From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

I had yet to experience the culture shock that I was expecting while in Africa—until I hit the Dubai airport at 1 AM. We stepped off the plane in Dubai expecting a typical middle of the night airport scene—most things closed with a few tired concessions open—and instead found an upscale, high tech shopping mall teeming with 1000s of people shopping and eating at what seemed like a fevered pitch. I have truly never seen anything like it and the juxtaposition of the abject poverty in Africa to the pinnacle of conspicuous consumption in less than 5 hours was quite astonishing. We walked wearily around as we waited the three hours for our connecting flight to Bangkok—a bit overwhelmed by it all especially given where we had come from. We bought nothing except a Newsweek magazine, some drinks and a muffin. I’m pretty sure we are not their target market.

Arriving in Bangkok was similarly surprising. I suppose I was naïve to expect Bangkok to have the flavor of a city in a developing country. Indeed, that was Adam’s recollection of the city from his visit nearly 20 years ago. In fact, it feels more like New York—but with nice, Thai people. It’s incredibly sophisticated, clean and easy to get around with fancy brand new malls and multi screen cineplexes everywhere we go. I am usually not a big fan of bustling cities, but I am thoroughly enjoying it here. I think I am welcoming the change of pace after being in a small village for so long. We went to a supermarket the first day and I spent 30 minutes just wandering around with my mouth open, stunned and overwhelmed by the vast variety. Adam said he had never seen me so indecisive. Our plush accommodations are another plus to our Bangkok visit. Our friend Kevin heard we were coming on this trip and very kindly set us up with a friend of his who has an apartment here. We were feeling very lucky to even have a place to stay, and then we walked in to this beautiful two story penthouse (on the 33rd floor) apartment with 5 or 6 bedrooms (I haven’t counted them all yet) and a rooftop pool. Quite a departure from the 8 x 8 room with bunk beds in which we have resided over the past month or so. It’s so big, Emma actually gets lonely at night because she is not used to sleeping in a room by her self (the rest of us insisted). The owner’s sister, Sally, has 4 kids right around Maya and Emma’s ages, and lives in the same building (with 3 full time nannies and two drivers) so the kids have been endlessly entertained. Sally (who is Thai despite her American sounding name) and her husband also took us out to dinner and showed us parts of Bangkok we wouldn’t have seen on our own. Getting to know them has been a nice treat—even if the whole experience is a bit far a field from the intended purpose of the trip.

In addition to just exploring the city, we have been doing many of the usual, can’t miss tourist things—visiting the palace, temples and museums, boat rides along the river, etc… The boat ride was a bit touristy, but interesting because you see that along the canals (ostensibly beach front property), people leading quite modest existences.

The temples are as astonishingly beautiful as everyone says. I particularly loved the Emerald Buddha (actually made of Jade) whose clothes are ceremoniously changed by the King each season to ensure that he is appropriately dressed (for the weather I guess—though the long gold cape he was wearing wouldn’t be my choice for 98 degree weather with 90% humidity). With the intense heat, there is only so much touring we can do each day without all of us melting, but we are all enjoying ourselves immensely. We have been eating well, as usual. We have had delicious Thai food everywhere, bad Chinese food in Chinatown, and surprisingly delicious Mexican food at a big Western Hotel that caters to German tourists. Odd, I know. Adam and the girls had all been hankering for Mexican food, so it was a nice change of pace.

We are also taking advantage of some of the modern conveniences we lacked in Africa (such as high speed internet) to get some business done—make travel plans for the rest of Southeast Asia, pay bills and a few other miscellaneous things that simply could not happen during the previous leg of our journey. We also engaged in some indulgences-albeit cheap ones. Adam and I had two hour Thai massages today for which we paid $20 total ($10 each!). This is not your typical relaxing Swedish massage with muzak Indian music, aromatherapy and incense. These women knock you around pretty well and even seem a little angry (of course, I may have done something offensive—who knows). Painful, but really enjoyable and you leave feeling oddly rejuvenated. We even managed to sneak in a sappy American movie (Music and Lyrics) in one of the brand new fancy cineplexes that make the Bridge in LA seem positively downscale. The most interesting part of the movie was when everyone stood during the Thai national anthem (or King’s Anthem) during what was essentially a public service announcement for the universally revered Royal family. Fortunately, Adam had read about this practice in guidebook, so we complied and did not cause any cultural offense. We leave tomorrow for Trang to meet up with our friends Ed, Wendy, Jessica and Corey (who have been traveling in Cambodia and Vietnam) to start our next round of volunteering. We are looking forward to the next adventure.