and now i am in thailand

Now I am in Thailand traveling for a few weeks. Bangkok smells funny. I got a little more used to the smell, but I didn’t like it at all the first day.

There are a lot of big gold ornate temples with bits of shiny metal and glass glued all over them. And big gold Buddhas inside. And sculptures everywhere, of crazy dragons and roostermen and lions. And big swirly things on the ends of the eaves of the roofs. And intricate woodwork and designs on every surface. Many temples. Have I mentioned that there is a lot of gold? And lots of shiny? I think that the concept “less is more” has not entered the Thai consciousness.

One thing that has been too bad about Thailand is that when you go to vegetarian restaurants the restaurants are very geared towards Westerners (which makes sense) and the food is kind of Westernized. I haven’t been served any food that was too hot for me. In fact, I have been served a fair amount of bland food. Oh well.

The best food that we have had was in a little stall on Phuket Island, in Phuket Town. Phuket Town has a vegetarian festival every year, so the local stall owners can accommodate weenie vegetarians wandering around. But the food was really non-Western. And good.

In Bangkok. Kenneth and I saw the Royal Palace and a bunch of temples. All really amazing sights, but after 5 or 6 enormous golden buildings, you sort of lose your awe for the grandeur of it all and just want to go get a Sprite. Kenneth said is was sort of like what happened to us when we went to Glacier National Park last year. We were floored by the majestic vistas for the first day or two, then for the rest of the trip were completely nonplussed by the majestic scenery and were like, hey whatever, another mountain. Where can we get something to eat?

I think the thing we liked the most in Bangkok was the weekend market. It was 8 times the size of one of the night markets in Taipei. It was this labyrinth of shops that stretched on and on. We walked around it for 3 or 4 hours and I don’t think we saw half of it. And a lot of the shops had the same touristy crap, but there were also lots of other things too. It was like a hippie street fair thing, with a mall, and a food court, but with a bunch of knock off stores, with copied cds and dvds and fake converse sneakers. Luggage, pottery, dogs, purses, roast pig, “brand” name jeans, salt and pepper shakers, silk scarves, music, underwear, fresh pineapple shakes, knick knacks, rugs, stuffed elephants and massages can all be bought within a few minutes of each other.

One thing that is kind of cool is that there are piles of vendors selling food at all hours of the day all over every street. And they have little plastic tables and chairs so you can sit and eat your food. I like the temporary permanence of the arrangement. The vendors have carts they can push around and make what is essentially fast food for people walking by, and the chairs and tables are plastic and cheap and easy to move or throw away, but the whole set up with the food vendors and the table and chair layout with people sitting and eating has an air or permanence as well, like it is a little restaurant, only it is on the sidewalk. I like the vague sense of community that surrounds the little food shops.

They love their king here. There are pictures of him and the queen everywhere.

The taxi drivers here are way pushier than in Taipei. I never had to argue with a taxi driver in Taiwan, here you almost always have to, in order to get a decent fare. Or really, you have to bargain to get a fare that is too high, but not exorbitant. I am not good at bargaining. Kenneth gets mad because in the markets if I ask a price and it is way too high, I will just laugh and walk away instead of bargaining it down. Or if there is a price posted for something, if I am willing to pay the price I will not bargain at all. Whatever though, I hate bargaining.

One thing that I like is that there are people who set up sewing shops on the streets here. You can just be walking down an alley and there will be some old woman with her sewing machine camped out on a corner, fixing someone’s pants on her peddle sewing machine.

Something that is a little disconcerting is how shills will come up to you on the street and start talking to you. I am not used to people just walking up and asking where I am from, but it is the natural reaction to play along and be friendly back and say where you are from and let them engage you in conversation. These guys just want to tell you about how you can get a “really cheap” ride around town, or about the festival down the street, or the parade that will be happening later, or the ceremony for the boys becoming monks at that school right there, then they bring the conversation around to suits and tailors, or travel agents, or whatever. It is really obnoxious because you can’t just walk away without being overtly rude, and this guy is seemingly just being nice. Kenneth and I are nice people, basically, and so it is hard for us to get away quickly. Not that is it unpleasant talking to these random people who all happen to have a sister who lives in the states, (in Manhattan, in San Francisco, in Chicago) but it isn’t very interesting and there is stuff we would like to go see. Even just saying “We aren’t interested” straight out doesn’t work. This “approach” technique is extremely effective, because it is really hard to overcome that natural instinct to be polite.

I am in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand right now. I am taking some Thai cooking classes and some Indian cooking classes this weekend (Chiang Mai is really good for that sort of thing) and then next week I volunteer for the Elephant Poop Camp (Elephant Nature Park) where I pay to do work, but where I get to hang out with elephants for a week. Then I go back to Phuket Island for a few days of lazing about on the beach, then back to Taiwan for a day, then home. Phew. More on Thailand itself later.