Thailand, pt. 1: Arrival Bangkok, south to the Rainforest

3/14 Arrival Bangkok, 4 p.m.
Waiting at the airport to take the airport bus to near Khao San road (it couldn't go the entire way because the route was blocked by protestors convening at the nearby Democracy Monument.) Hung out and chatted with a Japanese grad student on the same bus, then we split up when we walked a few blocks from where the bus dropped us off. Hopped on a motorcycle taxi and got dropped off at my hotel, Hotel De'Moc (highly recommend for travelers in Bangkok, centrally located and nice rooms.) Then wandered through the nearby back alleys until I stumbled upon this (I had been wondering where all the noise was coming from!) Maybe not so surprisingly not the only farang (foreigner) there--altho maybe the only tourist!--; I saw a few foreigners with red shirts on who seemed to have taken on the cause (of course I didn't venture too far into the crowd!) Met a Thai lady that was like 'so what do you think?' and i was like "wow, a lot of supporters here" and she pointed to her red shirt and was like "Yeah, but you know, I have a yellow shirt at my house just in case." (the yellow shirts are the opposers of the red shirt faction, like the repubs and dems. except that they throw tear gas at each other. so, maybe relatively not that different, seeing as bricks get thrown in the U.S.)
Interesting.
So then, back to the airport to pick up Dana, and boy was I glad to see he'd arrived safely! And then it was the beginning of my first trip abroad shared with someone! ( seeing how I usually travel alone...) so back to the center of Bangkok (the airport's pretty out of the way) and we wandered through the back alleys again, until we reached a street with little side streets full of tiny mom-and-pop restauarants. So we picked one, sat down and had some Pad Thai. The owner was this really cool guy, spoke some English and came over and said Hey. The food was really good, too! Hope I can find it again someday and eat there again. (I highly recommend going to sit-down restaurants al fresco dining in Bangkok is pretty much always a good idea--as long as at least a few other Thai diners are there, its probably not a bad choice!)
So, next day was a full day of sightseeing before meeting up with our tour group! And sightseeing we did--off on a walking trip by the Democracy Monument, still full of red shirts and being circled by pick-up trucks with cabs full of protestors waving flags and sounding off foghorns, even a few trucks driving around with old ladies selling food and drinks for the protestors out of the back of the truck (pretty ingenious if you ask me!) Then, hopping a ride in a tuk tuk to the big monuments, Wat Pho and the Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaeo. Arrived, and rounded the corner to go through the main entrance (this lovely gate pictured is merely a side entrance.) Entered, paid the fee, and immediately eschewed the main building to encircle the property and to go on a search for the famed Thai massage school. Wandered through multiple courtyards and past elaborate ornate statues and halls dedicated to the Buddha (including an entire outdoor cluster of statues lining the walls of an outdoor courtyard.) Finally found the massage school, and paid the ten bucks for a massage (best massage of my life--although a little bit, um, more painful than i was expecting!) Then wandered around the chedis (aka stupas) and back up to the front hall for the reclining buddha. And reclining he was, he was a happy, chillin' dude! Here he is below, along with a close-up of his feet. He was gigantic!
And, on the opposite side, where you could see his back (and a close up of the cool lookin snake coil-hair he has) there were a series of little bowls that you threw coins into to make a sound (me and Dana took turns, but it was hard keeping track of all of them, there were probably about 50 in a row. maybe more.) I guess as some kind of meditative form of prayer. The sound of the metal hitting the copper bowls was actually very soothing. Then, it was up the street to Wat Phra Kaeo and the Grand Palace, where we had to don our respectful leg-and-arm covering outfits out of respect to the Royal Family and the Emerald Buddha (a two foot statue of the Buddha, actually carved out of jade, not emerald.) So we got our tix, then stopped for a snack break and got our bearings...first it was over to the Emerald Buddha, and on the way we ran into a group of three cool Japanese college dudes, and started wandering around with them. Me and Mighty, the self-appointed group leader, traded convos in English and Japanese, as I was helping translate the English tour guide's more complicated passages into Japanese (very simply) and Mighty was supplying all the laughs, English and otherwise. Here he is meditating outside the hall of the Emerald Buddha, where we went in and gazed at the Emerald Buddha and his multitudes of offerings (pictures werent allowed, but he was dressed in his dry-season, golden-robed finest) and many of his followers were crowded around the front of the spacious audience hall-type building praying. The Buddha himself is far away and high up, about 8 feet off the floor, in his golden throne. After that, we headed out in our newly formed group of 5 (3 Japanese speakers, 2 English speakers) and headed off to the Grand Palace. But, boy it was hot and the middle of the day! We ducked into the fan-containing throne room to get out of the heat, and admired the ship's bow looking royal throne at the center, as well as the golden decked out thrones in other parts of the building, then headed back out to view the old Palace, a Beaux-Arts/Thai style mansion in the center of the grounds. From there, we viewed more artifacts in a side building, then it was time to bid Mighty and crew goodbye as we departed for the hotel, and meeting up with the group. From there it was meeting with Tommy, our Thai tour guide, and the rest of the crew--three Brits, two Canadians, a German, Dane, and Belgian. Surprisingly, we were the only Americans (and boy, what a learning experience that was!) So, the next morning, it was an early morning van ride out to the floating market of Damnoen Saduak, which was interesting (although it did feel mostly set up for tourists!) I taught Dana his first steps in bargaining, and we enjoyed a nice break with coffee and tea in the shade after an hour ride around in the longboat through the bustling market. After lunch was a little more free time, during which time we wandered down Khao San road, amidst the hustle and bustle. Then it was on to the train station, where we waited in the evening for the arrival of the train we were taking down to Khao Sok national park. However, at the train station itself two interesting events took place: first, at 6 pm sharp when the national anthem was played and everyone immediately came to standing and remained standing throughout the anthem, after which business returned to normal. And, I also found myself a copy of the Little Prince in Thai (!) Which brings my copies of the Little Prince in foreign languages count up to 4 officially (english, japanese, thai and french... yay!) After that, it was on to the overnight train to the National Park, which in defense of Thai trains was much more comfortable (yay air conditioning!) than any other overnight train rides I've had in sleeper cars. Then it was a songthaew (aka covered ride in the back of a not-so-tall truck..here's a picture of us in one) out to the resort where we stayed in the rainforest. That day it was taking it easy, then an inner tubing adventure on a nearby river (the best part was diving into a swimming hole about halfway down the river.) But, really fun after that was a stop to play with the monkeys at a nearby temple! We fed them some peanuts, until one of the more adventurous ones decided to jump on Dana and the Papa monkey got a little testy.. so we chased off the baby monkeys and fed them from afair after that! Then, after that was dinner back at the homestead, and...celebrating St. Patrick's Day! Many Thai Singha beers to go round for all..along with watching a Thai soap opera and dubbing the Thai over in make-believe English (hey, what better way to spend St. Patty's day??)
...which entailed getting up early and riding out in the covered back truck again to the dam, where we took a motorized longboat out into the mountainous 'islands' that composed the landscape in the dam. Along the way, the boat took a stop and we were dared to jump from a rock into the dam...which all the guys and Isabelle the Belgian, bravest of the fairer sex, jumped off. From there, we rode out to a group of houses for rent on the water, and had a nice meal for lunch. After lunch was kayaking and relaxing, before the ride back in the sun. Then it was the return trip back to our 'rainforest resort' and a huge BBQ dinner, which we couldn't finish at all, so much meat! Then from there it was an evening of packing and resting up for the next day's journey to the islands near Surat Thani....