The Tourist

Tourist Days-August 9
We had the long week-end so I took the opportunity of doing touristy things For beginners, I went to Khao San road where all the tourists hang out. It was really interesting for a variety of reasons. I met a dot comer from San Francisco who was 32, just sold his business for lots of millions of dollars and was traveling the world. I also met an Irish guy who was funny and enthusiastic. When a 10 year old Thai boy came to sell us some flowers, he asked the Irish guy where he was from. When he said Ireland, the Thai boy told him to “kiss his ass” in Gaelic. The Irish guy laughed so hard he was almost on the floor. The boy then challenged a 6 foot 5 colleague of mine to a thumb wrestle and beat him. I’m sure this boy will grow up to be the leading business person in Thailand at some point in the not too distant future.

Since it was the Queens birthday, the Thais were celebrating Mother’s day. I have a picture you can view of a stage with a huge picture of the Queen and a Thai band playing their drums. At 6:30, probably the time she was born, we all stood,
lit a candle and then sung some patriotic songs ( it was not the national anthem which is played everyday at 6 am and 6pm. And everyone stops what they are doing. The ceremony was actually quite wonderful and the fireworks only made it move spectacular and moving.

I also bought a guidebook on Kho San road because the heavy book I shlepped with me from Canada on South East Asia had all of the pages torn out on Bangkok for some reason!. Apparently, according to the book, the number one tourist attraction in Thailand is the Grand Palace in Thailand. You will see the pictures I have are quite spectacular. Part of the palace ( not where the king lives incidentally) is a wat which is a Thai measurement actually. However it has temples and monuments where religious relics are stores. There are tens of thousands of watts in Thailand but the one on the Palace property is the most spectacular since it houses the Emerald Buddha. Like the Mona Lisa one generally can’t wait to see and is inevitably disappointed with it because it is so small, the emerald Buddha is is a spectacular room filled with gold, jewels and spectacular works of art but the Buddha itself is really small and placed very high up.

The architecture of the building is Paradise and is higher than all of the surrounding buildings so that we ascend from earth to Paradise as we walk on the temple grounds. It is guarded by monkeys in this particular case and if you look at the picture carefully you will see certain human characteristics of the monkeys. The other guards or Yoks guard some of the other buildings where sacred documents are founds.

The palaces, which are the last few pictures of the set are quite European. You will notice some monks in two of the windows chanting since this was a full moon.

Budists in Thailand consider it a duty to be a monk at some time in their life to learn the teachings and experience humility as they walk around in their saffron robes barefoot, shaved head and with an alms bowl for food. The interesting thing for me is that they may only be a monk for a week or more and it is not a lifetime commitment for many if not most of them.

While many of my colleagues were enjoying Koh Samet the kindergarten teacher had to stay behind because she was not feeling very well so you will also see her in the pictures. We took the BTS or skytrain to the Chao Prayo river and then a barge up to the Palace. As with any major tourist site there were hawkers all along the way and many touts trying to sell us everything from rings to Buddhas. After the 3 hour tour we took we decided to have lunch in a nearby restaurant by the river. What I realized in Bangkok is that there is no place you can escape the noise. While we were having our rice and “spicy stuff” overlooking the river we could hardly hear each other because of the noise of the barges going up and down the river.

I live on a side street that is so narrow two cars passing each way and a pedestrian simply don’t mix. The street is not wide enough to even have a sidewalk yet as I write this at 11 o’clock at night there is a steady stream of traffic. I just hope it continues until at least 6 am when I want to flag down a taxi to go to the airport campus tomorrow morning at 6 am. To take me to Bagna Trad road kilometer sip ha ( 15) for those that do not speak Thai. Unfortunately since it is a highway taxis have to pass 15 and make a u turn at about 19. Haven’t figured out how to say u turn yet so could very well end up at the airport, another 20 kilometers of so. Wish me luck. I am going to bed.