Blackjack

Nothing really feels the same in Thailand. At home I can normally get some kind of sense about me that it's my birthday but here it just seems so out of place. Not that that made it any less fun. But first, the Muay Thai fight . . . On one of my friend Greg Bonney's last days here, he and I went to a Muay Thai fight. It was definitely something that I had to do here despite the fact that it is pretty expensive (around US$30). We got beers and caught the oddest cab ever--pretty much every cab here is a fairly new Toyota Corolla, this one was, well, I'm not entirely sure, but it wasn't a Corolla. It was bigger, had nicer seats and AC vents in the back seat. Baller to say the least. We got to the fight about an hour late but we figured sitting through 3 hours of it would be a bit much--we learned very quickly how wrong we were. After buying tickets in the cheapest seats available we hiked up the concrete stairs to the sounds of cheering Thais and traditional Thai music playing at the penacle of the 4th round of the second fight. We sat in the front row of the vacant steps which comprised thrid class, a few foriegners ended up joining us as the fight went on, but all of the Thais were in second class, just in front of us, separated by a chain-link fence. They were a spectacle unto themselves--shouting out bets, beating on the banisters in front of them, waving their arms and, here's the kicker, some of them were carrying 2' by 2' pieces of plywood completely covered in cell phones, presumably 'broadcasting' the fight and possibly taking bets or something. It was thrilling just watching them do their thing. There were 7 fights total, and out of all the competitors the heaviest weighed 135 pounds, which was crazy. The first really, really interesting fight was between these two 'heavy weights'. The guy in the red was so obviously the better fighter, but the guy in the blue was always the aggressor. Red easily knocked down blue at least 7 times or so by the 4th round and he appeared to be virtually unscathed and lively, not at all out of energy. Then, while the two were in one of those close range bear-hug type situations that boxers often seem to get themselves into, blue came out of nowhere with an elbow to the face. Red fell over, he tried to get up a few times but he was obviously experiencing something like a concussion, really confused and all. The referee let him try a few times before letting his team come and rescue him and declaring blue the winner. Crazy match. The gamblers went wild, I'm sure, I was far too distracted by my own surprise to notice theirs. One of the things I loved about the fights was that they played traditional music throughout the whole thing, and I'm pretty sure that if I listened to it now I'd get pretty pumped up, which is kinda weird. They also waste no time between matches. The winner is declared, his picture is taken, the new boxers are announced as they come into the ring and are de-robed, and after they're both introduced some slower traditional music plays and the two men do what looks like a mix between strecthing exercises, prayer rituals and dancing for a few minutes. This was really interesting, they all did virtually the same thing and I honestly couldn't tell whether it was more for show or for the genuine benefit of stretching.
Back to my birthday . . . after finally getting out of class at 8pm--yes, I was in class from 6-8 every day for two weeks--my friends and I hurried home to change and head out to a late dinner of Mexican food in the city before heading out to a nice club called Beds Supper Club to take advantage of a promotion they were having that night (free entry and 3 free drinks before 11pm for ladies, woo!) We had some trouble finding the restaurant that we originally wanted to go to, so we just went to another 24 hour Mexican place near Beds--we went in and ordered, then had to run over to the club to get in free and get our hands stamped before 11. The food was delicious, as was the mango margarita, and Beds was so much fun. There are actual beds in the place and its decor is all really modern and streamlined. We ended the night a little early to make it back in time to wake up in time for early morning class the next day--another 13 hour day at Mahidol.

Malaysia has been really crazy--a whirlwind tour of different universities, NGOs and hospitals looking at social inequalities in healthcare. The seminars are so informative and the people we're meeting are so intelligent, but a lot of times we're discussing things I know very little about for so long that a lot of it goes over my head. We've been taking some interesting tours as well, one of Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Malaka--all very beautiful. KL is so modern and the infrastructure is so great that I often find it easy to forget where I am, because I could easily be in the US. Many more people here speak English than in Thailand.

Laos and Vietnam

I'm going to surpass the latter three days of my trip to Burma as well as a bunch of other stuff in order to get to the more recent stuff--that is the last two weeks that I've been traveling.
We took a sleeper train to one of the northern most provinces in Thailand and took a short ride by tuk tuk over the border. Vientiane seemed so small in comparison to Bangkok so I jumped at the chance to hop directly on a bus with my two friends heading to Vang Viene for tubing. This bus ride introduced me to what I should be getting used to when traveling throughout Laos--mountains, lots and lots of mountains and the need for lots and lots of motion sickness pills. It started raining after we'd checked into our bungalow and were eating dinner, the power went out in the restaurant for a bit. Beer Laos is famous for a reason. The three of us walked around the town for a bit then went to bed--the first time in my life that I've slept under a mosquito net and I slept beautifully.
The next morning we awoke to what I began to get used to, the sound of roosters. We went to breakfast which consisted of the delicious baguettes, butter, jelly and Laotian coffee, served typically with sweetened condensed milk, why this concept has not caught on in the states, I do not know, it's amazing. While waiting for Shay to show up I had a conversation with a nice British couple who were traveling around Southeast Asia before going up to China to teach English for a year. It became a sad trend throughout our trip that all the people we met traveling were either backpackers, teaching English or unemployed, mostly unemployed, retreating from their countries of origin and finding solace in spending their life's savings seeing the world, uncertain of what to do when their money runs out.
Shay showed up as I was about to cross the river back into town to try and find her--yes, I had to cross a river on foot to get to my bungalow in order to avoid paying the fee to cross the bridge every time, the toll collectors didn't like it, the Laotian children constantly bathing under the bridge didn't seem to mind. It was getting on into the afternoon but we decided to go tubing anyway. At the place to rent tubes we met up with three girls from New Zealand who were all a blast, we shared a tuk tuk down to the start of the river and came upon a scene that none of us expected. Tubing in Laos is essentially the equivalent of spring break in Cancun. Immediately after getting out tubes off the top of the tuk tuk we were greeted with the sight of a guy going bare-ass down a zip-line into the water, which was connected to two large docks with bars covered in young white people drinking and carrying on. There were all kinds of rope swings and slides at the different bars, and there were a few with mud wrestling as well. I tried all of them except for the slide, which looked questionable. I won all of my mud wrestling matches--those guys didn't see my wrath coming. Getting a tuk tuk back at the end of the night took some strategic planning. Shay, the Kiwis and I met up with a couple walking away from the crazy scene just outside the last bars on the river where people were literally climbing on the tops of tuk tuks to get a ride back into town. After a short while of walking and trying to flag down an empty one we finally stretched across the entirety of the dirt road, seven strong, blocking the next tuk tuk from leaving us behind. It worked. The bar that we went to on the main land later that night had hammocks, another thing I could get used to.
The next day we chilled out and went to a lagoon and a cave with two of the three Kiwis. The lagoon was freezing and very blue, the cave was huge and very dark--the only real cave I saw on my entire trip. We went tubing again that afternoon but it wasn't as good as the first time, and we left early. We did meet a guy who'd been tubing for 27 days straight and had been traveling around the world for a while, stopping to work for a while in Australia and Spain. Hearing people's stories about leading lives like that makes following in their footsteps sound so feasible and so tempting.
We caught a bus to Luang Prabang the next day, a town which could be seated in the US or Europe. It's so quaint and pleasant, which was good because as it turned out we couldn't catch a bus directly into Vietnam for four days, much longer than we'd initially anticipated. The first day Shay and I rented bikes, one speed pedal bikes with baskets on the front and everything, and decided that we were going to bike, yes bike, through the mountains--that's right, mountains, not hills--of Laos for 36 KILOMETERS in the rain to see this waterfall. Four hours and a couple of mental break downs later, we made it just in time to see the falls before the park closed and managed to catch a tuk tuk back down. They were actually pretty amazing and I wish I could have stayed longer. I jumped off the top of the waterfall into a lagoon and there was a rope swing and all. Exhaustion set in and made for an early night.
The next day Shay and I met back up with Jill, Julianne and Julia to go on this two day elephant trekking tour with an overnight stay in an ecolodge. We rode on the backs of elephants, starting with sitting in carriages with guides on the front, then being allowed to sit on the necks ourselves (which is much, much more uncomfortable than you might think, or at least than I'd imagined), then we were taught some simple commands like 'go', 'stop', 'left' and 'right' which were all pretty much the Thai words for them (Laotian is really close to Thai) and we rode them into this river to 'bathe' them. Bathing the elephants consists of riding them into a river and trying not to fall off of them as the guides command them over and over to dunk their heads and spray you with water. It was a blast. The food they gave us was amazing and our ecolodges were pleasant bungalows with awesome beds and bathrooms that didn't have a roof, which was actually really cool too because the night was clear and warm, and you could see the stars when you showered. We got up early to bathe the elephants again and spent the remainder of the day bamboo rafting, which provided us with some amazing views but it rained the whole time. We left that evening on our bus to Vinh, Vietnam. Twenty hours sat at the back of a bus loaded with Vietnamese people who obviously hated us. We stopped twice for food, once at 3am at a random kitchen where all the white people weren't given meat with our noodles, and once at around noon the next day where all the white people had to pay and the locals didn't--there was a bit of a fiasco over this because some of us hadn't had a chance to exchange money yet. By the time we reached Vinh we all wanted to go home, and what made things worse was that everyone else was heading south, and I was going to have to head to Hanoi by myself. All the ticket salesmen at the bus station didn't pay attention to me because I had four friends also buying tickets together, more money involved with them. I saw buses leaving for Hanoi almost every half hour but I was unsure how to get a hold of one because only a select few people spoke English. I finally got a guy to sell me a ticket at what I knew was a fair price, but the bus driver yelled at me when I paid him the money and the guy didn't give me an actual ticket, he just told me to remember the license plate number of the bus, so I remembered the first three numbers which turned out to be very common, which sucked. My bus was to leave at 10:30, so I had to wait for several hours by myself, with nothing to think about other than the fact that I didn't speak any Vietnamese and that I had a limited amount of money and no bus ticket. When searching for a bathroom at around 9 I ran back into the guys who sold me my bus ticket, and the intentionally put me on the wrong bus, and I knew it. After I saw them leave I got off the bus and ran across the street to the bus I knew was mine, pointed furiously at the square of paper where the man had written down that I'd paid, and huddled in my seat praying that they wouldn't kick me off. I hated Vietnam.
The bus got going and no one said anything to me for the entirety of the ride. We arrived in Hanoi at around 5 am, perfect. I knew the fair price for a ride into town and I caught a motorbike taxi into the old quarter to the lake that I could use as a reference point to find pretty much anything I needed after a few hours of studying a friend's map on the bus. It was still really early when I got there and there were tons of people running and walking around the lake, and even two large-scale aerobics classes going on. It was very amusing and had a calming effect on me after the ordeal I'd just been through. I found the hostel I'd wanted to stay at without any problem, checked in, showered for the first time in days, and slept. I didn't sleep long because people started moving around and stuff, so I got up and decided to explore the town. I visited the Women's Museum and the Hoa Lo Prison Museum, as well as a couple of temples. I also bought a ticket to a traditional water puppet show which I'd learned about in my Southeast Asian Studies class, it was actually really amusing. The more the puppets splashed, the more people clapped, it was great. One of my friends from school was at the same show with her family and she invited me to have breakfast with them at their hotel the next morning before my trip to Halong Bay.
Natasha met me at my hostel early the next morning to walk with me to her hotel. The complimentary breakfast was glorious--pancakes, baguettes, fruit, yogurt, the works. Another guy from my hostel was on the same tour, and we met two other guys on the tour who were from Quebec. We were all amused by the Disney Land style of the caves we were allowed to 'discover' on the tour. It was one of the most touristy things I've ever been on. We all just laughed it off. That night the four of us hung out at the super swanky hotel the Quebec kids were staying at, and the next morning I met back up with my friend from school, Greg Bonney. Neither of us felt much like doing anything, so I wandered around the markets of the town while he napped and that evening we mailed a couple of postcards, hung out by the lake and drank really cheap Beer Hue on a street corner and talked for a while. Our flight back was early the next morning so we turned in fairly early. Then it was back to Bangkok for a hot minute before going down to the islands for the full moon party, another story in and of itself.

Burma--Day 1

The guards called us a cab at 4 am to make it to the airport in time. The flight there felt like it lasted five minutes because I was so tired. When we landed there was one other plane on the runway, maybe, and there was an eerie quiet that lay over the small but pristine airport. The four of us got through customs fine and got a taxi into the downtown Yangon to see the Sakura tower which my friend from Burma had recommended for the amazing views of the city. The cab driver was going on and on to us about traveling and such as we drove through the streets littered with cars whose drivers were on the right side while driving on the right side of the road--one of many signs of post colonialism by the British. Not long into the ride we pulled into an alley where the drivers switched out, which was very strange. The second man got into the cab and started talking about how the first man's English was bad and how we probably couldn't understand him, which wasn't really true. He wasted no time pulling out all the stops trying to get us to book tours using his taxi or tour company, pulling out all these brochures and journals full of past tourists' testimonials in favor of the company. We looked politely at everything he handed to us knowing we would not be taking him up on any offers other than the drive to the tower.
We pulled into the parking lot of what looked like a delapidated apartment complex which he told us was his office buliding, I asked him why he'd not taken us to the tower--he wanted us to change money with his company. Interesting thing about this country, there are no banks, you have to trade US dollars for kyat covertly once you get into the country, it's all very bizarre. So we walk into the building and as we're waiting for the elevator to come he tells us that there is a school in the building as well and that we could go see it. We were led to a tiny room on the 5th floor where some 30 odd Burmese children were standing and singing songs in English. We stayed for around 20 minutes and the kids kept singing the entire time, they were on a roll. The teachers pulled us up to the front of the room and encouraged us to take pictures, again, bizarre. After that we headed up to his office to change money. He gave us free coffee and tried to convince us that the view out his window was as good as that from the tower. We each changed only $20 with him to his and his lady boss's dismay then we finally left to go to the tower.
We pulled into this ally and parked. He proceeded to show us around to different guesthouses, a pointless endeavor because we'd already told him we were planning on leaving that day to go to Bago, nevertheless we were led around to see a few rooms in a fairly nice place. When we got back down into the reception area the owner of the place started going off about how we shouldn't trust Indians, that there were plenty of good-hearted Burmese people to help us if we needed it. After the dose of blatant racism we were finally led into the tower where we went to the 20th floor to take pictures and try to get away from this oppressive guide to talk amongst ourselves and figure out what we wanted to do, which was lose him and exchange more money elsewhere in the city for a better rate. In the elevator ride down we broke the news to him and he was noticably agitated. He began lowering the price he'd originally quoted us to take us to the bus station, and we kept refusing. One the bottom floor as the doors opened he threw us his arms and shouted 'two dollars!' as he stormed away. We were unsure if he really expected us to follow him after his little temper tantrum, and we hesitantly started heading in his general direction. We walked down the alley where he'd parked and my friend Natasha talked briefly with him as the rest of us began to take seats at a street vendor to eat, the man finally left in a fit of anger, which was pretty amusing.
The woman who owned the street vendor was very kind. She talked with us about her family--she had a brother and a sister who attended university in Yangon and were now working in accounting in Singapore, but she had to stay in Burma to work to support her three children. Our meals were unbelievably cheap but she wouldn't accept a tip for her hospitality. We then went on a search for a better exchange rate, which we found as we were crossing the street to the market where we'd been told to go. A man standing on the median at a stop light saw us crossing and asked us hurriedly if we needed to exchange money, he told us he'd give 100 kyat more than what we'd gotten from the first man so we accepted. He led us on a treck across the hot city as it was approaching noon and we carried all of our packs with us, which was fun. We were taken into a tiny hallway of a room with four chairs lined up across one of the walls where we all took a seat and were greeted by three more exchanging agents--one for each of us. They stood in front of us and made small talk as a fragile old man sat hunched over in the corner of the room sketchily counting money to give to them. We each changed $40 and needed to get 40 bills from them each. They were very particular about the bills that they accepted, stating that those with sereal numbers that started with 'E' could be counterfit from Thailand. They tried to rip us off several times during the exchange process by first counting out 30 bills, then 10 more, then appearing to hand you the full stack as well as the process of finding bills that they would accept. Poor Shay had $20 stolen from her during the whole fiasco, and I was nearly shorted $10.
After that we left to catch a cab to the bus station to get to Bago. While we were walking we met a random Burmese man who spoke good English named Steven. He just walked up to us and introduced himself, started talking about how he wanted to teach English and asking us where we were from and stuff. He walked with us until we got a cab and he talked to the driver in Myanmar, which was helpful.
The ride was fairly long to the station so we were all pretty groggy when we pulled in and were greeted by no less than half a dozen men literally running up to our cab and demanding that we take their bus. It was pretty intense. We bought tickets for two dollars on a bus that was leaving almost immediately. When we got on board we had to walk on top of these big black tanks of mystery fluid to get to our seats. The ride was short, around two hours, and very pleasant. When we reached Bago we were met by four motorbike taxi drivers who offered to take us to a guesthouse in the town for cheap and to afterwards drive us around to the different pagodas, temples and Buddhas that would no longer have entrance fees this late in the afternoon. We agreed and hopped on.
After dropping off our stuff the first stop we made was a huge reclining Buddha where a large truckload of villagers were stopped off on a pilgrimage to the various religious relics around the town. They rarely see white people, a trend we got even more accustomed to in Golden Rock, so they were very excited to see us and took many pictures with us and held our hands and stuff. It was great, we hung out with them until they got back on the truck and left. Our main motorbike guide, the one who spoke the best English and knew the most about the different sites, told us that they really appreciated it that we didn't just take a quick picture of them and leave, because that was what they were used to when they saw white people. We then walked around the Buddha for a while taking pictures and such before heading off to the next place.
There were many locals in front of the next jewelled Buddha, selling various souvineers and begging for money. I was compelled by this young girl who spoke wonderful English into buying a ton of postcards that I didn't really want or need. We all sat down in front of the Buddha with the guide where he told us about his life.
He said that he used to rip off tourists, he would take them to these same sites and tell them that they still required entrance fees and collect them for himself, then use the money to go out at night with his friends. Easy come easy go, he said he should have been rich for all he took but it was easy come easy go, kharma. He'd since stopped drinking and also stopped ripping off tourists, trying to clean up his life. I've heard many similar stories before, but something about his tone made me believe him, and his actions throughout the rest of our stay confirmed that he truly had the best intentions, which is so rare.
After our discussion we got back on the bikes and rode through the countryside past lush green hills through winding dirt paths and villages dotted with people smiling and staring at the white people, waving often as we rode by. The next stop was at a snake temple which housed this huge python that is believed to be the reincarnation of this girl who was orphaned and raised by monks, then somehow tortured and killed. Our guide said that stories told of monks speaking to the snake in other buildings around the complex and the snake hearing and obeying their commands. Next up was a pagoda on the top of one of the hills we'd ridden past. It was around sunset now, and when we climbed up to the top of the pagoda the view was incredible. There was a low haze over the palm tree forests that surrounded the hill punctuated by huts and villages. You could see the tops of temples and other pagodas poking up through the trees in the distance. It was so beautiful.
After that we went for tea and coffee at a little restaurant back in town that was on the way to the next pagoda. The guide sat and talked with us, only drinking the tea that is provided free of charge at virtually every meal in Burma. The young boys who were the servers brought out three dishes for us to try if we liked, two of meat and vegetable pastries and one of egg pastries. We ate all of them and were full, they were delicious and the coffee is always pre-sweetened.
The last pagoda was all gold and it looked so grand and imposing all lit up at night. It was built after the original one fell in 1917, the foundation of which is still preserved on the side of the new one in a kind of shrine. All around the giant pagoda there are various Buddha shrines with what look like carnival lights flashing around behind them, it's very out of place and amusing.
We walked back down and talked with the guide who agreed to take us to see the monks at their morning meal if we could be ready by 6:30 am. We agreed, they took us back and we all went to sleep on the soft foam beds immediately.

Thailand's beaches . . . all of them

A couple of weeks ago I flew into Phuket, probably the most popular destination in Thailand because it's where The Beach was filmed, and rightfully so. Lesson number one of the trip was to have at least some idea of where you're staying when you take a plane/bus/whatever anywhere. There are always TONS of cab and van drivers waiting at every check point, asking "Where you go?" And if you don't know, they commence trying to make plans for you, it's pretty great and all. We ended up staying at this cool little bungalow a short walk from the national forest/beach--yeah, it's both. It was probably the most beautiful beach I've ever seen, postcard scenes all around and stuff.
We only spend one night in Phuket, taking a cab the next evening to Phuket Town to check out the night life, in which I was the only one to partake--everyone else's loss. The next morning we took a bus to Krabi where another thousand people with tuk tuks attempted to lure us into various 'deals' and such. Fortunately we were all to abruptly awakened from our naps to make executive decisions about our lives, so we went to a nearby restaurant to eat. Turned out that the owners of the place also co-owned a hotel conveniently located in Krabi Town, and offered us free transportation to our various excursions around the surrounding islands. So we cancelled our previous reservations and went with them.
Still a bit tired from traveling so much we opted to wander the town instead of rock climbing or anything more ambitious. Shayanne and I randomly decided to take this boat tour, which ended up being pretty cool. We were taken to this mangrove forest to see monkeys and to a fish farm owned by some local villagers. The woman who was mostly in charge of things there had three kids aged 1 to 13, was attending college in Phuket for a degree in Community Planning, helping to run this fish farm and was also in charge of a home-stay program in her village--truly amazing woman. We hung out there for a while sipping on coconut milk and talking to her.
The next day we woke up early to go kayaking. Even the ride in the back of a truck through town to get to the place was beautiful. The four of us plus a traveler working in Bangkok and an older British couple took a 20 minute boat ride to the first island for snorkeling and lunch. It was great, there were tons of beautiful fish swimming all around us below the limestone cliffs. There was also a hiking path where boats had washed up from the 2004 tsunami, it was astounding to see. Lunch was delicious and very filling. Then we went kayaking, going through two little stone cut-outs in the sides of the cliffs because the low tide allowed for it. We landed in this awesome little lagoon where there were crazy looking trees, more cliffs and tons of starfish. We kayaked back and got back on the boat to go to the second island where my friends and I were coaxed into trying some home-made Thai liquor with some presumably already drunk Thai people. It was not very potent but it tasted pretty good to my surprise. We snorkeled some at that beach as well, but it was generally a bad idea because the tide was still low and we all got cut on the coral.
That night several more people from the university on the island came to our guesthouse and we planned to go rock climbing the following day on Railey island. Turned out that it was too crowded and difficult for beginners like myself, so I opted out. However, I did take a strenuous hike that was essentially like very easy rock climbing to this lookout point over Panang beach, again, gorgeous. Panang beach itself was really cool because about half of the beach sits in the shadow a limestone cliff which we hung out under. Julia and I also went exploring around the cliff at low tide and found a Thai book washed up on one of the rocks, I was going to take it until I realized it was a stupid idea to carry around a soggy book. It was here that we also found a great place to cliff jump, around 30 feet up. Some guys from the US and Sylvania jumped first, to show it was safe--no worries family. I made Julia jump. She has thanked me several times since. Seriously.
That night I took a bus home that was supposed to last 13 hours but actually took 20 due to road blocks around 5 hours north of Krabi due to military and police conflicts. That sounds much more exciting than it actually was--traffic. Lots of traffic.
I took a couple of midterms that week, all A's of course. School here is amazingly easy, for me especially, I literally do next to no work, it's great. Other people here do have stuff to do though, so it's just lucky course selection I suppose.
The weekend after that I went to work at an English camp just East of Bangkok. Transportation there and back, food and lodging is all taken care of, plus you get paid for each day you teach, it's amazing. We stayed overnight on mattresses set up in some room in the school, which was actually not that bad. The day I taught lasted from 8 to 4, you go introduce yourself to the some 120 or so Thai kids from 13 to 17 years old (but you would never know they were that old for the most part, they definitely seem younger). We each had a group of 20 or so kids who we did random projects and activities with, just helping them to learn new words in English, like playing word association games and coming up with chants for our teams. The day ended with what they call the 'powder game' when all of the kids sit in a big circle, passing 20 or so little containers of baby powder around to the 'music' which is just the camp leader, Rob, singing random songs, it's pretty funny. When he stops, the kids with the powder stand up and put it on whoever Rob says, which of course was eventually on us. We took some pictures with the kids and then they descended on us before we left, whipping out their camera phones to take their pictures with you and asking you to sign their workbooks. It's really bizarre.
Then, this past weekend, I went to another beach (surprise!) called Hua Hin, which is just a few hours from Bangkok. The train we took there was very reminiscent of those you see in Slumdog Millionaire, haha, no joke. I whipped out the iPod and listened to Paper Planes, I'm not going to lie. A large Dutchman met us across the street from the station and offered us a room at his place, King's Home, for 250 baht each, which turned out to be pretty comparable to others in the area. Haha, he gave us a map to get there and let us go, then rode up next to us a few blocks later on a motorbike with his wife, who'd so graciously offered to walk us to the place. Oh Thailand. It worked out. The beaches there were not as nice as those in Krabi and Phuket, they've spoiled me. We went walking to find what we hoped were nicer beaches but were turned around by the Thai military because we were approaching the King's beach, cool huh? There were lots of large rocks on the shore where people sunning themselves look like beached fish. For much of the next day there I stayed at the pool at the Hilton, which opens up directly to the beach, allowing pretty much whoever to just go up and if you act like you belong, you do--no one questioned me. That was one nice pool--complete with bathrooms with western toilets AND toilet paper, lounge chairs, palm trees, the works. We took a bus home the next night.
Who knows what next weekend will bring . . .

Muay Thai

I've two Thai buddies that I was randomly assigned at an event organized to better integrate foreign students and locals. I neglected to ask them about their potential vacation homes in Pattaya. I remain hopeful. We should have won the dance competition.
I am one of the few girls in the Muay Thai boxing club. I joined on a whim but I actually really, really enjoyed it. The plan is to stick with it, hone my skills, bring them back to the states and start the revolution.
Field trip number one with the Thai Language and Culture class was this past Friday, and none of us are really sure exactly what the place was called nor the purpose it served. I'd call it a palatial yet somewhat smaller museum full of works of art completed for members of the royal Thai family. I had no idea that beetle wings were used as decoration, they were used in virtually every other piece. Gold was also abundant and the level of detail was phenomenal. The silk woven tapestries looked like paintings.
I literally burned my ass on the kiddie slide at the pool on Saturday. I am a moron. For nearly four hours the pool was monopolized almost entirely by Green Park students, it was awesome. Famous Cabbages and Condoms restaurant for dinner, they have condom everything and decent food. I spun the wheel of sexual fortune and I'm sure you will all be glad to know that I did not land on Aids. That night I saw my first drag queens up close, this was also amazing. I got my picture taken with a few of them free of charge, but when the boys in the group did the same they demanded tips, which was also very amusing. The queens were gathering just outside of the pool hall we spent much of the night at, which was apparently also a popular high school hang out.
Today I went into the city with Bonney, Lane and Julia to see the snake farm, Wat Pho and the Grand Royal Palace and to get Thai massages and the massage school. We took water taxis to get around, which are essentially buses on the water, it's incredible and super relaxing. The snake farm was interesting, we were initially told by the ticket booth woman that we would each have to pay 200 baht to see the show. We countered that with the fact that we're students and apprehensive looks. While we were standing in front of the booth just trying to make up our minds as to whether or not we should pay the seemingly official price that wouldn't budge for students when she suddenly decided that our business was wanted, 100 baht each later we were watching snake handlers skrew around with cobras. It was crazy. After the show the crowd was allowed to hold the python around the neck and of course I had to partake.
The Grand Royal Palace looked amazing from behind the high white walls and that was about as close as we were allowed to get in order to save the 350 baht entrance fee. Just a short walk down a street littered with vendors is Wat Pho, entrance fee 50 baht and home of the biggest reclining Buddha I've ever seen, plated in gold and looking happy and chill like Buddha always does. The surrounding temples were beautiful.
Thai massages are amazing and somewhat awkward. You are in a small U-shaped room in a small section of 3 beds or so laying side by side, and chances are you're sweaty and have dirty feet from walking around all day, I really felt bad for my masseuse. They don't really mess around, they hit you deep and where it hurts and afterwards you feel amazing. Julia said it was the fastest 30 minutes of her life, and I tend to agree. Next time I'll spring for the full hour.

Puppets and Ruins

We took the train to Ayutthaya, the old capital. The man sitting across from me during the hour and a half ride was a Muay Thai boxer, the scars on his face and the eagle tattooed across the entirety of his chest spoke to his merit. A man and a small child sat next to me for a while, the child did not accept my peace offering of a mento and I was deeply offended.
We took tuk tuks to the island to the Toto Inn, party room for 8. Most of us ate Thai food that night but apparently we should have sprung for the Italian place next door. Lasagna in Thailand, anyone? I slept well despite the cold and the general lack of blankets, though I was one of the lucky ones who didn't have to share one of the thin plaid strips of cotton.
Breakfast and bikes the next morning, after much ado over the continued use of tuk tuks and our general ability to bike to all of the ruins successfully. We almost died 5 times. I will never get used to driving on the left or riding bikes next to double decker buses airbrused with curious combinations of Disney characters. Few tourists were around and most of the ruins looked pretty much the same--lots of old bricks built into awesome 600 or so year old Wats that are now falling apart. I have now seen Ayutthaya.
The night before was another school sponsored trip to a culturally relevant puppet show frequented exclusively by tourists. Three people control each 3 foot tall puppet as they use their legs and faces to further illustrate the actions of the puppets they are controlling. A traditional band, 4 men acting as the voices of the puppets and a whole lot of dry ice accompanied the puppeteers on stage. I could have done without the obnoxious voices for the most part, but the weird music grew on me.

Mint

I've gotten used to the Thai weather. Walking to get dinner tonight I was cold and it could not have been below 65 or so (Fahrenheit, that is--people will occasionally ask one of us Americans to tell them the temperature in Fahrenheit, it's amusing).
It's amazing only having classes 4 days a week, I'm getting more used to the obnoxiously long classes, the key is always to not look at the clock. Human Rights is shaping up to be my favorite class thus far, largely discussion based, or as much as it possibly can be, due to the general lack of participation during class by the local students--their shyness during class is really weird. Part of that may be the fact that English is a second language for pretty much all of them and all the classes (obviously) are taught in English. I really thought that I'd be able to understand them better, but some of their accents are so thick that I only get about half of what they say . . . I hope it's not that way with them and the teachers. Ha, which reminds me, one of my friends here wanted to take an English class and accidentally signed up for Advanced Spoken English--he's definitely a native speaker, they definitely didn't let him take it. A lot of the classes here involve taking one or more field trips, which is awesome. We're taking 3 in my Thai class and one to observe monkeys in my Anthropology class. This fact increases the awesomeness and the high school-ness of the whole thing.
This past weekend pretty much everyone from Green Park stayed in town to go on the school sponsored field trip-type thing to the Floating Market. Five in each long boat propelled by an outboard motor, we traveled down the extremely narrow canals past other boats carrying mostly tourists past different markets opening up to the water, sitting on the edge of the canal. It was pretty awkward a few times when the driver would pick a random stand to stop at, which no one had any interest in, and the shopkeeper would frantically show us different things and promise us 'special prices'. There's a main market that has mostly souvenirs where you can get out of the boats and walk around, which we did. I ended up getting this awesome red hammock that may or may not actually support my weight. When we left there we pulled into what I believed to be the main area of the market where many more waterside shoppes sat side by side as well as many, many locals in boats selling various fruits and vegetables. The pineapple here is the best I've had in my life.
After the market we had a several course meal at a Thai restaurant (I'm actually not sure if I should keep calling them 'Thai restaurants'--because if I were in the US and eating at an 'American' restaurant, I'd just call it a restaurant . . . either way) where I tried some of the super hot soups they make with coconut milk bases. I'm also getting more used to the spicy foods here. On an interesting side note my Anthropology professor here posed the question why we thought that in tropical regions such as Thailand and Mexico eat a lot of spicy foods. Being pretty much the only foreigner in the class I was the only one to offer a response, it clears your sinuses? I hadn't thought of the fact that spices are medicinal to an extent and that there are more diseases present in tropical regions, so it is possible that the foods developed out of evolutionary necessity. I found that very interesting. What else was interesting was the fact that monks were in the restaurant as well, which I hadn't expected to see at all because it was my understanding that they have to renounce all luxuries, but hey, times change, right? The icing on the cake was that they all had ice cream sundaes after their meals, which really struck me as bizarre. Thinking about it now it really shouldn't be I suppose, but it was an odd sight at the time.
That afternoon I checked out the pool down the street from the dorm, which sits just behind the closest restaurant to serve American food which has a terrace that overlooks the pool itself, I believe. For about $4 you can swim in one of the nicest pools I've been to, complete with three slides, even if two of them are strictly for small children, not that that stopped me. As soon as I walked in an employee eagerly pointed at the sign of the pool rules--all ladies must wear a swim cap while in the pool, which was fantastic. I later heard that same employee speaking English to another patron, which I found odd because he totally acted like he didn't speak the language to me. The plant debris in the pool, unlike in the states, consisted of beautiful flowers from the hedges, it was quite pleasant. A bruised hip and a lost earring later I headed back, those slides were brutal.
The next day several of us went out to the weekend market in Bangkok called JJ market, well not actually, but the full name is pretty much never used, and I don't remember it. We took a bus into the city which took about 45 minutes and cost 19 baht, and the sky train from Victory Monument to where the market sets up which took about 5 minutes and cost 25 baht. In conclusion the sky train is expensive. I've never been more grateful to have a working cell phone because there's no way I would have found my way out and back on my own. The market is huge, encompassing several indoor and outdoor areas where vendors and shopkeepers wait eagerly urging you to buy whatever it is they're selling. I made it a point not to go to the ATM in order to keep my spending to a minimum. I didn't pay full price for anything, even if I only lowered it by a few cents, I felt much more justified in my spending. I swear, no matter how much you first suggest to these vendors they will laugh at you and shake their heads, as if to say that you're insane for thinking that they'd ever sell you anything at such a price, when the fact of the matter often is that they start their asking prices at twice what they're willing to take for something. This is the case according to some of my friends at least. The day ended with a confusing cab ride to the wrong side of Bangkok to a shopping mall whose name sounds far too similar to Wat Pho. Thank God for cell phones and Thai speaking friends, they enable my ignorance of foreign languages.
My Thai friends have nicknamed me Mint.
Score.

In the beginning . . .

I'll start with the flight. I got up once during my 13.5 hour flight from the states to Tokyo due to the excessive sleeping habits of the elderly gentleman sitting next to me who is in a curious relationship with a young Filipino woman . . . I was out cold for 5 hours or so on the way to Bangkok from there, which was much needed--I venture to say I got up twice during that 7 hour flight. As the plane was landing the clock struck 12 midnight, ringing in a new year, and I could see fireworks from the air strip, some of which I was forced to assume were to welcome me, of course.

I ended up getting to the dormitory, Green Park, sometime between 2 and 3 in the morning after going through customs and a somewhat awkward ride with a driver who spoke virtually no English--our conversations consisted mostly of me or him saying something, the other not understanding, some attempt at clarification, then just laughter upon coming to a shared understanding of not understanding. After a much needed shower I ended up meeting several of the other international students as they were returning from the festivities of the city. They told me about their plans to travel to Kanchanaburi the next day and invited me, I had no idea where it was or why they were going, but suddenly I was too.

Leaving early the next day didn't exactly work out, at around 5 in the afternoon the 15 of us had arranged travel and were on our way, luckily I was riding in the car of handy, amazing companion Wil, who is Thai and attended high school in the US, speaking perfect English and Thai, a Godsend if ever there was one. Two hours or so after driving south we arrived in Kanchanaburi at a place called Sugar Cane that is quite literally on the water, sitting on pontoons. After those who'd ridden the bus got in we roamed the streets a bit and found a Thai place that could house us all. Most of the restaurants are more like glorified roadside stands in a sense, they are in buildings with kitchens, seating areas and bathrooms but often times the former two are one in the same, as was the case here, and they are open air. Because there were so many of us and all of the food is prepared fresh (we saw it) it took quite a while for us to finish, but it was worth the wait--very good and very cheap. Most of the other students went out on the town thereafter but my jetlagged self was about to pass out at dinner, so I went straight to bed.
The next morning we got up fairly early and grabbed a fast breakfast at a 7-11 on the way to rent motorbikes (there are 7-11 stores everywhere, it's amazing). After a crash course in how to drive the things (literally for one of us, he has battle scars to prove it) we headed out, two to a bike, to the Bridge over the River Kway. The bridge itself was pretty cool and at the end of it I encountered the first of several elephants I've seen thus far. After the bridge we went into the WWII museum just around the corner from it, which was interesting though not well maintained. It was here that we saw a man carving flowers out of bars of soap, the level of detail was incredible. We ate and checked out the surrounding street markets after the museum, I tried haggling for the first time and I didn't succeed, exactly, but I didn't fail either. After that we went on a 45 minute bike ride through the countryside to a waterfall where there were tons of locals swimming and climbing around. We rode back to Kancahanburi and ate dinner at an Indian restaurant that was a little more expensive than the Thai one from the night before but equally good and a little more closed off from the street. Again, I almost fell asleep in my food so I just went back to Sugar Cane when everyone else went out.
Our last day in Kanchanaburi we returned the bikes and ate breakfast at a restaurant called the Jolly Frog which was pretty good. We checked out of the guest house and over half our group decided to just take the bus back to the dorms, the rest of us went to Tiger Temple. This was more or less like a free roaming zoo, with the exception of the tigers who are chained and presumably drugged up. When we first walked in we passed a group of water buffalo and goats as we made our way up to the first temple, which was closed for dharma lessons at 1, so we fell in line with another group of tourists who were following a monk leading a tiger. As we followed Thai people who worked at the place kept running up to people and saying eagerly 'camera?!?' and taking their cameras and running up to the front of the line with them. Before I knew it I was handing my camera to a small Thai woman who grabbed my wrist and led me to the front of the heard of people, put my hand on the back of the tiger, ran in front of me, took my picture, grabbed me away from the tiger and gave me back my camera before running away to do it all over again. It was quite bizarre.
We finally got to the tiger den so to speak, an area at the bottom of some kind of canyon where there were nearly 15 or 20 more tigers laying around, chained to the ground or to various rocks or trees. I'm still not sure how much they may or may not have drugged up these animals, because though I'm sure that they would sleep a great deal on their own I have no idea how they'd react to the dozens upon dozens of people being led around them, petting them and having their pictures taken with them. It was sad in a way, but I was right there reaping the benefits of their potential sedation. We got in line again here, where we were instructed to take off any sunglasses, bags or dangling items and to turn off the flash on our cameras so as not to disturb the tigers in the event that one would happen to ever wake up, which didn't happen. More Thai workers again take your camera and lead you around the ring, taking your picture essentially with every tiger on the grounds. The woman leading me around asked me if I spoke Thai, I laughed and said 'hello' and 'thank you' in my very poor Thai, she laughed a little and nodded. After a few of my pictures the woman would remark how pretty it was and show the workers around her, it was amusing to me because I'd been hiking around and not showering well for the last few days, not the most gorgeous look.
We finished up at Tiger Temple with some pony and peacock chasing along with a few last minute pictures with the baby tigers that had just finished feeding. Then it was off to the National Park to see the waterfalls. Wil was able to get the car load of us into the park at half price even though none of us had our student id's yet, just another perk of speaking the language. We got there just 20 minutes before the higher, apparently better parts of the falls were closing for the evening, so we speed hiked up the side of the mountain. The views were amazing and the falls were bigger than the ones we'd seen the day before, I considered jumping into the fairly clear water, especially after speed hiking and all it would have felt very good, but then I'd be wet for the ride back and I'd read that it's generally not a good idea to swim in fresh water in Thailand, so I refrained. The guards started kicking us out pretty soon, so we hiked back down and looked at some of the lower falls on the way out. We ate dinner at a small open-air restaurant that was part of a chain of shops and other eateries in the parking lot, again, very good food and my first sticky rice of the trip, always an excellent choice.
The ride back to Green Park was extraordinarily long, with no small part due to the fact that there were 8 of us crammed into the car with all of our backpacks. Not long after we got back to the dorms most of us decided to go into Bangkok to go to Gazebo, a bar/disco just off Kawasan Road with hundreds of night markets and thousands of tourists. Gazebo is on the 3rd floor with an open roof over the perimeter of it and it had a live cover band singing mostly 90's US hits, and they were actually pretty good. We hung out and danced for a while before I personally had had enough and was starting to get tired again. I was upset to find that this club and presumably many others in Thailand are exactly the same as they are in the US--same music, same dancing, neither of which I am much of a fan.
The next day I went back into the city to get my uniform and to do some exploring. Our friend Muheeb from Bangladesh who has lived in Thailand for several years showed us around one of the malls, MBK. We spent forever in there just looking around, I wish I knew better what would be a fair price for certain things because I really want to haggle more effectively . . . I've been laughed at by multiple vendors already. Awesome.
We ate at a Mexican restaurant in the city that night, which was surprisingly good, but far from the best Mexican I've had, but what do you expect on the other side of the world? Plus our waitress was a transvestite, they're quite common in the city because they have many plastic surgeons who are very good at the kinds of operations they like to have done, fun times. Muheeb joined back up with us here and took us on a brief walk through the red light district where I saw nothing but scantily clad, underage Thai girls and old white men--it was both funny and disturbing. The city is exhausting.
Today was my orientation day and my first day of class. Naturally I missed the bus to take me to the University along with my roommate, Shayanne. Thankfully, all we needed to do was call Wil and he willingly came and brought us to where we needed to be. Orientation was fairly brief and uninformative. Thought the people directing it spoke English well it was difficult for them to understand our questions and respond effectively. I'm signed up for four, four hour classes: Introduction to Thai Language and Culture, Southeast Asian Studies, Introduction to Human Rights and Physical Anthropology. Today I only attended one because the other was canceled due to orientation, and that was Introduction to Human Rights. The professor is Australian and there are about 9 of us in the class, including one of the girls who went to Kanchanaburi with us, Julie. We basically had a full day of class today after some brief introductions and going over the syllabus, I guess some things never change. The material is very interesting thus far and my classmates all seem very nice and interested as well.
I caught a taxi for the first time by myself after class to meet up with a few of my friends at Tesco Lotus, the Thai version of Wal-Mart or maybe Target, to pick up some basic food and water in bulk. Let's hope I catch the shuttle bus tomorrow, geez.