Days 56-60. THAILAND

       This entry needs to be prefaced, I feel. This is the halfway point of the trip. Literally. A day ago, between Thailand and Vietnam, I was exactly 180 degrees in longitude from my home in Baltimore. It’s impossible for us on the ship not to be affected by this… and we feel it in every sense.

        Thailand, therefore, is quite “on the other side of the world” as home. And I wrote it off as another developing second-rate nation in which problems abound. There are plenty of ports that looked like that, and for some reason- knowing very little about Thailand, I thought it would be like that.

        As I’ve said before, you can tell so much about a country from pulling into it. When I viewed our approach in the early morning on the 7th deck, this port already was unique. It was an industrial one, so I expected dirt and grime and sweaty men working in the heat with smog covering the air (see: Morocco). This place was immaculate, clean, shiny and ordered… very weird for what I thought would be an under-established nation.

        Thailand is far from my expectations. It is a super-developed, thriving nation that is safe, secure, beautiful and established beyond belief. I had such a great time.

        In fact, when I sat at home back in Maryland, looking out the window and dreaming about what stops in countries would be like, my stay in Thailand best fit that mold. I never took advantage of time more in my life than in these last 5 days, and did EVERYTHING I wanted to on my brief stint in the country.

---



        That first day I disembarked the ship and arranged a van with some friends and Professor Jodi and his family (I tutor his son Ben in 8th grade math every other day) to the local harbor mall. With our excellent bargaining skills, we got our driver down to 100 Baht round trip per person (about 2ish dollars). The mall was ultra-modern, and the first thing I noticed was that the Thai people didn’t really notice us. In developing countries like India, Namibia, Morocco to some extent, white people and Americans are celebrities. We are stared at, walked by, pictures taken of, etc. In developED countries, we aren’t really gawked at. They’re too busy well, living, to stop and make a big deal about us. Think about seeing a group of Asians in the United States… I doubt it makes the 6 o’clock news.

        We had the most AMAZING lunch at this great little thai restaurant (I’m in love with thai food) before heading back to the ship to grab an SAS bus to the Pattaya Elephant village. The hour drive to Pattaya brought us one of the only Elephant parks in the world. Here, rescued elephants from old logging camps are raised and trained. We had the opportunity to feed them bananas (they like entire bunches of bananas, feeding them one at a time is a little like eating one rice kernel in a box of rice krispies at a time), and even ride them. What magnificent beasts. They are so large and so grand that it takes you a second to understand what you are actually interacting with. Their skin is rough and their tiny hairs are prickly. Their trunks fly about without hesitation, rubbing you and sniffing around for those elusive bananas. At the end of the trunks are two nostrils that tend to blow warm exhaled air at you a few times every minute. Riding the elephant and getting up on them was an experience in itself. The elephant lifts one leg and bends it, and you just step on its knee, and then it raises its leg and you swing your leg around its tree-trunk sized neck. It was a great time.

        When the village tour ended, my SAS-induced spontaneity kicked in. Instead of going back to Laem Chabang where the ship was located, I got a bunch of friends to just hop off the bus in Pattaya and go wherever we felt like going. Pattaya is kind of the stereotypical dingy beach town each country has (Atlantic City), except it’s much more intense. It’s one Oceanside road is wall to wall with insane bars, restaurants and Go-Go Bars. I should explain. Sex tourism, that is people coming to Thailand to have sex, is extremely prevalent. Some liberal estimates put it at 50% of all tourism. Go-Go bars are the mecca for those tourists. Girls with numbers pinned to their brassieres… or lack thereof…  dance on stage and interact with the customers and can be paid to do anything. Anything. If you want to know more information, you’ll have to invite me over or buy me a drink… but I’ll tell you this much, a ping-pong ball will never have the same meaning to me.

        To get back to the ship that night, we hailed Pattaya’s version of a “taxi.” This was a flat-bead pickup truck with two benches on either side of the flatbead. You open the hatch-back and just hop on in and the truck drives wherever. It was about 30 minutes of open-air ride back to Laem Chabang and a great night for all.

        The next day, I had an FDP (faculty directed practica) to Kon Lan, an island off the coast of Pattaya to go snorkeling. I know, school is so tough for me. We left at 0800, took a bus to the port where we hopped in the Aquanat, a small boat that sped off the coast towards Kon Lan, a paradise-looking island. We dropped anchor and split into two groups and snorkeled for 45 minutes at a time. We got to see tons of marine animals and coral that I won’t bore you with here, but you’ll have to take my word for it when I tell you it was beautiful. When we weren’t snorkeling, we were jumping off the 3rd deck of the boat in true American College Student fashion. It was kind of fun because in addition to our professor on board, the Academic Dean Reg Garrett and his wife and grandson were on board. I love SAS how you get to know and interact with people that are un-touchable on land campuses… I had some great talks with Dean Reg and his family, and tried to convince him to jump off of the boat with all of us (about 30 feet up). He decided against it, but I did get his grandson Jackson to jump.

        After an amazing Thai lunch and another snorkeling bout, we headed back to land, and to the ship before my second part of my stop in Thailand: BANGKOK.

        That night, Megan, Nate, Caroline, Alicia and I hopped in a cab and high-tailed it to Bangkok, about 2 hours to the north. We had already booked a great hostel called Lub d’ Bangkok down in the south part of the city. Bangkok is an amazingly large city. It is larger than any American city I’ve been to, including New York, because there is no end to its skyscrapers… they just go on and on and on. Lub D’, our hostel, is located in the Patpong night market area, one of the big backpacker areas of the city. The nights in Patpong were just like Pattaya. Walking through the bars, we were accosted by men offering “Ping pong show! You like Ping Pong show!?.” That first night, we met up with the UVA Medical students who went around with us bar-hopping and seeing what nights in Bangkok were all about. The city is so clean and orderly, yet its nightlife is the exact opposite… dirty and head turning. It was a lot of fun, I must say.

        We probably shouldn’t have gone out as hard as we did that night, because the Med Students, Megan and I had an early day the next morning. Megan and I were up at 6:40, and took a cab north to their hotel in the other part of the city. Together, we all walked to the River that runs through Bangkok and hopped a water taxi to Sriraj Hospital, the largest hospital in Thailand with 3,000 beds. Our entire day was spent the different departments and wards that made the hospital as amazing as it was. I was completely floored… the place was so developed and modern. It was nothing like the archaic medical facilities that I had thought it would be.

        One of the great experiences was the group I was with at the hospitals. It was Ben, My, and Greg, three 4th year medical students… Katie and Beth, 2nd year residents (already MDs)… Megan and I, undergraduate pre-medical students… and then Hugh and Dr. Milt, two physicians recently retired. There, in our group, we had the past, present and (hopefully) future of medicine mingling and learning from our counterparts across the world. When I got to the Emergency Department, I was completely floored. Working in the E.D. at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Maryland, I have a bunch of time logged on ER floors. I was taken aback by how similar things looked. Patients had the same look I see every shift I work- just looking for help and guidance, whether they are Americans or Thai. As this trip has taught me, though we all have our differences, we are mostly after the same staples in life: a family, a living, health. I almost broke down when I realized how real this was, right in front of my eyes.

        That afternoon, Megan and I took a boat all the way down from Sriraj to the south where our hostel was located and met back up with the group. Together, we all got our first Thai Massage. These make regular Swedish massages look like wimps.  The masseuse is interacting with you much more- she walks on you, stretches you, moves you around… using all of her body parts to manipulate yours. It was at times, very intense (similar to my Turkish Bath experience), but an amazing experience. I found myself just lying there for 30 minutes after it was over because it was like a workout. It was so good that I had to get another one 2 days later while I still had the chance to. When we were done with our massages, TastyThai, a famous Thai fastfood restaurant awaited, and then we all realized it was St. Patricks day. While we hardly need an excuse to go out to bars in port, we found a local Irish pub and had green beer til our little hearts was content.

       
        History and famous sights was my focus for the next day. Out of the other SASers at the hostel, only Michelle, a girl from York, PA hadn’t been to the big sights. So she and I hailed a tuk-tuk (kind of a tricked-out, nicer version of an Indian rickshaw) and rode all the way up to the north of Bangkok. There, we saw the Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha… two of Thailand’s biggest claims to fame. The grand palace is unlike anything you’ve ever seen… a city of solid gold buildings and emerald rooftops that hold the king and all of the government buildings. You needed to be dressed conservatively (my shorts and t-shirt wasn’t enough) so Michelle and I had to ‘rent’ clothes at the entrance to wear inside.

        The reclining Buddha is a massive Buddha, like 40 feet tall and 200 feet long lying down relaxing. He rests in a temple called Wat Pho… and it was truly a sight to see. When Michelle and I returned to the hostel that afternoon, the pinnacle of SAS travel was reached. With no cell phones or other ways to contact each other, fellow SASers rely on a very intricate way to pass messages. At hostels, bulletin boards are one of these ways of archaic communication. There was a paper on there from friends to Michelle and I about a Thai cooking class to be set up that afternoon. We decided we were in and met up at Siam square (under the slumdog millionare poster by the smoothie place was the exact location given to us in the letter).

        What followed was the one of the most fun evenings I’ve had on the voyage thus far. We took the SkyTrain, a modern marvel in Bangkok that makes 2 hour drives into 15 minute rides to the easternmost station to meet up with our teacher, Mae. Mae picked up the 7 of us and took us to a local market where we bought vegetables, meat, and dessert to cook. She then took us back to her house where she, her husband and her mom as well as her two kids played host to our cooking evening. We all laughed and talked about everything while slicing, dicing and sipping on wine. Then, we split into teams of two and cooked 3 dishes in our Wok. They were Chicken with Cashews and vegetables, Veggie stir-fry, and Shrimp Pad-Thai. AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING!!! My taste buds just exploded for 5 hours straight.

        Better than the food though was the company. Mae and her family were so sharing and kind and by the time the evening was over, we were hugging, snapping pictures, exchanging emails and phone numbers and holding back tears. Walking back to the skytrain, riding home, and walking back to the hostel we all talked about how much we had taken away from the experience. Like I said, cultures are so different, but people are so starkly alike in their own unique way. Thanks to Mae and her family for reminding us of that fact.

        That night, we decided to hit up Kho San road, the main party area in Bangkok. The place was bustling early into the morning and a little cleaner as far as the go-go bars are concerned. Instead of Breast-heavy displays of human acrobatics, traditional drinking establishments were abounding with Thais and backpackers alike eager to share their stories.

        Our last day in Bangkok, I got another massage, grabbed lunch and made the trek back south to Laem Chabang to the ship. Did some shopping, and called it a day.



        Climbing the 48 steps of the gangway from Thailand, I felt a sort of guilt. Like I had said before, I wrote Thailand off as a developing 3rd world country. What I found was a people so vastly developed and confident in their ways, their cultures, and their traditions. They are so friendly and so welcoming, and its largest city is so eager to be explored by anyone who wants to.

        I feel that things that affected me negatively in the earlier part of the voyage go completely unnoticed now. I don’t even hear a language barrier, just go on acting through charades to communicate in the great language I call “human,” miming what I need to to get by. I no longer hesitate to strike up a conversation with my hostel-mates or even my waiter. Like Jim, the San Francisco teacher who took a month off to travel to Thailand “because it seemed interesting,” or Mae and her family, there is a lot out there to be learned and shared… its feeble to waste your time doing anything but.

        So, thanks Thailand. You were a wonderful host, and I can’t wait to return and explore even more.