Bangkok

Arrived safely in Bangkok after approximately 800 hours of flight time and 47 layovers (or 30 hours and 2 layovers, if I wanted to be a bit less dramatic about it). The flight from D.C. to Tokyo was loooong and boring (13-14 hours), but I managed to sleep quite a bit on all three flights. Haven't really suffered any noticeable jetlag, which is exciting. My body was so confused about what time it was when I got here, that adjusting hasn't really been a problem for me. The only noticeable symptom of jetlag is that I keep waking up at ungodly hours, but I suppose that's actually a plus, as it allows me to do more.

My flight into Bangkok didn't land until 11p.m., so I got to the hostel fairly late, and more or less went straight to bed. I was a bit concerned about not staying on Khaosan Road (the so-called Backpacker Mecca), but this hostel is in a much nicer neighbourhood with easy access to the SkyTrain, so it turns out it was a very good choice. I'm staying in a dorm with 12 beds, but everyone makes an effort to be quiet and polite, and it gives me a chance to talk to people as well.

Friday was my first full day, and although I had planned to take it easy and stick relatively close to the hostel, I ended up doing a ton of sight-seeing instead. I was up and about by about 6:30, and after having a nice traditional Thai breakfast of bacon and eggs, I was sort of at loose ends. Lucky for me, it turned out that a guy who was on all three of my flights from Toronto was also staying here. His name is Tim, and he lives in Ajax. He was just stoppping over in Bangkok on his way to do volunteer work in Nepal, but it was lovely to have a buddy right off the bat. We were both new to Bangkok, so we teamed up, and both ended up doing much more than we would have alone. I think I also lucked out a little bit because of who I was hanging out with. Tim grew up in Toronto, and his family is Dutch, but he was adopted from Cambodia when he was a baby. As he says, he's about as asian as I am, but most of the nefarious characters who might have hassled us seemed to think he was my Thai guide, so neither of us had any trouble.

We started out taking the BTS Skytrain from Thong Lo to the river. I had expected to have at least a few language difficulties, but so far it hasn't been a problem. Tons of signs (and advertisng!) are in English as well as Thai, and I've only run across one or two people that don't speak at least some english. The skytrain is basically a smaller, nicer, cleaner version of the subway which runs above ground. The hostel is only about a 15 minute walk from one of the stations, which is pretty fantastic. From the skytrain, we bought passes for a tourist boat / water taxi that goes up and down the river stopping at each different pier, where you can hop on and off at any stop. We rode that north to the Grand Palace, which is totally unbelievable. The King no longer lives there, but it is still used for various ceremonial functions, and part of it houses visiting dignitaries as well. It's a massive complex of buildings that are all decorated within an inch of their lives, and although we only spent a couple of hours there, one could easily get lost for days. One part of the complex is a scale model of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and given how huge and spectacular such a tiny model is, I can't wait to see the real thing!

Probably my favourite part of the complex is the famous Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The buddha statue is considered to be the most sacred in Thailand, and the temple was build and decorated to reflect that. I was a little surprised to discover that the 'emerald' buddha is actually made of Jade, but it's still very beautiful. The statue was initially hidden inside a larger ceramic one, and when it was first revealed that there was something inside, the monk who found it believed it to be emerald. Because it's a temple, there are no photographs allowed, and everyone has to leave their shoes outside. There is a dress code for the whole complex as well, you have to wear long pants and closed shoes, and your sleeves have to be a certain length as well, I think. Thais get into the palace grounds for free, and there were quite a few people lighting candles and praying. It was a nice experience, but sort of depressing at the same time. All these people were trying to pray, and here are all these tourists cluttering up the joint. Most were acting fairly respectful, but it wasn't as quiet as it probably should have been. The other unusual custom is that you can't point your feet at the buddha, so you pretty much have to kneel with your feet pointing away from the altar. It's the buddhist prayer position, so I guess you get used to it, but some of the tourists looked awfully goofy trying to get comfortable without doing something untoward!

After visiting the temple, we hopped on the boat to get back downriver. Between that and the skytrain, we saw way more of Bangkok than just the specific sites we visited. Travelling down the river is an interesting experience, because there is such a contrast in the kinds of buildings that are right alongside it. A lot of Bangkok's big, ritzy hotels, like the Oriental, are along that stretch, but then only a few metres away, you find tiny little buildings that look like they're about to topple into the water at any moment. Some tourists hire longboats (sort of like Bangkok's answer to Gondolas) to take them on a more individual tour, and apparently it's even more evident on some of the smaller waterways. I doubt I'll do that this time around, but maybe on my next visit.

On the way back on the skytrain, we had to transfer lines at Siam Station, and we ended up visiting the Siam Center. It's about the biggest mall I think I've ever seen, with five or six different connected buildings that are several stories each. It's quite a swanky place, where prices appear to be fairly comparable to home (which is highly unual here), but I was a bit surprised to find that most of the stores are American! Guess Jeans, Mango, Diesel, Body Shop...it has approximately the same breakdown of stores as Yorkdale. It wouldn't have been particularly spectacular except that it is apparently brand new, and the architecture is unbelievably cool. Everything is bright and shiny and interesting, in that funky modern and uniquely asian way that I'm doing an extremely lousy job of describing. The foodcourt alone is about the size of a city block, and I don't think there was any kind of food I could have thought of that wasn't represented there. And they even use real dishes for the fast food! Very nifty all around.

The only store we really went into was a supermarket (looking for batteries), and it was certainly an interesting contrast. It wasn't that different from the big stores at home, and even a lot of the products were recognizable and had english labels (including a display I walked past of Spam Light. Spam Light? I'm still in shock that they even make that). The major difference was in the staff. At home when you go into grocery stores, you pretty much have to sneak up and accost an employee to get any help, but here they kept popping up from behind displays to offer smiles and assistance (in English, of course). I'm still pretty wrapped up in all the little details, as you might have noticed.

The other really cool thing about the Siam Centre is that one of the buildings has an aquarium in the basement. It was a bit expensive, but we had a really good time running around with all the kids in school uniforms (half of whom look like the traditional Japanese schoolkids, and the other half like girl guides and scouts). The best part of the Aquarium was that we got to watch the sting rays being fed. They're actually very cute - they would all nose around the trainers like puppies wanting attention, and they were eating out of their hands as well. If you see them from the right angle, they look kind of like disney characters - big eyes and goofy pointy noses.

Anyway, that was pretty much it for the sight-seeing that day. We returned to the hostel after that, and after a bit of a rest, went to a tiny little restaurant around the corner that had been recommended by an older Canadian guy who had already been here for a couple of days. We had initially planned to go out, but ended up being so tuckered out that we hung out at the hostel and turned in early. All the better to wake up at the crack of dawn on Saturday...