5/30 A Day in Bangkok with a Thai Bucknellian

5/30/2013: I reached my quota for work hours in May and Ariel and I were set for a big trip. We would take a train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, meet with Pam, a Bucknellian from my year that I unfortunately never actually met while in school, and spend a day in Bangkok with her. Her dad, also a Bucknell alumnus, was going to put us up in a nice hotel, and then the next morning we'd fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia to meet Wei. After a few days in Cambodia, we'd return with Wei to Bangkok, spend another night there, then travel to Koh Samui - an island off the east coast in the southern part of Thailand.

The train ride was uneventful, besides a slight feeling that I was tripping after popping a sleeping pill to aid my sleep during the rocky train ride overnight. The train was 2 hours late, which I think is the norm, so Pam was already waiting for us at the station in Bangkok when we arrived. Pam (Thai name Busadee) grew up in Thailand, and her parents (both Thai) met at Bucknell. I found her and her parents through the Bucknell alumni directory, while looking for possible jobs and volunteer positions in Thailand. Pam's dad, Prechai, got his master's degree in engineering at Cornell, then returned to Thailand and ultimately became a general for the Royal Thai Air Force. He's now retired. He also has a driver, whom Pam apparently also has access to, so she and the driver picked us up at the train station and we went to the top tourist attraction in Bangkok - the Grand Palace.

As usual in Thailand, it was brutally hot outside that day, with the added discomfort of having to wear long pants to meet the strict dress code of the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace was inhabited by the royal family for a long time - from when to when I don't remember…but no one lives there anymore obviously. The architecture and decoration on all of the buildings was incredibly ornate. There was also a giant mural along a wall that seemed to circle the entire grounds, depicting a famous Buddhist story involving a monkey as a protagonist. The Temple of the Emerald Buddha was also on those grounds, so we visited the temple and saw the buddha. This buddha is very important in Thai Buddhist culture, and it has a scarf draped over it throughout the year, which is changed three times per year, and can only be changed by the king himself. We ditched our shoes and went inside to sit down and admire the buddha. It's smaller than you expect - probably only about 3 feet tall, and is actually made of jade - not emerald. The Thais have a strong disgust for feet, so it is improper to sit in front of a buddha with your feet towards it - most people will kneel (with their butts resting on their heels), or women often sit in a "mermaid" position. I'm extremely inflexible, so I think I only lasted around 30 seconds before I had to get up for fear of my knees exploding. The background story of the Emerald Buddha is something like:

It was discovered by a monk at a local temple in Northern Thailand in the 15th century - as Lonely Planet describes it: "During a fall, the image revealed its luminescent interior, which had been covered with plaster (a common practice to safeguard valuable Buddhas from being stolen)." The monk mistook it for emerald, it gained fame, ended up in the hands of a Lao invaders in the mid-16th century, and then it was taken back from Laos during a later war in 1778. Now it resides in Bangkok.

We covered most of the area and tolerated the heat for as long as we could. We hopped back in the car, then drove to the Siam Museum which we chose partially because Pam hadn't been there yet, but also because it's indoors and air-conditioned. The museum's purpose is to explore what it means to be Thai - including the background of Thais, as well as the modern Thai culture and the balance between heritage and modernity. It was a pretty interesting display, as it detailed how the kingdom and its unique culture came to be.

After the museum, it was already mid-afternoon, so we went to the Siam Paragon mall for a late lunch. Pam said that Siam Paragon, the biggest mall in Bangkok, boasts the second most Instagram uploads per day (1st is the Bangkok BKK airport), no doubt the photos are all of Thai girls ("Girlie shopping day!!!") or of food. Afterwards, we sat in traffic and a torrential downpour for 45 minutes to travel the one mile to our hotel. Pam and the driver dropped us off and planned to drive back home, pick up the parents, and return to the Siam Paragon two hours later to meet us for dinner. Pam called us pretty soon after, though, and said that traffic was still terrible and that they were going to have to cancel the dinner plans. So Ariel and I ventured out into Bangkok on our own, and it is a bit putrid after a heavy rainstorm. People were driving their motorbikes through knee-deep pools of nasty water, and there's just a general stench reminiscent of freshly watered garbage. We saw some big cockroaches, passed some dismal food stalls, and eventually returned to the sanitary island of Siam Paragon for some food. Overall, our experience in Bangkok was mediocre, but perhaps it has some charm if you catch it at the right time and go to the right places. There are tons of expats there, so it must have some draw to it.

5/26 Doi Inthanon - Highest Peak in Thailand

5/26 Doi Inthanon

Ariel and I needed a break from the heat and pollution of Chiang Mai, so I rented a car and we drove a few hours outside of town to Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand. It was a beautiful drive through the countryside, but we took a bad route and made some wrong turns, so the drive took almost four hours to get to the park. Even at the park entrance, before climbing further up the mountain, we could tell the temperature was significantly lower.

We drove higher up the mountain and reached a big pullout with a nice view, and there was a guided hike available there. At this point the temperature was very cool and we both had to put on long sleeves, which was very refreshing. We hired our guide, a local Hmong guy that was very nice, and we walked through the cool, dark jungle (they call it "cloud forest" which is much cooler), and we eventually made it out of the jungle into a big meadow with clouds blowing by. We descended a bit, and the clouds dissipated and we were able to see the huge valley far below. I took tons of pictures. We lingered for a while just soaking up the view and the nice cool air. The hike continued along the edge of the cloud forest for a while where we saw a rhododendron - Doi Inthanon is the only place in Thailand where rhododendrons grow - and we also saw some baby birds.

After the hike, we drove to the very top, but there wasn't really anything of interest at the top. We took a much faster route back to Chiang Mai, and I managed to return the car without having hit any motorbikes or anything else!

5/19 Visa Run to Burma

5/19/2013: Having been in Thailand for nearly 30 days, we had to make a "visa run" to nearby Burma to get a new visa. This is a common trip for many expats in Chiang Mai. Most foreigners, upon arriving in Thailand, are granted a 30 day tourist visa (if arriving by air) or a 15 day tourist visa (if arriving by land). Once that visa runs out, you have to leave the country and then re-enter to get a new visa. Mae Sai near Burma is the typical border spot for people coming from Chiang Mai. theday before, I went to the bus station and got tickets to Mae Sai in Northern Thailand on the Burmese border.

On the 26th, we hopped on the 9am bus and drove north through Chiang Rai and up to Mae Sai, around a 4 hour drive overall. We got off the bus, hopped in a songtaew, and headed for the border. We went through the "exit" side of Thailand, walked across a bridge, then paid 500 Baht each for a Burmese visa, entered Burma, walked around to the other side of the building, "exited" Burma, walked back across the bridge (and bought some weird bread with sweet corn in it), and re-entered Thailand. We were in Burma for less than 5 minutes. We hopped back on a songtaew and headed back to the bus station just in time for our 3pm bus back to Chiang Mai.

It was not a fun trip and hopefully we don't have to do that again. While I can barely say I've even been in Burma, it did seem to be a poorer country than Thailand. It's likely that border crossings attract some people that are worse-off, but upon entering Burma we were approached by a number of child beggars, and there was also a number of people missing limbs that were begging as well. I gave one little girl a 10 Baht coin, and Ariel saw her dancing around and showing it off to her friends. 10 Baht is worth around 30 cents.

On the bus trip, we went through a number of checkpoints where an immigration officer came on board and everyone had to pull out their passports. At first Ariel and I were surprised that they didn't even look at our passports, since we were most obviously foreigners, but it occurred to us that they were looking for illegal Burmese immigrants, and we were even more obviously not Burmese.

5/17 Risking Death with Scooters

5/17 Scooters in Chiang Mai

Since arriving in Chiang Mai, I’ve always wanted to try driving a scooter around. Everyone here (and by “here” I mean all of Asia) drives motorbikes around. They’re very mobile in traffic, and super-cheap to rent. It’s actually cheaper to rent a motorbike for a day than to take public transportation in some cases – motorbikes will only cost around 250 baht/day including insurance (250 baht = roughly $8). The problem, however, is that I’ve never driven a scooter and popular opinion online states that Thailand is not the place to begin. Thailand happens to have a disproportionate amount of traffic fatalities, and a good chunk of them involve motorbikes. Nevertheless, Devon and Jordan were game for renting scooters for a day despite our inexperience, so Kai at the hotel front desk had three motorbikes delivered to the hotel. 

 We inspected the bikes and took pictures for future proof that we didn’t scratch them (being optimistic), and then did a little test-drive down the alley. The rental guy was satisfied with my ability to slowly drive in a straight line, so he released the bikes to us and we were on our own. We wanted to drive up Doi Suthep (the large mountain west of the city) and see the big temple again (Jordan hadn’t seen it). The trick was getting out of the city safely, which meant avoiding the main moat road that circles the city. We weaved around through the alleys but finally hit a bigger road that we could no longer avoid. Devon’s face indicated that she was petrified, and I probably had a similar look. We had to make a right-hand turn, which in Thailand means going across traffic. I went first, and turning scooters is surprisingly hard, so I basically just shot straight across the road and parked at the curb on the other side, and then had to merge into traffic. It wasn’t pretty. Devon and Jordan shot across too and met up with me, and we were once again on our way, feeling a little more comfortable after getting into the flow of traffic.

On the way to my apartment to pick some things up, I lost Devon and Jordan. Apparently Devon’s helmet flew off her head and they had to stop and retrieve it. I had made a right-hand turn and then stopped and waited for them, but they didn’t see me as they drove by, so I had to get back onto the road and it was a low-speed chase to catch them. I finally caught them, we turned around, and finally got back on track. The driving from then on got easier, as we got more confident on the scooters.

Driving up Doi Suthep was a lot of fun, with lots of curves, not a lot of traffic, and lots of great views. We spent some time at the temple, saw the dog with drawn-on eyebrows again, and then decided to drive farther up to Bhuping Palace – the winter palace for the king and queen. There was a strict dress code, however, and we didn’t feel like renting clothes, etc. so we headed back down the mountain. When we got back to the town, we headed north to the reservoir, which is where the Thais go during their time off. All around the lake are little stilted bamboo huts, where you can hang out all day and relax and, if you want to, eat fried crickets. We drove back into town under threatening skies, narrowly avoided running out of gas, and returned the bikes just in time before the shop closed.

 

We enjoyed a quick meal and then Devon had to head to the airport. Jordan and Ariel and I went to watch some more takraw and chatted with Lucky again.

5/16 Elephant Nature Park Round 2

5/16/2013: Since I had so much fun the first time and wanted to spend more time with Devon and Jordan, I tagged along on their trip to the elephant nature park. It was exactly the same as my first trip with Ariel, except that our guide wasn't as good so I had to step in and tell the stories about the different elephants that Aum had told us during our first visit. We did the usual schedule of feeding the elephants, wandering around and seeing the baby elephants, and bathing the elephants. The 5 month old baby elephant was significantly less cute this time because it was attempting to eat its mother's excrement.




The even younger baby was just sleeping on the ground when we visited her, and the mom was trying to cover her with food, I assume as a gesture to say "nothing to see here..."




During the part where everyone watches the documentary, I stayed at the platform and just enjoyed the peacefulness. Two mahouts were hanging out with their elephants, and one guy had me feed his elephant an entire basket of food, which was fun.

Also, the park had recently rescued some kittens whose mom had been hit by a car. They were less than a week old, so I got some pics:





We returned to Chiang Mai and Devon and I got food at the Chiang Mai Gate Market and then I took her to a spot where guys are typically playing takraw, the game that's like hackey sack with a volleyball net. These guys were very impressive, doing backflips to spike the ball over the net. We chatted with a guy named "Lucky," who teaches English at CM University. We watched for about an hour, then did some brief shopping at the night bazaar which is pretty touristy and lame.

5/15 Tiger Kingdom, Zip Line Tour, and Muay Thai Boxing

5/15/2013: Funny side-story (I'm not sure when exactly this happened) - I was at Devon and Jordan's hotel (where my friend John, who is Thai, works), and I was talking to him for a bit after D & J went to bed. He first asked if they are "lovers," which is very funny if you know Devon and Jordan. Then he asked if they are from my village - I said yes, and now I plan on always referring to Denver as my village in the future. John's village sounds a little different, and he seems to be the Thai equivalent of a backwoods redneck - in his village, he hunts squirrels and monkeys, and even claims to have eaten leopard roadkill, but I'm a little skeptical.

Full photo album: https://picasaweb.google.com/108933817613007660268/20130515TigerKingdomAndJungleZipLine?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCO6MnKi-ip39GQ&feat=directlink

In the morning, a driver picked us up from Devon and Jordan's hotel and drove us about 30 minutes north to Tiger Kingdom, a total tourist trap where we got to see a bunch of tigers. There are always rumors surrounding Tiger Kingdom about whether the tigers are sedated, but I will attest that once you enter a penned area with a very large tiger and the only thing protecting you from it is a bored Thai guy with a small stick, you will want the tiger to be sedated. Ariel and I had talked to a British couple about the place and they said it was worth seeing but they make no attempt to hide the fact that Tiger Kingdom is a money-making enterprise. It does not give a warm and fuzzy feeling like the Elephant Nature Park. As soon as you enter the gates, the prices are posted: 420 B to see big tiger, 520 to see medium sized tiger, 620 B to see small tiger,...and there were package deals to combine the different sized tigers. Ariel and I picked "big tiger" and "smallest tiger," and Jordan and Devon picked all of the tigers.

Our first stop was the "smallest tigers" (1-4 months old), and they didn't disappoint. Some were very playful, others were sleeping. I got lots of pictures and videos. Some of the tigers were named after American tech celebs, like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. One baby tiger was named after a Japanese celebrity, and the oldest tiger cub was just named Nancy.
Here's a video:

 





In the pen next door were a number of full-sized tigers that were certainly not sedated at all. A fight broke out between two of them and it was an impressive show of their size and power. A worker was cleaning out a small pool of water separating the two pens, and one of the full-grown tigers was eagerly following every movement from the other side of the fence, looking for an opportunity to grab a hold of the guy or the long net he was using. The worker didn't seem to notice that the tiger was salivating over him (video below):

"Medium" Tigers playing:

Devon and Jordan went to visit the other less popular tigers, and then we all went into the big tiger cage. All of these tigers were lazily lounging around, and we were able to take pictures of each other "spooning" the sleepy tigers. One was lying on his back with his paws curled up above his chest, so I tried to imitate his position next to him but apparently got too close to his upper half so the Thai trainer made a noise that made me jump to my feet in fear that I was about to get mauled. The tiger was still sleeping, so it was a bit of an overreaction, and I was able to lay back down and get my stupid picture.

As you can see from my shirt, I'm your biggest fan.

Again, I'm not sure if these tigers were sedated or not, but at the time I was hoping they were. We took a bunch more pictures but were ready to leave once we saw the Thai trainer whack a tiger in its mouth with a wooden stick to get it to stay in one spot so we could take more pictures. We all looked at each other and decided it was time to go.

A 20 minute drive took us to the Eagle Track Zip Line tours, where a bunch of platforms have been constructed in the trees and connected by cables. We put on harnesses and helmets and were given little whittled sticks that were to be used as our brakes, which was a bit disconcerting. The tour was a combination of long zip lines and rappels, and it was a lot of fun, albeit a little short at one hour. Many of the zip lines covered around 200 yards, and shot us through the jungle and then out into clearings where we were about 100 feet above farmland. We didn't see any wildlife but it was a different perspective of the jungle. Overall, it was pretty touristy but lots of fun.



We returned to Chiang Mai and relaxed a bit before going for dinner and drinks and then a Muay Thai boxing match. The boxing "stadium" was pretty much as seedy as I expected, with little shops all the way around that served drinks and food, and guys were walking around taking bets. The night consisted of around 6 different matches, starting with 2 matches with boys fighting, then two womens' bouts, then two special bouts with men, including the final round with an Australian guy. The bouts were fun to watch, although we didn't really know how the scoring was done, so sometimes it wasn't obvious who was winning. The boxing style involves the usual punches (they wear gloves) as well as knees and kicks. There were a couple of knockouts, but no real devastating hits. The funniest part was after the 4th bout, they brought out around 8 guys, blindfolded them, and let them loose. They were just wildly swinging, sometimes connecting. The ref occasionally got attacked, but he was having fun pushing the blindfolded fighters into each other and away from him. In the final match, the Australian guy surprisingly knocked out the Thai guy, which was pretty exciting except that I had picked the Thai guy to win.

5/14 Thai Cooking Class with Devon and Jordan

 5/14/2013: As we were finishing up breakfast outside our apartment with Joe and Val, Jordan showed up in a tuk-tuk. We said goodbye to Joe and Val as they headed to the airport, and welcomed Jordan to Thailand - his first stop (besides a brief stay overnight in Bangkok) on a three week vacation. Jordan and Devon ended up staying at the same hotel I stayed at when I first arrived, so Ariel and I hung out there and caught up with Kai, the girl at the front desk, while Jordan and Devon got settled. We made plans for the following day, and Kai scheduled a Thai cooking class for us later that evening.

In the meantime we all got foot massages and then ate some lunch. Jordan and Devon scoped out the old city afterwards, while Ariel and I napped after staying out too late the night before.

The van for the cooking class picked us up at the hotel and drove around for 30 minutes picking up other people and then dropped us off at the "school" that turned out to be about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. Our instructor was "Fon," a cute Thai girl that has been working at the school for a month. We first walked to a local market where Fon described all the different standard Thai ingredients (different types of rice, vegetables, meats, etc.). All the vendors seemed slightly annoyed by the tourists that had little interest in purchasing their goods. We wandered back to the school and went out back into the garden, where Fon went over some more ingredients like Thai basil, Thai chilis, and Thai eggplant. The best quote was when she was discussing the medicinal benefits from one of the plants - "in case you get the itchy…"

Our instructor Fon on the right

Our meal options

Our table consisted of the four of us, plus a British couple, and two Canadian girls. We had some choices regarding what dishes to make, so we picked "mains" and "soups," and we also got to make some curry. Ariel and I chose to make Pad Thai, although Fon claims it's not as popular a dish with Thai people as it is with tourists. We all gathered around a table, each with our own cutting board, and Fon directed us on what to cut and how to cut it. Once we had all our ingredients prepared, we manned our stoves, and Fon shouted orders at us - "add your veggies!" "now add the chicken!" "Keep stirring!" "More fish sauce!" Few people ever added enough fish sauce. Fon says fish sauce is a major ingredient in Thai dishes because it adds saltiness, but most of us were creeped out by the unlikely pairing of the words "fish" and "sauce." She would come around to each of our stations, taste what we were cooking, and then add a healthy splash of fish sauce to it. The pad thai turned out great, so I guess she knows what she's doing. Once everything was chopped, the rest was a blur - the cooking part went by very fast, and without Fon yelling at me to do the next step, I would have ruined my meal.

Expertly prepared pad thai

After finishing our first round, we went back to the cutting table and prepared our curries. We had the choice between red curry, green curry, massaman curry, and khao soi. I picked khao soi, since it's been my favorite dish in Thailand so far. We all chipped in and cut up different spices, and a few people had to grind the peppers with a mortar and pestle.




Once the curries were mashed into a paste that met Fon's standards, we set them aside and worked on our soups. I'd chosen to make Tom Sab (described as "hot and sour soup in local style" in the cookbook we got). It includes a lot of ingredients that you can't actually eat, they just add flavor - lemongrass, galanga root, and kaffir lime leaves. Those are added to boiling water, then chili powder is mixed in along with some wood-ear mushrooms and chicken. It was pretty spicy, but pretty tasty. The trick is avoiding all the things you're not supposed to eat, otherwise it's chewy or a really strong flavor. Before making the soup, we made our curry dishes, so I learned how my favorite dish khao soi is made.

Khao Soi

The khao soi curry flavor is simply the red curry paste mixed with curry powder. That gets heated up in the wok, then add a bunch of coconut milk and the veggies and chicken and noodles, and it's good to go. I was disappointed to find out that the main instructor had taken out the pickled veggies that typically come with khao soi because many of the foreigners don't like them. I was hoping I'd finally learn what kind of veggies they are, but they weren't in my dish. And Fon said there might not even be an English word for that type of veggie. Anyhow, the khao soi was good but not as good as at restaurants. The Tom Sab was spicy but tasty, although by that point we were all very full and couldn't entirely appreciate the soups. Overall, it was lots of fun, and we got a nice cookbook to take home.

Chopping

More chopping

5/13 Doi Suthep Temple with Devon

5/13/2013: Devon (friend from Denver) arrived on the 12th in the evening, so Ariel and I put on our most stylish Thai outfits (Ariel with Aladdin pants and me with the super-huge shorts) and picked her up at the airport. She was slightly amused by our clothes. She'd spent the previous week in Bangkok and some of the southern islands with a tour group and could not say enough good things about Koh Tao. She was a little tired of Thai food so we went to Loco Elvis, a Mexican place along the moat.

The next morning we decided to go check out the temple on Doi Suthep. The story behind the temple (according to my Lonely Planet guide) is that the Lanna king wanted to build a temple and a chedi (monument) was mounted to the back of a white elephant. They let the elephant wander until it picked a spot. The elephant ended up part-way up Doi Suthep outside of Chiang Mai, laid down in a spot and died. That's where the temple is built. Judging by the size of the chedi (along with all the other details), I'm guessing it's a fabricated story.

We debated about renting motorbikes and driving ourselves up to the temple, but ultimately chose to hop in a songtaew (red pickup truck taxi). We survived the windy road, the girls changed into temple-acceptable clothes, and I spotted a whitish dog with eyebrows drawn on it. We took the cable car to the top and wandered around the lookout area. Ariel wasn't feeling great so we grabbed a table in the shade and hung out for a bit, and after a while Devon spotted some friends from Colorado who were obviously very surprised to see us. Val and Joe live in Perth currently and were on their honeymoon. We caught up while waiting out a rainstorm and then went inside the temple, which was very impressive. The chedi is a huge, glistening gold tower, with intricate, detailed sculptures and artwork surrounding it. We took some pictures and caught a songtaew back into town with Joe and Val.

Dog with fake eyebrows!

View of Chiang Mai from Doi Suthep temple

The chedi of Doi Suthep temple

306 stairs up to the temple

When we got back into town, Devon and Ariel and I went to a "monk chat" while Joe and Val waited for us at a restaurant. Monk chats are hosted at select temples throughout the city, and offers an opportunity for tourists to speak with a real live actual monk, and apparently the monk "gets" to practice his English and maybe do some proselytizing. "Our" monk was a 23-year old who's been monking for 9 years. He said his parents are proud that he's a monk because they don't have to worry about him getting into trouble (as opposed to his brother, who's in college and is "naughty" - meaning he drinks and associates with women). The monk chat was somewhat interesting, although he seemed to only want to talk about good vs. evil with us, which became tiresome. His limited English resulted in him pretty much just saying the same thing over and over again, and none of it was very revolutionary, or Buddhist-specific for that matter.

We had dinner at a Thai restaurant with Joe and Val, where the waiter for some reason chose to ignore me and no one else. We had more drinks at the Chiang Mai Saloon (not very Thai) after dinner, and then called it a night. Joe and Val seemed excited to get a taste of home, so they joined us for breakfast the next morning too.