BANGKOK, THAILAND (visited 99 and 00; written circa 1/01; new update from 6/01 visit coming soon)
Bangkok is a huge city where the peaceful and gentle culture of the Thai people is superimposed on a bustling and polluted megatropolis. There are many treasures to be found in Bangkok, most of which I did not have the chance to see on this visit. You would do much better looking elsewhere on the internet for descriptions of the various temples and monuments around Bangkok rather than reading this entry. However, one thing I can say with certainty is that if you ever go to Bangkok, you must prepare yourself for the negative aspects of a sprawling Asian city that was not designed to accomodate such a massive population.
The two most obvious and common complaints are the traffic and the pollution. If you think New York City has traffic jams, spend a day driving around Bangkok, and you'll find out what a traffic jam REALLY is. It is not uncommon to sit on the same block for 15 or 20 minutes with no movement. They have just opened a new mass-transit train system, but so far there is only one line operational. Many people have said that it is too little, too late. With the recent financial crisis in Asia, many public works projects were stopped or put on hold indefinitely. Partly as a result of the traffic, the pollution is incredibly bad. You may want to consider wearing one of those breather masks to filter out some of the filth in the air when visiting Bangkok.
I have a very good friend named Kene Jackel who has lived in Bangkok for the past 9 or 10 years, and he absolutely loves living there. In fact, he has done very well for himself, creating his own audio production and audio equipment sales business. He has encouraged me to come and spend some time over there to see how I like the Thai lifestyle, and I may just take him up on it one day. It's surprising to see that there are many, many foreigners living and working in Bangkok. I spent a good portion of my several days in Bangkok hanging out and catching up with Kene, and when he had time, he took me around to various vegetarian eateries and other establishments. We even went to go see a very loud Thai rock band, who were pretty awful, to tell you the truth!
Sailing in and out of Bangkok on the river that connects the big city to the ocean, you can see many facets of Thai life as it exists today. Big factories belching out massive clouds of toxic waste juxtaposed with small villages boasting beautifully designed traditional temples. One unforgettable image viewable from the river is a gigantic statue of an elephant off in the distance. In Thai culture the elephant is said to bring good luck and auspiciousness. It's about 45 minutes downriver from Bangkok, and it towers over all of the other buildings and structures around it. I submitted this sighting to the "World's Largest Roadside Attractions" website, but so far have not received a response from them. Currently they list the largest elephant statue as one being in New Jersey; however I know the one in Thailand is way bigger.
KO KOOT, THAILAND (visited 99 and 00; written circa 1/01)
Ko Koot (also spelled Ko Kood) is a medium-small sized tropical island very close to the Cambodian border. The ship stopped there to provide the passengers with a taste of a "secluded tropical island beach paradise". Supposedly the resort that the ship stopped at used to belong to the King of Thailand, but I was never able to confirm if that was actually true. It is a beautiful location, built into the jungle, with lovely accomodations, food, views, and a friendly staff. There is an idyllic beach on a bay with bathtub temperature warm sea water. You can float effortlessly in the sun and space out into oblivion (providing the sea snakes are not around). It's located about 4 hours by speed boat away from Bangkok. There are no villages on that side of the island, so all provisions have to be brought in by boat.
Upon closer inspection of the island, the realities of the 20th and 21st centuries have creeped in and reared their ugly heads. First of all, each time we visited Ko Koot, there was a new wave of trash washed up on the shore, especially further down the beach, away from the resort area. The first time we were there, it really disgusted me, so I volunteered to pick up as much as I could. The staff at the island was reluctant to give me any trash bags, as they thought it was not right for me, a visitor (even though I was crew) to be picking up the trash. However, I insisted and prevailed upon them, and I spent about an hour picking up all kinds of debris. The next time we were there, only two weeks later, there was a whole new collection of items on the beach.
Then there was the rumor that the island formerly was used as a training ground for the Thai armed forces. I never found out if that was true or not either. It was kind of scary to think that there might be unexploded munitions lying around. Lastly, and probably most unfortunately because it was confirmed to be true, there was an outbreak of malaria on the island shortly after one of our visits there. Needless to say, the ship did not make any of it's subsequently scheduled stops there.
The moral of the story? Even though it is a beautiful isolated island with a lovely resort and a warm water tropical beach, it still exists within the larger global model and ecosystem, and therefore is subject the same problems as everywhere else.
PHUKET, THAILAND (visited 99 and 00; written circa 1/01)
Phuket occupies a very special place in my memory banks (and my heart) for many different reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I spent 11 days there on vacation at the conclusion of this so-called "How Deep is the Ocean" tour on the ship that I have been documenting here for you. I was really anxious to get off of the ship by that point, and just about anywhere would have seemed like paradise compared to six months of living on a small cruise ship filled with stressful on-board situations. Fortunately, the last six weeks on the ship were a lot of fun, aside from some minor residue left over by a previous staff member. For those six weeks we had a really good line up of musicians, both professionaly and personally, including Jon Roche on bass and Vic Manecchia on drums. Still, when I stepped off the boat in Phuket, an incredible sense of relief overtook me, and even though it took some time to "decompress", it was a great feeling, and Phuket was an ideal location to chill out and relax at.
And that is my main recollection of Phuket - relaxing! The island of Phuket is the most visited tourist destination in all of Asia, attracting something like two million visitors a year. Of course, this has some negative aspects to it; however all in all I would recommend it, but only if you do some research first and therefore know what to expect. For example, if you want peace and quiet, definitely DO NOT stay in the area called Patong Beach. Patong is the most popular and therefore overcrowded place on the island. The beach is lousy, and the town is way overdeveloped, filled to the brim with countless seedy establishments of varying degrees of degradation.
I stayed in an quieter area known as Karon-Kata. This is a much more mellow locale than Patong and is sandwiched between two lovely beaches, Karon and Kata (hence the name). I was about a 5 minute walk away from the end of Karon beach at a bungalow compound. It seemed pretty safe, the accomodations were basic but clean, and the onsite restaraunt was really good and really cheap. Many of the backpackers I met who were staying there complained that Phuket was more expensive than the rest of the places they had visited in Thailand; this is probably true, but it's still cheap by American standards.
I spent my days walking along the beach, playing in the surf, and taking it very easy! I had three suits hand-made and tailored for me at a local tailor's shop for a total of $260 USD! One of them was a tuxedo, and another one was made from pure Thai silk. Now that's a bargain!
I also spent some time at a Buddhist temple called Wat Chalong, which is the largest temple on the island. Wat Chalong, in addition to being the main center of worship for the island's Buddhist population, is also a big tourist attraction. There are many monks living in residence on the grounds. The main practice here for visitors seems to be making offerings of candles and incense outside of the main sanctuary, and then proceeding inside to affix small gold leafs onto statues, who presumably represent former monks. I made the assumption that these monks had reached Nirvana, or the state of Buddhahood, and therefore were being honored in that way for their attainment. Their forms are also honored in an air-conditioned wax museum located within another building on the grounds - the wax figures are impressively done.
In addition, people can make their offerings in the form of firecrackers; one temple employee has the sole job of being in charge of the detonation of firecrackers inside a specially built structure for anyone who desires to make an offering in that form. It can get pretty loud!
The first time I visited Wat Chalong, upon my arrival I saw some Thai people going into one of the buildings, and so I decided to follow them in. It turns out that they were going to receive blessings from the head monk, another large and jolly looking fellow, similar to the monk in Penang. Nobody inside spoke English, but they motioned me to come inside. I went in, and the chief monk made a motion with his hands, first pointing to his wrist, and then pointing at me. I interpreted this to mean that in order to be allowed in to see him and have his blessings, I needed to be initiated into this path of Buddhism by having a special bracelet (in India they call these "rakhis"). I became confused, thinking that it wasn't appropriate for me to be going inside without a rakhi, so I shrugged my shoulders as if to say "I don't know", bowed to him, and left. However, I was way off base! The next time I came, there was a Thai woman there who spoke a little English. I told her the story of the previous visit, and she relayed it to the monk's assistants. They explained that the chief monk had been asking me if I WANTED a rakhi, not if I already had one!
This time when we all went in to see him, they told him the story. He said that he remembered me, and let out a huge laugh! He sang some mantras and sprinkled holy water on all of us present, and tied a rakhi on my wrist. It was obvious that this monk is held in great reverance by the local people there. Interestingly, there were pictures of previous monks all over the walls, and one of them looked amazingly like a man named Swami Anantananda, who is one of the American born monks of Siddha Yoga, which is the meditation path that I follow.
My experiences at Wat Chalong did not end there, however! At this second visit, after my time with the chief monk, I proceeded outside to the sound of a large group of monks chanting inside another hall. As soon as I got to the entrance of the hall that they were in, the chanting ended, and everyone who was there partaking in it (monks and non-monks) began to file outside. I tried to see if there was anyone else around who spoke English, because I wanted to see if they would be chanting again. Unfortunately, there was no one who did. Finally, I found the lady who had helped me earlier, and she asked one of the monks about their chanting schedule. He told her that they chant everyday at 5 am and 5 pm, and said I could come and observe them. I made plans to come back the next morning at 5 am.
The staff people back at the bungalow complex thought I was crazy to ask for a 3:30 am wake up knock (they didn't have phones in the rooms). Well, maybe I was! When I tried to get a tuktuk (an open-air taxi), there were none around. My only option was to accept a ride from a group of yuppie looking Thai party-goers returning from a night of dancing. They assured me that the driver had not been drinking! He generously gave me a ride to Wat Chalong, and when I offered him some money he said "no...just be sure to tell everyone in America that there are good people here in Thailand".
I walked down the entrance road to the temple and not only was it dead silent, there were no lights on, and not a soul was stirring about. It didn't seem right. I took a few steps inside the gate when about 30 dogs starting howling wildly, with some of them running right towards me! I knew that if I ran it would only fuel their adrenalized instinct to chase me! Instead, I crouched down and held out my hand in the "passive" pose. Luckily, one or two of them were friendly, and so the rest kept their distance, however they continued to howl! I thought to myself, if the monks were not awake already, now they would be for sure! After about 10 minutes, the dogs of the temple stopped howling; incredibly, however, their howling had started a "chain reaction" and every dog within a five mile radius was howling. It was unbelievable - kind of like the doppler effect, or "the wave" at a sporting event!
After awhile, all of the howling died down, and I saw a drunken temple construction worker returning to his temporary home behind the temple after a night of partying. He spoke a few words of broken English, saying there was no chant, then he invited me to the workers housing to hang out until the temple itself opened. I cautiously agreed and walked with him - but when we got to his "house", which was nothing more than some hastily thrown together particle board, there were people sleeping everywhere, and there was no place to even sit down, so I went back to the temple. His dog and cat followed me, and I had to keep returning them back to his house! He told me he was working high up in the temple's "steeple" - I thought to myself that he better sober up before he goes up there on any scaffolding later this morning!
Finally, I saw a security guard, and we communicated the best we could using primitive sign language. He motioned for me to wait. Well, wait I did! Eventually, monks started showing up, and the chant got started about 8 am! I was shocked to see that some of them were smoking on the way to the chanting hall! The oldest monk motioned that I could come in, although he didn't appear all that happy. With monks, however, looks can be deceiving. Some of them maintain a very stoic outer posture. I was the only non-monk inside the hall with them. Anyway, the chant lasted about 30 minutes, and was some sort of text chant, punctuated by bowing. I bowed every time the monks bowed, and some of the young monks, who were probably between 10 and 14 years old, looked at me very curiously when they saw me bowing! The whole thing was a great experience, and even though I didn't have a clue as to the significance or meaning of the chant, I felt a feeling of devotion and peacefulness in that hall. Maybe for some of the monks it was mechanical ritual, but it was clear that especially for the older monks it held deep power.
As we came out of the hall, I realized that one of my sandals was missing. When some of the monks saw me looking around, they pointed out to a grassy area where one of the temple dogs had my other sandal in his mouth! This dog had the most hilarious sheepish look of guilt on his face! Everyone started laughing! Those dogs sure had their share of fun with me on that morning!
Another great memory I have from Phuket came after an afternoon of swimming in the ocean. The temperature outside was just perfect, especially after a hot shower. It's one of those evenings where it feels blissful to be in your own skin. After a delicious fresh cooked Thai meal I noticed that a few people were looking up at the sky. Not only was there a beautiful moon and a multitude of stars in the sky, there were sixteen "floating lanterns" (miniature hot air balloons) gracefully and slowly gliding across the sky. Apparently they are released by one of the hotels on special occasions.
It was an exquisitely peaceful feeling to watch them as they gently made their way into oblivion.
