Musings of an Idiot

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Labels: Acting, Directing, India, New Zealand, Polaroid, Thailand, Travel

posted by Amit @ 7:02 PM 0 Comments

Lazy Wanderings – Day 10

I woke up early and packed my bags and checked out of my room by 8.30 AM. The hotel had a security room facility so I left my backpack there – it meant that I didn't have to return to the hotel at 12.00 PM to check out. The map said that Lumphini Park was en route to Soi Polo Fried Chicken place, so I decided to have a look at it as well. The park was just a normal park but it did provide a kind of serenity and peacefulness amidst the noise and hustle bustle of Bangkok – there were people jogging and stuff, and all the usual things you see in a park, so I wasn't tempted to go in at all – I walked around the circumference till I got to Soi Polo and then I searched for the eating joint but I couldn't track down the exact address, so I ate at a place called Polo Fried Chicken.

Rice and meat is common as breakfast in Thailand so I had no qualms about eating fried chicken and sticky rice for breakfast. It was a delicious meal and pretty affordable meal – it cost 90 baht [nearly NZ$5] all up for a really filling meal. I'll be back in Bangkok for a day on my return journey and i'll definitely try and track down the actual place listed in Lonely Planet guide. After the scrumptious breakfast it was time for some gift hunting and I walked half way and then caught a sky train to Siam square, which is know for it's shopping outlets and malls.


Shops are usually supposed to open around 10.00 AM but when I got into one of the malls almost 90% of the shops were still closed. Everyone was in the process of opening the shops slowly but surely. I wandered about for 30 minutes in the mall but the shop opening process was very slow, so I decided to be brave and get myself a Thai massage. I referred to my ever trusty LP guide to check out surrounding areas for recommended thai massage places. When it comes to massage in Thailand there is a proliferation of massage parlours – which are not necessarily Thai massage places and you might end up getting some other kind of massage :-), so you've got to be careful especially when looking for massage places until and unless of course you don't want to be careful about it.

The place that caught my eye (no pun intended – you'll soon realize why) was a thai massage place where the masseuse's were blind and it was supposed to be popular amongst the locals as well as expats. So I decided to give it a go and caught the Skytrain to Nana BTS and started searching for the place. I had a little bit of difficulty finding the place and whenever I took out my map to confirm my location and my place of intended destination, I would be pestered by a taxi driver or a tuk-tuk driver about going to a massage place otherwise I was pretty much treated as a local – I think it is because of my skin colour. :-) I finally managed to find the place and booked a 2 hour thai massage – to my disappointment my masseuse wasn't blind but the massage itself was great. It doesn't feel too great a lot of the time when the massage is being done and it is slightly painful at times but once the massage is complete you feel so relaxed and at peace. The massage was also very reasonably priced – it cost 350 baht for 2 hours of massage – which amounts to about NZ$20 roughly. If you compare that to any form of massage in NZ – it is peanuts as massage in NZ is steeply priced with prices ranging $70 upwards per hour. So I'll definitely be getting myself another couple of hours of thai massage on my way back to Auckland.

Feeling refreshed I went back to Siam square and shopped at MBK and found a couple of gifts. After the heavy breakfast I wasn't feeling hungry so I skipped lunch and proceeded back to my hotel to pick my bags and leave for the airport. A cab to the airport was around 500 baht while the cost of using Airport Express bus was 100 baht from where I was, so I decided to try the airport bus service since I had a little bit of time to spare. I enquired at the hotel as to where I could catch the bus from and the timings and they told me where I could catch it from but as far as the times were concerned they said that it ran every hour but there was no precise time the bus arrived. So I picked up my backpack and sat on the footpath where the bus was supposed to arrive. There was a tuk-tuk stand right where I was and every now and then cabs would stop offering to take me to the airport but I told them that I was catching the bus. 30 minutes later there was still no sign of the bus and I was getting a little worried – what if I missed my flight because I wanted to save 400 baht? And just as I was giving up hope, the airport express screamed past the bus stop despite a traffic police guy waving it down and a couple of tuk-tuk drivers waving it down. I just smiled and figured that I needed to catch a cab since I wasn't going to wait for another hour or so but one of the tuk-tuk drivers asked me to get into his vehicle so he could help me catch the bus at the traffic lights. I asked him how much since everyone is out to make money and he said that he didn't want anything except help me catch the bus. I was taken aback by the selflessness and gesture of help but jumped straight into the tuk-tuk and we did catch the bus just before the next traffic light. As I gratefully sat down in the bus – I was thinking how I wish Dan was here to see what had just happened because it was the complete opposite to his perception of tuk-tuk drivers in Bangkok.

Once I got down at the airport – the whole process of checking in was pretty painless and finally the security check officers at the airport smiled. I showed them the Polaroid and asked them if they could avoid putting the film through the x-ray machine and it soon caused a minor sensation of sorts and they were very curious about the Polaroid camera and they asked me about my time in Thailand and they were laughing and smiling at me for having a Polaroid camera. One thing I have constantly found through the trip is that Polaroid is a great equalizer – it instantly helps you form friends and people are more open to you because you are using a Polaroid camera. How I wish that Polaroid hadn't stopped making film – I could happily use this camera for the rest of my life because it is special in many ways. Suvarnabhumi Airport complex is massive and I spent a good half an hour walking about and had a quick snack and also found time to check my mails before our plane was assigned a gate. I sat down in one of the seating areas and looked around to see that everyone was traveling with someone else and I wished that I had a travel companion because it gives you some sense of security and belonging plus you have someone to share your experiences with. But then again traveling alone is scary at times but it also keeps you open to more possibilities and to people.

On the plane the guy sitting next to me was a young guy who had just completed his MBBS and had come for a vacation with his friend to Pattaya (in South Thailand). They were really surprised that I was traveling alone and that I had gone up north into the hills on an intrepid journey instead of going down south to the sandy beaches of Thailand where most of the foreigners like to hang out. They were decent guys but both of them had really stinky feet and the only reason I know this is because they removed their shoes 2 minutes after we got seated and man was the stink foul. I spent most of my time on the plane updating my journal and didn't even bother watching the personal entertainment system. It was a tough flight because the stink never went away and I was glad when the flight finally landed in Delhi.

This was my first time traveling back to India on my NZ passport and the first thing that struck me about India and Indians was the total disregard for lines and instructions. At the immigration counter there were 2 lines allocated to foreign passport holders but that had no meaning as everyone was lining up in whichever line they felt like. Once past the immigration check it was waiting for the baggage and it took another half an hour before my bag finally appeared. Once out of the airport I was surprised that Delhi wasn't that cold and it wasn't even foggy. Dad picked me up from the airport {even though I told him that it would be easier for me to catch a cab home} and it was nice seeing him. This time around I thought I would be prepared for the traffic and the honking but it still took me by surprise and it was very jarring. One of the first things that stuck me was the amount of construction taking place in the Delhi. Everywhere you see there is construction happening and the economic slowdown doesn't seem to have impacted India that much. The main roads have improved vastly but the driving and the disregard for road rules is still the same.

By the time we got to our apartment block it was around 12.30 AM and there was no parking space left. People seem to have bought atleast 2 cars per household whether they need them or not. And then there was the fact that the gas company had dug up most of the sides of the apartment roads to lay down gas pipelines which made parking space even more hard to find. In the end – I got out of the car on dad's suggestion and I kicked and clawed clear a big mound of dirt and bricks dug up by the gas company, so that we could park our car in the clearing. I was pretty tired by the time I got home but it was still a great feeling seeing my mum again after 3 years.

Catch up and talk is for later – for now it is time to sink into my lovely bed.
Later,
Amit

Labels: India, Thailand, Travel

posted by Amit @ 9:48 PM 0 Comments

Cooking Thai – Day 9

The main agenda for the day was the Thai cooking course that I had enrolled into even when I was in Auckland. A good way to learn about a culture is to see how they cook plus there is the added bonus of actually learning a few dishes to use in daily life. I was looking for a cooking course that was affordable and most of the cooking courses were about 2000 baht and upwards and it is a good chunk of money but then I found this cooking course which was half the price and had generally positive reviews plus it happened to be in the same area as my second hotel, so picking that particular school was a no-brainer.

I woke up early as usual and had a shower before wandering over to the local seven eleven store to grab some iced lemon tea. I've probably drunk more iced lemon trip in Thailand than at any point in my life – maybe because it is sweeter than the one's you get in NZ. I was specifically asked by Nusi – the course instructor, not to have a heavy breakfast since we would be cooking and eating for better part of the day, so I skipped breakfast altogether. I wandered around to the meeting point (lobby of some big hotel) for the cooking course and soon Nusi appeared with the rest of the group. In the group was David and his family, who were staying at Lub'd as well and I had briefly spoken to David yesterday when he mistook me for someone else. It is a group of 10 people, so it is a relatively compact class.

Our first stop was the local market where we started buying all the ingredients for our cooking class. Nusi basically showed us different kinds of vegetables and also different varieties within the same vegetable/spices – like there were various varieties of chillies and ginger and he explained to us the various uses of each separate kind and also when you use them. After we finished our shopping, we proceeded to the cooking school. We walked through the residential areas before we got to a house – basically the school is located in a house and this is probably the closest one can get to actual Thai home cooking.



We were soon given our cooking uniform and divided into smaller groups of 3-4 and set upon the task of basic preparation for the main cooking. The group I was in was given the task of cleaning and cutting the chicken and beef into respective sizes for their respective dishes. After that was done all of gathered around in a single room, cutting vegetables and various ingredients for the first dish and once that was done we proceeded to our work stations where Nusi basically guided us through the cooking process. As soon as the dish was done, we would put it in a serving bowl/plate and eat it ourselves before proceeding to prep the next dish and then cook it and repeat the process all over again.


Overall we learnt 5 very different kinds of dishes and I was bloated by the time we made the 4th dish and could just do a spoonful of taste of the 'Green Curry Chicken'. Just when I thought I couldn't eat anymore - the 5th dish was made and I happily ate it. It was Mango with Sticky rice and it was so yummy. By the time the course came to an end it was already 1.30 PM and it was time to bid farewell to the class and explore more of the city on my own. During the course I met a very interesting couple – Helen and Stephen [Helen was from Germany while Stephen was from Ireland], who had stayed for a few months in India (mainly in Tamil Nadu) before their Thailand trip, and we had a good conversation during the course and once the course ended they asked me if I wanted to hang out with them for rest of the day and I readily agreed.


There was no specific plan per se but we first went to Khao San Road because we got a free ride back there plus it was close to a fair few temples. We sat down at a cafe and discussed the rough plan for rest of the day based on what each of us wanted to see. Our first stop was Wat Pho – where there is a huge reclining Buddha and it was amazing. We wandered around the temple complex for a while but skipped the thai massage there since we were short on time. Thai Massage at Wat Pho is supposed to be really good and they have a school there as well where they teach Thai massage.


After Wat Pho we walked over to the local ferry terminal and caught a ferry across the river to Wat Arun – which is supposed to look majestic at sunrise but also looks great during sunset. The ferry ride was very short but very hairy because of the distance involved. It was also very cheap – a one way ride from Grand Palace pier to Wat Arun pier was 3 baht. Wat Arun is a very masculine and imposing temple but at the same time it has some very intricate architecture and carvings. The steps to get up the temple are steep and going up is usually never the problem – it is the coming down that is kind of fear inducing. I hope the kings and queens never had to go to the top of the temple in a pavilion or something. The three of us spent time on the maximum level allowed for visitors and soaked up views of Bangkok from up there. And as it was getting dark pretty quick, we decided to climb down while we could still see the stairs, especially since neither of us wanted to tumble down the stairs to certain death.


Next stop was Chinatown and I was keen for another visit since I loved the food over there. A couple of ferry rides with the locals and we were in Chinatown. We explored the market for a while and at one point I was almost tempted to buy cooked chestnuts but the minimum quantity was 1 KG and that was too much to eat on my own, so I had to reluctantly walk away from the vendor without buying anything. Helen's nickname is 'Oink', so I took a photograph of cooked pig faces for her. Stephen wanted to buy some jeans from a road side stall and he asked the lady if there was any try room to which the lady seriously replied that he should try it on there. Helen and me looked at each other and cracked up laughing and then we encouraged Stephen to try it on, so Stephen tried the jeans over his shorts and they didn't quite fit, so he decided to let it go. We were getting hungry so we sat down at a restaurant to eat some food but it turned out that they only served seafood, so we escaped from the place with sheepish grins on our faces. Soon after we found a eating joint which served all kinds of foods and we sat there eating and chatting for a good while exchanging lives and stories.


Once we finished our food it was time to part ways and we bid each other farewell and went our separate ways. They were an awesome couple to hang out with and they made the day totally memorable. I returned to the hotel and I decided to try out the entertainment lounge since I didn't feel like going to bed straight away. In the theatre space I met Heath & Jules – a couple of australian's returning home after their OE in UK/Europe; they also happened to be sharing the same dorm as me. We watched 'Pineapple Express' for a while on a pirated copy and when it got stuck we decided to call it a night and retired to our dorm where we chatted for a little longer about UK; Holland; Art & Culture and finally about Melbourne before we finally called it a night.

There was no phone calls from Tuan, so I buzzed her in the evening but she didn't pick up the phone, so it is a definite full stop there. Kind of sad but in a way I was already expecting that yesterday, so it didn't bother me too much today. Tomorrow I have most of the day to myself and I have plans to check out a fried chicken outlet and then do some gift shopping before I catch my flight to India later in the evening. It's been a good day and I am retiring to bed feeling satisfied.

Later,
Amit

Labels: Thailand, Travel

posted by Amit @ 9:55 PM 0 Comments

Lonely Bangkok – Day 8

There were no annoying train staff yelling 'Orange juice' this morning but I woke up early as usual but just lay there in my bunk gazing out of the window. We got to Bangkok on time and I decided to go to the hotel with the rest of the gang and keep my bags there till the afternoon since I couldn't check into the new backpackers anyway before early afternoon and it gave me a little bit more time to hang out with rest of the crew. Amanda & Dan decided to go to the hotel as well since they didn't want to get to the airport 8-10 hours before their check-in time. We left our bags in the security room at New World Lodge Hotel and decided to grab some breakfast before going exploring the city but by that time everyone else in the group split – Alan, Joy & Kelly wanted to do some stuff on their own and so did John & Sylvia. I told Alan, Kelly and Joy that I would catch up for a drink later that evening around 6.30 - after their new intrepid journey team meeting was over. So it was Dan, Amanda and me together for most of the morning and we decided to start off our outing by having breakfast first.

The buffet breakfast was delicious except for the omelette – which incidentally took the chef the longest time to make and I decided to leave it after taking a single bite. While having breakfast I drew up a rough program to first visit Jim Thompson's house and then check out Dusit Palace. Dan and Amanda agreed to the program but our first stop was Khao San Road, so that I could check at the hotel that Lance had moved into – whether he was still living there or not. I couldn't ring him because the roaming on his NZ cellphone number wasn't working and he was using Tai's cellphone and I didn't have the number. At the hotel I found out that he had moved out a couple of days back and when I checked my emails there was no sign of a phone number there either even though there was a note saying that he was still in Bangkok and that I should give him a ring if I wanted to hang out. The best I could do was drop him an email asking for his thailand phone number and hope that he replied back at some point during the day. After the email session the 3 of us caught a tuk-tuk to Siam Square and found our way to Jim Thompson's house.


Jim Thompson was an expatriate American who settled down in Thailand after WW-II after falling in love with Thailand and soon made Thai silk world famous. He had built his house according to Thai tradition and he was also into arts and crafts, so he accumulated some rare artifacts from across the region. They didn't allow photography within the house for whatever reason, so can't share the sense of history within the house - for example there was a buddha statue from 6th century . Thai houses are built on pillars – so as to avoid flooding during rainy season and their main entrance usually faces the river or a canal, so that people can arrive using boats. A couple of features that I noticed that were similar to traditional south indian houses were that the temple or place of worship within the house is on the north east corner as no shadows fall there and the other feature is that the door frames are raised above rest of the flooring – this is done to ward off evil spirits, which are supposed to travel on the ground and having a raised door frame prevents them from entering the room.I would love to have a house like that. :-) After the tour – we were discussing on how to get to Dusit Palace when Dan pointed out that there wasn't enough time since he needed to pick up some clothes he got made and Amanda pointed out that her resources were running out, so we ditched the program to go to Dusit Palace altogether and just pick up Dan's clothes before calling it a day.

Trying to catch a tuk-tuk to that place proved to be a difficult one as the tuk-tuk driver didn't want to go there and asked for an exorbitant price and was then unwilling to negotiate. Dan pointed out that he had similar experiences with tuk-tuk drivers who are discourteous and rude when things don't go there way. Since we couldn't find a tuk-tuk we decided to catch a cab. Amanda and Dan were initially apprehensive because they thought that a cab would be very expensive but it came out to about the same amount as a tuk-tuk and with the added advantage of traveling in an AC car thus avoiding the heat and the pollution. The place where Dan had his clothes stitched was kind of far away from our hotel and was also full of Indians – it was like any Indian clothing shop where there are way more sales people than there are customers. We asked Dan how he managed to find this place and he told us that a tuk-tuk driver kind of forcefully brought him to the place when he had actually wanted to go to a different place. I researched it later and again it seems that tuk-tuk drivers earn a commission to bring tourists to tailors. Dan tried out his shirts and it turned out how he envisioned them, so he was pretty happy with his purchase.

We caught a cab back to the hotel and there I bid a sad but inevitable farewell to Amanda and Dan. From there it was onto my new hotel – Lub'd, which was located in Silom area. It was 1/5th the price of my original hotel because it worked like a backpackers with dorm rooms to minimize on the costs. The hotel itself was awesome and was very slick and neat and tidy plus had a very cool vibe, so I booked a bed in a 8 bed dorm for 2 nights. I unpacked my stuff, had a shower and checked my email {there was free internet at the hotel} to see if there had been any response from Lance about his contact number. There was still no response from him, so I gave Tuan a ring to see if she wanted to catch up but she mentioned that she was studying and that she would be unable to catch up during the day but I was always welcome to come to the bar later in the evening where she usually hangs out. I didn't want to spend another night in Bangkok hanging out at the pub, so I mentioned that I would see how I was going with the rest of the day and I might wander down if mood and time permitted. Tuan then said that she would ring me up tomorrow to do something but to me it already feels like a dead end where she is being nice to me by saying that she wants to hang out but keeps postponing it. I was kind of disappointed as i've had it happen to me before and I don't know what i've done wrong or what I didn't do that has changed the equation to such an extreme. I would really love to know, so I can change that in the future. But then again I might be over reacting and she might actually give me a ring tomorrow.

I felt bad for myself for about 10-15 minutes but then I figured that's what life is about – dealing with disappointments and taking them in your stride, so I got out my Lonely Planet guide and marked the places I wanted to check out and then got out of the hotel. I walked over to Oriental Pier to see if I could catch a ferry to experience the city from the Chao Phraya river since it is an important part of the city and connects everything. There were no proper instructions at the ferry terminal and I was pointed in one direction to wait there. I was kind of restless, so I didn't wait around and walked out of the terminal as I had seen some people trying to sell a river tour. I walked over to their stall and I asked them how much it would cost for a river tour in the long boat. The original price quoted was 900 baht and after much negotiation it came down to 600 baht – I knew it was a little on the higher side but decided to go with it hoping that it would be a nice experience plus I had the whole boat to myself instead of sharing it with 8 people. After settling the price – the guy took me through some back roads and streets to a separate pier and from there he indicated to a long boat on the other side of the river and it started over and came over to our side but once it parked – the driver wasn't keen on the ride since he wanted a higher amount at which point the guy who sold me the tour scolded him and indicated to another long boat to come over. I was pretty annoyed at the whole thing and I asked for my money back but the guy asked me to wait for another 5 minutes and as I kept hassling him, an old man who was sitting by the pier got up and walked over to me and patted me on my shoulder and said '5 minutes'. The manner in which he did it was a way of telling me to be patient, so I decided to wait for the next long boat to park alongside and went on the tour.

The tour ride was rocky to start with as I was getting used to a man at the back of the boat controlling it by putting a motor at the end of a long metal steering rod - in and out of the water. We waited at the entrance on the other side of the river for the barrage door to open, so we could go into the smaller canals and it was an experience in itself – as a lot of tourist long boats rushed out from the other end and it was only after they had dispersed that we got our turn to go in. Luckily none of the boats coming out came too close to our boat, so there was no water splashing into our boat. Once we got into the canal system- it was an altogether different way of looking at Bangkok – your perspective of the city changes completely. You soon understand why Bangkok is called 'Venice of the East'. A lot of school kids hang out by the canals and it seemed like it was a social thing to do plus there were others who were swimming in the water.


At one point there was this boat peddler who was trying to sell touristy items which I wasn't interested in and I didn't buy anything either however entrepreneurial it seemed. As soon as her boat passed us by I started thinking that I would buy BBQ meat if someone sold that to me on the boat but then I thought – it would be a fire hazard lighting a fire on a wooden boat, so no wonder they wouldn't do such a thing but man was I wrong. About 5 minutes later there was a boat peddler selling BBQ meat to some school kids hanging out by the canal. An hour into the journey I was pretty much over sight seeing by boat and I wanted to explore the city on foot and luckily for me the tour was finished in another 5 minutes because I decided not to stop at the Snake Farm.


From that point on I decided to walk everywhere for rest of the day. I first walked over to Khao San Road to check my mails again but there was still no sign of any contact from Lance and Tai, so I gave up on any chance of hanging out with them for rest of the day and started exploring the various streets in that area. I wandered around some more before I went towards New World Lodge Hotel to catch up with Joy, Alan & Kelly but I got there by 5.30 and I wasn't in a mood to wait around for another hour, so I left them a farewell cum sorry note and decided to check out an eating joint recommended in LP guide. It was located in Chinatown and since I hadn't checked out that part of the town I decided to walk there.


The walk was long and fascinating – I never met another foreigner walking in either direction and I met a fair few curious stares but people just assumed that I must be a local or something. An hour into the walk I lost my way since none of the street signs were in English – all of them were in Thai and I was soon disoriented. Instead of panicking – I kept walking till I came to a major roundabout and then checked my 2 city maps and figured out where I was. I took a few turns and I was soon on the main stretch of Chinatown.


Chinatown is crowded and buzzing with energy and there are street side food stalls and vendors selling their wares. There are a lot of restaurants selling seafood and for a few of them the selling point was shark fin soup – I made a mental note not to ever try any of them. The traffic at that point was also super heavy and it was just controlled chaos. I tried searching for the particular eating joint I wanted to find but after an hour of walking around I gave up on it and had some yummy duck dish from a road side stall. At that point I had been walking to close to 4 hours and was feeling a little tired, so I decided to catch a tuk-tuk to my hotel instead of walking there. It turned out to be a wise decision as it would've taken me another hour or so easily had I decided to walk there. As soon as I got to the hotel I crashed into my bed and was away sleeping within minutes.

Tomorrow the main program of the day is the half day cooking course and after that I'll play it by the ear or at the least I'll try and cross out the main things to do when in Bangkok from my LP guide.

That's me for now,
Amit

Labels: Thailand, Travel

posted by Amit @ 11:36 AM 0 Comments