From Bangkok With Love

Basil Waine Kong

This is our first visit to Thailand. So, Sawatdee Krub to our male friends and sawatdee Ka to our female friends. If we were greeting you in person, in addition to “Sawatdee” we would clasped our palms together under our chin and bow slightly. There is no good morning or good night, as they ignore the time of day but wish that God will shower his blessings on you. This is called the wai. While the actions are the same, the equivalent word in India would be “Namaste”.

We departed from Atlanta on Tuesday, October 26 at precisely 9:47 am for the first leg of our flight to Seattle. Because of our incessant presence on Delta Airlines planes, each year, we accumulate enough miles for our annual two week safari to distant destinations around the world---first class! As a result, our ample seats recline to beds; we watch movies from our individual monitors as they lavish us with all the food and libations we can handle, again at no cost. They step it up on international flights and tend to our comfort including kits with toothbrushes, lotion, slippers, blankets and fluffy pillows. We will need them.

We are pleasantly surprised to find another couple who we know from previous cruises taking the same route to Bangkok and thoroughly enjoy their company. Dr. and Mrs. Roy Irons was recently elected President of the National Dental Association. This will be our twelfth cruise.

We gain three hours and arrive in Seattle at 11:00 am (five hours later). After a two hour layover that we spend in the Sky Lounge, we depart again for Tokyo, Japan on Thursday, October at 1:00 pm landing at 5:00 pm (ten hours later). Yes, we lost a day that we will get back on our trip back home when we will again cross the International Date Line. After a two hour layover at the Narita Airport in Japan, we are off again on our 6 hour flight to Bangkok at 7:00 pm and landing at 1:00 am having flown for 21 hours! After clearing customs and claiming our luggage we are surprised that we can just walk out without anyone checking our luggage or even having to turn in a declaration form. We are relieved that we immediately spot our driver who is holding up a sign with our names. He takes our luggage and accompanies us to the car we reserved.

We are impressed with how clean the streets are but we passed a road block where the police are checking drivers who may be impaired due to alcohol. We had no problem and we arrive at the Kingston Suites hotel at 2:00 pm---exhausted but exalted. We chose the hotel just so we could say we traveled from Kingston to Kingston. We are pleased with the quality of our accommodations and immediately step into the shower after two days of travel and were able to sleep for four hours. The time difference between Jamaica and Thailand is eleven hours.

A full breakfast is included in the cost of our hotel so we go down at 8:00 am and was surprised at the familiar fruits: mangoes, leeches, jackfruit, papaya, oranges, figs, strawberries, water melons, pineapples, sour sop, custard apples, rose apples, guava, and even neaseberries (sapodilla). I was, however, unfamiliar with mangostem, lampotan, dragon fruit, rambutans, durian (smells like hell but taste like heaven) and logans. We both got western omelets along with our usual coffee and croissants with orange marmalade.

We decided to take a walk just to experience the sights, sounds and smells of the city and as we depart, we are asked by the desk clerk: “pai nai?” which is a friendly “where are you off to?” To which we responded: “No where in particular. Which is the way to the city?” The usual rush hour traffic was brutal. As there are far more taxis than passengers, on our walk, we are constantly approached by taxi drivers with offers to take us on various tours. The streets are crowded with “tuk tuks” (motor cycles converted to seat six people), Japanese cars, buses, trucks, bicycles and motorcycles. Motor cycles can be taxis here and they are best for negotiating the traffic but the pas sager, usually a woman, sit sidesaddle. Unlike Jamaica, all riders and passengers wear helmets. In many ways, this is Kingston. When I left Jamaica, the authorities were struggling with vendors about crowded sidewalks and trying to get squeegee kids off the street. It is the same here. You can get a full breakfast from street vendors who cook and sell you breakfast items as well as lunch and dinner later. Like Jamaicans, Thais love soup. Instead of pumpkin, peas and pepper pot, They love the hot and spicy Tom Yum.

On our way back to our hotel, we passed the “Dream Spa“ and my wife decides to get a Thai massage. The cost is US$50.00 for 60 minutes although the cost elsewhere is advertised as low as $20.00. By the time we rendezvous back at the hotel for our 1:00 pm tour of the Grand Palace, she is glowing and absolutely relaxed from her spa treatment. She promptly falls asleep in the car.

On our way to the Palace, Tony, our guide, imparts essential data about the country and their culture. He does not speak English very well and I am obliged to ask him to repeat himself and even to spell out what he is trying to say. In a country of about 60,000,000 people, 15 million live in Bangkok, the capital. Fifty percent of the people are employed in the agricultural sector and produce 30% of the rice in the entire world!

I learn that “Korp khun mak” means thank you; “mai pen rai” or "mai mi pan ha” means no problem mon, and “Jai yen yen” means “Don’t sweat the small stuff" or “Be calm, what difference does it make?”. Unlike Jamaicans, the people pride themselves in not being excitable. They speak in a whisper and never never lose their cool. Unfortunately, the down side of their personality is that you can never tell if someone is glad to see you or not. I much prefer our haughty laugh and hug when I meet friends. The guide and driver say they are impressed that I am showing so much interest in their culture.

There is no touching in Thailand. You will never witness any public displays of affection. A man touching a woman (not his wife) even to try to shake her hand is a serious offense. Touching someone’s head is a fighting offence. So, no hugging or kissing in the street! The story is told that the palace guards were escorting a princess from one palace to another by boat when she fell overboard. Since none of the men could touch her, they watched her drown and everyone (including her father) agreed that that was the right thing to do.

They do not joke about their benevolent King who is greatly loved and revered. Thanks to shrewd maneuvering, they were never colonized. They changed the name of their country from Siam to Thailand (Land of freedom) in 1939. If you remember when the country was Siam, the movie “The King and I”, depicted a naive King Rama V, who welcomed missionaries and teachers to their Kingdom but remained independent. By the way, the movie is still censored in Thailand and our guide never saw it.

The current king, Bhumibol Adulyade, (Rama IX), who is the longest serving monarch in the world, was actually born in Cambridge, Massachusetts when his father was studying medicine at Harvard. So, he is an American citizen. He loves dogs, so no one would dare abuse them. As a result, dogs are to be found all over the country. He is also an aficionado of Jazz, sailing and photography. While the country is democratic and has a democratic parliament, every so often the King will put his food down and say: “It no go so” and will have his way. For example, when parliament outlawed "tuk tuks" because they were too polluting, these taxi drivers appealed to the King and he reversed the lawmaker's decision. You would not expect anything less as they celebrate December 5 (The King’s birthday) as father’s day. In Jamaica, you can be locked up and fined for cussing out a police officer, in Thailand, you can be charged with “lèse-majesté” for not showing enough respect for members of the Royal family. In Jamaica, many people look forward to earning Christmas money, in Thailand, the King will advise everyone: “nai nam mi pla nah mi khao” (There is fish in the water and rice in the fields."

The two dominant political parties are roughly equivalent to our own PNP and JLP. The PNP cousins wear red and are allied with those who struggle and the Yellow shirts are like the JLP,the party of the rich and powerful.

As we arrive at the Grand Palace, we encounter the unexpected. It is, indeed a grand palace that I believe is more impressive than the Vatican, the Hermitage in Leningrad, Versailles in Paris, any of the Mormon Tabernacles or Buckingham Palace. I have always been impressed with the effort that can be invested to immortalize God and King. The moment we arrived, we were awed and overused the word ‘wow” to describe one impressive temple after another. The Wat Phra Kaeo (The Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and the Wat Po (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) are particularly spectacular; I could not possibly describe this experience. You should definitely put seeing it on your bucket list. We also saw the golden Buddha that was made with a ton of pure gold and unguarded.

Exhausted from walking several miles viewing the various edifices in the compound, we ask our guide to take us to a great Thai restaurant and we would end our tour at that point. He takes us to Ban Khunmae. Both of us agreed that there are better Thai restaurants in Atlanta such as Nan’s. Common ingredients in Thai cooking are coconut milk, curry, fever grass (lemon grass), ginger, mango, chili peppers and always served with rice or rice noodles. We enjoyed the meal, walked five blocks to the sky train, got off at the Astok stop and walked five more blocks to our hotel. There was never any feeling of intimidation or concerns regarding our safety on our various nighttime walks.

After a jointly sponsored meeting on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Ramathibodi Hospital between our group and the Thai Society of Cardiology hosted by Dr. Supachai Tanomsup, we make our way to the Silver Shadow. To our pleasant surprise, in addition to the wonderful food that cruises are known for, all drinks are free. There is a bottle of Champagne on ice in our room and I order a bottle of twelve year old Glenmorangie single malt scotch for our room as well. We meet our butler (Andrew) who promise to accommodate all our needs.

We arrive in Ko Samui, a small island in the South on Saturday (October 31, 2010). On our tour we visit the Big Buddha, the smiling Buddha and more other Buddha we could count. We saw elephants dancing, playing soccer and giving massages, monkeys picking coconuts as well as a demonstration on how to husk coconuts and extract the milk. It is so efficient that I wonder why we don't do it this way in Jamaica. Can you believe that a small island with 60,000 people process one million coconuts per day? They have also found over 1,000 uses for coconut. We are late getting back to the ship but they accommodate us and depart an hour late. So, tomorrow, Good Morning Viet Nam!

After the cruise ended in Singapore, we flew back to Bangkok for three days. The one disappointment we experienced for the entire trip was having to pay an additional US$300 because of overweight bags. That was not fun. But all our bags arrived with us and we made our way back to the Kingston Suites.

Early next morning, our tour guide picked us up and transported us first to the Ramhopp market fifty miles away. It was definitely worth the drive. Actually, it is a railroad market! When the train comes, 100 vendors pull their good off the railway track and they relocate back on the track as soon as the train pass---four times per day. In addition to the usual fish, satay and coconut pancakes, unusual items include deep fried grasshoppers, crickets and caterpillars. I buy some pak thong kor (fried flour dumplings) and enjoy them. This area is also famous for producing sea salt, dried fish as well as sea food in general.

Our next stop is the famous "Floating Gardens"! The is the Venice of Asia. There are miles and miles of canals where boats outfitted with automobile motors cruise up and down these crowded waterways with tourists. You can buy a meal or anything else your heart desires from boats that pass you or you can pull up and shop from the thousand vendors along the banks. This is definitely a concept that would work in Jamaica. We loved it---very colourful and the bargains were wonderful. No wonder our bags were too heavy.

We then visited the famous China Town and then on to the Gen factory where you can see jewelery being made as well as displayed for sale. After all, this is the land of rubies. It was tempting but we bought nothing!

For dinner, we went to the "Cultural Show and Dinner". The show is an absolute feast for the eyes but the food wasn't. This is a model village that Chronicles the history and achievement of the Thai people. I wonder why we don't have a Jamaican village and show. It is very popular!

Instead of our planned trip to Cambodia, our tour guide arranged for tickets and transportation to watch the skins game with Tiger Woods, Carmelo Villegas, Paul Casey and Thongchi Jaidee in honor of the Thai King at the Amada Springs Country Club. It was a spectacular affair and the 5,000 people who watched and were all allowed to take pictures to their heart's content. Paul Casey played the best golf, Villegas won the most money and Tiger did not bring his A game. But a good time was had by all.

I was fascinated by a coincidence. On our pre tour stay in Bangkok, we saw a black family but was not bold enough to talk with them. But when I saw them again at the golf tournament, I could not resist and showed them the pictures I took of them. They turned out to be really gracious people from New Orleans who are on a five year assignment in Bangkok. That was special!

The next morning, we boarded the Delta flight to Japan then a terrifying flight (the bumpiest we have ever encountered) to Detroit and back to Atlanta. We took nothing but photographs, killed nothing but time, left nothing but footprints. Lckoon!