Ayutthaya

When traveling in foreign lands, there is always a trade off between wandering by yourself to see some sites or being guided by some locals. If I’m alone, I can wander a city for hours, skipping meals, walking for miles, maybe getting lost, but really covering a lot of ground and seeing lots of things that I find interesting. With a guide, I may not get to wander aimlessly or see exactly what I want to see, but I’m usually forced to do something that I normally would not do, or get to do, if I was by myself. Such was the case with my Sunday visit to Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok. This once-capital is an island surrounded by three rivers and full of ancient temples. I originally wanted to just spend the day wandering around the hundreds of temple ruins, but I accepted the invitation of those that I am here working with to be shown the city.
After an hour long ride in a tricked-out van, our first stop was a somewhat modern and still in-use temple. It also happens that it’s a big Buddhist holiday weekend in Thailand, so the temple is packed. I was able to see a giant Buddha, feed swarms of catfish in the river, and ring some really loud bells. We then walked around some ruins (just a 300-plus year old temple and big reclining Buddha) and sweated a whole bunch as it turns into the warmest day of the year so far. Next stop was a museum with lots and lots of Buddha and gold artifacts.
Now it was lunch time, so we headed to an awesome market area that had large containers of live seafood. We sat down, picked out our favorite prawns, and had a great seafood lunch - fried fish, grilled prawns, prawn soup, prawn noodles, and prawns with vegetables. I was stuffed but it was excellent. After lunch, we headed to more temples and, yippee, elephant rides. I almost balked at the ride, but what the heck, no one else was getting trampled. A quick walk up the ladder, hop onto the bench on its back, and away the huge beast went. It was interesting riding along streets, avoiding cars ,and viewing ancient temples from the back of a big critter. After that we watched the dancing elephant show and then headed onto a boat ride around the island city. The boat ride was probably my favorite part of the day – it offered nice views of the temples, was miuch cooler that walkign around temples, and was a good break from the crowds. I’ll get some pictures up one of these days, but haven’t had a chance at the moment.
We then relaxed with a leisurely dinner at a little restaurant along the river, and once again it was some of the best seafood that I have ever had. In particular there was a fried fish dish – covered with a mixture of ginger, thai peppers, lime, peanuts, lemongrass, onion, and mint. It was awesome. I also finally learned the words for ‘cheers’ in Thai , ‘chon gow’, and for ‘bottoms up’, ‘mot gow’. Mission complete.

The Market

Sunday finally meant that I would have some wandering time. After a slow morning of exercise and relaxation, I headed out for the Chatuchak (or Jatujak) Weekend Market. It’s near the Mo Chit BTS Station, which is the start of the Sky Train, so afterwards I’d have easy access to the rest of the city.
This was one big freakin’ market. No idea of the acreage or number of vendors, but I walked around it for several hours and probably only saw a tenth of it. It had everything – birds, fish, snakes, boxes of maggots, new and antique furniture, bathroom sinks mounted to large polished pieces of drift wood, clothing (suits, shorts, T-shirts, traditional Thai, people actively sewing clothes), silk, string, hats, toys, jewelry, art, electronics, garden supplies, plants, DVDs, CDs, games. All of this was crammed into aisle after aisle with no real organization. Some sections had a roof over it, some was open air, but really everything was so packed in it was hard to tell the difference. There were also plenty of food stalls, most seemed to be grouped together on the outer perimeter, but every third or so aisle intersection in the thick of it had a little snack joint.
I lasted about 20 minutes before I realized that I was completely lost and had no hope of re-finding some of the interesting things that I saw, if I wanted to. I just wandered aimlessly in a near catatonic state induced by row after row of colorful shirts and odd smells, barely avoiding being trampled by groups of tourists, shrieking kids, and carts full of rice and raw food. After a few hours I had to get out, and without any signs pointing to an exit, public transport, or map of any kind, I figured that I better get started looking if I didn’t want to have to sleep on a pile of cheap shoes. Fortunately I looked up and caught a glimpse of the sky train, so I at least had an idea about the direction to head. After a few dead ends and redirections, I managed to find an exit to a large street, and then just followed the crowds to the Sky Train station. Adventure over
I spent the rest of the day riding the Sky Train and wandering the city. I think I was still in shock from the market - because I really don't remember too much else.

Belgian Beer in Bangkok

I had a plan to sample the Bangkok nightlife for foreigners, so I set out for the Sukhumvit area, which is just a long road with lots of bars, restaurants, shops, and tables of illegal DVDs, CDs, and clothing that cater to foreigners. I hoped to stop into a few pubs looking for a non-watery beer or two. I even heard a rumor that there might be a brewpub or two hidden along the way. I never found a brewpub, but I did meet some crazy people and lots of Belgian beer.
My first stop in the early evening was at a English style pub with a few pool tables called Bullys (on Sukumvit near Soi 2, I think). I almost never left. Part way through my first beer I was befriended by a rather boisterous American currently living in Hong Kong and in Bangkok for some obscure reason. Come to find out he used to be a band dork – played trumpet and was hard core into the marching band. One of his acquaintances showed up soon after, and he too was a trumpet player, though gave up on marching band after a year. So here I was, at a bar in Bangkok drinking beer and talking about marching band, favorite trumpet players, and jazz band. It was an excellent start to the evening. Sometime later, the group grew into a crowd of about eight (no more trumpet players, though) and I came to find out that the goal of the evening was to check out the Belgian beer festival going on at some bar down the street.
We soon headed out to HOBs (House of Beer) which was more than just around the corner. It was several kilometers down the road (at Soi 55, maybe). A couple of cabs were flagged down and off we went. HOBs turned out to have quite the nice selection of Belgian beer on tap. Though about 10 had already floated, they still had another 30 or so available. I didn’t try anything new, but a couple of Chimays were a refreshing change from the light lagers that I had been consuming all week. The bar, into which I never actually stepped, had taken over the parking lot and set up a nice beer garden with live music. I could have done without the lounge-style music, but it was a cool night for the tropics, and an overall nice surprise experience. After a few rounds of beer I found out that I missed the last train back to my part of town, so I headed back to Bully’s for one last beer and after closing time found a cab ride to my hotel.

Finishing off a meal in Thailand

Most meals have ended with a fruit plate - pineapple, watermelon, cantalope, guava, and dragonfruit (which tastes a little like kiwi fruit, but white and much larger). The fruit plate also comes with some dipping powders. One dip is sugar crystals plus ground up plum (at least that's what they tell me) and I think a little salt. The other is sugar crystals and ground up Thai chilies. So if you didn't get enought spice with dinner or lunch, you can kick it up a notch with fruit dipped in ground up chilies. I keep hoping for some Thai Chile ice cream, but haven't found that yet!

Have beer will travel

So I’m bad about updating the ole’ blog, but the spirit is there, just not the 24-7 internet access…
So on the long flight over, I learned two things: 1) people who leave their overhead lights on while on an eleven hour flight are annoying, and 2) United now charges for drinks, which really sucks. I hate you airlines.
Now onto beer news, I drank my first beer in Japan on the my three hour layover in Narita, so that definitely counts as a country visit. The beer in Bangkok isn’t much to write home about, but I’m drinking it anyway. Singha is good in hot, sticky weather and excellent as a fire extinguisher for Thai chilies, but that’s about it. I miss hops and flavor. Speaking of chilies, the locals that I am working with have been doing a great job of stuffing my belly with great food. I’ve made the mistake of chomping down on a few chili pieces, and they’ve brought tears to my eyes and sweat to my face. Each meal has spicy pastes and sauces that can be added to your liking, and I keep messing up and adding too much to the already spicy dishes. I guess it’ll either kill me or I’ll learn to avoid them eventually.