This is Thai Culture

On Sunday Jennifer and I joined the Thai family we meet for their trip to the market. I did not catch the father and mothers names, but their daughter is Aom and their son is Tii. For the sake of this post ill refer to their father as "Ajan", which means teacher.
They picked us up from the end of our Soi (side street) and drove a good deal into the country side. Parts of it just looked like areas of Florida. Ajan was very keen on pointing out different things on the way and Aom and Tii were able to answer almost any question Jennifer and I had about Thailand.

When we arrived at the market, their dad was quite excited. He definitely took us to a Thai market because i think i saw only one other white person there, and he was with a thai person himself. Durring the entire time there Ajan would point around generally, or to specific things and say "this is thai culture" he was a man proud of his heritage and country.

Upon entering the market we saw a man who made snacks out of sugar. But these werent merely candy, they were art. He took the sugars, and created animal figurines out of them. Ajan bought Jennifer a monkey that had caught a fish.

This market probably had more fresh food in once place than i had ever seen. There were piles of fruits, and cauldrons of meats cooking.

Ajan and his family selected some of their favorite foods to share with me and Jennifer. The sales people were all so nice and often gave us free samples.
If we responded positively to a food, Ajan would buy enough of it for the whole family and us. We were going to eat it all on a river cruise. It was hard to get Ajan to NOT buy food if we looked at it too closely.

On the boat, I realized that Tii and his Mom had also been buying food for lunch. The family set out a Thai feast before us and all 6 of us went to town as the boat pulled away from the market.

I'm not even sure of everything i ate, it was really just an explosion of flavors, after flavors. My favorite had to be the fish/coconut mash that was cooked in banana leaves. It was just phet (spicy) enough to make me need rice (sticky rice works better than water at making the mouth feel better), but not too phet to make me freak out.
My least favorite had to be the corn. Coming from Wisconsin and going to school in Nebraska, I know what i like in corn, and Thai corn was just bland. However, that was the only item of the day that I did not enjoy.

The river was as beautiful as expected. Along the banks the houses would switch from poor thai villages with tin roofs, to western style mansions, to traditional thai houses.


Near the end of the voyage a long boat pulled up alongside us and threw a rope aboard. Was it pirates?! Where they holding up the boat?! No, it was just the friendly neighborhood icecream boat.
They served up some wonderful coconut ice cream, and then went on their way.

Our voyage ended, and as we left through the market Ajan still bought fruit for us. He had me try a Thai orange. I told him earlier than i hadnt had any Thai oranges because we have oranges in the USA and I wanted to try new things. Well, the Thai orange was the best tasting orange i have ever had. In fact this trip to the market was like my tongue learning how to taste for the first time. It was like that part in The Giver when he first sees color.

On the way home, Ajan and Tii continued to give us advice about thailand, and Ajan continued trying admirably to pronounce my name. (the sh sound is very hard for thai people. they seem to prefer to call me jack). Ajan said we should visit him again sometime and we promised to do so.

"No Photo or Vdo"

This weekend has been one of wandering Bangkoks markets. On Saturday Steve, Clint, Ashon Jennifer and I decided to travel to JJ Market (also known as Chatuchak Market). Later we met up there with Ashton and Will


Its hard for me to describe the gigantic size of this market. It is about half of the size of the summerfest grounds, and is so densely packed that there are 15000 different stalls of people selling wears. Yes, you read that correctly: Fifteen Thousand. It is overwhelming, so as is typical we just walked straight into the mess and got ourselves lost as quickly as possible and went from there. Walking into this market was similar to walking into a cornfield; a few steps and one turn later and you cant see the end. We wandered around finding everything for sale. There was beautiful artwork, wooden tablewares, tables, housewares, food (as there is always food in thailand), instruments, toys, Buddha Images, pets, and almost anything that you can buy anywhere in thailand. Clint ended up with boxers, and Jennifer with a bath mat at the end of the day, while I just ate a lot.
One of the most wonderful things about this wonderful place was the prices. Everything was at 'thai prices' or prices that things cost away from tourist attractions (and thai people know this and bargain down when they need to).

Eventually we wandered out of the market and onto a street. We walked down it and I almost passed a food vendor, until i noticed what he was selling. Bugs.


I know this is the moment you all have been waiting for. Getting to see the video of me and steve putting bugs into our mouths and chewing and swallowing. Unfortunately Jennifer has the video. But suffice to say, it was interesting. We started with some larva. They werent too bad: cruchy, but not that filling. Therefor I went back and got a cockroach. A thai man nearby told me to break open the back of it and then bite in. I did and there was an interesting, mashed potato/meaty taste to it. I would definitely try it again sometime.

As we walked along we saw what we thought was an entrance back into the market. We realized a bit later that we found a neighboring market that noone tells the tourists about. The majority of this market was for pets. And I dont think ive ever been in a place with so many animals. They had more puppies than a puppy farm (but well taken care of) they had more fish than an aquatic pet store (not counting the ones to be eaten in a different part of the market) They had turtles, squirrels, iguanas, parots, honey bees, marmosets, ducks, spidermonkies and meerkats, plus the odd Crocodile(after much debate Steve used his knowledge of reptilian dentistry to discern it was actually an alligator (upon writing this post we found out that steve was in fact wrong and it was a crocodile after all)).


You may notice that i dont have the picture proof of some of the more exotic animals i mentioned. That is because those shops had signs that said "No Photo or Vdo". At first this was confusing to us. We figured it wasnt because of PETA because most all of the animals were well taken care of. We decided most likely those animals were illegal to sell and own.

While trying to find our way out of the pet shop area we came to a dead end near a lot of roosters. We noticed a ring, and half wondered, half joked if it was for cockfighting. As we were about to turn around and leave we noticed 2 gentlemen both bringing their roosters to the arena.
And lo and behold those cocks went at eachother with ferocity. The talons were taped over so that they couldnt kill eachother (cant sell a dead rooster for much). It was actually very fascinating to watch.


After wandering the market for hours, getting lost and then finding our way again, we decided to take the subway across the city to go see the snake farm. Sadly when we arrived we were informed that the snake farm was closed. We saw a park nearby and decided go to check it out.
Some places have tai chi in the park, and Bangkok has...jazzercize. We saw a large group of people dancing in front of an instructor on stage, mirroring her dance moves. Needless to say we ran to join in.

(the tall one in back is will. hes really easy to find in a crowd here)

After that round of dancing we grabbed some food from vendors and took a leisurely walk around the park. Then the 2nd daily playing of the national anthem happened. 2 times a day the nation anthem plays outside and everyone who hears it stops what they are doing and listens. It was incredibly eerie and reminded me of the ImprovEverywhere Grand Central Freeze.
Once everyone started moving again we came to a spot where more people were lining up to dance. The start of the first song started by blaring "WELCOME TO THAILAND!" and then hundreds of people started to boggie in unison.


At this point we all started to feel a bit hungry (We of course had joined in on the second dance as well and burned a lot of calories), so we decided to go to KFC ("The spice in your life" according to their slogan here), however it wasnt the All-American meal one might expect.

In Thailand fast food is an expensive purchase, because the converted price is equal to american dollars, even though the general cost of food here is cheaper. The menu is different, having spicy chicken on rice and some other local flavors, and the fried chicken itself is a bit more spicy, like Popeye's is in teh USA.
The meal was served on porcelain plates, real glasses and real silverware. There are two soda options, pepsi and 7up. Thus far, i have not seen any Mountain Dew in Thailand. This is a constant struggle for me to cope with. Jennifer and I decided to split the Variety meal for 9 dollars (300 baht) so that we could sample most all of the menu. All in all it was quite delicious and I really could have used the free refill since some of the food was truely spicy.
At this point it was time to head back to our respective places of residence and we bid farewell to Ashton and Will at the train station.

Pictures 2 Continued

Apparently blogger only lets me put a certain number of pictures into one post.

In the clothing district all you can see from the road are the street shops. Behind all of those are storefronts for more shops.

If there was a professional sleeping competition, the people of bangkok would win. This was one of the more conventional ways we saw people asleep.

And here is one of the more impressive.

The landscape is crisscrossed with rivers and canals. The skyline is shared by skyscrapers, and religious buildings. You can see a white Chedi in the background here.

A closer view of that Chedi.

Many of the locals, especially the kids are eager to practice their English.

Ronald shows me the proper respect by giving me a Wai (pronounced why). Its only polite for me to wai back.

Grand Palace in the background, seen from the kings field, a place for bus parking and night markets when there are not festivals going on.

Clint, Jennifer, Steve and I accidentally snuck into the National Museum after it was closed when we were looking for a place to play takrow. We asked a worker to take our picture when we realized where we were.

Picture Post 2

Well today was a very eventful day, and I shall soon write a lengthy post on it, but I need to give you all pictures to feast your eyes upon and live vicariously through.

This is Jennifer, who you will probably be hearing more about as she makes a good travel companion. Shes always up for adventure, and when i asked her why thailand she gave my favorite answer: "culture shock".

One of the many saffron robed Buddhist monks who live in the city.

You really can buy anything here. This denture salesman is just a 3 minute walk from my classes.

Food stands abound here (which may be my favorite part of the city). These meats are not yet cooked, they get cooked right when you order them. They are then dipped in the cauldron of spicy goodness before being put in a bag for you to carry around as you eat them.

Nuns wear white robes and like the monks also have to shave their heads every full moon. Like laywomen, Nuns are also not allowed to touch monks or hand anything directly to them.


I get pretty excited when im about to eat at street restaurants.

I have a new appreciation for the musical urine town after a few times where i really needed a "haang nam" and had to pay to use it. ("haang" means room, "nam" means water)

Jaywalking (and other travel)

You may have noticed that my blog title is no longer "Bangkok Bound". I figured that now that I am here I am no longer bound, and I should make it something more cultural and less cheesy.
But why "Jaywalking Through Bangkok"? Well simply put, that's what we do. The Thai people seem to be experts on making their way through heavy traffic. Jaywalking, is almost an institution here, we do it on every road, right in front of cops.

Other ways that people navigate Bangkok is by the motorcycles for hire at the ends of most good sized Sois (Side roads). These people wear orange vests to differentiate themselves, and charge around 20 baht for a 5 minute ride.
Before comming to bangkok i had never actually rode on a motocycle before. Needless to say it was quite a harrowing experience. I bargain with the driver as to the price and destination. I then get on the back and hold on for dear life. It is important to remember to keep knees close to the cycle. At every stop light it looks as if there is a huge motorcycle gang. This is because the motorcycles operate under less traffic restrictions than a bicycle does in the USA. During traffic jams the bikes weave in and out of the cars, drive down the lane lines and even on the sidewalk.

Driving just as daredevilishly as the motorcycles is the tuktuks, although they are more challenging to bargain with. Tuktuks are the 3 wheeled bastard child of a motorcycle, taxi and a golf cart. Tuktuk drivers are notorious for the scams that they run. Amusingly the tuktuk drivers are very open about it if you call them on it and will talk to you at length about their business. The tuktuk drivers try to take their costumers to suit shops, gem stores and Travel Authorities. They often take people on a 'tour' of different temples and insist on taking the costumer to a shop that has a deal on this day. If a costumer stays in a shop for 15 minutes the tuktuk driver gets a gas card. Some tuktuk drivers who work with a shop for awhile will get up to 20% commission. They often work with a partner who is good at English to convince people to get in the tuktuk, often by standing outside of a tourist attraction and telling people that it is closed.

Other transportation in bangkok is taxis (always make sure that they turn on the meter, they try to charge a flat rate that is usually too high), the buses (that dont run on time, and i still have yet to figure out the routes) and water taxies (which i take across the river to school every day) and the sky-train which I take to the mall.

Buddah and Hospitality

Today, while Steve was in Islam in Thailand class (which he tells me has a smart, but boring professor, who is a Thai Islamic himself, active in the community), I took the opportunity to go out on my own. (dont worry i stayed in touristed areas that i knew to be safe). I wandered around the areas of the royal palace (i didnt go in because it was 350 baht, but i heard we get in free if we are in thammasat uniform) and Wat Pho (more on that later), I then go lost in a Wat and pet some kittens (there are a crazy amount of stray cats and dogs in bangkok, all incredibly well tempered, i havent had one growl, bark or threaten me in any way) and was able to ask a monk, in thai were to get back to the university.

Back at the the university, i met up with Jennifer and we decided to go adventuring together. We first went to Wat Poh. I forgot my camera, so when i get pictures from Jennifer ill have a whole photo essay of that place to share with you.
Wat Pho is a very large and famous Wat. Its fame comes from the massage school that it houses and the Reclining Buddha. The Buddha, is said to be very large, and hard to explain how big it is. I thought that most descriptions of it were rather hyperbolic. As Jennifer and I approached the buliding that houses this gargantuan Buddha, I had to make sure to censore myself from exclaiming "holy shit!". By way of comparison, The buddha was at least the lenghth of a basketball court and twice the height of the top of the backboards. The footprint was nearly the size of an average bedroom.
This was merely the centerpeice of a Temple complex full of hundreds of Buddhas, and intricate paintings, mosaics and archetecture.
After Wat Pho, we continued down the street, and ended up in Bangkoks famous flower market. I must say that we were to awestruck by the amount of color and blooms that we forgot to take pictures. It doesnt matter, because the picture would do it no justice.
When we neared a bridge over the river we saw a large white Chedi (spire) and headed towards it, to see more Wat architecture. We stopped in a beautiful park on the way to have a drink and relax our legs. From this point until we got back to the Appartment, we saw no other white people.
At the Chedi we heard the sounds of a band playing. We investigated and saw a middle school aged marching bad practicing (wats are often the center of their community, like early churches were. at Wat Pho we had seen a daycare learning center with students haveing a water balloon fight).
Continuing on we saw the Cross on top of a church. Haveing seen no other Christian Church in bangkok before, we went to investigate and found ourselves on the grounds of a catholic grade school. The Children were quite welcoming to us and invited me to shoot basketball with them (which i proceeded to embarass myself without hesitation) and later they brought out an MP3 player so we could have a dance party (i taught them the moonwalk and robot). They were all eager to teach us thai words and practice thier english. We probably sayed with them for a half hour.
We gained our bearings and found that we were actually on the road that we lived on, Auranamerin, but a few miles away. We started walking to see what the road had to offer. Among the intresting sites was some very inexpensive, and always delicious street vendor food. We also found that the areas under bridges were being put to good use. Bangkok was originally much like venice, Italy, with many canals. Now many are paved over, but there is still an abundace of waterways, so there is a plethora of bridges. as the bridges rise to a height tall enough for boats to pass under, the space between the bridge and the ground is put to good use. There are shops, playgrounds and a Muy Thai boxing gym under the bridges.
As we walked on, Jennifer and I stopped at a street restaurant (Which is a sit down restaurant that is under a tent) to eat. Here we had some delicious food, which i dont recall the name of. We were handed a menu in english, but i noticed that the thai people had much more extensive menu options to choose from. In thailand learning the language pays off.
We payed for our meal, which cost no more than a small dish from a street vendor in the more touristy areas, and went on our way. As we walked on we said hello to a thai family who were just starting to eat thier meal on a table they put on the sidewalk next to thier house. They invited us to join them, but haveing just eaten we declined. Further on, a gentelman of about 55 stoppped us to say hello and practice his english. We talked with them for a good lenghth of time. I find that Thai people are amused when i tell them in Thai that i cannot speak thier language, and it is often a good ice breaker. He told us good advice such as that the streets start to become a bit sketchy at 9pm. He then invited us to come by for dinner sometime, and called his daughter, Aom, out of the house (she is 25 and enducated in england) to exchange contact information with us. We will hopefully dine with them on sunday.

At this point it was around 8 and the streets were not as busy as before so we hailed a cab to take us the last few kilometers to the appartment. At the appartment i met back up with Steve and tagged along with him, Johnny, and some other people to Khao San road to get some Indian food. Needless to say my high metabolism is being put to good use in this country. I feel like i am always eating, and i like it that way.
Unfortunately i did not notice my camera slipping out of my pocket in the cab to Khao san. Luckily i know where to buy stolen goods in this town (okay, i dont know if they are stolen for certain, but the fact that the vendors have a limited and random supply and only come out at night is a bit of a hint). Upon returning to the appartment, i headed up to the roof with some guys and we shared Whiskey and Coke, bullshitted, and admired the Bangkok skyline untill we were ready to head to bed.

Buses dont have scheduals

Yesterday we had orientation, most of the things covered i already knew, but some was interesting. The issue with orientation was how late it ran. As most people know, I value punctuality, and as we were waiting for a keynote speaker at the orientation, a professor, Ajan Edward (Ajan is the thai title for teacher) explained to us Thai time. Its quite a bit more relaxed than American. I suppose it will be useful for if I am late to class, but I dont know how well I shall adjust to it. In the packet they gave us there was a phrase that summed it up: Thai Buses dont run on scheduals. Apparently they just drive their route and get to the stop when then get to it.
Thais also have a phrase that is pronounced Mai Ben Rai. It roughly means "it doesnt matter" or "nevermind" and it often used when things go wrong or as a way of saying "its okay" after someone appologizes to you or "dont mention it" if someone thanks you for something.

After orientation was finally done Steve and I hopped on the water taxi with some friends we had made, Pacco and Jennifer, and made our way to the train station where we road the train to the mall again. Apparently on wednesdays they have muy thai exhibitions, and i hope to go just to see those.
Our mission at the mall was bedsheets. Steve and I just moved into a 1 room apartment, and needed sheets for the bed. We also realized we needed toilet paper. We were able to pick these up at the mall. Jennifer went to get a phone (I should get one, but my isep stipend wont be in till tomorrow). The intresting thing about buying cellphones is that you almost always get a pay as you go cellphone. You can choose from a selection of new and used phones, and can choose from a selection of numbers. Numbers with lots of 9s can sell for more, because it is an auspicious number in Buddhist culture.

After spending a good deal of time in the mall, we were ready to head back to the appartment building (we all live in the same place). We then found that Taxi drivers do not want to drive out to our building, because it is in a different section of the city were they do not usually drive and they dont think that they will find many passengers. So far i havent found out how to convince them go to there (besides giving in to their high monetary demands). With every taxi we try to talk as much as our broken thai and their broken english will allow. We finally flagged down a taxi for 300 baht and chatted him up about the business (since i am on the outlook for a summer job). Apparently with costs subtracted the taxi makes only 300 baht a day. His sister drives a tuktuk and says that they make more money. Ill write about about how a tuktuk scam works later.

Upon arrival at the Amarin Mansion apartment complex, we went up to the rooftop to join a bit of a party going on. We meet some people, including a guy named Johnny who decided that he wanted to come to Angkor Wat with us when we make that trip. In case you are wondering the parties here are fueled by cheap Asian beers; Singha, Chang, and Leo. They have a higher percentage of alcohol than American brews. I think I can honestly say that this was the first college party I have been to where all of the drinkers were legal.