Another Work Day

I want to keep blogging daily but I haven't been doing enough stuff lately to merit new posts. Oh well.

Yesterday, as predicted, was a full day of mounting photos. I took a break for lunch then later everyone took a break for a ten-minute dance party.

Last night was my first night staying at Non's apartment. I didn't understand this earlier, but she's able to let me stay there because she's been staying at DAA. That means I'm staying at someone else's apartment on my own. It's incredibly generous of her to offer up her place to me though, so I'm not complaining. After we were done at DAA last night, we both biked to her apartment which is about ten minutes away from DAA. She got me situated and gave me a key and left.

This morning I was able to make my way back to DAA with minimal confusion due to a little map Non drew me.

Today is another work day at DAA. The Festival starts tonight with an opening party outside by the Three Kings Monument. We still have quite a few photos to mount but some of them we don't need immediately and we're making good progress anyway.

I will try to take some photos of the opening party tonight to post tomorrow. In the meantime, here's another photo of the DAA workshop:

Busy busy busy.

Work Day

I'm writing this early (it's only noon) because I suspect I won't have much variation in my day and also I'm pretty sure I won't have wifi at Non's place. Today is another work day at DAA because the Festival starts tomorrow. We still have like 200 photos to mount so we'll be working like crazy today. We mounted thirty or so already and now we're taking a little break before starting up again for a bit more then getting lunch. Then we'll probably work more. Good times.

I'm afraid that I don't have much else to say. Sorry, folks.

Hopefully this photos of a sign for a "snail spa" will make up for the brevity of this post.

Critical Mass

Change of Plans. Well, it's less of a change of plans and more that I actually have a plan now. I went to Documentary Arts Asia (DAA) last night to  see "Tim's Vermeer." The movie was interesting and the theater was great. The movie was projected on the wall in the lobby and the seats are all folding chairs set up in rows. I learned that it was the only indie movie theater in Chiang Mai and that they were putting on the fourth annual Chiang Mai Documentary Arts Festival starting on Sunday. They said that there was still quite a bit of work today including mounting photos and building screens. I initially thought I would just show up and help before leaving on Saturday but the Festival seemed cool so I decided I would stay for a bit longer to help. I talked to a couple folks who worked there and they said they would welcome the help. The festival is from the first to the eighth and takes place in a number of venues across Chiang Mai. Tonight is the last night I have booked in my hostel and when I mentioned I would extend my stay, I was offered a place to stay by Non, the Assistant Director of DAA. She said I would be welcome to stay in her spare room while I helped out with the festival. Awesome!

This morning I went back to DAA. I mostly mounted photos but also removed staples from frames. It was tiring work but it was fun because all the people there are awesome. I got two meet two artists who have shows in the festival. One is an Italian man displaying photos of an abandoned prison in Chiang Mai and the other photographer I met is a South African woman showing portraits of women with HIV from all around the world. I spent many hours cutting foamcore and mounting photos while talking with everyone about photography. It was fun.

Cutting foamcore all day long.

This evening, I went to Critical Mass Chiang Mai. For those who don't know, Critical Mass is an event that happens all over the world where a bunch of cyclists get on their bikes, form a friendly mob, then ride around their city. The folks at DAA were all going and invited me to go. I didn't have a bike but someone lent me one.

We biked to the meetup point. There were maybe fifty to a hundred cyclists there. The organizer made a speech through a megaphone then we set off.

Photo stolen from Critical Mass Chiang Mai Facebook page.

Readers may recall that I described myself as "a bit shaky" when I biked in Phitsanulok and this was certainly the case in Chiang Mai. Traffic was crazy and biking was absolutely terrifying. Somewhat fun but terrifying nonetheless.

At first, it was pretty easy. Being in a large group made it way less scary. But it wasn't long before I fell behind. Eventually, it was just me and one other person going my pace with nobody else in sight. Luckily for me, the other person knew the route so I followed her. She went off on her own after a while but gave me directions to the meetup point where the route concluded.

I made my way on my own to the meetup point and everyone was already there. I took the bike back to DAA then walked back to my hostel.

But first I stopped for ice cream.

I deserved it.



PS: the place I'm going to be staying at from now on doesn't have wi-fi. I will try to keep blogging regularly but if I miss a day then that's why.

La Petite Chiang Mai

I went to the Couchsurfing meetup last night. About forty people showed up and it was awesome. Some were folks who live and work in Chiang Mai and come to the meetup every Wednesday and some, like me, were travelers passing through. I had a good time.

This little dude was just chilling on the wall.

I think I'm getting a cold or something. I have a runny nose and a bit of a cough. I decided to take it easy today. This morning I walked around looking for some breakfast and came across a place called La Petite Chiang Mai. Despite the name, it was a pretty basic greasy spoon breakfast place. I've been eating Thai food for a week and it's great but sometimes it's nice just to have eggs, bacon, and potatoes. I hung out at La Petite Chiang Mai for a while reading the copy of Slaughterhouse five  I bought yesterday.

"Big taste in a small place"

This evening, I'm going to a movie theater called Documentary Arts Asia. As the name suggests, it's a theater that shows documentaries. Right now they're playing a movie called "Tim's Vermeer," which is about a man who attempts to recreate a Vermeer painting using mechanical means. I'd seen a trailer for it back home and wanted to see it so it's pretty crazy that I can see it here (although I'm going to have to see it with English subtitles).

Also, the weather is quite nice right now.

Songthaews and Silver Temples

Last night, I met the friends I had made in Bangkok at their hostel. The best way to get around Chiang Mai is on a songthaew, which is a covered pickup truck taxi (I'm not sure how it's pronounced). You flag it down then ask the driver if he's headed where you're going. If he is, you hop in the back with all the other people. On the way, the driver stops to pick up other people going to other destinations. The fare is never more than 40 baht and it's usually about 20. 

I guess a yellow songthaew works differently than a red one or a blue one but I haven't figured it out yet.

I met my friends at their hostel and a bunch of other people joined us. For some reason, we ended up going to dinner at a place called Chiang Mai Saloon that had a larger selection of typical American food (buffalo wings, cheeseburgers, etc.) than it did Thai food (I ordered a Thai dish that was quite good.) 

Our group at Chiang Mai Saloon. I guess my camera lens was a bit smudged.

After that, we went to a club called Ska Party. They had an excellent live band with a full horn section playing reggae and ska music. After hanging out there for a while, I took a songthaew back to my hostel.

Pick it up, Pick it up, Pick it up, Pick it up, Pick it up.

This morning I decided to go an adventure. The night before I had made a friend (a guy from Wisconsin) who I had agreed to do something with but I woke up kind of early so I decided to go off on my own for a while. I ended up going to Wat Sri Suphan, which is a temple that is completely silver. There is a big silver industry in Chiang Mai and while walking to the temple, I heard the tapping of a hammers coming from the shops of dozens of silversmiths. The sound was also audible within the temple grounds as the temple is currently being renovated.

In Phitsanulok I was required to kneel for photos in the temple. I did it here and later realized I probably didn't have to.

After visiting the temple, I started walking back to my hostel. On the way, I passed by a motorbike upholstery shop with scraps of vinyl on the floor. The vest I wear every day has gotten really threadbare so I went into the shop and tried to get a scrap of fabric to patch it up with. After the typical confusion that comes with two people communicating in two different languages, I was  given a scrap of vinyl for free. I went back to my hostel, borrowed a pair of scissors from the front desk, then went about patching up my vest with the needle and dental floss I had in my backpack. It turned out pretty well and will extend the life of my vest for a little bit longer.

The blue patch is the new one.

After that, I went to meet my Wisconsinite friend from the other hostel. We ended up just walking around Chiang Mai for a couple hours and getting lunch. We stopped by a bookstore that sold books in many languages and I bought a copy of Slaughterhouse Five. I'm already traveling with a few books but I like reading so I'll get to it eventually. I finished The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman when I was in Bangkok and left in my hostel for someone else to enjoy.

Now I'm back at my hostel. It's just about naptime for me then I'm either going to go to the Chiang Mai Couchsurfing meetup or I may meet up with the crowd from the other hostel once again.

Arriving in Chiang Mai

I spent most of today day on a train.

The tour I was supposed to go on this morning was cancelled so I decided just to head straight to Chiang Mai. This morning, Mark drove me to the train station on his motorbike and we said our goodbyes. Couchsurfing with Mark and his family was really fun and they were incredibly generous. I bought a cheap third-class ticket and again settled in for a long trip. The train took seven and a half hours but I was able to sleep through some of it.

I just got in and took a tuk-tuk to the hostel I'm staying at. Since I waited till last night to check hostels (mainly because I hadn't decided where I was going yet), almost all the hostels in Chiang Mai were booked. I ended up booking four nights in a cheap hostel that I'm at now. The room I'm in is nice enough but I appear to be the only person staying in the seven-bed dorm room. I guess this is not a very popular hostel. Several people I met in Bangkok are also in Chiang Mai right now so I may meet them at their (nicer and more social but fully booked) hostel to get dinner tonight. Tomorrow night there is a Couchsurfing meet-up in Chiang Mai that I may go to.

Sorry for the short post but I didn't do much today. I will probably have a busier day tomorrow.

Every traincar has a section like this.

Another Sunny Day

This morning I set out to work on the unfinished mural in the classroom in Mark and Mint's home. I'm not a very good painter but I did the best I could to add onto what Mark had already painted. I spent a couple hours on it then went to lunch with Mark. After that, I took a short nap.

I added the happy clouds, helicopter, house, bird, dragon, UFO, rainbow, and the sun.

Once a week, Mark goes to the temple to exercise and use the sauna there. The other guest and I joined him and biked to the temple. I haven't ridden a bicycle for a while so I was a bit shaky but the ride was pleasant anyway. Mark's routine is to go into the sauna, exercise, drink a bitter bright red tea that they provide there, then repeat two more times. I did the sauna three times but my attempts to participate in the exercise were pathetic and I didn't like the tea so I went with water. The sauna was very hot but it got easier each time.

After that, we returned to Mark's home because it was nearly time for his classes. At five, about eight kids showed up. I had agreed to participate in the class so the kids spent the first fifteen or so minutes asking me questions Mark had prepared like "where are you from?" and "do you like spicy food?" After that, they played a game of I-Spy. The second class was older kids who spoke better English. We did the interview questions then played a game of Telephone (passing a message from one person to another through whispers). Participating in the class was fun but the kids had a lot of energy so it was sort of tiring.

I'm going to stay in Phitsanulok again tonight. A local university student invited Mark and any guests he had to go on a tour she is doing of Phitsanulok tomorrow so I may go on that. From there, I think I will head to Chiang Mai.

Stay tuned.

Phitsanulok By Any Means Neccessary

Today started out stressful.

Last night I went to the cafe outside my guesthouse and ended up sitting with a group of a few other backpackers which was nice. This morning I woke up around eight, had breakfast, then set out to Phitsanulok. 
I had read multiple stories online saying that Thailand was one of the easiest places in the world to hitchhike so I decided to give it a try. It's not common here but if you're able to properly explain what you're doing to drivers, apparently you can get rides. I left my hostel and walked for a bit to a busy road that I thought was near the highway. I stood out there for about ten minutes before someone stopped. A couple pulled over and I handed them the note I had the guy at my guesthouse write in Thai explaining what I was doing and where I was going. 

My hitchhiking note. My Couchsurfing host later confirmed that it was translated well and should have properly explained what I was doing.

In the end, I decided to take the train. I took a tuk-tuk to the train station and the driver claimed he didn't have correct change so I was scammed out of ten baht (only thirty cents but still irritating). Had I been successful hitching, I could have gotten there in four or five hours but the train was an excruciating seven hours. Third class seats aren't as nice when you're there for seven hours instead of two.

I had written someone on Couchsurfing yesterday about getting a place to stay in Phitsanulok so after getting a bite to eat at a street vendor, I tried to find wifi. I ended up in a gadget store and used their wifi. Luckily for me, I had heard back from the Couchsurfing folks and they said yes! They included directions and while I got hopelessly lost trying to get there, I eventually made it.

My hosts are Mark, his wife Mint, and their their daughter Me-ah. They have a small English school in Phitsanulok and host couchsurfers frequently. They have another guest staying in the extra room so I'm sleeping in the classroom. Mark, the other guest, and I went out this evening for a walk to the most famous temple in Phitsanulok where there is currently a large festival going on. We went into the temple then went through the aisles of food stands and carnival games.

I had a rough start today but am feeling better because of the the friendliness of Mark and his family. I had written him about staying for one night but he has told me that I can stay longer if I want to. Tomorrow I'm going to explore Phitsanulok then decide what to do next. I told Mark my hitchhiking story and he said that he had hitched in Thailand before with ease and thought my experience was odd. If I decide to leave tomorrow, I may hitchhike to Sukhothai, which is only an hour away. If I decide to stay another night, Mark likes to have his guests participate in this classes by having the students interview the guest, which could be fun. There's also an unfinished mural in the classroom which upon learning that I liked art, Mark invited me to finish if I wanted.
Hurrah for Couchsurfing!

The Buddha statue behind me is said to be the most beautiful Buddha statue in all of Thailand.

A Frustrating Day in Ayutthaya

Today was kind of a frustrating day. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a bad day but it was the first day of this trip that wasn’t totally awesome.

I got up early, checked out of my Bangkok hostel, and took a cab to the train station. I bought a third-class ticket to Ayutthaya for 20 baht, which is less than one dollar. I had read that third-class cars have fans instead of air-conditioning but the ride was only two hours so I saved some money and took third-class.

The ride was quite pleasant. The tracks pass a lot of interesting sights like fields, ramshackle houses, and bits of graffiti. Vendors walked up and down the aisles selling bottled water and styrofoam plates of pad thai. The Thai man sitting across from me asked to see my ticket and let me know when it was time for me to get off the train.

After I got off the train, I had no idea where to go. I had written someone from the Couchsurfing website the night before about having a place to stay but hadn’t hear back before I left. I needed to find wi-fi so I could check to see if I had received a reply.

A tuk-tuk driver told me there was wi-fi at the tourism information center so I had him take me there. When I got there, I discovered that they did not in fact have wi-fi. They did, however, give me some maps of Ayutthaya and tell me where some guesthouses were.

I decided to check out the temple ruins then try to find wi-fi to see if I had to book a guesthouse or if I could stay with the person from Couchsurfing. On the way to one of the sites, I passed the elephant park where tourists were riding on elephants. There are a number of animal-based tourist attractions in Southeast Asia involving elephants and tigers but before I left I decided I wouldn’t do any of them. By all accounts, the animals are treated poorly and many people believe that the tigers are heavily drugged in order to allow tourists to play with them.

Happy tourists on sad elephants.

My room for the night.

I eventually made it to one of the temple ruin sites and explored it for a bit. It was cool but I don’t know that it is worth making a trip to Ayutthaya for. There are a number of other sites that I didn’t see though so if you were to hire a tuk-tuk to drive you from site to site it might be more worth it.

After the ruins, I still had no idea what to do about accommodation for the night. I came across a tourism police office (where you report scams and pickpockets and the like) and asked if I could use their computer. They said sure and I was able to check and see that I hadn’t heard back from the Couchsurfing guy.

By then, I was tired. It was very hot out and I had been walking a lot. I decided to find a place to stay for tonight. One of the maps I had gotten at the tourism office mentioned a cheap guesthouse called Tony’s Place so I decided to head there. It ended up taking me about 30 or 45 minutes to get there. When I got there, I was told that they were out of the cheapest kind of room so I had to pay an extra 100 baht for a nicer room. That’s only about three dollars so it’s not a huge deal but I’m trying to stretch my money as far as I can so it was a little annoying.

So I’m at the guesthouse now. The room I got is a small room that I have to myself that’s actually pretty nice. I think I’ll spend the rest of the day resting or something. I wanted to head to Chiang Mai tomorrow but you need to get your train ticket in advance and after all the running around today I have no desire to pay a tuk-tuk to drive me to the train station just so I can try to get a ticket. Because of this, I think I’m going to go to Phitsanulok tomorrow. I’ve written someone on the Couchsurfing website for a place to stay and hopefully will hear back before I leave tomorrow morning.

Today was frustrating but I suppose it’s all part of the travel experience. Bangkok was an easy city to get around and find stuff to do in but I’m not always going to be in big cities. My lack of planning was my downfall today so I’m going to try to start preparing more for each location.

Last Day in Bangkok

Got a slow start today. Slept in a bit then went downstairs  and had breakfast (croissant with jam, a banana, and tea). Today is my last day in Bangkok so I decided to go to Chinatown. I was joined by one of my new friends from the hostel. Together, we walked twenty or so minutes to Chinatown.

On our way there, an old Thai man sitting outside with a newspaper started talking to us. He asked us where we were from and when I said America and my friend said the UK, he asked if he could practice his English with us. He told us that his daughter lived in Australia and he was going to visit her soon. He invited us to sit down with him and asked us what our plans were. We told him what we were planning on doing and he requested paper and a pen. He then spent the next twenty or so minutes planning an itinerary for us. He told us exactly where we should go, what sights to see, and even what time to catch the train. He was very helpful and friendly.

After excusing ourselves, we walked around Chinatown for a bit. We somehow found ourselves in what appeared to the industrial district because every storefront was filled with plumbing fittings, motorbike parts, or massive rolls of wire and rope.

We eventually made it to the main part of Chinatown. On our way, we came across several temples randomly placed in side alleys. 

We were hungry so we decided to get a bite to eat. We found a street vendor selling bowls of duck soup. We each got a bowl (about $1.25 each) and it was delicious.

Now I’m back at the hostel. Tomorrow I am leaving Bangkok. I didn’t know where I was going until this morning when I talked to the travel agent who sets up a table in the hostel lobby every day. With her help, I decided to head to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the capital of Thailand back when it was still Siam. Nowadays it’s home to many temple ruins. I’m going to take a train from Bangkok to Ayutthaya tomorrow morning. I’m told that the best way to get around the ruins is to rent a bicycle so I may do that. I will probably stay the night in Ayutthaya and head further north the next day either to Chiang Mai or perhaps somewhere else before Chiang Mai. Bangkok was fun but it was busy and touristy and I'm looking forward to something a bit quieter.

Arts and Culture

This morning I again asked the women at the front desk of my hostel for a recommendation for what to do. I was told that I should go to the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center (BACC) to check out the art there. I made my way to Skytrain and went there. The BACC is a museum of contemporary Thai art. It’s located on the seventh floor of a building that’s pretty much a shopping mall. I wasn’t sure what to expect but ended up really enjoying the art there. the show there was called “The Great Artist of Tomorrow Will Go Underground,” which is a quote from Marcel Duchamp (an artist who has always inspired me and my own artistic pursuits). 

The show was an enormous group show ranging from long manifestos painted on the walls to interactive electronic pieces to Duchamp-esque readymade sculptures. The show appeared to be a continuous work-in-progress as some of the pieces were unfinished and surrounded by art supplies. It was a wonderful show and I spent a lot of time walking through the gallery and playing with the interactive pieces.

If you stepped on the tail a barking noise would come from a nearby speaker. Nifty!

After that, I went to the other show in the Center. It was a show of travel photography by Thai photographers. Most of the photos were kind of unimpressive but that may have been just compared to the show I had just come from.

After leaving the BACC, I made my way to the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American who helped revitalize the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 60s. He built several houses in the traditional 19th century Thai style and filled his home with art and antiques collected from all around Southeast Asia. Thompson mysteriously disappeared on a trip to Malaysia in 1967 but his house has been preserved and turned into a museum. While I would have preferred to explore on my own, I was required to take a group tour which proved to be long and dull at times (our tour guide made a big deal out of pointing out the cat-shaped chamberpot in one of the bedrooms) but the house was very cool and a lot of the objects in the house were hundreds of years old.

So that’s my day so far. I’m tired and my feet hurt a bit so I think it’s time for a nap.

Khao Sanarchy

After writing yesterday's blog post, I took a short nap then went down to the lobby of my hostel. There were a bunch of people hanging out on the porch outside the hostel so I joined them. We sat for a while then decided to go to Khao San Road. Dedicated readers of this blog may recall that I had already been to Khao San Road earlier that day but I had nothing better to do so our group piled into three cabs and made our way to Khao San.

Khao San Road during the day is basically a very busy touristy market. At night, it is the street is closed off and thousands of backpackers wander through the street. It is an astonishing display of pure hedonism. Walking down the street, I repeatedly had to decline offers of buckets (plastic pails filled with liquor and enough soda to make it not taste like liquor) and balloons full of laughing gas.

Our group avoided the buckets and balloons and instead made our way to a small rooftop club. It was packed with people. There was a small stage up front where a Thai man with a guitar and another with a drum played popular songs in English. I must say that I did not expect to come to Thailand and hear someone performing “Hotel California.”

He also played a modified version of "Country Roads" that included the lyric "Khao San Road, take me home to the place I belong."

After hanging out in the club for a while, we made our way outside and bought food from the street vendors there. I bought a skewer of what I believe was chicken and later bought a spring roll from another vendor. There were also several stands selling cooked tarantulas, scorpions, and various other things most people wouldn’t eat unless they were on a reality TV show.

After eating, we piled back into cabs and headed back to the hostel. Khao San Road certainly was one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever witnessed but I can’t deny that I had a lot of fun there.

Beginnings in Bangkok

After a ten hour flight, a three hour layover in Tokyo where I met some dragons, and a seven hour flight, I arrived in Bangkok last night.

These guys were just walking around the Tokyo airport.

It was midnight so I took a taxi to my hostel. I arrived around 1 AM Bangkok time, checked in, then tried to go to sleep. Unfortunately, I had trouble sleeping due to jetlag. Around 10 AM, I got all my stuff together, and headed down to the hostel lobby. I asked the woman at the counter what I should do for my first day in Bangkok and she recommended checking out the Grand Palace. She gave me a map and told me to go to the pier where I could take a ferry. I amazingly was able to find the pier with little trouble and boarded the ferry, which was a long colorful boat with an exposed motor that looked pretty makeshift. We took off and immediately encountered choppy waters. The front of the boat jumped as it hit waves. After about fifteen minutes, we disembarked.

A photo from our shaky ferry ride.

 Not wanting to push my luck further with my bad sense of direction, I teamed up with a British couple named Jack and Kim who were also heading to the Palace. We were able to make it to the Palace with the help of directions from several heavily-armed but friendly guards. When we get there, Jack and Kim were told that they weren’t dressed properly and needed to go to the dressing room to borrow clothes that would cover their shoulders and legs. Without knowing it, I had dressed properly so I went off on my own.

The Grand Palace is not one palace but actually a series of buildings and structures. All of them are beautifully built and decorated. The most impressive one is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Photos are not allowed inside and I watched a rogue photographer get dragged by his camera strap by a guard and forced to delete the photos.

The Grand Palace is a huge tourist destination. But in addition to the people with selfie sticks, ice cream stands, and school groups, there were also Buddhists there offering incense and kneeling to pray before the various altars and statues.

After spending some time at the Grand Palace, I walked to Khao San Road. Khao San is the center of the backpacking scene in Bangkok. It’s a street filled with food stands, massage parlors, and stands selling knockoff clothes. It's kind of an unpleasant place. I walked around there for a while and got a plate of mediocre pad thai before deciding to head back to the hostel. It was very hot and I had done a lot of walking already so I decided to hire a tuk-tuk (a motorbike rickshaw). I haggled a price with a tuk-tuk driver but he said that since I was just one person, I should just hire a motorbike instead. I was led to a motorbike driver who handed me a helmet. I sat on the motorbike behind him and held on for my life. The driver drove like a maniac but we made it to the hostel in one piece.

I’m back at the hostel now just resting and checking email and stuff but intend to go down to the hostel lobby soon to get a dinner recommendation and perhaps try to make some friends to dine with.

Until next time,

Noah

I don't normally take selfies but this guy looked so friendly.