Life As Canvas

Tonight I’m leaving Bangkok and I’m still just as hot and sticky as the day I got here. It’s the kind of place that overwhelms to the point that after a few hours in the street I want to run and hide in a cold, dark room. But all in all, I like Bangkok. All corners of the world come together here, mixing to make harsh sounds, strange smells, and rude t-shirts.

Bangkok (and watching Erika bargain with tuk-tuk drivers) is teaching me to stick to my guns, to be suspicious but smile, and to get what I want out of a place where anyone can get anything. Or be anything, for that matter. Men are women, poor people walk the streets with flashy “Rolex” watches, Thais dress like Westerners and Westerners dress like Thais. Where Cambodia and its contrasts made me uneasy at times, Thailand’s non sequiturs just make me laugh. Men with dread locks down to their waists in Bob Marley shirts preach freedom from oppression in a country that has never been colonized. Then they tell you how much they love their king.

Yesterday Erika and I decided to see the more traditional side of Bangkok and toured the Royal Palace, along with the temples of the Emerald and Reclining Buddhas. Though many people “kindly” stopped us along the way to tell us the temples were closed today and today only and we should really go with them to see something else instead, we walked on and what do you know? Everything was open. Both places were flooded with people longing to get a peek at one Buddha or another and ogle the ornately decorated temple walls. Light flashes from mirrored or golden surfaces wherever you look.

Stupa Spires

Flaming Rooftops

Reclining Buddha

As usual, the heat got to us eventually and we chilled out in the air con for a while before hitting the night market where, if you’re very slick, you can get a vendor to take out his our her bag of fake Rolex’s, fake designer handbags, and many many other high-quality questionable items. So many shiny things! There is also an abundance of silks, souvenirs, wooden carved Buddhas, clothing, shoes, almost anything one could want, and way too much of it.

I’d say we took advantage of our time here and home is starting to sound inviting. Green forests, rain on the roof, my squishy bed, cool nights, fresh air, and the faces and voices of the people I love.

Goodbye Thailand, see you again someday.

It’s been a lazy few days here on Koh Tao, one of Thailand’s smaller popular islands. Koh Tao is known for scuba diving which becomes very obvious as you step off the boat and are accosted by smiling, sign-holding men who come up between the guidebook you’re reading and your face, practically screaming “You want scuba tour? You need bungalow??” We swatted at them. Like flies they scattered, then came back. The trick, I find, is to either look them in the eye and, with a cold face, say “no” to everything they say, even if it’s “Where you from?” Or smile and yell “Go away, go away, go awayyyyy!”

After the initial frenzy was over and the crowd had dissipated, we made our way (again, clumsily, stumbling, with our big swaying backpacks) over sandy beach upon sandy beach to a little cluster of bungalows on stilts.

The beach below our bungalows

For a few days we did pretty much nothing. We went to the beach, swam, got a massage, watched fire dancers on the beach and sipped lots of fruit shakes. We needed to soak up as much beach as possible before heading back to the crazy city life in Bangkok.

Thai Fire Dancer

Yesterday, though, we went on a snorkel tour just along the outside of the island. The first stop we made was at a place called “Shark Point.” This is because it is teeming with sharks. Normally, the idea would make me nervous but our guides told us they don’t bite and that sometimes you could see them swiming around in the shallows. With that, I was the first one off the boat, speeding through the water with my fins and snorkel, scanning the bottom for sharks and then, a familiar flick of a tail… a shark! It was only about 3 feet long but I got excited and looked back to the boat to see if anyone else was nearby. They were all still on the boat. So I slowly paddled on, letting the warm water lap up against my skin, admiring the little fluorescent blue fishies below when I saw something big and grey. With a start I realized it was another shark. This one was about 6 feet long, though, and fat. I blinked in awe. Then it turned a little too suddenly and started to move in my direction. Panicked, I turned and swam, slowly, slowly away. No need to be nervous, I reminded myself, but when you see a big shark for the first time, warning lights go off in the brain.

After checking out a few more friendly sharkes, we stopped to snorkel around choral and see some other colorful fish. I felt like I had plunged right into another post card. The deep blue water, the yellow fish, blue anemones, and oddly shaped hills of choral, all so clearly visible in the water, which is incredibly warm and calm, here.

Low Tide on Koh Tao

Though we didn’t want to pay for the course, it seems like the perfect spot to get your scuba certificaton and maybe one day I’ll come back to do so.

Today we’re off to Bangkok again! That giant hub crawling with people, smells, loudness. It’s overwhelming sometimes but I like it in short doses. From Bangkok I’ll be making my final move – home – and on the way I get to stop off in Seoul, Korea for 6 hours. Stories about the Seoul airport coming up!

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