Overdue...

After much putting off and making excuses and taking criticism about the frequency (or infrequency) of posts here on the blog, I realized that the need to post something well-crafted and insightful is far outweighed by the need to post...well...something. So, here goes.

What follows are some representative pictures from the time I spent in Thailand. Obviously, it's been a few weeks since I got back, and I don't remember everything I did there. Plus, unlike last year, I spent all of my time in that one country (with the small exception of southern China). For those reasons, I think it'll be much more interesting if I arrange these pictures and descriptions thematically, rather than ramble on in chronological order. So that's what I'll do.

First, places to see in the capital, Bangkok.

This is Khaosan Road. We (the other teachers and I) spent a great deal of time here. It's a long pedestrian street near our guest house, and it was designed to be a sort of mecca for low-budget travelers. There were probably more foreigners walking around here than native Thai people. During the day, the place was lined with small shops, racks, and tables displaying all sorts of souvenir items--t-shirts, Thai fisherman pants, underwear, bathing suits, jewelry, fake watches, fake bags, fake documents, and all sorts of other touristy crap I can't remember, mostly because I wasn't interested in buying most of it.

There were always people here. At night, all the food vendors selling mostly Pad Thai and fried insects--I'll get to that later--came out to cater to the crowd filing in and out of the many bars on Khaosan. There were also many guest houses, so you could conceivably leave your room, go shopping, get some noodles, have a few drinks, and head off to bed without wasting any energy on walking. But I guess in Bangkok it's okay to save your strength, since the city has only two temperatures, hot and damn hot.


Above are some pictures of temples. I can tell you that Bangkok has a lot of temples. I know because I spent a lot of time walking around the city, and it was hard to look up from my map without seeing something big, white, and gold staring me in the face. In most of these you'll find some variety of Buddha standing, sitting, reclining, whatever, since I guess there are a lot of Buddhists around. This begs some comparisons to China. Though there are officially recognized faiths--Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism--and plenty of temples around, religion is the privately-practicing minority in China, and not in line with the ideals of Communism. It's only in recent years that the government has relaxed its once oppressive stance on religion. Thailand doesn't seem to care much, and I saw plenty of people openly worshiping at the feet of statues.


Another place to go, once you've finished with the Golden Buddha and the Giant Buddha and the Lucky Buddha and the Chubby, Smarmy, Reclining Buddha, is an open-air market. As you know, these things are all over Asia, but it never ceases to amaze me just how many different things can be crammed into one shantytown. This place was massive, and I actually got lost in all the narrow corridors and such, so it took me at least a half hour of wandering just to get out of there.

This is the art museum, located in the heart of the city. It's a really clean, modern building, and most importantly, it has air conditioning. I'd say my favorite part of the place was the top floor exhibit, which displayed elaborate submissions from architects who had competed to design the new house of parliament. For some reason, I really enjoy miniature models. I stumbled upon the museum while searching for the next destination, a different museum.

In case you don't know who Jim Thompson is (don't worry, I didn't either), he was an American businessman living in Bangkok in the 1950s and '60s. A talented designer and colorist, he's partly responsible for the worldwide popularity of Thai silk. He was also a collector of Thai artifacts, and before his mysterious and completely unexplained disappearance in Malaysia in 1967, he built himself one hell of a house in Bangkok dedicated entirely to Thai culture. I was able to walk through the house as he left it, but they don't let you take pictures.

The last major site that I'll mention is not actually in Bangkok, but a couple hours away by minibus. The top picture is from the museum that commemorates the building of the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai (and the brutality of the Japanese), and the middle pictures are of the bridge itself. Two things to note: standing next to me is my girlfriend Cathy, who joined me on the trip, and yes, I did end up shaving most of the animal fur off my face. Also, as you might be able to tell, walking on the bridge is pretty treacherous. There's nothing to stop you from falling in between the beams and into the water. Later, as we headed toward our floating hotel, we rode an old train, supposedly on the railway built by WWII POWs.

That's about it for attractions, more on a different side of Thailand next time.