Tuesday, September 26, 2006

In celebration of my new apartment (and internet access)...

...I'm hereby starting to blog about my little-discussed two days in Bangkok.

September 16th.

I don't wanna go to dinky little Chiang Mai. I'm told it's beautiful beyond compare, but I'm so enraptured with Bangkok that I could happily sequester myself here for months. The central core of Bangkok is a vast honeycomb of superhighways and skytrains, food courts and streetside markets and immense malls. The hum of commerce is the background noise of the city, imbuing Bangkok with an astonishing vitality that I don't think I've seen anywhere else. Food vendors plying noodle soup and stewed chicken feet and everything in between line every street and alley. Taxi and tuk-tuk drivers shriek "Where you go?" at me at every irritating opportunity. Shopping malls plusher (and pricier) than anything I've seen in Canada stretch straight into the cloud, and the vast electronics plazas like the legendary Panthip beckon to me. And at every step the core is thick with crowds - Thais, Chinese, and more Westerners than I had ever anticipated, an ample chunk of the capital's ten million residents. I can see why many visitors, Thai and Farang (westerners) alike, quickly exile themselves from the metropolitan hubbub, but to me it's damn near paradise. Huge, energetic cities fascinate me, and there's a stunning kinetic quality to Bangkok that could keep my interest for a very long time.

Fanning out from the central core, a twisting latticework of alleyways and two-lane roads oxygenates the sprawling middle reaches of Bangkok and the suburbs beyond. My modest and rather pleasant guesthouse is tucked away on one of these innumerable side streets. After I sweated my way through customs yesterday morning and completed an unwelcome few hours of paperwork for CUSO, my friendly but slightly unsettling contact at the Bangkok office dropped me off at the hotel. More than slightly exhausted by the journey and put off by the last gasp of the rainy season, I retreated into my room for the night.

Fortunately, this left me well rested and up early for today's explorations. I picked my way along the wire-thin sidewalks that trace midtown Bangkok's central streets. An unnerving blur fills these roads, composed of taxis, the motorized tuk-tuk rickshaws, a surprising plethora of luxury sedans, and the countless, careening motorbikes and mopeds that symbolize Thailand as sincerely as the flag. Trusting somewhat nervously in the crude map drawn by the guesthouse, I found my way to the nearest main boulevard, gingerly sprinting across street corners. I picked a direction (left, if anyone cares) and walked past modest casinos and shuttered restaurants and shops just opening for the day (it was about 8AM, I think). Hunger eventually overcame my cultural reticence, and through gesturing and muttering I bought a huge steamed cob of corn, dipped in vinegar and green onion, from a tired-looking woman with a roadside food cart. Climbing an overpass, I found a small street boy begging change from passersby... I gave him ten baht because I liked the wai he offered me.

At street level I found an elegant entrance into one of Bangko's two subway lines, and pleasantly found it clean and sophisticated - far more so, I confess, than Vancouver's Skytrain, as evidenced by the LCD displays blaring advertisements and train schedules.

I'm not sure what I expected of Thailand's immense capital, but I've been taken aback by its startling, eager modernity. Though there's poverty aplenty here, this town is surprisingly reminiscent - economically speaking - of Hong Kong or even Tokyo. Unlike many of my fellow shoestring travelers, I have a great fondness for the trappings of modernity: supermarkets, refrigeration, mobile phones and, of course, tachyon-fast internet access. Discovering that such amenities are always within arm's reach here has been one of the pleasures of my trip so far.


P.S. (September 26th)

Sadly, further details will have to wait until tomorrow - that's all I've edited into coherence thus far, and I have homework due tomorrow. Smack me with HTML if I start slacking off - I really want to make a proper habit of updating this blog.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

You know it's a pretty sorry coup when...

... you see this:

I've given up trying to name this picture...

I'm nearly certain this is the weirdest picture I've ever taken.

I'm not sure if these soldiers were stationed as a result of the coup, or if they simply guard the king's nearby palace. But if a gaggle of junior high school girls can gigglingly ask to pose for photos with their assault rifles, then clearly Thailand, coup notwithstanding, just ain't all that militarized. That the soldiers unloaded the guns before handing military weaponry to adolescents makes this less startling - but not by all that much.

PS: I was supposed to get all my blog posts from Bangkok up this weekend, but I spent the entire time wandering around town looking at temples instead. So sue me. Pretty pictures will ensue.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

All quite on the northern front...

The tanks are gradually withdrawing from parts of Bangkok, and the the Prime Minister may more or less cede leadership to the coup. The next couple of weeks will be very critical, however - Thailand's military coups (and the world's, for that matter) have a very poor record of restoring civilian power. Not out of the woods yet, but the chance of violence seems slim now.

I'll have much more detail to report, but my workplace internet has an ugly habit of crapping out between noon and 6 PM. Makes blogging a little difficult.

In other news, my phone might work better at 011 66 5723 2347

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

No major news to report...

But I did get a phone. Anybody who wants expensive real-time updates on the coup and the less fascinating process of curriculum development at an NGO can reach me at (I think) +66 05-723-2347 by Skype. From Canada direct it's 011 66 057232347.

Those hyphens and other punctuation are randomly added - just seems to be how it's done here.
P.S.

Comments are open now - go nuts.
Lamest coup ever...

Camera hidden but within arm's reach, I wandered randomly around Chiang Mai for four hours this morning (making myself terribly late for work) in search of a military presence.

I saw a traffic cop buying a lottery ticket. Does that count?

While coups are generally accompanied by chaos and bloodshed, this one has thus far been bloodless, which is good for everybody but makes my blog less exciting. In Chiang Mai, 800 kilometres north of the coup's Bangkok epicentre, there's little sign of activity. Several people have told me of many troops at the bus and train stations.

TVs are blaring the news - with notably few updates - in every shop and food stall. Despite this omnipresence, Thais are going about their daily business and maintaining their characteristic good cheer. Traffic is as nutty as it was yesterday (to my untrained eye) and the shops in Chiang Mai are open. No doubt the situation is different in Bangkok, but for the moment we're mostly untouched by it up here. To the big question, "Will there be violence?", I have few answers and little insight. I haven't got an insider's grasp of Thai politics, and I know that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin is deeply unpopular in urban areas. The central issues are how Thaksin's supporters in the rural areas, and the corresponding factions of the military, will accept this transition, and whether Thaksin himself will go quietly. My gut tells me that it could go either way at this point - 50/50 odds of some violence. There's no chance of a larger civil conflict, I'm certain.

My CUSO contact in Bangkok, understandably frantic, called my office to tell me (like other CUSO cooperants) to stay home for the day. It seemed in poor taste, however, for me to leave the office as soon as I arrived and received the message. Moreover, today has been declared a public holiday - the military's oddly soothing euphemism for "Stay home and shut the %@#* up!". However, I'm here and web-wired, so I'll stick around and post what little I know as it comes up.

I've heard little about how this affects my work. I imagine that if there is violence, and DFAIT recommends that Canadians leave the country (which they haven't done yet) then CUSO will ask me to leave. I'd be a little cross to be pulled out of Asia a week after arrival, so I've been idly pondering personal contingency plans involving Hong Kong or elsewhere in China. I've put off finding an apartment for a couple of days, until I know more of my status, and getting a cellphone has rocketed to the top of my priorities list.

When I know more, you'll know more, and in the meantime keep in mind that I'm safe up here in Chiang Mai and the coup is a distant thing right now. And please, if you find any choice info, leave me a link in the comments.

That's all for now.
Ummm... wow.

It's a strange thing to move to Thailand, and find this on TV in the morning.

I'm not in any danger. So far I've seen no troops or other signs of a coup, but I'm in a very suburban part of Chiang Mai. Others have told me there are troops at the train and bus stations, and possibly elsewhere. I don't have any idea how/if this affects my work or the willingness of my sponsor to keep me in the country, so at this point I have little option but to go about my life as normal.

But first: CNN and the BBC, in light of the outgoing media blackout, have asked foreigners in the country to send pictures and firsthand accounts of what's going on, and I'm going to try to pitch in. Haven't seen anything untoward yet - let's see if I can find something.

Don't worry, I'm not going to wave a camera at any troops, nor do anything similarly foolish.

As soon as I know more I'll post here.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

In which I offer yet another micro-update...

I've arrived safe and sound in Chiang Mai, but since I don't have internet access at home my backlog of mostly-written blog posts is simply fermenting on my hard drive. I'll try to rectify that by tonight.

To Sum Up: Bangkok fun, food tasty, Chiang Mai pretty so far...

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Much excitement to discuss, but I'm on my way to Chiang Mai at the moment and don't have my computer at hand. So I'll talk more when I'm sitting still for a little while...

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Just Landed...

Now this is my kind of town!

Bangkok is loud, crowded, freakishly alive and saturated with spectacle and nifty trouble to get into.

More importantly, this is an entire country full of people who take food just as seriously as I do!

Much more to follow…

Friday, September 15, 2006

En route in Hong Kong...

It was the moving sidewalk that did it.

Anyone who’s gotten within ranting range of me in the last few weeks knows I’ve been more apprehensive than usual about this trip. I’ve spent a lot of time on the road of late, and leaving for yet another year, while for a damned good cause, has its share of downsides. I’ve approached this trip with an uncharacteristic trepidation.

Fortunately, I had a fine flight. Cathay Pacific fed me well, and with an entire row to myself I constructed a crude pillow-and-blanket fort and wedged myself against the window for twelve hours, rousing myself mainly for innumerable mealtimes and the first half of the startlingly mediocre Poseidon

When I arrived in Hong Kong’s cavernous new airport (which must be seen to be believed), I lugged my twenty-pound computer and the rest of my carry-on luggage out for the multi-kilometre walk to the next gate. I stepped, quite instinctively, on the right-hand moving sidewalk, and was of course repulsed, since everything moves on the left here.

In that insignificant moment I finally realized I was in Asia, abroad again, and felt a startling sense of eagerness. Vancouver is always home to me, and I’ll continue to miss it and my friends and family there. But I’ve also begun to understand that I feel an odd contentment on the road. I’m at home when I travel.

Of course, I imagine the Hong Kong International Airport is a mite more accessible than the sprawling, screeching monstrosity of Bangkok. Let’s see how I feel in a few more hours, when I touch down in Thailand.

P.S. I’m coming back to Hong Kong as soon as I get the chance… maybe I can spend a week here on my return leg.