Ayutthaya

M and I caught the bus early Saturday morning, ready to get the h out of Bangkok. An hour and a half later, we were across the city and leaving by train from Hua Lamphong railway station. Right outside of the trainstation are several shanties lining the tracks, the little streams are full of human trash and waste. Kids play on piles of wood or right next to the train tracks. But as you leave Bangkok, the area gets less shanty-like, not that the area gets much wealthier looking.

As we rode along, the cities give way to more rural areas. This area is flat and very wet. High reeds, grasses, and giant lilly pads surround the railway broken by huts, banana, coconut, and I think a version of the birch tree. It is quite a beautiful place!

We got off the train two hours later at Ayutthaya. It used to be the capital of Thailand until the Burmese came and burned it to the ground in the 18th C. Now the city is built on ruins, and these ruins are every where!

The energy in Ayutthaya is great! The train station is busy, tourists every where and Tuk Tuk drivers harrassing everyone for a ride... then the locals try to sell you over-priced food and drink. But once you make it off that main road towars the Wats, everything is fine. There are wide open spaces and just a feeling of calm.

I had my goal: to visit Wat Phra Mahathat and see Buddha's head in the tree. So I insisted we find it first. We found it about third, as there are so many ruins around. But we rushed into Mahathat and found Buddha, where I took a thousand photographs of him. Then we wandered around the magnificent Wat. There is so much to see, it is overwelming!

We wandered quite a bit more, past some other temples. Then we settled on some food and decided that since our camera batteries were dying, we should probably find a place to bunk for the night. An hour later we found a place that had rooms available. We stayed in this tiny guest house that was made up of cabins. These cabins were quite nice, they were one room and a bathroom. Electricity, air con, shower, and vanity, and walking distance to everything. No cockroaches, lizards, or frogs, but LOTS of mosquitoes. Thank God for bug spray and netting! Also the walls were pretty thin, so you can hear everything from outside and there was a fountain next to the wall by my bed and ooh boy, the sound was not so good on the bladder!

After struggling to stay in bed for more than a half hour at a time, I finally got up and got ready for the day, to find out it was raining. But it was a nice, soft rain that kept you dry, but the weather cool. M and I went on a long trek to find coffee and then remembered my plan to ride an elephant. So we decided to trekk across town, we were told "only one kilometer." Funny thing, when we reached one kilomenter, we had one more, and so forth and so forth until we finally found the elephants!

Only, we couldn't ride any of these elephants. This was more of a camp for elephants. But the people who worked there were really nice, one guy was from the Midlands of England, he moved to Thailand to get away. Another guy is from Santa Barbara of all places and is a theoropist for humans, but is currently working on elephants that have suffered from mental trauma (such as abuse or just has a disorder). They didn't really show us around the camp too much, but let us wander on our own and pet the elephants. Then they called us a taxi to come pick us up and take us back to town.

So I didn't get to ride an elephant, but I did get to see them and pet them. What a beautiful weekend! We were sad to get back to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.

All About Food

I cannot believe I have posted a few blogs without mentioning food! I must talk about the food here in Bangkok.

When I landed in Bangkok, I was really excited to get Thai food. There are resturants and food vendors everywhere! Street vendors are the cheapest options for food. Resturants are still cheap, but street vendors is usually 20 baht cheaper. Now to try to describe this food that I see and smell every day!

The streets are a plethra of colors and smells. There are green bananas, red lechee, mangos, pinapples, watermellon, and young coconuts ready to crack open and drink.

It is common to see some one wandering around with roasted corn still in its husks. Cabbages, asparagus, baby corn, carrots, green onions, cucumbers, and bamboo are heaped together in bowls and baskets. Cooked eggs are everywhere in the normal beige, white, and cream colors, and even pink. Sometimes you see whole fish staring at you from a grill, more common are deep-fried fish staring at you from a stall.

Chickens hang in cart windows, pigs' heads sit at the edges of cards, various intestines and livers lay chopped in bowls. Sea food of various freshness lays out for everyone to see (if you are lucky, they are wrapped). This is the stinkiest part of the food, the meat that lays out in the sun--it will make or break your stomach. In fact I didn't eat meat for the first couple of days because the smell killed me.

Everything is served with rice or rice noodles and tiny red chilly peppers. Plus on every table is a basket with the essentials: dried red pepper, chillis soaking in fish sauce, a bottle of fish sauces, sugar, and salt. I am getting sick of rice, but chillied-fish sauce is becoming a staple.

Thai food is quite unique that is for sure and it is really, really good. However, I am getting really tired of fried food and rice. I gave up the other day and went to McDonalds (it is really popular with the teens here). What an experience! They have a pork burger that is spicy and delicious. ALso they serve this sweet chilli sauce with the freanch fries. Also they have a tuna pie--it looks like it is deep fried. I am not brave enough to try this.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the drinks! There are tons of drink stands around here! Smoothies are popular--however Bangkok smoothies are flavored shaved ice. One place serves real smoothies with yogurt (we are regular customers). Juice and water is every where of course. I have yet to recieve drinks in the bags, but they always give you a plastic bag caddie for your drink. Iced coffee and tea is big here. The iced coffee is really sweet and fatty--they use sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk in their coffee or tea.

I am finally learning the Thai words and jestures for saying no carrots, no shrimp, no corn, no chicken, no milk. I have been really good about not eating chicken, but that other stuff creaps in easily-- every couple of days my stomach and head go baserk--like today.

I still didn't do the food justice, but at least you have some idea!

Adventures with Tuk Tuks and Hebrew

A View from Wat Arun, picture taken by Matt Parr

What a weekend. Too much to even write about, really. Saturday we went about an hour and a half south west of Bangkok to Amphawa to teach English camp. We were there all day, teaching kids games. IT was quite fun, and quite the adventure.

After that we went on the river to the floating market in Amphawa. What a crazy mess! People every where! I couldn't shop because there were just too many people. But quite the experience! After poking around the market, we took a boat up the river towards, well, I am not sure where.

The boat was pretty scary. Fist I nearly fell into a hole in the bow of the boat, then the captain refused to depart until we all put on our life jackets. No other boats used life jackets. And by the sound of the tiny boat, we were all sure we were going to die. But we made it to a resturant where we had a 7 course meal of chicken (of course I didn't eat it) and four differnet kinds of fish. It was delicious!

After dinner we got back on that scary boat and headed further up stream to watch the glow worms light up the trees. So amazing! The glow worms looked better than Christmas lights!

Sunday my friend M and I went out to the old city of Bangkok. I had been there before my first full day of Bangkok, but he had yet to see it. I played guide and we went first to Wat Arun, spending nearly four hours there taking thousands of pictures.

I even climbed up the steep stairs to the half-way point of the wat.

picture courtesy of Matt Parr

The veiw was worth the shaking legs and sweaty brow!

Afterwords we went back to Wat Pho, or the reclining Buddha. It was good to see each one again, because I saw things that I had not noticed before. Because first you are just so overwelmbed by the size and detail of everything, that the second time you can notice even more!

We spend all day in the sun, getting out of the touristy area right at rush hour, so of course no one wanted to take us back towards our hotel. I decided to start a walking towards some other toursity areas. Naturally, my sun burn started to get to me and I started to get a bit on the cranky side. I pushed on past huge dec-a-wat stores (huge stores full of Buddhas, alters, and anything you could dream of decorating a Hindu or Buddhist temple) to the giant swing--which by the way is just a huge arch, no swing.

I was quite cranky and so tired from the heat that M desperately hailed a Tuk Tuk. Of course Mr. Tuk Tuk Driver wanted way too much to go to where I wanted to go, M finally agreed on a way lower price, but the condition was that we had to visit a shop first before we could go any where else. M, or Mr. Silly Pants, agreed to do so even though I was dead set against it.

So we got dropped off at a tailor's shop, and the condition was that we were to stay in for ten minutes. The Tuk Tuk driver said that it would be easiest if we pretended not to speak Thai or English. So M, decided that he would speak Hebrew. Well as soon as I saw the tailors I knew that was a very bad idea. And sure enough, as soon as M started to speak Hebrew, the tailor answered back in Hebrew. I about died laughing.

M continued to put up the rouse, holding his own, and of course asking me things in Hebrew-- like I know how to reply! I was a bag full of head nods and shakes, hoping I was replying correctly to the Hebrew. But thankfully the tailors didn't talk to me, but talked through my "husband." We got out of ther pretty quick, with out spending any money, and even had M scared that I was pissed because I got ot play the role of the pissed off wife. But we got into the tuk tuk and laughed the whole way to our destination.

But who knew that a Thai talior would know Hebrew? Lesson learned, let Carmen speak Welsh, cause no one is going to speak that. Hahaha!

A Little Easer

Finally getting the hang of Bangkok. It took a bit. I still am having trouble with eating. It is just too hot out to eat more than a few bites of fruit. I went to a grocery store yesterday and bought yogurt and nuts, so at least I'll have some protien.

Apparently this diet isn't working for me though because according to the sales woman at the mall today, I need "diet" and I'm "too big." I didn't know whether to laugh of be insulted. I felt like telling her she looked like a lady boy. But she may not have understood.

Class is good, very long. I go from 9-4 every day. Plus an hour commute twice a day. At least Bangkok is like every city where there is food and convience stores close in every neighborhood.

Also in the school's neighborhood is a Mosque. Every day at 4 they do call to prayer. It is so beautiful to hear after a hard day in class. Sometimes we all just sit at the bus stop and listen for a while. When we get back to our hotel, the Monks down the road are usually in prayer, so we hear more chanting... it is quite nice and relaxing.

We walked up to the Wat (it's just up the street from our hotel) the other day and the area around the Wat was just filled with dogs and cats. I don't know whether the Monk have pets or if the strays hang out there because people bring the Monks and ancestors offerings of food.

It is quite heart breaking to see the amount of animals running lose in this city. We have all given in and petted a few when they come up to you wagging their tails. Of course we all wash and sanitize ourselves haha!

First Experience of Bangkok

Well, I have made it to Bangkok. The plane ride wasn't too bad. I was able to get business class from Salt Lake City all the way to Bangkok. There was a two hour layover in Tokyo, so I wandered around the airport gazing at duty-free stuff. There was this amazing shop, full of scenes made from oragami: the trees, the animals, the people, the houses, everything! Quite amazing. There were dinosauers, bugs, armies, Little Red Riding Hood in the forest, Cinderella in her carriage, and so much more. I had personal pictures, but I had to steal some from the internet instead :(


The six hours to Bangkok from Narita took forever! I was so happy to get off the plane. I made it through money exchange, visa check, and baggage claim perfectly. I even found myself a Taxi. The Taxi ride took forever and cost me so much! I do believe he took the long route to rack up the meter. But I was not going to struggle on plane or bus routes (which were closed any way) with two giant suitcases and a head tired from travel.

After what seemed like ages, the cab driver pulled into an alley way with a temple sign above the entrance. "Hotel" he said, pointing to the temple sign, "No, alley" I reply and we argue for quite a time and he finally goes down the dark scary alley. I was ready to put up a fight, but then I saw the sign to the hotel. It wasn't until morning that I realized that this alley was a normal street for Bangkok.

Bangkok is a maze of streets that dead end, half of them aren't labeled and if they are, they aren't on the map. My roommate and I went to Old Town today. We peeked into the royal palace, not really wanting to attempt that massive area today. Plus it is Bhuddist Lent, so it is very busy. We did make our way through markets--where my camera was stolen! I lost all my great pictures! Of course the evil person who stole my camera was long gone and the police couldn't speak a word of English (or wouldn't).

But, we trudged onto our goal for the day Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The temple is huge and amazing! The mosiacs are incredible, the gardens are amazing, and the Buddha is huge! It is Gold plated and the feet are mother of pearl inlay. It is encased in a elaborately decorated building. Then we watched a bit of a Buddhist prayer going on in another temple.

After that we took the ferry to Wat Arun, just across the river. This was so very massive! We were too tired to climb all the steps, so this might be a trip for another day.

We then took a water taxi through the disgusting river to Chinatown--where we got lost in the overwelming expanse of markets. My roommate made the point that it is silly that we have to worry about our carbon footprint when these people throw everything into the water, and I mean EVERYTHING! The alleys between apartment complexes are just garbage heaps that spill into the river and there are open sewage pipes rolling off buildings.

We got caught in a monsoon rain, so we jumped into a tuk tuk and rode out the rain. Then we finally gave up and headed back to the hotel.

But Amy and I have concluded that Bangkok culture is weird. In temples everyone must cover their shoulders, legs, and toes. However, you are supposed to take off your shoes upon entering the temples and everyone is barefoot. People dislike women to wear short skirts or shorts, and tanktops--however most of the young women wear it any way. And on top of that, the culture frowns upon skin showing but they don't care about gays