Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Times
Well, much like the first time I flew to Asia, I find myself coming down with a cold in the first couple of days wandering the city. Damn hot weather and over active air conditioners!
Another days has passed by in the big city. Well, a partial day. This morning was a rain-filled and anxiety causing day (for C and D). The crowds and size of the city were really getting to the other two today. After getting around and finally buying train tickets out of here tomorrow afternoon (to some beaches. Which could be nice, but beaches aren't exactly what I am in the mood for. It'll be a short stay) we had to sit in a quiet place for a while, get some food, then wander over to one of the large city parks so that they could recouperate a bit.
I don't blame them, it's a bit of a shock to the system coming here, especially from a quiet little farm in Hawaii.
However
Some potential fatal flaws may have appeared today. D takes and advantage he can to sit down, and when possible he lays down (even in the subway station, clean as it may seem, while waiting for a train). His main desires in life seem to be sleeping, laying down, not moving. C is freaked out by people and large cities. Neither seems to have any interest in doing anything, but would prefer to sit around and watch, lounge around. This city is filled with wats (temples) and markets and the Grand Palace, Buddhas galore. They have seen nothing and have no desire to.
That's all fine and good, and if that's what they like more power to them. But, I do like to take in some of the sights. And while big cities aren't my favorite, they can be very interesting. And in India, I definitely want to spend some time in the big ones, which I doubt will interest them. D is all fired up to head south to Malaysia or anywhere south; not that he knows anything about them, he just sees them as places with beaches to lay down and sleep on.
Their approach seems to be much more lounge-based than mine.
Given that the last four months have seen me do little but lounge, I want to move around and do/see stuff. And Malaysia and other countries south of Thailand hold very little interest for me right now.
What this means is, we'll see what happens.
I am not sure D wants to do/see anything but beaches. C and I were talking (while D read) after buying our train tickets for tomorrow; our discussion was about when to head back north to northern Thailand. I have some friends who will be up there around the middle of the month that I'd like to see. We asked D how long he'd like to stay on this beach, and what day we should come back up. Our thought was to buy tickets up north to make sure the train doesn't sell out of the cheap sleeper seats. He was against this idea (a strong-ish reaction, something new for him) as he wants no schedule at all. Not that I want much of one either, but that ain't much. I guess in the first round of travel, R had to deal with my lower planning lever; now I deal with D's even lower. Should be interesting. We/I might be heading off without him/them pretty quickly.
Could get interesting quicker than expected.
In that park, however, we saw some cool animals. Squirrels with pointy, evil looking snouts. And several very large komodo dragon-looking lizards. Watched an old Chinese-man plod after one to make it run, and some older white dude chase one in circles for half an hour (we walked past a couple times, we didn't spend the time watching him I swear!) taking pictures. I was cheering for the lizard to attack, but it never did. Maybe next time.
It's now almost 3pm. C and D are decompressing in the apartment. Hopefully we'll get out later to find some cheap Thai massages before dinner.
On that note, there are 2 parlors right nearby on either side of the busy highway we're situated on. Their marquees are huge and neon and have 30-foot tall pictures of women. Walking back last night we ran into 3 of the 4 people we know in this city and I asked the guy what they were. He said they are massage parlors. Of the 'happy' variety. I guess you go in and pick the woman your desire out of an aquarium looking thing. Welcome to Bangkok!
Another days has passed by in the big city. Well, a partial day. This morning was a rain-filled and anxiety causing day (for C and D). The crowds and size of the city were really getting to the other two today. After getting around and finally buying train tickets out of here tomorrow afternoon (to some beaches. Which could be nice, but beaches aren't exactly what I am in the mood for. It'll be a short stay) we had to sit in a quiet place for a while, get some food, then wander over to one of the large city parks so that they could recouperate a bit.
I don't blame them, it's a bit of a shock to the system coming here, especially from a quiet little farm in Hawaii.
However
Some potential fatal flaws may have appeared today. D takes and advantage he can to sit down, and when possible he lays down (even in the subway station, clean as it may seem, while waiting for a train). His main desires in life seem to be sleeping, laying down, not moving. C is freaked out by people and large cities. Neither seems to have any interest in doing anything, but would prefer to sit around and watch, lounge around. This city is filled with wats (temples) and markets and the Grand Palace, Buddhas galore. They have seen nothing and have no desire to.
That's all fine and good, and if that's what they like more power to them. But, I do like to take in some of the sights. And while big cities aren't my favorite, they can be very interesting. And in India, I definitely want to spend some time in the big ones, which I doubt will interest them. D is all fired up to head south to Malaysia or anywhere south; not that he knows anything about them, he just sees them as places with beaches to lay down and sleep on.
Their approach seems to be much more lounge-based than mine.
Given that the last four months have seen me do little but lounge, I want to move around and do/see stuff. And Malaysia and other countries south of Thailand hold very little interest for me right now.
What this means is, we'll see what happens.
I am not sure D wants to do/see anything but beaches. C and I were talking (while D read) after buying our train tickets for tomorrow; our discussion was about when to head back north to northern Thailand. I have some friends who will be up there around the middle of the month that I'd like to see. We asked D how long he'd like to stay on this beach, and what day we should come back up. Our thought was to buy tickets up north to make sure the train doesn't sell out of the cheap sleeper seats. He was against this idea (a strong-ish reaction, something new for him) as he wants no schedule at all. Not that I want much of one either, but that ain't much. I guess in the first round of travel, R had to deal with my lower planning lever; now I deal with D's even lower. Should be interesting. We/I might be heading off without him/them pretty quickly.
Could get interesting quicker than expected.
In that park, however, we saw some cool animals. Squirrels with pointy, evil looking snouts. And several very large komodo dragon-looking lizards. Watched an old Chinese-man plod after one to make it run, and some older white dude chase one in circles for half an hour (we walked past a couple times, we didn't spend the time watching him I swear!) taking pictures. I was cheering for the lizard to attack, but it never did. Maybe next time.
It's now almost 3pm. C and D are decompressing in the apartment. Hopefully we'll get out later to find some cheap Thai massages before dinner.
On that note, there are 2 parlors right nearby on either side of the busy highway we're situated on. Their marquees are huge and neon and have 30-foot tall pictures of women. Walking back last night we ran into 3 of the 4 people we know in this city and I asked the guy what they were. He said they are massage parlors. Of the 'happy' variety. I guess you go in and pick the woman your desire out of an aquarium looking thing. Welcome to Bangkok!
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