Dusit Zoo

Went to the zoo yesterday. The huge benefit of this zoo, like any non-American zoo, is that you can get much closer to the animals. You can even interact with them. I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to feed the animals, but when I saw a monkey reach through a fence to grab a peanut out of a man's hand, I sure wished I had some peanuts of my own to share. We saw some pretty frightening crocodiles and snakes, as well as some birds and a very sad elephant. He must have done something bad - his front feet were chained together. One elephant, however, seemed happy enough to do a little dance for us. Right foot, step. Trunk, sway. Head, lift. Left food, kick. Now repeat. Perhaps the most exciting thing about the Dusit Zoo: baby goats run free! (Also, it appears, so do monitor lizards.)



Sad elephant.


Happy, dancing elephant.


A group of Thai high school students stopped us for an interview. They gave us a survey which included, among the usual "who are you and where are you from" questions, inquiries about our weight and religious beliefs. They wanted their photos taken with us so we figured we should get one for ourselves. As you can see, I am still short in Thailand, but well within the normal size range :)



Baby goats!!

Banana Roti

Oh, Banana Roti, how I love thee. You can buy many varieties of pancakes from the street vendors in Banglamphu, but my favorite is most definitely the banana. The roti is a lot like a crepe, with a thin batter that is fried in deep yellow butter. The butter....so yellow...and the eggs....so orange. I love it. The bananas are chopped into the roti with great skill and speed, and the pancake is folded over and flipped to fry on the other side. Some condensed milk drizzled on top adds a sweet frosting-like effect. These are 20 baht a piece. Let's see...on my daily food budget, I could have three meals or five rotis. I'm going with five rotis.

Sizzle, banana roti, sizzle.


Does banana roti merit four photos? Yes, yes it does.

Zoo Signs

We went to the zoo. Here are some signs that caught our attention or amused us:

I wasn't sure about posting this sign, but every time I look at it I internally chuckle (in-chuckle?), so it got the nod. Apologies to mom and dad.

Lion attack: one of the lesser known health risks of smoking.

This one pretty much speaks for itself.

Proud Member: Bad Evil Culb

I bought some t-shirts. Observe:

It's a very exclusive culb

We could all use more pocket-whales.

For your consideration: Rhinocerous beetlE (RB) vs. Juicy Couture (JC). I think we all know which is taking the runway by storm this fall.

Duck Boats

Yesterday we braved the Thai bus system to visit Lumphini Park. The buses were hot (no air conditioning), but were pretty intuitive to use and very much like the micros in Santiago. We took another bus today and now feel empowered in the ways of transit.

Lumphini Park has lots of greenery and a beautiful lagoon, where we encountered DUCK BOATS!! Obviously, we needed to go for a ride. We pedaled around the lagoon and giggled the entire time. A half hour ride cost us about a dollar.

Today we visited the Chatujak Weekend Market, a collection of over 80,000 stalls that is a popular attraction for Thais and tourists. I accidentally left my memory card in our laptop at the guest house, so there will be no pictures from the market. We'll have to go again so we can document it. Among things you can buy at the weekend market:

-Adorable puppies (LOTS of adorable puppies)
-Huge bags of foam
-”Designer” sunglasses, like the “Ray Bans” Ian got for $2
-Shrimp that are so fresh we saw them jump out of their bucket onto the ground
-Chipmunks

Duck Boat Photos:

Corn Waffle

Contains Corn

Lots of Wats

Today was wat-tastic. We visited five wats and saw about 500 buddhas. We went to bed at 9pm last night and woke up at 4:45am (thank you, jet lag!). I actually worked out this morning in our room, which I think is something I'll need to do daily, as there is no resisting the tantalizing treats in this city. We had an early breakfast of yogurt, museli, and fresh fruit at a stall across the street from our guest house. Getting a jump start on the day is a good idea in Bangkok, as it gets hot quickly and the tour groups start making the rounds around 9am. Our only plan for the day was to visit the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo, both of which are in the same walled complex.

We walked around the palace and the wat with our mouths hanging open. Everything (EVERYTHING!) is a gold or variegated mosaic with extremely intricate detailing. Everywhere we looked was a picture-perfect view of a scale too large and stunning to capture on film (some feeble attempts are below). After an hour and a half of wat gazing, we decided it was time for second breakfast, and got some great curries in an outdoor market. Then it was on to fresh-squeezed tangerine juice. Did we mention that we love this country?

We continued down the road to see the Reclining Buddha, which was immense and, well, reclining. The wat that houses this buddha figure was just as breathtaking as the first. After many exchanges of, “Is this for real?” and, “Damn, there's a lot of gold around here,” we headed down the street and consulted our map. A Thai man hurried over to us and eagerly told us what we should visit next. We know to be wary of people who approach us, and we've already avoided a couple scams, but most people we've met have been genuinely sweet and helpful. I think many people are eager to practice their English. This guy drew all over our map, circling sights we should see today, and drawing little buddhas by the wats we should visit. He hailed a tuk-tuk, essentially pushed us into it, and negotiated with the driver (“Better price! These my friends!”). This is how we got a personal driver for 40 baht (a little over a dollar).

The wind generated by our driver's freestyle driving was a great relief from the heat. If you want to maintain your sanity while in a moving vehicle in Bangkok, I think it's best to pay attention to the sights around you and not to what's happening on the road. We made several stops, saw lots of buddhas, avoided being pressured into buying custom-made suits at a store the driver took us to (commission?), and finally left our tuk-tuk behind at the Marble Wat. A long walk home left us tired and sticky, but very happy.

We've been having afternoon siestas to shower, escape the mid-afternoon heat, and use the internet cafe. This evening it'll be more street food and a walk to the evening flower market to see some orchids.

Some photos:Boats on the Chao Praya River

Wat Phra Kaeo

Gold!

The wat officials deemed my short-sleeves to be too short (and I purposefully wore sleeves instead of a tank top today), and weren't pleased with Ian's shorts, so we're wearing borrowed clothes from the dressing room.

Part of the Grand Palace.

One of Ian's favorite images from the paintings in the wat: people making out in the bushes.

Reclining Buddha. I was in a big crowd when I took this picture, and was lucky to get a shot with no heads in the way.

Isn't he pretty?

A Day of Many Firsts

Some pictures from the day:

First meal in Bangkok. This is a curry noodle soup with chicken, eggs, green onions, ground peanuts, some spiciness, and other goodness.

Ian's having curried rice with chicken, cucumber, and a sweet dipping sauce. Our lunch was 70 baht (US $2) combined. We love Thailand already.

First Buddha sighting. Shortly followed by second, third, fourth...thirtieth Buddha sightings.

This is the Big Buddha. We were visiting another temple this morning, where a very nice Thai man informed us that today is the Big Buddha's birthday, and is the only day all year when admission is free. He also told us that 25 is a very unlucky age for the Thai people. Apparently, they all get into accidents when they're 25 – he even showed us a scar on his head from his motorcycle accident. He advised us to go to the Big Buddha immediately and pay our respects, in order to receive good luck this year. This seemed like a good idea to us, and it turns out we were able to walk there from our guest house.Big Buddha's feet. Check out the coconut by his big toe, to give you a sense of scale.

Our trip got off to a bit of a rough start. We had an excellent flight to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. We sat in an exit row and had no one sitting next to us. Would I like to partake of your complimentary ice cream? Why, yes! Yes, I will eat your shrimp cocktails. Yes, I will watch your excellent selection of movies on demand. Yes, I would love to try the passion fruit mousse. Yes, I will wear your complimentary hermetically-sealed socks. Free shrimp cocktails and socks...they knew their audience.

I was very excited to see the lights of Hong Kong from the air, and Ian and I walked off the plane feeling better than we've ever felt after a long-distance flight. Unfortunately, we soon realized that we had walked off the plane without his wallet. The cleaning crew hasn't found his wallet, and we've filed reports with the airline and the airport. Fortunately, we have all my cards so we're doing fine for money, but if the wallet doesn't turn up it'll be a hassle to cancel the cards and get new ones while overseas. Poor guy.

We were also frazzled when the first ATM we tried rejected my card. So did the second, third, and fourth ATMs. We managed to get to our hotel (this was midnight, mind you) on credit cards, and then had to suck it up and buy a long distance calling card to hassle Washington Mutual. It would have been helpful if they'd told me when I called them two days ago that there would be a waiting period for my travel advisory to be cleared. Huge thanks to Ian's mom, Debbie, for working on this stateside and getting my card cleared for use immediately. We were so thrilled to successfully withdraw baht from the ATM this morning. Now we have money and are tired but happy.

We had a great first day exploring Bangkok, and we're staying in a clean guest house with a Western toilet (yay!!) for about $19 total. Tomorrow, we are heading to the Grand Palace and drinking some more of the incredible fresh squeezed juices we sampled this afternoon. That's all the planning we're doing :)

In case you wondered, the time here is 14 hours ahead of San Francisco. So, greetings from the future!

...and they're off!

Two big backpacks, weighing in at 19 and 20 pounds. One carry-on backpack: 5 pounds. One small messenger bag: 2 pounds.

We should be getting into Bangkok at about 10am San Francisco time tomorrow morning (11:55pm tomorrow night in Bangkok time). Wish us luck!

Summer in Mt. Shasta

Hello, blog. It's been a while.

Ian and I are spending a month in Mt. Shasta before departing for Asia. Being here makes us feel like we're getting a well-deserved summer vacation between our vacation in San Francisco and our upcoming year-long vacation. We've been busy going to the lake, picking blackberries, hiking, eating good food, and entertaining friends. Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks:A view of Mt. Shasta from Lake Siskiyou, where we've been every sunny day.

Me, enjoying my inner tube at the lake.

This is the girafft. It caught the wind and tried to make a getaway last Saturday, so Ian had to bring it to shore.

View of a lake we hiked to with Ian's parents.

We've also been taking care of our travel needs. We got all our shots - three for me and four for Ian. He chose boring band-aids, but I went for it with the childrens' selections. This is for Hepatitis A. Below are Typhoid and Tetanus. The My Little Pony band-aid was definitely my favorite.