Monday, August 01, 2005

and then there were the other days

am bad blogger. bad, bad blogger (spank me, please). here comes my long belated update.

Day Two.
i got up constantly through the night, worried that the next day would pass me by like a mirage. windowless rooms do this to you. never should one ever check one's self into a windowless room on a holiday. it's human nature, you can tell the time by the amount of light outside the window. during my sleep, i heard doors banging, feet shuffling, a woman shouting and another door banging.

"is it morning already? are these people leaving for breakfast?"

i could only ask myself weakly as my body knew better and fell back into very disturbed sleep. the alarm finally rang and we got up, dazed to find ourselves in a windowless room.

"where are we? aah, of course."

hot shower worked wonderfully and we set out for a hopefully thai breakfast (at least i did as rv kept looking for his bloody fish and chips). breakfast was depressing but i stuffed meself while rv registered disappointment on his usually unexpressionless face.



when we walked out of the hotel, i felt invincible and just brushed off all the touts.

i.will.not.fucking.bloody.be.stopped.by.them.shits.



while walking towards the Grand Palace, a few hundred pigeons stopped us in our tracks. was just too beautiful to go on. and then i remembered that pigeon shit was extremely potent, as good as swallowing cyanide. somehow i visualise pigeon shit melting through skin, seeping through flesh and decalcifying bone. but then again, i can be ravin' mad.



it was cloudy, it was always cloudy. i was always perspiring, my clothes were always damp with sweat. i didn't quite care about how i smelt cos every other backpacker around me stank twice as bad. by the time we got to the Grand Palace, my mind-over-heat-humidity-and-fucking-annoying-touts was about to collapse. the moment we were through the turnstiles, my heart sank.

half the Grand Palace was shrouded in scaffolding! nice. what's with me and monuments i visit on holidays? like the Taj Mahal. but that's another story.

lots of gold in the Grand Palace. lots of gold and gems i can put around my neck, fingers, ankles and endowed belly. it's supposed to be a Buddhist temple but i felt a much stronger Hindu influence. the Emerald Buddha and Grand Palace guarded by Hindu demons? and then there were these pot-bellied Chinese figurines in flowy robes that were completely out of place. i was, to say the least, appalled.







in all that gold and glory, no one noticed this poor bird.



when we got to the Emerald Buddha, i tried so hard to steal a picture from outside, but all the reflection off the gold, limited 3x optical zoom and shaky hands, the best i got was this. a blurry portrait of smudged gold. pardon me, i have not the time to crop or edit any of these shots.



in the temple itself, i felt foolish. did i really think i could see the Emerald Buddha from down here? it was placed at least 1.5 storeys up, amid a lot more gold, under dim lights. i felt like i was at the National Stadium watching Michael Jackson through binoculars a few thousand heads away. it didnt help that the Emerald Buddha's dark green. i diverted my attention to the intricate murals caricatured onto the flaking walls. some murals had been restored, and the others were, no doubt, also part of the constant restoration the palace needs in a hot and humid climate like this.


does this look buddhist to you?

the epic of Ramayana was painted into the wall that made up the perimeter of the temple (was it the temple?). rv's impatience was registering into frowns and sceptical looks, i really could not spend any more time than i did admiring them.

now, this is what i mean, what's she doing here? at the side of an administration building like a sore thumb? she, like her fellow chinese figurine counterparts, did not fit. you cannot add an additional piece of furniture that disturbs the overall harmony of a room into a corner just because you think it is empty.



of the entire time i was at the Grand Palace, i liked the dead bird and this lotus the best. i can only prefer nature over man's arrogance.



we then made our way to Wat Pho, the Reclining Buddha, dodging slimy tuk-tuk drivers along the way. a whole line of them was perched by the corner, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting tourists.



how many mother of pearl toes, huh?



ravi walking by row of pots that locals dropped coins in as they passed, every single one. for luck?



then we made our way to the pier to take the ferry across the river to Wat Arun, one of my favourites. it's absolutely shambolic and delicious. like cheese, some buildings are more beautiful way past its expiry date. the Wat Arun is far more enchanting and magical in its decadence than the glory of the Grand Palace. the steep steps were a killer for an obese, arthritic, unfit acrophobic like me.








we sat on the perimeter of Wat Arun and wondered, "what's next?" we decided to go to Chinatown. that was a mistake. my nose started itching from traces of blood trickling down. the pollution was so bad, you could see the specks in the air in front of you. we walked, and walked, and walked, and bloody hell walked till we got to Royal India for dinner. it got rave reviews, but we were disappointed, we've had better indian food before. the toilet at Royal India was far from OK, but then again, it was not known for its toilets. we spent the evening walking back from Chinatown to Khao San Road.

ask anyone who's been to Bangkok, they'd think we were mad. but we're tourists, so we walked and walked.

by the time we got back to Khao San, i was ready to collapse into myself, and believe it or not, our concrete bed.



Day Three.
we were so pooped that we woke up waaaaaay past breakfast. we decided quietly that it was going to be a slow day, we were going to take it easy-peasy. we had to, rv and i were getting on each other's nerves. we proceeded to Chart Restaurant, a very decent establishment, quite nice looking and clean. rv had his bloody fish and chips and i had my pad thai. rv did not want to touch strange looking thai food so the shrimp wonton went to waste.





we found ourselves at a cybercafe. rv could not breathe another breath without checking his mails, hehe. thereafter, we went over to D'rus to chill out. we had nothing planned for the day. had an urge to pee, so went back to the hotel which was just opposite D'rus. before i knew it, i found myself half naked and passed out on the bed. seeing his gf in a vegetative state, rv decided to go for a haircut. when he returned with an extremely sexy GI Joe haircut (i dig this shit), he too, being my life partner, fell asleep.

we are two pigs in love *oink*

woke up at 1830pm and felt we just had to go out now, now, now. we took a leisurely walk around Khao San, window shopping, laughing at funny t-shirts and then we heard a familiar sound. is that ... is that a TABLA? yes, it was.



we then found ourselves at Tom Yum Kung, a restaurant eds recommended. in an attempt to salvage our relationship (ha ha ha), rv finally said yes to thai food. who the hell goes to thailand and not eat thai food?! we had

-steamed, fragrant white rice
-savoury seafood tom yum soup with coconut
-sweet and sour stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts
-fresh fried mixed vegetables

we figured the pictures were too stimulating, and decided to post a flat, 2-dimensional description of dinner. and oh! we should not forget the power lime juice we had!



we left Tom Yum Kung stuffed like hell.

Day Four.
felt so guilty about being such pigs the day before, i (yes, i) decided we had to go out of our way to truly enjoy bangkok.

Ayutthaya baby, here we come!


anxiously waiting for our train, that's our train!

we were running for the train.

i just had to stop and grab this shot, this guy was having a haircut next to the tracks.


within 20 minutes, i passed out again. at least till that bloody kid started wailing his head off. when we finally got to Ayutthaya 70 minutes later, i felt we had just stepped out into a kampung. everything was slow. the cars, trucks, tuk-tuks, people and dogs. everything was slow. ayutthaya is actually an 'island' and we had to take a cross river ferry to ayutthaya. the pier was simply a wooden appendage sticking out of land into air over water. it was unbelievably hot.

we walked at least 1km to Wat Mahathat. when we entered, we could not see a single preserved structure within the temple. there were scores of headless Buddhas. heads stolen by tomb thieves trying to make a quick buck off private collectors or ravaged by the Burmese when they invaded Ayutthaya. Wat Mahathat is said to have housed the remains of Buddha himself, but this is apparently a story conjured by King Ramesuan whose accuracy was not his highpoint. a gold casket housed the 'remains' and was enshrined in a 38 metre hight prang which also housed other treasures. the head of a stone Buddha is comfortably resting in the roots of a bodhi tree.








we then walked across to Wat Ratburana, cannot say there was much of a different sight there. spot the differences. Wat Ratburana was built in 1424 by King Boromraja II to commemorate the death of his elder brothers Ay and Yi leaving the path to succession clear for Boromraja II. Ay and Yi killed each other in an elephant-back duel over the throne. ironic, if you ask me.






we walked another scorching kilometre, passing by Wat Phra Ram to Wat Phra Si Sanphet which i kept mispronouncing as Wat Phri San Pepet. my version of course, is extremely vulgar somehow. this temple used to house the biggest standing metal image of Buddha in 1503. it was 16m high and made of 173kg of gold. when the Burmese came and ravaged Ayutthaya, this Buddha was not spared and smashed into fragments of gold, some of which were saved by King Rama I and placed inside Wat Pho. Wat Phra Si Sanphet also houses three huge stupas, each with ashes of three different kings (sorry, failed to write this crucial info down).







after walking through magical history, you can hardly feel awe when at the Viharn Phra Mongkol Bopit. here sits one of the largest bronze Buddhas in Thailand, complete with mother-of-pearl eyes.


rv: now we know where all the heads went to.

asking for blessings outside Bopit.

leaf crickets anyone? please?

one of my favourite animals, exploited once again.


we took an expensive tuk-tuk ride to a makeshift bus stop and got on a bus back to Bangkok. we got off at Mochit (bus driver took 10 minutes explaining 'Moy Cheet' to us), then took public bus 77 to Chatuchak Park subway. rv really wanted to bring me to his favourite hangout in Bangkok, Gulliver's Traveller's Tavern. "100-150 metres away only", he said.

my ass.

walking up, down and back up the wrong sois turned it into an 800m walk. with UTI, it felt like 1,000miles and my blood pressure was rising. it was worth the walk and pain, it was a nice place with good food. fantastic ambience with a car hanging in the middle of nowhere. we could have shopped around in Sukhumvit but the pain was killing me, so we made our way back to Khao San where i had fantastic durian ice-cream, with real durian pieces! after surfing the net (and rv feverishly replying to office mails), we retired to get ready for an early fifth day.

Day Five.
woke up at an insane 0615am in order to catch the trip to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. we did not want to be late, we skipped breakfast, we waited at the lobby as i fussed over my wet hair seeping through my t-shirt. firstly, our tour guide was late. then, she took a look at our receipt and left without her charges i.e. US. then 15 minutes later, she came back in and asked to see our receipt again, "oh, sorry! it is yuuu!" the circus has begun.

Pailin, our guide, is a sprightly, petite and energetic Thai lady. "Pailin = blue sapphire", she says. note to self: aren't all sapphire-s blue? it was a messy beginning. 20 tourists, 3 buses, 3 drivers, tens of receipts and one confused guide. and one hungry, annoyed dali. she got it all sorted out though, and before we knew it, we were crammed into a dusty mini-van with undisposed drink cups still holding last week's cappucino.

after a hairy ride up and down thai roads without the security and comfort of seat belts, we found ourselves at at extremely commercialised coconut sugar making factory. it was a piece of land no bigger than a basketball court with what seemed like a 24 hour demonstration of coconut sugar production. a ruse, if you ask me. everyone needs to make their cent.

liquid flows out of the coconut flower, into a container.

the liquid is gathered and boiled.


boiled liquid is then spun, stirred and shaken till it solidifies.

and moulded into shapes.


and we're off again! to Damnoen Saduak. on our way there, i pray we won't get stuck in another tourist trap. would prefer to go to the local Tha Ka market but could not find out if it was on that weekend, it took place only 6x a month, depending on tides, lunar cycles, etc etc. i ain't no astrologer.



wheezing through man-made klongs.

floating by riverside homes.



rack of paddle boats.

enter, the floating market.

flutes? flutes? lambutan four yu, miiiss?

dumplings, anyone?

where do they get their water supply to make these pancakes from?

frooots anyone?

hard peddling.

alternative selling.

rolek anyone?

hat?? hundred peeptee baht.

kaleidoscope.

got beezness. finally!


when we found ourselves back at Khao San, we were sticky and extremely uncomfortable. rv was bored and i was disappointed at the touristfare of the floating market. seemed like everyone was wearing uniform and peddling the same goods, only on different boats.

we sat at Havana Club on Khao San Road, just chilling out.


seriously contemplated corn-braiding hair.

hair-raising choice of colours.

our kids will so go to Bangkok on their own.

roadside banana pancake. yum-myyy.

20 baht pad thai i did not get to try.


Day Six.
we wake up to a lazy day, there's a sense of relief that we are going home, our home! yay! we packed, checked out (and almost got into a fight with the hotel staff over alleged towel stealing when actually they had lost our towels (they could not understand their own scribbled Engrish on the laundry receipts. "lost towel" = we lost customers' towels, not customer lost our towels), sped off to deposit our bags at the airport and rushed off to Chatuchak Weekend Market a.k.a. JJ to do some last minute shopping. got some t-shirt bargains and fell in love with lit up paper balls. saw fantastic moo-moo cow paintings for a bargain at 3,000baht but we did not have enough baht left on us. grabbed some alluring silk scarves, one for me, several others for friends. within an hour, rv got sick of Bangkok and got annoyed again. the crowd, the smells, the wetness, the waiting - i suppose it gets to one after some time.

made our way back to the airport, had a peaceful last meal (which gave me gas?!) before we boarded our Jet Star Asia flight back home.

a moth was at our door to greet us welcome.


we are home.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

a sapphire is a form of gem quality corundum. red corundum is a ruby. when a sapphire's colour isnt specified, its blue.

Anonymous said...

oh.god. trust you to tell me that.