Five days in Bangkok

My two month voyage has begun. After spending a few days in Delhi in which I had planned to get my China visa (but the visa center was closed for the week), I flew out to Thailand. Bangkok, on the whole, is a very nice city. The people are friendly, it's clean, orderly, the food is good, but the weather is hot already at this time of year.

I arrived very early in the morning and took an airport bus into the city. I decided to walk to my hotel, but was intercepted by a man claiming to be a teacher saying that it was a holiday and my hostel would be close until 3:00. Now, that should have set off some warning bells, but I was tired. He suggested I see a few temples (wats) where special things were going on and go shopping. He then flagged down a tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw) and put me inside for a 10 bat 'tour'. At first, it was a lot of fun seeing the temples, but my driver got impatient if I spent too long at any temple. Then he took me to several expensive tailor and jewelry shops before he would take me to my hotel. I now understand that he was hoping to earn a commission off of any purchases I made. At the last stop, I bought a couple of really cheap souvenirs. My driver was disappointed, but he finally took me to my hotel.

After that morning-long adventure, I finally arrived at the hotel of my choice: Shanti Lodge. It was inexpensive, but clean and had everything I could ask for. They did my laundry, took my visa application to the Chinese embassy, arranged for an in-house Thai herbal massage, and had a fantastic restaurant with mostly organic food. Not to mention, the ambiance was great. They had hostel rooms as well as dorm-style rooms, while the bathroom facilitates on the first floor were shared. The one down-side is that it's pretty out of the way, close to the river, so it took considerable time (and more money) to get between Shanti lodge and any of the attractions of Bangkok. On the whole, I would highly recommend it to other travelers looking for something inexpensive and still classy.


On my second day in the City I headed for the Dusit Zoo. It was packed with people celebrating some sort of special day. They all had picnic mats spread out everywhere. I had to step over picnickers time and time again to get good looks at birds and monkeys. One of the most interesting things about this zoo is that most of the animals were local to South East Asia and not necessarily what you would see in other zoos. Of course they had the classics like giraffes and giant tortoises as well.


After the zoo I went to Siam Square, the center of Bangkok, for some shopping. Many huge high-rise malls span the area with all sorts of goods and restaurants. It was a nice escape from the intense humidity and heat.


The following day I headed for the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha complex. I was totally stunned by the grandeur and beauty of it all. The temple complex was almost unreal. Every structure was covered in colorful ceramic or mirrored tials in mosaic patterns, painted with gold, or covered in stunning murals that too had elements of gold leafing. With all that light reflecting dazzlingly off of all of the buildings, it's no wonder I got a bit sunburned. The Emerald Buddha itself is a solid jade statue enshrined in the largest of the buildings. It has three different outfits made of gold, one for each of the seasons. I believe it is the holiest statue of Buddha in Thailand. What struck me as interesting, however, is that all of the murals inside the wall around the complex were of the Ramayana, an Indian epic of Hindu origins. The rest of the Grand Palace complex, while grand, paled by comparison. It was still beautifully painted, but paled in comparison to the glittering temple buildings.


From there I ventured on to Wat Pho, famous as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The reclining Buddha itself was stunning. The gilded statue was at least as big as my house back in Minnesota. While I had heard it was big, I wasn't prepared for something of that size. The rest of the Wat Pho complex was also very nice, but nothing compared to that huge Buddha. Needing a break from the heat, I returned to Siam Square and explored a different mall. I wound up at the nicest book store I had seen in the last six months and at an IMAX theater watching “Avatar.”


The next day I slept in and hung around Shanti lodge for a while. At my parents' email urging, I went for an herbal Thai massage. I have had a few regular massages in the US before, but this was nothing like any of them. I laid on a mattress on the floor, fully clothed, while a tiny Thai woman worked on me. She used her forearms, elbows, knees, and even feet to massage me. At one point, she stood on me. Thai massage includes a good deal of applying pressure for long periods of time to one spot and plenty of assisted stretching. The woman also spent over half of the time working on my legs and feet, which differs from any Western massage I have had before.


In the evening, I headed for the Suan Lam Night Market. While I did a bit of shopping, I was mainly there for the Joe Louis puppet theater. The market itself didn't begin to open until 5:00 PM, and wasn't fully rolling until 6:00. It was mostly stocked with souvenirs of various qualities. Bangkok is full of tourists, but I was surprised by how many Japanese tourists were at the night market. Most of the shopkeepers spoke better Japanese than Hindi.


The puppet show wasn't quite what I expected. It told the history of this particular style of Thai puppetry through combination of pantomime drama with narration and example excerpts from several puppet dramas. The puppetry sections were stunning. It takes three people to operate one puppet. One controls the movements of the feet while the other two control one hand each, attached to a long pole. The two hand operators trade off who supports the torso of the puppet and controls the head. Meanwhile, all three create a sort of train beneath the puppet, mimicking its foot, body, and head movements in a coordinated dance. Puppeteers have to be trained in classical dancing as well as how to manipulate a puppet together.


The creative surprises at the end of the show were a dance routine between two men, one dressed as a puppet with poles attached to his wrists that his 'puppeteer' held on to. Following that, a trio of puppeteers had a Michel Jackson puppet that did a dance with many of his signature moves. On the whole, it was a great experience.


On my last half-day in Thailand, I went to a few museums. First, I visited the Kamtieng House, a traditional house of the Lanna people with a small but interesting museum about their historical lifestyle. From there, I went to the National Museum, which was a complex of buildings that had previously belonged to the Royal Family. There was a section on the history of Thailand and several galleries of artifacts, sculptures, and other objects. I was disappointed to see very few paintings, but it seems Thai art focused on other mediums.


I flew out of Bankok that evening and spent the night in the Kuala Lampur airport in Malaysia on a ten-hour layover. Along with a handful of other travelers, I curled up on a bench in a secluded nook of the airport and slept for a few hours while the airport was quiet. In the morning, I boarded my flight for Beijing.


Thailand, on the whole, was a lovely country to visit. It was clean, modern, and relatively calm compared to the chaos of India. The people are friendly and helpful, and there are plenty of things to do. Thailand itself is a monarchy, and that is not something you are likely to forget while there. People speak lovingly of their king, and there are huge pictures of him, frequently with the queen, all over Bangkok. From what I read at the museum, people have good reason to adore him, as he has a strong humanitarian agenda. Before both “Avatar” at the movie theater and the puppet show, everyone had to stand and listen to the National Anthem while a montage of pictures of the king and other patriotic sights slid across the screen. His palace itself is in the center of Bangkok in plain view. Every single taxi driver I had always made some gesture of respect as he passed it.


To those who would like to visit Bangkok, I would make this word of caution. Avoid tuk-tuks. They generally want to work you into a scam like I had or will charge you, as a foreigner, an exorbitant rate. Taxis have a meter and are generally cheaper than tuk-tuks if you can convince your driver to use it. If not, you can always get out of the car and find another taxi, something I had to do once.


I am safely in Beijing, China now, spending a few days here with James, another Shansi fellow, before we head back to Taigu where he and three other fellows teach. I hope I can get this posted in a timely manner. Blogspot is behind the Great Firewall of China, to my surprise, so I will have to find someone to post it for me. Stay tuned for stories of adventures in China.

Life in Winter

I apologize for such a long time between entries lately. Between teaching two different classes, planning for my two-month trip, and entertaining visitors I have been plenty busy.

Phillip, the Austrian volunteer at Nishta that has been here since before I arrived finished his one year term and has been replaced by Andreas. Andreas is a fun character and just out of high school. At any given time, Nishta has one Austrian young man serving his year of social service. Austrian men have to give two years of military service or one year of social service, and Nishta offers an international site for men who want an alternative to the army.

As to visitors, Anya's younger sister Danika has been here for the last month or so, but will be leaving within the week. Kelly, the Madurai Shansi fellow, passed through for a few days as well. Most recently, Anne and Daniel, two of the Taigu Shansi fellows, have been up here for a few days. It's great to see so many Shansi fellows up here. Though, I am finding that whenever there are guests, I always wind up eating a lot. The social life here consists mostly of going out to eat in McLeod Ganj or making huge meals together. It's fun, and we stay well fed.

Lately, there has been something of a drought in the area. Everyone I knew spent at least a few days without water. While the weather was beautiful, farmers and families were worried. My landlady, Dr. Kusum, told me that everyone was performing extra worship and prayers for rain. Just a few days ago, the winter rains came at last. While I would prefer nicer weather than very chilly and wet, I'm glad for what this means for the area. So, add a few more sweaters to my layers and never leave the house without an umbrella.

One other negative side effect of lots of cold rain like this is that many of my students travel a significant distance to get to the Knowledge Center. When the weather is bad, they will stay at home. It makes the class move a lot more slowly when I have to re-teach the same lessons the next day to the half of the class that missed it the first time.

Today it slushed, something between snow and sleet. It was very exciting. Everyone looked at me as if I was crazy for walking out in it, but I was rewarded for my hike up to TARA Center with a hot cup of chai. Once home, I collected what 'snow' I could find on my porch and made snow balls. I threw them around at nothing in particular. It was incredibly satisfying. I am looking forward to real snow in Taigu.

Last week we had a full youth team meeting, where many important things were hashed out. After the meeting, I was struck by Jagori living up to its ideal of teamwork and no hierarchy. Before we broke for lunch, we had to assist in the construction process by moving sticks and wood from the construction site to a brush pile in the back of the center. After a lot of collecting and hauling, we then moved on to transporting bricks. All twenty-something of us formed a line from the pile to where the bricks needed to be and passed them along until all had been moved. Only a half hour or so of group work, I'm sure, really sped up the process for the construction workers. Things change so quickly at TARA Center that I'm sure I will be stunned by how different it looks when I return in two weeks.