Temple Time!

One of the things I looked forward to the most on this trip is to learn more about the culture and history of Thailand.  The last two weekends did not disappoint. We have visited many temples, both current and old.

We were informed in advanced that during today's tours we should plan to wear pants and shoes that are easy to get on and off.  Certain temples do not allow excessive skin showing as a sign of respect and wearing shoes is forbidden.  Much of the custom in Thailand (and other Asian countries) is to take your shoes off before entering certain structures; however, we've only encountered the temples so far.  The hotel staff will take their shoes off before entering my room.

I wore my Merril shoes that do not have laces and blue jeans.  It was going to be a hot day with the jeans, but worth it.

February 12, 2012

Grand Palace
This was the residence of the previous kings of Thailand since 1782; however, the current king does not live here but they still have official events at the balance.  It is a very very large complex with massive buildings and temples.  This is also home of the Emerald Buddha, which has been the reason for 3 wars since it's existence.

The entrance area of the Grand Palace

The cost to enter the Grand Palace was 400 baht, or roughly $13.

Throughout the Grand Palace there were very long murals that depicted scenes from Buddhist and Hindu mythology.

These statures were actually used as ballast on ships trading with China.  Seems kind of fancy ship materials!

The Emerald Buddha.  Photos are prohibited inside the temple, so this is from afar.  The Buddha has different gowns placed on him based on the seasons.

Scenes from the mural  He is actually protecting the people.  Not eating them.

One of the Royal cars.

One of the large structures within the Grand Palace.  It's mostly in European style except for the roof, which is traditional Thai.  The king will come out out the top floor to speak to the people.

This is another Royal vehicles.  You can tell because of the three Thai letters on the license plate (normally there are two).  I snapped this as it drove by.  I just thought it was kind of funny being a Chevrolet.

After the Grand Palace we went over to a market where our tour guides (fellow Thai associates) ordered some Thai-fare for us:

A lot of pork, chicken, shrimp, and some pork-stuffed squid.  Yes, I tried it.

Wat Rakung
After lunch we hopped on a boat to cross the Chao Phraya River to visit Wat Rakung.  It was a short stop but there were a lot of bells, as well as an image of a Buddha.

Full disclosure: I might not have taken this photo at Wat Rakung.

Buddha!

Bells

We may have been here for 30 minutes.  One of the neatest temples was next:

Wat Pho
Wat Pho is the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.  It is one temple that I know I've seen before in books when I was younger.  I was pretty excited to see this one.  This Buddha is absolutely massive.  I would love to know how it was constructed and what kind of material.

There are 108 bowls that people place coins into that is thought to bring good fortunate.  It was really neat hearing people drop coins into these as it reverberated inside the large temple building.  It was actually pretty soothing.

Wat Pho is also home to the original Thai massage.  There are buildings that act as a book for how to perform the Thai massage.  We actually did not get massages while there.  In addition the the building with photos and inscriptions of the Thai massage, there were statues depicting yoga positions:

Ouch

Wat Traimit
This is the Temple of the Golden Buddha.  We took a taxi from Wat Pho to Wat Traimit.  This temple was one of the near temples but that's only because it was built about 60 years ago to replace an existing structure.  Interestingly, this solid gold Buddha was covered in plaster within the last 250 years to keep it from being stolen and/or to protect it from the Burmese in 1760s.  That had been forgotten until the new temple was constructed when it fell during installment in the new template.  The plaster was cracked and the gold Buddha was discovered.  Very neat!

 I really should have bought a wide angle lens before coming to Thailand.

Yep.  I was there!

After the Golden Buddha, we decided it was time to head over to dinner by the Thewet pier stop on Chao Phraya river.  It was north of the Wat Rakung that we had visited earlier. Transportation was a definite must and we had a hard time getting a taxi to take us (not sure why, close to shift change?)  So thus started our first Thuk Thuk ride.  This is a three wheeled vehicle with a bench on the back to take passengers to their destination.

From the middle of the bench.  I felt safe with Peter and Toom on either side to keep me in.

It really wasn't scary.  Kind of fun!

Picture of a thuk thuk.
Stolen from http://schang43.xanga.com/699684219/the-land-of-thighs/.  I'll replace it when I snag of photo of my own.

There was a lot more food served.  Once again, it was all delicious!

We were waiting for the sunset but due to the clouds, it wasn't really cooperating! Still very pretty!

It was a great day that started around 9am and ended close to 7pm.  Thanks to our wonderful tour guides for taking care of us for the day!

Por, Jingjo, Toom, and Pom!
All of these associates work in the Development team with me.

February 18, 2012 - Ayutthaya

After our second week of work, we were treated to another fun day visiting temples with another department.  This time we visited the "old city" of Ayutthaya, Thailand.  Ayutthaya was basically the previous capitol of Thailand.  During a war with Burma in 1765, Ayutthaya was seized and burned by the Burmese.  Many of the art and history was destroyed during this time period, as well as buildings and temples.  What we saw was basically ruined but many of the bricks and stones were actually transported to the new Grand Palace to help construct its buildings (according to Wikipedia).

The day started fairly early at 8am by meeting our tour guides of more Thai associates in the office.  They charted a van to take us the hour long ride to Ayutthaya.

Left to Right: Sam, Esteb, Weep, Peter, Kate, Net

Left to Right: Mai, I-Tim, Esteb, Sam, Weep

For those who followed the news in October 2011, you'll remember that Bangkok had horrible flooding and the dark part of this fence shows the flooding line.  Yeah, it was pretty bad.  Pretty much everything we saw today was under a couple feet of water at one point, if not more.

Bang Pa-in Palace
A palace complex built in the 17th century that is occasionally used today by the king.  It contains a many buildings used by the previous kings.

Remember that I mentioned that it was disrespectful to show a lot of skin at some of the temples and buildings?  Fortunately, for men you were ok wearing shorts at this temple as long as it covered your knees.  This saved me from borrowing some attire at the palace entrance like Net and Weep:

Oh fun.  Weep didn't really take to the "stylish" plaid.

I think all tourist places need this type of transportation available.

Think it would go well at Disney World?

Some photos from the Palace:

I believe Peter coined this as "Land Whale".

I'm so bad.

Wonder if Brodie would like this as a fellow pet at home?

Across the Chao Phraya River we visited some temples and buildings that were more in the European architecture.

Crossing the river.

A Cannon Ball Tree blossom.  Looks like it could eat you.

Needed a wide angle lens.

After the Palace, our friends took us to a riverside restaurant.  

Bananas in coconut milk

With a full stomach, it was time to ride an elephant!  We went to a place connected to the temple ruins where you could watch an elephant show, feed the elephants, and ride the elephants!

This white elephant is apparently very rare.

Happy Elephant!

Immediately after this photo, the elephant mugged me for cash so I could get my camera back.  Funny, elephant.  Funny.

I took some video of the elephant show:

We then went to visit three temples that were destroyed as part of the war with Burma

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

Esteb decided that's about as high as necessary.

It's HUUUUUGE!

A temple had been constructed near the site of the ruins

Wat Maha That
Another temple area that had been destroyed but in this area there were some Buddha images that were still standing, even if it was just a partial statue.

A famous image of Thailand.  The head of a buddha image was placed in this location and tree roots have grown around it.  Very neat.

Some of the ruined with Buddha images.

Wat Chaiwataran
We had to drive a little bit to get to this temple ruins and it was very neat and one of the most impressive of the day.  Due to the flooding we could not walk through and see the ruins up close, which was a shame.  The main temple buildings was open so that you could actually go inside.

The temple was right next to the river, so we sat near the shore for a while to relax before heading over to dinner.

The temple before the war.

Trying to be artistic.  A bit dark.

I didn't grab a lot of photos from dinner, but here are a couple to look over:

Before

After

We made it back to Bangkok around 7:30pm or so.  It was a long and wonderful day.  Our tour guides were absolutely wonderful and patient with us (ok, maybe not Weep... he kept us on time!).    There are probably 600 photos from everyone on Facebook but you can find all my photos from the day on my Flickr stream.


Flickr Stream
Grand Palace and Temples
Ayutthaya

First Week in Bangkok

I left the last post off going to bed after a dizzying 30+ hours of traveling; however, I work up around 7:30am.  I was pretty awake but I could probably have gone back to sleep, I just didn't want to.  Tricia and I chatted on the computer while I finished packing.

The plan for the day was to start out exploring and then meet up with some more Thai associates to show us how to use the transit system, a place for shopping, and food. Peter and I agreed to check in with each other around 10am. Around 10:30am, we set out for our first trek outside.

I took a video of my hotel room, if you'd like to see it:

Lumphini Park
I really wanted to check this park out and it was close to our hotel.  I knew it was south of our hotel, my hope was that I knew which direction was south!  We took off on foot down the street towards the park but we hit a dead end.  There was a small ally way that we took.  It looked like a back alleyway between houses but there were also little shops and street venders mixed in.  It was really neat seeing everything mashed together like that.

If you follow the blue line I've drawn in, you'll see our course.  The first turn west is where the alley is.  Don't be confused by the map.  It's very small and maybe a car could go down it.... maybe.

We found walked around Lumphini park for about an hour.  It was hot and humid!  The heat is similar to KC in the summer but we just aren't used to it.

Lumphini Park is a very beautiful park with its trees, bushes, flowers, sculptures, etc.  It was donated to the public in 1920s by King Rama VI.  The outer road/trail is roughly 2.4 kilometers (~1.6 miles).  You'll find all sorts of activity at the park.  We saw people practicing Tai Chi, xylophones, drum lines, cyclist, runners, and so on.

Peter and I took a different route back to our hotel, just to add to our exploration.  Apparently on our block there is a lot of embassies as well.  The Netherlands and United States embassies were the prominent ones, which is comforting if we need it!  I doubt we will, of course.

My "home".  If you count 6 floors down from the top, I'm right in the middle.

Peter and I returned to the hotel to freshen up a bit before meeting more Thai associates to show us around.  Benny, Jingjo, and Toom were our hosts for the afternoon.  They took us to a 5 story shopping center, Central Chidlom, that has a food court on the top floor which has many options, such as Thai, Japanese, Greek, and Italian.  At this food court you receive a plastic card at first.  At each food area you hand them your card and wait for your food to be prepared.  Then over to the drink counter and then dessert!  After eating, you pay as you exit.  I decided to go with Pad Thai with Shrimp and the Thai associates order some dessert.  Very very good.

We then took the SkyTrain (BTS) to the stop that Peter and I will became very familiar with, the Phrom Phrong station where we will get off for work.  It happen to start raining on us so they weren't able to take us to the building. Attatched to this station is another huge shopping center with another food court.   Apparently many associates eat there for lunch. At this point the Thai associates left us to fend for ourselves.  Could we make it back to the hotel?  Hopefully we remembered our stop by the hotel!

By this time the rain had stopped and so Peter and I walked to the building to check it out.

Found it!

At this point we went back to the BTS took the SkyTrain to our stop (Chit Lom).  We did some grocery shopping and I bought some Coke (need some caffeine to stay awake) and stuff for breakfast and a couple meals.  I wasn't too adventurous.  It's just like shopping at a brand new grocery store, except you can't read any of the labels!

OK, that's  not entirely true.  Most everything has english, if it isn't the same product we are used to buying anyway.  I picked up some apples at one point and as I walked away one of the store employees took them from me.  Apparently you must take them to a specific counter to have them weighed and tagged instead of doing it at the checkout.  That does seem a lot more efficient!

At that point we returned to the hotel.  I can't remember what time it was but I forced myself to stay up until 10pm.  It was really difficult.  I talked to Tricia on FaceTime for a while to try to stay awake but eventually gave up.  10pm and lights out.

Sunday Peter and I were back on our own.  I woke up around 5am and just couldn't get back to sleep.  I laid in bed until 7am when I called Tricia again.  I had decided at that point to go for a run in Lumphini but Peter asked me to do the brunch buffet at the hotel.  We were given 10 passes to the buffet.  It was mostly a typical buffet but with Thai lunch options.  The sausage was chicken sausage and the little pancakes had a coconut flavor to them.  Peter and I both picked up yogurt.  One thing we have quickly learned here is that corn is treated similar to fruit.  There was corn in his yogurt and I've seen it as toppings for ice cream!

After brunch I got my first workout in and ran 3 laps at Lumphini Park.  With the humidity and heat, I walked about half of the last lap. I'm hopping to get there before or right at sunrise in the future to beat the heat.

After the workout and NECESSARY shower (thank goodness no one else was in the elevator with me), Peter and I set out for our next adventure:  JJ Weekend Market.

This is basically a huge flea market where you can buy pretty much everything (and shipping services to send everything home to KC).  There is art, clothing, electronics, food, toys, and whatever you could imagine... assuming you could find it.  This place is absolutely monstrous and Peter and I probably only hit 10% of the place in the 90 minutes we were there.

It's simply amazing how much stuff they had there!  After talking about it with co-workers they were surprised we went on our own... and made it out.  Yeah... we did get lost, actually... but only briefly.

Dinner was back at the Central Chidlom Food Court.  I really ventured our for dinner and had Italian... not quite Cafe Trio's MacDaddy :).

Monday
First day at work!  We immediately met a lot of people.  I'm horrible with names so it's been interesting.  I stopped by to say Hi to my project team and then another Expat showed us around the office building.  One of the teams took us to lunch to one of the local restaurant (Sabaijai?) and ate a ton of food.  I think 10 plates of food passed around us.  I've tried to do my best and eat whatever is placed in front of me, and so the fried baby crabs went down the hatch!

After work, Peter and I had some drinks at the hotel bar again.  Can't exactly remember dinner, I may have gone back to my room and went to sleep.  I could only manage to stay up until 9pm.

Tuesday
I managed to hit the gym for the first time.  If I hadn't remembered that I was out of the US, I got another shock when I turned on the treadmill... it was in kilometers!  So I relied on my 5k = 3.1 mile translation to figure out the speed but wasn't completely successful.  I just ran by heart rate.

This time lunch was at the hotel across the street with a handful of Thai associates.  It was a buffet with various Thai dishes.  I'm quickly learning to enjoy Thai cuisine.  Peter and I went back to the hotel room and I fixed a halfway successful risotto (I need some chicken broth).  I had to stay up passed 9pm because of a conference call with work in KC.

Wednesday
I made it to the gym again this morning, but just stuck to the stationary bike.  I think the bike was in mph because I'm hoping I wasn't riding at 6 mph speed but at least a 10mph speed!

Lunch again was at a Thai restaurant (Chapter 31) but this time it was with 3 Expats.  It appeared to be at a little more upscale Thai restaurant.  I had some kind of beef esan dish.  It was yummy.

After work, Peter, Esteb, and I decided it was time for a happy hour:

Yeah, I really branched out tonight.  Margaritas and enchiladas.  Yummy!  Happy hour was definitely on and here it is buy one drink get one free.  This confused us when Peter ordered a beer and the waitress just brought two bottles.  Very very nice!

Thursday
Back at the gym in the morning to work off those two margaritas and enchiladas.  I managed to get to the gym 15 minutes before it opened so I could get 45 minutes on the treadmill in.  So far I've been able to keep up with the training!

Lunch was with the another group of Thai associates but there was a change up in the menu.  We visited a Japanese restaurant.  Take your shoes off and sit on the floor.  I may be a runner/traithlete, but I'm not that limber to sit cross-legged for an hour+!  I knew dinner that night was going to be fairly big, so I decided to stick to tempura vegetables and shrimp.

This quickly turned into a meal like Monday when the associates just kept ordering food.  Another "exotic-for-me" dish landed in front of me:

A whole fried fish.  I must say that it was pretty good.  I just have to get over the mental image of what I'm eating though!


Thursday evening there was a BBQ buffet for two of the Expats who were moving back to Kansas City.  The BBQ was pretty good, but it's the first time I've seen rice at a BBQ!  We took a taxi from work to get to the restaurant but it was only a few blocks away from our hotel, so we walked back.  It was interesting seeing the city at night like that.  From the street vendors to the "city workers" who were fixing the sidewalks to whatever!As soon as we got back to our hotel room, it started raining.  Just in time!

Friday
After four beers Thursday night, I decided I wouldn't hit the gym.  I figured I'd get a long run in Saturday morning, so the rest will do me well.

Lunch this time was at another Thai restaurant... and another meal of food just coming and going, up and down the table.  I don't remember anything extremely odd for lunch.  Everything was delicious.

It was a good ending to the work week.  On the way back to the hotel, Peter and I stopped at the park next to the office to walk around.  They were doing "Sister Cities of Bangkok", which appeared to be some kind of festival like a "Taste of the World".

Peter and I took off for the hotel and changed.  Nothing major planned for the evening, so we went to Siam and walked around a couple malls.  No shopping intentions but just to see the spectacle.  You don't see a lot of shopping malls with Lotus and Lamborghini dealerships.

I took the photo below at one of the large intersections on the way to the malls.  This is to give all the KC folks an idea of what it's like here.  At stop lights all the motorcycle taxis (and any other motorcycles) will drive through all the stopped/waiting cars up to the front of the line.  Watching them take off is like a motorcycle race!

Well, I think this is good for now.  This weekend we went to see the Grand Palace and some of the temples.  Here is a taste:

A Triathlon of Traveling!

It's hard to believe that I am in Thailand.  Since rumblings of this trip started, the last six months have flown by.  While it has been exciting to finally be here, it was definitely hard to say goodbye to all my friends and family back in Kansas City, especially Tricia.  Even though I had worked hard to provide multiple means for us to stay in touch, either by FaceTime, Skype, VOIP calls, emails, IM, etc, it didn't make saying goodbye any easier.

The day started as any other day, 5:30 alarm.  I'm pretty sure I had my usual banana & bagel with peanut butter for breakfast.  Instead of getting work clothes on, it was loading up the car with nearly 120 pounds of clothes, shoes, keepsakes, and gadgetry!  

Poor Brodie.  Apparently he's been pretty mopey around the house while I've been gone these first few days.

Tricia and I hung out at the airport for as long as we could.  I decided that as soon my plane had arrived and was unloaded, that would be my cue to go through security and say goodbye.  A hug and kiss and we were on our separate ways.  Mine, however, wasn't a 15 minute drive home but a blurry 28 hours of travel.

Kansas City to Minneapolis

A very short 1.5 hour flight with a 2.5 hour layover.  Nutrition (this is a triathlete's blog, right?) was Bloody Mary mix with a cookie.  My co-work and tavelmate, Peter, settled in at the gate.  Peter went off to find lunch while I was trying to take in the 24 hours.  You can train for a half-ironman but how do you train for something exactly the opposite, sitting in a seat for that long?!  When Peter got back he mentioned there is a currency exchange so I hoped up and purchased $250 worth of Thai Baht, which is about 6,700 Baht.  The exchange rate around 30 to 1, although the currency exchange place took some fees out of that rate.

Minneapolis to Narita, Japan

Our chariot for the second leg.  It was foggy in Minneapolis and delayed our departure in KC by 20 minutes.

The long haul!  Just like a triathlon, the second/bike leg is always the longest.  Peter and I got settled in our seats and I was almost lucky enough to have the seat next to me wide open; however, this was a full flight and it was quickly taken up.  We flew a Boeing 777 and the first wide-body plane that I have flown in since going to Hawaii when I was teenager.  I sat right behind the Business Elite folks with the lay-flat seats.  I am considering paying for an upgrade to those seats for my trip home on this leg.

We had three meals while on this flight. 

I didn't take advantage of this one...

Dinner

I went with the beef.

Mid-Flight Meal (Lunch): turkey sandwich -- no photo here.  Just use your imagination.

Breakfast (which was really served around 4pm Japan time)

Great fruit selection.  The eggs, sausage, potatoes were OK but my tummy was starting to question me.

I had some website projects to work on so I pretty much kept myself in my computer for about 10 hours of the flight.  

Since we left Minneapolis around 1pm and arrived in Narita at 5pm, we were in the sunlight the entire time.  I closed my windows after dinner and the cabin lights were turned off not too long after that.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep on this flight, I have never been able to sleep on a plane so I just plugged away at the computer.  

I will say that I would highly recommend anyone flying long distance to purchase noise canceling headphones.  I think that saved me from going crazy and, as Peter pointed out, is more comfortable than earbuds.  It doesn't block out the sound completely but it works very well.

Sporting the noise canceling headphones.  Thank you Bose (and Donna from work who recommended these)!

While I messed around on the computer, I put on a few movies via the TV screen located in the seat-back of the chair in front of me:

Hall Pass

Easy A

Adjustment Bureau

The Social Network

I chose a window seat because, well, I wanted to be by the window.  It did have the added benefit that I could put my leg between the seat and wall in front of me to stretch out this 6 foot, 4 inch frame.  The problem is I feel extremely guilty waking up my seat row companions to go to the bathroom but I managed OK.  

We took a northern route and flew through Canada and near Alaska.

The last two hours I didn't really do too much. I pulled out a book on Thailand and the Thai language and looked through it. I pulled up the shade on the window and watched as we flew into Japan.  It was hard to grasp the concept that we were actually flying over a completely new-to-me continent. 

On the tarmac at Narita.  Pretty.

The landing into Narita was very smooth. As soon as we got off the plane it was a quick jaunt over to the next gate to our connecting flight.  It takes much longer to load these nearly 300 passenger vehicles, so they start much earlier.  Since we had Premium Coach seats, we actually did get to use the priority lanes.

In other words, T2 was very quick and efficient.

Narita, Japan to Bangkok, Thaliand

My row only had two seats and I had the window seat.  There was a very nice Thai lady sitting next to me and she asked where I was from.  I immediately said Kansas City.... then Missouri.... then United States.  She spoke very good english and she said she lived in Detroit for the last 36 years.  So that makes sense.  But it just dawned on me that I can't assume anything now.  If I see someone that looks "American" they still likely aren't.

We probably sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes waiting to take off and I could tell I was starting to drift off to sleep.  I had been up for nearly 28 hours at that point.  The seats weren't as comfortable because I couldn't get my backpack under the seat in front of me very much.  The electronics for the in-seat TVs were there.  So I just pulled my backpack under my legs and stretched my feet there instead.  Pillow, blanket and then sleep.  I probably put in an hour and a half before they served dinner.  I had missed the first beverage cart, which was just fine.  I've been drinking water as much as possible and didn't want to drink caffeine.  They served Green Tea with dinner and was very good.  Not sure if this had caffeine in it though.  It didn't stand a chance if it did.   Off to sleep again!

Some beef, rice, and veggie meal.  

This time when I woke up there was a small card hanging from my food tray.  Thankfully Esteb (The third co-worker who was part of this assignment; however, he was flying in a day later) informed us that we would need to fill in immigration paperwork.  You hand this into the customs and it provides them with enough information to let you in without any need for discussion.  Very efficient.

I probably slept a total 3.5 hours on this leg.  When we were a couple hours out of Bangkok, my mind was racing again. This was really happening!  I put on the movie "30 Minutes or Less".  I left the computer in the bag for this leg.  I don't think I could get any quality work in if I had anyway.

I opened up the window shade to see the city as we flew over.  I'm use to lights everywhere when landing in a big city but there really wasn't as much as I expected.  Maybe the airport is far enough away or that's just how it is in non-energy abusing, U.S. cities.  

The landing was smooth again. Once Peter and I deplaned we took off for our luggage, which was behind customs/immigration.  A very long line considering it was after midnight at this point but we didn't have any issues.  Once we found the baggage claim, our luggage was thankfully already spinning around.  

We left the baggage claim area and started looking for a specific spot where our limo was waiting for us, as I was turning around I heard someone calling my name.  It was one of the Thai associates.  There were five of them total waiting for us.  It was so nice to have someone we "knew" there.  Mai, Weep, Ben, Net, and Tam presented us with some candy, work passes, BTS (Bangkok Transit System) passes, cell phones, and books about Thailand and Bangkok.  After some pictures (going to need to get those from Mai to see if I looked awake) and pleasantries, Peter and I went to the car with our luggage.

A 20 minute car ride to our hotel.  It was definitely odd driving/riding on the other side of the road.  Eventually we pulled up to our hotel and checked in.  Signed some paperwork and the bellhop helped us with our luggage.  I am on the 14th floor and Peter is directly above me on the 15th floor.  We both settled in and agreed to talk around 10am the next day.

I finally talked to Tricia over FaceTime, who was sitting in her office.  The video for FaceTime was pretty choppy (and has been since) so doesn't look like that's going to work so well.  I pretty much unpacked one of my bags and then finally hit the bed around 2:30am Saturday (or 1:30pm Friday in KC).

Well, that's pretty much all for now.  It's Sunday evening right now (I've been working on this post off and on since Saturday morning).  I'll start working on my post about our first weekend next!