Bangkok, where we spent the first three days, is exotic, chaotic and congested, certainly colorful and pretty in parts but dingy in others, and after three months in Tokyo, which is just packed with people of course but is relatively calm and orderly and just so clean, the contrast was startling. Bangkok's outdoor markets and side-of-the-road restaurants -- giant woks and grills and stock pots of food dished out to customers at card tables on the sidewalk -- give it that block-party vibe. The noisy streets are full of tuk-tuks zipping around trucks, motorcycles carrying entire families (young kids ride up front, between the handlebars) and vendors with pushcarts.
Before we started with the serious sight-seeing, we stopped at the amulet market outside Wat Maharat (where monks come from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to train at the university there). We had fun buying several of the small carved pieces, which show various images of Buddha. You're supposed to carry these little charms around with you to help ward off evil spirits and bad fortune. There was also a guy there selling dentures.
We did not get up early enough to go see the monks make their morning rounds gathering alms, but we had a few sightings here and there. For the record, I did not rush these monks (below) to get their picture, like the Western tourists in Laos who appear in this disturbing photo that ran in yesterday's Herald Trib. I was very discreet about stealing their souls with my new Nikon D60.
The coolest thing we saw that first day, though, I thought, was Wat Pho, with its giant reclining Buddha.
Check out this big bad boy, all gilded in gold leaf and with an intricate mother-of-pearl inlay on the soles of the feet: 
We made a donation to get a pile of wishing coins, which the kids dutifully dropped, one by one, into the collection pots that line the temple wall.
We also visited Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, a much smaller statue carved out of jade that sits way up high on top of a gold pedestal. No shoes allowed inside, of course, and you're supposed to keep your bare feet tucked under you or pointed away from the Buddha to show respect. You can't take pictures, and you must also have shoulders covered. Some tourists carried sheer wraps to throw on over their tank tops, which is what I wished I had done (instead I had to wear this cotton sweater in 90-plus degree heat).
The Temple of the Emerald Buddha is only the centerpiece of a huge compound dotted with lots of smaller shrines and golden spires, brightly-colored mosaics, guardian devils and other statues.
Below, D snaps a photo. He is pretty good with the point-and-shoot.
Many murals adorn the walls outside the main hall, scenes from the story Ramakian (Thai version of the Indian epic Ramayana). Here's the nutshell version: Young Couple banished to forest; Evil King kidnaps bride; Hero teams up with clever Monkey King to launch rescue mission; much trickery and many battles ensue. Good Guy gets Girl back, Bad Guy ends up dead.
Also on site is the Grand Palace, which was the official royal residence until about 100 years ago when new digs were built across town. Squint and you can see T and the boys stealing some shade under one of the perfectly-manicured trees.
Next we took a quick boat ride across the river to Wat Arun, featuring this "towering phallic-shaped stupa" (guide book's words). 
Here's T with our 5-year-old on the first landing. They made it all the way to the top (about 15 ft. from the tippity top).
A pleasant way to get from wat to wat is to take the tourist boat up and down the Mae Nam Chao Phraya ("River of Kings"). It's a busy waterway, with lots of freight boats (we saw a load of Pepsi go by) and long-tail boats chartered by tourists. Along the banks you see five-star hotels next to dilapidated stilt houses, pretty waterfront restaurants next to rundown commercial docks.
On land, you can always find fresh fruit.
Here's one fruit and vegetable market down the street from our hotel, the D'MA, which was pleasant enough with a pool and big breakfast buffet, but was sort of far from the SkyTrain.
This shop sold dried fish and some other things I couldn't identify...
Two women making flower garlands.
Making our way back to the hotel after a day of sight-seeing...
One morning we visited Jim Thompson's house (a native New Yorker, writer and architect who settled in Bangkok after WWII and helped revive the Thai silk trade while building an amazing authentic Thai home and filling it with priceless antiques). While we waited for our tour to start, the friendly guides showed the boys how to make tiny origami dinosaurs.
Our tour guide (below) and D discuss this kitten taking a nap under some leaves. Much cuter than some of the mangy dogs we spotted snoozing on sidewalks and under stairwells in other parts of town.
One night we went out to eat at a seafood restaurant down the street from our hotel. The wait staff doted on our boys, who played games on a Nintendo DS between courses (whatever keeps them in their seats, right?).
We saw these guys on our way in.
These might be them.
Before we left Bangkok I took the boys to the Dusit Palace Park, where the royals live. The most interesting thing to see there was the small photo museum, which displays many snapshots taken by HM King Bhumibol himself, mostly of his wife and children when they were young. It is the king's 62nd year on the throne, and he's currently the longest-serving monarch in the world, according to our guide book. There are pictures of him everywhere, like this one outside a hotel in Phuket (not ours, we were dropping off a German couple who accompanied us on our elephant trek, which I'll come back to later on in this post).
The security guys guarding one of the Dusit gates were friendly but not as effusively so as most other Thais we encountered here, I'm sure because they were on duty.
After Bangkok we went to Phuket, a popular island in the south, for four days. We stayed at a place near Karon beach, on the Andaman Sea. The area is popular with European tourists, particularly Scandinavians.
The water was warm, the surf calm. T does a handstand to impress the boys.
It was hot, so very hot, so we stayed in the shade as much as possible. We paid about $15 to rent two lounge chairs and an umbrella for the day. Here C relaxes with a Doraemon book; that's one of the beach attendants walking in the background.
Our hotel, the Pacific Club, was a bit of a walk from the beach, but it had a nice pool with a view. And the place was cheap, only $80 a night, including breakfast!
On our second day we went to Kata, which is the next town over, and had lunch at a place called Mom Tri's, situated up high on a hill overlooking the beach. We splurged on overpriced hamburgers, grilled fish and fancy sorbet and yet still only spent about $75 for the four of us. The place is also a boutique hotel with pretty, shaded pools.
After lunch we hiked down that hill to the beach and tried not to fry ourselves. The boys befriended two 19-year-old Dutch surfer-dudes.On the third day we took a sight-seeing tour of Phang Nga Bay by long-tailed boat, like this one pictured below.
We cruised past a Muslim fishing village (where we would stop later on in the day) and then transferred into inflatable canoes where a guide paddled us out to some sea caves at a spot called Tum Talu.
The zinc oxide-laced sunscreen that we slathered onto the boys' faces often got trapped in their eyebrows.
The tour also included a stop at James Bond Island, which is really two islands, both of which appear in the movie "The Man With the Golden Gun" (Roger Moore, 1974). We docked at Koh Khao Phing Kan (Scaramanga's base camp) and from where we could view Koh Tapu, the island-cliff that is the familiar backdrop for the final showdown between Christopher Lee and Roger Moore, and where Lee's character kept his "weapon of mass destruction."
The main island shore is crowded with souvenir stands, all selling pretty much the same stuff you see everywhere else in Thailand: shell necklaces, sarongs, beaded elephant bags...(after a while you start to wonder if everything is made in the same factory in China). There were cool caves not a hundred yards from where the merchants, mainly women, were hawking these wares, some more aggressively than others ("Madame, you looking? Madame!")
For the boys, the highlight of the day was probably the stopover on "monkey island," where we explored yet another cave (this one had bats) and fed the cheeky primates who were running loose all over the place.
We spent our last day in Thailand at the Island Safari Camp northwest of Phuket Town, on an "eco-nature-tour." These can take all day but we picked the short program: 45 minutes of elephant trekking followed by a 30-min "young elephant show" (they dance, balance on their hind legs, shoot hoops, etc.).This next shot shows where you get on. D is psyched. Guides dressed in blue are less enthusiastic. I think they've done this before.
When tourists are on board, they get to sit on a little wooden seat while the guides sit on the back of the elephant's head, bare feet planted behind the ears. They carry a wooden pole with a blunt metal hook on the end, with which they use to tug at the elephant's face and ears to get their attention, or get them moving, or steer them, I wasn't sure. It made me a little uncomfortable but the elephants didn't seem to mind. Their skin is extremely thick and tough. But I did wonder how the animals were treated after the tourists have all gone home.
The safari staff will sell you bunches of bananas to feed the elephants during the slow stroll around the grounds. They use their trunk fingers to gently grasp the fruit.
Hey kid, you sure you don't have anymore?
Later, during the show, C volunteered to act as goalkeeper, and managed to block one shot (it bounced off his thigh) but not a second. Here you can see the soccer ball he was able to deflect (it's next to the guy in blue, outside the goal post).
On the next shot, she scored:
I volunteered for a massage. They had me lie face down on a mat and then one of the elephants stood next to me, lifted one leg, and lightly tapped me on the back with the bottom of her foot. Then she nuzzled by neck with the end of her trunk. It felt moist and gritty.
T agreed to participate in the final act. Here ladyboy-emcee, Kim, is explaining what he is going to have to do. But it's too late to back out...
Once T was on his back, Kim placed some bananas inside T's shorts for the elephant to fish out. Just to prolong the humiliation... here are the photos!
The elephant keeps one foot resting gently on T's chest while she fishes around. He can't escape even if he wanted to.
It's over. He slowly rises to his feet, a broken man.
The journey home took about 20 hours. We had a 1-hr. cab ride to the Phuket airport, then our flight was delayed. It's a 1.5-hr flight from Phuket to Bangkok, and then we had a 3-hr. layover there. It's 7 hours in the air to Tokyo, then it takes about an hour on the Narita Express train to get to Tokyo station. From there, we took a cab home. Somehow the boys figured out a way to deal...
The kid is really asleep!
1 comment:
Wow. You guys saw so much in so little time. The one thing I did not get to do that I wish I had was James Bond Island. Darn. Your kids seemed to love the monkeys and elephants. I liked the monks ;)
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