Archive for August, 2003
First time on the train to Chiang Mai for me. On my first trip north, I travelled the 600 km by bicycle, that was back in October 2001. When I was in Chiang Mai again last year, I took a bus over from Laos, and then I flew down to the south. It is hard to justify paying $20 for an overnight 10-hour train when for only $50 you can fly in an hour, but the budget is starting to get low so I have to save money any way that I can.
I should arrive in Chiang Mai at 9am tomorrow morning and I am heading straight to the Naisuan House for a 10-day course in Tai Chi and Meditation. I thought this course would be a good transition into a full-on meditation at one of the temples. It will be good to get out of Bangkok too. Although I enjoy eating the food and having a lot to do, I do feel that I’ve had my fill of Bangkok for now. I’ve spent plenty of time there in the past, and this time I am here to achieve things. Don’t want to waste any more time.
August 30th, 2003
I’ve had a few days now here to do all the things I needed to, and now I am ready to make a move. I will most likely head north to Chiang Mai in the next day or two.
Yesterday I took a trip over to Wat Po, the home of the giant reclining Buddha and location of the famous massage school in Thailand. Everyone always says, ‘you HAVE to go to Wat Po for a massage,’ so I finally did. And what was the verdict from someone who has spent more than a year in Asia and has had countless massages? Yes, It was really good, and worth the extra money. The woman I had was spot-on with her position and power. My only complaint ‘if’ I have one, is that the sala is a bit cramped and crowded and loud with everyone talking. I sort-of expected Wat Po to set the example for other massage salas, but their’s was as standard or even sub-standard as any other. Still. I think they do an excellent job on massage and that is what really matters. You don’t pay $10 and get the Hyatt Regency after all.
After that I walked over to another temple, Wat Mahadhatu, to inquire about doing a meditation course there. I spoke with a female monk about the setup. She was interested to have a chance to practice her English, so we spoke more about her daughter and family than the meditation. I think it would be a good place to go if you didn’t have a lot of time and needed to stay in Bangkok, but personally I found this temple to be a bit dark and dirty and more disturbingly, there were at least 4 or 5 drunk Thai men that I had to pass while walking down the alley to get to the place (although really I have nothing bad to say about them because they did show me where to go), but I thought, well I just don’t know that this is the best environment for me. I did get some good information on all the places to go in Thailand though, and yeah, so that is why I am leaning more towards Chiang Mai.
What else. Yeah, always fun to watch the tourists and see what everyone else is doing. Seem to be a lot of Americans and Europeans around at the moment, must be because it’s August and summer holiday, which means they will all be gone in another week or two. You’ve still got all sorts, including the ‘hippies’ who walk up and down Kho San Road in their bare feet. I would love to just ask one of them if they’ve ever heard of Hepatitis. Really.
Hey whatever. The most interesting thing happening in town is the APEC summit coming up next month. Lots of big wigs heading over, from Bill Gates to George W. himself, and even though the ‘President’ is not actually coming over until mid-October, the secret service are already here looking for terrorists. The Bangkok police are even going after tourists who appear suspicious because they are ‘buying too many newspapers’ and seem ‘too interested in the news.’ Read it in the Bangkok Post! I have never seen one cop on Khoa San Road, and now even where I am writing this, there are 8 of them having breakfast across the street. Cops everywhere in Bangkok. Should get interesting around here in the next month.
Anyway that is the latest going’s-on around here. I’ve got a few more things that I’d like to babble on about, like how ‘safe’ I think it is in Asia at the present time, or about how I just got finished reading Michael Moore’s ‘Stupid White Men’ and I now have hope that not ALL Americans are brainwashed by the US government, or that I still think colonic irrigation will cure so much disease in the world, but I have plenty of time to get into all of that later. Now it’s time for a coffee.
Bet you never saw a picture of the Reclining Buddhas feet
August 29th, 2003
Well I’ve had a few days to adjust back to Asia. I’ve now had 2 massages (1.5 hours each at $4/massage), one was good, one bad, and I’ve been having my fill of Thai food! You definitely cannot get any Thai food this good in Sydney or even New Zealand. How great was it to have the perfect green curry last night – topped with fresh basil just as it should be! Yesterday for lunch I had some fried morning glory, another favorite of mine. And the fresh pineapple, for 25 cents at half a pineapple, well it doesn’t get much better. Ok. Rambling about the food now.
What else have I been up to besides eating? Busy, busy, doing things like getting a haircut for $2 and a pedicure for $2, and buying lots of bootleg CD’s (sorry artists, but everyone is doing it here on Kho San Road). I also lined up a dental cleaning and had a dermatologist appointment at my favorite hospital Bumrungrad. Since I first went there 2 years ago they’ve gotten a lot of publicity in western publications about being this great medical provider for very cheap prices, and the foreigners obviously have been clued on, because I saw a lot more of them in the hospital yesterday. And the cost of a dental cleaning has gone up from $17 to $29 USD. I wasn’t too happy about that but still can’t complain.
Today I am off to Wat Po, my first visit there believe it or not, and I hope to have a massage and see if they really are the best in Thailand. Then I will check out a monestary and decide where I want to sit around and not speak for 10 days, or meditate as the Buddhists call it. Trying to decide between Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
And then…well I have a 60-day visa for Thailand and I intend to use it. What I really want to achieve on this return visit to the Land of Smiles is a cleaning out of the mind and body. See, when I was in Sydney and looking for work and facing the prospect of another corporate prison term, I thought, why would I possibly want to do that when I have just enough money to bugger off to Asia one more time and do all the things that I didn’t do the last time I was there? So that’s what I did. How often in your busy working life do you have time to meditate for an hour, yet alone 10 or 25 days?? Or fast for a day, or how about 14 days? Well, I realize fully that I’ve got to do these things while I have the time. I’ll figure out the rest later.
Wat Po
Chedis of Wat Po
Can’t remember what this is, but it sure is beautiful
August 28th, 2003
Can’t believe I am back in Bangkok! Seems surreal, like going back in time or something. I arrived here yesterday straight from Sydney, and after over 9 months in NZ/OZ, I was feeling a bit of culture shock. It really hit me in the Kuala Lumpur airport when I saw the Asian-style toilets! They used to be my public toilet preference, and now they seem so foreign again!
It’s quiet here in Bangkok in and around the Kho San Road area, the quietest I have ever seen it here. It’s surely a combination of it being low season as well as the drop in tourism due to SARS and terrorism. That, and the fact that the weather is quite cool for Asia (30C), is making it a nice welcome to the Land of Smiles.
And the food! I really forgot how much I enjoy the food here. When I was here before, after 13 months in Asia, I was so sick of rice and vegetables and I would have done anything for a decent piece of bread and some good cheese. Now I am loving the fresh fruit and the FLAVOR in the food – when everything is fresh it makes SUCH a difference! Today I had my all time favorite – fresh papaya and fresh-squeezed OJ, for a whopping 75 cents. Yum! then I had one of my other favorites, an Isaan dish, which is fried soya and tofu and vegetables, and the flavor of the caffir lime leaves and frsh corn and beans – yum-mie!
What really struct me coming back here though is how GREEN it is here in Asia. Flying into Malaysia, all I could see was rubber palms as far as the eye could see. What a shock coming from Australia, where it is red and dry and brown and dry. You can immediately smell that damp basement-y smell which is so typical in Asia. It’s such a great smell after being in such a dry place. You all must think I am crazy. Travelling this long, I must be!
August 25th, 2003
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