So, I spent today acclimating to Bangkok, which is to say that I didn’t do any targeted sightseeing, but walked around my local area a little bit, then took a bus to Pratunam Market, which is supposed to be a clothing mecca. Unfortunately, I’m nowhere near standard Thai sizes–Thai women tend to be short and slender, and prefer close-fitting, tailored garments. While I’m definitely short, I have the build of an ox and am muscular to boot (AIDS Lifecycle put me up to 150 lbs!), so I really didn’t find anything.

But, there are ten or fifteen tailor shops right near me–all of which advertise that they make up shirts, pants, etc. within eighteen hours and deliver right to your hotel, for insanely low prices–so I think I will go see them tomorrow. Eighteen hours? Heck, that’s faster than I can get my laundry to dry.

So far all I’ve seen is the mainstream textile stuff, but even that is pretty neat. There are some shirts that look almost like tie-dyes, but more complex–discharge-dyed (tied, bleached, then retied and redyed) into very intricate and beautiful patterns, almost like mandala tie-dyeing. I wish I spoke Thai, some of those pieces were gorgeous & I really wanted to talk to the maker. If I find a small sample–in a kerchief, perhaps–I may buy one and bring it with me.

There was also some of that intricate tied-resist work that I think of as more native to India–I forget the name, but I’ll see if I can get a picture.

But today I was basically out to acclimate and catch the “beat” of the city. It’s very bustling–the sidewalks aren’t sidewalks so much as a venue for street vendors–mostly food stalls, but also belts, purses, T-shirts, sunglasses, fake Rolexes, and all the other things you’d expect from street vendors.

There’s a weird mix of shops on the street: for example, within about 100 meters of my hotel (which is a little hole in the wall place), there’s a 7-11, a comedy club, at least ten street vendors selling hot-hot-hot noodles, deep-fried rice noodle balls, weird tropical fruits, etc.; three legit massage places, two obvious brothels, a cheap drinking hole for Westerners, and at least five custom tailoring shops. Dirt and piles of garbage everywhere. Oddly, I spotted a rat on the sidewalk in broad daylight–bad sign, as rats are nocturnal, you don’t normally see them in the day unless they’re ill. I hope it’s nothing serious.

Oh yeah, and there’s a Starbucks around the corner from me. I guess some things really *are* universal. Tomorrow morning I’m going to go check them out–yes, I know they’re evil, but they may have decaf. I’d probably sell my soul for decaf in a few more weeks.

But today was mostly acclimating, and trying to get a “feel” for the place. I haven’t got the “beat” of the city yet, and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t duplicate it without a few more weeks at least, but I do seem to be re-orienting.

On the Asian-not-Asian front, people seem to start by assuming I’m Chinese-Thai–so I get Thai first, then Mandarin Chinese, then English. Fortunately I do speak pidgin Mandarin (at least better than I speak pidgin Thai), and it’s improving through exposure. Tomorrow I’m going to see where I can get a crash course in survival Thai–Ben gave me a few phrases tonight at dinner (he found me a sushi place!), but I really need more than that to function.

Not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow–I’ll probably start by sleeping in, then look for meditation classes, silk museums, temples, transvestite cabarets, art and history museums, shopping districts, craft artisans, and/or brothels, in no particular order. I do want to take a boat down the canals–it’s supposed to be the quickest way to get around Bangkok during rush hour. Traffic really *does* come to a dead standstill during rush hour, as I found out today.

Also starting to plan the rest of my month in Thailand–there are two major festivals in late October/early November, an elephant roundup, elephant treks, nature treks, meditation retreats, silk demonstrations, artisan crafters, stunning beaches, and diving instruction in various parts of Thailand throughout the month. Not to mention that tomorrow night I will probably meet the expat American community–some of them might have pointers, too. And, I’m tracking down the number of the Johns Hopkins AIDS program in Chiang Mai–I think they’d be good to talk to.

So much to do, so little time. 4-6 months SOUNDS like a lot…but to cover half a continent? i don’t think I could see half the U.S. in that much time, and the U.S. is incredibly culturally homogenous compared to Southeast Asia. The guidebook says to pick one thing and focus on it, but I think a random sampling is much more interesting.

Well, despite some concerns, I did manage to find my way back to my hotel in Tokyo, and thus wended my way back to the airport and thence to Bangkok. (I was, however, mortified to discover that I had spent two hours searching for a cybercafe about ten minutes from the hotel. Maybe I can buy a sense of direction in Bangkok; everything else seems readily available, and I could sure use one.)

Anyway, after a little fuss, I also managed to find my hotel, Suk 11 Hostel (http://www.suk11.com ) . It’s small but homey, the rooms are bare-bones but clean–bigger than my (considerably more expensive) room in Tokyo, but without the fancy bedding, etc. (Heck, I’ve paid $180/night for worse accommodations in Napa.) And I love the way they’ve done up the corridors–it’s impossible to describe, but I’ll take a picture tomorrow and post it, after I get my flashcard reader drivers installed on their computer.

(Oh yes, I forgot to mention my personal favorite reason for this place: they have a computer in the common rooms, so I don’t have to go hunting cybercafes. Yes, I know I’m pathetic, but I’m also a compulsive writer. You have no IDEA how long it takes to write things down longhand, in a paper journal.)

Not much in the way of notes on Bangkok, since I only just got here, but I saw a bit of the city on the way in. I’m not sure why the guidebooks say Westerners find it overwhelming–it reminds me of Taiwan, rather enjoyable really with the narrow, winding streets packed with street vendors selling everything from live chickens to (knock-off) designer clothing (sometimes right next to each other), people hanging laundry from their balconies, etc. As long as you don’t mind cars whizzing by and the occasional narrow miss (it just makes life a little sweeter knowing you could be run over by a rampaging motorcyclist at any moment), it’s actually pretty darn cool.

The only thing that *did* give me a double-take was the elephant I saw standing on the street corner. I have absolutely no idea why an elephant would be standing on a street corner in Bangkok (sounds like the start of a joke, doesn’t it?)–so, obviously I have to find out tomorrow. I understand that there’s a major problem with unemployed elephants, though–they were using a lot of them for logging, but the government banned elephant logging a few years back, so now they have a lot of elephants no one knows what to do with.

(I can’t help visualizing a bunch of sleazy elephants lounging about on street corners and in cafes, putting in job applications, filling out unemployment forms, and generally looking for trouble. Do elephants get a separate line at the unemployment office? 🙂 )

Ah, but the serendipity part. I was in the hotel in Tokyo, waiting for my shuttle, and I struck up a conversation with one of my fellow stranded travelers. He asked me what I did, I said, “Traveling,” he asked where, one thing led to another and we wound up swapping cards. Lo and behold, it turns out he’s working for San Francisco Public Health, infectious diseases division, and why is he in Bangkok? He’s presenting his WHO report on the state of AIDS in Burma. Ooh, neat. So, I worked my magic, he gave me a bunch of references/possible contacts, and he’s going to try calling me this week while he’s in town, so we can get together for dinner. If that doesn’t work out I may try emailing him once he gets back, it sounds like interesting stuff even if it doesn’t pan out here. But if it does work out, I’m pretty sure he could introduce me to a bunch of people around the area, especially in Burma. which would be way cool.

I’m thinking about going to Burma (Myanmar) now, btw–he recommended an old friend of his who’s also a travel agent, specializing in trips to Burma, & offered to connect me up to some other folk he knows there. For this one I may do a guided tour, though–I’ll email the travel agent, and see. Who knows where that might take me?

Tomorrow morning I’m also going to try calling Herve’s friend Ben–we were thinking of getting together on Tuesday at an American expat bar, where he’s going with a bunch of his friends. If he knows how to ship a yak, or knows someone who knows, you can all cower in terror. (You thought I was just going to send you postcards? Oh, the naivete. )

Although, it might not be a yak. It has suddenly occurred to me that Thailand has an elephant oversupply…and elephants are way cooler than yak. 🙂 Joe has helpfully pointed out that one can get a 40’x40’x40′ shipping container moved to the U.S. for as little as $1500…how many elephants can you fit into a shipping container? a Volkswagen Beetle? and what would be the correct packing algorithm for same?

–okay, I’m obviously getting punchy now, so I’ll stop here and go to bed. More tomorrow, once I’ve had a chance to get some sleep, get some food, and nose my way around a bit. 🙂

Oh yeah, one more note on Asia. This place doesn’t believe in decaf. Tomorrow, I go on a quest for Sanka–but I may have to start developing a caffeine tolerance. *That* should be interesting, since caffeine makes me hyper. (I mean, even *more* hyper. Hard to believe, isn’t it? 😉 )