Thailand

The last week of March through the first week of April was the break between the end of the old school year and the beginning of the new. It also coincides with the Japanese cherry (Sakura) blossoms blooming. I decided to skip the festival and head to the beach.

My friends Matt and Gail live in Bangkok (called Krung Thep by the locals). They work at an international school, he as an administrator and she as an English teacher. I met Gail when we both were teaching at St. John`s University. (At the time Matt was an administrator a school on Long Island--the same one they filmed School of Rock with Jack Black at.)

I arrived when Matt and Gail were out of town. The first day I ate the way-too-spicy shrimp curry Gail`s housekeeper left for me. Way-too-spicy.

The second morning started out ambitious. I got a haircut. I got a massage (Thai massages are strong, different from Japanese, but good). I went to the store. I bought 6 bags of chips and 4 bags of cookies.

Ok, I admit, it sounds kind of nuts. They had Lays chips in all sorts of flavors (Spicy Thai Seafood, Mayonaise and Seafood, Nori) and real oreos--regular, dark chocolate and peanut butter. Of course I went nuts. I can get Oreos in Japan, but only the regular kind. I also bought Herbal Essence Shampoo and my hair still smells good.

After lunch, I went to a mall dedicated to electronics, Pantip Plaza. I was in geek heaven. Seven floors of boutiques and stalls with a couple of larger stores all dedicated to electronic stuff. Crazy. Bootleg DVDs, CDs, and videogames were easy to be had--touts kept asking me in low whispers if I wanted porn--on the first two levels. The second and third level had many restaurants. (The system for the restaurants is one I have seen in Japan and America before. You buy meal tickets at a booth and then you give them to the people who give you the food.) There were a few restaurants (fast food really) on the first level, too; I just had to stop at A&W for a root beer. Not something I drank at home, but I had to have it there. Higher floors had a wide range of stores from boutiques dedicated to Apple or Dell products to camera stores to book stores on electronics to computer casing stores to keyboard stores... New and used, this place had everything. And I walked it too. Took about three hours. Geek heaven, as I said.

The taxi driver got lost getting me back to Matt and Gails. Usually, the main streets have names and the side streets are numbered (and called `soi`) going out from the city center. Matt and Gail`s house is in a subdivision that has side streets from the main street, but that main street is also a soi from a major road (highway?) heading north-east of of town; it is called Ramkhamhaeng . Matt and Gail`s particluar soi is Soi 17. The subdivision road is Soi 191 off of Ramkhamhaeng. The taxi driver didn`t realize I wanted him to take me 5km out of town, not just two. He took me to 17 where I called the guards at the subdivision (Gail lent me her phone--Thanks again Gail!!!) who set the driver straight. Unfortunately, he missed the onramp for the overhead express highway and it took 90 minutes to get home in the rush hour traffic.

The curry made not going out--even for one beer--seem like not a good idea that night.

The next day, I set out for the used book store. As you can guess, English books in Japan are expensive. I don`t think there is even a used English book store in Fukuoka. I was in the store for five seconds before I grabbed my first book. Which was immediately followed by three more. At that point in time, I was very worried. I had been in the store for only a couple of minutes and I already had a pile of books. Fortunately, that was just the new arrivals section and things went much slower as I moved away from them. Eventually, I settled upstairs in the genre sections and leisurely scanned the available books. It was not Powell`s by any means--it was about the size of a 7-Eleven, but it was still great. (I picked up `The Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao` by Junot Diaz. I read it while I was there, making it the first Pullitzer Prize winning book I read before it won the prize.)

I ended up with 15 books, spending only about US$70. Not a bad deal as far as I am concerned. Those same books would run me over Y300 in Japan (about US$300). I actually bought a cheap backpack to carry them in--I was totally unprepared.

After that, I got a pedicure and a manicure. And a facial. Why not? My toenails needed to be cut and a different girl did my fingernails. Actually, I should be clear here: The woman doing my toes was almost as tall as me (remember what a rarity that is in Asia) and was clearly not born a female. Nevertheless, she was a she. Also, the person who seemed to be a manager, and spoke better English, came up and flirted with me for a minute too. She also was not born a woman. While my nails were being done, another girl came in. She started to sell me on a facial, something I felt I didn:t really need. She had me when she dropped the price by half and batted her eyelashes--she was born a she and I fell for her tricks.

After that, I stopped by a mall that was full of upscale boutiques--Louis Vitton anyone? I felt so out of place with my bag of used books I immediately left. I had gone in to find postcards and it seemed obvious that I was in the wrong place.

After that, I decided to walk by Soi Cowboy. You remember that soi is a side street? But that is no number with it, Cowboy, it is a very English word. It got its name during the Vietnam War when the soldiers visited Bangkok. It is side street infamous for its bars and `entertainers.` I thought I would be safe if I went during the day to look. I was sort of right, it was three pm and just starting to come alive. Women were inviting me in for happy hour beers--I love happy hours that last for 3 hours--but not all the places had happy hours. Some still looked closed. All the neon lights were off, but from the look of how many there were, the place looks like the Las Vegas Strip or Times Square at night.

You know, I don`t if it is me, or because I come from prudish America, or both, but I always feel like I still a teenager who has walked into a place (like a bar) that maybe I shouldn`t have. It seems to me that everyone will see me as someone too young to be there. Because oif this I am shocked when they approach me like another customer. Of course, this shock often leads to laughter which, as the laughter is not on my side, leads to me fleeing faster than I came in.

I made another visit to Pantip Plaza and bought some DVDs. Then I hit the mall for a movie. A really bad movie, but a movie, nonetheless. It was less than US$5 (Y500), a real delight after Japan where I usually pay Y1800 (US$15) Before the movie, we all had to stand up for a lengthy period of respect for the king. Thailand still has a king althought the military overthrew the constitutional government. The people really seem to like king, wearing his colors at least once a week. (This reminded me of going to movies in Kenya where we had to stand before movies for the national anthem. The president at that time, Danial Arap Moi, was also prominently featured, but I know he was not loved by the majority of the people.)

My taxi driver home this night did not get me lost. He was not the first driver I stopped though. The first taxi I hailed did not want to take me out of town that far. Too far to go while gas is so expensive and too late to guarantee a fare back into town--or to wherever he lives. My taxi driver not only got me home, he offered to find me company for the evening as it was obvious I was alone...

However the next day, Mutsumi arrived from Japan and Matt and Gail came back from where they were visiting in the north. Mutsumi and I went for another massage before Matt and Gail got back. That night we had a nice dinner at an outdoor restaurant.

The next day, Mutsumi and I caught a bus to go south. We took a three hour ride to a small port to where we caught a ferry to go to Koh Samet, an island that is a national park. We checked into our room and immediately hit the beach.

Sounds nice, eh? Not really:

Wading deep into the water, I stepped on a sea urchin. Two spikes went into my little toe. That caused me to swear and flounder which caused Mutsumi to step on it (or another one) with one foot and then hop in pain onto it with her other foot. We limped slowly onto land and went to the hotel office.

They said there was no problem, other than the really intense pain we were feeling--of course, mine was nothing compared to Mutsumi`s--but I know how bad mine was. One of the hotel staff members came over with a Coke bottle and started hitting the black dots that marked where the spines went into our feet. The idea was to break the spikes into little pieces that dont as much and can be more easily disposed of by our bodies. Mutsumi`s treatment lasted for more than 15 minutes. I know it hurt. Mine went by pretty quick.

Unfortunately, one of the spikes in Mutusmi`s left foot was in the bottom of her arch, right where there was nothing hard for the bottle to break the spike against. One of the spikes in my toe was also unbreakable and is sometimes still sore, a month later. Mutsumi spent the next few days limping around the island.

We spent the next day walking around the north and east parts of the island. We found the really touristy area, which had a better beach than ours, if only because of the waves.

For dinner we went too a restaurant that was sitting over the water on pylons. There is a bell on the mainland that you ring. When the people at the restaurant hear it, they send a boat to pick you up. At the restaurant you can sit on cushions on the floor at a table with a glass top and dangle your feet over the water. We went again the next night when found that if we dropped food down, we could see small fish that were hanging out by the pylons hustle for the food. The crab was excellent. We wanted to order lobster, but as it was an $800 meal from a lobster the size of a small dog, we passed.

The next day we sat on the beach and tried not to get to burnt. We payed a hotel on the east part of the island almost $3 to use their umbrella and chairs. It is a hard life.

We had to leave the next day... Three nights is way to short of time to spend on the beach.

That evening, back in Bangkok, we had a nice dinner at another outside restaurant. I mention that again, because, yes, I know, it was snowing in Utah that week.

After dinner we went to the Mambo Cabaret, a transvestite show. It is located in an old theater (the Manhattan) that has red felt chairs and small round tables for drinks. It was certainly amusing. They played up their show for the older Japanese men in the audience--guaranteed big tippers after the show.

We stopped at the Dubliners Pub (an international chain) for some beer after. It was nice to have a dark beer. Thailand is like Japan in the fact that lagers abound. The most popular is, of course, Singha (6.5%), while Chang and Elephant are local beers and Heineken is produced in-country.

The next day involved sleeping in followed by a massage. At US$15, these massages were well worth it.

Gail had the day off so she took us downtown on a water taxi. This was a fast moving boat that made periodic stops to let people on or off. It had canvas sheets that were pulled up the sides to help keep the horribly dirty water off of us from as the boat roared down the river. It didn`t always work. The water was of such a gross and dirty color that I don`t blame people for cowering as other boats came by.Our first stop after getting into the city was at the Mount Wat (Mount Temple). It was an artificially made hill that we climbed by circling around the outside to get to the temple on the top. The view very informative--it confirmed my view that Bangkok was just one giant sprawl of a city.

After, we took a taxi to Wat Pho, the oldest wat in the city. It houses the famous Reclining Buddha. (Remember Murray Head`s song, One Night in Bangkok?) The Reclining Buddha is 46 m (132ft) long and 15m (40ft) high. It is covered in gold. That is me, standing behind his feet.

We spent an hour walking around and enjoying the temple. The main wat was surrounded by 2 sets of buildings that circled it. Each outside building was really just a wall with a large roof that had glasses cases on the inside that house hundreds of gold foil-covered Buddhas. The Buddhas are all sitting in lotsu position are are about 5 feet tall. All in all, there are over 1,000 images of Buddha in the temple and most of them are those in the glass cases.

After we met Matt at an Indian Restaurant. Yum! I was not sick of Thai food, by any means, but our hosts do live there... We then went to a giant night market, Lumpini, that had a huge beer garden with a stage and live music. I was so tired that I could not enjoy it though.

The next day took us to Chatachuk Weekend Market. It is a huge market with just about everything for sell. In the two or three hours that we were there, I think I saw less than 1/10th of it.

After another dinner with Matt and Gail (we had real italian pizza and real german beer!), Mutsumi and I took seperate night flights back to Japan.