Ahhh, Baaaaangkok........
Late July 2006
Soon after the island trip of roughing it camping style, I left for a week of much needed rest. This was going to be a great trip! I went to Bangkok and visited old friends for a couple of days and shop and then went to Bali to just relax. But it was all very very surreal!! June and July were all about working 15 hour days, crashing and getting up the next day and doing the same in our mass efforts to avoid a humanitarian crisis. Get food and water to people so they don’t die. Then I went to the tiny island and saw the beautiful natural paradise juxtaposed with poverty not significantly less than what was in the camps in the capital.
Now, I was in Bangkok where I shopped in the most modern of shopping malls, had some beautiful silk clothes custom made for pennies and saw Superman Returns in the super posh movie theater of Bangkok. I also, oddly, saw the elephant on the street AGAIN. When I was in Bangkok in April, I first saw this baby elephant. Photo below is from April.
Last time, I was in the SkyTrain station and looked down to the street. This time, I was outside a SkyTrain station trying to meet up with a friend. We were on our cell phones trying to locate each other as we’d come out different exits. I looked up and said ‘Oh, I’m behind the elephant.” He paused and said “oh, yea I see you.” Who’d have thought a live elephant would be a reference point in the middle of Bangkok city?
(Point of note: only in the US is it difficult to have a mobile phone line. In Thailand, you pay $10 and get a phone number and about $5 of phone credit. In Indonesia it is about the same. Even in T, where EVERTHING is exorbitantly expensive, it is $25 with $10 of credit! So, bring your phone and just pop in a SIM card. When will the US catch up to the rest of the world technologically?)
Soon after the island trip of roughing it camping style, I left for a week of much needed rest. This was going to be a great trip! I went to Bangkok and visited old friends for a couple of days and shop and then went to Bali to just relax. But it was all very very surreal!! June and July were all about working 15 hour days, crashing and getting up the next day and doing the same in our mass efforts to avoid a humanitarian crisis. Get food and water to people so they don’t die. Then I went to the tiny island and saw the beautiful natural paradise juxtaposed with poverty not significantly less than what was in the camps in the capital.
Now, I was in Bangkok where I shopped in the most modern of shopping malls, had some beautiful silk clothes custom made for pennies and saw Superman Returns in the super posh movie theater of Bangkok. I also, oddly, saw the elephant on the street AGAIN. When I was in Bangkok in April, I first saw this baby elephant. Photo below is from April.
Last time, I was in the SkyTrain station and looked down to the street. This time, I was outside a SkyTrain station trying to meet up with a friend. We were on our cell phones trying to locate each other as we’d come out different exits. I looked up and said ‘Oh, I’m behind the elephant.” He paused and said “oh, yea I see you.” Who’d have thought a live elephant would be a reference point in the middle of Bangkok city?
(Point of note: only in the US is it difficult to have a mobile phone line. In Thailand, you pay $10 and get a phone number and about $5 of phone credit. In Indonesia it is about the same. Even in T, where EVERTHING is exorbitantly expensive, it is $25 with $10 of credit! So, bring your phone and just pop in a SIM card. When will the US catch up to the rest of the world technologically?)
posted by sue at 9:35 AM
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