Sawatdeekraaaaaap, Bangkok!

Sawatdeekrap, Ron!

Bangkok is a great laid back city. Ronald greets you with a wai when you enter his establishment. He's got an even bigger smile here in Bangkok, and most of the locals share his outwardly friendly nature. And just like Ron, everyone seems to have a little hustle going on behind the smile. Not to say that they're not helpful or genuine, but I'll say instead that most of the business seems more grassroots than top down organized. Hence, there's a negotiation to every situation. It makes the place that much more interesting.

one stop shopping!

For those of you who don't know, there's quite a sex industry here. There's also apparently a street market for related drugs too - valium included. I saw this when I first arrived and thought that I had to take a funny photo. Then I realized that these little stands are on just about every block in the touristy areas. Oh well, just keep walking. At least the guys that sell this stuff aren't in your face about it.

BTS station

I don't want to make it seem like Bangkok is all seedy and hustle. To the contrary there are some quite nice train stations on the new BTS line, and there's also a brand new airport express train that puts the CTA to shame. Most of the tourist areas are actually quite well organized and have helpful staff (that speak English) to guide you along the right way.

who left this trash on the sidewalk

But seriously, the city is fairly clean. It suffers from a similar lack of public trash cans as Seoul, but the results aren't quite as good. Still, I don't think I run across foul smells as often as I do in Chicago... depending on where you go.

bombin' Bangkok

There are a variety of kids that skate or rock out to different music here. I think there's more of an "alternative" culture here than in Korea. I've heard a few cabbies driving by with their tunes pumped - some were pretty grimy.

no thanks!

Bangkok also suffers from the same English translation problems as Seoul, but with results that are sometimes even more humorous. Sometimes I wonder if it's actually done this way on purpose. This is funny in another way, because this hair shop is located on the train platform. I'm not sure who would get their hair done in front of all the other commuters, but maybe that's common here.

massage in the dumpster

Massage places are everywhere. Most of the hair salons also offer massages. There are foot massage beds lined up along market streets - which is somewhat strange to Americans. We assume massages are a very private affair, so our massage shops are setup like a doctor's office. Here they do away with that clinical atmosphere and make it more like a 7-eleven. You can see that the windows remain on this place, but I don't know if the business survived the wrecking ball.

lottery row

These guys are everywhere. I'm pretty sure they're selling lottery tickets - it's strange to imagine that your winning ticket came from a dirty guy on a bike. But even the lottery has to hustle here.

Jim Thompson's house

Like I said, not everything to do here is crass and filth. Jim Thompson was an American silk importer/exporter. He really liked it in Bangkok, so he decided to move here in the 60s. He built his house out of a few old traditional Thai houses, and moved them to his property along a canal. As I heard on the tour (mandatory yet worth the 30 minutes), traditional Thai houses are built without nails so they can be deconstructed and reconstructed in a new location. I'm not sure why traditional wealthy Thais had such a nomadic lifestyle. I do know that the construction without nails comes from Feng Shui - which dictates that metals block the flow of chi. All Korean temples are built almost entirely without metal.

part of Jim Thompson's expansive collection

Back to ol' Jim - he rebuilt these houses here and collected many different Asian artifacts on his travels. He seemed to like Thai architecture, but mostly relied on Chinese art and furniture. His house is setup like a museum inside, and no photos are allowed. I hate to admit it, but you could get the whole tour of the house with just 10 photos. I'd imagine the no-photo policy has something to do with that. However, the tour and the house are really worth seeing. To add to the legend - Jim mysteriously disappeared on his final tour to Malaysia. He went out hiking in the jungle with a few friends and was never heard from again.

ready to bike the streets

The traffic in Bangkok is awful. So why not risk our lives to bike around on a tour? Anything without a motor seems safe enough here, so we sucked it up and jumped on our bikes. It was a truly unique experience.

watch your step!

The first part of our bike adventure led us through the slums south of Sukhumvit Road to this little gem of an attraction. Not only is the bridge constructed out of rickety wood (and shabbily at that), but the river below is full of unmentionable stuff. Our tour guide told us in advance that we should cross the bridge "one after another," which I thought meant single file. I came to realize as we arrived that it really meant one person on the bridge at a time for obvious reasons. It could really ruin your day to fall into the cesspool.

all aboard!

I didn't read the description of the tour carefully, so I was surprised when we arrived at the dock and were waiting for a boat. I thought it was just something to see, but sure enough, we loaded the bikes and climbed aboard this longtail boat. Longtails are the general boats that run all over Thailand - they're named for the frightfully bare and probably converted motor stuck on a long shaft with a propeller at the end. This does the trick of moving the boat around. We cheerfully climbed aboard, and were unsure of what we'd encounter across the river.

hard rockin' in the jungle

Apparently our tour across the river led us to the Hard Rock Cafe of the Bangkok jungle. I rather doubt the affiliation is official. It was nice to get out of the dirty city and into this park for a ride across narrow planks over the swamp. It wasn't really for the faint of heart, but the paths were smooth and wide enough for minor corrections. Don't panic.

"On" the awesome bike tour guide

Our tour guide was cheeky "On". I put that in quotes because it's her nickname. None of us farang had a prayer of remembering (much less pronouncing) her 5+ syllable name. Like the stellar tour guide she was, "On" was well prepared at the start for that little hiccup. Her nickname is easy enough, so we unanimously approved the farang-friendly option. I'm told all Thais have nicknames like this which is quite helpful.

Pepsi in the jungle

Toward the end of the ride here, we were rewarded with one of the finest beverages you can enjoy in a country with unsafe drinking water. But seriously, the Pepsi was surprisingly lacking in sweetness. Not that it wasn't sweet, but it paled in comparison to the Fanta that Thais drink regularly.

Road trip!

out at the fire

Buseok is always a magical place for me. It's sort of like camping: we stay in a little room in mom's little house, hot water is limited by the coal briquettes mom burns for heat. And of course, we got to have a nice outdoor fire - which I love.

firing up the grill

I just wanted to have a little fire outside for fun, but as soon as mom saw what we were up to, she went to work. She dumped our fire out, threw all the hot coals into her little grill apparatus, and off we went. As usual, I wasn't really hungry (after another long day of eating), but it's hard to resist wood fired pork belly.

the Buseok feast

Koreans are as serious about barbecue as they are about every other meal. It's got to have as many side dishes as possible. Another night of grilled feast.

bridge near buseok

Road trips around Buseok take you through winding mountains and little villages. You can't drive more than a few kilometers before finding somewhere to stop and check out. Everyone is super friendly, if not a bit stiff. More on that soon. This bridge crosses a river we once fished for dinner described in this post a couple of years back.

pots on display

Another place to stop and check out. At first, I thought it was a shop that sells these large pots. They're used by country folks to make all the different kinds of fermented dishes that Koreans love (Kimchi, Doenjang, Gochujang, etc). But no, the guy who owns the place actually just collects them and displays them in front of his house. He's a bit of an eccentric - he seemed like he restores old cars and has a garden here too.

bridge over the river

The river winds through the mountains and villages just like the road. It was convenient construction to follow the path already cut by the river, rather than blasting new tunnels through the mountains. These are the old roads that take quite a while to get where you're going - perfect for a road trip.

ladies grilling the fish

The road trip led us to Andong - the main city in this part of the province. Andong is famous throughout Korea for Confucian scholarly traditions. Since it's somewhat remote from the capital of the province, Daegu, rulers of the past sent potential political troublemakers here to teach and study. There's a rich culture of intellectuals and eccentrics which is still evident today. The first place we walked into for lunch only served Budae Jiggae - which is a common food served along with many other dishes in any other Korean restaurant. The lady who runs the place (by herself) told us that if we didn't want Budae Jiggae, we should probably just leave to find somewhere more suitable. It was strange. I was told that this is typical of Andong people. They are very specific in their expectations, and they'll recommend you do something in a convoluted way just to make sure you get the best result. Hence, we left and went to the market. Good thing too, because we realized that it was the annual salted mackerel festival!

our grilled fish

Ok, salted mackerel might not sound that exciting, but Andong is famous for it. I'm told that it's about a 3 day hike from the ocean, so fish needed to be salted to make it all the way to Andong. Andong scholars were of course very specific in their demands for the mackerel, so it became the Andong Gan Godungeo. The downtown market was packed. We ducked into a little place on the side that was grilling up the fish - it was awesome.

shake what you got

A staple of any good Korean street festival are the performers known as Kakseori. There's a special blend of clowning, singing, and cross dressing that make these performances unique. Most of the jokes tend to be lewd, and this guy had a rubber dong that he was exuberantly displaying.

dancin in the street

Andong is a very conservative place, so it's ironic that these people were so popular. It's just an accepted tradition that the clowns are allowed to joke about the things that most people aren't. There was lots of dancing from the ajumas.

peace out

Palaces and Ponderings

loved the football match

We stayed with bro at his new penthouse pad in Incheon just outside of Seoul. It was pretty swank, and he has ping pong tables to use. So after a rousing game of ping pong (in which he thoroughly kicked my ass), he abruptly had to take off. Suk Ja told me he was going to play a soccer match, and I could play with him. I wasn't really into it at that point, I was still getting over a cold, and was a little tired. But we decided to tag along and watch the game. When we arrived, there were a bunch of nervous phone calls made to the goalkeeper that didn't show up. Well, there's this American guy here, let's make him play for laughs. I wanted to avoid the spectacle, but I couldn't really refuse since that would have forced his team to forfeit the game.

Everyone was intimidated when I first came out on the turf, but it soon turned to outright mockery. Look, I haven't played a game since I was 7 years old. I even forgot some of the basic rules of goalkeeping. When you're watching the game it's not something you think about, ok? Of course the other team started out much stronger, which forced me into the action. My stats weren't worth mentioning, but I did make a few stops. They pulled me after the first half to my relief. Then I was asked to sub for a forward in the 4th quarter. It's definitely easier to look good running around the field than saving goals. We tied the game which was quite a big recovery from my early bungles.


krazy kid krap machine despite lowest. births. ever.

There are a lot more department stores than I remember before, kinda like Walmarts of Korea. This krazy wall of toy-in-plastic-container vending machines completely dwarfs any American counterpart. The toys are pretty expensive at $1.80. I think that parents seem more eager to spoil their kids in Korea with this kind of stuff. I know that some of my nephews regularly ate more McDonalds than I did as a kid, because they thought it was cooler than the (cheaper) domestic food. There are so many ways the culture caters to kids, like amusement parks, shopping malls, music, PC game rooms, karaoke, etc. If I had half this stuff to do... I probably would have got terrible grades. Ironic that their studies are so lengthy - some spend around 12 hours per day at school. I'm suspicious that includes breaks to the nearby attractions.

It's also a curious side note that Korea has the lowest birthrate in the world. So not only are the kids pandered to, doted upon, and scrutinized in school, but they're also desperately needed to form a future generation. The government is so worried that they have all kinds of kid-related welfare incentives. Supposedly the state will pay for just about all of your basic child related expenses.


the obfuscation mechanism

For such a small country, it's perhaps unsurprising that Koreans are very sensitive about privacy of their extramarital affairs. I mentioned this in a previous post, and got a picture of the curtain that hides the parking lot of a love hotel. You'd have to walk into each parking lot to find your cheater's car, you can't just drive by all the hotels (which are usually right next to each other). I can only imagine the romantic espionage games that go on while a jealous lover searches for the cheater. They've made a million soap operas about it.



Incheon Bridge - longest. bridge. in Korea.

It seems like Korean construction companies and civil engineers are proudest of their risky feats. Take bridges - this one is the longest oversea bridge in the country. We drove over this one which connects the Songdo island with the Incheon airport (the main international airport). It costs about $5 for the toll to get across, but we were able to take another route back to bro's place.


Skybridge - highest. bridge. in Korea.

This bridge at Cheongryangsan connects the two peaks and has a clear acrylic floor in the middle to look down through. The middle of the bridge is a great place to experience vertigo. I'm not scared of heights usually, but even my legs were shaking a little. The bridge moves a lot too, since it's a really flexible suspension bridge. Plus the wind was whipping through the peaks, which made it even more terrifying. We only made it here because of my mother in law.


I'll catch up to you, mom

Mom is a tough lady. She grew up during the Japanese occupation and got to see all of her siblings die or get disappeared by the dueling governments of Japan and North Korea. She wasn't really too worried about handling her husband's death since she said she had "been through much worse". When she wants to get something done, there's pretty much no way you're going to stop her. And she set her mind that she was going to climb to the top of Cheongryangsan. We had just climbed the previous day and were kinda sore, but that was just a wimpy excuse to her.


outdoor meditation deck at Cheongryang-sa

There's a great stop along the way at Cheongryang temple which has this beautiful observation / meditation deck. It's pretty old, so it's scary to walk out on the deck because it was built on a cliff.


We made it! Don't barf!

Big sis was a total scaredy cat. That didn't stop mom from running across the bridge as soon as we made it to the top. That left big sis and I stranded on one side of the bridge waiting for them to return. I had to drag her over to the other side, but I think she appreciated the experience ... maybe. So despite all our whining to mom, it was all worth the effort to haul ourselves up this hill. It's like there's a lesson to be learned here somewhere.


ladies at the top of the mountain

This was another climb, but it was through dreaded...


private property!

Oh no! We didn't know, honest. Except for this sign. But I didn't know what it meant and no one told me until later. Good thing guns are illegal. Suk Ja thought we found some wild ginseng on the (belatedly disclosed) private property, so I got to watch the two ladies dig for the buried treasure. I didn't know what the big deal was all about, but supposedly a decent sized ginseng root can fetch over $1000!


mom's old friend

When out traveling with mom, she made us detour to see a few relatives and old friends. These folks are still farming and were super nice. They even wanted to feed us, but we had the handy excuse that we had just eaten. So instead they made us go away with something...


pumpkins!

This sack was a lot heavier than it looks. They even gave a whole branch full of persimmons from the tree in front of their door.


a reflecting lake

The travels around Gyeongsangdo took us to some amazing places. This lake is right near a cozy tea shop where they use ingredients from the nearby mountains. It was dark in there, so hard to get pictures. But the place reminded me of a hangout for college kids or something. There were lots of phalluses in there. Maybe it's really a hangout for mothers who want a son.


she's going to have a boy

I'm always amused by the stories Koreans tell of how penis shaped objects are going to grant you sons. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's really powerful to have phallic imagery that you can touch.


that's a big one bro

This was considered to be a quite powerful rock back in the day. Legend says that this rock was unearthed just like this, and then they had to close the area around it because there was too much excitement generated by this landmark. I love these stories.


pick your fish

Last year I described our trip to Sokcho for ultimate Hwe. Koreans only eat raw fish when it's been killed right in front of them. It's gruesome, but it ensures the meat is fresh. For the same reason, Koreans prefer open kitchens in most restaurants so they can see how clean the place is while they prepare your food.


Choahm-sa burial chamber

This temple is a recently renovated masterwork that serves several functions (like most temples). This one had a newly decorated room dedicated to housing ashes of the devoted.


on a journey at Choahm-sa

Supposedly all the paintings on the outside of this structure represent heaven. This guy is maybe taking a journey to heaven.


heavenly fish at Choahm-sa

Here's another one. No one could tell me what this is supposed to mean, so I'm going to assume that trees grow on fish in heaven.


I'm converting to Buddhism

It seems that Buddhists view sexuality as part of both humanity and spirituality. I think there's some commentary on beauty in the mirror's reflection.


this band totally rocked in a most serious way

I love traditional Korean music. It has both tribal and royal qualities at once. You can hear the same traditional songs sung in context of the street or the court without too much variation. Some instruments lend themselves more easily to certain settings, but the drums and voice are ever present. This band used only drums for percussion and their voices for melody. It sounded like a chant some times, almost spoken word other times, and often a unified chorus.


the entrance gate to Changgyeonggung (Changgyeong Palace)

I don't want to keep harping on Korean relations with the Japanese, but it's pretty frightful what you encounter just visiting a few museums and historical sites.


the business courtyard

This palace was originally built in 1484 by king Sejong (see my other post about this guy). This was the beginning of a new dynasty after the fall of the great Goreyo reign (namesake of "Korea" to westerners) which was based in Pyeongyang. Most shifts in power involve moving the capital to a new city, which is the modern capital of Seoul. The palace didn't last long - all of the original buildings were burnt down in the Japanese invasion of 1592, and it was rebuilt in 1616. There were some other fires that burnt secondary structures, but the main business hall has remained intact throughout this time.


the royal fish pond

When the Japanese arrived in 1909, they converted the still functional palace into a zoo. If there ever were a book written on how not to colonize another culture, I think the Japanese would have banned literature mentioning it, since it would be all about their exploits. I heard this little anecdote and thought about what a target that paints on your back. Imagine the US going into Iraq and turning Saddam's palace into a monkey house. Needless to say the Japanese were despised at that time by Koreans (and many eastern Chinese). The scars were pretty deep in this case too - Suk Ja remembers that only in the 1980s could the government afford to start changing the zoo back to its previous stature. They've put in a lot of restoration work to bring the palaces back to life. We only had enough time to see part of this one (which was awesome). I highly recommend spending a day on these palaces.


National Museum of Korea

Another insult from the Japanese occupation was apparent when we went to an exhibit of traditional Korean Buddhist paintings at the National Museum of Korea. Some of these intricate masterpieces dated back to the 10th century. Many were hard to see and in fragile condition due to the rough treatment they'd suffered. I was confused when I noticed on the placards that most said something to the effect of "Cultural Property of Japan". I thought maybe these were Japanese paintings, but Suk Ja told me that they were all stolen during the occupation and very few have been returned to Korea. It was only on this rare occasion that the Japanese public and private collections would LOAN these pieces to the museum. I couldn't even take photos here due to the "owners'" requirements.

A note about the museum - it's amazing. Completely free admission (except for the Buddhist painting exhibit) and well funded by the state. It's pretty impressive that the people of Korea care deeply about their history enough to shoulder the tax burden. There were at least twice as many (friendly) staff persons at this place than at the Museum of the Art Institute in Chicago (which charges $18 for admission).


so long!

That's all for this year. See you next time in K-land!