We Heart Pang! and other musings....

Guess what? I'm not going to talk about crazy traffic here in Thailand!! However, I am going to share a series of vignettes of my latest experiences in Bangkok each appropriately titled with a line from some random movie... and that's just for fun...

It's just like a dream!
In Pattaya, we went to the Siam Elephant restaurant which I said was probably the most romantic place I've been to. Well, I have to eat my words (pardon the pun) because I think I was wrong. My dad and I got all dolled up one night (although I am sure he won't like me saying he got dolled up) and took the BTS down to the very end of the line which is right by the river. We wandered down to the dock and boarded the Marriott hotel's boat to cross. Now the boat was very quaint: all teak wood, the sloped roof, the skipper's wheel. We sat down and the attendent handed us ice cold towels that smelled like ginger to freshen up with. Then we just sat back and enjoyed the river, the tall buildings, all the other hotel boats covered in little lights as we manuvered down the water. We landed at the Marriott about 15 minutes later, just as it started to pour! I hightailed it to the lobby -didn't want to mess up my hair!!! :) After a quick tour of the hotel, we walked into Trader Vic's restaurant for dinner. Now Trader Vic's is awesome! Very upscale but still very exotic and adventuresome. The walls were covered in bamboo and orchids. We were greeted with another cool towel and pineapple juice. It was lovely to sit in the candlelit restaurant overlooking the river. I'll never forget it. They do have Trader Vics in the States; however, I doubt overlooking the Planet Hollywood casino in Vegas would be quite as charming. We finished dinner and took one last ride on the boat back to the BTS. It was quite an enchanting experience.

We are the Wild Stallions!!
Just on a quick side note, the music here keeps making me laugh. Not the Thai music, but rather the American music I am hearing. On MTV I saw back-to-back the Goo Goo Dolls "Iris" and Mariah Carey's "Hero. To be sure I loved both songs back in the day, "Iris" is still one of my all time favs, but I used to watched those songs rotate MTV about 13 years ago. As we walked past a store I heard DMX "Party Up (Up in Here)" ... y'all gonna make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here..... And it was topped off when I heard the jazz version of N'Sync's "God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You." Excellent.

Walking, walking and we're stopping.. if you look to your right...
At 6:30 one morning, my dad and I were downstairs, showered, fed, and ready for a day of touring. We had booked a passage on the Floating Market tour outside of the city. I was pretty excited about seeing the Floating Market (farmer's market on a canal) because I've heard my dad talk about it since his first mission's trip 21 years ago. It took us an hour and a half of trying to keep our eyes open to get to the klong (canal) but once we got there we were put in these long thin yellow speedboats (room for one on each seat) and we high-speeded (is that a word?) down the canal. Did you see 007 "The Golden Eye"? That was the boat James Bond road in on. And wow! Did it every feel like we were Indiana Jones! Zipping down the thin canal with banana trees, houses on stilts, and the occasional heron passing us. We landed at the Floating Market dock and then proceeded to get into a tiny canoe sized wooden boat with our new German friends to float around the market. Now the market truly used to be a place for locals to buy and sell produce, supplies, etc. to each other. Now it is a tourist magnet and what they sell is food and souvenirs for the crowds. But it was fun to float down the klong, bumping into other boats, eating a mango and shaking our head to the million "you want an album sir?" requests we got. Now they do everything in this canal! We saw people bathing, washing their produce and dishes in there as well! Made us a little careful of what we bought. Afterwards we walked through the market built next to the klong, and I learned that I am GREAT at bartering! I got some really great deals! Then again, shopping is never a bad thing.

I have a great idea kids! What do you think about an alone day?
Now my dad and I have been together pretty much nonstop the past 2 weeks so we were both cool about taking a break from each other and enjoying Bangkok on our own. For me that meant staying right at the hotel and venturing into a truly amazing alone pleasure: the spa! Spa treatments are pretty inexpensive here, even at the best hotels. So when I saw our hotel had a special for a 2-hour treatment for about $65 USD, I couldn't resist. I was greeted with a tray topped with orchids, an iced flower tea and a cold towel. They took me back to get a foot soak. There were orchids and cucumbers floating in a bowl and my attendant added coconut milk and ginger. The smell was amazing. After a good herbal steam, they gave me a Tom Yum Glow body scrub. Jasmine, ginger, coconut, rice and lemongrass where mixed together for this concoction. And when they say, full body scrub, they mean FULL body scrub. And that's all I have to say about that. Next was a full hour jasmine-mint massage that left me so relaxed I could barely get up when it was over. They gave me a hot towel and lemongrass tea before I left. I think I floated back to my room where I took a long bath and climbed into bed. My favorite episode of Friends happened to be on. Ahhh... Heavenly day.

I am the King. I will lead.
The best part of my journey so far had to be the tour of the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Again, this is a place I had seen pictures of when I was only 8-years-old so I was in awe to see it all in person. Our guide for this tour was a man named Devon. Deveon was flamboyent and ridiculously fun! We toured the beautiful grounds and walked past the Buddha. But my favorite favorite favorite part was when we entered the throne room. Just outside the throne room, there is a lobby of sorts that is plain white walls with a chalkboard on the end of the room. Devon said to me, "Do you know who that chalkboard belonged to?" "Um, no," I replied. Why would I? "Anna!! She taught in this room" he exclaimed. No lie, I completely lit up! Anna! As in "The King and I" or "Anna and the King." That Anna! The famous English governess who taught the offspring of the King of Siam in the 19th century. "Can I touch the board?" I asked Devon. "Of course!" he replied. I love history. I love how it surrounds us and incompasses us. I grabbed a mango juice on the way out and sipped it slowly, looking at the Grand Hall where royals of the past have danced and feasted. It was just awing.

Do you know who I am??
Well yesterday we left Bangkok for good. I was sad. I have learned to love the city a lot. But I was also excited to see Chiang Mai. We had boarded our plane and it seemed to be full but we weren't leaving for some reason. Suddenly a plethera of folks came on out of nowhere. "They must have been a late connection," my dad said. I nodded. We landed in Chiang Mai an hour later and made our way to the baggage claim. Outside there was hundreds of people waiting in the lobby holding signs, chanting, screaming. Suddenly those late comers on the plane were next to us and people kept grabbing them to take pictures. "They must be somebody," I said to my dad. Sure enough, the cast of Academy Fantasia 4, Thailand's version of American Idol, were in our presence. And we didn't even know! My dad and I left baggage claim before the AF4 crew did. As I walked past them, no one screamed for me or tried to give me flowers. Huh, I guess I fooled them. They didn't know who I am!