Jan 1: Saw wa di bi mai!!! (Happy New Year!)

Gooooooood morning, everyone! Well, good evening if you're reading this from the US. As I'm sure you already realized, I did not blog yesterday, due to the sheer amount of stuff we all ended up doing. No meetings again (which makes sense, I can't see anyone wanting to spend their holiday doing meetings). But we all rose from our beds and shined (more or less) as we treked out to a ferry that would take us to a pier next to the Grand Palace. Grand, yes. Tricky, yes.

The Palace was built in the 1700s if I'm not mistaken as a new residence for the king. Getting in in the 2000s is a bit of a snag though. Because of the holiday, people were out in droves despite incredible heat. Also, because of its status as a supre tourist destination, it came with all the fun of any highly respected cultural center: more than one ticket to get in, confusing lines, and some tourist traps. Alas, at least one of our number was told that her jeans would not suffice in protecting her modesty and was forced to 'rent' a ankle-length skirt (which I don't believe was returned, ha ha). Furthermore, we began to notice that the facility was free for Thais-- who do, as another one of us mentioned-- have more of a right to be there than any of us. When we first entered, we went into the temple complex, which houses the "Emerald Buddha" (actually jade, but that's a whole nother interesting story). It was immense and full of splendor. Enormous Thai-style buildings reverberated in the heat of the day, shining with mirrors, gold, and colorful artistry. The building which housed the jade Buddha statue with his golden throne was dark and huge and full to the brim with people (no pictures allowed, sorry guys!). Several surrounding buildings had lovely art on them as well, from depictions of the Lord Buddha's life to what appeared to be a history of the Thai kings.

Upon leaving that area, we moved on to the Palace complex itself. Guards with rifles and white uniforms stood around every gate. Statues of elephants lined the stairways. A large, trimmed garden sprawled out in the middle of it all, encircled by a drive large enough for several carriages and SUVs. We're talking big.

Generally, most of us moved on from the palace to nearby Wat Po, a famous temple housing an enormous reclining Buddha. And when I say enormous, I mean HUGE! It would take several of me (about 5 feet tall) stacked up on top of one another to reach the tip of his nose, let alone the top of his head. Depicted in gold, the reclining Buddha image is used to refer to his achievement of parinibanna/parinirvana, which is the state of being achieved by an enlightened being (having achieved nibanna/nirvanna already) once they 'die,' so to speak (althought the word 'dead' kind of miss represents the whole definition of nibanna and parinibanna). The overall concept is that this is the greatest achievement made by any man in our known history.

Devotees have many ways of showing their appreciation of his achievement at Wat Po, from leaving coins in the monks' alms bowls (lined up along the back wall) to burning incense to leaving little bits of gold leaf on smaller replicas of the statue to leaving flowers near the Buddha. Most of us decided to donate coins to the bowls of the monks who lived on the complex.

After seeing the Wat complex, most of us sought out lunch in some form or fashion. Shoshanna, equiped with a new parasol, lead myself and some others across the street to a small restaurant with some good eats for vegetarians and meat eaters alike. Lauren, Suzy, and others headed over the the street with many Westerners with a name I can't pronounce (Kow something or other) and found some yummy food there as well, along with some dresses for the girls and I believe a stuffed character from a Japanese cartoon show for Jon. From there, we all split up in odd-end directions, so whatever I say from here on out is subject to further story telling by others.

Shoshanna, Alexis and Amanda headed back the way we'd come, taking the ferry down to the main pier, connecting on the sky train, and making it back to the hostel with some time to plan for later events. Lauren found a shop that probably is owned by the same Israeli guy who owned her favorite shop where she lived and worked in Nepal. Meghan and I went to Ban Baat, a square where a few families still aid monks by making alms bowls without machines, in much the same way craftsmen have for thousands of years probably since long before the historical Buddha lived (it was amazing, and I highly recommend it to anyone. The head guy there was very friendly, had printed sheets describing their craft and heritage in English, showed us several beautiful bowls way beyond the means of an American student, and sold me a bowl he was in the midst of making, using the time that his work-peer finished it up to demonstrate how the process works. One pot, two days!).

Shortly after 4PM a group of us (all the 'vegies': Shoshanna, myself, Suzy, Lauren, Alexis, and some non-vegies: Amanda, Ben, Bri, Meghan) went out for tea in Central World, an enormous mall complex at the heart of the city, where all the New Years festivities and crowds would gather shortly (apparently, malls are kind of like the enormous plazas of Europe-- where everyone goes to gather. Or at least they like to fill the streets surrounding the malls with people and shrines and decorations). We only had an hour, but it was amazing! We each got one a piece of several sweets and delicacies, all delicious, some weird (whatever the purple thing the non-vegies got is just beyond me). Biscuits with whipped cream and strawberry syrup, marzipan, lemon curd mini-tarts, etc etc etc, along with our individual choices in tea. No need for dinner, this was it!

Due to time constraints, only those who didn't go to tea were able to get to a Muay Thai boxing match. Fan, Alex, Tom, and Christy (I'm pretty sure) all went and had a blast from what I hear! Although they were first misdirected to a rather abandoned Lumphini stadium, they ended up at another stadium closer to downtown and saw plenty of action. Sounds like one kid was knocked out in his first (of 5) rounds. Sitting in the second tier, they could see all the craziness of all the different levels. I believe the 3rd tier was described as being like hyenas they were so excited, making this deep 'aye' chanting sound! From there, I think they stopped at Suk 11 to change and then headed back out to the Chid Lom (central world) stop to see the 'ball drop' so to speak. Shoshanna, Meghan, Bri and I had already been over there during our (succesful!) mission to get a new camera charger for one of our number, and just at 7:30PM it was enormously crowded. Due to the early hour, I haven't heard what happened but I'm sure it was great!

I think Bri, Timmy, and Ben went to a nearby club later in the evening to bring in the new year. A group of us stayed near Suk 11, walking around and getting some ice cream, and stayed up talking as 2010 arrived.

10 years since the new millenium. Saw wa di bi mai! See ya in Chiang Mai!

Dec. 30: Excursions!

Well folks, today has been... interesting! And eventful! However, the peoples we were supposed to meeting at various times of the day all kinda bailed on us (New Year's is a big holiday here), so we were free to enjoy the cultural offerings of Bangkok. And we all did so, in many different ways. The day started with us all together, visiting the former home, now museum of an American architect who settled in Thailand in the first half of the 20th century, building a more-or-less traditional Thai style house, full of art and beautiful gardens. He disappeared in 1967 at the age of 61 (apparently a bad age for 'horses' according to area astrology), but his house really was gorgeous. Interesting note: there's a raised component of the wall that you have to step over wherever there are doors: 1 to keep babies from crawling off, 2 to stabalize the house of stilts, 3 it stops ghosts. There was even some Burmese art there, such as the Nats (local spirits). His name was Jim Thompson, I think, but I could be wrong.

From there, we all decided to go to Chinatown/Little India. However, not all of us took the same means of transportation. A group of about 8 of us (myself, Amanda, Alexis, Shoshoanna, Lauren, Timmy, Meghan, and Suzy) got a couple of tuk tuks to take us. Now a tuk tuk is like a motorcycle taxi thing. Cheap, but potentially unstable. The others (Thomas, Alex, Christy, Fan, Jon, Ben, Brianna...) decided to walk; on the map it didn't look that far. Well, on our tuk tuks, we realized just how far it was. Turns out the walkers ended up walking at least 5 miles today just trying to get to Little India! In this heat! Oy! They earned their dinner tonight!

Us tuk tuk-ers ended up in a couple groups, checking out the eats and shops, trying to learn (or to teach others how) to haggle prices, exploring the flower market, and enjoying the street vendors. Everyone was back at lovely Suk 11 by about 6PM (how I really don't know given the amount of things we all did today). Then by a brilliant act of finesse, Alexis got us reservations at a Crepe restaurant this evening, where we enjoyed our well-earned meals (some more than others!). Christie even got her's as flambe!

By the end of the evening, it was getting late and some of us were discussing foot massages. There are a lot offered here, so it isn't hard to shop around. Tomorrow we'll be going to a wat (Buddhist temple complex), possibly the Grand Palace, and enjoying New Years festivities.

Travel Days and Dec. 29

Dec 28 Arrival


Howdy folks! I'm alive! We checked into Suk 11 hostel about an hour ago, and I have no idea how long I've been traveling. All I know is it's Monday night here, I'm dead tired, and I love cold showers. Yeah, it's pretty warm here, but cooler after a short clean-up! Landing in DC was one of the most exciting things that happened-- there was some kind of accident on the runway. Any ideas? I also heard that another Nigerian man, although not related to terrorism, also caused a plane thing when he locked himself in the plane's bathroom prior to take off. Ideas? In other news, it is shortly after the 5 year anniversary of the 2004 tsunami.

Then came a 5 hour busride to JFK, where we had a much more positive experience than I did last time I was there. We left around 1:15AM Sunday eastern time, went over the arctic, then landed in Shanghai on Monday morning 5AM their time. During the lovely, cramped 14/15 hour flight, Megan and I lost our minds, and I met a very nice China native in the seat next to me who became my 'plane mom,' offering me her blanket when I was cold and flagging down the stewardess to get me a sandwich when I woke up hungry. Not that I slept much, lol! So far we haven't seen much of Bangkok-- some folks got some Baht to go get dinner near the hostel, but someone here has granola bars and I'd rather sleep. Here's hoping for an excellent 10 days in tropical Thailand!


Dec 29: US Embassy and ALTSEAN


Today we woke up, had a breakfast of toast, fruit, and coconut milk stuff at the hostel, and headed out to the skytrain. First stop (we left from "Nana") was the US Embassy, where we traded our passports for IDs to speak with a state department worker and 2 USAID workers, all of which were very charismatic and helpful, while maintaining a realistic perspective on the situation in Burma and Thailand's relationship with its border country. Then, we walked through a large park and on this over-the-street walkway to a restaurant called Bug and Bee where we met with ALTSEAN founder and interns. First of all, lunch was delicious or at least mine was. The interns were all women, as part of ALTSEAN's mission of bringing women into the movement for policy change in Burma. 

They had incredible stories. One thing that struck me in particular was how much they had struggled and yet learned in leaving Burma. Also, the question arose in my mind "What does a free Burma look like?" They are the ones who will decide one day, not us (or at least I think it should be that way).Even they had very different opinions on that, from a federation of ethnic states to a unified democracy to a complete split from Burma all together. They identified themselves with their ethnic groups more than the nation that abused them, after all, even if they didn't always recognize their normal lives as abusive at the time. But as one of the USAID workers said, we have to hope for some kind of established idea/plan for Burma in order for it to truly achieve freedom, even before this junta falls. Without one, all we'll have is chaos.


Time for a shower.


Anne



Quick Note: Ben has arrived, healthy! Yay!