Thailand: Day One

Sawatdee Kaa! (“Hello” in Thai)

I’m so sorry I haven’t updated sooner! I meant to write my Thailand blogs before I left for Malaysia on May 21 (Buddha’s Birthday holiday). However, as soon as I got back from Bangkok I was overloaded with schoolwork. It was nice to have some homework for once, but it seemed to all explode at once, so I ran out of time to write before leaving.

Anyway, Thailand is one of the places I have wanted to go to for a very long time. My father was looking to get a job post there when I was a junior in high school, about three and a half years ago, and I was supposed to go live with him for a semester. However, the job fell through due to Thailand’s political issues at the time, so I didn’t get to go. My dad travels to Bangkok quite a bit for business, and my mom has even been once.

I’d been trying to organize a Thailand trip all semester, but it’s been a little difficult with their recent political issues. If you haven’t seen it plastered all over the news, there have been recent uprisings against the government by a group of rebels called the Red Shirts. The Thai government has issued warnings against tourist visits to Thailand due to the violent nature of the riots.

However, after speaking with my dad, he told me he would meet me in Bangkok one weekend, and that the news was exaggerating the political environment in Bangkok. We would be perfectly safe, and I would get to realize my dream of a trip to Thailand!

So on Friday, May 14 I headed to the Macau International Airport and took off to Bangkok! The flight only lasted a couple hours, but I still had to skip my one Friday class in order to make my flight on time.

When I first got off the plane, I was really happy to feel the heat. Macau weather has been awful lately; not very hot, but extremely humid and muggy. When I felt the drier heat, I was instantly reminded of home and felt very comfortable. However, I found that I liked it less and less as the weekend went by, and I realized it was still much more humid than I’m used to in Arizona.

After traveling quickly through Immigrations, I went to pick up my baggage, which came out first on the carousel. I breezed through customs and met Dad outside, and it felt really nice to see family again. Admittedly, I’ve been missing the comforts of home lately, so it was a nice relief to be safely with my dad, who I know will always take care of everything for me when he’s around.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Asia and I’ve been having a blast the past four months. But as the semester is drawing to a close I’m getting into the mindset of going home. Even though I’m used to my life in Asia, there are still daily struggles that I have to deal with by myself, so it’s nice when I have Daddy there to take care of it for me. Living abroad for many years as he has, he’s very experienced in dealing with situations you encounter when traveling. With Dad, I know things will be taken care of, and I don’t need to worry.

Anyway, after I met up with Dad we were led to a taxi in the parking garage by the driver, who had accompanied Dad into the airport. I didn’t know this, so when he asked to take my bag I refused. In Asia, there are always scores of taxi hawkers waiting for people to come out of the airport, so I assumed he was just another one of them. I was a little weirded out that he seemed to be following us out of the airport, but when Dad got in the taxi with him I figured it all out.

Dad and I caught up in the backseat on our way into the city. Apparently, Dad was worried he wouldn’t be able to pick me up on time. On the way to the airport the highway was closed off because the Thai prince was traveling.

Travelling into the city went smoothly. You couldn’t even tell that Bangkok was having political issues…until we reached the city center. Traffic suddenly got awfully backed up along the streets, but I just assumed it was typical Asian traffic, which is a problem everywhere in Asia.

But then I began seeing the groups of soldiers stationed along the roads. They were outfitted in full army gear, dressed in green camouflage and helmets, and had large guns in hand. Many of them patrolled street barricades, and behind the barricades you couldn’t see any signs of life. No shops were open, no pedestrians strolled along the sidewalks, and no cars could be seen. I asked Dad why there were barricades, and he told me that they were containing the riots so civilians wouldn’t be in danger (and more Red Shirts couldn’t join their ranks).

However, the soldiers seemed at ease, talking and laughing with one another. City life was bustling around us, only coming to a halt at the barricades. Dad said that a big-news killing had occurred only the night before, where a military sniper shot one of the Red Shirt leaders, a “rouge” general. But judging from the scene in front of me, I wouldn’t have been able to tell that any significant events like that had happened.

In comparison to my Beijing experience, I felt more uncomfortable coming out of the Forbidden City into Tiananmen Square. There, soldiers stood stiffly along the bridges out of the city, scolding tourists for lingering to long. Their red arm bands sounded off alarms in my mind, mentally shouting “Communists! I’m an American surrounded by Communists!”

In Bangkok, I didn’t feel any sense of danger. I knew it was an internal political issue, with Thais verses their own government. The riots were well-contained by the military, and as a visitor to their country I knew that I was not involved whatsoever with what was happening.

However, I was surprised to find out that our hotel was on a street just blocks away from the street barricades I saw. But the street, Soi 11, seemed completely carefree. It was actually a very Westernized street, with nice hotels and plenty of nice Western restaurants. After checking into our hotel, the Grand President Bangkok, we went across the street for lunch at a small, local grill.


As I came to find out, my dad stays at the same hotel each time he visits Bangkok, and he’s very familiar with the locals. He was introducing me to the staff, and he knew everyone by name (at least their nickname, since Thai names are crazy impossible for anyone but a Thai to say).

We went back to the hotel, where we relaxed, unpacked, and watched a movie before dinner. Dad said, “The pig comes off the spit at six o’clock.” I had no idea what he was talking about, but I found out later when we went to a German restaurant across the street.

There was a giant pig roasting behind a glass window pane. Apparently they roast a pig every Friday night, and they start to serve it at 6:00. For dinner, I ordered roasted chicken instead, but I was still really full from lunch and didn’t eat too much. But it was still extremely tasty, and I tried some of the delicious pig as well.


After dinner we went outside to catch a cab. I noticed the taxis in Bangkok were very clean and well-taken care of, not to mention extremely colorful! We were offered rides from tuk-tuk drivers, as well as on the backs of motorcycles, but we refused.



Unfortunately, the taxis don’t use their meters here. Instead, Dad bargained a price with a driver, and we were on our way to our show. I’ve noticed that each place I go in Asia has a different way to do taxis, but so far Thailand’s way was the most strange. The driver asked if we needed to be picked up (Thai people speak English quite well), and Dad said yes, at 9:30 we would be done with the show and would need a ride back to the hotel. The driver agreed to pick us up at that time and take us back to the hotel for the same price. And then they exchanged phone numbers, so the driver had Dad’s number and Dad had his cell as well. And it was not the first time this happened during the weekend, and I began to wonder how many taxi driver numbers my father has collected during his many travels in Bangkok.

We finally got to the theater to see our show, Siam Niramit. Apparently, this is “Thailand’s Must-See Show,” and the theater is in the Guinness Book of World Records for their impressive theater, which has 2,000 seats, a long stage, and even a river that they interact with during the performance.


At the entrance, we were greeted by a woman dressed in a traditional Thai dancing costume, and she pinned flowers to our shirts and took pictures with us. We proceeded into the venue’s courtyard, where we spend a few minutes browsing the unique souvenir shops.

When I entered the courtyard, I was rather taken aback to find myself face-to-face with an elephant! After sitting down for a bottle of water, I begged Dad to let me feed the elephants, which was only a dollar for a basket of small, sweet bananas (which they eat without removing the skin, by the way).

I had a blast feeding the elephants! They’re very intelligent creatures, and they’re obviously used to being fed. As soon as they saw the basket of bananas in my hand, they instantly reached out their trunks and waited. I wasn’t really sure how to feed them, so I just held one out and waited to see what would happen. One of them wrapped the end of their trunk around it and popped it in his mouth. I was impressed with their dexterity, since the bananas are quite small for their large trunks. They were actually quite impatient, since they ate quickly and I had to feed the two of them only one at a time. They would reach out to take it from the basket, but I had to yank it away out of their reach. I wished I had more bananas, since they seemed to run out too fast, and I was having so much fun interacting with the elephants.



After the elephants we sat and watched traditional Thai dancing performances in the courtyard before the show began. When we were called inside for the show to start, I was asked to check in my camera, which is their standard procedure. I wasn’t really comfortable with giving up my camera to strangers in Asia, and I actually asked them, “Do I have to?” But I got it back in one piece at the end of the show, so my concerns were abated when it was safely in my hands again.


The show itself was spectacular! It was a performance of ancient Siam, the former title of Thailand. It was a performance of its history with amazingly beautiful backdrops and scenery and remarkable costumes. However, the theater, which seats 2,000 people, was not very full, and there were probably only around 100 people maximum. It was my first glimpse at how much tourism in Bangkok has been affected by the Red Shirt riots. I was surprised to see so few people, because Bangkok is completely full of Westerners, much more than any place I’ve seen in Asia so far.

At 9:30 our taxi driver was waiting to pick us up, and he dropped us off at the hotel. He had to go the long way to avoid the street barricades, but otherwise the ride home went smoothly.

Back at the hotel, Dad told me he had a jam-packed schedule planned for the weekend, and that we were waking up at 5:30 am the next morning! After calling Mom (and complaining profusely about the injustice of waking up so early on a vacation), I took a quick shower and went straight to bed, excited about the mysterious itinerary Dad had planned for the next day.

Coming up next, “Thailand: Day Two!”

Love,
Kati