Bangkok: Falang!

 

And my love affair with Thailand continues. I left Cambodia early to meet friends from Seattle: Ali, Sirima and their adorable 9 month old, Keegan. So Bangkok for 10 days. Hummmpph. In hindsight, I would not have spent so much time there but hey, I was in between meeting friends and the hostel was wicked cool, so why not? No one would ever describe Bangkok as boring. Lub D was the name of my new home for 10 days and was ranked high on hostelworld.com (the bible for backpackers) and was like my second family as I stayed there on 3 different occasions and even used it as my physical address. It means good sleep in Thai, and not exactly the best sleep as I was staying in a 4 bed all female dorm ("no man's land", the sign greeted me) with 3 security doors so I felt beyond safe but as I'm a light sleeper, sleep is not always my friend, I'd rather be talking. Once settled in and shaken off the 22 hour bus ride to get here, off to tackle the sky train to meet my friends. Ok, so only 4 stops away and 1 exchange should've been a quick trip but it took this sleep deprived girl two hours to find the hotel A and S were staying at...except they weren't there so off in a cab to dinner which I arrived as they were finishing but I scored some really yummy pad thai anyway. And how surreal to meet up with friends in a foreign country, great to catch up! 

OMG, I'm already talking about the food and get used to it on this post as Bangkok knows how to eat! The next day, I met the A and S crew along with their friend, A, who just arrived from Seattle too so guess what? An insider's claim to the best crab curry anywhere in the world and this from a foodie, yes, I'm in! And yum it was amazing! Other unusual suspects were eggplant and whole fish, I vowed to go back but never made it with all of the other good restaurants and street food.

Back to hostel life and meeting up with peeps from my dorm room, a cool bunch of girls, even an American who gave me hope that we could be laid-back, ha! Ate dinner on Khao Son Road, backpackers' central, a dinner of only $1, the cocktail accompanying dinner was more spendy coming in at a whopping $2. This is the road to people watch, full of bars and street food where I first came across bugs to dine on but couldn't...yet...do....it. Shopping too, lots of knock-off clothes for sale. 

AYUTTHAYA
Day trip to Ayutthaya, booyah, this is Thailand's answer to Angkor Wat and I never get tired of ruins! I was lucky enough to join Sirima's Thai family for a day trip in a VIP van with karaoke, air-con, and the family's driver, by far the most plush ride I'd had the whole trip. Bangkok traffic is legendary and we weren't spared: a bad accident slowed us for over an hour. So we were all extra hungry stopping at a riverside restaurant indulging in snake head fish, deep fried catfish cakes with papaya salad, huge river prawns and whole fish, eyeballs and all. Was the fish caught from the muddy banks of Chao Phraya river? I think so but damn it tasted good, all of it. Along with Singha beer, of course!

Off to the king's summer palace, Bun Pa. I'm always disgracing someone with my dress, this time bare shoulders definitely not acceptable so I had to wear the rogue yellow hawaiian shirt along with Sirima's niece, nice one. Too sexy for the king apparently :-) As we were in a rush getting such a late start, we took a boat ride around the grounds and then pure luxury: a golf cart to drive around versus walking in the heat, wicked! I'm sure I learned something about the history and I think it goes something like this: King Rama 4 had the summer palace built, from the King and I fame and King Rama 5 freed the slaves but quite frankly I just enjoyed the beauty of the grounds and oh! We spotted a komodo dragon, wicked! That'll save me a trip to Indonesia, well, let's be honest, no, I'm still going! We also saw the effects of the horrible flooding Thailand experienced just months prior, sand bags were still around the palace.

We stopped off at one of the family's favorite stops: a temple for good luck. And we were in luck, Buddha was being undressed, uh oh, sexy times! But then he was dressed again and we all got to participate touching the scarf and bowing.

Then on to the ruins! Wat Phra Sisanphet was impressive with its Buddha in a tree, very nice at sunset, a festival was to happen later that night but we all bailed still needing to visit the floating market and head back to Bangkok. So we just walked around taking pictures, doing cartwheels, and oh yeah, almost getting my purse stolen. WTH? I set it down to cartwheel and Sirima was watching it the whole time as this man just appeared out of one of the ruin's corners. He probably preys on all kinds of suspects but Cara Croft would have none of the purse stealing, I'm done with all of that bizness. HA! 

The floating market was pretty touristy and as it was the end of the day and nearly closing we did a quick walk through and this is when I appreciate being with locals. I so would've passed this stand as it looked like colored noodles and traveling, I'm never gonna cook (ha, even if I lived there to be perfectly honest, I probably wouldn't cook it.) Anyway, Sirima's dad bought us all roti sai mai, which I've renamed cotton candy tacos, soooo yummy! It's rope sugar cane just like sweet threads of palm sugar (coconut!!!!) in a pancake like thing, more tortilla-ish than anything. Also tried rice crackers with palm sugar and these buns with chocolate sauce. Have I mentioned I have a bit of a sweet tooth? Oh but all good things have to come to an end. Sirima and Ali were busy with her brother's wedding so I was grateful to see them but off to explore Bangkok's environs on my own.....

BANGKOK
And once I arrived back to Lub D, my good friend Jai was there!!!!!! So girl catch up time it was! Hanging out in the hostel was all we needed, woo hoo! Love to keep seeing the same people when traveling, what I love most about the backpackers circuit.

As I'd been on the go for so many days, I chilled for much of the rest of my time in BKK. Sometimes going to movies: saw Harry Potter at the imax and the facebook movie. My fav thing was at every movie they play the Thai national anthem and everyone has to stand! These people have pride and are in love with their king! Not a one of them has anything bad to say about him and I can't imagine what they would do if you did say anything bad about him. Nope, didn't chance it.

So another fav thing I have when traveling, well it's basically the art of wandering. I gave myself the luxury of no plans for a few days and some funny things happened. First off, I was just searching for a cafe with wifi to eat breakfast and apply for jobs, you know trying to be productive, and instead I ended up supposedly stalking this guy who was looking for the same thing at the same time. So he invited me to join him for brekky, as the kiwis say, and we hung out all day. Random! He's a rock climber on his way home to NZ...and now I'm off to Raillay beach this week upon his recommendation.

The other strange thing is that I had a semi-breakdown of sorts. I still had 4 days left in Bangkok with no real plans and what was I doing traveling for so long anyway, do I need a purpose while traveling? All these questions came at me full force because I was sitting still and long enough for them to rush in, yuck! Reality? Are you serious? I'm kicking you to the curb! Just when I was really getting into the traveling groove and ok with my purpose: to wander! Or perhaps it was the transition. I went from traveling with my long distance bf for a month to being on my own for about 6 weeks to seeing friends from Seattle and then my evil twin sister (this is said most lovingly:-) would be meeting me in a few days to explore Thailand and spend Christmas and New Year's Eve with me. Life was good. So what do I do now? Keep traveling? Huh? Please, just go away, uneasiness, I don't like you much. I want to travel. I will travel. I will kick you in the arse, uneasiness. And eventually....I did!

By seeing more of Bangkok and learning to love it's nuances. You see, it's not a city that wows you with its' skyline like many Asian cities. It's more about the food and shopping and so Westernized in many ways. There are western fast food joints everywhere, Starbucks on every corner, so was I really traveling? Or is this just any other city?

No. Not any other city. Not with the wats, tuk tuks and massive street markets. It has the Grand Palace, which I had visited years ago so didn't feel compelled to go again, instead I just wandered the street food stalls around it. I visited Chinatown, just plopped myself down at a restaurant in an alley with the locals; there was no menu just what size noodles would you like in your soup? Love it! Wat Pho really was impressive, the reclining Buddha that makes you say oh my god! But really it's not my God so oh my buddha is much more appropriate, dontcha think? Catherine and I visited after taking the wrong stop on the sky train and just wandering through the streets we found it, a hot hour later. So we indulged at Wat Pho by way of a traditional Thai massage, nice! Then ate noodles by the river as it was raining with a view of Wat Arun, not a meal I will soon forget. Taking the ferry across to the Wat, we climbed its' very steep steps and were rewarded with a great view of Bangkok and the grand palace right on the river! Getting around Bangkok is quite interesting as well, the tourist ferry whips you from tourist site to site along the muddy banks of the Chao Praya river.

So, remember my adventurous Belgian friend? Do you believe in random events? I don't care, I'm gonna tell you anyway, I don't and I ran into her as I was going back to my hostel at the sky train stop! In all of southeast Asia, in all of Thailand, in all of Bangkok, seriously what are the chances? So she joined me for a quick bite and we had plans to try to meet up at the weekend market the next day but it was just too massive. Chatuchak Market! Otherwise known as the best street market ever, it's (thankfully) organized into clothing and housewares and food and I'm sure much more which I didn't get to as I barely covered a quarter of it and I was there the whole morning! Scored some gifts for others and finally bought some clothes for myself, much more indie in style than the massive shopping malls surrounding my hostel, love! Ate drunken noddles in the street, tight! Then spent more on an iced coffee than my noodles at this hip joint surrounded by gorgeous dark wood furniture and airy fabrics, again, tight!

The only other historical thing I did was visit the Jim Thompson house, a great example of traditional Thai style housing. So he's known as the thai silk king, an american ex-pat living in Bangkok but what makes him even more interesting is his mysterious death. He went missing in Malaysia while meeting friends, many theories as to why he disappeared. I just enjoyed the architecture, his home on the water very near my hostel then walked along the pier and then through the huge malls to get back. Oh my am I ever tired of these malls and the huge crowds, needing some culture! So I got some in the form of night life!

Saturday night in Bangkok, oh what to do? Join Skye, an intern at the hostel, with her friends, of course! And what fun! They were wicked cool speaking English and absolutely loving when they taught me Thai phrases and I would shout them!! Khao Son Road again, it's the place to be! We stayed at this place all night as there was live music, a cover band mostly, and then once it got late enough, we headed into the disco room and stayed there until 5 am, woo! But really could've been a place in the states with the dj's music but the company.....so not! The renditions of bad romance with our hands, wow, what a night!! I will never be able to listen to that song again and not think of all of them, so fun! Falang!!! (that's thai for foreigner) I was craving a cheeseburger after all the dancing but had to wait until the next day.....

And I slept in! Satisfied my craving and just hung out in the hostel all day, oh the lazy days! And the night brought on Chang beer along with the Chang girl, so of course, I had to wear my Chang shirt, woo hooo! And then be interviewed by Paul's brother's girlfriend for school about clothes and why I choose brands, something to that effect so I interviewed her just the same. It was her first time talking to a falang, have to show we don't bite, ya know? So we shared a whole tower of Chang beer and street food: papaya salad and noodles. Yum!!!

Ok, these days of not doing much, I'm craving adventure and know I'm about to get some in the form of my troublesome friend, woo hoo!   

Thailand: beach bummin' it round 1!

I can certainly think of worse places to get over a break up than the gorgeous beaches of Thailand! I had never explored this region of Thailand, having only been to Bangkok and Chiang Mai for work so despite southeast Asia not on the original itinerary, I was nevertheless very excited! Ko Samui was meant to be the first stop but the weather had other ideas so Phuket it was. And although overcast some of the time, was glad I made the switch as unbeknownst to me at the time, Ko Samui and Ko Phan gan is in my future for the full moon party New Years Eve style with my most devilish friend, and this is a total compliment: Vickie!

Aside from the cute older, Japanese men sleeping on my flight, Sonja and Ryan were the first peeps I met flying to Phuket, a couple from the Gold Coast of Australia, we hit it off and made plans to meet up along Bangla road for drinks. But first, the touting had begun. On the bus ride from the airport into Phuket, the ever present tactic of making more money from the Western tourists (wow, I'm already jaded and I've just arrived, yikes), I mean, visit to a travel agency was made. Everyone had to get off the minibus and were questioned individually as to where we were staying. They played like they were baffled that I didn't have accommodations and didn't want to book something with them, I said I wanted to see a room before booking, fine, fine, but it's high season, I was warned, I might not find a room, fine, fine, I said, I'll take my chances. Round one of touting: I win! Found a nice, music cafe themed hostel in the center of touristy Patong beach. 

First day was spent along the beach and of course, eating and trying the local brew, Chang. I really need to make it a habit of checking the alcohol content on those things, a whopping 6.4 % and this on an empty stomach and being such a lightweight, not my most shining moment. Also should've taken a clue from the German guys (if anyone knows beer they should, right?, hindsight 20-20) of just how strong Chang was. Yeah, they both drank just 1 small can each, I was on my second by the time they introduced themselves. Oh, my poor head, I went back to the hostel with the idea of taking a disco nap and properly going out to Bangla road later but my body had other ideas: slept 14 hours!
  
Quickly realized I wasn't the biggest fan of Phuket as the beaches were crowded, very touristy at least Patong beach was but I liked my hostel, met some fun peeps and experienced Bangla Road, which has to be the epicenter of ladyboys. (Seriously there's a bar people are lined up outside taking pictures of them dancing, with signs that the real girls were upstairs! The debate was on on just how to tell if they were proper lady boys, of course, obvious if they were dancing but along the streets they were everywhere. Is it the height? Or maybe their defined jawline? Or perhaps the presence of the adam's apple? I thought the latter was the answer but apparently this can be surgically corrected so your guess is as good as mine.) Although aside from the ladyboys, the only real view I had of life outside of touristy Patong beach was the motorbike ride with the manager of my hostel, Anman, who took me to see a quieter beach, Kamala and this great restaurant overlooking the ocean. Ordered all sorts of yummy Thai dishes: spicy, mango salad, massaman curry, green curry, Thai tea, some green bean, spicy mystery dish. Why I travel emphasized yet again.

So branching out of Phuket was obvious as there were so many gorgeous beaches nearby: just a few were James Bond Island and Ko Phi Phi, I decided on the latter and took a scenic slow boat which stopped near Maya Bay to snorkel. Phi Phi has nice beaches but only spent an hour or so there, half of which was spent walking the touristy village and the other half sleeping on the beach. There seems to be a pattern of sleeping emerging here but really, what else do you do in the heat of the day? Met a cool couple from South Africa living in Dubai and chatted about acting non-American, they were amazed I was from there, another pattern that was emerging. Basically, my American friends, we have a crap reputation abroad as uptight, no fun, gun-touting conservative freaks. I intend to change this stereotype with every non-American I meet!

The last day in Phuket had absolutely no rhyme or reason to it, a true wandering day, what I do best if I allow it but have decided to apply some semblance of structure and purpose to this trip which had suddenly changed direction and now feels like the ultimate self-exploratory journey. The only other productive thing I did was to go for the famous Thai massage as I was limping quite a bit. Was nervous explaining to the guy to be very careful, all this is pertinent as I noticed a girl getting a fish massage, her feet were just being tickled by these fish, I guess cleaning away at any dead skin. Wasn't feeling very extroverted but happened to strike up a mini conversation with her, thought she was cool then I was off to my massage. Yay, my knee did feel tremendously better, great decision! And later that night at my hostel, take a wild guess as to who I struck up a conversation with and hit it off with immediately, a few minutes into our conversation we realized hey, it's the fish massage girl and I was the knee surgery girl! The only glitch was I was leaving the next day to go to Krabi, to the more chill, less touristy island of Ko Lanta.   

And so I am introduced to the Thai minibus experience. It all begins with a pick-up from your hostel, continues around the entire town in a seemingly random manner picking up numerous other passengers until voila! just when you think you're finally on your merry way and you get comfortable despite being packed in like sardines when they add yet another passenger to an already full bus, just where did they get that extra seat anyway? then they yell your destination and you switch buses, hoping your bag that's on top of the bus is still attached to the vehicle. Phew! Pretty similar to Central America and am still perplexed as to how the seeming disorganization somehow works. All of this transpired over 6 hours, 3 buses and 2 ferry rides and I wasn't entirely sure that I had a place to stay at the end of it meanwhile striking up a friendship with a French couple who decided to join me. Once onto Ko Lanta, I borrowed the cell phone of a local guy to call the Kantiang Bay resort where I thought maybe I had a place to stay as the previous hostel recommended this place, his friend worked there, yada, yada, yada, yes, we have a place for you and are coming to pick you up, yay, the Thai way of doing business works! They picked us up in a pickup truck with 12 others, our hair blowing in the wind, a favorite method of transport for short trips around islands, I have to say! The resort was just what I needed, the antithesis of Phuket, right on the beach, quiet enough but still had some nightlife and I stayed in a bungalow with mosquito netting! Sure, it was a bit crap, damaged from the horrible tsunami of 2004 but I thought charming at the time, even the detached bathroom seemed quaint but after two nights, I was ready for the room switch to air con and a view of the ocean. Days were spent along the beach and if not reading then taking the necessary dip in the ocean when it's too hot on the beach, you know the drill. Ahhh, the lazy, beach days with your biggest decision being what to order off the menu. I didn't even need to decide where to eat, the Why Not tiki bar with live music each night on the beach, yeah, no brainer. Jord, the friend from the first hostel I stayed at, happened to be the lead singer of the band which played great cover songs every night: Coldplay, Killers, Linkin Park, they even managed to keep the typical beach vibe cheese Bob Marley type of music to a minimum. Even played Pearl Jam and Nirvana, more memories of my Seattle roots, rock on! And the fire show preceding the music, not too shabby.  

The only times my little routine diverged was when I ventured out into the little town but really my motivation was solely to buy the yogurt drinks, my RX for health and of course, visit the street vendors selling coconut pancakes, delish! And the mangoes, the fresh fruit and the shakes, heavenly! Ok so I did cartwheel on the beach. And oh yeah, took a little walk on the beach along some rocky formations towards the ultra-cute little bungalow beach side resort-y thatched roof hut with hammocks restaurant the ultimate cliche as far as naming restaurants in southeast Asia: Same Same but different. This phrase every single Asian and tourist has uttered it is the ultimate joke, on t-shirts, it's everywhere. If an explanation is too difficult to go into, same same....but different. Anyway, the food was amazing, by far the best papaya salad and spring rolls I've had yet! And other than that, tried to ride on the diving pier which moved along with the waves but security would never let me, believe me, I kept trying. Yes, I basically stuck to my little sliver of paradise for 6 days, loving my beach time, hanging with my new friends and basically, loving life! Well, aside from the bugs, geckos, mantises and other disgusting creepy, crawly things that unfortunately go hand in hand with the tropics. I was reminded why I like Seattle so much and why I chose it after years of living in the south of the US and Guam, ewwww. But I'm facing my fear of them one little scream (albeit sometimes muffled) at a time! :-)

So this seems like a pertinent time to mention synchronicity. You know when you meet someone just when you need to at exactly the moment you need to? Well, this has been happening to me consistently since traveling on my own, I have many examples in each place I've visited which continues to reinforce me that I'm on the right path whatever that may be. So, remember how my knee was messed up? I was limping, was seriously worried I'd need to return home to take care of it, well the lovely French couple just so happened to be osteopaths! They worked on my knee and assured me it was ok and of course, gave me advice on how to take care of it. And have since offered to stay with them in France! The fun Aussie couple as well! And the offer is vice versa.....if or when, I ever stay in one place long enough! And meeting Jai, the vivacious girl from London at the fish spa? Well, she joined me in Ko Lanta and we've since met up in Cambodia and plan to in Bangkok as well. It amazes me that everyone loves that I'm traveling on my own and if they're older, they say they wished they had when they were my age. Yes, I'm definitely grateful for this time so bring it, I'm ready for some more adventure!!