One hour left in Bangkok
And with this last hour I'll post a bit on my last days here in Thailand. A lot of loose ends shall hopefully be incorporated here. I'm snacking on shrimp chips and a cold green tea bought from the ever-present 7-11 here. I realized a moment ago that eating chips while typing intermittently in a net cafe frequented by thousands of people daily, is probably not the most hygienic thing to do, especially since swine flu has been running rampant through Bangkok for the last month or two. Lots of people are wearing masks, and nearly every handful of people has a throaty, phlegm-filled cougher in their midst. Anyway, I've folded up my bag of chips and hope that I don't get sick.
The last couple days have been a lot of fun, and strangely emblematic of a distrubing, very American, fact. Looks like money *can* buy a very decent replica of happiness, at least for two days. Being in Thailand is like being rich, in a way. It's a small experiment of what it would be like to buy and have nearly anything you want, when you want it. I've eaten a LOT. Probably at least 15 meals a day, to be conservative. And I've bought quite a few things, all my regular guilty pleasures here, books, tee-shirts and tank tops (La Coste imitations), and all the rest of the stuff I mentioned. It's glorious, it's fun...it's very strange...
So Wednesday I headed out for the MBK mall, which is a huge multi-level shopping center with lots of small stalls throughout it. It reminded me a bit of the technology mall I went to in Taipei. I picked up a 2 gigabyte memory card for my camera, for less than $9 USD. About the regular going rate anyway, from a reputable Canon store. That gave me about 2,000 photos (much more than the roughly 400 I had throughout the trip)...oh well, quality versus quantity, perhaps.
While at the mall I went about the main orders of business [Can you believe it, the same guys who were here last night talking in high nasal voices just walked in and are right behind me talking again.]...Anyway, my main orders of business were a haircut and some other vanity-esque activities, which are hard to do in Baghdad. I got a 500 baht (extremely expensive by Thai standards) haircut at the Loreal salon. It was by-far my most interesting haircut, trumping the student cut experience I had in Paris by just a smidge. I was taken to a big comfy leather chair station to get my hair washed by an extravagance of shampoo, conditioner, and other very moisture-filled substances. The lady washing my hair had long nails that somewhat painfully scratched up against my scalp. She handed me off to the stylist, who proceeded to cut and layer my hair without any of those clips typically used. He snipped away using this airy artsy fringe style, cutting upwards as opposed to across. I was a bit skeptical. When he was done, these two women came and attacked my head with blowdryers, straightening it with gusto. I grimaced multiple times, considering the option of telling them to stop because I rarely blowdry my hair and was very put off by its frying up close and personal...I wasn't trying to impress anyone. But I decided to allow the Thai experiment to continue. When they had finished, my hair looked like one of those black straight shiny wigs they sell in costume shops. The stylist came back and seemed to use the now-dry hair as a cheat sheet to see how even a job he'd done with his airy brush stroke cuts. He snipped a bit more, and then he was all done. I felt strangely svelte in the haircut, and walked shyly up to the counter, and paid them. About 20 minutes was all the swishing I could withstand, and I gathered up my locks and tied them up in a ponytail. But actually, after a day or so, the cut isn't so bad, and I'm giving my hair some time to heal from the high-heat torture.
After my morning of vanity purchases, I bought that memory card. When I asked the salesman about where to grab a good cheap lunch he described a very complicated location. I stared at him blankly, and so he said he needed to grab food too anyway, and took me over. I got a chicken noodle-esque soup, which what appeared to be a ton of MSG. And for desert had some milky ice cream with dates and some unidentified murky white jelly on top of it, as well as some cruchy yellowish stuff sprinkled on it. It was delicious.
Then it was off to the movie theater for me. I got a ticket for a double feature: "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Bolt Thief" followed by "Avatar," which I have wanted to watch for months, but held off watching the hajji version since they don't include 3D. I had about 30 minutes to kill before the movie and so went to a karaoke booth and sang/listened to Newton Faulkner's "Dream Catch Me" and "Life for Rent" by Dido. Apparently, "Avatar" had just arrived to the theater that very day, so I was in luck. Both films were fun, though I loved "Avatar" and was merely entertained by "PJ&TLBT" (I thought the acting in the latter was a bit sub-par to be honest). Those theaters, though, are FREEZING. You reserve seats in each of the theaters and you are not allowed in until moments before the film's previews start. There are about 20-30 minutes of previews and right before the film the entire audience must rise to listen to a song glorifying and honoring Thailand and their king (I do believe it is the national anthem), while watching a pictorial of the king at different points in his life. He's been the ruler for decades now and is in his 80s, apparently, with failing health, but he is revered and worshipped by the Thais. Prior to every film this ceremony is observed.
A quick run down of some snacks I had prior to, during, and between the films. I had mango ice, sashimi, miso soup, popcorn and a coke. On the way back to my hotel I got a mango sticky rice from a street cart, and then called it a night.
This morning I headed out about mid-day for my first order of business...a massage. After all, it was my last day. The masseuse began to massage me and about 10 minutes in she asked me how old I was.
"25," I said.
"Oh, 25? You sixy," she responded.
"No, I'm 25, how old are you?"
"Sixy, sixy, you."
"You're sixty? 16?"
"I'm 43," she said. "Sexy, you're sexy. Lots of gays. Thailand. I gay. Madam."
I stared at her. Was she hitting on me? She kept massaging innocuously.
"Oh, gay, okay." I said.
And then we were silent. We chatted a bit about where I was from, where she was from...and that was that. She looked a lot younger than 43, but not 16.
After the massage I got some Pad Thai from a food cart in front of the hotel, picked up some cold green tea at 7-11, then hailed a cab to head over to Siam Paragon, Bangkok's glitziest and newest mall.
The ground floor has a canal, water flowing through much of it, and is almost entirely dedicated to food. In honor of Chinese New Year there was even more food, and extra special food stalls. I was sorry I'd already eaten, but ready to make room. To start I got a green tea ice cream, then a green tea with red bean ice slush, then I got a red bean stick rice custard in bamboo (which is apparently a Thai countryside special that rarely comes to the big city). After that I got coconut ice cream with some coconut juice. By then I was feeling quite full. I meandered about the mall wide eyed at all the aisles with "gourmet" foods and relatively expensive items. It was like being in a gigantic Thai Whole Foods at certain points. I saw some amazing Dr. Scholls special footbed sandals that felt like I was walking on a feather, but they were roughly $60 USD! Then I went up to the department store area and saw an amazing chair that I will buy one day because my back felt so very perfect in it. I took pictures of it and took a brochure with me, but it looks like it'll cost me about $600 USD...After strolling about for a while I stopped in a music shop to get a couple Thai CDs to remind me of my time here. I love collecting foreign music while traveling because it gives you back a sense of time and place when you listen to it later. From there I went to the bookstore, which is the largest English bookstore in Bangkok, or perhaps Thailand...I bought three books, because I was nearly done with the third and last of the books I had with me. Then I walked over to a coffee shop nearby and got a cold green tea twist, or something like that (sense a trend?). I read for a while with my drink, then did some more walking around. The mall had "Avatar" on 3-D IMAX, which made me feel like I should have perhaps waited to see it, but it was also more than twice as expensive (the other film cost me less than $5 USD). After walking around a bit more, I went downstairs to grab dinner...I got a duck Tom Yum soup with noodles, a coke, then had another green tea with red bean ice to top it off. Then it was back to the hordes of traffic in a taxi. It was about 8:30 p.m., and since I had some time to spare before having to pick up my stuff at 10 p.m., I stopped over for a foot massage. My feet had been aching with all the walking...and the hour-long massage was spectacular. On my way back to the D&D Inn, which is where I had been staying, I got a cup of sweet corn...mmmm...I picked up some other snacks at 7-11, got my luggage and came up here. I've got nine minutes left on the net...then I've got to head down to the lobby to catch the bus to the airport. My Emirates flight to Dubai leaves at 2:25 a.m., and I get into town there at about 6 a.m. Then I will take public transport into town and hope I can check in early (maybe 8 a.m.). I hope I sleep on tonight's flight and don't get distracted by all the awesome movies/shoes/food on the Emirates flight. They are great to fly with during waking hours...
Okay, gotta run. Sorry for the very quick rundown. When I'm in Dubai hopefully I'll get to go up to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. I've already got my ticket for 5 p.m. Friday, but apparently about a week or two ago the building was closed to such visits indefinitely. If I don't get to go up, I'll go get my refund...I'll let you know what happens. After a night in Dubai, I've got to be back at the airport at 5 a.m. Feb. 20 to catch my flight to Baghdad. So much for sleep.
Love,
IJW
The last couple days have been a lot of fun, and strangely emblematic of a distrubing, very American, fact. Looks like money *can* buy a very decent replica of happiness, at least for two days. Being in Thailand is like being rich, in a way. It's a small experiment of what it would be like to buy and have nearly anything you want, when you want it. I've eaten a LOT. Probably at least 15 meals a day, to be conservative. And I've bought quite a few things, all my regular guilty pleasures here, books, tee-shirts and tank tops (La Coste imitations), and all the rest of the stuff I mentioned. It's glorious, it's fun...it's very strange...
So Wednesday I headed out for the MBK mall, which is a huge multi-level shopping center with lots of small stalls throughout it. It reminded me a bit of the technology mall I went to in Taipei. I picked up a 2 gigabyte memory card for my camera, for less than $9 USD. About the regular going rate anyway, from a reputable Canon store. That gave me about 2,000 photos (much more than the roughly 400 I had throughout the trip)...oh well, quality versus quantity, perhaps.
While at the mall I went about the main orders of business [Can you believe it, the same guys who were here last night talking in high nasal voices just walked in and are right behind me talking again.]...Anyway, my main orders of business were a haircut and some other vanity-esque activities, which are hard to do in Baghdad. I got a 500 baht (extremely expensive by Thai standards) haircut at the Loreal salon. It was by-far my most interesting haircut, trumping the student cut experience I had in Paris by just a smidge. I was taken to a big comfy leather chair station to get my hair washed by an extravagance of shampoo, conditioner, and other very moisture-filled substances. The lady washing my hair had long nails that somewhat painfully scratched up against my scalp. She handed me off to the stylist, who proceeded to cut and layer my hair without any of those clips typically used. He snipped away using this airy artsy fringe style, cutting upwards as opposed to across. I was a bit skeptical. When he was done, these two women came and attacked my head with blowdryers, straightening it with gusto. I grimaced multiple times, considering the option of telling them to stop because I rarely blowdry my hair and was very put off by its frying up close and personal...I wasn't trying to impress anyone. But I decided to allow the Thai experiment to continue. When they had finished, my hair looked like one of those black straight shiny wigs they sell in costume shops. The stylist came back and seemed to use the now-dry hair as a cheat sheet to see how even a job he'd done with his airy brush stroke cuts. He snipped a bit more, and then he was all done. I felt strangely svelte in the haircut, and walked shyly up to the counter, and paid them. About 20 minutes was all the swishing I could withstand, and I gathered up my locks and tied them up in a ponytail. But actually, after a day or so, the cut isn't so bad, and I'm giving my hair some time to heal from the high-heat torture.
After my morning of vanity purchases, I bought that memory card. When I asked the salesman about where to grab a good cheap lunch he described a very complicated location. I stared at him blankly, and so he said he needed to grab food too anyway, and took me over. I got a chicken noodle-esque soup, which what appeared to be a ton of MSG. And for desert had some milky ice cream with dates and some unidentified murky white jelly on top of it, as well as some cruchy yellowish stuff sprinkled on it. It was delicious.
Then it was off to the movie theater for me. I got a ticket for a double feature: "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Bolt Thief" followed by "Avatar," which I have wanted to watch for months, but held off watching the hajji version since they don't include 3D. I had about 30 minutes to kill before the movie and so went to a karaoke booth and sang/listened to Newton Faulkner's "Dream Catch Me" and "Life for Rent" by Dido. Apparently, "Avatar" had just arrived to the theater that very day, so I was in luck. Both films were fun, though I loved "Avatar" and was merely entertained by "PJ&TLBT" (I thought the acting in the latter was a bit sub-par to be honest). Those theaters, though, are FREEZING. You reserve seats in each of the theaters and you are not allowed in until moments before the film's previews start. There are about 20-30 minutes of previews and right before the film the entire audience must rise to listen to a song glorifying and honoring Thailand and their king (I do believe it is the national anthem), while watching a pictorial of the king at different points in his life. He's been the ruler for decades now and is in his 80s, apparently, with failing health, but he is revered and worshipped by the Thais. Prior to every film this ceremony is observed.
A quick run down of some snacks I had prior to, during, and between the films. I had mango ice, sashimi, miso soup, popcorn and a coke. On the way back to my hotel I got a mango sticky rice from a street cart, and then called it a night.
This morning I headed out about mid-day for my first order of business...a massage. After all, it was my last day. The masseuse began to massage me and about 10 minutes in she asked me how old I was.
"25," I said.
"Oh, 25? You sixy," she responded.
"No, I'm 25, how old are you?"
"Sixy, sixy, you."
"You're sixty? 16?"
"I'm 43," she said. "Sexy, you're sexy. Lots of gays. Thailand. I gay. Madam."
I stared at her. Was she hitting on me? She kept massaging innocuously.
"Oh, gay, okay." I said.
And then we were silent. We chatted a bit about where I was from, where she was from...and that was that. She looked a lot younger than 43, but not 16.
After the massage I got some Pad Thai from a food cart in front of the hotel, picked up some cold green tea at 7-11, then hailed a cab to head over to Siam Paragon, Bangkok's glitziest and newest mall.
The ground floor has a canal, water flowing through much of it, and is almost entirely dedicated to food. In honor of Chinese New Year there was even more food, and extra special food stalls. I was sorry I'd already eaten, but ready to make room. To start I got a green tea ice cream, then a green tea with red bean ice slush, then I got a red bean stick rice custard in bamboo (which is apparently a Thai countryside special that rarely comes to the big city). After that I got coconut ice cream with some coconut juice. By then I was feeling quite full. I meandered about the mall wide eyed at all the aisles with "gourmet" foods and relatively expensive items. It was like being in a gigantic Thai Whole Foods at certain points. I saw some amazing Dr. Scholls special footbed sandals that felt like I was walking on a feather, but they were roughly $60 USD! Then I went up to the department store area and saw an amazing chair that I will buy one day because my back felt so very perfect in it. I took pictures of it and took a brochure with me, but it looks like it'll cost me about $600 USD...After strolling about for a while I stopped in a music shop to get a couple Thai CDs to remind me of my time here. I love collecting foreign music while traveling because it gives you back a sense of time and place when you listen to it later. From there I went to the bookstore, which is the largest English bookstore in Bangkok, or perhaps Thailand...I bought three books, because I was nearly done with the third and last of the books I had with me. Then I walked over to a coffee shop nearby and got a cold green tea twist, or something like that (sense a trend?). I read for a while with my drink, then did some more walking around. The mall had "Avatar" on 3-D IMAX, which made me feel like I should have perhaps waited to see it, but it was also more than twice as expensive (the other film cost me less than $5 USD). After walking around a bit more, I went downstairs to grab dinner...I got a duck Tom Yum soup with noodles, a coke, then had another green tea with red bean ice to top it off. Then it was back to the hordes of traffic in a taxi. It was about 8:30 p.m., and since I had some time to spare before having to pick up my stuff at 10 p.m., I stopped over for a foot massage. My feet had been aching with all the walking...and the hour-long massage was spectacular. On my way back to the D&D Inn, which is where I had been staying, I got a cup of sweet corn...mmmm...I picked up some other snacks at 7-11, got my luggage and came up here. I've got nine minutes left on the net...then I've got to head down to the lobby to catch the bus to the airport. My Emirates flight to Dubai leaves at 2:25 a.m., and I get into town there at about 6 a.m. Then I will take public transport into town and hope I can check in early (maybe 8 a.m.). I hope I sleep on tonight's flight and don't get distracted by all the awesome movies/shoes/food on the Emirates flight. They are great to fly with during waking hours...
Okay, gotta run. Sorry for the very quick rundown. When I'm in Dubai hopefully I'll get to go up to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. I've already got my ticket for 5 p.m. Friday, but apparently about a week or two ago the building was closed to such visits indefinitely. If I don't get to go up, I'll go get my refund...I'll let you know what happens. After a night in Dubai, I've got to be back at the airport at 5 a.m. Feb. 20 to catch my flight to Baghdad. So much for sleep.
Love,
IJW
posted by IJW at 9:14 PM
1 Comments:
Your adventure continues, sounds like a busy next 36 hours or so. Love the blog, and hearing about all your sightseeing and daily food intake! :-)
--Nino
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