Bangkok’s left me buzzing

(The Water Festival)

At first this huge, sprawling and daunting city felt too much like hard work. I have rose tinted glasses for Cambodia, (and Cambodian people) and I realise that’s not Bangkok’s fault. And it’s not Bangkok’s fault that I just experienced my first bout of real homesickness. Nor is it the fault of this immense city that I can’t navigate my way because to me “Siam” and “Sa Yam”, two completely different underground stops, sound exactly the same. It’s busy, it’s polluted, and it’s noisy.

Thing is, left to my own devices, Bangkok turned out to be such an adventure. I wandered off without a map (although I quickly bought one on day two) and strolled for hours in search of coffee shops and parks (anything to keep me out of trouble and away from damaging my “budget” (ha) any further). I’m not sure whether it’s a good or bad thing, but I haven’t been acting much like a tourist. I’ve barely looked in any guidebooks or done much prior research since I left England, preferring just to walk, observe and find things out as I go. In Cambodia I didn’t feel like a tourist because it became a kind of home for me. Now I wander across the crazy streets with no sense of direction, spotting something on the skyline I like the look of (much like Katie and I have been known to do at 6am in London after a good party).

This is how I found Lumphini Park, engulfed by skyscrapers in the middle of the city, complete with big roaming lizards (iguanas are they called?). It was like an oasis in the middle of Canary Wharf. I’ve walked right into people before when staring up at the huge, glass buildings in London. I think they’re gorgeous. These big skyscrapers and sky trains and raised walkways dominate the huge roads of Bangkok.

I went to Chatuchak Park and the weekend market, which is huge and reminded me of the Russian Market in Phnom Penh. It has little places to eat nestled within it and even a whole art section. I visited Co San Road and went drinking there, being told it has “some of the best bars in Thailand and the world”. I’ve been a little obsessed with Banana shakes throughout Asia and here I discovered the only way to improve on a foamy, cool Banana shake …add rum. Isn’t “add rum” always the answer?

I saw Harry Potter (everyone had to stand up at the beginning while they showed a short slow motion, black and white film of who I presume is the King doing “good deeds”. I wonder how many popcorn and drinks cartons would be thrown at the screen if they tried to do this in England.) I wrote and read and drank tea in places with little snowflakes stuck to the windows.

I met a Thai guy (Surapong, nickname “Ram”) in a Temple, who invited me to go to the Water Festival with him and his daughter that night. He also said he wanted to take me for dinner. So I jumped on the back of his motor bike and the three of us went to the river. I find it hard to understand, as a cynical westerner, why a Thai stranger would be so nice to a foreign tourist…(only then did my new life in the Bangkok prostitution trade flash before my eyes). (NOTE: Mum – this is a joke, I never felt in any danger, he is a lovely family man).

The Water Festival is simply to say “Thank You” for all the water you have used in that past year. You take a wreath-type-thing of beautiful flowers, a candle and some incense, and you light the candle and drop the wreath to float with this little light down the river. This happens all down the Chao Phraya from Chaing Mai in the North, right down to the sea. It never, ever occurred to me that we should say “Thank You” to the water. I mean, without it we’d be totally screwed. So I lit my candle and said thank you on behalf of everyone I know, for the thousands upon thousands of gallons we’ve all used in the past year.

The Water Festival was very beautiful. People had sparklers, and let off big lanterns into the sky and there were so many fireworks, up and down the river in massive displays. All the boats were lit up and there was lots of music playing. This is a Buddhist festival which happens right throughout Asia. I just read that in Phnom Pehn there was a terrible disaster where more than 330 people were crushed to death on the riverfront. This was where I was originally intending to spend the festival. (My friends are all safe by I am so sad for this tragedy to happen in such an amazing city which such lovely people.)

I went for dinner with Surapong and his daughter “Jam” too. We eat in a sprawling restaurant where you had tickets for food (delicious noodles and fish) and there was Karaoke and a raffle (“Jam” won a stuffed baby that looked like a giant marshmallow.)

This is my third visit to Bangkok now but it was definitely the most special. I’ve already seen the temples, the gold reclining Buddha, the floating market and done a lot of the tourist spots. This time I contented myself mostly with walking and watching life and loving every part of it. (Note: If you want to stay somewhere grand in Bangkok the Millennium Hilton is so LUSH. I wondered in there and pretended I was staying...I can dream). I took a boat down the river. This is the exact same trip that gave me my first ever taste of Asia. At the age of nineteen I remember thinking; this world is insane.

I had a sort of “epiphany” too, although I don’t feel suddenly “enlightened” or anything. Surrounded by Thai businessmen in suits, with laptops and strong coffees, I sipped my tea, curled on a sofa and watched a busy, Bangkok intersection outside. In a chaotic mass of colourful bikes and people and rush and noise, I sat behind the huge glass, raised up above it all, in prefect stillness. I had a moment of compete clarity about where I was and who I was and what was important. I think so much as been happening I haven’t had a chance to just sit and process it all. I won’t say any more because I know a few people reading this will be rolling their eyes right now (I know who you are), but whatever. While I sat there in this moment of complete happiness, having my little life-changing moment, I felt very thankful to be alive. Yet another thing to thank the water for.

Me at The Water Festival

"Jam" and Surapong

Bangkok intersection of busy roads and sky roads

Lumphini Park

Island hopping in Thailand

From one PP to another, the only comparison to make between Phi Phi Island and Phnom Penh is in some of the latter’s western, river front bars and the formers sea front entertainment.

Being bundled on bus after bus after boat, shouted at and forced stickers on, I felt a little disappointed at how hard and tiring it seemed to be to do the causal thing of “island hopping” in Thailand. In our two weeks, Hayley and I settled on two islands (thank god). Firstly, Phi Phi Island, and then Ko Pha Ngan.

Phi Phi Island felt like Glastonbury, a weird, contained world with no roads, no cars and no motorbikes. The “taxis’” were metal carts pushed my boys. Hayley totally nailed with; “Everything feels so temporary here.” That’s exactly it. The shops (which sold amazing boutique-style clothes), the bars, the restaurants, it all felt like you could wake up tomorrow and be the only thing left on the island. As if everything could be packed up into boxes within a couple of hours.

I had three favourite places on Phi Phi Island. The first was D’s Books, which was a bookstore (funnily enough) with an open front, free wifi access and great banana shakes. I spent nearly the whole day in there when Hayley was ill and unable to get out of bed. The second was PP Garden Home, a tiny restaurant that was covered in hundreds of photos of happy, smiling customers and the rebuild after the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. (The whole of the island would have been completely devastated from that event.) PP Garden Home had vines that fell all around it, low glowing lanterns and made a wicked Pad Thai. And thirdly, The Stones Bar, a beautifully chilled out bar on the beach with pillows to lye on by the sea and candles in the sand. Big coloured lanterns hung from every tree and the music was amazing, the “Hippie vibe” was everywhere (they actually sold weed at the bar). Hayley informed me it was exactly like the places you get in Goa, so very much looking forward to the parties there.

We did a boat trip, while on Phi Phi Island, which took us to the bay where “The Beach” was filmed. It was totally lush but a tiny bit disappointing because of how touristy it was. (I realise me wanting to tread in the same sand where Leo’s toes have been only further adds to this problem). We saw Monkey island, an island that seemed to have been given over to rather fierce and aggressive monkeys, and got stung by loads of tiny jellyfish, (Hayley couldn’t get out of the water fast enough). The weather changed dramatically as we were returning from the sunny bays and snorkelling spots. It suddenly started to rain so hard that the boat driver could no longer navigate us in the correct direction home. Hayley had to become a tiny ball at the back of the dangerously, swaying boat.

One night we stumbled across an amazing, random beach party, another I got badly bitten by bed bugs (not sexy at all). If “fire shows” and “Sangsom” (rum) are the two words which sum up Phi Phi Island, then “half moon” and “more Sangsom” should be Ko Pha Ngan’s two words. Or maybe “less Sangsom”, unless it’s at “half moon” in which case it should be “more Sangsom”. What I mean is Phi Phi was described as the laid back, relaxing island, Ko Pha Ngan as the party one but we found them the other way around. Sure, Ko Pha Ngan is famous for the full moon parties, but apart from that (in the season we were there) it appeared quite a sleepy island with a ghost-like town.

The half moon party was hosted in the jungle and was everything I thought it would be: VERY NEON. We had to pay 500 Baht to get in though…each. And because I wasn’t expecting this our friends from the same bungalows had to pay. I’m sure when hippies first joined on the beaches or in the jungles to celebrate the cycle of the moon they never expected that one-day the price on their ritual would be 500 Baht.

After my two weeks island hopping with Hayley, I spent 6 days in Bangkok on my own, which I have just written about and will post on here tomorrow. I have really, really loved my time in Bangkok so I hope you get a chance to read about that too. I leave Bangkok tomorrow and fly to Melbourne. I think it will be very strange to be in an English speaking place where I won’t, at first glance at least, look like an obvious outsider.

Hayley

Half Moon Party

Hayley on Phi Phi

Phi Phi

The true Phnom Penh

The true Phnom Penh happens away from the riverfront, crammed onto plastic stools, slurping noodle soup and getting dusty by the roadside. It’s teaching barefoot and jumping around the red ants, or shouting over the excessive rain. It’s pleading with an HIV positive mother to get her child tested, and being there when the results come back negative. It’s visiting a public school and having to pay the Khmer teachers for each Library kid, so they can “do well” in their classes. It’s being able to buy a roof for a family who couldn’t even sleep before when it rained. It’s trying to convince children that Justin Bieber isn’t a 51 year old impersonating a 16 year old, like they all saw on the Internet (apparently Cambodians don’t get satire so try telling them it’s not true and they won’t believe you). It’s following “Fire Love” (the soap opera) and waking up to “I am sorry” (a very popular Khmer song) blasting out of your Cambodian mobile. It’s reading Khmer translations of stories such as The Little Mermaid, which are either totally wrong or just plain “trippy”, full of monsters with bleeding eye sockets and snakes for hair. It’s being pushed so far out of your comfort zone that you completely forget you once had one. It’s feeling like a C List celebrity (even B List at times). And it’s feeling so completely shit about yourself and what you take for granted back home.

I’ve just said goodbye to my Cambodian “home”, which has been the Narin Guesthouse for the last seven weeks. I will strangely miss the Narin guys, who watch TV all day, get drunk all night and occasionally bring you a cup of tea or a pancake, or drive you somewhere (if they aren’t too pissed to do so). It’s become such a relaxed and homely environment. I’ve also had to say goodbye to the people I’ve met here, some of which have left before me. I’ve met some truly inspiring people who have had a profound effect on me and I’m so grateful to have shared this experience with them.

On Friday we had a surprise party for all the kids at The Library. I think I was the one most surprised that day though. When we turned up everyone came out to meet the Tuk Tuk and stood cheering, clapping and throwing confetti over me. I was bombarded with so many presents from children who have so little themselves. I’ve never had a reception like it. The party was so much fun. On Thursday we went to the market and cooked a huge curry with some of the mums from the community to eat on the Friday. When it came to say goodbye I was so choked up by some of the things the children said to me. They don’t normally have volunteers stay long term there and it was incredibly hard to say goodbye to the children, and later to Channa as well.

Last night I came full circle and had my last meal in the Bodhi Tree (where I had my first meal in Cambodia). I couldn’t believe the difference. On my first day I had lunch there, which I hardly touched, and I was so stressed I could hardly talk. I thought I didn’t like Phnom Penh or Cambodia (although I’d just landed). Last night was so relaxed and calm and I was so, so sad to be leaving a place I have fallen in love with. I kick myself at the times I hated it or felt frustrated or home sick, but now I realize that’s all part of the experience. It’s been unforgettable.

There have been many times when the difference in culture has seemed great. For example, being looked at in disgust and having my hand ripped away from my mouth by a male friend for biting my nails, or taking off my shoes in a night club. Or just not understanding the ‘Cambodian logic’ of running things and how they teach. And there have been many times when I’ve I felt like the whole world around me was on drugs. For example, last Sunday night. I started to sip my beer just a little quicker when we watched the “entertainment” at the fair. It was a big stage and a big audience, me being the only white face for miles. The competition for the boys was simple: 1. Close your eyes, 2. Spin around in circles, 3. Point in the direction shouted, i,e, “Left” or “Right”. The whole audience, including Channa and Dalin, were in fits of laughter. In the end I started to laugh too, not because I thought the game was funny but because everyone was having such a good time. I might not understand or relate to everything that happens in Cambodia and although I’ve learnt a lot, there are some things that coming from a western perspective I just cannot get. But Cambodia is such a loveable country with such a gentle society that you can’t help but fall in love with it. Even after the heartache and torment it’s picking itself up and it’s still smiling. And laughter is the best medicine.

Phnom Penh:

A selection of photographs from Phnom Penh spilt across two photo albums…

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=511964&id=554625160&l=e932ebfd3a (200 photos)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=569881&id=554625160&l=280d453536 (45 photos)