We woke up fairly early and checked out of the hotel. After grabbing some breakfast, we hopped into 2 cabs and went to the bus station. We bought an A/C bus ticket for $4 to go to Pattaya! It was a 3 hour bus ride, so it was very cheap. SAS was charging $45 for their shuttle, so this was a lot better. I slept most of the bus ride until we got to Pattaya.
Pattaya is the resort town of Thailand, the place where tourists and locals go to relax on the beach, kind of like a mini Cancun. We booked a hotel at a local travel agency and headed over in a truck rickshaw. The hotel was pretty nice. We put our stuff down and headed out for lunch. There was a nice mall across the street with a food court on the top floor. In the food court there were stations for all types of cuisines, from Vietnamese to Thai to Indian to Italian. The food was really good, and we spent some time on the gallery checking out the view of Pattaya.
The rest of the day was just a break…nothing special happened. We headed down to the beach, walked around, hit up the market, and headed back to the hotel. I found an internet café at night and surfed the web for a while everyone else went out late. Actually, when they came back we went to a karaoke club, and sang a few songs before they closed, which was kinda fun. But it was mainly a relaxing day.
Day 5 was pretty much the same. We woke up kinda late, checked out of the hotel, and relaxed at the beach for an hour or so. I wrote a LOT of postcards while sitting on a beach chair under the shade (it was HOT). Then, we went back to the main city area, checked out the market for a while, ate lunch, and headed back to the ship a little early. I boarded the ship and waved goodbye to Thailand. What a country…I didn't know what to expect, and it blew me away.
Achal and I decided to wake up early and go check out the pool in the morning before breakfast. I came down, still dead tired, but it was worth it. The pool was open air, and from the lounge chairs we could see the skyline of Bangkok…an amazing view. It was a pretty sweet pool. I sat in a chair for a while, watching the sky brighten as sunrise approached, then went back up to the room to pack away all my stuff. It took longer than expected, so I was late to breakfast. I quickly wolfed down some food, not nearly enough (it was sooo good), and headed down to the lobby to board the bus.
Our first stop for the day was Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The temple complex was so beautiful, and we got 15 minutes to walk around and take pictures. The architecture was so unique and beautiful…only a picture can describe it. After touring the complex, we entered the temple. Marina told us the statue of the reclining Buddha was very, very large, and then we walked in. I was blown away…the statue was HUGE! Way larger than I had expected…it was about 50 feet tall and 150 feet long. Even the pictures I took don't do it justice. After staring at the statue in awe for several minutes, we exited, grabbed our shoes, and headed back to the bus.
Our next stop was the Grand Palace of Bangkok, which we had seen from our boat cruise earlier. It was supposed to be the highlight of the city. As we entered the palace, I felt like I had been transported through a portal into another world. There were buildings everywhere with the Thai architecture; some were covered by golden domes and there were vast gardens and roads that led to a million places. It was a vast palace complex, and it was a visual explosion. I didn't know where to look first. Right as we were about to start our tour we got to see the changing of the guards. One troop of guards dressed in white, with automatic rifles in hand, marched out of the temple as another troop took their place. Afterwards, we began our tour. We walked through the main plaza area, and it was just spectacular. I was surrounded on all sides by exquisite buildings, and I couldn't take enough photos. We got a brief history of the palace from Marina, and then we got 15 minutes to shoot pictures. I ran around with Achal to as many places as we could, taking lots of pics along the way. We even saw a small model of Angkor Wat, the temple we were going to see in a few days. The model itself was pretty amazing, and both of us got really excited cuz we were going to see the real thing soon. :) After the photo-op was done, we met up with the group again, and headed to see the Jade (or Emerald) Buddha. No photography was allowed inside, so I took a lot of pics from the outside through a window. The Jade Buddha was a lot smaller than I expected (about 3-4 feet tall), but it was still pretty cool. The room which it was housed in was very ornate and exquisitely decorated.
After seeing the Jade Buddha, we headed out of the Grand Palace and boarded the bus. We headed back to the pier and took a ferry to a nearby restaurant across the river. The food was SO GOOD! For vegetarians, they made us fresh spring rolls, and for lunch we got 5 different spicy curries, including some green curry. SO GOOD! After lunch, our trip was heading back to the ship, 2 ½ hours away, but we were going to stay in Bangkok one more night to meet up with some friends. So, we waved goodbye to our group and to Marina, and left. We had lots of time to kill before we met up with some friends for dinner at 7. So, we decided to head to the local mall. It wasn't too far, and we got an amazing cab driver. He told us lots of funny stories, and showed us currency from around the world that some of his clients had given him. He had currency from countries like Iran, Iraq, and Dubai as well as countless others, including the ever-inflating Zimbabwean dollar. After a great ride there, we got off and went to check out the mall. It was very, very large, and we walked around for 10 minutes before deciding to go to the top floor where the theater was located. It had been a long time since we had seen an English movie in a theater, so we went to check out the showtimes. They were showing Watchmen at 4, so we decided to watch it…we got tickets for the VIP theater, and I didn't really know what that meant. We had some times before our show, so we found an internet café in the mall and surfed the web for a while.
The VIP theater was very cool. We showed our ticket at the entrance and got a complimentary drink…some fruit punch. It was actually very good. Afterwards we entered the theater. The seats were small sofas that reclined all the way back! They were very comfortable. Before the movie started there was a short video about the King, and we all had to stand up to show our respects…it was very interesting. There were some trailers for English movies, and I felt like I was home again. The movie was very long, but very interesting and thought-provoking. There was a lot of symbolism throughout the movie. As I left the movie theater, I was transported back to Bangkok cuz I had been home for a while while watching the movie and it was very nice and relaxing. By now it was 6:50 and we were getting late for our dinner meeting. We hopped into a cab and told the driver to take us to Khao San Road….the backpacker's street of Bangkok.
We got to our meeting point, and ran into Z and Whitney. After looking around for a few minutes, we found the rest of our group (Sarah, Rachel, Ji, and Jane). We ate at a local restaurant (May Kaidee's vegetarian restaurant) and the food was delicious. For once, Achal and I didn't have to worry about finding vegetarian food since everything on the menu was vegetarian. It was very nice :) After our dinner, we headed to our hostel and checked in. Afterwards, we decided to go out to the market. I bought lots of souvenirs again, and the rest of the group wanted to stay out a little late, maybe go to a few bars and hang out. I was tired, and I wanted to come back so I walked back with Ji.
There was an internet café in the hostel, so I sat on the internet for a while, talked to a couple friends online, uploaded some pictures and surfed the web. It was very relaxing. I went to bed soon after, exhausted after 3 days of intense traveling.
I woke up very early for the millionth time. But, I was very excited cuz we were going to Bangkok on an overnight trip. I showered, ate breakfast, and finalized my packing. Then, I met up with Achal and we headed to the Union. We signed in and headed down to the buses. There were 2 buses for our group and 2 guides, so they were basically splitting us in half. We climbed onto the 2nd bus (it had more empty seats), and met our guide, Marina. After we departed, she talked to us about Thailand for a few minutes, about some of the customs, greetings, eating habits, etc…I passed out soon thereafter…
I woke up with a jolt from a strange dream I can't remember. And I looked out of the window to see the city of Bangkok. It…was…HUGE! I saw skyscrapers everywhere, and large temples dotted the landscape as well. It was a visual explosion, and I didn't know where to look. Marina then talked to us about Bangkok. It's abbreviated Thai name is Krung Thep (pronounced kroong thep), which translates as "The City of Angels." I am from near Los Angeles, CA so I told Marina I was also from the city of Angels, and she laughed and smiled. The original Thai name for Bangkok is 35 syllables long, I think, the longest name of any city. But it was shortened to Krung Thep and it eventually became Bangkok (which the Thai pronounce Baan ko).
We drove through the city and eventually hit some traffic. Marina told us that traffic is a huge problem in Bangkok. The city itself has a population of 12 million and an area of 1150 square kms (convert it to square miles if you wish), which is TWICE the size of the entire country of Singapore! Also, the city has been called the "Venice of the East" (yep, Rel, the same Venice you are near ;)) since it has an extensive network of canals along which all the major temples/monuments are built. We headed to the pier to board a boat which would take us on a water tour of the city. As soon as we got out of the bus, we felt the humidity and heat. It was over 95 degrees F, with a humidity of at least 80%. It was hot! We headed to our boat and found seats. The boat itself was quite small and narrow. As I gazed into the canal network, I saw a plethora of boats going in all directions. Along the sides of the canals, I saw skyscrapers, houses, temples, and other buildings. It was very, very cool. We departed, and took a 45 minute tour of the area. I can't even describe what I saw cuz words don't do justice. I will upload pics as soon as I can, but what I will try to do is email all of you on my email list a few small pics (I sent out that test email earlier). If you are reading this, and you wanna be on the email list, shoot me an email at yjbhatt@semesteratsea.net I frequently mail out status updates, location reports, and pictures too. So let me know if you want in. Anyways, so we saw soo soo much along the canals. Our first stop was the Royal Barges museum. Inside, there was a collection of several ornate war barges. They were magnificently designed. We checked them out and learned the history behind them. Interestingly, the figures on the front of most of them were heavily influenced by Hinduism.
We got back into the boat and proceeded to our 2nd stop, Wat Arun (the temple of Dawn). On the way, we stopped near a temple where a sign read "Please feed the fish for good luck." Marina passed out some loaves of bread. I reluctantly (I was STARVING) threw in a piece in the water. Suddenly, 20 fish jumped up out of the water, devoured the piece, and vanished. I was startled, and everyone started throwing more and more bread. The water looked calm and empty until a piece of bread hit the surface, at which point a plethora of fish would surface and attack the bread. It was really cool! I decided to save half the loaf for myself, and wolfed it down ravenously. What?! It was very good bread, or maybe I was just THAT hungry…hehe. After the fish fiasco, we soon arrived at Wat Arun (let's see how carefully you've been reading this blog…what does that translate to without looking to the earlier reference?). It was very tall. After a brief history lecture, we got 15 minutes to check out the temple. The temple was dedicated to Indra, Hindu God of the lightning (I LOVE lightning! Hehe). The main tower had such a steep staircase to get to the top that it was almost like climbing a ladder. I slung my camera around my shoulder and climbed up. It was a semi-tiring climb (it was HOT), and I was covered in sweat when I got to the top, but it was worth it. The view from the top was amazing. We could see as far as downtown Bangkok, and directly across the river was the Grand Palace of Bangkok. It looked very cool from here, but I would have to wait until tomorrow to see it. We climbed back down carefully, and rejoined our group on the boat. We were all very hungry and the next stop was our hotel. The ferry took us back to the pier, where we got back on the bus and headed to the hotel. It took about 15 minutes to get there. And then, we stopped in front of our hotel, Hotel Sofitel Silom. I could not believe my eyes. The hotel was ENORMOUS, and it looked very, very nice. We got out and walked inside. This was definitely a 5 star hotel. The inside of the hotel was very nice, and I felt spoiled just walking around. We walked upstairs to have lunch.
Achal and I are vegetarian, so we asked the head cook if he could make us something. He gladly agreed, and they even hand-brought our dishes to our table. I went to the pasta bar, and ordered some spicy pasta. It was delicious…some of the best pasta I have ever had! Lunch as a whole was pretty amazing, and afterwards we went to get our room keys. I was staying with Chazz, who is the only other guy in our ship's a capella group. I walked into the room and was blown away…it was SO NICE! And from our window we had a view of downtown Bangkok! I saw the Skytrain go by below me against the backdrop of the skyline. It was a ridiculous view. Anyways, our guide had told us to meet in the lobby if we wanted to go to a tailor shop. What the heck, we might as well check it out…so we headed down. We took a van to the shop…it was a very nice shop. The tailor was rated one of the best in Bangkok, so it was definitely legit. We looked around and checked out the fabric, and it was amazing. We asked how much a suit would cost, and after a lot of bargaining, we got down to $200 for 2 silk ties, 2 custom shirts, and a full suit! Such a good deal cuz a good suit in the US would cost over $300, and it would not be custom made. I was very excited cuz the fabric was so nice…we got our measurements and I picked out my 2 ties and left. We returned to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before dinner.
For dinner, we headed to an interesting restaurant with a show. The food was pretty good, although the vegetarian options were limited. The show was really cool…it was traditional Thai dance, and I took lots of pics and videos. We returned to the hotel and then we went out to a market at night. It was craaazy! There was a swarm of people everywhere, selling all kinds of stuff. I bought a few souvenirs, but I had to bargain a LOT cuz the starting prices were outrageous since it was a tourist area. Also, Thailand is notorious for its prostitution problem, and we saw a lot of it in the market area. There were people everywhere handing out flyers and advertising clubs/night shows. It was ridiculous, especially being a tourist in the area. We had to constantly shake our head and fend off people just to walk through the market. And these night "shows" were nothing you would commonly find in the US…they were crazy and disgusting. We realized what people had said about the red light district in Bangkok…it was everywhere, not really concentrated in any one area. You could not ignore it cuz it was not limited to shady areas. Moreover, Thailand has a huge trans-gender population, and these so called "ladyboys" were everywhere, they owned shops, they were selling merchandise, they were advertising shows. Again, you could not ignore it, it was everywhere. If you walked outside after 6 or 7 pm, you saw that most areas of the city transformed into a red light district. After buying several items, I walked back to our hotel and fell asleep, thinking about everything I had seen that day. It's easy to ignore all these situations that clearly exist in the world, these problems such as poverty or prostitution or corruption. But the truth is that all of that does exist and it's not going to disappear just because you don't think it exists.
So, I don't have too much to write about India. I decided to take a break, and not travel. I stayed with my family in Chennai. I have been to India several times and have seen a lot, but that's a story for another time. I do have a story for the first day, however. After getting off the ship, Achal and I met my uncle and we headed to my family's house for lunch. I met my grandparents, who flew in from Mumbai to see me, and we had lunch together. After lunch, we had to come back to the port for a trip we were doing with my biomedical ethics professor. We go onto the bus, and headed to the Mother Teresa orphanage. Upon getting there, we had to walk around for a while to find the entrance, and walked in. We met one of the nuns, and she gave us an introduction to the orphanage. They had a large group of orphans, most of whom had cerebral palsy (spelling?). Then, we went to see the orphans. It was very disheartening. Most of the kids could not function properly, and had body deformities. We talked to some, and held their hands, but many could not hear us. They looked so vulnerable, but at the same time they were so beautiful. There were also older kids there, and they LOVED bubbles. We brought a few bottles of bubbles and they loved them. Seeing happiness on their faces really made me smile. After about 30 minutes, Achal and I walked to the office, and sat down with the head nun. We each gave a small donation, and we talked to her for a long time about the orphanage, the kids, her background, etc… It was pretty amazing stuff.
After the orphanage we returned to the ship, and waited for some others to get back. I had invited Achal, Rory, Michelle, and Z to my family's house for dinner. We got together and left around 7 and met my uncle just outside the port entrance. We drove to his house, talking along the way, and I introduced all my friends. Once at the house, we sat in one of the rooms with A/C (it was soo hot, even at night), and ate lots of snacks. Dinner was ready after that, so we sat down to eat. They made idly (steamed rice dumplings) and sambar (spicy South Indian soup). It was delicious and everyone else agreed! We really enjoyed our meal, and my friends loved interacting with my family. After dinner, Michelle went to the kitchen and sat down inside with my grandmother, and my 2 aunts, who were making some dessert…cutting up a huge, juicy watermelon. I sat down in the room with my uncles and talked for a while. It was pretty late by now, so we had to drop my friends off at the ship, since they were all going on trips the next day. Everyone had an amazing time and didn't want to leave. They could not believe how hospitable my family was, and were sad to say goodbye. We dropped them off at the ship, and I came back and fell asleep.
The next few days, I just relaxed. During the day, I went on the internet for some research, talked to friends and family back home, and at night went out with my uncles for dinner. The last night we all went out and celebrated my birthday a day early! On the last day, before I left (March 9th) my family made me a birthday cake and we ate it right as I left. It was very nice, and I waved goodbye to everyone, promising to come back soon. Some of my uncles joked that next time I came, I would be much older, and I would be a married doctor! Hehe…who knows what will happen?
By the way, while I was in India I updated my Picasa website completely through Mauritius. All the albums are there by country, and you can look through them. I tried to face-tag and geo-tag all the photos, so you know who is in the photo as well as where it was taken. Check it out! It took a lot of work to put everything up. Once again, comments on my blog are greatly appreciated. Even if you don't know me well, please send me an email at yjbhatt@semesteratsea.net We feel pretty disconnected from the world on the voyage…it would be pretty cool to hear from you readers, especially if I don't know you well, or maybe we have never met before. Feel free to email me your thoughts. This is Yash, signing out until Thailand, which I will have LOTS more to write about.
