The Land of Smiles

I was not supposed to stay in Thailand for a month. The country pulled me in and wouldn’t spit me out. I got stuck. But a Happy-Stuck.

I was reunited with my Canadian friend Heather (from the India ashram) in Bangkok the night Madison left and ended up staying there with her until April 9th, exploring more temples and doing Bangkok-y things with a great, new friend. We re-visited Wat Pho (now I’ve been three times) and also went to Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) and The Grand Palace. The first night, I took her to the night market where Madison and I went to eat street food and listen to the terrible Thai cover bands. This one seemed to favor Fergie. Not a good role-model to have if you are a BOY singer! Boys should not cover Fergie, period. We ate some foods and drank some beers and went to the Mambo Cabaret to catch a Ladyboys show. (click link for more info on ladyboys).

Unfortunately, the 10pm Cabaret show was a no-go because Heather and I were the only audience members present. Instead, we ran up on the stage to “interview” the “ladies” as they were leaving, but their English was terrible, so we just danced on the stage. We attended the 8pm show the next eve and basically it was a bunch of boygirls lip-syncing to all different genres (everything from The Pussycat Dolls to Chinese classics to Thai pop hits) and dancing terrible dances with even more terrible choreography. It was BRILLIANT, to say the least. So bad, that it was so good. Man oh man, was it horrible. In a fun way.

On the 9th, I said good-bye to Heather (I’ll see her again in Vancouver when I’m there in September) and took a 6 hour bus up to Sukhothai. The big attraction there is the National Park (UNESCO World Heritage status) to see all of the really old temples and Buddhas. Sukhothai was the capital before Ayuttahya, which was the capital before Bangkok. I was a little worried about getting around the park, since you are supposed to rent a bicycle to go from site to site and my knee has been giving me major trouble since my Nepal trekking. Luckily, my knee wasn’t a problem, but the insane heat broke me down! I was wringing out my clothes from sweat. I woke up too late and was attempting to bike around during mid-day. Dummy!! On the bus back to town, I met an American couple named Ben and Andrea who had been teaching in an English Village in Korea for the past two years and doing a bit of traveling before heading home to the mid-west. I hung out with them from that point on. Yay for new friends! I was feeling a bit lonely, so was very pleased to meet some new peeps.

It was too hot in Sukhothai with not enough to see, so the three of us boarded a bus to get up to Chiang Mai the next day- another 6 hrs. Unfortunately, we had to stand on the bus for the first 4. Miserable!!! At least it was semi-air-conditioned. Also, it was even hotter in Chiang Mai than Sukhothai, but the Thai New Year festivities were up and running, so I was constantly soaking wet. The Thai New Year is called Songkran and everyone celebrates by pouring buckets of either dirty canal water or freezing ice water on everyone else. From the day I arrived on April 10 until April 16, I was soaking wet consistantly from 10am-8pm. Seriously. Most of the time, I was having a blast. The scene: A bunch of people would camp out in front of a certain bar or restaurant dancing to pop hits and engaging in a city-wide water fight with powerful squirt guns and deep buckets pulling water from hoses or giant trash cans. Everyone else road around in tuk-tuks or pick-up trucks to hit all of the stationary people. I mean, how can that NOT be fun, right? Well…when you want to be dry or start to freeze because of all the ice water, it gets to be not AS fun. Still I found myself saying, “This is the best thing ever!” quite often. I said it to one Canadian guy and he told me I should get a life. Sweetheart.

On my first day of water-fighting action, I was wandering around and ran into this girl and we started talking and decided to “team-up” since we were both alone. Her name is Emma and she’s a Swedish nurse. We hung out for the rest of my time in Chiang Mai, along with Ben and Andrea. She was a good influence on my eating habits, since all she eats is FRUIT! I need her back again.

I was looking into all sorts of activities to do around Chiang Mai: massage course, meditation course, cooking school, trekking or rafting, but ended up choosing to go to Mahout School. I had been looking into a few of these programs listed in the Lonely Planet, but they were all closed because it was too hot. As I was about to book a flight to Luang Prabang, Laos, I ended up randomly asking the tour company if they knew of any other mahout schools in the area. Amazingly, this one guy in the back stood up and shouted, “YES!” FYI, before I go on, a mahout is an elephant trainer. I jumped at this opportunity and signed up immediately to leave for the 3 day/2 night program the next day. As the insane animal lover I am, I would pay any price to have such an intimate experience with such wonderful creatures. And I did. The next morning, after a VERY early g’bye brekkie with Emma, the owner of the elephant camp himself came to pick me up and we drove back to the MaeTaeng Elephant Village, Ban Chang Thai Mahout School, about 50km outside of Chiang Mai.

I was the only “mahout-in-training” there so the schedule followed whatever I wanted to do. First up was watching the elephant show where they play instruments, shoot hoops, play soccer, stack logs, dance, bow, sing, and most importantly, paint pictures. When I was in Chiang Mai in ‘04 I bought an elephant painting of flowers for $10. If you’ve been in my loft, you’ve seen it- the only piece of framed artwork I have- the one that looks like a 6-year-old drew it. Four years later, they are selling the elephant art for $40 for the LEAST expensive one and they go all the way up to $190. INSANE!

So, riding elephants bareback is harder than it looks. Getting up onto them is even harder. They have some big, wide bellies! My main elephant was Pak Boone (5 yrs old) and my other one was Nong Wan (3 years old). Both lady elephants. After riding for three days, the insides of my calves were completely roughed-up from constantly rubbing against their thick, sharp hair. It’s painful. On top of that, think about how your legs feel after horseback riding for a few hours. Now multiply that by 10. My legs felt like complete jelly! I learned lots of Thai to command my elephants to go, stop, nose-up, pick-up, bow, sit down & lay down. I had this little metal hook thing on a wooden pole that I was supposed to use on them to help them listen, but I was very timid with it. Even though they have extremely thick skin and it supposedly doesn’t hurt them, I wasn’t too sure. Plus, they get chained up at night, which I don’t like. Only the two month old baby was allowed to roam free, but only because there was no way in hell she was leaving her mama’s side. I thought they were actually chained together, but the baby was actually just terrified of everything and everyone and, while walking, would weave in and out of mama’s legs. Poor mama probably freaks out every time thinking she might step on her baby! On top of the riding and commanding, I gave my elephants loads of hose-showers, bathed them in the river and took them to the black mud spa, which was their favorite and mine. No one at the camp spoke English very well. I learned lots of Thai and a few Japanese phrases from Naoe, the Japanese mahout studying there for a year. I stayed in a very clean private bungalow, even with a normal toilet and hot shower. I was very impressed! On my last day, as I was saying my elephant good-byes, I went to try and touch the baby and instead of running between her mama’s legs, she started smelling me and ended up ‘hugging’ me with her trunk. I was freaking out and loving every minute…UNTIL she freaked and shoved me. 2 month old elephant babies are strong. She scraped up my collar-bone a little, but I was fine. Overall, it was an awesome experience and one that I, nor my elephants, will ever forget, since an elephant never does.

On my first day back in the ‘city’ after mahout training, I was trying to cross a busy one-way street and while I was looking for a break in the traffic, somehow a guy on a motorbike pulled up directly in my walking path. So, of course, I start to cross the street and BAM! run right into his running engine. I have a square of badly burnt skin there now- ouch!

I spent my last day in Thailand (until I come back with Jesi in June) at the Siam Center and Siam Paragon Food Hall. The Siam Paragon, as a mall, is unbelievably huge and extremely modern and has all of the luxury stores one could ever desire: Prada, Chanel, Jimmy Choo, Gucci and then BMW, Lexus, etc. all with car show- rooms. All in one mall! I found the food court extremely overwhelming. I had to go to an internet cafe to distract myself and to keep myself from devouring everything in sight. It’s impossible to describe and unfortunately waaay too big to get a decent picture. Just trust me. Or as my Indian rickshaw driver Vicky would say, “Believe me, trust me.” He emails us still. Here is a sampling of his last email:

……..i never forget you ..i don’t know why i write you e-mail ..but my heart says to write you email. i don’t know why i really respecting you as my best freind… i miss you a lot dear ..if u need any help from my side plz tell me wat i can do for you …i pray just my god u have no any problem in ur life..u have very happy life..i wish u all the time and i never forget i was so lucky first time i met you …u gave me a good impression …. i don’t know why ..whenever u come again to jaipur u can wirte me …i try my best for you ..now i m in jaipur …i draw painting c.u reply soon..

Ah Vicky. Anyway, I digress. I was going to hit up Ocean World, the biggest aquarium in the Southern hemisphere, but after seeing the entry fee of $25, more than the Shedd in Chicago, I ran the other way. I ended up eating my way through the day instead. I had a feeling there wasn’t going to be an Au Bon Pain with bagels and lox in Cambodia! Instead of settling in at a restaurant at home, I figured out that every single little place let you sample a bit of what they sold. IT WAS ABSOLUTE HEAVEN! I adore trying new foods, so tried even the weirdest looking ’stuff.’ I went to the gourmet supermarket (biggest supermarket I’ve ever been in – think larger than Sam’s Club) and everything there was available to sample also. Absolutely delightful!

I took the modern, tv-equipped Sky-Train back to my hostel and as I got off to walk down the stairs, I noticed everyone was frozen in their steps. It reminded me of this:

It lasted for about 2 minutes and I just stood staring in awe and finally it was over. Everyone went back to normal. I seriously thought that the guy who did the thing in Grand Central was doing it in Bangkok. I asked a student-looking Thai (because they often speak English) about it and he said that at 6am and 6pm everyday, the loudspeakers all over play the Thailand National Anthem and everyone stands still. Wow. The people here are extremely patriotic between this, the Long Live the King signs and bracelets (like the Lance Armstrong Livestrong ones), and the National Anthem played before the movies.

I am heading to the capital tomorrow- Phnom Penh- on cheapie Air Asia. 7am international flight, which means I have to BE at the airport (an hour away from my hostel) at 5am. Ugh! I went to Cambodia with my Godmother, Linda, back in Jan. 04 on our Asia trip. I only visited Angkor Wat in Siem Riep, so I will hit up new locations this time. Send some new friends my way please! (Does that sound desperate? I need some to distract myself from eating all the time!)

I also uploaded updated pics to the link called “The Rest of Thailand” in the blogroll on the right. Enjoy!

xoxoxox

 

Sawatdee Thailand

Sawatdee-kaa (hello)! My memory of Bangkok from the last time I was here (Jan. ‘04) was of a noisy, polluted and totally foreign city. Coming from India gave me QUITE the different perspective. This time I find Bangkok clean, well laid-out with amazing public transportation, pretty quiet, and I literally haven’t seen one beggar in the 11 days since I arrived.  It really is all about perspective since I find everything here ridiculously expensive- not compared to the States, but to India (and Nepal was even cheaper). I am staying at the Hostelling International (HI) Sukhumvit, which is the nicest and cleanest hostel I’ve stayed in over the entire trip. Unfortunately, it is far away from most of the main touristy sites, but it’s still in a really nice area. I’m just spending more on skytrain/cab fare this way, but it’s definitely worth it to have a few nights in such a great place. Thailand is extremely hot. It feels like it’s 110 degrees every day, though it’s only 95- big diff- and like 90% humidity. India was like a Chicago winter in comparison.  I had three days here to spend alone until Madison flew in from NYC! Before she came, I mostly took the sky train to a different mall each day and watched movies (No Country for Old Men, In the Valley of Elah, and There will be Blood) and tried new foods.  I didn’t want to do any of the touristy things since I had done them already back in 2004 AND was sure Madison would want to see them. I was also trying to give my bank account a much needed break. On March 29th, I picked Madison up from the airport and we went to this ashram she had researched so she could interview some people about consumerism (the asahram’s focus) for a documentary she is working on. Unfortuantely, no one was there to help (they were all at a wedding?!) so we just headed back to Bangkok straight to a market. Some university kids, including a transvestite named Angel, gave us a lift halfway back to the city. Even though things are much pricier than in India, there is so much more to choose from and such better quality items. Before I come home, I think I will probably buy an entire new wardrobe here!

The next day, we went to the Chatuchak Weekend market- the largest one in SE Asia- over 30 acres of crowded, bustling stalls. It became unbearably hot, so we sought shelter at the Wat Pho temple to check out the gigantic Reclining Buddha, which is 138 feet long and 45 feet high. After wandering around, we ended up each getting our fortunes told by Mr. Rung and his translator. I wasn’t going to, but after my encounter with the guru in Jaipur, I decided I better make sure I wasn’t such a terrible person after all. This guy did my numerology, read my palm and tarot cards. Based on all three things, he made the following conclusions: I will have at least 1 child, marry either a foreigner or a wealthy man at least 10 years my senior, continue to travel my entire life, should work for male bosses so I can charm them (what is THAT supposed to mean?), should work in a creative field, will easily live to be 100, and will be part of High Society by the time I’m 37. Hehehehehehehehehe to all of it! Mr. Rung also mentioned to be wary of my throat (the guru said my throat chakra was blocked) and mentioned how I feel differently on the inside than I portray on the outside (the guru mentioned the ‘mask’ i put up). When starting my tarot cards, the first card he turned over was…THE DEVIL! I was terrified. Luckily, the devil is not satan, but the god of pleasure and unbridled desires. Mr. Rung told me I wouldn’t have a hard time finding boyfriends after that. He also couldn’t stop giggling- he’s over 70 years-old. Ohh man- embarrassing!!! Next we just HAD to get Thai massages at the Wat Pho massage school. It was an hour of heaven. In this kind of massage, the masseuse basically does yoga both on you and to your body. I don’t always love massages, but this one was wonderful. At night, we took a tuk-tuk (Thai version of a rickshaw) to the Patpong neighborhood to catch a ‘ping-pong’ show. It was like a mini-amateur strip club with 5 girls on a tiny stage who would take turns doing strange things with their… ummm…private areas. They shot ping pong balls into the audience (hence the name), pulled out razors, smoked cigarettes, pulled out 20 yards of ribbon, blew out candles, and played instruments like the trumpet and a  whistle. It was all highly unsexual and honestly pretty boring. I don’t even think the guys were that entertained- except for the ones getting personal lap dances!

The next morning, we barely managed to catch our flight down south to Phuket, since we went to the wrong airport first! Ooops! It was raining upon arrival, but luckily the skies cleared and didn’t show a sign of rain until our last day, but even then it wasn’t bad. From there, we ferried over to the ridiculously amazing island Ko Phi Phi (sounds like pee-pee) and stayed in a fan-cooled bungalow for the next 2 nights. The first day we just soaked up the sun, swam around, and I couldn’t stop drinking mango-banana icees, while Madison enjoyed her Singha and Chang beer. Thai beer IS good- gotta admit! That night we celebrated the glorious location with free gin and tonics in the pool given to us by a kindly Australian who was leaving the next morning. Score! We then celebrated THAT by getting a facial (me) and massage (Mad Dawg). On the bed next to me, a young Canadian backpacker was getting a Thai massage, and we taught the Thai ladies how Canadians stereotypically say “eh?” after all of their sentences. By the end of his massage, every time he’d say something like “That feels great,” all of us, including the Thai women, would should “EH?” They thought it was HILARIOUS! The Thais are such gigglers.

The next morning, we hopped on a long-tail boat for a full day tour around the islands surrounded Phi Phi for some major snorkeling action. One of the stops was on Monkey Beach, where wild gibbons were honestly ATTACKING the tourists. In India, people said that monkeys stole babies and bit people often, but I never saw any of it. These little monnkeys were jumping onto people’s legs and biting them. I stayed far, far away. We also went to Maya Bay where they filmed the movie The Beach starring Leo. It was like a wild jungle that meets the crystal clear waters and white sand. The day trip was really nice, except it included watching the sunset from the tiny boat, which was thrashing about in the heavy waves and making everyone on board completely sea-sick. The sunset was gorgeous, just sooo not worth the nausea!

In the morning, we took the ferry to Krabi and made our way to Ao Nang Beach. This time, our room was air-conditioned, which really makes all the difference when it’s so hot out. We headed to the beach, did our usual swimming/laying-out routine, played some paddle-ball and took a water taxi to Phra Nang Cave to explore a different area. The next day, our last full one on the beaches, we took another water taxi to Chicken Island, which was my favorite place of all. It was even more gorgeous than the rest of the beaches and during low-tide, you could walk across the ocean to an entirely different island. I kept feeling little stings while in the water and just assumed it was from the salt, but found out that I was constantly being stung by the particles of dead jelly-fish. It stung, but not enough to make me get out of the water. Even though I used an spf 50 sunscreen and applied it a fresh coat about every 30 minutes, I am more tan than ever before. Brown is more like it. Madison got pretty burnt though- she didn’t have a base like me. I’ve never been THAT much of a beach girl, but this was definitely the best beach vacation ever. Jesi just booked her ticket to come visit me back there in June and I’m already counting down the days til I get to go back.

We eventually HAD to go back to Bangkok and went right from the airport to this awesome night market, got some stall food, and watched some live Thai music. Surprisingly, it’s really hard for me to find vegetarian food here. Luckily I eat seafood, otherwise I’d just be living on steamed veggies and white rice! Our last day was the best one in Bangkok. We slept in and then went to this temple for a meditation lecture. I was thinking it would literally just be a lecture, but we got a private, 2 hour lesson on Buddhist Mindful Meditation for free. It was interesting and a little different from the meditation I’d learned at my ashram in India. It really made me miss the ashram life though! I think two weeks there was too much, but I would love to do something like that again for a week session. I’m definitely going to look into doing something like it in SE Asia for sure.

SUPER-SADLY, Madison left this morning at 6am and I’ve been wallowing in the rainy Bangkok weather all day. I’m in Bangkok ’til the 8th, and then heading up north to Sukhothai (I think).

I also posted pics today from Madison’s visit so you can see for yourself what an amazing time we had. I miss her so much already!!!!

Sawatdee-kaa!!!!