Today was the start of my long week with the students visiting from OSU. I met the bus in front of city hall that was picking up the Kameokans who were coming along and then we went to pick up the students who were all waiting in front of Mister Donuts.
After they got on the bus the staff all had to introduce themselves. As usual I got a bit of satisfaction out of the look on people’s faces when I stood up and introduced myself in Japanese and then English. Pride is a sin…pride is a sin…pride is a sin….
We were visiting Ryouanji and Kinkakuji so the students could do some sketches of some Japanese gardens. For me it was a bit of a relief to be suddenly surrounded by a bunch of people my age…but that relief was short lived.
Well I shouldn’t say that. I certainly had a lot of fun with them. They were loud, boisterous, and very very American. It was nice to be hanging out with people my age who speak my language fluently. But….
They made me realize just how much I have changed since I got here; they made me realize just how different a person becomes after just one year out of college.
I am old. Well, not really old, but I have become an adult. All they could talk about was drinking. They wanted to know where the bars were and what the best kind of sake was and at least half of them were hung over.
Nearly every story they told began with: “I was so wasted…”
They asked me about what dating was like here so I told them, almost truthfully, that I have no real experience with it so I wouldn’t know. Two of the young Japanese girls who came along on the trip latched on to two of the boys and followed them everywhere. We all began to joke about it. The girls eventually gave the boys their phone numbers...but the boys didn't realize that in Japan that doesn't mean anything really. The girls were only interested in English.
Ryouanji was actually really interesting, since it was my first time there. It is a small zen garden (you know, the rock gardens)in the middle of Kyoto City. It is in a secluded garden area set apart from the city, making you feel like you have entered a separate world.
The students are all studying landscape architecture so they spent most of their time there sketching bits of the garden. I was really impressed with some of them (the ones who actually tried).
Next we went to Kinkakuji (my 5th time) and then back to the house where they were all staying.
At the house, the hosts were putting on a big garden party with a BBQ (Japanese style) and welcome party. I translated for the host families and students when they met each other and helped the students sing along with a few Japanese songs.
Here's the breakdown of participants
Kim and Kevin: Members of the television crew. Both are married with kids.
Jared, Jon, Meredith: these three were inseparable. They were also almost always drunk.
Kyle: he was kind of in the middle ground. He didn't seem like a huge party he seemed to be making the most out of the trip. He took almost 4000 pictures while he was visiting...and all in order so he could make a walk around view of all the places. He and Kim hung out a lot.
Scott: Scott was a character. He had a great sense of humor and he was one of the first ones I really talked to. My boss Fujiki-san really like him, and Jonathan.
Jonathan: Jonathan was actually my favorite. He was much more difficult to figure out. He was really quiet and seemed to like to be off by himself. He also would take great care with all his sketches and journal entries. But, he also had a very energetic personality that would come through sometimes. He would drink with Jared, Jon and Meredith, but he would also seclude himself from everyone for long periods of time.
Marla: Marla was the one who didn't fit in. She studies ornithology and is a bird watcher rather than a landscape architect. She would often hear a bird call and launch into a long description of exactly what bird it was...but none of us cared. She also has been studying Japanese for 3 years and would constantly try to talk to me in Japanese which would frustrate me because I don't want to speak a foreign language to someone who has the same native language as me. But she was really sweet.
Professor Hsu: Hsu was an interesting guy. He was always in a rush but seemed very good natured. He joked with his students and allowed them to enjoy themselves. He treated them like adults. Sometimes I felt like he was unhappy with how I became more friendly with them as the week went on but I also could have been reading him wrong. He was not easy to read.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Lesson learned...do not throw parties...or how many cops does it take to break up a BBQ?
So for a while now I have been trying to plan a big American style BBQ. I was styling it as an "cultural exchange" event and was hoping to have some of my Japanese friends come as well.
It was going to be amazing...hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans, deviled eggs, chips and dip, veggies, etc. We were going to show the Japanese how it is done. We went around to all the foreign food stores to get hot dog buns, hot dogs (which were so expensive we had to use the Japanese ones that come on sticks instead...seriously 8 bucks for 5 hot dogs?)
Turns out I should not be allowed to plan parties.
First, it rained. It rained all day. Thankfully it was just a light sprinkle so it was no big deal, but still annoying.
Paulette's predecessor had left behind a giant tent so we used that. Liz and Nelis climbed up onto the awning structure that was in the park and draped the tent over it so that we would be kept dry. We had all met up the night before to do the prep work for the food. We cut the corn on the cob into three pieces each (with the help of my knife and potato masher), made hamburger patties, pulled hot dogs off sticks, made makeshift buns by cutting hot dog buns in half hamburger style (because they don't sell regular buns here), cut veggies, etc.
The rest of us set up the grills with the help of Nanami, Yumi, and Yumiko. I felt bad that the Japanese people were doing a lot of the work, but I had to go shopping and I think they felt better with something to do. They were a bit overwhelmed by all the English going on.
We laid out a few tarps but they became useless when the rain picked up a bit more.
Atsushi and one of his friends arrived, but I think he was nervous or shy because there were so many English speakers and he only knew me, and I was running around like an idiot trying to pull things together, so he kept his distance and then left for a while. That totally freaked me out...I wasn't sure if I should have gone and gotten him or let him get up the courage to come over....He sent me a text saying that his other friend had gotten off work late and they went to pick him up. I had to go get butter and when I came back he was there...
Thankfully Dara was talking to them, and her Japanese is like a million times better than mine. I had to get a few more things set up and I probably seemed like and ass not going straight over and talking to them...But I was nervous.
So after a few minutes I joined up with them. I made sure they got drinks...none of them had had Budweiser before so I fixed that. And later I introduced them to Corona as well. Woo Hoo cultural exchange.
I also introduce him to Greg, which is when I started to feel a bit inadequate because Greg's Japanese is also light years ahead of mine AND he shares a passion for literature with Atsushi (don't misunderstand me, I of course love literature too and am quite well read when it comes to Japanese literature BUT I read English translations and cannot really discuss literature yet...damn my vocabulary).
Now for the SECOND reason I should not throw parties....
At about 3pm when all the grills had gone out on their own and we were just drinking and talking I looked up and saw a Japanese guy dressed in blue and white walking over, followed by another...
Cops.
They came over and started talking to Yumi, Yumiko and Nanami who were the 3 Japanese people nearest them. They were asking questions about who we were and what we were doing there. I left Atsushi behind and moved up to join the conversation.
They said a neighbor had called and said they saw smoke. I explained that it was just a BBQ for a friend and so we could have a cultural exchange party. I also assured them that we would completely clean everything up afterward. I apologized for inconveniencing them.
Then 3 more cops showed up and started talking. They asked who was in charge. My sweet Japanese friends said nothing. They refused to hand me over...so I stepped forward. I was the main planner and the only one who spoke Japanese.
The look on the cops face was priceless. If I hadn't been so scared of getting in trouble I would have laughed. They explained that grilling in the park was against park regulations and then took down my name, address, birthdate, work information, etc, and then took my picture.
Then 3 more cops showed up (by the end we had a total of 13 cops all to break up a little BBQ of 23 people). As they took down the names of people who were there (all of us) I kept glancing back at Atsushi making worried faces (I was trying to be funny but I was really really worried). I didn't quite understand what was going on. The cops didn't seem like they were angry and they didn't say what they were going to do with our information. I was worried that they would contact our bosses....I wouldn't put it past them.
Then they said I had to go with them.
So I started to walk with them, unsure of where I was going. They asked if I could read Japanese and I said yes, sort of. I didn't know if I had to read a sentence or like a confession so I just said kind of. They turned around and asked if a Japanese person would accompany me. Before he finished the sentence Atsushi had stepped forward and was walking with me. He was cracking jokes and I was trying not to cry out of mortification as we walked over to the other end of the park to look at the rules (aren't park rules usually placed at the ENTRANCE to the park? not the far end?)
They made him read the part about no fire in the park and made us both point at it and took our picture. They wanted to prove that they had warned us.
Japanese cops don't have enough to do.
We walked back to the group and a representative from city hall was there. Atsushi stood by me as I had to apologize to the official and listen to him tell me not to do it again and blah blah blah. Then there was the deep bowing and the offering of the first born child as retribution.
Then we had to clean up. The cops were there so we couldn't climb up onto the roof of the awning again so Laurel pulled a super cheerleader move as we hoisted her up on our hands to untie the tent. Atsushi stepped in and took my place after a while...cuz he's a total sweetheart. In one day I got him in trouble with the cops AND he let my friend stand on him.
After we got all cleaned up I invited everyone back to my place to hang out. This made me wish I had cleaned my apartment a little better. However, I somehow crammed about 12 people into my tiny living room. We ate more, drank more, and laughed about today's unexpected excitement.
Atsushi stayed for about 6 hours with me and my friends, though his had already gone home. I tried to toss in some Japanese with him and Dara was a lifesaver, being able to help me translate. For the most part he just listened but I couldn't believe he stuck around.
At about 9 pm Dara said she was hungry and the rest all had to go home so I offered to go out with her and invited Atsushi so he could have some Japanese time. I was surprised that he joined.
We went to Mister Donuts and drank some coffee and chatted. Dara was great because she just kept asking random questions about what our favorite colors are, what horoscope we are, how we would describe ourselves, etc.
Then Dara went home and Atsushi and I walked back toward our apartments. I suggested he give the Global Session at the International Center a try since it is cheap and you can participate as much as you like, but it's good English practice. He said he understood about 30% of what was going on, which was impressive because we were all speaking really fast and with a lot of slang. But we did teach them some new words...
This time he walked me back to my apartment...(*^^*)
It was going to be amazing...hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans, deviled eggs, chips and dip, veggies, etc. We were going to show the Japanese how it is done. We went around to all the foreign food stores to get hot dog buns, hot dogs (which were so expensive we had to use the Japanese ones that come on sticks instead...seriously 8 bucks for 5 hot dogs?)
Turns out I should not be allowed to plan parties.
First, it rained. It rained all day. Thankfully it was just a light sprinkle so it was no big deal, but still annoying.
Paulette's predecessor had left behind a giant tent so we used that. Liz and Nelis climbed up onto the awning structure that was in the park and draped the tent over it so that we would be kept dry. We had all met up the night before to do the prep work for the food. We cut the corn on the cob into three pieces each (with the help of my knife and potato masher), made hamburger patties, pulled hot dogs off sticks, made makeshift buns by cutting hot dog buns in half hamburger style (because they don't sell regular buns here), cut veggies, etc.
The rest of us set up the grills with the help of Nanami, Yumi, and Yumiko. I felt bad that the Japanese people were doing a lot of the work, but I had to go shopping and I think they felt better with something to do. They were a bit overwhelmed by all the English going on.
We laid out a few tarps but they became useless when the rain picked up a bit more.
Atsushi and one of his friends arrived, but I think he was nervous or shy because there were so many English speakers and he only knew me, and I was running around like an idiot trying to pull things together, so he kept his distance and then left for a while. That totally freaked me out...I wasn't sure if I should have gone and gotten him or let him get up the courage to come over....He sent me a text saying that his other friend had gotten off work late and they went to pick him up. I had to go get butter and when I came back he was there...
Thankfully Dara was talking to them, and her Japanese is like a million times better than mine. I had to get a few more things set up and I probably seemed like and ass not going straight over and talking to them...But I was nervous.
So after a few minutes I joined up with them. I made sure they got drinks...none of them had had Budweiser before so I fixed that. And later I introduced them to Corona as well. Woo Hoo cultural exchange.
I also introduce him to Greg, which is when I started to feel a bit inadequate because Greg's Japanese is also light years ahead of mine AND he shares a passion for literature with Atsushi (don't misunderstand me, I of course love literature too and am quite well read when it comes to Japanese literature BUT I read English translations and cannot really discuss literature yet...damn my vocabulary).
Now for the SECOND reason I should not throw parties....
At about 3pm when all the grills had gone out on their own and we were just drinking and talking I looked up and saw a Japanese guy dressed in blue and white walking over, followed by another...
Cops.
They came over and started talking to Yumi, Yumiko and Nanami who were the 3 Japanese people nearest them. They were asking questions about who we were and what we were doing there. I left Atsushi behind and moved up to join the conversation.
They said a neighbor had called and said they saw smoke. I explained that it was just a BBQ for a friend and so we could have a cultural exchange party. I also assured them that we would completely clean everything up afterward. I apologized for inconveniencing them.
Then 3 more cops showed up and started talking. They asked who was in charge. My sweet Japanese friends said nothing. They refused to hand me over...so I stepped forward. I was the main planner and the only one who spoke Japanese.
The look on the cops face was priceless. If I hadn't been so scared of getting in trouble I would have laughed. They explained that grilling in the park was against park regulations and then took down my name, address, birthdate, work information, etc, and then took my picture.
Then 3 more cops showed up (by the end we had a total of 13 cops all to break up a little BBQ of 23 people). As they took down the names of people who were there (all of us) I kept glancing back at Atsushi making worried faces (I was trying to be funny but I was really really worried). I didn't quite understand what was going on. The cops didn't seem like they were angry and they didn't say what they were going to do with our information. I was worried that they would contact our bosses....I wouldn't put it past them.
Then they said I had to go with them.
So I started to walk with them, unsure of where I was going. They asked if I could read Japanese and I said yes, sort of. I didn't know if I had to read a sentence or like a confession so I just said kind of. They turned around and asked if a Japanese person would accompany me. Before he finished the sentence Atsushi had stepped forward and was walking with me. He was cracking jokes and I was trying not to cry out of mortification as we walked over to the other end of the park to look at the rules (aren't park rules usually placed at the ENTRANCE to the park? not the far end?)
They made him read the part about no fire in the park and made us both point at it and took our picture. They wanted to prove that they had warned us.
Japanese cops don't have enough to do.
We walked back to the group and a representative from city hall was there. Atsushi stood by me as I had to apologize to the official and listen to him tell me not to do it again and blah blah blah. Then there was the deep bowing and the offering of the first born child as retribution.
Then we had to clean up. The cops were there so we couldn't climb up onto the roof of the awning again so Laurel pulled a super cheerleader move as we hoisted her up on our hands to untie the tent. Atsushi stepped in and took my place after a while...cuz he's a total sweetheart. In one day I got him in trouble with the cops AND he let my friend stand on him.
After we got all cleaned up I invited everyone back to my place to hang out. This made me wish I had cleaned my apartment a little better. However, I somehow crammed about 12 people into my tiny living room. We ate more, drank more, and laughed about today's unexpected excitement.
Atsushi stayed for about 6 hours with me and my friends, though his had already gone home. I tried to toss in some Japanese with him and Dara was a lifesaver, being able to help me translate. For the most part he just listened but I couldn't believe he stuck around.
At about 9 pm Dara said she was hungry and the rest all had to go home so I offered to go out with her and invited Atsushi so he could have some Japanese time. I was surprised that he joined.
We went to Mister Donuts and drank some coffee and chatted. Dara was great because she just kept asking random questions about what our favorite colors are, what horoscope we are, how we would describe ourselves, etc.
Then Dara went home and Atsushi and I walked back toward our apartments. I suggested he give the Global Session at the International Center a try since it is cheap and you can participate as much as you like, but it's good English practice. He said he understood about 30% of what was going on, which was impressive because we were all speaking really fast and with a lot of slang. But we did teach them some new words...
This time he walked me back to my apartment...(*^^*)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
First comes black coffee
So when I first arrived in Japan about 10 months ago I told all my American friends here the same thing: "I will never date a Japanese guy."
They all rolled their eyes and told me I shouldn't make such pronouncements. I speak Japanese, I am interested in the culture, there is a huge shortage of American boys here: I will definitely end up dating a Japanese guy.
I would protest about their fashion sense (a fair amount of them wear tighter pants than me, love the color pink, use more gel in one day than I have used in a lifetime, and carry purses), my less than satisfactory Japanese skill, and that I could never be with a guy who put his work so far ahead of me (I could deal with equal, but more important than me? no thanks. I could never be a Japanese housewife). ｬダヽ(ｏ`皿′ｏ)ﾉ
Well, it's 10 months later...and I have been on 2 dates with a Japanese guy.
After I got back from Thailand, I got a text from Atsushi. He asked about my trip and suggested that we get together during the week sometime. Today was the only day we both had open so we met up for dinner.
He wasn't sure when he would get off work so he said he would contact me when he got off or send me a message if he would have to cancel (people in Japan tend to stay at work fairly late because no one wants to be the first one to go home...it looks like you're lazy). (･_･?)
So he knew vaguely from previous conversations the general area where I live. He called to let me know he was off work and would be heading that way soon. When he got to the main landmark he knew he called again and I walked out to meet him. I had been hanging out with Laurel to keep myself from going crazy with nervousness.
He waited for me in front of the landlord's office at the end of my street and I walked out to meet him, rather than try to explain where my apartment is, which would have been unnecessarily difficult.
This was only the 3rd time I have seen him in person, as we have been communicating quite regularly through text messages, and the last time I saw him he was in his work clothes...which are never that attractive (they have a horrible blue uniform made of recycled PET bottles). So it was nice to be assured that he has style, but not too Japanese style. He is a well dressed guy. He tends to stick to dark colors (no pink so far). While he does carry what I would call a "murse" it is a masculine one and therefore forgivable. It slings across his back and not over his shoulder or attached to his hip.
We didn't have a set place to go this time so we just walked in the direction of the train station, since there are usually some restaurants there. We mostly made small talk until we came to the nice Italian place lAmour (don't read too much into that name, though it actually is a kind of romantic place.....)
Thankfully I had been there before but again the menu is always my biggest challenge so I stuck with the same thing I had ordered last time...
He actually ordered for me (after I told him what I wanted). I am not sure if he was trying to be chivalrous or what, but I didn't mind. When we got to the drink menu, he was talking about how the names of some of the drinks were odd, and pointed out pina colada. I was pretty surprised he didn't know what it was...so I ordered it to give him something to try, though it was not quite the same as a real pina colada. He ordered a shirley temple (which apparently has alcohol in it here) and I had to try EXTREMELY hard (and successfully) not to laugh. Things are different here. Boys can order drinks like that and not be looked at strangely.
Anyway, they brought out a bunch of different courses, because the sneaky boy had ordered the set menu instead of just the plain pasta, and we talked while we ate.
At this point I realized more about my difficulty with holding eye contact...especially in Japan. I probably looked really awkward staring at my plate all evening (that's a bit of an exaggeration). We both had our dictionaries again (though I had almost forgotten mine) but we used his mostly. We just left it out on the table and used it whenever we hit a snag in conversation.
We speak almost entirely in Japanese but I'll toss in some English every once and a while. He talked about how he reads in English but when he tries to speak the words won't come out. So I suggested a few methods I use to get better at Japanese. Apparently he is translating a book from Japanese into English (which is brutal...translating into your non-native language is REALLY hard).
We ordered another drink and stayed at the restaurant until it closed. We had been there nearly 4 hours but it went by really quickly. I really felt like I was starting to get to know him a little more now that we have gotten past most of the small talk.
I mean there were still quite a few silent patches in the evening as we searched for things to talk about. There is a bit of a language barrier, though I am working on that (^_^)
He walked me down the street to the corner where he met me and we said goodnight, saying we'd see each other on Saturday for my BBQ. o(^^o)(o^^)o わくわく
｢(ﾟﾍﾟ) エットォ…
They all rolled their eyes and told me I shouldn't make such pronouncements. I speak Japanese, I am interested in the culture, there is a huge shortage of American boys here: I will definitely end up dating a Japanese guy.
I would protest about their fashion sense (a fair amount of them wear tighter pants than me, love the color pink, use more gel in one day than I have used in a lifetime, and carry purses), my less than satisfactory Japanese skill, and that I could never be with a guy who put his work so far ahead of me (I could deal with equal, but more important than me? no thanks. I could never be a Japanese housewife). ｬダヽ(ｏ`皿′ｏ)ﾉ
Well, it's 10 months later...and I have been on 2 dates with a Japanese guy.
After I got back from Thailand, I got a text from Atsushi. He asked about my trip and suggested that we get together during the week sometime. Today was the only day we both had open so we met up for dinner.
He wasn't sure when he would get off work so he said he would contact me when he got off or send me a message if he would have to cancel (people in Japan tend to stay at work fairly late because no one wants to be the first one to go home...it looks like you're lazy). (･_･?)
So he knew vaguely from previous conversations the general area where I live. He called to let me know he was off work and would be heading that way soon. When he got to the main landmark he knew he called again and I walked out to meet him. I had been hanging out with Laurel to keep myself from going crazy with nervousness.
He waited for me in front of the landlord's office at the end of my street and I walked out to meet him, rather than try to explain where my apartment is, which would have been unnecessarily difficult.
This was only the 3rd time I have seen him in person, as we have been communicating quite regularly through text messages, and the last time I saw him he was in his work clothes...which are never that attractive (they have a horrible blue uniform made of recycled PET bottles). So it was nice to be assured that he has style, but not too Japanese style. He is a well dressed guy. He tends to stick to dark colors (no pink so far). While he does carry what I would call a "murse" it is a masculine one and therefore forgivable. It slings across his back and not over his shoulder or attached to his hip.
We didn't have a set place to go this time so we just walked in the direction of the train station, since there are usually some restaurants there. We mostly made small talk until we came to the nice Italian place lAmour (don't read too much into that name, though it actually is a kind of romantic place.....)
Thankfully I had been there before but again the menu is always my biggest challenge so I stuck with the same thing I had ordered last time...
He actually ordered for me (after I told him what I wanted). I am not sure if he was trying to be chivalrous or what, but I didn't mind. When we got to the drink menu, he was talking about how the names of some of the drinks were odd, and pointed out pina colada. I was pretty surprised he didn't know what it was...so I ordered it to give him something to try, though it was not quite the same as a real pina colada. He ordered a shirley temple (which apparently has alcohol in it here) and I had to try EXTREMELY hard (and successfully) not to laugh. Things are different here. Boys can order drinks like that and not be looked at strangely.
Anyway, they brought out a bunch of different courses, because the sneaky boy had ordered the set menu instead of just the plain pasta, and we talked while we ate.
At this point I realized more about my difficulty with holding eye contact...especially in Japan. I probably looked really awkward staring at my plate all evening (that's a bit of an exaggeration). We both had our dictionaries again (though I had almost forgotten mine) but we used his mostly. We just left it out on the table and used it whenever we hit a snag in conversation.
We speak almost entirely in Japanese but I'll toss in some English every once and a while. He talked about how he reads in English but when he tries to speak the words won't come out. So I suggested a few methods I use to get better at Japanese. Apparently he is translating a book from Japanese into English (which is brutal...translating into your non-native language is REALLY hard).
We ordered another drink and stayed at the restaurant until it closed. We had been there nearly 4 hours but it went by really quickly. I really felt like I was starting to get to know him a little more now that we have gotten past most of the small talk.
I mean there were still quite a few silent patches in the evening as we searched for things to talk about. There is a bit of a language barrier, though I am working on that (^_^)
He walked me down the street to the corner where he met me and we said goodnight, saying we'd see each other on Saturday for my BBQ. o(^^o)(o^^)o わくわく
｢(ﾟﾍﾟ) エットォ…
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Why do they call this Elephant Island?
This morning Laurel and I were picked up bright and early and taken to the Ban Chang Thai Elephant riding place. As with the snorkeling yesterday, we were picked up by a little pick up truck and driven down the treacherous roads to the area where they did the elephant ride tours.
It was just us this time, so we didn't have to shove in next to any giant Dutch people or annoyed looking Thai women (^_^)
The area was right next to the forest and there were large shelters for the elephants on 2 sides of a large open square. Between the two long shelters was a tall platform to help people get on the elephants. We climbed up the stairs and they brought our elephant, Sidiporn, a 33 year old elephant, around for us to get on.
We rode on this big saddle, seat thing and the elephant trainer guy sat on the elephant's neck. The trainer guy didn't even need to use the steps to climb up onto the elephant, but had developed enough of a relationship to where the elephant would just bend it's leg and help the trainer up onto his back.
The trainer carried a small tool like a hammer, but with a long sharp curved end just in case the elephant got out of control. He hung it on the elephant's ear as we made our way into the jungle and sat rather bored looking on the neck of the elephant. Every once and a while the elephant would stop to eat something or try to go off the path and he would speak to it, telling it to stop messing around. The elephant was very cooperative actually. They seemed to understand each other quite well.
I couldn't help feeling a tad bit foolish sitting on the back of this elephant trekking through the jungle with a Thai man urging it along the path. I find that living in a foreign country has intensified my "White Guilt." I often feel like apologizing for being excited about something that is different to me or for being capable of paying $20 to ride an elephant for 2 hours. The feeling is generally easy to suppress, but it is sometimes awkward. Riding along on the back of an elephant with a guide who spoke very little English (and me speaking zero Thai), I was the epitome of a tourist, which is something I try to avoid here in Japan.
Even though I felt kind of silly, I really enjoyed myself. Riding an elephant is an interesting experience. You are very aware of the power the animal below you has, mostly as a result of its size, but it is so large that it cannot move quickly. It is also a sweet animal in general. And as we found later, they are quite playful.
Our guide took us through the jungle and at one point jumped down and took pictures of us, while calling the elephant to continue along the path. Then, we circled around and went over the road and over to where they have a river. At the river we got off and then they took away the bench/saddle we had been sitting on. Our guide changed into his swimming shorts and then helped us get onto the bare back of the elephant for swimming. He led it into the water and the girl employee took pictures from the tall platform on the other side of the river.
This is when the elephant got a bit mischievous. It seemed to really enjoy the river and delighted in trying to "buck" us off its back. Laurel and I both fell off the first time it dove under water. The guide swam around us talking to the elephant and we finally realized that he was encouraging it. He was telling it to dive and then to blow water at us. Even so, it was really fun.
The elephant tried to avoid going back out of the water and kept swimming away from our guide, who was grabbing onto its ears. It was really funny to watch the two of them battle it out.
When it was over they gave us free pineapple and water and tried to sell us photos they had taken of us on our trip. Again, I was struck with feelings of guilt. They were horribly over priced, but they had framed the photos to try to get us to buy them and I couldn't help feeling that the 2 men were talking about us being rich snobs as they walked away...
After that we went back to our hotel to shower (it did not sound like fun getting on a plane smelling like elephant...for me or whoever was stuck next to me) and check out. We then decided to get a bit of food before heading to relax on the beach. We were both too shy to go up to any restaurants so we ended up getting some stuff from one of the private fruit stands. One of the fruits had a spiky reddish skin, sort of like the koosh balls we used to play with when we were kids, that revealed a white, kind of chewy fruit with a very mild flavor. It was really good. Another fruit was in a harder brown shell with pointy spikes on it. It had a peach colored fruit inside that I didn't like at all. We also got one of the big, really bright pink fruits.
We stopped into 7Eleven for some drinks and the moment we stepped outside, the hot sunny weather changed suddenly to rain. It was a light rain at first but as we reached our hotel across the street, it began to pour.
That ruined our beach plans, but it didn't really matter. We sat in the open air lobby of the hotel and read as the rain became more like a deluge. The peacocks took refuge in there with us.
The rain stopped about 30 minutes later and the skies were clear so we went back to the beach. We were enjoying the sun until one of the porters came to tell us our bus had come early so we ran off to head back to Trat so we could make our flight to Bangkok before heading back to Japan.
The bus was full of really loud foreign men speaking a language we couldn't quite place. Made me realize how spoiled were are in Japan. And how annoying foreigners are.
We caught our flight out of Trat without issue (except that Laurel had left the sunscreen in her regular bag and the security people got a bit nervous) and then bought some gifts for people back in Japan before getting on the flight back to Osaka.
We got into Kameoka at about 8:30 am on Friday and I pretty much went straight to bed.
It was just us this time, so we didn't have to shove in next to any giant Dutch people or annoyed looking Thai women (^_^)
The area was right next to the forest and there were large shelters for the elephants on 2 sides of a large open square. Between the two long shelters was a tall platform to help people get on the elephants. We climbed up the stairs and they brought our elephant, Sidiporn, a 33 year old elephant, around for us to get on.
We rode on this big saddle, seat thing and the elephant trainer guy sat on the elephant's neck. The trainer guy didn't even need to use the steps to climb up onto the elephant, but had developed enough of a relationship to where the elephant would just bend it's leg and help the trainer up onto his back.
The trainer carried a small tool like a hammer, but with a long sharp curved end just in case the elephant got out of control. He hung it on the elephant's ear as we made our way into the jungle and sat rather bored looking on the neck of the elephant. Every once and a while the elephant would stop to eat something or try to go off the path and he would speak to it, telling it to stop messing around. The elephant was very cooperative actually. They seemed to understand each other quite well.
I couldn't help feeling a tad bit foolish sitting on the back of this elephant trekking through the jungle with a Thai man urging it along the path. I find that living in a foreign country has intensified my "White Guilt." I often feel like apologizing for being excited about something that is different to me or for being capable of paying $20 to ride an elephant for 2 hours. The feeling is generally easy to suppress, but it is sometimes awkward. Riding along on the back of an elephant with a guide who spoke very little English (and me speaking zero Thai), I was the epitome of a tourist, which is something I try to avoid here in Japan.
Even though I felt kind of silly, I really enjoyed myself. Riding an elephant is an interesting experience. You are very aware of the power the animal below you has, mostly as a result of its size, but it is so large that it cannot move quickly. It is also a sweet animal in general. And as we found later, they are quite playful.
Our guide took us through the jungle and at one point jumped down and took pictures of us, while calling the elephant to continue along the path. Then, we circled around and went over the road and over to where they have a river. At the river we got off and then they took away the bench/saddle we had been sitting on. Our guide changed into his swimming shorts and then helped us get onto the bare back of the elephant for swimming. He led it into the water and the girl employee took pictures from the tall platform on the other side of the river.
This is when the elephant got a bit mischievous. It seemed to really enjoy the river and delighted in trying to "buck" us off its back. Laurel and I both fell off the first time it dove under water. The guide swam around us talking to the elephant and we finally realized that he was encouraging it. He was telling it to dive and then to blow water at us. Even so, it was really fun.
The elephant tried to avoid going back out of the water and kept swimming away from our guide, who was grabbing onto its ears. It was really funny to watch the two of them battle it out.
When it was over they gave us free pineapple and water and tried to sell us photos they had taken of us on our trip. Again, I was struck with feelings of guilt. They were horribly over priced, but they had framed the photos to try to get us to buy them and I couldn't help feeling that the 2 men were talking about us being rich snobs as they walked away...
After that we went back to our hotel to shower (it did not sound like fun getting on a plane smelling like elephant...for me or whoever was stuck next to me) and check out. We then decided to get a bit of food before heading to relax on the beach. We were both too shy to go up to any restaurants so we ended up getting some stuff from one of the private fruit stands. One of the fruits had a spiky reddish skin, sort of like the koosh balls we used to play with when we were kids, that revealed a white, kind of chewy fruit with a very mild flavor. It was really good. Another fruit was in a harder brown shell with pointy spikes on it. It had a peach colored fruit inside that I didn't like at all. We also got one of the big, really bright pink fruits.
We stopped into 7Eleven for some drinks and the moment we stepped outside, the hot sunny weather changed suddenly to rain. It was a light rain at first but as we reached our hotel across the street, it began to pour.
That ruined our beach plans, but it didn't really matter. We sat in the open air lobby of the hotel and read as the rain became more like a deluge. The peacocks took refuge in there with us.
The rain stopped about 30 minutes later and the skies were clear so we went back to the beach. We were enjoying the sun until one of the porters came to tell us our bus had come early so we ran off to head back to Trat so we could make our flight to Bangkok before heading back to Japan.
The bus was full of really loud foreign men speaking a language we couldn't quite place. Made me realize how spoiled were are in Japan. And how annoying foreigners are.
We caught our flight out of Trat without issue (except that Laurel had left the sunscreen in her regular bag and the security people got a bit nervous) and then bought some gifts for people back in Japan before getting on the flight back to Osaka.
We got into Kameoka at about 8:30 am on Friday and I pretty much went straight to bed.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Fun in the sun
Today was our only full day on Koh Chang. We decided to get up early to make the most of our beach time, so we grabbed breakfast at the buffet and went straight to the beach by about 9 am. We were getting picked up at noon for snorkeling and we both wanted to spend some time on the beach relaxing first.
We played in the water for a bit, but I was mostly looking forward to laying by the water reading a book. So we covered ourselves in sunscreen, grabbed ourselves a couple of cots, and settled in for a relaxing morning. It was perfect.
At noon we got picked up by this beat up pick up truck to take us to the pier so we could go to the island where the good snorkeling is. We crammed into the back with all the other tourists (though Laurel and I were relieved to find that Thai people came to the island as tourists as well)
They took us to the other side of Koh Chang, through the twisty turny skinny roads, and dropped us off at the crowded pier. They never said anything to us really, just sort of walked off, so we followed....
They took us down a long walkway that was full of different little tourist shops and restaurants, but didn't stop or look back.
Then our "tour guides" got into a boat. We kinda looked at each other, shrugged, and followed. Then they held out there hands....
ok...so they didn't want to shake hands
...we had already paid...
Ah they wanted the receipt to prove we had paid!
So after everyone got on the boat they took off.
Sitting across from us was the Thai version of the Japanese charisma man (a guy who probably couldn't get a girl back home but can get one in Asia because he either has money or speaks English or both)...and let me tell you, the Thai version is way more disturbing.
These 2 French guys get on the boat with 2 young Thai girls (probably about 10 years in age difference at least, and the girls were probably a bit older than me). The Thai girls stood out from the rest of their compatriots because they wore skimpy clothes, had tramp stamps, and wore prada sunglasses (hmmm I wonder where they got the money for that?)
Well one of the couples actually seemed to be enjoying each others company. They were talking quietly and giggling and didn't seem to be against touching each other. The other couple...we called him Kimochi-warui-san (Guy that makes you feel sick)...were not getting along. The young girl gets on the boat and sits down with her back facing her "date." He then spent the rest of the time trying to get back into her good graces. He would try to stroke her shoulder or put his hand on her knee and she would just shake her head or push his hand away. Finally he looked over at his friend for help and his friends girl handed him a lollipop...a Chupa chup...and he tried to give it to the girl...
Laurel and I nearly died. "Honey, I know you're mad at me, but here's a lollipop. All better right?"
They ended up being quite entertaining for the rest of the trip.
When we got to the island of Koh Wai, they announced the name and sent us off. Then they said..."Be back, 4 o'clock" and sped off with the rest of the group (who were going to different islands).
So we had no idea where to go. We were just randomly on an island. So we took the snorkels they had given us on the boat and went off.
Snorkeling was really fun, but I have a very healthy fear of the ocean. Even in relatively shallow water I tend to be a bit nervous...but being in shallow water where the bottom is covered with coral and giant sea urchins, made it a bit worse. Things were just a bit too close for my comfort level. Mostly because whenever my mask filled with water I had to be really careful not to let me feel fall down too far when I was trying to fix it because then I would end up with my foot in a sea urchin or kicking some coral (which happened twice and REALLY hurt).
After we were done snorkeling we went up onto the beach where there was a restaurant. We ordered some green curry and a spicy Thai salad, as well as some fruit smoothies.
When we ordered, the woman behind the counter double checked that we wanted the SPICY Thai salad....which of course means she was really asking, "Thai spicy or tourist spicy."
We misunderstood and wound up with Thai spicy.
Oh. My. God.
Ow. I thought my mouth would never stop burning. Apparently my lips turned RED and my eyes were tearing up.
However, after my mouth adjusted to the heat, it was really delicious stuff. Once the heat became "normal" you could really taste the different flavors and how well they worked together to create the dish. But at first all you can pay attention to is how much it hurts.
At 4 we went back up to the dock and got on our boat...after meeting the giant Dutch people...They were just big stocky people...but very nice. It was weird how easy it all was even though there was very little communication between us and our so-called guides.
Kimochi-warui-san and his little girlfriend seemed to have made up a little since we first met them, but they still didn't seem very happy. He looked like he was getting played.
Back on Koh Chang we took showers and then went to get Thai style massages. Thai massages is a massage, but also assisted stretching and accupressure. So they would start out kneading the muscles but also move your body around for you and put pressure in certain places to relieve tension and break up the toxins in the muscles. At one point they had me sit up and put my hands behind my head, and then she put her knees in my back and her wrapped her arms around my elbows and she laid down, lifting me up onto her knees...Nice back stretch. It wasn't always comfortable, but it never hurt.
Then we got dinner by the beach, mai thai included, and turned in for the night.
A day on the beach can be pretty exhausting (^_~)
We played in the water for a bit, but I was mostly looking forward to laying by the water reading a book. So we covered ourselves in sunscreen, grabbed ourselves a couple of cots, and settled in for a relaxing morning. It was perfect.
At noon we got picked up by this beat up pick up truck to take us to the pier so we could go to the island where the good snorkeling is. We crammed into the back with all the other tourists (though Laurel and I were relieved to find that Thai people came to the island as tourists as well)
They took us to the other side of Koh Chang, through the twisty turny skinny roads, and dropped us off at the crowded pier. They never said anything to us really, just sort of walked off, so we followed....
They took us down a long walkway that was full of different little tourist shops and restaurants, but didn't stop or look back.
Then our "tour guides" got into a boat. We kinda looked at each other, shrugged, and followed. Then they held out there hands....
ok...so they didn't want to shake hands
...we had already paid...
Ah they wanted the receipt to prove we had paid!
So after everyone got on the boat they took off.
Sitting across from us was the Thai version of the Japanese charisma man (a guy who probably couldn't get a girl back home but can get one in Asia because he either has money or speaks English or both)...and let me tell you, the Thai version is way more disturbing.
These 2 French guys get on the boat with 2 young Thai girls (probably about 10 years in age difference at least, and the girls were probably a bit older than me). The Thai girls stood out from the rest of their compatriots because they wore skimpy clothes, had tramp stamps, and wore prada sunglasses (hmmm I wonder where they got the money for that?)
Well one of the couples actually seemed to be enjoying each others company. They were talking quietly and giggling and didn't seem to be against touching each other. The other couple...we called him Kimochi-warui-san (Guy that makes you feel sick)...were not getting along. The young girl gets on the boat and sits down with her back facing her "date." He then spent the rest of the time trying to get back into her good graces. He would try to stroke her shoulder or put his hand on her knee and she would just shake her head or push his hand away. Finally he looked over at his friend for help and his friends girl handed him a lollipop...a Chupa chup...and he tried to give it to the girl...
Laurel and I nearly died. "Honey, I know you're mad at me, but here's a lollipop. All better right?"
They ended up being quite entertaining for the rest of the trip.
When we got to the island of Koh Wai, they announced the name and sent us off. Then they said..."Be back, 4 o'clock" and sped off with the rest of the group (who were going to different islands).
So we had no idea where to go. We were just randomly on an island. So we took the snorkels they had given us on the boat and went off.
Snorkeling was really fun, but I have a very healthy fear of the ocean. Even in relatively shallow water I tend to be a bit nervous...but being in shallow water where the bottom is covered with coral and giant sea urchins, made it a bit worse. Things were just a bit too close for my comfort level. Mostly because whenever my mask filled with water I had to be really careful not to let me feel fall down too far when I was trying to fix it because then I would end up with my foot in a sea urchin or kicking some coral (which happened twice and REALLY hurt).
After we were done snorkeling we went up onto the beach where there was a restaurant. We ordered some green curry and a spicy Thai salad, as well as some fruit smoothies.
When we ordered, the woman behind the counter double checked that we wanted the SPICY Thai salad....which of course means she was really asking, "Thai spicy or tourist spicy."
We misunderstood and wound up with Thai spicy.
Oh. My. God.
Ow. I thought my mouth would never stop burning. Apparently my lips turned RED and my eyes were tearing up.
However, after my mouth adjusted to the heat, it was really delicious stuff. Once the heat became "normal" you could really taste the different flavors and how well they worked together to create the dish. But at first all you can pay attention to is how much it hurts.
At 4 we went back up to the dock and got on our boat...after meeting the giant Dutch people...They were just big stocky people...but very nice. It was weird how easy it all was even though there was very little communication between us and our so-called guides.
Kimochi-warui-san and his little girlfriend seemed to have made up a little since we first met them, but they still didn't seem very happy. He looked like he was getting played.
Back on Koh Chang we took showers and then went to get Thai style massages. Thai massages is a massage, but also assisted stretching and accupressure. So they would start out kneading the muscles but also move your body around for you and put pressure in certain places to relieve tension and break up the toxins in the muscles. At one point they had me sit up and put my hands behind my head, and then she put her knees in my back and her wrapped her arms around my elbows and she laid down, lifting me up onto her knees...Nice back stretch. It wasn't always comfortable, but it never hurt.
Then we got dinner by the beach, mai thai included, and turned in for the night.
A day on the beach can be pretty exhausting (^_~)
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
To the Island of the Elephants
Laurel and I spent the morning in Bangkok and then made our way to Koh Chang (Elephant Island in Thai). We had planned to visit the National Museum that morning but after looking in the guidebook we found that it was closed on Tuesdays. We also found out that there was a huge celebration commemorating the coronation of the King of Thailand. I knew all about how in Thailand it is illegal to speak ill of the king, and those caught saying anything other than positive things face jail, but I was still shocked at just how much they seem to love him there. His face is plastered over each piece of currency, he has a variety of different monuments, and most restaurants have a photo of him with some kind of “Long Live the King” caption. He was everywhere.
So since most attractions were either far away or closed for the celebration, Laurel and I decided to walk around and see if we could find some good places to shop or just experience Thai culture. We found a section of stalls near the main street by our hotel and just wandered in there. We were the only foreigners, though by now we are used to that, so we drew some attention but it was nice to experience a Thai festival. After wandering through some food stalls where they were selling fried bananas, or plantains, and other things I didn’t recognize, we came across a stage. On stage a young girl, probably in middle school, was singing. It reminded me of the movie Selena, when she was singing on stage in front of a small crowd, doing the generic step-touch-step-touch dance move. The girl was actually pretty good and it was interesting to hear a tonal language sung. I became fairly interested in the Thai language while I was there, though I doubt it will come to anything…I am having enough fun bashing my head against the wall with Japanese.
We bought some snacks and gifts from some of the stands for people back in Japan: stuff like banana candy and dried sweetened pineapple.
Since we had to check out of our hotel by noon and we needed to take a taxi to the airport we pretty much headed back to the hotel after that. The city was crowded with people celebrating and setting up for the evening’s festivities so we would have had trouble sightseeing anyway. We bought some fried bananas/plantains (yum!) and walked back to our hotel. (when buying the bananas I got my first taste of what it must be like to live in Japan without speaking Japanese…the women working the stand didn’t know any English and we only knew how to say hello and thank you in Thai…so we just pointed and held up our fingers and smiled a lot. When it was time to pay we just handed them a larger bill…It was a good experience for me. It helped put things in perspective. I still get nervous when going to a new store or restaurant here and I speak Japanese…so it must be really difficult for people with no Japanese. That of course brings up the argument that knowing the language actually makes you more self-conscious because you shouldn’t make mistakes….but that is not the point of this rambling paragraph).
Anyway, when we got to the hotel we called a taxi and checked our email. That’s when I started to fear that this might become a repeat of Europe….
Our hotel on Koh Chang had cancelled our reservation.
And they didn’t tell us until the day of the reservation.
And they were full.
And we were leaving for the island in 30 minutes.
We tried to scramble to make a new reservation but for the most part you can’t make online reservations the day of…so we decided to just get to the island and go up to hotels one by one until we found one that could take us. It wasn’t the high season so we should be ok…right?
Our cab arrived so we set off on our adventure.
Our cabbie was hilarious. He knew very little English but would toss in a few words now and then. He missed the turn for the highway and got us stuck in traffic for a bit while the motorcycles and tuk tuks zoomed around us (I thought driving in Japan was a bit scary…but Thailand is terrifying. It seems like there are no rules, and more than once I saw a woman riding a motorcycle while carrying a baby!)
He also tried to take us to the international departure terminal at the airport and when he realized his mistake he chose to back up on the highway instead of follow the road and turn around later.
We checked in for our flight…after the cabbie went running off to get change for our payment, leaving us in the cab for about 5 minutes…and went to security. Just before getting to security, this woman approaches us and asks where we are going. We tell her Koh Chang, and she asks…do you have a place to stay?
Red lights and bells are going off in my head: SCAM SCAM SCAM!!! RUN AWAY!!! HIDE YOUR WALLET!
But of course Laurel keeps her common sense and realizes that they won’t be pulling scams in an airport. So we tell her, no, we don’t have a hotel because they cancelled on us. So she gets on the phone and books us a bungalow (fitting for our “honeymoon”) at a resort on the island.
Then we were able to relax and wander around the airport for while.
We got to a gift shop and found stuff we could buy as gifts for people back home (though with nothing but a backpack as luggage it was going to be tough to fit it in somewhere), and also found durian ice cream.
Are you familiar with durian, the king of fruits? (That is such a Japanese sentence….ugh. I can’t speak English anymore).
Durian is a fruit that I think you can only get in Thailand…or at least you cannot take it out of Thailand. Why? Because it smells. It smells awful. Like sautéed onions, only gross. Most people say that if you ignore the smell it tastes really good, succulent, I think is the word they use to describe it. Me, I thought it tasted gross too. Here is a video of my reaction.
It is illegal to bring durian into public places, like airports, etc. That’s how bad, and strong, this thing smells.
We went to the restaurant in the airport to get some real food after trying the durian ice cream. We got more pad thai ( I used to hate the stuff when I went to Thai restaurants in St. Louis but man, it’s good stuff) and guava juice. I had never had guava juice before. It was really good. It has a very mild, sweet flavor. I really only chose it because it was green and, while green Pepsi always seems to be a failure, I feel like other green drinks tend to be pretty good (Green Tea, Melon Soda, etc.)
When they finally had us board the plane, I was surprised because there was no plane at the end of the walkway…We handed in our tickets then walked down the gangway and down some stairs and onto a bus. The bus then took us to our plane, a small propeller plane. The flight to Trat was only about an hour…just enough for them to give me a sandwich I forced myself to eat because I didn’t know how to tell the flight attendant I didn’t need it.
When we landed, a trolley bus came out to meet us. It was like when I used to go to Worlds of Fun and we would park really far away and get brought in on those carts.
The airport at Trat was…quaint. It was about 4 thatched huts and elephant shaped bushes were lined up along the runway. There were no actual buildings, just huts. It was quite strange, but really cool. Made me feel like I was going to a deserted island or paradise or something.
The airport provides a taxi service over to Koh Chang so we signed up and told them where our hotel was (thankfully we had one) and were carted off with a bunch of other smelly tourists.
It has been said that Americans tend to overshare. When they first meet people they often tell too much about themselves. Laurel and I found that this is not restricted only to Americans, but apparently the Swiss as well.
Next to me in the cab was a man from Geneva who apparently has never held a steady job, has lived in Brazil and Argentina, does not throw his cigarette butts on the ground, thinks that people who do not stay in touch with their families are crazy, calls his mother almost every day, loves elephants, lost his father and his sister...and 7 other family members, etc.
This guy just kept babbling on and on and we had no idea who he was. It was awkward.
We took the ferry over to the island and were allowed to get out of the cab to sit up top on the ferry decks. The sun was setting as we made our way to the island which was a nice effect...very fitting for my and Laurel's honeymoon (^_~)
The roads on Koh Chang were really quite scary. They were narrow like those in Japan, but also very steep and winding. Tourists can rent little motorbikes and mopeds but I wouldn't want to attempt to drive on those roads.
Our hotel was really nice. It was a resort rather than a simple hotel and the staff at the front desk spoke fairly good English. We had a bungalow, complete with mosquito nets, and mosquitoes. But the resort also had it's own private beach.
It was already dark so we went to the front desk and arranged for the tours were were going to take while on the island, went and played by the beach for a little bit and then went to bed. We decided to go to Koh Wai (he he, in Japanese that means scary or frightening) for snorkeling tomorrow so we were getting up early to spend some time on the beach before taking a boat to the other island.
So since most attractions were either far away or closed for the celebration, Laurel and I decided to walk around and see if we could find some good places to shop or just experience Thai culture. We found a section of stalls near the main street by our hotel and just wandered in there. We were the only foreigners, though by now we are used to that, so we drew some attention but it was nice to experience a Thai festival. After wandering through some food stalls where they were selling fried bananas, or plantains, and other things I didn’t recognize, we came across a stage. On stage a young girl, probably in middle school, was singing. It reminded me of the movie Selena, when she was singing on stage in front of a small crowd, doing the generic step-touch-step-touch dance move. The girl was actually pretty good and it was interesting to hear a tonal language sung. I became fairly interested in the Thai language while I was there, though I doubt it will come to anything…I am having enough fun bashing my head against the wall with Japanese.
We bought some snacks and gifts from some of the stands for people back in Japan: stuff like banana candy and dried sweetened pineapple.
Since we had to check out of our hotel by noon and we needed to take a taxi to the airport we pretty much headed back to the hotel after that. The city was crowded with people celebrating and setting up for the evening’s festivities so we would have had trouble sightseeing anyway. We bought some fried bananas/plantains (yum!) and walked back to our hotel. (when buying the bananas I got my first taste of what it must be like to live in Japan without speaking Japanese…the women working the stand didn’t know any English and we only knew how to say hello and thank you in Thai…so we just pointed and held up our fingers and smiled a lot. When it was time to pay we just handed them a larger bill…It was a good experience for me. It helped put things in perspective. I still get nervous when going to a new store or restaurant here and I speak Japanese…so it must be really difficult for people with no Japanese. That of course brings up the argument that knowing the language actually makes you more self-conscious because you shouldn’t make mistakes….but that is not the point of this rambling paragraph).
Anyway, when we got to the hotel we called a taxi and checked our email. That’s when I started to fear that this might become a repeat of Europe….
Our hotel on Koh Chang had cancelled our reservation.
And they didn’t tell us until the day of the reservation.
And they were full.
And we were leaving for the island in 30 minutes.
We tried to scramble to make a new reservation but for the most part you can’t make online reservations the day of…so we decided to just get to the island and go up to hotels one by one until we found one that could take us. It wasn’t the high season so we should be ok…right?
Our cab arrived so we set off on our adventure.
Our cabbie was hilarious. He knew very little English but would toss in a few words now and then. He missed the turn for the highway and got us stuck in traffic for a bit while the motorcycles and tuk tuks zoomed around us (I thought driving in Japan was a bit scary…but Thailand is terrifying. It seems like there are no rules, and more than once I saw a woman riding a motorcycle while carrying a baby!)
He also tried to take us to the international departure terminal at the airport and when he realized his mistake he chose to back up on the highway instead of follow the road and turn around later.
We checked in for our flight…after the cabbie went running off to get change for our payment, leaving us in the cab for about 5 minutes…and went to security. Just before getting to security, this woman approaches us and asks where we are going. We tell her Koh Chang, and she asks…do you have a place to stay?
Red lights and bells are going off in my head: SCAM SCAM SCAM!!! RUN AWAY!!! HIDE YOUR WALLET!
But of course Laurel keeps her common sense and realizes that they won’t be pulling scams in an airport. So we tell her, no, we don’t have a hotel because they cancelled on us. So she gets on the phone and books us a bungalow (fitting for our “honeymoon”) at a resort on the island.
Then we were able to relax and wander around the airport for while.
We got to a gift shop and found stuff we could buy as gifts for people back home (though with nothing but a backpack as luggage it was going to be tough to fit it in somewhere), and also found durian ice cream.
Are you familiar with durian, the king of fruits? (That is such a Japanese sentence….ugh. I can’t speak English anymore).
Durian is a fruit that I think you can only get in Thailand…or at least you cannot take it out of Thailand. Why? Because it smells. It smells awful. Like sautéed onions, only gross. Most people say that if you ignore the smell it tastes really good, succulent, I think is the word they use to describe it. Me, I thought it tasted gross too. Here is a video of my reaction.
It is illegal to bring durian into public places, like airports, etc. That’s how bad, and strong, this thing smells.
We went to the restaurant in the airport to get some real food after trying the durian ice cream. We got more pad thai ( I used to hate the stuff when I went to Thai restaurants in St. Louis but man, it’s good stuff) and guava juice. I had never had guava juice before. It was really good. It has a very mild, sweet flavor. I really only chose it because it was green and, while green Pepsi always seems to be a failure, I feel like other green drinks tend to be pretty good (Green Tea, Melon Soda, etc.)
When they finally had us board the plane, I was surprised because there was no plane at the end of the walkway…We handed in our tickets then walked down the gangway and down some stairs and onto a bus. The bus then took us to our plane, a small propeller plane. The flight to Trat was only about an hour…just enough for them to give me a sandwich I forced myself to eat because I didn’t know how to tell the flight attendant I didn’t need it.
When we landed, a trolley bus came out to meet us. It was like when I used to go to Worlds of Fun and we would park really far away and get brought in on those carts.
The airport at Trat was…quaint. It was about 4 thatched huts and elephant shaped bushes were lined up along the runway. There were no actual buildings, just huts. It was quite strange, but really cool. Made me feel like I was going to a deserted island or paradise or something.
The airport provides a taxi service over to Koh Chang so we signed up and told them where our hotel was (thankfully we had one) and were carted off with a bunch of other smelly tourists.
It has been said that Americans tend to overshare. When they first meet people they often tell too much about themselves. Laurel and I found that this is not restricted only to Americans, but apparently the Swiss as well.
Next to me in the cab was a man from Geneva who apparently has never held a steady job, has lived in Brazil and Argentina, does not throw his cigarette butts on the ground, thinks that people who do not stay in touch with their families are crazy, calls his mother almost every day, loves elephants, lost his father and his sister...and 7 other family members, etc.
This guy just kept babbling on and on and we had no idea who he was. It was awkward.
We took the ferry over to the island and were allowed to get out of the cab to sit up top on the ferry decks. The sun was setting as we made our way to the island which was a nice effect...very fitting for my and Laurel's honeymoon (^_~)
The roads on Koh Chang were really quite scary. They were narrow like those in Japan, but also very steep and winding. Tourists can rent little motorbikes and mopeds but I wouldn't want to attempt to drive on those roads.
Our hotel was really nice. It was a resort rather than a simple hotel and the staff at the front desk spoke fairly good English. We had a bungalow, complete with mosquito nets, and mosquitoes. But the resort also had it's own private beach.
It was already dark so we went to the front desk and arranged for the tours were were going to take while on the island, went and played by the beach for a little bit and then went to bed. We decided to go to Koh Wai (he he, in Japanese that means scary or frightening) for snorkeling tomorrow so we were getting up early to spend some time on the beach before taking a boat to the other island.
Monday, May 4, 2009
One Night in Bangkok...but it felt like 2
After our taiko performance and the parade, Laurel and I got ready to head to Thailand!
I had to go back and finish cleaning my apartment because I was letting my friend Nick and his Mom stay at my apartment while I was out of the country so they could tour Kyoto.
To save money, Laurel and I signed up for red-eye flights into and out of Bangkok. We left at midnight on the 3rd (4th?) and arrived at about 4 am on the 4th. It's a 6 hour flight but Thailand is 2 hours behind Japan. We flew Thai Airways, which actually turned out to be really nice. I have never been on such a colorful plane before. All the seats were purple, yellow, or pink, and the flight attendants wore uniforms of the same colors.
Even the food was pretty good. They offered breakfast, either Japanese style or an omelet, and had a bread service.
Laurel bought a guidebook for Thailand and we made copies of the important pages for me, so we both read up a lot on what to expect before we got there. Warnings about scam artists dominated most sections: don't get in a tuk tuk (3 wheeled taxi) if the driver quotes you a price; if someone tells you a tourist attraction is closed and offers you a tour to a different site, say no; if a taxi offers to run off the meter, get out, etc. So when we arrived, I was all prepared to avoid a repeat of Europe. I would NOT get caught in a scam. I would wear the goofy money belt that goes under your clothes. I had a list of English speaking hospitals in case Laurel nearly died on me or if I got food poisoning again. I was prepared.
We got off the plane and went through customs (yay more passport stamps!!!) and decided to take a taxi to our hotel since it was 5 am and we had NO idea where we were going. The moment we walked out of the airport I noticed 2 things: it was HOT and there were taxi drivers trying to get our attention from every direction. We were approached by a man in a yellow uniform asking where we needed to go and Laurel showed him the map to our hotel while I stood nervously, trying to make sure it wasn't a scam. He quoted us a price so I shot a look at Laurel who laughed and said that there wouldn't be scams this close to the airport, nor would the airport taxi service scam us. That is when I noticed that the other taxi drivers were on the other side of a partition yelling to us...so I relaxed and got in the cab.
It took maybe 45 minutes to an hour to get to our hotel. 45 minutes of soft rock...yep I'm talking Celine Dion Titanic theme song...My Heart Will Go On...Some things transcend language I guess???? question mark.
We drove through Bangkok at sunrise. I was shocked at just how busy the city was so early in the morning. People were out setting up markets and making deliveries. Traffic was already getting busy, with motorcycles and tuk tuks weaving in and out. We got to a rather slummy looking part of town and the cab driver pulled over and said we were there...
Um what? There were a lot of trees and random buildings and people sitting on the curb smoking. It looked kinda dirty and I didn't see our hotel, which from the pictures looked like a tall building. So I was hesitant to get out of the cab, lest he leave us there wandering the slums of Bangkok. I was internally cursing Laurel for trusting the taxi's at the airport. The cab driver got out and started walking so we slowly got out. I walked around to the front of the cab and that is when I saw the hotel sign, covered in foliage.
Whew. We made it.
We checked in and decided to sleep a few hours before we started sight seeing. We booked a room for the 3rd for that purpose. The hotel was really cheap so we didn't mind paying for the convenience of taking a nap. Even at 5 am Bangkok was HOT and HUMID so thankfully the room had air conditioning.
When the alarm went off 3 hours later neither of us really wanted to get out of bed...but we were in Thailand so we motivated ourselves to get up and go sightseeing. We checked the guidebook and decided to follow their suggestion for Bangkok in a day.
We got dressed and I put on the money belt my parents bought me. Yep, I became one of those tourists who wear their money under their clothes...but after being robbed once, I decided I would rather feel dorky than lose my money again. I learned that lesson...no more being pickpocketed for me...it was kind of like a fanny pack, though unlike Becca, mine went under my clothes so it was a bit less lame (^_~)
We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel before venturing into Bangkok. Compared with the hostel food in Europe, the free breakfast wasn't bad. They had eggs and toast and Thai style salad. The only bad part was the creepy guy sitting a few tables over. He was one of those guys who had a Thai girl with him, but he doesn't speak Thai...and she doesn't speak English. I thought it was bad in Japan, with people getting together for "language exchange" or the charisma-man phenomenon, but it was nothing like Thailand. They sold books at the airport all about how to pick up Thai women and there were a lot of older guys with these young Thai women with tramp stamps and prada/gucci/chanel. Ugh.
After escaping his company at breakfast we set off for the Grand Palace. We didn't really understand the map, and Thailand has about as many street signs as Japan (ie. not many), so we soon got a bit off track. Thank God Laurel has a good sense of direction. As we walked, Tuk Tuk drivers would pull over and slowly follow us..."Where you go? You want Tuk Tuk? 40 baht. See standing Buddha."
So to fix this problem, Laurel and I devised a plan...Whenever we saw a Tuk Tuk driver coming, she would start speaking in French and I would start speaking in Japanese and we would just pretend to understand each other.
This came in VERY handy. At almost every corner someone would stop us saying..."Grand Palace close today...close today...no enter. You go see standing Buddha?" I still have no idea what the standing Buddha is, but they all wanted me to go see it.
We got a bit lost and ended up at Wat Pho first instead of the Grand Palace, but that didn't matter. Wat Pho is the home of the reclining Buddha. It is a huge golden statue, it's size rivaling that of the great Buddha in Nara, depicted the death of the Buddha, or rather, the Buddha's entry into Nirvana. The statue takes up most of the building in which it is housed. The walls have paintings of different scenes from the Buddha's life and the bottoms of the Buddha's feet are decorated with more scenes in mother of pearl.
The complex of the temple was actually quite large and it took us over an hour to wander around the whole thing. There were a bunch of smaller temples/worship sites, and some really beautiful flowers. I think was impressed me most was how different Japanese temples and Thai temples are. I have seen Korean temples, and they are very similar in design and shape to Japanese temples. But Thai temples, though they are also Buddhist, are completely different. They are taller and much more colorful. The roofs of Thai temples are covered with bright red, yellow, and green tiles and decorated with gold and jewel like stones. Every inch is covered in some kind of decoration, whether it be tiles set up in the shape of flowers or demon looking figures. I was impressed with just how much effort they put into decorating their places of worship. Japan is special because of the beauty in the simplicity of the design but Thai temples are special because of the detail. It is much like the cathedrals in Europe...huge monuments to God (though politics, of course, also plays a huge role).
When we first entered the temple a man approached us offering us a tour in English. I have learned several things during my recent travels...
1. If you speak English, you can survive ANYWHERE
2. If you have a white face, people all assume you speak English
Laurel and I weren't interested in a tour so we reverted to our little scheme of speaking Japanese....when he asked where we were from we painstakingly stuttered over the word Jyaapan. Then we just kept repeating "I don't understand...I don't understand" and ran away.
But while we were in the main temple the tour guide came by with a tour and overheard us speaking in English and called us out...
"I thought you were from Japan? How are you from Japan, you aren't Japanese."
Whoops.
After we got done with Wat Pho we tried to head over the Grand Palace which was just across the street...Unfortunately we were again stalked by the Tuk Tuk drivers and people telling us the place was closed (a lot of times they tell you a place is closed, get you in their cab and then take you somewhere where they get a commission).
Though this time it turns out they weren't lying. The Grand Palace was closed for a few hours and we couldn't get in. We walked around the entire complex trying to get in at various entrances, not trusting anyone who told us no (the scam artists ruin it for everyone else).
Finally we gave up and went to get food. We crossed the street to where there were a lot of vendors and as we stepped up onto the sidewalk, we were approached by a lady carrying bags of raw corn. She was really nice and offered us a bag to feed the pidgeons. She wouldn't take no for an answer saying it was a gift. I dodged her, but poor Laurel ended up with a bag of corn in her hands (that the woman shoved at her). So Laurel really had no choice but to go along with it, because every time she tried to give the bag back, the lady dodged away. She was quite agile. So Laurel fed the pidgeons and the lady shoved another bag in her hands. I was laughing, knowing this would end with us having to pay her a couple baht. But she asked for 150 baht per bag...300 baht. That's about 10 bucks.
As Laurel nicely tried to refuse to pay for the second bag, since the lady had tossed it at her and it fell, the woman's personality suddenly changed. Rather than being the nice lady wanting to help the foreigners enjoy feeding the birds, she became mean...telling us we had to pay her.
That's when I stepped in. I started in Japanese but then couldn't yell enough in that language so I switched to English....something along the lines of...
Her: You use 2 bags...2 bags. You pay.
Me: Huzakenna. Nanda sonna koto? So we have to pay you because you accosted us? We were just crossing the street lady. We didn't want your damn corn and we don't want to deal with you. I'm sorry you make your living accosting foreigners but we aren't paying for that second bag!
The look on the lady's face was priceless. It was resentful, but resigned. They can't force us to pay but rely on our desire to avoid conflict. But she still got 150 baht.
So after we were violated by the corn lady, we went in search of food. We found a nice stall with an English menu (Thai cannot be, or at least rarely is, romanized...so we couldn't read anything). We got some Pad Thai and sat on the curb watching traffic. We noticed that the people walking up and down the streets selling things left you alone if you were eating, which we thought was nice. Though they had an English menu, the woman didn't understand any English, so she called over the man she works with who did. We ordered through him and he translated for us.
Now I don't usually like Thai food, but yum. Real Thai food is delicious.
After eating we wandered off to find Wat Arun, the Temple of the Rising Sun: the tallest temple in Bangkok. We ended up on a pier and decided to take a boat trip along the canals that run through Bangkok, which took a 15 minute stop at Wat Arun.
Bangkok is actually like Venice, and is called the Venice of Asia, in that canals run through the city and they are used for travel and for setting up markets. We didn't get to go to the markets, but taking a boat tour was a nice exchange. It was really hot so the boat ride felt really good...and we got to see more of the city and people's homes and how they really live.
We got off at Wat Arun, which is a really impressive temple. It has one really tall spire and the stairs to get to the top are extremely steep. I am not afraid of heights at all, but going down those stairs was scary.
Wat Arun, like Wat Pho, was really ornate. It was decorated with a bunch of different colored tiles. From the top we could see out over the canals and to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. We could also see into downtown Bangkok.
After the boat ride we decided to try the Grand Palace again before heading back to the hotel to relax before Muay Thai.
We stopped and got apple and kiwi smoothies, which the Thai add salt to, and walked over to the palace entrance. Salt in a smoothie? It was actually pretty good and very refreshing.
We got into the Grand Palace this time, and it was worth the wait. The main attraction is Wat Phra Kaeow, which houses the Emerald Buddha, a small jade statue of the Buddha which has been the cause of more than one war. Apparently it was originally covered in plaster but the jade inside was revealed when it was dropped. It was later stolen by Laos and then Thailand fought to get it back.
The rest of the complex also had beautiful buildings, all very similar to those from Wat Pho, with red, yellow, and green roofs and tall demonic statues. What really made Wat Phra Kaeow stand out was the detailing of the outside of the building. Every inch was covered in gold, red, or blue jewel-like stones.
We wandered around looking at the murals depicting war scenes and the various temple buildings in the complex until we suddenly realized that there were no other visitors...we were completely alone....in the Grand Palace.
So we start hurrying toward the exit. The workers cleaning the palace in preparation for the king's ceremony the next day saw us and started yelling, not angrily, that we needed to get out. So we just kept bowing, very Japanese style, and apologizing as we ran out the door.
We went back to our hotel, after getting a bit lost, to relax for a bit then went to grab dinner before we were being picked up by our tour guide for the Muay Thai event. We actually went through a Japanese company so our tour guide spoke Japanese, but not English.We couldn't find a good English Muay Thai tour, and after watching the movie Ong Bak with Laurel, Muay Thai was something I wasn't going to miss.
We tried to find a restaurant nearby but since we can't read any Thai we just had to look til we found something with English. We found a small stall along a little river/canal thing. Again the cook didn't speak any English but she had a friend who did so we ordered through her.
We ate and then they laughed at us because we brought them our plates instead of leaving them on the table...we just thought it was good manners...
Back at the hotel I waited in the lobby for our tour guide while Laurel went to grab some stuff out of the room. The tour guide came in and he seemed a bit confused because I am not Japanese. He had guessed that I was a "white person" by my name, but still was shocked.
He took us by taxi to the arena and explained about the festival happening tomorrow. It is the anniversary of the coronation of the king.
Muay Thai was amazing. I have watched boxing and UFC before but it was nothing like Muay Thai, and watching it live was even more exciting. We had 2nd row seats in a roped off area. The fighters would enter the ring and then go through a warm up ritual that looked almost like a dance.
When they started they would spend a bit of time feeling each other out before getting into the fight, but once they started it was intense. If they kicked and missed you could really sense the amount of power they put behind their moves. One of the fighters was knocked out not by being hit in the head, but by being kneed in the chest so many times. He just crumpled. It was really odd to see these men, without a single ounce of fat on them, covered in muscle, just pass out. They seemed so strong but after a few too many hits their bodies would just give out.
There were 11 fights and at least 5 of them ended with KO's. Those that didn't were judged by a point system that I did not understand.
After the fight we went to the 711 to buy some snacks (including something called Pepsi Green, which was disgusting)...and then pretty much passed out. Having arrived in Bangkok at 5 in the morning and then touring all day we were exhausted.
I had to go back and finish cleaning my apartment because I was letting my friend Nick and his Mom stay at my apartment while I was out of the country so they could tour Kyoto.
To save money, Laurel and I signed up for red-eye flights into and out of Bangkok. We left at midnight on the 3rd (4th?) and arrived at about 4 am on the 4th. It's a 6 hour flight but Thailand is 2 hours behind Japan. We flew Thai Airways, which actually turned out to be really nice. I have never been on such a colorful plane before. All the seats were purple, yellow, or pink, and the flight attendants wore uniforms of the same colors.
Even the food was pretty good. They offered breakfast, either Japanese style or an omelet, and had a bread service.
Laurel bought a guidebook for Thailand and we made copies of the important pages for me, so we both read up a lot on what to expect before we got there. Warnings about scam artists dominated most sections: don't get in a tuk tuk (3 wheeled taxi) if the driver quotes you a price; if someone tells you a tourist attraction is closed and offers you a tour to a different site, say no; if a taxi offers to run off the meter, get out, etc. So when we arrived, I was all prepared to avoid a repeat of Europe. I would NOT get caught in a scam. I would wear the goofy money belt that goes under your clothes. I had a list of English speaking hospitals in case Laurel nearly died on me or if I got food poisoning again. I was prepared.
We got off the plane and went through customs (yay more passport stamps!!!) and decided to take a taxi to our hotel since it was 5 am and we had NO idea where we were going. The moment we walked out of the airport I noticed 2 things: it was HOT and there were taxi drivers trying to get our attention from every direction. We were approached by a man in a yellow uniform asking where we needed to go and Laurel showed him the map to our hotel while I stood nervously, trying to make sure it wasn't a scam. He quoted us a price so I shot a look at Laurel who laughed and said that there wouldn't be scams this close to the airport, nor would the airport taxi service scam us. That is when I noticed that the other taxi drivers were on the other side of a partition yelling to us...so I relaxed and got in the cab.
It took maybe 45 minutes to an hour to get to our hotel. 45 minutes of soft rock...yep I'm talking Celine Dion Titanic theme song...My Heart Will Go On...Some things transcend language I guess???? question mark.
We drove through Bangkok at sunrise. I was shocked at just how busy the city was so early in the morning. People were out setting up markets and making deliveries. Traffic was already getting busy, with motorcycles and tuk tuks weaving in and out. We got to a rather slummy looking part of town and the cab driver pulled over and said we were there...
Um what? There were a lot of trees and random buildings and people sitting on the curb smoking. It looked kinda dirty and I didn't see our hotel, which from the pictures looked like a tall building. So I was hesitant to get out of the cab, lest he leave us there wandering the slums of Bangkok. I was internally cursing Laurel for trusting the taxi's at the airport. The cab driver got out and started walking so we slowly got out. I walked around to the front of the cab and that is when I saw the hotel sign, covered in foliage.
Whew. We made it.
We checked in and decided to sleep a few hours before we started sight seeing. We booked a room for the 3rd for that purpose. The hotel was really cheap so we didn't mind paying for the convenience of taking a nap. Even at 5 am Bangkok was HOT and HUMID so thankfully the room had air conditioning.
When the alarm went off 3 hours later neither of us really wanted to get out of bed...but we were in Thailand so we motivated ourselves to get up and go sightseeing. We checked the guidebook and decided to follow their suggestion for Bangkok in a day.
We got dressed and I put on the money belt my parents bought me. Yep, I became one of those tourists who wear their money under their clothes...but after being robbed once, I decided I would rather feel dorky than lose my money again. I learned that lesson...no more being pickpocketed for me...it was kind of like a fanny pack, though unlike Becca, mine went under my clothes so it was a bit less lame (^_~)
We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel before venturing into Bangkok. Compared with the hostel food in Europe, the free breakfast wasn't bad. They had eggs and toast and Thai style salad. The only bad part was the creepy guy sitting a few tables over. He was one of those guys who had a Thai girl with him, but he doesn't speak Thai...and she doesn't speak English. I thought it was bad in Japan, with people getting together for "language exchange" or the charisma-man phenomenon, but it was nothing like Thailand. They sold books at the airport all about how to pick up Thai women and there were a lot of older guys with these young Thai women with tramp stamps and prada/gucci/chanel. Ugh.
After escaping his company at breakfast we set off for the Grand Palace. We didn't really understand the map, and Thailand has about as many street signs as Japan (ie. not many), so we soon got a bit off track. Thank God Laurel has a good sense of direction. As we walked, Tuk Tuk drivers would pull over and slowly follow us..."Where you go? You want Tuk Tuk? 40 baht. See standing Buddha."
So to fix this problem, Laurel and I devised a plan...Whenever we saw a Tuk Tuk driver coming, she would start speaking in French and I would start speaking in Japanese and we would just pretend to understand each other.
This came in VERY handy. At almost every corner someone would stop us saying..."Grand Palace close today...close today...no enter. You go see standing Buddha?" I still have no idea what the standing Buddha is, but they all wanted me to go see it.
We got a bit lost and ended up at Wat Pho first instead of the Grand Palace, but that didn't matter. Wat Pho is the home of the reclining Buddha. It is a huge golden statue, it's size rivaling that of the great Buddha in Nara, depicted the death of the Buddha, or rather, the Buddha's entry into Nirvana. The statue takes up most of the building in which it is housed. The walls have paintings of different scenes from the Buddha's life and the bottoms of the Buddha's feet are decorated with more scenes in mother of pearl.
The complex of the temple was actually quite large and it took us over an hour to wander around the whole thing. There were a bunch of smaller temples/worship sites, and some really beautiful flowers. I think was impressed me most was how different Japanese temples and Thai temples are. I have seen Korean temples, and they are very similar in design and shape to Japanese temples. But Thai temples, though they are also Buddhist, are completely different. They are taller and much more colorful. The roofs of Thai temples are covered with bright red, yellow, and green tiles and decorated with gold and jewel like stones. Every inch is covered in some kind of decoration, whether it be tiles set up in the shape of flowers or demon looking figures. I was impressed with just how much effort they put into decorating their places of worship. Japan is special because of the beauty in the simplicity of the design but Thai temples are special because of the detail. It is much like the cathedrals in Europe...huge monuments to God (though politics, of course, also plays a huge role).
When we first entered the temple a man approached us offering us a tour in English. I have learned several things during my recent travels...
1. If you speak English, you can survive ANYWHERE
2. If you have a white face, people all assume you speak English
Laurel and I weren't interested in a tour so we reverted to our little scheme of speaking Japanese....when he asked where we were from we painstakingly stuttered over the word Jyaapan. Then we just kept repeating "I don't understand...I don't understand" and ran away.
But while we were in the main temple the tour guide came by with a tour and overheard us speaking in English and called us out...
"I thought you were from Japan? How are you from Japan, you aren't Japanese."
Whoops.
After we got done with Wat Pho we tried to head over the Grand Palace which was just across the street...Unfortunately we were again stalked by the Tuk Tuk drivers and people telling us the place was closed (a lot of times they tell you a place is closed, get you in their cab and then take you somewhere where they get a commission).
Though this time it turns out they weren't lying. The Grand Palace was closed for a few hours and we couldn't get in. We walked around the entire complex trying to get in at various entrances, not trusting anyone who told us no (the scam artists ruin it for everyone else).
Finally we gave up and went to get food. We crossed the street to where there were a lot of vendors and as we stepped up onto the sidewalk, we were approached by a lady carrying bags of raw corn. She was really nice and offered us a bag to feed the pidgeons. She wouldn't take no for an answer saying it was a gift. I dodged her, but poor Laurel ended up with a bag of corn in her hands (that the woman shoved at her). So Laurel really had no choice but to go along with it, because every time she tried to give the bag back, the lady dodged away. She was quite agile. So Laurel fed the pidgeons and the lady shoved another bag in her hands. I was laughing, knowing this would end with us having to pay her a couple baht. But she asked for 150 baht per bag...300 baht. That's about 10 bucks.
As Laurel nicely tried to refuse to pay for the second bag, since the lady had tossed it at her and it fell, the woman's personality suddenly changed. Rather than being the nice lady wanting to help the foreigners enjoy feeding the birds, she became mean...telling us we had to pay her.
That's when I stepped in. I started in Japanese but then couldn't yell enough in that language so I switched to English....something along the lines of...
Her: You use 2 bags...2 bags. You pay.
Me: Huzakenna. Nanda sonna koto? So we have to pay you because you accosted us? We were just crossing the street lady. We didn't want your damn corn and we don't want to deal with you. I'm sorry you make your living accosting foreigners but we aren't paying for that second bag!
The look on the lady's face was priceless. It was resentful, but resigned. They can't force us to pay but rely on our desire to avoid conflict. But she still got 150 baht.
So after we were violated by the corn lady, we went in search of food. We found a nice stall with an English menu (Thai cannot be, or at least rarely is, romanized...so we couldn't read anything). We got some Pad Thai and sat on the curb watching traffic. We noticed that the people walking up and down the streets selling things left you alone if you were eating, which we thought was nice. Though they had an English menu, the woman didn't understand any English, so she called over the man she works with who did. We ordered through him and he translated for us.
Now I don't usually like Thai food, but yum. Real Thai food is delicious.
After eating we wandered off to find Wat Arun, the Temple of the Rising Sun: the tallest temple in Bangkok. We ended up on a pier and decided to take a boat trip along the canals that run through Bangkok, which took a 15 minute stop at Wat Arun.
Bangkok is actually like Venice, and is called the Venice of Asia, in that canals run through the city and they are used for travel and for setting up markets. We didn't get to go to the markets, but taking a boat tour was a nice exchange. It was really hot so the boat ride felt really good...and we got to see more of the city and people's homes and how they really live.
We got off at Wat Arun, which is a really impressive temple. It has one really tall spire and the stairs to get to the top are extremely steep. I am not afraid of heights at all, but going down those stairs was scary.
Wat Arun, like Wat Pho, was really ornate. It was decorated with a bunch of different colored tiles. From the top we could see out over the canals and to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. We could also see into downtown Bangkok.
After the boat ride we decided to try the Grand Palace again before heading back to the hotel to relax before Muay Thai.
We stopped and got apple and kiwi smoothies, which the Thai add salt to, and walked over to the palace entrance. Salt in a smoothie? It was actually pretty good and very refreshing.
We got into the Grand Palace this time, and it was worth the wait. The main attraction is Wat Phra Kaeow, which houses the Emerald Buddha, a small jade statue of the Buddha which has been the cause of more than one war. Apparently it was originally covered in plaster but the jade inside was revealed when it was dropped. It was later stolen by Laos and then Thailand fought to get it back.
The rest of the complex also had beautiful buildings, all very similar to those from Wat Pho, with red, yellow, and green roofs and tall demonic statues. What really made Wat Phra Kaeow stand out was the detailing of the outside of the building. Every inch was covered in gold, red, or blue jewel-like stones.
We wandered around looking at the murals depicting war scenes and the various temple buildings in the complex until we suddenly realized that there were no other visitors...we were completely alone....in the Grand Palace.
So we start hurrying toward the exit. The workers cleaning the palace in preparation for the king's ceremony the next day saw us and started yelling, not angrily, that we needed to get out. So we just kept bowing, very Japanese style, and apologizing as we ran out the door.
We went back to our hotel, after getting a bit lost, to relax for a bit then went to grab dinner before we were being picked up by our tour guide for the Muay Thai event. We actually went through a Japanese company so our tour guide spoke Japanese, but not English.We couldn't find a good English Muay Thai tour, and after watching the movie Ong Bak with Laurel, Muay Thai was something I wasn't going to miss.
We tried to find a restaurant nearby but since we can't read any Thai we just had to look til we found something with English. We found a small stall along a little river/canal thing. Again the cook didn't speak any English but she had a friend who did so we ordered through her.
We ate and then they laughed at us because we brought them our plates instead of leaving them on the table...we just thought it was good manners...
Back at the hotel I waited in the lobby for our tour guide while Laurel went to grab some stuff out of the room. The tour guide came in and he seemed a bit confused because I am not Japanese. He had guessed that I was a "white person" by my name, but still was shocked.
He took us by taxi to the arena and explained about the festival happening tomorrow. It is the anniversary of the coronation of the king.
Muay Thai was amazing. I have watched boxing and UFC before but it was nothing like Muay Thai, and watching it live was even more exciting. We had 2nd row seats in a roped off area. The fighters would enter the ring and then go through a warm up ritual that looked almost like a dance.
When they started they would spend a bit of time feeling each other out before getting into the fight, but once they started it was intense. If they kicked and missed you could really sense the amount of power they put behind their moves. One of the fighters was knocked out not by being hit in the head, but by being kneed in the chest so many times. He just crumpled. It was really odd to see these men, without a single ounce of fat on them, covered in muscle, just pass out. They seemed so strong but after a few too many hits their bodies would just give out.
There were 11 fights and at least 5 of them ended with KO's. Those that didn't were judged by a point system that I did not understand.
After the fight we went to the 711 to buy some snacks (including something called Pepsi Green, which was disgusting)...and then pretty much passed out. Having arrived in Bangkok at 5 in the morning and then touring all day we were exhausted.
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