S/V Tavarua

With a short turnaround in the city, you would think we would not have much of an eventful time… but…

Our quick stop by the Siam Center mall area awarded us with a try by the security guards at fleecing us for ’smoking’. That did not work. We did not have the requisite cigarettes, lighter, purse or gullability needed to extract the fine out of us on the spot. It certainly dented our trust in people in uniforms, though.

We found a side stall in Patpong before the evening stalls were set up that was serving street food. With some help from one of the mothers getting food for herself, we got some of the best spicy basil chicken we’ve ever had for a full 50 cents. No wonder the lady’s stand was so popular. Her cooking was heaven.

Derrell managed to depart from his wallet, so we had a round of cancelling ATM, credit cards and finding out that you need to show up in person to get a new California driver’s license.

The weather has turned from hot and sunny to hot and rainy. We were caught in a Denver-style downpour that turned us into drowning cats (and about as happy as a cat would be about it). We found out our travel tickets are still in a mixed state between American Airlines and Cathay Pacific when we decided to move on after looking at the weather forecast for the next 10 days in all the surrounding countryside. Thunderstorms everyday, bah.

We untied our flights, or at least waited two hours at the American Airlines office in Bangkok and another hour and half this morning at the ticket check-in counter while they STILL were having problems with our Cathay tickets. Seems Cathay kept cancelling our flights, but they were in the OneWorld side just fine. Amazingly, with only two minutes to spare, they got us on our flight. We had our doubts that they could do it.

We are sitting in the Hong Kong airport eating dim sum, being served coffee and surfing in the Cathay Lounge, so Cathay must not entirely be against us. The weather looks rather dull outside, though. That means it must be time for more coffee.

Just stocking up and getting rejuvenated for the next round of travel.

Chiang Mai is not what we expected. Tourism rules here. The April water festival is coming up and even though this is the hot season, the tourists are starting to show up enmass. I see only two Asian faces from where I’m sitting at the Internet cafe. Derrell is convinced we have left Thailand.

We checked out some wats in town and have seen many a male Buddist monk in orange robes and a few women monks wearing white with their heads shaved. The Burmese and Lanna temples are colorful (in reds, greens and golds) and ornate, with shrines stuffed with Buddha statues ringed by offerings of incense and flowers. The huge dragons that make up the stairway railings are wonderfully detailed and have glittering scales that glint from the sunlight as you walk by them. Some of the artistry looked like it heralded from the drugs of the area, solid warped looking beasts. The stupas next to the temples are said to contain bits of bone from the Buddha; and whether they do or not, the white and gold bowl shapes spiking into the blue sky have a religious feel to them. It is not just the architecture that prevails at the wats. It is also the stepping away from traffic on the street and hearing the bells ringing in the wind from the top the temples that wallops the unsuspecting passerby over the head with a bit of serenity. Actually, an amazing feat in this town, given the crush of camera toting ‘farangs’ on the streets.

We just picked up a guidebook on Laos. We are thinking of testing the Internet connectivity in that country this next week. In the meantime, we’ve sampled German cuisine at one of the German ex-pat restaurants down the street. Who knew you could get saurkraut, potato salad and weiner schnitzels in Thailand, and have five restaurants to choose from all serving such fine delicacies? Yikes, Chiang Mai has gone ‘international’. We have had an equal choice of Italian restaurants, and Indian/Muslim is well represented here, too. McDonald’s and Starbucks, Pizza Hut and MailBoxes Etc…. no wonder Derrell is convinced we have left Thailand.

The night market here is a reminder that we are not home, though. The roads are lined with street stalls with walkways narrow enough for one person to pass each direction. Thai logo shirts abound. We have seen our favorite Red Bull and CocaCola Thai labeled shirts, but we have also seen bootleg versions of O’Neil’s Santa Cruz and Billabong shirts. And no collection is complete without a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. All good fashion to go with your new fake Rolex watch and flowery plastic flip-flops.

We’re hanging out in the city and have met up with some friends.

The Patpong and Soi Cowboy streets have been explored, although it is reputedly tamer than it has been in years. Nothing like having a local friend as a tour guide. Despite the alleged tameness of the area, uniquely untame objectifying experiences can still be found in abundance throughout the city.

We ended up at the Foreign Correspondant’s Club (freelance journalists) to hear our friends play. We met some univeristy instructors from the music program and found ourselves listening to a mixture of jazz piano ’space music’ with violin and flute accompaniments. This was against the backdrop of an aging wood-side paneled and black-and-white photograph framed room that contained a bar encircled by journalists that Hunter S. Thompson must have hand picked out of one of his novels.

And a few evenings later, we wandered through the park and found an evening open air concert under the palm trees with a 15 person group playing traditional Northeastern Thai instruments. The music was wonderful, the evening air was balmy and the fresh pressed orange juice just added to the tropical feel of the evening.

Derrell’s been getting a constant dose of spicy food. He keeps telling the street vendors ‘phet! phet!’ He actually ended up with a ‘phet’ level of spice on one of the take-away noodles. Both of us were uttering ‘phet! phet!’ after about three bites. I ended up trying a triad of solutions, such as brushing my teeth, dragging a napkin over my tongue and chewing gum (which immediately turned into a gooey nuclear resin), and Derrell just sat there swooning with sweat dripping from most everything above the chin and mumbling, ‘phet! Isn’t this great?!’ Well, from here on out, I’m ordering noodles well-before Derrell chirps adjectives at the polite vendors.

We’ve found noodle bowls in all styles, pad thai, woon sens, Vietnamese pho, congee (chinese breakfast rice porridge with all the salty and spicy fixings.. nothing is as good as fish sauce first thing in the morning with bean sprouts and pickled chilis), iced coffees, lychee slushies, sticky rice and fresh pineapple. We’ve so far avoided trying any fried bugs and worms (although we’ve seen plenty of varieties for sale… and actually being sold), and we’ve also avoided the durian fruit (aka, jackfruit.. onion with cheese flavored fruit still sounds challenging). We may cave and give the latter a try, but the fried leggy things… no way. How can anyone eat a deep fried scorpions?

Sort of in a holding pattern this week at a plush hotel with air-conditioning, hot water and quiet rooms. We just got laundry washed yesterday. Every last item that was washable was handed over, so the smell of India has almost departed from our luggage. We haven’t been sightseeing in the city yet. The lazy factor is outweighing our desire to see jaw-dropping historical wats and gold and emerald buddhas. Although, we are starting to come around and think that we should actually get up before 11 AM and join the camera toting crowds for a day. Hmm, maybe tomorrow.. or better yet, the day after… or… noodle bowl in an air-conditioned cafe anyone?

It is 95 degrees and sweltering with some palm trees in view. Springtime in Thailand, excellent!

Arriving from India, Bangkok looks pristine and litter free; the driving looks sane; the food stalls look safe; the street smells good, and you don’t have to constantly watch where you step. It is a culture shock again. We recognize brand names everywhere, from Dunkin’ Donuts to Starbucks to O’Neil’s and Levi’s to The Economist and New York Times. And we don’t recognize an equivalent number of brands, which gives the city a good exotic tinge. So far, people have been unexpectedly helpful. The airport bus kiosk girls came over to where we were sitting after we bought tickets with a free map marked showing us where to get off the bus, what to look for outside the bus, and later made sure we got on the correct bus.. and not one word about a cheap hotel, friend that is a taxi driver or friend that is a guide. (We are still in shock. The tourist industry here can’t be real.) To continue our new arrival glow, the noise level on the street is a normal buzz of heavy traffic. (The Indian honking protocol will soon be just a distant memory, although our hearing loss will unfortunately still be permanent.) And cars seem to stop at crosswalks. (A bit of disbelief still lurks in us about this, but if it proves to be true, we may faint in complete awe.)

I suppose if you arrived from anywhere but a noisy big city, Bangkok would be a handful with lots of shoppers that bump into you while walking, tourists randomly stopping dead in their tracks and looking around in a daze on the sidewalks, souvenier stands jutting out at odd angles, twenty year-olds thrusting papers about massages at you, and heavy traffic. Yet to us… 8 million people living in a modernized world with sewage systems and paved roads looks like heaven found a spot to land. We may never leave.

So far we’ve found good food and the prices are outrageously low. Or sitdown restaurant lunch consisting of two noodle bowls, an iced coffee and bottled water with ice and cost 80 Baht ($2 US). And we’ve found good coffee. There must be 50 coffee shops within walking distance of our hotel in Thnom Silom. And we are listening to good ambient music in an air-conditioned Internet cafe with a reasonably fast connection. It really may take us awhile before you can get us to leave.

I suppose if we stay we will need to pick up some Thai communication skills, and that seems challenging. The Thai written language is a complete flowery mystery to us and the (uh-oh, tonal) language is equally a mystery. Consider the same word meaning five different things depending on your intonation (high, mid, low, rising, falling) then throw in some long and short vowels and some unknown (to the west) consonants to further complicate matters, and you come to the conclusion that pantomiming and nodding at everyone may be safer than calling your waitress a purple fish. So, I suppose until we make that first critical blunder, our enchantment with the city will stay high?