As Laura Fosco said, gross and double gross. I also came to the realization that EVERYONE thinks I am a local girl. Even though I am walking around in decidedly homely clothes (long black wrap skirt with a short-sleeve shirt) I had men looking me up and down all over the place. In addition to the heat and millions of food smells mixing with garbage smells, I was ready to retch.

I managed to find Nanda in this chaos, but she had been chatting it up with the owner of the cafe/bar where she had been sitting waiting for me so she got some recommendations on a great seafood restaurant nearby. She was excited to go there because it was PACKED with Thai patrons. Of course, when we got there, I realized it was actually packed with Japanese tourists. Still, the food was delicious and we were happy campers. Nanda was heading back to the hotel, but I was determined to figure out the famous SkyTrain (just built in 2004), navigate a transfer and make it to Fogo Vivo for some more salsa dancing. The SkyTrain is beautiful -- much prettier and cleaner than any public transportation system anywhere in the world! There were lots of school girls, office workers and other locals on board, so I felt like I was finally getting off the beaten path of the tourists. All this for $0.50! Too bad the SkyTrain is nowhere near the hotel we are staying at!

Dancing at Fogo Vivo was very nice -- it's a very chic upscale restaurant, and a clientele to match. There were quite a few people I recognized from La Rueda, so I danced with them first. The most frustrating thing is that as a newbie, no one asks me to dance, so I have to do all the asking. The white guys all think I am Thai until I ask them where I am from, and they seem shocked when they hear my American accent! The Thai people think I am Thai also, so none of the guys talk to me and the Thai girls seem indifferent to displeased with me. Mr. Paris from Africa and the girl from Minnesota were there from the night before, and I met a guy from Rome, one from Hawaii and another from New Jersey. The biggest surprise was that I met a 70 yr old guy who came to Bangkok to retire, and he is from Rogers Park! It turns out that he was active in the Thai Buddhist temple at Lawrence and Broadway. He was active in the swing dancing community, so he knows my friend Amy who I met at PaSamba. What a small world! Loana, tell Amy that Jimmy Z (he is an east coast swing dancer) says hello. He was really shocked to meet someone from Chicago, but I was more blown away that I met someone who used to live blocks from my place in Chicago AND is a fellow dancer. Crazy stuff.

This morning, Nanda went to the Chatuchak Market in the 'burbs to do some shopping. SHe wants to outfit her house in Umbria with Thai furniture, so she is going to do some serious shopping and ship an entire container full of stuff to Italy. I told her that I was going to do my own stuff again today (I can't buy anything until the very end) so we are meeting up at the hotel before heading to the airport to head to Chiang Mai at 7:30pm. Because Nanda has been to Chiang Mai before, she has a buddy named Nank who is a tuk-tuk driver and is basically a personal tour guide for her. She promises me that he will redeem my image of all tuk-tuk drivers. I am looking forward to meeting him! He has scouted out a guest house for us, as well as set up a dentist appointment for Nanda and registered her for her Thai massage course. Nanda said I can hire him for the day to do trips in the area while she is in class. I want to go trekking in the hill tribes and ride elephants and possibly go bamboo rafting (there might not be enough water to really go rafting though, because it's the dry season). I may do a cooking class in Chiang Mai. I have to figure out how I am getting back to Bangkok in time for my flight out to Siem Reap (where Angkor Wat is in Cambodia) on the 15th. I want to take the train back, possibly stopping in Sukhotai and Ayuttaya for more wat-watching (temple-watching). Can't get enough of these wats... well, ask me how I feel after 4 days of wat-watching in Angkor.

I called up Sam Noppadol, a Thai guy who was getting his MBA at Kellstadt in Chicago. Tiffer introduced me to him and his now wife for sushi when Sam was still in Chicago. He has now retured to Bangkok to run their family furniture business, and is married and a father of a 1 year old boy. Sam was very excited to hear from me, and he said he and his wife are planning to spend a day with me when I am available. I told him that I would call on the night of the 18th when I get back from Cambodia, and we plan to hang out on Sunday the 19th. How exciting!

I'm back in the backpacker ghetto of Khao San Road at my favoite internet shop/travel agency. I am going to head out for some lunch (and crickets, if I can find the bug lady) and then head back down the river to see Wat Arun, the last of the Bangkok Wat Trifecta. If I have time before meeting up with Nanda, I might have to get another massage at Wat Pho's massage school.

So that's it from Bangkok. Tomorrow, I'll write from Chiang Mai!

love,
asami :-)