Yellow Monday

On Mondays in Thailand people wear yellow shirts. This is either to honor the king (very popular here) or because yellow is a Buddhist color. I've heard both reasons. But all around the city today there were lots of yellow shirts.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Thai-Burma border. We stay in the town of Mae Sot and will spend one day in Mae La refugee camp (both are visible in Google Earth). Hope to find an internet cafe...

Sunday Evening in Bangkok

After lunch (good Pad Thai at the hotel restaurant) we met CWS (Church Worls Services) staff we headed over to the TBBC offices (Thai-Burma Border Consortuim) nearby. Had a very interesting briefing from the director. Things related to the refugee camps here are very complex with lots of players and shades of grey. I think I was a little naive and simplistic in how I understood the situation with the Karen.

After this we're heading out to a nearby ITALIAN restaurant. On my way here I was all about imersing myeslf in the Thai culture. But Bangkok is just overwhelming and we're needing something comforting. Plus the food is supposed to be good. Risotto in Thailand would be so cool.

Sunday morning in Bangkok

There are 5 of us traveling together. We have a bit of time to sightsee before the official trip starts on Sunday afternoon. We were all set to go do a touristy thing when Claire got ahold of someone who got ahold of someone who told us service for the Karen Christian Church in Bangkok starts in 45 minutes. Cool! So we walk to the Skytrain, take it almost to the end of the line, grab a taxi, convince him to use the meter instead of an exhorbanent amount of 70 baht ($2.50) per person to take us to the address we have. And squeeze 5 women into a modest-sized taxi. We get off at this little alley (soi) in a non-touristy area. Good thing numbers are the same. The address has a little sign saying New Hope Church, but it's in a townhouse like building. We go in and there's a group getting ready for church. Guitar, keyboard and bass, simple alter and cross on the wall. The pastor had heard we were coming and was very welcoming (and fluent in English). So we went to church. Too bad I don't understand Karen. But all (maybe 50) were very friendly and welcoming. After they brought out food but we had to run to make it back for the first briefing at the hotel. All in all it was a fun little adventure and maybe the best thing I've done in Bangkok so far.

It's all part of the journey

Walking. Most sidewalks here are full of street vendors. Either food or stuff. And you see the same stuff over and over. The fruit cart, the grilled meat cart. The Izod polo shirt table (why?) and the sequined elephant stuff table. Streets are full of cars and, especially on Silom, the sidewalks are full of people. This is a big, crowded, noisy city. I’ll be glad to see the rest of the country.

Train. I took the Skytrain which travels above the street. A different view of the tops of buildings. Some very elegant and some covered in corregated, rusty tin sheets. Lonely Planet says that the cars are very air-conditioned. And they were right. But it felt good.

Boat. My plan today was go ride the commuter boat along the river. There’s several types of boats – ferries, tourist-specific, and color-coded boats. I thought I was on the right one until it headed across the river instead of up it. Note to me: “ferry” means one that goes across. There’s 7 Baht down the drain (about 30 cents). After I found the right boat and read the map I decided to ride it up to the area near the Grand Palace and the big wats (temples). The view along the river was fascinating. The giant barge with the cat in the little houseboat in back was cool.

After walking around a while (see a later post on the Closed-Temple scam) I had backtracked and picked up the boat going back. I only walked down one dead-end alley by mistake. I also found some wholesale food area with guys loading huge wicker baskets full of vegetables.

I’d call today a success. I mastered the Skytrain and the river boat system. And got back where I started from. And figured out how to look for the street vendor squeezing oranges and bottling the juice right there. Yum.

Bangkok Very Safely

I spent the day walking around parts of Bangkok. The big park near my hotel, Lumphini, was just quiet enough to have me a little nervous. But no problem, there's a park police every 100 feet. Nice park. Then I went up to the train station. Long walkway and I'm cautious. But look there's the security police. Same everywhere I went. Along the street by the river there were police. If you're going to be a lone women walking around a city I'd pick Bangokok.

ps, I don't think this is related to the riot here on Tuesday.

Communication

It's a big world and a small one. 

I called Verizon and I got my phone to work in Thailand. They're on the same network. I may not have coverage up in Mae Sot because of hills. Same as Deruyter.

It will cost $2/minute to talk. Text is $.50 or $0.05 so Jim and I will be doing lots of texting. The time difference is 11 hours.

Jim just calls my number normally. I need to dial 0011 (315) xxx-xxxx.

Other ways to keep intouch are:

this blog

twitter

facebook

gmail

That seems like enough. I should have access to a computer at the hotel in Bangkok. Not sure about Mae Sot. I'm sure there's wi-fi there but I just need a computer. Not sure if anyone in my group is bringing one. 

Can I really learn Thai?

I bought the learn-thai CD's (Pimslers) and loaded them on my ipod, along with some podcasts I found. Then I listen to them driving around. I've been in the car alot lately and just finished with lesson 10 today. Each lesson is 1/2 hour. Think 5 hours is enough? I can ask you if you want to eat rice (gin kao) with me or in a restautant. And do you want to drink water? 

my cow jai translates to "don't understand". I hope I can say more than that.

I do think I understand the format of the language. It's alot simpler than others with no tenses. But there is that tonal language thing. 

I took french in school for 6 years. I remember quite a few words but suck at verb tenses and such. So maybe Thai is my language. 

Tonight I ordered a thai-english pocket dictionary. so I guess I'm all set.