Say Goodbye to 2008

It’s New Year’s Eve here on Ko Chang (southeast Thailand, Gulf of Siam), 15 hours ahead of California. I am looking back on an amazing year of turning 40, touring the country with Jack Johnson, quitting my job, immersing myself in the cultures of Southeast Asia, and most importantly, finding out what love truly is.

I wish to all my friends and family the very best for the year 2009. Even though the economic outlook is bleak at the moment, remember what is important and give thanks for all that you have.

Cheers,
Elizabeth

Ancient Siam

The last couple days have been exhausting. Yesterday I took on the largest market in Southeast Asia - Chatuchak - renowned for having 15,000 stalls and drawing up to 200,000 shoppers every day (it's only open on the weekends). I didn't buy much, but roamed the place for a few hours and made notes about what I would come back and get before I go home. Everything from second had jeans to massive Buddha statues to puppy dogs can be bought. Luckily, one of the stalls was a foot massage place, and I cooled my heels so to speak for a much needed break. As much as the Burmese love tea and have tea shops everywhere, Thais love coffee. So much for kicking my coffee habit!

Today was a visit to the Ancient City - a kind of outdoor museum of architecture and history of Thailand. I rode a bike around in the sun for 3 hours, learning all kinds of things, like the origin of the Chinese influence in Thai architecture, and the incorporation of Hindu deities in Thai religious beliefs. Again there were many references to sacking of Ayuthaya by the Burmese in 1769. Ouch. While most structures and monuments were replicas, there were a few original structures including the wooden monastery in the photo, which came from Northern Thailand near the Burmese border, and the influences were apparent and familiar.

Temples and Markets and Elephants

Friday we hightailed it out of town, taking a comfortable air-conditioned van to the area known as Samut Sakhon, about one hour from Bangkok. There are several “floating markets” there, as the area has one big river and many canals and tributaries that people use to get around (and they sell their wares from their boats). On the way we stopped at a small seaside village to get some of the fresh catch – long necked clams and horseshoe crab eggs (I took a pass on both, but Paul was game!). We also loaded up on fresh fruit like star fruit, pomelo, mangoes and a few others I didn’t get the name for.

Ed (our “guide”) is the stepson of my ex-husband’s brother (and works for Paul, who is married to my ex-husband’s cousin Birgit), and recently moved back to Thailand after getting married to a Thai girl. Luckily, Ed loves to eat and has been showing us all kinds of new food – although Paul is sometimes the only taker for the more “interesting” meat selections. Thais like sweets, and sweet drinks, and they put sugar in almost everything, including soup! It is offered as a condiment like salt or fish sauce. Yesterday, I had such a sugar high all day that I crashed at 8 p.m. and slept until morning.

Much to the girls’ delight, we were able to go for an elephant ride (we are such tourists!), but I also enjoyed it, especially when I got to sit on the elephant’s neck and scratch his bristly head.

We stayed the night in Samut Sakhon, in little guest cottages on the river – so peaceful after Bangkok! I can imagine living there, taking a canoe to the market… a simple life.

We spent Saturday at Ayuthaya – ruins of temples from approximately 700+ years ago. The contrast with the temples of Mrauk U in Burma was interesting – most bear more resemblance to the Khmer style in Cambodia. Then I learned that the Burmese burned the whole place to the ground (after taking all the gold) around 1769 when they invaded Thailand (then Siam). The Thais are still miffed about that.

Bangkok Dangerous?

Well, maybe for your diet, or your wallet. Today we all went to the Royal Palace - pretty much the main tourist attraction in Bangkok. Hordes of tourists. I still can't get used to it after Burma. But going to the other side of the city was practice for getting the public transport system wired, and I managed to get back to my hotel without a taxi, just taking the water taxi, an elevated train, then the underground, then a moped taxi for the 2k to my hotel (that was scary!). After touring the Royal Palace, we did what everybody does and went to see the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. It was quite impressive, despite the million cameras pointed in every direction (not much reflection or praying going on in front of this Buddha). For dinner we somehow ended up at anther huge shopping mall - they house the best food courts, which are a fast and inexpensive eating option. Since there are 6 of us, it makes it easy for everyone to get something they want to try - a lot of the food is new to the Hings. It is Christmas Day, and the mall was packed and loud. While the Thais "celebrate" Christmas, being that they are a nation that is 95% Buddhist, on this "holiday" they still go to school, work and shop. Ed's explanation is that Thais adopt popular holidays from other cultures as they like any excuse to have a party and eat. It's been great having Ed as an unofficial tour guide, especially for giving me insight into Thai culture. Anna and Julika Hing - ages 13 and 10, are really taking to the place - I am impressed at their adventurous spirits!

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve here, but it couldn't feel less like Christmas. They do celebrate Christmas in Thailand (which is largely a Buddhist country) but due to the economic downturn, there are less Christmas displays, lights, etc. In the malls Christmas music is played at loud volume, but that's about it. I wish all of you out there in the colder parts of the world a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Today I did finally meet up with Paul and Birgit- my friends from Germany who are here on holiday, their daughters, Anna and Julika, and Ed, our friend and unofficial tour guide. We did some more shopping and eating together, seeing yet another huge mall in the Central Shopping District. Later we met up with some of Ed's friends and 10 of us went to dinner at a no-name local place away from the center, where the bill for our feast amount to only about $20. It was fun getting to see more of a local scene. After that we went for foot massages, as we didn't have time for the full ones. Massage is an integral part of every day life, it seems and is very affordable - about $10 for 2 hours. Nice!

Culture Shock

So in the matter of a few days I have gone from a remote corner of Northwestern Burma (see last post) to a bustling metropolis called Bangkok. I am still reeling....

My last day in Rangoon was spent with errands, packing, eating...eating...eating... then back to the incongruous sleek modern airport, where I saw my French friends again (we were on the same flight to Bangkok). My hotel in Bangkok is away from the center, in an area close to the home of friends I will be visiting. It is mostly empty, save for a few Thai businessmen, and they don't know what to make of me, or why I am there (then I realized that the hotel is directly behind an "entertainment" club, and I feel weird; I may change hotels). After the pot-holed streets and the traveling heaps that pass for taxis in Yangon (no seat belts, windows stuck open, holes in the floor or doors), everything seems sleek and modern, and well, familiar. I guess I didn't know what to expect. Something closer to Yangon, I guess.

I spent the day hitting the main central shopping center to get a cell phone and some books. I found myself in one after another huge Western-style malls. All the designers were represented (I steered clear), and there were so many mouth watering restaurants, I couldn't choose. I see that eating is going to be a problem here in Thailand too!

Don't Inhale

It’s not all lovely and picturesque… Walking down the main road in Sittwe in the morning, my senses are assaulted by the acrid dust, the wood smoke and the noxious smells backing out of the sewer. The morning chorus is the clearing of lungs, perhaps due to the daily inhalation of dust, but I just can’t get used to the guttural sound and the resultant spitting. On the other side of the street I saw a man kick a puppy, and all I could do was give him a dirty look, unable to lay into him in his own language and tell him to pick on someone his own size. Most dogs are emaciated and suffer from mange. The majority of the people on the street- and there are many – are filthy. And they all stared at us, like they had never seen a foreigner before. At first it was quaint but then became downright annoying to not be able to walk down the street unmolested. This scenario is in contrast to Rangoon where only a few people will turn and look, while the majority can’t be bothered. In Sittwe, we were also pursued by more beggars than I have ever encountered in Burma and a few children became quite aggressive, following us for over a kilometer and throwing pebbles at Anne to get her attention.

Other images are typical of Burma: orange-robed monks carrying black alms bowls walk single file down the street, men carry two square cooking oil cans filled with water balanced on a stick (many people don’t have running water and carry their water form the town well); trishaws drivers in longyi and conical rattan hats. I am afraid it would all look like a big jumble in a photograph. A stroll through town invites a thousand stares, and the friendly “Hello!!” is sometimes replaced with something less innocuous (although I am not sure they even know what they are saying). I started to ignore one and all. I wondered how, in a town that undoubtedly sees many tourists, did I warrant such extreme curiosity? Especially after I saw a cowboy on a bicycle and no one gave him a sideways glance! It was a Burmese man, but still… he was dressed head to toe in yellow-gold American cowboy garb (hat, vest, jeans and boots), and had on modern sunglasses on top of that!