Spent the weekend on the beaches in the southwestern tip of the island. I was at a bungalow on the edge of one of the beaches for just 300 bhat a nite (yes, that's roughly almost $8). Granted it wasn't the Hilton, but it was just ten yards from the ocean, with waves crashing so loud against the rocks that I needed earplugs to sleep. Accomodations were just a bed with mosquito net, toilet, sink and showerhead.
An interesting site was to look out into the open sea at night. One would think to just see darkness, but the whole skyline was illuminated by fishing boats, working hard to bring the fresh catch to Red Lobster the next morning.
Photos will be coming soon. I'm waiting for high-speed Internet to be hooked up at the house. It should've happened two weekends ago, but Thai time moves in mysterious ways.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Wat Thep Khachonchit
I made it to my first wat (Buddhist temple) and just in time! After about fifteen minutes of picture taking, a serious rainfall started. I was able to run away from the temple while my shoes were still dry. (Shoes must not be worn in buildings with a Buddha) I sought shelter inside the neighboring temple that is under construction.
It's been about thirty minutes with no sign of letting up. There are make-shift apartments in this area - aluminum siding are used for walls. I see about eight units, but there are probably more. There is electricity. In fact, one of the units has the TV blaring some Thai soap opera and a stereo blasting some rock-n-roll at the same time. No one minds my presence here, they just go about their business.
Dogs, chickens and cats roam the area. Unwanted animals get dropped off by people, and the monks take them in as family. The monks will not kill any animals, but sometimes this is an unfortunate thing. Debbie has seen dogs with distemper or other terminal illnesses that just linger around in pain.
The monks are in the temple; the last I saw, they were eating. One of the monks was showing me around the temple, encouraging me to walk around and take photos. He took me underneath the temple that is under construction and showed me the pieces that get put up on the rooftop. They are solid pieces of metal, painted gold and red and are very heavy. He then led me to the prayer room, library, and up to the statue. While I was photographing the Buddha, the monk disappeared. Within moments, it started to rain.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Rainy Monday
I woke up Monday morning to a slight drizzle of rain. This kinda put a damper on making it down to the Internet Cafe. After seeing a break (birds were chirping, that means the rain is over, right?), I dashed down to Mae Porn for some Pad Thai and Thai iced tea. The plan was just to have a quick lunch, then head down to the neighborhood market area for the afternoon.
As I was eating my noodles, the rain came back with a fury. I didn't bother to bring any raingear (from the States or from the house), so I figured to wait out the storm. I was intending on getting something else to eat, but Anon (the waitress who has been Eric & Debbie's ace in the hole for information and translation) "talked" me into having a beer. She said that since the temperature was cooler, I should have a beer. I couldn't argue with her.
Meanwhile, I noticed the teevee was playing a familiar program. On the Spike network in America, they air a game show... maybe from Japan... that consists of goofy people doing goofy games like a person on a slide that goes along a ledge and the objective is to stop the slide before being dumped into a pond. Another is an obstacle course where people are supposed to go thru covered doors of abandoned buildings, avoiding mud pits and an oversized caricature of a samurai behind some doors . The audio wasn't in Thai and definitely not in English, like the Spike Channel. I did gather that the two commentators make silly comments about the contestants.
As I was eating my noodles, the rain came back with a fury. I didn't bother to bring any raingear (from the States or from the house), so I figured to wait out the storm. I was intending on getting something else to eat, but Anon (the waitress who has been Eric & Debbie's ace in the hole for information and translation) "talked" me into having a beer. She said that since the temperature was cooler, I should have a beer. I couldn't argue with her.
Meanwhile, I noticed the teevee was playing a familiar program. On the Spike network in America, they air a game show... maybe from Japan... that consists of goofy people doing goofy games like a person on a slide that goes along a ledge and the objective is to stop the slide before being dumped into a pond. Another is an obstacle course where people are supposed to go thru covered doors of abandoned buildings, avoiding mud pits and an oversized caricature of a samurai behind some doors . The audio wasn't in Thai and definitely not in English, like the Spike Channel. I did gather that the two commentators make silly comments about the contestants.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
The eagle has landed!
After 28 hours consisting of four airports (SFO, Taipei, Bangkok and Phuket) and three airplanes, my new life finally begins! Everything went smoothly, no delays or bad weather and most importantly, no lost luggage.
I was quite satisfied with EVA airlines. The flite from Taipei to Bangkok had individual TV screens with various video games, teevee shows, movies, music to choose from. The only unsatisfying thing being the in-flight meals. Being a Taiwanese airline, I presume that the meals were samples of Taiwanese cuisine. There was a flaky pastry with flourescent-red pork products, rice porridge (not bad, but not too flavorful) and peanuts fried with sardines, to name a few of the items.
Leaving SF in the middle of the nite was a great idea. I managed to get enough sleep over the Pacific Ocean, so that by the time I arrived into Taipei (5AM local), it seemed as though I didn't miss a day or mess up the internal clock. Of course, I took a few naps along the way, but by the time I touchdowned into Phuket (5PM local), I felt as though I could stay up long enough into the evening that jetlag wasn't an issue.
Within a couple of minutes of stepping outside of Phuket's airport, my friends from the Peace Corps days (Debbie and Eric) picked me up in a tuk-tuk (open-air taxi). It had just rained, so it felt like a humid, 85 degree afternoon, slightly cooler than current NOLA conditions. It's the tail-end of the rainy season. My time in NOLA did well to prepare my for this time of year. The ocean breezes do a lot to cool things down.
They took me to their house in Phuket Town, the SE corner of the island. It's a modest, one-story house with two bedrooms and baths, spacious living room, kitchen, open courtyard and carport (inhabited by two scooters). I say modest because there are rows of two-story houses and Mercedes Benz cars and SUVs in the 'hood (a middle-class area).
For my first meal in Thailand, we went to a place a couple blocks away from their house: Mae Porn. No, the servers are not walking around wearing thongs, serving food with a "massage". It's a delicious seafood/curry spot that made it's way into the Lonely Planet guidebook. Chicken with cashews in a spicy tamarind curry. Marigold leaves and stalks with chili peppers (similar in taste to snow pea leaves). Fried fish with sweet/sour sauce. Quite a flavor sensation, especially since it cost about $7 with a couple rounds of Singha beer for three!
An early bedtime led to an early wake-up: 7 AM (Debbie and Eric were also suffering the same consequences of global travel, coming back from a holiday in the States). We walked to a breakfast spot for iced coffee and an omelette with diced curry chicken and sauce.
The sun was shining, so we went down to the beach. It's the low season, so there weren't many tourists, maybe ten people including us. The sands were generally clean, with occasional broken glass. For the most part, these shards of glass have been smoothed by the ocean waves - just like how rocks get smoothed down in beaches everywhere. The water was warm and very blue, in three tones to denote depth. Eric says that the water is much cleaner than before the tsunami. The waves are quite strong, which, for a non-swimmer like me means that I'll only be going ten meters offshore, if I'm lucky. (Strong riptides might me the end of me if I'm unlucky.)
Traffic can be intense at times. It's not about bumper-to-bumper congestion. Scooters and small-engine motorcycles are very common, sometimes dominating an intersection at a red light. Traffic flows along the left side of the roads, so I've got to make the adjustment of looking right-left-right before crossing the street, lest I get smacked by an oncoming scooter. Fortunately, everyone's used to everyone else driving erratically, so there's a sense of defensive driving. What this usually means is that drivers will swerve across the center line or take the shoulder on the left or scooters will ride three-deep in one lane to pass slow traffic, merging traffic and those about to turn off. What's good is that high speeds are not common because people are trying to conserve gas (or rather, reduce the number of times they have to buy gasoline - a mindset that has yet to become common-place in America). Top speeds are usually at 45 mph.
The adventure has just begun...
I was quite satisfied with EVA airlines. The flite from Taipei to Bangkok had individual TV screens with various video games, teevee shows, movies, music to choose from. The only unsatisfying thing being the in-flight meals. Being a Taiwanese airline, I presume that the meals were samples of Taiwanese cuisine. There was a flaky pastry with flourescent-red pork products, rice porridge (not bad, but not too flavorful) and peanuts fried with sardines, to name a few of the items.
Leaving SF in the middle of the nite was a great idea. I managed to get enough sleep over the Pacific Ocean, so that by the time I arrived into Taipei (5AM local), it seemed as though I didn't miss a day or mess up the internal clock. Of course, I took a few naps along the way, but by the time I touchdowned into Phuket (5PM local), I felt as though I could stay up long enough into the evening that jetlag wasn't an issue.
Within a couple of minutes of stepping outside of Phuket's airport, my friends from the Peace Corps days (Debbie and Eric) picked me up in a tuk-tuk (open-air taxi). It had just rained, so it felt like a humid, 85 degree afternoon, slightly cooler than current NOLA conditions. It's the tail-end of the rainy season. My time in NOLA did well to prepare my for this time of year. The ocean breezes do a lot to cool things down.
They took me to their house in Phuket Town, the SE corner of the island. It's a modest, one-story house with two bedrooms and baths, spacious living room, kitchen, open courtyard and carport (inhabited by two scooters). I say modest because there are rows of two-story houses and Mercedes Benz cars and SUVs in the 'hood (a middle-class area).
For my first meal in Thailand, we went to a place a couple blocks away from their house: Mae Porn. No, the servers are not walking around wearing thongs, serving food with a "massage". It's a delicious seafood/curry spot that made it's way into the Lonely Planet guidebook. Chicken with cashews in a spicy tamarind curry. Marigold leaves and stalks with chili peppers (similar in taste to snow pea leaves). Fried fish with sweet/sour sauce. Quite a flavor sensation, especially since it cost about $7 with a couple rounds of Singha beer for three!
An early bedtime led to an early wake-up: 7 AM (Debbie and Eric were also suffering the same consequences of global travel, coming back from a holiday in the States). We walked to a breakfast spot for iced coffee and an omelette with diced curry chicken and sauce.
The sun was shining, so we went down to the beach. It's the low season, so there weren't many tourists, maybe ten people including us. The sands were generally clean, with occasional broken glass. For the most part, these shards of glass have been smoothed by the ocean waves - just like how rocks get smoothed down in beaches everywhere. The water was warm and very blue, in three tones to denote depth. Eric says that the water is much cleaner than before the tsunami. The waves are quite strong, which, for a non-swimmer like me means that I'll only be going ten meters offshore, if I'm lucky. (Strong riptides might me the end of me if I'm unlucky.)
Traffic can be intense at times. It's not about bumper-to-bumper congestion. Scooters and small-engine motorcycles are very common, sometimes dominating an intersection at a red light. Traffic flows along the left side of the roads, so I've got to make the adjustment of looking right-left-right before crossing the street, lest I get smacked by an oncoming scooter. Fortunately, everyone's used to everyone else driving erratically, so there's a sense of defensive driving. What this usually means is that drivers will swerve across the center line or take the shoulder on the left or scooters will ride three-deep in one lane to pass slow traffic, merging traffic and those about to turn off. What's good is that high speeds are not common because people are trying to conserve gas (or rather, reduce the number of times they have to buy gasoline - a mindset that has yet to become common-place in America). Top speeds are usually at 45 mph.
The adventure has just begun...
Thursday, August 18, 2005
final days in America
Ahhh, this trip to San Francisco has been fun, despite not being able to bike up in the trails and hills of California. I've managed to eat two burritos, two chimichangas, one cheeseburger Animal-style at In-N-Out (should've ordered two), visit Wine Country, attend a wine and chocolate tasting, pool party in the South Bay, see the White Stripes in Berekely's Greek Theater, and logged in many happy hours.
Just a few more days and I'm outta here!
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