Full Moon, Ayutthaya Stories

I have one Thai friend named Warren (his English nickname) who took me and a few others to his house in Ayutthaya a few weeks ago, and it was one of my best experiences here. We got to see what his house was really like, which is VERY different from American homes. All the "stuff," like tons of clothes and just the general knickknacks and everything that accumulates in a house is on the bottom floor, which is separated into a large dining/living room, a family room, and a kitchen. Even though they're separate rooms, the doorways to the other rooms are large and do not have doors, so the whole thing is pretty open. There's also a bathroom downstairs that we used to wash our feet (not hands) before dinner.

Upstairs is more remarkable. When you land at the top you land in a small, completely wooden room off of the main room. The main room is an exact square with no furniture in it. Instead, there are glass cases displaying family heirlooms, the same way a US house might display nice dishes or something. Hard wood floors and hard wood paneled walls, in which there are doors, but because they're the same panels as the rest of the walls, the doors are only distinguishable by very small handles. Usually the doors are all kept shut, too, so by just standing in the room and looking around, you can't tell where to go. Off of that room are the bedrooms, which have a little more to them than the main room, but are still very spare.


When we stayed there we got to eat Warren's mom's cooking, by far the best Thai food I've had so far, and in the morning we woke up early to feed, or pay alms, to the monks in the town. The least touristy thing I've done yet and it was amazing.

Lilly giving breakfast to the monks at around 7 a.m.:

This afternoon I'm heading out of Bangkok to do my "Visa run," which means I have to leave and come back before I've been here for 90 days. (I can't believe I've been here that long.) I'm traveling alone by train to Chiang Mai, where I'll spend a day exploring the city before I'll meet my friend Andy. From there we'll travel together to Laos to do the "Gibbons Experience," this program in which we're going to have a guided, three-day tour of the Laos jungle, zip-lining through it and sleeping in tree houses, then hiking during the day. It sounds amazing! I'm so excited.

Now, about last weekend.

I finally made it to a full moon party, this time with Ray, who visited me over spring break. WELL, the night before the full moon party we were all down on Haad Rin, the beach where the action takes place, and my friend Jake and I got separated from everyone. That really sucked, because our hostel was way up in the jungle, and the least the song teow drivers would charge us was 200 baht each to drive us there. By this time, though, it was 3 a.m. anyway and we were tired, so we sucked it up. Unfortunately, however, our driver only told us he knew where our hostel was; he actually didn't. We didn't know this, though, until we were driving in circles deep in the jungle. After 45 minutes of trying to figure out with the driver where we were, and having no resources except baht (I didn't have my phone with me, Jake's was dead, and the driver had no baht on his) we decided we weren't getting anywhere and we just wanted to go back to Haad Rin. But he wouldn't take us there. He wanted to find J. Seaview, even if it took all night.

We had seen a 7/11 about a half a mile back on the rode we were driving on, so we hopped out the back while the song teow was going slowly and started walking. The driver drove off not having noticed, but turned around and headed back when he did. He started yelling at us, demanding that we pay him 400 baht. It was a terrible situation for all of us. He had wasted his gas trying to get us to the hostel (but had lied about knowing where it was), and we were stuck in the jungle. He kept yelling, "You pay! You pay! 400 baht! 400 baht!" And we kept saying, "No, no, we're in the jungle, we don't know where we are." We tried giving him 100 baht but he kept demanding all of it. The problem was, we didn't have that much cash on us, and if we were going to have to pay another driver and/or for a guesthouse (provided we could find one), we couldn't pay him 400 baht. But he just kept yelling, which terrified me, because it's so uncharacteristic of Thais to yell.

At one point he got out of the truck. When he did that, even though he was a little guy, I was scared. I thought he might have a weapon, like a knife. I frantically pulled another 100 baht out of Jake's pockets and walked up to him. This time I was the one yelling, "Here! Here's another 100 baht, because you're scaring us! You get this money because you dropped us off in the middle of the jungle and you're frightening me!!" I was furious, and grabbed Jake's hand to walk away. We walked kind of quickly and the driver got back into his car to drive away. When he did that, though, he had to pass us, and I was genuinely afraid he would hit us, so Jake and I stepped off the road and into the jungle a bit.

He didn't hit us, though, and we walked slowly through the darkness back to the always trusty 7/11. There we tried to ask the workers where we were, but it was obvious they both didn't know and couldn't speak English to tell us. By this time is was at least 4 a.m., and I was desperately tired. There were two Brazilians in the 7/11 who could speak English and knew where we were, but it turned out to still be very far from J. Seaview. They were very nice, though, grabbing munchies from the 7/11, and in my desperate state I asked them where they were staying and whether there were any bungalows left. They drove us on their motorbikes to their bungalows on the beach, (the whole time me telling my driver to go slowly, 34 people died on this island during full moon two months ago), and Jake and I grabbed a bungalow and finally got the sleep we each needed so badly. We paid in the morning and it was only 200 baht!

Don't let this story scare you, although I'm sure if you're my parents it will. I want to relate my real experiences here. The Thailand I've seen is a very safe place, but it gets a little rough when all the tourists gather together like at the full moon party. And I'm not going back to Koh Phangan.

Trip Planning

All right! Plans are in place!

- I get back from the full moon party Saturday night, when I'm going to take Ray to a ping pong show.
-I'm going to school the whole week next week (!) and then Thursday leaving for Chiang Mai. Andy are going to hang out there for a day before we head to Laos for the "Gibbons Experience." I'm soooooooooooooo excited. For $180 we're going on a two-night three-day guided tour deep into the Laos jungle, where we'll literally ZIP LINE from tree house to tree house, take hikes to Laos waterfalls, and sleep in the tree houses at night.
- When I get back I'll spend a day in Bangkok and then head to Hong Kong for 7 days, two or three of which Meris, Marney, Dylan and I are going to try to spend in Beijing. I can't believe I'm actually visiting China. This is the one country in Asia they actually bother to teach you about in the public school system. Yikes! I'm excited.
- Get back from China on the 10th and I already have my train ticket booked for Chiang Mai for the 11th. Almost everyone in the entire exchange program is going for Songkran, the Thai new year. Want to know what Thais do to celebrate? Water fight! Water balloons and water guns everywhere in the street. About 20 of us have divided up into teams already, and we're going to spend the whole trip soaking each other.
- Should get back from Songkran and have a few days in Bangkok before Mommy and Daddy come. THEN we're flying to Phi Phi Island, where Leonardo DiCaprio's "The Beach" was filmed. From what I hear and picture's I've seen it's the landscape you think of when you think of Thailand - clear water and giant rocks jutting up from the ocean.

After all of that I actually might have to go back to school for finals. (Ugh.)

La Princessa

Yes, still alive although I haven't posted in a while. Casey Zhang came to visit last week and Ray is here now, which means that I've spent and will spend quite some time doing the very most touristy things around Bangkok. That's okay, though, since I saved certain activities like the Grand Palace for these visits.

The Grand Palace, only a block away from Thammasat, is made up of the most beautifully ornate buildings I've ever seen (or will probably see). Each building is covered top to bottom with tiny pieces of glass, and each is smeared with gold leaf so that on both of the sunny, hot Thailand days I visited I was nearly blinded:


When Casey and I went she borrowed my school uniform and Meris' i.d. so that she could get in for free. Since the only thing Casey and Meris have in common is that they're Chinese, we weren't sure the palace guards would be fooled. We know that in the UNITED STATES if an Asian girl looks similar to another Asian girl an American probably wouldn't see the difference with a quick glance, but... we're in Asia. Fortunately, the Grand Palace guards scrutinized me much more than her anyway (although I tried to sooth them my speaking what little I know of Thai) and we got in just fine. The COOLEST part was that because we were in uniform and looked like "legit" students, we got to see where the princess is being kept.

I'm not sure if that's the word for it, actually. You see, she died on my fourth day here, January 2, but in accordance with Thai tradition the country will be in mourning at least until May. Her body is in what I think of as a beautiful stupa, although it's smaller than the kind I think of as "normal" and it's indoors. Every day, because Thammasat is so close to the Grand Palace, I see Thais walking around wearing all black, which means they are traveling to the Grand Palace to pay their respects to the princess. I've watched them come and go for so long I wanted to go, too.

Before I went to the Grand Palace (and probably because I took so long to get there, I got a lot of advice on what to do) I heard that if we - even as farang - wear our uniforms, we're allowed to pay our respects, too; as it turns out, that's true! Casey and I were a little perturbed by a sign that read "NO ENTRY" before the area of the palace we wanted to be in, but we walked in anyway, as I was informed was the correct thing to do. Even though I was in uniform and am technically not a tourist, I felt weird and a bit sneaky about the whole thing, and was glad I had Casey by my side. Even though it was her first time in Thailand, I felt like she made them question us less.

We made it through all the guards (although I nearly had a heart attack when they stopped us to tell us we needed to tuck in our shirts) and into the area where we were to be taken into see the princess. We took off our shoes in accordance with Thai respect customs and were shuttled in with about 20 other Thais, all dressed head to exposed toe in black. It was amazing. We were trying to be as stealth as possible at the back of the pack (almost impossible with my blond, curly hair) because we really didn't know what to do. When we got in a man was speaking in Thai and every now and then the Thais would bow. We were always about a second and a half late on that one. (I felt like I used to when I would go to church with a friend or a member of my extended family, and everyone in the congregation would know when to say "Amen," or "Thanks be to God," or whatever. Because I didn't grow up going to church, I was always a second late saying that sort of thing, but at least those sermons were in English. Since we were being spoken to in Thai, I had no hope.)

Eventually we all knelt toward the stupa (casket, I guess), and while we were hearing more about the princess, a guard came over to tell me I was sitting the wrong way. My feet were point back and to the left, when they needed to be pointed back and to the right. He tried to tell Casey in Thai, and when she didn't speak it back to him I was so afraid we had been caught. Instead, though, the guard was happy we were from America! As we were escorted out with the rest of the pack he asked us all about what we were doing here, and he was thrilled "we" (because Casey pretended) had chosen to study in Thailand. That's just what I love about Thais; instead of being put off that there are foreigners in their country they love it.

Even though I couldn't understand what was going on in the ceremony, and even though the casket was closed, paying my respects to the princess was one of the best experiences I've had so far in Thailand. Being with all Thais and experiencing something foreign tourists are actually restricted from seeing - especially such a solemn ceremony as it was - was pretty indescribable.


Since Ray has been here we've shopped and done the Grand Palace bit, too. We went to Bed Supperclub tonight, which is supposed to be the best club in Thailand, and I was only a little impressed. One of the rooms was very cool and was just what it sounded like - beds - but the club was smaller than any of the clubs on RCA (which are so nice they have actual live bands in the bathrooms, and in the men's bathrooms they have attendants to dish out massages... not fair). It was nice, but it wasn't the Bed Supperclub I had imagined. Tomorrow we're heading to Koh Samui, where I plan to take him to a ladyboy show, and then we'll ferry out to Koh Phangan for the full moon party the next day.

Please dear god don't let there be another election!!

Koh Phangan and After-Thailand Plans

Sewatdeeka! Sorry it's been so long, I've had a long two weeks.

First, I went to Koh Phangan (pronounced Ko-Pan-yang) for a week to go to a full moon party. Wikipedia it if you must. From what I hear, it's one of the biggest parties in the world, and 15,000 people pile onto this beach called Haad Rin on the south of the island to drink buckets of booze and dance all night to djs who fly in from all over the world. Should have been awesome, but I didn't get to go.

The actual full moon was on Friday so I left Tuesday night on an overnight train to arrive in Koh Phangan by Wednesday at noon. I left a little bit earlier than a lot of my friends because I had to be back a bit early, too, for a midterm Monday. The train was amazing. I went with my friends Jake, Katie, Shelley and Sophie on a sleeper, which meant that instead of the grueling bus seats I couldn't tolerate before, I got an actual bed. It was 400 percent better than the bus, especially since it was only about 200 baht, or $6, more. What a deal.

When we got to Koh Phangan we got one piece of bad news after the other. Fortunately, in the spirit of Thailand and mai pben rai and the fact that things always seem to work out, they did. First, we found out that our bungalow, which we had felt so lucky to be able to book for 12 people, was on such a secluded beach that once we got there we wouldn't be able to travel to Haad Rin... the whole point of our trip. Although beautiful, the beach our bungalow is on, Bottle Beach, is only accessible by ferry or an hour-long hike. If we had wanted to travel into Haad Rin for the night we wouldn't have been able to get back until the next day.

Once we found out about the inaccessibility of our bungalow, we followed another group of Thammasat kids to "J. Seaview," a bungalow buried deep in the jungle:


Our second piece of bad news was the that full moon party was postponed until Sunday night. Friday was an election day in Thailand, and not just on elections days, but on entire elections weekends, the king orders that it's illegal to sell alcohol. The island kept that fact mum I'm assuming so as not to dissuade any tourists from coming to the island. In fact, they probably made more money than usual because most people who came for the party on Friday stayed through Sunday.

No matter, we did as best we could and went out every night we were there. In preparation for the full moon party, the beaches were humming with people from everywhere. Neon lights lined the beach, and buckets in hand, everyone crowded in circles to watch the most talented fire spinners I've ever seen. This one guy was tossing his cord of fire probably 50 feet in the air and then catching it by the unlit tail. I told my friend Brad I felt like I was at home, but really I don't know anyone who can do that.

My favorite night was the night of the full moon, Friday night. We all hoped that something would be happening, so we painted ourselves with body paint our house-mom (the owner of the bungalow) happened to have. Kyle, one of the guys on the trip, played guitar and sang while we painted. It was really wonderful.

Meris painting me:

Other than those nights out, we spent our days lazing around the beach. Twice in a row we tried to ferry to Bottle Beach - the secluded beach on the north side of the island we had thought we would stay at - and twice we were told that the waves were too choppy for a longboat to make it. Imagine if we had stayed there! We wouldn't have been able to leave.

This is the beach we stayed at instead. Shelley catching a frisbee Jake so wisely invested in:

One of the beaches on Koh Phangan, which means "long shore" or something:

From left: Jake, Andy, Sophie, Katie, Shelley

At the risk of sounding absolutely like an ignorant American (I still am), Thailand is BIG! I never thought it was until I got here, and realized that even though a lot of countries are smaller than the US, that doesn't mean that traveling through them doesn't take a while. Traveling to the southern island in Thailand by bus or train usually takes around 17 hours, which was longer than my flight from Seattle to Taipei. And yet, I'm willing to do it every weekend, just to see all of what I won't have an opportunity to see again for a very long time.

Being here has made me realize how small the world really is. Not in terms of people (although I did meet a Thai girl, Foil, who lived in my Houston neighborhood for a year when she did an exchange in high school) but in terms of actual distance. What seemed so exotic to me before now seems possible, and I want to see them. It's got me thinking more and more about seriously doing the Peace Corps, or at the very least traveling until I go absolutely broke.

I met a girl named Shelley (in a picture above) who doesn't go to Thammasat but is staying with us here in my condo through an indirect connection. Her story (and I could get this a bit wrong) is that she was in school, not really caring about it, when she heard about couchsurfing.com. Couchsurfing.com - check it out - is this nonprofit that links people up with other people around the world who want to travel. Basically, if you sign up for the sight I think you're obligated to offer your couch at some point (although you get to meet the person online beforehand and say if you want them to stay or not), and in exchange you're linked to thousands of people offering you their couches. So she found out about this, made an appointment with a travel agent who got her somewhere around 8 flights for close to $1200, dropped out of school and left three weeks later. She's racking up some debt, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't be worth it. She just spent 4 months in Europe and will spend another four in Asia before she heads back.

The point is, this kind of travel is entirely possible. Europeans seem to understand that, and I see them goddamn everywhere. But I NEVER see Americans - how strange! I really want to break free of that cultural norm of only ever getting to see our North-American counterparts and Europe.

Thailand is incredible, for more reasons than just its full moon parties and 33 baht to the dollar exchange rate.

Nung, Sang, Saam, See, Ha, Hok, Jet, Pbet, Cow, Sip...

I learned my Thai numbers today! This is a big step, because now I'll be better able to bargain... I can at least pretend I know a little more Thai than I do. I can't believe I went this long without learning them.

Spending another weekend in Bangkok, but this time just because I'm heading out to Koh Phangan Tuesday for the full moon party Friday night. This time I'm traveling by train in a sleeper, thank god... it's twice as much, but I think it's be four times as worth it. Meris also got me a backpacker's backpack for 200 baht ($6), so I don't have to travel quite as lightly as usual! Today is an optimistic day.

First Bangkok Weekend

I finally stayed in Bangkok for a weekend. Thursday was Chinese New Year (happy year of the rat!) and, in a twisted coincidence, I saw my first Thai rats. Meris, her friend Fernando, Charity and I all walked around Chinatown for a while before holing up in a Chinese restaurant. We were all exhausted - made more so by our many courses of dim sum - so we didn't ask for the check for nearly three hours. (In Thailand, I've found, you have to be the one to take that initiative. It's not like in America, where the server practically pushes you out the door once you've taken your last bite.) When we got out we realized it had been raining. I have no idea for how long or how hard, because by then the rain had stopped, but the streets were positively flooded. I'm really surprised, because Thailand has a monsoon season (that I fortunately get to miss), and I would think the drainage system would be more adequate than this:

As we walked along what little was left of the sidewalk, we soon discovered that the flooding had driven thousands of cockroaches and rats out of their homes, and they were now walking right alongside us. They were almost impossible to avoid because the sidewalks were so crowded, and Fernando even had a roach crawl up the back of his leg. Ew! I kept thinking they would slide off the awnings and into my hair. Needless to say, the crowds were dissipating, and we left.

Meris, before the rain with Chinese New Year noisemaker:

Friday I finally did my first touristy Bangkok thing and went to Wat Pho, a temple that's so close it's pathetic that it took me six weeks to get there. It was absolutely stunning. In one of the rooms is a golden statue of a reclining Buddha who is actually so big he's impossible to view all at once:


To give some perspective:

To be honest, that part was a little touristy, even though we went at practically closing time, but it was so beautiful I don't even care.

The other parts of the temple were my favorite. One room had a much smaller Buddha, but was actually being used by monks to worship. They were all sitting before the Buddha, chanting in unison. It was so relaxing. This might sound silly, but when I was in there, just kneeling and listening to the monks chant, I felt really at ease. I think I'm going to go back and let sitting there be a stress aid for me. (Not that I think Thailand, land of smiles, will ever get stressful.)

That night we found out about a modern dance show performed in a park near Thammasat, so we headed that way. We put bets on when the show would actually start (supposed to start at 7 p.m., but taking Thai time into account). I think it actually started about 45 minutes late. It was a perfect, breezy night. Afterwards I took a break from going out and got a Thai massage instead. I have been really scared of getting them. Thai massages are supposed to really work your joints and muscles, and can really hurt, but after the awful 11-hour bus rides to and from Koh Samui, my muscles had never fully recovered, so I was ready to be pulled and prodded. As it turns out, it was nothing except a bit more vigorous normal massage, and I think that's the sort of massage I'm going to get all the time now. (Muahaha, that's right, all the time; they only cost $10.)

Modern dance show:

The next day, Saturday, everyone left for the Tiger Temple. Since I had already gone I opted out and went to the JJ market, aka the Chatachuk Weekend Market, that has the cheapest and largest selection of clothes. I had a ton of fun, and met up with two Thai friends who bargained for me (made things a lot easier). I ended up spending about $25 for three dresses and a shirt. What a cheap way to get my shopping fix! I looooove Thai prices.

That night we went to a club on Thong Lor, Santika. We got there a bit late, of course, (it's really hard to move eight people anywhere quickly), and because of that we couldn't find a spot on the floor. We headed upstairs, and spent the whole night overlooking the rest of the club. I really liked it, because we had a fantastic view of the band, and it gave us tons of room to dance. I think dancing is my favorite thing to do here, and too often I find myself stepping out of my heels to make it easier. (It's really gross the next day, when my feet are black.)

Sunday we tried so hard to get a lot done. First, dressed in our school uniforms (so that we could get in for free), we tried to get into the Grand Palace. Again, it's really lame that it took me six weeks to get there. From what I can tell, the place is beyond magnificent. When we got there, though, our Thammasat i.d.s weren't good enough because they weren't laminated, so we were turned away and told to by tickets. We opted to go another time with a Thai student, since everyone else who has done that has had no problems.

Us after we were shunned from the palace; from left we have Andy, Mat, Meris, Jake, me and Fernando:

Our next stop was this amazing Thai restaurant within walking distance from the palace. We had been there once before and really wanted to take Fernando. We walked... and walked... and walked. And when we finally found the place, in congruence with our luck of the day, it was closed.

Finally, we decided to cut our losses and check out Wat Arun, another temple down the river. We split up into two taxis. When my taxi was getting close, however, I got a call from Andy saying the temple was closed. Of course it was. We headed home, tired and really much less cranky than we should have been from all of that traveling for no reason. My taxi had a lot of trouble explaining to the driver that we were no longer going to Wat Arun, and could we please go to Pata Pinklao. He didn't understand, but in the fashion of most Thais was much too nice about it. When we finally got home he actually tried to charge us less for the taxi than it was. He thought the mistake was his. The best part is, when we later Google imaged Wat Arun, Fernando (from the taxi that said the temple was closed) told us that's not where they had been. In all likelihood, Wat Arun had been open the whole time, and Andy and Fernando had just been at the wrong place. Mai pben rai.

Lastly - and I don't know why I've failed to mention this - I've now eaten both a bug (I think it was a cricket) and dried squid. There's a video of me eating the bug, but I'm having trouble uploading it, so I'll leave you with this:

Look appetizing? It tastes like squid jerky.

Shoutout

Thank you, Jean, for my Softly Scented Natural Choice Flushable Moist Wipes! Best present I could ask for.