Postcard from Jakarta

Upon arrival in Indonesia, and on my way to my first hotel in Jakarta, I found myself suffering from “Rebecca Moore Syndrome” – named after my friend Bex who lived for a while in Japan before then moving to China.  The difference was, for her (understandably), jarring.  Ditto for me coming to Jakarta from Singapore.  To be fair, most cities would suffer in comparison to Singapore, but as I immediately bleated on Facebook upon my arrival, I found Jakarta more than a bit…er….”raw.”

“Fun” fact I did not know before – Jakarta is the second largest metropolis in the world (after Tokyo) at around 28 million.  I am always surprised to hear that Indonesia is the 4^th most populous country in the world, though I don’t know why I am surprised.  I guess I always expect Russia to have more people, due to its size – but then Stalin helped “control” their population.  As I was helpfully reminded by a talkative gentleman who followed me around the National Monument Park at the end of my stay, Indonesia is also the 3^rd largest democracy in the world. 

The traffic is obscene.  And I mean absurdly obscene – the fact that the second largest metropolis in the world is not currently being served by a Metro system certainly contributes to this (I think they are in the process of either planning/constructing one now – but they should have started it ages ago), but it makes the city even that much less of a pleasant place to visit.  But, honestly, I didn’t think I could be any more appalled by traffic after spending time in Shanghai, Hanoi, and Bangkok, but Jakarta puts them all to shame.  And my 4^th country in a row where they drive on the left.  It has now become so “natural” to me, I know I’m going to freak out next time I’m in a country where they drive on the right.

I spent the first two weeks in the north of the city, in an area called Mangga Dua.  If I had been more aware of just how large/spread out Jakarta is, and the lack of mass transit, I would have tried to get the second place I stayed in for my whole time – as it was, since I was out on the edge of the city, I spent my time catching up on my pictures, hanging out in the hotel gym and pool, watching movies, and reading.  I did take a couple of walks around the area, but it was just masses of traffic, with no sidewalks, ungodly hot, and, of course, smelly.  Even though it didn’t seem as polluted as GZ, by the time I returned to my room I just felt filthy.

Mangga Dua Square was nearby – yet another disconcertingly large Asian mall to get lost in.  J  This one was more like an open air market, yet enclosed.  There was quite a mix of booths/little shops – including many selling pirated DVDs, video games, etc.  Luckily, there was also a Carrefour, so I was able to save money by stocking up on groceries and cooking in the studio I was renting in the Mangga Dua Best Western I found on airbnb.

Although I wandered around/through Mangga Dua Square 3-4 times, I still ended up getting lost or turned around every single time.  It doesn’t help that there are THREE A&W’s in the mall, so that when I thought I’d gotten my bearings, I realized, no, I was in another section of the mall, on another floor, etc.  For whatever reason, there are tons of A&Ws in Jakarta.  Way more than McD’s or BK – come to think of it, I don’t recall seeing a single McD’s, but I did see a few BKs.  But, as I said, tons of A&Ws.  And of course KFCs.  I think KFC rivals McDs for the largest presence in Asia.  And, like A&W at Mangga Dua, you will often find multiple KFCs in a single mall throughout Asia.  Although, again, to be fair, the malls here are fucking huge!

When I ate at A&W, I ordered a bacon cheeseburger/curly fries combo, but noticed the bacon was more like a thin slice of spam, and wasn’t really too flavorful.  It wasn’t until a week later when I was debating on eating at BK when I saw their “Beefacon” Burger Combo and then the light came on – Duh! I’m in a Muslim country!  They don’t eat filthy pigs!  “Beefacon” is a perfect word, though, due to the “fake” sound in it!  Some places (e.g., Hard Rock), DID still serve bacon, however, to show that while Indonesia IS technically a Muslim country, they are certainly not “fundamentalist Middle East” about it.

Ramadan was in full swing while I was there, and the one down side to the second place I stayed (a large, nice apt. complex) was that it was adjacent to a Mosque that “helpfully” blared their prayers through VERY loud loudspeakers helpfully (again) perched well up the spires.  Up on the 18^th floor, I could hear the SEVERAL times a day caterwauling (sorry, I know I should be more “culturally sensitive” but I swear to god that’s what it sounded like) and I thought I was going to go insane, when on the night to mark the end of Ramadan, said caterwauling literally went on for over SIX HOURS STRAIGHT (until almost 2am) – punctuated by incessant firecrackers/lite fireworks from my neighbors and the neighboring mini-slum tucked in between the Mosque and the surrounding nice skyscraper apt. buildings.

And even though Indonesia is not necessarily “hard core” Muslim, they did have helpful “how to” videos in the elevator of how to arrange one’s hijab (head scarf).  And, like Singapore and Malaysia, said elevators had no 4^th, 13^th, or 14^th floors.  Ah, the challenges of a multi-culturally superstitious society! 

Speaking of slums, one day on my way back to my apt. after some wandering, I took a slightly wrong turn and faced the prospect of cutting through a large slum to get back, or backtracking a fair amount to wind my way around/through their byzantine street structure for the “right” way.  I went ahead and went for the “experience.” And my god was it one. First of all, it was good size, and definitely a slum. I was never worried, as my experience has taught me that, in general, poor people are nicer/more honest & trustworthy than rich people, but it was certainly sobering to see the poverty, the packed in living quarters, etc.  But, to be fair, while it was definitely “squalid” it wasn’t really dirty, per se, so much as just run down, old, etc.  I was too leery to take gawping pictures, as I thought that would be disrespectful/lame, but I did find a couple pics online that looked just like the place I had wandered through so folks could get a feel.

This second area I was in (after Mangga Dua) was the Surdiman area, in central Jakarta, and which borders the neighborhood (the name of which I have since forgotten) where Obama lived as a child, so of course, I scored the requisite pics of his second house and second school (where he went for 4^th grade). 

Central Jakarta is certainly much nicer, with more to do – although, at the end of the day, I didn’t really find a lot to do in Jakarta and would not highly recommend it.  At least until they get a Metro system.  There are some nice malls (again, huge), and I was able to get my latest Hard Rock Hurricane glass AND even eat at a Chili’s!  The first one I’ve ever seen outside the states.  They have THE best boneless buffalo chicken wings!  Also in one of the malls I even found a good Mexican restaurant, so on the whole I ended my time in Jakarta much more pleasantly than I began it—although all my outings had to be in the morning to beat the afternoon monsoons. Boy, did I see some rain!  Nothing like spending time in a sub-tropical area during rainy season!  It’s a trip!

Notes on Singapore - Home of the Merlion!

So I’m adding Singapore to my “exclusive” list of cities I would gladly see again (joining San Francisco, Paris, Barcelona, New York, Istanbul, Copenhagen, and Stockholm).  I don’t know that it would need many visits, but I would definitely like to go again when I have the money to stay in the Marina Bay Sands hotel!  J  Seriously, check this place out – who cares about my vertigo – I want to experience that infinity pool! 

http://www.marinabaysands.com/sands-skypark/infinity-pool.html

My China buddies will get a tremendous kick out of this: when I checked into my funky boutique hotel, they made me sign a statement that I would not smoke in the room OR bring in any durian fruit!  For real!  I didn’t even ask if it was a joke, coz by gawd if they want to start a war on durian fruit, then I support it!  To emphasize/remind you, they even had a little card in the room (which I will of course share with my pics)

While no one chews gum in Singapore, they ALL seem to smoke!  Bleh!  But, still, the city is so clean.  Cleanest large city I’ve ever been in.  Some mainland Chinese guy hawked and spit on the sidewalk and, immediately, a group of Singapore police pounced on him and beat the shit out of him!  Oh wait, that was just one of my fantasies.  Haha.  But seriously, even the Singapore Chinatown was clean – well, at least the part I went through.  And, needless to say, there was NO Asia smell throughout the city.

Like Kuala Lumpur, everyone speaks English.  Even more so here – partly due to it being a British protectorate until fairly recently, and partly due to its multiculturalism.  Every now and again, there would be stuff also translated in Mandarin and/or Malaysian, but really the everyday language is definitely English.  And they drive on the left, as well – my third country in a row.  Soon, it will seem strange to me to see people driving on the right.  The city state is also very well-served by the subway (Surprise! It’s clean and efficient!).

The whole “city state” thing fascinates me.  “Technically” only Monaco and Vatican City are also city states, but there are other places that like to think they are – or who others consider to be city states.  Interestingly enough, when Singapore freed itself from the UK, they initially became part of Malaysia.  That lasted a whole two years before a unanimous vote in the Malaysian parliament expelled Singapore from the rest of the county.  Their loss.  Ha!  Apparently, it was just never a good fit, not only politically, but socio-economically (surprise, surprise, the Malaysians were suspicious of the disproportionately Chinese population of Singapore and also felt the city would exercise too much control over Kuala Lumpur).

The city is VERY eco-conscious, ferociously educated—especially in the Sciences, and you see evidence of both of these things throughout the city, its parks and museums, etc.  Except for the dreadfully humid weather, it’s a dream city: smart, multi-cultural, clean, rich (yet still semi-affordable compared to, say, San Francisco), eco-aware, beautiful, etc.

The majority of my visit was spent in a couple of their gardens: the Botanical Garden and their “Gardens by the Bay” – the latter of which is surely one of THE coolest places I’ve ever been.  And I’ve been to some cool places!  I thought the botanical garden was pretty damn cool on its own, but then when I made it to their Gardens by the Bay I was blown away.  I took a shitload of pictures, and hopefully for folks they will do some justice to the place – but, honestly, you need to see it for yourself to truly appreciate it.  The Supertrees, the various regional gardens, the Cloud Forest – all awesome.  And I didn’t even get to see the Flower Dome – boo hoo, I’ll have to go back.  J

Finally, I also happened to catch THE best photo exhibit I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.  Now, granted, this particular exhibit (Annie Leibovitz A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005) has run elsewhere, but man oh man.  I saw it in the uniquely shaped Singapore Art & Science Museum – again, what a cool thing, to marry these two.  On the basement level, I saw a large, fantastic exhibit of the entire history of dinosaurs (with many I had heretofore never seen) – with a great walk-through exhibit of the entire early history of the planet (literal Bible folks don’t go in or your head will explode), and a VERY compelling exhibit at the end on how we’re all doomed to extinction ourselves if we keep mucking up our own habitat/environment (oh, who are we kidding? It’s too late – don’t plan on your grandchildren having any kind of decent life on THIS planet!).

Upstairs, was the Leibovitz exhibit.  While I’ve always liked her stuff, most photography of human subjects I find to be (yawn) a bit boring.  Of course, she had other stuff, too.  But items that struck me included: a very “non-Ellen” photo of Ellen in white face, frowning, with a cigarette dangling from her mouth and her hands cupping her bra-covered breasts; a “perfect” picture of Dennis Hopper & Christopher Walken seated side by side, looking typically serious and smirky at the same time; a fantastic large picture of a seated Daniel Day-Lewis, looking very “Age of Mirth” that was so well-lit and so realistic it seemed like he was really there, looking at me (I stood in front of this picture for quite some time); and a VERY creepy pic of Chris Rock in clown face and circus showman attire, with a big, scary laugh.

Then there were some of her “war zone” shots.  A picture of the fallen bicycle of a teenage boy just killed by a sniper in Sarajevo.  Apparently, she was there when the boy was shot, and she helped get him into a car to take him to the hospital, but he died on the way.  But as impactful as that B&W photo was, the one that knocked me down was a color print of the bloody handprints and footprints of Rwandan Tutsi schoolchildren who had been massacred by Hutus.  I literally grew cold and started shuddering just looking at that one – especially since the bloody footprints appeared to climb the walls.  One of history’s most shameful acts that gives lie to the whole “never again” b.s.

Ooops, sorry, didn’t mean to end on a downer!  There were also some nice “intimate” family photos.  There is a coffee table book for this collection which I would LOVE to have if anyone is ever looking for a gift me!  Ha!  Just a reminder, it’s called: Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005.   J

Postcard from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I was surprised to see that, as in Thailand, they drive on the left in Malaysia.  I had thought all this area was “French Indo-China” so would follow French rules.  Oh well. 

Also like Thailand, the Malaysians don’t have electrical outlets in the bathroom--annoying!  Now that I think about it, though, that’s probably a relatively recent phenomenon in the states.  Back in the day, there were no such things as electric toothbrushes, hair dryers, shavers, etc., so why would you need an outlet in the bathroom?  So I would end up shaving in the living room/main room of wherever I was staying.   Honestly they don’t have as many outlets, period, in other parts of the world.  They just don’t have as much STUFF as Americans do.  I mean, when I left Oklahoma, in my living room I had plugged in a TV, DVD player, Cable/DVR box, Wii console, printer, a floor lamp, and my computer.  And then once Christmas came along…..

The Malaysians are even friendlier than the Thais.  I felt bad coz after living for a year in China, I generally shut down around people in public.  And in Kuala Lumpur (KL), people were smiling and saying goodbye to me even as they got off the elevator. 

I don’t know if I mentioned this in any of my China blog entries, but all throughout Asia (at least so far in China, Thailand, and Malaysia), the KFCs, McDonald’s, etc. all deliver.  That continues to weird me out, I don’t know why. 

Although tourism is a fairly big industry in Malaysia – at least/especially in KL – I saw a LOT fewer whites/westerners than in Bangkok or Guangzhou.  In fact, I had a couple of locals ask to take my picture with each of them (individually) when I was sitting on the steps in front of the Petronas Towers.  This is kind of weird considering most everyone speaks English, you see English everywhere, etc.  It’s truly the international language (better it than German! Ha!)

As for Petronas, they are pretty awesome to see – esp. at night.  They are still the tallest twin towers in the world, and were the tallest buildings in the world period for six years (1998 – 2004).  Fun fact: try to guess which structure was tallest in the world for the longest period of time?  Half of you will give up and the other half will say, “Duh!  The Great Pyramid of Giza!” which was tallest for a shade less than 4,000 years until being surpassed by the Lincoln Cathedral in England.  Another fun fact: the world’s currently highest observation deck is in….Guangzhou!  The Canton Tower.  It has held that distinction for a whole 3 years since its completion, so some time to go before topping the record of 42 years, which is jointly held by the Eiffel Tower, and then the Empire State Building.  Unfortunately, it turns out you need to snag tickets DAYS in advance to go up to the Petronas observation deck.  But I wasn’t TOO put out – it looks better from below/outside, and KL also has a very high observation deck on their KL Tower—including an outdoor one.

I have to say, my vertigo was kicking in a bit at the outdoor observation deck of the KL tower, but then when I went to the lower level enclosed observation deck and saw the comparison with The Canton Tower, I am amazed I was able to survive the “bubble car” ride around the outside top edge of the Canton Tower’s outdoor observation deck.  I WAS borderline freaked out, and clutched pitifully at the railing inside the bubble car for the whole, tortuously slow crawl around the tower.  Hey, Mindy Harris, that reminds me: you never shared your pics from that! L

Of course Malaysia was ungodly hot and humid, too – duh, it’s even closer to the equator than Bangkok!  But, on the plus side, they have a VERY long elevated, enclosed, air-conditioned walkway that branches out a bit through their downtown area, and I was able to walk from the main shopping area of Bukit Bintang (which was not too very far from the condo I was staying in) all the way to the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center/Mall/Park, which then deposited me into an underground mall/walkway to get the rest of the way to Petronas.  Sweet!  J

Speaking of the condo I stayed in, it was pretty nice, basically a large studio, with sliding doors to separate the living area and bedroom.  I was up on the 19^th (of 20) floors with a nice city view—unfortunately on the opposite side of the building facing Petronas/the KL tower, BUT the rooftop pool faced that way and I did get some awesome pics.  I think I spent like $35 a night, so as you can see KL is still pretty cheap.  On the whole, I‘d say it was close to Bangkok.  Some things were cheaper, some things were a little more expensive.  They did also have a Krispy Kreme, though, so bonus!

And, like Thailand, some of their malls are pretty amazing.  The one closest to me, Berjaya Times Square, is the 8^th largest building in the world in terms of floor space, and has an indoor amusement park.  Beyond the above, and some general other misc. sightseeing, I got my requisite Christmas ornament and Hard Rock Hurricane glass and felt pretty satisfied with what I saw.  I would think you could do KL very well in 3 full days (I was there just a shade under that).

I would wait until 2016, though, when their Metro system is finished/updated.  They do have a monorail system, but unfortunately it was useless for me, as the two stops nearest the condo I was staying in were closed because of construction or a sinkhole(!) or something.  One more KL bonus: no China smell!  J  Of course I did spend a lot of my time scurrying between a/c’d malls, but I did also take a stroll through their Chinatown, and did a fair amount of walking in general and was never blasted by an “OMG, the smell!” like I was in GZ or sometimes in Bangkok.

As I readied myself to move on/leave KL, I came across a pack of gum in my backpack with one piece left, thank god, that I could finish before having it whipped/caned out of my mouth upon arrival in Singapore. J

To save a little money, and partly for the “experience,” I decided to take the bus from KL to Singapore.  It was about $15 for a 5+ hour ride.  The seats were supposed to be “massage” seats but they weren’t, and the personal entertainment centers in the seatbacks weren’t working, but I had my Kindle, the seats were good sized/comfortable enough, the bus was A/C’d, etc., so it was worth saving almost $100, IMHO.  And as far as time, once you factor in the time to get to and from the airport, the fact that you need to be there at least an hour before your flight departs, blah blah blah, it was probably only a couple of hours longer overall. 

At the end of the day, while I wouldn’t say KL is a “destination city” unto itself, I would definitely recommend setting aside a few days of part of a trip to SE Asia in general.  

Worrying More About What I Have Yet to Read Rather Than What I'm Currently Reading!

As many of you already know, I have recently begun to get a wee bit “obsessive” about my “to be read” (TBR) book list.  Obviously, I love reading - and have a wide range of tastes - so it’s not hard for me to add books to my list, to my Kindle, etc.  And the reading group I started on Facebook some months ago has only “exacerbated” my “problem” – full of other bibliophiles, we are constantly suggesting books, gifting/swapping books, etc. 

While, on the one hand, I love having a large variety of books loaded on my Kindle, and on my TBR list, knowing that I’ll always have a nice range of choices for my next read, on the other hand – and for reasons no doubt due mostly to my own personal neuroses – I was also starting to get a little “panicked.”  How could I possibly “survive” without being able to read all these awesome books?  What would I do if my TBR list and/or Kindle queue became so long that I finally became paralyzed over what to read next or – heaven forbid – became so overwhelmed, I just stopped reading completely? (okay, fat chance!)

Luckily, my recent, extended “vacation” time has allowed me to do some serious reading.  In the past 7 weeks, I’ve managed to read 9 books.  And quite a range, too, from alt-historical-fiction to fantasy, to young adult, to classics, to non-fiction, etc. etc. etc.  I’d gotten my TBR list “down” to 153 books and my Kindle queue down to 36 (that is, after adding about 3-4 more books to the latter and about the same number to the former while reading those 9 books just mentioned).

Then my mom sent me an Amazon gift certificate for my birthday.  Sigh.  But I decided I would ONLY get books that were on sale, and that were currently on my TBR list – so while my Kindle queue would grow larger, my TBR list would shrink by the same number.  “Progress!”  J

I was able to take seven books off my TBR list and transfer them to my Kindle queue.  Patting myself on the back, I was also a little “proud” of the variety – until I realized it was that “breadth of taste” I have that contributes to the length of my TBR list.  Oh well.  To demonstrate, the seven books I added were: Slaughterhouse Five, Stephen King’s 11/22/63, Pete Hautman’s Mr. Was, Nancy Farmer’s The House of the Scorpion, Neil Gaman’s American Gods, Frances Fyfield’s Staring at the Light, and Robert Chambers’ The King in Yellow.

As I went through my TBR list – searching one by one for a sale so I could get as many as possible, I noticed that some of the books on my TBR list had relatively “low” cumulative reviews/ratings.  While my friend Mark scoffs at this herd mentality, my experience has taught me that – almost no matter what the genre – if a book has a good number of reviews, and is still able to score a cumulative rating of at least 4 stars (out of 5), odds are I’m going to like it; unless, of course, it just happens to be one of those few genres/types I simply am not drawn to (e.g., a Harlequin Romance). 

I decided right then – for my own sanity – that I would drop any books that did not have at least a cumulative rating of 4 stars.  UNLESS (there always has to be an unless), it’s by a favorite author, or is ranked a bit lower due to “love it/hate it” and I can glean from the summary that I would fall in the former camp, or was highly recommended by someone I know/trust.  I felt safe in doing this because I know I have books on my TBR list that have been there for YEARS – and many of them from a time when I’d “carelessly” add a book to the list based on one good review from a particular magazine I used to subscribe to.

So, even though it took quite some time to go through my long TBR list (seriously, go to Amazon and type in 150+ books, one by one, check out the reviews, and decided if you’d like it or not), I did it just to “combat” my admittedly-somewhat-childish obsession with my TBR list.

Of course, the problem was I’d come across books that were on the “cusp” and read the summary and think, “Oooh, I want to read that now!”  J  Alternately, I’d come across books that were “only” rated 3.5 stars, notice it was a first novel, and then see books by the same author underneath, with a 4 star or higher rating, and then I’d read about THAT book, and simply swap out the title and keep the author on my list.  Sigh.  (Just as a suggested reading for friends, the one that struck me most was swapping out Tom Rachman’s “The Imperfectionists” for his later “The Rise & Fall of Great Powers: A Novel”  Seriously, folks – go check it out!  J )  Finally, what also made it difficult was many of the books were on sale/cheap on Kindle and it was a MAJOR battle to keep me from going ahead and getting it and putting it on my Kindle.  But as I am currently not drawing a salary, it wasn’t too hard to fight down those purchase urges!  J

At the end of the day, while my Kindle queue grew to 43 books (thanks to mom’s gift certificate), my TBR list shrank to…………drumroll please………129.  Just having it under the “130” mark adds a bit to my psychological health!  My new goal is to keep my total TBR/Kindle queue to under 150 – which will require a great deal of discipline and/or more intensive reading, as right now I’m at 173.  But I can do it!  Now back to “Terrorists of Irustan.” 

 

I was all excited about this until I realized at least a dozen of those titles on my list are “trilogies” or the like.  Sigh.  Just shoot me now.

Postcard from Bangkok

Upon arrival in Bangkok, and as I made my way to the guest house in which I was staying, my first thought was, “Wow, it smells like Asia!”  J   But, truth be told, it wasn’t that bad on the whole – and only in pockets like China.

My next thought, as I roamed around, was, “My gawd, there are a SHITLOAD of 7-11s!”  And there are!  There was more than one occasion where I could stand in a particular spot on a street and see 2 different ones on the same street within my line of sight, and even on the rare occasion three.  Weird.

The city is well served by public transit, so much so that I never felt the need to take a taxi – motorbike or regular.  Between underground and skyway, and partly due to the convenient location of my guest house, I was able to get around with maybe a maximum of a 10 minute walk to/from any station. 

My guest house was also conveniently located down the street from an AWESOME and CHEAP Thai restaurant.  I probably like Thai food, on the whole, even more than Chinese, and this place literally had over 200 dishes on their menu, with prices close to street food prices.  Accordingly, I spent about $2 for a meal, and if I spent $3, then I was stuffed.  I would often have dinner there and then order something for takeaway for lunch the next day.  Even though there was a noodle dish I really liked and got a couple times, I tried to get as many different things as possible, and probably ended up trying about 15 of their dishes.  All were very good – oddly enough, the one dish that was not quite as great as their other stuff was a “Chinese style” noodle dish with chicken.  Go figure.

Speaking of food, there was also a slightly more “upscale” restaurant even nearer my guest house that served both Western and Thai food, and my last night I went there to try some crocodile – since I hadn’t had anything else “exotic” while I was in Thailand.  No, it did NOT taste like chicken, but it didn’t knock my socks off, either.  Luckily, the way they prepared it was nice and peppery, which I like, and it tasted fairly close to beef – just a little “chewier.”  I did have a bit of a “psychological” issue knowing I was eating a crocodile, but I’m always glad to try something different when abroad since I’m usually a bit of a wuss when it comes to weird foods.

As mentioned on Facebook, it was effing hot.  Go figure – Thailand in June.  Jesse Pinkman had it right when he said, “What’s that phrase, dude?  It’s like, Thailand hot!”  And of course hellishly humid – I’m not much of a “sweater,” but I was sweating there!   The weird thing was, I saw very few men with their shirts off – compared to, say, Guangzhou, which can get equally hot during the summer.  There weren’t even any guys who would roll their shirts up like so many did in GZ to show off their disgusting gut – like anyone wants to see that (shudder).  And it’s not like they are even fat in China (and even less so in Thailand), there’s just something about seeing a middle-aged guy’s gut exposed under a rolled up shirt that made me just automatically go, “ewwwww.”

The Thai are also – surprise surprise – much friendlier than the Chinese (but then who isn’t?) – they will actually smile at you on the street and the drivers will go AROUND puddles when you’re walking down the sidewalk.  But what surprised me is that I found the men to be LESS attractive, on the whole, than the Chinese – and as most people know by now I generally do NOT find Chinese men attractive; right, Bex?  ;)    And I’ve never been attracted to that whole “Lady Boy” scene and didn’t come across too many of them anyway since: a) there was a curfew for about the first half of my visit, and b) I didn’t really go out.  Thailand – esp. Bangkok – seems to me to be the kind of place you need to go to with others to make it more fun.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my stay immensely – it was cheap, good food, cool architecture, interesting cultural experiences, etc.  There was just a lot of it that would have been more fun to experience with someone else.

Speaking of the curfew (which was lifted a couple weeks after my arrival as it was hurting the tourism business), I saw an interesting sign on the street one day while wandering around that said, only in English: Remain calm, elections to be held after reform.  I thought it would have been fun on the military’s part to have put the word reform in quotes.  J 

Apparently, with all of the recent “turbulence,” the King (Rama IX) remains a revered figure – no doubt due partly to the fact he’s been around for so long (he is currently the longest reigning monarch in the world, topping Elizabeth II’s 62 years by another 6).  He does retain some power, though, and his life is actually pretty interesting – including the slight possibility he accidentally shot and killed his older brother, King Rama VIII, when the King was about 20 and the future Rama IX was 17.  Another fun fact: he was actually born in the U.S.  Really, read at least a little about him:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej

In movie theaters, near the end of their THIRTY MINUTE previews and ads, they play the king’s anthem and show a little mini-film of pics of his life.  Everyone stands for the anthem.  It kind of weirded me out.  Thailand still has lèse majesté laws that basically makes it a crime to talk smack about the king OR the monarchy – and is the reason that, to this day, “The King and I” has NEVER been screened or allowed to be sold in Thailand.  The Thai Ministry of Culture feels the movie portrays the monarch as a buffoon (I really should break down and watch it, although from what I’ve seen of snippets of Yul Brynner’s performance, I can see the buffoon thing as a possibility).  BTW, Yul was portraying King Rama IV.

Other “Thai tidbits:” As I noted with my Facebook pics, the malls here are amazing.  The one I spent the most time in – Paragon – actually had small car dealerships on one of the higher floors, but of course only for high end brands (Maserati, Rolls Royce, and Lotus).  Their movie theaters are very nice, very large, and as I was there for a month, I was able to see the new X-Men movie, the new Godzilla, Transformers 4, Grace of Monaco, and Edge of Tomorrow.  Yay.

In the grocery store, they actually sell six packs of disposable underwear.  I couldn’t decide WHAT I thought about the concept outside of its environmental wastefulness (depending, I suppose, on how biodegradable they are).  Like everything else in Thailand, they were of course ridiculously cheap (although now I can’t remember what they sold for).

Speaking of eco-friendly, they are most definitely NOT when it comes to plastic bags.  I could go in to a 7-11 and buy a single Snickers bar and they’d try to bag it!  I was constantly telling them I did not need/want a bag – and they weren’t even charging for them!  So here’s somewhere where the Chinese “win” – by god, if you want a bag in China, you’re going to bring your own or you’re going to pay for every single one you “need”/want.

But the Thai “win” over the Chinese with ice.  In China, you’d be lucky to get two quickly-melting cubes in your Coke with lunch, but in Thailand, they FILL that glass with ice first!  And sell bags of it for hella cheap in the ubiquitous 7-11s.  Thank GAWD, too, with that heat!  My biggest “I’m a delicate American” thing is really “needing” ice for my cold drinks.  Wah!

Bangkok traffic is a nightmare.  Although I was generally not in it coz I was always walking or taking mass transit, a tour guide jokingly pridefully claimed that Bangkok recently overtook Jakarta (woo-hoo, coming up!) for worst traffic in the world.  But when you google lists, they are all TOTALLY different (seriously, the first two lists I saw had NO matches in their respective top tens).  But it seemed to me from general observation that traffic was worse in China, and the drivers in China are MUCH worse/dumber. 

The Thais seem to operate, in general, more efficiently than the Chinese, as well.  They queue up like normal human beings, they don’t fight to get on the metro/skyway, and so things seem to run more smoothly.  I did have a “China experience” when I had to send some stuff via DHL to DC for my (never-ending) Peace Corps clearance process.  I went to the closest DHL drop off and got there just after 1pm.  A sign on the door said, “Out on break.  Back at 2pm.”  Since I figure an hour is pretty long for a “break,” they meant lunch, so I went and ate lunch myself, tooled around for a bit, and came back right after 2 pm.  They were still closed with a new sign that said, “Out to lunch.  Back at 3pm.”  Yes, very Chinese.  So I sent a pissy e-mail off to DHL and then felt SLIGHTLY guilty about it the next day coz the woman working there was very nice.  But still, the whole back to back hour break thing was pretty ludicrous IMHO.

For those who missed my FB post, their written language is quite “distinctive.” Guess what this says:  กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลก ภพนพรัตน์ ราชธานีบุรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์ มหาสถาน อมรพิมาน อวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะ วิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์  Give up?  It is the full, official name of the city of Bangkok - listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest place name:  Krung Thep Mahanakorn Amorn Rattanakosin Mahintrara Ayutthaya Mahadhilok Phobnoppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchanivet Mahasathan Amornphimarn Aowathan Sathit Sakkhathattiya Vitsanukamprasit

Kewl!  J