Lumphini Park, Bangkok, Thailand Thusday April 12, 2007

On several occasions, while riding through Bangkok, we have passed a large park which is not far from the US Embassy. We had been told that it is very special, and we have seen people exercising there and participating in tai chi classes. So yesterday, we decided it was time to explore the park for ourselves.

The name of the park is Lumphini, pronounced "lump-he-knee" (the u is pronounced as "oo" in look). We have discovered that the "p-h" combination seen frequently, is not pronounced as it is in English. Rather, the "p" is the end of the one syllable and the "h" is the start of the next.

We had arranged with a tuktuk driver to pick us up at 9AM, but he never showed, so we caught a cab to go to the park. It is an incredibly beautiful park, very well maintained, and very peaceful. It is easy to get lost in the peacefulness despite the fact that it is obviously in the middle of a large and very busy city. There are very few formal plantings. Most of the park is done in a casual style. While we were there we saw at least 50 workers, most with brooms and baskets, raking the lawns and sweeping the streets, while others were pruning trees and watering. The coarse brooms they use work equally well as rakes or any kind of broom. Although the style and purpose are quite different, it is comparable in beauty to the botanical garden in Hamilton, Bermuda, which until now had been the most beautiful park or garden we have seen.

There is a lot of water in the park, in the form of canals and lakes. There are large multi-plumed fountains in the large lakes, and smaller ones in the canals. There were some amazing trees there, most notably some immense fan palms. We were also intrigued by a purple-flowered tree that looks very much like a crape myrtle, except with larger flowers and much larger leaves. We also had the opportunity to observe a number of different birds, most of which we have subsequently been able to identify. One we saw was the common myna, which had some of the ugliest babies we have seen. The ugliness is probably due to their almost bald necks.

Of the wildlife, by far the most interesting was the huge lizards we saw. A visitor to the park was feeding the first one we saw. It looks very much like a standard lizard but much larger; the smallest one we saw was probably about two feet long. All the others were bigger than that, with the largest being at least 5 feet long (the one in the photograph). The one pictured behaved in a way that reminded me of a cat, rubbing its cheek on the trunk of the tree. It was watching us as closely as we were watching it. A woman we talked to said the lizards are related to crocodiles, but they have no teeth and are harmless. When we saw the lizards swimming, we were reminded of our floating market tour guide who told us about all the tickets available for a "swimming with the crocodiles" excursion. The lizards seem to be equally at home in water or on land; they swim with their heads above the surface of the water, so you can see them coming.

The roads in the park have markings to tell you how far you have walked or jogged, and there are also bars for stretching located throughout the park. There is also a good-sized play area for children, as well as a senior citizens' recreation center. There were many unique granite benches, and a few marble ones. We also saw several nice sculptures, and an amphitheater.

In all, we walked around the park for about 1.5 hours, enjoying every minute of it. At the end we were able to flag down a tuktuk to take us to our next destination, so we have fulfilled our goal of riding in a tuktuk. On a hot day, they are a great way to go, because the breeze is far better than air conditioning. We would gladly return to the park for both the exercise possibilities and its great beauty.

Damnoen Saduak - The Original Floating Market

On Tuesday we went to the original floating market, Damnoen Saduak, which is about 1.5 hours drive outside of Bangkok. Even the long time it took us to pick up everyone was interesting, because we got to see parts of Bangkok we have not previously encountered. We were looking at a map of the city today and realized that even though we think we've seen a lot of it, we have really seen just a very small part of the city.

A travel agent we met on our trip to Bang Pa-In, the Summer Palace, had told us that we needed to ride in a long-tail boat. Our trip to the floating market afforded us this opportunity, and it was quite exciting. I worried some about my camera getting wet, because we were very close to the water, and as you can see from one of the photos, the boat really churned up the water it passed through. It was very interesting watching the course of the boat because it seemed to take a wavy course through the wider canals, and would alternate fast and slow speeds in the smaller canals. In retrospect both were probably ways of managing the water to keep the passengers dry.

The floating market is now there strictly for the tourists. It is no longer a place where Thais do their shopping, but it is still a wonderful place. There was really nothing exciting for sale among the souvenirs, although I did buy one t-shirt there. The great attraction for us was all the local fruit, especially the varieties we cannot find at home. Mangoes, mangosteens, rambutans and lychees were the best. We didn't need to buy a pineapple because we can get that at our hotel breakfast buffet every day. It is worth saying again that there is no pineapple like a Thai pineapple, because it is truly sweet and pleasant to eat. We did buy a package of dried mango, which is more like fruit leather than the tough dried mango we've found at home. It is wonderful being able to buy all this exotic fruit and for excellent prices. We will definitely miss the local fruit when we leave Bangkok.

One of our stops was for a snake and crocodile show. None of us were interested in seeing it, but after something we learned about today, we think the crocodiles may have been large lizards like the ones we saw in a park, rather than what we call crocodiles. The woman we asked about the lizards said they are related to crocodiles, but they have no teeth and are harmless.

The Handcraft Center was a very interesting stop. There were wood carvers there working on projects, which were exquisitely done. Some of the panels we saw had been in process for 8-9 months and were still not finished. The skill and the detail of the carvings is amazing. In the parking lot we also saw a number of tree stumps that were waiting to be carved. And the elephant in the picture with me is also hand carved.

This was considered a half-day trip, which meant no lunch was included. But who needs that when you can buy all the wonderful food at the market? We had a great time and would recommend this excursion to everyone. Should you decide to go, watch the scenery on the way to and from the market, both in the city and the countryside. That is a very good way to experience the flavor of the country.

Always Something Interesting Happening

We continue to watch out the window of our hotel room and the window of the coffee shop, because there is always something interesting happening. Sometimes it is seeing the push carts go by, sometimes watching people walk in a slalom course around the stray dogs that own the sidewalk. It is likewise interesting to see and try to figure out what the street vendors are selling. There are street vendors everywhere.

Tonight while we were eating dinner we noticed that a policeman had stopped a moped that was traveling the wrong direction on our very busy one way street, and was writing a ticket. He then stopped a second moped for the same reason. However, this time, instead of writing a ticket, he got on the back of the moped (which had turned around), and went riding off holding his ticket pad.

We continue to watch the construction project next door, which is using huge quantities of rebar, and which makes no sense at all to us. The Thais definitely have their own way of doing things. Another example of that is the photograph of the building being painted. There is no discernable logical progression in the process.

We have been taking a camera with us as we walk, in an effort to paint a picture of what we see every day. The side streets with all the shops are interesting. Even the laundry hanging on all the apartment balconies adds to the ambience of the city. The sidewalks have many obstructions in addition to the stray dogs. There are posts for the arbors that are covered with vines, lamp posts, trees, signs for the cafés, barricades, bus benches, phone booths, beggars, moped traffic, cars and mopeds parked on the sidewalks, to name just a few. The sidewalks are also treacherous because their surfaces are very uneven and unpredictable. One of our favorite local incongruencies can be seen in the photo of the Mercedes.

We have finally started seeing cats around. For the first few weeks we were here there were none to be seen. Now they appear occasionally. Most seem to be a brindle coloration - I know that's a term reserved for dogs, but it is the only one that accurately describes these cats.

I hope that eventually I will have a catalog of the architectural styles of the skyscrapers here. Unlike in US cities, there are skyscrapers located throughout the city, giving it an extended skyline. There is a great variety of architectural styles in these buildings, some of universal design, and others with a clearly Asian flair. Until we started observing the architecture in Bangkok, we had no idea that there could be such a variety of design in tall buildings.

Another interesting thing we've observed, when we've been at Bumrungrad International Hospital, is that when it rains, they have a whole brigade of people operating mops and squeegee brooms on the walkways around the hospital, to keep them safe and easy to navigate.

There are many stores and brands here that we recognize from home, but they seem to have a special Thai twist to them. For example, Pizza Hut serves salad with their pizza, but it is clearly a Thai-style salad rather than American. The photo of Ronald McDonald says it all for McDonald's. The pose shows the typical Thai greeting of respect. The other aspect of McDonald's that is clearly Thai is the attitude of the workers. They are always pleasant and smiling. It's nice to know that the Thai influence affects such American institutions.

When we went to Damnoen Saduak, the original floating market yesterday our tour guide told us that they always have many tickets for a tour that includes swimming with the crocodiles, but very few takers for those tickets........ We thought that was cute.

More of the Thailand Experience

We have been in Bangkok for three and a half weeks now, and it remains a fascinating place. We are feeling quite at home here, and have gotten to do some exploring. Bangkok is a city of great contrasts: corrugated tin shacks and beautiful skyscrapers; a Mercedes Benz parked next to a trash heap; street vendors with push carts or sidewalk stands next to American retailers like Versaces, Tony Roma's, Pizza Hut and 7-11.

Sunday afternoon we set out to find a grocery store, and found a supermarket not too far from our hotel - Foodland, on Soi 5. It is in many ways like an American supermarket, but the produce is significantly different. At the same time there were many recognizable name brand products, some of which we would see only on the international food aisle at home. In the bakery section they even had very large powdered sugar donuts (Deb, this one's for you!), which looked like the special ones created for us on the Millennium.

The street vendors seem especially numerous on Sunday afternoon. There were the usual push carts selling food, and the edge of the sidewalk on one of the main streets was lined with vendors selling everything from watches to t-shirts, silk boxer shorts to carved elephants. We also encountered several beggars along the way, each with a different style of approaching the passers by.

One of the nice touches we've seen on several of the major streets is vine-covered arbors that form a canopy over the sidewalk. They help to provide respite from the heat and the lack of rain. Apart from the widely varied architectural styles of the skyscrapers, the streets seem to have a pretty uniform look to them, no matter where you go in the city, and most of the apartment buildings look pretty dilapidated.

It is interesting to watch the way the people do things here. They use handmade brooms that don't look like they'd do much good, but which are very effective. This morning I learned a new technique for dousing a fire. Hold a plastic bag containing about a gallon of water directly over the flames. The flames will melt the bag and the fire will go out quickly.

Last Saturday we took a day trip up to the Bang Pa-In, the summer palace in the old capitol of Siam. The trip to the palace was by air-conditioned tour bus. We had a great tour guide named Mannie. She had a great personality & gave us a wealth of information about her country. As we passed fish farms, rice paddies and vegetable gardens, she told us about how it was no longer possible to see water buffalo working, because they have become extinct here. She also pointed out salvage stores where there were great quantities of old wood taken from demolished buildings. Recycling wood is now big business because logging is no longer allowed in the country.

We learned that Bangkok has a population of 10 million. In the country as a whole, 65% of the population are farmers, 25% are factory workers, and 15% work in all the other professions, such as offices, hotels, service, medical, technical, and repair. Mannie taught us a lot about the history of Thailand and the four kingdoms. The current king is 80 years old and has been on the throne since age 28. The queen is 74 years old. The king is very popular because he has done much to better the living conditions for the Thai people.

If you watch the people go by, you will see that many of them wear bright yellow polo shirts, with an emblem on the chest pocket. We saw them for sale in a Thai market, but did not learn their significance until we went on our tour. It turns out that there is a color assigned to each day of teh week, and the color for each day is believed to bring good luck. The colors are as follows: Yellow for Monday, Pink for Tuesday, Green for Wednesday, Orange for Thursday, Blue for Friday, Purple for Saturday and Red for Sunday. The significance of the yellow shirts? The King was born on Monday, so the people wear the yellow shirts to honor him.

The summer palace includes a number of residences on extensive acreage with lots of water and beautifully landscaped grounds. The clean, ordered look of the palace grounds is in strong contrast to the generally trashy look seen everywhere else. We have never seen so much trash lying around as we have here in Thailand. One palace is done in European style, while another is Chinese in both architecture and furnishings. Neither of these is in current use by the royal family. There is a current residence, plus one built for one of the royal daughters. These are not accessible to tourists.

After touring the palace, we went to Ayuthaya, a temple with a huge gold Buddha, and extensive grounds with ruins from temples destroyed during wars with Burma (Myanmar), and several huge stupas, which are burial urns. The Thais do not bury their dead. The dead are cremated and the ashes placed in urns on temple grounds. The stupas for ordinary people and families are small. Kings have huge ones, and each king has his own. Apparently treasure is buried with each king.

We also saw a Chinese cemetary. They use above-ground crypts, which are covered with earth & grass, and are arranged in a very neat and orderly fashion. This contrasts greatly with the cemetaries in Jerusalem, which seem helter-skelter in their arrangement.

Our final stop before starting our river cruise was a Cambodian temple, which was also in ruins as a result of the wars with Burma. This one had a low wall around it, which holds 129 headless Buddhas.

The river cruise was fun. They served an international buffet lunch, which was excellent. The scenery as we traveled down the river was also very interesting. We met some fellow tourists and had some great conversations with them. The boat dropped us off at the mall where we had met our bus in the morning. All in all a great day. Will have to post photos later.

Experiencing Bangkok, Part 2

Maybe I just don't have enough to do, but I am really enjoying the view from our hotel room window. The things I see are fascinating. I have especially enjoyed watching the construction site next door, and most specifically, the backhoe operator. He is very skilled and can do things with his backhoe that I would never have imagined possible. Today I watched him pick up pieces of the metal flooring with the shovel and place them very neatly in other locations. When he deposits a load of mud into a dump truck he always does it very neatly. It is almost as if the shovel was an extension of his hand.

The other thing I saw here, early this morning, is that the guys who work on the construction site bathe on the site before starting work. The one I could see clearly was wearing a Speedo.

On the site across the street where they placed the pumps yesterday, today they built a guard rail and painted it with wide red and white diagonal stripes. All freehand, and at least from a distance, quite nicely done. One guy had the red paint, the other the white. I didn't get to see exactly how they did the whole thing, because something else required my attention, but I did see the guy with the white paint start the project.

On my walk home from the hospital today I had the opportunity to observe that push carts come in three styles: moped powered, bicycle powered, and pedestrian powered. The push carts and street food stands are everywhere.

I also had the interesting experience today of finding a pharmacy so I could buy something we needed. At first I wasn't sure I could find the place, but I did. I was also able to communicate with the pharmacist, even though I think he did not speak much English. The last part of this adventure was discovering that all the dogs that run loose here pay absolutely no attention to people like me who are walking by. That is a relief, because they are numerous.

This has been a difficult day because Tina has been sick & we had to get her admitted to the hospital. At least there was a little entertainment along the way. I'll try to get pictures posted when I get them uploaded from the camera.

Experiencing Bangkok

Yesterday I started a narrative about our experience with traveling to Thailand and our initial hospital experience. I digress a little from that today, because I've found so much of interest in the slice of life that we see occurring outside our hotel-room window and all around us.

A couple of days ago we noticed a raised garden area near the entrance to the hospital. This morning we saw that it was a worship center, and as we arrived the morning offering of incense was in progress. For us it was an unusual sight, and it made me consider how seriously I treat the worship part of my life.

Viewing life through our hotel room window is fascinating. We get to watch the water taxis on the canal that is next to our hotel. We have a construction site next door. There is always colorful traffic. We see street vendors, either passing by or set up to do business across the street. And today we got to watch a public works project.

The water taxi is a high speed vehicle that leaves a strong wake, and lots of water sloshing up the sides of the canal. It is a very popular form of transportation. In watching people enter and exit the boat, it appears to be a bit precarious, although the men who tie the boat to the dock are very sure-footed and make the transition look easy.

In Bangkok most private vehicles are white, silver, or tan. Occasionally there will be a red car or a dark green pickup or black SUV. However, the only routinely colorful vehicles are the taxis, which come in every bright color imaginable: hot pink, bright purple, orange, copper, red, royal blue, bright yellow, bright green, or yellow top with blue or green bottom. There is no mistaking a taxi for anything else, and the bright colors make them very easy to find. If you watch traffic at times like 1 AM, you will see that it consists almost solely of taxis, either regular or tuktuks. And today, while walking back to the hotel from the hospital, it was almost a case of "Grandma got run over by a tuktuk"! You take your life in your hands when you try to negotiate traffic as a pedestrian. It is very important to remain on full alert while crossing the street here.

The public works project was to put pump motors in the vertical orange cylinder and next to the lower pipe connection. They also built a wood cover for the large hole in the sidewalk, using handsaws to shape the wood. Unfortunately I didn't see how they used the most interesting of their tools: a long bamboo pole with a large wire basket on the end, that looked like a giant version of the cooking implement Asians use to fish food out of a wok, usually when deep-frying. The crane lowered the pump into the cylinder, and afterward lowered a man into the cylinder to finish connecting the pump. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the project was the fact that all of the men working on it were wearing flip-flops! Not what Americans consider usual foot attire for that kind of work. (The footwear shows in photo #4, if you click on it to enlarge it.)

The street vendors are also interesting. The woman who sets up directly across from our window, by the orange pipes, can be seen every day. I'm not sure how she transports everything to and from the site. Most of her wares seem to fit into a carton that is not very big. She sits on a square stool that can only be about six inches high, and she has a large umbrella with a stand. Many times we can see vendors with push carts walking down the road, even at odd hours of the night. The last variety of street vendors we see carry their wares in baskets hanging off the end of a flexible bamboo pole. We are working our way toward trying some of what they offer, but we need to solidify the advice we've received about what is safe to try, and also to get our health back to normal.

We had a follow-up visit with our surgeon today, and with each visit the time is more enjoyable. He is very knowledgeable about this part of the world and is full of interesting information. We learn a lot about culture and politics as well as medical things during these visits.

At breakfast this morning we ended up talking to a man who had recently had a face lift. It turned out that it was done by our surgeon. This ended up being very funny. I mentioned to the doctor that we'd met another one of his patients. From our description, he figured out who the patient was, & showed us a picture. We easily identified the patient as the one we had met, which our doctor found very interesting, because he did not know the patient was staying at our hotel, and had been unable to find him. He took time out from our visit to call the patient at the hotel number. The poor man probably wondered how the doctor found him. We'll never tell! Actually, we were glad we could help out in that way, because we had previously learned from one of the plastic surgery nurses that our surgeon had tried to call us at our hotel to check on our well-being three times on the day after we were discharged, but the hotel kept telling him we weren't there. Apparently it is not always easy to keep up with patients who have been discharged from the hospital.

One thing about the doctors here that is very nice is that they do not see themselves as being "M-Dieties" (a term coined by Linus in the Peanuts comic strip). If you look at the name on their white coats, it is always Dr. ________ (fill in the blank with his or her first name). Kind of like the southern style of address. I don't know how it would be with any of the other doctors at the hospital, but we have been developing a friendship with our surgeon. It has been really nice to get to know him as a person as well as experiencing his medical skill and expertise. That has added meaning to our time here.

Next time I'll return to the narrative of our experience.

Change of Pace for New Adventure

We are now in Bangkok, Thailand, where we are getting our bodies refurbished at Bumrungrad International Hospital. Getting here was an adventure in and of itself. From the start we had to deal with delayed flights, but even that resulted in blessings. Sitting in Richmond for 2 hours 10 minutes after our flight should have left, we met a wonderful woman named Phyllis. The conversation with her was great, and we encountered her again in the baggage claim area at JFK. We met her boyfriend, Jack, who was equally nice. The two of them helped get us to the air train so we could catch our next flight. They helped ease the stress of a difficult situation, and we owe them a debt of gratittude.

Being late had advantages, too. There was no line when we finally found the China Air counter, so check in was easy. Even the line through the TSA checkpoint moved swiftly. Overnight flights are another story, however. On the two longest legs of the journey - JFK to Anchorage, and Anchorage to Taipei - we had a couple of babies who spent their considerable waking hours crying loudly. That made the flight less than comfortable, but toward the end of the second one, we started a "spite and malice" card tournament, which helped pass the time pleasantly.

On the flight to Taipei we got into a conversation with Mr. Huang, who is from Taipei. He was sitting next to Tina & she got the brilliant idea to see if he could help us with some Chinese phrases. I think he was surprised that we would take an interest in learning a little of his language, but he was also clearly quite pleased with our interest, and persuaded Tina to try out some of the phrases on the woman sitting in front of us. That was definitely a fun encounter.

Taipei airport was confusing, but we did eventually find our gate, in plenty of time, and ended up in a conversation with a couple from the San Francisco area, who were also great to talk to. On the last leg of the flight, going from Taipei to Bangkok, we finally got to truly enjoy the wonderful service on China Air. The flight attendants were all beautiful, and the service great. It was a peaceful time because there were no babies on board. The "spite and malice" tournament continued, and at the end of the flight, Tina was ahead, four games to three.

The building at Bangkok airport is a huge and beautiful contemporary structure done in steel, glass and white canvas. We were pleased to see the directional signs in English as well as Thai. By then we were pretty tired, though our day had just begun. Fortunately for us, Bumrungrad International Hospital has a representative stationed at the airport. The hostess welcomed us with cool moist face-cloths and cold water to drink. She took charge of our luggage, and got us a reasonably priced taxi to the hospital. The highways here look very much like those in any major city, with the green and white signs, written in Thai and English.

Once we got to the hospital, we proceded to the international center to check in. That was accomplished easily, with the exception of getting my birth date corrected. They had me with a birthdate of February 22, 1928, age 79. I don't think so! That did get resolved, and then we were on our way to meet our surgeon. Tina had evaluated all the surgeons & had chosen him for me. Her original first choice for herself didn't work out, so we both have the same surgeon, Dr. Preeyaphas Nilubol, who is absolutely delightful and has great sense of humor. He is also a highly skilled surgeon with a great esthetic sense. He truly enjoys what he does. We weren't sure where we were to spend the night, and he had his assistant arrange a hotel room for us.

Following our consultations, we went through the pre-admission lab tests & x-rays. I had a cardiac stress test also, due to my age - even the real one required that. Fortunately, I passed with flying colors. The day ended with the most stressful event: trying to get a cab to take us to our hotel. Most of them refused to go there, probably because they had no clue where it was. The one that finally did agree to take us did a lot of driving before asking a friend he saw; the friend knew where the hotel was, and we were soon there, despite the incredible traffic. The irony of all this is that the hotel is only 3 blocks from the hospital. It is a longer drive than that to get to the hotel because it is located almost all the way around a loop with one-way traffic from the hospital.

Our first dinner was wonderful. We ate in the hotel restaurant and among other things had a wonderful chicken satay, with perfectly done peanut sauce. Then it was time for sleep in a real bed, in preparation for my surgery the next morning. The beds were very welcome and we were soon enveloped in sweet sleep.

So much happened in getting here, but all of it was only a prelude to the adventure to come, which will be elaborated on in future episodes.