So, I've been behind on my blogging - especially for ICU, I'll try to explain my over due activities.
[FYI - Not Edited]
Bangkok -
On February 25th to the 28th we had our second Thai studies trip to Bangkok. We left on the evening of the 25th on a 14 hour train ride to Bangkok. I had never ridden in a train before so this was pretty exciting. When we first entered the car a pushy stewardess was handing me a glass an orange juice to drink. I looked at it, and then looked at her — seeing if it was free or not, and she gave me a look and said, “Yes, take it.” So I took it, sat down and drank it… The juice was pretty disgusting — tasted like Tang, with extra sugar water. In out train cars, I found the seats to be very comfortable and spacious, getting to the bathroom and seeing other people was really accessible. The toilets were another story, since the bath rooms were at the end of the car it was extremely shaky. Trying to sit or even shut the door was difficult.
Later on our pushy stewardess came back, this time with over priced meals. Luckily for me I had eaten at PIH before leaving. Most of the students chose not to eat, thinking the train provided free meals — they were not, each meal was in the 150 baht to 200 baht range, which was outrageous for train food! Since I was the only person who didn’t eat, the pushy stewardess — turned telemarketer, started to INSIST I eat. She would keep handing me the menu, and tell me things like. “Just eat, just eat. Aroi (delicious)”. I’d say no, but she wouldn’t stop hasseling me. Finally, I just ignored her and she left. Later on, that evening she comes back to hand everyone their checks for their meals, I get a check. I’m confused at why, turns out that free Tang I got wasn’t free at all. It was 40 baht! A drink that would usually cost 5-10 baht turned out to be 40. After that, I didn’t look at that woman again.
14 hours later we reach Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit, aka: Bangkok.
The air is thick and humid when we get off the train car. The environment is nothing like Chiang Mai, poverty and pollution is a lot more prevalent in the train station alone. I’m excited but also, interested to see what Bangkok has to present for me. Everyone talks about this city like its amazing—but then again, isn’t that every city or any congested area? When we leave the station, the streets bring familiar senses, the smell of fried chicken, the sounds of Thai chatter and sights motorbikes — although, cars seem to dominate the streets of Bangkok more than the motorbikes of Chiang Mai. Soon, after we find our guest house and settle we are already getting reading for a boat trip around Bangkok’s canals. This was exciting — but too long, but I suppose we got our money’s worth? Or maybe it was because I had to use the bathroom — bad? Anyhow, on this trip we were taken to see a museum on old Thai ships, had lunch in a small district and saw more wats. This was all interesting, but just the fact that it was 100+ degrees and the air was thick enough to rest on, made it extremely difficult pay attention. My favorite stop of the day was the Siam History Museum. This place was HUGE and air conditioned! The information in the museum was very artsty and informative, I really enjoyed that through out the entire museum of Thai history, the king and those before him, were not talked mentioned. I also felt that the museum didn’t hold any sorts of major Thai biases. Everything was just information — both bad and good. That was nice.
Later on that night, we have an hour before our guest speaker and a documentary on “Hok Tulaa”, the student protests in Thailand that ended up becoming a massacre on October 6th, 1976. During this time, I had time to reflect on what I had seen that day, for me personally, nothing of Bangkok had any interest to me. Bangkok to me just looked and felt like Chicago in August, but with lots of really dressed up Asian people. The crowd was a mixture of classes; it was mostly made up of businessmen, university students, street kids and a lot of women who looked like they worked in department stores. I guess I expected this, no mountains, no big spaces of plant life — unless it was a neatly trimmed park, and no slowing down. Everyone seems to be in a rush, an endless cycle of going to work, going to school or going to eat. [So boring.]
The next day I had the chance to see my old friend, Jirawat. Jirawat goes by the name Jeremy. Jeremy attends Thammasat University, possibly the second best school in Bangkok? He’s studying business — focusing in marketing, he says its more “creative” than doing just regular business… Uhmm… Anyhow, Jeremy studied at the University of Iowa about 1 ½ ago. Our ideas, beliefs and goals are totally opposite — often times conflicting, but it was nice to see an old friend. He showed me around the major areas of Bangkok, i.e. SIAM PARAGON — one of the biggest malls in Asia, and possibly the most ridiculous. All you see are western ads of how to be modern, and stylish — for a hefty price that is. I don’t know why he brought me there because he doesn’t like shopping and he didn’t know where anything was in the mall, it’s probably because I’m a girl. In the mall, I went to the book store and got ice cream, which was interesting enough for me.
We go to a few night markets, same stuff as in Chiang Mai. Sometimes it’s cheaper, sometimes it’s not. The only difference between the Chiang Mai night markets and Bangkok night markets was that Bangkok had red light districts within the markets. It was sick to see foreign men — old white dudes, with big grins on their faces walking into brothels. Ugh.
So, finally our last day arrives. I’m excited to go home. Bangkok was nice. I loved their transportation system — awesome. But everything else was just extremely western and a repeative cycle of hating yourself for the man. I was ready to get out of the humidity, see some mountains and enjoy the slow-er pace of Chiang Mai.
