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Friday, February 23, 2007
Chinese New Year's Weekend
This weekend we had a little more down time than the others. On Friday, we went with John, Jim, Ning, and Yao to a Thai Traditional Dance Show called Khon. It was like a play only they had people who performed the lines and the actors just performed the dancing and acrobatic moves. The story was interesting and we were able to follow the overall idea with the sub titles above the stage. It was a little slow at times and the person who was performing the lines was very loud and this kind of ruined the performance part but overall, it was pretty good. After that we went to an Irish bar where a Thai band was playing Beetles songs. We found this fruit that Jeremy had been looking for called a Darein, not sure about the spelling. On the outside it has spikes all over and it appears to be a hard shell. When you open it and smell, it has a bad smell. The taste was not much better and so we found out that it wasn't our favorite fruit. We stayed a while at the bar and then headed home.
The next day it was time to sleep in and relax. Later that night we went to watch our first movie, "Curse of the Golden Flower" with a Chinese origin. Before the movie they stand to honor the King and they sing their national anthem. Watching the movie in subtitles wasn't bad and the new previews in English were nice. The movie itself was like a Chinese Royal Family soap opera. I won't ruin the rest for those who haven't seen it yet.
On Sunday evening we went to the Chinese New Year Festival or what we thought was a festival. The festivities run around 3 days. We went down there around 6pm and knew that the Princess was going to be there and we thought there was going to be a parade. Well, early on we could tell there were people waiting for something and we realized it was the Princess. She walked by with many armed guards and people as she was going into a temple. You couldn't take pictures of her. Also, you couldn't watch her from a balcony because you would be higher than her when she passed you. So we saw her and headed to the stage looking for performances. Well, the princess went to a place by the stage and we find out later that she was actually eating. There were many people showing up and we decided to move down the parade route because of the large crowd. We found a spot and waited for around 2hours, maybe more. The event was supposed to start at 7-8 pm and we waited forever for something to happen. This is known as Thai time over here because things never start on time and nobody can every tell you when they are supposed to start. Anyway, around 9:30 to 10 pm the Princess walked down the street and that was the end of the show. There was no parade or anything else, it was only the Princess. We were disappointed that there wasn't more festivities but it was amazing that there was such a large crowd that waited so long to get a 30 second look at their Queen.
This post is a collaboration of the learning experiences we've had in 2 weeks of being in the foreign city of Bangkok. We have noticed more and more observations about the city and we keep saying to each other, "Look at that!" This is an attempt to capture all of those moments. I will continue to update and improve as time evolves. Also, don't get the wrong impression that these are negatives, rather they are differences in the way things are.
Transport The first is the TukTuks that are a well known part of Bangkok. They are modified motorcycles or three wheelers that transport you around the city for cheap. They weave in and out of traffic at very high speeds. It is quite an experience and an adventurous way to travel. In addition to tuktuks, there are thousands of motorcycles, scooters and what look like dirt bikes that weave in and out of the city everywhere and they are the fastest way to get around in the city. When you are stuck in traffic and haven't moved for 20 minutes, they are the best option. They don't stay in one lane, but run between cars weaving in and out. There are motorcycle taxis that run up and down the different side streets (Sois) as people sit on the back cruising up and down. The motorbikes aren't only for the streets because as you are walking on a sidewalk, you can see a motorbike go by. Granted, it is not at high speed, but you must be aware of what is around you. We've also seen a taxi pull up on the sidewalk to park like it was no big deal. As for the sidewalks, some are in good shape but most are traps for falling, an accident waiting to happen. The business women wear high heeled shoes and walk on these sidewalks like it's not a big deal. I am constantly trying to not trip.
Service - Do Not Disturb! With service, it is either too much or not enough. Everyone is very pleasant and seems to be happy all the time. You don't see the look like you do in the U.S. where people would rather jump off a bridge than be at their job. Instead, at the hotels they want to clean your room everyday. We are talking mopping the floors, making the bed, and organizing maps on the coffee table. Especially at the nicer hotels, the Do Not Disturb sign doesn't apply. They will leave notes and constantly call to see if they can clean your room or even turn down your bed. They want to please so much and they don't like the idea of you doing things for yourself. Another example was at the hospital where we were told to sit down and rest everywhere we went. They come to you and call you when they are ready but even if there is no one else at the counter and your wait will be for 2 minutes, standing for 2 minutes would be burden upon you. The hospital was very efficient as they have people to help in every little area and they are just waiting to help some one. At the airport it was the same experience. We proposed the question, "How many Thais does it take to get 3 Americans into a taxi van?" Around 5 -8. I felt bad because the luggage weighed almost as much as some of the men. The mindset here is to give people a honorable job and good work will be the greater result rather than having one man working harder to replace the other 5 that the company doesn't want to pay. The restaurants have good service but they don't bring the check when you are finished until you ask for it. They don't want to give you the idea that you can't stay as long as you would like. Also, they get your drinks and stand there at the table until you are ready to order even if this takes a long time because you can't read the menu. The last difference about service is how the guards at the hotel salute you when you walk by. I say thank you, but it is weird for me to be saluted for simply staying at the hotel.
Food In general, the food has been good. There have been some things that I could have done without eating but I have liked almost everything. In general, with Thai food they eat a lot of eggs. An order of Pad Thai usually comes with an omelet. They have eggs in their soups as well as hard boiled eggs. They like to eat a lot of soups. Most meals are shared family style as you pass the food around and share. They eat with a fork and spoon but use the spoon to put the food in their mouth. It is much easier to eat rice this way. We haven't been to the market with all of the strange foods, but we have seen a lot of people eating a whole fish with the full body and skin. I won't be eating fish that way. Some people do put ketchup on their pizza and at KFC there is an ice cream cup with corn in it. I think they view corn as a fruit. There is also a McDonald's samurai pork burger with a rice patty bun. At the grocery store in the freezer section with all the other foods, we found a bag that was labeled dog food and had a picture of a dog on it. The package looked like it was made for people, much like the bags of chicken. After some investigative work, we found that it was food for dogs but it was strange to see it in the freezer. We,ve been told that Thais no longer eat dogs.
Culture
Some of the cultural differences are interesting and I still don't have a great understanding of them. There is very little showing of public affection with male and female. Yet, the females many times hold hands or have their arm holding onto their friend. Men also used to do this, but it is less common today. The head is viewed as the most pure part of the body and the feet are seen as the worst. The TV shows that are in the U.S. like the Super Bowl didn't have any commercials. It either stays at the event or goes to a local commercial. They play a lot of western music and know most of the new songs that are out. Most of these songs are all pop musics or the love songs. They like to play a large amount of Kenny G, Back Street Boys, etc. and you will hear some rap. They don't really like the hard rock or anything that is a little louder or rougher. I been here 2 weeks and it has become quite an annoyance. Another noticeable observation is the lack of resistance from picking your nose in public or private. We see it quite often and no one here seems to mind or even act as if it is inappropriate. Finally, there are many translations and signs that are funny as well.
After Lunch, we headed off to the Phra Mongkonbophit temple. Near the temple there were also ruins and I didn't catch the name of the ruins. They were very interesting and we were able to walk around and get an idea of what these temples looked like before their destruction. Trees with white flowers were located throughout the ruins and are very common in Thailand. From the ruins we went to Phra Monkonbophit that housed a large Buddha image that many Thais would stop and pray to with incense offerings. The temple was first created in 1610 and had been moved to many locations over its history. It has been restored many times and the most recent was in 1955. Outside of the temple there are children and elder ladies selling many items like live birds in little cages and there were also people selling a large variety of knives at tables.
From the temple we made our way over to where we got to ride elephants! As we walked up to where you ride, there was a baby elephant right in front of the crowd performing tricks and posing for pictures. We got our tickets for the ride, which are higher priced for Forangs and Ning,Pum, and Yao decided to sit it out. I rode with Leanne and Jeremy got his own elephant. Do to my weight advantage the seat was tilting towards my side the whole time. It gave me the feeling of barely hanging on to the edge of a bench before falling off. The fact that it rocked back and forth tilting us didn't help mes get rid of the thoughts that I was going to fall off. You eventually get accustom to the feeling and enjoy the ride. At one point, we stopped to wait for the others and turned the elephant around to go back. While we were stopped, our elephant decided to reach into its mouth and get what I'll tell myself was water and spray it on itself. Of course this included us and so Leanne and I got a mist of some unwanted liquid. We headed back and the elephant riding concluded our stay in Ayutthaya. When we got back to the city we were hungry and we hit the BTS to a chain called the Pizza Company. We had a good old pepperoni pizza. It was only the second breakdown as we had Burger King earlier in the week. Both tasted very good and reminded us of home. I haven't tried it yet, but some of the Thais eat pizza with ketchup on it along with many different toppings. After dinner we headed home to rest for work on Monday.
After the Royal Palace we headed to the Wat Chaiwatthanaram ruins as they were one of the great temples during the Ayutthaya period. The ruins were established in 1630 AD. It's said that the architecture was similar to Ankor Wat in Cambodia. The Wat was destroyed when the Burmese conquered the city in 1767 and looted the Buddha images and stole their statues' heads. We took pictures at the top of the steps of the temple which were very steep and short. When we stood at the top of the temple, the steps looked as if they were straight down. It made it a little more exciting climbing back down.
On Sunday, we had another long day ahead of us and we started at 8am. We went with Ning,Pum, and we picked up Yao on the way. We headed north to the old capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya. On the way up north we were pulled over by the police because I guess we were in the lane that was supposed to be for buses. It's some what of common practice that Police will take around 200 baht to get out of a ticket. I'm not saying that happened, but it's not bad to get out a ticket for $5. It can work against Forang because a guy had to pay 5000 baht to get out of a bogus littering ticket when the police threaten to take him to jail. So it's always good to watch what you're doing and who's around. The trip was not long,about an 1 hour when we arrived at the Palace and saw many tourists from Japan and France. This was the palace where King Rama V lived. The grounds of the palace were huge and had very beautiful landscaping and was very well kept. I had to separate the pictures because there were so many. The grounds consisted of a European style area that was built by the UK. Then, there was a palace and area built by the Chinese and a building with a Thai architecture. We were able to go to all of them except the Thai building. Within the palace there was a place with the King's ceremonial outfits and throne along with the tableware, etc. The items were very interesting but unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures. Yao said that with all of the palace buildings to choose from, the King actually liked to stay in the very small basic house that was on the river. After walking the grounds we headed off to other areas of Ayutthaya.
After a short nap in the car we arrived at another temple, Phra Pa Tow Chedi. The temple was very large with a surrounding walkway area that many different buddha statues and ancient writings. This place was, or is used as a school to teach students education and religion. There were many small teke desks and chairs that had been donated. The chairs were supposed to be very old but looked to be in good shape. All along the outer wall there were these teachings or writings. It was very cool as the outer awning gave shade from the sun and some relief from the heat. Many of the Thais stay out of the sun as much as possible. Their culture values being being white and usually darker skin means that you worked out in the sun as a farmer. For us, we again were standing in the sun trying to be less white. At one point there was a group of Thai students that picked me out and asked me to do an interview. The student spoke very good English and the rest of the students seemed to understand what I was saying. They were simple questions like where I was from, why I was in Thailand, did I like the food, did I like muy Thai boxing, etc. So I signed the paper and we took a picture. We walked around a little longer and watched Mathew run around and play with rocks. By this time the heat and the sun had worn out the group and we headed back home. I napped again and then went to bed when I returned to the hotel in preparation for another long day.
The next morning came quickly and I had overslept. The one extra beer or the quiet alarm must be to blame. We met up with Puvania (I think mispelled), EH, ThongDech, and his wife. We rode with Puvania, who recently purchased a Chevy car, maybe a Taurus. The cars over here are very expensive and have different names. He is still a fairly new driver and it's a bit worrisome because the driving over here is something else. Yet, he drove very well and had no problems. It was a 2hr drive out of the city to get there and the place closed at noon. We arrived around 10am and managed to get setup with a boat. Thongdech and his wife didn't go on the boat because they had Mathew (young son) with them. Mathew is his English name and I didn't catch his Thai name but they called him Thew. The boat was bigger than expected and had a top that provided shade which was much appreciated. The engines on these boats look like they were literally pulled out a car and modified. Look at the pics and you will see. They have a very long prop with a propeller on the end that had been modified. In the open areas between the markets, they get going pretty fast and are very loud. As we approached the market area, the driver cut the engine and we floated up to the many boats that were selling things. There were a lot of older women and young kids selling fruit and full pineapples to drink. Other boats had people with grills and pots for cooking food right there on the boat. Generally, on the outer stands or outer boats, there were people selling hats,purses,and various hand made products. Most were very cool but you do start to see the same products showing up at the different locations. Puvanai bought what almost looked like a sour cream taco with a shell. It was actually something with coconut and had a sweeter taste, not too bad. The way you buy something is kind of like you buy at the ballpark. You point and call over to the person. Then they pass the food across a couple of boats and you pass your money across the boats again. Of course this is all happening while the boats are floating along the canal. We continued this routine as we found some gifts we liked or ran into a traffic jam of boats. Once we went through the market area we were dropped off at a gift shop with more goods. There they were cooking coconut sap and offering free samples. It was pretty good but I can't describe the taste. After the shop we headed back to our dropping off zone and our floating market started winding to an end. We met with Thongdech and had some lunch while Mathew explored all of the cool things around. Thongdech has worked in many places and traveled all over the world. He is a very valuable asset to the team. After lunch, we headed back to the cars and went back towards the city to another temple. Jeremy and I slept in the car as we needed a little rest.
It was going to be my first team outing and I found myself on Friday afternoon feeling some anticipation building about the bowling event. It was not necessarily the actual event itself, but more seeing the work groups in a social atmosphere. Before the event, I wasn't completely sure how much I would enjoy the bowling. Yet, after it was over, I found that I really enjoyed bowling and it was a good opportunity to get to know some of the other people in the office. Even though there was a limitation to the depth of our conversation because of the language barriers, it didn't stop the groups from being able to have a good time and joke around. All of them like to laugh and were in good spirits. As far as our bowling went, we weren't the shining stars of the group but most of them bowl on a somewhat consistent basis. I believe one person on my team hadn't bowled before and he did very well. I didn't bowl very well and left it down to the last frames to break the 100 barrier. As you can see from the pictures, the bowling alley was the coolest I have ever seen. They had a DJ, cool shoes, and served the Thai Tower of beer. However, the menu was missing nachos and other unhealthy fried foods that we craved at a bowling alley. The later pictures are courtesy of some DST photographers who took some good shots. Once the bowling was over, I had not had dinner so I went with John C. to get some chicken fingers that were good and helped fill the fried food void. After that, we went to have some beers and shoot pool. I found out that John C. is very good at pool and I'm not. When heading home in my taxi, I had some issues getting them to the correct hotel, but that is a common experience when you speak little(Nit Noy) Thai.
On Sunday, we decided to venture out with just the 3 of us to see the Grand Place, Wat Phra Kaeo, and Wat Pho. These temples and holy areas were along the river so we headed off on the BTS and then had to cab the rest of the way. With no pro Thai speakers, we had to do a little extra finger pointing at the map. We made it through traffic and down to the palace. The sign showed that it was only open another hour, but we decided to go in anyway. If we had more time we would've bought an English speaking guide and so I don't have a lot of the background on the pictures but they are still very interesting without the stories. Many of the figures on the outside of the buildings are demons and evil vultures. I think they are supposed to be keeping other evils out as well. Wat Phra Kaeo is one of the holiest Thai temples(wat) and it has the emerald Buddha which is supposed to bring great wealth and prosperity. Those sound good to me. Many of the buildings were decorated with bright gold and different statues. Along some of the outer walls there were paintings that were very detailed and interesting and looked like they were telling old mythical stories about different battles and time periods. The wall seemed to flow from one story to the next and it must have taken years to paint all of them. The Grand Palace was a nice looking building and we took some pictures with the guards. We couldn't go on some of the grounds because the Royal Family were in the residences. Also, we went to see the Wat Pho or the reclining Buddha. It is supposed to be one of the oldest and biggest Thai wat (the pics show how big it is). It was built in the 16th century during the Ayutthaya period, which we will be going to see more places of that period this weekend. This Buddha is supposed to bring a secure and peaceful life. After seeing all of the sites in the area along with the river, we headed back toward the hotel and called it a day.
The second day I was up again very early in the morning. I decided to go run on the treadmill in the hotel but later we did a lot of walking so the running wasn't really necessary. We met up with some of the members of the team and they were going to show us the Siam Shopping area and how to travel on the BTS Skytrain. We met Puvanai(Ong), Wirat(Boy) , and (A). Their nicknames are enclosed. The names are much different than ours but once you say them enough, you forget how unique they are. It took about 10 minutes for them to explain how to get a ticket for the skytrain but by the end of the day we started to not look so lost. We traveled down a crowded BTS just like New York and ended up in the Siam Shopping Center that had about 4 huge malls. The first mall was MBK and had all of the discount goods. I decided to give the DVDs a try and buy Borat for 100 baht or around $3. They told us to come back in 20 minutes and they would have the DVD ready. I don't know if they go to the back and get the DVDs or if they actually burn them once requested. They had many movies that haven't even been released. It was amazing how much stuff they had to sell. Next, we went to another mall that had more normal retail and high end shops. We went by a radio booth where a popular Thai singer was and the young Thai girls were taking pictures and singing along with the music. There was also a concert outside the mall with many teenagers. Another mall we went to was the Siam Paragon. It had an aquarium in the basement, car dealerships, movie theatres, and a bowling alley in the mall. We didn't get to make it to all of the floors but after all the shopping it was time to go eat some real Thai food. We went to Ban Khun Mae and all ordered different meals to share and try. In general, the meals where similar to the ones in the U.S. with slight differences. There was a mixture of rice, seafood, soups, and chicken and it was all very good especially since 6 people ate for around $30. After dinner, we had worn ourselves out with shopping so we went back to our hotels.
With going to bed at 4 in the morning and not getting hardly any sleep, you think I would sleep forever but we woke up around 9 in the morning to have breakfast. It is actually a pretty typical breakfast and they have cocoa crispies so not too different from home. We were pretty tired so we went back up to our rooms and rested. At 4 pm we walked over to where our office building is and met up with Leanne, our manager. We went up to the office for a short period and met John and some of the other members of the team. Around 6 p.m. Leanne, Jeremy, and I headed over to John's house to meet his wife and another couple who are both expats for DST. Their house was really nice and all around the condo had great view of the city. Later in the evening, we went out to eat Mexican food. I didn't think my first meal in Thailand would have been in a Mexican restaurant but I ordered a chicken burrito, which was good and only a little different than in the states. I don't think the burrito would survive on the boulevard. After that, we went to what is called the night bazaar. I didn't get any pictures of the entire place but there was a giant ferris wheel and a large open area with a band playing on the stage. The band played almost all American songs songs from the Cranberries to new Fergi songs. It was quite amusing. The highlight of the night was riding in the tuktuks. They drive you around weaving in out of traffic and go a lot faster than you would expect. Finally, you can see pictures of the 3 liters of beer that they call the towers. After a couple of beers we were pretty tired so we caught another tuktuk home and called it a night.
Well, it has taken me a couple of days to get going on my updates but I will try to keep up with this. The traveling in business class made the trip a little more comfortable with reclining chairs, movies, and better service. But even with the additional benefits, I only slept around 3hrs for the entire trip. The 13 hrs going to Japan was bearable but towards the last 2 hrs of the flight I was really wanting to get down out of the air. You try to pass the time by distracting yourself with reading and watching movies. The entire trip I literally watched around 7-8 movies. My recommendation is to not worry about time and don't look at your watch. We landed in Japan and had a quick connecting flight. It was a very nice airport and it was interesting to begin to see the differences in cultures. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy so there weren't any good pictures to take. From Japan, it was another 7 hrs to Bangkok and that trip consisted again of many movies and not much sleep. We arrived in Bangkok around 1am in the morning on Friday. We found our luggage, went through immigration, customs, and then went to find a driver who was supposed to be waiting for us. Well, we never could find our driver. There was a large group of people holding up signs for different people but we looked and looked and he never appeared. So after some confusion, we got a van that would take us to our hotels. We found out later that we could have paid about half the price of the van, but it was worth it for all of us to go in one car. So we arrived at the hotel around 3am in the morning. The cab stopped by the guards outside the hotel as security looked underneath the taxi for bombs. This is definitely a change, but all of the offices or hotels have security that check cars before they are allowed to enter. Security in general is much more present than in the states. We weren't real tired so we went and found some internet to let everyone know we had made the trip OK. I ended going to sleep around 4:30 in morning. It will be a long first day in the big city.
