Well I'm back in the saddle again. Knee deep in grenade pins, and I'm making progress getting through my emails. While I'm at it, how about taking a break of your own and take a visceral "Spring Break" by scrolling down and reading about mine.
A couple of months ago, my wife and I were kicking around the idea to hit the beaches for Spring break - Easter vacation for the laymen - Spring Break for me. Last year (for those of you who keep track of these things) we went to Spain and dealt with a bunch of loud Spaniards. The beach was okay, but a bit windy. And if I remember correctly, the food sucked. So this time we decided to go extreme and head to Thailand for a couple of weeks.
Ted Loh AKA Spearmaster was our semi-guide. Being a resident of Bangkok and fellow travel mate, he organized part of the trip for us so that his family and ours could vacation at the same time at the same place - Phuket.
Our flight left Frankfurt in the evening and was going to take all night with a brief stopover in Abu Dhabi. We flew Etihad Airways. The nicest thing about the flight were the seats; they were quite comfortable since they could lean back nicely. But the food was nearly inedible, Beer and wine came only with dinner - (Arabs aren't really into alcohol) - booze was not really a priority to them. The entertainment system was very good with movies on demand. At least it was good when it worked. During one of our flights, the system kept malfunctioning. That was annoying - especially to the kids who kept elbowing me to wake up and explain whatt was wrong with "Night at the Museum."
During our brief stopover in Abu Dhabi, my little boy - mini-me - had to use the toilet. So I escorted him into what was the most filthiest airport men's room I have ever seen. The urinals are too high for the little guy, so he needs to use the normal toilet to go pee. Entering the stall, it was flooded with an inch of toilet water. The poor boy was wearing sandals, so I had to lift him up while he whizzed away. Each stall was in this condition. The reason? No toilet paper, and you are expected to use a hose that's conveniently attached to the toilet to hose yourself off.
When we finally made it to the International Airport in Bangkok, I realized I didn't have Spearmaster's telephone number, and I had forgotten to make a plan on where exactly we should meet. We're so used to emailing one another that we don't have each other's telephone number. Well, it's a big airport, and after hanging around for about a half-hour, I was getting a little anxious thinking I needed to find an Internet connection somewhere - but he appeared, all happy to see us. And we took a cab ride to our hotel.
Bangkok is a trippy place. They drive on the wrong side of the road, and up to my recent travels to Asia, I was under the impression that only Brits, South Africans, Australians, Bahamians, and a couple of backward third world countries drive on the left. I guess I was mistaken; most of Asia drives this way.
The traffic in Bangkok is pretty intense. I would never want to drive there. I thought Florence was bad with its swarms of Mopeds, but it was nothing compared to Bangkok.
We stayed at a rather nice hotel on the eastern part of town. The kids loved it mainly because they had a TV in their bedroom - something that is unheard of back home. We were on the 12th floor, and the next morning my wife and I were woken up by the gleeful shouting of our kids excitedly telling us that they could see "big mice" from the balcony window. My wife freaked out "Big mice! Are they on the balcony?" I immediately investigated to find that the kids were right. You could see "big mice" from the balcony. These animals were 12 floors down in the adjacent alleyway, and the were big as cats scurrying about - non-stop. It was amazing.
We were to spend a couple of days in Bangkok before moving on to Phuket. Bangkok is huge, intense, crowded, dirty, and is chock full of consumerism. You can buy anything there for dirt cheap. And if you like to eat, you can chow down on just about anything as well.
We had dinner with Ted's family in a Thai restaurant. The service was crap, but the food was great. As we walked back to the hotel, there was a street vendor pushing a cart that had stove frying up beetles and grasshoppers. "Hey, this I gotta try," I thought. And I got a free sample of a fried grasshopper. The guy pulled the legs off, like you do shrimp, and handed it to me. I paused, showed it to the kids (who were totally freaked out) and chomped its head - then I ate the rest of the body. I suddenly realized that it wasn't bad at all. It tasted a little like smoked shrimp. My kids were totally impressed. Ted mentioned that I now had something to write about for the newsletter.
The next day we did some more shopping, then visited the Jim Thompson's House - an American who revitalized the textile industry in the 1950's and 60's. He mysteriously disappeared in the Malaysian jungles in 1967. His house, which is built entirely of teak, is absolutely amazing, and incredibly boring for a nine year old girl and six year old boy. We went back to the mall for smoothies after that.
The next day we visited the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaeo) and the Royal Palace. It was clear on the other side of town, which took about 45 minutes by cab - 100 Baht = €2.54 (I told you it was cheap). It was incredibly hot, and we read in the tour books that one must wear closed shoes and long pants in the temples, so I was frying in +30 heat with long pants and tennis shoes. Little did we know that the tour guide book was full of crapola. There were throngs of people there in shorts and sandals. In fact, you were expected to remove your shoes when entering the temple. This I liked. The marble floor was cool on the feet.
We spent the rest of the day in a tuk-tuk (three wheeled motorcycle thingy that is sort of like a taxi) going from one temple to the next. Cost about 60 Baht = €1.30. We also visited the National Museum which was impressive with its panoramas of ancient Thailand.
That evening we ended up taking a real cab back to the hotel. At this time, I had decided that the Cabbies in Bangkok are the worst in the world. I have been to a lot of places, and I have ridden in a lot of cabs, and I can declare that Bangkok has the worst (London has the best). I was told to make sure that you have a business card from the hotel to show to the cab driver. This makes sense since Thai cab drivers don't speak English. But this didn't help too much because many of them can't read in any language - period. We even had a map of the city that had the address and image of our hotel on it. Amazingly, the cabbie still got lost. You may be thinking he got lost on purpose, but I know a dumbfounded look when I see one. He was dumbfounded. Also, many of the taxis drivers don't want to use their meters and will try to barter a price to go somewhere. Friggin' ridiculous.
The last evening in Bangkok: as my family strolled down the street, passing the alley with the "big mice", we chanced upon the "bug" vendor. Yum, scrumpdelicious! A couple of teenage girls were ordering a large plastic bowl of grasshoppers. The man sprinkled the stiff little creatures with some chili power and sprayed them with some liquid - I'm guessing water. My 9 year-old daughter was intrigued, and the man handed her one. I coaxed her into chowing it down, and to the delight of the teenage girls and her little brother, she gobbled the grasshopper down. "How was it?" I asked. "Good!" she smiled. Well, I was a proud pop. My daughter ate a bug on the streets of Bangkok without flinching. Only about a couple of minutes later she was complaining that the aftertaste sucked, and we didn't have any water to wash it down. She then confessed that she regretted it. Oh well, so much for bug eating.
What I read on vacation: Mens Health Magazine - I've been a subscriber for years. Get your one year subscription here. And check out Balderdash and Piffle, a fascinating dive into the English language. A must read if you're into the etymology of English words and phrases.
Phuket: ten days at the Best Western Hotel on Phuket's Bangtao Beach. Sounds nice? It was. The weather was great - hot and sunny, with the occasional downpour in the evening. The hotel was a four star family hotel set on Bangtoa beach which is a few kilometers away from the noisy party town Patong Beach. It was relatively quiet with not much surrounding the hotel except a few shops and restaurants. Two things that were less than satisfactory - our bathroom and the hotel food.
The problem with the bathroom was the bath/shower. For one thing, the water leaked all over the floor since the plastic curtain was a piece of crap. And there wasn't a removable hand shower head to wash off sandy little kids. The toilets were not designed to accept toilet paper. You were expected to discard your used toilet paper in an adjacent garbage can. Intriguing. But other than that, the room was fine.
The hotel accomodations were very good with two pools (chock full of chemicals that nearly made your eyeballs bleed). Wireless Internet connectivity, a small gym, cheap massages, and plenty of lounge chairs.
Food: one of the main reasons to visit Thailand. Even though the hotel food sucked, there were a number of small restaurants located nearby. "Nok Joe's Restaurant" - had a buffet that was simply fantastic. The owner is a friendly guy, a Canadian from Alberta, who had come to Phuket after the Tsunami to help out. He ended up falling in love with Phuket and its people, got married, and opened his restaurant. I highly recommend this place. Like many of the local eateries, they are open to the elements with large airy roofs to keep the rain out.
What to do in Phuket? You can be lazy and lie on the beach all day, or you can go snorkeling, ride an elephant, go shopping, cruise around on boats, go fishing and eat. We took a couple of inexpensive boat tours (everything there is inexpensive relatively speaking) and exposed the kids to some really great experiences. We snorkeled at Phi Phi island and saw little Nemo Clown fish in their natural environment. Checked out the beach where they filmed DiCaprio's The Beach a few years ago. And we rented a car for a couple of days so I could get a taste of driving on the wrong side of the road - which wasn't so bad once you get used to it.
So why am I telling you all this? Why should I tell you about my Spring break? Mainly to underscore the importance of getting away from it all and spending time with either yourself or your loved ones. It's crucial to connect with "what is real". It's far too easy to indulge oneself in work, which at times can be like a black hole sucking in everything around you. Work may be real up to a point, but you and your family are two of the reasons why you work, right? Reconnecting with this reality is what living "is". Hopefully, my sharing of this reality has been a visceral experience for you and given you a chance to step back for a few moments and reflect on what's real within your personal sphere.
Reflections on my return: Thailand lives up to the name "Land of Smiles". People are very friendly, and when they make eye contact - they smile. What a difference to living in Germany. When one smiles at strangers, it's an indication that you feel sympathetic to their situation - in other words, you feel sorry for the recipient. Big difference. My boy noticed that most everyone in Thailand is shorter than the people in Germany. In Thailand, he was tall enough to use the urinals. He was overjoyed with this.
A big thanks to Ted Loh and his family who were very hospitable and fun to be with. Now to make a plan for the meister's summer break. <insert smiley face here>.
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