Soh Vin Yaa!

When the rain starts falling on a humid afternoon in Bangkok, it's a good time to grab a cold beer and head for the nearest Internet cafe. Allie's getting a Thai massage for the next hour, so I thought I'd stop in, cool off, and give today's update.

I should start with last night. We were told that many people here would try to scam us out of as many baht as they could. Our cab driver was no exception - only we couldn't understand him. "Teep" - ok, that we got. But then he said something about a dollar for "soh vin yaa" and pointed to his heart. For his temple? He nodded. For a souvenir? He nodded. And then he said "soh vin yaa" again, as if we'd understand on the 34th try. When we got to our hotel, we asked the bellhop if he could translate - and the best we could figure out was that "soh vin yaa" means "I think you're a big idiot and I'm going to take your money."

The hotel - unbelievable! Lotus flowers and fresh fruit awaiting our arrival, the plushest pillows I've ever seen, an interesting view, helpful staff - this place is just great. We can't get used to it, though, because until we get to Koh Samui at the end of the trip, we won't be anywhere close to this nice.

Anyway, as for today. We woke up this morning, grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel, and headed off for the tailor. The guy there remembered the group of Northwestern students who'd been a few months back and who recommended the place, so he gave us the same deal. We're going back tomorrow for our first fitting (they're that quick), and will have everything done by the time we're ready to leave.

After that, we headed to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Khao. The Palace is the traditional royal residence, though the king and queen no longer live there. The Wat complex, next door, is home to the Emerald Buddha. We'd never seen anything quite so opulent. The detail and care that went into the construction and ornamentation is just unreal; jewels, mother-of-pearl, all sorts of colored tiles, carvings, you name it, it's there. Words do not do it justice; you'll have to wait for Allie to upload the pictures upon our return. The emerald buddha itself is phenomenal, though not that big; it's the whole presentation, with numerous flanking Buddha statues, candles for the worshippers, incense, flowers and other fabulous works of art. The palace was similarly resplendent - in particular, I got a kick out of the traditional thrones still used for ceremonies involving the monarch. I need some chairs like that (and maybe a few dozen people to carry me around).

From there, we walked down the road to Wat Po, home of the famous Reclining Buddha. This beautiful and monstruous golden statue takes up nearly the entire building in which it rests, surrounded by beatiful murals and artistry. Simply glorious!

From there, off to Khao San road, one of the big backpacker areas in Bangkok. There are plenty of non-Thais here, mostly various Europeans and Australians but also handfuls of Americans, Koreans, Japanese, etc. We met a New Yorker as we got to Khao San and had lunch with him (for less than $6 for all three of us, and that's not the cheapest around), then wandered the streets for a bit before finding this little pocket with the massage center and this internet cafe.

So that should do for our first Thailand post. We've got to figure out how we're getting up to Chiang Mai tomorrow night, which is probably the location of our next post. Between now and then...your guess is as good as mine. :)