ICU: Bangkok

Came back from the Bangkok trip today. It's been a while since I've spent any real time in Bangkok. 11 almost 12 years actually. But it was oddly how I remembered it. The only thing that I couldn't find was that smell. There is an odor deeply engrained in me memory of how Bangkok smells. Don't get me wrong, where were plenty of smells and other things to stimulate the senses, but I couldn't find this one.

On the first day, we came off the train and were not allowed to check in to the guest house right away. So we changed into our uniforms in a storage room and off we went to a canal tour. First thing I noticed was Bangkok's public transportation system. I had never been on it before because my mom's friends own cars. These were by far the cleanest subway and trains I have even been in. Everything ran on time, there were ample amounts of trash cans (something I find Chiang Mai lacks) and for Bangkok itself being a not so clean city, it has the best public transport system I have ever experienced. 

For the canal tour we took a long taxi boat and at first we just rode around the canals. There was a dramatic switch from city to residential and back again. Along with this switch you could see the switch in levels of poverty and wealth but it was never a subtle shift. Just different levels of wealthy and different levels of poverty, but still very clearly in those two spectrums only. There were big Buddhas and Wats spread through out and eventually we got dropped off at our first stop which was to look at the Royal Barges Museum. 

Big boats. Very Thai. The museum itself was a pier that had a roof with about 8 or so boats. There were many that referenced the Ramayana in some way, which I'm sure made Ajan Rebecca very happy. Our next stop was Wat Arun, where we got quite a work out going up very steep steps. There were not that many steps, but it was almost verticle.

 Next we went to the Siam Museum. It was aimed toward younger students, but I liked it for that reason. It was more interactive and they used technology in a way I would not expect to see in a museum. It was a good basic overview of the history of Thailand before it was Thailand. 

When we got back to the guest house we watched a movie about 14 October 1973. I wondered where my mom was on that day. The documentary was in Thai with English subtitles and I wondered what we lost in translation, something I wonder a lot recently. After watching the film, we were talked to by a Thai university student named Tony. We were informed before hand that his beliefs were controversial but interesting. 

The next day we went to Duand Prateep Foundation to learn about what they do to help the slums. However, their work was not focused solely on the Klong Toey slum, but to the general well being Thailand. The foundation is lead by Prateep Ungsontham Hata, who was a slum dweller herself and has been helping her community since the age of sixteen. After we had a lecture about what the foundation did we had a tour of their kindergarden where we got to play with some adorable children who would speak to us like we were all fluent in Thai. Then they took us around the actual slum. I hated this. I knew what were were going ot see and how I was going to feel before we even started. We were paraded through the slum in our university uniforms, clearly farang students and  we were meant to look at these people like specimen. They wondered what we were doing there, I wondered what we were doing there, I smiled if I made eye contact as we walked by but mostly people looked irritated to our presence there. I felt rude by being there, like I was saying "yes, you are something to look at." And while I understand the importance of seeing with your own eyes I think there was a better way this could have been done with out alienating both parties. 

Next we went to the Bangkok Refugee center. It was really interesting to hear about refugees and asylum seekers, and how we don't normally think of their struggle in urban settings, but on the borders of Thailand and Burma, for example. But they had so many kinds of refugees, from all around the world and I could not figure how they ended up in Bangkok. We walked around the center and people seemed happy to talk to us, there were some teenage boys who just got out of their english class who practiced speaking with us. We learned more about the logistics of the center then we learned that Duang Prateep Foundation, but I feel like that was because of the nature of each of the organizations. 

That night Maia and I walked around the market near the guest house. There were a lot of people who pointed at me and said to some one near by loog klirng. I didn't know how to take this, but its something that hasn't happened to me in Chiang Mai. When I was buying presents or food from vendors, they would ask me where I was from, I would answer American and if they gave me a funny look I would respond in Thai that my mother is from Lopburi, to which they would give a big head nod and a big smile and continue to talk to me in English. But this didn't just happen at the market, I noticed it whenever I went out. First off, I don't even look Thai, so I don't know how they knew, but this two, now I'm not sure how common it is to be mixed race. Apparently is uncommon enough for people to stare and point. 

The next day we had a "democracy tour" with Dr Paul Chambers. We looked at houses, statues and monuments. Two of the most memorable was the 14 Oct monument, as it was not built until 2001 and there was a big fuss about even building it. The next was the deocracy monument. As Dr Chambers pointed out there are many ways that people actually view this monument and "what it is really depicting". We had lunch at Thammasat University after Dr Chambers showed us around a little more, including the red lift. This was an elevator in which students were massacred by the police when student protesters once again met at Thammasat in October 1976. The students were trying to esacape to the hopped in the elevator and the police ran down the stairs, beat the elevator down and as soon as the doors opened the police opened fire. 

After lunch we went to Wat Prakaew the Royal palace where the Emerald Buddha lives. He was very very tiny but up at the top of a lot of gold big icons that were bigger then him.

 On the walls there were stories of the Buddha's life and out side ordination hall, but still in the Wat there was an amazing mural of the Ramayana which our Arts of South East Asia class took a look at while everyone else went with a tour guide around the wat. Next, some people went to Siriraj Hostpital, to see the forensic museum there. I however, opted to go to Wat Pho, as Philly as the Mutter museum (a fantastic museum that is attached to a medical school. The museum only focuses on medical oddities.) Wat Pho is were the famous reclining Buddha is. It was funny to see the difference between the attention the tiny little Emerald Buddha gets opposed to the attention this huge Buddha gets.  

On our last day, before we got on the train Ginny, Nick, Reid and I went to Chatuchak together. However, we all go unbearably hot and went to the Siam Paragon. It was a big mall, with upscale stores and we spent out time in the book store. Then it was time to get back on the train and head home to Chiang Mai.