The Wonders of Siam

This is a long overdue post on our trip to Bangkok, Thailand. Back in February of 2006, Melanie and I took a nice extended weekend trip down to visit Bangkok, as well as visit Melanie's friend from Germany, Crissi. Crissi was working on her apprenticeship at Daimler Chrysler, and managed to get a 3 month assignment in Bangkok (how cool is that?), and offered to play guide.



Thailand seems like the sort of place that would always be fun, but the weather is only pleasant in December and January – mainly due to the intense heat and humidity. The food is spectacular, as are the tourist sights and sounds. Check out the palaces and temples. Enjoy the markets and nightclubs. Revel in the food.




This picture was taken during dinner our first night there. On the way to the restaurant, we were treated to tantalizing glimpses into what lay ahead - fascinating fruits and vegetables, hip local dance clubs, dwarf elephants walking down the street with their handler selling sugar cane to feed it, etc. Dinner was fantastic!!




Over the course of 3 days and 3 nights, we were able to take in many of the major sights and sounds of this very bustling city. We visited Wat Phra Kaew, the Grand Palace, Wat Arun, and a ton of other amazing places. Pictured to the left is (I believe) one of the many beautiful areas within the Grand Palace.





Thailand is a predominately Buddhist country, so seeing monks walking around in their robes was a highly regular occurrence. I imagine that it would be fairly easy to become a Buddhist here in much the same way that it would be easy to be a Roman Catholic in Rome. There are just endless temples to learn and worship at, and plenty of opportunities to seek guidance.





I’ve included a few pix here that we took back in February (even then it was >90ºF and >90% RH). We happened to be there during the Bangkok international film festival, so we bumped into one celebrity at dinner. We also took a walk through Patpong (crazier than you can imagine – check out the neon sign) and the Chatuchuk market (also nutty, but more family oriented), but my favorite moments were checking out the architecture and historical areas.

One bit of commentary was the preponderance of old white guys and young Thais (female, shemale, and male) walking hand-on-posterior. It was somewhat unsettling to see how completely public the sex-tourism trade is here. I don't know why, but my prudish American brain would have thought that they would try to at least keep it slightly under wraps.




But enough about the parts that make middle America cringe - on to the touristy stuff!!!

This picture was taken at the site of the largest reclining buddha in Thailand. He's located in a large enclosed space with relatively small doors, which is a good sign that they had to build the buddha first and construct the (amazing) building around him after the buddha was done.

---

Imperial Palace

Did I mention that it was really hot?

---

Imperial Palace with Melanie (L) , Fred (C), and Crissi (R)
Nice picture of all three of us together. While I do have faith in humanity, my tourist instincts tell me that handing over your nice new digital camera to a complete stranger is a risky business. Ordinarily, my rule of thumb is that the person that we ask to take our picture has to fit either be small enough to take in a fight or slow enough to outrun. Given the intense heat, I figured it was best to find people fitting both descriptions...ergo so few group pictures.

---

Klang Ride in the Canals
This part was a lot of fun. For the price of a super-sized value meal, we were able to commission a one hour gondola (AKA Klang) ride through the city. Some of this took us down the major river that runs through the city - Chao Phraya - this was cool, but it did feel pretty darn touristy. To me, it was the rest of the ride that will leave the more lasting impression - the driver took us through a bunch of the backwater (literally) residential neighborhoods, where we were able to get a much better glimpse of how the locals live and play. We saw various configurations of houses on the water, restaurants on the water, kids playing in the water, giant lizards stalking the kids playing in the water, temples by the water, etc. Overall, in my mind, one of the highlights of the entire trip.

---

Klang Engine - 4 banger on a stick
All of the klangs are thus impelled...fascinating and terrifying at the same time. These things practically flew down the canals at breakneck speeds. If you're ever looking for a quick cure for diarrhea brought on by dining at one of the roadside food stands, then look no further.

---

Chatuchak Market and Lunch














This place was pretty phenomenal. The Chatuchak market is an enormous quasi-outdoor marketplace where various local vendors peddle their wares out of small- to medium-sized stalls. They sell everything from souvenirs to handicrafts to artwork to food to animals (conveniently located near the food area), etc., etc... We did not have nearly enough time to look around, but we did greatly enjoy what little time we did have.

---

Celebrity Sighting 1 - Rufus Sewell
We bumped into my boy Ruf (as I like to call him) as we were leaving a fantastic seafood restaurant that my colleague Choong took us to for dinner. I had just watched Dark City a few weeks prior to this trip, so I was able to remember his name. Although Melanie and Crissi were a bit hesitant, I convinced them that it would be okay to go up and say hello. Ruf was actually quite pleasant and jocular - when I asked, "Pardon me, but are you Rufus Sewell?", he responded, "Yes I am! And I'm glad you didn't say 'aren't you that guy from Gladiator'". We chatted for a few moments, I had to challenge him to swords for putting the moves on Melanie, and we ended up compromising by snapping a few photos. Good times were had by all.

---

Celebrity Sighting 2 - Jacques Chirac
Through some fortunate coincidence, Jacques Chirac (Pres. of France) happened to be in town visiting the leaders of Thailand at the same time that we were visiting, and we were lucky enough to stumble upon the Presidential greeting that he received as his cavalcade drove in from the Parliamentary building. They even gave us little French and Thai flags to wave as they passed by the horseys...

---

Random Sign in a Restaurant
As near as I can tell, this is a sign for people too drunk to drive home. Either that, or given it's location on the outbound side of the door, it is some sort of commentary on the way you'll feel in a few hours...

Turd Baby

Saw this in Danshui (northern tip of Taiwan) when Bill and Pia were visiting. Turd Baby is the name of the store, and they sell little toys that come out of those coin-turn machines. We're not entirely sure how the name and the product are related, but when asked about it, all of the people working there were completely clear on the meaning of their store's name. I guess it did have the intended effect of pulling customers into the store, so that probably means it is a good name.

Based on this principle, I suppose this means that we can open up a comic book store called "Cleveland Steamer"...

Toddler Discipline 101

Found in a Taiwanese book store

Baby misbehaving? Try this proven Taiwanese technique to bring them back in line!

Trip - Part 2

After leaving the CKS house, we headed over to our hotel to check in for the evening. The hotel was nice enough, and had a killer view of this fascinating park across the way (more on this later).

Following dinner, some of us headed over to the night market, which is a Taiwanese phenomenon that everybody should experience at least once in their lives. Sooner or later, Melanie and I plan to head down and document a visit with photos for a blog post. While it is possible to express some of the experience in words, and perhaps still more in pictures, without the diverse smells, the dichotomy of delightful and alarming tastes, and the general sense of claustrophobia that go along with it, nothing short of a visit really captures the adventure.

We wandered around a bit, filling our already distended bellies well beyond their capacity, and still we pressed on. We found some stores with interesting merchandise that probably wouldn't go over so well in Western countries (no - that's not the actual buddhist symbol - white power!). We ended up playing one of those basket shooting games, where you're supposed to get as many buckets as possible in a preset amount of time. Glenn's brother challenged me to a match, and naturally beat me soundly. Afterward, we stepped back and let some of the local kids take their turn. Talk about embarassing - these kids made more basket in the first 30 seconds then either one of us made in our two games combined. I wish I had caught a video of this demonstration of mastery of a game - they just never missed!

Following our humbling, we moved on to a section where we played some carnival games, such as the ring toss, balloon shooting, etc.; Melanie won us all prizes with her deadeye accuracy (remind me to never piss this woman off - at least when she's armed). Pictured here are (left to right) Melanie, Vanessa (Glenn's girlfriend) Glenn, Glenn's brother's girlfriend, and Glenn's brother.

Truly, a good time was had by all.

Taiwan Company Trip - Part 1

This was a really fun trip. It is apparently common within Taiwan for companies to take their employees on a company outing once a year - usually towards the end of the summer - and the Synaptics Taiwan branch office is no exception.

This year's trip was to the northern area of the east coast of Taiwan (see picture on the right). Synaptics chartered a tour bus for this trip, and they did a really nice job of taking us down the scenic coastal route and stopping every hour or two along the way.

There were some spectacular views from the bus of the East coast. Pictured to the right is one of the ones we snapped from the bus that gives a nice typical view - here, you can see the very mountainous coastline with dramatic rocks jutting out of the water and gorgeous green peaks all around. Most of the drive looked this way, which made it really hard to sleep despite the fact that Melanie and I combined for a total 4 hours of sleep the night before we left - cest la vie.

After a couple hours of driving down the coast, we started ducking into the valleys to the West of the coast. We stopped for lunch at a place called 牛鬥鱒魚大餐午餐, where we had a nice lunch at a pastoral stop that had a alarmingly well stocked Koi pond. Here are a couple photos.

After lunch, we continued to drive into the valley and came across a pretty neat sight. Pictured here is a river bed the likes of which I have never seen before (which really isn't saying a whole lot). As you can see, this is an INCREDIBLY broad channel cut by the water even though the flow shown in this picture (far left) is scarcely more than a trickle. The reason for this disparity is an excellent illustration of the power of the typhoons that come through here - this mild-mannered stream becomes a raging river whenever one of nature's monster storms comes blowing through.

...But back to the tour...

We then proceeded to an area called "棲蘭森林遊樂區~蔣公行館, 森林浴, 觀景涼亭"...I don't know what this means either, but it sure is a pretty place. This used to be the area surrounding one of Chiang Kai Shek's country homes. Most of this part of the tour was in Chinese, and I am pretty much illiterate (sigh) so I don't know all of the details; however, this place apparently has some sort of historical significance in the recent history of Taiwan.




Personally, I thought the most interesting part of this portion of the tour had to do with the backyard. There is a gorgeous trail that winds its way through the mountain behind the house. It takes about 45-60 minutes to hike the whole thing, mainly because there are some pretty steep steps to climb. Here you can see a few photos of the scenery.





Here is a nice little bridge where we rested for a little while, as well as a rock that hopefully doesn't say anything bad about Melanie. In the photo on the left are seated (from left to right) Vincent, Kevin, Melanie, Vivian, and David.




We also caught a nice shot of Melanie here in the little garden in front of the house. We took this picture after the hike and a nice cup of tea at the cafe near the house. This was right at sunset, and although the weather was a bit overcast, it still capped off a very pleasant day.


To the left is a picture with what could possibly be the world's cutest baby - Yang Yang. I'll go out on a limb on this one and say that Melanie's clock started going off like a klaxon when we met this little guy. I must admit that he was pretty darn cute, but there must be 100 little devils for a baby like Yang Yang, so pragmatism wins out (for now).