Traveling with Gary and William to Kanchanaburi

Posted on 1 July 2011 by christao408

Even though Tawn and I had a chance to visit with them in Los Angeles just a few weeks ago, it was a pleasant coincidence that Gary and William had scheduled a trip to Bangkok for the end of June. We were able to see them several times during their visit, and they invited me to travel to Kanchanaburi Province with them to visit the Tiger Temple.

First stop was the town of Kanchanaburi itself, about two hours northwest of Bangkok. This town, located on Maenam Kwai (“River Kwai” – pronounced “kwae”), is the site of the bridge made famous in the 1957 David Lean film, Bridge Over the River Kwai. We made a quick stop at the very good Thai-Burma Railway Centre, the better of two museums in the city about the building of the bridge.

Next, after a delay of about 45 minutes, we jumped on a train pulled by a 40+ year old GE diesel engine for a trip across the bridge and about an hour towards the Burmese border.

Riding in a nearly antique (but still considered standard, third-class quality by the State Railways of Thailand) car, our interest quickly faded as the passing scenery blurred into a hazy green.

William, leaning out the window, takes a few shots of the countryside. Fear not, we were actually stopped at a small country station when he did this. Otherwise, he would have been whacked in the back of his head by overgrown bushes alongside the tracks.

A lone motorcyclist travels a country road as we pass a pair of houses.

Young rice grows a vibrant green in rich, volcanic soil.

Can you identify these crops? Our tour guide disappeared for most of the train ride, but I was eventually able to learn that these are cassava plants, from which tapioca starch is obtained.

After much too long on the train, we disembarked at a dusty whistle stop and boarded our van, which had been chasing after us. About twenty minutes later we arrived at the Tiger Temple. The temple itself started out as a forest monastery in the mid-1990s. Over time, the monks came to care for insured birds, an injured boar, and other animals they either encountered or were given to them. The large grounds of the monastery developed into something of a wildlife sanctuary.

In February 1999, the first tiger cub was brought to the temple. The cub had been orphaned by poachers and then had been sold to someone who was going to have it stuffed. The cub survived the botched procedure to euthanize it and was brought to the temple. Over the next few years, other orphaned cubs were brought to the temple and the head monk cared for them in following the principles of compassion for all living beings.

My last visit there was five years ago and the temple has developed quite a bit. It remains a very popular tourist destination and the visitors’ fees go to support projects to protect the tigers. The temple has also come in for some criticism from animal rights activists, which I won’t go into here other than to say that I did not witness any signs of ill treatment of the animals.

Okay, not a tiger, but a very large fire ant. I was impressed with the macro focus on my camera!

The tigers, much like all cats, were napping in the warm afternoon. There were about three or four staff members and volunteers for each cat and we were instructed about how to approach the cats and then the staff would take pictures.

There were also plenty of other animals roaming about the large temple grounds, including this very friendly deer named Ta Waan – Sweet Eyes – who knows our tour guide because he always brings a bag of dried corn with him to the temple.

After feeding her, Ta Waan became our new best friend, following us around the temple.

Many of the tiger cubs are handled by various monks. They play with them and keep them out of trouble. This one made a lunge for Ta Waan, who bounded away, and the monk literally had to grab the tiger by the tail to keep him from running after the deer.

Since my last visit, the temple has introduced several programs that allow more interactivity with the cats, all for an extra price. One of the programs was being able to feed and play with the cubs. Gary and William opted for this and ended up with some wonderful pictures and great memories. You’ll have to stay tuned to Gary’s site for those pictures.

Another program was being able to exercise the big cats. Visitors are escorted by staff members into the exercise enclosure (Daniel in the lion’s den?) and get to play with them much in the same way you play with your cat at home: by holding something at the end of a stick that they will want to pounce on. The enclosure has good vantage points from which you can see the big cats enjoying themselves.

As for the danger level, these are definitely wild cats and I observed that a lot of work is done by staff and volunteers to ensure that visitors don’t do anything that would startle the cats or cause their natural instincts to kick in, causing harm. I suppose that also keeping them fed (boiled chicken) and happy do a lot to minimize some of the risks.

While I was standing there filming from the wall (standing about where the man in the white shirt is taking a picture in the photo above), I suddenly sensed that there was something just over my right shoulder. Sure enough, the tiger cub (pictured with the monk several photos above) was walking along the top of the wall and had stopped because I was in his way.

This picture, one of three that turned out very nice, wasn’t taken with any zoom lens! I was about two feet away from his whiskers. Beautiful animal but a bit unnerving to be caught unawares.

I’ll leave you with this video compilation, about three minutes of footage of the tigers playing in the water.

All in all, I think Gary and William had a fantastic time and I’d include a visit to the Tiger Temple on the itinerary for other guests. It is certainly an experience you won’t have at home.

Sunset Over Wat Arun

Posted on 4 February 2011 by christao408

Last weekend, the younger sister of a friend I’ve known since pre-school was in town for a visit. We spent a day and a half touring some sites and on Sunday evening had dinner at The Deck, which is conveniently located across from Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. Since she had an early flight on Monday, we sat down for dinner a few minutes before the sun set and I was able to get this photo. Gorgeous, isn’t it?

Jason and Daniel Visit – Part 1

Posted on 30 December 2010 by christao408

This time of year, when the weather is nasty further north in the hemisphere and the weather is more bearable down here near the equator, Tawn and I find ourselves with an endless stream of visitors. We were fortunate this week to have a pair of unexpected, but very welcome visitors: Jason and his husband Daniel. Jason and I have known each other for a number of years through Xanga but this is the first time we’ve met in person.

The first day we met, I spent several hours playing tour guide, taking them through the city on a few different modes of transportation and then on to the tourist sites of the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This is something like the “Seven Modes of Transport” tour I did with some recent guests, but with some refinements. Here are some pictures we took along the way:

We began our multi-modal journey at the Art Deco style Hua Lamphong railway station, located on the edge of the old city. The misters along the roof were going full-blast, trying to cool down what was a sunny and warm day. Our journey through the city by rail was only twenty minutes long but it gave us a chance to view a different side of Bangkok life.

The train cars are not air conditioned and are older than any of the three of us. Here, Jason and Daniel wait for the train to pull out of the station.

At one of the stops along the way, I noticed these shoes, sheets, clothes, and chilies that were being dried in the sun. It reminds me of that long-lost Tennessee Williams play, “Chili on a Hot Tin Roof”.

Some of what you see along the train tracks verges on squalor and sadness. This man was squatting barefoot on a wooden shack, a guitar at his side and a vacant expression in his eyes.

From the train we transferred to a canal taxi, racing through the polluted khlong to the end of the line, which is adjacent to the Golden Mount. From there we squeezed into a tuk tuk, a three-wheeled taxi, and weaved through the traffic to Thammasat University, located on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. A short walk down the street from the university was this hidden soi – an alley of antique shop houses that has been roofed in. It is well-ventilated and almost looks like something out of the French Quarter in New Orleans, minus the picture of His Majesty the King.

After lunch we walked a bit further down the street to the Grand Palace. Here are Daniel and Jason in front of a trio of buildings in Wat Phra Gaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This is His Majesty’s personal temple and is the only temple in Thailand that does not have monks’ residences on site.

The three structures in the background are, from left to right, a Sri Lankan style chedi (or stupa) that contains relics of the Buddha; a Lanna (Northern Thai/Laotian kingdom) style library that houses Buddhist scriptures written on palm leaves; and a Khmer (Cambodian) style hall that contains statues of the eight previous kings in the Chakri dynasty. A rehabilitation of the last building was just completed in the previous few days and workers were taking down the last of the scaffolding.

The exterior of the Royal Chapel of the Emerald Buddha is decorated with a row of garuda – a mythical half-man, half-bird that holds in its claws a naga – the multi-headed serpent that sheltered Prince Siddhartha from the elements as he meditated for forty days before gaining enlightenment and becoming the Buddha. (Which means, “the enlightened one”.)

I was trying to be artsy with this photo, taking a picture of the reflection of a wihan – a Buddha statue hall – in the mirrored mosaic tiles of the Chapel of the Emerald Buddha. My attempts to focus on the reflection failed but I think the result is still interesting.

A common theme that we observed, which I hadn’t been aware of previously, is how much Chinese statuary there is on the grounds of the temple. This is a fine example of a traditional Chinese gate, carved in miniature, with the Buddhist scripture library in the background. Throughout the complex we saw warriors, pagodas, gates, lions, and other sculptures in the Chinese style.

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Later in the afternoon we walked down the street to Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This temple is dotted with dozens of chedis large and small, which contain relics of various major and minor members of the royal family stretching back more than 200 years. I cropped this photo from a larger one as I thought it made for an interesting silhouette.

Sure enough, as is always the case, on the way there a half-dozen different people intercepted us and tried to tell us that the temple was closed. (It is open every day until at least 6:00 pm – actually, I think it is staying open until 9:00 pm these days.) This is a classic Bangkok scam. Do not trust strangers who approach you.

Daniel and Jason in front of the Reclining Buddha, which is 46 meters long and 15 meters high. In answer to a frequent question, the statue was built first and then the hall was built around it.

A popular activity is to donate 20 baht for a cup of small coins, and to drop them into a row of alms bowls, reciting a prayer or giving thanks for a specific blessing as you drop each coin. This picture of Daniel and Jason turned out very nicely, I think. Nice lighting and composition.

This temple is one that tourists tend to miss large portions of. They see the giant reclining Buddha statue and then depart. It is a very large temple, though, and has many areas well worth a look. As we wandered around the quieter portions of the temple, we came across a gardener who was trimming some bushes. His son was conked out nearby, taking a nap on the utility cart. How I wish I could sleep so easily!

After a warm afternoon touring we decided to bypass the long queue for the river taxi and instead hire our own long-tail boat. A little hard bargaining (and a willingness to walk away when my desired price wasn’t met) resulted in the dock manager coming back to me as we sat drinking our water and finally accepting my price. What a nice way to catch a breeze and work our way downriver.

That evening Tawn joined as the four of us had dinner at Soul Food Mahanakorn. Of course we were so caught up in conversation that we forgot to take a picture together!

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow…

Return to La Gaetana Phuket

Posted on 4 December 2010 by christao408

When we were in Phuket a year ago October, our friends Stuart and Piyawat took us to an amazing Italian restaurant called La Gaetana. What sets it apart from other restaurants is that the owner, Polermo native Gianni, takes such tremendous pride in his business and pleasure in serving his guests.

When Piyawat made the reservations, I don’t know if he mentioned that dinner was for friends who were visiting again, but Gianni greeted me so warmly that I felt like a neighbor who had been away for a year and returned.

Instead of essentially re-writing the entry from the first visit, I’ll just cut and paste key portions of it here along with some new pictures.

“… The venue was this hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant called La Gaetana. And let me tell you, it was without question the best dining experience I have had in Thailand.

That may sound like hyperbole, but Polermo native Gianni and his Thai wife Chonchita run the most charming of restaurants with the most attentive service I’ve ever received in the Land of Smiles. The restaurant, located in a warmly decorated 80-year old building, seats just 32 so reservations are a must.

The food is great, atmosphere is cute, etc. but what really makes the experience worthwhile is the passion with which Gianni and his staff, many of whom have worked there for years, attend to your needs. His tableside bottle-opening and decanting is a show in and of itself, and illustrates just how much care is given to each detail of the dining experience.

Here’s a video that shows it all.

…

This is exactly what I could imagine myself doing in the future. Running my own small restaurant in some idyllic town, spending my days making my guests happy and ensuring they enjoy excellent food, wine and service.”

And now, pictures from dinner the other night:

Gianni opens a bottle of champagne, chilling the glasses with ice, as Matt looks on.

Antipasto platter with meats, vegetables, and cheese.

Assorted crostini – small toasts with chopped tomatoes or fresh cheese and pesto on top.

Grilled portobella mushrooms with gorgonzola cheese.

Lamb ribs, beautifully cooked, with a side of homemade gnocchi in tomato and eggplant sauce.

For dessert, apple tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream.

After we left the restaurant, I noticed that the Chinese temple across the street was showing an outdoor movie, with a screen set up in the parking lot and the film being projected from a portable 35mm projector in a tent at the back of the lot. This is the way it was done in the old days – and to some extent, still is – in the countryside.

A view from the inside of the temple compound looking towards the screen. Rather a sparse crowd this evening.

Wat Po After Hours

Posted on 29 November 2010 by christao408

More than halfway through our seven different modes of transportation, Matt, Craig, and I ended up arriving at the Grand Palace just as it was closing, so instead we walked down the block to Wat Po, also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This temple, which tourists usually see after sweltering in the hot sun over at the Grand Palace, rarely gets as thorough a viewing as it deserves.

Predating the founding of Bangkok, the temple houses a 15 meter (46 foot) high, 46 meter (140 foot) long statue of the Buddha in a reclining pose, covered in gold plating with mother of pearl inlays on the soles of its feet.

That the soles of the feet are so prominent seems appropriate, because Wat Po is also the home of traditional Thai medicine, a large portion of which is massage. Thai massage uses a combination of stretching and deep tissue work and can be very therapeutic. In fact, a well-regarded school is located on the temple grounds and my visitors stopped in for an hour-long foot massage.

The temple is in the final stages of extensive renovations, and the entire place seems alive with color and light. Here are a trio of chedis, which contain the remains of various members of the Chakri dynasty. The current king is the ninth member of this dynasty.

New roof tiles and paint seem to almost pulsate with color.

And mirrored tiles catch the sun from every angle.

While there, we came across a group of university students who are studying tourism. They had to film themselves giving a speech (in both Thai and English – the Thai version is on the other side of the cue card) about the temple. I watched for a few minutes and then asked some questions, thoroughly embarrassing the young ladies.

The upside of my guests getting massages was that we were at the temple well after the time that tourists normally leave. The temple’s website still lists the closing time as 5:00 pm but almost half a year ago they extended it to 9:00 pm every night. The temple is beautifully illuminated as the sun goes down and is all the more enjoyable and inspiring when it is almost completely devoid of tourists.

With the sun going down early now that we are heading into winter, the sky quickly went through various shades of blue to pink to purple, making for some amazing contrasts with the vivid hues of the chedis and temple buildings.

There are many spotlights to bring out the details of the structures, including these decorations made from shards of broken Chinese pottery. Almost looks like the decorations on a cake, doesn’t it?

I’ve made up my mind that in the future, I am taking guests to Wat Po around sunset, a perfect time to see the real beauty of the temple without the crowds. Plus, there is a really nice restaurant called The Deck that is just across the street along the banks of the Chao Praya River. It is a nice place for an evening meal as another temple, Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn), is right across the river and is also lit up at night making a pretty backdrop. Ironically, it looks better at dusk than it does at dawn! (Here’s a picture of Tawn and me dining there a few years back.)

The Clevelands Arrive

Posted on 18 June 2010 by christao408

My childhood friend Brad and his wife Donna arrived Wednesday with their two children, E and C.

We’ve been running around the city and surrounding area, seeing as many sights as we can while keeping in mind that jet lag can be especially disorienting for children. The first evening we were out at dinner and E and C both fell asleep at the table. It was all we could do to wake them up so we could take them back to the hotel.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I prepared a series of activities for E and C designed around a top secret agent/spy theme. When they checked in at the hotel, the clerk gave them a folder with their names on it with “Top Secret” stamped on it. They opened it to discover a mission overview and their Day 1 assignment.

Agents E and C:
You have been selected for an elite mission.This mission is strictly top secret, although you can use your parental units to support your mission objectives, if needed.
Your goal is to gather intelligence about the language, culture, transportation, and markets in the Kingdom of Thailand and send it to the headquarters of the United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or USNGIA for short.

It turns out that the USNGIA is real but I went ahead and used them since their cool looking logo is readily available on Google. Agents E and C were assigned Thai cover names: Pi Chai (Big Brother) and Nong Saao (Little Sister), respectively.

Agents Pi Chai and Nong Saao had an initial assignment that involved looking at a map, located their hotel, and answering a few questions about the surrounding area: Where is the nearest park? What is the name of the street their hotel is on? Etc.

Their assignment for day 1 was to learn a few words of Thai, which Agent Nong Saao had already done as part of a school report she did on Thailand last year. “Yes”, “No”, “Hello”, and “Thank You” were enough to prepare them for their visit… er, secret mission.

Day 2 dawned after a good night’s sleep with nobody waking up too early. The top secret agents had another envelope and another assignment waiting for them:

Your assignment is to gather intelligence about the culture of Thailand and to report it back to headquarters.Complete the following information and include it in your report.
Your destination Thursday is the most important cultural and religious site in Thailand.It is a complex of buildings on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. It served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand from the 18th century onwards.It is also where the Temple of the Emerald Buddha is housed, the most holy Buddha statue in Thailand.

There was a word-scramble (er… “code to break”) that listed the name of the destination: The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

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As part of the assignment, they used pictures to identify some of the mythical creatures represented on the grounds of the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. By asking questions of their guide and listening carefully, they would learn what all these creatures were and what they represent.

The creatures include the ones holding this golden chedi, or stupa, above, as well as the towering giants like the one below, that protect the entrances to the temple.

Another two mythical creatures they needed to learn about were the garuda – the bird-man holding snakes in the center of the above photo, and the multi-headed snake called a naga, which line the edges of the roofs of temples and palatial buildings.

We saw these mythical creatures represented again and again, such as in these temple murals.

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We also saw an artist attending to the fine details of the temple, keeping the paint fresh and bright.

The Clevelands posting with a royal guard at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

Does the cloud in this picture look like a chicken? Tail on the left, head on the right, with two claws on the bottom. I think it does and even though I didn’t tag the photo as a chicken, when I uploaded it to Xanga, the Google ad at the top of the screen was for a company that will help you grow your own chickens in the backyard. It’s a sign, I tell you!

We saw the changing of the guards, who must be very hot in those outfits!

As the secret agents and their parents started to wilt under the strong sun and high heat, we wrapped up our Day 2 assignment, headed out for some lunch at a nearby air conditioned restaurant, and then took the boat back down the river to the hotel for some swimming… and to await Day 3’s assignment!

Another year for me and a new Beaujolais for everyone

Posted on 16 November 2007 by christao408

Two big days: November 15th and 16th. Here’s just some of the reasons why:

November 16

This year, November 16th is my 37th birthday, and I’m reveling in my continuously decreasing number of grey hairs. The number is decreasing only because my overall hair count is decreasing. As a percentage of total hair, the grey hairs are gaining the majority.

Tawn took the morning off work and we were up shortly after six for a taxi ride to the old city, to Wat Mahanparam. Just down the street from the Democracy Monument, this temple is in the neighborhood where Tawn’s father and siblings lived when they first moved from Buriram province when Khun Sudha was in his teens.

Above: Stopping for coffee and steamed buns before catching a taxi. Below: An unusually elaborate altar set up by the taxi driver on his dashboard, to provide him with protection as he navigates the streets of Khrungthep.

The temple parking lot was filling quickly as it is used as a car park on weekdays, local workers renting out spaces and providing temple coffers with additional funds. Inside the compound, though, things were very quiet. We lit incense and candles, offering prayers and placing gold leaf on statues of the Buddha and venerated monks.

Then we proceeded inside the wihaan, the main Buddha image hall. After we paid respects to the Buddha statue, we went over to a monk and explained that we had come to receive a birthday blessing. This is done as a short ceremony where the monk chants, then you chant, then the monk chants some more. For your convenience, there is a laminated sheet where you can follow along on your part of the chant should you not have memorized it in your childhood. I could read the card, but not quickly enough to keep up, so I let Tawn do the chanting for me.

We were splashed with holy water – thus the laminated cards – and I poured holy water from a small container over my fingers as the monk said a blessing.

Afterwards, we chatted for a few minutes with the monk, who was maybe thirty years old. He was curious where I was from and whether I lived in Khrungthep and wanted to practice his English. We learned that he is also from Buriram province although his Issan accent is so heavy that I didn’t catch that at first.

Below: Posing outside the wihaan where pre-made donation buckets are available. They contain soap, toothpaste, an umbrella, robes, and other things the monks can use. Since most of the urban temple have all the supplies they need, these buckets are cellophane wrapped and are just reused. You place your money in the donation box, “give” the bucket to the monk, and the the bucket is eventually brought back around to be used again. A rather practical solution.

Above: A stray cat with a gnarled ear and blue eyes seems to match the window frames of the temple building. Below: A beautiful orange Vespa parked by the side of the road.

Afterwards we walked down the street and stopped by a Chinese temple and then walked through the neighborhood, seeing a local ice house, vendors who sell various Vietnamese foods (this area has many Vietnamese immigrants and families with Vietnamese roots), and then continued up to the Democracy Monument to catch a taxi home.

Below: A rare daytime shot of a traffic-free traffic circle in which the Democracy Monument sits. Hopefully, Thailand will return to being a democracy on December 23rd, when the elections are scheduled to be held.

So now you know why November 16th was important. But what about the 15th?

November 15

In addition to being the birthday of my ex-girlfriend Sandy, the only girlfriend (yes, you read that right – girlfriend) with whom I’m still in touch, November 15th this year had an oenophilic significance.

Each year in France, the third Thursday in November is a day as highly anticipated as, say, the season finale of American Idol is in the United States. The reason for this feverish anticipation is that at the stroke of midnight, that year’s Beaujolais Nouveau is released. Beaujolais Nouveau is a light-bodied red wine made from Gamay grapes in the Beaujolais region of France, just north of Lyon.

In 1951, The French government granted the region permission to release their annual vintages one month ahead of the other regions, creating a public relations opportunity not to be missed. Beaujolais Nouveau is fermented for only a few weeks after the grapes are harvested and it is most definitely not a wine for the cellars. Instead, it is best enjoyed in its first few months after being bottled.

On Thursday night, the Plaza Athenee Hotel held a party to celebrate the release of this year’s vintage, complete with extensive all-you-can-eat French entrees and desserts and non-stop refilling of your glass. It turned out to be a fantastic value as the entrees were very lavish, including stuffed quail eggs, pan-seared foie gras on toasts, escargots en croute, a wide selection of French cheese and saucisson, and crepes.

Tawn and I were joined by Russ, Roka and Brian and had a fantastic time, eating and drinking for more than two hours before we finally reached our fill. Mark the calendars for next year!

Above: Tawn and the Chocolate Factory, Chris with little chevre (goat cheese) and endive “ice cream cones”. Below: Afterwards, Tawn and Brian were too tired and too full to leave the hotel.

Below: A short video showing the scene last night at the Plaza Athenee. About 45 seconds long.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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