Bangkok, Thailand - "The City of Smiling Faces"
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| April 25, 2001 - Day 1 - The Plane Trip Disclosure: These journal entries were written to complete an assignment given to me by my English teacher, but I trust that some may find at least some of the thoughts interesting...or at the least there might be something to chuckle at. April 25, 2001 - Day 1 - The Plane Trip It started out early, it's been long, but I'm sure it'll be worth it. By three o'clock (Little Rock time) my family and I had been up for ten and a half hours, most of which was spent on planes and in airports, and we still weren't even out of the continental United States yet. Our plane to Taipei, Taiwan did not even leave for another twenty minutes and then the plane came in fifteen minutes late arriving in San Jose, so we were delayed even more. That was all earlier though and now it really feels like we're finally on our way. I'm 34,000 feet up in the air, traveling 531 miles an hour, and I've still got over nine and a half hours left till we land in Taipei. In total, it's between a thirteen and a thirteen and a half hour plane flight. Yep, it's long! The time passes quickly though. Throughout the trip we have several movies and TV shows we can watch, giving us the freedom to not have to watch the same thing over and over. (By the way, we're just flying off the coast of Alaska's capital at the moment.) I'm surrounded by people from Taiwan, China, Japan, and other Asian countries and every minute makes me wish more and more that I could learn a language just like that! It'd be so much fun if as I accidentally bumped into someone I could say "sorry" in Japanese or Mandarin or some other language. So, I think I've decided that in college I want to take atleast one course in as many languages as possible - just to be familiar with languages. It's been a long day, but I atleast got to watch a good movie - "Pay It Forward". Now, it was the plane version, but I really enjoyed it. Well, that's about it for now...my other movie has started and my hands need a break. April 26, 2001 - Day 2 - Orientation Were you do start when a day seems so packed full of information and little tidbits here and there. There first thing just about everyone in our group mentioned was how much Bangkok reminds us of Kenya. All five of us in our group lived in Kenya for an extended period of time. We did specify that it reminded us more of Mombasa than anything. The stone houses with short stone fences with little tiny windows in the walls. Throughout the day several of us caught ourselves wanting to say "Asante" or "Bwana", which means "thank you" and "Mister" respectively in Kiswahili. Then we reminded ourselves that, even though that seemed like the right thing to say, these people (who had a hard enough time understanding English) would probably be even more lost with Kiswahili. We eventually caught on and learned that "Khwap kum khap" and "Kum" meant "thank you" and "mister" in Thai (although, personally, Khwap kum khap just doesn't flow quiet right yet). The Grand Palace was incredible. The decorative porcelain, gold leaved images, and immaculate designs were staggering. It was truly a testimony to the beauty of God and the abilities that he gave us. But the saddest thing that kept hitting me throughout the day was all the work that went into making such beautiful buildings and idols and how the builders must have thought they were doing themselves a favor for eternity, and yet they are so lost. It's say all the money and the sincerity with which people worship Buddha and the Buddhist way, and even though they may feel good about themselves, they will always be lost. So much effort for nothing....for nothing. :-( We were able to learn all about the history of Thailand of the progression of Buddhism here, but to relate all of that here would take forever and possibly get really boring. I'll try and point out the key things in the History of Siam and the Thai People sections. The Sala was incredible. The food was delicious. It started with chicken covered in chili and peanuts. Then it went on to the main course which included steamed rice, prawn chili soup, beef curry, chicken with lemon grass, a chicken and prawn salad, and oyster stir fry. Thankfully they like chicken here or else I would have gone hungry (I'm not a big seafood person at all). The dancing was defenitely different, but it was nice to feel more at home because they had stage lights and a sound system so everyone could see and hear. We had to take off our shoes to go in to eat and you sit down next to your table and you think you are going to have to kneel the whole time, but actually, there's a pit below the table and you can put your feet down. It was defenitely different, but it was actually quite comfortable. The Sala actually works in conjunction with the Oriental Culinary School and so it was fun to have all these waiters who would ask the head guy if they were doing it right and they'd follow his lead. The food really was incredible though. If you ever get a chance to visit Bangkok, put The Sala on your to do list. It cost between thirty-five and forty United States dollars for the whole evening and it was well worth it for the experience. Verses that came to mind for the day:Exodus 20:4; John 14:6 April 27, 2001 - Day 3 - Shopping The smell of incense attacks my nostrils as we descend into the basement. This collection of shops gives the feeling of a bazaar with all types of different items available, at whatever price you are able to bargain for. Our day started off with a trip into town to get our gift shopping done for those back in the States who threatened death if we did not bring them anything. :-) The bazaar offered everything from silk clothes to leather bags to wood carvings to CDs to jewelry to just about anything else you could imagine. One definitely interesting experience was in this CD/VCD (Video CD - has movies on it) shop. I had bought "The Patriot" earlier from the same shop to watch on the plane and to watch in college. This time I was there with my dad, Gary, and our hostess, Rose. We were looking at the movies and the girl running the store said to us, "Would you like to see new movie?". So, the conversation continued on but stayed short. The next thing we knew she was leading us upstairs into this room with photo albums of posters and covers from DVD's and VCD's. As we looked through them, we started to get the feeling that this was a scam. But, as Rose told us, this was something a lot of people did in Thailand and she had heard about (however, this was her first time to go). My dad and I got an uneasy feeling after he had bought similar knock-off movies in China last year and we had thrown them away because we felt bad about it. Anyways, so dad and I decided not to get anything, but Rose decided she wanted to see "Meet the Parents" and "Finding Forrester". They brought the two CDs up in cheap plastic wrap and put them in the VCD player for us. One had English subtitles all over the screen (apparently they copied it from a closed caption video) and the other one was really blurry and bad quality. Needless to say, we didn't end up getting anything. We later decided that downstairs in the bazaar they sold the real, legal copies of the movies (mine was legal) but upstairs was where they sold the cheep knockoffs so they couldn't get caught by the police so easily. That was definitely an experience.... Gary commented on the way up to the room...having gone up the elevator into a deserted flor and then passed two locked doors, that it felt like we were going in to do a drug deal. After shopping, we headed back to Suan Thip (where we were staying) so my mom and dad could get ready for the conference that started that afternoon. David and I, however, grabbed the sun tan lotion, water bottles, and our hats and headed down to the dock to take a ride on a long-tail boat. Roger Moore rides one in James Bond's "The Man With the Golden Gun" (My brother and I are huge James Bond fans :-). So we rode up the river, passing what seemed like temple after temple, all very elaborate, until the boat driver let us off on this island just up the river. Dave and I walked around a little bit through some of the older buildings, but we were both pretty exhausted, so we weren't much in the mood for exploring. We headed back to the boat, and spend the next forty minutes or so driving around the island, and finally heading back to Suan Thip. I've realized that poverty is really everywhere. No matter where you turn, or where you look you will always find poverty. I guess something that is really sad though, is how the Thai people give so much to building new temples and bigger temples, and yet they themselves are hurting for money. I know that money doesn't make you happy or determine your level of happiness, but I still find it sad that some don't eat because they give their money to the temples. As the boat sped away from the pier at Suan Thip, it was fun to see a bunch of young teenagers playing in the river throwing mud at each other (Picture). We also saw a group of monks teaching some children on the island. I assume that that is part of what keeps the people here devoted to Buddhism so much. It teaches them as they grow up and they look up to the monks and so they naturally bend towards that as they grow up and so when they are adults they stick to that way. Seems similar to America except with money. People who's parents are workaholics begin to work early on in life and they continue to work and then that because their life and they loose a lot of the joy and happiness that they could have. Oh, we were also able to eat at this nice restaurant in this hotel today. Someday, I'd love to come back with friends and be able to take them to nice places...it's really affordable today. I had a lunch with plenty of food for less than three dollars. The cost of living here is really low and so that seems like it would make it easy to come visit sometime. I'm exhausted, I've got so much homework in English and Pre-Cal that I have no idea how it's all going to get done, but hopefully it will and hopefully I'll get to sleep somewhere in there and hopefully I'll get to enjoy my vacation a little as well. April 28, 2001 - Day 4 - Day Out With TCK Teenagers (Note: for a brief explanation of TCK, click here.) I guess you could say today was depressing and fun all at the same time. Today was our day to hang out with the American expats' and do stuff with them. Two of the kids dad worked for General Electric here in Bangkok, one's dad worked at the Israeli Embassy, one's dad worked at the American Embassy, ones' dad worked for Chevron, and another dad was the Elementary Principal for the international school here (a school of almost 2000!!). I'll start with what was fun first. We went to this water park about an hour away from where we were staying. It was a lake that had wire rigging that went in an oval down one side of the lake, around the end, back up the other side and then around the other end back to where you started. They had water skiing handles and ropes hooked up to this rigging, so you would strap yourself on to a knee board on this dock, the Thai worker would give you a handle, a buzzer would sound, and the next thing you knew you were being pulled off the dock and dragged around the pond. It was actually a lot of fun. A couple times a few of us just jumped in the water with the handle and then let the rigging yank us up out of the water and drag us on top of it for a while. Let's see, I tried wake boarding (which Dave was really good at), slalom, and skiing, all of which I did really, really bad at. So, I stuck to the diving in act, bellyboarding on knee board, and then knee boarding. Oh, what was fun is that two people could go at once, so we'd be going and we'd swerve in towards each other and then at the last minute turn back out. The bad thing was that if you crashed at the opposite end that you started it was a long walk back in the sun. Needless to say, I'm a little toasty today. :-) Okay, and now for the not so good. I gues the really depressing part really started when we got in the cars headed up for the park. However, I did kind of get a glimpse of it at Adam's house (his dad works for Chevron) when we were waiting for the rest of the kids. About four of the kids started talking about how they had been out at the clubs the night before drinking and smoking this wierd thing that I didn't really understand what it was - it was a mixture of tobacco, a flavoring and something else. First off, the girls said their throats felt really bad - wow! that really makes me want to do it. So, that kind of started off my look into the teen life here. I really just go more saddened on the way to the park. It was the six guys (there were six guys and three girls) in the van and pretty much all they talked about the whole way up was doing drugs, drinking beer, and about the bars and dance clubs and how you had to be careful about the transvestites at the bars. But that's basically what went on for the rest of the car ride and then the car ride back. Kind of dissapointing. I guess what was even worse was at one point how they made comments about this "christian girl" in a derogatory mannor. That was really sad. Also, most of these kids are involved in the young life, or christian club here, so that was some what saddening to see hipocrocy doesn't just exist in Arkansas, but the world over. Anyways, but it really was a good day. It was fun to get out with other teenagers and have fun, but it was just discouraging as well. After a couple hours at the park, we came back to the place we were staying where two of the kids lived and hand lazagna there with everyone. The conversation became a little more civilized and enjoyable but still not the best of conversations. After that, everyone else went home and Dave and I came back upstairs and went to bed. It was nice to finally get to bed at like 8:00 p.m. Looking back on the day, I guess it was really a good experience to see what the teens life is like here. Who knows, maybe one of these days God will call me back here to reach out to the teens....who knows..... April 29, 2001 - Day 5 - Church and Young Life Well, after yesterday, today was definitely encouraging. I finally got a full nights sleep ya! I went to bed around 8:00 last night and didn't get up till 9:00 this morning. It felt so good, so normal. :-) We headed off to church which is in the club house near the international school. When they built the international school, they built a planned subdivision around it with a pool, club house, and the works, so that's where we had church this morning. They recently went to two services with Sunday school in between. It was encouraging to hear that there was a big enough Christian interest from the expat community to go to two services. Before the service we met a couple that was moving to Bnagkok from Indonesia.It was a lot of fun to hear the Irish pastor lead worship and give the sermon. I really enjoyed hearing a different accent, but he also spoke with a lot quotes and illustrations (whereas the pastors in the states use more personal stories). There were quite a few, but one I remember was a the following: In the middle of a desert, a man came upon a pump. On the pump was hanging a canteen of water and a note saying, "There is an unending supply of water below this pump, but to get the pump primed requires all the water in the canteen." He then used that do demonstrate faith, and if we're willing to put our faith in something we can't see, the reward is so much greater. After church, we headed to the Miracle Grand Hotel where they were holding the conference that my parents were speaking at. There were several people who asked to meet David and I so my parents wanted us to come along and meet a few just before the session was to start. So we had a buffet lunch downstairs of Thai food, which was delicious before heading upstairs. After that, Dave and I headed back to the basement so I could pick up a few more gifts for my mom, friends, and for myself. I kind of splurged....I think it was the quickest I had ever spent forty-five dollars in my life. Having finished up with buying those few things, we headed back to Suan Thip to relax and lay back for the afternoon. I actually got to watch most of a movie before heading out, with one of the guys that I went with to the water park, to a youth group called Young Life. It actually was a lot of fun. I got to meet Amy, one of the Young Life workers here. She had originally graduated from Hendrix College in Conway as a Secondary Education Biology major. It was fun to have someone who had actually visited Arkansas and knew a little bit about it. I also got to see Mohr again, an Israeli girl who had gone with us to the Water Park the day before. She's a nice enough girl, but she still seems lost. She's one of the group that goes out and parties at nights and does all that junk. She seems really popular so it'd be fun one of these days to see her become a strong Christian and cause her friends and others to change their lifestyles and make a big impact on the school...in a positive way. Oh, as a spark of hope, she may go to a Christian youth camp in North Carolina this summer with the Young Life people. Who knows? Maybe...??!! That's about it for the day and tomorrow we're off to visit the area around the Bridge Over the River Kwai. We'll just have to wait and see what's in store.... P.S. After writing the above, I asked one of the house girls what the big bangs where out side so she motioned me outside and there was a temple, across the river all lit up with Christmas lights. Above it in the sky were beautiful fireworks going off. It really was a surprise and so I asked her if it was some sort of holiday (she's Buddhist) and she said, "No, they did it four or five nights ago." It was interesting because the temple was the only thing that stood out on the dark landscape that was covered in lightless shacks or dark jungle. In the background, not knowing where it came from, you could hear music coming from the flute like instrument that is so predominant in the music here. Check out a couple pictures of it here. April 30, 2001 - Day 6 - Trip to the Bridge Over the River Kwai I'm actually writing this entry two days later on the plane trip back to the U.S. Because of energy factors and other things, I fell behind on my journal entries, so what you read hear is actually a look back on what happened that day and what I remember. Every time we are out driving, I never get over the surprise of people wearing surgeaon masks as they drive. It's so polluted here that police officers and some of the Thai people wear surgeon breathing masks as they go about their daily outside activities. The three hour trip to Kanchanaburi (pronounced "kan chana pouri") was split in half with a stop at Prothom Nagoda. This was home to a huge pagoda, a tall golden tower where the ashes of a Thai person are laid to rest. This particular pagoda is connected to royalty and the family of the king here in Thailand. As we walked around the large complex, we could see Buddhists who had come to worship, buy and place on the different statues golden leaves. Gold is a huge part of the Buddhist culture. Everything is covered in gold. The statues of Buddha, the royal pagodas, the outside decorations of the temples, and more. My hope is that some day something will happen that will just open the eyes of every Buddhist to the deception that they are following as their religion. I just hope it's soon... When we arrived at the Felix Hotel, we all mentioned that it reminded us greatly of the different hotels we used to go to when we would visit the coast in Kenya. It is a beautiful hotel surrounded by lush trees and greenery and placed right on the banks of the River Kwai, not a ten minute walk from the Bridge Over the River Kwai. If you don't know what's so important about that, don't worry, neither did I. I had to watch a good portion of an old movie called "The Bridge Over the River Kwai" before I understood why it was significant. It deals with Japanese prison camps and the railroad they built between Burma and Thailand using POW's in World War II. We got the chance to visit one of the grave sites in Kanchanaburi that have been erected since the war to honor those who lost their lives in this area of the war. It was incredible to see only a portion of the 16,000 POW's who lost their lives building the Burma-Thailand Railway. There is a whole section in the cemetery where all the tombstones say "Unknown But to God". I took some pictures of the a few of the gravestones that I thought had strikingly touching remarks. When we got back to the hotel, dad and I went and had a Thai massage. It felt really good and was really relaxing, but it was kind of awkward at first. I'd never had a massage before so it took a while getting used to. The Thai massage differs from your typical massage in that it doesn't use oil and a lot of rubbing. It's more stretching your skin and contorting your body. I'd never been cracked in so many different places on my body. But it was a neat and definitely different experience to take away from the trip. May 1, 2001 - Day 7 - Elephants, Rafting, the Waterfall, and the Train Ride Man, it's too early!! We were to meet the tour guide at 8:10 at the front of the hotel so that didn't give us much time to get extra sleep, get dressed, and get to breakfast before we had to be there. After getting over the usual early morning grumpies, it turned out to be well worth it. On our way to our first stop, our tour guide, Mind (pronouced "meen") gave each of us Thai names just for fun. David was named Son_____, dad was given the name "Sonbaht", and I was named "Sonram" (I forgot mom's name...oops!). Supposedly they were all names of popular music stars in Thailand. We pulled into the "Hellfire Pass War Museum" an hour later to start off our tour. We first walked down a lot of steep steps which overlooked a valley that the Kwai River runs through to a flattened area. Our guide explained to us that this was what remains of the path of the Burma-Thailand Railway (also aptly named "The Death Railway") and she explained to us that with hammers and and chisels the tens of thousands of POWs chipped their way through the rock that blocked the way of the almost 215 kilometer railroad (about 134 miles) that twisted throught the jungle mountains. We next visited the actual museum, where we had to take off our shoes before going inside - something I love about Thailand, you take off your shoes and walk barefoot a lot. A British man who married a Thai lady (I think she was Thai) had volunteered his time as a guide at the museum. He explained to us all about what the POWs went through: the sicknesses, the death, the torture, and death for some. The museum also contained the remains of a early model of the "smart bomb" that was used in WWII. A bomber from a plane could actually control the bomb as it descended towards the earth. We were also able to see a short film that had been done as a commemoration for those that died and of the stories of those that lived through the experience. It was an incredible museum, if you ever get the chance to visit. Next we were off to Karen Village, a little village that the owner of the touring company owned most of where the elephants where kept and trained. After feeding the three different elephants (the youngest one being 45 and the oldest one being either 65 or 70), we mounted the elephants and started off on our trip. Dave and I shared one elephant that stopped at everything green to eat, so to say the least our driver ( a little boy who couldn't have been more than 12 or so) was getting most frustrated. Although the trip was quite jerky, it was an incredible first time experience and a lot of fun traveling upriver on top of an elephant. We got off after the forty-five minute trip and jumped on rafts to head back downstream. Because I'm about twice the size of most Thai men, when I told them I weighed almost 80 kilos they just laughed. But it was kind of nice, I got my own raft =). Shortly after starting, Dave actually talked the "raft driver" in his boat into letting him try a little. So David guided the front of the raft the whole way down the river. It was a lot of fun for him. Dave's a very hands on person, wants to be involved on the level of the people he's around. Personally, I found it incredibly relaxing to just relax and float down in the shade... Once we got back to Karen Village we got off and headed to one of the large meeting places for a barbecue chicken and sticky rice lunch. It was incredible. They actually cooked the sticky rice inside of a piece of bamboo and you had to peel the bamboo back and inside of it is the rice. It was really good rice to. The chicken breast was really good to, but they took a piece of green bamboo their too and strapped it over the chicken while it cooked so you could hold the stick to eat so you didn't get quite so messy. We noticed that they used bamboo for everything. The table was made out of bamboo. The benches where made out of bamboo. The sides to the building were made out of bamboo. There were flower boxes made out of bamboo. They use bamboo for everything. It was actually pretty cool. As the rain, which had started as get arrived for lunch, let down, we headed for the van and back towards the hotel to see the Saiyo Nok waterfall. It was gorgeous and a lot of fun, except that it was Thailand's national Labour Day and so there were tons of people all around swimming in the falls and eating and talking. We were just worn out from everything else that we weren't in the mood to be around a lot of people. But we did have fun for a short time and bought some banana chips (friend strips of banana - actually really good). As it began to rain again, we headed back to the van for the quick car trip to the train station. Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pictures of the train, but it looks like it's been running since the early to mid 1900's. Besides the station stops every ten minutes, it was a fun experience and wind down for the day. The train runs along the rivers edge so we could see the rivers edge with the forest and forest covered hills in the background. We passed a "floating hotel". It actually had rooms built on barge like things that sat up out of the water, but were positioned end to end on the waters edge. Although I think there is a lot to be said for someone hearing about Christ in their own language, my mom reminded me that "something was better than nothing". As the hour and a half train ride dragged on, my dad shared the story of salvation with our tour guide. It took almost that long because dad had to keep thinking up other illustrations to put the ideas on a level that she could understand (she spoke good English but not great English). She didn't except Christ, which in some ways I'm glad because I'm afraid if she had it would have been just because she was appeasing us, because I'm not sure she completely understood everything. I think it was all rather new to her too because she came from the southern part of Thailand which is largely Islamic. However, atleast she did go away with something to think on and my dad left "The Four Spiritual Laws" with her. It's a book that explains salvation and who knows, maybe some day someone can explain it to her in her own language and she'll come to accept Christ's saving grace. Who knows..... We headed back to the hotel for a quick cleanup and then headed back to Bangkok before we headed out the next day. I don't want to say a whole lot about that night except for this. David put the people we were staying with in a very dangerous situation because he chose to buy marijuana and bring it into their house and he smoked it outside with people who knew who they were. The government is especially trying to find expatriates who do illegal drugs and then throw them in prison as an example to others. As my upset dad and the worried hostess (the host was in the States at the time) tried to explain the seriousness of the situation to David, he became hostile and wouldn't listen. So, dad placed him under citizen's arrest for illegal possession of drugs and only after being punched in the face did David calm down and agree not to kill dad before we got back to the States, for the sake of the hostess. Several cuss words followed but he calmed down and David, my dad, the hostess, and an American friend (a man) from downstairs went to the airport eight hours before our plane left because he could not stay at the pent house any more as that would put the home in jeopardy if the police were to come. So they went to the airport (only to find out that they couldn't check in till the next morning anyways - they stayed there all night) and mom and I stayed back and finished packing our suit cases, sent a few emails, watched about half of a movie, and then headed to bed - tired, frazzled, exhausted, worried, saddened... May 2, 2001 - Day 8 - Back Home Well, this is my last and final entry. We are finally home, unpacked, and restless from all the different time changes. Today went pretty well, just like most early morning flights. Mom and I actually arrived at the airport the same time they opened for check in so we met dad and David and everyone else there. The four hour flight from Bangkok to Taipei passed uneventfully, most of us sleeping, trying to catch up on what we had missed the night before. However the Taipei international airport was a different story. As the ladies at the counter were processing our tickets to give us our boarding passes for the rest of the trip, David moved up to the counter and stood there. Dad knew he was there because he wanted his passport and when dad received them from the ladies and didn't let David get his, Dave blew up. He claimed it was his passport and he owned it, cussed at dad, then threatened him and wanted to fight him right there in the airport. Unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on which way you look at it), the airport security was called and Dave was escorted the rest of the way to the plane. The rest of the trip was uneventful. I found it hard to find the energy and concentration to do the real homework I needed to do, so I worked on this web page most of the time, catching up on my journals and such. Did get to meet a rather pleasant guy in Dallas though who had been there training to become a pilot for American Airlines. He had been in the Air Force for 20 years and so had retired with his pension and not wanted to become a commercial pilot. He started up the conversation and so it was nice just to talk to someone new for once. I'm at home now and I'm not tired. I guess in one way that's a good thing. I had to finish this journal and I still have to write a five to eight page research paper before school tomorrow. AAAAHHHH!! :-) I'm not worried though, it'll all work out. Dave got mad when he got home and found out that some of the souvenirs he had bought in Thailand (which happened to be drug paraphernalia) was gone from his suitcase, thrown away in Thailand. Mom and dad are meeting with some people tomorrow and hopefully this will be the beginning to a good thing in David's life. Looking back on the trip, all though it did not end on a glib note, it really was a great time. Thailand is an incredible land, full of incredible people, with a rich and incredible past. I look forward to a chance to go back, possibly with friends and this time I can be the guide and have and idea of what's fun to do. By the way, don't tell anyone, but there's a chance I might get to go to China and Mongolia next January with my parents for another conference..... I don't know....maybe... Definitions:
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