Bangkok 30 Jan - 08 Feb

We’ve been to Bangkok before and absolutely loved it. Thailand is beautiful so it made sense to park here for a week or so on the way to Cambodia and Vietnam. Unfortunately we didn’t get to make it to Chiang Mai or the sea this time but it was wonderful to stay in one place for a few days. And after months of Shower Stall Laundry it was good to find a laundromat.

Bangkok is a huge, sprawling city but most of the major tourist attractions are within a few km of each other. There are hundreds of Buddhist temples to see, some that sit on small street corners and then others that take up full square kilometers. And the food makes this one of the tastiest cities in the world…between street side food stalls with Michelin stars to gourmet restaurants and some of the best bars in the world, it is a wonderful place to put on a few pounds…or gallons! For more random thoughts on Big Buddha's, new friends and healthcare, see the bottom of the page...

New Friends along the way! (and yes, I do have OTHER clothes!)

A trip to the amazing dentist for Lydia to fix a filling - yes, it only cost that much...really!!!

Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen - I like Big Buddha's and I cannot lie...

Tuk-tuk food tour to Bib Gourmand restaurants - we skipped McDonalds

Jay Fai - The first (we think) Michelin Starred Food stall in the world

Temple of the Sleeping Buddha (actually, it's him on his deathbed)

Bangkok

Anniversary Drinks and Dinner - Ms. Maria & Mr. Singh - check out the story pics

Chinatown

After seeing almost every Buddhist / Hindu temple from India to Bhutan over the past two months, we decided to limit it to two or three in Bangkok - temple overload. Our last visit here saw a huge seated Buddha being built at Wat Paknam that has since been finished. It sits at 69 meters (226 ft) tall and rivals the great seated Buddha we saw recently in Bhutan. I have wanted to see it for a while, not just for the size of the statue but for the adjoining 80 meter stupa (pointy temple) that also houses a 7 meter green glass stupa inside its top floor. There are some things in religious facilities that are astounding and the glass stupa was one of them. See the pictures for a better visual, but it looks like a huge Wizard of Oz emerald tower in the middle of a brightly decorated room - a bit of a stunning assault on the senses. The huge Buddha directly outside isn’t as impressive as I expected from up close because it’s sitting in a pretty dense urban jungle and the street level views are blocked by nearby buildings. Standing directly beneath it, it appears big but the sheer height seems muted a bit, for me, at least. But when you get a little further out it is impressive, as it shoots over and above the surrounding streetscape. One of my pics is from about a km away and gives a better visual of the size of the Buddha and the Stupa. Plus, it’s a gaudy gold, so it really stands out from the surrounding neighborhood. Many of the Bangkok temple also hold monasteries so you get to see a bunch of orange-clad monks wandering around. I don’t know why it still amuses me when I see a couple of monks sitting on a curb, watching tik-tok videos on their phones together.

The other temple I wanted to see was Wat Pho, or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. It’s one of those iconic landmarks that you really need to see, in addition to the beautiful temple buildings and statues that surround the Buddha. Unfortunately, at 15 meters tall and 50’ish wide, it’s wedged in tightly to the building that houses it, making it tough to get a good shot of the entire Buddha. It still makes for an imposing sight, though, especially when you stand next to the feet, which dwarf you. The Reclining Buddha is actually supposed to be Buddha on his deathbed, but Dead Buddha doesn’t sound so marketable.

On our first day to BKK we HAD to do some laundry. We found a small little outside laundromat a few blocks from the hotel and, as usual, had to translate the controls into English! While there we met Filippo, from Sardinia, one of our favorite places in the world. We ended up heading out to dinner that night before he left for Malaysia, and

We happened to be in BKK as the Thai national elections were happening, two weekends in a row. It’s interesting to see how other countries manage their elections and what they do to encourage turnout. The elections were held on Sundays, when most people are off work, and the day before and of the elections all liquor sales are outlawed. Never fear, we bought a couple of wine bottles beforehand so we were safe! But it was interesting to see that they made the voting easier on the population, rather than harder, and put the focus on the voting versus on the bars. Closing a bunch of bars on a Saturday night you know has to show some commitment to the voting process. And even with voting down 10% this year, a 65% voting rate is pretty spectacular.

__________________________________________

One of the benefits of hotel life is getting to meet a lot of random people. And for some reason, we homeless travelers seem to find each other magically somehow. We met our “Chuck it all and see the world” role models, Monica and Jeffrey, at breakfast and then forced them to have dinner with us a few times because they were so fascinating. They also got rid of everything and have been traveling for three years, now. It’s affirming to talk to others with a similar streak of crazy…we always have the same opening question for each other, though…”How much luggage are you carrying?” It’s a bit of a competition to see who can pack the least for a long trip…a competition that we DON’T ever win…haha! The next few questions revolve around healthcare…see next paragraph for more on this answer. The question almost never asked first is - “What is your favorite place”, as that is so tough to answer since every place shines slightly different than the last  and holds its own beautiful memories. It’s still asked but, in my case at least, it’s meant more of as a probing “What am I missing that I need to see????” Anyway, Monica and Jeffrey make the travel look much easier than most. They are a few years older than us, minimal luggage and vegan, so they have to work a bit harder on the food front. They are also more full of life and stories and personality and freedom than about anybody I’ve ever met. After dinner each night they had a standing 10:30 couples massage before bed and Jeffrey was able to tell me all about the differences between massage types and benefits…and who his favorite worldwide masseuses were. I loved getting to spend time with them and hope to catch up again somewhere else in the world at some point.

One of the big “Huh???” faces we get from Americans is when we tell them we don’t have insurance anymore. It was a struggle to figure out how we wanted to approach healthcare for a long trip like ours, but in the end we decided to trust in the local health systems a little more than our American sensibilities might care to allow. It was going great so far, until…Bangkok. Coincidentally, we had a wonderful discussion about local healthcare with Monica and Jeffrey the first night, where they mentioned that they visited both a highly rated hospital and a great dentist near our hotel over the past month for routine check-ups. Monica is a retired Anesthesiologist from Florida so we trusted their recommendations. Apparently the hospital is wonderful and offers full screenings, including tests I’ve never heard of, for a little over $1500. Some of the tests even my Rolls Royce healthcare back home wouldn’t cover for less than a couple grand, so it seemed like a good thought once we settle in a city for more than a week or so, likely in Vietnam. But, they mentioned that the dentist was wonderful, also, which sounded good to us since we haven’t been to a dentist in a year and a half or so. Oddly, the very next day while eating a Gummy Bear, wife dislodged a filling! She called the dentist that day and was able to make an appt for the very next day. I couldn’t get into the dentist in under three months back in StL, and that’s after I went there loyally for 20 years. So, she got an exam, x-rays, drugs, and a new filling for only 3,400! Oh yeah, that’s Thai Baht, so it’s like $107 USD. We both went back and got x-rays and cleanings the next day for $51 each! I guess the healthcare issue isn’t an issue anymore!

___________________________________________

Part of the fun/intrigue/stepping out of the comfort zone of our lives now is navigating a different language / currency / food / time zone every two to four weeks or so. Sometimes it’s a little stressful, sometimes it’s a bit confusing but it’s ALWAYS a lot of fun.

Stepping out of our comfort zone is our comfort zone now.

A hotel maid came to our room this past week and spoke very broken English and I confused her when I told her we didn’t need the room cleaned but we’d like some more water and LOTS of coffee packets, please. We pantomimed a bit and I finally got her to understand what I was requesting. It’s amazing what a smile and some hand gestures can help with, in addition to the charity or kindness of some locals. And fortunately, I’m the lazy beneficiary of a world that mostly has an English speaker somewhere close by. Even the French, who famously say they don’t speak English, do actually speak excellent English. Occasionally there’s wi-fi available so Google Translate works or I have my amazing translation tool, Pocketalk, handy. It’s always a fun game of verbal ping-pong with Lyd and me trying to communicate with someone by rephrasing the others’ question in a way we think someone might understand it better. But always the fun is the actual struggle of communicating, as odd as that sounds.

I think about this often as I’ve been on the “alien” side of this equation almost 100% of the time this past year. But necessity hasn’t driven our decision to leave home, unlike most of the immigrants I’ve met. I remember meeting people back home that weren’t able to speak English. Typically, but not always, they were Mexicans so we could at least communicate a bit, with my five-year old level Spanish. But a lot of times my Spanish wasn’t good enough to understand deeper concepts so I could offer no help, other than a smile. I think about how hard it must be to travel to a new home without knowing the language and how you are largely up to the kindness of complete strangers much of the time. Questions like “Where is the bathroom?” or “Is this real THC?” I can handle, but “How do I get electricity turned on in my apartment?” or “Yes, it is the really good THC so don’t take the 2nd gummy right now” and then comprehending the follow-on conversation is scary.

I guess where I’m going with this is that over the past 13 months we’ve been met with kindness and help and curiosity everywhere we’ve been. People genuinely want to make the effort to help us even when they don’t know us. Or can’t understand us. I’ve been called Brother or Uncle or Friend in over 30 languages (South Africa has 12 official languages alone) and people make me feel good about humanity again. I hope that I, at least most of the time, treated foreigners like they’ve been treating us throughout the rest of the world.

________________________________________

I posted the below entry to social media on 05 February, while we were in Bangkok and at one of the Top 50 Bars in the world, BAR US, which was followed up by dinner at the most amazing concept in the world - an Indian / Mexican fusion restaurant called Ms Maria and Mr Singh, by Gaggan. Check out the pics for a better feel of both the bar and the restaurant. I would eat at that restaurant every day of the year if I could!

“Today is my 26th wedding anniversary. It’s Lyd’s 32nd, after you factor in “Salinas Equivalency Years”. I suspect the “SEY” will be a new health measurement on her Apple Watch soon, like the Loud Environment Warning she gets occasionally. “Ms. Lydia, your SEY index has peaked and you need some girl time!” I joked at breakfast that it’s the date that she originally won the husband lottery…and she didn’t even smirk. She just sat there…stone-faced…eating her little grilled tomato pieces.

Maybe a year straight with only me is taking its toll!?!?!

I should probably show her some appreciation and take her on a vacation or something like that…

Happy Anniversary, my wife! You’re the BEST travel partner in the world!”

__________________________________________

Finally, I mentioned the food in BKK is some of the best in the world. There is a cool little street restaurant called Jay Fai…look it up, it’s pretty famous. The owner and chef, Ms. Jay Fai is this cute but gruff looking 80’ish year old Thai lady that cooks in the alley on a flaming wok and wears black dive goggles because of the sizzling oil. She looks like an extra in Waterworld. Even if you don’t get to eat there it’s fun to simply watch for a while. A few years ago she was one of, if not the 1st, street vendor in the world to win a full Michelin star. It’s mostly a wait-in-line only type of restaurant and the last time we were here we debated waiting but it was about three hours long, so we got a beer instead and found some mango sticky rice down the street. This time, we actually got in with only an hour waiting on the sidewalks, which was a treat. She’s famous for this crab omelet and it was actually worth a three hour wait, it was that good!