(all of the next posts were done back in the US)
02/02/02 - LOTR
Last night was a late one. Tom, my new English friend, and I were reduced to scrounging around for something to do after the regular bars closed at 2, and so my main activity of today was traveling down to Siam Square in the evening to catch a flick at the old megaplex. Fellowship of the Ring had just been released and so I cabbed over to where I thought it may be playing and low and behold, there it was playing in English with Thai subtitles. I bought my ticket (seat 6c) and my bucket of popcorn and jug of Miranda Red soda and started to walk in, but I was stopped at the door. Movie starts at 8 so no one's allowed in till 5 of. So I took my bucket and jug and wandered around the mall for 15 minutes, then went back to the theater. It was made to look like an old-school American theater except that it was in a mall and not in America. The velvet-like seats were nice though. After some previews, some angelic music started playing and everyone rose - including myself. Images of the revered king giving hungry children corn, helping old ladies cross the street and the like were projected for 5 or so minutes after which everyone (including myself) sat back down to enjoy the 3 hours of escapism that was part one of Lord of the Rings.
Didn't it rock?
2/3/02 - ?
Again, not sure what I did today. I know I had a Thai massage again which was realy good. I had had a pretty bad crick in my neck and she got it out. OTherwise, I probably slept late, read my books and I'm pretty sure I went out with Tom again that night for a drink or two, but no late night for me. No sirree. I had a date the next day, 6 AM with a TV and the New England Patriots.
Oh, and today, I kept running into people I knew, or rather had met while traveling. Very bizzare. I ssaw Yannis, the Greek from Lao, Chagi, the Israeli I shared a room with in Vientienne, Chris and Nikki a couple I had met in Battambang, Dominique and Alli, the couple I had met at the Siem Reap waterfall, and I kept bumping into Tom randomly on the street, him with his Bill Bryson and Lonely Planet: USA tucked under his arm.
2/4/02 - Today, we are all Patriots
I woke up a little late and missed kick off but was pretty proud of myself for making it out the dorr before 7. Watching the game in the morning was surreal. Watching the game in Bangkok was surreal. Watching the game alone - well, that sucked a little bit. I shared a bar with 2 Pats fans and 4 Rams fans though 2 of them were Italian and didn't count. So, no Jax, no Sour Cream and Onion, no subs, no Doritos. No beer even, but I did have a fruit shake.
So you don't need me to tell you how amazing the game was. I've never seen a sporting event like it. The commercials... they were different. I think the best one showed a sad couple separated for whatever reason, but made happy again because of their DTAC cell phones. Anyway, the first Pats championship ever and I missed it, in a sense. I couldn't toast in Back Bay or even watch the parade, but I think, maybe, it was a necessary requirement for me to be as far away as possible for them to win. When the kick was airborne I stood. When the kick looked true I raised my arms. When the kick went through the uprights, I screamed, I gasped. A tear streamed down my face, and again when Bob Kraft said "Today we are all Patriots and today the Patriots are Superbowl champions." Okay, so I was the freak in the bar. It was okay.
After the game I had errands to run and had now achieved the peak of efficiency in getting around Bangkok. I took the ferry. I took the skytrain. I didn't use a map.
By the end of the day, I had rescheduled my plane ticket and booked myself a diving course on Ko Tao. The bus left that night.
2/5/02 - 2/8/02 - Diver Down
I spent the next few days on Ko Tao getting my diving certification. The class started slowly, but by the end we were in open water swimming with the fishes. The diving was brilliant. We saw schools of big-eyed barracuda, huge trigger-fish, Angel and Rainbow fish were a regular and beautiful site and the cigar coral looked like nothing less than finely thrown pottery. My favorite of the underwater sea-life were the colorfull prickly little twig-like vegitation that instantaneously retreated into their little holes when you came near. I paid for the video, so you can see it all at your convenience.
The diving group was okay. There were a couple of dim bulbs who almost failed the written part of the exam which is meant to be a joke, but there were these two actors from England that were fun to hang with. One night we even went to this restaurant called Whitening that could have been straight from New York, down to the lowercase arial fonted sign, black menus and snazzy bar.
Otherwise Ko Tao was all about the diving.
2/9/02 - Bangkok again, yet again, once more
My fourth and last time in Bangkok. Four. 1, 2, 3, 4. This time I score a hotel with A/C and hot water. And again, my impression of Bangkok changes. I was hanging out with some friends from Siem Reap here, and we had a lot of fun. I got in late today from Ko Tao and just had a simple dinner and a few drinks. Or more than a few. I can't remember, which probably means it was more than few.
2/10/02 - Bi Bim Bop
Just hung out a shopped today. The most eventful event of the day was probably my dinner at this great Korean restaurant. I think it was mainly for Korean backpackers - or at least it was filled with Korean backpackers and I actually felt a little out of place; I didn't know whether to speak English or Thia. I got some Bi BIm Bop, though, it was great and huge and I (yes I) couldn't even finish.
I'm cruising through the narrative of these last few days because the trip is basically over. This is the denoument and it was mostly about reflecting and eating.
2/11/02 - Pat ping-Pong
The goilz dragged me out to Patpong today and the events are not fit for family consumption.
2/12/02 - Happy New Year
Today was Chinese New Year and we went down to Chinatown for the festivities. It was a thick swarm of people over about 6 or 7 blocks. Certainly bigger than San Genaro in New York, but a similar feel of food stalls and souvenir stands and people just milling around to look at other people.
At one point, a path was cleared, everyone stepping back to the invisilbe line delineated by the police. People started walking down the path and there were whispers that it was the Princess - the sister of the King. Eventually a throng of women walked by and everyone bowed. The throng passed and the "parade" was over as quickly as it started. We grabbed some great food at some stalls and as we were eating the dragon parade started. A glowing dragon was lifted around by a few dozen people. The eyes glowed and sparks and smoke flew out of its mouth and it made its way down the street and marched into the distance.
2/13/02 - Full circle
I spent my last day in Bangkok just as I had spent the first day: with the glinting, glistening temples of Wat Po and the Grand Palace. The lustre hadn't faded and I saw things I hadn't seen the first time - many new things. I made me feel that I could loop through SouthEast Asia again and have the same newness wash over me at each stop.
At night I found 2000 baht at the bottom of my backpack and treated 4 of us to a great sushi dinner.
2/14/02 - Homeward bound
I took advantage of the wonder of Singapore airport again, getting a haircut and a new pair of pants mostly in a state of shock of leaving my home of 3 months.
The stop over this time was Taipai at Chang Kai Shek airport - the worst airport I've ever seen.
As I flew home I thought of this quote from a Joseph Conrad's Youth:
"[...] most seamen lead, if one may express it, a sedentary life. Their minds are of the stay-at-home order, and their home is always with them - the ship; and so is their country - the sea. One ship is very much like another, and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful repetitiveness."
There are a few more things I wanted to write about, some final thoughts, but instead I will leave it at that and look at some of my pictures, drink tap water and be immoble for a while.
xoxo,
Marc
02/02/02 - LOTR
Last night was a late one. Tom, my new English friend, and I were reduced to scrounging around for something to do after the regular bars closed at 2, and so my main activity of today was traveling down to Siam Square in the evening to catch a flick at the old megaplex. Fellowship of the Ring had just been released and so I cabbed over to where I thought it may be playing and low and behold, there it was playing in English with Thai subtitles. I bought my ticket (seat 6c) and my bucket of popcorn and jug of Miranda Red soda and started to walk in, but I was stopped at the door. Movie starts at 8 so no one's allowed in till 5 of. So I took my bucket and jug and wandered around the mall for 15 minutes, then went back to the theater. It was made to look like an old-school American theater except that it was in a mall and not in America. The velvet-like seats were nice though. After some previews, some angelic music started playing and everyone rose - including myself. Images of the revered king giving hungry children corn, helping old ladies cross the street and the like were projected for 5 or so minutes after which everyone (including myself) sat back down to enjoy the 3 hours of escapism that was part one of Lord of the Rings.
Didn't it rock?
2/3/02 - ?
Again, not sure what I did today. I know I had a Thai massage again which was realy good. I had had a pretty bad crick in my neck and she got it out. OTherwise, I probably slept late, read my books and I'm pretty sure I went out with Tom again that night for a drink or two, but no late night for me. No sirree. I had a date the next day, 6 AM with a TV and the New England Patriots.
Oh, and today, I kept running into people I knew, or rather had met while traveling. Very bizzare. I ssaw Yannis, the Greek from Lao, Chagi, the Israeli I shared a room with in Vientienne, Chris and Nikki a couple I had met in Battambang, Dominique and Alli, the couple I had met at the Siem Reap waterfall, and I kept bumping into Tom randomly on the street, him with his Bill Bryson and Lonely Planet: USA tucked under his arm.
2/4/02 - Today, we are all Patriots
I woke up a little late and missed kick off but was pretty proud of myself for making it out the dorr before 7. Watching the game in the morning was surreal. Watching the game in Bangkok was surreal. Watching the game alone - well, that sucked a little bit. I shared a bar with 2 Pats fans and 4 Rams fans though 2 of them were Italian and didn't count. So, no Jax, no Sour Cream and Onion, no subs, no Doritos. No beer even, but I did have a fruit shake.
So you don't need me to tell you how amazing the game was. I've never seen a sporting event like it. The commercials... they were different. I think the best one showed a sad couple separated for whatever reason, but made happy again because of their DTAC cell phones. Anyway, the first Pats championship ever and I missed it, in a sense. I couldn't toast in Back Bay or even watch the parade, but I think, maybe, it was a necessary requirement for me to be as far away as possible for them to win. When the kick was airborne I stood. When the kick looked true I raised my arms. When the kick went through the uprights, I screamed, I gasped. A tear streamed down my face, and again when Bob Kraft said "Today we are all Patriots and today the Patriots are Superbowl champions." Okay, so I was the freak in the bar. It was okay.
After the game I had errands to run and had now achieved the peak of efficiency in getting around Bangkok. I took the ferry. I took the skytrain. I didn't use a map.
By the end of the day, I had rescheduled my plane ticket and booked myself a diving course on Ko Tao. The bus left that night.
2/5/02 - 2/8/02 - Diver Down
I spent the next few days on Ko Tao getting my diving certification. The class started slowly, but by the end we were in open water swimming with the fishes. The diving was brilliant. We saw schools of big-eyed barracuda, huge trigger-fish, Angel and Rainbow fish were a regular and beautiful site and the cigar coral looked like nothing less than finely thrown pottery. My favorite of the underwater sea-life were the colorfull prickly little twig-like vegitation that instantaneously retreated into their little holes when you came near. I paid for the video, so you can see it all at your convenience.
The diving group was okay. There were a couple of dim bulbs who almost failed the written part of the exam which is meant to be a joke, but there were these two actors from England that were fun to hang with. One night we even went to this restaurant called Whitening that could have been straight from New York, down to the lowercase arial fonted sign, black menus and snazzy bar.
Otherwise Ko Tao was all about the diving.
2/9/02 - Bangkok again, yet again, once more
My fourth and last time in Bangkok. Four. 1, 2, 3, 4. This time I score a hotel with A/C and hot water. And again, my impression of Bangkok changes. I was hanging out with some friends from Siem Reap here, and we had a lot of fun. I got in late today from Ko Tao and just had a simple dinner and a few drinks. Or more than a few. I can't remember, which probably means it was more than few.
2/10/02 - Bi Bim Bop
Just hung out a shopped today. The most eventful event of the day was probably my dinner at this great Korean restaurant. I think it was mainly for Korean backpackers - or at least it was filled with Korean backpackers and I actually felt a little out of place; I didn't know whether to speak English or Thia. I got some Bi BIm Bop, though, it was great and huge and I (yes I) couldn't even finish.
I'm cruising through the narrative of these last few days because the trip is basically over. This is the denoument and it was mostly about reflecting and eating.
2/11/02 - Pat ping-Pong
The goilz dragged me out to Patpong today and the events are not fit for family consumption.
2/12/02 - Happy New Year
Today was Chinese New Year and we went down to Chinatown for the festivities. It was a thick swarm of people over about 6 or 7 blocks. Certainly bigger than San Genaro in New York, but a similar feel of food stalls and souvenir stands and people just milling around to look at other people.
At one point, a path was cleared, everyone stepping back to the invisilbe line delineated by the police. People started walking down the path and there were whispers that it was the Princess - the sister of the King. Eventually a throng of women walked by and everyone bowed. The throng passed and the "parade" was over as quickly as it started. We grabbed some great food at some stalls and as we were eating the dragon parade started. A glowing dragon was lifted around by a few dozen people. The eyes glowed and sparks and smoke flew out of its mouth and it made its way down the street and marched into the distance.
2/13/02 - Full circle
I spent my last day in Bangkok just as I had spent the first day: with the glinting, glistening temples of Wat Po and the Grand Palace. The lustre hadn't faded and I saw things I hadn't seen the first time - many new things. I made me feel that I could loop through SouthEast Asia again and have the same newness wash over me at each stop.
At night I found 2000 baht at the bottom of my backpack and treated 4 of us to a great sushi dinner.
2/14/02 - Homeward bound
I took advantage of the wonder of Singapore airport again, getting a haircut and a new pair of pants mostly in a state of shock of leaving my home of 3 months.
The stop over this time was Taipai at Chang Kai Shek airport - the worst airport I've ever seen.
As I flew home I thought of this quote from a Joseph Conrad's Youth:
"[...] most seamen lead, if one may express it, a sedentary life. Their minds are of the stay-at-home order, and their home is always with them - the ship; and so is their country - the sea. One ship is very much like another, and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful repetitiveness."
There are a few more things I wanted to write about, some final thoughts, but instead I will leave it at that and look at some of my pictures, drink tap water and be immoble for a while.
xoxo,
Marc
posted by mettle at
7:27 PM
