A breath of fresh air in Sukhoti

Sunday morning we happily headed out of Bangkok on a VIP bus. As far as we can tell, VIP busses aren't any more comfortable than first class busses, but we did get to watch a couple of hours of Thai music videos. They all seemed to be men singing about having their heart broken by women. One even took place in a hospital room, with a half dozen female nurses examining and treating the studly lead singer. According to the x-rays, he was suffering from a broken heart. Literally. When they performed the surgery, all they found when they opened him up was a slew of pictures of his lost love. Then he died. And then we saw two dozen more videos almost exactly like that one.

As I mentioned in the last post, this bus ride and our guest house in Sukhoti were booked by the sleezy travel agent we never wanted to visit in the first place, so we were pretty nervous. I started feeling better once the guy actually picked us up in the morning to take us to the bus terminal, but Adina wasn't satisfied until we got to the guest house. Lucky for the travel agent, it was quite nice. Otherwise, she'd have been on the business end of a pretty nasty phone call. The place was a bit removed from the main drag of town so it was quiet, very clean, the AC worked, the "lobby" area was really relaxing with good books and charming though unbearably uncomfortable hammocks, and the staff was super friendly, mildly helpful, and spoke passable English. And after a while you get used to accidentally stepping on toads on the way back to your bungalow.

Sunday afternoon we rented a motor-bike (like father like son) and scooted off to Sukhoti Historical Park, a beautiful set of "ancient" ruins of what was once the capital of the area. Unlike the ruins of Rome, though, everything is the same. At some point I'll get an explanation as to why they needed a half dozen temples in the same complex. Gorgeous grounds, quiet, peaceful, and relaxing. A far cry from the sqawking touts of Bangkok. In the morning we scooted off to Sri Satchanalai Historical Park, about an hour of windy country roads and Adina struggling to adjust to riding on the left side of the road. Especially funny because I was the one driving and only forgot to look in the right direction before pulling into oncoming traffic once. This park was more of the same same, but a little different. Less manicured, more wooded and secluded. Equally beautiful and relaxing. Many people fly from Bangkok to Chang Mai and skip over this part of the country, but if you ever plan on taking the bus through, I'd definitely recommend taking a day to explore these parks. In the evening we had a nice beer with a German university student who got super apologetic about making a crowded cattle car joke to us. We assured him that the joke was neither funny nor offensive, but he felt real bad, he was especially nervous about giving us the wrong impression about how seriously Germans take the whole thing. I suppose Chillul Hashem is a universal concept. I told him if wants some good holocaust humor, he should check out The Onion. Now that I think about it, I should have made him pay for the beer. It seems like the least he can do, right?

Today we took another marathon bus ride to Chang Mai, where we were pleased to learn the climate has changed from oppressively hot and humid to unoppressively hot and humid. At least for today. Even though it's the second biggest city in Thailand, Chang Mai feels nothing like Bangkok and we're excited to spend some time here next week. Tomorrow we head out on a three day 'trek' through the hill tribes of the jungle. Then it's back to Chang Mai for Shabbat.

Bye for now!

Two Days of Bangkok, or The Fleecing of the Alperts

First the good part.
Bangkok is a terrific city.  People are friendly and helpful, mass transit is fast, reliable, and clean, and the shopping malls will blow you away. 

The bad news is that Kho San Road, the backpacker haven, and the main touristy area is not Bangkok.  It is Bangkok's distant, ugly cousin that sucks you in at family functions, talks for 20 minutes about foot odor, then tries to sell you on Amway. 

Our first day was no fun.  Even though you've read all about the scam artists on the street and you know to just ignore them, it's much harder than it looks.  I have lived in the heart of three different cities for the last ten years, have been asked for spare change a million times, and have even been dragged into 20 minute conversations by Rapping Superman Otis more than once, but I still find it hard to comp --  a lizard just ran across my computer screen -- letely ignore people.  If some one asks for change, i say "sorry."  But you absolutely can't do that here.  Even the slightest hint of eye contact sets them off, then you're sucked in.  There are dozens of different scams.  As it turns out, even the little old man standing by himself is in on it.  We got sucked into a cheap ride around the city that of course ended at the "tourist information center".  Then we try to say no to the travel agent as much as possible as she tries to plan and charge us for six weeks of travel, talk her down a lot, say no, say no, say no, but somehow still end up with bus tickets and an overpriced guest house reservation we weren't looking for.  (note to self:  I am not to be trusted at a time share presentation) Though as it turns out the guest house is nice.  More on that later.

Then our very generous tuk-tuk(motorbik/pedicab) driver who graciously took us to this place we didn't ask to go to (and got a nice commision in return, of course) drops us off at the grand palace and Wat Pra Keao (first pic), which were of course stunning but certainly lost on two unhappy campers such as ourselves.  Then our walk to Wat Pho was thwarted by yet another scam artist.  This guys job is to stop people from going to sightseeing spots, tell them the spot is closed, and instead send them to a tailor or jeweler who will pay him a bit of commission.  Sadly, we were too tired at the moment to realize he was lying about the Wat being closed, but luckily we were WAY too tired to waste money or even go into whatever store he tried pushing us to.  On our walk back (since we didn't trust tuk-tuk drivers any more) to our guest house, we ran into my favortie scam of the day.  A toothless little old lady was feeding some pigeons.  As we walk by she yells after us and tries handing me a back of popcorn kernels to feed the birds.  I say no and keep walking, of course forgetting that in Bangkok no most certainly does not mean no.  She waits a moment, then runs after us and hangs the bag of kernels from the straps of my bag.  (note to self #2:  backpack makes you an easy mark)  My mistake was to think that maybe she wanted those back.  I stop take them off my bag and hand them back to her, of course saying a very direct and very cranky "no" in the process.  Maybe I should have been more clear.  With the bag in my hand going into hers, she very smoothly manages to slash a hole across the bag with her fingernail and send the kernels tumbling to the ground.  If I wasn't so unhappy with the horde of dirty pigeons at my feet, perhaps I'd have been impressed with her move.  Right after shaking my arm to make sure every last kernel hits the ground, she sticks her hand out and manages the only English word I hear from her in the whole exchange.  "Money?".  She asks for 100 Baht, I unhappily give her 5 (roughly 14 cents) and walk away.

On the bright side, day two was much better.  The day starts with a river ferry (flat rate, no haggling, regular mass transit, no surprise stops) to Wat Arun(second picture, where Adina managed to flash an entire class of little Thai boys) and Wat Pho, which we were in a much better place to appreciate today.  Then we hopped in a taxi (al ha-moneh, bevakasha) and went to meet an old student of mine whose dad works for the state department and is in Bangkok for a couple of years.  This is when we got to see real Bangkok.  We met in front of the U.S, embassy (guarded by an actual moat, by the way) and went to the food court of an office building.  She had Au bon pain, we had fruit smoothies.  After chatting with her for a bit, she sent us a few blocks away to the skytrain (the el) to downtown, where we walked around a mall for a bit without being hassled once.  It was nice to be in a real city, but the stark contrast between that area and tourist trap central didn't really hit until Saturday night when we were back in that neighborhood and a bit lost.  We walked back and forth for a bit until a woman in front of a restaurant helped us out.  She said "If you ask first time you walk by, you be there already!"  She's right, and it's sad that just two days in Kho San made us so hesitant to approach any one on the street.  Apparently in the rest of the city people are happy to help for it's own sake, not necessarily for whatever Baht is in it for them.

After our second day proved much better than the first, we were ready to leave town with at least ambivalent feelings about the place.  A drastic improvement over Thursday's debacle.  Sunday morning we were on the first bus out of town, heading towards our next stop, the ruins of the old capital Sukhoti.  We'll post about that once we get to Chang Mai, and maybe put some pictures up somewhere, too.


PS - For those curious, Shabbat was exactly as expected, though a bit smaller now that the high season has passed.  And a few more Americans than we expected.  Every one had the same story.  A few days in Bangkok, then heading up north about as soon as possible.  I'm sure we'll see a lot of the same crowd in Chang Mai this week.

Greetings from the Holy Land

Tell me if this sounds familiar to any one. 

 

We got off a long flight on which we were randomly seated next to some one we know.  We took a bus to the city and were reminded by the bus driver to always ask taxi drivers to turn on the meter before getting in the cab.  We spent the day practicing our hebrew by reading signs in the store fronts, walking through holy sites, of course having to remember appropriate dress (I had to wear a loaner pair of pants, Adina just had to pull down her capris enough to cover most of her calves.  Apparently covering the butt crack is optional.)  and took off our shoes before stepping up to the altar.  Then we had some cheap falafel for a nice afternoon snack.  The only thing missing is the squeegee for our curtainless (and tubless, for that matter) shower. 

 

We'll have more thoughts on Bangkok once we get used to it a bit, but then again we're only here until Sunday, so maybe we won't get used to it.  Leaving town is just as good.  For now we're here, we're hot, and we kind of need a nap. 

 

 

And we're off (for real this time)

Connecticut totally lived up to the hype, now we're set to fly tomorrow!!!  It was especially nice to get a last few days of 70 degree weather in before the melting begins.

We're hoping we're bringing enough stuff.....

Let the Adventure Begin!

Our 10 week summer of fun starts here - Adina's business school graduation - followed by 1 more month of Danny "teaching", a few more weeks of Adina "working", and a lounge chair by the pool with a permanent imprint of my butt.

Next stop - a weekend in exciting Connecticut. How jealous are you.