Monday, July 10, 2006
I arrived in Bangkok just one day too late. The whole country was in the process of celebrating 60 years of the King's rule. This was an absolutely huge event. The evening before I'd arrived, there had been a procession of the royal barges along the river. This would have been cool to see. But the festivities were still very much in evidence when I arrived. The official colour of the celebrations was yellow, for some reason, and there was yellow everywhere! The city looked fantastic. Yellow flowers had been planted which were now in bloom, there were yellow fairy lights at night, and there were loads of King 'displays', which looked like this.
This isn't a dictator style personality cult thing or anything. The King doesn't have any power, like in Britain...but the public absolutely love him. Everywhere you looked people had created their own spontaneous 'we love the King' displays, and literally half the people I saw around the city were wearing yellow t shirts bearing the official elblem. I bought one for myself to get in on the act, and managed to get a bit of banter from the locals about it.
When I arrived at my gueshouse, the whole atmosphere of the area made me really happy. It seemed less developed, more informal, and reminded me of what it was like in South America. I was staying on a small street tucked away beind a monastry, but in the heart of the travellers' ghetto. From my room there was a fantastic view over the monastey, with its shiny golden rooms. The guesthouse had a cafe on the ground floor that opened up onto the street and the prices were wonderfully low, so that was a great place to sit and watch life go by on the street. There was a stall right below my window selling bootleg CDs: this provided entertainment for me by pumping out music all day - quite a good mix actiually. There were loads of food stalls selling interesting and unidentifiable foods, including one I'm sure was selling insects. There were funnily dressed women wandering around trying to sell tacky souvineers to the tourists. There were bars and restaurants all along the street with outdoor seating. My only regret was that I was on my own and didn't have anyone to share the experience with; it would have been awesome to sit outside, have a drink and take in the atmosphere.
Whereas in New Zealand I'd happily go out in the morning and not come back until the evening, here I had to conduct my sightseeing very differently. The days were structured around ways of keeping cool, and I really looked forward to taking a cold shower, sitting in the air conditioned internet cafe or having a cold drink in the cafe. I had thought it was hot in Japan and Hong Kong, but this was way worse.
The first time I ventured out for a walk, I had about three different men trying the same trick on me. He would ask where I was from and be all friendly, then suggest a list of places in Bangkok I should see. Then he'd say I could get a cheap tour of the sights on a tuk-tuk (those 3 wheeled scooter/taxi things). But only a certain type did the tours. He'd scan the road "Is that one?....no....". Then he would notice the tuk-tuk that had just pulled in right next to where we were standing. "Oh look! There's one." Finally, the tuk-tuk driver would come and shake my hand and try to usher me in. This got really frustrating. It would be fine if they asked me straight up if wanted a tour, then I could refuse. But instead I had to go through the tedious process of trying to be polite while they make idle chat, when I just want them to leave me alone. I got the hang of ignoring them, though.
I hadn't really known what there was to see in Bangkok, but I was amazed when I saw some of the buildings there. The temples made the those in Japan look positively plain.
There were also some slightly cheesy attractions, like a 40 metre high standing Buddha, and a...it must have been 50 metres long...reclining Buddha. The top attraction, however, was undoubtedly the Grand Palace. When I approached this, another 'friendly' man told me it was closed until the afternoon and offered me a tuk-tuk tour. This made me really depressed - damn Thailand with its erratic opening hours. It also messed up my plans for the day. I thought I'd walk further along the outer wall just to make sure...I came to the main entrance which was very much open and very busy. What a nasty man. But inside the palace...it was like a fairytale wonderland. Huge buildings with gold and colourfulness and glitteryness everywhere. It looked more impressive than the above photo...but there wasn't really one shot that would have captured it all. But I could have pointed my camera in any random direction, and the photo would have been amazing.
There were monks everywhere in Bangkok and they certainly stoood out with their orange robes and shaven heads. As far as I understand, every male is expected to train as a monk for at least 3 months, kind of like military service. Some do it for much longer.
On one of the days I decided to go and check out the modern, commercial area - I thought it might be quite nice and provide a contrast to the less developed areas. To get there I took a ride along the canal. This was an experience. It wasn't a proper boat - more like an enlarged canoe with a motor on the back. You had to sit on the bottom and there was next to no leg room, so you had to tuck your legs right up to your body. Therefore my spine was curved outwards and pressed painfully against the wooden divide. The canal absolutely stank - you noticed it as soon as you got near it. Worse, as the boat skimmed along, spray flew up into the boat. Luckily, they provided some pads which were just adequate to fend off the water from your face.
When I got to this area, it wasn't nice in any sense of the word - just more modern and on a bigger scale than the rest of Bangkok. While I was here I decided to watch X men 3, which I'd been considering doing for a while. I thought it was good...but the most exciting part of the experience was the cinema itself. By chance, I'd booked for the showing in the luxury cinema. My chair was literally an armchair, and I got a pillow and blanket. I found some buttons which electronically reclined the chair. I kept the button held down...suddenly a foot rest sprang up, and the chair just kept going back...until it was almost a bed!
On 16th June, I took a night train to Chiang Mai, in the north of the country. Chiang Mai is a pleasant historical city, with a moat around the city centre. At the first temple I visited, I saw a poster advertising a Buddhist meditation course. It started that afternoon, included an overnight stay in the monastery, and finished the next day. I realised I really wanted to do it. I'd been exposed to so much Buddhism that I wanted to learn more about it; and it would do me good to clear my mind and do a bit of meditation. So I phoned up to book a place. In the afternoon I walked all the way over to the monastary in the heat, about half an hour (I could have got a tuk-tuk for about 75p, but I was still being ridiculously cautious about my budget). When I arrived, I was told that poster was out of date, and the course was now at a different time of the week. They hadn't mentioned this on the phone and I was really disappointed - I'd been looking forward to it.
After that I was in a funny mood - there was loads I could have done, but I couldn't be bothered to organise it/was worried it wouldn't be very good, and I was also feeling a bit lonely. So I was very indecisive and didn't get much done over the next 2 days. I visited some really nice temples (although there's only so many temples you can visit without tiring of them.)
My last day, however, was very busy. I'd booked a one day excursion to the surrounding area. In my negative mood, I didn't expect it to be very good...but it turned out to be great. We visited a couple of indigenous villiages, which probably now survive solely on tourism. We then had a ride on elephants, which was incredibly unstable and scarey. They went up and down such steep muddy slopes, I was sure they'd slip at any moment.
We also did some bamboo rafting. The rafts were literally bits of bamboo lashed together. So there was nothing at all to stop water coming through and wetting you. We went through some fast bits, I did a bit of punting which is always good, and the guides splashed everyone with their punt poles. It was fun. And as a bonus, it was a great group of people doing the tour with me.
Back in Chiang Mai, I had a couple of hours before I had to catch the train. I squeezed in a visit to the night market to buy some souvineers, then a traditional Thai massage. I was short of time, so I negotiatied a half hour massage instead of the usual hour. Thank god it was only half an hour. At first it was quite ticklish and I found it hard to stay still and impossible to relax. Then she started putting her hands on my back and applying her entire weight...and she wasn't a petite woman. I felt my ribcage slowly being crushed. So not at all relaxing, but a fun experience. I caught the night train back to Bangkok; but cunningly I didn't go all the way into Bangkok and instead got out at the airport. I then had about 5 hours to kill before my flight to Mumbai - this wasn't a problem.
