December 28th, 2009
What a fantastic day. I woke up to join Greg and Rayna for breakfast before they caught a bus to an island for a 2-day beach getaway. I bought a disposable camera (which I wasn’t really even sure they still made) and hopped on the boat taxi down the river. B13. $.30 to get clear down the city! I wanted to stop by a mosque I saw on the map, so I crossed the bridge into a part of town that doesn’t usually seem to get foreigners. I went thorugh the alleys, snapping a few pictures, saying hello to people who were surprised to see me. Found the lame mosque and a beautiful temple.
When I walked into the temple, a sat down to pay my respects to Buddha, and a Thai woman who apparently worked at the temple, dressed all in white, took my hand and led me through the entire site. It was really interesting to see, and it was a completely eerie experience. This woman had a waif-like smile and a deadfish handhold the entire time. I thought for sure I was going to come out Buddhist, by hook or by crook. She had me fill out a small guest card with my name and then she took me up to the pagoda where I walked around with incense and a flower chain saying “Satou satou satou” and giving my offerings to Buddha. It was actually a pretty unreal expeirnece. Before leaving, she told me to say goodbye to Buddha, so she had me follow her in her bowing and had me repeat the phrases she was saying. It was pretty amazing.
Next, I walked back across the bridge again and visited a few more of the thousands of random temples. It’s crazy how many there are. I walked through a few smaller markets, too. I had gone 2.5 ours without seeing other foreigners. Then I went to Suthat temple, and it was nice. Soooo many statues o the SAME Buddha all around the outside. There was also the giant swing right outside. That was totally underwhelming and ridiculous. By this time, I had already been out walking in the sun for 3 hours and was sunburnt, hot, and hungry. I walked for another hour and hit ChinaTown. Intense! I walked into the first air conditioned Chinese restaurant I could find. Nice find... just kinda sat for awhile. It was glorious.
Next, I went to the temple of the Gold Buddha which was actually pretty cool. In the beginning, when they were building some sort of pedestal for this huge Buddha, they had no idea it was actually made of solid gold. It was encased inside a huge layer of stone presumably to hide it from the Burmese until 150 years ago when someone dropped it thus exposing the gold. Crazy. So they peeled it all off and transported it to the top of this huge pagoda. Crazy how that could even work. Beautiful temple.
I caught a cheap ride with a tuktuk driver who took me to a shop and then only charged me B10. Nice. He dropped me off at Lumphini Park, Bangkok’s “Central Park” where I spent awhile taking a quick power nap and journaling. It was glorious. I made my way back to our place on the SkyTrain, similar to Chicago’s “L”. I caught the boat back. It seemed so beautiful and almost just fake. As if it were a DisneyWorld ride, with all the magical temples and ruins just popping up around the corner with so many different languages being spoken all around.
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December 29th, 2009
It’s been another awesome day. Another day on my own. And without a watch, too! I love it! I couldn’t me more content right now. I woke up around 9h30, perfect timing, giving me most of the morning and the whole afternoon. I headed out to the left going to visit the markets on my way to the King’s Throne Room. It was cool to not see ANY foreigners there. It seems like they tend to stick to the general Khao san Road area... which is too bad because this place seems to have so much to offer! But then I wonder what I would think had I not lived in Senegal. Because it is dirty and people do rip you off. It’s so interesting, though! People are so helpful. Even if they speak no English, they are willing to help. So I made my way over to the Marble temple as well. Eh. It’s marble... not too interesting. Then I met a crazy tuktuk driver who said we’d go to a store and Siam Square for B10. Which turned into a 4-store, 2 hour tour of the city for free. It was actually pretty great. He dropped me off at Siam Square where I did a bit of shopping... well, Thai-style window shopping.
I think Thailand is much more what I was expecting from korea... more of a combination of Western and traditional life, not just the blatant denial of tradition. There’s still the Thai lifestyle and culture yet most houses have satellite TV. There are tuktuks and the SkyTrain at the same time. There’s trash on the sidewalks and street animals roaming right in front of the Children’s Mental Health Clinic just down the road. All of these interesting contrasts. It makes me really want to explore Dakar! There are tons of street children here, yet the country, officially, has a 95% literacy rate. Very interesting combinations!
I had lunch in the “food court” of the surroundings of Siam Center in this narrow alley with tables. Super delicious range of awesome food for B45. Just over one dollar! Great. After looking around a bit, I sat down inside a beautiful café where I indulged in some delicious chocolate banana cake. I like bouncing back and forth between really authentic with no other tourists around to much more upper class Thai-Western culture. It’s fun.
I’ll post pictures of my two independent days when I get my disposable (stone age) camera developed and scan the photos. (It might be awhile.)
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