We had a totally sybaritic, lazy day at the resort. I had my first Thai Sports Massage from a wonderful masseuse named Yo (probably named for my favorite cellist in the world). She couldn’t have been more than five feet tall, and looked quite demure, but my god, I would not want to run into her in a dark alley. She had hands of steel. I had a ninety minute piece of heaven, or what was called a deep tissue massage. Never have I enjoyed anything as much, and if I hadn’t felt like a bowl of jelly, I would have done another ninety minutes. Instead I collapsed at the pool.
I don’t know if it’s the heat or the pleasure in having no to-do lists, but I have fallen into a state of torpor that leaves me feeling that the slightest activity requires entirely too much energy and should be put off for the time being until something pushes me to act. It is a fabulous feeling.
Monday, Feb. 14: Saint Valentine’s Day
I’m not quite sure why, but this very Buddhist country has gone out whole-hog for this very Christian saint and all that he represents. The daily paper listed all the places to dine for a romantic evening, the stores were advertising all manner of sexy garments to be worn and everyone was having ‘specials’ to honor the day. Our hotel was offering elegant dining in all its venues, and wherever you walked they were wishing you Happy Valentine’s Day. It is this merging of East and West which both gives comfort and frustrates me because of the blending of all holidays and events. It’s not like there are tons of Western residents here in Bangkok and it makes me wonder when we, in Vermont, will start celebrating Chinese New Year.
We hopped on our hotel’s shuttle boat, switched to a ‘local’ boat at Saphan Taksin, the central boat pier, and headed towards the Imperial Palace. The river is the most relaxing way to get between two points since it avoids traffic jams and gets one to critical points in a wonderfully leisurely manner. It is not unlike riding on trains in that from the river you see the ‘backside’ of most places, which isn’t always the most attractive. But it was the cooler way to travel and we were delighted to pay our 18 baht (six cents) to travel eight stops to the pier for the palace.
Through narrow stalls selling water and tourist trash we walked to the very well guarded palace, with an army of fellow tourists. With our audio tour glued to our ears, we wandered through the Wat Phra Kaew temple area, home of the Emerald Buddha, and through the ceremonial, and residential areas of the palace. The entire complex was built in the late 1700’s after the old capitol and its palace in Ayutthaya had been burned to the ground by the Burmese in 1767. This new palace complex was built in a similar layout to the old: surrounded by water; the public temple available to all; the residential area open only recently to tourists. “The King and I” was evident everywhere: the brilliant colors, the outrageously
The current king, very beloved by all Thai people, is Rama the IX. The king who hired Anna was Rama the IV, and his son, Rama V, trained by Anna and others is the one who brought much of modern-day western culture to Thailand. The story told by guides is that because Rama V bought his first car in England, all roads in Thailand are designed like England to be driven on the ‘wrong side’ of the road.
To be honest, neither Bob nor I could truly appreciate this temple area; so that once our walking tour ended we headed back to the boat and back to our hotel for a cool swim in the pool. Somehow visiting another Wat was not going to be in our future.
Some of the things that stood out to remind us that we were in a foreign land were: the signs along both sides of the river ferry boat, informing the citizenry in Thai and English that certain areas were ‘reserved for monks’; the many Wats that dot the skyline with their sharp peaked gold-painted roofs which blend in with the modern high rises; the colorful longtail boats which skim the water making as much noise as possible; the prayerful gesture of greeting among people; the signage which is totally unrecognizable to us and for which there often is no direct translation; and the clash among super modern, traditional, and ancient at every turn.
Bob crashed early and I took myself for a solo valentine’s dinner to the Benihana Restaurant in the hotel. My fellow teppanyaki table mates were two girls traveling from Hong Kong for a week of massages, and a young couple from Bangkok who spent the entire evening on their cell phones texting with their friends ,who were obviously dining in other locations. Cell phone culture can go just a wee bit too far, when a romantic evening dinner has the adoring couple staring at cell phone text messages through every course. The most amusing part was that our table chef was a woman – the only one in the restaurant. She threw knives, chopped with vigor and did all that is expected in the Benihana performance …and we enjoyed every minute.
And so ends our visit to Bangkok – the first of what I hope will be future visits.
Feb. 15: Boarding of the Oceania Nautica
The usual flurry of packing, checking out, finding a taxi and boarding the ship was done smoothly. Now we’re truly unpacked and ready for the next 25 days of new harbors, new cities and new experiences. We’ve caught up with Doris Litton in the Martini Bar, our fellow traveler from the last trip in late 2009, and shared our first round of cocktails. We are scoping out our fellow travelers trying to get a sense of the populace. I’d guess the number one difference from our last cruise on Nautica, is that this crowd seems old. Even Doris, at the young age of 80, thinks there are too many old people on board. Will we ever consider ourselves old? And how will we recognize that time when we’ve become ‘those’ people we’re trying to avoid? Here’s what we do know already: Americans represent less than a third of the guests, with the other two thirds being all nationalities. The staff is all new, except for a few faces including the cruise director, Dottie. But all in all it’s a familiar and comfortable ambience and there’s that pleasure in knowing your way around while others are still trying to figure out what’s where.
Feb. 16: Ayutthaya, Thailand
Very bright and early, we met our tour group at 7:00 a.m., hopped onto our air conditioned bus and headed out of Bangkok to visit the ruins of the first capitol of Thailand – Ayutthaya. Our guide with the Americanized name of Tee, filled our sleepy heads with data as we drove out of the city. The Thai take great pride in their country and very few leave it during their lifetimes. It is an amazingly peaceful place where bloodless coups occur to change the government, but the king, who is pretty much a figurehead as in England, remains in place and steps in only when things need to be calmed down. Having never been colonized by any foreign power and where border skirmishes are the only form of altercation, one begins to understand how the population is able to exude a quality of being a peaceful, gentle society.
Again, Bob and I could honor the depth of feeling people have for these temples and ruins, but for us it carried little significance …and so we dutifully followed Tee from site to site, ending our tour with an elephant ride around the temple areas we had just walked. Unlike my elephant rides in India, where we sat side-saddle, here we sat on a two-person ‘howda’ facing forward with the mahout sitting on the neck of the beast guiding it with gentle instructions.
We headed home in “lush hour’ (Tee did not have the ability to say the letter ‘r’), learning about tapioca ‘loot’, and waiting for our first ‘dink’ of the evening. One sad story showing the danger of internationalization was that many of the local food stands and markets which currently dot the landscape are all being replaced by 7-eleven and Tesco grocery stores. While people despair at the loss of historic floating markets, which are now completely gone from Bangkok, the modern day culture draws people to the convenience stores, and threatens to destroy another piece of old Thailand. And what would this have looked like in 1927-1928. I can only imagine.
Feb. 17: Ko Samui, Thailand
Having left Bangkok, down the winding Chao Phraya River, our ship sailed south into the Gulf of Thailand heading to the resort island of Ko Samui. Until 1970 this was a quiet jungle island raising coconuts, rubber trees and rice. Now it is one long stretch of beach resorts, golf courses and beach bars. But we were here for an ‘Island Safari Adventure’ in 4-wheel drive Land Rovers: to see rubber plants being tapped; to see a monkey, Thai cooking, and elephant show; and to ride an elephant through the jungle. Let’s simply say that we did all this, under the guidance of our tour leader Sak, but that value for money was not returned. Having seen better rubber plantations last year in Phuket, and having ridden elephants before…this day of a Safari Adventure left a wee bit to be desired. We felt sad for the monkeys having to perform, sadder for the elephants, and in general, sad that we’d participated.
Probably the one amusing part was when various members of our tour group, braver than we, were prepared to be ‘massaged’ by an elephant. To see the large foot of an elephant rest gently upon the back (and then front) of a small human being makes one just a wee bit nervous. What if the gentle beast decided to put just a bit more weight on that foot? Hmmm…would travel insurance have covered that?
So, back to our ship to have a much needed Pina Colada, and a even more necessary shower. Today was an insult to man and animal alike.
And so ends our quick journey to Thailand …land of rice, tapioca, rubber trees, nice people and Wats.
Next stop: Good Morning Viet Nam!
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