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Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok Rambling: Gas is cheap
here, about a dollar a gallon. The signs at the stations list
numbers averaging about 12, which means 12 Baht per liter.
Since there are about 4 liters in a gallon and its about 44
Baht to a dollar, I think that works out right. And our guide
says it is all imported…Just when we get halfway able to make
conversions into U.S. dollars from the local currency in our
heads, we switch countries and must start all over again!
However, the Indian dollar and the Thai Baht have just about
the identical value, which at least made the last currency
change rather painless…On our second full day here, Friday,
November 9, we were all four scheduled to play a round of
golf at Navantanee Golf Club on the outskirts of the city.
Its claim to famed is being the site of the World Cup in 1975.
Johnny Miller won it, according to the sign at the club entrance.
However, based on the high heat and humidity of the previous
day and on the early hotel departure time of 6:15 a.m., the
ladies decided to forego the challenge. Not Pat and I, however.
We met the van, driver, and our Abercrombie & Kent International
guide, Chat, at the early appointed hour and off we went.
With a wrong turn or so we arrived just minutes before our
7:15 tee off so had no time to practice. (That often seems
to make my game better! Go figure.) We are each assigned a
private cart and caddy. All of the caddies are women, all
dressed identically in white tennis shoes, bright yellow slacks,
bright blue long sleeve shirts, bright yellow "rice paddy"
big brim hats, and they are all wearing cotton gloves! A group
of four Japanese businessmen are playing near us at times
and to see all four of the men and all four of the caddies
together on the green is quite a gaggle. My caddy, Jongkon,
good old number 78, knows the yardages excellently, always
has the club I ask for ready in a flash, always fills the
divots and rakes the traps, and she is fun to be with, even
though her English is limited to "O.B. left; bunkers right,"
"Good shot!," "Too fast," (I hate it when all of my golf "instructors"
have the same observation of my swing!), and the like. Nevertheless,
we have fun together and she makes it clear that if I return
to Navantanee - Not in this lifetime! - I must be sure to
ask for caddy #78. About the gloves: It is to keep the sun
off of their hands, as well as the sand, grass, etc. Also,
the long sleeve shirts have weird flaps at the end of the
sleeves that also shield the hands from sun. Jongkon kept
pointing at my white legs and contrasting it to her darker
skin, with the implication that she'd like to be lighter.
The Thai women are quite beautiful, especially with the darker
skin, I think…Again we hear that tourism is down 30 or 40
percent here after 9/11. It seems to be picking up from our
visit to the Muslin countries, but these are still bad times
for guides and drivers…Like in India, God help me if I must
read a sign in the native writing! Written Thai looks nothing
like written Hindi, but they are both exceedingly different
from English. It is amazing how many of the signs here, especially
billboards and other advertisements, are in both languages
or in English alone! Yet by what we are told, not a large
percentage of the population can read or write English. Maybe
it is just for all the visitors to the big capital city…Bangkok
has 10 million inhabitants and all of Thailand is about 61
million. Big place. It has the longest-reigning King in the
world, ruling since 1946. He is a direct descendent of "The
King and I" king, and his lineage has been on the throne since
1782! Bangkok is a modern city, with plenty of toll roads
and freeways in addition to the normal jumble of streets.
Also, it has tons and tons of waterways and canals, causing
it to be known as "The Venice of the East." Or maybe it's
that Venice is the Bangkok of the West?…Bright and early on
our first day here we met guide Chat - a 42-year old, single,
happy-go-lucky fellow who is loved by two women and is torn
in deciding which one to marry, and has been this way for
eight years! - and immediately board a boat, just for us,
to see the city. There are hundreds and hundreds of watercraft
of all descriptions plying the Chao Phraya river beside our
hotel, but the boat we take appears to be the water taxi of
choice for anywhere from one to ten passengers. It is long
and narrow, and later we discover that it cannot be much wider
or it wouldn't fit down some of the periphery canals. It has
a canvas top mounted on a metal frame, running nearly the
entire length. I don't know how these craft were propelled
years ago. but now they all have the most amazing system,
and, boy, can they scoot! Basically, a car or truck engine
- sometimes a four cylinder, sometimes a six, even occasionally
a V-8 - has been modified by installing a long, ten or fifteen
foot drive shaft with a small propeller and tiny steering
skeg at the far end, and then about a five-foot arm projecting
forward from the engine for the boatman to grasp. This arm
has a power lever and a forward-neutral-reverse transmission
selector on it. The whole thing is mounted on a two-way gimble,
like a big oar lock, allowing motion left and right and up
and down. Being able to move that apparatus through such a
wide range allows great maneuverability. If the driver doesn't
keep the propeller low enough in the water, it raises one
heckuva roostertail! The driver seems to be continually slowing
down, as rough wake is encountered and crossed, and then going
like gangbusters until the next wake is encountered. Lots
of fun to ride! We also road one on Saturday, loading a distance
out of town, and that ride included going through some really
narrow, back country, canals. Where these canals joined others,
there were sharp 90-degree turns and the boatman was very
adept at making this long boat change direction without hitting
the sides…Thailand is the second country we've visited on
WF2001 where the driving is on the left side of the road.
(India was the first.) It is nice being chauffeured around
and not having to concentrate on the driving when it is so
different…Our Thailand guide book has an informative and cleverly
funny passage under "About spellings and place names" that
goes like this:
"When the letter h follows
a consonant, it makes the consonant's sound less explosive,
softer. Just as Thailand is pronounced tai-land, not thigh-land,
so too with the ph sound…The wonderful island of Phuket
is always spelled thusly, but it is pronounced, always,
like poo-ket, not foo-ket or in other less gracious ways…"
There are, according to Chat,
32,000 temples throughout Thailand. They seem to be everywhere.
The Thai branch of Buddhism includes some Hinduism in it too,
and in fact was introduced, so they say, by missionaries from
India. (Yet India now is predominantly Hindu, not Buddhist!)
The temples are exceedingly ornate and colorful, as the pictures
will show. When we enter one we must take off our shoes…The
people believe that little spirits, or sprites, or demons
live all over the land and whenever a building is erected
the spirits who live there need to be placated so that they
won't cause harm to the new inhabitants. This is done by purchasing
and erecting a small spirit house at the exact location that
the priest advises. Thus, almost every building, from humble
shack to major hotel, has a lovely little miniature house
placed on a tall pedestal somewhere on the premises. To keep
the spirit(s) happy, offerings of flowers, food, even soft
drinks or whiskey are placed there regularly. (To be thrown
away when replaced with new. I guess "It's the thought that
counts" and that the spirits don't eat or drink very much.)
As we drive around it is surprising how many places we pass
selling these spirit houses. There is a picture of an entire
yard full of them. Chat says that a typical price might be
about 3,000 Baht, or 75 dollars…Woodworking is a major handcraft
and art form here, as shown by the detail on the spirit houses
and other beautiful work. During our Saturday tour we stopped
at a woodworking factory/showcase/shop and it was just fascinating
watching the men and women chiseling away. And the pieces!
From huge elephants so accurately copied that the wooden skin
looked soft and pliable to intricately inlaid desks and bars
and tables to full bedroom suites, it all was most impressive.
If I didn't already have the office and home furniture that
I need, I would have been sorely tempted to have some of this
shipped home!…Lots of America-based companies here. McDonalds,
Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, 7-11, AM/PM Minimarts
are around every other corner it seems…The Oriental Bangkok,
our hotel, does not quite win the Best-Hotel-of-WF2001 contest
for me (that still goes to the Four-Seasons in Istanbul),
but it comes darn close. The lobby is gorgeous and always
has a string quartet playing in the evenings. The shops are
highest class. There are endless restaurants here and we haven't
ever encountered a bad meal or a surly waiter. It is right
on the river and always has wonderful views. Each floor has
a butler and each room has a call button for him or her. In
addition to keeping the ice bucket full, he is always most
attentive and will push the elevator call button when he sees
you exiting your room, and will also open your room door if
your hands are laden with bags. Also, each bedside night table,
in addition to lamp and phone, has a Butler Call and a Do-Not-Disturb
button (that illuminates a light outside the door) and light
switches to control the lights in the room. One of these is
for a night light setup. When you need to use the facilities
in the darkness, just flip that switch and faint, recessed,
lovely lighting makes the trip to and from the bathroom most
easily navigated. Every evening a new and tasty little appetizer
is brought to the room by the butler. Without even setting
them outside the door, all shoes are cleaned, shined, and
placed in felt shoe bags every day. All of the toiletries
you may have out on the counter are neatly arranged on a linen
napkin after the room is cleaned each day. Of course there
is turn-down service at night, so your bed is always ready,
the curtains are closed, soft music is playing when you come
back after dinner. Speaking of music, each room has a complete
Bose System 20 sound system with tuner and CD and remote control.
There is always a supply of fresh fruit available in a bowl
in the room, complete with small plates, napkins, and utensils.
The walk-in shower, in addition to the big tub, has both conventional
and the wand-type shower heads. Next to the door there is
a little compartment with two doors, one that opens to the
hall and the other opens to the room. Messages or morning
newspapers are placed in it by the butler to be collected
by us without having to open the door, and without having
to put on a robe! Clever. There is round-the-clock, back-and-forth
every five minute ferry shuttle service across the river to
the hotel's holdings on the other side. We went across on
Saturday night to eat and see the cultural show. Great meal,
again, and a wonderful display of Thai dancing and music.
The costumes and decorations are just spectacular! There is
also a complete exercise facility on that side of the river
that we have used. Also a spa, where we got Thai massages.
Geez! That type of massage is brutal! It felt best when it
was over! ("Look, we have another American sucker who's paying
good money for us to torture him! And he's dumb enough to
think it's supposed to feel this bad! Ha ha ha ha ha!")…Although
the roads here are nothing like in India, we still do see
a large number of motorcycles and scooters zipping along with
the automobile and truck traffic. The drivers obviously must
wear helmets, but apparently the passengers do not! More than
once we have seen a family of four all together on one little
cycle: father driving, a young son between his father's arms
straddling the fuel tank, mother in back, and daughter sandwiched
between mom and dad. The seats are usually fairly flat and
long, and now I see why. Speaking of motorcycles, at home
my 1984 BMW R-65 (650 cc) is pretty small compared to the
1,200 cc and up monsters that lots of friends drive. Yet over
here a 650 cc bike is huge. Rarely do I see more than a 350,
and the family of four may well be motoring along on a 125…Buses
come in many varieties. We see lots of tour buses that invariably
are modern, tall, air-conditioned, like we see in the States.
Around the city, I notice that some of the buses are enclosed
and have air-conditioning but more often I see older buses
with all of the windows opened wide by the passengers as they
enjoy the breezes. I wonder if there is a difference in price
between the two or if the city is merely slowly phasing out
the older for the newer?…Taxis are everywhere it seems and
almost always are Toyota Corollas. They're pretty. The two
most common paint schemes are a green bottom and yellow top
or a red bottom and blue top…Have you ever seen pictures of
or read about the first set of "Siamese" twins, Eng and Chang,
born in the 1800s here, connected at the chest? The restaurant
at the Rose Garden attraction we had lunch at on Saturday
was named after these two men (over here they write it Inn
and Chan) and told there amazing story. After being in the
circus for years in the States, they actually went out on
their own, made lots of money showing themselves to the curious
public, and then had a very long and productive life in Virginia,
where they married sisters and fathered 22 children! Some
of the children went on to positions of wealth and power.
When one caught pneumonia and was near death, the doctors
wanted to try surgery to separate them, but the other chose
to stay with his brother and hence died about a day after
the other. Quite an unusual and inspiring story!…Monday is
our moving day, but because it is just a short hop to Cambodia
and because we like the hotel here so much, we don't leave
until mid-afternoon. But that's the story for the next chapter.
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