From my Journal March 21, 2009
Bangkok, Thailand:
At the fancy new airport in Bangkok I had rearranged my luggage in various suitcases so I could leave the big one at the airport and take the small one downtown with me. Well, conveniently I put the bag I had been carrying into the small suitcase - without thinking that the keys to the lock were in the small bag. When I arrived at the hotel I realized the keys to open the suitcase were now inside the suitcase. !! The recent video Annie sent of how to break into a suitcase was the perfect information!
Basically you slip a pen into the zipper to open the zip part, reach inside and find your keys, then it zips back up just fine as you move the zippers with the lock attached back and forth. Then you can unlock it as normal. Trying to cut the lock would have been a major headache. Amazingly, I managed to lock the keys inside the suitcase AGAIN this morning. But no problem, I broke into it, got the keys out and zipped it back up. Now I have the keys in my money purse where there is less chance of doing that again. But since I have now done it twice! I was very glad to know what to do. Thank you, Annie, for the good information! (You can find that video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAfaLJqAwGU.)
I had an eventful day today, first coffee at Starbucks on Khao San Road, then I took a cab to the enormous 'weekend market' that has about 200,000 visitors a day (according to the guide book). There are over a thousand stalls if you can imagine that. It is gargantuan and an easy place to get lost. It was soooo sweaty hot and busy with lots and lots of people.
After that I took the air conditioned Sky Train to Siam Square which is a very modern shopping area full of immense malls lined side by side in big buildings surrounded by high train tracks above busy 10-lane streets. I found I could walk a few blocks along the second floor, down an air conditioned hallway in one mall and over an air conditioned habitrail walkway to the next mall above the road and avoid much heat and exhaust. The traffic is at a stand still most of the time in Bangkok, so crossing the streets isn't too hard, but when traffic is moving - it moves swiftly - and on the wrong side of the street! - so street crossing can be quite tricky. All those malls and mall shoppers were interesting, like the young teens I saw who were really decorated in all the latest fashions, colorfully sparkling garb with attention-getting shoes, stockings, hair; laughing, giggling in groups and not really shopping.
Near there is "Jim Thompson's House" which I had remembered reading about the last time I was here. I thought I'd give it a visit. Seems he (an American) was in the army and ended up here in Bangkok on some mission and was so interested in Thailand, he later moved here. He also became interested in Thai Silk and ended up hiring local weavers to produce it and began exporting it to the world basically. I guess there was lots of Jim Thompson's silk in the movie "The King and I", and after that hit the theaters, everyone everywhere wanted his silk so he had really struck gold.
Today his house in Bangkok -- a complex of traditional old Thai homes on stilts surrounded by a cute and tropical garden, is open for visitors. The old Thai houses are made of Teak wood. Jim Thompson also collected lots of Asian art..most of which is in the National Museum, but some is still in the house -- like two elaborately carved Chinese card tables side by side as the dinning room table. I was just in time for the last tour in English at 5. Being above ground, the house was exotic. We visitors had to take off our shoes to go upstairs.
While my tour was in the guest room heading to Jim Thompson's room - the tour guide said we had to wait because "The Princess" was in the next room. I thought she was referring to her colleague, maybe - who might be like a princess who didn't want to be disturbed during a tour.? But NO, we went to another part of the house, and it came up again. It was the REAL princess who was also on a tour! The daughter of the King of Thailand! was right behind us. We passed her a few times. Our tour guide whispered, "She's the one in the black T-shirt." Pretty sensational! Maybe in her 20s? It turned out very coincidentally that today was also Jim Thompson's birthday. He would have been 103 today. He died mysteriously when he was 61 while on a trip in Malaysia. It seems he disappeared - maybe foul play? It's still a mystery. There were flowers spread over a table in his room along with some old photos of him.
At the end of the tour, I asked the other people in my English tour group which shoes they thought were the princesses? One guy said, "I think those are her shoes", pointing to a woman police guard in uniform who had been holding a pair of royal sandals. I had noticed her respectfully carrying those shoes in both arms upstairs. Oh yes - those must belong to the princess!!
The woman in uniform put the shoes at the bottom of the stairs and the princess walked down right in front of me, stepping (not all too gracefully) into her tiny, cumbersome shoes while the uniformed woman stooped and buckled her in. I spoke the Thai version of Namaste - "Swadeeka" - with hands like praying - to the princess as she passed. She hardly nodded, as if deciding not to notice me (the lowlife). She seemed a bit aloof...but soon I could see why!! There was a glowing array of shiny cars and guards in extravagant uniform, saluting her outside the house as she walked out. Where did they come from?! The tour guides were all lined up ready to thank her for her visit. It was a bit crazy to be there just then. I saw the princess go into the gift shop so I followed. She was laughing with her friend over some items. I pretended not to be watching from a distant corner behind a display of silk scarves. My goodness, the scarves were quite beautiful.
After a while I sat outside, and when she was about to come out all the guards and cars revved up, motors and lights on, saluting, but then they must have gotten the word that the Princess was going upstairs, and the motors turned off. She came out and went upstairs. That was when I decided to leave.
Out on what had been a very quiet and totally empty alley, mostly ugly cinder block walls on both sides when I had arrived -- there were now many many people standing!, people who had come out of the woodwork, out of apartments, backs of shops maybe, waiting to get a glimpse of the princess. Where did they come from?! It was obvious the word was out that the princess was in the neighborhood and would be driving by in her chauffeured, black limo soon. I wanted a megaphone to inform them it would be at least a half hour, since she had gone up stairs for something...but I didn't happen to have one handy.
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A few days later in an E-mail to a friend:
March 27, 2009
Sauraha, Nepal, near Chitwan National Park in the southern jungles of Nepal
I am here in the warm south of Nepal among many elephants. On occasion they pass by the open door of this internet place - like big slow moving cars going by. I find I look up each time as the shadows are unfamiliar and not normal outdoor activity. The internet is slow here, and I worry about the power going out once I've written pages and pages of eloquent prose - and poof - it's possible all my hard work evaporates.
I spent the last hour watching the elephants take a bath in the Rapti River just outside the cute hotel I found. They take baths everyday at the lunch hour. I did not participate but some other tourists did. You can sit on the elephant's back, and they will spray you with their trunks, and then they walk in the water and roll over and you fall off, and it's good fun. Just last night I saw a crocodile!! swimming in the river nearby. No one got eaten today that I saw, but crocodiles do swim there/here!
Last night as the sun was setting I sat overlooking the water and soon someone pointed out the crocodile and soon everyone was up watching him. All you could see was a little bump for his nose and another little bump for his eyes skimming along the water - against the current - probably looking for dinner. Sometimes his tail swished in the water behind him. They are a special type of crocodile that live here with a very thin long nose and mouth "crammed with ill-fitting teeth" (according to the guide book) and are about 5-6 feet as adults. I forget the specific name - something like Guirda or something.. (Gharials - close.)
There are a bunch of exotic animals in these parts like Sloth Bears, for example, whose "gallbladder" is prized for healing in places like China. And the Gangetic Dolphin also lives here, one of two kinds of freshwater dolphins. The other lives in the Amazon. Also the Marsh Muggers (where the word "mugger" came from when the British first met this creature). These are a distant relative of the Australian saltwater crocodile that are known to drag unsuspecting villagers into the river for dinner.
All these animals are so very valuable on the black market. It is so hard to protect them. Protecting a 7 ton elephant costs tons of money, food, water, energy - while the poachers can get so much $$$ for one tusk. They sometimes leave the animal without killing it, if they can, because then for some reason it is harder to find out who did it..maybe the animal moves from the scene of the crime. Awful! Really awful!!
I read about the "Fishing Cat" that lives here. They are in the 'big' cat family - but this one actually has webbed feet for swimming, and catching fish in the rivers. There are about 120 Bengal Tigers in the park - Chitwan National Park - the ancestral hunting grounds of the King. Tigers are valuable too and the one-horn Asian rhino's horn and the nose of this crocodile..are worth much $$$!
Too many problems in the world, and I seem to be focusing on all of them. Like the problem of the big corporations and big political powers that be - moving into tiny Nepal and damming up these raging Himalayan rivers for hydropower - thus killing too much wildlife below! - like in these parts where the rivers used to run naturally - and shipping electricity out to bigger, richer countries like India..leaving Nepal without enough for themselves.
There is a 16 hour!! power outage every day all over the country - not just in Kathmandu. Every single day!! They call it 'load shedding'. It seems the city-people use more electricity than the grid system can provide so it shuts off quite regularly. The people are used to it. Likely the power will go out now! and all my words will vanish, leaving me with another headache!
It is not too hot here - much less humid than in Thailand. It's sort of nice actually. But there aren't many tourists so being alone I feel somewhat on my own which is OK, but usually when I travel alone I meet lots of like-minded travelers. The few people I've met seem more like that princess in Thailand - a little aloof and not so interested in chatting. At least I found a good hotel and found out about all the activities so when I return with trekkers it will be easy.
Only problem now is that there has been a strike here, political instability - people demanding things from the government that the government cannot provide!! In protest the locals stop everything - everything is closed, traffic doesn't move, they burn tires in the highways, etc. There is a 10-day break going on now so the students can finish their exams or something like that...so I got lucky with my timing. It is probable the strike will start up again in a few days. If there are strikes and protests going on here after our Himalayan trek to Everest base camp, we should maybe not visit these parts. We shall see.
I was considering bussing it around to various towns in this area (southern Nepal), like Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. However, I am unfortunately changing my plan because I could easily be stuck in a bus on a highway somewhere like nowhere since these strikes are random and unpredictable. I don't want to be stuck here when my trekkers arrive in Kathmandu!! That would be bad.
Yesterday I took a horse and cart through Tharu (local peoples) villages and rice paddies. It was like a trip through the pages of a National Geographic Magazine - mud and thatched huts...women and children working in the fields, chickens and ducks crossing dirt roads, rather idillic, puppies following small children playing, old men looking like walking bushes, carrying loads of leaves on their backs collected from the community jungle for food for their water buffaloes. I went to the Elephant breeding center (3km from here) and saw the baby elephants who are sooo absolutely cute!! One mama elephant recently had twins! which I learned is very very rare in the elephant world. They were so sweet, little miniature versions of their monstrous mother, just about up to my hip with a trunk and all. Crazily adorable.!
The locals are surprised to hear me speak Nepali. I have had offers for tea and dinner and visiting people's homes and relatives. Mostly I deal with men around here. The women are at home with babies or in the fields. The horse and cart driver wondered if I were married so I said I was. :)
I wish you were here so we could go have lunch at one of these cute restaurants overlooking the river. If I don't go for an elephant ride in search of rhino this afternoon, I'll sit by the water and read my book. I look forward to sleeping like a princess under a mosquito net tonight with the sounds of jungle insects in stereo - hopefully - outside the screened windows. Then the birds will likely organize another symphony in the earliest hours of the morning, announcing to the world - the sun and a new day.
Sincerely,
Heather O'Neal
Of Global Interest LLC Adventure Travel
The Eighth Street Trekkers' LodgeB&B
Ann Arbor, Michigan
(734) 369-3107
http://www.ofglobalinterest.com
"Travel is filled with the promise of fulfillment but only for those willing to gamble that a journey, like a kiss, can have the power of magic." -- King Louis II of Bavaria built the Neuschwanstein Castle in the nineteenth century, a fairy-tale castle on a peak which has often been compared to Sleeping Beauty's palace.
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