Thailand, ผมรักคุณ

Let me preface. It was really thanks to Anthony Bourdain that my interest in visiting Thailand emerged. Reading his books, watching his Travel Channel show, and meeting him at GW all culminated in this desire to eat real Thai food. Certainly, my ritualistic Thai Place "lemongrass chicken" wouldn't satisfy my curious appetite. And after watching my friend's Thai-trip slideshow, I had all the more desire to visit the country. Thankfully, Thailand from Tokyo vacations are pretty cheap, and so it was very accessible/affordable.

Like my trips to Sapporo and the Yaeyama Islands, I organized the trip through Waseda's co-op. I selected a four day plan, but made the mistake of leaving early and arriving late, so really I only had two days in Bangkok (which were enough, but I'd have liked to visit other places in Thailand). My friend Dave from my Japanese class accompanied me on the trip.

Day 1
I am hesitant to even refer to "Day 1," because we basically spent it on the airplane. We left Tokyo in absolutely beautiful, sunny weather. The flight was a bit bumpy, but I just listened to music (new Joanna Newsom album) and watched "Where the Wild Things Are" as an in-flight movie. The airplane food was not so bad, and the flight attendants were very nice, and were impressed by Dave's and my Japanese skills.

We arrived in Bangkok around ten or eleven at night. We didn't realize JTB (the travelling service who organzied our trip) arranged an airport pick-up service for us, so we took a bus to the city's center and then cabbed to the hotel. When we were checking in, the lady from JTB who was supposed to pick us up called the hotel and complained to me in this hard to understand Thai-Japanese. She then came to the hotel and told us things like "Don't drink the water" and that the fruit (in the room) is not free. She was funny though. You wouldn't meet someone like her in Tokyo.

Day 2
Our big tourist day! Thanks to the "Travel Wiki" website, we found a good one-day plan to cover all of Bangkok's big attractions. We first took a cab to "The Golden Mount," which was a really lovely temple. We got there very early so hardly anyone was there, so we were surrounded by the chirping sounds of birds and in the "distance" the sounds of the city waking up. We then traveled to Mahakan Fort on foot and crossed the streets to Wat Rajanadda, another wonderful, but slightly unappreciated temple. Taking a cab (they were so cheap, and almost always less than two dollars per ride) to Wat Pho, to see the world's largest reclining Buddha. We then walked to the nearby palace (don't remember its name), which was opened to the public after the royal family relocated. The ornamentation and decoration of Thai architecture was magnificent.

When we were done, we walked towards the pier of Tha Tien, which was half-hidden past a market alley full of stalls selling dried squid. We then hopped aboard the angular little ferry and payed 3 baht for the trip to Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) across the Chao Phraya River. This kind of concluded our list of major tourist attractions, so we then headed back to the hotel for lunch and to take a nap by the pool. In the early evening, Dave and I went separate ways, he to get a traditional Thai massage and I to Lumpini Park (the largest park in central Bangkok). We reconvened at night and had a late dinner (it was included in the trip) at the hotel. It was a kind of Thai-take on Dim Sum. The restaurant staff thought Dave and I were Japanese, which caught me by surprise.

Day 3
meh...will update later today.