Travel 2013: Bangkok

We’ve spent just under a week in Bangkok so far and are headed south on a sleeper train tonight to the island of Koh Samui.  Before we depart, I want to share a few observations and notes on what we’ve seen here so far.  (As always, more photos here.)

A few observations:
-> Thai people seem so happy! Passersby look at me almost expectantly and when I smile, they smile back!  And their smiles take up their whole face, genuinely.  Not like just the mouth-only smiles in the U.S. - clearly a nicety - these people seem to be smiling with emotion behind it.
-> There are cats everywhere and sometimes they enjoy a good petting.  I take advantage of these situations and get my cat-fix met.
-> Water taxis are a veritable mode of public transportation. For the equivalent of 50 cents, you can go to anywhere along the river in a long boat that very efficiently offloads passengers.
-> The streets of Thailand are basically a meat fest.  At nearly any point, you can stop and get BBQ'ed meat on a stick.  Hot dogs, various other sausage-looking things, chicken, squid, fish, etc, etc., oh and bacon wrapped hot dogs, as well as many meats unknown to me, but they pretty much all always smell delicious.  I haven’t succumb to the temptation yet, but I was close this morning.
-> 7-11s here are like Starbucks in the U.S.  I'm in an internet cafe (a cafe called Internet Cafe actually) where next door there is a 7-11 across the street from another 7-11.  We got directions to the boat taxi pier from our hotel as such: "at the first 7-11 cross the street until you reach the second 7-11, then turn right."
-> Thai iced tea on the street is amazing.  I will attempt to capture a video of someone making it.  There's something special about the crushed ice that makes it also amazing.  That and sweetened condensed milk is nearly always glorious.
-> "Bangkok," by the way, is a nickname.  It's full name (as we learned on the plane over) is the longest city name in the world. Here it is: Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit.  In English, that is: City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Visvakarman at Indra's behest.  (According to Wikipedia, which has a specific segment on it's name.)

Attractions:

Buddhas at Wat Po

*Wat Po (6.13)
Wat (Temple) Po is a large complex built around a gigantic reclining Buddha.  At 46 meters long (that's over 120 feet), the gilded Buddha lays covered by an intricately decorated temple building.  His feet are black with inlaid mother of pearl scenes depicting his journey to enlightenment.  Each toe has concentric circles like toe prints.  The interior walls of the building were painted with various scenes.

This particular temple is also home to the greatest number of representations (at least 1,000) of Buddha in all of Thailand, so not only are there walls that tell the story of his life, there are multiple other buildings that house dozens of golden statues of the Buddha, surrounded by even more murals.

The entry gates are watched over by towering stone-carved guardian figures holding swords dressed in warrior garb.

Bugs!  For eating!  On Khao San

*Khao San (6.13)
Khao San is the main tourist thoroughfare of Bangkok - hosting bars that blare loud music, clubs offering live bands, and an eclectic mix of street vendors - everything from sarongs and dresses to grasshoppers and scorpions (for eating).  Crepe makers, meat BBQ'ers, and pad thai on demand, cooked to your liking, and with meats of your choosing.  At each end, there are a group of men hawking tuk tuk rides to "pussy markets" and the red light district.

Buddha at the Grand Palace

*Grand Palace (6.14)
The Grand Palace is a rambling complex of temples, throne rooms, stupas, gardens, and royal residences.  It's also home to the Emerald Buddha, a life size (?) green effigy that perches atop a pile of gold - a throne surrounded by other bodhisattvas (I assume).

Mangosteens, lychees and rambutans at the Chatuchak Market

*Chatuchak Weekend Market (6.15)
We took a boat taxi down the Chao Phraya River to the sky train stop, got on the sky train and arrived at the Chatuchak market for just under $2 each.  Chatuchak is the world's largest weekend market - at over 35 acres, it attracts over 200,000 shoppers each day.  The path from the market to the sky train station was lined with vendors selling toothbrush holders, skirts, BBQ'ed meat, iPhone covers, and everything in between.  Right outside the market are food stands with lots of tables outside cooking delicious smelling meals.  We grabbed a half-frozen chrysanthemum juice for 30 cents on the way in - a cold and sweet start.  Inside we saw so many clothes - Thai and Indian styles, American brands, and lots of smaller stands with custom-made pieces.  Tailors too with old-timey foot powered sewing machines.  The weekend market was a maze of necklaces, bracelets, wallets, purses, rings, and high-end home decorations and furniture.  After a quick snack, we happened upon the animal area: sugar gliders next to scorpions and iguanas.  Adorable (but hot) kittens and puppies, baby rabbits.  Throughout the day, we would spend a few minutes looking at wares, then went to the outskirts to grab some delicious grub, including: pad see ew (fat, fried rice noodles + veggies), a taro (sweet root veggie) waffle from the sky train station, freshly made coconut ice cream, pad thai, and coconut water.  While we ate our coconut ice cream, we stood behind a fresh fruit vendor who was eating bugs out of a bag instead of her fruit.  Still haven’t tried the bugs.

Towards the heavens at Wat Arun

*Wat Arun (6.16)
This morning we boarded a boat taxi down the river and then transferred to a different boat that took us across the river for 10 cents each.  We got off at Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan, or Wat Arun, a temple that is a relic from the former seat of power.   The tower and surrounding stupas are decorated with mosaic pieces that look almost like shaped broken dishes –some with a familiar blue and white floral Chinese look to them.  From afar, Arun looks gray, but up close and in the sun, you can see the glimmer and color of every piece of tile – a two-hundred-foot (86 m) tall tower mosaic stretching toward the heavens.  Near the bottom of each of the main tower and four surrounding, smaller towers, there’s a row of guardians – holding the towers up and protecting them from ...something bad.  Climbing the steep stairs was reminiscent of climbing Teotihuacan near Mexico City – the steep steps demand continuous attention and require a break at the top to catch your breath and balance.  The main tower affords great views of the city, traffic on the river, and a different perspective of the four towers below.  After we got back down and explored a little more, we followed the sound of chanting monks to a temple that, not surprisingly, was home to another large, golden Buddha.

Stay tuned for updates coming from the southern islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao.

Travel 2013: First impressions of Thailand

Stone soldier, Wat Po, Bangkok (click for more)

6.11, Bangkok

Coming from Delhi, Bangkok has been great so far.  Clean, polite, easy to navigate.  People smile back at you and men do not stare.  There are far more tourists in the area we’re staying than I’d seen in India.  Also, people are voluntarily helpful.  We ducked into a café this morning (which are everywhere!) and took out a map to see where we were planning to go and meet Licia’s friend.  A Thai man sitting next to us (reading a book about learning German) asked us where we wanted to go!  He also bid us a good trip in Thailand.  So far at least 2 people have also asked me if I’ve learned Thai yet.  At this point, I think “hello” is “sawasdee.”  I’d like to learn the basic niceties like please and thank you.  

Furthermore, we’ve walked through small marketplaces and have not been harassed.  In India, if you so much as looked at something the vendors (usually men) would ask you, “what you need?  I have it all,” “how much you pay?”  I heard a number say, “I have everything you need.”  (Which I found rather hilarious.)  It was very overwhelming.  For example, one of the last days in Delhi, we were trying to buy a few pieces of fruit, so we went to a stand in the middle of 5 or so other stands.  And he was clearly over-charging us and trying to get us to buy what I thought was a rotten mango.  He claimed the mango was good and such, and the whole time 3 other men were yelling at us to buy their fruit.  A man peeled a lychee and stuck it in my face and was naming prices so I would buy them, he eventually got to a very low price and I had only said, repeatedly, “no thank you” to him.  We eventually had to leave because I couldn’t focus on how much money it should be for the fruit (or if we should even buy that mango) and 

I no longer wanted it after being incessantly yelled at.

It’s definitely monsoon season here.  It’s pouring as I’m writing this post, and has been for quite some time.  The rain happens suddenly and quickly and downpours for at least 30 minutes multiple times a day.

Travel 2013: Sexism in india

The oppression of women, or sexism, in India was worse than I expected.  However, I’m sure that several of these things are sexist as I perceive them and may not be perceived that way by the women who live it every day.   I can say for sure, that men make it uncomfortable for women (at least foreign women) to walk on the street.  They stare blatantly and harshly.  This can range from curiosity to something more lustful and scary.   Many times a day, men would walk by staring directly at our breasts and not make eye contact – this is from close range.  There was rarely a time when my sister and I were sitting some place where there were not men staring.  I’m not exaggerating.  For example, in restaurants, often there would be either another patron or multiple wait staff staring.  One time, I counted 10 at once in a restaurant.  On our train ride from Delhi to Agra (a major tourist thoroughfare) 5 men stared as we played cards.

In a tourism book, I read that it isn’t uncommon for women to get groped in public spaces (like crowded markets or public transportation).  Fortunately this didn’t happen to me, but I had the mind to grab some man’s wrist after he tried anything and not just let him walk away freely from it.

Occasionally, often with some layer of protection, like speed (from a moving autorickshaw) or glass (from inside a restaurant), my sister and I would challenge blatant and unrelenting staring.  Once Licia stuck her tongue out at a guy who was staring from outside restaurant and he started laughing as he tried to return the gesture.  He eventually moved out of direct line of sight but still checked in on us.  The last few days, we started saying things loudly to each other, like “you shouldn’t stare,” or “stop staring at us.”  I’m pretty sure it is also seen as impolite in Indian culture, but I didn’t see any Indian women respond to it.

The dress code is different in India for women than it is in the U.S., but that is being challenged in big cities by younger women.  Traditionally, women wear saris (long cloth wrapped around her body) or kurtas and tights or some pants under them.  Their legs were generally fully covered, and often, with kurtas, so were their arms.  And this is in temperatures above 100 degrees F.  Licia and I generally wore dresses with tights under them, so not as fully covered, but still more than either of us would like to wear if we had the choice.  Pulling up tights in 100 degree weather is far from easy or comfortable.  So we felt like we were doing our part to not have our bodies exposed.

And I think the heat made my frustration with staring men worse.  Since it’s difficult to feel any power in the face of the threat of violence and potential lack of shared language, we often felt unable to express anything to the men who were being offensive.  Put that in a steamy oven of 115 degrees that is Delhi in the summer and it feels pretty ugly.  

Travel 2013: Anatomy of an Indian toilet

Indian style toilet

There are two types of toilet in India – Indian and Western.  Indian are kind of like a slightly fancy hole in the ground, with places for your feet and sometimes a built in flushing device, other times you use a bucket of water to rinse it down.  Western are generally the same as in the U.S.  The range of cleanliness is vast – from a floor wet with water and who knows what else to very fancy and well-kept commodes, sometimes supplied with toilet paper.

All bathrooms I’ve seen so far have a secondary water source – either in a spigot or as what I see most closely as a sprayer from a kitchen sink.  The spigot usually is accompanied by a small bucket, so you can splash water.  The idea is to use that to spray yourself off after you’ve done your business.  

Travel 2013: Agra

6.4-6.7, Agra

Kids next to a motorcycle, Agra, India

I expected Agra to be the most touristy part of India: people more used to tourists, the city easier to navigate, people less curious about our existence.  This wasn’t the case.  Agra appeared like a rural Indian town, cows and dogs in the street, people staring, windy small potholed roads leading up to very old buildings.  Granted there are some resorts which are extremely well kept and cater to nearly every tourist whim (spas, gyms, pools, salons, expensive stores, multiple restaurants – all in one), but as soon as you leave the hotel, it is dirty, smoggy, rural India.   I expected Agra to be more built up around the tourist industry than it was.  I also expected to see the influx of money to have trickled down into more social services.   My expectations were wrong.  For example, there were shanties made of bamboo and tarp across the street from our hotel, something I wouldn’t expect of one of the major tourist destinations of the world.

This title is deservedly so.  The Taj Mahal was spectacular.  It was much bigger in person than I thought it would be, and it sits on a much larger complex than I’d known.  We generally only see the white building in photos, but there are also 3 other large red and white buildings at each cardinal direction around the Taj.  It also sits on a large river which was mostly dry and filled with rubbish when we were there.  Though, I’m pretty sure I saw cranes down there, and there were definitely water buffalo.  In the complex itself there were water birds (herons?) and a troupe of monkeys that ran through.

Monkey in the Taj Mahal complex (3 large red buildings surround the Taj)

We got up at sunrise to see the Taj and thankfully so, because by 8:30 it was already very hot (using sweat rags and sitting in the shade).  The intricately inlaid stone work on the giant, magnificent white building set it apart from anything I’ve ever seen.  Multiple colors of other precious stones are carved into white marble to made various designs.  The domed ceilings are made into geometric shapes typical of Mughal architecture.

While we were in Agra we also saw the Itmad-Ud-Dalaugh and the Agra Fort, both of which were also very impressive.

Travel 2013: One line thoughts from India

Itmad-Ud-Daulah, Agra - Click for more photos

- In Agra , water is stored on the top of the roof in a large, black plastic tank. So after a day in 115 degree heat, taking a shower is not refreshing at all.
- Bathrooms are never air conditioned and rarely have a fan, so if you're in there for any more than 30 seconds you're sweating.
- People ask us where we're from (actually the question is usually, "what country?").  A few times I asked back, "where do you think?"  Responses have included Canada, Germany and Iceland.  This is strange to me because I had assumed they knew we were Americans, but I guess that's not the case.
- Most checks at restaurants are served with a bowl of fennel seeds, which are sometimes coated in sugar, but more often raw and accompanied with large sugar crystals. It aids digestion and is called saf.
- Amid other smells, frequently I smell incense burning in vendor's stalls, restaurant checkout counters, and shrines in nearly every place.
- There are small shrines everywhere - in trees, in taxi/rickshaws, in the middle of strip malls, in many homes,...
- At lunch one day, we talked with Uma a little about gender. She said that having children is the pinnacle of womanhood, something that men will never be able to. Since this is the case, she suggested that women don't have reason to worry about “success” as men do – in terms of their career.
- The taxi drivers often approach us saying: “Yes ma’am, taxi” – assuming we’ve asked. Sometimes they say “taxi maybe tomorrow."
- It’s really great to see men holding hands and walking in the street with their arms over each other’s shoulders. I’m glad men can express visible camaraderie with other men.
- Being here makes the U.S. seem so organized.
- Most residential (non-slum) buildings I’ve seen are made of brick and cement – not wood, but I assume this is more typical of big cities.
- At some point, Uma told Licia she needs to gain 10 KGs – something that may be typical for all old world parents and grandparents.
- We saw stairs leading to tunnels labeled “Subway” in Mumbai but were confused because we had heard of no subway stations. Then, on the way to Haji Ali, we decided to use a subway to cross a busy intersection and were both surprised to see nothing remotely like a metro station – that’s because a subway is just that – and underground way to cross the intersection.
- In addition to normal express trains, the Indian Railroad runs “superfast express trains.”
- Any space can become a cricket field. Whether it is an empty field, a garbage dumping space, or ruins in the middle of a city, groups of young boys convene to play together.

Travel 2013: Travel log for the past few days

Candolim Beach, Goa - Click for more pictures

5.24, Panaji Goa
When we got to Panaji, we walked around to find a hotel.  We got to one and tried to bargain with the price, after which the woman at the reception desk suggested we go into a back office and talk to the man.  We then asked to see the room, which was quite large and air conditioned.  After, we were escorted back to his office.  He was clearly not occupied with anything prior to us coming to his office, which was littered with multiple half-drunk liquor bottles, including Jonnie Walker Black Label.  He wore multiple large rings and talked with his hands together on the top of his desk in a slow measured voice about how many amenities he offered and how he was offering us a good price.  We said we were going to think about it (i.e. check out other hotels) and he said “don’t think.”  It was difficult to maintain our composure and not talk back to him or laugh at the mafia style type of interaction we were having.  We ended up staying for one night paying our price and then leaving for a different hotel owned by a woman.

5.26, Candolim
We’re in a beach town called Panaji in Goa, but it’s difficult to swim.  Often there are nearly naked men on the beach along with fully clothed women – I mean in full saris.   As if a man might accidentally throw himself at a less-clothed woman.  It’s such a low expectation that has violently been lived up to too many times.

Today we spent the afternoon watching some TV in the hotel in the air conditioning because the sun was too intense to be outside.  The main thing I noticed was so many commercials about skin lightening creams.  There were also several ads to clean pollution off your face.

Walking along the sidewalk, you can see cow prints in the sand.

5.27 (candolim, fort aguada, panaji, sleeper bus)
People we’ve talked to or asked for help finding things are either completely unhelpful or way more helpful than necessary.  For example, some people will listen to the question and then just turn away and ignore you.  On the other hand, today we asked a woman for directions to a fort.  She told us it was up the road a few kilometers, then offered to take us “triple seated” on her motorcycle, and then offered to teach us how to drive her motorcycle.

5.28 (sleeper bus and Thane, temple at night)
Shruti’s dad told us about I.S.T., or Indian stretchable (not standard) time, where leaving at 5pm turns into solidly after 7, and a “15 minute walk” to the closest grocery store is often an undeterminable distance.

At “5,” we went with Uma, her husband and his mother to a temple, because it was the fourth night past the full moon.  This means that if you bring your problems to the deity (can’t remember which one) they will be solved.  It was also the shifting of Jupiter from one astrological sign to another.  I learned that temples are often modeled after the 9 planets, including a small shrine for each one.  I wondered how they’ve responded to the recent declassification of Pluto.

5.29 (train to Aurangabad)
Travelling allows you to see “normal” – not just your own, as reflected by expectations about how things “should be,” but also the things that pass as normal to those who inhabit the space.  I like being able to have the curiosity of a child, and ask people about everyday things. However, sometimes asking about what things are or do is risky in that it might be rude to ask…and I might not be able to convey that I’m sorry for the transgression …but can you be?

We took a train to Aurangabad, the closest city to the Ellora caves.  We sat next to a man who was taking what sounded like business calls, interrupted by smoke breaks.  At one point, he bought a few bags of fried Indian snacks and a coke.  After a while, after both Licia and I had eaten bananas, I opened a bag of chips, to which he said, “not good for health.”  It was the only thing he said to us the entire time.

Later that night, in Aurangabad, we took a rickshaw to a himroo loom center where they make silk fabrics by hand.  One loom we saw had a 6,000 thread count – woven by hand.  On the way we saw a rickshaw with the words “shit happens” printed on the back.

Licia with family who wanted to take her picture.

Often we are objects of interest.  People find us curious to look at and want to take our pictures.  Many people ask us where we’re from and want to shake our hands.  A few younger adults have wanted to friend us on Facebook.  Little kids stare at us curiously and sometimes their moms try and push them to say “hi” to us or shake our hands, generally the kids don't want to.  Twelve year old boys on the street yell “hello” and wave.  Most of the time I’ve found this amusing, but sometimes, like when I needed to sit down because I almost passed out from the heat, I find it a little off-putting, because people don’t really care what we’re doing and will interrupt anything to ask.

5.30 - Ellora
The Ellora caves were carved between the 5th and 7th century by three groups of monks – Jains, Buddhists, and Hindus.  They’re very intricate and very well preserved.  Like outdoor monasteries, they’re “one with nature” and have bats, monkeys, squirrels, birds, and other creatures in and around them.  On the taxi ride there, you can see layers of buildings stretching back some 2000 years – from tombs, forts, and more recent tourist-centric constructions.  It is easy to clearly feel history in the present.

5.31 night train back to Thane
One of the most striking things about India is the proximity of extreme poverty and luxury.  From the air conditioned room that has a flat-screen TV in an apartment building, I can see people living in shacks cooking over fire.  Potentially homeless and illiterate, often barefoot rickshaw drivers wait outside Western-inspired multi –level malls.  Early in the morning or at nighttime we often pass people sleeping on the street or in the taxi they drive; it’s not clear if this is a temporary or permanent bed.

I’ve seen slums in Latin America – those outside Mexico City are vast and densely populated.  However, what’s different about India is how close the rich and poor live.  Another way to say this is that even if you’re feeling bad about your situation, there’s usually someone else in view that is in a worse situation.

6.1
We talked with Shruti about judging another culture.   My main question is, is it possible to do it in a way that isn’t inherently anthropocentric and imperialistic? In other words, can I make any observations as a U.S.-er about a culture that doesn’t necessarily rely on my frame as coming from an imperialist country?  Won’t all my judgments definitely be shaded with my expectations as based in my U.S. upbringing?

I’m not worried as much about political correctness, but then again, I don’t really know what is and is not politically correct in India.  For some things, like using plastic, it’s easier to say that it’s messed up and we (all) need to find a solution.  For things like whether or not things are sexist/oppressive to women, it gets more difficult.  I’m wondering when this becomes a question of pedagogy of the oppressed.

6.2
Today we flew from BOM to DEL.  Security lines are always gender segregated (men, women).  Women are often patted down by another woman and usually within a cloth enclosed privacy box.  The line to get in deviated between women who had bags to run through the X-ray scanner and those who didn’t.  Those who didn’t proceeded directly to the pat down area, and the line was very long, so it didn’t make sense to put your bag through the scanner and then wait in a line we’d already waited in, but no one wanted to let us in.  So the space up to the scanner/gate thing became completely filled with women, no semblance of a queue (line), and women behind me were yelling about not having a double queue.  People were pushing from the back so multiple women were standing in the scanner machine, and then the guards started yelling.  Meanwhile people are prodding me forward and being irritated with me “cutting” in the line I’ve waited in, and I’m wondering what is happening to my bag at the end of the X-ray machine.  I started laughing a few minutes in at the absurdity.

6.3, exploring Delhi
We spent today exploring Delhi.  We rode the Metro and I was struck at how nice it is.  There are gender segregated cars – which is great because the men’s cars get packed, and the women’s cars have been often much more empty.  The gender segregation is such that I’ve seen a mother and son get on the women’s car and the son stands on the other side of the divider.  The cars are fully air conditioned, have LED indicators for the stops (where it’s been, where it’s going), and spaces for people who are “differently abled.”

Our first stop was the area around the India Gate (this time commemorating Indian soldiers, not the British colonization).  We took an autorickshaw to a Tibetan market, but were promptly hungry.  Unfortunately the only food options we could easily find were Pizza Hut and McDonalds.  So we checked out the McDonalds, which turns out to only serve chicken and vegetarian options.  Licia tried a McAloo Tikka burger.  Sucked into the bastion of Western familiarity (and the novelty), I got chicken nuggets.

We also went to Purana Qila, a super old fort with a mosque built in 1541.

In the heat of the day we stopped in at the Imperial Hotel (that’s seriously the name) for high tea.  For USD$15 you get tea, scones, jam and cream, desserts like eclairs, tea sandwiches, and an air conditioned atmosphere so vastly different from the street market we just arrived from.

Chandi Chowk

After we went to another area of town, called Chandi chowk/Chawri Bazaar.  It looked much different than the other parts of Delhi and India I’ve seen.  The streets are loaded with bicycles and bike-rickshaws and are packed to the brim with people (mostly men) walking around.  The power lines are hung low and dogs and cows roam freely.  The 3-4 story buildings looked commercial on the bottom and residential on the top and the road was narrow.

6.4, train to Agra
On the train to Agra, we played cards while 5 men stared at us.

Stay tuned for more thoughts on Agra and Delhi before we leave for Bangkok, Thailand on Monday!